Here is the full text which was printed below the trashed Bible picture. This is just a very small ample of the kind of vitriol that the Church displayed to all other religions over it's 50 years. They charged every other mainstream church with vicious slander - stating they have not converted, nor saved, nor reformed the Western world - ensnared in "pagan" customs, and ignoring the customs Jesus practiced - forgetting that Jesus practiced them in a world that was still under the Law!
The largest point of the text above is that all the "world's Churches" have lost their AUTHORITY. Indeed, authority was the one thing that the Church used the most in the propagation of their agenda. They accuse mainstream Christianity of twisting and distorting the Bible to read their "human-devised" teachings - and say that their formula - the formula of "reading the Bible without interpretation" - "makes sense".
A better way of saying "without interpretation" is "without context". The method that Armstrongism has always used was to read scripture like a book, from front to back, with absolutely no proper historical and religious context as to what and how each section and book meant - and then hiring their own experts with already programmed bias (i.e. Herman Hoeh and his B.I. bias) to confirm what they already believed. As such, they turned the word of God in it's proper perspective and context into a book that both promoted an obsolete code, and demoted an active Jesus christ. The Law was always paramount, and Jesus was stuck in heaven until his second coming letting Satan loose on the earth ruling the world until Jesus decided Satan had had enough, and comes down to rule with super authority, forcing the world to be happy by the full weight of law for a thousand years.
Yes, what I said drew a reaction. I expected no different.
But let's look at it from the other side of the story.
Herbert Armstrong, and the Church, have charged the churches of the world with every possible horrible charge you could ever imagine. They have accused the churches of being satan's churches, while their own church was full of satanic attitudes from the top down and the inside out. They have accused the other denominations of slandering the word of God - twisting and distorting it to meet their own man-made interpretations - while they have doneexactly the same thing (consider the marked up Bible of Richard Ames to illustrate exactly what I mean here.)
Armstrongism has a history of hypocrisy. They would never have any problem accusing everybody else of such horrifying spiritual charges - but refuse to look at themselves and the main reason they were doing what they were doing - using religion as a crux for physical and corrupt gain of mammon. They dared accuse other churches of satanic influence when the burgeoning nest of hungry demonic creatures infested their own dark castle with a web of deceit, lies, greed, crimes, covetousness, lust, and envy. They dared blast the likes of Billy Graham and Oral Roberts - certainly not perfect people, doctrinally or otherwise - but never applied the same condemnation to themselves. The focus of Armstrongism has always, without hardly any cessation - been completely and malignantly physical.
What I said they did to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true - if you read the scriptures and see exactly what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross for all of mankind. If you read the verses for what they say, you will see that Jesus accomplished far more in His first coming than Armstrongism ever acknowledged. They took the spiritual power of the Gospel of Christ and weakened it to the energy of a flea on a bad day with no dog or cat as host. They took the life and deity of Jesus and reduced his reign and rule to "on hold" for "4,000" years, because they refused to acknowledge the work of the Spirit of God (or that the Holy Spirit even IS God - but I will not open that can of worms!) in the New Testament (covenant) age of the dispensation of grace. And grace is another thing the church refuses to fully acknowledge - placing law and authority on a much higher footstool than grace ever had within Armstrongism - a religion that placed burdening, stifling emphasis on the Law without realizing that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8) - which promises no condemnation for Christians - when all the Worldwide Church of God ever did was condemn not only other religions, but their own people for their own inadequacies and failures under the burden of law and authority - the burden of tyrannical government.
It really amazes me how one picture of a trashed bible with one quote can bring such a response when used against the ones who made the picture - when the Church has done nothing but charged everybody else with enough charges you could make an encyclopedia out of it if one sets their mind to it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of love, because God is love - the purest, holiest love you could ever imagine. And while we always preached true love is obedience to the commandments of God, the physical interpretation of such always and every time took precedence over the spiritual execution of what love is all about as Jesus mentioned in Matthew 25, and all throughout the New Testament. A timeless love that transcends anything physical on this earth today, especially as to how we treat people of all ages, races, and genders - and certainly what physical church denomination one belongs to.
