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
Our Local Baptists Fundamentalists Pause to Encourage the Community...and also to...
"Never let a good crisis go to waste"
12 comments:
Anonymous
said...
What kind of nasty bully mindset does that Amos verse reveal?
Imagine that you were dealing with one of your neighbors, and he/she said, "I poisoned your parents and disfigured your children to make you start loving me." Would you love such a psychopath? Of course not! Amos is preaching a religion of hatred, a religion that teaches you to cower before a bully who is not worthy of your love, but who just might be evil enough to require your fear.
4:41am, 6:46 am, and 7:17am is that how you raise your kids. If they disobey you then you give them ice cream as a reward? Or do you punish them? The punishment fitting the deed of course.
God warned Israel, obey me and this will happen, disobey me and this will happen.
It's not as if he just sent a plague for no reason and no warning.
Typical of those who hate everything bible though.
My Baptist wife is offended. I don't know how much since she departed the local church that her ancestors founded because the new pastor after writing a couple of books declared that that little church was the one true true church and that tithing and attendance are mandatory for ...............
I remember watching R Emanuel when he gave that statement on cable TV. I also remember James "the snake" Carville state around the same time that we know if we repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.
God forbid locusts overrun the US this summer like what is happening in parts of Africa. Bob Thiel will have predicted it back in 2015 and Dave Pack will have found somewhere in the bible where the Son of Man is to arrive on the wings of a locust.
This is an issue of "spin". Those who want to criticize god can spin it in a sinister direction as we see in some of he responses.
But it can be spun in another way that makes it instructive. A relevant case based on true events: your little daughter bites other people. (I did not know this until it was related to me by the mother of the little girl but some kids develop a real habit of biting other people. And the bites inflicted are nasty and serious.) You talk to the daughter and it does no good. All your talking does not trump her internal motivations to leave teeth marks on the next kid who gets her angry. She knows what she is doing is wrong. So the next time she grabs another kid to bite her, you interdict and bust your daughters bottom. All of a sudden there is an awakening. You could spin this and say the mother is just a big bully and a psychopath. But would most people really believe you?
And of course those critics of god who spin it as god being a bully don't really mean that because they don't believe in god. The plague that Amos refers to was just a natural event. Their anger is really directed at the writers of Amos' prophecy.
I don't think Dennis was even referring to this issue of theodicy. I think he was referring to the fact that the religious doomsayers and fear mongers always like to capitalize on a disaster to increase their influence and leverage more fund raising. They do this by gratuitously putting the disaster in a theological context. I agree with Dennis on this. They do it and it seems to work.
There is so much in play right now, and there are certainly many unknowns and uncertainties as the intelligent and the powerful work to find solutions to all that is currently happening around us, as well as for future pandemics. Ideas which would never have been thought of in the past are being proposed, including a better and more efficient national surveillance system to track the disease and to contact and quarantine all in each patient's path of exposure. This is based on a greater number of CCTV cameras, much as Europe already has, synched and computerized, and with facial recognition capabilities. It would not be unlike the premise of the favorite past TV program "Person of Interest". This is "big brother" stuff, with equal potential for misuse. Right now, Covid 19 appears to be a reverse "mark of the beast", with only those who are free of the disease being allowed to be out buying, selling, and (ahem!) attending church.
There are outgrowths and derivatives, formerly unimagined consequences which the shutdown has produced, such as highly polluted cities around the globe now having nearly pristine air for citizens to breathe. This has even prompted Pope Francis to speculate that the coronavirus may be one of nature's responses to humans ignoring climate crisis.
The big battle which will continue to rage and increase in intensity is containment of the disease vs the economy, with attached risk-benefit scenarios which are scary regardless of which side eventually prevails. We've never witnessed the pressing of a reset button of this magnitude. In many ways, it appears that there are no completely good decisions possible. This crisis may well result in the resurgence of a hyper version of globalism The pandemic appears to be nearly tailor-made to play into the hands of those advocating for global controls over certain shared problems. The most efficient solutions also appear to be heavily weighted in favor of socialism, something many of us have always found abhorrent. This has got to be very scary for those who have been led to believe that any sort of global government is inherently evil, as opposed to one specific type of world government, with the carefully defined evils outlined in Revelation.
