REFLECTIONS ON 1975
By Richard Burkard
In Ephesians 4:11, Paul provides what some consider a "rank order" for government in God's Church. "It was he [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers...."
Paul expands on that list In I Corinthians 12:28: "And in the church, God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues."
Yet long-time members of Sabbath-keeping Church of God groups know church government hasn't always followed that pattern. The ordination order in the old Worldwide Church of God (at least in the 1980s) went from Pastor to Evangelist to Apostle - with no one holding the title of Prophet. But in recent years, some COG spinoff leaders have taken that title on themselves. (How they do it without a Prophet ordaining them is a mystery to me.)
Another article on our website explores the issue of what constitutes a Biblical "prophet." This study takes a close look at the booklet which may have prompted Herbert Armstrong to decide against anyone having that title. It's a booklet discussed so often in COG circles that it has its own Wikipedia page: 1975 in Prophecy!
When I found a worn copy of that booklet among items left behind by a former roommate, I knew I'd been left a collector's item. Only in researching this article did I learn Mr. Armstrong wrote it in 1956 - projecting ahead one "19-year time cycle" to what he considered a potential year for Jesus's second coming.
Even though 1975 in Prophecy is now incredibly out of date, it's still available for reading online thanks to the keeper of a "Herbert Armstrong searchable library" who apparently marked it for note-taking. Scoffers cite it as proof Armstrong was wrong, claiming his apologists are either religious charlatans or downright naive. But are they right?
We pulled out our copy of the booklet and went through it for Bible study, to mark 40 years since Mr. Armstrong admitted he might have overstated some of his prophetic warnings. After all, if Jesus was coming back in 1975, shouldn't the WCG have "fled to the place of safety" three-and-a-half years earlier in 1972?
Following our format with other articles, we'll quote directly from 1975 in Prophecy. Then we'll compare those words with current fact and recent history, from 1975 until now:
PAGE 1: "In the dream-world MAN is devising for tomorrow, it will no longer be necessary to cook food on stoves. Food is to be cooked by heat waves in packages. You'll no longer bother taking a bath in a tub or shower.... by using supersonic waves! When you pick up your telephone, you'll see the party at the other end!"
PARTLY TRUE. While I didn't buy a microwave oven until the early 2000s, Wikipedia indicates annual sales of them in the U.S. reached one million by 1975. I also recall reading about "picture-phones" in school textbooks during the 1970s, but the popularity of camera phones and "smart phones" didn't really occur until the 21st century.
As for taking a bath with "supersonic waves" - I confess ignorance here. Please tell us: is anyone doing that in 2012, as we write this?
PAGE 2: "....It is expected that many will commute in their own private helicopters."
HEDGED, BUT WRONG. To borrow words once stated by an anchor of ABC World News Now: "If it's 2001, where's my flying car?" While millions of traffic-weary drivers in crowded cities around the world would love to have personal copters, they're still only owned and used by the very wealthy.
"The October, 1955, Coronet, forecasting the world of only ten years ahead, added that one child in ten will spend time in a mental institution!"
SEEMINGLY INCORRECT. U.S. government statistics don't seem to detail time spent in institutions. But they show as of 2008, only 4.5 percent of adults had been diagnosed with "serious mental illness."
(To be fair, we should emphasize this was a magazine's projection - not directly Herbert Armstrong's. Coronet eventually went out of business.)
PAGE 3: "What man is bringing on the world is.... such catastrophic and terrifying destruction that human life will be erased from the earth in 25 years unless God Almighty intervenes!"
WRONG. Assuming 1975 in Prophecy was published in 1956, this indicates God should have intervened by 1981. I personally don't think the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as U.S. President in that year qualifies.
PAGES 6-7: "But this time the Nazis plan to sidestep the causes of past defeats.... they plan to strike their first blow, NOT at France or Poland in Europe, but with hydrogen bombs by surprise attack on the centers of AMERICAN INDUSTRY!"
NOT TRUE YET. As of this writing in 2012, there's no evidence Germany (which we'll use to substitute for "Nazis") even possesses a hydrogen or nuclear weapon. Fellow European Union countries Britain and France seem to have them. But the Germans had to give up any production of atomic and biological weapons to join NATO in 1955. Didn't Mr. Armstrong realize that, when his booklet came out in 1956?
PAGE 7: "This time the Germans are coming back from defeat faster and more effectively than they did after World War I."
MAYBE SO, BUT.... There was a gap of about 20 years between World War I and World War II. Germany had not launched "World War III" more than 65 years after "V-E Day" in May 1944.
PAGE 8 (photo caption): "A spokesman of the 'Stahlhelm' (Steel Helmet), the German War Veterans Organization...."
NOT EXACTLY. We take a risk in terms of accuracy by citing Wikipedia here, but it claims the Stahlheim refers to German paramilitary groups - as in active, not "veterans" along the lines of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion. It also describes groups along the lines of the Stahlheim as "without any political significance" in recent decades.
