Armstrongism: Endless Excuse Making, Cognitive Dissonance, and Lack of Biblical Standards

 

Why Armstrongism Members Rarely Hold Leaders Accountable for Failed Prophecies
The Bible sets an embarrassingly clear test for anyone bold enough to play mouthpiece for God on future events. Deuteronomy 18:20-22 (NKJV) lays it out without wiggle room: “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name that I have not commanded him to speak... when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
Pretty straightforward—except, apparently, in Armstrongism, where this verse gets treated like an optional suggestion. Matthew 7:15-20 warns of wolves in sheep’s clothing known by their fruits (spoiler: perpetual failure isn’t great fruit). Jeremiah 23:16-17, 25-32 rips into prophets peddling homemade visions and false hope. Ezekiel 13 calls out the “foolish prophets” busy whitewashing their own disasters. The New Testament piles on: test everything (1 John 4:1), reject false teachers (Titus 1:9-13; Romans 16:17), and don’t let the deceivers fool you (Matthew 24:11, 24).Failed Prophecies in Armstrongism — The Never-Ending SequelHerbert W. Armstrong got the ball rolling with 1975 in Prophecy!, strongly implying the Great Tribulation, a European nuclear smackdown on the U.S. and Britain, and Christ’s return right around 1972–1975. When reality declined to cooperate, the booklets quietly vanished and the spin doctors emerged with “misinterpretation” and “progressive revelation.” Classic.
The splinters have turned this into performance art:

• David C. Pack (Restored Church of God) deserves a special award for prophetic persistence. In his endless “Greatest Untold Story!” sermon marathons, he has nailed down dates like Av 10 2025, October 6 2025, December 19 2025, February 1/2 2026, March 18 2026, May 1 2026, and May 24 2026 — only to reset the calendar with the confidence of a man who has never been wrong (in his own mind). He insists he’s not “setting dates” while setting more dates than most people set alarms. Impressive commitment to the bit.
• Bob Thiel (Continuing Church of God) has cornered the market on dream-based prophecy, self-anointings, and tying current events to end-time checklists. When the timelines slip, the dreams apparently get new footnotes. Nothing says “reliable prophet” like constantly updating your own predictions.
• Gerald Flurry (Philadelphia Church of God) has built an entire empire around being “That Prophet” and delivering Malachi’s Message as the modern fulfillment. Highlights include declaring Barack Obama the last U.S. president, Jesus Christ returning in 2020, and forcefully insisting Donald Trump would remain president after the 2020 election because a Biden term would contradict Bible prophecy. Additional gems: Trump as “Jeroboam,” the U.S. being destroyed during Trump’s time, and various dramatic geopolitical fulfillments that quietly faded away. When things didn’t pan out, the usual “new understanding” adjustments followed. 
• Gerald Weston (Living Church of God) keeps the Meredith tradition alive with urgent “any minute now” warnings about Europe rising and tribulation hitting. Less hyper-specific than Pack, but the decades-long “three to five years left” loop still delivers the same reliable disappointment on schedule.

These men prefer titles like “apostle” or “evangelist” or "Chief Overseer"— anything to dodge the pesky “prophet” label while sounding exactly like one. Cute loophole.Cognitive Dissonance: The Psychological Glue Holding It All TogetherCognitive dissonance — that lovely mental gymnastics routine where reality and belief refuse to match — explains why members keep showing up. Leon Festinger nailed it in When Prophecy Fails:

A man with a conviction is a hard man to change... We have all experienced the futility of trying to change a strong conviction, especially if the convinced person has some investment in his belief.

And the kicker:

Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart... finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen? The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced... Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people.

Festinger would have loved Armstrongism — deep investment, irrevocable commitments (hello, third tithe and shattered families), and plenty of group hugs to reinforce the coping mechanisms. Failed dates? Just “tests of faith,” “God’s merciful delay,” or “new understanding, brethren!”Why They Get Away With Endless LiesIt’s not magic. It’s a well-honed system:

• Authoritarian Fear Factory: “One man rule” means questioning leadership equals rebelling against God Himself (see Korah, Numbers 16 — conveniently weaponized). Hebrews 13:17 gets quoted like a club; actual testing gets labeled “Satanic.”
• The Rationalization Buffet: Unlimited servings of “progressive revelation,” “we never set dates” (wink), “spiritual fulfillment,” and “the big picture is correct.” Pack can reset his calendar monthly and members will call it bold new truth. Thiel dreams it up, Weston generalizes it — same menu, different chefs.
• Sunk Cost + Isolation Special: After 10, 20, 40 years of tithing, isolating from family, and building your entire identity around “the one true church,” admitting it’s mostly smoke and mirrors is psychologically brutal. Better to double down than face the sunk-cost abyss. Festinger’s social support makes the group feel like proof itself.
• Memory Wipe and Urgency Reset: Old failed prophecies? Never heard of them. New dramatic update drops? Time to get excited again!

