Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
One of America's craziest televangelists is Kenneth Copeland, who has bilked followers out of hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades. He is also just like Gerald Flurry when it comes to personal jets for his disposal, thousgh Flurry only has one jet, while Copland has three.
Flurry justified buying his own jet, so he did not have to breathe the polluted air nor have to sit beside the unwashed public who fly on commercial aircraft, that might have a cold or some communicable disease.
Now check out how Ken Copland defends his three jets because of the demonic atmosphere in jets:
There is a fascinating article out today about the personality cult NXVIM and how it lured so many women into it. Even more fascinating is to read that a former radio Church of God member jumped from one cult into another. The article details how easy it is and how frequent people who leave high controlling groups will easily be attracted to another group. You can easily see why when people left Herbert Armstrong, they were easily duped by the Flurry, Meredith, Pack, Weinland, Thiel, Malm and others.
Teah Banks was born into an evangelical Christian sect called the Radio Church of God. Founded in the 1930s by an advertising sales representative turned minister, the insular group promoted an ultra-fundamentalist reading of the Old Testament, eschewing divorce, premarital sex and even wearing makeup. “It was a super closed religion,” Banks, now 42, remembers. “We had pictures of the leader in our home. We worshipped him like he was a god.”
Although Banks started having questions about the group, she attended services until her 20s, when she was expelled from the organization. In 2004, she and her then-boyfriend, a filmmaker named Mark Vicente (best known for the documentary What the Bleep Do We Know?), were approached by two women who wanted Vicente to make films for their organization, NXIVM, which taught a curriculum called the Executive Success Program, or ESP. The two women (one of whom was NXIVM co-founder Nancy Salzman) raved about their leader, a mathematician, scientist, judo champion and concert-level pianist who had patented a unique method of hacking the human brain. The man’s name, the women said, was Keith Raniere.
Banks and Vicente’s interest was piqued, and they agreed to join the women for lunch; when Salzman successfully used ESP methods to “cure” Banks of her lifelong lactose intolerance, she was even more intrigued. “I’m just like, wow, this is amazing. This woman is amazing,” she says. “And I said, ‘Nancy, I want to be one of your people.'” Blown away by the women and by ESP in general, Banks encouraged Vicente to take a NXIVM intensive; eventually, he bought an apartment in New York to be closer to group headquarters in Albany. She was involved with the group until 2005, when the two broke up, though she continued taking courses remotely for years afterward. Vicente, who eventually became a member of the NXIVM executive board, was involved with the group until 2017.
At the time she joined NXIVM, Banks had just left one large organization with an enigmatic leader at the helm. Vicente, too, had also just extricated himself from a similarly insular fringe spiritual organization: theRamtha School of Enlightenment,a group led by a New Age figure named JZ Knight, who claimed to be channeling a 35,000-year-old warrior deity named Ramtha. But even though they were both disillusioned with spiritual organizations, NXIVM struck them as different. “The first day you’re there, they’re like, ‘We’re not a cult. Cult is a bad word. It is used loosely,'” Banks said. “‘[We’re] a success school. We’re helping you raise your ethics.'”
At this point, everyone knows the rest of the story: in March 2018, Raniere and five of his NXIVM cohorts, including Salzman, were arrested on such charges as sex trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Raniere is currently standing trial in Brooklyn, where his former supporters (including Vicente) have testified that he, among other things, imprisoned a woman for nearly two years, convinced his followers that he controlled technology and the weather, and ran DOS, a secret all-female organization of “slaves” who were branded with his initials and told to have sex with him.
Later in the article, there is this:
Because cultic studies is a relatively under-researched field (unsurprisingly, cults themselves are resistant to outsiders conducting research on their practices), there isn’t much data attesting to exactly how prevalent “cult-hopping” is. But anecdotally, Eichel says, the practice is common, in part because those who are kicked out of a cult or excommunicated are looking for another organization to fill the void. Most cults, including NXIVM, teach adherents that they are wholly responsible for their own actions, which creates feelings of extreme self-doubt and anguish when they’e cut off from their support system. “That leaves [them] vulnerable to another group to say, ‘Well no, you’re in the wrong group, this is the right group,'” Eichel says.
