Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
The mystery was why we all were forced to read that steaming pile of purple crap.
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12 comments:
Michael
said...
Amen! :-) Hailed as the greatest book ever printed (after a nod to the Bible, of course), in class we thought we were being handed pages made of holy pulp... Ah the memories.
The biggest mystery of the ages was why I did not go on to become a Biblical archaeologist or a paleontologist expert on Clovis in America or Neanderthals in Ice Age Europe. Cosmology may have been nice too
May Mr. Finkelstein, Prothero, Leaky and Sagan have mercy on my soul....
This book had to have been the worst book the church ever produced. It was incredibly boring and I could not get past the first chapter. It was all from the imagination of Arron Dean who basically wrote the book using old sermons of HWA.
Actually, it has always been a good reference to understand a little more of how screwed up the cult really was and how the mind of Armstrong worked...along with his "autobiography" of which you can read between the lines to understand what a conniving little fat bastard he really was.
Steve, You know what i got from reading between the lines of HWA's autobiography? In the 1920s, HWA was starting to be quite successful as an advertiser. He realized he had business talent. Then came the unexpected crash of '29. After having tasted the upper tier life for a few years, he found himself broke. But he knew he deserved the rich life. He realized there are a few ways to get rich quick, but none beats religion because once people become hooked on belief, they very willingly and obediently hand over their purses, and allow you to order them around as well. Loma had been wanting Herb to find religion for a long time, and now, he had a good financial reason to do so. And his talents served him well. As an advertiser, you just get people hooked on a product, but as a preacher, you get them hooked on the afterlife...
Believe it or not, there actually is a peer review process in the field of theology, although it is not as well defined or as well organized and wide spread as one might find in the scientific community.
This book, to my knowledge, was never considered to be ground breaking enough, or sufficiently influential to even make the cut for such peer review. In some part, that may be due to the fact that Armstrong theology contains a lot of ideas which were considered by educated theologians throughout the centuries, but ultimately rejected as either heretical or patently ridiculous.
There are many ways in which an aspiring guru can appear to be more intelligent than he really is. One way is to adopt and teach eclectic concepts with which no other teachers are familiar. Another way is to position yourself so that others cannot figure you or your teachings out. Everybody enjoys an intriguing mystery.
The mystery is solved by not assuming there is a reason or purpose for who, what and why. Yeah, I know, you are the only you that has ever lived, right? So, there has to be a special reason why you are here, right? WRONG!
We are as much a part of the natural world as the deer killed while crossing the highway. What was his purpose? Meat for the hungry? Was he born to smash the front of your car?
The difference between us and the deer is that we can contemplate life and death. We can make plans to live our lives and avoid death for as long as possible. We invent weapons to see to it that we stay at the top of the food chain.
Brains! That's the only difference. We can use them to make ourselves comfortable or miserable or make others comfortable or miserable. We can also use them to scheme, lie, connive and even to fool our own selves into thinking we are more than what we actually are...animals with brains...members of the ape family.
We like to imagine that we are more than that from which we evolved but the truth is, we're not.
I recall one preaching elder breathlessly proclaiming that God had inspired the invention of the printing press centuries ago specifically to set in motion the publishing of this book. Not even the Bible.. he was talking about MOTA.
12 comments:
Amen! :-)
Hailed as the greatest book ever printed (after a nod to the Bible, of course), in class we thought we were being handed pages made of holy pulp... Ah the memories.
The biggest mystery of the ages was why I did not go on to become a Biblical archaeologist or a paleontologist expert on Clovis in America or Neanderthals in Ice Age Europe. Cosmology may have been nice too
May Mr. Finkelstein, Prothero, Leaky and Sagan have mercy on my soul....
I don't know, but GF flushed away $5 million-plus to paste his name on it.
This book had to have been the worst book the church ever produced. It was incredibly boring and I could not get past the first chapter. It was all from the imagination of Arron Dean who basically wrote the book using old sermons of HWA.
I hear GF plans to have his two witnesses at the Jerusalem office for book signings, in the next one, two or three years.
Actually, it has always been a good reference to understand a little more of how screwed up the cult really was and how the mind of Armstrong worked...along with his "autobiography" of which you can read between the lines to understand what a conniving little fat bastard he really was.
Steve,
You know what i got from reading between the lines of HWA's autobiography?
In the 1920s, HWA was starting to be quite successful as an advertiser. He realized he had business talent.
Then came the unexpected crash of '29. After having tasted the upper tier life for a few years, he found himself broke. But he knew he deserved the rich life.
He realized there are a few ways to get rich quick, but none beats religion because once people become hooked on belief, they very willingly and obediently hand over their purses, and allow you to order them around as well.
Loma had been wanting Herb to find religion for a long time, and now, he had a good financial reason to do so. And his talents served him well. As an advertiser, you just get people hooked on a product, but as a preacher, you get them hooked on the afterlife...
Believe it or not, there actually is a peer review process in the field of theology, although it is not as well defined or as well organized and wide spread as one might find in the scientific community.
This book, to my knowledge, was never considered to be ground breaking enough, or sufficiently influential to even make the cut for such peer review. In some part, that may be due to the fact that Armstrong theology contains a lot of ideas which were considered by educated theologians throughout the centuries, but ultimately rejected as either heretical or patently ridiculous.
There are many ways in which an aspiring guru can appear to be more intelligent than he really is. One way is to adopt and teach eclectic concepts with which no other teachers are familiar. Another way is to position yourself so that others cannot figure you or your teachings out. Everybody enjoys an intriguing mystery.
BB
Who am I? What am I? Why am I?
The mystery is solved by not assuming there is a reason or purpose for who, what and why. Yeah, I know, you are the only you that has ever lived, right? So, there has to be a special reason why you are here, right? WRONG!
We are as much a part of the natural world as the deer killed while crossing the highway. What was his purpose? Meat for the hungry? Was he born to smash the front of your car?
The difference between us and the deer is that we can contemplate life and death. We can make plans to live our lives and avoid death for as long as possible. We invent weapons to see to it that we stay at the top of the food chain.
Brains! That's the only difference. We can use them to make ourselves comfortable or miserable or make others comfortable or miserable. We can also use them to scheme, lie, connive and even to fool our own selves into thinking we are more than what we actually are...animals with brains...members of the ape family.
We like to imagine that we are more than that from which we evolved but the truth is, we're not.
MOTA was like, part 2 of The Incredible Human Potential, which was like, Herb's answer to L. Ron's Dianetics.
I recall one preaching elder breathlessly proclaiming that God had inspired the invention of the printing press centuries ago specifically to set in motion the publishing of this book. Not even the Bible.. he was talking about MOTA.
I recall reading that Mystery of the Ages was supposed to contain original content. It does not. It is just a rehash of what he taught for many years.
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