The Truth Shall Make You Free: Chapter 16: 60 Minutes

published by: 

The Truth Foundation

11 Laurel Court

Freehold Township, New Jersey 07728

1981

Chapter 16   60 Minutes

(pg 237)While the church officials were waging their battle of opposition to the civil authorities through their sit-ins and legal maneuverings, the 60 Minutes program was being prepared. Rader was so confident that he had set up Mike Wallace that 60 Minutes was being touted to the Ambassador students as one of the top programs on TV. Finally, on February 7th, with all the background filming completed, Mike Wallace completed the filming with his interview of Rader. After three hours, the interview ended with a violent outburst by Rader, and his threats to sue Mike Wallace and CBS. Wallace and his entire crew were told by Rader to immediately leave his offices.

 Rader, who thought he had been using Mike Wallace, now knew that Wallace had his number all along. Rader immediately announced to the press that Wallace had obtained the interview under false pretense. Said Rader, "The press is the press, they can't be trusted and they're irresponsible." Leaving the reporters he then said, "Now it is time to turn my attention to those around here who ought to be punished."

Word quickly spread that Mike Wallace had been thrown out of Rader's offices, and it was carried as a major news item that evening. Also, by the next day, Earl Timmons had in his possession a tape recording of the entire Wallace/Rader interview. The recording did not come from Wallace, however. It was obtained from one (pg 238) of the Church employees who had copied it from the secret recording that Rader had made of the entire interview.

Stories regarding the contents of the interview began to circulate throughout the Church. Rader announced to the membership that Wallace had used illegally obtained recordings in the interview. Anxiously, many were awaiting the airing of the program.

Finally, on April 15th, 60 Minutes aired its report on the Worldwide Church of God and called it "God and Mammon." After a brief background by Mike Wallace on the Church, and its current troubles, films were shown of Rader proudly boasting of the opulence and cost of the various campus facilities. He was shown emerging from his chauffeur driven limousine. The crown prince was being featured in all of his glory and he appeared to love every minute of it.

In the segment where Garner Ted was interviewed, he told of the lavish expenditures and outright extravagance on the part of Church leadership. He indicated that Rader was the one responsible for his ouster. When asked by Wallace if he felt that the Worldwide Church had done a disservice to Christianity, Garner Ted pensively responded "Yes."

His willingness to answer questions in such a direct manner was in extreme contrast to the segment covering Wallace's interview with Rader. When comparing the giving of gifts to world leaders to a situation where the President of the Untied States would give gifts when he traveled, Rader seemed to indicate that Herbert Armstrong occupied a position of greater importance than most people realized. Wallace then asked if Rader would compare Herbert Armstrong to a head of state. Rader said that he did and added that Armstrong held a position comparable to that of Head of State. And Rader said that he was Armstrong's secretary of state. Wallace then proceeded to the part of the interview that resulted in his being thrown out of Rader's office.

Wallace said to Rader, "Just a little while ago you were the bete noire of Herbert Armstrong. Did you know that?"

     Rader replied, with a questioning look, "I?"

     Wallace: "Yes."

     Rader: "When was this?" Wallace: "Oh, early January".

     Rader: "No."

     Wallace: "Don't you believe it?"

     Rader: "Positive."

(pg 239) Wallace then read a portion of the letter that Herbert Armstrong had sent Rader when Armstrong was trying to move him aside late in December. It was the same letter that Armstrong had read over the phone to Wayne Cole. Rader didn't believe that Wallace could have had access to that letter and continued to bluff his way claiming that rmstrong had never said such a thing to him. Wallace then asked Rader if he would recognize Armstrong's voice. Rader responded that he would and Wallace then began to play the tape recording that had been made of the phone conversation between Armstrong and Cole when the subject of Rader was being discussed. Millions then heard Armstrong make his statement referred to earlier in this book regarding his concern about Rader taking over the Church and referring to the $50 to $70 million magnet that he feared Rader may have his eyes on.

Rader was stunned. He said, "Now I say you've acquired this by illegal means. I intend to have my attorneys today not only sue you, if you use this." Turning to his attorney Allan Browne he continued, "I mean this now and I want you to go to the district attorney today, let him know that Wayne Cole improperly recorded this. I'll defend Mr.Armstrong and the Church on that basis."

As he continued to work himself up into more and more of a rage, Rader said: "Mike, look, I think you better scrap everything because you're on my list, okay? You're never going to live it down, Mike, I guarantee it. You're contemptible. I'd like you to get out of here immediately." Rader then got up from his desk, began storming about the room like a raving maniac and disappeared off camera.

