Yes, you read that right. Divine eagles. Or, as some of the more practically minded ministers used to quietly whisper, commercial airplanes…but those planes would have metal fatigue, and the Germans would put us on these planes with the hope they would crash before we made it to Petra. Because nothing builds faith like hoping your rescue flight does not plummet into the ocean or desert.
The best part? Apparently, no one in the Church of God ever bothered to run this plan by the Jordanians.
Picture it: thousands of slightly unhinged American cultists led by Bob Thiel, Gerald Flurry, and Dave Pack, suddenly materializing in the middle of Jordan, confidently announcing, “Excuse us, we’re God’s special remnant. We’ll be taking over Petra now — you know, your ancient city and massively profitable tourist attraction. Thanks so much! Don’t mind us while we wait out the Tribulation in your backyard. Oh, and you are supposed to feed us, take care of our sanitation needs, and provide us with beds, blankets, clothing, shoes, and anything else we are used to as God's chosen people.”
One can only imagine the Jordanian tourism minister’s face when informed that a bunch of prophecy-obsessed Midwesterners planned to commandeer one of the country’s biggest money-makers for three and a half years, all while claiming divine right of occupancy.
But hey, why spoil a good doctrine with minor details like international law, foreign sovereignty, or basic common sense?
In the end, that’s the quiet truth behind the Petra fantasy. The Church of God never really thought about anyone other than itself. The rest of the world — including the actual owners of Petra — were just background props in their very own private end-times movie. Jordanians? Germans? Crashing planes? Details, details. As long as the “true church” gets its exclusive VIP bunker in the rocks, everything else is someone else’s problem.
Truly, nothing says “God’s loving protection” quite like assuming the entire planet will happily rearrange itself so a tiny American splinter group can play biblical cosplay in a Jordanian national treasure.
17 comments:
Imagine how different things would have been if Loma Armstrong had instead become enamored with a National Geographic article about Nauvoo, or Central Africa, or Detroit!
The criticism that "commercial planes" would face metal fatigue assumes the Church is rescuing itself. The doctrine teaches that the faithful are given "two wings of a great eagle" (Revelation 12:14). This is understood as a supernatural, angelic, or miraculous rescue directly from God, not a last-minute scramble to an airport. The "eagle" is frequently used in scripture to depict God's powerful protection of His people, as in Exodus 19:4, "I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself."
You're out of date. The "two wings of a Great Eagle" are the Deli wing and the Produce wing.
I also have heard ministers say this same thing. It was real popular when they were finding cracks in DC10 wings. This was spread in 1980 after a DC10 had crash in 79 and subsequent investigations found multiple planes with cracked wings. The ministers said that because so many planes had been grounded due to the cracks, the government would bring them back into use in order to fly us to Petra to get us out of the country. Another idiot minister used to preach that the reason the space shuttle was designed was to send COG members into space in order to kill them.
She should have picked Independence Missouri as this is the place the Mormons say Eden was located and where Christ will return to the earth when he returns again.
Study the true church
Could make a good comedy movie or even a mini series. You should pitch this to Netflix.
3:24 The pure rubbish members have had to sit through over the decades never ceases to amaze me. I heard it said in 90's, 70% of Church speakers shouldn't be.
Back in the late '60s and early '70s, in the "Golden Age" of Armstrongism, when globe-trotting Herbert W. Armstrong was regularly holding court at Friday night Bible Study in the Ambassador College gymnasium, he regaled us with tales of his friendship with King Hussein of Jordan, Prince Mikasa of Japan, and others. There was speculation that his friendship with King Hussein would be key to our passage to Petra, and that we would be hidden and protected by the king throughout the tribulation. Of course these Bible Studies were taking place prior to the Great Disappointment of 1972-75. Petra was somewhat known by "the world" but not quite as yet the tourist destination that it later became.
There was frequent conversation amongst the brethren of "the place of safety" and "Petra". The two were synonamous, and the term "speculation" was not appended until the backpedaling which occurred as a consequence of the gradual realization that the Herbalist dates were failing. Going to Petra was every bit the lynchpin of Armstrongism that British Israelism was in those days. Definitely a twofer. I was astonished that Armstrongism survived the 1970s, and deeply chagrinned that despite all that happened during that era, my own parents failed to see the light, both passing away of old age within the most recent decade, never witnessing the fullfillment of what they, and all the many church people with whom they had developed deep friendships lived their lives for.
My siblings and I have lived the long and successful lives which we had believed would be denied to us, although it was challenging. I grew up "knowing" I'd never make 30. You make certain decisions which make a lasting impact on life, family, and career when you grow up believing that. Oddly, and in a perverse sort of way, it also gives one an unique zest for life. You double and triple down on living life, unafraid of taking risks or doing dangerous, exhilarating things. Guess I have ol' Hog Jowls to thank for the higher highs and lower lows of the equation. Petra would no doubt have been the lowest of lows!
BB
Revelation 12 doesn’t describe a human escape plan at all. The woman is given “two wings of a great eagle” because the rescue is God’s doing, not hers. And the woman isn’t a modern group improvising an evacuation strategy — she goes back to the time of Christ, long before any of these modern systems existed. The imagery is the Exodus pattern all over again: God carries His people, God protects them, God brings them to a refuge He Himself prepares. Nutty little systems founded by nutty men can devise all the escape plans they like, but they haven’t the faintest clue what the passage is actually about. Revelation 12 is divine deliverance, not human plans using contacts ive developed.
The people who claim that Petra was a church doctrine blew it way out of proportion. Originally Mr. Armstrong just made an educated guess that it Might be Petra but he didn't know. Many protestants also hold tht view about Petra. Mr. Armstrong said that if it isnt Petra then we don't know where it is. And yet people took this Petra thing and ran with it until it became a perceived doctrine and not just a simple educated or uneducated speculation. The same thing happened with the who was Melchizedek issue. Even many of these dense ministers did it, until now people think the church was and is catagoric about Petra, which it was not originally except for a number of truly bad ministers and many high strung members.
Were you alive back then, and did you live it? What you just posted, 5:36, you are one of about maybe 1% who actually believe that. Herbert W. Armstrong once said that he would lie, cheat, steal, or do anything else to get out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Get up and smell the coffee!
If that's so 5:36 why did Garner Ted Armstrong in CGI during the 80's repeatedly roast his dad Herbert over the idea? He repeatedly let anyone listening know that his mother Loma Armstrong discovered the idea whilst reading Readers Digest magazine. This was all said by Garner Ted in his sermons. He would go into great detail over the Petra belief, dismantling it as a joke.
If the people had blew ot out of proportion then why did Garner Ted go to such great lengths to dismantle it ? I heard him say about Petra myself.
5:36, 7:11 and 10:23 are each correct. Herbert W. Armstrong was one of those "truly bad ministers" mocked by GTA.
Funny thing is, by her own (rather whiny) account, Petra was the last place on earth she wanted to be.
Here we go again. Another food salad that exonerates Herb:
"The people who claim that Petra (1975) was a church doctrine blew it way out- of proportion. Originally Mr. Armstrong just made an educated guess that it Might be Petra (1975) but he didn't know.
I remember hearing 4 hour sermons by Gerald Waterhouse in the 1970s go on forever slathering about Petra and how HWA would live to the end and thinking to myself" how long is this idiot gonna keep yakking?" I remember Ken Martin stating that we woukd be in Petra and we woukd see missiles launched by Germany sail over us in Petra and be disarmed or caused to go off course
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