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
So was it righteous that we bombed, fought and killed in Germany in WW2, or Japan in order to stop the wickedness?
Was killing that shooter at the Texas school showing Love for the students and teachers?
Is it wrong to put a suffering animal out of its misery?
There is consequence to sin, and evil. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and stopping them from further decay of their character. In the long range vision of God, he stops the continuing dysfunction, so that in due season , in the future , they can be reeducated and redeemed.
The idea that "God is love" was unheard of prior to the Greco-Roman "pagan" mystery religions. And even then, God was love to Her or His acolytes, but She/He was an ass-kicking to the uninitiated. By Jesus' day, Judaism was losing mindshare among the God-haunted peoples of Asia Minor, and desperately needed someone like Paul to rebrand the faith in a way that appealed to the Hellenized.
The same is occurring in the JWs. As much as I despise Armstrongism I utterly hate and abhor the JW cultists. I have family caught up in this appallingly abusive sect, we got off lightly. The God of love that was so sadly missing in Armstrongism is not seen at ‘kingdom halls’ either. The dysfunction I see in JWs I recognise. My conclusion is only a God of love can deliver us from our predicament, not the ‘god’ of sects and cults. I agree with the comments of Tonto.
The picture is garish - designed for effect. Wolverton probably never foresaw that this marketing shtick would ever raise questions of theodicy one day. My guess is that it was only supposed to incite the crowd and not reach into the profound. There was a flood. It was local. That it was not a global event is demonstrable from geology and genetics (if there had been a global flood, we would all of the same haplogroup - Noah's haplogroup - and we don't - and our existing haplogroup array originated in sub-Saharan Africa) and related disciplines. It lends support to the idea that the flood was allegory but I think there was a real big flood - just not global. Maybe something swept through the Tigris and Eurphrates flood plains and inundated some villages. The KJV translators made it global. Like all translators of the Bible, they brought their political agenda to their work.
God warned the people through Noah for a long time before the waters came. It wasn't like he dropped the hammer all of a sudden. Notice how the people who were warned were located geographically near Noah - there was no global warning to all of mankind. If the flood were really global that would be unfair. Were the reprobates living near Noah some how more deserving of an opportunity to repent than the reprobates in China? It was local. Sorry.
Because it was local, that changes the theodicy of the flood radically. It was a limited punishment directed towards a limited population for a specific purpose.
We teach children historically significant events that are horrific in nature for the purpose of understanding that these things can happen, and hopefully how to prevent them.
Six million+ men, women and children were imprisoned, starved, forced into labor till they drop dead, gassed, and tortured over a period of years. And this happened just decades ago. Should we also not teach this history which is far more real and immediate in its reach?
Interestingly, despite nearly everyone's depictions and storytelling, the text doesnt mention people jeering Noah while the ark was built. That detail just isn't in the story.
The issue here is not the inevitability of calamities, natural or maybe even supernatural, and the need to be educated about this phenomenon. The issue is theodicy - God's relationship to earthly evil. The cartoon reflects the paradox of someone who enjoys God's protection looking at floating corpses and finding it to be an affirmation of God's love. This attitude in recent times has been exemplified by the Westboro Baptist Church.
This is a broad topic and is a composite of controversial issues. For instance, should a sinner who receives God's grace taunt other sinners and rejoice at their misfortunes? Is that what an engraced life should be? Is that what one would expect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit? How should one respond to receiving a blessing from God?
In the WCG I never heard anyone from the pulpit express happiness at the prospect of disaster (usually related to the putative tribulation) befalling humanity. In the pews there was a diversity of attitudes. I think some did have very immature thinking about the Place of Safety. They were going to be off enjoying three and a half years of inordinate consumption, like the Feast of Taberancles, while the rest of the world went to hell in a hand basket. And this shallow view was enough to brighten their attidudes with happiness. But I would conjecture that this was not the predominant attitude in the pews. And my guess is that if HWA knew of that attitude regarding the POS, he would have nearly croaked with anger. Remember how he upbraided the church for wanting to "get" salvation. The POS for some was another form of the "get" attitude.
In the NT it is clear that the spread of the Gospel of salvation and grace was paramount so that more people could come under the beneficence of God. In the OT God clearly states that he has no satisfaction at the death of the wicked. This is a stark counterpoint to the cartoon shown in this post.
One of the interesting facets of Basil Wolverton's artwork for Herbert W. Armstrong is that it predates the time when people of color were included in advertising media. If you look at this decidedly nonidyllic Noahacian scene, in keeping with the times in which this was drawn, everyone was white! It's even laughable in terms of the laughable doctrinal approach of the Radio Church of God, because supposedly the world was being punished because the racial bloodlines had become impure except for Noah and his family, and the races were preserved by two of Noah's sons having nonwhite wives.
I was an insurance agent working in the ghetto areas of Pasadena and Altadena when the first brochures came out portraying other than white people as policy holders. It meant a lot to my policy holders to see folks like themselves depicted in advertising media, and of course, I spiked the educational value of these brochures by handing some of them to the white folks in my territory as well. Nobody complained about it, because those were the day when such offenses as "flesh-colored" Band Aids had only come in one color were being committed, and black parents had to explain to their children why flesh-colored Crayons were white flesh colored.
Flood local or global? Eight persons were saved in the flood - 1 Peter 3:20. Mount Ararat range has two volcanic cones about 17,000 ft and 13,000 ft high. The question: what was higher to contain a local flood?
12 comments:
Sadly, this is the god that the COG leaders today need. They want to see droughts, famines, wars, etc., in order to prove their dumbass lies as truth.
So was it righteous that we bombed, fought and killed in Germany in WW2, or Japan in order to stop the wickedness?
