Herbert Armstrong was certainly a proponent of sacrifice.
Perhaps it is because he read the Scripture in Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Many of us are familiar with the ministers standing up at the Feast seven times in a year just before the offering is to be taken:
Give until it hurts!
The expectation has always been from the beginning that we all give our all to “The Work” because God demands it of us and that the Apostle (sometimes with another title with the word ‘General’ in it) is the one to whom we give the money in God’s (or Jesus’) Name. If the children of your family need to be sacrificed, who are you to question the needs of God’s Work? You need to give your effort to The Work. Something has to give somewhere, so if you are short time, you take it from your family; if you are short money, take it from your family. Your needs to even survive pale to insignificance to saving this world. You must bribe God for your salvation, but even more, you need to give everything you have for spreading the Gospel to prove that you love the Leader set here by God / Jesus. If you starve, so much the better: Consider yourself a martyr; if your family starves, they are martyrs too.
But it goes so far beyond money: It is also time, expertise, labor and any other free resource that can be exploited and enslaved — it doesn’t belong to you, it is for the Apostle (Evangelist, Prophet, …’General’).
There is a problem, however: Some of you are Laodiceans and hold back a part, like Ananias and Sapphira!
Many of today’s End Time Apostles / Prophets have called you on this. David Pack, Ronald Weinland, Gerald Flurry, to name a few, are not pleased with half-hearted participation! They demand more! For example, some of them, like David Pack insist that you gouge your unconverted spouse for the money. You should leave your inheritance of real property to the church and not your worthless family who will just waste it on such things as having a place to live, clothes to wear and food to eat. The Work needs a new campus! You need to give to that building fund! The Work needs a new studio for TV and Internet work! The Work needs an extra million dollars this year (and the UCG isn’t the only one) to preach the gospel in Islam Countries, like Saudi Arabia! You must sacrifice. This is all explained by The Supreme Commander of The Supreme Cult. Please note that there are Five Tithes on your income before you even get one penny before taxes!
Note what the leaders have said in the past, like what Garner Ted Armstrong said that we give to God (well, not actually, we give to some guy in an expensive suit) and that is where our responsibility ends: After that, it’s God’s responsibility — He will take care of it and we need not worry our little heads about whether or not The End Time Apostle uses the money frivolously! Or maybe we are supposed to check up on it — there seem to be different readings on accountability.
Nevertheless, we are to GIVE, freely, thankfully, because God just loves a cheerful giver! No grumbling. Just because those leaders in your church have taken everything away from you and have all the good stuff you want and even more than you could have imagined, doesn’t mean that you have to ruin it all by having an ATTITUDE! Heavens no! Some day, if you have just the right faith and you have done absolutely everything you should do quite perfectly and you have the right attitude and wait in patience, willing to suffer loss quietly, then you certain just might have a glorious inheritance! Maybe! You could inherit the Kingdom. No promises though, since you have to give to just the RIGHT cult! See, if David Pack and the Restored Church of God is the absolutely only place of salvation and you are in the Living Church of God with Roderick Meredith (should he live so long), you lose big time. You have to be in exactly the right cult to make this work! You can’t just join any old church and be sure of salvation. On the other hand, if Gerald Flurry with his Philadelphia Church of God (the name sounds right!) and you are with James Russell in the Church of God in Truth, you will be sure out of luck! You may be bowing down to the Meredithites instead of the Russellites! God is definitely a respecter of persons! You need to get it right or repent and then get it right!
God looks at your attitude, which, at the moment is a pretty awkward position. You need to be on the straight path with the narrow gate or else you are on the broad road to perdition with a whole lot of company. It’s all rigged, of course, since all of the Armstrongists are wrong at the core, so you can’t possibly pick the right one!
As the decades roll by, realities crop up and the First Love of sacrificing all you have gets to be not just tedious, but progressively more difficult: You don’t have enough money to cover your expenses; you don’t have enough vacation to cover all the Feasts; you don’t have enough time to give; you don’t have enough energy for yet another cult function.
And then you find out where the money has been going.
And it gets to be ever more difficult to justify your sacrifice.
Laodocean!
That’s what your cult leader accuses you of. He makes you feel guilty. He tells you that holding back is a sin of selfishness. He implies that you don’t have gratitude toward God who gave you everything! He threatens you by saying that you will not continue to receive God’s blessings (not that you’ve been noticing them lately). He then tells you that if you don’t give, you will be under a curse.
