Crackpot Prophet Says True Education Only Comes From Hierarchal Church Government

Would you look to this man to provide you "true education"?

God's most highly favored Church of God leader, foreordained by God to come in the perilous last days to bring true education through true church government to the world, is back again quoting from one of Herbert Armstrong's booklets, The Seven Laws of Success.

The Great Bwana makes the following statement:

While there are many things that help one be successful, let’s focus on one that he mentioned, knowledge and that comes from true education.

The Book of Ecclesiastes adds “wisdom brings success” (Ecclesiastes 10:10). 

 

So the right knowledge and its use–wisdom–brings success. 

 

True education helps lead to that. 

 

Actually, that is one of the functions of the ministry:

14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,

Who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15)

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

The only problem with quoting these scriptures to back his stance is that the vast majority have no idea what Christ accomplished or the beliefs tied to those accomplishments. Armstrongism never taught it. Ask most COG members to describe the importance of the law, and they can wax poetic. Ask them to talk about Jesus, what he did, and what he accomplished, and the New Covenant, and you will draw a blank stare. The works of Jesus and the New Covenant cannot be discussed without bastardizing them both with law-keeping. 

Following the god of Armstrongism is about submitting to the law and, more importantly, to the ministry through church government. Forget about freedom in Christ, that's Protestant heresy! True faith and education come from submission to the law and your church leader.

The Great Bwana writes:

Proper hierarchical church governance provides true education. Those “independent” of it, are carried about by improper winds of doctrine, including false prophetic understandings

Seriously, dude? Look at what your rebellion and refusal to submit to church government caused when you apostasized from the Living Church of God. Your traitorous, backstabbing actions and lies were appalling. It is no wonder Rod Meredith kicked you to the curb! Heck, even Gaylyn Bonjour came out and said you were wrong in taking his blessing as justification for starting a new splinter group.

The Great Bwana Bob and the improperly named "continuing" Church of God are a shining example of what rebellion and hard-heartedness cause. 

 

Ai COG: Hotel Armstrong: You Can Check Out, but You go to the Lake of Fire

 

The Cult’s Favorite Tactic: Blame the Exiles

In an August 1980 Good News Article, the Ol’ Herb was on a mission to demonize anyone who dared leave his flock. In a piece that reeks of desperation, he claimed ex-members—those “embittered” dissidents—spend their days obsessing over what’s “wrong” with the WCG, conjuring up “monstrous, impossible, filthy lies” about the church and its leaders. Their minds, he said, are consumed with negativity, twisting facts into falsehoods, spreading rumors, and fueling their “vengeful bitterness.” Meanwhile, loyal members focus on the “wonderful truths” of God’s work—see the difference? If you don’t, you’re in danger of becoming one of those satanic exiles. It’s the WCG’s favorite gaslighting trick: don’t question us, or you’ll end up like them—cursed, miserable, and doomed.

We show how Armstrong and his demonic decedents shamed ex-members and current ones alike to silence dissent, all while ignoring the real reasons people left—like the WCG’s corruption, failed prophecies, and predatory leaders. In an unsurprising reveal: those “dissidents” weren’t the problem—the entire religious system of Armstrongism was.

Painting the Villain: Ex-Members as Satanic Liars

The article kicks off with a vicious attack on ex-members, claiming their “principal purpose in life” is to “expose the evils” of the WCG. The founder paints them as bitter haters whose every thought and conversation revolves around what’s “wrong” with the church. They’re not just critical—they’re liars, twisting facts into “filthy” rumors about the WCG and its leaders. He quotes Jude 8-19 to seal their fate, calling them “filthy dreamers” who “defile the flesh,” “speak evil of dignities,” and are destined for “the blackness of darkness forever.” They’re “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame,” driven by “ungodly lusts,” and lacking the Holy Spirit. In short, they’re not just wrong—they’re satanic, and their fruit is chaos, leading splinter groups that fight each other and drag others away from Christ entirely. If you’ve been in any of the WCG’s offshoots for any length of time, you have probably seen similar letters and sentiments expressed in a similar fashion.

