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
Colour coding bibles is happening in all different denominations of Christianity. It has actually had a revival in recent years due to social media. Christian bible influencers have many followers teaching how they code their own bibles is very popular amongst young christians. It's a huge trend.
Years ago, my mother had marked up her Mystery Of The Ages in the same way she marked up her Bible. When her minister saw this, he was deeply offended by it. I never understood why.
On a side note….do Muslims mark the Quran the same way as we see in the post, or is that haram or forbidden? It’s quite bizarre the church ‘error’ doctrine, spelling mistake on purpose lol. A look at the book of Revelation now, and not coloured by Armstrongism, I see another message and certainly not the doctrine of church ‘errors’. Error did indeed mark and does mark this movement today. Laodicean attitudes are legend within this organisation, but will the TRUE church of God please stand up. And not so quick Bob Thiel lol.
Marking your Bible and getting tattoos are very similar, in that most people who do either have no artistic sense, or are suffering from a logic deficiency. Either one is something many people do because everybody else is doing it.
At Ambassador College Bookstore they just could not keep enough wide-margin KJV Bibles and Rapidograph fine point pens in stock.
Actually, the most thoughtful method of Bible marking I ever saw involved color-coding of different topics as covered in the Correspondence Course. A European gentleman we knew at church had done that. His wife showed us.
Never could work out how the transposition of Herbie's theology and all the errors that came achieved any good purpose by essentially copying his arguments into ones bible in a most tedious fashion and as if that helped in the proof of things,
I did something similar. In my Bible study, I shunned the New Testament for many years in order for the Herb interpretation to fade from my mind. After coming back to it, I saw it through my own eyes and many scriptures seemed very different from the ACOG viewpoint.
When turning to a scripture during a sermon I was giving, I turned to the page to find my young son had written, in permanent black and across both pages, "Dad! Don't forget to announce Pre-Teen Basketball for this evening!"
One problem with the WCG color coding is that people would associate verses of a single topic (e.g. law) rather than come to know the context of each passage. We were taught that no scripture could contradict another scripture (even when taken out of context). So, scriptures would be twisted to be in agreement with other scriptures even though a study of the context would alleviate concerns of conflict. and often add depth of understanding.
Simply focus on yourself, that would be my advice. But people in a splinter group like to point out that other groups are lao or phila. It's easy to say your splinter is phila. One thing that I have notice, perhaps this is not marking in the bible, but in regards to words that are italicized. When they don't fit within Armstrongism, then take out the italicized words, when it does fit leave those words alone. That's when I think there needs to be markings/highlights in the bible.
Daniel 11:31 ........then they shall take away the daily sacrifices (sacrifices is italics) Daniel 11:32.....and carry out great exploits (exploits is italics)
Ah! And then, there's that! Digital is the way to go, today! During the first decade of the new millennium, when I was attending services at the largest mega church in our city, I was amazed at the number of people in the auditorium who followed the scripture references for the sermons on their ipads and tablets. The nice thing about electronic is that if you remember the general idea of a verse, you can type that into your browser, and up it comes instantly, not only in KJV version, but all the other popular translations.
That church had a very powerful daily reading program which, if you followed, you could read the entire Bible cover to cover in a year. Easily manageable. This was something I had never done during the 19 year time cycle I had spent in Armstrongism. A lady I knew from business had told me about study Bibles, with their added benefit of extensive footnotes which provided commentary and cross-referenced with other pertinent scriptures. I went to our local Berean Christian Book Store, and picked up the Zondervan TNIV Study Bible, read it cover to cover including the footnotes, and then the following year, the New American Study Bible, Saint Joseph edition (which also contained the oft dismissed Deuterocanonicals). I did this partially because the webmaster of the main forum on which I was commenting daily in those days had asked me to moderate the folder which was specially dedicated to Bible discussions. What surprised me was that one of the ladies on that forum, who still held about 90% of the old Armstrongite perspectives, commented that those versions were not as authentic as the KJV, because they contained bias towards the traditional mainstream, Sunday-keeping views. I had a good chuckle over that, because I had found them both to be tremendously objective, unbiased, and the footnotes based on solid and exhaustive research. The scholars who had put these new versions together had approached their work as a sacred trust. It seemed to me that that lady did not know what she had actually realized, and of course her Armstrong-based bias-confirmation had caused her to misclassify. She also had reservations with the daily reading and discussions we had on the forum covering the Epistle to the Galatians. The words of Galatians are very explicit, obvious, and plain to anyone reading them with an open mind.
