The Worldwide Church of God is a religious organization that was founded in 1933 by Herbert W. Armstrong as the Radio Church of God. Armstrong was a minister in the General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh-Day), and his "church" (at the time, actually a small church congregation of adherents with a radio ministry) was initially not a separate entity, but a part of that conference. His ministerial credentials were later revoked, and he incorporated on his own.

For its first 50+ years, the Worldwide Church of God was a Sabbatarian church and observed other Old Testament laws relative to Holy Days and food laws (similar to Orthodox Jewish traditions). During that time the church also rejected the Trinity doctrine. After Armstrong died in 1986, the succeeding church administration, led by Joseph Tkach (1986–1995) and then his son, Joseph Tkach Jr. (1995–present) changed core doctines, bringing them more in line with historic Christian views. Various ministers of the church who objected to the doctrinal changes left Worldwide, leading to the formation of the Philadelphia Church of God (1989), Global Church of God, the Living Church of God (1993, 1998), and United Church of God (1995). Each church was much smaller than Worldwide had been, and Worldwide membership subsequently declined as well. However, the church has moved towards what they believe is greater acceptability in the evangelical community, becoming a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.

History

Beginnings as a radio ministry

The Worldwide Church of God is rooted in the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong, which in turn are influenced by the Adventist movement of William Miller and followers. In 1927 Armstrong was baptized into a church of this movement, the Church of God. Armstrong was ordained by the Oregon Conference of The Church of God in 1931, and began serving a congregation in Eugene, Oregon. He began his radio ministry on October 9, 1933. On November 4 of that same year, the Church of God split, and Armstrong sided with the faction that located its headquarters in Salem, West Virginia. See more at General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh-Day).

In 1934, Armstrong began publishing The Plain Truth as a companion to the radio ministry. The radio ministry became known as the Radio Church of God, and began to attract a following far beyond Armstrong's Eugene base. At the same time, Armstrong began to develop a theology which was distinct from the Adventist movement. This theology included a belief in the United States and the United Kingdom as part of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, and an observance of the Jewish Holy Days described in the Old Testament, which many Christian groups considered unnecessary to modern practice. For these budding beliefs, the Church of God revoked Armstrong's ministerial credentials in 1937.

Armstrong continued broadcasting, however, and on March 3, 1946 he moved to Pasadena, California and incorporated the Radio Church of God under California's General Nonprofit Corporation Law. This incorporation was amended on January 5, 1968, when the church changed its name to the Worldwide Church of God.

Proteges

In 1947, Ambassador College was founded in Pasadena by the Worldwide Church of God. The campus of the college served as the headquarters for the church. It was here that Armstrong met Stanley Rader, CPA, in 1956. Rader states he was employed to sort the church's accounts, which he claimed by then become disorganized. Armstrong reportedly was so impressed with Rader's work that, under his encouragment and patronage, Rader furthered his education by going to law school. Rader then graduated as valedictorian of his 1963 law school class at the University of Southern California Law School. Rader continued this relationship as special legal and financial advisor to Armstrong's Ambassador College and Worldwide Church of God, working for them in a full-time capacity by 1969.

As Rader was beginning his career in service to the church, Armstrong had at least one son whom he was said to be grooming to take over as head of the church upon the elder Armstrong's retirement or death, Garner Ted Armstrong. Talented and charming with a singing voice, although rather short in stature at 5'4", Armstrong at one point expressed interest in an acting career as a Hollywood movie star on the silver screen. Any future plans, however , were put on hold as he served on a Navy destroyer during the Korean War. But upon returning, as he attended his father's Ambassador College, the tattooed war veteran Armstrong developed a strong, confident public speaking delivery, and showed star charisma as a leader. Armstrong's style of delivery developed and matured, guest hosting on the radio program, then on the televison version of the World Tomorrow, (in much the same way that such second generation televangelists as Franklin Graham,Robert Anthony Schuller and Mark Armstrong would later host their fathers' television programs).As the elder Armstrong reviewed audience ratings and incoming donations garnered from The World Tomorrow program hosted by his telegenic son, Garner Ted proved an increasingly obvious choice to become the magnetic media star of his church in the beginning stage of the televangelist era.

