PCG: God Wants To Make Your Children Sweat!

After hearing Michael Maynard's horror story with his children at Philadelphia Church of God summer camps, and the stories on Exit Support Network, you have to shake your head in disbelief that some so called minister in PCG would make such a statement as follows:

In five weeks, 144 teenagers from around the world will arrive on the campus of Herbert W. Armstrong College for our annual youth camp. Our camp is designed to ensure these young people go home mentally charged and focused, their attitudes and spirits refreshed and renewed.
We also plan to send them home utterly exhausted.

For three weeks, these teens will spend their days mountain biking, canoeing and practicing archery, as well as playing basketball, water polo, soccer, softball, volleyball and flag football. They will walk, and sometimes jog, between activities, as well as to breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the evenings they will engage in other taxing activities, including a track and field event and camp dances. And if all that activity isn’t strenuous enough, much of it will occur in daytime temperatures hovering in the mid 90s.

If you’re like me, simply reading that paragraph is enough to make you sweat. As much as I love sports and the outdoors, the thought of spending six to seven hours a day out in the sizzling Oklahoma weather chasing balls, paddling across lakes and biking through ravines isn’t nearly as appealing as it once was. But to the teens who attend camp, God says this three-week display of physical strength and endurance is glorious and honorable!

 You can read His admiration in Proverbs 20:29: “The glory of young men is their strength.”

Obviously, good physical health is an important and praiseworthy quality that we all should be striving for. But isn’t it interesting that God identifies explicitly physical strength and energy as a defining and glorious quality of youth? In God’s mind, being a physically fit and healthy teenager—a young man (or woman) with strength and agility, someone who is robust and energetic—is a splendid and honorable accomplishment.

Parents, this is a state of being that God wants all children and teens to experience!

This is why, beyond merely seeking to make camp fun, we have our teens engage in so much physically demanding activity. Together with the high-quality meals and energy-replenishing snacks we feed them, the slew of sports and outdoor activities serve to improve the overall physical health and strength of the teens. It works, too. In virtually every case, teens depart camp stronger, fitter and healthier than when they arrived. Beyond the short-term goal of improving their health, though, our goal during the three-week camp is to encourage our teens to embrace healthy and active living as a way of life. (These words of 'wisdom' are by Brad McDonald)

 How could any sane minded parent allow their child to be abused by these fools?  But never fear, PCG will inculcate the 'word of god ' into their little minds so that they can become PCG zombies that turn their backs on parents, brothers and sisters and relatives that have left PCG.  Endless hours of PCG indoctrination of their weird beliefs.  Girls learning how to be proper wives who submit and clean house better than all those lazy laodicean women out there.

Of course, our effort to cultivate strong, healthy teens must be balanced, and must be complemented with similarly strenuous mental and spiritual exercises. This is why, in addition to all the physically demanding activities at our youth camps, teens take Bible classes, and classes on leadership and womanhood. It’s why we teach them public speaking and ballroom dance. It’s the reason we have them perform on stage and encourage them to play music and embrace art. And it’s why, particularly in this technology-ridden age of perpetual distractions, we encourage our teens to develop a love for reading, study and meditation.

This cult just get's sicker by the minute!

We'll Take Care of You, and Pray for You Too!

A Very Personal and Private Open Letter to the Grace International Fellowship, Formerly Known as Prince, Leadership .

 

Greetings in the Name of the Triune Jesus who includes most, but obviously not all, in the wonderous works done in His name.

 

Nearing the traditional retirement age in America and realizing you took me seriously when I joked the Worldwide Church of God retirement program seems to be for the minister to drive into a tree at 65 years old and 65 miles an hour, I wished to make a simple plea.

 

Crazy me, years ago when I asked in a Refresher Seminar if the WCG was meeting its obligations to full time pastors to prepare for their retirement, Mr. Ron Kelly assured us all, "we will take care of you."  Whew...that really was encouraging.  We had to be patient and trust the Administration, but no problem.  They all knew that the NT said, something about saying, "be warmed and be filled but give not to them what is needed..." , so I relaxed over doubts about what I was hearing  and obviously it was simply my carnal nature getting the best of me. 

 

When terminated, Mr. Curtis May of the Reconciliation Dept said he's pray for me and wished me luck, which sounded a lot like that scripture, but I realize it was just in the way I was hearing it.  No one would really do that and not have it seem hilarious coming from the "Reconciliation Dept."   That would be crazy!

 

Now I understand it doesn't matter and Church was never about the money, but I estimated that I (sorry about that) inspired the giving of millions...over 40 million in my own personal journey through "we will take care of you."   My parents and 30+ other family members, mostly ending up as ministers, elders, deacons and deaconesses all over the place gave hundred of thousands I am pretty sure.  They have all gone back to their roots or moved on to happy slappy mega-churches.  I, on the other hand, now rub people the right way by teaching and practicing therapeutic massage.  I get so tempted to declare myself a Prophet, Apostle, Witness or Really Special Jesus Person, but it's just not in me.  Three Hundred Thousand folks have downloaded my articles on things I seemed to have missed in Harmony of the Gospels Class and Epistles of Paul.  Well actually, things I seemed to have missed from Genesis to Revelation in my education by the experts at WCG.  One guy wrote me to tell me words can get you killed and another said I was just bitter, but honest, I just ever wanted to know the truth about life and still am working on that one.  One did say I was just another "High Priest of Marduk," and I thanked him as I have not had a religious title for years now and it feels really good.

 

Mr. Bernie Schnippert, who was legal counsel for the WCG, told me he was really sorry but he could do nothing for those who didn't get happy slappy over Jesus and were still in the employ of the church through all the transitions. It's nice how he retired, moved to the Pacific Northwest and all I hear about how nice it is to be near his family and grand kids.  I got marooned in South Carolina and everyone is a bit scattered due to Church, Church, Church but that's fine. I never thought I'd get to live in the deep south and in the Bible Belt to boot which serves as a constant reminder of the fear, guilt and shame Jesus uses to keep us all in line.  Trust me, "Pray, Obey, Pay and Stay" is just as bad here as anywhere...Gnome sayin??  I asked a few guys who stayed and still are with WCG now CGI, or even UCG, PCG or RCG, if they believed it all and they said "No, but I want to get to retirement."  Sheesh...I should have pulled that stunt!  Oh well, proof that the children of light are more stupid than the children of Satan at times.

