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
Two things about prophecy as it relates to us. One would be, did the Armstrongs nail the interpretation. It was their “hook”, but did they actually understand it correctly?Obviously, they got the dates wrong. At the time Dr. Kuhn wrote this, we were still looking forward to 1972-75. A proper understanding of DNA suggests that applying Bible prophecy to world conditions and the daily events of the news and our own identities in that prophecy could not give us what we needed to understand about our own lifetimes. That would have been the practical application. It’s the very reason for prophecy. Their interpretation did not happen to us.
Secondly, what happened to the group that proclaimed this interpretation? Basically, they had their 15 minutes of fame, and they faded. Now we look at them from an historical perspective, like the flat earthers, or Howard Scott’s Technocracy Movement.
And, Dr. Kuhn has moved on, having even greater prominence and visibility today. One might say that he falls above SHT’s “A-List” ministers on the scale.
Instead of ridiculing Kuhn and the hubris of his prophetic failure, let's take a moment to consider how the man has moved beyond his Armstrongism experience and has reinvented himself as a successful financial executive and armchair philosopher. For anyone presently trapped in the ACOG world, people like Kuhn (and so many others, like James Tabor, Glynn Washington, and even our own Dennis Diehl) should be encouragements and inspirations that life is much better on the outside, and that it is possible to break away and have a full and complete life free of the shackles of Armstrongism.javascript:void(0)
The point here is not to ridicule Kuhn and the hubris of "his" prophetic failure.
The point of bringing these bits up is simple: The awareness of what we used to say, how wrong it was, and how it was this organization - the Worldwide Church of God - with all of it's incorrect, worldly ways - sprung forth the splinters and their current conditions. Kuhn reinvented himself and became a success beyond Armstrongism, and that is absolutely a good thing. This is not against Kuhn - I wish everyone had that story. It does not negate the impact of what previous writings helped in whatever small way to advance Armstrongism. I really don't care if it's Kuhn, or Armstrong, or any other person you can think of. It's all part of the record of the evidence or our origins.
Origins have always been important in the WCG Culture. You have to know the origins of Christmas, we'd say - and of Easter, we'd say. Or the origins of anything we deemed "pagan", which we used to condemn all of Christianity as evil and satanic.
Using their philosophy on origins seems valid when it comes to where THEY came from. What is the record on how they came into being? Was their wickedness, crime, false prophecies, false statements, love of mammon, greed? Indeed, if the origins of the splinters was rooted in evil and in worldly mammon - then what does that say for people who continue to go to the splinter churches? Is there any difference from "keeping" a "pagan" worldly holiday - or going to a splinter church whose very foundations are proven to be rooted in wickedness?
HWA may not have been a liar, but he was an incestuous rapist and a false prophet, who did not choose to be (re?)baptized in the Church of God, Seventh Day. Richard Armstrong "played church" for his father, but when traveling was documented as engaging in "worldly" sins. Garner Ted, HWA's very own Plan B, carried on his father's rapey legacy, but at least he didn't rape family members.
Today's splinter leaders derive their authority from this legacy. Rod Meredith's pathological lying has been documented well enough for anyone who isn't already ensnared in his LCG cult. Rod said, until his dying day, that liars would not be in the Kingdom. By Rod's own testimony, he is destined for the Lake of Fire.
In other words, if Gerald Weston is the legitimate leader of a divinely led Church of God, the God he worships has such low standards that the concept of judging by "fruit" becomes meaningless.
There is much said in that little snippet by Mr. Kuhn and there is much not said.
The church believed one of the proofs of the legitimization of HWA was his seeing in the 1930's the one "is" five are fallen and one is to come concerning incarnations of The Holy Roman empire while the one that "is" was present. So the church had a confidence for defining prophecy far back from the 1970's. Whether those interpretations were correct or not is an open record.
There has been far too much defining and interpreting and predicting prophecy and then stating watch wait and see. And when you have many desperate for aggrandization leaders stumbling and bumbling with the same formula today you have many people rightfully so questioning the existence of God.
There are many things I am watching and waiting to see but one thing is for sure, it is not any of the carnival of characters that are leading many of the COGs today.
We waited, we watched, we saw. All bogus.
ReplyDeleteWe did this. We waited, we watched, and we saw.
