Reverencing Herbert Armstrong Above Jesus

Excellent comment on why the COG's continue to place Herbert Armstrong and other church leaders on pedestals higher than the Jesus Christ they claim to follow.

So far as Herb goes, "they" revere him as much as we revile him. As the central figure of his own personality cult, transformed into "God's endtime apostle", he was more at the forefront of our belief system than Jesus himself. In fact, HWA very subliminally played down Jesus by stating on many occasions that somehow, throughout history, the gospel had become changed, so that it became about the person of Jesus, rather than the gospel that Jesus preached himself about the Kingdom of God. He claimed to have reverted to the original gospel, teaching what Jesus himself had taught. But then, HWA wasn't above inserting himself into his message, writing his own self-aggrandizing autobiography, using the PT as his own collection of photo-ops, etc.

If we were to survey splinter members, and if they were to be honest, we'd learn that the broad majority regards the current crop of leaders simply as temporary substitutes for HWA, agents of maintenance to the faith. . Nothing particularly special or noteworthy about them at all. They eagerly anticipate that HWA will return with Jesus Christ, and will lead them into the Kingdom, with maybe a wink or nod or an "attaboy" for their splinter leader. They tolerate these substitutes, and their antics, because of their belief in church government, and the fear this produces in their lives.

The rest of us realize that we probably never will completely rid ourselves of the many warping effects of Armstrongism in this lifetime. So, yeah. You're not going to see that damnable name disappear any time soon. Both sides have a reason for its continuing presence in our lexicon.

BB