Have you ever stopped to ponder the extent of their will upon your lives?
How did this happen? How is it that we could have allowed men to convince us that they had that kind of authority over us? What was it that allowed us to lower our guard, to lay down on the floor, assume the fetal position, and allow these men to trample on us, to kick us, to beat us, to rob us, and to dictate to us - and take it for year after year after year?
What was it that made us believe that they were our adult parental units - who told us exactly what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to do it, and why we should do it? How is it that we rationalized such thinking as actually the right way to live?
It is a hard thought to really invest time in thinking about without some degree of self-deprecation. One of the things that is stressed in cult deprogramming is to avoid the trap of negative thinking that cults - and abusers - trap you in. So, let's just jot down many of the things that convinced us that they had authority over our lives.
1) We believed they were who they said they were.
2) We believed what they said would happen, will happen.
3) We believed that Herbert Armstrong was divinely inspired and appointed.
4) We believed that because Herbert Armstrong was divinely inspired and appointed, then those who he ordained were also divinely inspired and appointed.
5) We believed that because those who were ordained were also divinely inspired and appointed, then their words were as good as from God Himself.
6) We believed that the judgements that the ministry handed down were bound in Heaven, therefore, they had to be right, even if we knew they were not.
7) We believed they knew what they were talking about - in bible knowledge, in counseling, in marriage, in child rearing, in life.
8) We believed in the reality they wrote for us.
It all came down to one word - belief. We believed what they said. We believed what they taught. We believed in the power they told us they had. We believed their explanations, we believed their arguments, we believed everything they handed down to us - the how's, the why's - and the authority behind every decision they made. We believed it all.
There is a lot to be said concerning the power of belief. Belief affects every single part of your life - your mood, your hopes, your dreams, your aspirations, your abilities, your successes, and your failures. Belief affects your fears, your anxieties, your insecurities, your doubts, and your thinking in every way. When we were convinced that what they were saying was true, we believed.
We believed every prophecy, speculation, prediction, and fantasy they ever said or published. We believed in the method of biblical understanding - bible reading - that they handed down. We believed in the master plan of salvation they taught us. We believed their dilution of the Gospel of Christ. And we believed in how they magnified the power of Satan. We believed what they said about what defines the world, what defines idolatry, what defines paganism, evil, worship, and churches. We believed that we had to give up the rights of adulthood - our political, marital, relationship, family, financial, social, and employment decisions - to the total control of our minister parents. And because we believed this - this belief became real. What was once just the vision of Herbert Armstrong and a few other men turned into an alternate reality of - for those affected - gigantic, life-changing proportions - and for those not affected, an invisible part of the world we all live in with absolutely no power or authority. We believed.
This power of belief - this power of delusion, which is what it was - was a chain of bondage that wrapped tightly around us, tightening it's grip with every sermon, with every counsel, with every interaction, with every bound friendship, relationship, doctrine and dogma. What they said for us, is what it was. And because of this, we gave up who we were for their lies, for their scams, for their pocketbooks, and for their lives of luxury.
We know for an absolute fact now that our belief was wholly and absolutely incorrect. British Israelism has been thoroughly and scientifically refuted in irrefutable analysis. Herbert's "world tomorrow" which was guaranteed to come in the 20th century did not. The church that "no man could shut down" was shut down by one man. The Worldwide Church of God as it was is no more. None of us were supposed to be here right now. Right now, we were supposed to be with Christ on this earth, cleaning up the tribulation, well into the first 40 years of "The World Tomorrow". We would have 30-40 year-olds who only knew life in this Millennium, with tame tigers and lions, spirit beings judging and disciplining, and lots of fountains and floral gardens everywhere under crystal clear skies - all singing "Praise Ye The Lordo" and "Holy Mighty Majesty". This is what we believed.
And yet the one thing we were supposed to BELIEVE, we did not.