Meanwhile, the Bereans (Acts 17:11) are over here actually checking Scriptures daily like chumps.
Armstrongism has perfected the art of prophetic failure without consequence — from HWA’s 1975 flop to Pack’s date-of-the-month club, Thiel’s dream diary, and Weston’s perpetual “soon” siren. Deuteronomy 18 sits there, clear as day, while cognitive dissonance and masterful excuse-making turn every miss into a faith-strengthening victory lap.
As Festinger showed, this isn’t shocking — it’s human nature on steroids in a high-control environment. But true faith doesn’t need an endless supply of whitewash and calendar resets. It survives honest scrutiny.

True faith endures scrutiny; it needs no perpetual defense against failed words. Loyalty to Scripture must supersede loyalty to men. As 1 Thessalonians 5:21 commands: “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” Members making excuses risk the deception warned against by prophets and Christ. Honest examination against the unchanging biblical standard offers the only path to clarity—and freedom from whitewashed foundations. 
Silent Pilgrim

Rod Meredith: Boxer, Prophet, and Perpetual Doomsayer – The Ironies of a Very Masculine Ministry

Roderick C. Meredith (June 21, 1930 – May 18, 2017) stood as one of the most enduring and polarizing figures in the world of Armstrongism—the distinctive doctrinal system forged by Herbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). Ordained as one of Armstrong’s very first evangelists in December 1952, Meredith climbed quickly through the ranks. He served as director of Church Administration (overseeing all Ministerial Services), taught freshman Bible at Ambassador College, and acted as deputy chancellor of its campuses. Even after Armstrong’s death in 1986 and the sweeping doctrinal changes introduced by Joseph W. Tkach Sr. in the 1990s, Meredith refused to bend. He departed to launch the Global Church of God (GCG) in 1992–93, and when that arrangement soured, he founded the Living Church of God (LCG) in 1998, where he ruled as Presiding Evangelist until his death from cancer. LCG soldiers on today with congregations scattered across the globe.

Meredith remained fiercely loyal to classic Armstrongist teachings throughout his long career. These included British Israelism (the conviction that modern Anglo-Saxon nations are the literal descendants of the lost tribes of Israel), mandatory Sabbath and Old Testament holy day observance, a three-tiered tithing system, rejection of the Trinity as pagan, and an intense focus on end-time prophecy centered on the imminent downfall of the United States and Britain. To mainstream Christians, many of these ideas appeared decidedly aberrant. To Meredith and his followers, they represented the restored “original Christianity.” He never wavered, even as the parent church evolved. His writings and sermons in both GCG and LCG continued to hammer home the same distinctive package: strict law-keeping as essential to salvation for the “elect,” national punishment for the Israelite nations, and the urgent need to flee the coming Great Tribulation.

Critics, including many former ministers and members who served under him, often described Meredith as competitive, authoritarian, and strikingly insensitive. His background as a Golden Gloves boxer and track athlete seemed to leave a permanent imprint. While heading Ministerial Services in the 1960s and 1970s, he earned a reputation as a harsh taskmaster who “rubbed people the wrong way” with impressive regularity. During the turbulent Garner Ted Armstrong years, Meredith’s directives in the Pastor’s Report showed little room for nuance: ministers were told to disfellowship anyone attending GTA’s meetings. Former associates accused him of harboring an “unbridled lust for power.” Even Herbert Armstrong eventually weighed in, noting that Meredith was “so righteous he was unrighteous.” That competitive spirit, it appeared, translated rather seamlessly from the ring into church politics.