That ended the program. After watching this, Paula and I wondered if people would finally wake up. It may have awakened the general public to the nature of the Church leadership, but it appeared to have little effect on the members of the Church.

Herbert Armstrong claimed in a Church publication that the tape recording of his conversation was a fabricated tape and was actually pieced together word by word from other tapes of his speeches and sermons. By this time, members of the Church were ready to believe anything from the mouth of the apostle, and they swallowed this, one of the biggest lies yet, as well. Any person of even less-than-average intelligence could tell that it was not a fabricated tape. To those who wanted to believe that Armstrong was the apostle, any lie to fortify that belief, no matter how big, was believable.

(pg 240) In spite of Rader's threats to Mike Wallace, neither Wallace nor CBS were ever sued, as Church members were being told that they were putting that problem on the back burner until the time was right to bring suit. Slowly it would be forgotten that a threat had ever been made.

ExCOG Cult Leader and Convicted Felon Yisrayl Hawkins and the White Buffalo

Yisrayl Hawkins, the leader of one of Armstrongism's weirdest splinter cults has been predicting for years that he is the great white buffalo of Lakota tradition that comes at the end of the world. This is used to justify his claim to be one of the two witnesses.


Yisrayl should be giddy with excitement with the headline story from London's Daily News about a white buffalo that was born recently. Rare Sacred White Buffalo


The question will be in how he dances around the fact a REAL white buffalo was born which kind of makes him irrelevant now.


Sacred names cult leader Hawkins makes the following claim:

The Prophetic Word Magazine dated 1-2/2004 p. 17 "Several Native American tribes have prophecies concerning the appearance of the white buffalo in the last days. That prophecy originated with the Lakota people about 2,000 years ago by what they know as the white buffalo calf woman… White buffalo calf woman promised to return again and she made some prophecies concerning that time…Possibly most poignant, the Hopi, like several Meso-American peoples, had a myth about a lost white brother, Pahana, whose return would usher in a period of peace and reconciliation. The Hopis believe that the true white brother would come and find that all have forsaken the sacred instructions and that he would possess the missing piece of the stone tablet… The apparition of the white buffalo is shown to be a white man born somewhere in Oklahoma…The end would come with his generation…"

The shear stupidity that comes out of this man's mouth is mind boggling.  The sad part is that he has a compound of equally disturbed believers that flock to every word he utters. 

According to news reports Hawkins has association with white-racist extreme anti-government groups. According to information provided by Hawkins, he was a follower and believer in Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God and followed his doctrine on law-keeping before starting his own cult group with his brother Jacob.  Both William and Jacob claimed to be the two witnesses of John's Revelation. Jacob has died and it did not happen in Jerusalem or Israel as the prophecy speaks of the two witnesses.  William remains as the leader of the cult.  He changed his name from William to that of Yisrayl in an attempt to give himself some sort of name baptism into his brand of Pharisee Judaism. Claiming to be an expert in both the Paleo-Hebrew and Aramaic/Babylonian languages, Hawkins claims "Yahweh" is the correct pronunciation of the tetragrammaton YHWH or YHVH.  He claims also that the name "Jesus" comes from the Greek god Zeus and the correct name of the Saviour is "Yahshua." With law-keeping as his doctrine of salvation, the two sacred names Yahweh and Yahshua, and his hatred for the name of Jesus, Hawkins claims he alone has the sacred calling to establish the House of Yahweh.  All other Yahweh movements who have stolen from him his doctrine, he claims are false.

Newsweek magazine, in covering doomsday cults reported that among Hawkin's group in Abilene many hundreds have pierced their ears as a sign of being a slave or servant to Yahweh and Hawkins.  This sign of loyalty can now be seen on many cult members."

For the nine years Buffalo Bill Hawkins led a steady if undistinguished career as an Abilene cop, and spiritually he was at a low ebb. Though he still took his family to church on Saturday mornings, Hawkins worked on religious holidays and spent his off-hours raising coonhounds, operating a mobile home park--which his wife was not even aware that he owned--and making homemade wine. When Darlene was due to have their last daughter, Officer Hawkins simply dropped her off at the hospital on the way to the station and told her to call when the baby was born. Often irritable, he frequently beat Darlene in the presence of his kinfolk. One of his daughters remembered how he reacted when she and her sister burned the potatoes one evening: "He threw them against the wall and made us go to our rooms. Then he came in with a wire hangar and whipped our legs till they bled. And then he pulled off his belt and whipped us some more."

