Why You're Going To The Lake of Fire: July 19, 1961 Co-Worker Letter

Co-Worker/Member Letter - July 19, 1961

Yet, when our Lord and Master and leader Jesus Christ PUTS HIS CHURCH TO THE TEST, a very large portion of us seem to FAIL HIM. We, like carnal Israelites of old, do not want to OBEY His orders. We gripe and "murmur" and complain and criticize, and want to go contrary to HIS way, even as carnal ancient Israel. But, IF we are really IN God's own Church, WE HAVE RECEIVED THE GIFT OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT----we have had our carnality CHANGED---we have been graciously given, by God's mercy and loving grace, a NEW NATURE---A NEW ATTITUDE AND SPIRIT---one of willing and eager submission and cooperation, instead of the spirit of rebellion, independence, and criticism.

I am thoroughly discouraged, and I'm going to tell you WHY---and if some of you---yes, MANY of you---do not WAKE UP, and REPENT, I say to you on Christ's authority that He is about to spue you out of His mouth, and your end will be the lake of fire! I am not going to soft-pedal or mince words. God commands me, as His minister, to cry ALOUD and show you who profess to be HIS PEOPLE your sins, lest you fall under HIS TERRIBLE CONDEMNATION! I do not propose to minimize this, because MANY OF YOU PROFESSING BRETHREN ARE IN DANGER OF THE FINAL HELL FIRE JESUS SAID SO MUCH ABOUT!

I am heartsick and grieved at heart. Some of you whom God has called to be my real HELPERS in His work make yourselves,instead, my biggest discouragement.

This is being caused by TWO current experiences.

1) On June 19---just a month ago---our office in Pasadena sent you in the western third of the United State a long letter about the Feast of Tabernacles being held---for brethren of this western part of the country---at a new place JESUS CHRIST has designated for us---a magnificent, exciting, breath-takingly beautiful place---Squaw Valley.

YET IT IS NOW REPORTED TO ME THAT MANY OF YOU SEEM TO BE COMPLAINING, AND PLANNING TO REBEL AGAINST YOUR LORD JESUS CHRIST AND GO TO GLADEWATER, TEXAS, IN SPITE OF US!

Brethren some of you---and apparently MANY of you---need to go to a private place of prayer, and beg the Christ who died for you and granted you the gift of His Holy Spirit to HAVE MERCY ON YOU and FORGIVE YOU! Some of you are showing a wrong rebellious uncooperative and selfish spirit. Some of you are putting the visiting with unconverted relatives ahead of obedience to CHRIST, and cooperation with His CHURCH!

contributed by SHT, all direct quotes of Herbert Armstrong

While Everyone else is SCARED about 1972/1975 in Prophecy, GTA JOKES ABOUT IT TO MINISTERS!!!! (1971, DEC)

photo scanned by SHT

While church members around the world worried about the time of our eminent fleeing to Petra, Garner Ted and others in Pasadena knew nothing was happening and made fun of it all.  The dumb sheep were easy to mock.

I always find it interesting to read COG apologist who will get on their soap boxes and vehemently deny the church ever set dates.  Those men are liars, plain and simple.

I have related here before how the ministry int he Dayton, Ohio church revealed a timeline down to the month we would be fleeing.  It was at a combined service with Columbus that this all went down.  It had to be at a holy day service because we were instructed to arrive back on time for the afternoon service as the doors were to be locked at a certain time and anyone left outside would not be permitted in.  This was supposed to prohibit unconverted ears from hearing what was about to go down.

We arrived back and the minister had a large blackboard on stage.  He proceeded to map out in detail the timeline for the date for us to flee to Petra, down to the month, the week, then day.  My mother copied this down precisely, as she was the one who typed up all the sermons and gave them to the tape library to hand out each week at church.

As the weeks and months went by, my mother crossed each one off.  She had posted this inside the kitchen cupboard so that wandering eyes of neighbors, or the police would not see it.  I remember her mentioning hiding it from the police.  It was a well-known fact that Satan would send the police to try and stop us all from fleeing.

This epic prophetic failure disqualified Herbert Armstrong and every single evangelist, and minister that promoted it.  Scripture tells us that all one need to be a false prophet is to have ONE prophecy fail and they are not to be trusted after that. 

As we all know by now, in 2018, the Church of God is filled to the brim with lying fools like Weinland, Pack, Flurry, Thiel, Malm, and others who continue to set dates and then have to refigure those dates to fit their epic failures. 

20 "But any prophet who fakes it, who claims to speak in my name something I haven't commanded him to say, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die."
21 You may be wondering among yourselves, "How can we tell the difference, whether it was God who spoke or not?" Here's how:
22 If what the prophet spoke in God's name doesn't happen, then obviously God wasn't behind it; the prophet made it up. Forget about him. Deuteronomy 18:20-22

1 God's Message came to me:
2 "Son of man, preach against the prophets of Israel who are making things up out of their own heads and calling it 'prophesying.'
3 God, the Master, pronounces doom on the empty-headed prophets who do their own thing and know nothing of what's going on!
4 Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals scavenging through the ruins.
5 They haven't lifted a finger to repair the defenses of the city and have risked nothing to help Israel stand on God's Day of Judgment.
6 All they do is fantasize comforting illusions and preach lying sermons. They say 'God says . . .' when God hasn't so much as breathed in their direction. And yet they stand around thinking that something they said is going to happen.
7 "Haven't you fantasized sheer nonsense? Aren't your sermons tissues of lies, saying 'God says . . .' when I've done nothing of the kind?  Ezekiel 13:1-7

The vermin, the false teachers, the bastardizers of the law, and the self-appointed who have set themselves up as church leaders and prophets have proven to all be liars.  None of them deserves to be followed.

