“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future” – Yogi Berra
This comment brought back another annoying little itch:
It remains my concern that, because the government of the USA has discounted biblical prophecy, US government officials seems to think that China (along with Russia) is the USA’s the biggest threat militarily. – from a COGwriter post
Hmm, was following Bible prophecy ever tabled as an option in determining US foreign policy? Not that I know of, but George W Bush claimed biblical prophecy was a reason for invading Iraq. But that was the GWB, not the HWA, version of biblical prophecy. If he had followed HWA, would he have blamed 911 on the Germans? Would he have been after Gerhard Schroder, not Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein?
I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy’s famous speech, and watching the Pentagon conferences on television when I got home from school each day. So why did Kennedy stand up to Khrushchev instead of invading Cuba?
Because President Kennedy does not understand prophecy! – GTA, PT Dec 1962
Okay, invading Cuba would have been the preferred option, because GTA explains if the Soviets retaliated, the US would counterattack, and that wasn’t in the Bible.
But President Kennedy did not know exactly what Khrushchev might do in Berlin, in India, in Formosa, or elsewhere in the world should we attack Cuba. – GTA, ibid.
Had Kennedy allowed the planned invasion of Cuba, Castro may have fired a few missiles in self-defense. Whatever the Soviet Union would do, the US doesn’t retaliate, but pummels Cuba, prophecy remains intact, but lots of people on both sides are dead. But that didn’t happen, and Khrushchev backed down, and removed the missiles…
Well, in the very next article in the December 1962 Plain Truth, Dr Hoeh informs us that while the Cuban Missile Crisis diverted our attention, China was about to invade India. So the US should have considered China a military threat. Not against the US, but against a neutral nation. And back to the present, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan are US allies, and each have issues with China. (Okay, in Taiwan, it depends on which way the political wind is blowing.)
Of course, HWA claimed his “master key” to understanding prophecy was British-Israelism. Do you know that under that paradigm Stalin invaded Israel? Yes, in 1939. But since Dr Hoeh didn’t tell us that Finland was Issachar until years later, we can let that one slip by. Besides, we’re only interested in the House of Joseph, not Uncle Joe.
HWA and his men have expounded hundreds of cases of his interpretation of Biblical prophecy that have failed miserably. For a final look, let’s go back to when it began, the years before World War II. In HWA’s one week of radio shorts in October 1933, he started with promises made to Abraham – his foundation for British-Israelism. The very first Plain Truth brought up world dictatorship. Then came the war, and everything seemed to fall into place, once earlier guesses were discarded and the key players were sorted out. Until the predictions started to belly-up.
What if FDR had set his foreign policy based on HWA’s predictions?
In 1939, Germany invades Poland, the UK and France declare war on Germany, and the US declares neutrality.
A war has started; the paradigm is that the US and UK would lose, what should FDR do in light of HWA’s spin on Bible prophecy? Perhaps he did make the right move, keep out of it! Then Japan attacks in 1941. Ooops. Germany declares war on the US, but the reason was that the US violated neutrality. You can’t remain neutral in a war while supplying one side. (Or both sides, if you consider companies like IBM and GM and their dealings in Germany).
So again, what to do if you “know” you’re going to lose? Die fighting, surrender, or seek peace? Well, we know FDR chose to fight until the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. And that happened. Ooops again.
Even if our leaders “know” what a prophecy meant, how should they react? And HWA’s interpretations? He not only missed the mark on prophecies yet to be fulfilled, but ones that supposedly were fulfilled. Referring to a prophecy about Tyre in “The Proof of the Bible”:
This prophecy, much misunderstood, is not the challenge to the skeptic we assumed. – Herman Hoeh, “A new look at Ezekiel’s prophecy on Tyre”, GN, Dec 1980
Sometimes I get ornery about nothing and people say I got a bee in my bonnet. It usually turns out to be a wasp in my ten-gallon hat. When I get an itch in the britches – and it’s not “the itch” (Deut 28:27) – I find the best way do deal with the little annoyance is to write about it.
Sometimes the itch is about misinformation, by neglect to verify something, and sometimes from poor scholarship. Sometimes it turns out to be giving information that is intentionally wrong. One time when I heard some incorrect claim in a sermonette. I mentioned this to another member, who responded with something like, “You should tell Mr. — his mistake, he would really appreciate getting his facts set straight”. Hmm. Like in the Spokesman’s Club “Get the facts!” speech?