The beginnings of change

The late 1960s saw the beginnings of change within the church. To some extent, these changes were long foretold (and perhaps even somewhat self-fulfilling): The broadcast of The World Tomorrow on Radio Luxembourg on January 7, 1953 prompted Herbert Armstrong to view his ministry in the context of two periods of nineteen years each. The first period covered the time from the start of the radio ministry until early 1953. The second period, then, would conclude sometime in late 1972. Armstrong and Ambassador College graduate Herman L. Hoeh first detailed this interpretation in a 1956 booklet, 1975 in Prophecy!. This interpretative vision of his ministry consumed Herbert Armstrong, who now repackaged his radio program as The World Tomorrow. It also apparently had an impact on many others; including Michael Dennis Rohan, who cited Armstrong's work when questioned on the attempted destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem in 1967.

In 1966, Herbert Armstrong's wife Loma died. The next year, Armstrong decided to revamp the church's organizational structure; this culminated in the aforementioned Worldwide name change in early 1968. Whether Armstrong changed the church in response to the loss of his wife, or in preparation for the predicted events of 1972 and beyond, is not known; indeed, it may have been for a completely unrelated reason. However, these events seem indicative of fundamental change within Armstrong's ministry.

In 1970, the first of many groups to splinter from the Worldwide Church of God were founded. Carl O'Beirn of Cleveland, Ohio led what may be the first group, the Church of God, away from the Worldwide Church of God. Others followed that year, including John Kerley's Top of the Line ministry; the Restoration Church of God; the Church of God in Boise City, Oklahoma; Marvin Faulhaber's Sabbatarian group (also known as Church of God (Sabbatarian)); and the Fountain of Life Fellowship of James and Virginia Porter.

1972 and scandal

As 1972 approached, it became clear than the events forecasted by Herbert Armstrong would not come to pass. While the European Union was already an idea in the making, the various "states" of Europe were far from united, as the union itself was still another 20 years hence. (Even today, there is no Armstrong-styled United States of Europe in a position to be seized by a dictator wielding total power.) The Worldwide Church of God,

Garner Ted Armstrong began to lose favor with his father, Herbert Armstrong. The younger Armstrong was discontented with prophecies attached to a certain date, and wished to cease preaching the message that associated the U.S. and Britain with the Lost Ten Tribes. (This message would later be picked up by portions of the Christian Identity movement.) Garner Ted also spoke of greatly expanding the church's media ministry on the model of the Church of Christ, Scientist (with its widely-read Christian Science Monitor). Unfortunately for the relationship between father and son, Herbert saw a shrinking role for himself Garner Ted's plan, a perspective that eventually culminated in a total falling out.

In a report in the May 15, 1972 edition of TIME magazine, Herbert Armstrong was reported to have said that Garner Ted was "in the bonds of Satan". The elder Armstrong did not elaborate, but speculation was that Herbert had to come to grips publically with Garner Ted's alleged continuing problems with gambling and adultery with Ambassador College coeds. Garner Ted Armstrong was soon relieved of his starring role within the church.

While Garner Ted Armstrong was being removed, Stanley Rader had been orchestrating the church's involvement in a number of corporations which Rader established. Critics saw Rader's moves as an attempt to seize control of the church. Rader characterized his involvement as that of an adviser and claimed that his advice was opening doors for Armstrong that a strict theological role would not have allowed for. Herbert Armstrong approved establishing the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF), which Rader set up ostensibly to give the elder Armstrong a role as the "Ambassador for World Peace without portfolio". This role, however, appears to be not much more than a figurehead; though the Foundation did successfully fund the making of the Academy Award-winning Paper Moon.

As the church was experiencing internal crises, its external, public face was also crumbling. Church followers had anticipated the removal of church faithful to Petra, Jordan to await the prophesied apocalypse. By 1972, it was evident this was not to occur. When combined with Garner Ted Armstrong's very public removal from the church, this failure of prophecy caused many within the church to lose confidence and withdraw. The church hastened to restore public confidence, and returned Garner Ted as host of The World Tomorrow a mere four months after his ouster.

