Apostle Malm on Rod Meredith

The Apostle has started a series of articles detailing, as he assumes, the infiltration of evangelicalism into the Worldwide Church of God under Tkach Sr.  Malm's article is filled with some truth, lots of half truths and several blatant lies.

One of his lies is his description of Rod Meredith and his banishment to Hawaii.  While it may be partially true that Rader was behind part of that decision, HWA was the one who made the final decision after countless complaints by Church members and ministers on how Meredith was treating them.

When Meredith was over Church Administration he ruled with a heavy hand that was filled with viciousness at times.  Meredith tended to be very vindictive towards many members and to many ministers.  Meredith was still living in the 1950's mode of the Church in the 1970-1980's.  Hard line  legalistic control was his weapon of choice.

Meredith broke up hundreds of marriages, disfellowshipped countless people, and made life miserable for most who came into contact with him.  The reports were constantly crossing HWA's desk which ended up culminating in his banishment to Hawaii. 

Rod and Malm like to blame it all on Stanley Rader.  While Rader found Meredith to be a condescending jerk, it was not Rader that sent him off to a year of luxury in Hawaii, expenses paid.

The Apostle writes:

Rod Meredith has been called a tyrant by his enemies [as part of a political struggle] and much has been said about him that is in error and uncalled for.

To set the record straight;  Rod was removed and sent to Hawaii [by Stan Rader]  because of his loyalty to HWA and Herbert’s post 1974 teachings, in the same manner that C Wayne Cole was fired for his loyalty to HWA at the beginning of the Receivership.  They were both victims of the Rader struggle to defend himself from the lawsuit investigation; and later on [in Rod's case] Rader’s efforts to take full control of the WCG.

Rod Meredith is an Armstrong loyalist with something of HWA’s leadership style.  Yes he is a dominating authoritrian leader;  but he is by far the closest to the post 74 HWA doctrinal teachings. (Note that the die-hard Armstrong loaylists are now movign the date

 He was removed from that position to be replaced by Joe Tkach, in a Rader power grab designed to replace any HWA loyalist heading the ministry with his own man.  Rod was then sent to Hawaii to remove him from any influence on any in the ministry, until Tkach could get well settled in and start promoting those persons with his evangelical agenda.   (Meredith's banishment letter to Hawaii is in the next post)  Tkach at this point in time was having to clean up the trail of destruction that Meredith had left in his wake.  Tkach had no idea how much damage Meredith had done till Rod was ensconced in Hawaii.

As for Rod being a tyrant; he was loyal to HWA and his post 74 teachings; and those who were strong HWA loyalists supported him, while of course those who were of the evangelical persuasion hated his insistence on adhering to the post 74 HWA teachings.

 It still amazes me after all these years the number of people that want to white wash Rod Meredith as a wholesome, godly person who walks in humility before God.  Ask most people that had to work around him in Pasadena and they will tell you otherwise.

Apostle Malm is still under the impression that COGWA will eventually unite with Living Church of God and that the  only thing holding them back is the leadership issue.

COGWA was formed for the very purpose of loyalty to the Armstrong post 74  teachings; and it is quite natural that they would align themselves with Meredith’s LCG.  This process is ongoing and LCG has been working to set the conditions for a rapprochement between the two groups. 

While Tkach was no innocent party in this matter, Meredith is not the poor picked upon servant of God.  Far from it!

You can read the rest of Apostle Malm's half truths here:  Rod Meredith and the WCG power struggle

Van Robison on "The Magnetism of Charismatic Public Speakers"

The Magnetism of Charismatic Public Speakers

There is no doubt that some human beings have charisma.  Herbert W. and Garner Ted Armstrong both had that quality.  Public speaking with a sense of authority can be very captivating.  Apparently the "apostle" Paul
had that same quality, because his writings or speeches have influenced a multitude of people.  Some sources actually state that some of the writings attributed to Paul were penned not by Paul, but by unknown sources.
Nevertheless, it is true that the voice of some human beings is very captivating.  This is true of many who sing and have beautiful voices.  Politicians and preachers have a lot in common in that they seek to influence
people to see their point of view.

There is indeed something in the human voice that can persuade others, even when that voice is propaganda or not true.  The "news" media and movies are powerful agents of persuasion, even though the astute know
beyond doubt that these sources are major players in the world of disinformation, falsehoods and out and out lies in many ways.  Those who control the "news" and movie industries are not naive and gullible about the
power in their hands to persuade.  It has been said that if a lie is told often enough, that lie is believed by many to be "truth."  It then becomes next to impossible to persuade people that the lie they have believed as being "truth" is really a lie.  Many will think that a lie is truth and that real truth is a lie as a result of being brainwashed.

When you listen to a public speaker it is easy to believe that what they are saying is the "truth."  This is more than evident as many listening to the "World Tomorrow" radio broadcast of the Worldwide Church of God
found that they accepted and believed what Herbert W. or Garner Ted said on those programs.  Believing what public speakers say often causes people to become followers of those who speak.  It is not only true in the world of religions and religious beliefs, but also in the world of politics.  There is indeed a magnetism in many people that will cause many others to follow those individuals.  It matters not whether the magnetic personality is "Christian" or not, people will fall in line and become believers in charismatic and persuasive personalities.

The obvious danger in thinking that persuasive personalities and public voices are somehow the voice of "truth" is that many have been led astray by wolves in sheep's clothing.  A voice can seem believable, but that does not necessarily make that voice truth.  Some voice was the beginning of the Roman Catholic Church, another voice was the origin of the Mormon Church, and yet another voice was the origin of the Jehovah Witnesses.  It goes on and on endlessly.  The voice of Herbert W. Armstrong was the origin of the Worldwide Church of God.  Another voice was the origin of the Seventh Day Adventist group and yet another voice was the origin of "The Family" (or the "Children of God"), which was the deceased David Berg.  Every voice that originates a church or religious group eventually returns to dirt and ends in the grave yard.

