Introduction
Booyah! In your face! We win! We told you so!
You lose!
You leftists; you globalists; you Armstronists: We have the truth. We proved you wrong. You need to stop lying.
Do your duty: Quit!
Narcisism
Those who come to this site have been abused by narcissists — if not recently, certainly in the past. The mission statement for The Painful Truth is
Understanding the psychology of religious seduction and spiritual abuse.
The Painful Truth exposes narcissism to achieve that goal.
Embedded within every narcissist is the lie that they are more important than anyone else. It is a pervasive lie which leads to the inevitable conclusion that they just don’t care. They don’t care about you. It is useless to engage with them.
We speak often of the elite, the globalists, the leftists, the Armstrongists. They are narcissists. They have never, do not and never will care about you. The lies they tell themselves and the lies they tell us are the core of abuse.
To begin this article, please consider this video on narcissism to enrich your knowledge of today’s world:
Leftists and Armstrongists
Leftists are resisting with all their might but they are losing ground because their lies are being exposed. Their methods include these steps:
1. Find an issue that can create fear;
2. Propose a solution that won’t work;
3. Gather tax money that’s supposed to be used to fix the problem;
4. Spend the money on something else;
5. Find more nonsolutions to grift more money from the tax payers;
6. Blame the failure on those who oppose them — particularly when they point out that there was no problem in the first place.
Just remember, the leftists are first cousins of the Armstrongists. There are small differences, but nothing significant. Only the venue changes.
Congressional Committee on Oversight and Accountability: COVID Select Committee Final Report
FINAL REPORT: COVID Select Concludes 2-Year Investigation, Issues 500+ Page Final Report on Lessons Learned and the Path Forward
Published: Dec 2, 2024
The single most thorough review of the pandemic conducted to date
WASHINGTON – Today, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic concluded its two-year investigation into the COVID-19 pandemic and released a final report titled “After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward.” The final report will serve as a road map for Congress, the Executive Branch, and the private sector to prepare for and respond to future pandemics. Since February 2023, the Select Subcommittee has sent more than 100 investigative letters, conducted more than 30 transcribed interviews and depositions, held 25 hearings and meetings, and reviewed more than one million pages of documents. Members and staff have exposed high-level corruption in America’s public health system, confirmed the most likely origin of the pandemic, held COVID-19 bad actors publicly accountable, fostered bipartisan consensus on consequential pandemic-era issues, and more. This 520-page final report details all findings of the Select Subcommittee’s investigation.
“This work will help the United States, and the world, predict the next pandemic, prepare for the next pandemic, protect ourselves from the next pandemic, and hopefully prevent the next pandemic. Members of the 119th Congress should continue and build off this work, there is more information to find and honest actions to be taken,” wrote Chairman Wenstrup in a letter to Congress. “The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a distrust in leadership. Trust is earned. Accountability, transparency, honesty, and integrity will regain this trust. A future pandemic requires a whole of America response managed by those without personal benefit or bias. We can always do better, and for the sake of future generations of Americans, we must. It can be done.”
On Wednesday, December 4, 2024, at 10:30am, the Select Subcommittee will hold a markup of the final report and officially submit the report to the Congressional record. Ahead of the markup, the Select Subcommittee will also release additional supporting materials and recommendations.
The full, 520-page final report can be found here.
The report covers everything in detain, including, but not restricted to, the origins of COVID, Gain of Function Research, NIH failures, Efficacy (or the lack thereof), Fraud, Failures, WHO’s response:
The WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was an abject failure because it caved to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party and placed China’s political interests ahead of its international duties. Further, the WHO’s newest effort to solve the problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic — via a “Pandemic Treaty” — may harm the United States.
Also covered: Misinformation, the stupidity of Project Warp Speed, Rushed Approval, Natural Immunity, Vaccine Injury Reporting System [VIRS], Compensation, Economic Impact, Federal Reserve causing staggering inflation, Closures, Lock Downs, Long Term Impacts, The Biden Administration’s HHS Obstruction [multi-year].
- The Biden Administration even employed undemocratic and likely unconstitutional methods — including pressuring social media companies to censor certain COVID-19 content — to fight what it deemed misinformation.
Even today, if anyone deigns to publish a video even about this report it will be banned and the whole channel may be removed for ‘disinformation’. The same is true for Facebook [Meta].
- There was no conclusive evidence that masks effectively protected Americans from COVID-19. Public health officials flipped-flopped on the efficacy of masks without providing Americans scientific data — causing a massive uptick in public distrust.
- LONGTERM IMPACTS: Standardized test scores show that children lost decades worth of academic progress as a result of COVID-19 school closures. Mental and physical health concerns also skyrocketed — with suicide attempts by 12-17 year-aged girls rising 51%.
Fiasco
COVID and the disastrous follow-on mRNA ‘vax’ clot shot were probably the biggest worldwide scan ever perpetrated. The disease itself is estimated to have cause ~8 million deaths. Those of you who have watched the Tucker Carlson interview of Bret Weinstein here on The Painful Truth, know that an estimated 17 million died from the clot shot — over twice as many from the disease itself. This is not to mention the other collateral diseases, such as painful mottled skin condition, brain fog, reduced lung capacity, long term damage to the immune system, sterility, and, as mentioned before, child development problems.
