Intercontinental Church of God - G arner Ted Armstrong Tape Library
GTA Tape Library
PO Box 345 North Sydney NSW 2060 AUSTRALIA
Greetings
friends around the Worl
d...
Welcome to
our library of Garner Ted Armstrong sermons, radio and t-v programs etc. Garner
Ted was born on the 9th of February 1930 in Portland Oregon. He tells us in his tape called
"Your Temporary Tabernacle" that he was born suffering from Yellow
Jaundice. ("Dallas Campaign" 11-May-91) He was mute until 2 years of age
due to a fall. ('bio p397, 449). He lived at Fourth St and 1608 West 6th St,
Eugene spending time on his grandma's farm while growing up (7-Dec-91,
30-Mar-96 & 18-Feb-99) He says in his tape called "Do the
Work" (18-Jan-86) that he was helping out with "The Work" when
he was nine years old and earnt five cents an
hour/day by helping his mother address envelopes. ("Friends in High
Places" 26-Aug-95 and tape 4-Sep-99) He spent three years at Lincoln High School in Eugene which had an "Ambassadors
Club". In "Keep on Proving" (Feb-85) "What is Our
Identity" (Feb-87) "Dedication Ceremony" (May-91) and "See
Your Calling" (Jne-94) he says that he was 16 years old and living in 13th
Street in Eugene when he suggested using the name "Ambassador"
and its colours of purple and white for
Ambassador College. Also during 1946 he toured the US for three months visiting forty
states. ("Conference" 15-Aug-98 and "Love the Lord"
5-Jly-03) and first flew a plane. ("Building
Character" Jly-89) In 1947 his family left Oregon and shortly moved into 345 South Hill St Pasadena. "Ambassador College" opened that Summer on the 8th of October. (FOT, 5-Oct-1998) GTA joined
the navy on the 17th of May in 1948 He said he joined out of vanity because he
wanted to wear a navy uniform. ("Vanity", 18-Apr-92) He spent three years in San Diego
and dated Shirley Hammer in 1951. (tv
9-Mar-02) In the Spring of
1951 his ship, the aircraft carrier USS Antietam
sailed via Pearl Harbour for North Korea where he served for nine months
with the Seventh Fleet. ("Who Do You Fear", 21-Sep-85, "See Your Calling",
25-Jn-94 and "The Battle is Not Yours", 23-Sep-2000) He returned home in April 1952
("What will you Be Like" and "Report to General H/Q") He
left the navy on the 5th of May in 1952 and tried to "- break into
Hollywood", ("Three Days and Three Nights", 21-Apr-1984) he said
"my lifes desire was to become a singer or
something" ("Why Saturday-", 2-Oct-96) He said that no one would get him into
the ministry. ("Fruits of the Work", 17-Feb-90) In about July 1952 he was hired by
Vern Mattson and began working in the mailing department of Ambassador College in Pasadena ("Do the Work", 18-Jan-86 and "Who is Doing the
Work" FOT-Sep-91) and worked in the print shop. He was made manager of the
General office. On the 8th of March 1953 he married Shirley and they were
both baptized. ("FOT 2000 PCB" and "Last Day U/B", 7-Apr-99, "To the Churches", Mar-02) and had, "hands laid on" by his father, ("Report to
General H/Q, 17-July-99). In "Knoxville TN" (1-Apr-2000) he said he began in "the
work" in 1953. He entered Ambassador College that Autumn and did voice
training under the direction of a Jewish instructor called Leon Ettinger, he learnt Spanish, ("Christs
Second Ministry", 10-Sep-94) and studied Child Psychology. (tv 7-Apr-01) He was made "President of the
Student Body" and began giving sermons during 1954. According to "The
Journal" (Sept-2011, p5) he was ordained as a pastor on 22-Jan-55.
He says he was ordained as a minister in July 1955, ("For the
Searchers" 11-Mar-95) so began his ministry in the Radio Church of
God (RCG) Also in July 1955 he was introduced on television as a guest during a
series of 26 or 27 "World Tomorrow" programs being made in Hollywood
on 16mm film and spoke about juvenile delinquency and the burning to death of a
homeless man here in Sydney called Henry Hill who was set on fire in a bus by
some youths using lighter fluid. These programs were broadcast on the ABC
network that year. ["Fortieth Anniversary of the World Tomorrow"
(1974), "Fruits of the Work" (1990), "Lake Palestine" (1991), "Cause of Crime" (May-92) "Motives of a Minister" (1994),
"Is Capital Punishment Christian" (July-95), "Who is Doing the
Work", "End Time Work" (1998) and on TV (1-May-99)] He says that
it was after this first television appearance in July that he did his first
radio broadcast in November 1955. His father went off television in January
1956. The first radio broadcast in Australia of "The World Tomorrow" went
to air on the 14th of April 1956.
