42 Months Till Tribulation Begins at End of 2019..or 2020...or 2021...or 2022, or Whenever.

It is that time of the month again and our resident Chief Pharisee James Malm is making another absurd prediction as to when the tribulation will start.  As usual, the couch potato waffles his dates, but rest assured he is 100% correct!  It is all guaranteed to go down at the end of 2019 or maybe 2020.  As usual, Pharisee Malm is pretending to be a prophet to the Church of God and is still unable to predict the date of all hell breaking loose.

Unable or unwilling to hold down a real job where he has to actually work, the Pharisee sits at home all day writing his version of church history, creating his own doctrines and working overtime in reading any news he thinks will support his erroneous expectations for his prophecies.

He naively thinks his imagined great understanding is so superfantabulous that he is influencing the United Church of God and the Living Church of God into examining their doctrines and will have an influence on them to teaching his flawed interpretations.

I can guarantee you the end of 2020 will be here and the deluded Pharisee will be predicting some other future date because his god was not yet ready to come.  Pharisee Malm is just another liar in the midst of the COG wasteland.

At this time all events are lining up for the 42 month great tribulation to begin at the end of 2019, or if things go slowly at the end of 2020.  

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to call an election with a polling date in late May.  The logic is that there will soon be a general war and he can use the Independence Day festivities to celebrate the defeat of Israel’s enemies and generate an election result giving him a strong mandate to control the Trump Middle East Peace Process.  

This year the Israeli Independence Day by the modern Rabbinic Calendar is May 9 2019 or by the internationally used Papal Calendar May 14th.  President Trump has agreed to withhold his Peace Initiative until a new government is formed after the elections.  

If Bibi gets his way there will be war in early 2019 followed by elections in late May or June. 

Once the confusion of war has settled and new governments have been set up, the Trump Peace Initiative will be unveiled.  US and International officials have been working very hard consulting parties throughout the entire region to put together a peace deal.  This deal is actually a completed basic peace deal which would be put in place with more advanced issues to be discussed according to a rigid time table.   Whether the miracle worker is set up in the Vatican in late 2019 and the tribulation begins at the end of the year or takes another year will depend on God’s will.  

While acknowledging that things could go slowly and take another year, I have no choice except to do everything possible to prepare the brethren in case this does indeed come in 2019. 

The Chief Pharisee imagines his "work" as being able to prepare the way for the two witless witnesses to go forth into Jerusalem and preach his message. Ultimately though, Pharisee Malm has another motive in mind.  Since he has no desire to work a real job, he, like so many other COG fools that have set themselves up to have gullible followers fund their useless and unrewarding lives.

At that point, Spring Festivals and doctrinal material along with Proverbs and the New Testament will commence and continue through the Fall Feast in order to provide solid doctrine and spiritual meat for the brethren in preparation for the advent of the miracle worker, God’s two servants and the decision to stay or leave.  Preparing the brethren for these things is the purpose and reason for the existence of  this work.

Please support this work to publish sound doctrine and warn the brethren with your prayers and offerings.  11/25/18 entry

Herbert Armstrong's Mind Conditioning Technique That Roped In the People

Today, I want to write a short bit into the Methodology that Herbert Armstrong used to brainwash - yes, brainwash - those who subscribed to the Ambassador College Correspondence Course into the way he was thinking. This will help for you to see how he did what he did, and how he conditioned the mind to accept his theology. 

The text below is from the Ambassador College Correspondence Course, lesson 2, from 1955. Let's take a look. 

Rewriting The Mind

Perhaps the most important thing that Herbert used was mind conditioning. He did this by causing you to rewire the mind to focus only on what he wanted you to focus on. By using specific, cherry-picked scriptures without context or background, he would ingrain the particular scripture he wanted you to look at into your mind. He would have you focus only on those particular scriptures - to read them, to re-read them, again, and again. This technique literally "burns" the scriptures that Herbert deemed important into your mind. 

