Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
When I was considering WCG, I purchased an anti-WCG book similar to this from a Christian bookstore.
After studying it and WCG literature with an open Bible, I still reached the conclusion that WCG was closer to what the Bible really teaches.
While I've come to see flaws in numerous COG doctrines over the years, they still tend to do much better on my "truth counter" than mainstream Christian churches -- or even the SDA's.
Years ago I went to religious bookstores to check out the books about cults to see what they had to say about HWA and the WCG. In short, they were no help at all, obviously having been written by the biblically illiterate and the spiritually blind.
They could have at least mentioned HWA's wrong date setting, or GTA's sexual immorality, but they did not. There were other unfortunate things that could have been brought up as well, but they were not.
All they could do was go into satanic fits of frustration that the WCG under HWA observed the biblical, weekly, seventh-day Sabbath that God had commanded to be observed in OT times and that Jesus observed in NT times--rather than observe the pagan based Sunday like the great false churches want to force on everyone.
All they could do was whine that the WCG people under HWA tried to observe the biblical festivals that were given by God in OT times and observed by Jesus in NT times--rather than observe unbiblical, pagan-based customs like Christmas, Easter, and even Halloween, like the great false churches want to force on everyone.
And oh how they whined that the WCG people under HWA had the good sense to obey God's laws about clean and unclean animals for their own good--rather than put just any detestable thing into their mouths like the great false churches want to force everyone to do.
These spiritual morons also found it incredible that HWA taught that the incorrigibly wicked would ultimately just be tossed into a lake of fire (the "second death") and be burned up and cease to exist--rather than be tormented for all eternity just for a mere seventy years of sinning. It never even occurred to these idiots that if the wicked did get tormented for all eternity, that would be the fate that they themselves (the wicked breakers of God's laws) would be facing.
Well, this dramatizes what I believe is the only value to the "new" WCG, or GCI. They know where the bodies are buried, so to speak. In other words, they are able to discuss the classic doctrines of HWA with a depth unknown to outsider theologically learned ones from other systems of Christianity. They know the doctrines, they know what scripture was used in the past to support those doctrines, they know which doctrines were an asset to one's spiritual growth and condition and which ones were grossly toxic and detrimental.
Once one is aware of these doctrinal issues and their remedy, however, it is best to seek out a church group (or remain independent) which teaches the doctrines, but has not been warped by Armstrong's authoritarian approach. That authoritarian approach fails to take into consideration the true role of God the Holy Spirit. Being a Christian is a personal one on one activity with God. A church community can be supportive in this, but should never be allowed the roles of police, judge and jury.
A whole lot more than one! Everybody gets played for the sucker many times in their lives.
Exactly, what kind of sucker you will be often depends on where and to whom you are born. Then, life experiences and relationships enter. Nobody escapes.
This whole concept of the "sucker" got me to thinking. I believe that probably just about everyone in all of history was suckered at least once, and most of us multiple times by people filling the salesman or teacher role.
I used to just marvel, when reading the Book of Revelation, about the beings who continuously praised God 24-7-365. That vision seemed to be contrived or inauthentic. What would make thinking beings praise their leader or king, uninterrupted, never losing their enthusiasm? I can think of only one cause, and that would be that these beings were deeply aware that the object of their praise consistently had their best interests in mind in His every action, and that this never diminished, and never changed. How else could you have the constancy mirrored in these verses?
Obviously, at some point in time, all of us realized that those to whom we looked for guidance, love, and encouragement in WCG did not in fact have our best interests at heart! Although some exceptional ones have repented and changed, for the most part the status of the majority is not even arguable. There are car salesmen who were probably more reliable and praiseworthy than HWA and his mouthpieces!
I guess you could also mention the many millions of adherents of Islam, and the fact that they could tell you how the blessings have flowed to them, true to the Qur'an's teachings.
Would you like to switch places with them? I surely wouldn't!
