Loma Dillon made an emphatic impact on the mind of Herbert W. Armstrong when he first met her. He quickly discerned her sound-minded good sense, high ideals and superior intellect. He treasured their scintillating conversation. With Loma, the innocent country girl lacking citified sophistication, he could discuss serious and deep things intelligently. Along with her alert and active mind, she was energetic, outgoing and wholesome. And the quality he regarded as most important of all was her strength of character.
Such an assessment from an unconverted mind is uncommonly mature. Their seven-month courtship is delightful and significant history in the context of God’s Church.
“If it be true, as it definitely appears now in retrospect,” Mr. Armstrong wrote, “that the Eternal God knew He would call me to the important activity now in progress with progressively increasing power of impact, and that this early training of formative years had some measure of unseen and unrealized divine guidance, then it is true, also, that the selection of my wife and life partner was providential.
“It was through her, years later, that circumstances impelled my conversion and induction into the great commission. This commission, from its beginning, had been a team activity commission in which Mrs. Armstrong shared equally—even though it may not have been evident to many” (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong).
Mr. Armstrong publicly recognized the roles both God and his wife had in his conversion. “God started His Work for this time through my wife. He used her to bring me to Him,” he wrote in a co-worker letter (Feb. 27, 1967).
Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong were a highly compatible couple, but their personal reactions to their first encounter with God’s truth expose a drastic disparity between them. It’s an important story. Loma’s example demonstrates a crucial attitude God wants us to maintain toward His truth: “[T]o this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).
Exposure
Early in their marriage, the Armstrongs’ religious experiences were patchy. Loma had a particular interest in Bible study and had been an active Methodist, but after marriage she lacked the opportunity to participate in religious fellowship. While living in Chicago, the two had attended a local church, but that experience was more social than spiritual.
The fall of 1926 was a turning point. Having moved to Oregon, Mrs. Armstrong became acquainted with Ora Runcorn, an elderly neighbor of Mr. Armstrong’s parents and an avid student of the Bible.
“One day Mrs. Runcorn gave her a Bible study,” Mr. Armstrong wrote. This experience reawakened her biblical interest to an unprecedented degree. “She asked my wife to turn to a certain passage and read it. Then a second, then a third, and so on for about an hour. Mrs. Runcorn made no comment—gave no explanation or argument—just asked my wife to read aloud a series of biblical passages” (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong).
Notice her humble attitude in the discourse that follows.
“‘Why!’ exclaimed Mrs. Armstrong in amazement. ‘Do all these scriptures say that I’ve been keeping the wrong day as the Sabbath all my life?’
“‘Well, do they?’ asked Mrs. Runcorn. “Don’t ask me whether you have been wrong—you shouldn’t believe what any person tells you, but only what God tells you through the Bible. What does He tell you, there? What do you see there with your own eyes?’
“‘Why, it’s as plain as anything could be!’ exclaimed Mrs. Armstrong. ‘Why, this is a wonderful discovery.’”
Jesus Christ made plain that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Mrs. Armstrong accepted the truth as it was laid before her. This attitude indicates that the Bible had real authority in her life. She was delighted not only to learn the truth but also to unlearn error. Her humble attitude made that process much easier. Accepting the truth allowed her to see the falsehoods in traditional Christianity.
Loma Armstrong wholeheartedly believed God. She had a “we ought to obey God rather than men” mindset (Acts 5:29). She was willing to submit herself to live by the clear teachings in Scripture.
Think about this experience from God’s perspective. It took Him only one hour to make this connection with Mrs. Armstrong. He brought about this circumstance, and it could not have gone any better.
Mrs. Armstrong felt the same way, which is why she said, “I must rush back to tell my husband the good news. I know he’ll be overjoyed!”
That was a little naive. It would take God a lot more than one hour to bring Mr. Armstrong to the same level of submission to the Bible’s authority. But in a way, God was also able to use Mr. Armstrong’s stubbornness to test his wife.