ReplyDeleteTwo things about prophecy as it relates to us. One would be, did the Armstrongs nail the interpretation. It was their “hook”, but did they actually understand it correctly?Obviously, they got the dates wrong. At the time Dr. Kuhn wrote this, we were still looking forward to 1972-75. A proper understanding of DNA suggests that applying Bible prophecy to world conditions and the daily events of the news and our own identities in that prophecy could not give us what we needed to understand about our own lifetimes. That would have been the practical application. It’s the very reason for prophecy. Their interpretation did not happen to us.
Secondly, what happened to the group that proclaimed this interpretation? Basically, they had their 15 minutes of fame, and they faded. Now we look at them from an historical perspective, like the flat earthers, or Howard Scott’s Technocracy Movement.
And, Dr. Kuhn has moved on, having even greater prominence and visibility today. One might say that he falls above SHT’s “A-List” ministers on the scale.
I for one have never takin prophecy seriously. I did know people in our congregation who had an unhealthy obsession with prophecy.
ReplyDeleteInstead of ridiculing Kuhn and the hubris of his prophetic failure, let's take a moment to consider how the man has moved beyond his Armstrongism experience and has reinvented himself as a successful financial executive and armchair philosopher. For anyone presently trapped in the ACOG world, people like Kuhn (and so many others, like James Tabor, Glynn Washington, and even our own Dennis Diehl) should be encouragements and inspirations that life is much better on the outside, and that it is possible to break away and have a full and complete life free of the shackles of Armstrongism.javascript:void(0)
ReplyDeleteThe point here is not to ridicule Kuhn and the hubris of "his" prophetic failure.
ReplyDeleteThe point of bringing these bits up is simple: The awareness of what we used to say, how wrong it was, and how it was this organization - the Worldwide Church of God - with all of it's incorrect, worldly ways - sprung forth the splinters and their current conditions. Kuhn reinvented himself and became a success beyond Armstrongism, and that is absolutely a good thing. This is not against Kuhn - I wish everyone had that story. It does not negate the impact of what previous writings helped in whatever small way to advance Armstrongism. I really don't care if it's Kuhn, or Armstrong, or any other person you can think of. It's all part of the record of the evidence or our origins.
Origins have always been important in the WCG Culture. You have to know the origins of Christmas, we'd say - and of Easter, we'd say. Or the origins of anything we deemed "pagan", which we used to condemn all of Christianity as evil and satanic.
Using their philosophy on origins seems valid when it comes to where THEY came from. What is the record on how they came into being? Was their wickedness, crime, false prophecies, false statements, love of mammon, greed? Indeed, if the origins of the splinters was rooted in evil and in worldly mammon - then what does that say for people who continue to go to the splinter churches? Is there any difference from "keeping" a "pagan" worldly holiday - or going to a splinter church whose very foundations are proven to be rooted in wickedness?
HWA may not have been a liar, but he was an incestuous rapist and a false prophet, who did not choose to be (re?)baptized in the Church of God, Seventh Day. Richard Armstrong "played church" for his father, but when traveling was documented as engaging in "worldly" sins. Garner Ted, HWA's very own Plan B, carried on his father's rapey legacy, but at least he didn't rape family members.
ReplyDeleteToday's splinter leaders derive their authority from this legacy. Rod Meredith's pathological lying has been documented well enough for anyone who isn't already ensnared in his LCG cult. Rod said, until his dying day, that liars would not be in the Kingdom. By Rod's own testimony, he is destined for the Lake of Fire.
In other words, if Gerald Weston is the legitimate leader of a divinely led Church of God, the God he worships has such low standards that the concept of judging by "fruit" becomes meaningless.
There is much said in that little snippet by Mr. Kuhn and there is much not said.
ReplyDeleteThe church believed one of the proofs of the legitimization of HWA was his seeing in the 1930's the one "is" five are fallen and one is to come concerning incarnations of The Holy Roman empire while the one that "is" was present. So the church had a confidence for defining prophecy far back from the 1970's. Whether those interpretations were correct or not is an open record.
There has been far too much defining and interpreting and predicting prophecy and then stating watch wait and see. And when you have many desperate for aggrandization leaders stumbling and bumbling with the same formula today you have many people rightfully so questioning the existence of God.
There are many things I am watching and waiting to see but one thing is for sure, it is not any of the carnival of characters that are leading many of the COGs today.