The latest issue of The Journal is out.
This issue has a tribute to Ian Boyne, a COGI minister who was a fixture on the island of Jamaica, with the public and his church members.
It also includes on the front page an article about the "Dig" in Israel that Ambassador College participated in for many years. The "dig" was a bone of contention with many students in Pasadena and Big Sandy as it was considered a "perk" for the elite students who had played the AC/COG well.
Like all things with the COG, there were ulterior motives to the choice of the church being involved in the dig. Much the same excuse that Gerald Flurry is using to fund his "college" students work in Jerusalem digs.
The Journal has this:
Mr. Dick, who came to Ambassador as a married student in 1957, told how it all began for him during the Days of Unleavened Bread in 1967.
“During the afternoon sermon on the first day of Unleavened Bread at Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, Mr. Ted Armstrong [vice chancellor of Ambassador and son of church founder Herbert Armstrong] shocked his audience by saying the Jews had to build a temple,” said Mr. Dick.
“The only place to build it was on the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem, so something had to happen soon to place it under Israel’s control. Remember, this was April 1967, and the church was expected to flee [to Petra, in Jordan] in 1972.
“The main announcement that afternoon was about establishing an office and having a contract for The World Tomorrow.”
Reg Killingly has an article about what it means to "turn the other cheek", something CEM needs to take into consideration as it prepares to sue Allie Dart's Ronald Dart Evangelist Association (not mentioned in this issue.)
Jesus, though, is telling His followers that they should not seek payback for hurt. His disciples should not behave as normal.
It would be hard enough to obey if He were telling them—and us—simply not to retaliate, not to hit back when hurt.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there. The response He expects goes much further. He tells His disciples: Don’t just passively refrain from retaliation but proactively seek to behave in a way that defies every expectation. Do the diametrically opposite thing. Your response must be 180 degrees from what it normally would have been.
Michael Harris has an article about how the church still has a long way to go when it comes to dealing with gay/lesbian members (of which there are quite a few spread across the various COGs)In other words, don’t just not retaliate. Actively help your adversary.
But has the Church of God always offered a balanced and biblical approach to
ministering to people who are homosexual?
No! No, the Church of God is not always balanced and loving towards people like me.
‘Call them queers!’
I remember years ago when a prominent Worldwide Church of God minister came to speak in our congregation. He was known for his outspokenness in condemning gays, so I knew what was coming.
As he shouted out “Brethren, call them all queers! That’s what they are!” I sat in my seat in literal pain waiting for his ranting to stop.
This man’s sermon did not help me. It left me hurting. It was not a godly way to respond to the issue of homosexuality or to minister to people who experience homosexual temptations.
There are the usual ads that are beyond the pale at times for the sheer craziness included in them.
Jan Aaron Young always knocks it out the park though. He rails against Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Thanksgiving, which apparently are a result of a Masonic conspiracy. Where would the COG be without blaming the Masons and the Catholics for everything wrong in the world and the church? He also rails against the modern day Jezebel's who wear make-up, red lipstick, jewellery, participate in beauty contests and wear high heeled shoes. As usual in the COG, women get the short end of the stick as everything seems to be their fault. Damn it, Eve! Why did you have to pick that apple, even though Adam was standing right next to you and is as equally culpable? It has not been women who have wrecked the church, but the men!
There is also an ad searching for tapes by Charles Dorothy, who apparently was the greatest speaker the church ever had. If you have any of his tapes left in the bottom of your desk drawer or in a box, they might be worth $100.00! These tapes need to be before 1980 though. After that, those darn liberals influenced everything in the church.
And then there is Alton (Don) Billinglsey. All I can say is, WTF?????
He claims President Trump is the likeness of Cyrus the Great.
Lest you think it cannot get any crazier, there is this about Art Mokarow, the "Ministering Sparrow.".President Trump has been made aware of his likeness to King Cyrus by the religious people in Israel. And Christ using his brashness and lack of fear of what anyone thinks of his decisions will stir up his mind at the exact time to make the proclamation. With his support, the Jewish people will begin the sacrificial offerings and laying the foundation for the new Temple.
