Pharisee Malm writes:
These crazy conspiracy theorists love to pretend a Jewish and Armenian cabal totally deceived Herb, which then led him to start letting church members cook on Saturdays and go out to restaurants. One has to be truly an idiot to believe that Rader and Kuhn were behind this. They certainly had their faults, but Malm is reaching up his ass for this one.Herbert Armstrong had begun and was learning and growing until in late 1967 Loma Armstrong died of bowel cancer, after that time Herbert came under the full persuasive spell of Stanley Rader [a 32 degree mason] and Robert Kuhn, who convinced him to adopt the Roman Catholic Nicolatiane church government system Primacy of Peter heresy and to abandon the true Gospel for a business model outreach approach. Later Rader was to brag that he had “Entered” Armstrong into the lodge, which then arranged the Armstrong international contacts.
My mother joined the church in 1959 and at no time did we travel anywhere for a 7 day UB festival site. For the first and last day yes, not 7 days.At that time Herbert also abandoned observing the Jerusalem new moons with bible studies, the observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread for the full seven days as the pilgrim feast God had commanded, and began to allow people to trample all over the Sabbath even cooking and going out to restaurants.How many COG people today know that the Radio Church of God celebrated this festival for the full 7 days – just like the Feast of Tabernacles? Then in 1968 (when the church was renamed Worldwide) all of the Passover/Unleavened Bread Festival sites were cancelled?
“The May, 1962, issue of The Good News magazine reported on God’s Passover Observed World-wide. This article was written by Evangelist Roderick C. Meredith. Over 10,000 brethren of the Radio Church of God in seven major Festival locations in America, plus others in England, Australia, and around the world, observed a glorious Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The Chief Pharisee continues with more erroneous history:Unlike the common practice today of having Passover and Night to Be Remembered locally in homes, and perhaps Holy Day services on the first and last days of unleavened bread, the practice then was to observe an eight-day festival with the whole church in central places, with multiple sermons and Bible Studies every day, just like the Feast of Tabernacles.” (Days of Zeal Gone By, Richard Nickels)
The Radio Church of God continued observing both festivals at many regional feast sites for the full 7 days until 1967. In 1968 (when the church was renamed the Worldwide CoG) observance of the full 7–day observance was discontinued. Herbert Armstrong’s wife Loma died in 1967 and, lacking her counsel, he was quickly persuaded that maximizing income for “the Work” must in future be the priority.The overzealous Pharisee continues to place heavy millstones around the necks of his devotees as he lays one burden after another on their already weary shoulders. It really doesn't matter to him though as he has no job to take time off from, other than banging away on his keyboard.
We kept the Holy Days starting in 1958. Malm is just plain wrong. D.U.B was not a 7 day thing at that time. F/T and L.G.D. was the only prolonged feast observance, for which we first travelled to Texas, and then to Georgia.
ReplyDeleteNever did we keep any sort of new moon event, either.
Jews actually are prominent amongst the Masons, in fact the only religious requirement prerequisite to being admitted to the Masons is acknowledgement of a Supreme Being. However, I never heard it said that Stan Rader or anyone else in the leadership of Armstrongism was a Mason. Jack Elliott had written an article about Masonry in the early ‘60s. The attitude towards Masonry was the same as the attitude towards military service. It was seen as a conflict.
So far as any Jewish or Armenian conspiracy involving Rader and Kuhn goes, Dr. Kuhn’s wife is or was Armenian. Basically, a last name ending in “ian” is indicative of Armenian heritage, a name such as, say, Apartian. The Antions looked as if they could be Armenian, but their name ended in “ion”. At any rate, women didn’t have the power to get leaders of the church involved in international conspiracies.
James Malm may be all wet on this stuff, but since HWA stood in error on such things as the so-called “True History of the True Church”, and ignored half of the kosher laws in the Bible, I doubt that Malm will catch any grief from his followers, whom we should all remind ourselves “do not follow a man” (wink, wink)!
BB
I am not sure Malm is wrong about HWA keeping 7 days for Unleavened bread. Maybe not everyone did it. But that isn't evidence against HWA not teaching it or him not doing it.
ReplyDeleteOverhearing some reminiscing by older members, a friend and I assumed that at one time members must have gathered for all the days of ULB.
