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
And....we know how that went! The more times change the more they stay the same. The modern "Millerites" are going to wake up old and full of days having exhibited "faith" which can often be considered "pretending something is true when it is not."
The engine that drives the religious need for surety and an answer to the question of "what's going to happen to me" is our inherent fear of death. All religion is born out of that question and fear. Making stuff up to comfort ourselves is ultimately neither satisfying or encouraging and a whole lot of real life can pass one by unlived.
In the real last days, AFTER Satan is released/loosed from the bottomless pit, the following will be part of that reality:
2 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, :4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Why will scoffers ask that question AFTER the Mickey Mouse Millennium ceases? It is because Jesus Christ will not be reigning on earth during some Mickey Mouse Millennium of a 1,000 year period.
The xcog groups will continue to deceive people about this and get them to think it is coming soon. We've heard this for decades. Where is Jesus Christ reigning? More importantly, where was Jesus Christ AFTER Satan was loosed from that pit? Why didn't Jesus Christ prevent Satan from deceiving the four quarters of the earth's inhabitants?
It's going to be a long wait.......longer than any of them have ever imagined.
And it all harks back that that bad nightmare called The Book of Revelation. It's one of the worst theological abortions ever conceived in some warped mind. Read up on the battle that took place over including it in that contrived canon designed to keep the Roman system prospering.
Sitting on the rooftop waiting and waiting and waiting, to no avail. One may want to consider the following.
Moses went to the mountain top and saw a burning bush. Moses went to a mountain top to receive the big 10. Noah’s ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. Elijah’s defeat of the prophets of Baal was at Mount Carmel.
Jesus delivered the Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus taught about the destruction of the temple on the Mount of Olives. Jesus was transfigured on a high mountain. Jesus met with the disciples in a large upper room.
Could these references to high places be better understood if we considered them as something other than literal? Maybe we could consider something more personal, like the highest place of us all as an individual; like maybe our head, our brain with all its parts within and the most important part of all, the non physical mind.
Unless we have a personal relationship with the source of all that exists, all the mountain climbing and housetop sitting are for naught.
"Unless we have a personal relationship with the source of all that exists, all the mountain climbing and housetop sitting are for naught."
Well, therein lies the rub, doesn't it? I am not willing to pretend to have a relationship with an invisible man in the sky who I cannot find, who ignores me, no matter how much other people tell me I should fake it till I make it. If there is such a man in the sky, I have certainly had no experiences that validate such claims. Let's just say, whatever gods might exist, if they want me to know about them, the ball is in their court.
I am not saying there aren't any men in the sky. If there are, they don't pay any attention to me, and as such I haven't got any clue as to their identities. Christians who boast of "feelings in their hearts" always seem to merely skip over the part when, even their own bible tells them to be asking for identification. After all, you never know if the source of your experiences, if it isn't merely your own brain, isn't someone merely masquerading as an angel of light, right? And yet Christians, despite the cautioning of their own scriptures, seem to think the chances that they could be deceived is absolutely zero.
I would never say such an indefensible thing as "There is no god." I don't know. However, on balance, given everything that I have experienced, I do think the probability that there are any gods is low. But if there are some gods, I certainly don't think the god of William Miller, the Adventist god, exists. And don't forget that Armstrongites are just a flavor of Millerite Adventism, who 172 years later are still saying the advent will be within 3-5 years from now. I think that god has been sufficiently falsified by now.
So, yeah, no more housetop sitting for me. I'll be inside, asleep in my bed. You guys can keep vigil. Don't forget to keep your lamps trimmed, and always be sure to have an extra bottle of olive oil in the kitchen so you can fill up when your lamp gets low. I'll see you all in the morning.
What is going to happen to each and every one of us? We are going to die! None of us get out of here alive. Your heart can stop while you are in your easy chair napping. A garbage truck running a red light can t-bone your Mustang or Camaro while you are on the way to a hockey game. You could waste away as cancer eats up all of your vital organs including your brain. Or, a tsunami could assault and inundate your little island nation on a national holiday. The fact is, there are hundreds of different unique ways in which we could all die, and varying degrees of pain, or no pain at all. Hopefully, whenever it happens, we will have lived our lives on the good side of the equation, having been helpful to those arouund us, making their burdens lighter.