The tensions boiled over dramatically in early 1980. Armstrong removed Meredith from his high-profile headquarters role and exiled him to Hawaii to work on his attitude. In a remarkably candid letter dated March 14, 1980, sent from Tucson, Armstrong laid out his grievances in detail. He accused Meredith of operating on the worldly “GET” principle instead of the godly “GIVE” principle:

Rod, WHY have so many who have worked [with you] said that you rub the fur the wrong way? You are DOCTRINALLY correct… But… you do overlook the SPIRIT from the heart… the SPIRIT of COMPETITION is still there!… You were a harsh task-master over the ministers… That has been your life-style!

Armstrong referenced Meredith’s athletic past, his push for greater control, and the inside joke among leaders that he saw himself as “second Vice President.” He called for genuine repentance and hoped Meredith could rejoin the “team.” Meredith was eventually recalled to Pasadena, but the episode revealed just how deep the fractures ran at the top of the organization.

One of the most damaging personal controversies involved Leona McNair, the former wife of evangelist Raymond McNair. In the June 25, 1979, issue of the Pastor’s Report, Meredith publicly declared that Leona had refused to act as a wife for over two years, had deserted her husband, turned the children against him, and even cursed him to his face. These statements were issued amid the McNairs’ messy divorce. Leona sued the WCG, Meredith, and Raymond McNair for libel, testifying that the claims were false and that Meredith had once subjected her to a brutal four-hour interrogation that left her physically ill.

In 1984 a jury awarded her $1.26 million specifically against Meredith for libel. After prolonged appeals, the WCG settled in 1992 for $750,000. The costly payout stood as a painful public reminder of how internal theological disputes could descend into personal destruction—with the church footing the bill for Meredith’s words.

Financial questions also swirled around Meredith. Critics alleged that third tithe funds—collected every third year supposedly for widows, orphans, and the needy—were sometimes repurposed for headquarters luxuries. According to former insiders, it was “widely known” in Pasadena that Meredith had used such funds to remodel his home on Waverly Drive, complete with expensive draperies. While local pastors struggled to help genuinely needy members with limited resources, headquarters seemed to enjoy a noticeably higher standard of living. As with many such stories in Armstrongism, direct proof remains anecdotal, yet the pattern of complaints proved remarkably consistent.

Meredith also displayed a particular fixation on homosexuality, returning to the topic with striking frequency in articles and sermons across decades. One of the earliest and most notorious examples was his December 1961 Plain Truth article, “The Shocking TRUTH about ‘QUEER’ Men!” In it, Meredith sounded the alarm that America and Britain needed to face the “revolting” problem of effeminate and homosexual men in their midst. He cited the book The Sixth Man by Jess Stearn, claiming one in every six American males was already “tainted with homosexuality,” with the proportion rising, and warned that many such men were married with families and responsible jobs. The piece painted a dire picture of moral collapse, urged readers to promote “real manhood” through vigorous exercise and proper posture (because, apparently, slouching led to queerness), and framed homosexuality as a preventable societal threat that could be countered by tough, masculine living. To modern eyes, the article reads like a time capsule of 1950s–60s anxieties wrapped in biblical condemnation—equal parts fear-mongering, pseudoscience, and unintentional comedy, especially given later revelations that figures like J. Edgar Hoover (whom Meredith held up as a manly ideal) led a rather different private life. Meredith revisited similar themes in later works, such as his 2008 Tomorrow’s World article “The Plain Truth About Homosexuality!,” where he warned of activists plotting to “sodomize your sons,” promoted dubious health statistics like “Gay Bowel Syndrome,” dismissed any biological basis for orientation, and equated homosexuality with alcoholism, addiction, and child molestation.

Critics and former insiders have long speculated that Meredith’s hyper-focus on the topic—and his relentless promotion of rugged, athletic masculinity—stemmed from personal insecurities. Herbert Armstrong himself reportedly once slammed Meredith as the “most effeminate man on campus” during his early days at Ambassador College. Whether or not the exact words were spoken, the perception lingered among some who knew him in those years. Many observers have suggested this criticism, combined with Meredith’s athletic background and competitive nature, drove him to overcompensate by constantly proving his own “real manhood.” The result was a decades-long crusade against anything perceived as effeminate or homosexual, which struck detractors as less about balanced biblical teaching and more about the author working through his own image issues. The irony was not lost on those who watched a man so obsessed with “queerness” while leading a movement already famous for authoritarian excess and prophetic disappointment.

