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
Membership in the COG has always been dependant upon members financially supporting the work. Anytime the financial support stopped peoples lives were destined to the Lake of Fire.
What this doesn't say is; what about when the place of the true church of God rejects their opportunities and responsibilities as the stewards of the body of Christ. That is what happens when carnal minded men act in carnal ways seeking to please themselves above the membership. Most of these men never talk about the place reserved for hypocrites and I wonder why? Yet if a member doesn't buy into the interpretive "kingdom" and walks, he(she) is judged, marked and condemned.
The fact that Jesus is LORD as well as SAVIOR indicates that we should let Jesus govern our life. Jesus works through the Holy Spirit with each person and no one can declare that God works through them to do the work of the Holy Spirit. A true believer will not claim to be doing God's work, but recognize they are God's work in being molded and shaped into a person who has the character of Jesus who is the Son of God. The body of Christ are faithful believers that they growing in the grace and knowledge of what God love doing in shaping them. AB
And the Apostle Paul plainly said it's not works per se -you can't rack up enough "brownie points" to earn/buy your way into the K. Faith & genuine love is/are the key issues. Am I correct on this?
What I find interesting from the excerpt, sourced to Rod Meredith in 1957, is that the Radio Church of God had some, but not many, field congregations in 1957. In fact, as Herbert Armstrong was growing his business in the 1950s, he was allowing his converts to attend weekly Sabbath services with the Church of God Seventh Day in cities where there was no established Radio Church of God congregations.
Perhaps Rod is asking the question "Do you think of yourself as a member of a church?" because many at that time had no local congregations to attend and were merely regular radio listeners to the World Tomorrow broadcast and receiving the monthly Plain Truth magazine. My grandfather in the early 1950s fits that description.
What were the opportunities and responsibilities of a member of the "Church of God" in 1957 - particularly when the nearest established Church congregation could be up to 250-300 miles away? I guess just sending tithe money into headquarters!
The Radio church of god at that time was in many states in danger of losing its status as a church in under IRS regulations for lack of church identifiers (like local congregations). Thus the rapid increase in establishing congregations and baptism spree from 1954 onwards.
Until that time the "listening audience" was a member of the RADIO church of god or a "co worker." As the jewish saying goes if you hate someone......"I wish you a lot of co workers.
The Bible says that we're going to be judged the way we judge others. So, if a group teaches and believes that we're going to be judged based on our works, then that's the way that group will be judged! If they produce bad fruits in this life, that means they are lacking in works. They may mock traditional Christians, but Armstrongism never did measure up to the works and fruits of observant Christians. They made strawmen out of some of the bad examples for purposes of comparison, but basically Armstrong theology sets up a contest between the two great commandments of the Lord (love for God, and live for fellow man) as opposed to paying equal attention to both.
Lets look at things from from real life view. My personal experiences in Radio church of God started with baptism in 1958.and i attended the fall FOT in Big Sandy, Texas in 1958. It was a positive experience and we enjoyed being with the people we met there. We missed 1959 due to the birth of our youngest child. Even though it was a long drive from out home we went to Texas until they began other feast sites. I was young and my wife and I enjoyed being with the people who seem to share interest in living by biblical principles. We attended the FOT until the main body of WWCOG ceased promoting them. From 1963 to 2000 I had an active roll in whatever site we attended. I cannot say that everyone enjoyed attending the festivals, but My family and many friends benefited spiritually from those experiences. From that beginning my life played a dominate role of WWCOG until 2000. Enough said for now. AB
Since the splits have about 30,000 people, then it seems that a sizable minority including me had a good experience. The vast majority did not for one or more reasons, which we get to see in the comments. There is a church of God movement which includes the HWA movement. It would be nice to see some comments from people from the non-HWA splits and some analysis of the differences between the church of God splits that did not derive from HWA. Once when I looked up Ted Cruz's major political funding, I found it was from a retired oil billionaire who was now a minister at the Assemblies of Yahweh, which I think came from a split from non HWA church of God. Their doctrines are remarkable similar to the HWA splits with the exception of politics and selling their books. They keep the annual festivals.
