I honestly don't think the editors of this sad little magazine realized how silly this headline looks with the picture they included. Are they implying that the Ambassador Auditorium Lake is the fountain of Living Waters?
We have had a lot of fools over the years that attributed all kinds of sacred things to the building. We had the story promoted by a minister that the invading armies of Germany would be so awestruck with the Pasadena campus that when they invaded Pasadena they would use the College as the German HQ for the occupation. They would be so frightened by the Auditorium inscription and the other 'godly' things on the campus that they would be afraid to damage any of the property. Therefore, God's House would be preserved into the millennium and HWA and crew could come back and use the campus as the HQ for the restoration of the bombed out United States as they instituted the 1,000 years of rule by COG members who were now gods.
Then there was the fool that claimed the egret fountain was going to come alive. Four of the egrets would fly up to each corner of the Auditorium and pick it up. The fifth egret would fly in front of the Auditorium as they flew it to Petra. People actually left the church and started following this fool. Now the egrets have been painted white and are the mascot of a Charismatic Pentecostal personality cult. Some things never change......
Then there was the fool that claimed the egret fountain was going to come alive. Four of the egrets would fly up to each corner of the Auditorium and pick it up. The fifth egret would fly in front of the Auditorium as they flew it to Petra. People actually left the church and started following this fool. Now the egrets have been painted white and are the mascot of a Charismatic Pentecostal personality cult. Some things never change......
5 comments:
The Watchman isn't so vigilant, I guess, or more accurate, observant (Jesus Christ was supposed to be the "Living Waters").
What is so disturbing about this is that Scripture says that the Spirit of God is a spirit of love and of a sound mind.
Yet here we are.
Scripture and cult leaders have made people crazy nut cases, like the man at the grave of Herbert Armstrong waiting for him to be resurrected and lead the WCG once again.
Con artists so stress people with PTSD that they can't function any longer and go off like some Don Quixote tilting at windmills. Think about it: Three tithes. That alone is enough to drive people batty, particularly those who have little enough to support themselves in the first place, and particularly even more so when Scripture is silent about tithing on wages. We go on from there: Keeping the Sabbath and Holydays, perfectly and getting our children to do so as well. Changing doctrines from not going to doctors and then going to doctors. Lipstick or no lipstick. Pentecost on Monday, then Sunday. Divorce and no remarry and then divorce and remarry. You can't then you can, then you can't again. Or is it that you can? Better check the very latest coworker letter whining for money because the profligate End Time Apostle overspent again, just to be sure.
It's all so much like the Woody Allen movie "Bananas" when he got to be dictator of a banana republic and became a despot who insisted that it was the law to change underwear every four hours. Then, because it was so difficult to check, made the law that people had to wear underwear over their outter garments.
Time does not permit exploring British Israelism or faux church history.
So a few fall off the wagon on their heads?
Should we be surprised?
Well obviously the fountain of truth is in Pasadena! All praise and honor to Ambassador Auditorium! Now that Harvest Rock Church has thrown salt into the lake to cast out the demons of Armstrongism, I guess it a pure and holy lake now.
Or the Dead Sea.
Silly speculation was fomented by HWA, via his endorsement of Gerald Waterhouse's traveling carny show.
Throughout the past, while HWA was alive, members were only permitted to believe and repeat the official WCG-approved speculation. So, instead of being completely off the wall, a modicum of credibility was always just barely maintained.
Since the splinters have been figuratively spewed from the mouth of God, the whole movement has spun out of control and is self-destructing. Who would believe that these people could provide the help and spiritual guidance necessary to reconcile one's life to that of Jesus Christ? That, it would seem, is the essence of it all!
BB
My fountain is filled with flavored-aid. Mmm mmm mmm.
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