Meredith’s prophetic track record, meanwhile, displayed a certain stubborn consistency—mostly in its failure to materialize. From his earliest Plain Truth articles in the late 1950s, he warned of horrifying disease epidemics, trade embargoes by “brown and oriental races,” societal collapse by 1969, and the final attack by the Beast power possibly as early as spring 1972. He lent his voice to the famous “1975 in Prophecy” push, though he later tried to soften his association with the most specific dates. In GCG and LCG he continued sounding the alarm about the Great Tribulation being just a few years away. Remarkably, none of these tightly scheduled calamities ever arrived on cue. The “next few years” stretched on decade after decade, yet the message remained unchanged: disaster is right around the corner.

After the Worldwide Church of God paid his attorney fees and the financial judgement against him from Leona McNair winning her lawsuit, Meredith in deep gratitude to the WCG for defending him, immediately jumped ship to the Global Church of God. His relationship with the Global Church of God however proved predictably stormy. After helping build GCG into a thriving “restoration” of Armstrongism, Meredith clashed with the board over governance. He insisted on supreme authority as the Presiding Evangelist. On November 25, 1998, the board removed him. Within weeks he and his supporters launched the Living Church of God, taking roughly 80 percent of the membership with them. The split followed the classic Armstrongist pattern: charismatic leader versus institutional board, with doctrine and control as the battlegrounds. Meredith framed it as a necessary stand for pure truth and “government from the top down, as in the days of Mr. Armstrong.”

When Roderick Meredith finally passed away in May 2017 after more than sixty-four years “in the Work,” he left behind a decidedly mixed legacy. To his devoted followers, he remained a towering figure of doctrinal purity and unwavering conviction—the man who refused to compromise as the parent church drifted away. To his critics, he exemplified the darker side of Armstrongism: a gifted but flawed leader whose authoritarian style, personal vendettas, financial controversies, and repeated prophetic misfires left a trail of broken lives and disillusioned members in his wake.

In the end, Meredith was the near-perfect embodiment of Armstrongism itself—its strengths and its fatal flaws wrapped in one stubborn, competitive package. He possessed an unshakable belief in a dramatic prophetic narrative that gave thousands a sense of urgent purpose and elite status. Yet that same system, built on hierarchical control, fear-driven urgency, and an almost allergic reaction to accountability, repeatedly exposed its weaknesses through power struggles, costly scandals, and prophecies that always seemed to be “just a few years away.”

Decades after his most dramatic predictions failed to materialize, the Living Church of God and similar splinter groups still echo his voice, warning of imminent catastrophe while collecting tithes and urging members to prepare. Whether history will remember Roderick Meredith as a faithful restorer of “the truth once delivered” or as a cautionary tale of what happens when rigid certainty collides with reality, one thing is certain: the urgent deadlines keep changing, but the message—and the pattern—remains remarkably consistent.

Silent Pilgrim 

Theological Garbage of the Highest Order: Wade Cox’s Cosmic Cult Fantasy

Wade Cox, one of the ever-proliferating splinter gurus spawned from Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God, has once again blessed us with his latest masterpiece of cosmic fan-fiction. In it, he unfolds what he insists is the grand narrative of human existence. Cox has turned out to be the COG version of L Ron Hubbard.

According to Cox, Satan’s master plan from the beginning was to block as many of the “elect” as possible from entering the First Resurrection. Why? Because those elite few who pass the test are destined to become the key leaders of the “Human sector of the Elohim host” — glorious Morning Stars, Covering Cherubim, and Sector Commanders who will lord it over vast regions of the universe when God finally descends to run everything from Earth headquarters in the highly specific and surely-not-made-up year of 3128 AD.

Mankind, he explains, has been subjected to a divine aptitude test courtesy of the Fallen Host. The exam is delightfully simple: Keep the Law, the Testimony, and especially the sacred Temple Calendar — complete with New Moons, Passover, Pentecost, and the Feasts of the Seventh Month, all scrupulously observed “outside the gates” per Deuteronomy 16. Score high enough, and you graduate to full Elohim godhood in the First Resurrection. Flunk it and you get shipped off to the Second Resurrection for a remedial 100-year boot camp in the conveniently extended Cities of Refuge during the Millennium.