Wrong. In the USA, you can only get to a figure of 30,000 if you include several thousand "stay at home" folks who left the splinters but who hold to some semblance of WCG beliefs. If you restrict your count to organized groups that meet in more than one location each Sabbath, you end up with fewer than 20,000 baptized members. Feast attendance can be larger than that when you account for the presence of unbaptized family members.
As for the annual festivals, there are now more festival-keepers among the 25 million SDAs than among the ACOGs. Of course, they don't keep the days with the WCG spin or baggage.
"Led by Gods holy spirit?" These were empty words by Rod. The reality was and is that the ministers usurp the role of the holy spirit and usurp all of members natural rights. They stole, and still steal members lives. I have been reading church literature since the mid 1960s, and have never once come across a article on following the holy spirit, or how to recognise its lead.
The churches have hollowed out the meaning of following the holy spirit by claiming it means following the church leader or allowing oneself to be lorded over by the minister. Christ has been put out of these churches.
You might not be saved by works but works are a sign that you are being saved. Those who are truly converted are to produce good fruit, shining your light involves doing good works to glorify and point to your creator working in you.
"""As for the annual festivals, there are now more festival-keepers among the 25 million SDAs than among the ACOGs. Of course, they don't keep the days with the WCG spin or baggage.
September 30, 2018 at 7:29 PM"""
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You do realize that the sda membership numbers include untold numbers of dead people, not to mention the multitudes of third world people willing to go under water for a handout?
18 comments:
Where's Byker Bob and Dennis Diehl. They at the feast?
Membership in the COG has always been dependant upon members financially supporting the work. Anytime the financial support stopped peoples lives were destined to the Lake of Fire.
What this doesn't say is; what about when the place of the true church of God rejects their opportunities and responsibilities as the stewards of the body of Christ. That is what happens when carnal minded men act in carnal ways seeking to please themselves above the membership. Most of these men never talk about the place reserved for hypocrites and I wonder why? Yet if a member doesn't buy into the interpretive "kingdom" and walks, he(she) is judged, marked and condemned.
The fact that Jesus is LORD as well as SAVIOR indicates that we should let Jesus govern our life. Jesus works through the Holy Spirit with each person and no one can declare that God works through them to do the work of the Holy Spirit. A true believer will not claim to be doing God's work, but recognize they are God's work in being molded and shaped into a person who has the character of Jesus who is the Son of God. The body of Christ are faithful believers that they growing in the grace and knowledge of what God love doing in shaping them.
AB
Right on...Anon....
And the Apostle Paul plainly said it's not works per se -you can't rack up enough "brownie
points" to earn/buy your way into the K. Faith & genuine love is/are the key issues. Am I
correct on this?
What I find interesting from the excerpt, sourced to Rod Meredith in 1957, is that the Radio Church of God had some, but not many, field congregations in 1957. In fact, as Herbert Armstrong was growing his business in the 1950s, he was allowing his converts to attend weekly Sabbath services with the Church of God Seventh Day in cities where there was no established Radio Church of God congregations.
Perhaps Rod is asking the question "Do you think of yourself as a member of a church?" because many at that time had no local congregations to attend and were merely regular radio listeners to the World Tomorrow broadcast and receiving the monthly Plain Truth magazine. My grandfather in the early 1950s fits that description.
What were the opportunities and responsibilities of a member of the "Church of God" in 1957 - particularly when the nearest established Church congregation could be up to 250-300 miles away? I guess just sending tithe money into headquarters!
Richard
Yes Richard,
It was the RADIO church of god.
The Radio church of god at that time was in many states in danger of losing its status as a church in under IRS regulations for lack of church identifiers (like local congregations). Thus the rapid increase in establishing congregations and baptism spree from 1954 onwards.
