Talk about enthusiasm! Be Our Guest — put our service to the test! Yes!
Sixtieth Anniversary! What a great spectacle — joining Pentatonix in celebration!
As opposed to…
“Prepare for Doomsday and Armageddon” — man, that’s a buzzkill. Don’t watch very much of it. If this represents God, God deserves to lose.
Ames says (please, don’t need to watch the video for the sake of your own mental health):
“Some members of the larger church of God cannot discern the signs of the time; some consider Bible Prophecy so negative that they falsely believe that they should ignore it. That’s extremely dangerous: They are endangering their spiritual lives. God gives us warning for our benefit to preserve us alive.”
That’s not very believable, since the Living Church of God presenters make it seem like they’re already dead. They’ve hung on to life just long enough to make Dystopian messages of gloom, draining whatever energy you may have had to plunge you into depression. That way, it won’t seem like such a big deal when you give them all your money — and, by the way, don’t just tithe and tithe and tithe with offerings and special funds added — be sure to leave everything you have left to them. With the certain death spiral you’ll be in after absorbing their material of death, doom and destruction, it’s symmetric. Roderick Meredith has been at this since the 1950s and has proved that it’s profitable and wise to ignore the Bible Prophecy he’s been pushing — none of it has come to pass over the past 60 years and doesn’t seem to be making any headway on the world scene (and lots of bad things do happen in the world, but these ignoramuses haven’t had any track record of accuracy at all, having missed such things as the 2008 worldwide economic meltdown and 9/11 before that). You’d be healthier, happier and better off to ignore the Cult of Herbert Armstrong version of Bible Prophecy, based on the thoroughly debunked British Israelism as the Key to Prophecy — it hasn’t worked, it isn’t working and it never will work.
And worst of all, if you listen to these morons, they will drain your energy.
Makes you wonder what eternity has to offer. Drudgery, no doubt.
Of course, for the ultimate drain in energy, consider the approach of Ken Ham to science… falsely so called… actually, it’s not science based on observation, it’s magical thinking based on wishful thinking (please, for the sake of your health and mental stability, don’t watch this… or very much of it — it’s debilitating):
Debunked creationism — just what the world doesn’t need. And couldn’t we be a bit more compact, making a greater impact with brevity being the soul of wit? Guess not. Tiresome. This gives entirely new meaning to Ham-fisted. The message should be brochure sized. A musical motif could help.
Now it isn’t about youth — it’s about the senior generations providing wisdom to help the youth to channel the energy for constructive purposes with good judgment. The examples above represent major fail.
Better is the fresh, energetic approach to science brought by vibrant Millennials:
You’ll find life’s beauty, not preoccupation with death.
A more energetic but likely less well received video by Armstrongists (it’s based on Taylor Swift, speaks of flirting on iPhone and has something called STEM) about science follows:
We can hear it now from Armstrongists who watched the video (both of them) — “What’s STEM!”.
Google it.
And really, what Armstrongist would take a selfie?
Don’t be dumb.
Armstrongists: Go and take your nap now. It will be bedtime in an hour at 9 P.M.
Vivacious. Energetic. Full of life. Enthusiastic. Cheerful.
None of these things describe Armstrongism.
I had never heard of the a capella group Pentatonix, but knew instinctively that this video would have to have something to do with music, because I work with Pentatonic scales and variations thereof when playing leads on my guitar.
It is amazing in retrospect that HWA co-opted Disneyland’s self description “The happiest place on Earth” and applied it to Ambassador College. Nothing could have been more misleading!
The joy-killer “gospel” that HWA preached was misplaced when preached in moden civilized nations. However, people in impoverished nations around the world are in such desperate condition that they look forward to the apocalypse as a Godly resetting of the button, an end to their misery. What is ironic is that HWA preached a gospel primarily to Anglo-Saxon peoples that would have been much better received by the races of people upon whom he considered to be inferior. Yet another of the many conundrums of Armstrongism!
BB
‘ What is ironic is that HWA preached a gospel primarily to Anglo-Saxon peoples that would have been much better received by the races of people upon whom he considered to be inferior.’
Well this is what convicted felonious tax cheat Ronny Weinland is doing. Preaching to those inferior types that should hang onto every word he spews forth as vomit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1czlapsLgEA&feature=youtu.be&t=3m15s
Disneyland — one of GTA’s radio cliches used Disneyland as an example of man’s futile expectations of science to create a ‘push-button leisure world of the future’. After I allowed this remark to program myself with a disdain for Disneyland (and similarly, to grow up loathing the Beatles) I was amazed to see a promotional for AC Pasadena saying its proximity to Anaheim meant students could go to Disneyland!
Happyland HWA wrote a piece about how he took time from doing his Apostley things to visit an SEP. He wrote that he could not understand why the children were so happy (in spite of the end-time scenario he preached). He wrote that he was perplexed, and felt like asking the children, ‘Why are you so happy?’ From reading about what SEPs were really like, I think I would be perplexed and ask that question myself…
Happy? Why that’s an easy one, Hoss! The church beat the crap out of us a lot less than our parents did at home! I mean, (3) 40 belt lash pants down spankings per day at home, vs 10-15 swats over the whole summer at SEP camp? No brainer, there.