The economy was devastated. In Australia, there were actual, what you might call, death camps where people were arrested and taken. Teens trapped there without any signs of COVID attempted to escape, but were brought back to be imprisoned there. Careers were lost and ended. Businesses closed for good. Infrastructure was damaged. There were massive shortages, not the least of which was for toilet paper.
We’ve sort of, mostly, recovered by now. Why bring up old stuff? Just get over it?
The reason is that now that the truth has come out, we’re still being censored AND — this is the big one — THEY WILL BE BACK.
You know the drill: Lies travel around the world while the truth is still opening the door to the garage. It takes a long time under massive opposition to get the truth out there, but even when it does there is push back. As time continues on, the scammers attack all over again. It might be days, months, years or even decades, but when they are comfortable with the idea there will be no push back, they will return with vengeance… all to push their insane ideas and practices of their silly echo chambers on the rest of the public — ably assisted by the Media. They just don’t go away quietly into the night.
Senator Johnson’s Round Table on COVID
On December 8th, 2022, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) hosted a roundtable discussion, COVID-19 Vaccines: What they Are, How They Work, and Possible Causes of Injuries, to shed light on the current state of knowledge surrounding the vaccine and explore the path forward. The experts and medical professionals who joined Sen. Johnson at the roundtable discussed the scientific background of the coronavirus, functionality of the vaccine, failures in the pandemic response, early treatment drugs, adverse reactions, vaccine injuries and plans for future research and response:
It’s taking a lot of time, but the lies are slowly being dispelled.
46 United States Bioweapon Labs in the Ukraine?
This comes from a rather, shall we say, suspect source, but other sources seem to confirm it, so we present it as is and let you decide for yourself:
After months of denial, U.S. admits to running Ukraine biolabs
From the June 14th, 2022 People’s World, The Pentagon said on Thursday that it has operated 46 biolabs in Ukraine handling dangerous pathogens, after previously dismissing the charges as Russian propaganda.
Note that it is against Federal Law of the United States to have bioweapon labs on American soil and it is certainly illegal to have them funded by taxpayers.
Is it credible? Just remember that biolab in Wuhan, funded by United States taxpayers that released COVID and you may have your answer.
Gender Dysphoria
Many people now know that Gender Dysphoria is a mental disorder. What people don’t generally know is the extreme pressure put on parents to get their children to undergo gender transition to ‘cure’ it. This attempt to mutilate children to make them sterile has now come under attack and has been addressed by testimony in the Supreme Court. Newsmax has the article here:
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to Newsmax: Gender Suicide Rhetoric Quashed
Proponents of gender reassignment have lied to get children mutilated and sterile. The article begins:
The most important element to come out of Wednesday’s hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court was a rejection of the myth that puberty blockers and hormones for the purpose of gender transitioning help prevent suicides in minors with gender dysphoria, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told Newsmax on Thursday.
Parents have been “bullied” into thinking they need to approve irreversible gender transitioning measures — including surgical procedures — for their minor children out of fear they will kill themselves if they don’t.
“I thought the suicide conversation was the most important part of the argument (Wednesday), not necessarily because of its impact on the case, but because the rhetoric around why kids need to have these procedures done has been, ‘Your kid is going to kill themselves if you don’t let them do this,'” Skrmetti told “National Report.”
Key testimony debunks all this:
A telling moment in Wednesday’s hearing came when Chase Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union representing the plaintiffs, acknowledged in questioning by Justice Samuel Alito that research does not support gender treatments as a form of suicide prevention.
“And when the truth comes out, when the research shows that it does not actually affect suicide rate, and when you have the ACLU’s attorney confirming that, it takes that piece of the conversation away, it reduces the expectation out there among kids that that’s what they’re supposed to do,” Skrmetti said. “If the kids keep hearing that, I think it’s dangerous. We don’t want kids hurting themselves.”
But leftists do want kids hurting themselves. Moreover, they want the parents to harm their children.
The leftists have lied and lied and lied again and again to push their agenda to wreck society for their own self-aggrandizement.
Now we have push back.
Because lies kill.
Oh, and by the way, men can’t get pregnant.
Kraft Lunchables
Two years ago, Primary_Aardvark on Reddit came out with a posting:
Are any other Americans concerned about the government allowing Lunchables for school lunches in the near future?
This news came out a week ago, but one of my favorite YouTubers made a video about it and I remembered how weird this was. For context, the federal government and Kraft Heinz came up with a deal to bring Lunchables to schools. I’m not a parent, but is anyone else concerned about this? Especially since the lunch provided in schools may be the only food some kids eat for the day. We’re a wealthy country, but we can’t feed our kids healthy, fresh, appetizing foods? And for all the talk about combatting childhood obesity, this feels like a step in the absolute wrong direction. I’m curious about your thoughts.