That, to me, is the seminal question one would need to ask oneself in evaluating other religions or national cultures and the quality of the blessings they are said to enjoy.
I don't regard the question as valid because it's rooted in fantasy, but I think I understand the point you are trying to relay.
Adopting another's religion and culture as my own, based on the concept of "whether I'd want to be them", I find to be an inherently kooky concept.
There are millions of Muslims who are very happy and who believe the quality of their blessings are(like the Q'uran says) beyond measure, and those people would not want to trade places with me if they had the ability to do so.
Not that I have any desire to become Muslim, though.
It puzzles me a bit that you seem to be going with the "What religion makes you happiest?" and "What religion delivers the biggest prizes?" questions, along with the the assertions of, "Your life will totally suck without Jesus!" and "Your life will be a void without Jesus!"
I find such arguments for a belief system rather cheesy.
Do you think it's because your religion's God gives you the Holy Spirit and makes you KNOW that the lives of those not in your religion "will totally suck"?
Do you think the Holy Spirit makes you KNOW that the transmission you found for your car was totally from Jesus, while a transmission someone in a different religion found for his car is because of some other explanation?
What if I found a religion called the "Happytarions" whose members said they were happier than all other religions combined, and whose many members gave testimonies of getting mega-super-duper blessings? Those attributes wouldn't make me want to join them.
Paul spoke of "walking in the Spirit". He also speaks of the great freedom in Jesus Christ. Victorious living is also treated in the epistles.
The whole idea of living in sync with God is to be on the positive side rather than the negative. Salvation, forgiveness from sins, developing holy character and becoming holy as God is holy, so that we can live in His presence. Not ruled by our emotions, or even by the surrounding circumstances, but living the life of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt that there are ups and downs, because the enemy of our salvation is always attempting to derail us.
Happiness is just a very temporary emotion. Peace and joy in all circumstances are God's gifts to His children, and are the real deal.
Oh, by the way. Perhaps I never shared this, but for nearly twenty years, I worked for a Pakistani millionaire, and his brother. I do know a little bit about the Muslims. There is no comparison at all between that faith and the Christian faith. Perhaps in not knowing my background, you inadvertently picked a bad frame of reference.
I suppose I could have chosen another of many "frames of reference" for my point, but I ended up choosing Islam, another Abrahamic religion, partly because I know some Muslims, and partly because the contrasted similarities about "abiding in Joy" and "blessings which will flow" may make a person think a bit, since in the USA, like many people think of Mexicans, Muslims are thought of as, "awful, dirty, backward people"
I do remember your stating that you worked for a Muslim millionaire, although I don't recall if that was the person who acted as your benefactor in getting you set up in your own business. I also recall your stating, after 9/11, that even though we maybe shouldn't physically drive Muslims out of the USA, that at least we should make them feel very unwelcome here.
Anyway, since you mention how peace and joy in all circumstances are the blessings of a Christian.....here's something from a Muslim, and it kind of mirrors what you say about Christianity(although it does lack your "my religion is great and yours sucks" message-
Many of us mistake personal pleasures for inner peace; we achieve elements of pleasure from a variety of things, be it wealth, sexual relations or other than that. But these do not last, they come and go. Yes we have personal pleasures from time to time and we are pleased with various things from time to time, but this is not inner peace. True inner peace is a sense of stability and contentment which carries us through all the trials and difficulties of life.
BTW, I'll clarify something I wrote about choosing to not do business with Christians approach me using "Christian buzzwords": It's not that that I have a problem doing business with a Christian person, but rather that, in my experience, those who have approached me using such buzzwords have usually exhibited a lack of business ethics-- so much so, that I now try and avoid having dealings with those types(which I can usually identify at "first contact" when the red flag of those buzzwords arises).
12 comments:
Ironically, the only thing useful is the section on British Israelism.
The rest is based on assumptions which may be just as faulty as the eschatology of Herbert Armstrong.
Nice find, though -- congrats on the research!