Until that time the "listening audience" was a member of the RADIO church of god or a "co worker." As the jewish saying goes if you hate someone......"I wish you a lot of co workers.
nck
The Bible says that we're going to be judged the way we judge others. So, if a group teaches and believes that we're going to be judged based on our works, then that's the way that group will be judged! If they produce bad fruits in this life, that means they are lacking in works. They may mock traditional Christians, but Armstrongism never did measure up to the works and fruits of observant Christians. They made strawmen out of some of the bad examples for purposes of comparison, but basically Armstrong theology sets up a contest between the two great commandments of the Lord (love for God, and live for fellow man) as opposed to paying equal attention to both.
As far as I can see, the splinter groups have no love; just greed, (alledged) power and condemnation.
Lets look at things from from real life view.
My personal experiences in Radio church of God started with baptism in 1958.and i attended the fall FOT in Big Sandy, Texas in 1958. It was a positive experience and we enjoyed being with the people we met there. We missed 1959 due to the birth of our youngest child. Even though it was a long drive from out home we went to Texas until they began other feast sites. I was young and my wife and I enjoyed being with the people who seem to share interest in living by biblical principles. We attended the FOT until the main body of WWCOG ceased promoting them. From 1963 to 2000 I had an active roll in whatever site we attended. I cannot say that everyone enjoyed attending the festivals, but My family and many friends benefited spiritually from those experiences. From that beginning my life played a dominate role of WWCOG until 2000. Enough said for now. AB
12:42
Alarm bell everyone. A real life view with positive enjoyable experience slipped through the matrix. Help help. Who let the def(l)ector shield down?
Where is the anti virus software? ;-)
Nck
Karma can be a real bitch, nck!
Since the splits have about 30,000 people, then it seems that a sizable minority including me had a good experience.
The vast majority did not for one or more reasons, which we get to see in the comments.
There is a church of God movement which includes the HWA movement.
It would be nice to see some comments from people from the non-HWA splits and some analysis of the differences between the church of God splits that did not derive from HWA.
Once when I looked up Ted Cruz's major political funding, I found it was from a retired oil billionaire who was now a minister at the Assemblies of Yahweh, which I think came from a split from non HWA church of God.
Their doctrines are remarkable similar to the HWA splits with the exception of politics and selling their books. They keep the annual festivals.
TLA wrote:
Since the splits have about 30,000 people
Wrong. In the USA, you can only get to a figure of 30,000 if you include several thousand "stay at home" folks who left the splinters but who hold to some semblance of WCG beliefs. If you restrict your count to organized groups that meet in more than one location each Sabbath, you end up with fewer than 20,000 baptized members. Feast attendance can be larger than that when you account for the presence of unbaptized family members.
As for the annual festivals, there are now more festival-keepers among the 25 million SDAs than among the ACOGs. Of course, they don't keep the days with the WCG spin or baggage.
"Led by Gods holy spirit?" These were empty words by Rod. The reality was and is that the ministers usurp the role of the holy spirit and usurp all of members natural rights. They stole, and still steal members lives. I have been reading church literature since the mid 1960s, and have never once come across a article on following the holy spirit, or how to recognise its lead.
The churches have hollowed out the meaning of following the holy spirit by claiming it means following the church leader or allowing oneself to be lorded over by the minister.
Christ has been put out of these churches.
You might not be saved by works but works are a sign that you are being saved. Those who are truly converted are to produce good fruit, shining your light involves doing good works to glorify and point to your creator working in you.
"""As for the annual festivals, there are now more festival-keepers among the 25 million SDAs than among the ACOGs. Of course, they don't keep the days with the WCG spin or baggage.
September 30, 2018 at 7:29 PM"""
----------------------------------
You do realize that the sda membership numbers include untold numbers of dead people, not to mention the multitudes of third world people willing to go under water for a handout?
Kevin
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