A New COG Blog

Gavin Rumney has introduced a new COG blog, cbmilne33's Sabbatarian Watch.

He has an informative chart showing how many of the Adventist movements are linked together by a common ancestry with the Millerites of the 1830s-1840s. You can see it in all its glory here.

I'm a bit jealous. I wanted to do something similar myself but I could not be bothered to learn how to do something like that. But I must say it is far better than what I would have produced.

Michael Jackson and Jehovah's Witnesses

Michael Jackson has been mentioned before upon his tragic and premature passing away. But he was also a Jehovah's Witness, a religion from which Herbert W. Armstrong plagiarized many of his ideas.

So here's an account of his life as a Jehovah's Witness and the troubles he had with the dictatorial hierarchy.

Courtesy of JWFacts.com.

A Journey into American Health Care

Here's very interesting article on why health insurance costs so much in some places in the USA. The Cost Conundrum.

Here one reporter goes to McAllen, Texas, which has one the most expensive rates for health insurance in the country and tries to grasp why it happens to be that way.

I hear there is a renewed push among Democratic Senators to get the Public Option passed using reconciliation. I hope that initiative works.

On Herman Hoeh

For anyone interested here's a little profile of Herman Hoeh readers may be interested in Spiritus-Temporis.com.

It also features some discussion on the infamous time cycle belief.

Introduction.

Ministry and Writings of Herman Hoeh.

Creator of Time Cycle belief.

Time Magazine and 'Christian Identity'

Here's an article from Time magazine concerning our embarrassing racist cousins, so-called 'Christian Identity.'

It even mentions us!

The COGs are intellectually related to 'Christian Identity' by their common use of the historically and genetically inaccurate doctrine of British Israelism.

The Kingdom of Matthias

This is a re-posting of a previous blog. I wanted to add an image to it to make it better.



One book that those interested in Armstrongism may find intriguing is the history book The Kingdom of Matthias (1995) by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz. It is the tale of another false prophet, Robert Matthews, who started up a little community of brainwashed followers in the 1830s, and who claimed to be a reincarnation of the Apostle Matthias. I read it a few months ago and I found it a superbly written history book, very easy to read. It reads like a novel and you can really visualize it all.

Now without spoiling the story the reason why I wish to highlight it here is that this particular prophet, like HWA, adopted various Judaic practices, such as Sabbath observance, observing Old Testament meat laws. Those details do not impact upon the story in any major way. He also shared some other disturbing similarities with HWA's WCG. But I will not go into them here lest I spoil the story.

I am not suggesting that there is any connection between the two men but it is curious that they should have such similarities. This book is not about Armstrongism at all. It just so happens that this false prophet shared some doctrinal similarities with HWA.

HWA's Lie about Scriptural Support for the Trinity

I have already mentioned this before but I feel compelled to bring it up again.

One of the more brazen accusations Herbert W. Armstrong hurls from his last book, Mystery of the Ages, is that arguments for the Trinity are mainly based on the Johannine Comma, a piece of spurious writing placed within 1 John 5:7-8.

This false teaching is propagated through M. John Allen's book, Restoration of Truth, when he quotes these words from Mystery of the Ages in Chapter 1. (Emphasis added.)

“There is only one small passage in the Authorized Version of the Bible that is generally used by Trinity adherents to support the Trinity doctrine.

Is this accusation true? Before we address that let us observe further what HWA has to say.

This passage is found in I John 5:7-8, and is bracketed in the following quotation: ‘For there are three that bear record [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth], the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.’ The bracketed words were added by editors to the Latin Vulgate translation probably in the early fourth century. They do not appear in any of the older Greek manuscripts nor in other modern English translation. They were added to the Latin Vulgate during the heat of the controversy between Rome and Dr. Arias and God's people.

“Bible commentaries explain that these words were never written in the apostle John's manuscript or any existing early copies of it. The apostle John in his three epistles and the Revelation speaks of "the Father, and... Son" (I John 1:3), but never of ‘the Father and the Word,’ except in this uninspired part of I John 5:7-8.

This is totally untrue. There are other Scriptures which can be used to justify this teaching. That is what I discovered after reading Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults.

Here's one argument from Mr. Kevin Quick. (Italics mine.):

John 16:13-15-"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine [Jesus'] and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

How can the Holy Spirit "guide" someone into "all the truth" unless He is a person?