Oh, and once the blinders come off, humanity will be so furious at the deception that they’ll naturally want to rip apart every pope, cardinal, bishop, Trinitarian, Sunday-keeper, Christmas-celebrator, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and — of course — every rival Armstrongist “Sardis and Laodicean” leader limb from limb. The merciful solution from the “elect”? Round them all up and put them in protective custody so the righteous mob doesn’t get to enjoy some well-deserved vengeance.  Thus, Cities of Refuge will be established in various locations around the world and will house all of these sinners and protect them from lynchings. All of this, Cox assures us, was God’s clever way of determining who is trustworthy enough to be turned loose unsupervised across the cosmos.

Repentance, the Lord’s Supper, and obsessive feast-keeping outside the gates are, naturally, the non-negotiable core of this “New Covenant” test.

Oh, where to even begin with this galaxy-brained garbage of the highest order?

First, the idea that saved Christians get promoted to literal Elohim status — complete with snazzy titles like Sector Commander and Covering Cherub — is the kind of delirious self-promotion that makes the old pagan emperors blush. The Bible says the saints will reign with Christ (Revelation 20:4-6). It does not say they will morph into a divine host of mini-gods running their own little fiefdoms while God parks His throne on Earth in 3128. That date isn’t in Scripture; it’s straight out of the prophetic fortune cookie factory.

Second, turning the Christian life into a cosmic merit-badge program based on calendar precision is not just wrong — it’s hilariously arrogant. The New Testament laughs this legalism out of the room. Colossians 2:16-17 mocks anyone who would judge others over “a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath,” calling them mere shadows whose substance is Christ. Paul warns in Galatians 4 that obsessing over “days and months and seasons and years” is spiritual slavery. Hebrews 8–10 declares the entire Old Covenant system — calendar, feasts, sacrifices, the works — gloriously obsolete. But sure, Wade, tell us again how missing a New Moon might cost you your shot at universe command. Jesus must have forgotten to mention that part while He was busy saying “It is finished” (John 19:30).

The sheer gall of claiming this calendar cult is the real “test” while the actual gospel of grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) gets demoted to optional reading is peak cult behavior. It’s the same old Pharisee playbook, just with extra sci-fi seasoning.

Then there’s the delightful prediction of the Great Future Lynching, where the enlightened masses will need to be restrained from tearing Trinitarians and Christmas lovers to shreds. How very “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44) of them. Nothing says “Spirit-filled elect” quite like fantasizing about putting popes and bishops in protective custody to prevent the mob from doing God’s dirty work. Real biblical justice, that.

This entire framework is spiritually toxic on steroids. It breeds smug elitism (“We’re the future Elohim overlords!”), sows hatred toward the body of Christ, and sets people up for crushing disillusionment when 3128 comes and goes with zero cosmic promotions. Worst of all, it hijacks the glorious New Covenant and turns it back into the very bondage Christ died to abolish (Galatians 5:1).

Wade Cox didn’t write biblical theology. He wrote an elaborate works-righteousness pyramid scheme with a side order of apocalyptic revenge fantasy. It has almost nothing to do with the actual New Covenant, the finished work of Christ, or the simple command to repent and believe the gospel (Acts 16:31). But then, lest we forget, his Christ is a created creature.

Christians would do well to run, not walk, away from this nonsense. The real hope of the believer isn’t earning a fancy title in some future Elohim bureaucracy — it’s being forgiven, adopted as God’s child, and enjoying eternal life with Christ by grace alone. Anything else is just sad, deluded, and dangerously misleading.

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The Satanic plan was to ensure that as few of the elect as possible could enter the First Resurrection and that was to ensure that as few as possible could become the key leaders of the Human sector of the Elohim host and so could be leaders of the entire elohim system, as Morning Stars and Covering Cherubim and Sector Commanders over the universe when God comes here in 3128 to rule the universe, from the Earth (Nos. 180; 187; 174). 