This is gaslighting at its ugliest. The WCG didn’t just excommunicate members—they vilified them, turning them into cartoonish villains to scare the flock into loyalty. But ex-members weren’t making up “filthy lies”—they were exposing real ones, like the cult’s failed prophecies (1972 Tribulation, anyone?), the triple tithes that bankrupted families while the Armstrongs lived like kings, and scandals like Garner Turd Armstrong’s college harem at Ambassador College, which we covered in “Suspicious Lies.” The WCG couldn’t handle the truth, so they smeared the whistleblowers, gaslighting members into thinking criticism was satanic. It’s a classic cult move: don’t fix your problems—just blame the ones who call them out.

The Warning Shot: Don’t Join the Damned

The dear leader doesn’t stop at ex-members—he turns the spotlight on you, the reader. He warns that their bitterness could infect your heart, urging you to “think no evil” and set your mind on “things above” (Colossians 3:1-3, Proverbs 23:7). The WCG, he says, is the “Body of Christ,” preparing to be Christ’s spotless Bride at His soon return, so forget the past—your sins are covered if you repent. But ex-members? They’re not blessed like the WCG, which is “back on track,” growing, and knit together with Christ. He tells you to pray for them, that they might repent and return, but also to pray for each other to endure to the end, now “near.”

Here’s the gaslighting twist: if you even think about sympathizing with ex-members, you’re at risk of becoming one of them—bitter, cursed, and lost. The WCG framed itself as the pure, blessed church, while ex-members were miserable failures leading doomed splinter groups. But the reality? The WCG was bleeding members because of its own failures—financial exploitation, authoritarian control like the Visiting Program we exposed in “Gestapo in God’s Name,” and leadership scandals. Ex-members weren’t “unblessed” for leaving; they were free, while the WCG was the one fighting to survive, hemorrhaging followers to those “eight or 10 little splinter groups” that wouldn’t have existed without the cult’s own dysfunction. The founder gaslit members into thinking the problem was the dissidents, not the cult that drove them away.

The Real Lies: The WCG’s House of Cards

The article’s biggest lie is its refusal to admit why ex-members left. Herbie claims they’re just bitter and satanic, but let’s look at the facts. By 1980, the WCG was a mess—GTA had been disfellowshipped in 1978 for his Ambassador College harem, a scandal that confirmed members’ worst suspicions about the leadership’s hypocrisy. The cult’s prophecies kept failing (no Tribulation in 1936, 1951, or 1972, no Petra escape), yet they still preached the end was “near,” keeping members in fear, The triple tithes left families broke while the Armstrongs lived in luxury, pulling in $200 million a year by the 1980s (over $600 million today).

Ex-members weren’t “conjuring up lies”—they were telling the truth, and the leadership couldn’t handle it. The splinter groups the founder mocks? They formed because people saw through the cult’s facade and wanted out, even if they didn’t fully escape Armstrongism’s grip. The real “fruit” of the WCG wasn’t growth or peace—it was broken lives, financial ruin, and a pipeline to atheism for those who, as the article admits, “departed entirely from Christ” after leaving. The WCG gaslit members into thinking ex-members were the problem, but the cult’s own corruption was the root of it all.

Stop Falling for the Shame Game

The WCG’s gaslighting in “How Ex-member Dissidents Fill Their Minds” was a desperate endgame: smear ex-members as satanic liars, shame current members into silence, and pretend the cult is God’s pure church—all while ignoring the scandals, failed prophecies, and control tactics that drove people away. The founder wanted you to believe dissidents were the problem, but they were just the ones brave enough to speak the truth about the WCG’s rot. Stop falling for the shame game. Your doubts, like those of the ex-members, aren’t satanic—they’re a sign you’re waking up. Ditch the cult’s lies, and walk out of the trap for good.