How can the Holy Spirit "speak" unless He is a person?

How can the Holy Spirit "hear" unless He is a person?

How can the Holy Spirit "declare to you [Jesus' disciples] the things that are to come" unless He is a person?

Thus it can be seen that HWA's accusation that, "There is only one small passage in the Authorized Version of the Bible that is generally used by Trinity adherents to support the Trinity doctrine" is just a LIE!

That is just a vicious lie. And, whether knowingly or unknowingly, M. John Allen is continuing to perpetuate that vicious lie in his book.

M. John Allen and Restoration Ministries

I have mentioned this particular COG before but recently I went back and tried to understand this COG sect better.

After I began exploring the web for information on the COGs in late 2000 one website that caught my attention was that of the Restoration Church of God (now Restoration Ministries), led by one M. John Allen.

It had quite a selection of HWA's works. However my allegiance was firmly with LCG and I had little idea of what this organization was, so I paid little attention to any original works by this Restoration Ministries. I went there simply to read its archive of WCG materials.

I was vaguely aware that he disapproved of HWA's doctrine on government. Truth be told, at the time I had little understanding what that doctrine was. From my perspective, being a lone man reading COG materials, it was very difficult to see what was the doctrine of government anyway, as it is a topic not generally discussed in recruitment literature to potential recruits. It is a topic discussed among seasoned COG followers, which is not discussed by the COGs when they are trying to convert people.

He began to associate with WCG in 1977. According to his own account from the start of his association with WCG he had misgiving about the spiritual state of it.

Mr. Armstrong, because of his huge ego, simply could have never accepted the fact that the church he was used to found could be SPIRITUALLY DEAD. THIS CONDITION OF SPIRITUAL DEADNESS, THOUGH, I RECOGNIZED ALMOST FROM THE BEGINNING OF MY ASSOCIATION WITH THAT CHURCH, STARTING IN 1977! (M. John Allen, Restoration of Truth, Chapter 3.)

M. John Allen went to Ambassador College in 1980. He also heard HWA's last sermon.

I listened to Mr. Armstrong's sermons in person over a period of about five years. In fact, I was privileged to hear the very last sermon he gave, which was on the Day of Atonement, 1985. Even though sick and weak, Mr. Armstrong felt that it was HIS DUTY TO PERSONALLY TEACH GOD'S PEOPLE AS MUCH AS HE WAS ABLE. (Restoration of Truth, Chapter 3.)

He left WCG in 1992, disgusted at the transformation Tkach had unleashed upon WCG. In that year he also released a book entitled The Restoration of Truth. It is essentially a rewrite of Mystery of the Ages, with a few personal changes to HWA's teachings, notably on government.

Another intriguing innovation here is his spin on the church era doctrine. M. John Allen identifies Thyatira as the Seventh Day Adventists and the Church of God (Seventh Day). Sardis is WCG under both HWA and Tkach. And Philadelphia is today, which includes his sect, unsurprisingly.

Presently M. John Allen is situated in Costa Rica. He seems to have been there for quite awhile.

In the late 1990s he shared through the Internet his dreams of creating an online University called Destiny University. It seems to have gone nowhere.

Another innovation I recall from my first encounter with this sect is his contention that the process of disfellowshipment should by done by the entire assembly and not just the church hierarchy.

Do not be fooled by any of these criticisms of HWA's Armstrongism, he still regards this false prophet as being a man used by God.

What is this sect's position on healing?

I cannot say for sure but among the works of HWA available is his murderous and damnable 'healing' booklet.

He seems to have several interlinking organizations.

It seems to be a very small sect. LCG apologist Bob Thiel in his COG Links page states that this sect only has one or two congregations.

And that is Restoration Ministries, led by M. John Allen, a sect which I had some encounter with in my early days with Armstrongism. I cannot recommend it to my readers as it continues to propagate the grievous errors of Armstrongism.

The True Young Ambassadors

J over at Shadows of WCG has just written that the Young Ambassadors might be a rip off of the Young Ambassadors from Brigham Young University.

Another rip off from Mormonism?

An Article on Getting Out of a Cult

Here's an anonymously written article, How I helped my Family Leave Jehovah's Witnesses, which some readers may find helpful.

