Worldwide Church of God (Herbert W. Armstrong) & Jim Staley (Passion For Truth Ministries)

by | Apr 27, 2022 | Cult & Occult

CultsAmbassador College and Auditorium in Pasadena, CA

(NJIAT Copyright@1991 of Ambassador Auditorium, Worldwide Church of God) — renamed Grace Communion International on 04/03/09. Campus of the now-closed Ambassador College and Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, CA. The former college campus was sold by the city in 2004.

Article taken from NJIAT located at https://njiat.com/cults.html#17

Worldwide Church of God (Herbert W. Armstrong) & Jim Staley (Passion For Truth Ministries)

The new pastor general Joseph W. Tkach, who took over after Armstrong passed away on 01/17/1986, made historic changes and transformed the organization from a cult to orthodox evangelical Christianity and he knew Armstrong’s doctrine and Gospel was false (a false Gospel is a false church). However, it was alleged that Mr. Tkach did disobey God by trying to delay the truth to the organization, but God would not allow it and to his credit Mr. Tkach did throw out Armstrong’s false doctrines. Joseph W. Tkach passed away on 09/23/1995 of colon cancer and his son (Tkach, Jr.) took over–see The Worldwide Newsletter dated 10/03/1995 –PDF & Why the Worldwide Church of God Changed its Name.

Note: Worldwide Church of God (renamed Grace Communion International) still refuses to publicly admit that Herbert Armstrong was a False Prophet (see Exit & Support Network and article entitled Neil Earle Whitewashes Herbert Armstrong, who is pastor of New Covenant Fellowship in Glendora, Ca). What about the Sabbath, Lost Ten Tribes & Ceremonial Laws vs. Moral Laws, soul sleep, annihilationism, etc.

Feast of Tabernalces in CAAmbassador Auditorium

Left: (NJIAT Copyright@1991 Feast of Tabernacles celebration by the Worldwide Church of God in Pasadena, CA 1991 ); Right: (NJIAT Copyright@1991, Ambassador Auditorium)

This was during a annual 1991 Feast of Tabernacles holiday — an annual Sabbath holiday that the former Worldwide Church of God renamed Grace Communion International on 04/03/09 celebrated because Armstrong thought this was commanded under the “New Covenant”. We are not under the “Mosaic Covenant”– there are four (4) covenants in the Old Testament (see There are 4 (four) Covenants in the Bible that most Christians do not understand and 9 Part article series on the Sabbath below. For further details, see Dr. Robert Moreys’ books entitled How the Old and New Testaments Relate to Each Other & A Christian Student’s Survival Guide & Death and the Afterlife

Herbert W. Armstrong

A Shocking Lack of Discernment: Promoting the Heresies of Herbert W. Armstrong — Herbert W. Armstrong was a false apostle & prophet—see Gal. 1:8, 2 Pet. 2:1-3, Deut. 18:22 & Ezek. 13:1-23. 

Jim Staley (Passion for Truth Ministries, who published the DVD entitled “Identity Crisis–Discovering your True Biblical Identity”) and many other misled or false ministers in the “Identity Movement” or “Hebrew Roots Movement” (they are not going to the Hebrew Roots of Christianity, but rather back to the “Old Covenant/Mosaic Covenant”, which is condemned in Galatians). They are just repeating what Herbert W. Armstrong taught; of course, not all the ministers that teach the “Lost Ten Tribes” adhere to all of Armstrong’s heretical teachings, who published the “Plain Truth” magazine