When I was considering WCG, I purchased an anti-WCG book similar to this from a Christian bookstore.
After studying it and WCG literature with an open Bible, I still reached the conclusion that WCG was closer to what the Bible really teaches.
While I've come to see flaws in numerous COG doctrines over the years, they still tend to do much better on my "truth counter" than mainstream Christian churches -- or even the SDA's.
Years ago I went to religious bookstores to check out the books about cults to see what they had to say about HWA and the WCG. In short, they were no help at all, obviously having been written by the biblically illiterate and the spiritually blind.
They could have at least mentioned HWA's wrong date setting, or GTA's sexual immorality, but they did not. There were other unfortunate things that could have been brought up as well, but they were not.
All they could do was go into satanic fits of frustration that the WCG under HWA observed the biblical, weekly, seventh-day Sabbath that God had commanded to be observed in OT times and that Jesus observed in NT times--rather than observe the pagan based Sunday like the great false churches want to force on everyone.
All they could do was whine that the WCG people under HWA tried to observe the biblical festivals that were given by God in OT times and observed by Jesus in NT times--rather than observe unbiblical, pagan-based customs like Christmas, Easter, and even Halloween, like the great false churches want to force on everyone.
And oh how they whined that the WCG people under HWA had the good sense to obey God's laws about clean and unclean animals for their own good--rather than put just any detestable thing into their mouths like the great false churches want to force everyone to do.
These spiritual morons also found it incredible that HWA taught that the incorrigibly wicked would ultimately just be tossed into a lake of fire (the "second death") and be burned up and cease to exist--rather than be tormented for all eternity just for a mere seventy years of sinning. It never even occurred to these idiots that if the wicked did get tormented for all eternity, that would be the fate that they themselves (the wicked breakers of God's laws) would be facing.
Well, this dramatizes what I believe is the only value to the "new" WCG, or GCI. They know where the bodies are buried, so to speak. In other words, they are able to discuss the classic doctrines of HWA with a depth unknown to outsider theologically learned ones from other systems of Christianity. They know the doctrines, they know what scripture was used in the past to support those doctrines, they know which doctrines were an asset to one's spiritual growth and condition and which ones were grossly toxic and detrimental.
Once one is aware of these doctrinal issues and their remedy, however, it is best to seek out a church group (or remain independent) which teaches the doctrines, but has not been warped by Armstrong's authoritarian approach. That authoritarian approach fails to take into consideration the true role of God the Holy Spirit. Being a Christian is a personal one on one activity with God. A church community can be supportive in this, but should never be allowed the roles of police, judge and jury.
BB
There's a sucker born again every minute.
"There's a sucker born again every minute."
A whole lot more than one! Everybody gets played for the sucker many times in their lives.
Exactly, what kind of sucker you will be often depends on where and to whom you are born. Then, life experiences and relationships enter. Nobody escapes.
This whole concept of the "sucker"
got me to thinking. I believe that probably just about everyone in all of history was suckered at least once, and most of us multiple times by people filling the salesman or teacher role.
I used to just marvel, when reading the Book of Revelation, about the beings who continuously praised God 24-7-365. That vision seemed to be contrived or inauthentic. What would make thinking beings praise their leader or king, uninterrupted, never losing their enthusiasm? I can think of only one cause, and that would be that these beings were deeply aware that the object of their praise consistently had their best interests in mind in His every action, and that this never diminished, and never changed. How else could you have the constancy mirrored in these verses?
Obviously, at some point in time, all of us realized that those to whom we looked for guidance, love, and encouragement in WCG did not in fact have our best interests at heart! Although some exceptional ones have repented and changed, for the most part the status of the majority is not even arguable. There are car salesmen who were probably more reliable and praiseworthy than HWA and his mouthpieces!
BB
Bob,
I guess you could also mention the many millions of adherents of Islam, and the fact that they could tell you how the blessings have flowed to them, true to the Qur'an's teachings.
