Go ahead and mock apostle Malm. Ignore his warnings. Laugh at his law keeping silliness. Come the tribulation you will come running to his door as fast as you can. You will suddenly realize that only he had the truth unlike that non-ordained prophet/fool you followed.
The overwhelming majority of the fruit of this work will come during the tribulation when the majority who will not believe now; will remember and turn to God during the great trial.
I have tremendous hope for those who reject this warning now, for I know that they are sincere and simply cannot see and understand until they are forced to face what they refuse to accept now.
Will Malm be happy with me if I am just "Power Walking" to him, rather than "Running".
ReplyDeleteMy plantar fasciitis bothers me if I run.
Joe Moeller
Cody, WY
So, he plans on missing out on the rapture and staying in his house during the tribulation? He won't be able to run to where I'm going to be! Somehow, I wish he'd repent so that he could be safe with us!
ReplyDeleteBB
Malm denies Yeshua had a mother, so he knows diddly-squat.
ReplyDeleteApostle Malm once said, when the Tribulation time comes, he plans to hand over his website to the two witnesses. Can't wait to see how that self-importance transition plays itself out.
ReplyDeleteIf he understands that we are sincere, then surely he must realize that no one is "refusing" to accept his divine knowledge, any more than Byker Bob "refuses" to believe in Allah, or Thor, or leprechauns. There simply is no evidence to support his claims; therefore, we are left with the choice of believing in something that for all appearances is a fairy tale, or believing it out of fear just in case the fairy tale turns out to be true. In case the latter seems like a wise choice, then why not turn to Allah- just in case??
ReplyDeletePaul Ray
"plans to hand over his website to the two witnesses."
ReplyDeleteYou just gave me the strangest vision ever. The Famed Two Witnesses, dressed in sackcloth in ashes on the streets of Jerusalem, prophesying while throngs spit and hate. Suddenly, Malm steps in, hands them a laptop, which they take and start typing on his blog platform.
The ridiculousness is beyond fantasy. This ranks right up there with the egrets on the Great Egret Fountain that HROCK now owns flying off their pole to each corner of the auditorium and lifting it to take it to Petra.
Goodness!!!!
I'm sure it's just a matter of time until Malm says that he believes the two witnesses will come out of his tiny non-501C3 following.
ReplyDeleteWhy not turn to Allah, Paul Ray? Because Bacchus throws better parties. Bacchanalian women are not virgins, like the naive waifs Muslims expect in the afterlife. They're even better. They know a lot of interesting tricks, and they're willing to experiment with new moves they haven't tried yet, because the wine lowers their inhibitions.
ReplyDeleteKerr V. Hookers
Jesus and Allah just aren't team players. I bet they got in a lot of fights during recess. They could learn a few lessons from their pagan classmates.
ReplyDeleteAgain, read Ernest Becker's epic 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning book THE DENIAL OF DEATH to explain much of Malm's delusional thinking. I don't claim it has ALL the answers in explaining these extremely widespread visions of grandeur so common among COG gurus, but I do believe it can enlighten us better than anything else I've ever read, especially the more I deeply reflect upon some of Becker's remarkable insights into human motivation and action. The fact that Becker originally came to his views through the prism of Freudian psychoanalysis, a subject greatly misunderstood among religious fundamentalists, by no means invalidates the insightfulness of them.
ReplyDeleteAlways the same basic underlying premise, and it never alters:
ReplyDelete"I understand secret information given me by an invisible deity that the rest of you don't, and one day you'll all be forced to recognize it, and how very special I am. And how good of me it is to hold out hope for the rest of you uncircumcised Philistines."
Truly the fundamental stuff full-blown mental illness is woven out of, though it seems exceptionally prevalent in frustrated HWA wannabes like Malm, Theil, E.W. King, M. John Allen, etc. - the extreme mini minor leaguers of COG culture.
Very formulaic actually: the smaller and more insignificant the unrecognized would-be prophet, the more extravagant and wacky the claims.