  • 12 Tribes of Israel during Joshua's timeThe United States and Britain in Prophecy by Herbert ArmstrongImage credit left: Approximate map showing the Kingdoms of Israel (blue) and Judah (orange), ancient Southern Levant borders and ancient cities such a Urmomium and Jerash. The 9th century BCE. Author: Oldtidens_Israel_&_Judea.svg: FinnWikiNo (12 July 2010). This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License…
  • British-Israelism, Anglo-Israelism Refuted!
  • I. Herbert Armstrong, a false apostle, was a big promoter of the “Lost Ten Tribes of Israel” (which Armstrong plagiarized from J. H. Allen’s book Judah’s Scepter & Joseph’s Birthright for his United States & Britain in Prophecy book) and tried to equate these tribes with being the United States (the tribe of Manasseh), England (the tribe of Ephraim) and the rest of the lost tribes of Israel being most of the Western European nations (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Ireland)–there were actually a total of 13 tribes (the tribe of Levi, which had no inheritance). Yes, it is correct that the House of Israel (that was invaded by the Assyrians in 732 B.C.) was distinct from the House of Judah (invaded by the Babylonians in 586 B.C and later by the Romans in 70 A.D). Because you have lost tribes spread around the world, this does not imply that all the Western Europeans are Israelites–it is stupid. Although Jim Staley did clarify he does not believe all Western Europeans are Israelites and that no one might never know who is and who is not an Israelite, nevertheless, it is ridiculous for Jim Staley to equate understanding who your Biblical identity is by knowing who the “Lost Ten Tribes of Israel” are if one is gong to understand the Bible. This is what the Bible calls false knowledge (Herbert Armstrong taught he had the “keys” to unlock Biblical prophecy because he knew the true identity of the American and British people). If you want to understand what your Biblical identity is, go to the Book of Genesis–Adam and Eve were created perfect and in the image of God, but when they disobeyed God, they could no longer keep the law perfectly. As a result, all of mankind is born into sin (original sin) because they are descendants of Adam and Eve–this is why Yeshua (the second Adam, who was fully God and man) came to the earth 2,000 years ago to die on the cross.
  • II. All these false teachers do the following:
  • 1. They put you in bondage to the Old Covenant/Mosaic Covenant and Ceremonial laws such as the food laws, the Jewish Feast Days (Armstrong picked this up from G.G. Rupert), Sabbath, (see 9-part series on Is the Sabbath for Today?), Circumcision, etc. Did not Apostle Paul say this was not required on the Gentiles? Is Apostle Paul against the law?– see Acts 15; Galatians 2:1-3; 5:1-11;  6:11-16;  1 Corinthians 7:17-20; Colossians 2:8-12; Philippians 3:1-3; the Old Covenant (with 613 commandments) is obsolete because the Messiah issued in the New Covenant 2,000 years ago, but now writes them in the heart of true believers (born again/born from above)–see Jer. 31:33 and Heb. 8:10. Christ fulfilled the whole law. The moral law is still valid.
  • 2. Christ/Yeshua’s death and resurrection is not the primary message–no Gospel (or teach a works based salvation, which is a false Gospel–see Galatians 1:8, “If anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that person be condemned! “ (ISV),
  • 3. False ministers such as Herbert Armstrong denied the following Biblical doctrines:
  • A. the Trinity (Armstrong had an odd definition–Holy Spirit is a force) and denied that Christ’s body was resurrected on the cross. “The Son of God, (was) now no longer human, but composed of SPIRIT – a Spirit Being,” and that “Christ’s body did disappear.  Christ was raised as a divine spirit being!” (WCG reprint, “If You Die…Will You Live Again?”, p. 5),
  • B. did not teach the ungodly are justified “solely” (i.e. “only”) through faith in Jesus Christ. It is “imputed righteousness.” Armstrong taught that the message about the Kingdom of God was about government. Really? I did not know one is saved by believing in a government–what an asshead. (See FAQ Tab, Q7 & Q8),
  • C. had to keep the Sabbath (Saturday) to be a true Christian or one would receive the Mark of the Beast (666) ,
  • D. taught that God was reproducing himself–we are going to become god’s. In other words, obtain deity and become a member of the God family (Ambassador College Correspondence Course, Lesson 8, p. 10). This sounds like the lie that Satan told Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden that they would become like God (see the Book of Genesis); the Mormons have a similar teaching,
  • E. one had to belong to the one true church (the Worldwide Church of God in his case and had to obey the lying bastard (Herbert Armstrong, who claimed he was God’s only Apostle in the 20th century) who took medication while he told his cult they could not take medication–he is a murderer. Armstrong also taught he was in the Philadelphia Church Era and taught what the true name of God’s church should be and his false understanding of God’s Government (picked up from G.G. Rupert) –one had to obey government (Armstrong’s satanic false church government in his case) in order to make it to the end and have salvation; you could loose your salvation and be annihilated if you did not obey government. Armstrong equated the “Kingdom of God” with government –however, the Bible teaches that “The Kingdom of God” refers to the present spiritual realities of salvation ( Romans 14:17, states “For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost”) ,
  • F. one had to be baptized into the true church–could only receive the Holy Spirit and be saved if you were baptized into the true church (what about the thief on the cross)—see article on Campbellism by Dr. Morey on whether baptism saves a person.
  • g. one should not celebrate Christmas, Easter, Birthdays, Cannot Vote (see Politics/Voting Tab) because they came from pagan origins (it is a logical fallacy to equate true Christians celebrating Christ’s birth (even if it did take place in October) with practicing what the pagans did with the day thousands of years ago (also, the members could not be a police officer, be in the military, and could not defend themselves, especially with a gun),
  • H. denied that people who rejected Christ went to hell and will be eternally tormented (click for article on Sheol, Hades, Gehenna), but rather got annihilated like a dog and so on. Armstrong also taught a form of universalism–most people are not called in this generation and since Adam & Eve and the majority of humanity will have their chance for salvation in the Millennium when they are resurrected and have the best possible chance to earn salvation–totally contrary to the Bible (Hebrews 9:27). See the College Students Tab for details on legalism.