There was a voice that initiated the Methodist Church, another that was the origin of the Baptist Church and yet another that is the voice of the Pentecostal group.  Another voice is Amish, another Mennonite and another voice that of the "Sacred Name" groups.  These voices are like the sand upon the seashores and they are many.  The same is true of the splinter groups of the original Worldwide Church of God.  One voice is that of Rod Meredith, and another that of Gerald Flurry and yet another that of David Pack, and the voices are many.

That anyone would follow any of these voices is really quite astonishing, from the stand point that all these voices are mere human beings who are all without exception very fallible and subject to human nature the same as all other human beings.  No man or woman is God and yet millions worship at the feet of these charismatic public speakers as if there are.  A MAJOR mistake!  Like lemmings multitudes of human beings rush headlong over the bluff and drown in the sea of false beliefs, following their human leader who is also self-deceived and indoctrinated by his or her teachers.

The Worldwide Church of God has led many into destruction as lemmings.  The problem with human lemmings is that they follow men instead of Jesus Christ.


Van Robison

Are Weather Issues A Result of God Punishing the English Speaking Nations?

With all the tornadoes, earthquakes and other disasters that  have been in the news over the last several months; the various COG's have been kicked into a frenzy of "prophecy in action" articles and postings.  Due to the non-provable belief in British Israelism, these COG's feel that it is God taking his wrath out on the lost 12 tribes.  One person who harps on this worn out line constantly is Prophet Thiel.

He writes:

Perhaps the record weather problems can serve as another wake-up call. As my book indicated, weather-related troubles with their related food issues, of course, are biblically expected as Jesus stated:

7…And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:7-8).
8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. (Mark 13:8)

We may be at this prophetic point as all the earthquakes and other weather problems that have happened in the past year or so could be considered as “troubles.”
Much is going on that we in the Living Church of God have expected would happen. For example, LCG’s Dr. Roderick C. Meredith, who expect certain prophetic issues to rise up this year, years ago wrote a booklet related to coming weather problems titled Who Controls the Weather?
2012 is already been a turbulent year.

The Gun Lap site has a great article up with loads of statistics that make mincemeat of these doom and gloom scenarios.

The Seventh Day Churches of God (COGs) believe that natural diasters are fulfilling Bible prophecy of the end-times. Can this view be supported by the data on natural disasters?

The COGs also believe that the white English-speaking peoples are descended from the twelve tribes of Israel and that these nations are being punished by natural disasters because they once knew the God of the Bible and rejected him and his truth. Is it true that these nations are suffering from natural disasters worse than other nations?

The English-speakers are not believed to be all of the tribes, just the leading tribes. The COGs believe the other tribes migrated to Northwestern Europe or remained in Judea (Palestine). In this article I will use refer to any nations the COGs regard as part of the twelve tribes as "Israel" and call the rest of the world "Gentiles".

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Severity and Frequency
 
The COGs have been saying that both the severity and frequency of disasters is increasing in accord with Bible prophecy. So we will look at both the severity and frequency of disasters. Proving that neither one or the other is increasing should be enough to get open minded people to do a serious re-think about COG prophecy.

Looking at some "worst-ever disasters" lists is easy to do and shows no evidence that the severity of disasters is increasing as time goes on. 

First, let's look at the frequency, i.e. are disasters getting more common with time? [Keep in mind that I researched this article and wrote it up in 2010 so the lists could have changed since, but the main trends should be the same].

1. Six of the 10 deadliest-ever natural disasters were before 1950.
2. Four of the 10 deadliest natural disasters of the last 100 years (1910 to 2010) were in the first half of that time period (1910 to 1960).
3. Five of the 10 deadliest-ever tornadoes happened since 1969 (but none were in the last 20 years).
4. Five of the 10 deadliest-ever storms were in the 1800's.
5. Five of the 10 deadliest-ever blizzards were before 1975 and five since then.
6. Nine of the 10 deadliest-ever tsunamis were in 1908 or earlier.
7. Nine of the 10 deadliest-ever volcanic eruptions were in 1919 or earlier.
8. Four of the 10 deadliest-ever cyclones were in the 1800's.
9. Seven of the 10 deadliest-ever earthquakes were in 1976 or earlier (though two were since 2004).
10. Of the 20 deadliest-ever famines, 17 were before 1950 (even though world population has skyrocketed since then).

Now, let's look at where the worst disasters occured.

1. Not one of the 10 deadliest-ever natural disasters took place in "Israel", all were in "Gentile" countries.
2. Not one of the 10 deadliest natural disasters of the last 100 years were in "Israel", all were in "Gentile" countries.
3. Nine of the 10 deadliest-ever tornadoes were in Gentile countries.
4. Eight of the 10 deadliest-ever storms were in "Israel."
5. Five of the 10 deadliest-ever blizzards were in the USA, but the death toll in the 1972 Iran blizzard far surpassed all of them combined.
6. Nine of the 10 deadliest-ever tsunamis did not strike any Israelite countries (the one that did also struck Gentiles).
7. Nine of the 10 deadliest-ever volcanic eruptions struck Gentiles.
8. All 10 of the 10 deadliest-ever cyclones were in Gentile countries.
9. Of the 70 deadliest-ever earthquakes, 69 were in Gentile countries. One was in the USA. It was ranked last (least destructive).
10. 19 of the 20 deadliest-ever famines were in "Gentile" countries. 

Check out the entire article here as they make mince meat of LCG, PCG and RCG's doom and gloom scenarios.  Natural Disasters Are Not Getting Worse!