Today is the 35th anniversary of the death of Herbert Armstrong and our most highly favored prophet in all of Christiandom has had another meltdown over people using the word "Armstrongism" and the fact people CONTINUE to ignore his dreams and his supposed legacy of being the only TRUE COG left on the face of the earth today. As usual, it is a shitshow of stupidity, but as usual, so highly entertaining!
Consistently trying and always failing to make people believe he is the one true end-time leader of the one true end-time church, Bwana Bob trots out HWA's 18 point list of things supposedly restored to the church, though any halfway good student of church history knows that none of those things were ever lost. But, hey, this is a COG after all and it has to be "special".
Herbert W. Armstrong wrote:
At least 18 basic and essential truths have been restored to the True Church since” the year 1933 (Mystery of the Ages, Dodd & Mead, 1985, p. 251).
The only Church of God group I am aware of that specifically lists all of those truths, using his list, as part of their official beliefs is the Continuing Church of God.
Bwana Bob then has to use HWA's use of media as proof that his church, the improperly named "continuing" Church of God, is doing the same thing. HWA's message attracted millions through TV and print while Bwana Bob is not known by anyone and is making no impact on the world as he attracts 10's of people.
It just yanks Bwana Bob's BVD's to no end that NO ONE in the COG movement pays him any attention nor will they join him in his minuscule "ministry".
Herbert W. Armstrong ultimately believed that a dream, which had two proclamation parts, was a prophecy from God for him to enter the ministry, which he did, and he completed the first proclamation part of the dream. Thirty years after his death, the only group that has claimed to be working towards completing the second part of that dream is the Continuing Church of God.
Most groups with leaders once part of the old Worldwide Church of God discount all dreams and have not placed the public proclamation of the kingdom of God to the world as their true initial priority (Matthew 24:14; 28:19), do not fully understand all of the restored truths, and have not valued the truth enough, hence they have shown that they are not the possessors of what has been called the “Philadelphia mantle” (leadership authority). The group with said mantle is also represented by the “woman” of Revelation 12:14-17.
The Book of Hebrews teaches:
1 Let brotherly love continue. (Hebrews 13:1)
Why bring that up here? Because the word translated as “brotherly love” is the Greek word Philadelphia. Philadelphia was to continue, even into this Laodicean time, as well as be present (to a degree) throughout the history of the Church of God. Philadelphians are deeply caring people.
Christians through the centuries have been deeply caring people. The COG doesn't even rank in the same category considering its decades of abusive ministers and leaders acting anything but Phaildphian love.
The Great Bwana then says that his group is just like HWA's because his group is growing at a 30% rate annually.
It is a well-known fact that church leaders and department heads in Pasadena fudged numbers constantly in order to make church statistics look better than they actually were. As one head of accounting boldly said years ago, "We can take any figure and make it mean anything we want."
The Continuing Church of God has exceeded the 30% growth per year that the old Radio/Worldwide Church of God used to claim it had for decades. Many of those that we have with us did NOT have a WCG background as we reached people others had not.
We are the fourth or fifth largest xWCG group and have been the fastest growing xWCG in the 21st century.
We have the type of growth that Herbert W. Armstrong said should indicate God’s blessing.
Bwana Bob's amazing "growth" has been nothing more than church-hoping Sabbatarians in Africa who seek out the group that helps them the most with things. They've jumped from SDA's to COG groups to COG7 and back to COG groups. Over and over it goes. It all depends on which group the so-called "evangelists" chose to lead their followers in to and when they pick Bwana Bob as their Overseer his head grows a few more inches bigger.
Much to Bwana Bob's chagrin, the Church of God 7th Day is growing faster than he is and consistently maintains its members, something the COG is inept at.
The Church of God (Seventh Day) recognizes more than 200 congregations in the United States and Canada. It also has affiliated ministries in more than 35 countries outside North America, with a worldwide fellowship near 300,000 members. As an agent of God’s grace, the Church offers warm-hearted fellowship and willing support for people everywhere who trust and obey the same Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. It is in serving others that the Church finds relevance for her Bible-centered message and her God-inspired mission.
Today's COG's have splintered and splintered and splintered and have no focus anymore. They have nothing to offer anyone that is of substance. Without Jesus being central to their message they flounder and sputter in obscurity.