Those who leave cults on their own – which Eichel says constitutes the “vast majority” of cult members — most often do so because they’ve had a bad experience with the group, perhaps observing something that violates their own ethics, or inconsistencies between the leader’s behavior and his teachings. But contrary to what you might expect, from the perspective of a former cult member, having one bad experience with a cult does not necessarily reflect on cult-like organizations as a whole. Eichel compares it to how most people would feel after they visit a bad dentist: sure, the experience of being poked and prodded by a poorly trained practitioner might make us slightly more wary of dentistry in general, but it certainly won’t stop anyone from hopping on Yelp and trying to find another, better dentist.
A few years ago, the god that inspires nightmares in certain COG men, decided he needed a new spokesman here on the earth, in this day and age. Ever since he had appointed Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, and Rod Meredith to be the one true COG leaders, his plan has been thwarted by one idiotic prediction or event after another.
Jesus has been getting so antsy to return that he has given up on strolling around the Wadsworth campus of Dave Pack. In a deep conversation with God, the two of them determined to raise up a new man. A man totally unqualified and rejected by his peers. They devised a plan to inculcate a few nightmares in the mind of this man and a couple other disturbed individuals around the world. Pretty soon, after a couple restless nights of wild and delusional dreams, the future ONE TRUE COG leader woke up from his dream and proclaimed to his wife, "I AM THE CHOSEN ONE!" Ever since that moment, more and more crazy things flow forth from his mouth as he makes proclamation after proclamation. Now, the Chosen One, the REAL Elijah, the REAL Amos, the REAL Habakkuk, the REAL Second Witness, and the only one who has EVER been doubly blessed by and equally deceived man, has declared that when his created creature he calls "jesus" returns, it will come FIRST to the only church that keeps these specific points:
Christmas was not observed by any professing Christ prior to the third century, or ever by those holding to early teachings; December 25th did not come from the Bible.
Circumcision, though not required, was long practiced by original Nazarene Christians.
Confession of sins were not made to priests and did not require penance.
Deification of Christians (which begins after the first resurrection) was taught by the early leaders of the Church.
Duties of Elders/Pastors were pastoral and theological, not predominantly sacramental–nor did they dress as many now do. Easterper se was not observed by the apostolic church.
The Sabbath was observed on Saturday by the apostolic and post-apostolic Church.
Salvation was believed to be offered to the chosen now by the early Church, with others being called later, though not all that taught that (or other doctrines) practiced “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). God’s
Six Thousand Year Plan for humankind to rule itself was believed by early professors of Christ.
Sunday was not observed by the apostolic and original post-apostolic Christians.
The Ten Commandments were observed by the apostolic and true post-apostolic Christians–and in the order that the Church of God claims they are in.
Tithes and Offerings were given to support the ministry, the churches, the needy, and evangelical travels and proclamation.
Tradition had some impact on the second century Christians, but was never supposed to supercede the Bible.
The Trinity was not a word used to describe the Godhead by the apostolic or second century Christians, though a certain threeness was acknowledged.
Unclean Meats were eaten by the early allegorists, but not by true Christians.
The Virgin Birth was acknowledged by all true ante-Nicene Christians.
I am exhausted reading it! One law after another, more things to weigh people down. More things to keep people imprisoned in another vile splinter cult of the harlot mother, the Worldwide Church of God.
There were only two demands made upon the Christians of the first century: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor. Two small little steps that the Chosen One fails to do.
So join us in another mind-boggling video experience as The Chosen One, the Great Bwana, himself, Bob Thiel tells you which church his creature "jesus" will be returning to. And no, it is NOT coming back to Wadsworth first!