What a lot of misled ministers or false ministers do is teach a truth and then lead you into error on other doctrines. For example, the Nephilim (Genesis 6) are always referred to as “mighty men of old”, “men of renown”, “giants” or “fallen ones”.  Why were the males called “sons of God” and the women “daughters of men”?–see FAQ Tab, Q13. Yes, they are half-human/half-demon mutants. Nephilim is a truth being taught in addition to pointing out the distinction between the House of Israel and House of Judah and how the Sabbath was on Saturday–these are truths that are used by false minsters who have knowledge with no understanding to get biblically unlearned people into false doctrines. (Jim Staley is not the first one to teach on who the Nephilim are.) However, who the Nephilim are has been taught many years ago by Biblical Evangelicals such as Dr. Robert A. Morey, Tal Brooke, Chuck Missler–many Rabbis also taught about the Nephilim. Jim Staley is mentioned in his Identity Crisis video that ministers sitting in his audience were never taught these things in seminary and how the ministers are learning so much under Jim. There is not doubt in my mind that your so-called Protestant seminaries (many Protestant seminaries have gone apostate) are not teaching that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, Hermeneutics, Hebrew, Greek, Apologetics, Church History, Why Greek Philosophy (Natural Law, Natural Theology) is anti-Biblical, etc. and this could be the reason the ministers sitting in Jim’s presentation are falling for his aberrant and false teachings.

Four (4) Covenants: sub-topic from NJIAT

There were 4 Covenants given by Yahweh: 1. The Noahic Covenant, 2. The Abrahamic Covenant (the land or so-called Palestinian Covenant is part of the Abrahamic Covenant, not a separate Covenant), 3. The Mosaic Covenant (the so-called Davidic Covenant and Solomon are personal applications of the Mosaic Covenant, therefore, they are not separate Covenants), 4. The New Covenant (everlasting).

Note: The other Covenants such as the New Covenant does not nullify the other Covenants–the only Covenant nullified was the Mosaic Covenant as stated in the New Testament (see Matt. 26:27-28; Heb. 3:1-6).

There were 4 Covenants given by Yahweh to man: 1. The Noahic Covenant, 2. The Abrahamic Covenant, 3. The Mosaic Covenant, 4. The New Covenant. According to Dr. Robert A. Morey in his book entitled How the Old and New Testaments Relate to Each Other, page 70, “Most dispensationalists simply assert that there are eight (8) covenants but they never tell us how they relate one to another. Neither do they supply any exegetical proof for the existence of the Edenic and Adamic covenants. I have yet to receive an answer to the question, ‘Since the Bible nowhere mentions an Edenic or Adamic covenant, where is the exegetical justification for listing them?’ “ Many dispensationalists use the Scofield Reference Bible to prove such nonsense. Covenant theology also makes the mistake of denying the diversity of the biblical covenants. There is nothing in Scripture which speaks of an “everlasting covenant of grace” made in heaven between the Father and the Son. A covenant is a space/time event and entered in with a specific person. Only the New Covenant is called “everlasting” because it will never become obsolete like the Old Covenant (Jer. 32:40 & Heb. 13:20). Charles Hodges listed 4 covenants in the Bible. It depends on how you divide things.