 

Anyway, at the time, I did what you told me to do with my severance agreement.  I took it to a lawyer friend but it was kinda bad news for me it seemed.  She asked me if this document really came from a church?  I said yes and she said, and I do apologize ahead of time for this but her quote was kinda cool..."You're fucked."   Whew...after fanning myself and telling her to please please not used bad words like that, she said, "Ok, well this is not to your advantage."   "That's a lot better I told her."  Well I mean the way she broke the news to me was better, not the actual news contained therein.

 

First of all, and let me be clear, I know this letter is just between you and me so I do understand a few things about the attitudes the dear brethren have towards use despicable minister types.  I know they think we deserve to go down in flames and love to mock us as God's chosen ministers.  We know the Bible tells us to expect this.  We know they think we were all insincere bastards just in it for the money, power and control but we know this is not so.  I became somewhat of a bastard sinner nutcase AFTER my Church of God experience, but don't think that should be held against me.  Transitions are messy and like Cher said once, "Life is not easy. Mine has been messy at times, but it is just me doing the best I can."  Somehow that comforts me. 

 

Anyway...I think you have stashed millions somewhere from the sale of assets my family and hundreds of thousands of others bought for you guys.  I can't imagine that you are using it all up with only five of you actually drawing a real retirement from it.  Can I have some please?  Maybe around $5-600 a month just for rent and groceries.  I'm not asking for medical insurance. While I don't have any and can't get any, I feel pretty good and if I blow a gallbladder or get some dumbass later in life disease, I will just agree to let go and enter the Kingdom. I mean after all, we're all just dying to get to heaven anyway so no biggie.  I can bite on a wooden stick for pain and if reasonably close to the surface, can drink whiskey, like in the old days and just cut it out or off.  Teeth come out pretty well with a well placed blow so again, it's not like there aren't solutions to health challenges.  People with insurance for such things really just lack faith in God's healing and Jesus Grace so really, it puts me in a much more spiritually superior position.  It feels good to act like I know it all.  Know what I'm sayin????

 

Ok, well lots of thoughts to share.  I promise this will be kept between us.  I anxiously away your proposal to help me get through.  Oh shit.. (oopse sorry, I'd be afraid to give sermons these days for all the new words I've learned since WCG days) ,I forgot you had me sign away Social Security because, well you know, "we will take care of you and we don't have to save it for you on ministerial salaries."  Pretty slick!!!  So if you could include another $50/month, that would help.  

 

Thanks so much!!! I know you will do the right thing for those who built your buildings, bought your groceries, houses, cars, vacations and funded your Holy Day sacrifices traveling all over the world for Jesus.  The Cruise for Jesus in the Fall was a great idea!  Trash the Festival but then take cruises talking about how evil it all was is brilliant!!!   How do you guys come up with this stuff?

 

Ok, shhhhhh.  This is just between us.  Bernie did say that if I talked badly about the Church and such, there would truly be no retirement at all.  We'd not want that and I'm sure that's not what YOU meant. I hate it when others speak for me and don't represent me accurately.  Actually I hate it when they do represent me accurately but that's another story I suppose.

 

Blessings and love to you all.  Let's Surprise God like Ted Johnston likes to do and handle this quickly and as Jesus would.  Since that crazy Jesus tricked me into coming into that nutty Wildworld Church of God, the least He can do is give us a glass of cool water getting over it all.

 

Thank you so much.  I can't wait to share your response with just a few close friends.

 

Warm regards in Him

 

Dennis Diehl

High Priest of Marduk

DenniscDiehl@aol.com   

Apostle Malm: "I'm Pouring Myself Out To Establish Credibility"

Armstrongism has a long tradition of men attempting to establish themselves with credible testimony and prophetic words.  So far every single one of them have turned out to be abysmal failures, liars and false prophets.  They came bearing slick words that sounded soothing and credible to some listeners trained in the catch phrases of Armstrongism.

Now, we are being retreated to James Malm who admits that he has been trying to 'establish doctrinal credibility." over the last several months.

I would have covered this before Passover. I just felt that I needed to establish some doctrinal credibility and build up to this with the Passover, Calendar, ULB, etc ariticles that I have been posting for the past two months, building a proper foundation first. I have been working very hard, pouring myself out daily; sometimes some things need a proper foundation before they are presented, to make them easier to understand. James

When you hear COG men saying this you can be guaranteed that soon they will be starting a splinter cult somewhere in the United States.  The US seems to be fertile ground for religious wackos seeking equally wacky followers who agree with their wacky message.

Apostle Malm has slowly been writing paper after paper, article after article, that are filled with COG specific doctrines.  He has been setting himself up as an authority on all things spiritual.  None of the COG's is keeping any of the holy days or sabbath right in his sight.  Therefore, they are all apostate laodicians who no longer hold all truth.  Only Apostle Malm is privy to the real truth on how things should be.

Like HWA. Meredith and other COG ministers, Apostle Malm does not hold information in commentaries or by non-COG writers to be worthy of checking out.  Knowledge cannot be gained by these men or their commentaries.

I do not hold with commentaries writtn by unconverted men as the Mishna. There is no difference between “servile’ and work of any kind. No work is to be done on any High Day or Sabbath: that would include cooking. Food preparation was allowed as Israel came out of Egypt as an “ox in the ditch”. That does not justify food preparation on other Holy Days nor on future ULB High Days. James

Like Ronnie Weinland, Apostle Malm does not like to be mocked.  So far he has not called fire down from heaven to consume his mockers like Weinland and Steven's have.  It's only a matter of time though.