The church continues

In spite of the scandals of 1972, the church continued in the 1970s with Herbert Armstrong still at the helm. In 1975, Armstrong baptized Stanley Rader, who until then had been a practicing Jew in spite of his association with the Christian church. Under Rader's influence, Armstrong began to de-emphasize the Christological aspects of church doctrine, instead preaching a message of peace, brotherly love, and "giving and not getting" that was arguably derived from Buddhism. The church began to teach of humanity's being guided by a "Great Unseen Hand from Someplace", a phrase Armstrong may have borrowed from an old editorial in US News and World Report.

Herbert Armstrong himself continued with his life. Widowed by the death of Loma eleven years earlier, Armstrong remarried Ramona Martin, a woman nearly fifty years younger than the octagenarian in 1977, and moved to Tucson, Arizona. While Armstrong administered church business through Stanley Rader from his Arizona retreat, the church continued to be headquartered in Pasadena.

With Garner Ted Armstrong resuming his role within the church, however, the rivalry between the younger Armstrong and Stanley Rader intensified. The adultery problems that reportedly drove Garner Ted from the church once, allegedly continued unabated. In 1978, those problems were used to excommunicate Garner Ted Armstrong, disfellowshipping him a final time. Garner Ted moved to Tyler, Texas, and there founded a splinter group, the Church of God International. See more at Garner Ted Armstrong.

More scandal

Garner Ted Armstrong blamed Stanley Rader for his two-time ouster from his father's church. Garner Ted and other former and discontented members of the Worldwide Church of God prompted the State of California to investigate charges of malfeasance by Rader and others involved with the AICF. By 1979, California Attorney General George Deukmejian had brought civil charges against the church, and the church was placed into an investigative financial receivership for one year.

The group of dissidents also gained the attention of Mike Wallace, who investigated the church in a report for 60 Minutes. Using documentary evidence obtained, Wallace brought to light lavish secret expenditures, conflict of interest insider deals, posh homes and lifestyles in the higher ranks, and heavy involvement of Stanley Rader in financial manipulation. Wallace invited Rader to appear on 60 Minutes on April 15, 1979. Rader began by answering many questions by Wallace with his confident, characteristic unabashed aplomb. However, Wallace completely surprised Rader with a secret tape recording, wherein Herbert Armstrong had alleged Rader was attempting to takeover the church after Armstrong's death, reasoning that the donation tithe money might be quiet a "magnet" to some evangelists. Perhaps sensing at this point would no longer do him any good to continue answering questions, Rader jumped up, told Wallace the interview was over abruptly, and left immediately to speak to the press waiting outside.

Rader, with the approval of Herbert Armstrong, was spending millions to fend off any financial audit or examination of the Church's income and expenditures by litigating the issue all the way from California to the United States Supreme Court, several times, unsuccessfully. Having lost in the courts, as a last ditch effort, perhaps to save himself from scrutiny and to prevent the receivorship from going into further testimony, Rader politically lobbied the California legislature with intense pressure from all sides to force the California Attorney General to drop the charges against the church and him. Under Rader's lobbying, the California State Legislature passed legislation known as the Petris bill, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, which effectively gave Rader and the Worldwide Church of God a special "legal loophole" from any outside judicial scrutiny or further civil investigation from the Office of the California Attorney General. Rader and Armstrong, then, were relieved of any further concern about civil liability or any outside exposure of their own internal financial dealings as the directors of a California religious corporation. In trying to defend his fight against the investigation, Rader wrote the 1980 self-exculpatory polemic Against the Gates of Hell: The Threat to Religious Freedom in America" arguing his legal fight with the Attorney General was allegedly more about religious freedoms than abuse of public trust or fraudulent misappropriation of tithe funds.

