Today is the 35th anniversary of the death of Herbert Armstrong and our most highly favored prophet in all of Christiandom has had another meltdown over people using the word "Armstrongism" and the fact people CONTINUE to ignore his dreams and his supposed legacy of being the only TRUE COG left on the face of the earth today. As usual, it is a shitshow of stupidity, but as usual, so highly entertaining!
Consistently trying and always failing to make people believe he is the one true end-time leader of the one true end-time church, Bwana Bob trots out HWA's 18 point list of things supposedly restored to the church, though any halfway good student of church history knows that none of those things were ever lost. But, hey, this is a COG after all and it has to be "special".
Herbert W. Armstrong wrote:
At least 18 basic and essential truths have been restored to the True Church since” the year 1933 (Mystery of the Ages, Dodd & Mead, 1985, p. 251).
The only Church of God group I am aware of that specifically lists all of those truths, using his list, as part of their official beliefs is the Continuing Church of God.
Bwana Bob then has to use HWA's use of media as proof that his church, the improperly named "continuing" Church of God, is doing the same thing. HWA's message attracted millions through TV and print while Bwana Bob is not known by anyone and is making no impact on the world as he attracts 10's of people.
It just yanks Bwana Bob's BVD's to no end that NO ONE in the COG movement pays him any attention nor will they join him in his minuscule "ministry".
Herbert W. Armstrong ultimately believed that a dream, which had two proclamation parts, was a prophecy from God for him to enter the ministry, which he did, and he completed the first proclamation part of the dream. Thirty years after his death, the only group that has claimed to be working towards completing the second part of that dream is the Continuing Church of God.
Most groups with leaders once part of the old Worldwide Church of God discount all dreams and have not placed the public proclamation of the kingdom of God to the world as their true initial priority (Matthew 24:14; 28:19), do not fully understand all of the restored truths, and have not valued the truth enough, hence they have shown that they are not the possessors of what has been called the “Philadelphia mantle” (leadership authority). The group with said mantle is also represented by the “woman” of Revelation 12:14-17.
The Book of Hebrews teaches:
1 Let brotherly love continue. (Hebrews 13:1)
Why bring that up here? Because the word translated as “brotherly love” is the Greek word Philadelphia. Philadelphia was to continue, even into this Laodicean time, as well as be present (to a degree) throughout the history of the Church of God. Philadelphians are deeply caring people.
Christians through the centuries have been deeply caring people. The COG doesn't even rank in the same category considering its decades of abusive ministers and leaders acting anything but Phaildphian love.
The Great Bwana then says that his group is just like HWA's because his group is growing at a 30% rate annually.
It is a well-known fact that church leaders and department heads in Pasadena fudged numbers constantly in order to make church statistics look better than they actually were. As one head of accounting boldly said years ago, "We can take any figure and make it mean anything we want."
The Continuing Church of God has exceeded the 30% growth per year that the old Radio/Worldwide Church of God used to claim it had for decades. Many of those that we have with us did NOT have a WCG background as we reached people others had not.
We are the fourth or fifth largest xWCG group and have been the fastest growing xWCG in the 21st century.
We have the type of growth that Herbert W. Armstrong said should indicate God’s blessing.
Bwana Bob's amazing "growth" has been nothing more than church-hoping Sabbatarians in Africa who seek out the group that helps them the most with things. They've jumped from SDA's to COG groups to COG7 and back to COG groups. Over and over it goes. It all depends on which group the so-called "evangelists" chose to lead their followers in to and when they pick Bwana Bob as their Overseer his head grows a few more inches bigger.
Much to Bwana Bob's chagrin, the Church of God 7th Day is growing faster than he is and consistently maintains its members, something the COG is inept at.
The Church of God (Seventh Day) recognizes more than 200 congregations in the United States and Canada. It also has affiliated ministries in more than 35 countries outside North America, with a worldwide fellowship near 300,000 members. As an agent of God’s grace, the Church offers warm-hearted fellowship and willing support for people everywhere who trust and obey the same Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. It is in serving others that the Church finds relevance for her Bible-centered message and her God-inspired mission.
Today's COG's have splintered and splintered and splintered and have no focus anymore. They have nothing to offer anyone that is of substance. Without Jesus being central to their message they flounder and sputter in obscurity.
COGWA has experienced more growth in the 21st century than CCOG has experienced, and COGWA also has more members. Once again, Bob is a liar.
ReplyDeleteListening to Bob Thiel is like listening to Joe Biden speak.
ReplyDeleteIncoherent, slurred, unfocused and like Bobs theology, lacking substance.
But 30% growth per annum is impressive.
‘That Prophet’ will be spitting tacks in Edmonton.
Me thinks greater things are ahead for Bob.
A ‘Campus’ ,a Magazine, a jet aircraft……maybe even a seat at the ‘Oscars’.
Watch this space,lol.
Yeah, sure, those dirt poor Africans are gonna buy him a jet, LOL.
DeleteThe "dead church" sardis (aka COG7) had grown larger than WCG ever did too...
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody outside of the ACOGs remember HWA, let alone remember the date of his death?
ReplyDeleteAs near as I can tell, Buddy Holly had a much more profound influence than anyone ever associated with Armstrongism.
Herbs so called restored truths have no relevance to everyday living. They keep members minds focused on academic points, while meaningful concepts such as rights, are hidden away. It's Pharisaic morality.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Bob's birth foretold in the Bible? He claims everything else in there is about him. Was he immaculately conceived?
ReplyDeleteHe is like Rod Meredith. He has never committed a major sin. He is sinless.
HWA is his god.
ReplyDeleteWhen you start at a very low base number, having a 30% growth rate is not that impressive.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, this 30% growth rate is pereceived to be the magical litmus of blessing, and was promoted by HWA. While it is true that this was achieved for about a 20 year period of time from 1947 to 1967 (going from about 50 members to 50k members) , the WCG growth rate settled into a more sustainable 4% annual growth rate for HWAs last 20 years.
If you measure things by true residual results, the approximate current 25k total Armstrong legacy remnants, from the beginning of 1934 (with about 19 original members for HWA) is a rate of return of 8.5% a year, which is actually a lower rate of return than that achieved by the SP 500, which was around 10% per year.
No magic here by HWA , or anyone else like Thiel or Flurry, just simple mathematical cherry picking of stats that they do. If the 100K members at HWAs death had continued to grow at 30% compounded annually, there would be over ONE BILLION people in the WCG today 36 years later.
Again, this illustrates the weakness and impracticality of the 30% annual claim.
Tonto, the 30% growth metric masks a major flaw with HWA's outreach. Yes, there was a stretch where RCG/WCG maintained a 30% average annual growth. But what was actually happening was that the church was gaining 50% new members each year, and losing 20% of its membership. That's why sermons and articles remained so basic, as they were addressed to mostly very new members.
ReplyDeleteAlso shows that we have much for which to be thankful, Tonto! Imagine a billion weird Pharisees like that infecting the earth? I'd be calling Elon Musk to see if I could get a ride off this planet!
ReplyDeleteThe most symbolic event I found on one of those "This Day in History" sites was the fact that Hitler descended into his "Fuhrerbunker" on January 16. Have some fun relating that to "the Ambassador Experience"!
ReplyDelete