In many ways our discussions of today have reached a deeper depth. Scholarly contributors like Lonnie, Scout, and now Silent Pilgrim, have really raised the bar, adding to Gary's own profound insights. In other ways, the perspectives, comments, and questions of Armstrongites and Atheists are nearly identical, although the names and faces are different. The same questions are being asked and answered. It would all become very old, tiresome and stale, were it not for the increasing depth of the answers. I marvel sometimes! I still get up every morning looking to check out Banned!
I remember when 80's/90's WCG was condemned by the "independants" as treating the Plain Truth and WCG booklets as more important than scripture. Classic example 2:38, thanks for sharing.
10:06 You bring up a lot of solid points! The browser and being able to navigate to other translations is a lot easier and "lighter" you know.
And when you think about it, it's hard because the word sort has to be in your brain and heart. As the apostles like Peter and Paul, were able to just quote something while in jail or after an event took place. They would just quote it right on the spot, because they had the word inside them. So we can do all the markings in the world, hopefully we can retain some of it.
They certainly knew their Septuagint, 8:46, didn't they? One interesting fact is that the chapters and verses of today's Bible did not come into play until the 13th century. So, it must have been exponentially more challenging to be proficient in quoting scripture back in those days. It must have been one of the gifts Christians had back then, but do not today!
3:03 Exactly,, I mean we just have all these different versions from Gen to Rev and we don't have that faith or gifts like they had back then. And correct it was the Septuagint they were using. I had been looking at some stuff as well from that text, the Seven Spirits of God, which the Septuagint has it.
I googled Septuagint, and a bunch of listings came up. I found a translation of Genesis into English at ellopos.net. Interesting. The chapter breaks are much different from the KJV or other translations patterned after the KJV. Narrative is very familiar. I've always been curious about the Septuagint. Now seems to be a good time to check it out.
I feel it could be in one's library, like people enjoy having Josephus or commentaries, some just view it as a source. I too had been curious about the Septuagint LXX, and found some interesting things that read better than the KJV, it depends on the verse.
Such as this scenario (the Seven Spirits): "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom (1) and of understanding (2), A spirit of counsel (3) and of strength (4), a spirit of knowledge (5) and of fear of the Lord (6), and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 11:2-3 NABRE)
In the Greek Septuagint, however, there are seven spirits mentioned:
"And the spirit of God shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom (1) and understanding (2), the spirit of counsel (3) and might (4), the spirit of knowledge (5) and godliness (6). The spirit of the fear of God (7) will fill him." (Isaiah 11:2-3 New English Translation of the Septuagint)
They say the New English Translation of the Septuagint is best one.
Glad you're here! In all the supplemental reading that's been suggested on Armstrong recovery sites over the past 25 years, this is unique. I do recall one instance in which the Septuagint was mentioned. Someone who was no longer a believer had thought they "caught" Jesus misquoting OT scripture. Someone else pointed out that Jesus was quoting the Septuagint, not the KJV. Eureka!
25 comments:
Love this! One of the first things I did when leaving Armstrongism was throw out my marked up Bible and buy a new one.
True Christians only use a Moffatt translation Bible. If it was good enough for Herb, Outhouse, and Spanky, it is good enough for us!
Colour coding bibles is happening in all different denominations of Christianity. It has actually had a revival in recent years due to social media. Christian bible influencers have many followers teaching how they code their own bibles is very popular amongst young christians. It's a huge trend.
