Jim Franks of COGWA has once again dusted off the classic Armstrongist playbook.
In his July member letter, he opened with Matthew 24:7, listed every war, famine, disease, and earthquake currently in the news, declared that “never have we seen so many of these events, back-to-back,” and then solemnly reminded everyone that only the return of Christ can save the world. The unspoken subtext? Stay scared. Stay loyal. And while you’re at it, keep those tithe checks coming—because the end is always nearer when the offering needs a boost.
Let’s be clear. New Covenant believers do not deny that the world is broken. Wars rage. People starve. Diseases spread. The ground shakes. Jesus Himself said these things would happen. What He did not say is that every generation of self-appointed watchmen should turn the evening news into a fundraising telethon.
Armstrongism has been running this exact script for decades. In the 1960s and 1970s it was “1975 in Prophecy.” Then it was the next failed date, and the next, and the next. David Pack has made an entire career out of announcing Christ’s return to Wadsworth on a schedule that keeps getting revised. Bob Thiel regularly discovers that this year’s conflicts are the final ones. Jim Franks continues in the endless COG chorus, cataloguing conflicts from Ukraine to Sudan to Venezuela’s earthquakes as proof that “we are living in the time that Christ referred to as the end of this age.”
The pattern is transparent. Fear keeps people watching the horizon instead of examining the organization. Fear makes members feel they dare not leave “the one true church” because the Great Tribulation is just around the corner. And fear, historically, has been excellent for the budget.
New Covenant reality is different. Christ already came. He already finished the work. The Kingdom is not a distant event we must anxiously finance into existence; it is already breaking forth wherever the Spirit of the risen Lord is. We are not under a system that requires constant end-time adrenaline to stay faithful. We are free to live, love, work, raise families, and serve without the background music of perpetual panic.
Yes, we watch. Yes, we pray. “Your kingdom come” is still the right prayer. But we do not pray it while clutching our wallets in terror that the next earthquake proves our particular corporate charter is the only safe place. We pray it as people who already belong to the One who has overcome the world.
So when the next COGWA or XCOG letter arrives listing the latest wars and pestilences and urging us not to “pretend all is normal,” New Covenant believers can answer calmly: We already know it isn’t normal. We also know that the remedy is not another round of fear-driven loyalty tests. The remedy is Christ Himself—already given, already sufficient, already enough.
The world is messy. The gospel is not. Stop selling fear. Start living freedom.
Let’s be clear. New Covenant believers do not deny that the world is broken. Wars rage. People starve. Diseases spread. The ground shakes. Jesus Himself said these things would happen. What He did not say is that every generation of self-appointed watchmen should turn the evening news into a fundraising telethon.
Armstrongism has been running this exact script for decades. In the 1960s and 1970s it was “1975 in Prophecy.” Then it was the next failed date, and the next, and the next. David Pack has made an entire career out of announcing Christ’s return to Wadsworth on a schedule that keeps getting revised. Bob Thiel regularly discovers that this year’s conflicts are the final ones. Jim Franks continues in the endless COG chorus, cataloguing conflicts from Ukraine to Sudan to Venezuela’s earthquakes as proof that “we are living in the time that Christ referred to as the end of this age.”
The pattern is transparent. Fear keeps people watching the horizon instead of examining the organization. Fear makes members feel they dare not leave “the one true church” because the Great Tribulation is just around the corner. And fear, historically, has been excellent for the budget.
New Covenant reality is different. Christ already came. He already finished the work. The Kingdom is not a distant event we must anxiously finance into existence; it is already breaking forth wherever the Spirit of the risen Lord is. We are not under a system that requires constant end-time adrenaline to stay faithful. We are free to live, love, work, raise families, and serve without the background music of perpetual panic.
Yes, we watch. Yes, we pray. “Your kingdom come” is still the right prayer. But we do not pray it while clutching our wallets in terror that the next earthquake proves our particular corporate charter is the only safe place. We pray it as people who already belong to the One who has overcome the world.
So when the next COGWA or XCOG letter arrives listing the latest wars and pestilences and urging us not to “pretend all is normal,” New Covenant believers can answer calmly: We already know it isn’t normal. We also know that the remedy is not another round of fear-driven loyalty tests. The remedy is Christ Himself—already given, already sufficient, already enough.
The world is messy. The gospel is not. Stop selling fear. Start living freedom.
When shame and guilt don't work as well, ramp up the fear. This way the "simplicity that is in christ" has no chance of infecting the people and income inproves.
ReplyDeleteDD
Exactly! The solution to all we see around us, whether it is the consequences of global climate change, the activities of truly evil and crazy politicians, or realizing that the piper will soon have to be paid for gross national fiscal malfeasance, is not to select the type of overbearing church which takes an additional figurative crap on your life, doubling the angst! That was never a good solution! False prophecies (but only WE have the solution, Brethren!) and an additional layer of strict government in your life enforced by fear of these prophecies is not the abundant life. Shunning normal social situations and only building relationships with people with whom you actually have nothing in common except being dominated by a cult does not make for a better life. Making yourself a pariah to the people you would normally fit in with (including your own relatives) is like going Goth, it is not building Kingom skills!
ReplyDeleteA general knowledge of cults and what they do has in more recent decades thwarted the type of message that Jim Franks and other ACOG leaders have continued to spread. That message only appeals to those who have been inside, people whose minds "they" already have. It was time and date stamped for the 1950s through the mid 1970s. Society has become more sophisticated (compare TV drama programs and police procedurals of that era to our own contemporary ones). The human species has gone much deeper in its thinking. There are so many more existential threats which have taken us beyond simple "thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening!" Even the unchurched find ways to deal with the unavoidable daily dosage of this which has been a constant in our lives for decades.
It's a shame to watch self-propelled leaders who have perhaps a slightly milder case of the David Koresh infection slowly germinating deep within. You just never know when the instabilities will suddenly take over. The problem is, those inside of their bubble are totally unsuspecting!
BB