After Armstrong and Rader

Stanley Rader left his positions within the church in 1981. While Rader was able to legally, then politically stiffarm the judicial investigation of church finanial misappropriation, he could not spare the collapse of AICF. A lawsuit had been filed against Steven Spielberg and George Lucas alleging that the pair stole the plot for Raiders of the Lost Ark from AICF. When the lawsuit went nowhere, AICF collapsed. Meanwhile, the church was eager to sever its ties from AICF, as the Foundation had been producing works which were not in keeping with church doctrine. Rader parted church leadership amicably, and reportedly received a six figure financial package (or golden handshake) upon leaving his post.

Joseph W. Tkach Sr. and Jr.

On January 16, 1986, Herbert W. Armstrong died in Pasadena. Shortly before his death, Armstrong named Joseph W. Tkach Sr., an associate of Rader, to succeed Armstrong as the leader of the church. As early as 1988, Joseph W. Tkach Sr. began to make some minor doctrinal changes. Tkach Sr. and his son, Joseph W. Tkach Jr., directed the church theology towards mainstream evangelical Christian belief. The new Tkach administration repudiated many of the former teachings, and even issued an apology regarding the Church to the wider Christian community. This flipflop caused much disillusionment among the membership, and another rise of splinter groups. During the tenure of the elder Joseph Tkach Sr., the church dropped in membership by about 50%.

According to Christianity Today, in

What makes the implosion of the once-prosperous Worldwide Church of God unusual -- indeed unprecedented in modern American religious life -- is that Armstrong's followers haven't so much abandoned the church as the church's new leaders appear to have abandoned them. Under the stewardship of Joseph Tkach Jr., a 45-year-old former social worker, Worldwide's leaders have set off a stunning exodus within its ranks by repudiating the revered founder and his most sacrosanct teachings.

"I've come to the conclusion that the church under this group exists to perpetuate itself and to make money," says David Covington. Formerly one of Worldwide's top field ministers, he spent 25 years in the organization before resigning last year. Up to three-quarters of Worldwide's former 125,000 members have departed. The church's operating budget, which was $211 million as recently as 1990, has shrunk to $38 million. The church has had to lay off all but about 200 of its 1,200-plus headquarters staff, shut down Ambassador University, its sprawling Texas liberal arts school, and has drastically scaled back its half-century-old Plain Truth magazine. The new regime has even auctioned off the sterling silver Armstrong once used at lavish dinner parties for heads of state and other luminaries.

To further economize, the church has announced plans to erect a new edifice complex church Headquarters building on Financial Way in Glendora, California. Church marketing strategy and advertising has changed significantly since the days the Plain Truth magazine was distributed worldwide, to millions upon request, without charge, within the reach of Armstrong's profitable radio and television media empire. Formerly, church membership sent all tithe donations directly to headquarters in Pasadena, CA; meeting in rented halls on Saturdays such as public school buildings, dance halls, or Masonic Lodges. Under the new financial reporting regime, Worldwide Chairman CEO Joseph Tkach, Jr. permits local churches to use some funds for local purposes, such as contructing an actual local church building for use of the congregation. Pastor General Joseph Tkach, Jr. now positions Worldwide as a mainstream Christian evangelical church and towards that end, has become a member of the National Association of Evangelicals. As of 2005, 75% or more of all congregational donations stay in the local area, less a 20.0 - 25.0% apportionment to the headquarters administrative office, to be located in a new church building purchased in Glendora, CA.

Current status

The Worldwide Church of God claims 64,000 members in 860 churches in approximately 90 nations of the world (as of 2004). Headquarters are in Pasadena, California with a move to Glendora, California in 2006 when the preparations of the denomination's new property are complete. The church has been a paid member of the National Association of Evangelicals since 1997.