But, why is it any worse to die as a result of a massive random or inevitable cataclysm, as part of a huge group, than it would be to die alone, as an individual? You, as an individual, are still dead, right? In all cases, the tragedy does not affect the dead so much as it affects the living who must go on with their lives, now without some of their loved ones.
The ACOGs focus you on the inevitable, death, and really there is no harm in each of us pondering the fact that our lives are finite. We should be aware of that in the daily conduct of our lives. But, they overlook the fact that our personal ends could come at any given moment. They get you focussed on a majorly torturous death, to which they are allegedly the gate keepers, always said to be right around the corner, and they present you with choices that they later diminish or invalidate throughout your membership in their organization. They tell you that if you accept what they say, you and your family will be protected. As you have increasingly empowered them over your life, you learn that "it looks as if we may have more time to do the work", or, "you may not qualify for the place of safety", or "because we don't like your attitude, we are disfellowshipping you and you will probably not be spared from the tribulation", or, "God has allowed His church to break up and splinter, and our little splinter is the only Philadelphian remnant", etc. etc. etc. Do you fear death from cancer? Do you worry about dying in a car accident every time you fire up the family van? Do you worry that there might be an Islamic suicide bomber a couple rows away as you take in a NFL game at your city's arena? Probably not, if you are an ACOG member, because your splinter leader has promised or implied that you have protection. And, then of course we read of ACOG shootings, fatal accidents at ACOG summer camps, ministerial suicides, fatal car accidents, child molestation in local church areas, and deaths by various painful diseases. And your leader warns you that old people (some of whom waited all of their adult lives for the tribulation) can become demon possessed, or counsels you to leave your disabled or afflicted child at the mall. So, the promises by which they seek to control you are in reality false ones, not theirs to deliver in the first place.
Does it really make sense to allow your life and thought processes to be controlled by a group that exploits, but never delivers, an event about which it has abundantly become evident that they know nothing about? Especially when the leaders consistently refuse to modify their and their family's own behavior in a manner consistent with the inevitability of an apocalypse? If we were truly on the major event horizon of the entire history of mankind, these so-called leaders would be behaving quite differently, and treating members in a more loving and mentoring way, not willing that any would be lost. Unfortunately, just as often happens "in the world", HWA proved that "He who dies with the most toys wins", and his acolytes refuse to repent of any of the old man's sins. It's always "Here's the new boss; same as the old boss!"
Good post BB. As you stated its how we live our life. I look to Jesus and try to do good to those I come in contact with. Sorry but I quit worrying about a place of safety or trying to be good enough to qualify for Rod's soon (events are speeding up) kingdom
Please note, nothing was written about a “man in the sky,” nor was there anything in my comment which referred to “God.” Frankly, there is no “man in the sky” nor is there a “God” as traditional religion teaches. Also IMO, all religion is manmade. My comment was pertaining to the “source of all that exists” and ourselves physically and mentally as we relate to that source.
“Therein lies the rub” as you put it. The point I tried to make, which I obviously failed at based on your response, was that until we begin to think differently about what created the universe and possibly begin to think of the “bible” as a way to understand it as allegorical, metaphorical, full of parables and “dark sayings”, as opposed to traditional, literal understanding, we will always be in that proverbial box of traditional thought about the source of creation.
The “personal relationship” mentioned is opening the mind and starting over if necessary in an attempt to understand ourselves and the bible in a way we may never have considered before.
12 comments:
And....we know how that went! The more times change the more they stay the same. The modern "Millerites" are going to wake up old and full of days having exhibited "faith" which can often be considered "pretending something is true when it is not."
The engine that drives the religious need for surety and an answer to the question of "what's going to happen to me" is our inherent fear of death. All religion is born out of that question and fear. Making stuff up to comfort ourselves is ultimately neither satisfying or encouraging and a whole lot of real life can pass one by unlived.
