How well I remember the moment I discovered the God Family doctrine, which HWA actually stole from the Mormons. Never mind that the Mormons taught this a hundred years before the false prophet HWA found it and called it new truth without acknowledging that the Mormons, following their polygamous founder 'figured it out' first. Let it be stated that this idea was first conceived in the mind of a polygamist.
But I had no idea about any of this when I first understood this doctrine. I had been eagerly devouring Armstrongism for most of the year 2000 but somehow I had never understood the God Family doctrine. They offered this booklet entitled 'Your Ultimate Destiny' and I wished they had stuck it on their web site but for whatever reason that was not done till near the end of the year. One of the booklets released onto the Internet was Roderick C. Meredith's 'Your Ultimate Destiny'. I read it on the night of New Year's Eve 2000 into the early morning of January 1, 2001, which is often said to be the real beginning of the Millennium. Be warned this is very heady stuff! I was absolutely blown away. I mean 'oh my goodness!' God wants me to be elevated to the same plane of existence as Himself! Oh how stirring this booklet was! The idea made perfect sense. This had to be the truth!
But as time went by I encountered some problems with the idea. Nothing that made me suspect the validity of this doctrine, but still it made me think, just not in a way that could have caused me to do the right thing and abandon Armstrongism. Later around 2001 I discovered I could most of read the works of Herbert W. Armstrong and I eagerly proceeded to do so. As I did so I discovered a detail of Armstrongite doctrine that was not discussed in the booklet. Now Meredith, responding to criticism of the doctrine, had wrote, 'One false argument against the truth of our ultimate destiny goes like this: "We can never become fully like God because God has eternally existed and has been the Creator of all that is—and we have not." His response to this objection is this: The ultimate reality is God’s will....God must have planned from the beginning to reproduce Himself' (p. 22, heading: God Is Eternal. Note: that particular heading is not formatted properly and so is a bit dificult to find. It is after 'A Stupendous Truth Explained!').
The major reason why this objection occurs is not discussed in the booklet at all, thus allowing him to hide the reason for this objection from the unknowing novice. The reason is the Armstrongite doctrine of the Pre-Adamic earth and the original purpose of Angels before the fall of Lucifer-Satan.
Reading HWA's works, including his masterpiece of deception Mystery of the Ages, I discovered that he taught that the earth was actually created millions or billions of years ago, and God had placed a third of the Angels on the Earth led by Lucifer to beautify and rule the earth till they should inherit the entire universe, but due to their fall it is now us who will inherit the Universe in place of the Angels. 'Evidently if the now fallen angels had maintained the earth in its original beautiful condition, improved it, carried out God's instructions, and obeyed his government, they would have been offered the awesome potential of populating and carrying out a tremendous creative program throughout the entire universe.' (Mystery of the Ages, Chapter 2, Heading, 'Why the Creation of MAN?') In other words inherit the entire Universe. However since they failed, we are to take their place. If this is true then we are simply God's second thought. Plan B.
Now there's a contradiction: You will be an eternal God being, but you are only Plan B.
Meredith, obviously having heard annoyed complaints from members and prospective members that has made him see that this is a problem, then says that God must have always intended us to be created as God beings from the very beginning. Even when I was brainwashed this was still a bit difficult for me to accept. So he would have us believe that during the whole time that God individually created each and every Angel, when he created the Earth, when he let a third of the Angels settle on the Earth under Lucifer as a test before gaining the entire Universe, when he allowed Lucifer to gradually seduce the Angels under him to rebellion against God because he was prideful (which could have taken millions of years to do), when he let Lucifer and his hosts rise up and attack Heaven, when he let Lucifer and his Angels destroy the Earth and the entire physical Universe, all that time His real plan was to create humans to be literally like Him!
This is absurd. But the unfortunate reader, who is unaware of these things, who sees Meredith's explanation without the slightest clue over why he has been forced to come up with this explanation, will has this ridiculous answer thrown onto him without seeing it in its true light. Meredith is trying to have it both ways: have this Armstrongite Gap theory (which they do teach, safely tucked away in Lesson 7 of their self-indoctrination course, their so-called 'Bible Study Course') and the eternal presence of Humankind in the will of God as taught in 'Your Ultimate Destiny'. This 'explanation' is a answer that tries to reconcile two hopelessly irreconcilable ideas together. It does not work.
LCG Admits They Are Not Doing That Great Of A Job With Their Message
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And, it has taken them this long to realize this?
Members of the Living Church of God Council of Elders met for three days of
meetings this week. Many...
2 days ago
Actualy HWA's theory about God's plan, makes it look like God was not in control of His own creation, but HWA managed to figure out what God was up to(LOL)
ReplyDeleteIt makes creation look like God was playing second fiddle to His own imagination, and there is no way to match this HWA theory with the Scriptures. Like Joseph Smith, HWA lived in his own fantasy land, and made God over into his own image.
The “Armstrongite Gap theory” is not something that is some ‘exclusive’ idea, that needs to be ‘safely tucked away’ somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of creationists that have never been anywhere near a COG that believe in ‘old earth’ creationism. This belief was extant for many years before HWA was even born.
The idea of a 6000 year old earth had so many scientific holes in it, but the ‘old earth’ belief gives an explanation to the facts of geology, in the same way as evolution gives an alternative view to these same facts.
The statement that "We can never become fully like God because God has eternally existed and has been the Creator of all that is—and we have not.", would belittle God if it were true.
It would be saying that God cannot, is ‘not allowed’ to create beings such as Himself. That because He has always existed, He is somehow incapable of creating other beings like Himself. Do we think that we can limit God in such a way? That is a ridiculous idea.
I agree that Rod is completely fudging the issue, with his attempted explanation. But it’s not something that needs an explanation. Whether or not mankind’s destiny was plan A or plan B in God’s scheme of things, how does that affect the issue?
It’s obvious that the beings God creates will not have lived eternally. So that is one difference between them and God the Father, but that does not mean that God cannot elevate created beings to His level in all other respects.
On a physical human level we don’t think it strange that a man’s son did not exist in the early part of the father’s life. It doesn’t preclude the son being a fully fledged human being, and the son of his father.
Some claim (I do not), that Jesus Christ was created, whether at the time of His physical conception, or at some time in the distant past. If that were true, would that make Him any less that at God’s level now?
While the whole idea is somewhat mind blowing in its enormity, that doesn’t mean you should reject it.
If God is offering Sonship, should we be throwing it back in God’s face, and telling Him ‘No, you can’t do that – you are incapable of creating sons”. I for one, will not be telling God that.