After Darlene learned in 1972 that Hawkins had slept with another woman, it occurred to her that she had given her life and her money to a remorseless cad, so she and their children moved back to Oklahoma. Less than a year later Hawkins took  up fornicating with a woman named Kay who lived in his trailer park, and together they had a bastard child out of wedlock.  Kay was to later learn she said that Hawkins had a habit of plucking other women out and giving them favors denied to others, insinuating that he was fornicating with all of them. How many were the wives of other men at the compound or wives or men he had kicked out is unknown. How many were young girls we do not know. Eventually the whole story of Hawkins will be known and his House of Yahweh, like the pagan houses of Yahweh of ancient cultures will be demolished.

Kay Hawkins claims it was when her husband began preaching that a man could have many wives (polygamy), she says she smelled a rat and saw her husband as a fraud. This is interesting since some claim she is the harlot with whom Hawkins was fornicating when he was caught and Darlene left him. Kay's first child is proof of Hawkin's adultery and fornication. Kay also admits she helped doing much of her husband's research giving him ideas on scripture interpretation and writings for him, believing she was married to one of Yahweh's two holy messengers. "This man is not the man I thought I knew," she said. She said she even learned a few things about her former husband, chiefly that his family despises him. His late brother, Jacob, who led a House of Yahweh congregation in Odessa, allegedly wrote his sibling was "deliberately deceiving" followers. And the magazine quotes a brother-in-law calling Hawkins one of the world's biggest liars. "When 2000 comes and it's a bright and sunny day ... he'll change his story like he has before," she said. "In the Bible, the Messiah says, 'No man knows the day or hour, not the Son of Man, but my Father only.' He's put his foot in his mouth this time." The Cult of the House of Yahweh

There is a large selection of stories and information here about the House of Yahweh cult and Yisrayl Hawkins
House of Yahweh

The Apostle on Arab Wars, Dead Popes and Unapologetic Preaching

Apostle Malm has been on a roll lately talking about the love of Jesus and how grace is available freely to all predicting that a coming war between the West and the Arab nations will end in a bitter defeat of Muslims.  A period of peace will be declared with peace around Jerusalem.  The Pope will then die and the Antichrist Pope will emerge and start the destruction of Israel, Great Britain, United States and other "Israelite" nations.

He seems to be giddy with glee at the prospect.  As well he should, be since he thinks he is the ONLY true voice in the wilderness proclaiming such a message.  His words are so powerful and God inspired that 18 million people have been warned by his prophetic web site last year alone! He intends to use his site to preach his message to the world about the coming end time events and how people should be prostituting themselves to the law instead of God.

At some point after this conflict, this Pope is likely to die. While there is really nothing keeping him from being empowered as the final false prophet at the appointed time, his advanced age and frailty seem to mitigate against that happening.

Building interest throughout this coming conflict, followed by the death of a Pope; would be a tremendous opportunity to preach “The Gospel of Warning, Repentance and Deliverance” [the Kingdom] to this world. I am not making a prediction that this Pope will die soon, but it is a reasonable conclusion that frail old men do pass on from this physical life.  I intend to be ready to use these events to preach the True Gospel with all the strength that God provides.

Oops, Apostle Malm realized he was about to make a fool of himself and then qualified his Pope prediction to a natural timely death.  That's really prophetic!

The Apostle  warns that he will soon become more powerful.  He will spare no one, but will preach his message forcefully to the world.

There will be NO COMPROMISING with me!  I will be as up front and straight out as I have been in regards to anything else.  Straight Talk and Crying Out with Strength will be the watch word.  Interest in events, as the economy suffers and war causes distress; will be used to “Tell it Like It Is!”  from the Word of God!  If this Pope should pass on, that shall also be used to provide a solid Warning and Witness!  When the final false prophet [the abomination] is set up, I shall NOT shrink back at all; no not for a moment!

I have no intention of dumbing down or compromising with the Word of Almighty God!  Quite the contrary, I shall become stronger and stronger; and clearer and clearer; as we see the day approaching

Ho hum...........I've been hearing that silliness for over 45 years.

Looking For That Perfect Feast Gift For Your Legalist Friends?

The Feast of Tabernacles is rapidly approaching and parents and family members are scrambling to buy gifts.

Do you have a legalist friend who is constantly preaching to you on how you are backsliding laodicean sinner because you have rejected Herb's teachings?

Are you sick of hearing how prefect they are in keeping ALL the law?  Since we all know that there is not a single Armstrongite out there that keeps the law in it's entirety, you can now drive that point home with this unique gift!

Buy your friends a Feces Paddle!