 

Satan was permitted to test mankind with the Fallen Host to determine if mankind could be trusted to keep the Covenant of God (No. 152) and to keep the Law and the Testimony and the Temple Calendar that flowed from the Law (L1). The test was simple. If a person kept the Law and the Testimony and the Temple Calendar that flowed from the Law, then they passed and qualified to become elohim in the First Resurrection (No. 143A and 143E above). If they did not pass to enter that First Resurrection, they failed and they were sent to the Second Resurrection (No. 143B). It was for this reason that the Cities of Refuge (No. 300D) had to be extended over the millennial system, under the Law of God and into the retraining period of the 100 years, or two jubilees, of the Second Resurrection (No. 143B above). Once the Human Host finds out what it is that the Demonic Host and the false religious systems that Satan and the Fallen Host established, the people will seek to kill every person of the Fallen Host and every leader or key figure in the Babylonian religious system that was involved in the Sun and mystery Cults of the Baal system, whether in Trinitarianism, Sunday, Christmas and Easter worship of the Mother Goddess Cult or in Hadithic, Shia and Sufi Islam, Hindu Ancestor Worship, Buddhism, Taoism, Animism and any other religious system. That will also include the Sardis and Laodicean systems of the Churches of God over the last few centuries of this Age (see below). Almost the entire world’s systems have been corrupted everywhere, and mankind will pay dearly for that corruption. Simply put, we will have to place all the beings corrupted by Satan and the Fallen Host and who misled mankind and held any responsible religious office, including the false prophets of Sardis and Laodicea and their officers (see No. 269), into protective custody including all Popes, Cardinals and Bishops of the Trinitarian systems. That is necessary simply to stop mankind from tearing them apart limb from limb. God allowed this as a key test to determine who could be trusted to be diligent and trustworthy enough to follow instructions without supervision. Those that proved trustworthy could then be placed in charge of the Universe without supervision anywhere God decided to send them. The failures of Sardis and Loadicea over the last two centuries is a classic example of the necessity of the Body of Christ to be implicitly faithful and trustworthy continually. The Temple Calendar including the New Moons, Passover and Pentecost and the Feasts of the Seventh Month are intrinsic to that test.

Repentance is central to the test, and keeping the Lord's Supper and the Passover outside of the Gates, along with Pentecost, and Tabernacles, are all key elements of that test. All three feast periods are to be kept outside of our gates. (Deut. Ch 16). Part of the inability of the Sardis and Laodicean systems to repent stems from their bad training and the brainwashing of their people through the false and Satanic systems of this modern age. Sardis and Laodicea emerged from North America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The groundwork had been set by Satan and the Fallen Host in the Churches of God from the Quartodeciman Disputes (No. 277) and the Unitarian Trinitarian Wars (No. 268). Under the Trinitarian system set up from Rome in the Fourth Century CE, Satan set up the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell and based on the earlier doctrine of Reincarnation. We examine that sequence in the paper for the New Moon: Satan's Doctrines of Heaven, Hell and Reincarnation (No. 143F). Using these false doctrines, Satan and the Fallen Host were able to develop it as accepted history that the Triune God ruled the world and they were able to undermine and refute the Bible teachings of the One True God Eloah as the Creator and ruler of the world. They then were able to persecute and suppress the True Doctrines.

Van Robison on "Is Human Happiness a Product of Churches?"

Is Human Happiness a Product of Churches?

Churches of men such as the Worldwide Church of God and its splinter groups have always led gullible people to believe that they are the source of happiness, light, truth and the path to God. The world has also been led to believe that men went to the moon in a rocket ship. Many believe mankind did go to the moon and many believe it was a hoax of mass propaganda.  Either way, are human beings any happier because of it? What church ever prevented human problems such as divorce, auto accidents, sickness, disease, war or a myriad of other human conditions that are always a part of our world? Like it or not, churches are merely a means to control and free money for its founders and rulers.

Would humans actually be much more happy if they did not go to church? To believe that going to church is an automatic ticket to happiness is a false premise. Of course friendships with other people can be found in going to church, but sitting in pews being indoctrinated with mush, is not particularly beneficial. Those who sit in pews are treated as school children who must be told what to think and what to believe.  Those standing in pulpits pretend that they are "masters" of all the knowledge that God wants human beings to be aware of. Other non-Christian religions are likewise believers that their belief system is what "truth" and "happiness" is all about. Every pastor and church wants more followers and the reason is more than obvious, because it grows their bank account.