Since then, enterprising parents, particularly in Texas, went to their school boards and began asking questions. In 2024, there has finally been a resolution. Let’s let Google AI address this:
According to Consumer Reports, some Lunchables and similar snack kits contain lead levels that are “potentially concerning”. In fact, some Lunchables contain up to 74% of the maximum allowable dosage level for lead.
Consumer Reports also found that all but one of the 12 store-bought Lunchables and similar kits they tested contained phthalates, which are chemicals found in plastic that can be linked to reproductive problems, diabetes, and certain cancers.
In addition to lead and phthalates, Consumer Reports also found that Lunchables contain high levels of sodium.The sodium levels in the store-bought Lunchables they tested ranged from 460 to 740 milligrams per serving, which is nearly a quarter to half of a child’s daily recommended limit.
Kraft Heinz has removed Lunchables from the national school lunch program in the US.However, Lunchables are still available in grocery stores, where children may be encouraged to choose less healthy options.
Well, that’s a relief, isn’t it? Potentially lethal lunch munchies for children have finally been removed from school lunch programs. Isn’t that comforting? Not to worry though, you can still buy it from food stores to poison your little kiddies. Even though it’s taken a hit, the profits will go on, albeit with smaller margins, mind you.
Ah, the lies, the lies:
@Craxin01 Pure religion and undefiled
The family that visited the widows
There was once a family in the Worldwide Church of God — a husband, wife and two young children — who attended services and church functions religiously, wanting to honor God and do the right thing. They sincerely want to keep Scriptural precepts to learn and practice morality.
They knew about the Scripture about visiting the fatherless and the widow, so they found a nursing home nearby. Each Sabbath after services, they would have lunch and then spend most of the rest of the afternoon visiting the widows in the nursing home. Only one person from the church was there until she passed away.
The widows enjoyed the children. They talked and visited different widows. It seemed beneficial and uplifting. It was for the widows, after all. The family often brought the widows snacks and home made knick-knacks.
The ministry, of course, pretty much ignored the family. They paid their tithes and gave offerings. They attended the Feast Days. They participated in the potlucks and brought home made dishes. The husband even spent any number of Sundays helping people move. In fact, none of the preaching elders on up, ever responded to visits for a meal at the family home. Maybe it was the food. Who knows?
And during all those months of visiting the widows on the Sabbath, the family absolutely did not ever see another person from the church.
Klingons
@ontarioklingon Our #Fundraiser for #CNOY has just passed $300,unlocking the #PeltAKlingon incentive! all funds raised go to local services for the hungry and the #homeless of Greater Sudbury. Donations can be made at walk.w-ith.me/OntarioKlingon #Trektok #Trektivism #coldestnightoftheyear
♬ original sound – OntarioKlingon
Star Trek Klingon fans have become infamous for doing good works. Many of them go out regularly to feed the homeless. In the above Tiktoc [don’t know what it is in the original Klingon language], a Klingon is submitting to people throwing stuff at him to raise money to feed the hungry.
It should be noted that there is absolutely no record anywhere of Star Trek fans rioting, looting or committing arson like the leftists do. They feed the hungry, visit the fatherless and widow in their distress, visit the sick and even raise money to help kids with cancer.
I guess Star Trek fans are the modern day answer to Christianity. Someone had to step up to do it to fill the void. The Armstrongists certainly aren’t doing it.
Colin Farrell Opens Up About His Son With Angelman Syndrome
Some people who have struggled with problems like addictions manage to step up in a stunningly way to address problems and challenges of disadvantages others may face. These sort of people represent the core of what good Christians should be, but often, they are just ‘ordinary’ folk who rise to the challenge to do good to others as they are able.
Here is one such story:
Kicking the dead horse of British Israelism
Here at The Painful Truth we have proved British Israelism wrong and debunked it in article after article. We’ve even given you links to other sources to prove to you over and over and over again. You have absolutely, positively no excuse. In fact, Banned by HWA keeps having postings about disproving it again and again. You still haven’t learned.
Or you have learned and you are outright evil liars!
That’s it, of course. You know and you know that you know. You are hoping that you dump this absolute rubbish garbage sewage out to the public and no one is going to notice. You people over at United, when the Queen of England died, what did you do? You published yet another Beyond Tomorrow filled with obnoxious toxic lies of the highly discredited British Israelism. The Catholics have articles debunking it, for heaven’s sake. There are links to Master’s Theses as well. When, just when are going to stop STOP kicking this dead horse?
We know why you do it. We do. We get it. You need to lie to continue to get your salaries and your retirement package. Without British Israelism, your congregational support disappears. We’ve seen that happen.
But you have to ask yourself: Is it working?
Instead of telling you ourselves, let’s have a look at the Banned by HWA article, of December 2nd, 2024, entitled, “UCG: We Now Have A Small Window Of Opportunity To Get The Gospel Out“. Perhaps they should have said, “We have a small opportunity to get out”.
United, you took a lambasting, not just in the article, but in the comments below the article. Some of the comments we were laughing so hard we had tears running down. UCG quoted Romans 13:1 but they should have just stopped at, “there is no authority” and left it at that, because really, UCG has no authority, no truth and no moral high ground. They stand on a foundation of sand, if you know what we mean.