Courtesy of Freeminds.org.

Reasoning with Jehovah's Witnesses by Kevin Quick

Here's an online book some may find helpful. Reasoning with Jehovah's Witnesses by Kevin Quick.

Was the Radio Church of God Democratic Before 1957?

Carl Franklin argues that before 1957 the Radio Church of God was not a hierarchical organization. The way he portrays it all was fine and well with RCG before 1957 when it was radically changed by Rader in order to comply with IRS regulations to gain tax exemption.

I do not find this argument very convincing.

Further evidence that such was not the case may be found in Raymond Cole's Open Letter.

Raymond Cole was one of the first five Evangelists ordained by HWA in 1952. He left WCG in 1974 because of disagreement with the changes of 1974, which affected the doctrine of Divorce and Remarriage and changed WCG from observing a Monday Pentecost to a Sunday Pentecost. He then founded his own COG sect, the Church of God, the Eternal, which he led until his death.

He reveals that there was great turmoil over the proper date of Pentecost in what he called "the traumatic years of 1948 and 1949."

Does this reveal that the Radio Church of God was somehow democratic before 1957?

Although the subject of Pentecost had become sensitive and divisive even in the 1940s the intensity of the subject was growing in the latter '40s and was also geographically spreading. Unrest had developed in as diverse areas as San Antonio, Texas; Wichita, Kansas; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; as well as Eugene, Oregon. Satan was intensely at work. He hated the real truth about Pentecost. An alarming effort was made to destroy the fledgling church before trained and loyal ministers could be sent to the growing number of areas across the United States where the Truth was taking root. For a number of reasons, I was chosen by Mr. Armstrong, even before ordination, to go out to these troubled areas and quell the unrest about Pentecost. These defensive measures took me to Portland, Oregon for a year—prior to graduation. My matriculation from college was postponed for one year. These assignments necessitated my understanding the arguments being advanced as well as the premise of divine revelation and the proofs for a Monday Pentecost the church had taught over the years.

I see no evidence to suggest that RCG operated in a democratic spirit here. It seems that even in 1948 RCG had its dictatorial spirit.

This further shows that Carl Franklin's assertion that Rader changed the government in the RCG in 1957 to comply with IRS regulations to be untenable. Personally I find it unbelievable.

More on Carl Franklin's Bad History

A fundamental part of Carl Franklin's thesis in his paper is that Rader and the IRS caused the Radio Church of God to switch from a collegial system (which is left extremely vague and is never really explained) into a ministerial hierarchy.

Here is where he argues that Rader discussing the nature of RCG with the IRS was actually what caused RCG to become a dictatorship.

The following is a quote from Stanley Rader's book, Against the Gates of Hell, Chapter 4, as quoted in Franklin's paper. Words in brackets are Franklin's, words in green are mine.

"It soon was apparent to me that much of the problem was caused by a misapprehension on the government's side of the very NATURE OF THE ORGANIZATION known then as the Radio Church of God, and of its operations in general. The government had obviously confused Herbert Armstrong with the likes of Sinclair Lewis's Elmer Gantry, or on the other hand, with A.A. Allen, a well-known radio evangelist with whom the government had been at war for some time.

"Thus I knew how to solve the problem. I explained in detail what the Radio Church of God was, what it taught, how it promulgated its message, and, indeed, everything relevant and material about the organization and its operations that I had learned from several weeks of intensive study of the facts. The Internal Revenue Service has developed a list of fourteen characteristics that it uses in determining whether an organization qualifies as a church. [These qualifications were patterned after the organization of the Catholic Church.] [What are these fourteen characterizations precisely and how are they related to the Catholic Church? These questions are never addressed in this paper.] I simply demonstrated how the Radio Church of God satisfied these requirements. [At that time it actually did not.] (Carl Franklin's paper, p. 14.)

How on earth does Carl Franklin know these regulations were based on the Catholic Church? This is just an assertion he makes which he does not back up with any evidence.

He says RCG did not fulfill the IRS's requirements. What were they? He does not tell us except to say that in some mysterious way it caused them to become some sort of hierarchy.

