Living Armstrongism: Is There a Holydays Fear in the COGs?

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Is There a Holydays Fear in the COGs?

In the same way that Mr. Gavin Rumney asked questions recently imitating a UCG blog, I have a question for you readers.

I have this suspicion that some within the COGs have this fear that Satan will tend to strike at them during the Fall (or any other) Holy Days. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

The reason I believe this is because of these various things.

I recall watching a sermon by Meredith once and he said that Satan likes to strike at 'God's people' during the Holydays.

I also recall once reading a little COG website which focused on spreading HWA's infamous and harmful views on medicine. (I wonder whatever happened to him? I hope he is all right.) He stated that once two ministers' wives died at one of the Fall Holy Days Feasts around 1970. He then used this event to push his hard (and erroneous) views against medicine.

Now I never went beyond calling the minister when I was an Armstrongite believer so I only have these anecdotes to base this belief on. I would love to know whether or not this is a strong belief among the COGs.

4 comments:

xHWASeptember 23, 2009 at 9:40 AM
It is completely true. That "Satan attacks COG members around he Holy Days" was commonly spoken about. I can't recall a single person who did not make that claim. We all had several personal examples.

And I can't say that Satan doesn't attack the COGs more on those days. It sure seemed self-evident while I was there. But I would tend now to think it is nothing uncommon to all men. Similar claims are made in other, unrelated churches in their own circumstances. Bearing up under suffering is an integral part of Christian growth.
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redfox712September 23, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Thank you very much for helping me to know the truth on this matter.
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RichardSeptember 25, 2009 at 8:02 PM
This was mentioned by someone in my UCG congregation only two weeks ago.

The Pastor had injured his toe somehow, and was wearing open-toed sandals during a service to stimulate healing. On top of that, a teenager in the congregation broke his collarbone days before -- and a long-time member badly cut his thumb during the week!

So "Satan likes to cause problems right before the holy days," as one man said of it all.

I bit my tongue -- and remembered words of the Pastor over the years that "accidents" really are due to human carelessness.

In other years, people have pointed to Atlantic hurricanes as a sign of Satan stirring up trouble at Feast time. Yet Katrina in 2005 happened eight weeks before the Feast -- and the killer Asian tsunami happened on Boxing Day, which COG's don't keep at all.

(You know, COG's keep putting Feast sites along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Hmmm -- is God "placing His name" in such places to see if members will pass a Fear Factor-like test?)
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xHWASeptember 28, 2009 at 6:00 AM
Over this past weekend, the weekend that leads up to the Day of Atonement, my alternator died and with other repairs it cost me $200, I received two bills in excess of $100 each for an emergency room visit for my daughter a few months ago, my kitchen sink clogged completely which cost me money and time to fix (I fixed it myself), my freezer quit which ruined several hundreds of $$ in food, and a cable for my garage door snapped which could cost me over $1,000 to repair and I almost got whacked by that cable and one of the massive tension springs (NEVER mess with those springs if you don't know what you're doing).
It would appear that Satan doesn't read my blog and isn't aware that I left the COG a year and a month ago.

I say this to emphasize my earlier point. I think problems are common to all people. "When it rains it pours," wasn't coined by HWA. Through it all I thank God for the use of His things while I am here in this earthly tent, and praise His generous name that I had those things in the first place. Is it Satan attacking me during the Holy Days (that I no longer observe)? I donno. Either way, nothing can snatch me from God's hands, so what does it matter?
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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

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Is There a Holydays Fear in the COGs?

4 comments:

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

Followers

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

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