Herbert admits that this technique is "intended to show you where to look" - to "help" you to "know" how to study the Bible. This focus on particular scriptures - called "cherry picking" - is used to bolster his way of belief and to support his doctrines. Notice that there is little in the way, if any, context whatsoever to the scriptures. Take a scripture, explain it the way you see it, and then have the individual re-read it, and re-read it over and over again, and then - importantly - writing it down. 

The principle here is to literally rewire your brain to accept the conclusions that Herbert Armstrong came to, by focusing on individual scriptures and not the context of the scripture, the chapter, the book, the timing, or anything at all. This, again is "mind conditioning", used to distort and change the true meaning of the scriptures which can be only understood by proper context and understanding of the entire message written. 

Writing It Down

Herbert said the writing is "EXTREMELY NECESSARY". This is also why note-taking in church services was emphasized so greatly. When you hear or read - AND you write - it ingrains it into your brain. 

From an article at Forbes.com, it says this: 

Writing things down happens on two levels: external storage and encoding. External storage is easy to explain: you’re storing the information contained in your goal in a location (e.g. a piece of paper) that is very easy to access and review at any time. You could post that paper in your office, on your refrigerator, etc. It doesn’t take a neuroscientist to know you will remember something much better if you’re staring at a visual cue (aka reminder) every single day.

But there’s another deeper phenomenon happening: encoding. Encoding is the biological process by which the things we perceive travel to our brain’s hippocampus where they’re analyzed. From there, decisions are made about what gets stored in our long-term memory and, in turn, what gets discarded. Writing improves that encoding process. In other words, when you write it down it has a much greater chance of being remembered.

This technique was understood by Herbert as an advertiser. He knew that when we write it down it "encodes" into our long-term memory. From day one, from the Correspondence Courses to sermons - what would we write down? Individual scriptures - and sometimes, the pastor's explanation. This method of brain-washing, or mind-conditioning, caused us, in combination with other tactics, to accept one scripture and one explanation over context and correct biblical literacy. 

Half an Hour a Day

Herbert understood it wasn't just writing a scripture down and the explanation and stopping - he made sure it GOT INTO YOUR HEAD, by causing you to study his chosen scriptures with his personal explanation - and reread it - and write it - at LEAST half an hour a day. This combination of encoding and time will rewrite anyone's mind if they are open to it. And anyone who listened to Herbert Armstrong was well aware he was using the power of his authoritative voice to believe what he was saying. The more you read, wrote, and read and wrote again, the more you began to accept his beliefs as true beliefs. Again, completely ignoring other scriptures and context. 

Emphasis on Large-Type Words

Have you ever wondered why in the world Herbert Armstrong always typed in Large Type words? He was using advertising techniques. On this vein, check out the 20 most effective words in sales and see how Herbert implemented some of these. Read this article on creative print advertising to see techniques Herbert used as well. 

Yet Herbert admits here - in plain language - exactly why he uses bold, capital letters in his material, such as the Ambassador College Correspondence Course. HE says "pay no attention to the small type", but read the large type words. This is the method to read all of his literature to get to the core of what Herbert wanted you to get in your head - all of the Co-Worker letters, the Personals, the Pastor Generals - all of it - ignore the small type and read the large type to get what he wanted into your head. This is how he subliminally got to people, using the power of printed text. This was another aspect of mind conditioning he used to brainwash his people. This is how I have come to see exactly how Herbert was thinking, and coming to conclusions about his entire empire and mindset while reading his material. He knew exactly what he was doing. He also knew you'd forget in time this technique, but it would be in your head subconsciously. In short, he was training you how to read his material the way he wanted you to to get the results he wanted. 

Other certain splinter leaders continue to use this technique to brain-wash their followers as well. 

What was not used in this method? Context and Questions. This was classic: Here's a scripture. This is what the scripture says. Write it down. This is what it means. Next scripture. Rinse, and repeat. This was how they "proved" their doctrines. This is how they "proved" their understandings. People bought this for one reason: They were subliminally conditioned. 

I will write next time about the methodology he used as to "where to start" reading the Bible, and why he chose that particular method. It has to do with one word: Fear.

submitted by SHT

The Ambassador College Correspondence Course: Tinfoil Bob has determined he needs to add to it.