Norm
Norm,
Would you like to switch places with them? I surely wouldn't!
That, to me, is the seminal question one would need to ask oneself in evaluating other religions or national cultures and the quality of the blessings they are said to enjoy.
BB
BB,
I don't regard the question as valid because it's rooted in fantasy, but I think I understand the point you are trying to relay.
Adopting another's religion and culture as my own, based on the concept of "whether I'd want to be them", I find to be an inherently kooky concept.
There are millions of Muslims who are very happy and who believe the quality of their blessings are(like the Q'uran says) beyond measure, and those people would not want to trade places with me if they had the ability to do so.
Not that I have any desire to become Muslim, though.
It puzzles me a bit that you seem to be going with the "What religion makes you happiest?" and "What religion delivers the biggest prizes?" questions, along with the the assertions of, "Your life will totally suck without Jesus!" and "Your life will be a void without Jesus!"
I find such arguments for a belief system rather cheesy.
Do you think it's because your religion's God gives you the Holy Spirit and makes you KNOW that the lives of those not in your religion "will totally suck"?
Do you think the Holy Spirit makes you KNOW that the transmission you found for your car was totally from Jesus, while a transmission someone in a different religion found for his car is because of some other explanation?
What if I found a religion called the "Happytarions" whose members said they were happier than all other religions combined, and whose many members gave testimonies of getting mega-super-duper blessings?
Those attributes wouldn't make me want to join them.
Norm
Paul spoke of "walking in the Spirit". He also speaks of the great freedom in Jesus Christ. Victorious living is also treated in the epistles.
The whole idea of living in sync with God is to be on the positive side rather than the negative. Salvation, forgiveness from sins, developing holy character and becoming holy as God is holy, so that we can live in His presence. Not ruled by our emotions, or even by the surrounding circumstances, but living the life of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt that there are ups and downs, because the enemy of our salvation is always attempting to derail us.
Happiness is just a very temporary emotion. Peace and joy in all circumstances are God's gifts to His children, and are the real deal.
Oh, by the way. Perhaps I never shared this, but for nearly twenty years, I worked for a Pakistani millionaire, and his brother. I do know a little bit about the Muslims. There is no comparison at all between that faith and the Christian faith. Perhaps in not knowing my background, you inadvertently picked a bad frame of reference.
BB
BB,
I suppose I could have chosen another of many "frames of reference" for my point, but I ended up choosing Islam, another Abrahamic religion, partly because I know some Muslims, and partly because the contrasted similarities about "abiding in Joy" and "blessings which will flow" may make a person think a bit, since in the USA, like many people think of Mexicans, Muslims are thought of as, "awful, dirty, backward people"
I do remember your stating that you worked for a Muslim millionaire, although I don't recall if that was the person who acted as your benefactor in getting you set up in your own business.
I also recall your stating, after 9/11, that even though we maybe shouldn't physically drive Muslims out of the USA, that at least we should make them feel very unwelcome here.
Anyway, since you mention how peace and joy in all circumstances are the blessings of a Christian.....here's something from a Muslim, and it kind of mirrors what you say about Christianity(although it does lack your "my religion is great and yours sucks" message-
Many of us mistake personal pleasures for inner peace; we achieve elements of pleasure from a variety of things, be it wealth, sexual relations or other than that. But these do not last, they come and go. Yes we have personal pleasures from time to time and we are pleased with various things from time to time, but this is not inner peace. True inner peace is a sense of stability and contentment which carries us through all the trials and difficulties of life.
BTW, I'll clarify something I wrote about choosing to not do business with Christians approach me using "Christian buzzwords":
It's not that that I have a problem doing business with a Christian person, but rather that, in my experience, those who have approached me using such buzzwords have usually exhibited a lack of business ethics-- so much so, that I now try and avoid having dealings with those types(which I can usually identify at "first contact" when the red flag of those buzzwords arises).
Norm
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