The photo and the caption I posted did what I intended it to do - expose the hypocrisy of one of the most hypocritical movements of religion in the 20th century - using the very method they used on everybody - and about a handful of remnants trying their hardest - unsuccessfully- to revive that greed-filled, mammon-oriented, Jesus-denying, spiritually HARMFUL way of thinking. This little blog is a world-reaching stumbling block to that movement simply by showing what they have said and done over the past 60 years, how they did it, and what they are doing in the splinters now.
submitted by SHT
9 comments:
I find that some of what is said in the posting here deals with things that are common in today’s world. It seems the focus is on the evil side of human life rather than the power of God that is revealed all through the scriptures. The so-called revelation of the evils of WWCOG and its splinters generates hatred not love. I know that every one of the groups have people that God loves. I also firmly believe that God has a planned purpose for human life. Those God has chosen will be under His protection and what His people go through will be a part of the molding and shaping that draws them closer to Jesus Christ the redeemer. I do not need to quote scripture to support those beliefs, but I believe that love is better than hatred. AB
This quote should always be remembered in life...
"When you point 1 finger just remember there are 3 pointing back at you!"
I have a friend who, after he stopped attending Worldwide, burned his bible & all of the church literature he had. I sold all of mine on eBay.
They are indeed many that are sincere in the CoGs indeed, however calling out cultic behavior and mind control tactics is not in itself wrong. I personally saw what a little deception can do to the sincere and credulous. I saw sincere people in a CoG I attended just turn their backs on members simply because the church instructed them to do so. I saw sincere members afraid to challenge the ministers even when they knew they were wrong. I saw members except doctrines simply because the church said to even when the members disagreed. I saw ministers abuse their Authority and members still made excuses for "Gods true ministers". To think that people must silently take abuse and view it as a trial for growth is not wise. Many people would leave if they could but they are trapped and don't know where to go. That kind of mentally makes it easy for cult leaders to do as they please.
WCG lost millions of dollars when in breach of editors independence it maintained its position that independent humanitarian Quest magazine in New York should run an article on the to be established combined, christian, islam, jewish center in the sinai for which it pledged a million 1980 dollars on total.
WCG did not trash all religion. It just observed that it had not produced peace in "6000" years of religion.
Which of course is not religious task but a politicians job. Hence the visits to "more world leaders than Henry Kissinger". Which did produce a level of peace as compared to previous centuries under the cloak of the american empire, free trade (unseen hand) and the un framework of us foreign policy) for which hwa came to sit at the secretary general table at the un anniversary. (I didnt cross check the "table" remark but he was invited anyway)
Nck
Connie
So when I point a finger, there are three pointing back at me.
So let's release all the axe murderers (including Allwine) and rapists from prison. Let's not pass moral judgment on anyone.
I think the point of this article was to show the hypocrisy that was so obviously glaring in the wcg. I, myself, had a bible just like that one, all marked up and written in the margins the "corrections" of what it "really" meant. I threw it away after I finally left. I purchased new bibles since then and my favorite is the New Living Translation. After I understood that everything Jesus aid was spiritual in intent and that the New Covenant did not begin until Acts 2, the bible took on a whole new meaning. Reading other books helped me in my journey to having a meaningful relationship with the LIVING Christ. Without all the legalistic crap hanging over my head, I am free to finally be who I am instead of who wcg wanted me to be, without guilt. Because now it all comes from my heart. Someone of a different denomination who was trying to get me to go to their church asked me, "Don't you want to be in the presence of the Lord?" I replied, "I am ALWAYS in the presence of the Lord because He lives in me!" And no, I don't go to church. Oood article, SHT.
5.54 AM
I'm a stay at home Christian, and the holy spirit has repeatedly warned me against going back to church. Churches demand their pound of flesh. You pay through the nose for attending.
Seems to me that the verses in the Bible about adding or taking away from its words would at least factor into this discussion! Jeez! We used to note the Catholics’ reasoning in explaining away the religious idols they created and used, all while we ourselves violated Deut. 12:32, Proverbs 30:6, and Rev. 22:19, and explained that practice away by invoking the false precept of HWA being God’s Apostle. When it suited our purposes, we changed commas, insisted there were mistranslations, etc., even as we maintained that the Bible was the immutable word of God. We treated it in practice as if it were almost perfect. Who can trust that?
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