Current organizational structure

The Worldwide Church of God is established under a hierarchical, non-voting form of government. The chief ecclesiastical and chief corporate executive officer of the denomination is termed the Pastor General. Historically, Pastors General, as chairmen of their board, have appointed their own successor without representative vote from the membership. Ecclestical or corporate governance issues are within the decision-making jurisdiction of the Pastor General, who has the power to appoint, as well as terminate, the Council of Elders and the board members of the corporation, with or without cause or notice. The denomination's ecclesiastical policies are determined by its Advisory Council of Elders (ACE), which is, in turn, appointed and controlled by the Pastor General. A Doctrinal Advisory Team may report to the Advisory Council on the church's official doctrinal statements, epistemology, or apologetics. Under ecclesiastical bylaws, the Pastor General may "pocket veto" doctrinal positions he determines to be heretical, e.g., on the issue of the ordination of women as pastors.

The Worldwide Church of God maintains national offices and satellite offices in multiple countries. Pastor General Joseph Tkach, Jr. periodically travels worldwide in personal appearance campaigns to congregations in diverse intercontinental areas, such as Great Britain, Africa, and the Philippines. However, membership and tithe income originates primarily from within the eastern United States.

In the United States, contact with local assemblies or local church home small group meetings, i.e., cell churches is facilitated by district superintendents, each of which is responsible for a large number of churches in a geographical region (such as Florida or the Northeast) or in a specialized language group (such as Spanish-speaking congregations).

Local churches are led by a senior pastor or a pastoral leadership team, each of which is supervised by a district superintendent. Most local church groups retain the long-standing traditional policy of meeting in leased or rented facilites for meetings or services. The trend since 2000, however, has been to adopt a local church setting blending into the local milieu with headquarters retaining administrative oversight functions. Some senior pastors are responsible for a single local church, but many are responsible for working in two or more churches. Church government now mandates a local Advisory Council, which includes a number of volunteer ministry leaders (some of whom are also called deacons), and often additional elders or assistant pastors. As of 2005, the church established a new computer system of financial checks and balances for church budgets at the local level. Salary compensation for the paid local church pastor, if available, is determined by the church treasurer in California.

Timeline

• 1892—Herbert W. Armstrong is born in Des Moines, Iowa.
• 1909—Armstrong drops out of high school during his junior year. Under the guidance of his uncle, he became self-educated in his chosen field of advertising.
• 1917—Armstrong marries Loma Dillon.
  • between 1917 and 1927—Loma meets a woman who eventually convinces her Saturday (and not Sunday) is the Sabbath. Armstrong was shocked she would believe this. After intense research into the subject, he came to believe this was correct.
• 1927—Further study into Christian beliefs leads Armstrong into attending the Church of God.
• 1930
  • February 9—Garner Ted Armstrong is born in Portland, Oregon.
• 1931—Armstrong begins his ministry in Eugene, Oregon.
• 1933
  • October 9—Armstrong's radio ministry begins on KORE in Springfield, Oregon.
  • November 4—Church of God splits; Armstrong sides with faction at Salem, West Virginia.
• 1934
  • The Plain Truth begins mimeograph publication.
  • Radio ministry becomes known as the "Radio Church of God".
• 1937—After a dispute concerning what to tell prospective members before baptism, Armstrong withdraws entirely from the Church of God. He claims to put his trust in God to provide the needs of his family and further claims a determination to preach the truth beholden to no man.
• 1939—The World's Fair is held in New York. This inspires Armstrong to rename his radio program as "The World Tomorrow".
• 1946—Because of the growth in radio stations, Armstrong felt it was essential to move where he could have access to modern radio recording studios. He therefore relocates to Pasadena, California.
  • March 3—"Radio Church of God" is incorporated under California's General Nonprofit Corporation Law.
• 1947—Ambassador College (AC), a Bible College used to train ministers for his "Radio Church of God", is founded by Armstrong in Pasadena.

1950s—The Plain Truth becomes a monthly publication. Until then, publication had been sporadic.