ReplyDeleteLoma had bowel cancer? Wasn't it bowel blockage?
Malm should work on his research skills.
ReplyDeleteA shame Connie is not around at present or I could claim as to have beaten her to recovering the facts.
nck
The Daily News, Greenville, Michigan April 24, 1998
Stanley N. Rader, 80
Greenville -- Stanley N. Rader, 80, Greenville, passed away Tuesday, April 17, 1998, at his home.
The son of William and Ella VanBelkum Rader, he was born Oct. 4, 1917, in Findlay, Ohio.
He was a veteran of World War ii, attended Michigan State University and retired from Federal-Mogul Mr. Rader was a 32nd degree Mason at the Grand Rapids F&AM Lodge, and was a member of the Shrine Temple also in Grand Rapids.
BTW
ReplyDeleteLike Hoss I wouldn't be surprised if the close knit Oregon church would have gathered for a sustained period to be taught in the cabins and surrounded by nature have picnic and sermons.
I guess FOT developed that way while only a couple of days are really Holy and required assembly.
nck
Three services a day during my first feast as a teen student was about all I could take. It was morning, afternoon and evening and was insane. I was too naïve to catch on. I think it was just over zealousness and not a deliberate brainwash, but it wore one down and within a few days I was skipping occasional afternoons and evenings for sure out of sheer boredom and fatigue. God help you if your room monitor or zealous snitches found out lol.
ReplyDeleteI could never have allowed myself as a teen to miss that much school if I had grown up in church. Or if I did, it would have broken me in some way. AT best I would have skipped services if need be to do homework. I was anal like that. School was always first to me. I don't recall missing a day of HS. It is why, no doubt, when students expressed their own concerns to me when pastoring, I simply told them to do what they felt comfortable with and not to worry about it. I did the same with those who were expected to work a trade show out of town once in awhile or something telling them not to lose a job over it and church would be here next week. This, no doubt, was what growing up in a Presbyterian Church setting did for me. No majoring in the minors and church was meant to be a helper of one's joy and not a straight jacket you dare not have someone help you out of. I did hear the words "You can't do that" or "You can't say that" from time to time however.
I was a student in 1967 and was living on campus when Loma died. We were never told she had bowel cancer. We were told she had a bowel blockage. We were given daily updates on her condition. In an assembly Herber told us she was constipated and school nurse, B Cook was giving her enemas. She refused to go to a real doctor but relied on home remedies. It would have been a simple procedure to remove the blockage. She chose to remain steadfast in her belief that allowing a doctor to treat her would be a lack of faith. So she died. I feel Herbert would have gone to a doctor just like he did when he had heart problems. Years later when Herbert had heart problems, the members were told he was taking “natural” meds. That was pure BS. He was on glyceryl trinitrate a medication used for heart failure, high blood pressure, and to treat chest pain from not enough blood flow to the heart. He had nurses attending to him 24/7.
ReplyDeleteJim-AZ
Dennis, I'm sure you know that the majority of your fellow ministers at the time would have said you were doing something horrible by condoning the trade-show vendor's deliberate commandment-breaking. Your example also brings up one point that I never understood while in WCG. Yes, when you told the member to work at the trade show on the Sabbath, you were condoning his deliberate breaking of a commandment. But why were the ministers not equally zealous when brethren lied about having just had their "best Feast ever"?
ReplyDeleteWCG taught plainly from the Bible that if you break one commandment you are as guilty as for breaking them all. Yet, if a member admitted that his best Feast occurred three years ago when he met his future wife, or that his best Feast was a cruise to Alaska instead of staying within his state as usual, ministers would usually give him a hard time rather than praise his honesty.
Repetition causing boredom is an important part of mind control. Making people mentally tired and bored makes them more receptive to subtle or not too subtle suggestions. I was bored out of my scull when I was a member of the WCG. I was there because of fear of condemnation. The sermons that everyone pretended to enjoy where extremely boring and repetative. It was the same old cycle of sermons every yearly holy day cycle. One thing that never made sense to me when HWA visited the feast site I attended was why everyone was so on the edge of their seats to hear HWA give his feast sermon. He gave the same old worn-out message every year whether he was there in person or over the satellite dish. How can anyone continue to sit through those mind numbing messages year after year after year. Get a life folks!
