The Protocols of Zion was passed around Pasadena by many of the hard-line followers of Armstrongism. Others bought into the "mark of the beast" as being "bar codes."
There were Jewish conspiracies. There were Catholic conspiracies. The Illuminati. Disciples of Gary North. Belief in the Spear of Destiny, Pyramidology, New World Order. The Jews were conspiring with the Jesuits to destroy Christianity.
Yet through all of this, these people thought they were the most loyal members of the church. They clung to the law and demanded that everyone else do the same things they were. They were the stalwart members of the Church who remain to make sure that the conspiracies of Satan to destroy the Church would never be forgotten.
Fringe groups always attract an odd sort of fringe believers. These people are looking for hidden secret truth that further enhances their worship experience. This hidden knowledge, known only to a select few sets them further apart from the Called Out believers as the true remnant. These are also the same people who believe that they, and they alone are the true holders of the "faith once delivered" by Herbert W Armstrong. They maintain the "pure truth" and use all their means to make sure that those coming up after them are brought to that truth. Many of these people still remain in Grace Communion because they feel that God had called them to the truth in that organization(WCG/RCG) and that they cannot leave. They remain to quietly and subversively continue to spread the teaching of Herbert Armstrong and the"restored true religion" to all they come into contact with - without rising the ire of GCI top brass.
On several COG related groups recently there have been all kinds of posts about the Vision of Fatima, there is one last pope to come, lots of articles on German Nazi mythology and paganism, articles on the secrets behind Masonic lodge architecture in Washington DC, and much, much more. Many of these people are followers of Art Bell, World News Daily and The Raiders News Network. They also buy into all of Dan Brown's books as legitimate sources of symbolism and history.
Why are people so fascinated with conspiracy theories? Scientific American has this to say about conspiracy theories:
Why do people believe in highly improbable conspiracies? In previous columns I have provided partial answers, citing patternicity (the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise) and agenticity (the bent to believe the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents). Conspiracy theories connect the dots of random events into meaningful patterns and then infuse those patterns with intentional agency. Add to those propensities the confirmation bias (which seeks and finds confirmatory evidence for what we already believe) and the hindsight bias (which tailors after-the-fact explanations to what we already know happened), and we have the foundation for conspiratorial cognition.
To see this amazing 'truth' that captivates so many Armstrongites check this out. The Raiders News Network
14 comments:
www.northwestchurch737.blogspot.com
It's all so... so... unscientific!
Can someone please tell me how "Apollyon Rising 2012: The Lost Symbol Found and the Final Mystery of the Great Seal Revealed" is different from "2012 and the Rise of the Secret Sect"?
Please, please, please?!
Yes, and "The Plain Truth" articles that Hitler was still alive in... in... South America? South Pole? Cloned? In Cryo?
patternicity (the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise) and agenticity (the bent to believe the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents)
Oh, let's see now... there's a DSM IV entry for that somewhere... what is it exactly? Schizophrenia, I think. Yes, I think that's right.
But then, isn't British Israelism part of the pattern of this Conspiracy Theory? Herbert Armstrong insisted that a person had to believe BI before baptism until the 1970s at which point there were to many prisoners for the guards to manage -- and who would care anyway what people believed because of all that money the cult members brought with them: Two to Four Billion Dollars! With that kind of money, who couldn't tolerate (and take advantage of) nutjobs and mental cases? Toleration was but a small price to pay for Return on Investment.
Besides, Conspiracy Theories make good ad copy.
And here it comes:
www.northwestchurch737.blogspot.com
If you pay any attention to what is going on in the United States you know that debt is killing our country. Debt is destroying families, businesses and even churches. Dave Ramsey has clearly pointed out that we have a debt problem.
Northwest is no different. We have a debt problem. It is not that we can not pay our mortgage, it is that we have one. And because we have a mortgage it means that kingdom dollars that could be used to participate in kingdom work is going mostly to interest. It is going to a secular institution. Literally we are the servant to our lender.
So, we are launching a campaign to eliminate some if not all of our debt. We have a balloon payment due in three years. We are asking everyone at Northwest to give above and beyond their normal giving for the next three years "So We Can" eliminate debt. "So We Can Participate in the Kingdom" at a higher level.
Likely story.
What is so ironic about all of this is the fact that HWA blamed Simon Magus, a gnostic or proto-gnostic, for contaminating early Christians with gnostic beliefs, thus becoming the catalyst for the emergence of the Roman Catholic Church.
