The yahoo's on Yahoo are still bowing down to worship Herbert Armstrong.
Mr. Armstrong Taught that the King of the South was ALREADY Fulfilled! The Only thing left is the King of the North to enter the Glorious Land, and MANY Nations being overthrown! Many Nations IS and HAVE been overthrown. Now there is news of Russia and other eastern Nations joining and becoming a Eur-asian Union. Russia even told its top generals to "Prepare for Armageddon"
http://www.eutimes.net/2011/10/russian-leader-tells-top-generals-prepare-for-arm\
ageddon/. Sounds alot like Tidings from the east and North. Everyone is looking
for the "Push" but Mr. Armstrong clearly stated in his booklet "The Middle East
in Prophecy" that that was "fulfilled" in 1896 by Ethiopia. Mussolini then came
down like a whirlwind and passed over(by planes). Mr. Armstrong also stated that
this pinpointed the Beginning of "The Time of the End", because it says "AT the
time of the end". Now God said he will send The End-Time Elijah during the End
Times to "Prepare the way of the Lord". Mr. Armstrong fulfilled this to the
letter. If God sent Herbert W Armstrong( and YES He did!), then What he taught from the Bible still stands( for he was an Apostle). If he taught falsely, then he was NOT sent from God and wasn't His Chosen Man! Look closely at What Mr. Armstrong taught, and you will see clearer what God has prophesied from the bible. not from other MEN who tries to put themselves in place of Mr. Armstrong, saying they were sent but were NOT! WE all KNOW that Herbert W Armstrong was Sent From God!
How does one really know someone was sent by a God? Do people ever stop to think how ridiculous that sounds in reality? Well, evidently not.
ReplyDeleteDoes a God 'need' to send a human anywhere to speak for him. Why don't Gods speak for themselves and show up in person. Now THAT would be convincing and impressive. I mean Jesus is supposed to show up personally eventually, so why can't the sender of Jesus just show up himself and why not to each generation so we don't have to go on hearsay and believe those who say they have had experiences we have not had ourseles?
Can one REALLY be blamed for not believing this or that person was of or from a God? I think not.
And what's with the Apostle Paul ?
"2Cor. 2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such a one caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 5 Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities."
Clearly this is Paul speaking of himself. He bragged all about himself in the previous chapters, so this is just more of it. He just has to tell the church he had an out of body experience BUT, inspite of hearing and seeing amazing things...He just can't bring himself to tell them what it was. How convenient. Why should he be believed? We'd not believe anyone in the pulpit who said this today.
He just wanted to show he was special and had personal contact with the Deity. Maybe this god haunted guy had a lucid dream, but he did not go with or without his body to any heaven in reality.
Dave Pack loves this tactic. "Brethren, amazing things are happening, but I cannot share them with you now..." Uh huh.
Paul, who believed he was called from the womb, like Jesus and Jeremiah, the only other two in the Bible who had this distinction, was prone to fibbing and making him either the best or the worst. Never just a normal guy. (Paul never tells the Damascus Road story. That's Luke's addition to his story, in Acts)
At any rate, one can never prove one was sent by a god. They have to tell stories to show they are special and it could happen. But it never really does. It's in their minds only and the minds of their theo-groupies. IMHO
Nice double entendre: Sent from God into the wilderness like the Azazel goat.
ReplyDeleteGood one Douglas! Sent "FROM" is far more accurate.
ReplyDeleteIf Herb was sent from God, then that god is shown to be an incompetent manager who chooses someone who can't get a single prophecy right, screws around with his own daughter and rips everyone possible off.
ReplyDeleteOf course that "god" is as much a figment of somebody's imagination as the prophecies he proclaimed.
Maybe HWA was sent from God, but like Solomon, he waent astray with wine women and money.
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems inherent in adding a spiritual penis extender to your ministry by claiming Biblical titles such as "apostle" or "prophet" is that it leaves you without recourse in correcting false doctrine or false prophecy.
ReplyDeleteGod's representatives with such titles during Biblical times simply spoke what they learned from their close relationships with God. There was no guessing at the news and trying to match it up with Biblical prophecies, or grafting extrabiblical theories into their teachings.