ReplyDeleteIf I remember right Herb and his Oregon people met at Belknap Springs for UB for 7 days. That was in the early years of the church and was never forced upon members like Malm is demanding.
ReplyDelete727 I didn't tell him to break the Sabbath. I told him to do the best he could and it was his choice. He chose to do the best he could. As Jesus taught and most screw up the context. The son of man... I.e humans, are more important than even the sabbath
ReplyDeletePeople mistake the "son of man" for Jesus being Lord of the sabbath etc. GospelJesus was showing that humans were if you examine the examples he gave of over riding it at times
ReplyDeletenck 6:04. I know Stanley R. Rader, born 1930 in White Plains New York, died 2002 in Pasadena California, but who is this Stanley N. Rader, born 1917 in Findlay Ohio, died 1998 in Greenville Michigan? Are you perhaps trying to tell us that Malm's 32nd Degree Mason is the wrong person?
ReplyDeleteHello 9:27
DeleteHave I not been clear in my introduction??
Malm offers no proof of his assertion. I offer an alternative based on actual skill and facts.
Its a dare.
Nck
I was baptized In 1955. Attended Ambassador from 1956 to 1960. We did not go to central locations to celebrate the Days of Unleavened bread for a week. We observed the first Day as a Sabbath and gathered together wherever we normally observed the weekly Sabbath. I was called "The night to be much remembered." I still remember my first observation of that night on the old tennis court at the college. Beautiful full moon night. At the time, I was ecstatic. It made me feel special, which was one of the draws at the time. We were god's elite and oh so special.
ReplyDeleteThe Nickels article that is linked in the post, is accurate in regards to many thousands who attended an 8 day event for the DUB in 1962. The actual Good News article can be found here...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.hwalibrary.com/cgi-bin/get/hwa.cgi?action=getmagazine&InfoID=1392470112&GetMag=GN
As far as someone being a 32nd Degree Mason as being a diabolical agent, my own deceased grandfather was of that rank, and was a lodge master as well. He did it completely for business reasons, and there were no "secret meetings" in regards to the "New World Order" or the like. Masonry is strange in many ways, and may have been a political force back in the 1820s, but in the modern era, has been nothing more than a fraternal organization for networking and business connections.
Funny how Malm picks and chooses what he likes or imitates HWA about. He left his church and the like back in the 1980s, and disagrees with him on many topics, but uses HWA as some type of role model for the reinstitution of a full DUB event.
Three times in a year , the male head of household was to appear in Jerusalem. If Malm wants to REALLY BE PURE about it, then why doesn't he travel to Jerusalem three times a year?
I think what we’re seeing here is an example of what happens when people equate following a man with following members of the deity. People evolve, or devolve, or just plain change throughout their lives. So you claim to be holding on to the truth once delivered by “God’s Apostle”? The truth from what era? Do you go to the doctor for treatment for a curable life-threatening illness, as practiced by and allowed by HWA later in his life, or do you go back to the ‘60s like Flurry, and not even allow asprin, Neosporin, or glaucoma medication?
ReplyDeleteOn what day do you keep Pentecost? What about cosmetics? What is the proper approach to divorce and remarriage? Is “tithe of the tithe” Biblical, or is it a Pharisaic add on? What is the truth about prophecy dates, and why did the church lie after they failed and say that we never set them? These are just a few easily recalled examples of era-related “truths” from which leaders pick and choose.
Also, in following a man, if we allow that God worked with or corrected him throughout his life, doesn’t it only make sense that one or more heirs to the throne would receive successive revelations, new truth? That’s the way in which additional splinter leaders get themselves into highly questionable areas, becoming ridiculous like Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, and Ron Weinland.
We were part of a culture whose ultimate proof for all of the major doctrines was “Mr. Armstrong says....” Anyone who ever was persistent with the hard questions, taking it to the point where if they didn’t back down the minister’s next words would have been “You’re out of the church!” had been confronted with the Mr. Armstrong says “proof” several times along the way, regardless of the quality and quantity of their research.