But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death. Deuteronomy 18:20-22

Cheers!

A tough thing to do, but a freeing thing to do.

HWA: Pray For My Son Who Is Dying, AND Send Me Your Money!

The First Martyr of the End Time

The Philadelphia Church of God has spent over two decades deifying Herbert Armstrong.  They now are attempting to deify Richard Armstrong, by calling him the first martyr of the end times.

“God called on Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his son. God was willing to sacrifice His Son for you and me. I have had to give up my son. Richard David Armstrong died Wednesday morning, July 30, as the first real martyr for God’s cause in these latter days just before the return of Christ in all power and glory” (Herbert W. Armstrong, co-worker letter, Aug. 5, 1958). 

One thing that stands out in the article is the attitude of Herbert Armstrong.  Never one to miss an opportunity to gather in money, he used Richard Armstrong's terrible accident to guilt trip members into sending in as much money as they could.  HWA would later use this same tactic when his wife was dying from a blocked colon.

Another co-worker letter, dated August 28 of the same year, states, “Some had thought God would never let such a thing happen …. But nothing would please Satan more than to see us now lose faith.”

It’s no wonder why God, in the same chapter known as the “faith chapter,” goes into detail about the martyrdom of so many of His saints. The Church and its co-workers received perhaps the biggest lesson in faith it had ever received! In a co-worker letter written after the accident, before Richard died (on July 27), Mr. Armstrong scolded many of them for letting down in their prayers and offerings. “Co-workers, will you not only pray for my son’s miraculous and speedy recovery—but also for the financial salvation of the Work of God?” Throughout the letter, with the call for more believing prayers, Mr. Armstrong called for more faithful offerings. He said Satan had struck one of God’s “very chiefest laborers,” but that God’s Work needed more co-worker laborers “who help with their urgent heart-rending prayers, and with their tithes and generous offerings, regularly every month, or even every week.”

The financial salvation of the work?  Seriously?  How sick can the manipulative man get?  This request was all about manipulation. Make the members feel that because THEY had slacked off on prayers and in giving that it was their fault Richard had this terrible accident.

"Disgusting sinners!  If you had been praying more my son would not have been injured and the work would be increasing! Get on your knees and beg God to heal my son and to correct your sinful attitudes as you give more money!"

LCG: The Legacy of Fools?

LCG, 

the land of constant rainbows and lollipops

Living Church of God is highlighting an article from 2010 on their World Tomorrow web site.  It was written by J. Davey Crockett III, the Legacy of Fools.

It is kind of funny to see such a title on a web page for a Church of God that has such serious issues as LCG seems to be having with its members.

Crockett writes:

There are great stories and interesting examples of legacies, large and small, in the history of mankind. In this country, there have been the Carnegies, the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Fords and many other philanthropists. In Europe, the British Commonwealth and other developed nations, great legacies have been bequeathed by the leading industrialists, financiers and royal families. Those physical legacies will pass away in time.

People of ordinary means also leave legacies. In Ecclesiastes 7:1 Solomon wrote that "A good name is better than precious ointment." The Book of Proverbs puts forth this idea in this way, "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold" (Proverbs 22:1). Certainly a family name associated with honesty and fair dealing is a wonderful legacy to those who receive it. A loving relationship within the family in which children have been brought up in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4), is also a priceless, timeless legacy.

The other side of the coin is not so valuable. Proverbs 3:35 states plainly that, "The legacy of fools is shame." Shame? Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines shame as, "a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety. A condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute." No one wants this! Yet many live their lives in ways that bring shame and other undesirable consequences, which are not confined to this current generation, but which spill over into subsequent generations. We shouldn't be surprised.

LCG leaders are into the 3rd and 4th  generations of their existence and it most certainly is true that the undesirable consequences of disgrace and disrepute continue to spill over into today's leadership. The track record of abuse has left a trail of destruction in its wake with destroyed lives, including death and mayhem.

Crockett continues with this:

Anciently, in the passage where the Ten Commandments were given, the Bible made this very clear in Exodus 20:5, "...For I , the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me."

So, as you contemplate your legacy, what will it be? If you are truly seeking answers to the important questions that every person should ask, and if you are dedicated to following God's way of life, your legacy will not be that of fools, but that of a wise, discerning person who wants God's will for yourself and your descendants.

A wise and discerning Christian would actually see that Jesus is missing from LCG and would take some serous steps in leaving the group!

The legacy we leave is ours to choose. Will it be a godly legacy of truth and light, exemplified by the Christian life, or the "legacy of fools" which brings shame and disgrace?

A wise and discerning Christian would also know that any organization that has spawned Dave Pack and Bob Thiel has some serious spiritual issues!

I think we all know, and certainly the LCG members who read and post here know, that shame and disgrace have followed the Living Church of God since it stabbed Global Church of God in the back, which in turn had stabbed it's mother church in the back and stole membership rolls and actively sought to divert tithe money into their pockets.  After all, maintaining their privileged lives was far more important than the spiritual welfare of the members that they seduced to follow them.