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
HWA was self conscious of the two trees since he took from the wrong tree. "You just don't get it" is a plagiarized left wing expression, just like "human nature needs to change" is a ripp off of the commie's "new man." Herb plagiarized the COG7 teachings, and anything that was not nailed down, and claimed it revelation from God. He copied Ellen G. White with that lie.
I am not a theologian. I do read theology and think about it. I have no ordained position of authority in any denomination. This is a caveat because I am going to write something here that is a product of my own personal meditation.
First, HWA's interpretation of the two trees is one among many and is as good as any. I don't know why he harped on in being difficult to understand. I think maybe that lent a cachet of "special knowledge" to what was really understood by many others. Look it up.
I believe that the Tree of Life, at the symbolic level, refers to eternal life in Jesus by grace through faith. And I believe that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil refers to the system that requires Deuteronomic transactional law. Deuteronomy 30:15:
"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil"
The Deuteronomist books of the Bible are based on the following transactional premises:
If you obey, you will be blessed. If you disobey, you will be cursed.
It is not a good thing to be subject to the performance-oriented Deuternomic system because of human weakness. It is good thing to live in a system of grace if you are a flawed human and you just are not going to make the cut. You want the tree of life and you want to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil where you are constantly trying to make the right decisions burdened by human weakness.
Jesus through himself then brought us access to the symbolic tree of life in the Gospel. And this replaced the keeping of the Mosaic Law as the pathway to good, something that men could never achieve. Both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant implement the knowledge of good and evil, but only the New Covenent has a means of dealing with it that results in salvation. There is more to this, of course.
HWA characterized the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as man's self-reliant development of secular knowleldge without moral understanding. That's fine. It's a minority report. I think I have asserted is the main report.
In WCG I was inculcated to mimic the other WCG "pillars" men carrying a briefcase to services. So a girlfriend pushed me all the way in by getting me a briefcase, which I used about 3 times carrying only a bible & songbook & notes.
Then I stopped using the briefcase & just kept carrying my bible, songbook & notes like before.
personally, I found that mostly deacons and locals used the phrase, "and please inculcate us with your word.." etc. I think someone heard someone, somewhere say it and it spread like a virus.
The full time ministry and administrators were already full inculcated so they did not have to ask for it anymore if and when they prayed publicly :)
No wait...I mean indoctrinated. Total inculcation came by ordination. I'm joking....
Who can forget the Genesis 1-3 sermon HWA use to give practically every time he spoke publicly to the church? Back then it bored me stiff, but since I've come to appreciate it, not because it was necessarily full of spiritual significance, but it was my first conscious exposure with the concept of "the 2 classes of things" used repeatedly in Scripture.
God / Satan Good / Evil Light / darkness Truth / error Life / death The wide gate / the narrow gate
And one I know all will appreciate,
Give / get -- which I think eventually replaced "the 2 trees" message.
Perhaps since Gary is a ministurdial quintuple agent with LCG, PCG, UCG, COGWA and RCG, he can provide us some statistics for the usage of "inculcate" within all those groups. Bob Thiel's vanity church, unfortunately, is bereft of Gary's wordsmithery.
Maybe the word is clung to very tenaciously by PCG's aging sex perverts we keep hearing about?
Another word often heard in the WCG opening or closing prayer, was "expound", like they did with the word "inculcated". "Expound" was used often over & over again week to week, at an organization which was the "only" place to hear the bible creatively "expounded" with newly discovered meanings & theories heard "no where else".
I never became an inculcasian because I prided myself in bucking the WCG trends. "They" wanted us to do that with the rest of society, like that was going to make us spiritual or something, So, I turned it around and did it to "them" instead. Mocked their shibboleths. Got others to join in and do it, too. It was fun!
18 comments:
I must admit I am safe from being inculcated by Bob Thiel!
Today I find that word to be so revolting, kind of like how I feel when I hear "Blest and happy is the man". Two nauseating things from Armstrongism.
HWA was self conscious of the two trees since he took from the wrong tree. "You just don't get it" is a plagiarized left wing expression, just like "human nature needs to change" is a ripp off of the commie's "new man." Herb plagiarized the COG7 teachings, and anything that was not nailed down, and claimed it revelation from God. He copied Ellen G. White with that lie.
