Did you know that the life story of Herbert Armstrong is comparable to Jesus' story or that of the original apostles? Herb was betrayed by many loyal men over the years just like Jesus was.
Even worse though is the idea that the person has been brought up and taught by UCG ministers that as a woman in the church she was unworthy and that "god" just might possibly let her into the kingdom if she fulfilled all the commands of the church. Works always trump mercy when law reigns supreme. Armstrongism has always taught that none of us were ever qualified to make it. We could never do enough, do what was right, or ever please God. Herbert Armstrong's coworker/member letters always brought this point out.
Here is what a UCG member said on Facebook:
I'm just hoping I can sweep a door step somewhere in the Kingdom.. As long as I get there.. I don't know what UCG church you went to but it wasn't the same one I know. As far as HWA is concerned, I never met the man but I have listened to hundreds of stories over the years about him and his teachings.. His mistakes.. His sins.. His great accomplishments.. His betrayals at the hands of those closest to him... His story sounds fairly similar to most every man on this earth.. Even some from a group of 12 many years ago. Was he.. I don't know.. Only God does.
11 comments:
He was the betrayer rather than the betrayed. It's Herb who turned his back on Christ's instruction for church leaders to not to lord it over their flock. Church tyranny is Herbs creation. He was in the drivers seat of church culture. He is responsible.
He repeatedly put the commandments of men before God instructions.
He won't be in the kingdom. What a relief.
Are there any HWA statues around ???
COGs that cling to lineage of the Mythical True Church through Church Eras must somehow exonerate HWA or they break the link.
For those COGs that don't accept Church Eras but still follow a strain of Armstrongism, they may downplay HWA's role. When GTA started CGI, HWA rightly said that what GTA taught all came through him; it can be ignored, but not denied.
Ironically, this UCG lady's humility will probably place her in a higher position in the Kingdom than any of the arrogant oppressors who believe they are going to be ruling over cities, nations, and planets with their rods of iron.
BB
Too true BB, and the cogs stance against Women & children is one thing that kicked my brain back in gear... now I just have 2 figure out where 2 drive š
I don't know this lady, but I saw an awful lot of this type of "humility" in the COGs and a lot of it was false. It was just a way of getting others to point out how much good they do.
A dear friend and long-time COG member died last year. He was the sweetest, kindest, most generous person I ever knew. Yet, in the weeks before he died, he was still talking about hoping he'd make it into the Kingdom. How sad that Armstrongism stripped itself and its members of God's mercy and grace. Instead of the atoning death of Christ opening the door wide for the repentant sinner, the COGs made it more like something that allowed a member to just get his toe in the door. From there, he was expected to spend his life trying to shove the door open wide enough to actually get in.
As we were discussing funerals on another thread, one poster commented that people generally say positive things about the deceased, not criticism. In the ACOGs, members get up each morning thinking that today could be the day that they do something, or something will happen to make them lose their salvation. Yet, when one of them actually dies, people will generally eulogize them by stating that the departed held on, kept the faith to the end, and now a crown of glory is reserved for them in the Kingdom. Third parties, apparently having faith in the system, are more certain of the outcome than first person. Yet God is considered to be this quirky judge, almost salivating at any opportunity to swoop down and punish for committing even minor offenses against all of the legalism. That flies in the face of all the examples and parables that Jesus taught in educating us about Father God. Seems we all fell unwittingly under the spell of modern versions of the Pharisees rather than paying attention to the simple teachings of Jesus.
BB
Personally, "the kingdom" as a "heaven on earth" utopia where there's supposedly never any tears or negative emotions strikes me as a place of either thought control or chemical sedation. Whatever emotions, whether positive or negative, we make them. They are not manufactured remotely and distributed supernaturally or something. The proposition of such a place in real terms sounds to me like more of a terrifying horror movie, and definitely competes with any place of punishment, and sounds worse than simple non-existence. So, far from being thankful to be let in, if given the option, I'm not sold on it being a place I'd be in favor of going, but thanks anyway.
To answer Connie's question: A bust of Herbert Armstrong was put up in the basement of Ambassador Auditorium after he died. Not in the middle, but toward a side. I have no idea whether or not it's still there.
Hoss, the link was broken long ago. Gilbert Cranmer, the pioneer COG7 minister, was a layman who left the adventist movement and he was never ordained. But he ordained others. So the hypothetical history of the unbroken chain of ordinations from the apostles to HWA is bogus.
Gordon,
I am drinking some oinos at present so I have forgotten the specifics. Therefore this question.
From a doctrinal standpoint.
Would it be necessary to have an "unbroken chain" in relation to the "church era" doctrine?
Or did the doctrine make provisions for God "raising up" leaders to an unbroken chain of believers. Since sabbatarians have been around since the birth of christianity?
nck
Post a Comment