Years ago, my mother had marked up her Mystery Of The Ages in the same way she marked up her Bible. When her minister saw this, he was deeply offended by it. I never understood why.
On a side note….do Muslims mark the Quran the same way as we see in the post, or is that haram or forbidden? It’s quite bizarre the church ‘error’ doctrine, spelling mistake on purpose lol. A look at the book of Revelation now, and not coloured by Armstrongism, I see another message and certainly not the doctrine of church ‘errors’. Error did indeed mark and does mark this movement today. Laodicean attitudes are legend within this organisation, but will the TRUE church of God please stand up. And not so quick Bob Thiel lol.
“How to tell if you are a Laodicean or a TRUE Church of God Member”
So, which one of those two vandalizes Bibles and fills them with graffiti?
'Cause 'twas permitted to scribble onto God's book but not onto or unto Pasadena's book.
Marking your Bible and getting tattoos are very similar, in that most people who do either have no artistic sense, or are suffering from a logic deficiency. Either one is something many people do because everybody else is doing it.
At Ambassador College Bookstore they just could not keep enough wide-margin KJV Bibles and Rapidograph fine point pens in stock.
Actually, the most thoughtful method of Bible marking I ever saw involved color-coding of different topics as covered in the Correspondence Course. A European gentleman we knew at church had done that. His wife showed us.
Never could work out how the transposition of Herbie's theology and all the errors that came achieved any good purpose by essentially copying his arguments into ones bible in a most tedious fashion and as if that helped in the proof of things,
I did something similar. In my Bible study, I shunned the New Testament for many years in order for the Herb interpretation to fade from my mind. After coming back to it, I saw it through my own eyes and many scriptures seemed very different from the ACOG viewpoint.
Who is Outhouse? I have not read that one before.
Gerald Waterhouse
When turning to a scripture during a sermon I was giving, I turned to the page to find my young son had written, in permanent black and across both pages, "Dad! Don't forget to announce Pre-Teen Basketball for this evening!"
Did that minister, by chance, wind up in PCG?
One problem with the WCG color coding is that people would associate verses of a single topic (e.g. law) rather than come to know the context of each passage.
We were taught that no scripture could contradict another scripture (even when taken out of context). So, scriptures would be twisted to be in agreement with other scriptures even though a study of the context would alleviate concerns of conflict. and often add depth of understanding.
Simply focus on yourself, that would be my advice. But people in a splinter group like to point out that other groups are lao or phila. It's easy to say your splinter is phila. One thing that I have notice, perhaps this is not marking in the bible, but in regards to words that are italicized. When they don't fit within Armstrongism, then take out the italicized words, when it does fit leave those words alone. That's when I think there needs to be markings/highlights in the bible.
Daniel 11:31 ........then they shall take away the daily sacrifices (sacrifices is italics)
Daniel 11:32.....and carry out great exploits (exploits is italics)
Tank
By the way (quiet voice), you can highlight verses in your digital bible on your tablet. That's if they allow you to use one.
Ah! And then, there's that! Digital is the way to go, today! During the first decade of the new millennium, when I was attending services at the largest mega church in our city, I was amazed at the number of people in the auditorium who followed the scripture references for the sermons on their ipads and tablets. The nice thing about electronic is that if you remember the general idea of a verse, you can type that into your browser, and up it comes instantly, not only in KJV version, but all the other popular translations.