It really seems that you are the sarcastic one; and that is one thing that causes serious and unnecessary offenses. I warn that I have no patience for unwarranted mocking. The 144,000 are sealed AFTER the tribulation [between the 6th and 7th seals]. What about all the other saints from Abel till now? I will be getting to this when I get back into prophecy. The world does NOT revolve around us; God has many others! 1 Ti 5;19 “Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. 20Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.” One must put all scripture together to see the whole picture. All elders that have a proven sin are to be publicly rebuked before all. James

I love how Armstrongism has produced a legion of men who think they are 'holier than thou.'  They have attained all knowledge that is relevant for salvation.  They know exactly what God wants.  They know who is in and who is out (you and most of the rest of the world). The best thing of all is that they continue to be made out to be fools.

Apostle Malm Lays Down the Law!

Apostle Malm is laying his theology for his cult out plain and simple for all to see.  The more laws you keep the better God will like you, any maybe even Jesus too.  And, if you are really, really good at keeping ALL the law then maybe God might send a little portion of hte Holy Spirit to you.  Be careful though, you can loose the HS at your slightest sin.

Apostle Malm is commanding that the DUB and FT are to be kept in their entirety without any work for any sort.  You can fix simple meals and do 'necessary' things, but no work!  Apostle Malm is like so many in the various harlot daughters that are trying to revert back to the original teachings of HWA.  HWA originally held seven day UB's where people traveled to Belknap Springs, OR for UB for seven days.  Then in the fall they traveled for eight days for the FOT.

Apostle Malm seems to think his words carry some kind of weight in COGdom.  He, and he alone, is the only person really preaching the truth now.  UCG, COGWA, LCG, PCG, etc are all wishy-washy compromising sinners who fail to keep every single law his 'god' demands.

Yesterday I introduced the fact the the Feast of Unleavends is commanded  to be observed for a full seven days. 

The Feast of Unleavends is the seven days during which Israel journeyed out of Egypt.  For five full days they traveled and on the night beginning the sixth day the wind blew all through the night dividing the Red Sea and providing a means of escape.  On the sixth day Israel entered the sea and passed over dry shod.  As the sixth day ended Israel looked back for their persuers and the persuers were nowhere to be seen; having been swallowed up by the sea.  Then began the seventh day; a High Holy Day of great rejoicing over the victory given by God.


Notice; On the first day [a High Holy Day] they left their homes in Egypt and they were fleeing for the whole six days to rejoice on the seventh.  They did NOT just observe the First and Last Days!  On EVERY day they were fleeing and that has its lessons for us; this Feast is not just about two days; it is about the whole seven days.

 So all of you pagan COG churches out there that only keep the first and last days of UB and then send everyone home to do their normal work are heretics and grievous sinners!  You are sending your members home so they can enjoy the every day things in life that they do all the time instead of sitting in a sweltering Odd Fellow's Hall listening to some uneducated preacher drone on and on for three miserable hours about nothing.

When we return to doing our own thing during the intervening days: Where are our minds focused?  Where are our hearts and spirits truly focused?  Certainly not exclusively on God!  God wants our attention so that he can spend time with us and teach and rejoice with him; and we can be with  each other; encouraging and learning from one another! How Wonderful!

 The only 'work' you are permitted to do according to Apostle Malm, is seven days of intensive Bible study.

The whole seven days are a time to be spent with God in intense study; drinking in the very mind of Christ through study, fellowship and mutual spiritual instruction and support.  Yes this pictures the need to put sin OUT and take Christ IN throughout our lives;  if we do not do this through the Feast; that picture pales and is greatly diminished.  We do this through the WHOLE seven days as a proper picture of the need to do so without slacking, throughout our lives.

 Only work essential for the Festival such as food preparation and basic needs should be done during the Non Sabbath days of the Spring and Fall Festivals.

 More disrupted school days for your kids.  More jobs lost because you will need a SECOND vacation for religious reasons.  On and on the legalistic list of unnecessary rules and regulations goes and the ramifications it has on those people who decide to follow this silliness.  More 'martyrs' for the 'word' of another fake 'apostle.'

Dad...Why Does the Preacher Talk So Stupid?

Dad...Why Does the Preacher Talk So Stupid?  

When it comes to fundamentalist preachers, there is nothing quite like the way they choose to express themselves from the pulpit. What they say, in and of itself, can be quite amazing. Such as the recent flap with Mrs. Benny Hinn, tryng her darndest to give a ranting good sermon for the masses and making a complete fool out of herself. In the typical breathless rant of evangelical showmanship, she told the audience what they needed was "a Holy Ghost enema, right up your rear end."

Honest, that was what she said and she repeated it. She then went on to tell the audience not to be "butt kissers." Having realized that she probably had crossed a few too many lines, she tried to recover by saying that people like her just have that kind of humor but was too late and the tape spread around the world, and not in a good way. She then went into a pacing frenzy back and forth until she broke her shoe and told the audience they didn't need shoes anyway, they needed to put on combat boots for Jesus. I guess this got her out of the shoe breakage embarassment. The end came merciful when she fell flat on her face, on stage, and everyone started clapping as if this was of God and the perfect ending to a perfect sermon. It was pathetic and the scary part is that not one person in the audience got up and said "I'm out of here." They loved it.

The fact is that nothing she said in the "sermon" was helpful. Nothing she said was correct and practically nothing she said was anythng but an attempt to appear inspiring and ending up being absolutely foolish. Poor Mr. Hinn was so angry that the video was playing around the world, he threatened those who showed it, from what I understand. I don't blame him. What a time at the 'ol breakfast table next day that must have been!

What is it about fundamentalist preachers that some seemingly have to loose their minds and common sense in an avalanche of "techniques" that leave most educated people laughing themselves sick? Do they not realize they are being laughed at?

When a preacher tells the audience that the reason Bathsheba was called Bathsheba was due to the fact that as King David oggled her from the roof top, she was taking a BATH, something is seriously wrong. 

I'm not kidding, I heard it with my own ears and wrote the man suggesting that had she been taking a shower, we would have known her as SHOWER-Sheba. The man was simply ignorant and I almost drove off the road laughing. On the other hand, it was pathetic and I often wonder if any in his congregation called him out on that little piece of ignorance. Sometimes I wonder at the audience more than the preacher.

