Keeping an Eye on January 16 and 17

https://www.pcog.org/articles/1113/keeping-an-eye-on-january-16-and-17

Why is January 16 such an important date to the PCG?

The reason we carefully watch for significant events in January is because of what happened 29 years ago. On Jan. 16, 1986, after preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God as a witness to the world for nearly six decades, Herbert W. Armstrong died at the age of 93. The next day, January 17, marked the beginning of the Laodicean era of God’s Church—an era characterized by spiritual lethargy, prophetic blindness and gross materialism (Revelation 3:14-22).

Early on, the new leadership in the Worldwide Church of God (wcg) tried to conceal its contempt for Mr. Armstrong’s work and his teachings. But by the end of 1988, it had become painfully obvious to a few discerning observers that these men were maliciously intent on disassociating themselves from everything Mr. Armstrong stood for.

In March 1989, my father began working on a manuscript to explain, from a biblical perspective, why the wcg was making so many changes. Later that year, on Dec. 7, 1989, after wcg leaders in Pasadena, California, had learned about the manuscript, they promptly fired my father and excommunicated him.

In the weeks that followed, my father converted his manuscript into an 83-page, photocopied “book”—called Malachi’s Message to God’s Church Today. On Jan. 10, 1990, a tiny church of only 13 people packaged 921 copies of Malachi’s Message, and delivered the bundle to the post office the next day.

“This message is being received by many people on the very day of the anniversary of Mr. Armstrong’s death,” my father wrote toward the end of that first version of Malachi’s Message. “We didn’t plan it, but we are happy it happened that way.” Then, he wrote this: “You are going to see the date of Mr. Armstrong’s death take on more significance as time goes on. … The third 19-year time cycle of the work of the Worldwide Church of God ends in January of 1991—the same month as the anniversary of Mr. Armstrong’s death. Will we see some dramatic event in the world … then?”

On Jan. 16, 1991, exactly one year after we first distributed Malachi’s Message, the fifth-year anniversary of Mr. Armstrong’s death, the United States launched the Gulf War. That correct forecast in 1991 was only the beginning of a prophetic legacy we have been building on for the past 25 years.

Amos and the Earthquake

The first booklet my father wrote after Malachi’s Message was The Lion Has Roared. It summarized the key prophecies proclaimed by the biblical Prophet Amos. As it happens, we also completed production of this booklet around January 16—this time in 1992.

In a speech he gave on Dec. 21, 1991, my father again noted that many people on our mailing list would be receiving The Lion Has Roared near the anniversary of Mr. Armstrong’s death. Anciently, the Prophet Amos delivered his warning message two years before a great earthquake, my father added. “And I mean they had a massive earthquake.” Later, he wondered, “What if there is another massive earthquake on this Earth—maybe from two years by the time this booklet goes out? ” (emphasis added throughout).