In the real last days, AFTER Satan is released/loosed from the bottomless pit, the following will be part of that reality:
2 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Why will scoffers ask that question AFTER the Mickey Mouse Millennium ceases? It is because Jesus Christ will not be reigning on earth during some Mickey Mouse Millennium of a 1,000 year period.
The xcog groups will continue to deceive people about this and get them to think it is coming soon. We've heard this for decades. Where is Jesus Christ reigning? More importantly, where was Jesus Christ AFTER Satan was loosed from that pit? Why didn't Jesus Christ prevent Satan from deceiving the four quarters of the earth's inhabitants?
It's going to be a long wait.......longer than any of them have ever imagined.
And time will tell.
John
Interesting how one of the "faithful" pictured in the old drawing is smoking while waiting for the ascension.
HWA in one of his old archived Worldwide News articles stated "you will not rise to meet the Lord with the smell of smoke on your clothes".
He probably should have added, or with a whiff of gin on your breath!
And it all harks back that that bad nightmare called The Book of Revelation. It's one of the worst theological abortions ever conceived in some warped mind. Read up on the battle that took place over including it in that contrived canon designed to keep the Roman system prospering.
The author of Revelation had good drugs...
Sitting on the rooftop waiting and waiting and waiting, to no avail. One may want to consider the following.
Moses went to the mountain top and saw a burning bush.
Moses went to a mountain top to receive the big 10.
Noah’s ark came to rest on Mount Ararat.
Elijah’s defeat of the prophets of Baal was at Mount Carmel.
Jesus delivered the Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus taught about the destruction of the temple on the Mount of Olives.
Jesus was transfigured on a high mountain.
Jesus met with the disciples in a large upper room.
Could these references to high places be better understood if we considered them as something other than literal? Maybe we could consider something more personal, like the highest place of us all as an individual; like maybe our head, our brain with all its parts within and the most important part of all, the non physical mind.
Unless we have a personal relationship with the source of all that exists, all the mountain climbing and housetop sitting are for naught.
^^^ wise words right here. Pay attention. Don't miss out on life you crazy COGers.
"Unless we have a personal relationship with the source of all that exists, all the mountain climbing and housetop sitting are for naught."
Well, therein lies the rub, doesn't it? I am not willing to pretend to have a relationship with an invisible man in the sky who I cannot find, who ignores me, no matter how much other people tell me I should fake it till I make it. If there is such a man in the sky, I have certainly had no experiences that validate such claims. Let's just say, whatever gods might exist, if they want me to know about them, the ball is in their court.
I am not saying there aren't any men in the sky. If there are, they don't pay any attention to me, and as such I haven't got any clue as to their identities. Christians who boast of "feelings in their hearts" always seem to merely skip over the part when, even their own bible tells them to be asking for identification. After all, you never know if the source of your experiences, if it isn't merely your own brain, isn't someone merely masquerading as an angel of light, right? And yet Christians, despite the cautioning of their own scriptures, seem to think the chances that they could be deceived is absolutely zero.
I would never say such an indefensible thing as "There is no god." I don't know. However, on balance, given everything that I have experienced, I do think the probability that there are any gods is low. But if there are some gods, I certainly don't think the god of William Miller, the Adventist god, exists. And don't forget that Armstrongites are just a flavor of Millerite Adventism, who 172 years later are still saying the advent will be within 3-5 years from now. I think that god has been sufficiently falsified by now.
So, yeah, no more housetop sitting for me. I'll be inside, asleep in my bed. You guys can keep vigil. Don't forget to keep your lamps trimmed, and always be sure to have an extra bottle of olive oil in the kitchen so you can fill up when your lamp gets low. I'll see you all in the morning.
Listen up people!
THIS IS THE ELEVENTH HOUR!!!!
That means that we only have 13 more hours to go before the end, some millions of years in the future!!!!!