That God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For everything we believed, the one thing we did not, could not, and would not believe was the Gospel of Jesus Christ - who He was, what He did, and what He accomplished. And everything the Gospels said was true, which we as a church denied, denied, and denied again.
Because if we had believed that - we would never have believed anything else that has been proven to be lies.
There is much truth to the words of the old song:
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
And because we didn't believe the one thing we should have believed - it all sank.
submitted by SHT
38 comments:
All belief has to rely on assumptions.
Primarily, we assume that we do exist, and that we are not a dream or illusion. The old "I think , therefore I am".
Beyond that , there are many other assumptions that we make in order to live life. We assume the plane is not going to crash, or that the ceiling is not going to immediately fall.
It is all a matter or probabilities in the end, and taking risk. We have to learn to manage our assumptions, and risks in life.
In human interactions, one must ask "What is in it for them". Pure religion would imply providing information and teaching for free, without strings or any expectation of a return. In fact , refusing to exercise control, or financial renumeration for doing so. Unfortunately, pure religion is very hard to find.
They had their total manipulation package together, and they were skilled in its presentation and application. No question about that.
The thing is, the greater audience in the world surrounding us had no idea how to deal with this at the time it first became popular. The Armstrongs were not the only ones perpetrating such collection and co-opting of human subjects utilizing a package of their own internal system of gnosticism. Over the past decades, the general public in the USA and other civilized nations has come up to speed, and made adjustments. The problem for Armstrongism is that the movement has not realized this and made counter-adjustments to tweak their package. They have not, partially because they don’t know how, but also because they have such reverence for Herbert Armstrong as a quasi-Biblical figure that they refuse to change any practices that he established. This is why some of us say that Armstrongism was time and date-stamped for a bygone era.
BB
Did you ever stop to think about just how much control the Churches of God ministry has attempted to exert upon your life?
In reading through all that was listed in this posted article I wondered how many of the members were that blind. In the 42 years that I was associated with the organization the congregational members were intelligent people who had stable lives that functioned in communities where they lived. They were sincere in their belief in God and Jesus Christ. The Sabbath and the Holy Days with the meaning attached was a primary difference. Tithing and financial support was stressed and perhaps abused. I realize there were dictatorial efforts applied, but these were generally acceptable if they contributed to living by the word of God. In those 42 years I attended 4 or 5 separate congregations and these congregations were as balanced as any church congregation that I know of. Of course this may be do to the fact that I accept the fact that God is working with people in many different ways. AB
Good article SHT - you captured the essence. WCG had some truth, but then Satan does too. Christ’s criticism of the Pharisees was they added to the law of God and sometimes overrode it. Plus they missed the most important parts of it.
2Thessalonians 2:4 equally applies to Herb ministers within their congregations. Encouraged and sanctioned by Herbs "government is everything' mantra.
2Thess 2:4 "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God (church services), shewing himself that he is God."
I know what I'm going to say is going to fall on deaf ears, BUT, if people would simply keep their personal life from the prying eyes of their church & NOT run and tell EVERYTHING to the minister and the WHOLE congregation, you can avoid that cult from "controlling" every aspect of your life! Keep your private life a secret from the church!!!
11.00 AM
"Dictatorial efforts applied" but OK if "contributed to living by the word of God."
Dictatorial efforts were only applied to enforce Pharisaic church culture. That was my observation. Living by the word of God, like charity, is the freely chosen. Otherwise we are looking at bullying, which results in no personal growth, even if the 'decision is the 'right' one. The ministers have no moral right to snatch away members rights when it suits their whims. It is sin, it is destructive. That you do not believe that Gods laws are perfect after 42 years is to your shame. This is why I keep saying that members should sue their church for fraud, and demand their tithe money back.
42 years of instruction and still morally confused, and that's putting it charitably.