Was killing that shooter at the Texas school showing Love for the students and teachers?
Is it wrong to put a suffering animal out of its misery?
There is consequence to sin, and evil. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and stopping them from further decay of their character. In the long range vision of God, he stops the continuing dysfunction, so that in due season , in the future , they can be reeducated and redeemed.
The idea that "God is love" was unheard of prior to the Greco-Roman "pagan" mystery religions. And even then, God was love to Her or His acolytes, but She/He was an ass-kicking to the uninitiated. By Jesus' day, Judaism was losing mindshare among the God-haunted peoples of Asia Minor, and desperately needed someone like Paul to rebrand the faith in a way that appealed to the Hellenized.
The same is occurring in the JWs.
As much as I despise Armstrongism I utterly hate and abhor the JW cultists.
I have family caught up in this appallingly abusive sect, we got off lightly.
The God of love that was so sadly missing in Armstrongism is not seen at ‘kingdom halls’ either.
The dysfunction I see in JWs I recognise.
My conclusion is only a God of love can deliver us from our predicament, not the ‘god’ of sects and cults.
I agree with the comments of Tonto.
Yep. I doubt noah was looking down enjoying any of it.
The picture is garish - designed for effect. Wolverton probably never foresaw that this marketing shtick would ever raise questions of theodicy one day. My guess is that it was only supposed to incite the crowd and not reach into the profound. There was a flood. It was local. That it was not a global event is demonstrable from geology and genetics (if there had been a global flood, we would all of the same haplogroup - Noah's haplogroup - and we don't - and our existing haplogroup array originated in sub-Saharan Africa) and related disciplines. It lends support to the idea that the flood was allegory but I think there was a real big flood - just not global. Maybe something swept through the Tigris and Eurphrates flood plains and inundated some villages. The KJV translators made it global. Like all translators of the Bible, they brought their political agenda to their work.
God warned the people through Noah for a long time before the waters came. It wasn't like he dropped the hammer all of a sudden. Notice how the people who were warned were located geographically near Noah - there was no global warning to all of mankind. If the flood were really global that would be unfair. Were the reprobates living near Noah some how more deserving of an opportunity to repent than the reprobates in China? It was local. Sorry.
Because it was local, that changes the theodicy of the flood radically. It was a limited punishment directed towards a limited population for a specific purpose.
********* Click on my icon for Disclaimer
Not sure what this post is trying to achieve.
We teach children historically significant events that are horrific in nature for the purpose of understanding that these things can happen, and hopefully how to prevent them.
Six million+ men, women and children were imprisoned, starved, forced into labor till they drop dead, gassed, and tortured over a period of years. And this happened just decades ago. Should we also not teach this history which is far more real and immediate in its reach?
Interestingly, despite nearly everyone's depictions and storytelling, the text doesnt mention people jeering Noah while the ark was built. That detail just isn't in the story.
Anonymous 4:36
The issue here is not the inevitability of calamities, natural or maybe even supernatural, and the need to be educated about this phenomenon. The issue is theodicy - God's relationship to earthly evil. The cartoon reflects the paradox of someone who enjoys God's protection looking at floating corpses and finding it to be an affirmation of God's love. This attitude in recent times has been exemplified by the Westboro Baptist Church.
This is a broad topic and is a composite of controversial issues. For instance, should a sinner who receives God's grace taunt other sinners and rejoice at their misfortunes? Is that what an engraced life should be? Is that what one would expect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit? How should one respond to receiving a blessing from God?
In the WCG I never heard anyone from the pulpit express happiness at the prospect of disaster (usually related to the putative tribulation) befalling humanity. In the pews there was a diversity of attitudes. I think some did have very immature thinking about the Place of Safety. They were going to be off enjoying three and a half years of inordinate consumption, like the Feast of Taberancles, while the rest of the world went to hell in a hand basket. And this shallow view was enough to brighten their attidudes with happiness. But I would conjecture that this was not the predominant attitude in the pews. And my guess is that if HWA knew of that attitude regarding the POS, he would have nearly croaked with anger. Remember how he upbraided the church for wanting to "get" salvation. The POS for some was another form of the "get" attitude.
In the NT it is clear that the spread of the Gospel of salvation and grace was paramount so that more people could come under the beneficence of God. In the OT God clearly states that he has no satisfaction at the death of the wicked. This is a stark counterpoint to the cartoon shown in this post.
******** Click on my icon for Disclaimer
One of the interesting facets of Basil Wolverton's artwork for Herbert W. Armstrong is that it predates the time when people of color were included in advertising media. If you look at this decidedly nonidyllic Noahacian scene, in keeping with the times in which this was drawn, everyone was white! It's even laughable in terms of the laughable doctrinal approach of the Radio Church of God, because supposedly the world was being punished because the racial bloodlines had become impure except for Noah and his family, and the races were preserved by two of Noah's sons having nonwhite wives.
I was an insurance agent working in the ghetto areas of Pasadena and Altadena when the first brochures came out portraying other than white people as policy holders. It meant a lot to my policy holders to see folks like themselves depicted in advertising media, and of course, I spiked the educational value of these brochures by handing some of them to the white folks in my territory as well. Nobody complained about it, because those were the day when such offenses as "flesh-colored" Band Aids had only come in one color were being committed, and black parents had to explain to their children why flesh-colored Crayons were white flesh colored.
"Bumpy faced white people" as one commenter put it. Lol.
Flood local or global? Eight persons were saved in the flood - 1 Peter 3:20. Mount Ararat range has two volcanic cones about 17,000 ft and 13,000 ft high. The question: what was higher to contain a local flood?
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