Tuesday, April 26, 2022

The Patriarch Canaan: Classical Armstrongism’s Stance against Racial Intermarriage

 

Canaanites in an Egyptian Wall Painting.  Canaanites are on the left and Egyptians are on the right wearing white aprons.


The Patriarch Canaan:

Classical Armstrongism’s Stance against Racial Intermarriage

By NeoDromos 

Consider what God specifically says about social fellowship and interracial marriage. Speaking to Israelites about the sons of Canaan, the son of Ham, God said: "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son (Deut. 7:3).     – Herman Hoeh, “The Race Question”, 1957.

Intermarriage between the four primary races — white, yellow, brown, and black — is sin. God says so. And it is God who determines what sin is.     – Herman Hoeh, “The Race Question”, 1957.

“From North Africa the dark-skinned Canaanites migrated to West Africa and are called "Negroes" today.”      – Herman Hoeh, “The Origin of the Nations!”, 1957.

In the period between the Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, God began to establish Israel in the land of promise. And the land of promise was already occupied by tribes of Canaanites. These people became highly important to policy formation in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). The edifice of Armstrongism’s policy on racial intermarriage is built on a theological foundation of error involving the Canaanites. We only know what Deuteronomy 7:3, quoted above, really says when we know who the Canaanites are racially. If this pivotal scripture has been misunderstood and improperly founded then the edifice will collapse. The quotations above all come from documents published in 1957. They represent the view from the vantage point of Classical Armstrongism, the Armstrongism that Herbert W. Armstrong left intact at his death. Post-Classical Armstrongism, the praxis of modern denominations derived from the now-defunct WCG, may differ from this Classical view. This article centers on the Biblical and biological validity of the Classical Armstrongist dogma of racial intermarriage. 

Who are the Canaanites Racially?

The West African Blacks are not Canaanites. In fact, Canaanites were not Blacks at all. While there are a number of ways that one might arrive at this conclusion, modern genetic science provides an elegant and direct verdict. At the outset, it is important to recognize that Herman Hoeh did not have the genetics to rely on as he developed his understanding of anthropology. He relied on the creative interpretation of ancient historical sources – sources that were written to different and less reliable standards of fidelity than modern writing. And conclusions that are developed in this way cannot be tested in a laboratory as the results of genetic analysis can be. One can only speculate what direction Hoeh’s writing might have taken if he had had the results of the field of genetics available to him.


Dr. Spencer Wells was at one time a National Geographic Explorer in residence and is the geneticist that contributed to the video documentary “Quest for the Phoenicians” (National Geographic, 2004). Wells established that the ancient Canaanites were the Phoenicians of later history. And the Phoenicians became the modern-day Lebanese. Wells did not do this by sifting through soft, high-risk resources such as classical history or noting similarities in names – a Hoehist methodology. This was done by hard science – he traced actual molecular genetic connections – a scientific and deterministic methodology. (See The Quest For The Phoenicians).

Wells’ findings were recently corroborated by scientists at the Welcome Sanger Institute, a British genetics research institute. These scientists sequenced the genomes of four ancient Canaanites dating from around 4,000 years ago. From the Welcome Sanger website:

“The Bronze Age Canaanites, later known as the Phoenicians, introduced many aspects of society that we know today – they created the first alphabet, established colonies throughout the Mediterranean and were mentioned several times in the Bible….However, historical records of the Canaanites are limited…. Experts have long debated who the Canaanites were genetically, what happened to them, who their ancestors were and if they had any descendants today…. In the first study of its kind, scientists have uncovered the genetics of the Canaanite people and a firm link with people living in Lebanon today. The team discovered that more than 90 per cent of present-day Lebanese ancestry is likely to be from the Canaanites …”


The research was published in the journal of the American Society of Human Genetics, “Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History from Ancient Canaanite and Present-Day Lebanese Genome Sequences”, Volume 101, Issue 2, P274-282, August 03, 2017.

The ancient Canaanites and their modern-day descendants the Lebanese are closely related to the Jewish people. Both are principally Y chromosome haplogroup J. A study that supports this is cited on the website ScienceDaily:

“The study, published in the May 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that Jewish men shared a common set of genetic signatures with non-Jews from the Middle East, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese, and these signatures diverged significantly from non-Jewish men outside of this region.” 
 
The salient conclusion affecting Armstrongism is that when the OT forbids intermarriage with Canaanites, the theological backbone of the Armstrongist view on racial intermarriage, it is not speaking of interracial marriage but intercultural or interreligious marriage. The Canaanites and the Jews are not only of the same race but are closely related within that race. 

The Occupants of the Far-flung Lands Belonging to “Israel”

The Armstrongists believed that the descendants of Canaan encompassed many different peoples both in ancient times and the present. They were peoples who occupied lands that were colonized by the British. These people were all viewed as biological descendants of Canaan and their dispossession was viewed as advocated by the Old Testament. The chart below shows some of these people and their principal haplogroups. 

