Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
Dennis Luker Hospitalized
From Denny and LeeAnn Luker:
We are grateful for all the words of encouragement we’ve received
since Denny announced his decision not to seek a second term as Church
president.
Since then, you may have heard that Denny’s health has been a matter
of concern. To bring you up to date, he is currently in the hospital
having tests run to see why he has not been feeling well. When we have
more information to bring, we will be sure to let you know. Sorry, but
we are unable to have visitors, answer phone calls and e-mails just yet.
While we desire to spend many more years together as husband and
wife, ultimately our health and future is in God’s hands. If that
includes healing, we would be grateful. However, our spiritual health
and relationship with our Father and Jesus Christ is of most importance.
May we all stay close to God as we work through our physical trials and
health concerns. We appreciate your prayers.
11 comments:
What's the issue? They're asking for prayers, and he's in the hospital. So much for the Evangelicals' contention that "Senior changed the healing doctrine in 1988 blah blah blah!"
Can't tell you how many times it was a weekly occurrence to get prayer requests for members in hospital from the pulpit, when I was growing up -- this was many many years prior to 1988, and I've said before, there were children in the Victoria congregation, including myself, who would not be alive today, if even one word of this Babylonian mis-truth and blatant, lying professing Christian (now there's an oxymoron ha ha) propaganda, was even remotely true.
A wife of a preaching elder even got Hep C because she ended up with a tainted blood transfusion --- again, many many years prior to 1988.
The actuaries are probably in smug mode, since they predict that men usually don't live two years after they retire.
Actually, that's been changed: Men usually don't live much past two years after retirement -- it's become a slippery slope wonderland for statisticians.
I was hoping Dennis Luker would beat the odds and outlast Roderick Meredith.
Stay in there guy!
We want you to win over Meredith!
It's always been this way, hasn't it? The "who's who" list in the "church" was always about the ministurds. We had to kiss their asses when we were there. Do we have to kiss their asses here? Sorry. I have nothing good to say about ANY of them. We know they are all liars and conmen who grabbed all of our money. THEY know they are liars and conmen who grabbed all of our money.So, now we have to pray for them?
I am always astonished that so many of the ministers had long, long lives (look at HWA). Then when they are in their 80's and 90's people are asked to pray and fast for them. We don't live forever, not yet anyway, and why are these guys so reluctant to die anyway, aren't they expecting a great reward?
Every day I am thankful for the wonders of modern medicine which has extended my life beyond which nature had allotted me and also relieved pain on numerous occasions. I just hope when I am on my deathbed painkillers will still be available. Did those church members of the past just die in agony, and have babies in agony, or did they weaken and get help in the end too?
I don't wish Mr. Luker anything but the best and whatever happens he does not endure too much pain.
Hint: Medical science may also help.
It has helped others, it could help you!
Keep up the faith, science might yet heal you.
Denny and Lee Ann Luker said, “While we desire to spend many more years together as husband and wife, ultimately our health and future is in God’s hands. If that includes healing, we would be grateful”.
MY COMMENT – This statement alludes that it may be a terminal condition and that TIME IS SHORT. I now understand that when Mr. Armstrong use to say, “TIME IS SHORT”, he was referring to “HIS TIME IS SHORT” which became intertwined with the return of Jesus Christ first in 1975 and at other times thereafter until his death in 1986.
Folks, I don’t wish any of these former WCG ministers from the 1960s/1970s any ill will. As someone who grew-up in the WCG, I found out the Church and Mr. Armstrong didn’t know everything and not everything preached from the pulpit was correct. After being rejected by Ambassador College (thank you Lord God), I left the Church at age 20 in 1976 and I never went back. I took with me the good things I learned and tried to apply them in my life. Things like don’t steal, don’t covet what’s not yours, don’t lie. There is a lot of truth and wisdom in Mr. Armstrong’s book, “The Seven Laws of Success”.