Whose Great Tribulation, his?
ReplyDeleteIt just occurred to me that what Malm is managing to express in this little comment is IMHO one of the basest and most repugnant assumptions of Armstrongism.
ReplyDeleteArmstrongism always carried the arrogant assumption that everyone who came into contact with the Armstrong "gospel" privately had to acknowledge that it was "the truth" as soon as they heard it. You had no choice. There was no need for discussion, questions, concerns, or debate. The truth of it just had to be as obvious to everyone else as it was them. Anything else was inconceivable. Therefore, anyone who didn't see the merit of the apostle's message was refusing to accept it deliberately, and was making a calculated, conscious decision to feign unbelief. And there's only one reason why anyone would want to reject what everyone knows is "the truth": because "the world" is where all the fun is!
That right there was a tacit acknowledgement that everyone knows that life in the church was no picnic, and that "god's way" didn't bring all the Disney-esque happiness touted on the glossy covers of all the church literature. Of course, this was also evidence of one's heavenly candidacy, because Satan only brings "trials" upon "true christians." Everyone else gets led astray into the good life.
The most arrogant thing in all of this is their refusal to even consider that anyone could reject it because it didn't make any sense to them. Instead, they preferred to assume the worst, and just conclude out of hand that they just wanted to "indulge in the carnal pleasures of 'the world.'" In my experience, most people's motivations are not that prurient. But it was incomprehensible that anyone might hear their crazy "gospel," have a legitimate problem with it, and leave to seek potentially greater virtues elsewhere. Or even just a normal life without a malignant cult's tentacles all over their mind.
But the most interesting thing about the assumption of prurience is what it reveals that the preachers of Armstrongism believed about themselves, rather than merely how they projected it onto everyone else.
True to form, Malm hews to the line, especially with the worst of Armstrongism. He's a one-man cult.
It would be greatly appreciated if a link be provided when discussing topics that refer to another.
ReplyDeleteThis story for example needs a link so that the accuracy of the story can be verified.
Since Malm has several sites, it makes it even more difficult to find where the quote came from.
Malm is simply regurgitating what many fundies try to barb others with.
ReplyDeleteLike-
"You'll be sorry if you don't believe what I do!", or, "I'm gonna get raptured and you won't, because you don't believe what I do!"
All their bluster is really those people trying to convince themselves, and not actually about them trying to convince others.
HEAD USHER WROTE:
ReplyDeleteThat right there was a tacit acknowledgement that everyone knows that life in the church was no picnic, and that "god's way" didn't bring all the Disney-esque happiness touted on the glossy covers of all the church literature.
I SAY:
Nearly all marketing is that way, and may I dare say that the marketing of the current world and the promises that they make are indeed crud as well.
Things are "Sold" by creating a hypnotic state, and the illusion of success, fame, love , beauty etc. if you just "BUY".
So, I disagree with HEAD USHER , and say that the worldly way of sex, drugs and rock and roll, are big let downs as well.
There is pain in the human existence. The pain of ignorance, and the pain of knowledge. Of the two, I believe it is preferable to choose the pain of knowledge. Much like choosing the two pills in the movie "The Matrix".
If there is no God, then this is ONE HELL of an existence.
Joe Moeller
Cody, WY
There is a difference between the lawkeeping that the OT LORD said to do, the lawkeeping the pharisees said to do, and the lawkeeping that Jesus said to do. I feel that the lawkeeping that Jesus talked about was pretty practical, and he made no bones about the fact that some laws were made to be broken for very practical reasons. I believe it is this pragmatic approach to virtue that was the initial appeal of Christianity way back when. But Malm's lawkeeping harkens back to an earlier, impractical, definitely pre-Christian tradition. You shouldn't mock and laugh at Malm because he's a lawkeeper, you should mock and laugh at him because there is neither sense nor virtue to his lawkeeping.
ReplyDeleteJoe Moeller said...