Will the human spirit rise to the challenge and survive, as it always has in the past? Seems like it's being severely tested. Best thing any of us can do is to continue to align ourselves as part of the solution. No one individual can resolve the crisis, but there are things which each of us can do as individuals to make it less bad for ourselves and those around us.. The worst advice I've ever heard is that "if rape is inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.". Yet that seems to be the message coming from certain church groups we've all encountered along the way. Don't succumb to the negative Nellies who would tell you that there is nothing you can do. Don't allow them to coerce you into bad decisions. This too will pass, although it will definitely bring hardship, and some changes for all of us, some good, and some bad. Absenting a vaccine, a positive attitude is the best antidote we have. It always has been.
Christ used the tower falling on innocent people as a evangelizing tool as well, ie., repent or else.
When people become pyscho/semi-pyscho, they only respond to extreme suffering. That's the sad reality. Christ cried when He overlooked Jerusalem, knowing of the coming 70 AD siege. So it's not that He is indifferent or delights in disasters. No doubt Christ is reacting the same way to the coming tribulation.
Anon, April 11, 2020 at 8:06 AM, said: ****** "God warned Israel, obey me and this will happen, disobey me and this will happen.
It's not as if he just sent a plague for no reason and no warning.
Typical of those who hate everything bible though." ****** Yes, God warned ancient physical Israel, but why? If one looks back into the context beginning with Amos 4:1, one will see how Israel was treating its poor and needy citizens:
Amos 10:1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that [are] in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
They, for whatever reason/cause, were not treated very nicely! So, the warnings begin in verse 2:
:2 The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. :3 And ye shall go out at the breaches, every [cow at that which is] before her; and ye shall cast [them] into the palace, saith the LORD. [{cast … : or, cast away the things of the palace}] :4 Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, [and] your tithes after three years: [{three … : Heb. three years of days }] :5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim [and] publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. [{offer: Heb. offer by burning }] [{this … : Heb. so ye love }] :6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Despite all of that, Israel still had not "returned unto" God. Why not? They couldn't! Then more warnings followed:
:7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when [there were] yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. :8 So two [or] three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Still no repentance! Why not? Then, more warnings!
:9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured [them]: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. [{when … : or, the multitude of your gardens, etc. did the palmerworm}]
Still no repentance! Is the LORD so inefficient, so wimpy, so inept that He couldn’t get those Israelites to repent?
It's an example. An example to show that people can't just repent on their own. These ancient people will live again and never act that way again, b/c God wasn't through working with them. It is God that gives/grants repentance, something we of ourselves are incapable of. They will be resurrected along with Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Grecians, Romans...and Gogites (7th head of beast Rev 17:), etc. including Adam and Eve.
Still no return to God! Why not? Another warning comes (sounds almost like how the future Trumps (wrath of the Lamb BEFORE Satan enters the pit) and the 7 Vials (wrath of God AFTER Satan exits the pit) occur one after another over a lengthy period of time, and there is virtually no return to God: no repentance/change!
And then, the warning displayed on that billboard structure:
:10 “I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”
The Bible is loaded with many such similar examples, but what will be the end result (of the matter) later for the ancient physical Israelites AFTER they are resurrected (and this has nothing to do with the Mickey Mouse Millennium (MMM) of “another Jesus” reigning on earth for 1,000 years)?
Here is one example (of many similar promises that are for AFTER the MMM) of the end result:
Jeremiah 32: 37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: 38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: 39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: {for ever: Heb. all days } 40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. {from them: Heb. from after them } 41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. {assuredly: Heb. in truth, or, stability } 42 For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
Notice that God makes that all happen (notice especially :38-40); He promises to do all of that, and if He doesn’t, then He is a liar. Believe it or not!
The point is, God did NOT send THIS plague on mankind. He has ALLOWED this virus to be created and purposely released in Wuhan, China and then throughout the world. The major players? CDC, WHO, Bill Gates, Fauci, Birx, the Demon-crats, Deep State and the Chinese government. The "beginning of sorrows" is now upon the U.S. and the world and is irreversible.
12 comments:
What kind of nasty bully mindset does that Amos verse reveal?