Oh, if you only had the power and energy of those olden days, so long ago! The confidence! The assurance! Back then, you knew exactly what was going to happen, didn’t you, because you had the very Word of God through Herbert Armstrong with the great secret knowledge of what was ahead! You knew! You had tomorrow’s news today through prophecy because you had the key to prophecy, British Israelism! And from that came…
[click below for link; Note: Use CC for Closed Caption commentary]
Prophecy just isn’t what it used to be. It’s been 50 years. It’s still as wrong today as it was 50 years ago.
We wonder to this day, what ever happened to that Armstrongist cult leader from Australia who said that if Christ didn’t return by 2016, he’d cry in his beer? His worldwide congregation went from 96 to 4. Even his son booted. You might say they had a rather Stormy relationship. We didn’t look: Did he fix all those broken links on his website? You know, the one the Vatican never looks at?
Yes, 50 years ago, the Armstrongists were full of vim and vigor. That’s water under the bridge, or at least quite a lot of alcohol. Here’s something that perfectly describes the Armstrongist experience:
Older but no wiser says it all.
And note that there were occasions where the Worldwide Church of God actually did have Sabbath Services in a tavern. Thanks, Randy!
But United and the other Armstrongists never give up. Here is a segment from their December 2nd, 2024 newsletter:
The United States is not, has never been nor ever will be the tribe of Manasseh. This is some sort of weird alternate world history science fiction which has never been nor will be, but all the Armstrongist Churches of God will NOT give it up ever. They lie and lie and lie and lie. None of their words mean anything and you can rely upon them for nothing. Their advice and council will be wrong. What’s worse, they are absolutely fine with it.
Herbert Armstrong started kicking the dead horse upon finding for the first time and went from there.
We have one absolute proof that we can debunk British Israelism once and for all and we don’t even need to use the Bible or DNA. You see, the bottom line is that Herbert Armstrong declared the British Israelism is the key to prophecy. In fact, in the 1950s, he required who sought baptism to declare their fealty to it or they could not be baptized. You know what else showed up in 1975? 1975 in Prophecy, of course. And by the time 1975 actually came and passed, people in the church shrugged and said, “Oh, well”. That is the proof. The prophecies did NOT come to pass. Herbert Armstrong was a false prophet speaking in the name of God — taking God’s Name in vain! He was not of God. In Scriptural parlance, he is of Satan the Devil, a liar and a murderer from the beginning as one called Jesus was reputed to say in the Gospels.
You cannot follow the man. You cannot follow the ministers. The dictum from Scripture is: “From such turn away”. If you expect salvation, if you do not obey, you will never be able to attain it, if it exists. Nothing Herbert Armstrong ever said could have been relied on. He did not speak the ‘Truth’ at all in any way.
And he kept kicking that dead horse right up to the day he died. And so did Roderick Meredith and all the other ministers of darkness.
How much more clear do we have to make it?
You who stay for whatever reason, love lies and hate the truth.
Leave now.
All the Armstrongist ministers lie
Over at Banned by HWA, Gary agreed with us that All Armstrongist ministers lie — and that even includes everybody’s favorite good guy, Dennis Luker, although that was pretty much ignored in context. The point is that they all lie. No one can rely on what they tell you. They aren’t really qualified in any way to be ministers. Some of them don’t even meet the minimum Scriptural qualifications.
The Question of Morals
Y.O.U. and the Sabbath
It came a day — the Sabbath, actually — and there in the parking lot of the Masonic Temple, was a big recycling truck where the Y.O.U. teens were bringing recycled paper to pay for Y.O.U. activities. This activity was fully supported by the elders and deacons of the Worldwide Church of God.
A lowly member spoke privately with an elder [who, it turned out was a pedophile unduly interested in boys] and asked the question of why the Y.O.U. teens were doing this on the Sabbath? The Sabbath? Really?
It never occurred to anyone there might be some sort of problem. It’s OK, right? It’s for the teens of the church, after all. This had gone on for quite some time, week after week, after week. No one saw anything wrong with it.
Amazingly enough, from the next week on, there was no more recycling truck. The question is, why did someone have to bring this up as a moral question to the deacons and elders of God’s very own church of the end time?
There is an answer, of course. To put this in perspective, let’s present a comment of the discourse about leftists (which applies equally to Armstrongists):
It is because the leftists are deficient, retarded — they have no ability to understand the truth because it is in a domain that is not available to them. They have no concept of reasoning in time — that is to say that they cannot think forward to realize what the consequences of what their actions will be. They have no empathy. They do not think beyond themselves. Their narcissism inhibits their ability to understand empathy. They have no ability to take responsibility. There is no science, reason or logic — only their own feelings and, of course, magic: Where they believe what they think, especially in a group, will render great changes in the universe.
Those of us who have developed normally do not have these delusions. We know we have to face facts. We know that we are responsible for the consequences of our actions. The leftist cannot do anything but blame others for the damage they themselves do because of their lack of understanding of truth and lies.
