How many of you ever completed the Correspondence Course that the old Radio/Worldwide Church of God put out? Most church members only know it in its abbreviated form of 32 lessons which was eventually shortened to 12 lessons. Those who grew up in the church in the "Radio" years remember the mind and butt-numbing 58 lesson course. Remember all of those wonderful hours parked at your dining room table diligently reading each lesson and handwriting out every single Bible verse it referenced?
Each lesson was meticulously planned out so that you never had the opportunity to question what was being presented. After all, this was coming from God's College and therefore had to be 100% right! God would NEVER lead the Apostle astray into letting something as miraculous as the Correspondence Course EVER be filled with error!
The problem with the entire course is that was nothing more than an elaborate "proof-text" of what the church believed after "proof-texting" scriptures to fit their interpretations.
Here is the definition of proof-texting:
The church was quite adept at twisting scripture to fit the interpretation it wanted the members to believe. Most members never knew it was happening. After all, if Herbert said it, that settled it! Since it was settled it could never be questioned. God forbid if anyone dared to read a book that might have an opposite viewpoint!Prooftexting (sometimes "proof-texting" or "proof texting") is the practice of using isolated, out-of-context quotations from a document to establish a proposition in eisegesis (introducing one's own presuppositions, agendas, or biases). Such quotes may not accurately reflect the original intent of the author,[1] and a document quoted in such a manner, when read as a whole, may not support the proposition for which it was cited.[2][3][4][5] The term has currency primarily in theological and exegetical circles.This is to be distinguished from quotations from a source deemed a hostile witness, which inadvertently substantiate a point beneficial to the quoter in the course of its own narrative. Even when lifted out of context, those facts still stand.Many Christian ministers and Christian teachers have used some version of the following humorous anecdote to demonstrate the dangers of prooftexting: "A man dissatisfied with his life decided to consult the Bible for guidance. Closing his eyes, he flipped the book open and pointed to a spot on the page. Opening his eyes, he read the verse under his finger. It read, 'Then Judas went away and hanged himself' (Matthew 27:5b). Finding these words unhelpful, the man randomly selected another verse. This one read, 'Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."' (Luke 10:37b). In desperation, he tried one more time. The text he found was: 'What you are about to do, do quickly.'" (John 13:27)[6]
That brings us to today, as Doubly-blessed, Almost-arrested Tinfoil Bob Thiel has determined that he need to correct the old Correspondence Courses. Tinfoil Bob, like almost all the other splinter group leaders has never had an original thought in his head. He has spent years copying and imitating everything the church did. Now he has determined that he needs to add his great interpretations to these old courses.
Can any of these self-appointed pissants ever write or preach anything NOT already done by HWA and his crew? Not a single new thought or interpretation for the 21st century. No new way of looking at things that have relevance for people of this world. No one humble enough to admit mistakes were made and interpretations were wrong.We have been making progress on literature and clarifying matters for an upcoming Study the Bible Course lesson. Working on that lesson (number 15) caused me to do a lot of research and add many scriptures that were not in the original course from the 1950s. We expect that lesson to be available next Spring.Speaking of the Study the Bible Course, we have been working on getting all the English version lessons online by themselves, as opposed to only being available in the magazines. This should be ready fairly soon.
Humility is not a word any present-day Church of God leader knows or exemplifies. They cannot because they REFUSE to follow the one person who taught them what it was to be humble. Liars and boasters of themselves and their supposed good works of magnificent campuses, auditoriums, great websites, booklets in Swahili and other African languages, the list can go on and on because it is always about themselves.
Herbert Armstrong, as arrogant as he was, at least had a vision. Something bigger and grander for members to look forward to as a unified group on a journey together. Today's COG leaders have no vision. The beat their chests as if they do and boast a lot, but they are visionless. Herbert Armstrong could circle the wagons and realign people to his cause when it got waylaid, yet today we see scores of little men who cannot inspire people to join up with them to complete the grand vision Herbert Armstrong envisioned. They have ended up being like dung beetles rolling their little balls of malevolent teachings up the side of an ever-growing pile of stinking crap.