People

Principal Haplogroup

Lebanese (the actual descendants of Canaan)

J

Jews (closely related to Canaanites) 

J

Afro-Americans

E

Native Americans

Q, rarely P

Australian Aborigines

C, K

Maori

C, Others

 

If the pre-occupation concept is true, one gets plausible conformity to the events of the Old Testament and confirmation of Anglo-Israelism. But that is genetically impossible. Within a limited number of generations over a few thousand years as required by the so-called “Table of Nations” (A literary flair of the KJV translators - Biblically termed the families or ‘clans of the sons of Noah”) and Biblical chronology, the kind of diversity shown in the table above cannot be achieved based on the computed rate of mutation. This “clan of the sons of Noah” genealogy in Genesis may be Bronze Age allegory but it seems likely that it is a clan chart of the descendants of a single man just as the Genesis 10 states. Further, the hierarchy of haplogroups imprinted on the human genome has a fixed logical design and haplogroup J (Canaan) could never give rise to haplogroup E (African Blacks) because E occurs logically earlier in the human genomic hierarchy than J. 
 
It is clear that occupying land colonized by the British was not a criterion for being racially descended from Canaan. In fact, the British never displaced the actual Canaanites, the Lebanese. Although the idea of the British dispossessing the modern-day descendants of Canaan would be a nice proof of Anglo-Israelism, it simply does not fit history or biological reality.
 

Not Destined to be Slaves 

The Genesis statement attributed to Noah that Canaan would be a servant of servants is not racially relevant to African Blacks. It also does not seem to be empirically relevant to the Lebanese. How the statement relates to any people is not clear. And the view that somehow God is approving of the enslavement of Blacks and that there is a sense of righteousness one can feel in the slave economy of the Old South is a grave error. It is a viewpoint that is uncharitable and unchristian. It is in no way rooted in theology. Rather, it is rooted in greed. Southerners with means sought to consolidate lands into large plantations that were then operated using slave labor. The purpose was solely acquisitive. And concomitant to this was the oppression of poor White Southerners who were landless and jobless because of the slave economy. Not only did the Confederacy fight for the preservation of the slave economy, it inevitably fought for the continued exclusion of poor White Southerners from participation in economic well-being. Apologists for Anglo-Israelism may seek to transform the unethical institution of slavery into Godliness by invoking the account of Canaan in Genesis but that has no place in Christianity. 

The Implementation of Policy Forbidding Racial Intermarriage

By this time it is undeniable that Deuteronomy 7:3 and similar scriptures are not talking about racial intermarriage. These admonitions are speaking of interreligious marriage. This is true also of the intermarriage statements made in Ezra and Nehemiah. The Jews had been intermarrying with the people of the land and on the list were the people of Ashdod, Moab, and Ammon. All three groups are closely related to the Jews and of the same race. The people of Moab and Ammon are actually Hebrews and David was part Moabite.

Racial intermarriage may be forbidden by various organizations for a variety of reasons. What the organizations cannot do is use the Bible to justify such a policy. The Bible focuses on the issue of religion, not human breeding.

Racial purity is the goal of forbidding interracial marriage. Foundational to this idea is the definition of the concept of race. And there is no really deterministic boundary to this definition and, hence, no real ability for anyone to form a criterion for racial category. Haplogroup does not seem to aid in this quest. 

Haplogroup I in Scandinavia and Haplogroup R in Britain are genetically quite distant from each other but most would regard these people to be of the White race because of the simple criterion of appearance. So it is unlikely that Europeans can be thought of as racially pure by the haplogroup standard. For some race is about appearance and geographic residence. My hypothesis is that most people think tribally instead of racially. Race is a far more locally bounded concept than the broad idea of haplogroup.

Racial purity is a myth. Europeans are a combination of haplogroups R, G, I, and a little E and J. I, G and R represent three separate invasions of Europe. “I” people are the early Hunter/Gatherers. “G” people are the later Agriculturalists and “R” people are Steppe Pastoralists. The genetic distance is great between some of these haplogroups. In any case, the idea that Gerald Waterhouse promoted that Herbert W. Armstrong was pure in his generations like Noah (this is a misunderstanding of the intent of the Hebrew) is untenable. At a minimum, HWA had Neanderthal ancestry like other Europeans.


Epilogue

Canaan was a very important patriarch for the Worldwide Church of God. He could arguably be said to rival Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Nimrod in importance. The full weight of the WCG policy on racial intermarriage rested on the racial identity of Canaan and his descendants. Herman Hoeh, interpreting ancient and suspect historical sources, misidentified the Canaanites principally as West African Blacks. From this error burgeoned policies, attitudes, ethics, anthropology, manners, and customs within the WCG. The modern science of genetics has pulled the keystone from this edifice.