Of course, Bat-Sheba means "daughter of Sheba just as "Bar Kochba means "Son of Kochba" and when I pointed that out, he just got miffed.  

What can be said from the pulpit can be amazingly silly or incredibly harmful. Pat Robertson tells us that hurricanes are from God punishing New Orleans or that Ariel Sharon's stroke is from God for giving up part of the West Bank to people who also need a real place to live. His comments are wrong, ignorant, foolish and dangerous.
  
But then most of his comments speaking for God are. He suddenly saw the light (most will do that when you challenge a particular piece of ignorance and never do when never challenged) when the State of Israel cancelled his affiliation with them and one of his pet projects in Israel, but it was too late. Good for them to put a price on speaking foolishness from the pulpit. I guess the State of Israel was able to uninspire Pat's inspired comments. God, I suppose, was forced to recind His inspiration and give into the current dilemma.

Time would fail to account for all the ignorance that comes from the pulpits of men and women not trained, not educated, not informed and not accountable for their presentations. Sanctified ignorance is still ignorance as far as we can tell.

There were dinosaurs on the ark...wrong
Earth is just 6000 years old...wrong
Our church is the only true church on earth...wrong
Evolution is a doctrine of Satan...wrong
Dancin is a doctrine of Satan...wrong
Whatever you ask in Jesus name, you will have...wrong
"I am God's true representative on earth and I am compelled to say these things..." wrong
If you tithe, God will bless you and pour out the windows of heaven to you...wrong
God is doing this...wrong
God is doing that...wrong
Jesus thinks this of that...wrong
Jesus thinks that of this...wrong
"I know I am going very long on this sermon..but you need to hear this..." wrong
"You need to put the Church and bible study and being here first in your life..." wrong

...and on and on and on such that it would behove most preachers of this way of being to join On and On Anonymous!

Perhaps most irritating and pathetic of all is the WAY that many Evangelical, TV and Fundamentalist preachers present themselves. What's with the cadance from hell in the presentation? What's with the "eh" "eh" "eh" at the end of every sentence. I realize physiologically it helps them breath or they would pass out, and while it may be "tradition" it is past useful for educated parishioners. Maybe that's the problem too.

What's with the yelling? Always yelling and always giving the appearance that they are angry. Preachers are angry a lot as they think they can't be a Preacher without their righteous indignation showing for every last thing on the planet they decide is evil and needs the iron rod of Jesus to smack down.

I listened to a preacher this morning coming in to work just to see if he would pass out and go absolutely speechless trying to yell, speak and breathe at the same time. I don't think he missed one human foible in his presentation that he was not bashing his congregation over the head with. Sometimes I sense "me thinks thou protesteth too much." I have learned that far more often than one thinks, just monitor what topics the preacher rails upon repeatedly and you might have a good hint at what troubles his own ignorant soul. Every minister in my personal experience who was known to rail against this or that "sex problem" was wrestling with it himself. Projection is something that most congregants of fundamentalist preachers don't understand.

No one can slaughter the English language like a preacher gone berserk behind the pulpit. Imagine a meeting at IBM or the Oval Office (well there I can ;), conducted in that tone and style and you will find someone being escorted off the premisis looking for a new job.

Sermons are full of nonsensical phrases and pronounciations. If you were to write down what was said and read it back, it would sound ridiculous. From "Jaaa..eeeeeezus says," to "days (there is) a time a commin..." an intelligent and meaningful presentation is lost in a flurry of emotion and slobber. HOW you say something for many preachers far outweighs whether what one says is even true. Remember, in fact, science by nature of being science has to be accurate and admit mistakes. At this moment, we have some very embarassed and angry South Korean scientists who have found out and admitted that their recent cloaning projects were bogus. Sorry about that, but good for them.

Preachers not only rarely admit to mistakes, but seem to have a need to perpetuate the error. Since God is never wrong, they never are not wrong either, since they think they both speak and are inspired by this outside force called "God." Simply ask yourself how many times you have ever heard a preacher or church say it was wrong when it said this or that and you will understand what I mean. Because of this, many fundamentalist sermons are delivered in angry, emotional, threatening and self righteous tones. I can only imagine what some of the kids are thinking as they watch the show. Often they will tell you years later how nuts the church the grew up in was.
Every scientific fact that the church has ever made fun of as being contradicted by the Bible, they have eventually had to admit to being correct. Of course, many do not, and never will, Praise Jesus for my ignorance because "the wisdom of man is foolishness with God," and "my ways are not YOUR ways..saith the Lord." Preachers hid a lot of ignorance behind those two quotes.

It just took the Pope 350 years to apologize for almost burning Galileo at the stake for thinking earth was not the center of the solar system and the sun circled it. He didn't apologize for actually doing it to nameless others. Science has yet to acknowledge one Biblical allegory as being literally true in their actual findings. Eventually, the "facts" the church promotes in areas where they don't know what they are talking about, falls to the real facts.
More so now in these days of easy access to the internet for information not formerly available to the average person.


And so sometimes we have to ask ourselves, "what is our chillins learning in Church from such preachers?"

For starters, they are learning:

Yelling trumps teaching.

Good grammar doesn't count in church.

God is a consuming fire if you question the preacher.

Emotions trump good information.

One can be ill-programmed for life and not realize it.

Brains and YOUR intelligence and common sense indeed can be checked at the door when you go to your church.

Preachers are never wrong.

YOU are seldom right.

"Jaaaaaaheeeezus" loves the sinner but hates the sin, but it sure sounds like he hates the sinner too.
Mom or Dad never seem to think what I think the preacher says and does is stupid..something must be wrong with me.

God and Jesus must be raving lunatics if this man or woman is his personal representative on earth to me.
Narcissism must be a spiritual gift.