In his fathers Autobiography it says it began in November 1956 while
according to the "Good News" magazine it began in May,1957.
(GN-Feb-1967) GTA graduated from Ambassador
College with a BA in June 1956 and visited Europe with his brother
Richard, ("Conference Sermon", 8-Jan-2000) He also visited Italy
where both his wife, who was eight months pregnant and his mother were
refused
admittance to the Catholic cathedral "Duomo il Milano", because they
were wearing short sleeves as he mentions in his tape, "The Oppression of
Women" (19-Nov-83), "What is the Pharisee" (21-Dec-91) and
"Holy Times, Holy Places" (25-Apr-98). In "Hatred vs Tolerance" (13-April-1991) GTA says this occurred at the
"Dome of Florence". In his 1986 "Do the Work" tape he says
that in 1957 he was made Executive Vice President of both Ambassador College and the Church. He was also made the
Executive Editor of the "Plain Truth" magazine, "What is Our
Niche" (2-Aug-03) and was ordained an Evangelist. (TCW) He
tells us that his father who was uncomfortable with television, returned to
radio until late in 1957 then quit broadcasting leaving GTA as the voice of
"The World Tomorrow". ("pre
Trumpets", 21-Sep-98) In 1958 Garner Ted's older
brother, Richard died after a car crash while on a baptizing tour with Don
Billingsly. ("The Battle is Not Yours", 23-Sep-00, "Love and Hate", 1-Mar-86 and on p35 of "History of the
CGI") GTA says he began broadcasting full time in 1958 which was also when
Art Gilmore with his inimitable voice
began doing the iconic "World Tomorrow" intro and outro voice-overs.
GTA began daily radio broadcasts in 1959 and Garner Ted tells us that his father made no more than a
small handful of radio programs for the next twenty years. His father would do
an "anniversary program" from the studios on the campus at Bricket Wood in England, to mark a special year for
broadcasting over Radio Luxembourg, but that was all. "For over
two decades, out of love and respect toward my father, and to keep his voice
and name before our radio audiences, I would put repeats of a series of
programs he did in the early 1950's on the book of Hebrews on the air on
Sundays, only. The other six days of the week, year after year after year, I
did the broadcasts." (GTA web commentary) In June 1959 GTA and his father
visited Rome. "Satan's Fate" (11-Oct-97) they then went
to England and found a site
there for Ambassador College. ("Atonement" 11-Oct-97) In "Three Days and Three
Nights" (21-Apr-84) and "The Pioneers" (15-May-99) Around this time his bedroom was burnt down and he lost his navy uniforms, but his "Dog
Tags" survived.
On the 12th of November 1959 GTA flew into Sydney with Frank Longuskie and
Gerald Waterhouse who were Ambassador College graduates to open an office in Australia. GTA obtained PO Box 345 North Sydney. On the 24th of December the new
RCG office was opened in the MLC building at 105 Miller St North Sydney. Gerald Waterhouse remained in Sydney as the first Australian Regional
Director. On the 30th of January 1960 the first church meeting was held at 30 Martin Place in Sydney. Other staff were
soon added including Charles Heffner, Jesse Emmett and
Tony Hammer. Later in 1960 radio 2CH in Sydney,
which was run by the Council of Chuches, "kicked" GTA off their
station so GTA returned to Australia in August 1960 to arrange to have the
programme broadcast on radio station 2KY. The 1960 Feast of Tabernacles was held in the Builders Institute Hall at 118 Alfred St Milsons Point and from 1961 to 1963 it was held in the Blackheath
Community Centre in the Blue Mountains. Around this time Gerald
Waterhouse was replaced by Wayne Cole who had grown up with Garner Ted. In August 1961, 28 attended the first
RCG bible study held in Brisbane. In January 1964 the weekly
church services in Sydney were moved to Petersham Town Hall. Later in 1964 a
Tabernacle was built on the site of the Osborne Ladies College in Thirroul Ave
Blackheath after it was burnt down in a bushfire on 23-Oct-1963 and the Australian Feast of Tabernacles was held there. In 1969 another Feast site was opened in Perth. The Blackheath Tabernacle was enlarged in 1970. In 1974 there were new sites in Adelaide, Hobart, Mackay and Miami. The Blackheath site closed in 1978. The first minister to be
ordained here in Australia was a Jew from New Zealand called Don Abraham. Photo:(by Frank Clark) The 1960 Feast of Tabernacles at North Sydney.