This article is not an advocacy for racial intermarriage. Marriage is a difficult relationship to enter into and sustain. A fallen man and a fallen woman in a fallen society attempt to form a nuclear family. The prospects are not good. Everything that can be done should be done to give such a relationship a chance for success – this may include racial comparability. And ultimately it is the grace of God that leads to a successful marriage. This article does advocate the view that the Bible is not a breeding manual for humans. To assert that it is, is to engage in eisegesis. And inevitably it is accompanied by unChristian ideas about what races are superior and inferior.

 

Monday, April 25, 2022

UPDATED: Dave Pack's 14 Enablers


Updated with the addition of Samuel Baxter and deletion of Tim Willard

Tim Willard and his wife just left the Restored Church of God

Dave Pack has fourteen hand-picked enablers that rubber stamps each and every opinion that Dave utters. Not a single one of these men has any balls left to stand up to the endless stream of Dave's lies that are wrecking the lives of RCG members.

These men ultimately do NOT care that members are suffering as they sit in their cult-owned homes on the Wadfswroth compound. If any of them ever made a stand and stood up to Dave they know they would lose their homes and jobs.

These are Dave's 14 advisors, or more accurately, tape recorders. They sit and listen, nodding in approval, and never say, "Dave, you are wrong". They lap it all up and then head out and spread the word to the members.

Bradford Schleifer
Edward Winkfield
Ryan Denee
Dr. Jaco Vilgoen
James Habboush
Andrew Holcombe
Kenneth Orel
Salsa Jezhi
Samuel Baxter
Frank Lydick
Dr. Tim Ranney
Raymond Garb
Carl Houk
Larry McElroy


"What is going on at RCG is fraud of a Biblical proportion"

 



Dave Pack is a "skilled" street magician with the scriptures. He's a corner sidewalk card hustler with Bible quotes. He can move the scriptures around week after week and trick the brethren into believing he FINALLY has the whole picture. NOW Daniel is unsealed. NOW "the days of his voice" are over. NOW the Mystery of God has ended.

In the end, Dave Pack fails. He throws the same verses into the blender and comes up with a new recipe that is always the same: Kick the can down the road. The train will never stop. It cannot stop. Because any pause in the action is at False Teaching Station. Dave cannot have that. His ego cannot have that. After all, someone has to keep feeding the horses.

As a former member and former employee of RCG, I recently joined the private Wadsworth Neighbors Facebook group and offered to answer any questions folks would have. The thread currently has over 800 comments. Locals want to know what is going on over there. If I have an answer that I know is true and factual, I tell them. If I don't know, then I say so.

What is going on at RCG is fraud of a Biblical proportion. Dave Pack cannot now, nor ever be right because the Bible proves him to be false. A false minister. A false apostle. A false prophet. A false teacher. God CANNOT allow him to get anything right.

And yet, the brethren are so exhausted, so confused, so dizzy...they don't know where to go or what to do. "If I just hang on one more time." And yet, the next time Dave says the Kingdom will come...it fails. Count on that! God says Dave Pack HAS to fail. Or the scriptures would be broken.

Every human being has a "line in the sand" and all it takes is time.

One way or the other, both God and history will expose what Dave Pack is to everyone watching. Those closest to him already know...they know in their hearts. EVERY former minister I've talked to that left...left feeling uncomfortable and with a tale to tell of inside the wooden walls on the 3rd floor. There is almost a uniform voice from ministers who left "all speaking the same thing." It paints quite the picture.

How I wish this would be over. Let Christ and God's Kingdom come so I can be declared an antichrist once and for all. OR...Christ and God's Kingdom comes and we can REALLY know what the plan is. I still want to be a part of that.

Marc Cebrian

Why do Restored Church of God members continue to allow themselves to be made out as fools for believing Dave Pack's daily lies?

 


Here we are in another day, the sun is up and it is a beautiful day outside and the Wadsworth "jesus" has not returned!

Every single day Dave Pack makes up a new excuse as to why the creature he invented has not returned and the Restored Church of God members sit there and lap it all up as truth. How many lies will it take before they wake up? Worse yet, how many more failed returns need to happen before some RCG employee or member snaps and there is another COG tragedy happening?

Why are COG members so willing to give up individual self-worth to blindly follow these liars? So many church members have a deep need to be told what to do and believe. That then removes all responsibility from themselves and alleviates their fear and insecurity. If someone else is in control of their beliefs and tells them what to believe then they can remain in a child-like state all their lives. Sadly, this is an attractive option for most RCG members and other COG members.

Restored Church of God members danced the night away in anticipation of Dave's creature returning, but alas, it did not, but fun was had anyway.

