Customer Reviews

Early writings of Herbert W. Armstrong: Public domain articles written from 1928-1953

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Most of the writings of Mr. Armstrong in this book are helpful and are doctrinally sound. It is good to see his articles compiled all in one book. However, I found Nickels' editorial to be biased. I find much of his criticism of Mr. Armstrong to be given without ample proof. I would say that if this book is purchased it is best to concentrate on Mr. Armstrong's writings and take Mr. Nickel's comments with a grain of salt.

This collection includes complete, uncondensed, verbatim reproductions of Armstrong's early Bible studies and articles. The reader is encouraged to make his or her own conclusions, as there is only limited evaluation by the editor in the Appendix. Herbert Armstrong's early writings are much more clear and pure than his later doctrinal teachings. His articles "What is Faith?" and "Divorce and Remarriage" are Christian classics.

I was so amazed to find this book! So much disrespect has been shown Mr Armstrong! He was definitely called 'out of the world'
for a purpose that was so amazing it could only have been by God !
Those whom God calls,He also equips. Mr Armstrong was faithful to the Great God to the very end, reading of his beginnings is such a boost to every thing he taught.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God! In every generation there has to be someone to guide,with his hand in the Hand of God, led by the Holy Spirit, Mr Armstrong did his work well.
Preservation of all Mr Armstrong's works is important to all who live with an expectancy of the return of Christ !!

The title states that this book is edited by Mr. Nickels, but "editorial" might be a better way to put it. Generally, editing refers to which works are included. In Mr. Nickels collection, some articles are reprinted as is, others are significantly condensed, and still others are summaries of a "historic" article - but no article is reprinted for us to review. Finally, Mr. Nickels devotes a number of pages to his particular views about Herbert Armstrong. We should be allowed to judge for ourselves, and this collection is of very limited value in that regard.

I really appreciate the editor compiling these articles. It is my understanding that the articles are republished in there complete form.

Since these articles do not have a copyright or if they did it has expired we need people to come forward with original copies to prove if changes have been made or the articles have been compressed.

I have been advised that the articles have been reprinted in there entirety. If someone knows this to be untrue let them prove it. This should not be hard to do.

Richard Nickels gives thanks in the book for those that help with the data entry of these articles and to those that help proof read them. This must have been a very tedious task.

Note that a ASCII file of this book is also available from Giving and Sharing on disk. I believe it can also be downloaded off the Internet.

The printed version is nice because the editing of the articles, with nice fonts, highlighting and bolding (etc). These are not seen when you input the ASCII file into a word processor. The page numbers if you add them probably will not match the index without a bit of work on your part.

If you don't get the book I would still recommend you get the ASCII file. The information is priceless.

The book contains information about the author and the editor. It also contains some history and some commentary in the Foreword and Appendixes.

Note that this information is separate from the articles. This information may offend some, but it is my belief that the editor is being honest and truthful. It is my recommendation that the reader would read this in it's entirety to see exactly where the editor is coming from.

Some articles have information from Richard Nickels at the end of the article. It is easy to differentiate this information from the article by Herbert Armstrong.

The editor gives pertinent information about the articles and there source in Appendix A.

I use these articles for reference material before I use his later writings from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Truth is Truth and it does not change. If we sincerely look for it, it can be found.

It is my opinion that God has seen fit to preserve these early writings, and provided a means for easy access to them. Again I look at these articles as reference material. It is still up to us to prove all things.

Written By Dennis E. Welch February 20, 2000, E-mail address welchdennis@juno.com

Some examples of Herbert W. Armstrong's false prophecies are below, and are quoted from a website known as the "Painful Truth."

1) Plain Truth Dec 1940: Britain will be conquered by Nazis

2) same: Turkey will turn traitor to Britain; it stayed neutral

3) 1944 PT: "we have made but the slightest dent in Jap defenses in the Pacific & at the present rate, it will take us about 20 years" to defeat them

4) 1964 Coworkers letter: "only 7 years before H-bomb warfare breaks out"

5) May 1965 PT: "Hitler will be falsely resurrected by the Pope"

6) Feb 1965: by Meredith: "documented proof Hitler did not die in his bunker"

7) Nov 30, 1963, coworkers letter: "we have only eight years to finish the Work"; Nov 22, 1963, coworkers letter: "in eight years all of our ministers will be silenced" - religious persecution on WWCG

8) 13 Dec 1965, HWA in co-workers letter: "We are in the grand smash climax - only 6 years left."

9) July 5, 1967, coworkers letter by HWA: "the Jews will demolish the Dome on the Rock"

9) 1953 PT by Hoeh: "Kremlin plans for 20 year in Korea" - Eisenhower settled war within one month

10) June 27, 1964, Hoeh: "Christ's apostles failed in not starting school like AC"

11) 1955 PT by Hoeh: "within 20 years this nation will be toppled by worst drought in its history" - note: 1975 US had one of greatest grain surpluses and sold it to Soviets

12) 1939 PT: "Hitler will give his power to Mussolini"

Further, this man was an incestuous sexual deviate who molested his own daughter. If you agree with that type of behavior then this false prophet should be the one for you.

HWA was a high school dropout who has been accused of stealing the intellectual property of others and calling it his own (The U.S. and British Commonwealth in Prophecy is one such example). His writing included many FALSE PROPHECIES such as: Britain will be conquered by Nazi (PT Dec 40) Turkey will turn traitor to Britain. Hitler will be falsely resurrected by the Pope (May 65). The only reason his teachings were not discarded years before is because he had iron-fisted control over his organization. Soon after his death his writings were discarded, including his Mystery of the Ages, which he touted as his greatest work. His writings are useful in teaching students how Scripture can be mishandled to support any theory.