At the end of his life, Herbert W. Armstrong said he was most concerned about what would happen to God’s Church after his death. He deeply loved the Church, and was troubled about its future.
We in this remnant Philadelphian work have had to deal with a lot of the problems he feared.
In the book of Malachi, God speaks out against the Laodicean ministers who led the people astray after Mr. Armstrong died. “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you …” (Malachi 1:6). Honoring your Father is central to the gospel, the good news of God’s coming Family. Jesus Christ came to Earth to declare His Father (John 1:18). But to the Laodiceans, God asks, Where is my honor?
To fail to honor God is a grievous sin! This was one of Mr. Armstrong’s great concerns about the Church.
The book of Malachi contains a family message critical to God. In it, God explains that message and shows us why the Laodiceans don’t honor Him. He shows us with deep clarity the problem He sees in these people.
I believe even those of us in the Philadelphia remnant don’t understand the book of Malachi as we should.
Take a Stand
Malachi 1:6 to 3:3 is directed specifically at Laodicean ministers. God is not happy at all with these men.
Malachi 1:6 concludes, “… O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?” The Laodiceans disagree with and talk back to God! “Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?” (verses 7-8). God is forcibly correcting the Laodiceans.
“And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the Lord of hosts” (verse 9). “This hath been by your means” is better translated “This has been your doing.” This is what you have done! God says. These are your fruits!
“Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand” (verse 10). God is asking, Won’t anyone stand up and shut the doors on this horrifying spiritual tragedy?
The Moffatt translation reads, “Would no one close the temple doors to keep you from kindling useless fires upon My altar?” The Revised Standard Version translates it, “Oh, that there was one among you who would shut the doors ….” God puts the responsibility on all of us to have courage to stand up when such terrible things are happening in His Church! In this case, God says, I’d just like one person to stand up and shut everything down! That is how wrathful God was! These words convey profound godly emotion!
It just takes one to stand up and stop this massive sin. Mr. Armstrong was a man who took a stand. He stood up to all of those rebels in the 1970s, shut the doors, and turned things around. But after his death in 1986, the problem resurfaced, and the Laodiceans did nothing. With their inaction, they failed to honor the Father—a grievous sin!
If something horrible were going on in the Church, how would you react? Would you take a stand? You need to really examine yourself. Each one of us has a real responsibility.
This is God’s Family, and the Father is the Head! He wants to know that we are happy to be here. He wants to know that, if we need to, we will take a stand to defend His Family! Would you shut things down when it’s evil and wicked? God wants anybody in His Church to fulfill this duty.
These are God’s people, and He is angry! We have to react the way God does. Is this the way we think? God wants to know.
Make God’s Name Great
“For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 1:11). God is telling these people how it is going to be: My name shall be great! From sunrise to sunset, the Father’s name is going to be great all over this world. That is His goal!
Mr. Armstrong wanted to get God’s truth to the largest audience possible. And God is saying to the Laodiceans, Do you realize how far away you are from this? They have forgotten and rebelled against that goal.
We need to rise up and get God’s name to this world. We must reach the largest audience possible. This is what God wants from each one of us. Nothing else even comes close in importance! This is about our Father and His Family.
After a man died, so many of God’s people just fell away. Of course that grieves the Father!
How capable are you of remaining faithful to God—even when you are alone? Many of our people are alone, and God wants to see absolute faithfulness in us no matter where we are. He is warning us because 95 percent of His people turned away. Now only the Philadelphia Church of God is left obeying God.
Snorted at the King
Think of all the people who left God when Mr. Armstrong died. How could that happen when they said time and again they were right behind him in every way? That wasn’t true at all.
Here is how the Laodiceans now view God’s truth that was restored to this Church by Herbert W. Armstrong: “But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible” (Malachi 1:12). That is a terrible change in thinking.
“Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord” (verse 13). That is far from honoring God!
“[Y]e have snuffed at it” should be translated “you snorted at me.” Most translators decided that “me” was too harsh. Human nature is always trying to get past God! No big deal—we’ll just call God IT. Well, it is a big deal! How much will you accomplish if you think of God as an “it”?
God says, They have snorted at ME! God moved the lamp of His Church because of such rank rebellion and dishonoring behavior! These are warnings for the Laodiceans—but they’re also warnings for us. We must not allow this sin in our life.
“But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen” (verse 14). This is God’s response: He is a great King! When we come to Sabbath services, we are coming before a great King! And He wants honor. He wants us to be behind Him in every way. As a great King, His name is going to be dreadful among the heathen.
Yet the Laodiceans are talking back to Him. They dishonor the great King! The Laodiceans possessed an incredible spiritual heritage. After all the blessings and opportunities God gave them, they follow the devil.