“However, in the past, when you did not know God, you were slaves to things that are not really gods at all. But now you turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt basic principles? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again? You are observing days, months, seasons, and years. I am afraid for you, lest somehow my work for you has been wasted!” (Galatians 4:8-11 ISV.) The Old Covenant (a legal contract made in time/space) was defective, not the Old Testament (a literary document). The Israelites were under a tutor/law–they were told how to dress, what to eat, how to cut their hair, how to worship by a highly structured liturgy, etc. This is not in the New Testament. The New Testament gives believers moral directives to apply to all of life, but does not give us minute directions as in the Old Testament. Galatians states:

“Tell me, those of you who want to live under the law: Are you really listening to what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. Now the son of the slave woman  was conceived according to the flesh, but the son of the free woman was conceived through a promise. This is being said as and allegory, for these women represent two covenants. The one woman, Hagar, is from Mount Sinai, and her children are born into slavery. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery along with her children. But the heavenly Jerusalem is the free woman, and she is our mother”. (Galatians 4:21-26 ISV.)

Typical examples of legalism (under the law—see Rom. 3:20, 28; 7:1-6; Gal. 3:1-5; 4:4-5):

1. Sabbatarianism, which the Reformers such as Calvin and Luther believed it was ceremonial and no longer binding (see 9 Part article series on the Sabbath) –don’t misunderstand, there is nothing wrong if a Christian or congregation wants to set a day apart for worship, but it should not be a burden;

2. Abstinence from alcohol ( Alcoholic Beverages in the Bible–PDF or Alcoholic Beverages in the Bible (HTML) ; Prohibition began on Jan. 19, 1920 (the 18th Amendment); as a result, it tripled alcoholism. Unfortunately, the FBI–according to ListVerse documents–deliberately poisoned alcohol by adding methane, formaldehyde, ammonia, and even arsenic and kerosene in attempt to enforce prohibition laws (see Infowars Magazine, Vol. 3. Issue 2, Oct. 2014, page 22.) Young people should be taught moderation–Spain is a good example;

3. Cannot eat Shellfish or Pork (see Is it okay for Christians to eat pork and shellfish?–Mark 7:18)–also, see Whole Health Tab;

3. No dancing; and

4. Cannot go to the movies (probably influenced by a false strain of Platonic thinking).

The above does not imply “antinomianism” (without the law), which is sin (see John 14:15) or “perfectionism” (above the law)–see 1 John 1:8-10) , “Positionalism” (no holiness in life-see Heb. 12:14; I John 2:4, 6), “Passivism” (let go, let God—see Phil. 2:12; Col. 1:29; Gal. 2:20),  “Mysticism” (over-emphasis on Holy Spirit—see Isa. 8:20; John 16:7-15), “Rationalism” (under-emphasis on the Holy Spirit—see I Cor. 2:14; Eph. 5:18),  and “Carnal Christianity” (heresy—see Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5-7;1 John 3:7-8).

No Christian church is perfect and you might have dedicated and Godly people that were not given the amount of grace or understanding in certain areas–they are called blind spots. However, Christians should correct themselves if God (by the Holy Spirit and Bible) is giving them understanding and clarification on Biblical doctrine in those areas mentioned above. The Holy Spirit never contradicts the Bible. The Bible is the ultimate authority/ final authority for doctrine. (Recommended book on this difficult subject entitled How the Old & New Testaments Relate to each Other by Dr. Robert A. Morey.)

Note: There is a distinction between legalism and a cult–legalism and being in a cult are two different things although most cults that call them themselves Christian are legalistic the difference being is that they have a “False Gospel” , which makes them a “False Church”; in other words, a cult will deny some major doctrine such as justification by faith alone thru Christ alone, the ontological trinity, must obey the leader instead of Christ (leaders have limited authority per God–go to the Voting/Politics Tab and see What about the State’s Authority over a Citizen?), etc.

Warning:  Why did Joseph Tkach Jr. attend LDS Tabernacle in Salt Lake, Utah with some well-known Evangelicals? And then Ravi Zacharias states later that Mormons agreed with his gospel message. See Dr. Robert A. Morey’s article entitled The Sell out has Begun (2004)