As a wonderful dinner dance went deeper into the evening here at Headquarters, it BECAME EVIDENT our wait MIGHT be longer than expected—PERHAPS deep into the night, or even the daylight portion of today. A POWERFUL rationale for a seven-day “one week”—not eight-day—Kingdom of Israel EMERGED, which SOLIDIFIED AFTER a meeting this morning with Headquarters ministers. The case is PROFOUND and involves many scriptures, but only two are needed for proof: 
 
Daniel 9:27 says Christ will confirm the covenant with many for ONE WEEK.” Simple reading leaves no room for an eighth day! The “confirmation” is finished in seven days. Couple this with I Corinthians 1:8, which says Christ will “confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ [synonymous with the Day of the Lord].” 
 
Do NOT MISS what is being said when these two passages are linked! “Confirmation” is complete in the Day of Christ—which caps a seven-day period! 
 
YET AGAIN, we should cling to the promise in Habakkuk 2:3 as the day progresses and we move into the night: “though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry!” We are all STILL MOST EXCITED and INSPIRED here as a meeting with 14 ministers comes to a close!

Dave met with the 14 men he considers his council. Being the weak impotent men that they are, they sat there and nodded heads in agreement with Dave's latest lies. I wonder how many of them deep down inside know that Dave is a liar? 

Sunday, April 24, 2022

10 Million and Counting!

 


Who would have imagined that this blog would have ever hit 10 million site views? It was not even a spark in the back of my mind over twelve years ago when I originally started this to post information about books that were critical; of Armstrongism that were banned by the church so that members did not read them. 

I remember one time at a Deacon/Elders get-together at Dean Blackwell's home when he took us to his garage. It was filled with thousands of books, of which was a huge collection of anti-WCG/Herbert Armstrong books. One of the self-righteous deacons became rather upset seeing all of these books. Blackwell shut him down rather quickly and said that if you were ever going to debate and challenge assumptions about the church then you need to understand the opposing viewpoint. He also mentioned that many of the books that were critical of the church contained a lot of accurate observations about the condition of the church. It was at that point I started collecting these kinds of books and currently have over 50 of them from the early 1960s to the present day, as the count keeps growing yearly as more and more exCOG members tell their stories.

Of course, no one in their critical thinking would have imagined the Worldwide Church of God imploding in such an appalling fashion as it did in the mid-1990s. I was one of those who supported the changes in the church and knew them to be drastically needed. Working in Pasadena or even attending there as a student or as a church member at church services, you quickly learned that the church never practiced what it preached. Its public face and its behind-the-scenes face were two different entities. One proud and boastful and the other, a vengeful spiteful hypocritical mess.

As the church imploded many of these vain spiteful men broke off to form new Church of God movements, which most of the time were nastier and more abusive than anything that WCG had ever contemplated. Each and every one of them told the lie that they were returning to the "truth once delivered" and returning to 1st century Christianity. There is not a single COG out there today that has ever accomplished this and never will even as they continue to lie that they are.

With the rapid birth of hundreds of these harlot daughters of Armstrongism, the church grew crazier by the day. Failed or discredited ministers in the WCG soon earned a following in the splinterdom of Armstrongism.  None of us could have imagined the absolute craziness that they all started preaching and how they began to act.

Gavin Rumney soon came on the scene documenting the rapid decline of the church and particularly the fallout over the doctrinal changes affecting the college and church as they were both imploding. Numerous people in Pasadena and the church were feeding him a steady stream of stories about conditions in the church. Soon, members in the splinter groups start sharing stories of abuse already happening in these young churches. Also during this time, Ed Mentell started The Painful Truth site which was a no holds barred expose of church abuse and its heretical teachings. In 1997, Dixon Cartwright started, The Journal-News of the Churches of God, which rapidly became a slightly neutral ground for various COGs to share their stories and doctrinal stances. Former members and present members also shared their stories of how they were abused.

Never would I have imagined that this blog would end up doing the same thing, but when the church started getting so crazy and the internet was rapidly holding them accountable this blog also took off Gavin Rumney, unfortunately, had died and the Journal ceased operating. During this time and now, church leaders in the Philadelphia Church of God, Restored Church of God, Church of God Preaching the Kingdom, and the absurdly named "continuing" Church of God started saying and doing incredibly stupid things. 

Never has the Church of God been filled with such incredible theological idiots as have in Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Ron Weinland, and Bob Thiel. These guys may be the weirdest leaders, but the church also has to deal with lesser men like Weston, Kubik, Zerubbabel, and others. 

So, as long as these blithering idiots say and do stupid things I will continue to highlight them for as long as I am able or get so tired of their stupidity that it's time to hang it all up. But, till then all I can say is, Keep it up, boys! Especially Bob Thiel! Has the church ever had a more vain, narcissistic, tone-deaf leader than we get to watch in him?

 It is never a dull moment in Armstrongism as we get to watch in real-time as the church disintegrates into meaningless nothingness.