By the mid
1960's "The World Tomorrow" was on 33 stations in Australia, 11
stations in the Philippines and reached South Africa over Radio Laurenco Marques in Mozambique. The program was beamed into
Europe over Radio Luxembourg and Radio Europe Number 1 and into Britain over Radio Manx and the
"pirate" ships, Radio Caroline in the Irish Sea and Radio London in the English channel. GTA taught first and second year
classes on bible prophecy ("Beatitudes, 5-Sept-98) but he tells us in his
"Don't Trust Dates" tape that he began to have doubts about some of
the churches beliefs in 1965. After some training with John Hull, a flying trainer and church member, GTA made his first solo flight in a Cessna 182 on the 21st of April 1965. ("Takeoff", p387)
In March 1966 GTA did his first of many outside broadcasts at Cape
Kennedy with his voice shaking at the launch of the huge rockets
preparing to send men to the moon. (PT, April 1966, tv, 10-July-99 and the tape "Is God's Power Limited", 12-Dec-98) This was followed by a program made
while flying in a jet. In April 1966 more "On-the-Spot" broadcasts got
underway. The first was at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt then the Nile
Hilton Hotel in Cairo and at the Suez Canal. On the coast of Tyre he spoke about fulfilled prophecy. He made a program at the airport in Amman and
also got sick while he was there (1st Day FOT 14-Oct-2000) He made a program in the Intercontinental Hotel on the Mount of Olives and on Friday the 29th of April he went by road and horse through the Siq and made a program in Petra. An army helicopter flew overhead while he was there. Back in Jordanian Jerusalem he did a program on the Temple Mount, at Golgotha and from inside the Garden Tomb. (Cincinnati" tape) and visited the "Wailing Wall". (Report, 28-Nov-81) He did a program at Tell
Megiddo and another while overlooking the Sea of Galilee. He began a program at Capernaum but it was interupted by local gunfire. He resumed it later in a hotel room. He did one at the Bosporus in Turkey where
he commented on the Soviet oil tankers using the only access the Russians had
to warm water ports and from the shores of the Black Sea, from the Dardanelles, from Anzio and from Rome in Italy where
he talked about an emerging one world-church. He made two programs
from the Rock of Gibraltar about threats of Britain loosing this "sea-gate" to Spain and another from
Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.
After the program from Tyre,
which some in the church claimed would never be rebuilt (ACBCC, lesson
10) this
teaching was quietly dropped after it was found to be false and was
explained as being a yet to be fulfilled prophecy. (GN, Dec 1980)
In September 1966 GTA was in England and in the Ambassador College gymnasium at Bricket Wood in his morning sermon on the Feast of
Trumpets,
without discussing his views with his father, he said that as his
mother was old and not well she would not survive in the
conditions at
Petra and he told the church that he no longer believed in the idea of
the church
going there as the "Place of Safety". ("Ye Are the
Branches", Apr-94, "Waiting For Messiah" Dec-94, "Church
Eras" Apr-95, "Birmingham", "Our Secret Place" Mar-99
and "To the Churches" Mar-02) He said "Not five percent of our people
could make it in there. They wouldn't have the physical strength and
the stamina if you turned them loose twenty miles distant on a hot
day." and some words were exchanged afterwards. It was reported that in the afternoon his
father who was "blind furious", "absolutely furious" with
him over this, jumped and yelled several times while giving a sermon, contradicting what GTA had said in the morning, still claiming the church would
"fly" to Petra, the so called "Place of Safety".
("Don't Trust Dates", 6-Jan-01) We are willing to pay AU$1000 for a copy of this GTA tape. In "Peters Farewell" (4-Jan-03) GTA said, "I was right,
wasn't I?". GTA's mother, who had suggested this
idea of Petra as the "Place of Safety" after reading about Petra in a
1935 copy of "National Geographic", died on the 15th of April in 1967 aged 75 years.
("Rapture of the Saints", tv
23-Nov-96 and 13-March-99) Garner Ted began regular
television broadcasts on the 11th of May 1967 beginning in black and white then changing to colour in the Spring of 1968, which climbed to 165 stations. Plans were also made to begin
live radio broadcasts from Jerusalem but this was halted by the 1967
"Six Day War" which began on the 5th of June. ("The Mid East in
Prophecy", 17-Dec-88, The Red
Heifer, 24-May-97, tv 6-Jne-98) On
the 5th of January 1968 the RCG was
renamed "The Worldwide Church of God" (WCG) after Garner
Ted suggested this new name for the church. In about May 1968 the
church purchased a Falcon Fan jet. When GTA returned to Israel he found the Jordanians no longer
controlled the radio station. We have a short excerpt of a program he made on the Golan Heights in August 1968. There are only a few programs that have survived from the 1960's in our library which includes an excerpt
of the broadcast he did following the assassination of President
Kennedy in 1963
about "ballots, not bullets" This can be found on the tape
"Fortieth Anniversary of the World Tomorrow" program (Jan-74) This
moving program was repeatedly broadcast free. ("Trumpets 2001", 18-Sept-01, "Where Was God" and tv 18-Sep-01) From the 1st of December in 1968,
Ambassador College students officially began excavations of the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem at the southern wall below the Al Aqsa
mosque and at the western wall. GTA mentions this in "The Real Jesus" (Program #488, Sept-1973) In "The Museum in Heaven" (21-Apr-95)
he says they dug at the north wall of the temple. This project was called the
"Big Dig" and continued until 1976 under
the direction of Benjamin Mazar who gave GTA a Herodian period jug that he shows in
the video sermon "Will the Wall Come Tumbling Down" (21-Dec-02). In
1969 the offices of the Australian headquarters moved to the 13th floor of the
"Combined Insurance" building at 132 Arthur St North Sydney. In 1970
GTA visited Jerusalem in the churches Falcon DA-20 Fan jet.