Holier than thou post.
Interesting not every COG uses that.
Oh my hat!
and
Ghastly days!
(Apparently, Ambassador College approved exclamations.)
The Two Trees.
I am not a theologian. I do read theology and think about it. I have no ordained position of authority in any denomination. This is a caveat because I am going to write something here that is a product of my own personal meditation.
First, HWA's interpretation of the two trees is one among many and is as good as any. I don't know why he harped on in being difficult to understand. I think maybe that lent a cachet of "special knowledge" to what was really understood by many others. Look it up.
I believe that the Tree of Life, at the symbolic level, refers to eternal life in Jesus by grace through faith. And I believe that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil refers to the system that requires Deuteronomic transactional law. Deuteronomy 30:15:
"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil"
The Deuteronomist books of the Bible are based on the following transactional premises:
If you obey, you will be blessed.
If you disobey, you will be cursed.
It is not a good thing to be subject to the performance-oriented Deuternomic system because of human weakness. It is good thing to live in a system of grace if you are a flawed human and you just are not going to make the cut. You want the tree of life and you want to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil where you are constantly trying to make the right decisions burdened by human weakness.
Jesus through himself then brought us access to the symbolic tree of life in the Gospel. And this replaced the keeping of the Mosaic Law as the pathway to good, something that men could never achieve. Both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant implement the knowledge of good and evil, but only the New Covenent has a means of dealing with it that results in salvation. There is more to this, of course.
HWA characterized the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as man's self-reliant development of secular knowleldge without moral understanding. That's fine. It's a minority report. I think I have asserted is the main report.
Scout
Here on Banned, are we outculcating our ACOG programming?
Hmmph, I dont remember that term at all. But maybe Ive forgotten.
In WCG I was inculcated to mimic the other WCG "pillars" men carrying a briefcase to services. So a girlfriend pushed me all the way in by getting me a briefcase, which I used about 3 times carrying only a bible & songbook & notes.
Then I stopped using the briefcase & just kept carrying my bible, songbook & notes like before.
personally, I found that mostly deacons and locals used the phrase, "and please inculcate us with your word.." etc. I think someone heard someone, somewhere say it and it spread like a virus.
The full time ministry and administrators were already full inculcated so they did not have to ask for it anymore if and when they prayed publicly :)
No wait...I mean indoctrinated. Total inculcation came by ordination. I'm joking....
Inculcation was the first step of incultation.
Scout,
Who can forget the Genesis 1-3 sermon HWA use to give practically every time he spoke publicly to the church? Back then it bored me stiff, but since I've come to appreciate it, not because it was necessarily full of spiritual significance, but it was my first conscious exposure with the concept of "the 2 classes of things" used repeatedly in Scripture.
God / Satan
Good / Evil
Light / darkness
Truth / error
Life / death
The wide gate / the narrow gate
And one I know all will appreciate,
Give / get -- which I think eventually replaced "the 2 trees" message.
rsk,
we used it weekly in most closing prayers too, 'that we inculcate what we've heard today into our lives."
sorry, to those that thought they had heard those words for the last time. lol
Mike
Interesting. I really dont recall that, but I can see the power of suggestion causing its usage to spread!
Perhaps since Gary is a ministurdial quintuple agent with LCG, PCG, UCG, COGWA and RCG, he can provide us some statistics for the usage of "inculcate" within all those groups. Bob Thiel's vanity church, unfortunately, is bereft of Gary's wordsmithery.
Maybe the word is clung to very tenaciously by PCG's aging sex perverts we keep hearing about?
Another word often heard in the WCG opening or closing prayer, was "expound", like they did with the word "inculcated". "Expound" was used often over & over again week to week, at an organization which was the "only" place to hear the bible creatively "expounded" with newly discovered meanings & theories heard "no where else".
I never became an inculcasian because I prided myself in bucking the WCG trends. "They" wanted us to do that with the rest of society, like that was going to make us spiritual or something, So, I turned it around and did it to "them" instead. Mocked their shibboleths. Got others to join in and do it, too. It was fun!
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