The best he can come up with on page 15 is to say that RCG happened to be rather small at the time. That could not be helped and changing RCG into a hierarchical organization (whatever he means by that!) was not going to change that, so I do not understand why Franklin focuses on this topic to feebly support his contention that Rader and the IRS were responsible for WCG's dictatorial nature.

Let us meditate again on just what Carl Franklin is asking us to believe. There is a difference between a) Rader explaining the operations of RCG to some officials and b) conducting a radical reform of RCG's government. Franklin presents evidence for a) and acts as though this helps to prove that Rader committed b).

He also presents some RCG articles in such a way as to make it appear that there was a radical change in RCG's approach to government in 1956-7. Even though one of the 1958 hierarchy supporting articles is actually a reprint of a 1953 article, as was seen in the last entry.

Let us think meditate again on just what Carl Franklin is asking us to believe. He is asking us to believe that some stranger who goes to Washington on behalf of RCG went back and convinced HWA to radically change the form of government in the RCG.

Again I have to say that Carl Franklin's evidence that Rader and the IRS caused RCG to adopt a hierarchical government simply does not withstand scrutiny. The establishment of dictatorship in RCG occurred before Rader came onto the scene and he had nothing to do with its initial establishment.

More Things We Can Do

Here is a post from xHWA I would like to share with you.

I would like to also ask that everyone also send an email to Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily (jfarah@wnd.com) and ask him to yank the videos from Richard Rives.

Here is a sample video:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125274

Here is at least one of Mr. Rives' websites:
http://www.toolong.com/

Here is a quote from that website:
"THERE ARE SEVERE PENALTIES FOR DISOBEYING THE SABBATH COMMANDMENT."

And another:
"History reveals that all the known nations during the first century A.D. rested on the Sabbath day, Saturday."

Mr. Rives is not telling the truth. Whether he knows it or not, he is preaching contrary to the gospel of grace. He is recreating the errors of Armstrongism.

Carl Franklin's Bad History on WCG's Government

I am very sorry to report that there has still been no response. But at least we can have the satisfaction of knowing that they must know what sort of organization LCG is.

But the show must go on. There are other things that will need to be discussed.

Recently I had an encounter with a blast from my COG past and discovered some disturbing things about it.

Around 2000 after seeing a horrific news report of a murderous cult that happened to be descended from WCG I went exploring on the Internet to found out more about Herbert W. Armstrong and his Worldwide Church of God. Alas I was hopelessly sucked in already and nothing I saw helped me to get out of it.

First I ran into an anti-Armstrongism page, then I discovered a paper produced by the Christian Biblical Church of God, Fred Coulter's sect. The Rise of a Ministerial Hierarchy in the Church of God by Carl Franklin.

This 50 page paper argues that the church is supposed to elect ministers, there is to be no hierarchy within the church, and it blames Stanley Rader for the introduction of dictatorial rule within WCG.

Specifically it asserts that the Radio Church of God was not a hierarchy until 1956-7 and charges Rader as implementing this change in order to comply with unstated IRS regulations defining the nature of a tax exempt church (pp. 10-16).

Truth be told I find it very difficult to believe that Rader was responsible for that. Franklin presents it as though before 1955 all was well and implies that the church was being properly run and not as a dictatorship.

However this ignores the fact that HWA's doctrine of Government was developed before Rader's meeting with the IRS. It insists that before early 1957 RCG was not dictatorial. On p. 4 there is this section heading, "Hierarchical Church Government Condemned in 1955". Then he quotes a 1955 Hoeh article which condemns the Catholic Church for creating a dictatorial form of government.

On pp. 7-10 Carl Franklin quotes an article by Hoeh, entitled 'GOVERNMENT in Our Church,' from the June-July, 1958 Good News (pp. 3-5), and presents this as evidence that a drastic change had occurred in RCG's approach to government since 1955 and they had adopted a hierarchical form of government.

One problem: that article, cited as evidence of a drastic transformation in government since 1955, is actually a reprint of an article which first appeared in August, 1953 Good News, pp. 3-4, 7-8.

IT'S THE SAME ARTICLE! It was published three years before Rader supposedly changed RCG into a hierarchical institution.

This is what Hoeh was saying in the 1953 article, p. 7, column 3, paragraph 3:

"The members do not elect and dismiss elders, nor do they vote on doctrines which the elders are to preach. Rather elders are to be chosen by the apostle, or as he directs and authorizes, by an evangelist, according to the qualifications given in the letters to Timothy and Titus."