• 1953
  • January 7—"The World Tomorrow" is broadcast on Radio Luxembourg.
  • Armstrong begins to view his ministry in two epochs of 19 years each (1934–1953 and 1953–1972).
• 1956
  • Armstrong meets Stanley Rader.
  • Armstrong and AC graduate Herman L. Hoeh publish 1975 in Prophecy!. The title was taken from a book published around that time.
• 1966—Loma Dillon Armstrong dies.
• 1967—Michael Dennis Rohan attempts to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Rohan claims to have been inspired by Armstrong and his ministry.
• 1968
  • January 5—Church changes name to Worldwide Church of God.
• 1969—Stanley Rader begins full-time employment with the church.
  • Evangelist Roderick C. Meredith informs the leadership that members should not interpret the 1975 in Prophecy! booklet as predicting that Christ will come in 1975.
• 1970s—During the decades of the 60s and 70s, the church distributes millions of copies of The Plain Truth to the public without charge.
• 1970—Carl O'Beirn breaks with the church, founds Church of God at Cleveland, Ohio.
  • March 15—Church is featured in a report by Time magazine, in which Armstrong announces his split with son Garner Ted. Garner Ted Armstrong, Vice President at Ambassador College, reportedly had been committing adultery with AC undergraduate coeds, and gambling with church funds.
  • July 20—Garner Ted Armstrong is returned to full executive duties, including hosting "The World Tomorrow" program on radio and television, with his father's approval, despite serious reservations within the church ministry.
• 1973—The film Paper Moon is released. It is financed by the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF), a corporate foundation funded by the church and set up by Stanley Rader.
• 1974—A change in church doctrine allows members to divorce and remarry under certain circumstances that the church determines are biblical.
• 1975—Herbert Armstrong baptizes Stanley Rader in a hotel bathtub. Rader, formerly a professing Jew, becomes an ordained church evangelist.
• 1977—Herbert Armstrong marries Ramona Martin and moves to Tucson, Arizona.
  • July—The article "Plain Truth About Healing" is published;. The ministry makes gradual allowances for childhood vaccinations, treatment by physicians, use of prescription medication, surgery, blood transfusions, pain medication, and antibiotics.
• 1978—Garner Ted Armstrong is excommunicated by his father for a second and final time. He leaves to form the Church of God International in Tyler, Texas.
• 1979
  • California Attorney General George Deukmejian, after receiving complaints from WCG staff, church members and former members, begins an investigation of the church and associated enterprises over charges of financial wrongdoing. Church goes into financial receivership. Under the direction of church attorney Stanley Rader, the church litigates against the receivership, but is denied relief in 16 different petitions to the California Court of Appeals and 11 separate petitions to the California Supreme Court.
  • April 15—Rader defends himself and the church on the television program "60 Minutes" with Mike Wallace.
  • The State of California Law Board and the Board of Accountancy begin an investigation into possible professional ethics violations charges against Stanley Rader involving multiple grounds of inquiry.
• 1980—David Robinson, former minister of the Worldwide Church, publishes a book on the Worldwide Church entitled Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web. The church tries to legally suppress publication of the book on the basis that it published private facts, but fails.
• June 3—United States Supreme Court denies church appeals of receivership case for the third time and permits receivership to proceed in California courts.
• 1981—Jack Kessler, CPA and attorney-at-law (a member of the church's accounting firm Rader, Cornwall, Kessler) sends a published letter to the Board of Directors and Council of Elders of the church, expressing concern over church accounting procedures and allegations of impropriety against Armstrong.
  • California State legislature passes a special bill specifically exempting religious organizations such as the Worldwide Church from further financial scrutiny from the California Office of the Attorney General after intense lobbying by Stanley Rader and other church sympathizers. This effectively keeps states from intruding into churches throughout the state.
  • Rader writes Against the Gates of Hell: The Threat to Religious Freedom in America in defense of his refusal to cooperate with the financial receivership.
• 1981
  • As Stanley Rader retires from his positions with the church, Herbert W. Armstrong pays him a $250,000 bonus (after taxes) for Rader's legal work in resisting the governmental receivership of the church.
