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
First, notice who made the Sabbath, who was told to remember it, and who did remember it.
The Bible says that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done” Genesis 2:2-3, NIV).
In the Ten Commandments God instructed his own chosen people to remember and observe the Sabbath day.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work..." (Exodus 20:8-10, NIV).
Jesus remembered and observed the Sabbath day.
“He [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read” (Luke 4:16, NIV).
Now, notice the various different theories that exist today about which day people ought to observe.
Today about a billion Catholics observe--or at least think they are supposed to observe--Sunday (the first day of the week). About another billion people in the Catholic Church's numerous Protestant daughter churches also think that they are supposed to observe Sunday (the first day of the week). A further billion people who believe in the Muslim religion (called Islam) think that they are supposed to observe Friday (the sixth day of the week) as their day of assembly. Godless atheists and evilutionists around the world think that resting is inefficient and wasteful and that people should be worked mercilessly seven days a week.
Some former WCG members now mention unbiblical theories about how the Sabbath supposedly originally moved around depending on the new moon and could fall on any day of the week. Of course, most of those who love to carelessly repeat such stories do not actually try to observe it that way. They just like to say anything they can think of to try to discredit the actual biblical Sabbath and spread confusion and doubt. Other former WCG members now actually say that every day is a Sabbath, or even that Jesus is the Sabbath. The real reason for their reasoning around usually turns out to be that they want to forget about the biblical Sabbath and not have to observe it because their job requires them to work on it.
So, who changed the Sabbath?
EVERYONE on earth who does not remember and observe the biblical, weekly, seventh-day Sabbath that God made, that God gave in his Ten Commandments, and that Jesus observed while on earth, has changed the Sabbath. ALL of them, individually and collectively, are the GUILTY ones.
Hey, 3:51, Jesus was a Jew. Is it supposed to be some news flash that he kept the Sabbath?
What's next, dazzling us with the news that a tomato is actually a fruit? Please, regale us with more knowledge of the painfully obvious -- just as long as it makes you feel better about yourself.
By the way, you might want to check your zest for everyone's "guilt" at the door. That Jesus fellow you spoke of seems to have that one covered.
"EVERYONE on earth who does not remember and observe the biblical, weekly, seventh-day Sabbath that God made, that God gave in his Ten Commandments, and that Jesus observed while on earth, has changed the Sabbath. ALL of them, individually and collectively, are the GUILTY ones."
This God and Jesus you speak of...you describe them like they're two different beings. "God made...God gave...Jesus observed." Kind of outside your church's teachings, no?
Or...could they be referring to the same one? In which case, maybe he could redefine the idea of "sabbath" however he pleased.
Nah. What a silly notion that would be. Better to nail people on that guilt thing. That'll show 'em.
"Lord, thank you that 3:51 is not like other men."
(biting tongue, while chanting): "Answer not the anonymous fool who did not read the book according to his folly! Answer not the anonymous fool who did not read the book according to his folly! Answer not the anonymous fool who did not read the book according to his folly! Answer not............"
To assume that God told us to keep the sabbath is to also assume that the bible was divinely inspired. The truth is the bible was written by men with their own agendas including controlling people using their concocted religion.
To assume that God told us to keep the sabbath is to also assume that the bible was divinely inspired. The truth is the bible was written by men with their own agendas including controlling people using their concocted religion.
Since archaeology has shown that the books of Moses are concocted fairy tales, and therefore the books of Kings & Chronicles and the prophets were written to explain why nobody could remember this old-time religion, perhaps the sabbath never really existed to be changed, at least, not in the way believers imagine.
The reason why these Jews or Babylonian exiles can't remember this "sabbath" thing was because everyone just "forgot." Sure. I'll bet they were also careful to take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints as they sat in the wilderness for 40 years, which explains why archaeologists can't find any trace of them sitting anywhere in the wilderness. But they were there. Sure they were.
But then, all of sudden these books were "found," like it says of Josiah's day. It took 18 years of cleaning the temple, but eventually, we "found" them. A likely story, since the whole shebang is largely a repetition of the Hezekiah story. Whenever all these writings were "found" is when they were first written.
Presumably all those OT books were concocted to give some conquered Canaanites a false history in order to re-establish a sense of pride (much the same way the National Socialists told fairy tales about a glorious "Aryan" past to help restore German pride).
So, what if there never was a sabbath to be changed?