Lies are the only tool at their disposal. They are incapable of using any other tool. Moreover, they have only one ethic — that the end justifies the means. As long as you get the end result of what you are going for, nothing else matters, especially any destruction they cause along the way or how many people they abuse, injure or kill. They believe meritocracy is wrong and evil.
Those of us who understand these things are an enigma to them. They have no way of understanding us. For that reason, they believe we are all wrong, they hate us and their solution is to eliminate us. In our own way, we underestimate their toxicity and evil and some believe that the leftists can be rehabilitated, when it should be obvious, they will never change.
Their addiction to lies and delusions are worse than alcoholism. There is no explaining to them how deficient they are. They lack the ability to even conceptualize, let alone understand or believe. They think we speak nonsense.
You can see it clearly in social media if you look for it. Their scoffing. Their lack of respect. They believe in group think and can’t imagine anyone ever achieving anything on their own. That is why they believe rewarding competence is unfair. They just don’t believe in individuality at all and, by extension, they do not believe in freedom or individual rights.
Trying to get them to understand justice, judgment and true equity is like trying to explain rainbows to earthworms. There is absolutely no way they can understand or relate.
So, yes, they cause untold misery along the way.
That is why we have the spectacle of Nancy Pelosi ripping up President Trump’s speech. She doesn’t understand him, she can’t believe him and she’s totally evil. He stands in her way of achieving the abusive evil that is her end goal.
So the next time you are tempted to enter a discussion with a leftist, you may as well walk away from the earthworm. Rainbows in the sky are too valuable to devalue them to someone who can’t understand them. And so it is with morals, empathy and mercy.
Armstrongist leaders are morally tone deaf.
Remember this for what follows.
Just sitting through the sermon while the minister breaks the 5th Commandment
Goodness. What to do, what to do. My parents abused me as I grew up. They also were alcoholics. My mother was drug addicted. Oh, dear. I guess I’ll stand up with a sermon and tell the congregation all about it. That will make me feel much better. People can know what a poor abused child I was and how horrible my parents were. That should really edify the congregation and raise me up as a vulnerable sensitive pastor.
What was Dennis Luker thinking?
Afterward, a non consequential mentioned to the United Church of God local CPA treasurer of the church, “He was breaking the Fifth Commandment right in front of us!”
The treasurer went blank for a moment as the wheels turned in his head. Then he said,
You’re right!
The concern here is not just that Dennis Luker (as other ministers have done) broke the Fifth Commandment. The very large concern is that the preponderance of the congregation absolutely missed it!
You would think that a Christian Church preaching God and Jesus (not so much), keeping God’s Law, Obeying the commandments, participating in empty religious rigamarole rituals, would know and understand ethics and morals! Wouldn’t they?!
The answer is no.
The problem is that everyone in Armstrongism has turned off their conscience by making, participating and living with the lies surrounding them. They submit to and live the lies.
If you want to be moral, you must leave Armstrongism. You must excise it from your life. You need to build and rebuild your core morals and relearn the right ethics or you will lead an empty life devoid of humanity. Living in Armstrong destroys your humanity.
Not only that, it doesn’t get you what you think you want. Lies are a big thing. Satan is the father of lies. Lies are tied to murders in Scripture. Liars will not enter into the Kingdom of God according to Scripture. You will not:
-
- Gain eternal life;
- Be the bride of Christ (why would he want a wife like you?);
- Find a place of safety;
- Have God make you prosperous.
However, you will be under a curse. Now it does not matter whether God exists. There is no such thing as karma. It is biology. All morals are based in biology. Ethics — the standard of behavior for the community — is based on biology. For example, if you lie, parts of your brain will be destroyed. That’s a sure consequence. If you murder, then you may be caught or not, but you do diminish society as a whole. You have destroyed a part of a unique whole and society at large suffers. Ditto for stealing. Whether or not you believe it, you will pay.
Staying with Armstrongism only amplifies that.
The Armstrongist Business Model
The Armstrongist Churches of God absolutely see a real opportunity opening up with the new American federal administration in the United States in 2025. As has been reviewed before, Gerald Flurry certainly sees an opportunity to make hay while the sun shines and so does United. They see coming prosperity as the key to find more attendees and increase both their attendance and increase their coffers. They need to do something. The cult business is terrible these days. People have not only become highly skeptical, they have become highly practical, and if the don’t see some sort of possible return on investment, they are absolutely NOT biting.
Now, no one knows if this era of opportunity is actually going to occur. Appearances can be incredibly misleading. However, there’s even a bigger problem (beyond even their utter lack of integrity): It absolutely, positively does NOT follow Herbert Armstrong’s business model at all! Moreover, it was a different time back then. The same factors that made Herbert Armstrong a ‘success’ are long gone.
Back in Herbert’s day (up until the mid 1970s) there was:
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- An audience that was made up of people who believed in Christianity and the Bible;
- An agricultural basis for the United States;
- There was a general fear of World Wide nuclear war, with the potential to devastate everything… at least potentially;
- A post war prosperity;
- A basically conservative America;
- Perceived social morals;
- The appearance of strong families.
