"I wanna tell you that all this weather disturbance means that terrible famine is coming on the United States that is going to RUIN US as a nation inside less than 20 more years.
Alright I stuck my neck out, right there. You just wait 20 years and see whether I told you the truth.
God says, if a man tells you what's going to happen, wait and see. If it doesn't happen he was not speaking the word of god; he was speaking out of his own mind.
You watch and see whether these things happen.
You'll see who's speaking to you, my friends."
11 comments:
What year was that broadcast? Probably in the 1950s or '60s, judging from the sound of his voice.
His voice sounded authoritative, and captivated people, and then they followed him and hung on his every word, and for what?
Amazing. Time for the lockstep brigade to come out of the woodwork and justify his words.
Well, HWA did prove that the words spoken at that time, in reference to a famine and a 20 year time period, did indeed "come out of his own mind."
It's kind of like today where it has become so obvious to most of us that many people are just speaking out of their own minds...and life goes on.
HWA believed in a coming Kingdom of God to be established on earth; however, before his death HWA wondered, so I've been told, if he had done enough to be in that Kingdom. But then again, just who is really going to earn their way in by striving to do enough to impress God with any of their own works?
John
Gary,
What a coincidence for me personally that you should post this particular clip of Herbert Armstrong. As you know, I am no fan of Herbert Armstrong because we both know he taught many erroneously false prophecies and was not truthful to us about the origins of his fear religion business. The reality is the Worldwide Church of God was a splinter church also - an offshoot of an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
I have business interests in the farming/food production industry. Yesterday, I attended a seminar on farm management. One of the morning topics was an update on “grain markets”. For those unaware, grain commodity prices have dropped significantly in the past nine months. Here are 3 bullet points from a presentation slide heading, “Are today’s Commodity Prices Sustainable”:
• World population increases 160,000 people daily, which exceeds our ability to keep pace with food production
• In the next 50 years, we will need to produce more than we did in the past 10,000 years combined
• Arable land is declining in China, India and United States.
While the inference of the slide was on future rising grain prices, the real “white elephant in the room” was that this slide is also suggesting future food shortages – the same end result as a famine!
Now, here is where it gets creepy. At lunch break, while I was sitting at a table thinking about the morning’s presentations, a gentleman attending the seminar sat down across from me at the dining table. I did a double take and couldn’t believe my eyes. The gentleman, gray hair and all, was the spitting image of Herbert W. Armstrong! I wanted to ask him if anyone had ever told him that he resembled a once famous pioneer radio and television evangelist, but was too embarrassed to ask him!
Richard
Had to get this into B&W text:
"I wanna tell you that all this weather disturbance means that terrible famine is coming on the United States that is going to RUIN US as a nation inside less than 20 more years. Alright I stuck my neck out, right there. You just wait 20 years and see whether I told you the truth. God says, if a man tells you what's going to happen, wait and see. If it doesn't happen he was not speaking the word of god; he was speaking out of his own mind. You watch and see whether these things happen. You'll see who's speaking to you, my friends."
The point of this was to offer a way to (eventually) prove or disprove "who" it was that was "speaking to us." And now, 20, 40, perhaps 60 years has come and gone. "Eventually" is here. We have waited the 20 years and then some. Now we can see and make unequivocal judgment as to whether he told us "the truth." No "terrible famine" has occurred and the nation has not been "ruined." We waited, and now we see, just like he said. Now we can see clearly who was speaking. He was speaking out of his own mind, just like he said.
Any questions?
The "nice" thing--and maybe the only "nice" thing--about today's false prophets is that they are usually too impatient even to talk about twenty years in the future. Maybe nobody these days would listen to anyone who talked too far out into the future. These days we only have to wait a year or so to find out that these writers of fiction like Ronald Weinland and David Pack really are just writing fiction.
It is interesting that Gerald Flurry was actually a bit sneakier than these other two clowns and usually used less specific phrases like “end time” and “end of the end time” and “short work” and “last hour” to continually string people along forever.
People who joined the WCG in the past and handed over money for twenty years to help spread the wrong prophetic guesses while they waited for them to happen got taken for a long ride. Over twenty years they would have invested—no, make that, gambled away—a lot of money.
The shorter one year waiting period offered these days by guys like David Pack is adjusted for by requiring everyone to “voluntarily” turn over everything they have right away. This way, the waiting period is less, but the investment—no, make that, the gambling losses--are still the same.
Don't you love the way he "uses the expression, "my friend, when he probably didn't have a single friend in the world. He used people and probably died friendless. This clip reminded me of the books The Population Bomb and Famine 1975. Do you remember them? AC's research methods included: 1. state you opinion. 2. find someone to quote to "prove" what you believe. Don't let sound research, critical thinking or objectivity get in your way.
When he spoke those words, it wasn't so easy for a christian believer to say for sure whether he was bluffing or not. It was a gamble. And the nice thing for ol' Herbie, is that, well, how many are going to sit around and check up on me, and hold me to my words? How many will remember I said this twenty years from now? Not many. But since my cards won't be on the table for twenty years, that's twenty years of ante-ing up.
But now, thanks to the internet and the proliferation of media, we can "remember" and we can check up on him and hold him to his words, and call his bluff. We don't have to gamble anymore. The cards are on the table. His cards were all voids. Consider your bluff called.
Anyone (including my own parents) who still think he was right about anything are, at least in this respect, idiots.
The message of Armstrongism was and continues to be so negative about the future that it is no wonder that so many people are scared for life and even after leaving have a hard time coping in the real world.
It is almost like Armstrong and present day COG leaders have a death wish for society and want to see people suffer.
No religious leader or anyone knows the future. Prophecy is nothing but a tool to scare and control people.
Bravo, No2HWA!
Good on you for making this particular clip easily available.
This is the truth: HWA was a false prophet who only represented himself. It is shameful that so many choose to deny this fact.
I've decided that Glenn Beck is probably the HWA of today. Conspiracy theories, professional broadcaster, and flaky past with alcohol and other things. Matter of fact, I'd just bet that Glenn Beck is really big amongst Armstrongites! And, apparently he's got a sizable audience, too, which is more than any of the splinters can claim.
BB
Beck is totally getting rich off of people's fears. He's Mormon, for crying out loud. Just another group that has somehow allowed itself to be convinced that "one guy" was God's messenger. Total scam, check your brains at the door.
And yes, COGers love to quote the guy, because, you know, "he's pretty accurate on a lot of things" -- at least, according to their already myopic world view.
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