It also includes two cartoons that exemply what is wrong with the church:
You too can read this second to the last issue of The Journal here. Issue 201
No Ad with a poem for Pack, Flurry, Weinland, Malm or Thiel?
ReplyDeleteIt could be entitled...
"THE MINISTERING VULTURES"
Weeks after that GTA sermon, the Six-Day War happened.
ReplyDeleteSo did GTA ever declare himself a prophet? The way we know some church leaders would now?
So did GTA ever declare himself a prophet?
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm aware of, but in a PT editorial, HWA referred to an earlier bible study, at AC Bricket Wood, related to the capture of Jerusalem, as "my Bricket Wood prophecy".
And then the arson at the al-Aksa Mosque in 1969 by PT reader Denis Rohan changed the WCG teaching on the Third Temple.
With the demise of The Journal, how will I ever be able to spread the news of my brand-new splinter:
ReplyDeleteTHE BATSHIT CRAZY CHURCH OF GOD
Our Presiding Pastor Field Marshal outranks the other groups' puny Prophets and Apostles, as he was given a QUADRUPLE portion of the Holy Spirit after Garner Ted Armstrong twice laid his hands (and one other body part) on his wife.
We have restored the true understanding of Isaiah 28, and command that our ministers be drunk with the Spirit, and with the spirits, whenever they preach. We have also restored the great hidden truth of FOURTH TITHE, which God commands must be spent on alcoholic beverages. God has revealed to us the key not of David, but of Manischewitz: Ecclesiastes 9:7.
Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
We are the only splinter that truly lives up to HWA's mandate that Christians must live with "relaxed faith." We expected a massive influx of members from other groups that are laboring under cruel and joyless leadership. Now, without The Journal, how will anyone find us?
This is MLK Day and there is a picture of Ian Boyne on the front of The Journal. It is appropriate to consider the institutional racism that exists among the Armstrongist church fragments.
ReplyDeleteLet me focus on just one aspect of the manifold racism of Armstrongism. It is the idea that the practice of Black slavery in early America was not wrong. This idea was at crosscurrents with what was happening in the United States at the time - Blacks were gradually and with great difficulty acquiring more of the rights inherent to White Americans.
I should mention at the outset that I never heard anyone from HQ in Pasadena rationalize slavery. I believe it was implicit in what Dean Blackwell preached and what Herman Hoeh wrote. But it was mostly a view to be found at the grass roots in local churches.
The fundamental assertion by Armstrongists is that the enslavement of Blacks was not a black mark against Israel (the people of US and GB) but it was actually the natural order of things because Genesis states that Canaan and his descendants were destined to slavery. Armstrongism maintained that the treatment of Blacks like livestock was actually acceptable to God. And this was the underpinning of the WCG policy against Blacks coming to Ambassador College. Some will say that the WCG recanted of its racist views in the Seventies and permitted Blacks to be admitted to AC but Greg Doudna has found evidence that this was done because of impending legal problems rather than a change of heart.
The counterpoint is that Blacks are not descended from Canaan so the Biblical rationalization does not work. The fact is that Blacks are of a different haplogroup than Canaanites. According to the article "Genetics and Archaeology of Ancient Israel", during the period known as IRON I, Canaanites and Israelites were indistinguishable genetically. This supports earlier findings by Dr. Spencer Wells of the National Geographic Society. Blacks are haplogroup E and Canaanites are haplogroup J as are the Jews. Nobody has discovered a significant presence of the Black subclades of haplogroup E in ancient Palestine. In fact, nobody would expect to discover Blacks resident in Palestine besides Herman Hoeh and Dean Blackwell, were they still living, and the current members of Armstrongist fragments.
NEO continued:
ReplyDeleteBy asserting that Blacks (West African) are the descendants of Canaan, Armstrongist leaders painted themselves into a corner. At the Field House in Big Sandy in the early Seventies, Dr. Charles Dorothy preached a sermon in which he maintained that Rahab was a Canaanite and was in Christ's genealogy, hence, Christ was part Black. I recall him saying in an uplifted voice: "I see the shock on your lily white faces" and proceeded to upbraid the large audience on the topic of prejudice. I never heard any further mention of this topic. But later Ken Hermann corrected this loose end by claiming that Rahab was really a Moabite in an article published by Pasadena. After all, a significant segment of Herbert's constituency was in the WCG principally because of its anti-Black stance, like Trump's base.
