Jesus did not come to bring one set of people to abject poverty while another set of people rob, steal, and dine on their dimes. Jesus did not come so the little children had to sit silently and listen to their ministers talk about death, destruction, false prophecies, corrections, rebukes, and absolute lies. Jesus did not come to enable abusers to abuse. Jesus did not come to promote racism, white supremacy, bigotry, Gulfstream Jets, mansions, and GQ suits. Jesus did not come to advance a religion of arrogance, greed, chauvinism, and bullying.
Jesus did not come to this Earth 2,000 years ago to advance the causes of uncontrolled and unchecked power. Jesus did not come to this Earth 2,000 years ago with a weak, powerless, dismal Gospel that was just waiting for a worldly-oriented businessman to raise up a scheme that would collapse in just about 50 years. None of these reasons are why Jesus came.
When we look at the legacy of Herbert Armstrong, and it's splinters, we can, without any effort, bring forth volumes of information of the lies, the falsehoods, the distortions, the cover-ups, scandals, misrepresentations, and harm that have disseminated from the "House of God" in Pasadena for decades upon decades. We can, without any effort, bring forth volumes of testimonies - painful, real, honest testimonies of the chains and the shackles that the doctrines of Armstrongism - taught by biblically and theologically illiterate leaders - that prove not only the dark and wicked attitudes that prevail in the thick sewage of Armstrongism, but prove the spirit of evil that has shattered and broken thousands upon thousands of lives in it's destructive wake. It's not isolated. It's the force, and the strength of destruction that to the end, even decimated itself into slivers and shards, where little remains of what once was.
Now, today, we have a few that continue to believe - some wholeheartedly and with sincere conviction - that somehow they and they only hold the keys and the answers to life. Answers that not only completely trample and trash everything that Jesus ever came to accomplish, but hold people in chains of bondage, ruining families, destroying relationships, destroying opportunity, causing division and separation time and time again. Now today, we have a few that are divided amongst themselves, making merchandise of the brethren to advance their own miniature empires led by men thirsty and hungry for power and control - lying, deceiving, and destroying without regard to reach their own ends and to maximize their own schemes.
And then there are those who finally wake up to the realization that they were involved in a world of darkness pretending to be light. These come out of the dense fog of Armstrongism in a world of trauma, hurt, and disbelief. Many even have come to reject Christianity itself, and embrace the concepts and notions of a godless universe. Others have retreated into a world of reclusive living, untrusting and unwilling to allow themselves to submit to such a scam ever again. - subject to lie after lie after lie, over and over again.
There is no doubt as to what they - the perpetrators of Armstrongism and all of it's injustices - want those who shine light on the problems - to do. They want us to "get a life", to "shut up", to "grow up", and to roll over and play dead, and not say anything about the abuses that continue unabated. They want those who see, who hear, and tell others to "mind their own business". Then, they accuse the ones who speak out of being blasphemers. Of being haters. Even of being devils. They accuse those of the same attitudes they have no problem displaying, while making themselves out to be the bearers of light and hope. Many have cast judgement against them, without authority, up to and including their eternal lives, without realizing or knowing that only God holds the keys of life and death in His hands - or the one who came to save us. They don't acknowledge the depth, the width, the height, and the length of the love of God in Christ our Lord that exceeds the pathetic boundaries created by that businessman, Herbert Armstrong, who only understood the physical realms, and even then, didn't have a clue.
If your watched your son or your daughter - with so much potential to live - get involved with a man or a woman who constantly oppressed them. Who constantly told them everything they were doing wrong in every area. Who stripped them of their ability to make decisions. Who stripped them of their responsibilities. Who eventually would take as much of their rights, responsibilities, and income as possible - and then that man or that woman who did that went out and built a house, living off their income - lying to them, over and over again - promising them the world while they were chained up in the basement, living off whatever they could scrape out - would you not be outraged? would you not want to tell someone? Would you not want to do all you could to help that person understand their situation? Especially your son and daughter? Or would you expect them to sit down, shut up, and bask in willful neglect and disbelief about the whole thing? Would you be on the side of your son or daughter, or the abuser?
What would Jesus do?
What would YOU do?
For all the time we spent in Armstrongism, we heard four words in our hearts and minds throughout the whole experience: Tithe, Pray, SHUT UP, and OBEY. Today, those same leaders WISH we would tithe, WISH we would shut up, and despise our "rebellion" against their tyrannies. We got up, and we said "NO MORE". We ignored their constant threats against our eternal lives, and cast them aside as worthless. We rejected their nonsense, their false prophecies, their lies, their arrogance, their abuse, their judgemenal attitudes, their greed, their sneers, their cold, heartless attitudes of worldly gain and greed, and their shouts of powerless authority. Make no mistake - their words are powerless. They have been disarmed. They hold no power - except on those who give them such power through fear.
Let me be clear on this: None of them hold any power over ANYONE, except the power of fear and deception. Not oneof them has uttered one prophecy of truth, one speculation of substance, one word of power - just disappointment and lie after lie. Who remembers the guy who "cursed" his detractors to no avail? Or the guy who made up such ridiculous prophecies about 2013 and ended up proving himself a liar? Or the guy who believes he was ordained and never was? What about the man who started it with over 200 false speculations, a man with rage, temper, and in his own words, an "evil nearly impossible to overcome"? The only power they've ever had over anyone are those who believe they have power.
We don't. We have been freed. We're here. They are powerless. We have a voice. It's not hatred. It's standing up to the Lectern of the Internet through the Banned By HWA Arena in front of a crowd bigger than any Feast of Tabernacles site with volumes of information and indisputable facts. It's booming the truth of what Armstrongism was really about "AROUND THE WORLD", And really is. Not one person has EVER been able to refute any of the claims that have been revealed. Because they cannot. Because it's truth. And truth is all it's ever about.
submitted by SHT