Herbert Armstrong used the innate religious orientation to hook some of the people who especially believed in God and sort of believed the Bible. His attack was that their religion was wrong and he could prove it! [He couldn’t.]
Then there was the fear tactic. Everything was going to hell in a hand basket. He preached morals [without abiding by any]. The world was on the precipice of destruction.
And Herbert Armstrong had the solution!
He preached about The World Tomorrow! Christ would return, fight a war and set things right! And those who joined Herbert Armstrong, the only one with truth [he didn’t have any] would not just be saved in a place of safety, but would rule over people in great prosperity in a future utopia! Right here on earth! All the problems would be solved!
Along with that, he promised prosperity! The blessing of God will make you… somewhat richer than you were. By giving away your money to this con man, God would make up for it many times over.
And then there were Feasts! Celebration. Food. [Long sermons.]
But better than that: Booze! This was the alcoholics paradise! There were some places where a boozing alcoholic ex Marine would come into the church and make instant friends with members, become boozing buddies with the ministers and even achieve, let’s say, Spokesman’s Club Presidency! A man like that would look like the perfect representation of the righteous godly man who would teach the willing how to achieve ‘balance’ in drinking, particularly in his living room with weekly potlucks between Sabbath Services and Spokesman Club, replete with his two Siamese cats.
And it was wondrous. Until it all went wrong. A story for another time, perhaps.
But that was the Armstrongist business model — highly successful for its day. Lasted for decades like that. Had the highly groomed Ambassador College in Pasadena, pumping out colorful magazines and booklets with radio and later TV shows.
What Herbert Armstrong built was not a church. It was a corporatist business because that’s all he sort of knew.
But that’s all gone now. Herbert Armstrong is gone. The conditions he used to build this most important work of all time is gone. The world has changed. He died. The church split. The people have left. There is no longer critical mass to launch again.
And the thing is, the remaining spit-offs don’t realize that in any tangible way. It’s not real to them. They have already failed and are hip deep in entropy. Oh, sure. What is it, 26 graduates from ABC? Not all of them will become ministers. Is that even enough to replace the ministers retiring? [Rolls eyes.]
If the ministers went out and produced videos that sounded and looked like the ones Herbert Armstrong produced with the same vigor and enthusiasm, with what the public now knows, they would look like complete nutty fools. British Israelism, the key to prophecy? First of all, what prophecy? Revelation? Must admit that the 15 year run of Supernatural undermined that in a spectacular way. A place of safety? Are you kidding? Where? Morality? Uh, does anyone care any more. We’ve all sort of accepted what we get [we’re not happy about it but what are we going to do. More importantly, what are you ministers going to do?] Are you just going to promise people to be good, be patient while NO problems are solved and wait until Jesus returns SOME day in the what looks now to be the very far future?
The question is, how in the world are you ever going to make your delusional anachronistic antediluvian struggling cult religion look appealing to the masses? Promise them prosperity by telling them that they will make more money by giving you 50% or so of your income? Would love to see you sell that on X.
Face it: Your business model is hope — empty hope at that, based on unfounded assumptions that are thoroughly debunked.
That is not a formula for success.
A New / Old Armstrongist Truly Successful Business Model
A Seventh Day Church of God minister related a truly successful business model for Armstrongists which has proven wildly successful in the past few years.
After the 1970s and into the mid 1980s and beyond, any number of people in Armstrongism who were in families within the cult, particularly attendees who grew up in the venue, began fomenting dissent about not having a permanent center where local people could go — with an actual facility that is owned by the ACoG where the facility did not have to be rented. In their mind, the ‘church’ was to have a local social center where they could freely associate conveniently. None of the leaders of Armstrongism were buying.
Oh, some areas did finally manage to get a facility or two, like, you know, an abandoned diner and such. It was theirs. It was their ‘spiritual home’ where they families could congregate and children could play… facilities for the teens as well.
But mostly, they got a big fat, “No!” The money was to be collected at HQ or Home Office, to be used solely to spread the gospel to the hapless inhabitants in the world that the locals would never meet or know. It was to do “God’s Work” and this selfish centrism was definitely not going to be a thing.
Then, some of the more aggressive members with influence looked around and saw the peaceful establishment of the Church of God, Seventh Day with exactly what they were looking for! And they started to move over… quietly. They established themselves as faithful, loyal CoG7D members in good standing.
After awhile, they began to infiltrate the local boards and attain positions within the CoG7D that gave them influence over the church and its people. Before you knew it, they took over. They added Feasts and Holydays. They added all the trappings of Armstrongism!
This indeed, did turn out to be a most successful business model. It also had the benefit of leverage so that not a lot of effort had to be expended.
This is called, “Hostile Takeover”.
What Entropy Looks Like
Between 1900 and 1923, G. G. Rupert established Sabbath Keeping, Feast Keeping congregations around the United States. In fact, there are still people all over the world as a very small remnant of what he established.