The "America Listen!" personal appearances with GTA began in June 1970, (TW, June 1970, p24 and 1992 "Thankfulness"
tape) GTA visited over 30 cities with 15,000 attending his 1970 Nashville appearance. GTA mentions in his
book about the History of the Church that by the 1970's he had made over 7000
programs. Also around this time GTA learnt of the history of his sister
Dorothy while some in the church raised questions over GTA's
lifestyle. He was expelled from the 1971 Feast of Tabernacles in
September and disfellowshipped for excessive drinking and gambling. He
returned but was then "relieved of responsibilities" from October 9,
1971. Here in Australia in about October 1971, before the
introduction of post-code numbers, due to so much mail being wrongly delivered
to GPO Box 345 Sydney, which belonged to solicitors "Church and Grace", the church was offered and so obtained that postal address
as well. After another confrontation at his home on the 30th of January
1972 GTA was forced out of the church and disfellowshipped
for six months because of "personal emotional problems" but after the
church suffered a 40% drop in income he was soon reinstated. From 12-July-1972 GTA
began daily television for about two years. (PT 1974) We have some of the
audio tracks of the tv
programs that he made during this time in the library. On
the 25th of August 1972 GTA re-commenced his nation-wide personal
appearance campaigns beginning in Calgary in Canada. (GN-Dec-72) Around
this time,
the Australian printing works that began operating in 1962 and had
been moved into new premises at 36 Hotham Parade in Artarmon in mid 1969 moved again to 7 Lancelly Place Artarmon. In August 1972 Dennis Luker became the new Australian Regional Director. In April
1973 GTA began making special daily five minute "capsule" broadcasts
for Australia that went to air on the Macquarie Network in 1973. From about
April 1976 until July 1977 another series of five minute commentaries were
broadcast on other stations. We presently have 40 of these broadcasts in
our collection. The number of radio stations that carried "The World
Tomorrow" with GTA around the world, climbed to 360. GTA mentions in his
pre-Trumpets tape (Sept-1998) "my voice went out all over the world".
In this "pre-Trumpets" 1998 tape and in his "Huntsville Service"
(5-Jn-99) he tells us that on a trip in South Africa he became lost and called
for directions to a man he found working on the roof of his house and was
surprised that the man who appeared to be so isolated from the world recognized
GTA's voice from hearing "The World
Tomorrow". In May 1973 GTA told another member of the church called Al Carrozzo that he disagreed with church doctrine and in
January 1974 a major "storm" blew up over WCG teachings. At this time
the Australian Headquarters were moved to a temporary office in Queensland
using PO Box 202 Burleigh Heads. In May 1974 GTA had the strict church
laws against divorce and remarriage relaxed. ("The Word of God is Going
Out", 31-Mar-1979) and also the day of Pentecost was changed from Monday
to Sunday. In 1975 for economic reasons the printing of "The Plain Truth" was
moved to Singapore. A church offshoot called the "Antipodean Press"
was closed but the Ambascol Printing works at Artarmon remained open until July 1977 doing commercial
printing. David Robinson in his book "Tangled Web" says in 1975
more efforts were made to ouster GTA. GTA went to Egypt and
interviewed President Anwar el-Sadat on the 6th of March 1976. (PT April 1976) He offered
to fly Sadat to Jerusalem for peace talks.