The upshot is that Blacks are not the Biblical Canaanites, slavery is not justifiable but was a shameful act of sheer wickedness by the North American Europeans, particularly Southern aristocracy, and Armstrongists have had a long record of racism from which they have never repented yet claim to be on the inner track with God. Ian Boyne's appearance on the cover of The Journal does not alter for the good this sad state.
Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba and Eagan were included in Jesus "genealogy", illogical if God was his father, before Mary to fight the charge Jesus was a bastard of questionable origins. It sent the message God can works thru even the circumstances of these women of religion m not happy. Notice there are no Miriam, Deborah, Sarah, Leah or Rachels mentioned. Its meant to quell doubts about Mary and Jesus said to be born of fornication. Women are not commonly included in geneologies without a reason
ReplyDeleteNEO
ReplyDeleteHow is it possible that a goof guy like you writes two pieces that are entitely wrong? It is not even fun to debate as an advocate of the devil.
You have no clue of Armstrongism and armstrongs quaker roots etc.
Your account is not even historically accurate in the sense that I have records on my desk of the European merchants complaining that the black slave traders selling the slaves and controlling the trade from inner Africa were debating prices anongst themselves for days, delaying the shipments.
Nck
Actually NEO, your comments are a disgrace to the thousands of black members I met and saw in WCG.
ReplyDeleteKind people overall. As if they would stay in a church described by you.
You in fact are making fools of them by your incorrect analysis.
I m not saying your experience was fine and dandy I m saying your analysis of historical events regarding wcg sucks big time.
Nck
Who is Eagan? Lol...Rahab
ReplyDeleteDamn spell thingy what I don't mean! "Women of ill repute"
ReplyDeleteNEO
ReplyDeleteSlavery, the 'shameful act of sheer wickedness' lives on in Herbs splinter churches. The church culture is that the ministers (in the name of the church) own church members lives. Peoples lives and property belongs to the church - that is the church culture as taught by Herb with his 'government is everything' and similar statements.
David Packs common doctrine is one manifestation of this belief.
This is why going to a minister with a problem is the worst thing a person can do. When members go to a minister with a problem, they are deliberately given bad advice. When members question this advice, they are verbally bashed or verbally torn down. The message being one of blindly following a ministers 'counsel.'
These are killers, murders, robbers of peoples human and hence eternal lives.
Regarding Hoeh,
ReplyDeleteI remember one of his sermons at a black feast site in South Africa during Apartheid was titled "Why do WE gentiles get to keep the Feast?" Clearly referencing his own "gentile" ancestry.
The black/caananite population of Palestine indeed one of the wierdest wcg teachings, unless of course one would regard the American Empire as "Israel" in a sudden twist of poetic license. I do know that jewish people like Dave Letterman were at the Bahamas partying with the frat boys at the exact date when "Selma" occurred in another universe.
nck
Neo's comments about Blacks is the same story I heard over and over in the church The church was just as racist against Hispanics. Both groups of people were considered "gentiles" and thus outside the boundary of the "true believers" who were the chosen true Israelites. There was many a sermon about how the "gentiles" were destroying the country. I remember when Herb went ballistic after then named the LAX International Terminal after Mayor Tom Bradley.
ReplyDeleteNO2HWA-- Funny, becuase I have heard that Mr and Mrs Tom Bradley had actually had a ministerial visit because of interest in the WCG and that they even attended HWA's funeral.
ReplyDeleteBradley also attended concerts on occasion and was at HWA's funeral. It still never stopped the comments form HWA and Meredith.
ReplyDeleteNck, I’m a Heinz 57 white guy myself, and although I can somewhat understand the black experience on an intellectual level, I was not on the receiving end of the worst of it. I do know what it is like to grow up as a member of a hated religious minority, but even succeeded in muting most of that as I learned the wisdom of exercising my right to remain silent about certain things.