That church had a very powerful daily reading program which, if you followed, you could read the entire Bible cover to cover in a year. Easily manageable. This was something I had never done during the 19 year time cycle I had spent in Armstrongism. A lady I knew from business had told me about study Bibles, with their added benefit of extensive footnotes which provided commentary and cross-referenced with other pertinent scriptures. I went to our local Berean Christian Book Store, and picked up the Zondervan TNIV Study Bible, read it cover to cover including the footnotes, and then the following year, the New American Study Bible, Saint Joseph edition (which also contained the oft dismissed Deuterocanonicals). I did this partially because the webmaster of the main forum on which I was commenting daily in those days had asked me to moderate the folder which was specially dedicated to Bible discussions. What surprised me was that one of the ladies on that forum, who still held about 90% of the old Armstrongite perspectives, commented that those versions were not as authentic as the KJV, because they contained bias towards the traditional mainstream, Sunday-keeping views. I had a good chuckle over that, because I had found them both to be tremendously objective, unbiased, and the footnotes based on solid and exhaustive research. The scholars who had put these new versions together had approached their work as a sacred trust. It seemed to me that that lady did not know what she had actually realized, and of course her Armstrong-based bias-confirmation had caused her to misclassify. She also had reservations with the daily reading and discussions we had on the forum covering the Epistle to the Galatians. The words of Galatians are very explicit, obvious, and plain to anyone reading them with an open mind.
In many ways our discussions of today have reached a deeper depth. Scholarly contributors like Lonnie, Scout, and now Silent Pilgrim, have really raised the bar, adding to Gary's own profound insights. In other ways, the perspectives, comments, and questions of Armstrongites and Atheists are nearly identical, although the names and faces are different. The same questions are being asked and answered. It would all become very old, tiresome and stale, were it not for the increasing depth of the answers. I marvel sometimes! I still get up every morning looking to check out Banned!
BB
I remember when 80's/90's WCG was condemned by the "independants" as treating the Plain Truth and WCG booklets as more important than scripture. Classic example 2:38, thanks for sharing.
10:06 You bring up a lot of solid points! The browser and being able to navigate to other translations is a lot easier and "lighter" you know.
And when you think about it, it's hard because the word sort has to be in your brain and heart. As the apostles like Peter and Paul, were able to just quote something while in jail or after an event took place. They would just quote it right on the spot, because they had the word inside them. So we can do all the markings in the world, hopefully we can retain some of it.
They certainly knew their Septuagint, 8:46, didn't they? One interesting fact is that the chapters and verses of today's Bible did not come into play until the 13th century. So, it must have been exponentially more challenging to be proficient in quoting scripture back in those days. It must have been one of the gifts Christians had back then, but do not today!
3:03 Exactly,, I mean we just have all these different versions from Gen to Rev and we don't have that faith or gifts like they had back then. And correct it was the Septuagint they were using. I had been looking at some stuff as well from that text, the Seven Spirits of God, which the Septuagint has it.
I googled Septuagint, and a bunch of listings came up. I found a translation of Genesis into English at ellopos.net. Interesting. The chapter breaks are much different from the KJV or other translations patterned after the KJV. Narrative is very familiar. I've always been curious about the Septuagint. Now seems to be a good time to check it out.
I feel it could be in one's library, like people enjoy having Josephus or commentaries, some just view it as a source. I too had been curious about the Septuagint LXX, and found some interesting things that read better than the KJV, it depends on the verse.
Such as this scenario (the Seven Spirits):
"The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom (1) and of understanding (2), A spirit of counsel (3) and of strength (4), a spirit of knowledge (5) and of fear of the Lord (6), and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 11:2-3 NABRE)
In the Greek Septuagint, however, there are seven spirits mentioned:
"And the spirit of God shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom (1) and understanding (2), the spirit of counsel (3) and might (4), the spirit of knowledge (5) and godliness (6). The spirit of the fear of God (7) will fill him." (Isaiah 11:2-3 New English Translation of the Septuagint)
They say the New English Translation of the Septuagint is best one.
Glad you're here! In all the supplemental reading that's been suggested on Armstrong recovery sites over the past 25 years, this is unique. I do recall one instance in which the Septuagint was mentioned. Someone who was no longer a believer had thought they "caught" Jesus misquoting OT scripture. Someone else pointed out that Jesus was quoting the Septuagint, not the KJV. Eureka!
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