"GTA in Sydney" (26-Nov-1977) President Sadat
flew to Jerusalem as Garner Ted had
suggested to him in November 1977 which led to the signing of the "Camp David Accords" with US
President Jimmy Carter in September 1978, and the signing of a peace deal with Israel in March 1979. (tv12-Apr-97,
"Lebanon" 10-May-97) In "Fayetteville Sunday" (25-Mar-2000) Garner Ted thinks he was
responsible for planting the idea in Sadat that led
to Sadat's assassination. The new Queensland office
of the WCG opened in March 1976 and the GTA television program began in
Australia on the 2nd of May 1976 with subjects on "The Laser",
Nuclear Energy, Money, Alcoholism, Juvenile Crime and "Showcase of the
Deep" etc. Dean Wilson became the Australian Regional Director around the beginning of 1977. The Falcon Fan jet was "sold" in May 1977. In November 1977 Garner Ted flew a new G2 (Grumman Gulf Stream II jet) to Sydney via New Zealand and Brisbane and spoke at the Sydney
Showground. We have a noisy copy of this talk in the tape library. GTA tells us
he gave Robert Kuhn the idea behind the story of "The Raiders of the Lost
Ark". Robert Kuhn wrote the script with Stanly Rader who knew Steven
Spielberg who produced the movie. ("The Test Commandment" 9-July-94
and "Museum in Heaven" 29-Apr-95) GTA was well known for his
"silver tongue" and he won several awards as the speaker on the "World
Tomorrow". He says thirty million people heard him each week. (5-Sep-93)
Some believed GTA was the Watchman described in Ezekiel 33 "lo, thou art
unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play
well on an instrument". His name was included among the famous people
mentioned in the song "The Intro and the Outro" by the "Bonzo
Dog Doo Dah Band". He
mentions his award winning broadcasts in his tape "Honour
and Respect" (10-Dec-83). GTA started a newspaper
for the church called the "Worldwide News", had a gymnasium built at Orr, Minnesota. "Spiritual Bodies"
(27-July-1985 and "Why Prophecy") and began the "Summer Educational Program" (SEP) for
the church youths. (27-Feb-99 and "Last Day of U/B", 7-Apr-99) He was
named the President of the colleges. During 1977 he was given all control.
("Successful Christian", 7-May-83) but GTA continued to disagree with
church doctrines and was accused of "destroying the church". He
organized the ministry to compile the teachings of the WCG into some
orderly form called the "Systematic Theology
Project" (STP). This project which began in 1975 was presented at a
conference in Pasadena in January 1978 but was immediately withdrawn and
banned. Also in January 1978, among other things, GTA was ordered to sell the
"Big Sandy" College and found his aims and goals were being
challenged and denied by others in the church. Most of the blame for the
dissension was believed to be over a struggle for power by Stanly Radar, the
church treasurer who had been baptized in a bath tub in Hong Kong on the
6-March-1975 (WN) and was considered to be of the "rank" of
"Evangelist". GTA tells us how Stanly Radar searched for a
non-existent book of the bible called "The Book of Nebuchadnezzar",
while giving a sermon. ("The Laborers Are Few", 26-Feb-94) Following another confrontation and threats of
them destroying one another, (LGD, 11-Oct-90) GTA, the President of Ambassador College and the
one who the church had regarded as the "Watchman" of Ezekiel 33, was
stripped of all positions on the 8th of May 1978. On the 3-June-1978, Garner Ted gave what became his last sermon in the WCG in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on
the Pentecost week-end. About ten minutes from the end of the
sermon he told the audience what he thought about the church treasurer.
This appears to have been the final straw for the WCG leadership who
expelled him and tried to shut him up. In mid June GTA was threatened
with "marking". Garner Ted tells us in his tapes "Gods Families
(Oct-84) "Religion of Hate", (Mar-93) and in "New Covenant
Sabbath" (Jan-95) that the WCG accused him of "watering down
doctrine". He was accused of being a liberal over the issue of
"make-up" ("What is the Pharisee" 21-Dec-91) and was
accused of trying to divert corporate funds. ("By Your Words", 21-May-83)
He says he was ousted by fabrications ("Our Identity", 7-Feb-87) He
was sued for $551 million and in a secret meeting was offered payments to
"never reveal" or "disclose" what he knew. He was offered $50,000 to "keep his bad mouth shut".("Fictitious
Letter to Paul", 26-Jan-02, "All About
Angels", 6-Jly-02, "60 Minutes" interview in 1979, "State of Work",
9-Feb-80 and "A Message", 21-Feb-81) In "The Great Commission"
(23-Dec-79) GTA said "No one will ever muzzle my mouth". GTA was the
leading RCG/WCG evangelist for about 23 years and during his time as the voice
of "The World Tomorrow" the church had grown from about 100 attendees
in 1955 to around 100,000 by 1978. ("Are You Playing Church, 20-Oct-86) He tells us in his tape
"Dedication Ceremony" (25-May-1991 and 29-Jne-02) and tv program (14-Aug-99) that he was responsible for 85% of
the growth of the WCG, ("Work and You", 5-Oct-90) From the 1st
of
June until the 21st of June 1978 he started his own church in Texas
called the
"Church of God International" (CGI) and was disfellowshipped
from the WCG on the 27th of June. He was then totally excommunicated and banished from the WCG
on the 1st of July
1978. Around this time a number of others were also moved out of the
WCG. To
placate the GTA supporters from deserting the WCG some rumoured he
would be
coming back and later the church was ordered not to mention Garner Ted
Armstrong's name. ("Judgement and Justice", 26-May-1979) In his
tape "The Sabbath Day" (19-May-1990) he says the
birthday of the CGI is on the 21st of July. In one of his tapes he
mentions
that he sold a four engined plane to finance his new
enterprise. He either bought or sold it to or from one of the Osmond brothers
who are Mormons who wanted him to be their "spokesman" of II Nephi
3:18 as best as can be recalled. (Has anyone got a copy of
that tape made around 1978?) In
the tape "Faith" (28-Oct-78) GTA said he had heard that the
tapes he had made while he was in the WCG were being destroyed. The
number of "World Tomorrow" radio programs he made from the 1950's
and 60's alone, were said to have been three and a half thousand. ("Milwaukee, 3-Jne-78 & Atlanta, 16-Mar-80) GTA said that Stanly called him "a false prophet". (Sermon, 12-Aug-78) It is said that Stanly Radar was the one who ordered the destruction of the tapes, (that the church had prayed that
God would inspire and that had given encouragement to the church over many
years) The WCG director of ministry, Rod
Meredith, said the removal of GTA from the WCG was like the removal of
cancer but later Rod was demoted, silenced and out himself. During 1978 GTA began recording new radio
programs in a garage converted into a studio and began radio broadcasts on WOAI
which grew to 54 stations in the US and by April 1979 he had made over 240 of
these new programs. On the 2nd of January 1979 the Californian Attorney
General put the WCG into receivership and its headquarters moved to Tucson, Arizona.