Imagine that you were dealing with one of your neighbors, and he/she said, "I poisoned your parents and disfigured your children to make you start loving me." Would you love such a psychopath? Of course not! Amos is preaching a religion of hatred, a religion that teaches you to cower before a bully who is not worthy of your love, but who just might be evil enough to require your fear.
Yes, the true Christian message: LOVE DADDY, OR HE'LL BURN YOU!
If a god sends you a plague, shouldn't you run farther away rather than return to him?
4:41am, 6:46 am, and 7:17am is that how you raise your kids. If they disobey you then you give them ice cream as a reward? Or do you punish them? The punishment fitting the deed of course.
God warned Israel, obey me and this will happen, disobey me and this will happen.
It's not as if he just sent a plague for no reason and no warning.
Typical of those who hate everything bible though.
This along with weather and natural geological processes is an evangelizing tool. Bob Thiel appeals to it in ignorance often
My Baptist wife is offended. I don't know how much since she departed the local church that her ancestors founded because the new pastor after writing a couple of books declared that that little church was the one true true church and that tithing and attendance are mandatory for ...............
I remember watching R Emanuel when he gave that statement on cable TV. I also remember James "the snake" Carville state around the same time that we know if we repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.
God forbid locusts overrun the US this summer like what is happening in parts of Africa. Bob Thiel will have predicted it back in 2015 and Dave Pack will have found somewhere in the bible where the Son of Man is to arrive on the wings of a locust.
This is an issue of "spin". Those who want to criticize god can spin it in a sinister direction as we see in some of he responses.
But it can be spun in another way that makes it instructive. A relevant case based on true events: your little daughter bites other people. (I did not know this until it was related to me by the mother of the little girl but some kids develop a real habit of biting other people. And the bites inflicted are nasty and serious.) You talk to the daughter and it does no good. All your talking does not trump her internal motivations to leave teeth marks on the next kid who gets her angry. She knows what she is doing is wrong. So the next time she grabs another kid to bite her, you interdict and bust your daughters bottom. All of a sudden there is an awakening. You could spin this and say the mother is just a big bully and a psychopath. But would most people really believe you?
And of course those critics of god who spin it as god being a bully don't really mean that because they don't believe in god. The plague that Amos refers to was just a natural event. Their anger is really directed at the writers of Amos' prophecy.
I don't think Dennis was even referring to this issue of theodicy. I think he was referring to the fact that the religious doomsayers and fear mongers always like to capitalize on a disaster to increase their influence and leverage more fund raising. They do this by gratuitously putting the disaster in a theological context. I agree with Dennis on this. They do it and it seems to work.
There is so much in play right now, and there are certainly many unknowns and uncertainties as the intelligent and the powerful work to find solutions to all that is currently happening around us, as well as for future pandemics. Ideas which would never have been thought of in the past are being proposed, including a better and more efficient national surveillance system to track the disease and to contact and quarantine all in each patient's path of exposure. This is based on a greater number of CCTV cameras, much as Europe already has, synched and computerized, and with facial recognition capabilities. It would not be unlike the premise of the favorite past TV program "Person of Interest". This is "big brother" stuff, with equal potential for misuse. Right now, Covid 19 appears to be a reverse "mark of the beast", with only those who are free of the disease being allowed to be out buying, selling, and (ahem!) attending church.
There are outgrowths and derivatives, formerly unimagined consequences which the shutdown has produced, such as highly polluted cities around the globe now having nearly pristine air for citizens to breathe. This has even prompted Pope Francis to speculate that the coronavirus may be one of nature's responses to humans ignoring climate crisis.
The big battle which will continue to rage and increase in intensity is containment of the disease vs the economy, with attached risk-benefit scenarios which are scary regardless of which side eventually prevails. We've never witnessed the pressing of a reset button of this magnitude. In many ways, it appears that there are no completely good decisions possible. This crisis may well result in the resurgence of a hyper version of globalism The pandemic appears to be nearly tailor-made to play into the hands of those advocating for global controls over certain shared problems. The most efficient solutions also appear to be heavily weighted in favor of socialism, something many of us have always found abhorrent. This has got to be very scary for those who have been led to believe that any sort of global government is inherently evil, as opposed to one specific type of world government, with the carefully defined evils outlined in Revelation.
