Religious and Theological Obsession and Fanaticism in the Churches of God

 

While not a psychologist nor endeavoring to play one on BannedHWA, observing the seemingly God-Haunted workings in the minds of some of my past life peers lies somewhere between fascinating and terrifying. 

What is going on in the minds of these men, such as a Dave Pack, Ron Weinland, Gerald Flurry, Bob Thiel and others, who have come to believe and promote what they do?  

Religious fanaticism

Religious fanaticism is a pejorative designation used to indicate uncritical zeal or obsessive enthusiasm which is related to one's own, or one's group's, devotion to a religion – a form of human fanaticism which could otherwise be expressed in one's other involvements and participation, including employment, role, and partisan affinities. Historically, the term was applied in Christian antiquity to denigrate non-Christian religions, and subsequently acquired its current usage with the Age of Enlightenment.

Why would Dave Pack build a mini Ambassdor, as did Gerald Flurry copying HWA, while also teaching their Christ's Second Coming was imminent?  What makes a man, like Dave, give himself every Biblical title he can find in scripture such as "Watcher", "Elijah to Come" "Apostle"?  What would make one believe the Two Witnesses would spring from their insignificant church and that they would, of course, work under Dave's oversight?  How can Dave Pack make one predictive mistake and miscalculation after the next, as if he could know, about the Second Coming of Christ and claim his math is correct and nothing can go past any time he has set no matter how far past that time it goes?  What kind of mental illness is this?

What motivates those in RCG to deny this phenomenon that plays out before them every single week and come back for more?  Does it ever cross their minds it might be time to give up on Dave Pack being anything but delusional as to his role in grand scheme of all things religious?  Do they ever tire of false prophesies and one dramatic but completely and terribly mistaken line of reasoning on Dave's part after another?  Tell me if you know.

What kind of thinking, besides "stinking thinking" does it take for a Gerald Flurry to inflict his kind of oversight, pain and tithe gulping lifestyle on the members of his Church of Brotherly Love?   What does it take to see yourself spoken of in the scriptures and remind the brethren of that with a straight face?  What kind of followers does one attract that can do that with a straight face and deny what they see and hear is not insanity on display?

What of Ron Weinland, a most insignificant player in the world of theology and religion who does a practice run to Jerusalem as the Witness Couple of Revelation, can't stop predicting the end of all things and thinks he only has the truth of anything when clearly, he doesn't have the truth of just about anything theological?  Who does he attract with that record of failure?  Oh, and prison not exactly for persecution's sake?

Bob Thiel is supposed to be an educated man. He claims to be a scientist.  Why can't he get beyond the ignorance of the Bronze Age with regard to the causes of bad weather?  What makes him reason out that "It is God trying to get our attention".  Why doesn't the concept of God "trying" give him pause as to the fact that his version of God is obviously not all powerful, knowing or capable of getting the message over to everyone or anyone?  He is the God that tries and fails pretty much.   Why does an educated man, so called, think his dreams are special announcements in the night about who he is and what his God is "trying" once again to tell him? Why does he draw conclusions from his dreams that billions of others who also dream would never draw? Why the need to be so special?  Is it being ignored in childhood?  Is it the inability to be skeptical about ancient scriptures being valid today in every way?  Is it simply the simplistic view that regarding the Bible, "God said it, I believe it, that does it for me" denying evidence to the contrary?

What is it about all these one man shows that gets stuck in prophecy and seems to have no clue about, or interest in the real message of the New Testament?  Why do they hang out in the Torah and the prophets more than in the Gospels and Church letters? Are they bored with that and if they just taught what the actual Christian Church teaches, who would pay attention to them?  Is it a perverse attention at all costs they crave?  Malignant narcissism? Snakes in suits?  Is prophecy their hook that works the best even when false, fake and futile?  Have they found that fear sells and deliberately so or do they believe their own delusions sincerely? 

What is going on here in the minds of these men who use and fuel fear, guilt and shame to control others and make fools of themselves often. How is it that they can make one foolish prediction and mistake after the next and fail to mention that they did?  Tell me if you know. Please.

"Psssst.....Sermon's over..."

PCG Admits They Are Laodicean?

 

The Church of God movement should change its name to The Endless Excuses Church of God considering how it is constantly having to make excuses as to why all of its leaders, predictions, and prophecies fall apart around them on a daily basis.

Herbert W. Armstrong died on Jan. 16, 1986. So why didn’t this age of man end at that time? To find the answer, we must understand what Christ meant when He said “then shall the end come.” 

 

Notice this quote from Lesson 22 of our free Bible correspondence course: “The word end used here in verse 14 is not talking about the end of the age. In verse 3, the disciples asked Christ about the end (Greek sunteleia)—meaning the entire completion, or consummation, of the age. In verse 14, the word translated as end is the Greek word telos, which can mean the termination or limit at which something ceases to be; or that by which a thing is finished, its close. Thayer’s Lexicon states that ‘what end is intended the reader must determine by context.’” 

 

After Mr. Armstrong preached the gospel around the world as a witness, the end of the Philadelphia era of God’s Church occurred. The Laodicean era—which is the last era before Christ returns—came on the scene. You can learn more about this history in Malachi’s Message. 

 

Revelation 10:11 shows that God’s loyal remnant must prophesy again in the short time before Christ returns to this Earth.

Petulant Man-Child Whines On Anniversary Of HWA Death About Being Ignored

 

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.