Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Apostle Malm Lays Down the Law!



Apostle Malm is laying his theology for his cult out plain and simple for all to see.  The more laws you keep the better God will like you, any maybe even Jesus too.  And, if you are really, really good at keeping ALL the law then maybe God might send a little portion of hte Holy Spirit to you.  Be careful though, you can loose the HS at your slightest sin.

Apostle Malm is commanding that the DUB and FT are to be kept in their entirety without any work for any sort.  You can fix simple meals and do 'necessary' things, but no work!  Apostle Malm is like so many in the various harlot daughters that are trying to revert back to the original teachings of HWA.  HWA originally held seven day UB's where people traveled to Belknap Springs, OR for UB for seven days.  Then in the fall they traveled for eight days for the FOT.

Apostle Malm seems to think his words carry some kind of weight in COGdom.  He, and he alone, is the only person really preaching the truth now.  UCG, COGWA, LCG, PCG, etc are all wishy-washy compromising sinners who fail to keep every single law his 'god' demands.
Yesterday I introduced the fact the the Feast of Unleavends is commanded  to be observed for a full seven days. 

The Feast of Unleavends is the seven days during which Israel journeyed out of Egypt.  For five full days they traveled and on the night beginning the sixth day the wind blew all through the night dividing the Red Sea and providing a means of escape.  On the sixth day Israel entered the sea and passed over dry shod.  As the sixth day ended Israel looked back for their persuers and the persuers were nowhere to be seen; having been swallowed up by the sea.  Then began the seventh day; a High Holy Day of great rejoicing over the victory given by God.


Notice; On the first day [a High Holy Day] they left their homes in Egypt and they were fleeing for the whole six days to rejoice on the seventh.  They did NOT just observe the First and Last Days!  On EVERY day they were fleeing and that has its lessons for us; this Feast is not just about two days; it is about the whole seven days.
 So all of you pagan COG churches out there that only keep the first and last days of UB and then send everyone home to do their normal work are heretics and grievous sinners!  You are sending your members home so they can enjoy the every day things in life that they do all the time instead of sitting in a sweltering Odd Fellow's Hall listening to some uneducated preacher drone on and on for three miserable hours about nothing.

When we return to doing our own thing during the intervening days: Where are our minds focused?  Where are our hearts and spirits truly focused?  Certainly not exclusively on God!  God wants our attention so that he can spend time with us and teach and rejoice with him; and we can be with  each other; encouraging and learning from one another! How Wonderful!
 The only 'work' you are permitted to do according to Apostle Malm, is seven days of intensive Bible study.

The whole seven days are a time to be spent with God in intense study; drinking in the very mind of Christ through study, fellowship and mutual spiritual instruction and support.  Yes this pictures the need to put sin OUT and take Christ IN throughout our lives;  if we do not do this through the Feast; that picture pales and is greatly diminished.  We do this through the WHOLE seven days as a proper picture of the need to do so without slacking, throughout our lives.
 Only work essential for the Festival such as food preparation and basic needs should be done during the Non Sabbath days of the Spring and Fall Festivals.

 More disrupted school days for your kids.  More jobs lost because you will need a SECOND vacation for religious reasons.  On and on the legalistic list of unnecessary rules and regulations goes and the ramifications it has on those people who decide to follow this silliness.  More 'martyrs' for the 'word' of another fake 'apostle.'

Friday, June 10, 2011

Dad...Why Does the Preacher Talk So Stupid?





Dad...Why Does the Preacher Talk So Stupid?  

Dennis Diehl - EzineArticles Expert AuthorWhen it comes to fundamentalist preachers, there is nothing quite like the way they choose to express themselves from the pulpit. What they say, in and of itself, can be quite amazing. Such as the recent flap with Mrs. Benny Hinn, tryng her darndest to give a ranting good sermon for the masses and making a complete fool out of herself. In the typical breathless rant of evangelical showmanship, she told the audience what they needed was "a Holy Ghost enema, right up your rear end."