ReplyDeleteIf there is no God, then this is ONE HELL of an existence.
Life is hell, then you die, the end. IF that's the way you choose to look at it. Otherwise, it's your only opportunity to live, love, have a family and just enjoy being alive. Why must it be complicated?
Even allowing for the fact that the definition and shades of meaning of the word humility have changed since the 1600's, ACOG ministers would still be considered to be very arrogant.
ReplyDeleteThis is rooted in their theology. They believe that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force (experiment: Try "grieving" electricity or gravity!), and believe that they are called upon (via "authority from the top down") to co-opt various ways in which God works with and sanctifies with His sealed children. Their doctrinal approach also makes them the gatekeepers to the kingdom, gatekeepers to their place of safety, and, through their membership in good standing in Armstrongism, whether they are members of the body of Christ.
In other words, they place themselves into the position of usurping the work of the Holy Spirit. I don't believe it would extreme to wonder if such practices are not actually blasphemous. As such, we should all be deeply offended by what Satan has given them over to.
BB
ReplyDeleteJoe wrote:
"So, I disagree with HEAD USHER , and say that the worldly way of sex, drugs and rock and roll, are big let downs as well."
May I politely point out that you're not disagreeing with me, but with a straw man of your own design, for nowhere did I justify anyone else's sales pitches, and nowhere did I extoll the virtues of "the worldly way" as you put it, but just the opposite. It is my perception that a great many people have left the COGs over the years, not because they wanted to indulge themselves, but because they wanted to lead lives of greater virtue elsewhere (and Armstrongism's fundamental dishonesty and hypocrisy can tend to seriously interfere.) Do you remember that part? I distinctly remember having written something along those lines.
Your point is actually in agreement with mine, insofar as what I labeled "prurience," which I guess is about the same as what you've labeled "sex, drugs and rock and roll," isn't a joyride to happytown.
Where I disagree with you is that I believe that it is possible for someone to be "dumb enough" to leave the COGs and still be "smart enough" to figure out that doesn't actually make you happy (and without an authoritarian figure, whether visible or invisible, standing over you as a constant source of external motivation.)
I disagree with the binary red pill/blue pill thinking, which is the exact same thing that Malm is doing that I object to. It isn't either church membership OR "sex, drugs and rock and roll." It's a big place outside of COGland. Guess what? There are yellow pills, and violet pills, and orange pills, and chartreuse pills... What color pill would you like? Oh, you don't want any pills today? We have lots of other things that...(wait for it)...are not pills! Imagine that! Difficult, I know. Armstrongism only acknowledges red pills and blue pills. Why? Because if you're not an active church member, then you must be no better than an animal, unthinking, engaging in every lust, temptation, baser instinct, because that's the only other option available to you. Hogwash.
How many people in "the world" actually believe in such shallowness? What percentage embrace such values and lifestyles? Precious few. They have lots of other better choices available to them that Armstrongism won't acknowledge and they aren't as dumb as Armstrongism always made them out to be. How much you want to wager that the percentage of people in Armstrongism engaging in a lifestyle of "sex, drugs and rock and roll" is not significantly different than the percentage in the population at large? I'd bet they're exactly the same. And I'm not a betting man.
My point is that I don't believe the vast majority of people who've left the fold did so for the reasons that Armstrongism says.
If you have to disagree with me, disagree with that, because that is what I'm saying. Don't make a point of disagreeing with me over something I didn't say. When you do that, it makes you sound like, I don't know, a christian or something.
Malm doesn't understand anything that doesn't fit his pride and prejudices.
ReplyDelete"Malm denies Yeshua had a mother"
ReplyDeleteBuh...uhhh....buhwhu.... *blinks*
"he plans to hand over his website to the two witnesses."
One of whom currently resides in Club Fed, Indiana, and the other of which is engaging in retail therapy due to the aforementioned situation.
"the egrets on the Great Egret Fountain that HROCK now owns flying off their pole to each corner of the auditorium and lifting it to take it to Petra."