One story surrounding the changes in WCG has HWA telling Joe Tkach Sr. a short time prior to HWA's death that there were some serious changes which needed to be made that HWA simply could not make. The story could be true, or it could be apocryphal, but, if true, we can surely understand the position which both men might have been in on this. I seriously doubt that HWA himself could have successfully made any major corrections to official doctrine without the same splintering effect which we all witnessed taking place.
The fact that Raymond Cole left and started his own group immediately after HWA changed the divorce and remarriage doctrines is proof positive of this. Cole is reported as believing that HWA had literally left his own church!
BB
Whether Herbert W Armstrong was sent from God or not sort of depends on what kind of being God is, but I hold it's not entirely out of the question.
ReplyDeleteI once witnessed him loudly humiliate, in front of pinstripe-suited official visitors, the foreman of the Ambassador College campus construction crew (my boss at the time). On every other job I've ever held, a man acting like HWA did that day would be known as a horse's ass.
Pondering the prank God is reported to have played on Abraham involving Isaac, I also see the behavior of a horse's ass. That's just on a personal level, leaving aside all the genocides the Big Guy is said to have ordered. Kindred spirits, looks like.
Byker Bob said...
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems inherent in adding a spiritual penis extender to your ministry by claiming Biblical titles such as "apostle" or "prophet" is that it leaves you without recourse in correcting false doctrine or false prophecy.
MY COMMENT: Nope! An "apostle" is not a Biblical TITLE, nor is it an office of authority. Never has been. Never will be. A prophet is one who receives a message directly from God. We ain't ever had one of those, nor have we ever had an "apostle". No religious group has.
Titles!! Empty sources of vanity for the most part. They were invented to give an aura of authority and that has never changed.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly, calling a minister "Mr." was supposed to do away with the vanity of "Reverend. Didn't work.
I have wet behind the ears young Mormons come to my door sporting badges with the title "elder" on them. Makes about as much sense as the title did in WCG.
I used to laugh when I was near forty and supposedly the spiritual advisorover my congregation and one I was supposed to seek out for wisdom was barely past 21 and labeled an "elder." It was another of the absurdities that began to weaken my faith and dedication.
Well, Steve, regardless as to how you wish to categorize the word, Armstrongites around the world base their beliefs on the supposition that HWA was God's Apostle. As they define and apply that word, it pretty much means to them that he was infallible in terms of doctrine. He has falsely equated himself with James, John, Peter, Paul, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd, because of this, those who believe it will never admit that the extrabiblical theories which HWA combined with real Biblical teachings could possibly be wrong.
Though we all know better, these folks have been reprogrammed to believe in the aftermath of the 1972-75 debacle that HWA never set dates. Following the mapping of the human genome and the discovery that the general population of the USA derives a much higher percentage of its dna from German stock than British, they continue to believe that we are Manasseh or Ephraim or some such nonsence. And, in spite of the total debunking of the work of Alexander Hislop, they still believe that if you were able to go via time machine to an ancient Babylonian worship center, you'd think you were in a modern day Catholic Church.
If you were to get rid of all the extrabiblical contaminants and crackpot conspiracy theories which HWA added to his theology, you'd end up with something like a Messianic Jewish church. But, some are intellectually incapable of doing this, largely because they had become convinced that HWA was God's Apostle. To change anything would be to admit that he was in error and could not therefore have been an apostle. The good news is that it does not matter whether they admit it or not. The fact is, he was yet another false teacher, blinded thousands, distorted their perceptions of God, and prevented them from having a genuine spiritual experience.
BB
Byker Bob said...
ReplyDeleteWell, Steve, regardless as to how you wish to categorize the word, Armstrongites around the world base their beliefs on the supposition that HWA was God's Apostle.
MY COMMENT: I didn't categorize the word. You did, by stating that "apostle" was a Biblical TITLE. Ain't no such category. It ain't no title. It ain't no position of authority. It ain't no kind of office of authority. Neither is "minister" or elder. That's all Catholic crap invented to control the masses...the false clergy/laity trap.