Don't forget...the entire New Testament church could have said all this about their own experience with Peter, James, John and especially Paul. He taught against marriage because time was short and claimed inspiration none of them actually had. WCG did not invent it. The New Testament did . HWA and many other churches just did and do it over and over
Your eight points of belief precisely summed up our walk into the template of one true church with one true government as defined by a pretty good salesman.
I and probably many others came into this church incorporating an inexperienced lazy belief that was quickly put into a confined box with many layers (government) smothering it. While working on the assembly line of the church (work), there was no allowance for discerning what was coming down the line and no questioning what was going on out the line. The constant reinforcement of "you are only called to do the work" or the on going example of choosing the right tree over the consequences of the wrong tree by the leader was used to keep us as brain numb slaves to the church (work).
Your conclusion statement of; "For everything we believed, the one thing we did not, could not, and would not believe was the Gospel of Jesus Christ - who He was, what He did, and what He accomplished. And everything the Gospels said was true, which we as a church denied, denied, and denied again" is not completely true. HWA and most members acknowledged who Jesus Christ was and what he did and what he accomplished to a high degree at the conversion process. But save for the yearly Passover service the focus was on executing a warning message in the bubble of a gospel "about" the Kingdom of God.
The history of the cause of the sinking of the entity WCG was far from just "believing on the one thing we should have believed". There was a belief involved in its demise, but it was a belief dictated by MEN and not of God. And now we get to look out over landscape of 400+ daughter entities led by MEN believing they and they alone can define true belief.
As long as Yahshua is my loving saviour, that other stuff doesn't matter.
12.31 PM
Good advice, but it sounds as if your home base is outside of the church. Otherwise it's easier said than done.
Belief is an amazing, pliable thing. First, look at the photo below with no promptings:
Two Young Men Kissing in a Photo Booth in 1953
Now, go back and look at the photo while asking yourself the question, "Could this be a young Dick Ames in the photo?" The simple planting of a suggestion will cause many to view an item or circumstance very differently than they would view it with no suggestions. Armstrongism taught us to view the world through the many suggestions implanted in us by our understanding of "Bible Prophecy." We saw things that weren't there, but we were sure that we saw what we saw.
I wonder if the turnover rate of members was higher in the WCG as compared with mainstream churches. I suspect that within the prosperity preaching churches, the turnover is quite high. If people don't get healthier and wealthier by giving to these ministries, they probably drop out. I doubt if you could get accurate membership figures from many churches. Pastors like to keep people on their membership roles so that they look good in the eyes of their district superintendent or bishop. Many churches are like a Ponzi scheme where you need to bring in new members all the time to replace those who leave to keep the operation going. I also wonder if cults attract a certain personality type, such as the dependent personality type. This type needs someone to tell them what to do, what to believe, etc. This fits well with a narcissistic leadership who thinks he has all of the answers to all questions. They both meet each others' neurotic needs. There are other psychological concepts that could keep researchers busy for years, such as confirmation bias, sunk cost fallacy and belief perseverance. One of the biggest obstacles to doing valid research is getting people to be honest with you. Many people lie on surveys. How many would admit that they purchased a Polaroid or a video camera to make porno flicks at home? How many admit to buying supermarket tabloids at the check out counter? We humans are an interesting species. I've been out of the WCG since 1974, yet I have followed this and other websites on the churches ever since. It's like getting hooked on a soap opera.
At some point in the late 1990's, there was information put out that in the years of the church existence, from Herbert starting it to just after the splintering, that over 500,000 people had come and gone in the church. IN essence, 400,000 some people came into the church and left the church during its 70 some years of existence. Not a very good track record of a church that claimed to be God's only true church,
Anonymous 3:20 PM, I had been in WCG for 7 years and the minister NEVER knew much about me. He didn't know what type of music I listened too, what tv shows or movies I liked, and he didn't even know that I worked in the construction field. When I quit Worldwide in the mid 90's, I did not try to keep in touch with anybody I went to church with.
A judgmental comment "42 years of instruction and still morally confused, and that's putting it charitably."