Back in the early 1950s, Martin Ogren established the Church of God Seventh Day, Caldwell, Idaho. The building at which he pastored is shown above. At any time, over 100 people attended Sabbath Services. There is a hall with wooden pews, a piano and a stage with lectern up front. There are side rooms that contain a kitchen and an area with tables and chairs for meals and socials. Out back, on the side of the building, there was an office and a printing press where The Herald of Truth and annual Holyday Calendars were printed. It was an old style printing press which would be relegated to a museum today. The calendars were printed in color.
In due time, Paul Woods married his daughter and became a pastor there. After a time, he became the sole pastor for some decades. He would preach sermons, print articles and Holyday Calendars and set up the Feast of Tabernacles, year after year. Along the way, his wife died and he remarried.
As the years passed and we all entered the era of the 1990s many things changed. One of the things that changed was that the children who had grown up in the CoG7th Day, Caldwell, Church congregation, immediately booted as they reached their majority. Concerned about that, Paul’s wife established a children’s Bible program to teach and retain the youngsters, replete with colorful boards describing the Flood of Noah and debunking evolution.
In 1993, some 147 people attended the group’s Feast of Tabernacles, which was held near Washougal, Washington. The group’s magazine, Herald of Truth, went to less than 1,000 subscribers. Into the mid 2000s, there were still a remnant of people following the teachings of G. G. Rupert, but things were in the beginning of a decline. Paul Woods was actively seeking someone who could take over, preferably someone who could take over the publishing of The Herald of Truth and Holyday Calendars on the ancient printing press. He wanted to retire.
In 2008, the Feast was held in a remote area with no cellphone reception with the occasional appearance of deer and flocks of wild turkeys. The ‘tabernacle’ was surrounded by camp grounds and for those ‘lucky’ ones, wooden shacks were available. One teen gave account of staying in a rustic shack. When he woke up one morning during the Feast, he was face to face with a rat on his pillow. Pretty sure his screams could be heard all over the camp.
A plucky attendee pointed out to Pastor Woods that on the back of the Holyday Calendar for 2008, there was a quote from Scripture where it said that the people of God “are a wide and understanding people.” He apologized and promised to change it. He never did. I guess the people are still wide. From eating at the Feast, maybe?
What happened afterward is rather murky. Yes, there was an unmaintained website for a brief period, but that disappeared. Not much is known about what was happening, and then….
There’s a new Sheriff in town! Paul Woods departed the scene. Byron Lee Sanchez moved in to take over. He is also the associate pastor of the Celebration Church of God in Ontario, Oregon under Wes Higgins. He has been an active contributor to ACTS magazine for many years and he is currently vice-chairman of the Board of Education for Marantha College — at least according to the thumbnail of the video on YouTube of his boring sermon there. His qualifications for all of this seems to be that he spent a stint in a (local) Ambassador College Spokesman Club. It does not appear that he actually attended Ambassador College.
But wait! There’s more! Well, if the records actually match up. After all, it could be a different Byron Lee Sanchez! In Idaho! We’ll just relate what we found and let you decide.
If it is the very same Byron Lee Sanchez in Idaho, then, here, without any further comment is a record:
10-31-2017 State v. Byron Sanchez – Sentencing
Conveniently, The Canyon County Detention Center is exactly one block away from The Church of God Seventh Day, Caldwell, Idaho!
Shades of the Apostle Paul? Maybe. We do the best we can. However, we do have a Google Review:
This is the universal lesson: Resources cannot be used up for use by those in the present; the resources must be developed into energy for the next generation, or there won’t be one.
Things seem to have declined.
That’s entropy for you.
Now get this through your thick heads once and for all!
This isn’t the only Armstrongist Church of God by any stretch of the imagination. This is only one instance.
The above picture is the cover of the January – February 2023 issue of the United Church of God, an International Association magazine Beyond Today. It says that Queen Elizabeth was an Israelite, a direct descendant of King David in the Old Testament — a right, an heritage of a direct loyal line of Judah. No. Just no. Part of her ancestry was German through the Hanovers. However, note: Prince Philip: He had predominantly German ancescestry and spoke fluent German. He became a British citizen in 1947 and gave up his German title of nobility shortly before marrying the Queen.
Only an abject fool would trust them.
And Christians should flee from them.
Oh, and about that other thing…
There is so much enthusiasm and empowerment over that big change… where is it? In the United States? Something about a new administration or something. Assuredly, The Painful Truth must have some prediction about what’s coming and the impact it will have not just on America, but the whole world, right?
No.
We don’t engage in predictions. We’ve seen how that ends. We follow trends.
So as sort of a palliative, we offer the MAGA vision of what is ahead, with the caveat, that even if it isn’t all a delusion, after 2 years or so, it will begin to deteriorate, because… trends. It also may not be all that it is cracked up to be. We’re not even certain it’s going to happen at this point because… Democrats.
Anyway, and if you must, here is the MAGA vision:
Be warned: This is for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as… journalism.
You might be expecting a lot more incompetent H1-B workers from India though, if Vivek Ramaswamy has his way.
Frankly, it looks like Americans have been played… again….
We demand all of Armstrongism cease and disband now!