Waterhouse flip-flopped on this, during the '80s; first, it was that they were going to grow miraculously in size, and come pick us all up at our houses; then by 1987 or so, he was on the "miraculously healed DC-8s" kick.
(I'd rather walk to Jerusalem, than fly there in a DC-8, thanks. Unless God is going to miraculously heal the perforated eardrums I would get.
"The fact that Becker originally came to his views through the prism of Freudian psychoanalysis,"
I was reading an article in the Tomorrow's World magazine (the original, not Spanky's poor quality knock-off) that actually agreed with Freudianism. (It was a passing reference.) I heard the exact opposite, growing up in the 80s; Freudianism's obsession with sex was why all shrinks were evil. (I'm not saying I agree with that 100% now, but that's what they told us.)
"Therefore, anyone who didn't see the merit of the apostle's message was refusing to accept it deliberately, and was making a calculated, conscious decision to feign unbelief."
The Church NEVER taught this when I was growing up, it was always GOD who chose to call people, and He was choosing to call very few people in this age; who, even if they did hear the truth, were so blinded by Satan's deception (the whole world is deceived), no matter how good they were as people, they were not being given to salvation in this age / this world.
"There is a difference between the lawkeeping that the OT LORD said to do, the lawkeeping the pharisees said to do, and the lawkeeping that Jesus said to do. I feel that the lawkeeping that Jesus talked about was pretty practical, and he made no bones about the fact that some laws were made to be broken for very practical reasons."
I agree with your last sentence, but don't forget, there was no "OT LORD"; as Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I AM."
"you should mock and laugh at him because there is neither sense nor virtue to his lawkeeping"
And, more importantly, Malm (like so many of the splinter groups, and those who have fallen away from the truth), believes in salvation by works alone, which is the diametric opposite of what the Church used to teach. (Though the Evangelicals lie and say the Church taught salvation by works alone, there is text, audio, AND video, on the Internet, that shows that lie up for exactly what it is, an oppressor's falsehood.
"experiment: Try "grieving" electricity or gravity!"
I was certainly grieved when I was cut off from my physical electricity, Bob; and the reason we HAVE an impersonal power or force, is because this wild idea that being baptized somehow turns you into a split personality with another person living inside your head is neither Biblical nor encouraging, nor indeed is it very godly at all.
In point of blank fact, it is demon possession. Which, given that formerly-converted now-trinitarians are committing the unpardonable sin, from which they can never turn back, and for which they will never be forgiven, it's hardly surprising that a demon comes to live inside their heads once they bend their knee to that pagan triple-deity.
But even Satan's demons masquerade as angels of light.....
So, Velvet, it's a demon that has made me abandon a lifestyle that was based on retaliation? And, there are other huge additional differences that have come into play along with conversion.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have experienced both internally and externally over the past 5 years speaks far more eloquently than ACOG teaching. The fruits are much too good to have been caused by demons, so I believe I'll continue to enjoy them. They are also totally consistent with the New Testament.
BB
Malm approved a ego stroking comment from a *Willaim* Smith on his website today, one in which was encouraging him to make his break into broadcasting his nonsense on TV.
ReplyDeleteA fake self-promotion if I ever saw one.
"So, Velvet, it's a demon that has made me abandon a lifestyle that was based on retaliation"
ReplyDeleteNo, Bob, your God-given free will allowed you to make the free-will choice to abandon a lifestyle that was based on retaliation; also
given that we were a Peace Church, any lifestyle based on retaliation that you were taught, most assuredly did NOT come from God...even if it did come from men claiming to be ministers of God's Church, they absolutely were not.
If you think a split personality inside your head that's making all your decisions for and taking your free will from you is NOT demon possession, then I would respectfully ask, just what do you think demon possession is
Besides which, this holy-spirit-as-a-person thing reduces God in both stature and omnipresence; the trinitarian pantheon's gods are far too small.