Will the human spirit rise to the challenge and survive, as it always has in the past? Seems like it's being severely tested. Best thing any of us can do is to continue to align ourselves as part of the solution. No one individual can resolve the crisis, but there are things which each of us can do as individuals to make it less bad for ourselves and those around us.. The worst advice I've ever heard is that "if rape is inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.". Yet that seems to be the message coming from certain church groups we've all encountered along the way. Don't succumb to the negative Nellies who would tell you that there is nothing you can do. Don't allow them to coerce you into bad decisions. This too will pass, although it will definitely bring hardship, and some changes for all of us, some good, and some bad. Absenting a vaccine, a positive attitude is the best antidote we have. It always has been.
BB
Christ used the tower falling on innocent people as a evangelizing tool as well, ie., repent or else.
When people become pyscho/semi-pyscho, they only respond to extreme suffering. That's the sad reality. Christ cried when He overlooked Jerusalem, knowing of the coming 70 AD siege. So it's not that He is indifferent or delights in disasters. No doubt Christ is reacting the same way to the coming tribulation.
Anon, April 11, 2020 at 8:06 AM, said:
******
"God warned Israel, obey me and this will happen, disobey me and this will happen.
It's not as if he just sent a plague for no reason and no warning.
Typical of those who hate everything bible though."
******
Yes, God warned ancient physical Israel, but why? If one looks back into the context beginning with Amos 4:1, one will see how Israel was treating its poor and needy citizens:
Amos 10:1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that [are] in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
They, for whatever reason/cause, were not treated very nicely! So, the warnings begin in verse 2:
:2 The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
:3 And ye shall go out at the breaches, every [cow at that which is] before her; and ye shall cast [them] into the palace, saith the LORD. [{cast … : or, cast away the things of the palace}]
:4 Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, [and] your tithes after three years: [{three … : Heb. three years of days }]
:5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim [and] publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. [{offer: Heb. offer by burning }] [{this … : Heb. so ye love }]
:6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Despite all of that, Israel still had not "returned unto" God. Why not? They couldn't! Then more warnings followed:
:7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when [there were] yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
:8 So two [or] three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Still no repentance! Why not? Then, more warnings!
:9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured [them]: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. [{when … : or, the multitude of your gardens, etc. did the palmerworm}]
Still no repentance! Is the LORD so inefficient, so wimpy, so inept that He couldn’t get those Israelites to repent?
to be continued...
John
Continuing…
It's an example. An example to show that people can't just repent on their own. These ancient people will live again and never act that way again, b/c God wasn't through working with them. It is God that gives/grants repentance, something we of ourselves are incapable of. They will be resurrected along with Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Grecians, Romans...and Gogites (7th head of beast Rev 17:), etc. including Adam and Eve.
Still no return to God! Why not? Another warning comes (sounds almost like how the future Trumps (wrath of the Lamb BEFORE Satan enters the pit) and the 7 Vials (wrath of God AFTER Satan exits the pit) occur one after another over a lengthy period of time, and there is virtually no return to God: no repentance/change!
And then, the warning displayed on that billboard structure:
:10 “I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”
The Bible is loaded with many such similar examples, but what will be the end result (of the matter) later for the ancient physical Israelites AFTER they are resurrected (and this has nothing to do with the Mickey Mouse Millennium (MMM) of “another Jesus” reigning on earth for 1,000 years)?
Here is one example (of many similar promises that are for AFTER the MMM) of the end result:
Jeremiah 32: 37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: {for ever: Heb. all days }
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. {from them: Heb. from after them }
41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. {assuredly: Heb. in truth, or, stability }
42 For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
Notice that God makes that all happen (notice especially :38-40); He promises to do all of that, and if He doesn’t, then He is a liar. Believe it or not!
Time will tell…
John
The point is, God did NOT send THIS plague on mankind. He has ALLOWED this virus to be created and purposely released in Wuhan, China and then throughout the world. The major players? CDC, WHO, Bill Gates, Fauci, Birx, the Demon-crats, Deep State and the Chinese government. The "beginning of sorrows" is now upon the U.S. and the world and is irreversible.
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