This is known in some circles as extortion.
In some limited legal circles it is considered a crime.
Certainly, in the case of Ronald Weinland and his silent witness wife, it was considered a crime by the Internal Revenue Service that they didn’t pay Income Tax on $3.5 million of undeclared personal income from member monetary sacrifice. Weinland spent the money on luxury BMWs for himself, his daughter and his son. He went to Las Vegas to an expensive hotel to hold his ministerial conference. Laura had expensive jewelry designed for her to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is the sacrifice that the members of his church made for him: Personal luxury living, having nothing to do with “Preaching the Gospel” whatever that might mean. In this case, the Gospel was in the form of books written to predict what was to happen in 2008, which never did, making him an obvious false prophet. No matter, his cult followers continue to sacrifice for him. Heck, the widow lady across the street attending his church got a lien on her house to pay for his $300,000 bail money. You just can’t sacrifice enough for your leader.
Herbert Armstrong was wont to do the same thing, back in the day. The Kessler Letter refers to the incidents where Herbert Armstrong routinely grabbed $50,000 personal spending money before each trip. The Ambassador Report mentions the trip to Monaco where he rented a yacht for his family to sail around the Mediterranean. If this were done today and it came to the attention of the Internal Revenue Service, it is likely the Justice Department would have had Herbert Armstrong convicted of felony Income Tax Evasion too. We’ll never know. The internal mechanisms for cover up at the time were too sophisticated for anyone to actually get caught.
Others of the Armstrong cults have other various means to absorb all that their members can sacrifice. Currently, the United Church of God, an International Association, is promoting their “million dollar faith initiative” to extract an extra $1 million this year not in the budget to go preach the gospel to Islam nations. It won’t have any real impact in preaching the “gospel” (of British Israelism) to the Arabs, but it does wonders for member’s morale!
Davy Pack is having a high time building a multi-million dollar campus in Wadsworth, Ohio these days. The members are encouraged to sacrifice as much as they have, as much as they can wheedle from their spouse and in the happy fortune that member with money dies, Davy is to get the inheritance money (don’t leave it to the kids — not providing for your own cult makes you worse than an infidel).
Who knows how much money Gerald Flurry still owes on Ambassador College out there in the wilds of Oklahoma. It’s millions for sure. Members should sacrifice to be able to make payments. Perhaps one day after Gerald Flurry dies, the campus will be sold, just as Ambassador College in Pasadena was, with buildings being razed for some commercial enterprise, although none of us can think of what sort of enterprise would want property out in Oklahoma unless oil was discovered underground.
With over 700 subcults from which to choose, those people with borderline personality have a cornucopia of a plethora of unworthy causes to make their sacrifice, to pretty much engage in practices guaranteed to reduce their quality of life for a very long time to come.
The point of all of this is not to point out that the Armstrongists are charlatans and thieves — they are that — it is to uncover something much more sinister.
In The Last Days, we examined the disturbing chaotic immorality embedded within Armstrongism. Even though the venue seemed benign, behind the scenes lay an horrific hypocrisy of unacceptable cover ups perpetrated within the Armstrongist Community: Armstrongism is rife with moral ambiguity which systematically destroys people and families within the cult environment.
There can be no claim for self-righteous right-wing pandering pseudo Republicans (who don’t vote or supposedly participate in governmental involvements — even to refusing jury duty, let alone military service) to say that they are for God’s Law and support Law and Order. The truth be told, and we’ve told the Painful Truth over and over — that the founders, leaders, administrators and ministers live a privileged life above and apart from the masses where crimes are committed and covered up, immorality abounds and everyone seems to have lost their moral compass, if, indeed, they ever had one. There can be no real trust and there is absolutely no justice. This self-absorbed community of ego, power, privilege and money built on the sacrifice of those treated with contempt has absolutely no socially redeeming qualities.
Moreover, if we accept the somewhat skewed view of Charles Darwin with evolution being “the survival of the fittest”, we have a dead end religious evolution in which the dinosaurs left over from the devastating mass extinction event of the death of Herbert Armstrong are slowly dying off, having not adapted well to the world around them, attempting to do the same useless things they have always done without realizing that they will never get anywhere near the same results with a depleted environment long subjected to entropy. The rule is to change and adapt, or you die. They are not changing or adapting. They don’t even repent of the evil and wicked they do as a matter of course.