One ‘sermonette fact’ was given in hysteria over gay teachers in public schools (not celibate teachers in Catholic schools). At that time, and in that city, evidence showed the exact opposite of what ‘fact’ and what the speaker implied. Some years ago a COG leader claimed, “Evolutionists are running scared of Intelligent Design!” Actually, scientists were exuberant at having unmasked ID as rebadged Creationism. They even showed books that were edits of older texts, with theistic terms replaced by benign ID jargon. A non-COG minister used fabricated facts in a debate over evolution; his opponent charged him with “Lying for God”, as if the ends justified the means (like in the “Proof of the Bible”).
A problem with some “proofs” is that parts of verses are patched together like axiomatic proofs of Euclidean geometry. Our dependency on HWA’s “proofs” slowly began to unravel after his demise, and without them, the WCG fell apart. About the only thing that remained was his autocratic form of rule.
And here is one that always gets me peeved – a minister at one of the COGs on the Silenced.co “Dying” list keeps trying to “disprove” Global Climate Change, and for no stated reason – though I privately speculate it’s seen as being contrary to “God controls the weather”. Admittedly, governments have really made a mess of carbon trading, burp tax (penalty on methane emission), alternative energy, and so on, and Al Gore told a few inconvenient whoppers.
A recent rant had to do with the ships frozen in Antarctic waters. Of course it’s summer in the Southern Hemisphere, some Australian states are suffering a heat wave, but Antarctica being cold disproves global warming. Despite the ice-locked ships, there were news reports of record high temperatures in Antarctica (but unconfirmed). The official summer record high temperature at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole base was in 2011, minus12 degrees C. Still cold, but warm compared to the average warm season temperature of minus 35 degrees C. Even with Global Warming, Antarctica is still cold in the summer – colder than the Artic. And ice still melts at 0 degrees C…
Well, that itch has gone, and the bee turned out to be a just a mosquito.
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The Way of peace they know not; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks along them will know peace. Isaiah 59:8 Click For Larger Version.
The WCG experienced the calamitous collision with the iceberg of reality 28 years ago when Herbie went to his final reward.
The Beginning of the End
It was quite perplexing to watch the events of the Worldwide Church of God unfold. When the founder Herbert Armstrong died in 1986, a new leadership under Joe Tkach Sr. and company tried to correct many of the gross errors in doctrine that the cult held for so long.
After HWA’s death, despite the efforts of some, the good-ship Armstrong ground to a halt and began to sink. The flares were fired. Nobody thought she could sink. But the gates of hell prevailed and sink she did.
Some have asked if Joe Tkach so despise Herb, that he set out with a devious plan to scuttle the Armstrong empire. I personally doubt his intentions were to destroy a financial empire that would have been a cash cow for himself.
Years after the old man died, Junior waved his magic wand and created Grace Communion as a lifeboat to insure his existence and prominence after the WCG. Joe sold off what he could and scuttled what was left of Armstrongism, shoving off in his protestant lifeboat leaving behind the broken and befuddled.
Sinking Lifeboats
If we were able to obtain daily income and weekly service attendance from the current ACOG’s we would easily see that a trend is developing that will take them out of existence in the next several years. We have the break with United, then Bob Thiel’s little cult who broke from Meredith’s abomination. All these factions caused a drop in the income and influence of the COG’s. The hemorrhaging thankfully continues on. The steady stream of members are now cast in all directions, and the clueless Bob Thiel doesn’t even realized that he himself is helping to destroy the Armstrong movement. We appreciate your efforts bro! Really we do!
But wait, theres more!
The lack of a charismatic personality, leadership, and the dynamics of control cannot hold this mess together. Today, in 2014, there are three major groups attempting to function as a WCG copy-cat-cult. None of them have the successful money-making formula laid down by Herbie, and all are at war with one another competing for the ever shrinking, blue ribbon tithe payers money. One attack after another, the ACOG cults destroy the cohesion that once held them together as a family of believers. Divide and conquer should be the strategy towards ones enemies, not your brethren!
So with that in mind, open your song books to page….and sing…
Onward Christian Soldiers
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus (Your current gurus name here) going on before.
Christ, Armstrong the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!
(In Armstrongism, the foe is the world at large, along with the other “group(s)” the leaders and members)
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus (fill in the blank as above) going on before.
At the sign of triumph Satan’s (the competition) host doth flee;
on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver (grow stronger) at the shout of praise (self praise);
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.
(Taking ones pride and exemplifying their group above another)
Like a mighty (dysfunctional) army moves the church of God;
brothers, we are treading where the saints Satan has trod.
We are not divided, (not) all one body we,
one in hope (hopelessness) and doctrine, one in charity (poverty)
(Divided they are. No unity, no peace, slander, hatred and constant war are the fruits)
Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
but the church (cult) of Jesus (Armstrongism) constant will remain (fail)
Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail;
we have Christ’s (gurus) own promise, and that cannot fail.
