It is time for Armstrongism's yearly ritual of it's continual crucifixion of someone they call Jesus. Armstrongism has left its Jesus broken and beaten in college/high school gyms and Masonic Lodges around the country for the last 70 some years. For most in Armstrongism this is about the only service in the Church of God that really has anything to do with its Jesus. Other than closing a church service with "In Jesus Name..." it is all about Moses, David, Elijah, Jeremiah and the Prophets of Old and every minuscule thing you can attach to the law.
For decades it was also one of the most secretive services of the church. Only baptized members who were approved by the ministry were allowed to participate. Guards were placed at the doors to keep out any public and for those who had been disfellowshipped.
This is also a night that Armstrongism picks and chooses on how it will observe it. There are some in the COG that call this a 'bastardization of the true Jewish Passover.' The COG keeps the parts it wants while rejecting other parts of it. The COG tries to get as close as it can to Jewish law and traditions without ever really doing anything that pertains to Jewish law or tradition. Like it's interpretation of Scripture the COG picks and chooses what it wants for this night.
Sadly though, this is not a night that brings most members into any kind of relationship with Jesus. It is the ultimate in power control of the Church over the membership.
For weeks ahead of time the minister stands up preaching that the church members are unworthy worms who will NEVER be able to do what God says. The members are portrayed as disgusting vile sinners just teetering on the edge of annihilation. Sermons and sermonettes, week after week, will dwell on the unworthiness of members while the enlightened one is up in front of them preaching. Members are told to examine, reexamine and otherwise prove themselves worthy to even share the same room as the enlightened humble minister as he prepares to be Jesus' instrument of torture..
This is also the one night of the year that all true members know they cannot miss. God forbid if they have done something and the minister has told them to not come. If they miss this night then their sins for the past year will not be forgiven. Two full years of being an unredeemed filthy sinner will weigh heavily on the members mind. Because of this, members will do anything the minister tells them. They will do it through the year when the minister, evangelist, or Apostle tells them to do something that they may not even like. If they refuse they know their eternal salvation is at risk. In other words, keep the brethren fearful, ashamed, browbeaten with unworthiness, never being able to measure up and they will be compliant unquestioning sheeple.
Working in Pasadena for the many years I was there I got to see much of this kind of attitude first hand. Ministers threatening Church members or employees with being barred from Passover services scared the hell out of people. People came to this service many times totally distraught and nauseated. They would get physically sick having to listen to the the minister making sure that you heard the sound of the breaking of the matzo's. In Pasadena they used to turn the sound up higher as the minister broke the matzo's so that you got to hear the crunching and breaking sound to remind you that you are a filthy piece of human garbage that continues to crucify Jesus - oops, sorry, CHRIST- day in and day out. Some would also get sick when the wine trays were passed with the dry red wine that had such a strong stomach turning odor..
And how would a COG Passover be complete without foot washing? We had ministers and department heads in Pasadena who would hand pick the people who would wash their feet. God forbid if any of them had to touch a lowly ordinary member! Those people got pulled into special areas where the ministry washed feet away from the wandering eyes of the clods that were Church members. In heated rooms with hot water and fresh fluffy towels you were treated to the Holy feet of God's true ministers. You knew you had reached good standing with God if you got to wash a ministers feet.
It got so that I never participated in the Passover services in the last few years that I attended WCG. I would help people set things up and prepare for it but it no longer had any meaning to me. Watching the hypocrites in the ministry day in and day out ruining peoples lives made it a disgusting display of arrogance to sit there as they pretended to be humble servants of God.
7 comments:
Your post is a sad but true commentary of Passover time in the Worldwide Church of God.
Does anyone ever remember seeing Herbert Armstrong down on his knees washing the feet of one of the brethren?
Richard
When my wife was about eight years old, she remembers seeing Herbie washing feet at Big Sandy. That's when the entire "church" kept the "feast" for 8 days together. She can't remamber whose feet he washed. My guess? Probably an "evangelist".