Take some time and just listen to the words of those that fit these ways of speaking for God. Watch the antics they feel they have to use to convince. If your head says "it must be so" while your tummy says "no no no", go with the tummy. It will tell you the truth of what you are feeling more accurately and you won't feel like something is wrong with you for observing that, while sincere, this man is really not qualified to teach me who and what God is and what he is or isn't doing on good 'ol planet earth. You'll also be able to more genuinely answer the question your kids are asking themselves, whether you know it or not. "Dad, why is the preacher yelling, and why does he talk so funny?"

  Dennis C. Diehl

DenniscDiehl@aol.com

The Two Witless Witnesses: Men In Black?

Chiropractor/naturopath/end time prophet/self proclaimed authority on 2012 and  the COG, Bob Thiel claims that the two witnesses are sitting in the Living Church of God right now.  Who they are he has no idea, but the only logical explanation is that only LCG could produce those two righteous people.  Anyone outside LCG is an ignorant fool and is to be ignored.

Of course, I do believe that God will raise up the two witnesses, and I believe that they are alive now.  However, I believe that they are very likely to be part of the Living Church of God, so when I get emails from people outside of the COG who make such claims (and who never have any real proof, just assertions) I feel that they can safely be eliminated from consideration.

 .
He claims to have gotten a letter recently from a man and his daughter claiming to be the two witness, as well as from another person

He then launches into the two witless witnesses Ronnie Weinland and his wife. At least Bob has the brains to see the witless witnesses as the complete morons they are.


But, then goes on to say that whenever the witnesses arrive on the scene they will be wearing some kind of dark clothing:

3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering (Isaiah 50:3).
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood (Revelation 6:12).

The implication in the above scriptures is that biblical sackcloth is black–thus it seems that the two witnesses wear some cloth that is black, hence my use of the Men in Black photo at the beginning of this article.

 While it is remotely possible that the two witnesses will not wear actual physical sackcloth, Revelation 11:13 is not speaking of just humility, but specifically that the clothing of the two witnesses will not be fancy–probably in contrast to the beast, who is likely to be flashy/wealthy in appearance.And in particular, I also suspect that the two witnesses actually will sometimes wear some literal sackcloth, at least at times. And that they will wear at least some black while they are publicly warning the world.

Bobby Fischer Against The World (and WCG)

New HBO documentary on Bobby Fisher includes Worldwide Church of God failed prophecies as part of Fischer's declining mental state.

Bobby Fischer Against The World 

WCG Ministers Taught Members to "Rat On One Another"

Oh the wonderful legacy of Armstrongism!  

The former WCG members are a couple of minutes into the video:

The REAL Cause of GTA's Death Revealed At Last!

I guess all of us dumb fools out here in COGland bought into the story that GTA died from a staph infection as a result of a hospitalization.

Did you know there is another more sinister reason he died?  This COG member on one of the right wing COG Yahoo boards thinks so!  Teddy was killed because of the message he preached!

I have said before that I continue to be amazed at the stupidity that comes out of Armstrongites. Tonight just drives that point home!  What an idiot!

  I agree totally!! My wife has always felt that GTA was actually murdered at that hospital that he was in!! If you recall he was very condemning of the homo lifestyle and could have been murdered by one of them including a possible homo doctor!!

Aaron Dean on GTA and HWA's Relationship

RE: [elijahforum] GTA on YouTube

While I would agree a lot of people heard GTA as 1st contact, it was the writings of HWA that convincted them.

I cannot agree that "others had a vested interest in keeping them apart".  From 1980 to 86, I answered the phone when Ted called, and I would ALWAYS tell HWA that Ted was calling, and he always called the home, not the office.  Always his statement was (and GTA heard it as I held the phone up and would ask if he heard his father.) "He knows what he has to do". All GTA had to do was write a simple letter to his father so he would know it would not be a shouting match if he did talk to him, and GTA would not do that.  It served GTA's purpose better to say he was being kept away by others. After every call was an interview within a day or two where GTA would say "I was cut off from speaking to my father", or "I tried yesterday to call and my father won't speak to me."  It was frustrating for me cause I would ask why don't you write the letter.

Stan Rader would have had an interest in keeping them apart, but that doesn't explain 1980 to his death in 1986 when Stan was gone. (Actually SRR had an interest in keeping HWA away from Pasadena in the 70's, not just away from GTA. But GTA had an interest in keeping HWA away from Pasadena as well - because the college was falling apart.) GTA used the estrangement for PR with the press, and with his church. (When meeting with CGI - they told me they were in the room when GTA made the calls, and only would say "See, cut off again". They were never told what HWA or I said, or that GTA had actually heard his father's voice.

I talked to GTA at HWA's funeral, and he admitted that I had never cut him off. I had always liked GTA since I knew him from the time I was 4 years old. I even flew with him when his father had the heart attack and GTA used the G-II.  I bear no ill toward him, but that part of the statement below is inaccurate.

Aaron

He was never convicted of a crime.
However, there were those inside and outside the church who were criminals and had a vested interest in making sure that Garner Ted and his father were kept apart permanently and that Garner Ted's reputation was destroyed in order to take down the Church of God.

GTA: The Mincemeat King?

On my favorite wacky Yahoo board filled with over zealous law spitting legalists, a person posted a comment that people should watch the John Ankerberg interviews with GTA.

There are thirteen of these videos

Another person quickly piped in, "Why would anyone watch this pervert?"

This comment did not sit well with a COG woman who thinks she also is a professional Jew.  She had this to say:

He was never convicted of a crime.
However, there were those inside and outside the church who were criminals and had a vested interest in making sure that Garner Ted and his father were kept apart permanently and that Garner Ted's reputation was destroyed in order to take down the Church of God.

The online tapes of Garner Ted  and  John Ankersberg are fun. Garner Ted makes mincemeat out of the other men he debates.
Whatever he might be, he knew his bible inside out, backwards and forwards, he knew how to prove what he said too.
A great number came into the church of God through the work on Garner Ted Armstrong on television and radio.

It's funny to read her comment that GTA made mincemeat of Ankerberg.  Almost all in the Christian community say that Ankerberg makes mincemeat of GTA.