I see that my comment about "Dictatorial efforts applied" was miss interpreted. What I pointed out was that there is a need to live by God's word and having people living in conflict with God's word creates confusion. If a person is living a life that is unacceptable by the written word it should be pointed out and dealt with in the right way. "Dictatorial" may have been the wrong word to use. What I meant was we had not problem accepting correction when it was used to improve our spiritual growth. That comment was to point out that the congregations I fellowshipped and served in were more balanced than what was presented. AB
How many of you have had family and friends who have dropped out of WCG who have either become atheists or refuse to go to any church - by this I mean all churches, not just COG?
I wonder if any other church group has a track record of turning so many away from religion?
Why is it that churches which claim to take the bible more seriously often turnout to be cultic,controlling and extreme? How is it that some people can defend abusive organisations claiming positive experiences while ignoring the thousands of people hurt by the same organisations?
Does the end justify the means? Are some religious people trained to ignore what wrong doings in order to believe what they may? Does doctrine come before compassion and humanity? one more question .... Why is Gomorra?
SHT writes:
"We know for an absolute fact now that our belief was wholly and absolutely incorrect. British Israelism has been thoroughly and scientifically refuted in irrefutable analysis."
If this is so, typology suggests that the present understanding of science is wrong - just as it is wrong about man-made global warming.
Ron Dart though that the COG’s went about identifying modern Israel the wrong way - typology being a better way.
Who in the modern world then could be identified as typological Israel? That is which people would be having a dynamic impact - both good and bad - on the world which would suggest that they are modern Israel?
But it doesn’t really matter if you don’t believe that the US is Manasseh, history is suggesting that Europe and its allies will defeat the former United States severely weakened by civil war and natural disasters (http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/futurewatch/id10.htm).
SHT writes in "The Power of Belief"
"That God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
If only eternal salvation is so simple, why is the whole so foolish not to take up this hard to resist offer?. You mean COGs are the stupid ones?
TLA said...
How many of you have had family and friends who have dropped out of WCG who have either become atheists or refuse to go to any church - by this I mean all churches, not just COG?
I wonder if any other church group has a track record of turning so many away from religion?
November 17, 2018 at 7:16 PM
The very fact that there are 400 splinters from WCG proves that it was the true church of God gone astray (fallen from truth) as prophesied.
@9.58 PM
If only eternal salvation is so simple, why is the whole world so foolish not to take up this hard to resist offer?
We aren't talking about the world here, we are talking about the Churches of God who have made salvation unattainable with countless burdens and legalistic bullshit.
5.33 PM
If members were only corrected or sins only pointed out, this blog would either not exist or be a shadow of its present self. How can congregations be balanced with a church culture of tyranny? The picture you paint is not what the majority experienced.
Anonymous 9:58 PM - "The very fact that there are 400 splinters from WCG proves that it was the true church of God gone astray (fallen from truth) as prophesied>"
The very fact that there are an estimated 40,000+ Christian denominations after the Protestant Reformation proves the Catholic Church is the "true" church. Not really, it shows that there are at least 400 power hunger narcissist ministers in the world.
That "whosoever believes on him " in "for God so loved the world" is problematic.
What does that mean? Believes he existed? I have my literary and historical doubts, at least as presented
That he was a God, one of two or three? I have my doubts and skepticism on that one
That he saved me by dying and then coming back in three short days better than ever? Seems like a weekend inconvenience to me and more like a passion play that did not really occur. Many have died much worse deaths but managed to stay dead. If the story left him dead there would be nothing special. Shouldn't a sacrifice stay dead?
That he is the Second Adam? There was no first Adam. It's a myth
as presented
That his spending one year preaching nice things none of which reflected what others turned him into in later years?
That he would come back "Soon" as all the locals and Apostles taught? We know how that turned out.