Mr. Armstrong gave them everything and loved the Church so much. His greatest concern was what would happen to God’s people after he died. Oh, if we could have more people who thought like that. We need to really examine ourselves.
‘This Commandment’
What does God want His ministers to be doing? What standard should they follow? God spells it out in the book of Malachi. This truly is an extraordinary prophecy, where God lodges one condemnation after another like this.
“And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart” (Malachi 2:1-2). This commandment is for the Laodicean ministers. What are they to “lay … to heart”?
“Behold, I will corrupt your seed [children], and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it” (verse 3). That is plain speaking! These people are rebelling and turning away from what God used Elijah to teach, and that is spiritual dung. So God will treat them accordingly.
“And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts” (verse 4). “This commandment” is a specific prophecy about Malachi’s Message. That book is a commandment to the Laodicean priests—and to us! God promised to send this message, and He said people would know He sent it.
What is your attitude toward Malachi’s Message? God condemns where the Laodiceans are, but He also wants to know where we are! We need to want that book to go to all the Laodiceans—and beyond that to the largest audience possible! This is a commandment, God says.
“If ye will not hear” (verse 2) means Malachi’s Message will be preached. The Laodiceans must hear, but so must God’s faithful people. What if we “will not hear”—or fail to hear as we should? There really is correction in this for all of us. This is God’s Work, and He wants to know where we stand.
God Commends Mr. Armstrong
God says of Mr. Armstrong: “My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name” (Malachi 2:5). This verse shows how to honor God. Three times it says Mr. Armstrong feared God.
“The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from [lawlessness]” (verse 6). What a commendation and endorsement from God!
The man Satan used to destroy God’s Church had the opposite view. After Mr. Armstrong died, Joseph Tkach Jr. wrote Transformed by Truth. That book has a chapter titled “The Enigma of Herbert W. Armstrong.” It says, “As the Worldwide Church of God [wcg] has been dramatically changed and as we have faced the emotional upheaval of finding out much of what we believed was wrong, we have also had to face allegations about Herbert W. Armstrong and his son.” Garner Ted Armstrong had obvious problems, and Mr. Tkach lumps him together with his father to tarnish Mr. Armstrong by association. That is satanic dung!
That should anger us to have the devil talk about Mr. Armstrong this way!
Because of these “allegations,” Tkach writes, “I felt the need to apologize and ask forgiveness about our past unbiblical teaching and behavior.” How diabolical! Yet many people have believed and followed this evil man.
Compare those words with what God says in Malachi. God lauds His end-time type of Elijah for turning many people away from lawlessness. He praises that man for his exemplary godly fear! But this man who is smearing Mr. Armstrong has no fear of God at all. What a contrast between these two views.
The Scholar
God’s condemnation continues: “For the priest’s lips should keep [watch, guard] knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 2:7-8). You really must guard God’s truth. Again, 95 percent of God’s people have rebelled against their Father, and 50 percent of them are never coming back. This is a horrifying reality!
“Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law” (verse 9). The Laodiceans have exalted people and faces instead of God.
“Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god” (verse 11). This is referring to three nations of Israel: America, Britain and the Jewish state in the Middle East. These nations are defying God.
Deeply consider verse 12: “The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts.” This is about academic and worldly ways instead of the righteousness God wants. The scholar in the tabernacle is causing real problems.
“The Prophet Malachi was trying to correct a faith crisis caused by a priesthood that was relying more and more on human, scholarly reasoning,” I wrote in Malachi’s Message. “We see the same condition in the wcg today. If these scholars are being relied on too much, it’s because the wcg is giving them too much authority. … This is the same direction many wcg leaders went in the 1970s, when Mr. Armstrong had to abolish the doctrinal research committee.” It got so bad, Mr. Armstrong temporarily stopped Ambassador College.
“According to Dr. Donald Ward, they are now removing the ‘anti-educational bias in the Church and college.’ That happened in the 1970s too,” I wrote. Dr. Ward said that anti-educational bias “has been in the Church and college for years.” This man was over the college in Big Sandy, under Mr. Armstrong. He never would have said that while Mr. Armstrong was alive, or he would have been fired the same day!
These are “scholars” in the Church of God, criticizing God’s Elijah, the man who restored all things. They are nobodies by comparison!
Where do you find true education, God’s education, today? At Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma, and Edstone, England. But an ignorant, self-proclaimed scholar came along and helped deceive 95 percent of God’s people.
In 1981, Mr. Armstrong addressed the issue of accreditation for Ambassador College. He knew pursuing that credential would remove the government of God. He said the highest accreditation we have is from God Himself! That type of education is about to fill this Earth!
This is heavy correction from God for these self-appointed scholars. Mr. Armstrong had to stop their little doctrine meetings because they were trying to disprove the true doctrines behind his back.