Do churches guarantee happiness, truth and eternal life if people live by their rules? They may say that they can guarantee happiness, truth and eternal life, but in reality they cannot. What pastor of any church group has the power to prevent sickness, disease or accidents that rob humans of happiness? For that matter what human government has such power? Not even tithing, observing the Saturday Sabbath or keeping annual "Holy" days has the power to prevent sickness, disease, divorce, adultery, accidents, wars or to guarantee wealth and material blessings. Church or no church, religion or no religion, all humans are subject to time and chance and the problems of life that are common to all human beings. Not even the rich and wealthy are immune from such problems. The conquering of other nations by bully nations, does not guarantee happiness or solve the problems of humans on earth, but rather they promote more problems.

The bottom line is that no pastor, no church, no government, no organization of humans has the key to happiness, truth or life. Finding your own way in life is a personal quest and learning never stops as long as we live. Listening to public speakers as if public speakers (preachers or politicians or?), will lead anyone into a human utopia is a false hope. In the end, it is your personal responsibility to find your own purpose in human life and preachers are not the answer, nor is anyone responsible to preachers. All preachers will do is take you captive to their thinking and for life if allowed to do so, all the while robbing you financially so they can build monuments to their own private vanity.

Happiness, truth and life are NOT products of churches, even if and when they tell you they are. 

Van Robison

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The Demographics of Salvation The Puzzle of Barth, Armstrong and Election

The Demographics of Salvation

The Puzzle of Barth, Armstrong and Election

By Scout

 

Back in 1995, I was fairly well down the road towards leaving Armstrongism.  My journey was done with some trepidation.  I did not trust mainstream Christianity.  I had spent years believing it was grossly pagan.  It made me a little sick to think that I had unwittingly taken a stand against genuine Christianity by following cult “theology.” But I did all right with the transition for a little while. And then I ran into Calvinism.  

TULIP especially bothered me.  This is an acronym for the fundamental soteriological beliefs of Calvinism, including the belief in Election.  The U in TULIP stands for Unconditional Election. Suddenly my interest in Christianity waned.  Picture a balloon deflating and looking sad and flaccid. This was because Calvinism was at the forefront of the Protestant Reformation and Reformed theology advanced the idea that all things are pre-determined by God.  We humans are all like puppets dancing on strings with no free will. I felt that Calvinism was just as much of a cult as Armstrongism.  One had to deal with it.  It needed a disposition in my mind before I could proceed with Christianity.  I eventually arrived at a resolution over some years but the Calvinist view of Election had been the stickiest wicket. 

Now I believe that Calvinist Unconditional Election is right in a narrow but important way. I believe that Christians are elect in the Calvinist sense that God chose them before they ever lived and pre-destined them to be in the First Resurrection.  That may sound like I made it up so it would be good to look at some scriptures.

The Scriptures

Here are the scriptures from the Epistle to the Ephesians.  They are extraordinary: 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen (eklegomai, the verb from which the adjective eklektos is derived) us in him before the foundation of the world (Cosmos), that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated (proorizo) us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (KJV, Ephesians 1:3-5)

To demonstrate this is not just Greek-influenced Pauline theology, we have the following statement from the very Jewish Peter:

“Elect (eklektos) according to the foreknowledge (prognosis) of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:” (KJV,1 Peter 1:2).

Both of these scriptures speak of the members of the Body of Christ.   Paul and Peter use such heady terms as elect, foreknowledge and predestination.  Jesus speaks of the Elect as a separate population with a privileged understanding of the Gospel.  But through Paul and Peter the origination of the Elect is explained.  And the amazing statement is that those people who are now in the Body of Christ, the church, were elected to this state before the foundation of the Cosmos.  This means that somehow they had to exist before the foundation of the Cosmos.  And we know from the Book of Revelation that Christians will be in the first resurrection, will be priests and will reign with Christ for eternity.  And important to say, for reasons you will read later, that the non-Elect will not have these experiences. 

So, what we have is a demographic statement.  The Elect is a population of people chosen prior to the creation of the Cosmos to be servants of God and to be deployed on earth at various times and places as suits God’s plans (Church in the Wilderness or New Testament Church).  While that may seem to be a straightforward characterization, Election can be a complicated issue that raises many questions.  I am going to now briefly examine and question the views on Election of Karl Barth and Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA).  I have chosen these two because their views will cover the various denominations that stem from the Armstrongist Worldwide Church of God.