ReplyDeleteConsidering all of that, all of us of the WCG experience had been deceived into believing that we were part of God’s True Church, and that everything we learned there was truth. That does not mean that all of us necessarily liked each of these truths. We remained as members because the ‘“good” truths overshadowed the ones we preferred less. The “truths” about the sabbath and holy days, prophecy, the place of safety, clean meats, and the blessings for tithing caused most of us to give the church a little slack on the negatives, which if they had been the only consideration, would have caused us to run in the opposite direction. The factors that would make each of us wrestle with our personal cost-benefit analyses varied widely. I never did like the church’s policy on interracial dating, either. I liked exotic women who were different from me. That was one of the very first things I fixed as I left.
What I’m trying to say is that I understand that, in the presence of intitutionalized racism, people of color would have remained in the church for the truths which outweighed the racism. It is not demeaning or insulting to recognize that. Unfortunately, during that era, racism was everywhere. A black family attending a black Baptist church would have expected church to be a sanctuary from the racism found everywhere else. Unfortunately, any such advance expectations about the WCG would have died a fairly quick death. Our ministers were not leaders in the fight for equality. They didn’t march with Dr. King as did the ministers and rabbis in other groups. Our church was in the rear, encouraging those who were woefully behind the times. The splinters still are.
BB
BB
ReplyDeleteI think that is an interesting, balanced and honest opinion.
"Good truths", outweighing the "Bad truths", each working out their personal cost-benefit analysis.
I can relate to that assesment!
I think there is room for NEO's extreme postings. In the end it is not one of our opinions that matter. The fact that topics are discussed in the open is far more important.
Extreme views to tend to make a mockery of the real people involved and I was thinking of the many kind black people I met in church. Indeed some sitting on the back seats of the theater, on the other hand listening to a sermon preached by a black pastor!
It seems there is a liking for the more extreme utterings these days, bordering to untruthful statements like the comment from NO2HWA.
"Both groups of people were considered "gentiles" and thus outside the boundary of the "true believers" who were the chosen true Israelites."
As if WCG did not firmly believe that gentiles were 100% integral part of the plan of God.
One should distinghuish private redneck utterings from either the pulpit or the membership from official doctrine. Even if many church areas believed this (privately) it still was not doctrine. Otherwise there would have been no gentiles baptized over the years.
NO2HWA is probably referring to the "material blessings" bestowed upon those who were allowed to become members of the country club, until 1996 when jews started to get admitted too. And the right to control the earth economic system by calling it "liberalized" so that by definition the western companies win per the economic rule book.
nck
Alton Billingsley wrote: "...President Trump has been made aware of his likeness to King Cyrus by the religious people in Israel. And Christ using his brashness and lack of fear of what anyone thinks of his decisions will stir up his mind at the exact time to make the proclamation. With his support, the Jewish people will begin the sacrificial offerings and laying the foundation for the new Temple..."
ReplyDeleteI have not personally seen any proof of those words about Trump's likeness to King Cyrus, but FWIIW I recently read about Trump's likeness to another king, an ancient King Jehu of Israel. A book, titled "The Paradigm," by a Jonathan Cahn wrote things like as follows:
-As Jehu was a man of controversy, so too was Donald Trump
-As Jehu was not a member of the royal house or of the ruling class, neither was Donald Trump a member of the government.
-As Jehu was not a gentle man but harsh, so too there was nothing gentle about Donald Trump.
-Jehu was first and foremost a man of war, a fighter. So too his modern antitype, Donald Trump, was a fighter, a man of countless battles.
etc.
I find this information more believable than what Billingsley wrote.
For any interested in a reader-friendly book that ties in some Old Testament characters relative to King Ahab, Jezebel, Ben-Hadad, Naboth, Joram, Jehu, etc. and how some similarities may tie in with the likes of Bill/Hillary Clinton, Bin Laden, Vince Foster, Barack Obama, Trump, then you may find this book to be an interesting read.
What means it all? Time will tell...
John
Hmmmm 28 more years of Trump, being granted a dynasty of 4 successors, being a loyal vasal to the Assyrians........sounds like nuclear war is coming......
ReplyDeleteWhat is the meaning of "Cahn" btw?