Mr. Armstrong truly had to fight all kinds of problems all the time! But look at what he left for us. Look what he gave us! We wouldn’t have a college or anything else if not for him. No wonder God praises him in numerous places in the Bible.
I certainly hope the students of our college realize how special this education is. We have the highest accreditation possible! This is God’s education that’s about to fill the Earth and, after that, the universe!
Wife of Your Youth
Then comes a turn in thinking in Malachi’s prophecy: “Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant” (Malachi 2:14).
As I wrote in Malachi’s Message, “the wife of your youth” is talking about a spiritual marriage, not a physical marriage. This is about the wife of Jesus Christ—if we can fathom that—the Church of God! Christ has only one wife, and that is the subject of the whole book of Malachi.
This is truly a family message: We are Jesus Christ’s wife! How very few of us on Earth have received this unparalleled calling! What a blessing and joy. Yet it is so easy to lose as the Laodiceans have proved. This verse says people are dealing treacherously with Christ’s wife!
“… Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously” (verses 15-16). The ministry in the Laodicean Church is dealing treacherously against Christ’s wife, the Church of their youth, when it was strong.
Many of us grew up in that wife of our youth. When I came into the Church, nobody rebelled against Mr. Armstrong’s government for years. Mr. Armstrong was in charge, and everybody knew it and loved it! They loved the government of God. They knew they could do nothing without it.
Do we really love God’s government with all our passion?
During the 1970s, the Church went off track. Mr. Armstrong had to battle the synagogue of Satan in embryo and put the Church back on track. Many people resisted God’s government. Malachi’s prophecy is serious correction for people who have that problem. That attitude will hamper you greatly. We will go nowhere spiritually without God’s government.
Godly Seed
“And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed …” (Malachi 2:15). God is seeking a godly seed. He wants our children spiritually educated and fulfilling their glorious potential. They need to be prepared to rule the world shortly! This education, our families and schools are all aimed at fulfilling that noble goal. All of our young people need to realize this.
That is truly a family message! Our young people, if they’re in that “wife of your youth,” will have godly seed.
Our Irish dance production Celtic Throne is all about family. The stage is full of young people, and you have about as many people behind the stage as you do performing on stage, and they’re all giving everything they have.
But we are not here to just have Celtic Throne with the young people. God says He wants godly seed in the whole Church! Young people are helping the Church around the world.Celtic Throne is one good example of encouraging young people to work hard and develop their talents, and we see that throughout the Church. But our main goal is to seek a godly seed! That’s all of our youth!
Christ’s wife must produce godly seed. We have to work at that all the time. We must not let down; we need to work as hard as possible to that end. What a calling!
God’s Messenger
“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:1). The “messenger of the covenant” is Jesus Christ. But who is this first “messenger”?
Christ said He would send His messenger—singular—and he, singular, would prepare the way for Christ. That is a man! Who was that man? It was Mr. Armstrong and his gigantic work! That is Elijah preparing the way before Him—work that we are still doing today. We must make sure people get this message.
“But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap” (verse 2). This is clearly about the Second Coming. Christ is going to put down every rebel with His refiner’s fire.
“And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness” (verse 3). Think on this! God loves those people, and He is going to refine and purify them. You must be pure and refined if you’re going to be in the Kingdom of God, and God says He will even get many of those Laodicean ministers to that state somehow!
“Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (verses 16-17). Realize: Your future is determined by what you are doing right now. Every one of us must ponder that, pray about that, and seek God, and examine ourselves to see where we are.
God says there are a few godly in the land, a faithful minority, who make up His jewels. They believed God; they trusted God—and God empowered them to do what needed done.
“Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not” (verse 18). Can you really discern who is righteous and who isn’t? We must see the difference between God and God’s people on the one hand, and the Laodiceans and their wickedness on the other. There should be no doubt there.
Just months before his death, Mr. Armstrong warned us about a falling away happening again: “I want you brethren to think about and understand what happened to God’s Church in the 1970s, ‘lest history repeat itself’” (Worldwide News, June 24, 1985). Understand what happened, or it will happen again, he said. See the fruits of rebelling against God’s way and God’s government! He was thundering that warning—and history did repeat itself! We all need to look hard at the fruits of rebelling against God’s way and God’s government. The Laodiceans show those fruits, and God calls those people wicked.
“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1). God is talking to the Laodiceans and to us! We must make sure we are in spiritual condition where we won’t be blotted out forever. This is a serious warning of the future of all Laodiceans and anybody who thinks like they do.
Fear God’s Name
“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall” (Malachi 4:2). A young calf bounces around, just so thrilled to be alive! God wants us thrilled and excited over what we have and what He is giving us. To do that, we must fear God’s name.