Honest, that was what she said and she repeated it. She then went on to tell the audience not to be "butt kissers." Having realized that she probably had crossed a few too many lines, she tried to recover by saying that people like her just have that kind of humor but was too late and the tape spread around the world, and not in a good way. She then went into a pacing frenzy back and forth until she broke her shoe and told the audience they didn't need shoes anyway, they needed to put on combat boots for Jesus. I guess this got her out of the shoe breakage embarassment. The end came merciful when she fell flat on her face, on stage, and everyone started clapping as if this was of God and the perfect ending to a perfect sermon. It was pathetic and the scary part is that not one person in the audience got up and said "I'm out of here." They loved it.


The fact is that nothing she said in the "sermon" was helpful. Nothing she said was correct and practically nothing she said was anythng but an attempt to appear inspiring and ending up being absolutely foolish. Poor Mr. Hinn was so angry that the video was playing around the world, he threatened those who showed it, from what I understand. I don't blame him. What a time at the 'ol breakfast table next day that must have been!


What is it about fundamentalist preachers that some seemingly have to loose their minds and common sense in an avalanche of "techniques" that leave most educated people laughing themselves sick? Do they not realize they are being laughed at?


When a preacher tells the audience that the reason Bathsheba was called Bathsheba was due to the fact that as King David oggled her from the roof top, she was taking a BATH, something is seriously wrong. 






I'm not kidding, I heard it with my own ears and wrote the man suggesting that had she been taking a shower, we would have known her as SHOWER-Sheba. The man was simply ignorant and I almost drove off the road laughing. On the other hand, it was pathetic and I often wonder if any in his congregation called him out on that little piece of ignorance. Sometimes I wonder at the audience more than the preacher.


Of course, Bat-Sheba means "daughter of Sheba just as "Bar Kochba means "Son of Kochba" and when I pointed that out, he just got miffed.  

What can be said from the pulpit can be amazingly silly or incredibly harmful. Pat Robertson tells us that hurricanes are from God punishing New Orleans or that Ariel Sharon's stroke is from God for giving up part of the West Bank to people who also need a real place to live. His comments are wrong, ignorant, foolish and dangerous.

  
But then most of his comments speaking for God are. He suddenly saw the light (most will do that when you challenge a particular piece of ignorance and never do when never challenged) when the State of Israel cancelled his affiliation with them and one of his pet projects in Israel, but it was too late. Good for them to put a price on speaking foolishness from the pulpit. I guess the State of Israel was able to uninspire Pat's inspired comments. God, I suppose, was forced to recind His inspiration and give into the current dilemma.

Time would fail to account for all the ignorance that comes from the pulpits of men and women not trained, not educated, not informed and not accountable for their presentations. Sanctified ignorance is still ignorance as far as we can tell.



There were dinosaurs on the ark...wrong
Earth is just 6000 years old...wrong
Our church is the only true church on earth...wrong
Evolution is a doctrine of Satan...wrong
Dancin is a doctrine of Satan...wrong
Whatever you ask in Jesus name, you will have...wrong
"I am God's true representative on earth and I am compelled to say these things..." wrong
If you tithe, God will bless you and pour out the windows of heaven to you...wrong
God is doing this...wrong
God is doing that...wrong
Jesus thinks this of that...wrong
Jesus thinks that of this...wrong
"I know I am going very long on this sermon..but you need to hear this..." wrong
"You need to put the Church and bible study and being here first in your life..." wrong


...and on and on and on such that it would behove most preachers of this way of being to join On and On Anonymous!

Perhaps most irritating and pathetic of all is the WAY that many Evangelical, TV and Fundamentalist preachers present themselves. What's with the cadance from hell in the presentation? What's with the "eh" "eh" "eh" at the end of every sentence. I realize physiologically it helps them breath or they would pass out, and while it may be "tradition" it is past useful for educated parishioners. Maybe that's the problem too.


What's with the yelling? Always yelling and always giving the appearance that they are angry. Preachers are angry a lot as they think they can't be a Preacher without their righteous indignation showing for every last thing on the planet they decide is evil and needs the iron rod of Jesus to smack down.