It is not surprising that we would see what we are seeing amongst those who claim to have the conch. James Malm is doing what the rest of the claimers are doing. He’s picking and choosing what he liked or believed from various eras. It is good to have such absurd examples as a constant reminder. HWA did the same things with GG Rupert, and also with what he learned from COG-7.
BB
I know some people who year-by-year, continue to slip ever further off the deep end. One pet doctrine after another.
ReplyDeleteHow many works must one perform to prove to God how worthy you must be? What level of scrupulous detail is required to demonstrate to God how righteous you really are?
There is no astronomical length to which you can go in pursuit of your own righteousness that there will not yet remain more astronomical lengths still ahead of you of detailed minutiae that you have left undone. There is no end of more and more detailed mint, anise, and cumin on which you still will not have had the capacity to have tithed.
And I find that rather to be the point. The more and more you focus on the scrupulous details and obsequious displays of ritual purity intended to show God how righteous you are, the more you'll be unable to see the big picture of the weightier matters, the more you'll be unable to soil your hands with the "uncleanness" of your fellow man by the side of the road. You'll have to leave him there for the unclean Samaritan to help. He can afford to do it, since he was unclean already. But then again, the more you focus on the big picture, the more you'll be unworthy for neglecting the finer points! Only once you attain superhuman abilities will you be able to achieve both. Only those mortals who happen to be lucky enough to have been born demi-gods, like Hercules and Jesus can win. Ordinary humans need not apply.
Religion is a game. Those who run the game, and those who refuse to play, are the only ones who win. For those who play, there are only ways to lose. It is about money. Those who play the game will give their money to those who run the game for only so long as they can be convinced to chase their tails. Once you realize you're being given the run-around, the jig is up. The more complicated and confusing you make the game, the longer it takes for the players to realize they're being had. This is the secret of christianity's success: most die before they realize it.
And at the funerals, the apotheosized are magically accredited for unnaccountable reasons with that which they never could have been accredited in life, the superhuman status of winning at the game. Maybe because it's not nice to say anything else. Maybe apotheosis confers the necessary superhuman status, at least in the nostalgic retrospect of the onlookers. Maybe it's because the only way to win is not to play. Maybe it's because, since they won't be sending tithes from beyond the veil, there is no financial cost to those who run the game to saying you won it. Or maybe it's because there is a financial cost to not emphasizing that the only way to win is to "die in the faith," making sure you send in every last possible dollar. Maybe it's all of the above. But just because they say so at your funeral, does that mean you actually did win? No.
But whatever you do, don't go off the deep end. It's the worst way to lose.
I was born in 1963. I'm not sure when my family first started attending but, I think it was 1965 or 1966. However, I have several clear and very specific memories of attending a week of Unleavened Bread in NYC only during one year. Therefore, I think that one year may have been 1968. Again, I am not certain about years, but I know it happened. I also recall several times throughout the years when oldsters recounted the glory days of obsrvering DUB for seven days at a site - and I would add my early memories to the conversations. Perhaps it was a regional thing; does anyone else from New York have similar memories?
ReplyDeleteThere are a few memories and one article discussing a 7 day observance of UB. Does anyone have any documentation on whether HWA taught this or when he changed it? I know so many things were undocumented that was done. Bit it would be interesting to see this one.
ReplyDelete9:39
ReplyDeleteI have not much spare time lately to investigate.
Funny thing is that when I researh these things, sources are unexpectedly not from wcg sources but for instance cog7th day ministers or cog7 members who visited those meetings or assemblies until for instance the 1944's when r(adio)cg was quite open and friendly as to who would attend as guests or even guest speakers.
Before Dwight made the hymnals the sing rostrum was ususally taken from the ordinary protestant hymnbook. (what a friend we have in Jesus etc) "Government" was still seen as "natural authority" coming from the gifts of god instead as some corporate rank system with evangelists as the generals.
I like those testimonies of the "early church".
Just as much as I like the 1850's church of god reports from the Dakota's with the natives still roaming around wooden hut or the Oklahoma territories where the Dalton bro's could just ride by any minute. And granny may was discussed by the council for smoking a pipe and visiting of the skating rink was frowned upon (which I didn't understand until I saw a tv documentary mentioning "the skating rink" as the old version of modern "clubbing with the kardashians".
nck