All you have to do is change "rapture" to Laodicean and you have
Bob Thiel, Dave Pack and Rod Meredith's
end time scenarios made into a comedy movie.
Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before! With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
My 1982 “Elijah” Sermon
On April 24, 1982, I first preached about Mr. Armstrong fulfilling the Elijah role. The Church had already known this since 1971, or earlier. The title drove home the point: “The Prophetic Significance of Mr. Armstrong’s Office.” It is posted on our website—and it proves that neither I nor anyone else “dreamed up,” after Mr. Armstrong’s death, what had been our long-held understanding. All who take the time to listen to this sermon will recognize there was once no doubt or confusion about who we believed had fulfilled the Elijah prophecy.
If you hear it, ask if I would have been permitted to give this sermon on my own authority. Certainly not! As mentioned, Mr. Armstrong was always uncomfortable with ministers artificially elevating him. We will later see he completely understood that a sermon like mine did not do that. Over 600 people heard it when I delivered it. (Also, I know of one senior evangelist who gave a similar sermon in 1979.)
I quote it so that you will have no doubt of its strength or clarity—or of my long-held position. Looking back, it also spoke directly to attacks that did come on Mr. Armstrong’s office, possibly even beyond what I even envisioned, and I was plain. For simplicity, an ellipse separates several short sections that are placed together:
“That office as we come to see becomes the focal point of all the prophecies about the warnings as we go through the scriptures. And because there is a two-fold authority that an apostle holds, that’s why from Satan’s point of view, all kinds of attacks have to ultimately be directed toward that office.
“Look, if you knock out a deacon somewhere or a Church elder or a pastor or even an evangelist, and we’ve lost some of those, it may be a small ripple effect in the Church. Even a pillar member locally could cause a small ripple effect in the Church, but if you can knock out an apostle, if you can knock out an Eisenhower in World War II, you know, the general of the armies, the five-star general, or a MacArthur in the Pacific Theater, you’d have far greater effect than an infantryman who dies storming Iwo Jima. The effect is not the same.
“So it will become clear as we go on why these attacks have to continue to come against that man. If there is no other thing that’s accomplished, and I’m sure there will be after the sermon is over, than just to explain that one point to us—why those attacks must come, not as single rifle shots but almost in machine gun bursts, one bullet after another flying—then I will have accomplished what I wanted to do.
“Now turn to Matthew 17. We’re going to look at a couple of lengthy verses in Matthew…And again, brethren, I think we are going to begin to see that Mr. Armstrong’s office is far, far greater than any of us realize, far, far greater…
“There is one man at this point in time—not the human form of the man, we should say, that makes him special, but that particular office that that man holds, as a great servant of God, is the one that stands between utter destruction for this world and continuing on to the Return of Jesus Christ. Have you ever looked at it in that context? Have you ever seen the office of Herbert Armstrong as that big before? Does that sound blasphemous to you? Does that sound like we’re boasting of apostolic office? Brethren, I hope not. I hope we understand it. You could say, ‘That can’t be Herbert Armstrong…’
“It’s somebody in the spirit and power of Elijah. It is somebody, by the way, who, when you ask him, ‘Who are you?’ will not say, ‘I am Elijah,’ as we have had people say. He will say, just as John said, ‘I am John.’ I don’t think John called himself John the Baptist. Maybe he did. If you ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He will say, ‘My name is Herbert’ or ‘Mr. Armstrong’ or whatever.”
It should be noted that in 2009, The Restored Church of God was able to purchase one of the other 24 cups made by Mr. Yenawine. It now sits prominently displayed in our Executive Office. A picture is on the opposite page.The WCG Council of Elders spent $11,500.00 in tithe money to buy HWA this cup. Dave's wealthy member had to dish out $25,000.00.
Some on the 1982 Council were: Dibar Apartian, Aaron Dean, Roderick C. Meredith, Raymond F. McNair, Ellis LaRavia, Robert Fahey and Leon Walker. There may have been others who also slipped into a splinter. Of course, some others, like Dr. Hoeh and Dean Blackwell, never left the WCG, and both died having left the faith.
Think! The entire 1982 WCG Advisory Council of Elders and senior ministry have sold out to numerous false doctrines. This is a fact, not because I say so, but because history proves IT IS A FACT! Though some assert otherwise, most of these men have abandoned many doctrines that Mr. Armstrong taught.