Grace Communion International

Much of GCI's doctrine follows mainstream Protestant beliefs that faith in Jesus is the only way to receive salvation and that the Bible is the divinely inspired and the infallible word of God.[11]

In 2007 the WCG decided to allow women to serve as pastors and elders.[12] This decision was reached after several years of study.[12] Debby Bailey became the first female elder in the WCG in 2007.[13]

The change to the name Grace Communion International was chosen carefully to best reflect what the denomination had become:

“An international community, bound together by God's grace.”

The name change was revealed in 2009 during a conference of over a thousand ministers and their spouses that had gathered from around the world. The theme of the conference was “Renewed in Christ” and reflected the importance of the changes that had occurred within the church.  The new name for the church was seen to truly reflect the nature of the church as it had been transformed in past years. GCI felt that these changes had come about by pastors being led by the Holy Spirit with a close examination of scripture.[14]

Grace Communion Seminary (GCS) originated from Ambassador College. classes are delivered on an online format. Accredited graduate programs include courses on the Bible, theology, church history, and ministry.[15]

The Radio Church of God began in January 7, 1934, when Armstrong began hosting a broadcast on a local 100-watt radio station KORE in Eugene. The program was essentially a condensed church service on the air, with hymn singing featured along with Armstrong's message. These programs would eventually become the Radio Church of God. In 1933, the Church of God (Seventh Day) split. Armstrong, who sided with the faction centered in Salem, West Virginia, fell out with the local congregation over various ideological differences, especially his endorsement of British Israelism.

Although his views were rejected by the local congregation, he gained a growing following through his World Tomorrow broadcasts and The Plain Truth magazine. Armstrong moved to Pasadena, California. To facilitate the work of the growing church, he incorporated it on March 3, 1946, as the Radio Church of God. In 1947, Ambassador College was founded in Pasadena by the church, and the campus served as the church's headquarters.

The broadcast of The World Tomorrow went into Europe on Radio Luxembourg on January 7, 1953. In 1956, Armstrong published the booklet 1975 in Prophecy!, which predicted an upcoming nuclear war and subsequent enslavement of mankind, leading to the return of Jesus Christ. He explained that the book was written to contrast the spiritual condition of the world with the modern inventions that scientists were promising for the year 1975. Because of his strong emphasis on these prophetic dates, the church grew quickly in the late 1960s and, on January 5, 1968, was renamed the Worldwide Church of God.[18]

Walter Martin, in his book The Kingdom of the Cults, (1965) devoted 34 pages to the group, claiming that Armstrong borrowed freely from Seventh-day Adventist, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormon doctrines.[19] Armstrong said that all Church doctrine could be proven simply and effectively through the Bible.

In 1970, sixteen years before Armstrong's death, the church began to splinter, with a group led by Carl O'Beirn of Cleveland, Ohio possibly being the first to leave. Others followed, including John Kerley's Top of the Line Ministry in 1978; the Restoration Church of God; the Church of God (Boise City) in Boise City, Oklahoma; Marvin Faulhaber's Sabbatarian, a group also known as Church of God (Sabbatarian); and the Fountain of Life Fellowship of James and Virginia Porter. These factions survived well past Herbert Armstrong's death in 1986, most retaining the name Church of God because Armstrong had pointed out that this is the name God calls his Church in the Bible.

In 1971 Armstrong criticized teachings that Christ would return in 1975 and that the church should flee to a "place of safety" in 1972, based on scripture that the time of Christ's return couldn't be known (Matthew 24:36 and 25:13).[20] When the fall of 1972 came and the time to flee to a place of safety did not occur, there was yet another exodus of members who had had expectations yet became disillusioned.

Armstrong began to preach around the world, with the help of some public relations aides and King Leopold of Belgium. He met with many world leaders to whom he would, appropriately, present expensive gifts, then preached to them simplistically, how that there were "two ways" of life - one, of giving and the other, the way of getting.