Karl Barth and Election – Elect through the Vicarious Humanity of Christ

About twelve years ago, I encountered the view of Karl Barth on Election.  I did not readily understand it and I still regard it as being novel.  I would not assert that Barth’s view is in error but I do regard it as not being exegetically as strong as some of the views found in mainstream Christianity, for instance.  Briefly, Barth regards the Triune God as the Elector and Jesus as the Elected Man.  Jesus then mediates Election to those who follow him.  This fits well with the doctrine of the Vicarious Humanity or Christ which centers on Jesus and which I adhere to.  Those who follow Jesus were called and predestined as stated in Ephesians 1 in Barth’s view.  He just has a novel way in which Election is applied.   But I have a problem with Barth’s view. 

The Barthian approach seems to be that everyone who comes to the mediating Christ becomes a part of the Elect, whether in the First Resurrection or the Second Resurrection. I believe that departs from the intent of scripture.  I think that people who are in the Elect become Christians during this Age and rise in the First Resurrection (Rev 20:4-5). They form the cohort of the chosen. Are they somehow inherently different from other people?  I don’t know.  And the people who rise up in the Second Resurrection are non-Elect.  Election applies to particular people and is not universal. 

I do believe that the Second Resurrection is also a pathway to salvation.  To make the mediation of Election a part of the salvific process for everyone is to assert that Election is focused on general salvation when it is actually focused on the First Resurrection.  This creates a demographic issue: the population of the saved is misidentified as the Elect when only part of that population is Elect.  Among the saved, the Elect will be priests reigning with Christ. (A mistranslation has it that some will be kings.   But the phrase kings and priests really should be translated as “kingdom of priests.” One might argue that in a theocracy it makes scant difference.)  

Herbert W. Armstrong and Election – It’s about When One is Called

HWA refers to Predestination rather than Election. I could not find a reference to Election in the writing HWA personally authored but my research efforts were only moderate.  Predestination is near enough to Election for this purpose.  Both ideas are rooted in God choosing. 

I believe that overall, HWA interprets Election accurately.  But there is a nuance that I think should be addressed. HWA wrote, “Predestination has to do with BEING CALLED. Not with being saved or lost” (HWA, “Predestination – Does the Bible Teach It”, Ambassador College, 1957).  My interpretation of what HWA is advocating is that a believer is predestined by God before the foundation of the Cosmos to be called at a certain time and nothing further.  At the time you are called, then your salvation becomes a matter of grace, faith and your generation of righteous works – the typical Armstrongist view – Jesus plus your own efforts to qualify.  The soteriology is wrong but the framework of events seems to reflect scripture.  But this is not quite the scenario that Paul described in Romans 8:29-30:

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

First, God is doing this.  This is not something that people choose to do.  And the implication is that God does this without loss of anyone who is a member of the Elect.  People do not choose to become members of the Body of Christ; they are called to it.  We might say: the set of people God predestined is the same set he called and the same set he justified and the same set he glorified.  This is a tight sequence and it is difficult to exegete it any other way.  I am not sure why glorification, which is future, is mentioned like it has already taken place.  This may simply mean planned glorification rather than actual glorification. 

What this means is that predestination doesn’t just extend as far as calling and no further as HWA asserts.  It means that predestination is the first step in an Election sequence that runs all the way to salvation.  And it is the same population throughout.  Nobody is lost. I know there are examples in the New Testament of people falling away after they apparently became Christians.  All I can think is that we do not have their full story and God must have recovered them later.  Armstrongism would permit some attrition of the original population as the process goes forward.  Armstrongism does assert a hell in which annihilation happens to some people.

The Upshot

I must label this writing an opinion piece.  It can’t be really anything else.  Election has been the subject of debate since the late 4^th and early 5^th centuries.   I am looking at only a little part of the debate in my essay. My goal was to raise a couple of salient issues.  What is important to see is that different theories of Election can result in different populations of the Elect, with regard to both size and profile.  The scripture goes only so far in developing the idea of the Elect and then trails off.  As always, we see through a glass darkly.  Yet, Election is an extraordinary doctrine in Christian belief. Karl Barth believes it is the central doctrine of Christian belief because it is about nothing less than God and his Will for humanity.  But it does not get much attention.  In my decades in the Worldwide Church of God, I do not recall ever hearing a sermon on Election.  Personally, I think the belief in love beats Election by a ways.  I believe that Election, however, is very important and, without a doubt, deserves much more analysis and air time than it gets.