Much thanks for your work. The fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 were very disturbing for me as I “unbelievably” came to learn that the WWCG and its splinter groups are nothing less than hoodlums and gangsters. This is sad but what is more sad for me is that I knew Jesus as my Lord and Savior and this knowledge was diminished gradually as a result of all the indoctrinations of The Restored Church of God headed by David C. Pack.
I am repulsed that these men, in these splinters, continue in the shadow of Herbert Armstrong. Yet, I am more confused and saddened that their members don’t see what seems so obvious–that they are caught up in a religious cult where they sacrifice the God-given gift of their intellect. And for what? I have spent much time deliberating why these so called ministers and “apostles” would continue as they do. I could take the easy road and say that they themselves are/have been deceived by HWA. But, nay, not all! Surely they have “a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof: from such turn away.” (II Tim. 3:5).
I remember asking one of the members why is it that Mr. Pack has such a nice and large home and nice vehicles. The member said to me, “he has to because no one will follow or listen to him if he does not have them. You know how people are.” I could not believe my ears because if David Pack truly believes that he is God’s appointed then surely he would not depend upon his worldly possessions to entice new membership. But then again, that’s what their business is all about–to attract, allure, persuade… Tragic.
Surely, these men have not a clue as to what it really is to present their bodies a living sacrifice and that they be not conformed to this world and the ways of this world. (Romans 12:1-2)
Finally, I have just read the critique of Mystery of the Ages, chapter two. All I can is gangsters, gangsters!!
I pray that you all be increased with right knowledge and wisdom from above. Thank you again.
With my warmest regards, –Impacted by Restored Church of God
Those of us at The Painful Truth approve this message.
So those of you who are still addicted to making sacrifice for Armstrongist cults, understand that your efforts are futile: The leaders will waste your money, you will live a diminished life and, in the end, there will be nothing left to show for it.
Meanwhile, you will find that with being surrounded so long with immorality under the covers, you will eventually be so warped that you cannot even determine right from wrong.
And that is the real sacrifice you have made.
Hoffer had this stuff laid out in 1951 in “The True Believer”, and it applies to all religious systems, because all “christianity” as we know it merely makes the indfividual a cog in the machi ne of a mass movement, it is a corporate structure which serves the economic interests of the super rich. Hearst selected Billy Graham because Graham supported a new kind of collectivist agreement against communism. His crusades brought thousands blindly down the sawdust path without question because they served “God” rather than atheism. As Hoffer writes:
“When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom–freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder, and betray without shame and remorse….The hatred and cruelty which have their source in selfishness are ineffectual things compared with the venom and ruthlessness born of selflessness….The de-individualization which is a prerequisite for thorough integration and selfless dedication is also, to a considerable extent, a process of de-humanization. The torture chamber is a corporate institution”.
Star Chamber was a corporate institution in God’s name.
Due diligence is something each of us must do, not just once, but continually. You won’t find this process being taught in the ACOGs. Once you “prove all things”, ie that they are the one true church, and God’s representatives on planet earth (a feat that is not even possible!) then according to them, the due diligence process is supposed to discontinue.
Accountability is something to which “they” are supposed to subscribe and be guided. The problem is that they place themselves above this process by fostering the belief that they should be treated as members would treat God Himself. So much for good stewardship!
Not all, but a sizeable number of the people we were taught were “Christians falsely so-called”, have real boards of elders, and real accountability partners. They are very concerned about good stewardship of blessings, and carefully and systematically target their evangelistic efforts. It’s a whole alternate or parallel Christian reality that unfortunately gets branded as “Satan’s way” because of such things as “Why should we listen to them? They don’t even keep the sabbath!” It’s the old fruits versus legalism bait and switch that HWA used to justify every practice which naturally and normally seems unChristlike.
Sacrifice is very rewarding if the sacrifices accomplish the stated goal. If it is squandered, how could one possibly not feel ripped off, fooled, angry at wrong-doing, and defeated? If you believe someone is going to be faithful in using your donations to fulfill the great commission and you later find out that it was gambled in Reno, used without board of elders’ approval to rent a yacht for a vacation for the apostle and his family and guests, squandered on Dom Perignon or obscene conspicuous affluence such as 24kt gold table settings, the only thing a Christian can do is vote with your wallet, and ask God to help you in finding people that actually will use offerings conscientiously to accomplish His work.
BB
Yep Bob, due diligence is an on going process. It was the wcg that helped me to understand this. I practice this daily. I won’t be fooled again!
“I won’t be fooled again!”
