Category: Douglas Becker

Douglas Becker’s views on the Churches of God

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Wired

Wired
Wired

Armstrongists are unlikely to accept anything that refutes their views: Herbert Armstrong said it; they believe it; that is that. Herbert Armstrong is the arbiter of all truth. No one in the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia wants to learn anything about opposing views, no matter what the evidence may be or what science can disprove. This is especially true in the realm of British Israelism and prophecy, Sabbaths and holydays, church eras, tithing, authority and paganism. The Old Testament is in effect unless specifically done away in the New Testament unless its inconvenient to Armstrongism.

There is a scientific and rather unflattering scientific reason for this: The brain of the Armstrongist is wired that way. The brain itself will reject anything that it is not wired to accept.

To understand the background of this, watch the video about how conservative and liberals that look and act differently. Follow the additional information at The National Journal discussing the Battle for your Brain.

By extension, Armstrongists think differently than non Armstrongists because their brains are wired quite differently: It’s biology — something that you can’t just talk your way out of (or in to).

We’ve seen this on blogs and websites over and over again: There is no basis for any real discussion because the brains of Armstrongists are incapable of receiving truth.

As Brian Resnick says, it isn’t clear at this point whether the brains in questions are that way from the beginning or if they have been changed at some time in the past. Did Herbert Armstrong attract people whose brains were wired a certain way or did exposure to Herbert Armstrong actually change the brains of his followers?

This certainly explains rather handily why people continue to follow David Pack no matter how outrageously his prophecies fail. Ronald Weinland followers in the PKG are unlikely to leave the fold at this point, even though he has been convicted of five counts of felony for Income Tax Evasion and was sent to prison by a jury of his peers. People will likely follow the false prophet of sixty years, Roderick Meredith in spite of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:15 because they are wired that way. PCG members are likely to continue to bear the heavy burdens of Gerald Flurry for the duration. Congregants will continue to attend the UCG and CoGWA in spite of the fact that there’s little difference between them, because the followers are hard wired to accept the preachments of sects. No one can offer scientific facts. People are unimpressed that DNA evidence refutes British Israelism. False prophecies are passed off as mere speculation even though they might be signed “In Jesus’ Name”. Armstrongists will continue to conveniently ignore the Bible when it shorts out their wiring and might blow their fuse.

And that’s a good explanation why Armstrongists won’t change: They are wired wrong.

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Lunar Sabbath

29.5 days of the lunar cycle

Herbert Armstrong was challenged about keeping the Sabbath and he wanted to prove that the woman telling his wife about the Sabbath was completely wrong. He researched the Bible and concluded that indeed, Scripture establishes the Sabbath to keep holy. This is no surprise. An elderly man — an acquaintance of mine — was a staunch Southern Baptist who had grown up in the faith. He told me that they usually had a conference every year that lasts a week, but they wanted to settle whether or not the seventh day Sabbath was to be kept or not, so one year (I believe he said it was in the 1930s), the Southern Baptists had a three week conference. They invited Catholics, Rabbis and other religionists to present their position. When the conference finally finished, the Baptists concluded two things:

  1. The seventh day was the Sabbath to be kept by Christians;
  2. If they switched to the Sabbath, they would lose three-fifths of their congregation.

Go for it. 20% ain’t bad.

These days, it’s just not that simple. Just when you think you’ve got the tiger by the tail and you understand the world, something seems to pop up that completely obliterates your position, and it’s no different with the Sabbath.

I learned about this particular perspective a few weeks ago from my good friend and all around nice guy Christian, xHWA over at the As Bereans Did blog from the Lying for God Part 8 blog entry; the article actually begins at a previous Lying for God entry. As Byker Bob commented, this is something that just didn’t make it into the Has Time Been Lost? booklet by Herbert Armstrong. To save you time, we’ll demystify it for you: Apparently (although that wasn’t what Herbert Armstrong was reaching for).

How does this work?

Long ago, before the Israelite captivity, there was a time when the new moon marked the Sabbath. After the new moon, every seventh day would be the Sabbath until the end of the month. Since the moon takes approximately 29.5 days to cycle to the next new moon, there’s always going to be a day or two left over. Some took the days off and others kept the days as sort of a ‘bonus’ Sabbath rest day. No matter. One month, the Sabbath might be on a Tuesday and the next it might be on a Thursday or Friday. Throughout the year, you’d end up keeping the Sabbath on every day of the week. The Karaite Jews have no problem with it. In fact, the calendar as defined by the Karaite Jews makes perfect sense without all that mucking about with postponements and such. According to the theory, the Jews adopted the seventh day (of the week) Sabbath only after being captive in Babylon.

