Worldwide Church of God Doctrinal Changes Still Uneven, Evangelical Writer Says

Eryl Davies, an elder at Heath Evangelical Church in Cardiff and a consulting editor of the Evangelical Magazine, returned to the Worldwide Church of God in a article published in Evangelical Times on 1 October 1998. He said he was revisiting the subject because readers had responded to his earlier articles, some with disagreement, many with constructive comments and information from personal involvement in the group. Some readers also questioned his sources and expressed surprise at details he had included earlier.

Davies said that some former members, who described themselves as converted to Christ, were uncertain whether the church had become wholly evangelical. He asked to what extent theological changes imposed from the top had reached and been accepted at the grassroots level. His informants were sceptical, as were evangelical pastors who counselled former members. One pastor said: “I know that there have been huge doctrinal changes within the WCG, but somehow I still feel uneasy too.”

Davies said his information came from many sources, especially websites run by individuals and organisations, many of them former members, and from a significant number of books, mostly published in the United States. He named several works, including books by Paul Benware, John Buchner and Bruce Reneham, and noted that some focus on Herbert Armstrong’s life and teachings while others cover recent developments.

Davies reported that some readers had called doubts about Herbert Armstrong’s moral life “disgraceful” and said they knew no one who believed the allegations. Davies stated that Armstrong regularly visited Bricket Wood in Hertfordshire in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and that some members who helped him described “the gross inconsistency of his life”. He said these were contradictions between Armstrong’s actions and his teachings, not immorality, and that he could not give details because of confidentiality. Davies also cited an American, Douglas Becker, who made a serious allegation concerning Armstrong and his youngest daughter during the early years of Armstrong’s broadcast. Becker said the claim was documented in divorce proceedings involving Armstrong’s second wife. Davies said he had not wanted to detail the charge before. Because these are allegations made by others, they remain unproven in the article. Davies’s approach here reflects a concern for weighing accounts fairly (Proverbs 18:17).

Davies also reported that Armstrong’s second son, Ted, who had become an effective radio speaker, was put out of fellowship for living immorally and then started his own group. He further wrote that Ambassador College, founded by Armstrong in the United States, had been affected by worldly and immoral practices. He quoted a report describing drinking parties, drug dealing among faculty, and sexual misconduct, and noted that a student had published an exposé called The Ambassador Report.

Davies acknowledged that there had been a great change in the church. He cited a Reach-Out Truth’s Quarterly interview from Autumn 1998 with John Halford, the British leader of the WCG, who said he had “wholeheartedly embraced” the church’s changes, especially abandoning legalism and fully accepting the doctrine of grace. Halford said nothing a person had done could earn salvation, that Jesus had done all that needed to be done, and that observing Saturday as the Sabbath was not essential to salvation. Davies noted that some congregations in the United States now held services on Sunday.

Davies welcomed Halford’s assurances but said he thought Halford was too optimistic about the extent of change. He wrote that not all legalists had left, that members varied in their understanding of the gospel, and that some ministers remained more traditional. He said many members still held Armstrong in high regard, and that Halford maintained the church was assimilating new ideas rather than making a complete break with the past. Davies also noted that the church’s statement of beliefs was provisional and would be revised. In an earlier interview in Idea (April/May 1997), Halford said he planned to send the male leaders of the church’s thirty UK congregations to a UK Bible college to study the doctrine of the Trinity. One person with inside knowledge described doctrinal confusion at the local level.

In an interview with Idea, Halford was quoted as seeking “a place at the table” of historic Christianity and acceptance as one denomination among others. He had attended the Evangelical Alliance’s National Assembly of Evangelicals in Bournemouth in 1996, and the EA’s director, Joel Edwards, had spoken with him. Halford said: “Really, if we are not accepted, we are very vulnerable.” Davies wrote that the Evangelical Alliance had responded cautiously, and that it was far too early to welcome the WCG into formal fellowship with evangelical churches.

Source: Read the original report