The way the Armstrongists attempt to keep this particular ceremony is so very wrong. First of all, it isn't the Passover. It is the Lord's Supper. If you try to mesh the two, you will get into all sorts of trouble. They cannot be reconciled. Jesus would have been in the tomb on the evening of the Passover. He kept the Lord's Supper with his disciples on the evening of the 13th. The Passover begins the Days of Unleavened Bread. Read Exodus 12. Carefully.
The next problematic thing is the footwashing. Is it before or after the bread and the fruit of the vine? If you read various of the gospels, you could have it either way. I vote for John.
And wine? It says, and I quote, "Fruit of the Vine". The non Armstrongists, including the CoG7, use grape juice. Nyah, nyah, I dare you to prove it's wine!
And singing Psalm 51. Ugh! Year after year. Even after we found out about all those nasty things the ministry never repented of. We're supposed to feel so broken up about our own sins, when.... I'll leave it to your imagination. Or maybe not imagination, since some of you actually saw the minister committing the sin. Oh, right. It's all about us. Don't look over there behind the curtain where the minister committed adultery on his wife... as she was dying of cancer. No! You bear your own guilt! Comparing ourselves amongst ourselves is unwise. Also it ruins a perfectly good reign of the despots.
What ever happened to the idea of the joy of redemption?
Furthermore, as for keeping the "Passover" -- which it is not -- on the right day, consider that the Armstrongists keep the service on the wrong day. There's no way to win with that one. Of course, as a CoG7 minister said, isn't there provision for that? After all, there's a second passover a month (or so) later.
The real question is, who died and left the Armstrongists as God? Wait! We have an answer! They are God as God is God! It's so nicely blasphemous. I guess one of the Two Trees was the idolatry.
Richard and Steve,
This is the same Armstrong who drank coffee on the Day of Atonement, while everyone else was going thirsty. I'm guessing he took a few "shortcuts".
A clarification is needed:
I live a life contrary to my former WCG days. But my memory is clear that the deleavening process was always taught in my church areas as "putting sin out of our lives through Jesus Christ's indwelling" and that sin, like leavening was everywhere and to be repented. I can still hear ministers telling us that it is with God's spirit that we can locate and remove hidden sin, much like we find the stray biscuit in the toy chest during ULB.
I remember the sermons prior to the Passover season were about reconciliation to God the Father through Jesus' sacrifice.
I don't know where the author attended in WCG's dominion but I promise him/her that my church areas spoke for three straight months about Jesus, all the time. It was the one time of the year we got a break from the doom and gloom of prophesy. It was the one time of the year where Jesus was described as a nice, compassionate human rather than a pissed off deity exacting revenge on behalf of his father.
Finally, the Passover service was all about understanding the incredible blood-curdling sacrifices made by Jesus, who was described as the Passover lamb, if you truly believed it actually occurred in reality.
I am not sure if my experiences were found church wide. It's inconsequential if I accept the premises taught by WCG today, but the connection between deleavening, sin, and reconciliation through the blood of the sacrifice of Jesus was most certainly taught in my old church areas back in the day.
Finally, it is my opinion that Armstrong was an arrogant ass to declare that Passover should be observed one day earlier than the Jews. The people that blindly follow his example are going against 3,000 years of learned rabbinic thought.
"...my memory is clear that the deleavening process was always taught in my church areas as "putting sin out of our lives through Jesus Christ's indwelling" and that sin, like leavening was everywhere and to be repented."
.....
"I remember the sermons prior to the Passover season were about reconciliation to God the Father through Jesus' sacrifice.
I don't know where the author attended in WCG's dominion but I promise him/her that my church areas spoke for three straight months about Jesus, all the time."
I've got to agree with Anonymous, at least with the portions I've quoted above. I was never baptized, and so never attended a Passover service. But the sermons? Exactly as Anonymous above me describes.
ummmm, the 14th is passover, the
15th is the first day of unleavened bread.
just because the jews call the days of unleavened bread "passover" doesn't make it so.
passover is a separate observance from unleavened bread.
it's amazing that the "controversy" surrounding the timing of passover won't go away.
how much clearer can it be?
as a side note, the word verification I have to type in to post my comment is "alight" (or, a light)
rather fitting, I think :-)
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