It's a pure act of faith not evidence to "believe on him". And we know that faith is the substance of what we hope is true based on no evidence that it is actually true. That's not a very fair way to treat people who think these things through and come up with doubt and skepticism .
The ACOG leaders believe that they are popes and their ministers are little popes.
"Churches of God who have made salvation unattainable with countless burdens and legalistic bullshit."
Salvation is unattainable for Gentiles anyway. Only Jews can ever be saved. You are all the children of Satan from birth and nothing can change that.
7:03 AM, So? What difference would it make if a person had a personal belief in a higher power. I eat, sh*t & sleep. I go to work everyday for about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I go to church for Sunday school and come Monday the same routine starts all over again. Faith IS the things hoped for, and yes some call it wishful thinking. When I play the lottery, I hope & I wish I could win the Powerball. Faith IS the thing "wished" for.
7:03 "Believes he existed? I have...historical doubts"
Jewish scholar Lena Einhorn places the historical-'Jesus' in the 50's AD rather than the 30's where there is a dearth of data for him. Besides, she points out there was little Roman persecution of Jews in the 30s, but crucifixions boomed after the 50s due to many revolts led by anti-Roman revolutionaries like 'The Egyptian' (50's AD) - mentioned in Acts & Josephus - who is her major candidate for 'Jesus'.
"British Israelism has been thoroughly and scientifically refuted in irrefutable analysis."
How so? History is not science.
"That he is the Second Adam? There was no first Adam. It's a myth"
Sometimes I think all the writers here are the same person. That would make Dennis a myth too.
WCG is like a multilevel marketing scheme where the riches flow to the top. You need some good products to entice the low levels. A few unique provable doctrines plus some special hooks- most powerful nations prophecies and future gods.
Some truths mixed with error and a lot of core missing doctrines.
DNA refutes it - if it was true there would be a DNA link between the Jews and us - at least a link from 3500 years ago
I don't agree with everything in this post but i so needed to read this.
Blind obedience is not a virtue. How i wish i had known that many years ago.
They demand blind obedience even to this day.
Their opinion is God's opinion. We are trailer trash they are holier than thou.
I don't always like what Dennis has to say either (or many others at times), but I have spoken to Dennis on occasion, knew some of the same people he did, and know he is in fact real and has a real long history with the WCG, like many of us.
We all have a voice and the right to use it - and I appreciate that people like Dennis are here to help others that want to know what their experience was.
Many of us are just more proof of the mess left for countless hundreds of thousands who's lives have been permanently altered and harmed.
I don't understand how so much division has come from a group that was supposed to be the very essence of brotherly love.
@Anonymous 5.02 PM says
I don't understand how so much division has come from a group that was supposed to be the very essence of brotherly love.
The answer: Rejection of God's truth in the early 1970s and so many brethren became cold towards one another.
@10:37 AM,
Before the early 1970s, HWA had paid off a couple of people so they wouldn't blow the whistle about the incest he committed while setting down fundamental doctrines of his church.
Before the early 1970s, Garner Ted was already fornicating with select Ambassador College coeds.
Before the early 1970s, married couples who came into the faith together were sometimes cruelly separated, contrary to the Bible's prescription through Paul that their marriage in the faith invalidated their old marriages.
Before the early 1970s, brethren were taught as truth that 1972 and 1975 were important dates in prophecy, also tied in with the 19-year cycle that was taught as truth.
It's not true to say that RCG/WCG was a happy band of people bound together by the truth until the early 1970s. The corruption was already in place LONG before then.
I have been guilty of having blind obedience. If you strive to do good, be the best you can be and are an average law abiding citizen then why wouldn't you fall into the trap of blind obedience.
What stopped naive me in my tracks is the cold harsh reality that there are some truly evil people within COG landscape.
They have power. They know how to use it. They are evil hearted, have no fear of Gods judgment to come. There is great evil meandering throughout the COG landscape. They aim to destroy, and will lie and cheat their way to do so. They are actors on a stage.
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