We, as the editors and contributors of The Painful Truth, faithfully serving with our volunteer labor of love for 25 years, by the Authority of The Truth, Command all Armstrongists to cease and desist all associations and operations immediately forever. We expect you to be complete in this assignment no later that the end of January 2025… January 20th would be optimal, for obvious reasons. It is a new world and you no longer have any place in it.
Our expectation is that you will:
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- Print your last magazine explaining your evil and termination of your operations;
- Give your last sermon to the congregation, confessing and repenting of all your sins;
- Post your last messages on your websites to reflect the termination;
- Send out emails to everyone explaining that you are ceasing;
- Scrub your YouTube channel;
- Terminate your leases;
- Pay up final bills;
- Recompense to mitigate the damage as much as is possible;
- Return donated property to original owner or family;
- Donate the property to a worthy cause (such as what some corporations have done by giving their property to the Native American tribes);
- Sure, live on your retirement, but remember that it is blood money;
- If required by law, surrender to authorities to serve out your prison terms.
This is no joke. We are as serious as a heart attack. We expect this. Do it!
Beware! There will be consequences! If you continue to do evil, you will die, of course. Perhaps, you will also die of prostate cancer, just like some of the other ministers of Armstrong or maybe you won’t die of that, but you will die. Of course, you can shrug your shoulders and say, “So, what? Big deal”. Sometimes, most often, in face, consequences are more nuanced than we may think initially.
Neurology studies show that deliberate lying destroys parts of the brain — neurons in the prefrontal lobes. So lying destroys your brain. This is evolutionary biology as the lying destroys the brain in order to make it easier to lie — it destroys what we call ‘conscience’. Habitual liars eventually lose the ability to tell right from wrong and fiction from fact, making them the perfect creation to become politicians. It also so makes them empty husks of empty suits, devoid of their humanity.
The danger is if it is serious enough and you get caught. You could go to prison. You may be found out and people may accost you in various ways (like publicizing your evil on websites like this). You may actually lose what is most important to you — your money. Don’t worry though, you’ll always have your narcissistic ego and other mental disorders to go with it. Your progeny, if any, will undoubtedly suffer, even though we can’t give you specifics. You will note what has happened to luminaries such as Herbert Armstrong and that could be a guide to your legacy.
As the Bard said, the good men do is oft buried with their bones, but the evil they do will go on. Or words to that effect.
You should be ashamed.
You will suffer. You may or may not feel it. After you cease to have humanity, what difference does it make?
You also could go blind. Just in case, you might want to burn your stash of porn.
Like porn, lies rewire your brain:
You’ll never lie again… hopefully.
Please note Matthew 7:23, where Jesus is credited with saying: And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
What a finish to such an illustrious career.
You’ve been warned.
We can hear the whining now:
Where will we go?! What will we do??!!!
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Be it according to your faith.
If you have any.
It would be fun to see you face a steely-eyed Jesus on Judgment Day… or just plain terrifying.
If you believe in God (which we doubt you do), you are in deep trouble.
If you don’t believe in God, you are doing terrible harm to society for your own selfishness and are stupid and worthless. Who preaches God when they don’t believe in Him? There’s a word for that… let’s see… hmm… oh, yes… hypocrisy. Well, at least you have a real talent for it.
Please note that these are now all gone:
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- The World Tomorrow Program
- The Radio Church of God
- The Plain Truth [which never was]
- Ambassador College
- The original evangelists
- Herbert Armstrong
- The Good News [which never was]
- Tomorrow’s World
- The World Tomorrow Telecast
- Imperious School
- The Young Ambassadors
- Visits to “World Leaders”
- Steuben Crystal ‘gifts’
- Writing articles with 4 fingers on a manual typewriter at 40,000 feet
- Ministerial fleet cars
- 1 (800) 423-4444
- 1 (213) 304-6111
- Box 111, Pasadena, California
- Box 44, Vancouver, BC
- God’s End Time Apostle
- “It Won’t Be Long Now”
- Four streets surrounding the campus spelling G O D S
That last one may be a dig about how you people thought you were gods.
Perhaps God has been telling you something and you are just too dense to notice.
It may not matter because, darn it all, the ministers of Armstrongism seem to be de facto atheists. They certainly don’t seem to have any respect for God. They don’t wonder what a cranky deity would do to them. Not to put too fine a point on it, they have managed to churn out quite a lot of atheists and agnostics through their efforts. We are impressed, though! The atheists you ministers produced sure know the Bible! We’ve read Dante’s Inferno. There just has to be a special place in Hell for you.
As in everything else, the problems cannot be fixed until the corruption is eliminated.
It should be noted that the example from Scripture that God does not move to punish the wicked until they have been warned.
You’ve been warned.
Oops!
It’s a new day; it’s a new dawn; it’s a new life… and I’m feeling good
This is a new day. It does look as though 2025 will be a transformative year in ways never before. We’re cautiously optimistic. The current meltdowns should be somewhat diminished in a month or two.
However, if we were to make a prediction concerning the leftists, globalists and especially the Armstrongists, we would note the trend and say that it’s likely they will continue in their evil ways and…:
2025: If at first you don’t succeed, lie, lie again