Well, now that 3:51 has just aptly demonstrated the cultic sheep mindset by use of wild hyperbole and baseless generalizations, how about we hear from someone who is actually willing to say something truthfully.
It is almost poetic, in a sense, that as much as the various COGs love to verbally beat up caricatures of various subjects, they end up sounding very much like caricatures themselves.
I will also state here that PCG's writers constantly talk as though they would like nothing better than to see the US go to war again. They especially seem to yearn for a war to erupt against Iran.
No doubt if you asked them directly they will deny it. But constantly whenever something goes wrong they say America is falling apart. America has lost the will to use its power.
Do they not think that talking like this shows they wish America would go to war? Do they not think someone just might take their empty words seriously and do something crazy like Michael Dennis Rohan?
And while they moan that America is humiliated many readers will be unaware that PCG members refuse to serve in the armed forces.
If PCG chooses to be conscientious objectors then they should act like it. Their attitude should reflect that stance, instead of (possibly) escalating the situation while they are in no danger of being ordered to go to war.
(Then again Gerald Flurry does teach that President Obama is an Antichrist like figure. "Another Antiochus" he calls him.)
Oh, well, now, we can all be inspired and reach high concept thinking with abstract joyful perception to attain the infinite, if only we just use the cosmological tool of dividing by zero.
I realized this truth the last time I saw someone go through their psychotic break.
I can show you nine of the ten Commandments repeated in the church age, but not one dealing with the Sabbath. If Sabbath keeping was so important, why isn't it mentioned, even once? How many times do you see the term "first day of the week" as the time the New Testament Church met? Quite a few. Let's see, seventh day is Saturday, first day must be Sunday.
“I can show you nine of the ten Commandments repeated in the church age, but not one dealing with the Sabbath. If Sabbath keeping was so important, why isn't it mentioned, even once? How many times do you see the term "first day of the week" as the time the New Testament Church met? Quite a few. Let's see, seventh day is Saturday, first day must be Sunday.”
Seriously, it sounds like you are just carelessly repeating what someone else told you and what you would now like to believe is true for some less than honorable reason. I have seen some very extreme examples of this with former WCG people who now want to run wild.
“He [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read” (Luke 4:16, NIV). Read that quote a few more times and let it sink in rather than just bounce off your head. Nothing in the Bible says anything at all about Jesus or his followers having any regular custom of meeting on the first day of the week (Sunday). It plainly says the exact opposite right here. The only exception would be the Feast of Pentecost (an annual Sabbath held once a year on the first day of the week, and still observed by Jesus' apostles after his death, as mentioned in Acts 2) but, of course, this annual observance never did away with the weekly Sabbath.
“The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb” (Luke 23:55-56-24:1, NIV). Read that quote too a few more times and let it sink in rather than just bounce off your head. Notice that the followers of Jesus obeyed the Sabbath commandment. The “first day of the week” is mentioned in the context of Jesus' followers who had “rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment” and were now going back to work on “the first day of the week” (Sunday).
“Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:13, NIV). That same day, the first day of the week (Sunday), is mentioned in the context of two disciples going for a seven mile walk! The resurrected Jesus showed up and walked along with them on that same day, the first day of the week (Sunday).
You wrote, “How many times do you see the term 'first day of the week' as the time the New Testament Church met? Quite a few.” Well, frankly, I have not seen any at all. Why don't you give some examples of this, if you can find any, since you said there are “quite a few.”
You remind me of a book in which the author claimed that there are sixty occurrences of the word Sabbath in the New Testament but that every time it occurs it is supposedly simply for historical reference to tell when something happened rather than to indicate that it should be observed. The same author, any time “the first day of the week” was mentioned in passing, would get all excited and seemed to think that it was clearly, without the slightest doubt, an incontrovertible fact that it must mean that we are to observe what he called “the Lord's Day.” For real clear examples that actually said what he wanted them to say, he had to depart from the Bible and quote unbiblical sources like The Epistle of Barnabas and The Letters of Ignatius: To Magnesians.
ReplyDelete“Who Changed The Sabbath?”
First, notice who made the Sabbath, who was told to remember it, and who did remember it.
The Bible says that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done” Genesis 2:2-3, NIV).
In the Ten Commandments God instructed his own chosen people to remember and observe the Sabbath day.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work..." (Exodus 20:8-10, NIV).
Jesus remembered and observed the Sabbath day.
“He [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read” (Luke 4:16, NIV).
Now, notice the various different theories that exist today about which day people ought to observe.
