Editing Herbert W. Armstrong (section)

===Theological===
* '''Salvation:''' Armstrong believed that repentance, faith and the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit enables true and full obedience to God's law, but stressed that keeping God's law (and repentance upon having sinned) is a requirement for salvation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Herbert |title=What do you mean... Salvation? |publisher=Ambassador College Press |location=Pasadena, California |year=1961 |url=https://www.herbert-w-armstrong.org/Books%20%26%20Booklets/What%20Do%20You%20Mean%20-%20Salvation%20%28Prelim%201973%29.pdf |access-date=January 31, 2023 |archive-date=March 26, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326083655/http://www.herbert-w-armstrong.org/Books%20%26%20Booklets/What%20Do%20You%20Mean%20-%20Salvation%20%28Prelim%201973%29.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Herbert |title=All About Water Baptism |publisher=Ambassador College Press |location=Pasadena, California |year=1948 |edition=1972 |url=https://www.herbert-w-armstrong.org/Books%20%26%20Booklets/All%20About%20Water%20Baptism%20%28Prelim%201972%29.pdf |access-date=January 31, 2023 |archive-date=March 26, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326083820/http://www.herbert-w-armstrong.org/Books%20%26%20Booklets/All%20About%20Water%20Baptism%20%28Prelim%201972%29.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Critics state that Armstrong taught salvation as being legalistic obedience to God's law, including such laws as Sabbath keeping, dietary laws, and other laws kept by Ancient Israelites but not typically kept by 'mainstream' Christian denominations.<ref name="Martin"/><ref>{{citation |title=Galatia Revisited: Salvation under the Government and the Law |last=Arnn |first=Phillip |work=Watchman Expositor |volume=6 |year=1989 |publisher=[[Watchman Fellowship]] ministry |url=https://www.watchman.org/articles/cults-alternative-religions/galatia-revisited/ |access-date=March 28, 2012}}</ref>
* '''The Covenants:''' Armstrong taught that the [[New Covenant]] is an 'amplification' of the [[Old Covenant]], and that certain laws (excluding temple and unenforceable ancient civil laws) from the Old Covenant are still in effect for Christians. This included laws such as literal Sabbath keeping, 'Clean and Unclean' meats and Holy Day observances.<ref>{{cite book |title=The New Covenant: Does it Abolish God's Law |publisher=United Church of God |year=2007 |pages=94, 112, 118, 138, 142, 144, 148 |url=http://www.gnmagazine.org/booklets/NC/NC.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070410034043/http://www.gnmagazine.org/booklets/NC/NC.pdf |archive-date=April 10, 2007}}</ref> He believed that the New Covenant was yet future, to be finalized as a marriage covenant between Christ and the Church and that Christians currently existed 'between' the two Covenants.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Armstrong |first=Herbert |title=The Plain Truth about the Covenants |magazine=The Good News |issue=December 18, 1978 |pages=1, 8 |url=https://www.herbert-w-armstrong.org/Good%20News%201970s/Good%20News%201978%20(Prelim%20No%2025)%20Dec%2018.pdf}}</ref> Critics say that Armstrong confused the two Covenants and selectively picked which aspects of the two Covenants to keep.{{sfn|Tkach|1997|loc=[https://archive.gci.org/articles/what-we-believed/ 7: What we Believed: How should we handle the Old Covenant?]}}
* '''Gospel of the Kingdom:''' Armstrong taught that a reason for Jesus Christ's presence on earth was to proclaim the Gospel message of a literal Kingdom of God that will be established on earth at Christ's 'second coming', and that the message of the Kingdom should be the focus of the gospel rather than the person of Christ.<ref>{{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Herbert |title=What is the True Gospel |publisher=Ambassador College |location=Pasadena, California |year=1955 |edition=1972 |url=https://www.herbert-w-armstrong.org/Books%20%26%20Booklets/What%20is%20the%20True%20Gospel%20%28Prelim%201972%29.pdf |access-date=January 31, 2023 |archive-date=March 26, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326083609/http://www.herbert-w-armstrong.org/Books%20%26%20Booklets/What%20is%20the%20True%20Gospel%20%28Prelim%201972%29.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Gospel of the Kingdom |author=The United Church of God |url=http://www.gnmagazine.org/booklets/GK/GK.pdf |access-date=January 18, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090124142619/http://www.gnmagazine.org/booklets/GK/GK.pdf |archive-date=January 24, 2009}}</ref> Critics indicate that this represents a diminishment of the person and importance of Christ, through whom salvation is attained, and that this represents a flawed understanding about the nature of the Kingdom.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Walter |title=The Kingdom of the Cults |date=October 2003 |url=https://archive.org/details/kingdomofcults00mart |url-access=registration |publisher=Bethany House Publishers |isbn=0764228218}}</ref> Armstrong taught that – the gospel "of" Christ – began to change to – a gospel "about" Christ – around twenty to thirty years after the founding of the Church in 31 A.D. He made the extraordinary claim that the gospel Christ brought (of the Kingdom) had "not been proclaimed to the world" for about 1,900 years "until the first week in 1953" when he began preaching it again on Radio Luxembourg.{{sfn|Armstrong|1985|loc=Chapter 7 "Mystery of the Kingdom of God"}}
* '''Prophetic predictions:''' Proponents believe that Herbert Armstrong was inspired by God and had the gift to understand prophecy. They believe that many of his predictions were inspired.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Philadelphia Trumpet: He Was Right |url=http://thetrumpet.com/pdf/PTSample.pdf |access-date=January 17, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202181841/http://thetrumpet.com/pdf/PTSample.pdf |archive-date=December 2, 2008}}</ref> Armstrong was considered gifted with spiritual understanding also and that, through him, God was revealing the true meaning of parts of the Bible which, till his time, had remained locked or sealed (so could not be correctly understood). That desire for understanding had been with Armstrong since he was a small boy, "always wanting to know 'why?' or 'how?' That obsession for understanding was to have a great influence on founding the Plain Truth magazine and Ambassador College in later years."{{sfn|Armstrong|1967|loc=Chapter 1}} According to critics, Armstrong's predictions were rife with speculation and remain mostly unfulfilled.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hwarmstrong.com/ar/Prophecies.html |title=The Painful Truth: Ambassador Report: A Treasury of Famous Prophecies |access-date=January 17, 2009}}</ref>
* '''[[British Israelism]]:''' Armstrong taught a form of British Israelism, which is the belief that those of Western European descent, notably England (Ephraim) and the United States (Manasseh), are direct descendants of the ancient northern Kingdom of Israel. This theory is inconsistent with the findings of modern research on the genetic history of Jews. It is commonly criticized for poor standards of research,<ref>{{cite book |last=Parfitt |first=Tudor |title=The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth |publisher=Phoenix |year=2003 |pages=61}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The United States and Britain in Prophecy: An Analysis of the Biblical Evidence |url=https://archive.gci.org/articles/anglo-israelism-and-the-united-states-britain-in-prophecy/ <!-- http://www.wcg.org/lit/prophecy/anglo/usbrit1.htm http://www.bibletopics.com/biblestudy/151.htm --> |last=Orr |first=Ralph |date=1995}}</ref> and general inconsistency with archeological, anthropological and linguistic research.{{sfn|Greer|2004|pp=55-60}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Parfitt |first=Tudor |title=The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth |publisher=Phoenix |year=2003 |pages=62}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lounsbury |first=T |title=History of the English Language |year=1906 |pages=1, 12–13}}</ref>{{sfn|Greer|2004|pp=74, 83–84}}