GTA was blamed for this. The
interview of GTA on "60 Minutes" was aired on April 15th 1979. The
Australian church (CGI) was started here in Sydney in July 1979 as a
"non-profit trust" by David Sandland who
had graduated from Ambassador College in 1969. GTA began making new television
programs starting in December 1980, ("Love Your Enemy", 20-Dec-80,
"Future Dreams", 19-June-93) while he continued making his 30 minute radio
programs and began making 15 minute radio programs. GTA tells us he had
over 1000 radio programs available ("Apostasy in the Church",
25-June) He began another series of tv programs that started on WGNO in New
Orleans in January 1983. Some of his new 15 minute radio programs were
aired in Sydney in the 1980's but are missing and later some tv programs were broadcast in various states around Australia up until after the 1990-91
Gulf War. These are included in our library.
GTA had earlier shared in writing the booklets "The Wonderful World
Tomorrow" and "1975 in Prophecy". To his surprise he
found things that he wrote in these booklets were included in a
"new" book produced by the WCG called "The Mystery of the
Ages", so unexpectedly and unacknowledged, he became the co-author of this
very "important" work, as he explains on page 32 of his "History
of the Church" and in his tapes called "Do the Work" (Jan 86),
"Who is Doing the Work?" (Sept-91), "In Your Lifetime"
(13-Mar-93) "Who is in Control" (27-Aug-94), "Don't Trust
Dates" (Jan-01) "The Bible and the Newspaper" (Feb-01),
"Straw Men", (Apr-01) and "pre Last Great Day"
(19-Sept-01). GTA hoped to get back to having an even greater media outreach
than he had when he was in the WCG. "Goal of the Church"
(5-Sep-92) Besides his strong messages about the Kingdom of God, GTA spoke
out against the errors of mainstream churches and also exposed some of the
false doctrines and errors being preached in the WCG about the Gospel, the idea
that Jesus could not sin, about the church going to Petra, church eras, church
hierarchy, Elijah, 19 year time cycles, 6,000 years, the time of the Exodus,
Satan, tithing, Xmas, Easter, the meaning of the feasts, healing, racism,
birthdays, women's make-up and so on. In his tape "False Church
Beginnings" (27-Apr-85) he says he had not changed the teachings, he had
broadened them. In a telephone conversation with Ralph Helge
of the WCG a few weeks before his father died, GTA asked for some of his
old "On-the-Spot" tapes, but to no avail. ("Apostasy Then and
Now", 21-Dec-85) GTA's father died on the 16th
of January 1986 reportedly having only $5,000 or $10,000. ("Atlanta"
21-Apr-2000) and Joseph Tkach became the leader
of the WCG. Tkach had grown up in Poland and set
about changing the doctrines of the church. He removed many of those who were
resistant to the changes which led Garner Ted to voice some strong sermons
against what was occurring. In "Shadow of the Lamb" (30-Mar-96) he
says that he wished he had done things differently (to prevent the Tkach take-over) He appeared as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show on the 23rd of July 1987 and began suffering respiratory
problems from around 1990. His sister Beverly died of cancer in March 1992.
