Ron Dart on Garner Ted Armstrong

I think everyone knows by now that Garner Ted Armstrong died last week and was buried on Thursday afternoon near Gladewater. He can’t be
ignored, because he lies directly in the path of the lineage of this church and of my own ministry.

I first met Ted in 1958 when I was a freshman in AC. I was 24, he was 28, a faculty member, and sharing the radio program “The World
Tomorrow” with his Dad, HWA. He was young, good looking, and extremely knowledgeable of the Bible for a man his age. All of us who attended
AC in those days were intense in our Bible study. It was one of those true values we were pledged to seek.

I began to become personally acquainted with Ted after an illness sent me back to college to recuperate. I was a minister by then. Ted and his
buddies often needed a fourth for a game of cards, and I was elected. We became friends over the years that followed, and while I was
in England, he always sought out Allie and me to go to dinner while he was there.

In 1969, he brought me back to Pasadena to act as his assistant over the foreign offices, and I was later made Vice President over that field.
From that date forward, we became very close friends.

There have been those who wondered about Ted, about his sincerity, even his conversion. I never did. I had first hand knowledge of his
acquaintance with the Bible. For one thing, I have seen his personal Bible which was worn out from study, well marked with underlines and
notes. But apart from that, I know about it from endless conversations over every kind of beverage, meals in every kind of place from Quaglino’s
in London, to the Criterion in Johannesburg, to a bowl of venison chili in hunting camp. I know about it from conversations in a bass boat, in the
cockpit of an airplane, in the cab of his pickup. Ted Armstrong knew the Bible as well as any man I have ever known. And he was converted,
and he had the Holy Spirit, and was gifted of God.

I have little doubt that he grieved the Holy Spirit many times in his life. I know he grieved me more than once. But I never stopped loving him,
and I can trust that God didn’t stop loving him either.

I think there were times in his life when he did positive harm. That said, he still managed to turn the hearts of no small number of people to
Jesus Christ. He didn’t do that by his person. He did it by pointing people to the Bible, and to Jesus Christ. His book, “The Real Jesus,” was easily
his most often requested work.

And if I start walking back down my path to find my spiritual roots, I am bound to stumble over Garner Ted Armstrong. He was my friend. I will
miss him. I am sorry he is gone. I am terribly sorry for his wife Shirley and his family.

My sermon that followed, "The Indispensable Man," is available from the CEM office on request.

Ronald L. Dart