(The Balkanization of Armstrongism is the hallmark of failure and the result of constant war)
Onward then, ye people, join our happy (oppressed) throng,
blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.
Glory, laud, and honor unto Christ (Herbie) the King,
this through countless ages men and angels (Satan) sing.
(Happy throng? Terry Ratzmann, a creation of Meredithism, a sub-cult of Armstrongism. How many more are waiting in the shadows?)
The U.S.S. Armstrong sunk years ago, but on the life boats the band(s) still plays on. To this very day, the groups that follow Herbert’s cesspool of doctrinal error and corruption try to mimic what was prophesied, what was said, how it was said. The very art of mimicking Herbert in every possible way has nothing to do with the following and worship of Jesus Christ, but with the worship and devotion to Herbert W. Armstrong and their leading evangelist guru.
Negativity. The Driving Force Behind Armstrongism
As the year marches on we will see the transpiring of more fear, division, competition, and much more hatred. The crap that these ignorant, godless gurus distribute to each others and their sheeple will escalate as it has in the last several years.
Meredith and the other gurus ignore basic psychology. People need love, hope and freedom in life. All of us need the bond that only family can provide.
But when all they receive from their Master(s) is negativity, shunning, breaking up of families, fear driven faith and threats, something is going to break. This frustration and anger played out nearly a decade ago at a LCG church meeting.
Recall Terry Ratzmann.
In Terry Ratzmann’s case, the man took on the title of a mass murderer, forever enshrined in the publics memory as the guy who shot up Rod Meredith’s cult. Yes, lame excuses were passed around that there was a medical explanation behind the shooting. I don’t buy it for a minute. Like most here, we have lived this type of life. It’s a life of religious masturbation. You never get to the point of climax!
The “Flog log kid” Herbert Armstrong, always told us that the end was near, even picking dates in the future. When 1936/1972/1975 turned to shit, he threw a disclaimer into the mix saying he never sets dates. Other times he flat out blamed the membership for his gross failures. For those who read this blog and others like it, you understand that this is escape plan “B” when your prophecies crap out. Even the false prophets of other religious organizations take this exact same route of deception. It is the psychology (behavior pattern) of deceptive narcissistic men.
If Herbert W. Armstrong had lived in ancient Israel, he would have been put to death by the religious leaders of the times by the authority of the very God that he proclaimed. According to the “Almighty” of the bible, there was only one penalty for a false prophet, and that being death. So why do the people of these organization put up with these lies? Maybe they are using the “church” as a social club, or perhaps for the adrenaline rush they get from some very “scary” prophecies. Or is it because they are cowards who cannot face life and reality? I am sure there are a host of other reasons, but let us consider this matter further.
Being deceived means you do not know any better (ignorant of facts) but when the facts are made clear and are thoroughly documented, what should be your next move? Ignore them at your own peril or having some personal integrity and act on the new information? People of moral integrity are those who merit respect, having a “bottom line principle”. It is what they will accept and nothing lower. Integrity is a loyalty virtue, loyalty toward oneself. Showing fidelity to those values, principles or commitments that constitute their own identity.
The flip side of the coin, those who lack integrity, they trade their own views for the views of others who are more authoritative, and stay in step with opinions of others, being so much less demanding of themselves. These people betray action on their own views for gain, status, reward, or approval. This in itself is a serious character flaw. This is also the prostitution of oneself. A sellout.
The War to End all Wars
The war to end all wars within the Armstrong movement will be when the people stop following and allowing these failures, these losers, these charlatans, these abusive “freaks” to use and abuse them as they get their pockets picked clean. How many times have we all heard from the miscreant’s behind the pulpit that HWA was “Gods Apostle”? The person of integrity would ask themselves “Does God use pedophiles to preach his word?” The answer to this comes in the mail when I read the letters from those who would rather kill me than to face the fact that they have been had by a con man, and continue to be had by con men, and that the Herbster DID fuck his daughter for a period of around ten years. I must say, these people lack any form of integrity. And they are suppose to rule the world under Christ? Shit, give me the lake of fire! I don’t need a push, I’ll jump in head first!
In conclusion, if America does go into a time of hyperinflation and when feeding ones family should be priority #1 (for the religious infidel it is priority #2 or #3) a decision will have to be made.
When that time comes, watch Dave Pack’s empire disappear in a flash, watch Gerald Flurry struggle with the banks that financed that white elephant in Edmond. Watch the members struggle to survive in a world known only by their fathers or grandfathers.
Meredith, Flurry, Thiel, Malm, all of these gurus, we can only hope that they will emulate the bankers of the 1920’s, by throwing themselves from the 13th floor of the Armstrong casino to the pavement below.