("What Happens When I Die", 28-Mar-92) In 1994 GTA began a new
series of 30 minute radio programs called "Tomorrows World". We have
16 of them in our library. GTA visited Australia in February 1995
and spoke at the Sydney Opera House followed by the Melbourne Arts Centre
and the Brisbane City Hall. We have videos of his talks in
Sydney and Melbourne and the audio of Brisbane. Some of his radio programs
were broadcast in Brisbane, during the mid-nineties. The
subverted WCG happily embraced many of the false teachings and doctrines of
paganised Christianity. In May 1995 the WCG in Australia had their collection
of historical Armstrong material professionally destroyed. In "Museum in Heaven"
(29-Apr-95) GTA said the WCG had "become a harlot", was
"unrecognizable" (21-Jn-97) and "threw away their
roots". ("Ft Wayne",17-Aug-02) Since then they have even refused
to give permission to allow the purchase old WCG copyright material.
In November 1995 the Suerae Robertson affair
blew-up in the US when she took action against the CGI. GTA stood down from the
CGI for three months. "Lets Get On With the Work" (27-Jan-96) Alan
Kendall who was running the Australian CGI after taking over in 1986 had been entrusted
with our tape library but around 1996 he turned against GTA and destroyed the
library of possibly 1000 audio and video tapes that had been collected from
about the start of 1978. He said he "recycled" them. This has left
many missing from our collection that we have not been able to replace. In
November 1997 GTA was again separated from what he and his supporters had built
up over the previous 19 years when the CGI board expelled him from the CGI and
tried to shut him up. In "Politically Incorrect" (7-Dec-02) GTA shows
that he also advised some to "keep your mouth shut" too. The CGI have
said they no longer send out GTA tapes. In January 1998 GTA started the
Intercontinental Church of God (ICG). In Sydney David Dunlop who was a long
time supporter of the church and was one of those who helped build the Blackheath Tabernacle in 1964, contacted GTA. David helped
gather the scattered supporters and began hosting meetings which continued
harmoniously with the approval of GTA for about three years until a group of
former members of the WCG who had unsuccessfully tried to take over the
"United Church of God", worked stealthily to get control of David's
new ICG/GTAEA group. By offering to help distribute the weekly tapes Peter
Ellis appeared to have good intentions. He gained David's confidence and was
able to get the donors mailing addresses but he and his friends then wanted to
run the meetings themselves and after continually disrupting the church
meetings and by scheming, bulldozing, undermining and usurping David, Peter
said he would start his own meetings. Peter and his friends tried using
intimidation by demanding that David's group stop holding any more meetings. At
the Feast of Tabernacles in 2000 Peter was able to get the Feast organizer, Dusan Zubovic, to play a tape by
one of those opposed to GTA while claiming it was done to help bring unity with
the other groups but this caused more division. After the feast this group of
Peter Ellis in partnership with Murray Allatt and
their friends began holding their own rival meetings. In the December 2000
issue of "The Journal" is an article about the visit of Wayne Cole to
Australia which they organized in November 2000 without informing David about
their plans but in which they referred to themselves as members of the ICG.
They led Garner Ted into thinking they were already running the group and
tricked David into thinking that GTA wanted him to hand the GTAEA over to them.
Being unaware of their agenda and thinking it was what Garner Ted wanted, David
handed the GTAEA bank account, the mailing list and our new tape library over
to them in December 2000 and this was how they were able to hijack the GTAEA
and get hold of our tape collection and have been able to take advantage of the
previous work that had been established and built up by the long time
supporters of GTA who had been suffering from their antagonism, hostile
attitude and continual trouble-making and who wanted nothing to do with
them. Since gaining possession of the things that had been previously built up
they have been able to give the false impression to newcomers who are unaware
of these things that they are the ones who have been the long time supporters
of GTA. On the 5th of February 2001 Peter's group incorporated the GTAEA and on
reading a letter
GTA sent to his
Australian and New Zealand brethren of March 2001, GTA can be seen
to have been misled by these plotters who had secretly worked
behind David Dunlop's back organizing things in the name of the ICG
without
telling David what they were doing. By the time David realized what had
been
going on it was too late to reverse the damage and he now regrets that
he let
them have their way. While appearing to support GTA, Peter and his
friends
pushed the distribution of non-GTA tapes made by those opposed to GTA
onto the
GTA supporters and in their efforts to silence the supporters of the
ICG there
was a threat to sue as well. News of the split got back to GTA and in
his
"pre FOT 2001" tape he sought to have both groups unite but he was
unaware of what lay behind the division. In the tape "Our Common
Goal" (23-Feb-02) GTA informs us "I know people down there wanted me
to be quiet", revealing to us these tramplers
were continuing to work in secret. They organized the visit of GTA to Australia
in February 2003 but not everyone was invited to attend but we have two of
the videos made while he was here. Seven months later on the15th September
after suffering an adverse reaction to treatment for pneumonia, GTA died aged
73. In "God's Timetable" (19-Oct-96) GTA suggested the idea of dying
in "2003, in September". In "All About
Money" (26-May-90) he said "73 would be fantastic".
About two months before he died he said he was "not going to be in
hospital" ("All About Prayer, July-03) He
didn't like the idea of cremation (27-May-00 and "Important
Elections", Oct-00) and was buried next to an oak tree in Gladewater Memorial Park.
