Living Armstrongism: No Time for Movies, HWA

Friday, May 8, 2009

No Time for Movies, HWA

Herbert W. Armstrong claimed that his wife Loma had a dream just a few days after their wedding. HWA would later claim this was a sign that God had called him, but this was unrecognized at the time. This story may be seen in Chapter 10 of his Autobiography. This dream has also attracted outside attention, as this article from the Watchman Expositor shows. This story was first published in the August 1958 Plain Truth, on pages 12 and 18. This was when HWA was teaching that Christ would return in 1975.

In this dream Loma was concerned about her new husband because they often went to movies together. "At that time, we had been going quite regularly to motion-picture theatres. She asked the angel if this were wrong. He replied Christ had important work for us to do, preparing for His coming -- there would be no time for "movies." (Those were the days of the "silent" pictures.)"

So it would appear that HWA would have no time for movies. It must also be remembered that back in 1917 many movies were of short duration. Lasting from ten minutes or a half hour. It was only two years earlier that D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation brought full length movies to the fore. So if there was no time for movies this would include the short movies as well.

I wonder, was this story ever used to make members feel guilty for watching any movies?

Is it true that HWA had no time to watch movies as this angel told Loma?

At the end of his booklet The Plain Truth about Healing, published in 1979, HWA wrote these words (emphasis mine): "After writing the above lines, intending them to be the conclusion, I turned on television for a moment's relaxation. A medical drama was on. In a heated argument between two doctors -- actors taking the part of doctors -- one said to the other, angrily, "You're not a miracle worker -- you're a doctor!" "

So much for having no time for movies.

If this TV "medical drama" was an hour long, or even only a half hour long, this contradicts what this (alleged) Angel said to Loma Armstrong. Maybe the failure of the 1975 prophecy had caused him to relax.

2 comments:

RichardMay 9, 2009 at 8:41 AM
And yet WCG sometimes showed movies at Feast sites.

Not simply "Behind the Work" films, either. At one of the first Feasts I attended in Big Sandy during the 1980s, we are all encouraged to come out one evening to see The Man From Snowy River. It was a great family film, we were told. In fact, they may have shown it twice (my memory's vague about that now).

No, I didn't go.
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StanMay 9, 2009 at 11:48 AM
"You're not a miracle worker -- you're a doctor!"

Didn't Scotty say something similar on Star Trek?
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Fall of Berlin Wall NOT Proof HWA was Right

It is often asserted that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 proved that HWA was right and he really did see the future.

This of course is nonsense. Herbert W. Armstrong said that Christ would return within twenty years in his book Mystery of the Ages. (PCG has since deleted those words so someone in there knows HWA spoke nonsense.) How convenient for them to forget this.

Also Herbert W. Armstrong never said the Soviet Union would collapse. He thought it would survive intact until a few years after Christ's return. It shows how biased some many in the COGs are that they never seem to notice this. This inconvenient truth is just tossed into the memory hole.

It is true that HWA said that some Eastern European states would break away from Moscow's orbit and join the European Empire he said would arise at any moment. But he never talked of the Soviet Union collapsing. He did not teach that. Also he portrayed the rise of the European Empire to be far quicker then what has actually happened. In Mystery of the Ages Christ was supposed to return by 2005 at the most.

So assertions that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow prove that HWA was right is just complete nonsense spread by people who, for whatever reason, are still in denial that HWA was a false prophet who merely talked out of his own "human reasoning".

Truth about Roderick C. Meredith

What sort of man is he? A man who could say things like this.

"Mr. Armstrong has reminded us again that we are to disfellowship any members who attend GTA's [Garner Ted Armstrong's] campaigns, church services or other meetings. Some of our weaker members apparently do not realize that this man is in direct rebellion against God and His government! We must not allow them, or ourselves, to rationalize about this matter, to try to "help the underdog," or in any other way lend support to one whose gross immorality, whose long standing "play acting" and hypocrisy, and whose direct insubordination to the Government of God has long been and is now a source of confusion and DIVISION among God's people. So, as per Mr. Armstrong's instruction, I charge and exhort every one of you faithful ministers of the living Christ to explain this in no uncertain terms to your members, to warn them about this cause of division and then to disfellowship any who consort with GTA or any of his fellows." (Roderick C. Meredith, Pastor's Report, May 21, 1979, pp. 1-2.)

See here for this statement's context.

David Robinson on Roderick C. Meredith

WCG minister David Robinson had this to say about Roderick C. Meredith in a letter he wrote to him on September 19, 1979.

"During the ten years I have been an employee of the Worldwide Church, you have been poorly spoken of by most of the ministers and employees I have known. I vividly remember the absolute unbounded glee that was openly expressed by a good number of respected men in the church when you were first "shanghaied." [In 1972.] I could begin by naming names, which I am sure would shock you. I was one of the few who stood, where possible, for you. Your tenure as superintendent of ministers, as I believe the office was then called, was looked on as nightmarish. While you held office during the years of growth, most of those whom I know gave you very little credit for that growth. Almost everyone whom I know, whether they be former friends of yours, or continuing foes, recalls insensitive and terrible things you have done. Without exception, at least among my acquaintances, they all credit you with an unbridled lust for power and list you as one who is willing to pay the price of gaining that power, no matter what. I have, through many of the last few years, believed you had principles you would not violate. Many a man of experience in the church assured me of my error. Events have proven me wrong and them right. Mr. Armstrong has himself been widely quoted as saying of you that you were so righteous that you were so "righteous you were unrighteous." " (David Robinson, Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web, Chapter 16, p. 207.)

Of course it is impossible for me to personally verify these assertions but people deserve to know what this knowledgeable man had to say about him.

Living Armstrongism

Friday, May 8, 2009

No Time for Movies, HWA

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If You are new please read this

Fall of Berlin Wall NOT Proof HWA was Right

Truth about Roderick C. Meredith

The Truth About Europe and Prophecy

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Truth About The Key of David's Gerald Flurry and his PCG

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