Nck
This pre-dates my time, so can someone further explain these two points?:
ReplyDelete"The "dig" was a bone of contention with many students in Pasadena and Big Sandy as it was considered a "perk" for the elite students who had played the AC/COG well."
"Like all things with the COG, there were ulterior motives to the choice of the church being involved in the dig."
Also, are we going to get a post on whatever this is?
"...something CEM needs to take into consideration as it prepares to sue Allie Dart's Ronald Dart Evangelist Association (not mentioned in this issue.)"
1:26
ReplyDelete"The "dig" was a bone of contention with many students in Pasadena and Big Sandy as it was considered a "perk" for the elite students who had played the AC/COG well."
I guess this is a negative approach to the question of who or who was not chosen to participate on an international trip. I have heared similar statements on the YA singers. The ugly ones did not seem to get chosen leaving some more scars on these pimpled twennies.
"Like all things with the COG, there were ulterior motives to the choice of the church being involved in the dig."
Again a superficial approach.
What is true is that the involvement within archeological projects resonates far beyond science. COG found artifacts have been presented to prime ministers that have in turn been talked about at the United Nations General Conference to make a point to wipe Iran from the face of the earth.
The Syrian digs did according to the resident US ambassador more good for US relations than diplomacy.
The Jerusalem digs served to assert historical rights on Jerusalem and cede it from the 1967 inhabitants, huge political bone of contention.
So this superficial person is right in a sense.
The Rothschildt - WCG digs at Tel Hazor again led to WCG contacts with the Royals etc etc etc
And the AC sponsored scientific trips to New Guinea happened to find Birds of Paradise right on top of the worlds greatest mineral finds, if you get the gist.
nck
I sat in Rod Meredith's congregation for over a decade.
ReplyDeletePeople can make excuses for his racist beliefs/ comments in the 50s, 60s and 70s by claiming that they were "different times".
But how do they excuse all the ignorant, racist things he continued to preach OFTEN in the last 10 years of his life?
I was there for the "blobs" sermon. I also know that to this very day black kids aren't allowed to dance with white kids at several of the Living Youth summer camps.
Racism is alive and well in LCG.
I can not tell you how many times I heard something from the pulpit that made me wonder why LCG had any non-white members. Clearly, the Hispanics and blacks in LCG have even less self esteem than everyone else (and that's saying a lot since LCGs M. O. is to beat down the members by reminding them that they are "worms").
9:53
ReplyDeleteThere is no excuse.
I was at one of the wcg summer camps in the late eighties. A couple of south african pastors gave a speech or sermon on south africa , germany and nelson mandela. I can t remember what happened but during the question and answers session they struck a wrong nerve with hundreds of campers.
I remember heated insults toward the pastors comoletely shocked ambassador college counsellors and the british ministry tryimg to squelch the open defiance by the teenagers.
If teenagers could do that in the eighties I cannot see why no one confronted Meredith in polite but firm manner after the year 2000.
I m still shocked at the firm reaction of these teens to these ministers racism who actually had no clue whatsoever what went wrong, since they had just kindly volunteered to share their "wisdom" as guests. But Mandela was bigger than life at the time.
Nck
Nck, 16 Jan 2018, 12:37 PM, commented saying: "...Hmmmm 28 more years of Trump, being granted a dynasty of 4 successors, being a loyal vasal to the Assyrians........sounds like nuclear war is coming......
ReplyDeleteWhat is the meaning of "Cahn" btw?..."
Nck, I finished reading the book and found it very interesting, but I have no idea what "Cahn" means and "28 more years of Trump" means nothing as well.
The Book, titled The Paradigm," talks a lot about repentance and judgment and strives to apply it to ancient Israel as well as to America, but all nations have their ups and downs.
I also believe that no nation will repent unless/until God grants or gives that repentance/change.....and such a day is coming: the Great Last Day, or the Eighth Day as Leviticus says. I believe the following will yet be fulfilled, no matter what Jonathan Cahn says:
Psalm 22:26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
And, the following will also become reality:
Jeremiah 32:37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
42 For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
But, as usual, time will tell...
John