The same foolishness is also claimed about GTA making mincemeat of those who believe in evolution.  Evolution was GTA's big moneymaker for a while.  Quick, witty, editorializing without any substantial proof, spit out to try and discredit scientists.  GTA sounded impressive to the ordinary COG member who almost assuredly did not have higher education.  Plus, by the fact that GTA had attended and graduated from God's College, he therefore knew what he was talking about.  GTA never had a real education in a real college.  He had a team of researchers who would hunt and hunt until they found someone who agreed with the stance that GTA had or the church had.  They they would reword it and make it GTA's own.

Then what about glossing over GTA's rampant adultery and sexual harassment court cases.  How many women did this guy need to have sex with, assault or rape before he was guilty? Two hundred?  75?  Or just one?

Did You Bow Down Before the New Moon Tonight?

I still amazes me how those steeped in all the myriad of laws that Armstrongism has yoked it's members with, that some of those same members seek out and find myriads of other 'laws' that they 'require' of 'true' followers.

Apostle Malm has been commanding that true Christians (COGers only) are COMMANDED to observe monthly new moons with bible study and celebration meals, prepared of course BEFORE sundown.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: After sunset ending June third, the first  light of the New Moon will be visible at Jerusalem.  This begins the first day of the Third Biblical month by the Biblical Calendar. Four June in the New Moon Day, which we observe with a family Bible Study and special meal [prepared BEFORE Sabbath] to sanctify the new month as  prophesied for the Kingdom and observed in ancient Israel.  

The New Moon is NOT a High Holy Day; it is a consecration of the new month and is commanded to be observed by God. The New Moon falls into the category of the Passover and Wave Offering as being commanded to be observed, yet short of a Sabbath or Holy Day.

 In the Kingdom it will be a required observance for all flesh, Is 66:23, Ez 46:3. Today we should have a special Bible Study [a personal or family study if your group is not yet ready to obey God in this matter] in lieu of the commanded sacrifices; it would also be appropriate to have a festive meal as done by ancient Israel: example King Saul.

 How do you know exactly when the new moon is occurring?  You will be told by a Karaite Jew in Jerusalm who blows on his shofar.  Once he blows the horn you are commanded to worship  the moon.


The New Moon has been confirmed by actual observance at sunset this evening in Jerusalem.  Welcome the Sabbath and the New Moon with the Shofar.

Is it just me are all Armstrongites getting crazier by the minute?

One of the Bible's Most Accurate Statements

"Prophecies Shall Fail"

One of the Bible's Most Accurate Statements

One of the hallmark traits of most Fundamentalist Christians is their obsession with Bible Prophecy. Prophecy has a rather mystical draw to it and implies that the future is not so unknowable after all. Most humans spend their waking time either in the past feeling angry or in speculation of the future feeling anxious. It goes with not having the ability to live the real day one is currently experience. Many Christians have raised knowing the future to an art form and have learned that it is also quit profitable for the church in keeping members in line with fear, anxiety and a perverse kind of hope.

Bible prophecy and making it the center of one's life, reading the newspaper as one would the Bible, is a slippery slope and a very negative way to live one's life.  How many times do we have to learn this!


With enough study, one can learn that there are other explanations for that which many hold so near and dear as predictions of things that will happen "shortly" in the future. No one seems to think that "shortly" for whoever really wrote Revelation has now been over Two Thousand Years! I hate to think what "I'll be back later" would mean!

We have learned to develop the bad habit of reading Paul's predications of "time is short" with the same generous deference to the fact that short for Paul never really quite worked out for him either. We all know the cycle Paul went through of telling the Church to be ready, act as if you had no family and support the Church, to his final realization that "oh well, I fought a good fight, it was fun while it lasted, I was wrong... I still win... see ya."


On the other hand, we have areas of scripture that have always been used as prophecy which, to me, are simply not and never were intended to be by the original authors. 


For example...

Isaiah 7 is an example of such misuse of a use of OT scripture by NT authors. One of many.  This virgin birth prophecy ranks as one of the most questionable uses of scripture Matthew used to tell his story of Jesus birth. Matthew had a habit of mining the OT for anything that seemed like it fit the story he wanted to tell about Jesus.

When one examines the OT context, we have to conclude that, that at least in it's original meaning, it was never meant to have the meaning Matthew assigned it. In fact, in its original context, it has absolutely nothing to do with prophecy but is merely a historical account of events going on at the time. It was never viewed as a prophecy of the birth circumstances of either the Jewish Messiah or Jesus until Matthew mined it for it's story telling value to his perspective. Matthew took the parts that fit his story but left out parts of that same story in Isaiah that obviously made no sense to his perspective on Jesus. If you simply look at Matthew's accounts of Jesus birth story, it is easy to see he cobbled it together in the style of the day from OT scriptures and not real events that he knew of. It is not my point to explain all this here, and I have touched on it in past columns.  "Immanuel" does not mean "God with us" as in Jesus is God with us.  Rather it means, "God IS with us," and the us is Israel back in the OT that was fearing Assyrian annihilation. Isaiah meant that before this child grows up to learn right from wrong, the Assyrian problem will not be a problem.  Jesus was never literally named "Immanuel."  

Another aspect of "prophecy" we miss is that much of what the COGs use to promote their urgency upon the membership is probably prophecy written after the fact, which makes it really non-prophecy.

Either the book of Daniel was written during the time of the events recorded, 585 BC, or as many scholars now feel, it was written much later in the 160's BC to encourage the Maccabeans in their revolt against Rome. It was written AFTER all the events prophesied took place, which is why Daniel 11 is so specific. Daniel 12 then becomes rather generic because after the rise of Rome, the authors didn't really know the rest of the story much after the specifics of the 160's ended.

The point is that we all know that OUR lives were lived, and many still live their lives out, linking Daniel to Matthew 24, which also was written to address issues now long past from our times.