I listened to a preacher this morning coming in to work just to see if he would pass out and go absolutely speechless trying to yell, speak and breathe at the same time. I don't think he missed one human foible in his presentation that he was not bashing his congregation over the head with. Sometimes I sense "me thinks thou protesteth too much." I have learned that far more often than one thinks, just monitor what topics the preacher rails upon repeatedly and you might have a good hint at what troubles his own ignorant soul. Every minister in my personal experience who was known to rail against this or that "sex problem" was wrestling with it himself. Projection is something that most congregants of fundamentalist preachers don't understand.


No one can slaughter the English language like a preacher gone berserk behind the pulpit. Imagine a meeting at IBM or the Oval Office (well there I can ;), conducted in that tone and style and you will find someone being escorted off the premisis looking for a new job.


Sermons are full of nonsensical phrases and pronounciations. If you were to write down what was said and read it back, it would sound ridiculous. From "Jaaa..eeeeeezus says," to "days (there is) a time a commin..." an intelligent and meaningful presentation is lost in a flurry of emotion and slobber. HOW you say something for many preachers far outweighs whether what one says is even true. Remember, in fact, science by nature of being science has to be accurate and admit mistakes. At this moment, we have some very embarassed and angry South Korean scientists who have found out and admitted that their recent cloaning projects were bogus. Sorry about that, but good for them.


Preachers not only rarely admit to mistakes, but seem to have a need to perpetuate the error. Since God is never wrong, they never are not wrong either, since they think they both speak and are inspired by this outside force called "God." Simply ask yourself how many times you have ever heard a preacher or church say it was wrong when it said this or that and you will understand what I mean. Because of this, many fundamentalist sermons are delivered in angry, emotional, threatening and self righteous tones. I can only imagine what some of the kids are thinking as they watch the show. Often they will tell you years later how nuts the church the grew up in was.
Every scientific fact that the church has ever made fun of as being contradicted by the Bible, they have eventually had to admit to being correct. Of course, many do not, and never will, Praise Jesus for my ignorance because "the wisdom of man is foolishness with God," and "my ways are not YOUR ways..saith the Lord." Preachers hid a lot of ignorance behind those two quotes.


It just took the Pope 350 years to apologize for almost burning Galileo at the stake for thinking earth was not the center of the solar system and the sun circled it. He didn't apologize for actually doing it to nameless others. Science has yet to acknowledge one Biblical allegory as being literally true in their actual findings. Eventually, the "facts" the church promotes in areas where they don't know what they are talking about, falls to the real facts.

More so now in these days of easy access to the internet for information not formerly available to the average person.


And so sometimes we have to ask ourselves, "what is our chillins learning in Church from such preachers?"

For starters, they are learning:



Yelling trumps teaching.
Good grammar doesn't count in church.

God is a consuming fire if you question the preacher.


Emotions trump good information.


One can be ill-programmed for life and not realize it.


Brains and YOUR intelligence and common sense indeed can be checked at the door when you go to your church.


Preachers are never wrong.


YOU are seldom right.

"Jaaaaaaheeeezus" loves the sinner but hates the sin, but it sure sounds like he hates the sinner too.
Mom or Dad never seem to think what I think the preacher says and does is stupid..something must be wrong with me.


God and Jesus must be raving lunatics if this man or woman is his personal representative on earth to me.
Narcissism must be a spiritual gift.


Take some time and just listen to the words of those that fit these ways of speaking for God. Watch the antics they feel they have to use to convince. If your head says "it must be so" while your tummy says "no no no", go with the tummy. It will tell you the truth of what you are feeling more accurately and you won't feel like something is wrong with you for observing that, while sincere, this man is really not qualified to teach me who and what God is and what he is or isn't doing on good 'ol planet earth. You'll also be able to more genuinely answer the question your kids are asking themselves, whether you know it or not. "Dad, why is the preacher yelling, and why does he talk so funny?"


  Dennis C. Diehl

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Two Witless Witnesses: Men In Black?



Chiropractor/naturopath/end time prophet/self proclaimed authority on 2012 and  the COG, Bob Thiel claims that the two witnesses are sitting in the Living Church of God right now.  Who they are he has no idea, but the only logical explanation is that only LCG could produce those two righteous people.  Anyone outside LCG is an ignorant fool and is to be ignored.