Like CSI, examine every scrap of evidence. One of the things I am discovering, in my research on law from Jewish concepts to the present, is that Jesus emphasized a process of law and not of doctrine. For example, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, writes in his treatise called “Common Law” that law developed anciently as a means to regulating vengeance, limiting it to specific actions of the two directly involved, rather than a collective army of those who sought to avenge themselves on some wrong committed by the other group.
Jesus pointed out that he came to fulfill every law given by God, but that very principle is one of “due process’ by which we are protected, not a condemnation. For example, if you are charged with an offense, you have the right to examine every jot and tittle in your defense til heaven and earth pass away if necessary. Not one jot or tittle will be ignored. Ancient Talmudic practice elevated this to the concept of the right against self incrimination(SCOTUS declared that the 5th amendment right had its beginnings in the Bible, “Miranda v Arizona, footnote 27). In lawful practice, the prosecution had to provide two witnesses, both fully confirmed without contradiction, and the defendant could NOT be compelled to offer testimony, which is exactly what the priests attempted during the trial of Jesus, and he remained silent. The book of John says he demanded that the prosecution provide both a charge and a witness(John 18:19-23). None were provided. Jesus emphasized that every jot and tittle of law should be practiced with love, and not with vengeance, and that we could settle matters among ourselves(Matt 5:25, Matt 18:15-18). He allowed for regulation of vengeance, but he emphasized “equity”, a process by which both litigants profited if possible.
Paul himself ephasized this in Romans 12:19, telling christians to “give place unto wrath”. That “place” was before duly named authorities whose purpose was to execute vengeance AFTER it was deemed necessary by the people. Paul further emphasized a form of trial by jury in 1 Corinthians 6, with the reminder that “such were some of you(verse 11)”.
In fact, it’s not about which group is correct, or whether the law is “done away”, but in realizing that the law is there only as a “mirror’ for us to know right from wrong, and NOT to judge by vengeance, but by mercy and love when possible. It’s always been about law and our application, whether of vengeance and condemnation , or of love and mercy toward all. Pure and undefiled religion is defined quite well in James 1:27.
Ralph wrote:
“Jesus emphasized that every jot and tittle of law should be practiced with love, and not with vengeance”
That’s a far cry from what the “law” does too you now days. It a beat down if you stand up for your rights.
The country has changed. It is as if the country we live in is being transformed by the lawlessness law makers who take from us our traditional rights and replace them with a crimes list. We may be being primed for a dictatorship. But as it is, scum will take advantage of this to beat on people. The psychopaths, the police (one in the same) those in any form of power over others will grab what they can from the people.
Reminds me of “send it all in” Dave Pack!
Basically, that’s the core of the whole argument. Not that the law is done way or established, but whether it will be used in a merciful way or a vengeful way.Does the authorioty lie with the accuser, or with the state? Obviously the state cannot exist both to protect your rights AND make laws to collect tribute from you once you break their laws. That’s a protection racket. It’s how the state works. Religion is just a variation of the protection racket, but “God” is all powerful and inescapable, so you will pay when you die. My lawyer friend asked me today if it wasn’t better to go to church and offer prayer, or gathere with a group and fire a machine gun as an expression of free speech. I said fire a machine gun. When the law’s only justification is the power of the gun, then the citizen’s only alternative is to learn to use all forms of weapons if possible.
The main reason why revolution hasn;t occurred is that millions of people believe Jesus will someday return and give proper government. Did you ever wonder if this little theme wasn’t added by Constantine’s folks just in case the natives got restless?
The coming of Christ, along with a life long sacrifice of giving your money and time is the hook. Its the fear factor that MOTIVATES people into action.
It is through fear that people play out and claim to be following Christ.
Politicians are like the priests. They use fear and empty promises to motivate people. In the end, if we are wise, we can see through this crap and ignore them and not participate in the charade.
I am glad I am an atheist the fictitous bible has no control over me or manmade God’s, God is a myth
Ken,
I see ‘God” as a power that has none of mankind’s attributes such as jealousy, hatred or war mongering. These are of man and it follows man created his ‘gods’ after his own image, a creation of his own heart. In the end we are made from the star dust of the universe, for it was the universe that gave birth to mankind.
Recall that I have pointed out before that the Christian religion is based on astrology…
https://www.bitchute.com/video/qiWkRvnTmrfU/
The bibles many gods do not exist.
herbert an garner armstrong was sex perverts ,,,the bible judges them