• 1981–1986 The Worldwide Church of God experiences significant growth. Armstrong maintains an extensive schedule of visiting foreign countries to speak with leaders on behalf of the Ambassador Foundation. The Plain Truth magazine and the radio and television programs experience a surge in readership and viewing audience.
• 1986
  • January 16—Herbert W. Armstrong dies; Joseph W. Tkach Sr is appointed as his successor to Pastor General. In the immediate aftermath of the transition, church growth is sustained and even surges beyond past levels.
• 1986-1989—Under Tkach Sr.'s leadership, the church begin to make changes to its doctrine. The church commission, doctrine of divine healing, and many other doctrinal positions are revised. Major doctrinal works previously produced by the church are withdrawn from publication by the church, including Herbert Armstrong's final book, Mystery of the Ages.
• 1989—Gerald Flurry and John Amos, ministers, are disfellowshipped after Flurry's book (later published as Malachi Message) documents the changes in doctrine being made by the church. Flurry and Amos form The Philadelphia Church of God headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma.
• 1991—Tkach Sr. revises teaching on new birth, suggesting that the Holy Spirit is a person.
• 1992—Evangelist Roderick C. Meredith leaves and is chosen as Pastor General the Global Church of God. His title is later revised to that of Presiding Evangelist.
• 1993—Tkach Sr. distances the church from its former binitarian view of God and accepts the doctrine of the Trinity.
• 1994
  • Tkack Sr. teaches that true Christians may also be found in other denominations; that Christians are no longer under the Old Covenant laws; that members are permitted to eat pork. He further removes other dietary restrictions.
• 1995
  • Many ministers leave and form the United Church of God.
  • Joseph W. Tkach Sr. dies; his son, Joseph Tkach Jr., is appointed as Pastor General.
  • Tkach Jr. rejects Anglo-Israelism doctrine; members encouraged to observe Christmas and Easter as holy days, to vote in governmental elections, and to serve in the Armed Forces or in law enforcement. The requirement of the triple tithe (30%) donation of personal income to church is abandoned.
• 1996—Tkach Jr. apologizes to members and others for the church's past "erroneous" teachings.
• 1997—Tkach Jr. publishes Transformed by Truth, defending the administrative and doctrinal changes made by him and his father.
• 1997—The Worldwide Church of God joins the National Association of Evangelicals.
• 1997—The Philadelphia Church of God reprints Mystery of the Ages (MOA). Worldwide Church of God files a lawsuit to stop its publication, citing copyright infringement.
• 1999—Tkach Jr. announces employee retirement fund
• 2000
  • September 18—The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the Philadelphia Church of God infringed on the Worldwide Church's copyright to MOA, awards damages to Worldwide Church of God, and remands case to lower court for determination of damages to be paid and a possible permanent injunction.
• 2003
  • April—The Worldwide Church of God agrees to end the lawsuit over MOA by selling the copyright to MOA and nineteen other Worldwide-copyrighted religious tracts to The Philadelphia Church of God for $3 million.
  • September 13—Garner Ted Armstrong dies in Tyler, TX.
• 2005—Tkach Jr. implements new churchwide financial system. Headquarters server network controls Worldwide flow of financial data. Tkach Jr. later announces that the church wishes to change its name which will be Grace International Communion by the spring of 2006.

Original Worldwide Church of God splinter groups

• Church of God International (org. 1978)
• Philadelphia Church of God (org. 1989)
• Twentieth Century Church of God (org. 1990)
• Church of God (Philadelphia Era) (org. 1991)
• Global Church of God (1992; now defunct)
• United Church of God (1995)
• Living Church of God (1998)
• Restored Church of God (1998)
• —External link with full chart to 1996

References

• Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood, Handbook of Denominations in the United States. Abingdon Press, 2001. ISBN 0687069831.
• J. Michael Feazell, The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God. Zondervan, 2003. ISBN 0310250110.
• Gerald Flurry, Malachi's Message to God's Church Today. "A thorough explanation of how and why the Worldwide Church of God rejected Herbert Armstrong's teachings, and how to hold fast to Herbert Armstrong's teachings."
• Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults. Revised and Updated Edition, Bethany House, 2003. ISBN 0764228218. See Appendix A, pp. 471–494.

See also

• Christianity
• Christian apologetics