With respect to the WCG beliefs on healing and medicine, this is direct quote recorded in my Sabbath Services notebook of what was preached from the pulpit in my local Washington, D.C congregation in a January, 1969 sermon: “if you die in the hands of doctors, you will go to the lake of fire”. Through the internet, I contacted the minister who uttered these words 35 years later. This is what he wrote to me: “I would like to apologize for the comments that you mentioned. In 1969 I was just 29 years old, too young to be a pastor. Many of the things I said and did in the first years of my ministry are a great embarrassment to me. I was a young fool. I apologize to both you and God”.
We have ALL grown as a result of the WCG experience including many of the ministers such as the one I mentioned above. Like Anonymous poster March 1, 2013 at 10:23 AM, I wish Mr. Luker the best and I hope he recovers. I remember him from Feast of Tabernacles services.
Richard
Being a former Australian UCG member I actually liked Luker as president and the calm demeanor he presented himself in videos we'd watch in Sabbath services. I don't know how serious the health issue is he is suffering, but it doesn't sound too good to be feeling tired and unwell all the time. Didn't he say he had an enlarged prostate too? I do hope it's not cancer. I wouldn't wish that (or any other horror) on friend or foe alike. Afterall we're all victims of the evil one in one way or another and need mercy and forgiveness for our many failures and hurts in this life. It's good to know Richard that the minister you contacted was humnble and repentant enough to admit error and apologize to you. I hope it brings some measure of healing to both your and his souls.
Richard,
I don't doubt that your recounting of the incident from 1969 happened. By the time my "era" rolled around (some fifteen to twenty years later), doctors and hospitals and medicine were commonplace, and hardly frowned upon, especially for children.
That said, unfortunately the Evangelicals in the Church seem to have retained all the "alternative health" insanity that was also prevalent around the same time. Which is a slippery slope towards REALLY playing with fire, as some of the things the whackjobs promoting these "therapies" believe, are nothing short of demonic. (Channeling, reincarnation, UFOs, I could go on. Of course the Evangelicals are perfectly OK and open with this demon-possessed garbage now, but back in the day, it was a carefully-hidden secret by a select cabal of hypocrites.)
Whether the WCG splinters allow members to go to doctors or not I still wonder. They seem to be against vaccinations for children claiming such things as aborted fetuses being used to make vaccines, and vaccines causing death. These are people who post on facebook about various health issues and ideas. They think cancer can be cured with bicarbonate of soda and an alkaline body. Also tumeric kills cancer. Now I know people who believe all this alternative stuff too who aren't even religious, but it is even worse when combined with religion. I almost died from cancer myself. At first I refused medical treatment and tried all those whacky alternative ideas. Things like vitamin C megadosing, various mushrooms and tree bark, very extreme diets. Nothing worked, in the end I was in extreme pain and agreed to medical treatment to relieve pain. I had surgery and chemotherapy (evil chemotherapy). It relieved my pain in a few weeks, and 6 months later I was in remission.... It is a long story, but at this time I wasn't even a believer, but all these years I still kept those ideas about doctors being evil.
"These are people who post on facebook"
I think that speaks for itself. Though, to be fair, it has nothing to do with the beliefs of the Church; there are Evangelicals who buy the whole trinitarian nonsense, hook, line, and sinker, in the Church, who still go on and on about these wacko claims. I have seen this attitude from members in both the UK and Canada, so take that for whatever it's worth.
I, for one, believe in moderation in all things. So, I don't run to the Dr. for every little sniffle...if there's something that's just hanging on and hanging on, THEN it's time to bring out the big guns, in my opinion. Medicine is good, in fact it is a godsend, but anything taken to excess (or shunned completely) can be harmful.
However, they can pry my once-daily rabeprazole from my cold, dead fingers, that calms my age-related GERD.
Yes, moderation in all things is a good rule to live by.
You must, however, be careful not to carry moderation to extremes.
Solomon Digney-Fyde
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