“And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts” (verse 3). Those unrepentant saints will be ashes under our feet. But to receive the rewards God describes here, we must heed the warnings in this prophecy.
“Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments” (verse 4). Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, where ancient Israel received the Ten Commandments of God. God tells the Laodiceans, If you want to straighten out your life, go back to the beginning, back to Herbert W. Armstrong and Elijah! Understand that history!
What a blessing that history is in our lives! We must go back to that beginning, back to “the wife of our youth.” If you are having trouble, bring the law and the government back into your life. Go back to the beginning, or you’ll never make it!
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (verses 5-6). Again, God is talking primarily to the ministers in this book—and then to those who follow them.
“Who is cursed?” I asked in Malachi’s Message. “This is a curse which means ‘utter destruction.’ In the past, this has been applied to the ‘utter destruction’ of all the Earth’s inhabitants. That is not what it means! The message of Malachi was not sent to the nation of Israel or the world. Primarily, the subject is God’s ministry ….” Nearly all those ministers left God! How could that happen? Many of them were drifting from God and probably didn’t even realize it. But I was dumbfounded that all the ministers—many of them complaining about the changes more than I was—would end up following right along. When I was fired, they shut their mouths! Nobody would come and say, How can you do this? Stop this horrible sin and rebellion against the living God!
“Malachi is discussing the fate of true ministers (and their followers) who fail to repent of their falling away from God’s previously revealed truth,” I wrote. They are going to lose their eternal lives if they don’t bring their families together! Fathers looking to children; children turning their hearts to their father as he turns their hearts to them. We must be creating a godly seed and godly fathers and mothers! It’s the Father’s Family! We must honor our Father!
God created us to bring us into His Family! He is re-creating Himself in you! How much are you thinking and acting like God?
Malachi 4:5-6 are not about a physical family; they are about a spiritual family. They are about a Father who turns His heart to the children and children who turn their hearts to the Father. They have a loving Family. This is God’s Family. And this is available to all of us! Revelation 19:7 says the wife has made herself ready.
Malachi 4:1 shows the context: This is about people who lose their salvation, leaving neither root nor branch. Those are the stakes! What a disgraceful end for anyone whom the Father has called into His Church to marry His Son!
But God gives the solution: Remember Mount Horeb, or Mount Sinai, where the commandments were given. If you have slipped spiritually, or fallen away, then go back to that beginning with Mr. Armstrong. God was thrilled with him because of the fear wherewith he feared God and was afraid before God’s name! That kept Mr. Armstrong where he needed to be.
Does each one of us truly fear God? We need to examine ourselves there and face reality.
Malachi’s Family Message
When the Jews read Malachi 4:5-6, they read verse 5 after verse 6 because they believe the book ends too harshly. But they need to hear something harsh! At times we all need to hear something harsh. Who are men to change this? What right do they have to do that? God wants them to hear this harsh correction. He wants them to hear it the way it should be.
On Nov. 11, 1985, Mr. Armstrong wrote: “[L]et me give you a brief preview of the world you live in today …. We are living in the most tremendous days of world history—the very end time, the end of this present evil, unhappy, violent world—just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. … Our time is now short, and growing daily shorter” (Plain Truth subscriber letter). Time certainly is short, and growing far shorter.
“We are now rapidly approaching the time of the world’s greatest crisis, when this whole man-made civilization will crumble and fall—and a new world of peace and eternal salvation will dawn, at Christ’s soon-coming in power and glory! God has decreed that the warning message must now go to the world (Matthew 24:14). This is the message of the world’s only and sure hope!” There is no other hope. We have the world’s only hope; that is reality!
The father must lead the family. The wife truly supports the father, and the sons and daughters must be taught to be husbands and wives and have happy, godly families. This is not natural; we have to make ourselves do it! But doing so makes you happy and brings wonderful fruits into your life. We have such beautiful marriages. Of course, the main one is being married to Jesus Christ Himself.
The family must be taught to love Malachi’s family message. This really is a family message. We are God’s Family in everything we do!
Think again of Celtic Throne: Whether they’re performing or backstage, it’s all family, and look at what they can accomplish because of that. It is inspired and directed by God Himself for our young people and the adults and even the world! Our young people are a part of this Work—godly seed!
Our families must honor the father and the mother. The father must teach his family about God’s government. It’s not really about the physical father, though: He is to get the focus on God the Father. Do that, and God will really give you power and authority.
We have to be preparing now for the entire world. They are waiting for us, and so is the universe—waiting and groaning for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Then we will see this crazy, evil, satanic world undergo a glorious transformation. As people come under God’s rule, God will bring peace, joy and happiness to this Earth—and they will become God’s own Family! This is going to be reality very, very shortly.