PAGE 10: "The strong indication of these prophecies.... is that some of the Balkan nations are going to tear away from behind the iron Curtain. Russia has lost already, to all appearances, Tito's Yugoslavia. Russia probably will lose still more of her Eastern European satellites. But Communism, prophecy indicates, will continue to make gains in the East - probably in Indo - China, Malaya, Japan, India.... Communism will engulf and control the manpower of the yellow races by the time of the swift-approaching crisis of world upheaval."
PARTLY TRUE. The "evil empire" of the Soviet Union and Iron Curtain broke apart into several countries around 1990. Then Yugoslavia split into pieces, with bloody warfare accompanying that for several years. But Communism has waned, and India and Japan remain democracies as of 2012. (In fact, the greater fear in the Eastern Hemisphere may be the rise of Muslim sharia law.)
"....United States Assistant Weather Chief I.R. Tannahill warns us unofficially to really fear 'the big drought of 1975.' But the indications of prophecy are that this drought will be even more devastating than he foresees, and that it will strike sooner than 1975 - probably between 1965 and 1972!"
WRONG. The booklet 1975 in Prophecy was written during a time of severe national drought in the mid-1950s. And as I grew up, a book by two early environmentalists had a title the old WCG could appreciate - Famine 1975! But Wikipedia records the only "devastating drought" of a widespread nature in the U.S. during the 1960s occurred in the Northeast, with "short term droughts" occurring in 1976-77.
PAGE 13: "....The ten-nation European Colossus will suddenly STRIKE with hydrogen bombs that shall DESTROY OUR CITIES and our centers of industrial and military production!"
NOT TRUE YET. See our note on pages 6-7. As it happens, a woman sent me e-mail in 2012 claiming to have been told in a vision of plans by Russian agents to set off underground bombs to destroy Chicago. That hasn't happened yet, either.
"The very next words of Jesus' prophecy (Mat. 24:9, 21-22) are: 'Then' - not five years or a generation later, but 'THEN' shall they deliver you up to be afflicted...."
WHEN IS "THEN"? The booklet implies God's people and church will face persecution and martyrdom immediately after "famines and earthquakes" occur.
Affliction and persecution admittedly are subjective words. Some believers might feel "persecuted" by a non-believer sending them X-rated e-mails, or challenging their comments on Facebook. But Jesus's words in verse 9 go far beyond that - to believers being "put to death" (NIV).
Church of God ministers are quick to report to their congregations about famines and earthquakes in the news. But has any government killed Church of God members since 1975? If we're honest, the answer must be no. In fact, the only deadly attack any COG has faced in recent decades was the "Milwaukee massacre" at a Living Church of God service - and sadly, that attacker came from within.
PAGE 17: "God send Jesus Christ to reveal THE WAY of God, and to set us a living example in that way."
GO FARTHER. "I am the way and the truth and the life," Jesus declared in John 14:6. Our Lord applied the word personally to Himself. Hebrews 10:19-20 adds, "....we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body...." So the Son is "the way" to the Father's throne!
Critics of Armstrongism claim by not focusing on these verses (especially John 14), the old WCG and some successors emphasize God the Father too much and the work of Jesus too little.
PAGE 20: "And, knowing that such an unbelievable catastrophe is soon to strike, I HAVE TO WARN YOU!! You can read what God says to me in Ezekiel 33:1-6."
YES, BUT.... Read carefully verse 2: "The people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman...." Did "the people" of the U.S. really choose Herbert Armstrong for that watchman mission? Supporters of the old Radio Church of God in the Pacific Northwest may have done so indirectly with tithes and offerings, but I don't recall ever reading about a vote on it.
"Yes, millions of lukewarm inactive professing Christians will suffer MARTYRDOM - and that before the anticipated push-button leisure year of 1975 dawns upon us!"
APPARENTLY WRONG. An online archive of "Modern Martyrs and Persecution" in mainstream churches refers to only one case of persecution around 1975 - by Vietnam against the Assemblies of God. While church buildings were demolished, nothing is said about members being killed for their beliefs.
PAGE 27: "These born-again saints will rise from all parts of a round earth. They shall be taken through the air at the speed of lightning. (Mat. 24:27)"
THEM OR HIM? This verse compares lightning to "the coming of the Son of Man." Jesus added these words in Luke 17:24: "For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up te sky from one end to the other." So Jesus will be like lightning, but no verse clearly says resurrected believers will be. It's possible, but no Scripture says so.
At that point, our notes on 1975 in Prophecy stop - as the remainder of the booklet focuses on Bible prophecies of the end of the age and the second coming of Jesus. While there are passing references to "Fascists" and "Communists," Herbert Armstrong's writing in large part seems to be on sound Biblical ground.
But hopefully you've seen why not even the Armstrong-embracing Philadelphia Church of God offers 1975 in Prophecy to its visitors. The booklet was a mix of truth and error, wheat and chaff -- and yes, some of the error included Herbert Armstrong's own statements and predictions.
I keep this collector's item as a reminder not to believe blindly everything a human says - even if that human claims to be inspired by God. As Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 5:21: "Test everything. [KJV "Prove all things"] Hold on to the good." Those words of advice are good not only for studying the Bible, but for living every aspect of your life.
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© 2012, Richard Burkard, All Rights Reserved.