Armstrong's son, Garner Ted Armstrong, who had been given the responsibility to host the radio and later the television version of The World Tomorrow, was formally disfellowshipped by his father in 1972. While church members were told at the time that the reason was Ted Armstrong's opposition to some of his father's teachings, Ted Armstrong later admitted that the actual reason was his relationships with many women. Herbert Armstrong, who resumed the broadcasting duties of The World Tomorrow program, did not reconcile with Ted before his death.

During the 1960s, "Armstrong had sought to put into stronger action what he later termed God's way of give",[21] which was said to include "the way of character, generosity, cultural enrichment, true education: of beautifying the environment and caring for fellow man." He began undertaking humanitarian projects in underprivileged locales around the world, which led to the creation of the church-run Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF) in 1975. The Foundation worked in several countries, providing staffing and funds to fight illiteracy, create schools for disabled people, set up mobile schools, and conduct several archaeological digs at significant biblical sites. The church auditorium hosted, at highly subsidized ticket prices, hundreds of performances by noted artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Vladimir Horowitz, Bing Crosby, Marcel Marceau, and Bob Hope.[22] Armstrong used church tithe money to pay for these performances without informing his congregation of how "God's holy tithe" was being spent.

Quest periodical was published monthly by AICF from July 1977 to September 1981. Originally named Human Potential, the project was directed by Stanley Rader as a secular outreach of the church-funded AICF. Quest publishers hired a professional staff unrelated to the church to create a high-quality publication devoted to the humanities, travel, and the arts. The periodical was created in the aftermath of Armstrong's poorly received 1975 in Prophecy!, a publication which caused accusations of false prophecy to spread like wildfire. (The use of the year 1975 was defended by church ministers as a device to explain biblical prophecy, by contrasting it with the scientific world's declaration of 1975 as the year of technological "Utopia").

The AICF become secular in its approach and thinking and the church began to cut back on its funding. Eventually it was discontinued by Armstrong and its assets were sold to other interests.

Many members were disappointed that the events predicted in biblical prophecy, expounded and preached about by Herbert Armstrong, had not yet happened. Many were unaware that Herbert Armstrong had been preaching about Revelation and Bible Prophecy on the radio as far back as World War II. Because church literature such as The Wonderful World Tomorrow, 1975 in Prophecy!, and many others had attempted to pinpoint the date of Christ's return, members continued to wait anxiously for the Second Coming. Armstrong never predicted a date in his sermons, nor did any of his evangelists. Some (such as Gerald Waterhouse) presented detailed, step-by-step accounts of the Second Coming in their sermons, which included Armstrong himself as one of two witnesses of the Book of Revelation.[23]

Herbert Armstrong began to speak openly and critically of his son. Garner Ted spoke of greatly expanding the church's media ministry on the model of the Church of Christ, Scientist with its widely read Christian Science Monitor to which Herbert Armstrong disagreed.

In a report in the May 15, 1972, edition of Time magazine, Herbert Armstrong was reported to have said that Garner Ted was "in the bonds of Satan."[24] The elder Armstrong did not elaborate, but it was speculated that Herbert was alluding to Garner Ted's alleged problems with gambling and adultery with Ambassador College co-eds, and to serious doctrinal differences. Garner Ted Armstrong was soon relieved of his role within the church.

While Garner Ted Armstrong was removed, Stanley Rader was orchestrating the church's involvement in a number of corporations which Rader and Herbert W. Armstrong had established. Critics saw Rader's moves as an attempt to seize control of the church. Rader characterized his involvement as that of an adviser and claimed that his advice was opening doors for Armstrong that a strict theological role would not have allowed for. Herbert Armstrong claimed that he did not approve of the establishment of the AICF, which Rader set up ostensibly to give the elder Armstrong a role as the "Ambassador for World Peace without portfolio".

Despite the scandals of 1972, the church continued to grow in the 1970s. In 1975, Armstrong baptized Stanley Rader, who until then had been a practitioner of Judaism despite his association with the church.