Hotel Armstrong © 2025 by AiCOG is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

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In Defense of Rendered Righteousness: Concerning the Holy Inquiry into Beef Tallow

 

In Defense of Rendered Righteousness: 

Concerning the Holy Inquiry into Beef Tallow

By Elder Rev. Dr. Percival Thaddeus Grone

Brethren, Saints, and Those Who Sauté Without Understanding,

It has come to my attention, with no small measure of grief, that the recent doctrinal clarity offered by the United Church of God concerning beef tallow has been met not with reverence, but with ridicule. A certain blog, frequented by the spiritually unrefined and the casually blasphemous, has seen fit to mock the sacred labor of the Doctrine Committee (DC), reducing a matter of considerable theological weight to the level of fast food and pop health fads.

I write not to rebuke the DC – for their forthcoming work will certainly speak for itself, glistening with unction – but rather to issue a gentle but firm reminder to those who dare to question the legitimacy of this fat-based inquiry, who dismiss as trivial what may yet prove to be a hinge upon which great eschatological truths swing.

Let the mockers take note: it is no light matter to despise the day of purified truth.

Of Tallow and Torah

The Levitical code – often skimmed, rarely digested – makes frequent and solemn mention of the handling, burning, and prohibition of certain fats. (Leviticus 3:16-17, 7:23-25). It does not distinguish, as modern man does, between “culinary” and “ceremonial” uses, nor does it shrink from specificity.

If the Law devotes multiple verses to the fat upon the inwards, is it so far-fetched that a Church born of Scripture would pause to consider whether piping hot tallow may cross the invisible boundary from cooking aid to covenantal compromise?

This is not pedantry. This is Adipotheology – the study of sacred fats and their role in the moral metabolism of the faithful.

The Problem of Unfiltered Commentary

I have read the remarks. “Who has even heard of beef tallow?” one anonymous scoffer asked, perhaps while microwaving seed-oil-drenched remnants of Babylonian Cuisine. “Do we really need doctrinal statements on these things?” cries another, forgetting thatdoctrinal papers are the very medium by which councils preserve the faith once delivered.

Even more troubling is the implication that such inquiries are mere busywork for Church administrators – something to “justify their existence.” I ask you: Did Moses not receive detailed instructions for tabernacle measurements, curtain colors, and priestly undergarments? Shall we now accuse him of time-wasting?

This same nameless critic – whose credentials remain as elusive as their courage – likened this holy inquiry to “studying the sex lives of gnats.” I would caution such individuals to reflect more deeply on the plagues of Egypt, in which the Lord made abundant use of small insects to reveal the hardness of men’s hearts.

Clarification, Not Control

It has also been suggested that such discussions are meant to cow the brethren into submissive dependence. This, too, is a theological offal – malnourished thinking dressed up as discernment. The aim is not control, but clarity. A member who inquires whether their use of tallow aligns with divine expectation is not a slave, but a seeker.

And if a minister lacks the discernment to answer such a question, then yes – a study paper is needed.

One does not dismiss the map simply because the road is narrow.

What the Scoffers Miss

Amidst the scoffing, a pattern emerges: a refusal to believe that small things matter. That fats, genealogies, shadows of the Law – while perhaps minor in caloric content – may carry theological weight. These are not the concerns of fluffy-minded milquetoasts. These are the concerns of covenant-keepers, watchmen on the dietary walls.

The idea that “we eat fat every time we eat meat” is presented as a trump card. But this is like saying “we sin every day,” as though frequency excuses gravity. Even if true, it calls not for mockery but for mindfulness.

A Final Word to the Theologically Lean

To the bloggers and commenters who see tallow as a distraction from greater suffering in the world: it is possible – indeed, necessary – to care about both. The Church is called to live in a state of faithful fatfulness – not gluttonous, not ascetic, but watchful. Whether in the pulpit or the pantry, righteousness requires attention to detail.

The Doctrine Committee, in its deliberations, has dignified the question. The bloggers, in their derision, have revealed something altogether more concerning: a tendency to laugh where trembling would be more appropriate.

May the saints consider carefully what is offered, what is received, and what is scorned.

Elder Rev. Dr. Percival Thaddeus Grone

Percival Thaddeus Grone

Senior Fellow of Sacrificial Nutrition and Theological Lipidology at the First Antioch Institute of Levitical Wellness
Certified Liturgical Edibility Analyst (C.L.E.A.N.)

Still Watching Since 1844