Again it is not my purpose to prove that to you, but I have accepted that much of what we call history prophesied is really "prophecy" historicized, or the conforming of later writings to fit events as they had already occurred. If the detail of Daniel 11 is the kind of thing that is able to be locked in stone for future fulfillment, then we as humans have no choice in the part we have to play in the game as it is already decided for us evidently down to the details. It's a philosophical problem to me about choices and free will.

Other problem with prophecy is that they simply didn't come true. We all were groomed with the fantastic story of the fall of Tyre and how it would be scraped bare never to be inhabited etc. The problem is it wasn't and the city of Tyre existed in NT times and does to this day. The Tyranians rebuffed Nebuchadnezzar and only succumbed to Alexander the Great, yet still exists. It's a cop out to point out ancient ruins in the water as proof of prophecy fulfilled when the city called Tyre is just over your shoulder. These facts are easily found in a simple search on the topic.

Ezekiel's Failed Prophecies on Tyre and Egypt

Ezekiel made a prophecy that, at the time he wrote, seems most likely to be fulfilled. The prophet was writing, in 587BC, at the time when Nebuchadnezzar was laying siege on Tyre. With such a powerful army like Nebuchadnezzar's, it was not surprising that Ezekiel prophesied the fall of Tyre to the Babylonian king.

Ezekiel 26:7-14: For thus says the Lord: "Behold I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a hosts of many soldiers. He will slay with the sword your daughters on the mainland; he will set up a siege wall against you. He will direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers...With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people with the sword and your mighty pillar will fall to the ground...they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses... I will make you a bare rock...you shall never be rebuilt, for I have spoken," says the Lord God.

The whole passage clearly prophesied the sack and complete destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. However, the vivid description of the sack and fall of Tyre never happened. After a siege of thirteen years, until 573BC, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his siege on Tyre and had to arrive at a compromised agreement. Thus Nebuchadnezzar did not destroy Tyre. Tyre was destroyed by Alexander the Great, 240 years later. And furthermore, despite the prophet, the city of Tyre was eventually rebuilt.

When Nebuchadnezzar broke the gates down he found the city almost empty. The majority of the people had moved by ship to an island about one half mile off the coast and fortified the city there. The mainland city was destroyed in 573, but the city of Tyre on the island remained a powerful city for several hundred years.

The implication of this paragraph is clear: that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed a major portion of Tyre. Tyre's main city was always on the island. The part of the city on the mainland is nothing more than a suburb. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar could achieve no more than take over a relatively minor part of the city. Furthermore it is obvious from the passage in Ezekiel that the complete destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar was prophesized. Ezekiel himself admitted that this prophecy was a mistake!

Ezekiel 29:17-20: ...the Lord God came to me: "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against it... (Website: Rejection of Pascal's Wager)

The prophecies of both Isaiah and Ezekiel against Egypt also fell far short of reality in their "fulfillment."

"The prophet Isaiah, for instance, foretold the drying up of all the waters of the Egypt, and the destruction of all land used for plantation due to this drying up of the River Nile.

Isaiah 19:5-7: And the waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry; and its canal will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.

This part of Isaiah, widely accepted by scholars to be written around the eighth century BC, is about 2750 years old. And in all this period of two and three quarters millennia, this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled! Moreover it is clear from the context that Isaiah prophecy was meant for the Egypt of his time. For it was with that Egypt that Isaiah and his people had a grievance against, and the prophecy was a warning to them. Obviously this is a clear example of an unfulfilled prophecy." (Website: Rejection of Pascal's Wager)

I only point these out because so many would NEVER entertain the idea that any prophecy of the Bible didn't come true and will launch any number and kind of apologetic to defend what was said would be from what really occurred in history. Some of you are doing that right now.. :)

The last Pope would be the last Pope and now this Pope will be the last Pope and I expect the next Pope will also be the last Pope.

Orginal

And now we again live in a time where "prophecy" can manipulate real lives. There are any number of those who just know how it will all be. The kings of all directions are doing this and that..."just read my article and see for yourself." Every world news event , like in the 60's or 70's or 80's, is worthy of note. The last Pope would be the last Pope and now this Pope will be the last Pope and I expect the next Pope will also be the last Pope.

Meanwhile we get older but not the wiser for the experience. What we'll end up with is drawing every imagined prophetic event to ourselves in reality as some government leaders even seem to base policy on "what the Bible says." It is very possible to cause things to happen because one expects them to happen. The problem is you end up with all the damage and none of the salvation. In short, an end of the world scenario can be acted out based on false subconscious beliefs and yet still you end up with no Second Coming, World Tomorrow or Kingdom of God. You end up screwed up.

So why might it be better not to LIVE your actual life around the alleged reality and truth of prophecy and the "imminent" return of Jesus which has been imminent now for a couple thousand years?

I've been there, I've done this. I've lived my real life ahead of my actual life while it quietly slipped by. I've made life decisions in the past based on a preoccupation with the future. I've also let a lot of precious life time go by thinking about things that proved to be untrue and teaching things that weren't. I thought they were, but when one realizes they aren't, it would be hoped one would stop that. I did.

I've been there, I've done this. I've lived my real life ahead of my actual life while it quietly slipped by. I've made life decisions in the past based on a preoccupation with the future. I've also let a lot of precious life time go by thinking about things that proved to be untrue and teaching things that weren't.

Basing a life on what may or may not happen in the future, and Bible types did it all the time and were wrong too, is to miss the present. And whether one admits it or not , the present is all we ever actually really have to work with. Your kids really are their ages they are NOW and one does not postpone making memories with them now because the future is a more serious consideration. They will NEVER again be kids, and you and I will never again be any younger. For Paul, to live might be loss and to die gain, but that theological rhetoric and let's face it, Paul never, from what we can note, ever had to enjoy his children, mate or life in the now. He was in the imminent future right up until it bit him in the bum. He may have had the power to have a wife, great word there, "power", but I bet he was basically not one the women would flock to to begin with.

If you are still in a COG, does your Sabbath experience, weekends that your kids also have to call their free time, only consist for them of coming, sitting and going? How often we forget that the parents generally got to make their life decisions but then deny them to their children. I know, "raise up your child in the way he should go.."