Today about a billion Catholics observe--or at least think they are supposed to observe--Sunday (the first day of the week). About another billion people in the Catholic Church's numerous Protestant daughter churches also think that they are supposed to observe Sunday (the first day of the week). A further billion people who believe in the Muslim religion (called Islam) think that they are supposed to observe Friday (the sixth day of the week) as their day of assembly. Godless atheists and evilutionists around the world think that resting is inefficient and wasteful and that people should be worked mercilessly seven days a week.
Some former WCG members now mention unbiblical theories about how the Sabbath supposedly originally moved around depending on the new moon and could fall on any day of the week. Of course, most of those who love to carelessly repeat such stories do not actually try to observe it that way. They just like to say anything they can think of to try to discredit the actual biblical Sabbath and spread confusion and doubt. Other former WCG members now actually say that every day is a Sabbath, or even that Jesus is the Sabbath. The real reason for their reasoning around usually turns out to be that they want to forget about the biblical Sabbath and not have to observe it because their job requires them to work on it.
So, who changed the Sabbath?
EVERYONE on earth who does not remember and observe the biblical, weekly, seventh-day Sabbath that God made, that God gave in his Ten Commandments, and that Jesus observed while on earth, has changed the Sabbath. ALL of them, individually and collectively, are the GUILTY ones.
Post Script
Good question. Thanks for asking.
Hey, 3:51, Jesus was a Jew. Is it supposed to be some news flash that he kept the Sabbath?
ReplyDeleteWhat's next, dazzling us with the news that a tomato is actually a fruit? Please, regale us with more knowledge of the painfully obvious -- just as long as it makes you feel better about yourself.
By the way, you might want to check your zest for everyone's "guilt" at the door. That Jesus fellow you spoke of seems to have that one covered.
Easy answer ---- nobody changed it. Most have chosen to ignore it, but nobody can change what God has set! :-)
ReplyDelete3:51 wrote:
ReplyDelete"EVERYONE on earth who does not remember and observe the biblical, weekly, seventh-day Sabbath that God made, that God gave in his Ten Commandments, and that Jesus observed while on earth, has changed the Sabbath. ALL of them, individually and collectively, are the GUILTY ones."
This God and Jesus you speak of...you describe them like they're two different beings. "God made...God gave...Jesus observed." Kind of outside your church's teachings, no?
Or...could they be referring to the same one? In which case, maybe he could redefine the idea of "sabbath" however he pleased.
Nah. What a silly notion that would be. Better to nail people on that guilt thing. That'll show 'em.
"Lord, thank you that 3:51 is not like other men."
(biting tongue, while chanting): "Answer not the anonymous fool who did not read the book according to his folly! Answer not the anonymous fool who did not read the book according to his folly! Answer not the anonymous fool who did not read the book according to his folly! Answer not............"
ReplyDeleteBB
To assume that God told us to keep the sabbath is to also assume that the bible was divinely inspired. The truth is the bible was written by men with their own agendas including controlling people using their concocted religion.
ReplyDeleteTo assume that God told us to keep the sabbath is to also assume that the bible was divinely inspired. The truth is the bible was written by men with their own agendas including controlling people using their concocted religion.
ReplyDeleteSince archaeology has shown that the books of Moses are concocted fairy tales, and therefore the books of Kings & Chronicles and the prophets were written to explain why nobody could remember this old-time religion, perhaps the sabbath never really existed to be changed, at least, not in the way believers imagine.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why these Jews or Babylonian exiles can't remember this "sabbath" thing was because everyone just "forgot." Sure. I'll bet they were also careful to take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints as they sat in the wilderness for 40 years, which explains why archaeologists can't find any trace of them sitting anywhere in the wilderness. But they were there. Sure they were.
But then, all of sudden these books were "found," like it says of Josiah's day. It took 18 years of cleaning the temple, but eventually, we "found" them. A likely story, since the whole shebang is largely a repetition of the Hezekiah story. Whenever all these writings were "found" is when they were first written.
Presumably all those OT books were concocted to give some conquered Canaanites a false history in order to re-establish a sense of pride (much the same way the National Socialists told fairy tales about a glorious "Aryan" past to help restore German pride).
So, what if there never was a sabbath to be changed?
Why doesn't God just kill and destroy ALL sabbath breakers?
ReplyDeleteProblem solved. Am i right?
hit-and-run
Well, now that 3:51 has just aptly demonstrated the cultic sheep mindset by use of wild hyperbole and baseless generalizations, how about we hear from someone who is actually willing to say something truthfully.
