The Pasadena church HQ, the site of the "pure truth" and home of "original Christianity," was rife with these beliefs. Top level employees quietly promoted these theories to other church members. Being that Pasadena was the church HQ, it automatically attracted thousands of raving lunatics who thought they had a direct pipeline to God. Prophets, sages, apostles, end time witnesses, visionaries, picketers, and others regularly descended upon the campus with their pet theories and "truths." That lunatic fringe is equally matched in this day by lunatics like James Malm, Bob Thiel, Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry.
One of the more fringe elements in Pasadena were the Flat Earth believers. That belief still is alive in the Church of God movement. Of course it has found its base in the more radical groups like the Philadelphia Church of God and the Restored Church of God.
It has gotten so bad that even Dave Pack has had to deal with it.
Unless you make a decision to move to the wrong side of the fire, you don’t ever need to worry about safety or health. If you leave God’s Church, you probably shouldn’t worry about much else. If you don’t want to be part of this, you really should leave. I’m not suggesting anybody doesn’t, but we had people leave this week.Just to show you how crazy the age is…We have people who left this week, because they’re convinced the Earth is flat! They’ve joined the Flat Earth Society. Do you know how we caught them? They were overheard—overheard. Angry that we have a spinning globe on the World to Come…We were telling a lie to the world that the earth is round. Man…when you call the weak and foolish of the world, that’s what you did! And that’s what God did! I didn’t think anybody could believe that. There is a Flat Earth Society. They’re convinced the moon landing…You ought to hear these people that left…They’re convinced the moon landing is a lie. It’s a hoax. There is no round Moon. The Earth is flat! When it says God sits on the circle of the earth in the Bible…I don’t know what they do with that verse.
7 comments:
The Bronze Age "circle of the earth" Dsve speaks of a flat plate as in all you can see turning in a 360 degree circle. Same view Satan offered jesus to rule if he'd acknowledge satan. It was no ball to those folks. In other places the pkate is held up by four pillars.
Amazing! The broken clock finally got something right. The early explorers such as Christopher Columbus dispelled flat earth theory. Global communication regarding times of daylight did a great job of it also, and then space exploration and the many photographs taken provided more encompassing observation. There is no excuse for continuing to believe in a flat earth. Flat earthers are either just plain stupid, or deliberately attempting to be contrarians. And, it would be a mischaracterization to cast this as a matter of intolerance for the beliefs of others.
Now watch for some to come out of the woodwork to defend it! (Or a troll to pretend to!)
BB
We need to mention the Flat Earth Society website.
They say they are completely serious, so Garner Ted Armstrong got it wrong when he said they weren't. The Armstrongs never could get their facts right. In fact, Byker Bob mentioned this bon mot over at Living Armstrongism:
"...HWA during the 1970s didn't understand the term "empirical". He used it to describe the propensity of mankind to build an empire as an extension of himself...."
Uncle Davie has bigger problems: People who believe in the thoroughly disproved, debunked and ridiculous hypothesis of British Israelism -- not only is it stupid and foolish, the error has been compounded by the proclamation by Herbert Armstrong that "British Israelism is the key to prophecy", which automatically plunged him into the world of false prophets, having to find endless excuses why this "Key to prophecy" has failed at every turn.
We were shocked awhile back when we found an ex-PKGer who posted a comment on the False Prophet Ronald Weinland blog that they disclosed that the believed in a flat earth and offered 'proof', which was immediately shot down there. I know, I know, the world can seem a little flat sometimes, but certainly the United States Presidential election just past should render some excitement.
No, those who claim "God told me that British Israelism is true" fall into the same camp as those terrorists, serial murderers and other miscreants who believe that there aberrations were tacitly approved by God's voice whispering to them -- we have mental disorder for that, but the DSM-5 is too comprehensive to pick one and disclose it here. In fact, those who believe in British Israelism are in the same camp of kooks as those who believe in a flat earth along with such other deviancies as pyramidology, the hollow earth and those that believe the Devil is a Dinosaur. If you don't believe that, then you should trundle on over to Amazon.com and get your very own copy of "Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief" by Donna Kossy, so you can look on page 83 of the May, 2001 edition and see for yourself that Herbert Armstrong is mentioned as a kook because he believed in British Israelism.
There's so much more wrong with the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia sects than a few nuts believing that the world is flat -- it's the majority who believe in the fantasy of British Israelism you really have to look out for because you may find the answer to the question, "What evil lurks in the hearts of men"... women and children.
I don't think HWA even knew that empirical had been a word, Mikey. Leading into his discussion, he used the phrase "what I call the empirical nature of man". It was as if he felt that he had coined the word. But, I'd caught him in other errors prior to that, such as claiming that aluminum from cookware does not break down into the vegetables being cooked in them. All you need to do to disprove that is warm some stewed tomatoes in a dull-appearing, oxidized pan. Works faster than Mothers Aluminum Polish does on Harley engine cases!
BB
"Armstrongism has always had a fringe element in its midst. From conspiracy theorists consumed by the Illuminati, Jesusit conspiracies, Protocols of Zion promoters, people fascinated by money guru Gary North, Reconstructionism, to the flat earth believers."
Wow, that's crazy, what a bunch of fringe kooks. They sound just like the rest of the USA.
Muslim scholars (from memory, in about 1000 AD) knew that the world was round. Using trigonometry and measurements between three points on the coast, they calculated the diameter of the planet reasonably accurately. It seems that Muslim culture only prospered when they had a benevolent ruler. Otherwise, they were overcome by a killjoy mindset.
The Greeks had it nailed before the First Century A.D. but the Catholic Church took care of that (go look at the Flat Earth Society website).
So in the scheme things, tell us this: How dangerous and detrimental is believing the earth is flat? I'm personally not seeing much more that harmless delusion.
On the other hand, let's look at British Israelism.
British Israelism was at the core of what happened at Ruby Ridge. It has been the source of damage done by white supremacists. A religion was founded on it and THAT religion brought misery to children, attracted and promoted boozing alcoholics, destroyed families, bankrupted people with its three tithes on the gross along with demands for even more money for building programs, promoted narcissism, gave psychopaths a comfy home and living, oppressed people and promoted slander and libel for leaders in the face of Romans 13.
Now which is the worse delusion?
Flat earth or British Israelism?
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