Of course, I do believe that God will raise up the two witnesses, and I believe that they are alive now.  However, I believe that they are very likely to be part of the Living Church of God, so when I get emails from people outside of the COG who make such claims (and who never have any real proof, just assertions) I feel that they can safely be eliminated from consideration.
 .
He claims to have gotten a letter recently from a man and his daughter claiming to be the two witness, as well as from another person

He then launches into the two witless witnesses Ronnie Weinland and his wife. At least Bob has the brains to see the witless witnesses as the complete morons they are.


But, then goes on to say that whenever the witnesses arrive on the scene they will be wearing some kind of dark clothing:

3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering (Isaiah 50:3).
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood (Revelation 6:12).
The implication in the above scriptures is that biblical sackcloth is black–thus it seems that the two witnesses wear some cloth that is black, hence my use of the Men in Black photo at the beginning of this article.
 While it is remotely possible that the two witnesses will not wear actual physical sackcloth, Revelation 11:13 is not speaking of just humility, but specifically that the clothing of the two witnesses will not be fancy–probably in contrast to the beast, who is likely to be flashy/wealthy in appearance.And in particular, I also suspect that the two witnesses actually will sometimes wear some literal sackcloth, at least at times. And that they will wear at least some black while they are publicly warning the world.

Bobby Fischer Against The World (and WCG)

New HBO documentary on Bobby Fisher includes Worldwide Church of God failed prophecies as part of Fischer's declining mental state.





WCG Ministers Taught Members to "Rat On One Another"

Oh the wonderful legacy of Armstrongism!  
The former WCG members are a couple of minutes into the video:



The REAL Cause of GTA's Death Revealed At Last!



I guess all of us dumb fools out here in COGland bought into the story that GTA died from a staph infection as a result of a hospitalization.

Did you know there is another more sinister reason he died?  This COG member on one of the right wing COG Yahoo boards thinks so!  Teddy was killed because of the message he preached!

I have said before that I continue to be amazed at the stupidity that comes out of Armstrongites. Tonight just drives that point home!  What an idiot!

  I agree totally!! My wife has always felt that GTA was actually murdered at that hospital that he was in!! If you recall he was very condemning of the homo lifestyle and could have been murdered by one of them including a possible homo doctor!!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Aaron Dean on GTA and HWA's Relationship



RE: [elijahforum] GTA on YouTube

While I would agree a lot of people heard GTA as 1st contact, it was the writings of HWA that convincted them.

I cannot agree that "others had a vested interest in keeping them apart".  From 1980 to 86, I answered the phone when Ted called, and I would ALWAYS tell HWA that Ted was calling, and he always called the home, not the office.  Always his statement was (and GTA heard it as I held the phone up and would ask if he heard his father.) "He knows what he has to do". All GTA had to do was write a simple letter to his father so he would know it would not be a shouting match if he did talk to him, and GTA would not do that.  It served GTA's purpose better to say he was being kept away by others. After every call was an interview within a day or two where GTA would say "I was cut off from speaking to my father", or "I tried yesterday to call and my father won't speak to me."  It was frustrating for me cause I would ask why don't you write the letter.

Stan Rader would have had an interest in keeping them apart, but that doesn't explain 1980 to his death in 1986 when Stan was gone. (Actually SRR had an interest in keeping HWA away from Pasadena in the 70's, not just away from GTA. But GTA had an interest in keeping HWA away from Pasadena as well - because the college was falling apart.) GTA used the estrangement for PR with the press, and with his church. (When meeting with CGI - they told me they were in the room when GTA made the calls, and only would say "See, cut off again". They were never told what HWA or I said, or that GTA had actually heard his father's voice.

I talked to GTA at HWA's funeral, and he admitted that I had never cut him off. I had always liked GTA since I knew him from the time I was 4 years old. I even flew with him when his father had the heart attack and GTA used the G-II.  I bear no ill toward him, but that part of the statement below is inaccurate.

Aaron

He was never convicted of a crime.
However, there were those inside and outside the church who were criminals and had a vested interest in making sure that Garner Ted and his father were kept apart permanently and that Garner Ted's reputation was destroyed in order to take down the Church of God.