ReplyDeleteIt is almost poetic, in a sense, that as much as the various COGs love to verbally beat up caricatures of various subjects, they end up sounding very much like caricatures themselves.
ReplyDelete"Why doesn't God just kill and destroy ALL sabbath breakers?"
ReplyDeletewell, that day is coming....
I will also state here that PCG's writers constantly talk as though they would like nothing better than to see the US go to war again. They especially seem to yearn for a war to erupt against Iran.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt if you asked them directly they will deny it. But constantly whenever something goes wrong they say America is falling apart. America has lost the will to use its power.
Do they not think that talking like this shows they wish America would go to war? Do they not think someone just might take their empty words seriously and do something crazy like Michael Dennis Rohan?
And while they moan that America is humiliated many readers will be unaware that PCG members refuse to serve in the armed forces.
If PCG chooses to be conscientious objectors then they should act like it. Their attitude should reflect that stance, instead of (possibly) escalating the situation while they are in no danger of being ordered to go to war.
(Then again Gerald Flurry does teach that President Obama is an Antichrist like figure. "Another Antiochus" he calls him.)
ReplyDeleteByker Bob said...
“(biting tongue, while chanting): 'Answer not the anonymous [Wise Guy] who did [read the Bible rather than that other book].'”
We can still hear you, BB. Bite harder!
Oh, well, now, we can all be inspired and reach high concept thinking with abstract joyful perception to attain the infinite, if only we just use the cosmological tool of dividing by zero.
ReplyDeleteI realized this truth the last time I saw someone go through their psychotic break.
I prefer multiplication by infinity.
ReplyDelete'Cause a man that desires nothing can possess everything.
"So, what if there never was a sabbath to be changed?"
ReplyDeleteAs similar to the evolution of the chin?
I can show you nine of the ten Commandments repeated in the church age, but not one dealing with the Sabbath. If Sabbath keeping was so important, why isn't it mentioned, even once? How many times do you see the term "first day of the week" as the time the New Testament Church met? Quite a few. Let's see, seventh day is Saturday, first day must be Sunday.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
“I can show you nine of the ten Commandments repeated in the church age, but not one dealing with the Sabbath. If Sabbath keeping was so important, why isn't it mentioned, even once? How many times do you see the term "first day of the week" as the time the New Testament Church met? Quite a few. Let's see, seventh day is Saturday, first day must be Sunday.”
Seriously, it sounds like you are just carelessly repeating what someone else told you and what you would now like to believe is true for some less than honorable reason. I have seen some very extreme examples of this with former WCG people who now want to run wild.
“He [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read” (Luke 4:16, NIV). Read that quote a few more times and let it sink in rather than just bounce off your head. Nothing in the Bible says anything at all about Jesus or his followers having any regular custom of meeting on the first day of the week (Sunday). It plainly says the exact opposite right here. The only exception would be the Feast of Pentecost (an annual Sabbath held once a year on the first day of the week, and still observed by Jesus' apostles after his death, as mentioned in Acts 2) but, of course, this annual observance never did away with the weekly Sabbath.
“The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb” (Luke 23:55-56-24:1, NIV). Read that quote too a few more times and let it sink in rather than just bounce off your head. Notice that the followers of Jesus obeyed the Sabbath commandment. The “first day of the week” is mentioned in the context of Jesus' followers who had “rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment” and were now going back to work on “the first day of the week” (Sunday).
“Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:13, NIV). That same day, the first day of the week (Sunday), is mentioned in the context of two disciples going for a seven mile walk! The resurrected Jesus showed up and walked along with them on that same day, the first day of the week (Sunday).
You wrote, “How many times do you see the term 'first day of the week' as the time the New Testament Church met? Quite a few.” Well, frankly, I have not seen any at all. Why don't you give some examples of this, if you can find any, since you said there are “quite a few.”
You remind me of a book in which the author claimed that there are sixty occurrences of the word Sabbath in the New Testament but that every time it occurs it is supposedly simply for historical reference to tell when something happened rather than to indicate that it should be observed. The same author, any time “the first day of the week” was mentioned in passing, would get all excited and seemed to think that it was clearly, without the slightest doubt, an incontrovertible fact that it must mean that we are to observe what he called “the Lord's Day.” For real clear examples that actually said what he wanted them to say, he had to depart from the Bible and quote unbiblical sources like The Epistle of Barnabas and The Letters of Ignatius: To Magnesians.