Problem I have is with the "should go."

I'm amazed after all these decades the COG still can't figure out whether to eat out on the Sabbath! Do you really believe some Deity cares! Do you really think there are angels taking names!

I used to take my kids to the local zoo on Sabbaths after church. This was in the 1970's. I have never regretted spending MANY a Friday night with them when little swimming at the YMCA and stopping at Dunkin Donuts on the way home. That ritual of the "now" is far more remembered than any sermon I may have given that day. But for some, depending on their prophecy laden pastor, life is just one big "around the corner", "just a little longer" and never ending "gun lap." I had kidded for years that we have been in the gun lap so often, we run the risk of running out of bullets. Little did I know that was a prophecy that would come true!

Prophecy means little to me at this point in my life. It may mean a lot to some of you depending on who is feeding the need to know what I don't think we can know in this world. We can hid behind the idea that we know God is doing this or that, but that's pretty iffy knowing.

Whatever your position, at least know that even the Bible got it wrong at times, not matter what your pastor says or how your church motivates you with prophecy to live on the edge of your chair, just a bit ahead of the now, in somewhat a fearful or at least anxious, "what's going to happen" state. Isaiah was wrong, Ezekiel was wrong, Paul was wrong and yes, even Jesus was mistaken in his own perceptions of his own experience. That's another story.
If we can be wise enough to see that even Bible prophecies indeed have failed, that some prophecies are not really prophecies , and that reading the newspaper as if it were the Bible come to life is not wise, we might actually have a life in the now we can say was a real life. A life lived in anticipation of some alleged future is not a real life. It's disillusionment in the making.

I'm going to go out on my own limb of prophecy here. I predict that all the leaders of any COG who promote prophecy first and have not really ever given a sermon using the ideas in this article, will live out their lives and come to the same conclusions Paul did. They kept a Faith and now it's time to pass on.

I predict that Churches like PCG and RCG will pass from the scene when their ' me only'  leadership does. One can only get so much mileage out of playing the sermons on world events by those who died years ago. Yet I guess we do that when repeating Paul's admonitions of the shortness of time forgetting it is long since past when he felt it would end. We do it when we say "Behold I come quickly" when that quickly was over 2000 years ago.

I predict that WCG (Grace International Fellowship) will become a meaningless footnote to the Christian experience. I mean why belong to something in California that is everywhere you live? What holds scattered groups together is being special and having special insights into "The Middle East, What Next." And "Will You Be in the Place of Safety." Don't get me started!

I predict more people will avail themselves of the Internet to do their own studies and come to their own conclusions. I always had to ask a pastor because somehow I thought he must know. After all, he was an "expert" on the Bible. Now you can ask lots of pastors and scholars and even those who used to be and no longer can abide it. I predict the era of Guru's will end for those who learn to think and search a matter out from many and not just one source. I would hope that people in congregations dominated by one grand idea spoken by one grand human being will finally wake up and not care if asking a question or questioning a sermon or concept gets them kicked out. Being kicked out, terminated, fired, marginalized or blocked at the door can be the greatest freedom you'll ever experience if you ever choose to reclaim your own brain and perspectives. Remember...ANY TIME you are listening to another human being tell you how it is, and your get that little "uh oh" in the tummy....listen to it! It's the truth trying to have a chat with you.

I predict many will keep on believing the unbelievable because that's what humans do to keep fear and uncertainty at bay. I do it, you do it.

I predict that very few people give a rats... bum... about what I think!

Don't live in anticipation of possible future. We can't know and no one has ever gotten it right. All prophecies about the Second Coming of Jesus have failed to date 100% ! Don't miss your NOW for that idea that just around the corner, me and mine will be justified in forgetting to enjoy the one life we know we NOW have on this planet. It's a dangerous world to be sure, this does not mean it is the result of prophets who themselves missed their own marks way back.

A life based on Prophecy as interpreted by someone who thinks they know and enforced upon one as fact , just wait and see, is going to be a stressed one at best. You are also going to have to give up a few bucks hard earned to keep the mythology and the grand poopa in prediction mode. Remember there is Addiction to Predictions. Don't allow yourself to wake up decades older with grown kids having regrets you didn't go to the zoo or stop at Dunkin Donuts in their jammies on the way home....even on the Sabbath.



Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com

Church Members Turning Their Backs On Their Kids

You would think that with Herbert Armstrong restoring the one true religion after 1,900 years and creating the ONLY true church on the face of the earth that it would be a place of refuge and comfort for the dispossessed.  But no, it actually worked the opposite way.  It destroyed families, wrecked marriages, caused the deaths of thousands because of medical doctrines, and contribute to the suicides of hundreds more.

There have been numerous cases through the years of church members kicking their kids out of the house for one reason or another.  One woman has written a little about her life when she was 13 and decided she no longer wanted to attend church with her mother.  Her mother basically turned her back on her as did the rest of the family.  Not until her brothers and sisters left WCG did there ever begin some healing.  Of course her mother still ignores her because she currently is in some splinter cult (probably Flurry's cult).  Read Amelia's story here I was Abandoned By My Family

What I want to describe is the emotional anguish of someone who was abandoned by their family simply because I could not in my deepest soul believe what they believed. Intrinsically, I knew the WCG was wrong for me. What I didn’t realize was that my family would cast me out because I did not believe. For 15 years my family would have nothing to do with me because their "family" was the "church." I was ostracized, unwelcome, and had none of the "normal" family contact. My mother told no one that she had an eldest daughter. I was never mentioned to anyone as a sister, and when I came to visit my parents at their home, they were embarrassed to receive me and couldn’t wait for me to leave. I felt like a pariah.

There is a guy on Facebook who is telling those that are discussing the things they went trough and the abuse they received in WCG, to "just get over it'.

Armstrongism continues to this day to stick its head in the sand concerning what it has done to its youth.  They think summer camps and "Winter Festivals" makes it OK.  They can remain diligent (suffer) through absurd doctrine but can be rewarded with a little fun now and then.