What is going to happen to each and every one of us? We are going to die! None of us get out of here alive. Your heart can stop while you are in your easy chair napping. A garbage truck running a red light can t-bone your Mustang or Camaro while you are on the way to a hockey game. You could waste away as cancer eats up all of your vital organs including your brain. Or, a tsunami could assault and inundate your little island nation on a national holiday. The fact is, there are hundreds of different unique ways in which we could all die, and varying degrees of pain, or no pain at all. Hopefully, whenever it happens, we will have lived our lives on the good side of the equation, having been helpful to those arouund us, making their burdens lighter.
But, why is it any worse to die as a result of a massive random or inevitable cataclysm, as part of a huge group, than it would be to die alone, as an individual? You, as an individual, are still dead, right? In all cases, the tragedy does not affect the dead so much as it affects the living who must go on with their lives, now without some of their loved ones.
The ACOGs focus you on the inevitable, death, and really there is no harm in each of us pondering the fact that our lives are finite. We should be aware of that in the daily conduct of our lives. But, they overlook the fact that our personal ends could come at any given moment. They get you focussed on a majorly torturous death, to which they are allegedly the gate keepers, always said to be right around the corner, and they present you with choices that they later diminish or invalidate throughout your membership in their organization. They tell you that if you accept what they say, you and your family will be protected. As you have increasingly empowered them over your life, you learn that "it looks as if we may have more time to do the work", or, "you may not qualify for the place of safety", or "because we don't like your attitude, we are disfellowshipping you and you will probably not be spared from the tribulation", or, "God has allowed His church to break up and splinter, and our little splinter is the only Philadelphian remnant", etc. etc. etc. Do you fear death from cancer? Do you worry about dying in a car accident every time you fire up the family van? Do you worry that there might be an Islamic suicide bomber a couple rows away as you take in a NFL game at your city's arena? Probably not, if you are an ACOG member, because your splinter leader has promised or implied that you have protection. And, then of course we read of ACOG shootings, fatal accidents at ACOG summer camps, ministerial suicides, fatal car accidents, child molestation in local church areas, and deaths by various painful diseases. And your leader warns you that old people (some of whom waited all of their adult lives for the tribulation) can become demon possessed, or counsels you to leave your disabled or afflicted child at the mall. So, the promises by which they seek to control you are in reality false ones, not theirs to deliver in the first place.
Does it really make sense to allow your life and thought processes to be controlled by a group that exploits, but never delivers, an event about which it has abundantly become evident that they know nothing about? Especially when the leaders consistently refuse to modify their and their family's own behavior in a manner consistent with the inevitability of an apocalypse? If we were truly on the major event horizon of the entire history of mankind, these so-called leaders would be behaving quite differently, and treating members in a more loving and mentoring way, not willing that any would be lost. Unfortunately, just as often happens "in the world", HWA proved that "He who dies with the most toys wins", and his acolytes refuse to repent of any of the old man's sins. It's always "Here's the new boss; same as the old boss!"
BB
Good post BB. As you stated its how we live our life. I look to Jesus and try to do good to those I come in contact with. Sorry but I quit worrying about a place of safety or trying to be good enough to qualify for Rod's soon (events are speeding up) kingdom
Answer to Stephen,
Please note, nothing was written about a “man in the sky,” nor was there anything in my comment which referred to “God.” Frankly, there is no “man in the sky” nor is there a “God” as traditional religion teaches. Also IMO, all religion is manmade. My comment was pertaining to the “source of all that exists” and ourselves physically and mentally as we relate to that source.
“Therein lies the rub” as you put it. The point I tried to make, which I obviously failed at based on your response, was that until we begin to think differently about what created the universe and possibly begin to think of the “bible” as a way to understand it as allegorical, metaphorical, full of parables and “dark sayings”, as opposed to traditional, literal understanding, we will always be in that proverbial box of traditional thought about the source of creation.
The “personal relationship” mentioned is opening the mind and starting over if necessary in an attempt to understand ourselves and the bible in a way we may never have considered before.
Post a Comment