Now, not only is that a theory, no less a theory which is directly contradicted by the testimony of many of the antenicene fathers who were personally taught by the original disciples or apostles, but in actual fact, the gnostics believed that they were to be saved by "special knowledge", above and beyond what was provided in the basic gospel message.
What was the WCG? It was a group of students/believers who had bought into the many personal theories of Herbert W. Armstrong. Many of the basic doctrines had been taught in various forms of Judaism and Christianity, so there was nothing unique about them from an historical perspective. However, HWA's personal theories (his own batch of gnosticism) was what allegedly made WCG special and distinct, preaching the so-called restoration of the gospel after a supposed period of 1900 years in which it had gone missing.
So, here you have another example of the perpetrator (HWA) accusing others (the RCC and mainstream Christianity) of doing what in reality he was doing himself (contaminating the gospel with gnosticism or special knowledge).
The only redeeming factor to HWA's work is that in terms of global population, he only succeeded in brainwashing a very insignificant, almost negligible percentage of humanity. And, fortunately, a high percentage have managed to correct the brainwashing and to escape the clutches of the HWA cult. One distressing byproduct, however, is those ex-members who were left with an image of God as HWA on steroids, a harsh, angry judge with totally performance-based love.
BB
"Yes, and "The Plain Truth" articles that Hitler was still alive in... in... South America?"
Apparently Hitler's body was never really found. The Russians were just a bunch of godless liars whose story kept changing over the years. Hitler might have escaped to South America like so many other Nazis did.
From there Hitler plotted the rise of a Fourth Reich. To throw off suspicion they decided not to call it the Fourth Reich. They thought it would be better to call it the European Union.
So, anonymous, did Hitler die in January 1986 around the time of the death of Herbert Armstrong and L. Ron Hubbard?
And say, I have a question in light of all this Conspiracy Theories stuff: At this point in time, would anyone anywhere actually trust the Armstrongist leaders to run camp in a Place of Safety?
They have such a bad track record.
As to Hitler's death, we do have the testimony of his officers. These days, dna tests would be used to further establish this for most of us. However, we've seen what Armstrongites do with such things as dna testing and radio carbon dating. They refuse to accept the results and just keep on believing the delusions of their "apostle".
Still, perhaps this talking point is of no consequence. neither Hitler, nor anyone else actually did as HWA had prophesied, and they did not do it in accordance with HWA's timetable. Those of us who were kids growing up in WCG were surely terrified as we got closer to 1972 and 1975, but Hitler never manifested himself. Our own Hitler was HWA himself, and the tribulation was our childrearing at the hands of our WCG parents! Can't imagine the Germans doing anything worse than that!
It boggles the mind that with the high profile complete and abyssimal failure of 1975, this incredible horse manure could still be persisting. I'm sure there are still hundreds of kids growing up in splinter families who wish they could be adopted by normal families.
BB
The myth that Hitler was still alive and in South America was taught in my church area and also in official COG literature. Just one more in a long line of idiotic beliefs.
So here's the deal guys, when I was a lad, I was taken to the small town barber shop where Mr. Franklin cut my hair. There were magazines there. One of them was (and this might bring back memories for some of you) "The Police Gazette". I clearly remember reading articles in it that Hitler was still alive. I believe these predated the articles in "The Plain Truth".
Could it be?
"The Plain Truth" got its inspiration from "The Police Gazette"?
We'll never know, but a lot of these other Conspiracy Theories could also be found in "The Police Gazette" and other not so reputable tabloids of the 1950s.
No, there's no New World Order coming. That's just silly.
And our country is doing just fine. We'll find a way to pay the Fed's $76,000,000,000,000 debt, no problem.
Global economic crash? Oil war in the Middle East? Forget about it, not even.
And its perfectly natural to export 50,000 U.S. jobs to China every month. We're all making due, right?
Don't let a little thing like hard facts ruffle your ostrich feathers.
And 9-11 was an inside job too......
Stupid conspiracy theories for the lower masses
Ah, the logical fallacies abound.
"I believe these predated the articles in "The Plain Truth".
Could it be?
"The Plain Truth" got its inspiration from "The Police Gazette"?"
Yes, it is true. The article "Hitler Did Not Die!" was the lethal article that grabbed my attention and sent me on a twenty-two year voyage into cultic insanity.
It was well known by us students in the mid-fifties that the Police Gazette was instrumental in catching the attention of Armstrong and others like the original evangelists -- Hoeh, Dick Armstrong, Meredith and Ray Cole.
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