Herbert W. Armstrong

From RationalWiki

Herbert W. Armstrong was a fundamentalist Christian televangelist who founded the Worldwide Church of God along with his son Garner Ted Armstrong, who was later excommunicated over an adultery scandal. Under Herbert W. Armstrong's leadership the Worldwide Church of God taught a variant of British Israelism and published the Plain Truth magazine. His TV show The World Tomorrow was heavily into Bible prophecy and interpreting current events in relation to the "End Times". Unlike many fundamentalist evangelists concerned with the "End Times", Armstrong did not believe there would be a "rapture". Many fundamentalists considered his group a cult in the theological sense and compared their theology to the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons.

Following Herbert W. Armstrong's death in 1986 the Worldwide Church of God fell under the leadership of Joseph Tkach, and came to reject some of Armstrong's more esoteric teachings such as British Israelism and Sabbath-day worship in favor of a more conventional fundamentalist Christianity. This led to many members leaving to join the two splinter denominations started by Garner Ted Armstrong or to found other splinter groups.