Backward Thinking
Lonnie Hendrix
Folks who have been following the comment thread for my last post (Trying to get out from under the weight of history), know that I criticized CGI for permitting a sermon on Anglo-Israelism to be delivered to one of their congregations (Jeff Reed’s Atlanta, Georgia congregation). Although Jeff personally assured me that he was surprised by the sermon and explained his objections to the message to one of his members, the sermon still managed to get posted on CGI’s Facebook page and main website!
This kind of double-dealing, however, is typical of my interactions with the upper echelons of CGI. Privately, the leadership expresses their distaste for Anglo-Israelism and headline theology, but they continue to provide an official CGI platform for those within their community who support those views. Moreover, they justify this blatant hypocrisy by insisting that they are trying to keep the peace and to be “tolerant” of views which they don’t necessarily support. I call it trying to have your cake and eat it too!
The sermon, Forward Thinking, was delivered by an independent COG elder named Jim Eason. To be fair, Mr. Eason begins well. For the first fifteen minutes (or so) of his sermon, he talks about the centrality of the message about salvation through Jesus Christ to the overall message of Scripture. Unfortunately, at that point in his message, he begins to decry the fact that most Christian Churches aren’t focused enough on prophecy. More particularly, he noted that NONE of the mainstream churches are preaching about Anglo-Israelism. Even worse, according to Mr. Eason, is the fact that the ACOG’s aren’t focusing more attention on these teachings.
In typical Armstrongist fashion, he begins with the promises made to the one who would eventually be known as Abraham in the twelfth chapter of Genesis. Elder Eason then proceeded to list the promises which Abraham’s descendants would eventually inherit. Predictably, the sermon then shifted to Joseph and his two sons: Ephraim and Manasseh. Of course, he went on to identify the United States as Manasseh and the British as Ephraim.
Like Herbert Armstrong before him, for Mr. Eason this is the key to understanding prophecy and current events. He went on to say that his audience wouldn’t hear this important message in any other churches (meaning mainline, traditional Christian churches). Next, he read from the first chapter of the book of Isaiah and insisted that the passage perfectly described the current condition of the English-speaking peoples of the earth. He went on to talk about the time of “Jacob’s trouble” and suggested that those same peoples would shortly endure incredible sorrow and suffering. He said, “There is a judgment coming on the nations of Israel” (including the United States).
Even so, Mr. Eason ended on a note of hope – insisting that God would eventually restore these nations to prosperity and power. He concluded his message by saying that we (the ACOG’s) need to be “shouting” this message to the people of the United States. Indeed, he insisted that this is “an important part of the Gospel” message; and that “if we aren’t speaking about it, then we aren’t preaching the Gospel.”
Now, to Mr. Eason, all of this sounds like “forward thinking.” However, for those of us who are familiar with the history of Armstrongism, it sure sounds like backward thinking to many of us. And, for those who would present CGI as a more progressive and intellectually honest manifestation of “The TRUTH,” all of this sounds an awful lot like that old-time religion of Herbert Armstrong. Moreover, if you really have accepted the fact that Anglo-Israelism has been thoroughly discredited, how can you continue in good faith to provide a platform for it?
