Armstrongism has always thought of it's self as the center of the universe, the holder of all things Godly and pure, and home of the righteous faithful remnant. This should put it all into perspective considering that Armstrongism has now splintered into well over 700 different personality cults.
Herbert Armstrong was a narcissist: He thought he was the center of all Universes.
ReplyDeleteThis should put it into perspective: Herbert Armstrong was an heretic who left the Church of God Seventh Day in complete rebellion because they would not let him take it over, stole almost all their doctrine and claimed it as his own, took the doctrines of Gilbert G. Rupert through the Seventh Day Church of God and added the preposterous insane mental disorder of British Israelism -- which has been totally disproved -- and created his own cult, not unlike L. Ron Hubbard created Scientology out of his own alternative history of Science Fiction.
Should anyone be at all surprised that Armstrongism cults should splinter but still believe they are the center of the Universe?
The problem here seems to be that people are just plain stupid along with being avaricious and socially incompetent. If you take a look at John Tuit's book on Armstrongism, you should soon come to the opinion that he was stuck in the myth that there was anything at all worthwhile in the WCG. There wasn't. He compounded his own personal problems by feeling rejected by his "friends" in the cult. He assumed that they were for him. They weren't. They were all for Herbert Armstrong because Armstrong convinced them that he was the one who could give the people all they ever wanted: To live prosperous and be gods. He appealed to their avarice. Anyone who threatened that empty promise of being God as God is God, was just out and instantly irrelevant, even after years of association.
This is as true today in United and all the other CULTS of Armstrongism: You must believe the lies of Armstrongism and British Israelism and accept the leadership blindly or you are out and won't get the good stuff. If there were any good stuff left -- and I'm not saying there is -- it came from the Church of God Seventh Day.
People are stupid and lazy: They have to know at some level that the basis of everything they believe is wrong, but they don't really want the truth. What people want is validation that the mental disorder they have chosen for themselves from narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths will some how work out for them and they will need to do nothing but stay on their current path of destruction and perdition. They are also stupid. When you tell them they are so very wrong and their Armstrongist community is a cult, they will say that you have the root of bitterness as a convenient way of protecting all the lies and deceptions they have embraced.
It's a con game: People have embraced a Ponzi Multilevel Marketing Scheme by investing in something really stupid. They can't leave it because they will suffer loss. Unfortunately, as they pour more and more resources into the Ponzi scheme, they lose more and more until they have nothing. This is what we see in all the splits and divisions. People keep holding on to what they think they have, when they really have nothing: Their leader died, his false prophecies have gone nowhere and they have suffered personally and economically. It's gamblers looking for that one last big score so they can make up for all their losses.
People assume that they can't just leave. They will lose too much. It's because they are really dishonest. Until they embrace some honesty and integrity, the problem will continue unabated and the loss will become ever more progressively greater.