How many of you ever completed the Correspondence Course that the old Radio/Worldwide Church of God put out?  Most church members only know it in its abbreviated form of 32 lessons which was eventually shortened to 12 lessons.  Those who grew up in the church in the "Radio" years remember the mind and butt-numbing 58 lesson course.  Remember all of those wonderful hours parked at your dining room table diligently reading each lesson and handwriting out every single Bible verse it referenced?

Each lesson was meticulously planned out so that you never had the opportunity to question what was being presented.  After all, this was coming from God's College and therefore had to be 100% right!  God would NEVER lead the Apostle astray into letting something as miraculous as the Correspondence Course EVER be filled with error!

The problem with the entire course is that was nothing more than an elaborate "proof-text" of what the church believed after "proof-texting" scriptures to fit their interpretations.

Here is the definition of proof-texting:

Prooftexting (sometimes "proof-texting" or "proof texting") is the practice of using isolated, out-of-context quotations from a document to establish a proposition in eisegesis (introducing one's own presuppositions, agendas, or biases). Such quotes may not accurately reflect the original intent of the author,^[1] and a document quoted in such a manner, when read as a whole, may not support the proposition for which it was cited.^[2][3][4][5] The term has currency primarily in theological and exegetical circles.

This is to be distinguished from quotations from a source deemed a hostile witness, which inadvertently substantiate a point beneficial to the quoter in the course of its own narrative. Even when lifted out of context, those facts still stand.

Many Christian ministers and Christian teachers have used some version of the following humorous anecdote to demonstrate the dangers of prooftexting: "A man dissatisfied with his life decided to consult the Bible for guidance. Closing his eyes, he flipped the book open and pointed to a spot on the page. Opening his eyes, he read the verse under his finger. It read, 'Then Judas went away and hanged himself' (Matthew 27:5b). Finding these words unhelpful, the man randomly selected another verse. This one read, 'Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."' (Luke 10:37b). In desperation, he tried one more time. The text he found was: 'What you are about to do, do quickly.'" (John 13:27)^[6]

The church was quite adept at twisting scripture to fit the interpretation it wanted the members to believe. Most members never knew it was happening.  After all, if Herbert said it, that settled it!  Since it was settled it could never be questioned.  God forbid if anyone dared to read a book that might have an opposite viewpoint!

That brings us to today, as Doubly-blessed, Almost-arrested Tinfoil Bob Thiel has determined that he need to correct the old Correspondence Courses.  Tinfoil Bob, like almost all the other splinter group leaders has never had an original thought in his head.  He has spent years copying and imitating everything the church did.  Now he has determined that he needs to add his great interpretations to these old courses.

We have been making progress on literature and clarifying matters for an upcoming Study the Bible Course lesson. Working on that lesson (number 15) caused me to do a lot of research and add many scriptures that were not in the original course from the 1950s. We expect that lesson to be available next Spring.

Speaking of the Study the Bible Course, we have been working on getting all the English version lessons online by themselves, as opposed to only being available in the magazines. This should be ready fairly soon.

Can any of these self-appointed pissants ever write or preach anything NOT already done by HWA and his crew?  Not a single new thought or interpretation for the 21st century.  No new way of looking at things that have relevance for people of this world.  No one humble enough to admit mistakes were made and interpretations were wrong.

Humility is not a word any present-day Church of God leader knows or exemplifies.  They cannot because they REFUSE to follow the one person who taught them what it was to be humble. Liars and boasters of themselves and their supposed good works of magnificent campuses, auditoriums, great websites, booklets in Swahili and other African languages, the list can go on and on because it is always about themselves.

Herbert Armstrong, as arrogant as he was, at least had a vision.  Something bigger and grander for members to look forward to as a unified group on a journey together.  Today's COG leaders have no vision.  The beat their chests as if they do and boast a lot, but they are visionless.  Herbert Armstrong could circle the wagons and realign people to his cause when it got waylaid, yet today we see scores of little men who cannot inspire people to join up with them to complete the grand vision Herbert Armstrong envisioned.  They have ended up being like dung beetles rolling their little balls of malevolent teachings up the side of an ever-growing pile of stinking crap.