His son Mark was left in charge.
Mark stated that he would not change anything. Here in Australia
following some
"bad blood" between Peter and Murray, Peter resigned in February
2004 leaving Murray in control of their break-away GTAEA group. In
"Shackles of
Carnality", (27-Jan-01) and "Your Greatest Responsibility"
(31-Aug-02) GTA plainly taught that there is no hierarchy or rank in
the church
and emphasized in "Let George Do It" (1-Feb-92) that no local
pastor has been given absolute control over others in the church. In
"No
Baggage Allowed" (8-Jne-02) GTA warned that he didn't want "little Hitlers" in the ICG. In "Daniel 11 & Current
Events" (23-Dec-00) he said there is "no Hitlerian
dictatorship in the ICG" and no "putting out". "Do not
try to be a big minister-" ("Footwashing
Attitude", 24-Mar-01) "We are all equals."
Garner Ted said his group are "an open arms, open
doors" church. ("Is God Tolerant", 5-Jan-02). In
his tape "Religious Partisanship", (24-Mar-01) he said "Go straight, correct
errors". In "Money and Power" (28-Feb-98) he said he wanted people in his church to
"talk about what we believe". In "1st Day of Unleavened Bread"
(28-Mar-02) he tells us "we should not be a dumb sheep, you have your
personal sovereignty" and in "Passover", (15-Apr-03) "Those
who refuse to be one, are the ones with the problem." Just before
the Passover in 2004 Mark encouraged those in the original Australian ICG to attend the
Passover with Murray's break-away GTAEA group but Murray who had sided with
Peter and who also took part in the take-over of the GTAEA from David Dunlop
refused to allow David to attend Murray's
GTAEA Passover service. In a telephone message Murray said he
did not want us at his meetings because of "ratbaggery"
and because he had new people attending, obviously fearing that because of
David's background he could expose the past to unwary newcomers to the GTAEA
who Murray has continually tried to keep in
the dark about what took place. In his efforts to cover up his actions Murray
got the "Prime" television station to stop ICG advertising near the
US sponsored program, so from around August of 2004 "Prime" showed
compliance to mammon by operating hand in hand with the GTAEA and refused
our advertising. In October 2005 in a further attempt to increase his
dictatorial control, Murray incorporated a similar name, "The
Intercontinental Church of God (Australia) Incorporated", in
opposition to the original "Intercontinental Church of God" which
David started here in 1998. In April 2009 Murray colluded with "tvs" at the University of Western Sydney to again
prevent ICG advertising on their station which he openly boasts he was responsible for stopping
in his 10-April-09 "Australia Report". Even though Murray has said that "Everyone is welcome" to attend his Feast
of Tabernacles, we have not been welcome. To prevent attendance at his 2009
Feast of Tabernacles, Murray's helper, Chris Waterman, claimed their GTAEA
feast was a "private" meeting.
Although those in the GTAEA took nearly all of the tapes we had
collected for
the three years from 1998 until 2001 by falsely reassuring David of
their good
intentions but having since then denied us friendship, fellowship or
access to
our tapes, we have since combined our own personal tape collections
together
and with thanks to others from around the world we have been able
to
rebuild another tape library that now has over 1,500 sermons,
studies,
radio and television broadcasts etc available. In October 2012 Murray began
pirating the audio files from our web site and
lied to "SoundCloud" that he had the copyright and after changing the
names and dates of some as well as making deletions to the actual tapes he has loaded over 500 of our files onto his web site without either
asking us if he could use them or acknowledging that he has pirated
them from us. In April 2013 continuing his unethical ways he was found to
also be pirating our videos as well by replacing our introductions and outro's with his
own contact details to hide where he had obtained the files from before reloading them onto "Vimeo" also breaching the requirements of their terms of use in his efforts to bolster his copycat site that perpetuates numerous errors and false teachings of the past rather
than exposing and correcting them. We will continue to do what we can to help clear
away the many false beliefs that
linger in the minds of those who have been led down the path of
religious
deception even pointing out where GTA also made mistakes. We hope this
library and its accompanying notes will continue to help serve
this
purpose. (Just click on the links at the bottom of each page to access
them) In
his 1994 tape called "God's World" GTA says that he had made 20,000
television programs and between 30,000 to 40,000 radio programs. About
5 years
later in his 1999 "Birmingham" tape he tells us he had made 15 to 20
thousand programs and sermons but he also gave many sermons and made
personal
appearances around the world during about 48 years of preaching that we
do not
presently have in our library. We welcome any tapes that are missing
from our library and would like to be able to make copies of any of
those we do not
have to include in this collection.
Click
here for catalogue
Email: info@icg.org.au SMS/Phone:
National 0424 66 2345, International (+61) 424 66 2345