BB
For many decades, Herbert Armstrong exhibited energy in the broadcasts and telecasts he gave. I’m not absolutely certain, but it seems to be that after 1975 — the failure of prophecy — the divorce from Ramona, the receivership and the heart attack, there was a diminishment of energy which impacted the entire Worldwide Church of God and Ambassador College. It didn’t help that GTA was ejected. It did a lot of damage.
Was this real start of entropy?
After 1975, things didn’t really get much better. Yes, there seemed to be a ‘bounce’ in the early 1980s, but was there really as much available energy and enthusiasm.
And then Tkach took over. The Young Ambassadors went from more or less energetic shows (featuring Disney songs, like “Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho, Off to Work We Go”), but after Herbert Armstrong’s death, it was reduced to 1/2 hour. People at the Feast grumbled and complained: “We came all the way for this?!”
I think that the energy that used to be there, just simply died. You can certainly see that in the Richard Ames sermon. I think that one of the many problems today with Armstrongism that prevents them from EVER achieving what once was is that everywhere in the social media and entertainment, there is high energy. There’s life. It is something with which the Armstrongists simply cannot compete. For example, if you watch the two guys from Toronto in their acapella presentation of science, you can sense that they are fresh. The Armstrongists are stale — gone flat like warm beer that’s been out in the sun too long. They can’t get the ‘fresh’ back.
It doesn’t help that the Armstrongist leaders have sapped all the energy they can from aging members. The youngsters leave when they reach their majority because there isn’t much appealing in the Armstrongist religion. Sure, some may return, but it’s a really leaky bucket and a losing proposition.
This may not be complete, but energy is a ‘thing’ these days and the Armstrongists just don’t have it as the world moves on with the energy that the Armstrongists can’t compete with.
Your reply Douglas sure covered armstrongism in a way that was simple but so true. Your right. They have no energy, none at all. Its like they have no enthusiasm or no longer believe in their own lies. Yes, the religion is dying and die it must. Nothing that rotten can survive and ever produce fruit again. To revive armstrongism is like trying to raise fish in a septic tank.
In other words, they just go through the motions like the zombies they are.
They don’t seem to realize what they’ve lost — what they feel is the futility of it all: What’s the point; where’s the real meaning in all this? And they don’t have any answers.
Meanwhile, the world has passed them by and is making strides, even, and perhaps, especially, in the social arena. Too many people have discovered the energy and power in the truth (which, ironically, eludes the Armstrongists). And while life has its challenges and sometimes is far from perfect, we need only look various places on the social media to see the glorious discoveries and shared wisdom of so many energetic people.
While the Armstrongists continue to do the same tired things they’ve always done, but with progressively less enthusiasm.
Well Bob Thiel, Spanky and Gerald have some explaining to do.
It seems Lake Shasta, and lake Orville are close to full. Shasta is 20 feet from the top. Orville is within 38 feet of its crest. What could be wrong!
“Lake Oroville, the second largest reservoir in California, is now releasing water from its spillway for the first time in five years.”We were 250 feet below the crest in December, and just three months later we’re now within 38 feet of the crest,” said California Department of Water Resources engineer Kevin Dossey, as he looked up at a huge ribbon of water flowing down the dam’s spillway on Thursday.At 84 percent full, the releases are required by the Army Corps of Engineers to keep room available in the reservoir in case of a major flood event.The releases began at 10 a.m. Thursday and escalated through the day.Hundreds drove up from Oroville and places beyond to watch water rush down the spillway, and over the concrete dragon’s teeth, called “energy attenuators” by engineers.”
http://www.shastalake.com/webcam/
I’ve been watching an FX TV series that I picked up at our local library. It is called “Justified”, and follows the adventures of a U.S. Marshal, who has been demoted from his primo Miami post, and sent back to work in Kentucky, where he grew up.
There is a character, Boyd Crowder, portrayed by the very intense actor Walton Goggins. Boyd had been a personal friend of Raylan (the Marshal) as they grew up in Kentucky, but had followed a life of crime. At one point, Raylan is forced to shoot Boyd, sending him not only to the hospital, but also to prison. Boyd takes his survival as a sign from
God, begins studying his Bible, and becomes a jailhouse preacher, a very persuasive and charismatic one. He is released early, and continues his ministry, which also involves blowing up meth labs. His father, Bo, is the meth king in their town of Harlan, and ends up retaliating by shooting all of the members of Boyd’s congregation.
At this low point, Boyd is distraught, honestly believing that God had used him to rid their town of the scourge of meth, and in contemplating the ultimate cost his congregation paid, looks into the heavens and asks “Who is it that I have been talking to all of these months?” Later, as I was driving around doing errands, I realized that although apparently Boyd was sincere, this is what can happen when a Christian experience is modified by the mind of a sociopath. And, then I thought, where have we seen this before? Given varying levels of perception, and differences in peoples’ internal filters, how would most people even be able to properly discern a sociopath, and to take protective measures?
BB
Learning from feedback would be my guess.
How about some amusing energy of the holy mighty-morphin power ranger kung-fu ninja spirit!
BTW, there is some good break-falls in that clip.
DBP