Contention
“A minute or so later, Mrs. Armstrong came running into my parents’ home, with the ‘good news.’
“My jaw dropped!
“This was the worst news I had ever heard! My wife gone into religious fanaticism!
“‘Have you gone crazy?’ I asked, incredulously.
“‘Of course not! I was never more sure of anything in my life,’ responded my wife with enthusiasm” (ibid).
What a beautiful statement. Loma’s conviction was real and sincere.
Keeping Saturday instead of Sunday was preposterous to Mr. Armstrong. And what made this situation extra perplexing to him was how he had always thought his wife had sound-mindedness, balance and depth. This sudden change in thinking undermined his perspective of her.
As readily as Mrs. Armstrong accepted the truth, God allowed that belief to be tested.
“‘Loma,’ I said sternly, ‘this is simply too ridiculous to believe! I am certainly not going to tolerate any such religious fanaticism in our family! You’ll have to give that up right here and now!’
“But she wouldn’t!” (ibid).
The conversation grew more intense than any they had ever experienced with each other. Every logical argument, accusation and contention he threw at her, she rebutted with a sober and earnest reliance on the Bible! She used the same authority that she had subjected herself to earlier that day to now defend the truth. The Bible was a two-edged sword in the hands of Mrs. Armstrong (Hebrews 4:12). What a spiritual warrior!
This instance was another blow to Mr. Armstrong’s vanity. Her sudden “religious fanaticism” humiliated him. He wouldn’t tolerate it. What would my friends say? he thought. “What would former business acquaintances think? Nothing had ever hit me where it hurt so much—right smack in the heart of all my pride and vanity and conceit!” (ibid).
That is an interesting aside. How often do people walk away from the truth because they fear what their family, friends or associates might think?
This heated conversation shows us that Mrs. Armstrong could see through the hypocrisy in religion. Her husband asked her, “Loma, you can’t tell me that all these churches have been wrong all these hundreds of years! Why, aren’t these all Christ’s churches?”
She responded, “Then why do they all disagree on so many doctrines? Why does each one teach differently than the others?”
Back and forth they went, until Mrs. Armstrong laid down a challenge. God had Mr. Armstrong right where He wanted him. “If you can prove by the Bible that Christians are commanded to observe Sunday,” she said, “then of course I’ll do what I see in the Bible!”
He accepted.
“For six months I had struggled night and day, with a carnal mind, to learn the truth about one single doctrine in the Bible” he wrote. Then came a breakthrough: He came to see real authority in the Bible and the hypocrisy in religion. The rest is history.
Acceptance
What drastically contrasting initial experiences these two spiritual giants had.
Can we accept truth with a ready mind like Loma Armstrong did? (Acts 17:11). Or does God have to contend with prejudice, indifference or worldliness in you? If we are humble and teachable, God can use us powerfully for His purpose.
We are the clay in the Potter’s hand. We need to be soft enough that God can shape us. Yet we also must be strong enough that if others challenge our belief, we won’t crumble. Mrs. Armstrong demonstrated both attitudes beautifully.
“If every professing Christian would accept this plain instruction from the Lord, honoring Him instead of themselves with their substance, the Work of the Lord would go forth with such mighty power that the world would be shaken to its foundations!” Mr. Armstrong wrote in the August 1934 Plain Truth. “Seek ye first the Kingdom, and material needs shall be added. Try it. Take God at His Word!”
Loma Armstrong held fast and endured to her physical end on April 15, 1967. Mr. Armstrong continued to praise her strength. In a 1982 Feast of Tabernacles sermon, he lamented the wives of ministers who followed their husbands out of the Church. “Let me tell you, Loma D. Armstrong would never have done that,” he said. “She stayed with God ….” Her legacy was and is a powerful example.
God used Mrs. Armstrong powerfully. She was a trusted and sure support for her husband. “[God] gave her to me to be my help,” he wrote in that 1967 co-worker letter. “She has been my partner—the other half of this team God called and has used in building His great Work.”