And for you skeptics out there, there is a site that offers $10,000 for anyone who can ‘prove’ otherwise. Good luck with that!

Of course, not unlike the Southern Baptists, it simply doesn’t matter whether it is true. Can you imagine the chaos if the Armstrongists went to keep the Lunar Sabbath? Any leader of a cult sect would have a large scale rebellion on his hands. How do we know this? We know this because David Hume tried to veer away from British Israelism and a good part of his ministry left him along with their followers. You just can’t tamper with success. Nothing is going to change no matter how stupid or wrong it may be: Herbert Armstrong said it, we believe it and that is that!

xHWA doesn’t have a problem with this as a New Covenant Christian, and, as a matter of a fact, the majority of the 30% of the 7 billion people on planet Earth who call themselves Christians don’t either.

But suppose.

Just suppose.

Suppose that you knew, absolutely knew, that the Lunar Sabbath was true and it was required to be kept for your salvation? Would you keep it? Would you change to do the right thing?

And if we knew the answer to that, we would know a whole lot more about your commitment to faith….

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The Perfect Red Heiferā„¢

The Perfect Red Heiferā„¢

Armstrongism is on the nutty fringes of the outer limits of human belief, some how made to seem perfectly reasonable until some objective analysis is done by societal standards and scientific observation. How is it that if you don’t agree with the daft rubbish that some how it’s your fault and you just don’t understand?

The Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia isn’t the only daft religion and the new series, Dig on the USA Network brings to light what happens when extreme religion goes to great lengths to insure the establishment of their view of the world:

The really scary thing is that the creators of the series did a lot of research and found that there is a basis for what they present: They may have dramatized, but there are groups out there plotting and scheming to do the things portrayed in the show, to bring about the apocalypse, Armageddon or something (we’ll know more as the series unfolds). Look at Dig – inside the Episode: Episode 1:

About midway, they bring to light the story of the red heifer. As they say, if you Google the “red heifer” you will see there are people who believe that this could happen. Do you have questions? You will be rewarded. Of course, you will end up with ever more questions. Be warned: These groups aren’t just messin’ around. They’re serious. This is life and death stuff to them. Dig deeper — to coin a phrase, trust no one.

The red heifer is being raised in Norway. The Rabbis inspect the newly birthed heifer to see if there are any stray hairs that are black, which would absolutely ruin the sacrifice — but thankfully, this particularly young cutie is perfect for sacrifice, and so we are off and running. Apparently, the red heifer sacrifice is really, really, really important to Jewish prophecy for some reason. It doesn’t make sense to me, but it sure does to them.

It turns out that there is a connection to Armstrongism. The USA Network TV series is about people of extreme faith and the lengths they will go to when they believe God is on their side. Of course, He isnā€™t, so you can be certain this will all end in tears. Nevertheless, one of the features of the series is the Jews seeking out the Perfect Red Heiferā„¢ for some sort of funky sacrifice signifying theā€¦ well.. itā€™s not clear, but itā€™s truly important to somebody to bring about the end of days, the coming of the Messiah or something.

I know The Perfect Red Heiferā„¢ well. In the WCG, I knew a Jewish lady and her husband who certainly was in the center of things ā€” at least in her own mind. She was a prophecy buff, and the main reason she joined up with Armstrongism was the prophecy of the end times. Of course, you know that couldnā€™t have lasted, particularly with the advent of the Tkach era, so she and her husband hied off to the Messianic Jews in hopes to find more of what she wanted. I was in her home one Sabbath post-WCG and she nattered on and on about The Perfect Red Heiferā„¢ rather obsessively. I told her about the Herbert Armstrong incest and she accepted it, saying that it did not surprise her.

Well, here it is over a decade later and Iā€™m pretty sure sheā€™s still looking for that Perfect Red Heiferā„¢. She was certain over 10 years ago that the Jews already had one picked for sacrifice on the altar to bring the Messiah or some such. Iā€™d say that the best use of the Perfect Red Heiferā„¢ is stew meat by this time if the poor thing is still alive.

Itā€™s just plain nuts.

And the Cult of Herbert Armstongism Mafia sects arenā€™t much different than this kooky Jewish lady looking for the coming of the Perfect Red Heiferā„¢.

Holy cow!

It never ceases to amaze how extreme Armstrongists can be: Strongly held daft cult ideas which just has to be!

This is just one such example.

Kudos to USA Network.

Although… here’s hoping it doesn’t give anyone any ideas….