Deuteronomy requires that true COG members carry a feces paddle when ever they travel.  So whether you are camped in the Piney Woods of Texas, mosquito infected Lake of the Ozarks, the campgrounds on Jekyll Island or in your cave in Petra, you are required to have this tool on hand!

There is virtually NO other source world wide where you can get your very own feces paddle to carry with you. This is one of 365 individual Mosaic laws that you must keep if you are living by Law, not Grace. See Deuteronomy 23:13 on the paddle below which makes the doctrine of the feces paddle clear.

This paddle is also very useful to those Christians who live by Grace alone. You can buy one of these, and give it to your Law keeping friend to show them that they have failed to keep all the law and are in risk of damnation. This may help them get out of the Slough of Despond of Law and onto the glorious road to
Liberty by faith in Christ Jesus.

Here are some people who need a feces paddle:

Seventh Day Adventists
Seventh Day Baptists
Hebrew Roots People
Yawehist Cult
Fundamental Baptists who insist on keeping "Baptist Standards"
World Wide Church of God people
Even Orthodox Jews may want to buy our feces paddle

You can buy your own Feces Paddle here: Law Keepers Feces Paddle    Just think how much fun it would be to mail one of these to Spanky Meredith, Six Pack Flurry or Dennis Leap!

Latest Armstrongite Flare-Up: WCG Wales

You would have thought all the legalists that worshiped all things HWA would have left WCG/GCI by now.  It seems they have not in Wales.

There has been a rebellion recently by a deacon there who is leading a small group of people away from WCG.  It seems a WCG minister came to celebrate Unleavened Bread in a small Welsh church and brought a loaf of regular bread.  Drama ensued and the deacon is seeking to negotiate with Spanky Meredith about bringing his group into Spanky's cult.

There is another extremely small splinter cult in the same area (Church of God in Wales), but the deacon will not join with them because he had a falling out with them previously.  They want to get back as close to HWA's teachings as possible.

From the UK Apologeticss site:

Here in Wales a WCG group which has met in the southwest Wales area for several years (some of them known to your writer) have suddenly become more militant, insisting that pure Armstrongism should be revived in their area. Apparently, civil war broke out when a minister from the UK 'headquarters' attended their west Wales meeting place on the First Day of Unleavened Bread, 2011, taking only fully leavened bread which he openly ate in the presence of all. He also preached, effectively telling them that it was time for them to grow up! I have now received a few reports of what ensued, though, as always in such reports, there are variations. According to one report, the anger almost came to blows being landed, certainly the official WCG 'minister' was accused of 'preaching heresy.'

We are told that the deacon who seems to have led the local rebellion now states that he will lead the west Wales WCG grouping out of the officially "reformed" WCG and will make contact with the 'Living Church of God' (Roderick Meredith's old, diehard Amstrongist group; website here), in order to recover full-blown Armstrongist teachings. Of course, numbers are now absolutely tiny, we speak here of about 20-25 people at the very most. But the official WCG in Wales is already very small so if this breakaway goes ahead this will make their numbers even more meager.

Interestingly, this part of southwest Wales (around Whitland) already has an extremist Armstrongist group, the so-called Church of God in Wales, Now this group is truly tiny, 3-7 people the last time I heard, but the new deacon-led grouping is currently insisting (although this could change) that they will not make contact with that group because of former clashes between the deacon and the former WCG local elder who later set himself up as leader of this COGW ('Church of God in Wales'). I understand that further damage was done when the former WCG local elder did not attend the funeral of a long-standing member in the area.

This is not something new to WCG.  Almost every congregation still contains a few members who are loyal to HWA's teachings.  They remain in WCG/GCI because that is where God placed them. They feel that God will correct the situation in due time.  Many feel that by staying put they will become leaders when the GCI repents of it's errors and they can begin teaching 'the truth'. to the returning and repenting flock.  They are sad, miserable people who make everyone around them equally miserable.

Robin Brace sums up their state of mind quite well:

One could be somewhat amused by all of these rather sad goings-on but the real tragedy is that the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough for these people, they are firmly legalistic, believing that they cannot be "true Christians" without being in subservience to a whole group of Old Covenant laws. These people hold to what is sometimes now called Galatianism, and the Apostle Paul's ringing condemnation of Galatianist legalism should be a warning for us all....

So the WCG legalists (yes, there obviously still are WCG legalists, whatever you might have been led to believe) just seem to be committed to judging their brothers and sisters and causing friction. When will some of these people grow up? When will they actually study the Scriptures for themselves instead of worshipping at the shrine of Armstrongism?
Robin A. Brace. June 25th, 2011.