Armstrong's first wife Loma died in 1966. In 1977, Armstrong married Ramona Martin, a woman nearly fifty years younger than him, and moved to Tucson, Arizona while recovering from a heart attack. During this time, he administered and guided church affairs through Stanley Rader and the church administration. The church continued to be headquartered in Pasadena.

Garner Ted Armstrong began his own church in 1978 in Tyler, Texas, after the rivalry between the younger Armstrong and Stanley Rader intensified. As the accusations of Garner Ted's past resurfaced, Herbert W. Armstrong started giving more responsibilities to Stanley Rader. This action was infuriating to the younger Armstrong, who thought it his birthright to take over as the leader of the Church. The adultery problems that reportedly had previously driven Garner Ted from the church allegedly continued unabated. In 1978, after a failed attempt to seize control of the Church from the Elder Armstrong, Garner Ted Armstrong was disfellowshipped a final time. Garner Ted moved to Tyler, Texas, and there founded a splinter group, the Church of God International.

About this time the gap between father and son was set when Garner Ted threatened to expose the secret of Herbert's molesting his sister in the later 1930s.

A coalition of six ex-ministers brought accusations of misappropriation of funds directed against Herbert W. Armstrong and Stanley Rader to the Attorney General of California. Contending that the two men were siphoning millions of dollars for their personal indulgences, the Attorney General's office seized the Pasadena Campus.[25] This action by the State of California was later dismissed and determined by the presiding Judge to have been illegal.

Garner Ted Armstrong blamed Stanley Rader for his two-time ousting from his father's church. Several members in good standing with the WCG at the time prompted the State of California to investigate charges of malfeasance by Rader and Herbert W. Armstrong. In 1979, California Attorney General George Deukmejian placed the church campus in Pasadena into financial receivership for a half year. The State of California went through the church's records.

The matter gained the attention of Mike Wallace who investigated the church in a report for 60 Minutes. Wallace alleged that there had been lavish secret expenditures, conflict of interest insider deals, posh homes and lifestyles in the higher ranks, and the heavy involvement of Stanley Rader in financial manipulation. No legal charges were leveled against Herbert W. Armstrong, Stanley Rader, or the WCG. Wallace invited Rader to appear on 60 Minutes on April 15, 1979. Wallace showed Rader a secret tape recording in which Herbert Armstrong clearly stated to C. Wayne Cole, who was made temporary acting head of the church by Herbert Armstrong, that Rader was attempting to take over the church after Armstrong's death, reasoning that the donated tithe money was the incentive and quite a "magnet" to Stan Rader. Rader abruptly ended the interview.[26] This tape was made during a conversation about Stanley Rader by Herbert W. Armstrong, and C. Wayne Cole. Wayne Cole gave the tape to 60 Minutes for use in its exposé of Rader.

In the meantime, Herbert W. Armstrong switched the WCG Inc. corporations to "corporate sole" status, making him the sole officer and responsible party for the affairs of the corporations. All income, tithes and checks were then made payable to the personal name of Herbert W. Armstrong and sent to his home in Tucson, Arizona.

In referring to the investigation of the California Attorney General, Rader wrote Against the Gates of Hell: The Threat to Religious Freedom in America in 1980, in which he contended that his fight with the Attorney General was solely about the government's circumventing religious freedoms rather than about abuse of public trust or fraudulent misappropriation of tithe funds.

The California Second Court of Appeals overturned the decision on procedural grounds and added as dicta, "We are of the opinion that the underlying action [i.e., the state-imposed receivership] and its attendant provisional remedy of receivership were from the inception constitutionally infirm and predestined to failure."[27]

Stanley Rader left his positions within the church in 1981. While remaining a member, he left the public spotlight as an attorney, retired, but continued to receive payments from the WCG on his lifetime contract, $300,000 per year, until his death from acute pancreatic cancer on July 2, 2002.

On January 16, 1986, Herbert Armstrong died in Pasadena, California. Shortly before his death, on January 7, Armstrong appointed Joseph W. Tkach Sr. to succeed him "... as pastor general, in the difficult times ahead".

As early as 1988, Joseph W. Tkach Sr. began to make doctrinal changes, at first quietly and slowly, but then openly and radically. The changes were presented as new understandings of Christmas and Easter,[28] Babylon and the harlot,[29] British Israelism,[30] Saturday Sabbath,[31] and other doctrines.

Tkach Sr. directed the church theology towards mainstream evangelical Christian belief, against the wishes of some of the membership. This caused much disillusionment among the membership and another rise of splinter groups. The changes, the church admitted, had brought about "catastrophic results," though they believe that it is spiritually for the best.[32] During the tenure of Joseph Tkach Sr., the church's membership declined by 80%.

All of Herbert Armstrong's writings were withdrawn from print by the WCG though they are still made available by other denominations. In the 2004 video production Called To Be Free, Greg Albrecht, former dean of WCG's Ambassador College, declared Herbert Armstrong to be both a false prophet and a heretic.[33]

In 1995, Tkach Sr died of cancer and his son, Joseph Tkach Jr., succeeded him.

Grace Communion International has a hierarchical polity. Its ecclesiastical policies are determined by the Advisory Council of Elders. Members of the Advisory Council are appointed by the President. The President, who also holds the title of Pastor General, is chief executive and ecclesiastical officer of the denomination. A Doctrinal Advisory Team may report to the Advisory Council on the church's official doctrinal statements, epistemology, or apologetics. The President may pocket veto doctrinal positions he determines to be heretical. However, the President is also a member of the Doctrinal Advisory Team, and so he is aware of and involved in the activities of that committee.[34] Historically, Presidents, as chairmen of the board of directors, have appointed their own successor. This and the President's power to appoint and remove members of the Advisory Council have remained areas of concern even among those who applaud the church's doctrinal changes.

The Church maintains national offices and satellite offices in multiple countries. Membership and tithe income originate primarily from the eastern United States.

In the United States, denominational contact with local assemblies or local church home small group meetings, i.e., cell churches, is facilitated by district superintendents, each of which is responsible for a large number of churches in a geographical region (such as Florida or the Northeast) or in a specialized language group (such as Spanish-speaking congregations).

Local churches are led by a senior pastor, pastoral leadership team (with one person designated as a congregational pastoral leader), each of which is supervised by a district pastoral leader. Some senior pastors are responsible for a single local church, but many are responsible for working in two or more churches. Salary compensation for the paid local church pastor, if available, is determined by the local church.

• Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood, Handbook of Denominations in the United States. Abingdon Press, 2001. ISBN 0-687-06983-1.
• J. Michael Feazell, The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God. Zondervan, 2003. ISBN 0-310-25011-0.
• Gerald Flurry, Malachi's Message to God's Church Today. "A thorough explanation of how and why the Worldwide Church of God rejected Herbert Armstrong's teachings, and how to hold fast to Herbert Armstrong's teachings."
• Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults. Revised and Updated Edition, Bethany House, 2003. ISBN 0-7642-2821-8. See Appendix A, pp. 471-494.
• Larry Nichols and George Mather, Discovering the Plain Truth: How the Worldwide Church of God Encountered the Gospel of Grace. InterVarsity Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8308-1969-X
• Joseph Tkach, Transformed by Truth. Multnomah Publishers, 1997. ISBN 1-57673-181-2
• https://web.archive.org/web/20080411223415/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/relmove/nrms/philcog.html
• Tarling, Lowell R. (1981). "The Armstrong Churches". The Edges of Seventh-day Adventism: A Study of Separatist Groups Emerging from the Seventh-day Adventist Church (1844-1980). Barragga Bay, New South Wales, Bermagui South, NSW: Galilee Publications. pp. 41–62. ISBN 0-9593457-0-1.