These very words are quoted in Franklin's paper on p. 8, paragraph 4.

But they are presented as being made in 1958.

(You may also find these words in the 1958 article at p. 5, column 1, paragraph 4)

This completely destroys Carl Franklin's argument that Rader and the IRS were somehow responsible for WCG's dictatorial system. Hoeh was already teaching this doctrine in August, 1953, three and a half years before Rader came along!

Another piece of evidence that must be discussed. In HWA's co-worker letter of May 24, 1974 he justifies his style of government by appealing to articles written in 1952-3.

"We published an article revealing new truth about church organization in The GOOD NEWS, November, 1952, and again in August, 1953, "GOVERNMENT in Our Church," and in November, 1953, "JUDGING and DISCIPLINE in God's Church.""

If the dictatorship was set up in early 1957 as Franklin charges, why did HWA justify his dictatorship with articles written when RCG was supposedly not a dictatorial organization?

How can this Carl Franklin do this to us whether by ignorance or willfully?

If you really want to know how WCG became the dictatorship we all know you would be far better served reading this article by John Robinson. Here he mentions many others things that contributed to the dictatorship. The adulation followers reserved for HWA, the consensus that top down government was the way to operate. This was further enforced with the unveiling in 1953 of the Prophecy of 1972-5 and constant demands via co-worker letters for more money which engineered a permanent sense of crisis within the organization in which any reluctance to obey orders meant you were (somehow) siding with the enemy (who must be Satan!).

The emergence of the dictatorial hierarchy had nothing to do with fulfilling some vague regulatory demands by the IRS in early 1957.

Is this another conspiracy theory? Are they just trying to blame a Jew? I honestly hope that such is not the case, but their disturbing willingness to accommodate anti-Semitic world conspiracy theories has been noted earlier. (I do not care if only a few, wealthy powerful 'Zionist' Jews are part of the conspiracy. It is still anti-Semitic. And absurd as well.)

So this charge that Rader and the IRS caused RCG to become a dictatorship is found seriously wanting.

Want to do Something about LCG?-Update

So far there has been no response to my appeal to Parents magazine.

If you have not done so I greatly encourage you to sent an email to info@parents.co.ke and tell them your feelings about LCG and Armstrongism heard and call upon them not to associate themselves with this organzation.

Want to do Something About LCG?

Recently I sent an email to Parents magazine in Kenya. Their email address is info@parents.co.ke.

It looks like a really fascinating magazine but that is not the point here.

LCG is trying to get into this magazine. So I sent them this email.

Dear Parents magazine,


I beg you not to associate your magazine with Rod King or his organization, the Living Church of God which produces Tomorrow's World.

I read at the LCG's website (http://cogl.org/cgi-bin/cogl/weeklyupdates/cogl-wkupdates.cgi?category=WeeklyUpdate1&item=1264896047) that in mid-February a representative of yours will be meeting with Rod King, a minister of LCG, in order to negotiate running an article and an ad for a marriage booklet LCG produces.

Rod King wrote this in the link:

• I will be leaving for a trip to Kenya in mid-February, where I will meet with a representative from Parents magazine. We plan to run an article and advertisement for our marriage booklet.

I beg you not to associate your magazine with this man or this organization.

LCG is a dictatorial organization that has no democracy within its hierarchy.

LCG is very controlling of members' lives.

LCG follows a brand of Christianity called Armstrongism. That religion was begun by Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986) self proclaimed Apostle, and leader of his authoritarian Worldwide Church of God. He plagiarized doctrines from various sources (Jehovah's Witnesses, British-Israelism, Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventists, etc,) to produce his own distinctive religion. He made 200 false prophecies. LCG is an offshoot of WCG which continues many practices of WCG.

He and LCG teach that God is not a Trinity but a family of beings presently composed of the Father and the Son (and not the Holy Spirit) into which human beings may be born into. (Similar to Mormonism.)

Members are required to give three tithes to LCG. This is a tremendous financial burden imposed upon all members. Furthermore members are expected to give more then this, the minimum, in order to please God, they are told. LCG cleverly hides this from potential converts. They do not mention Second or Third Tithes in any of their tithing booklets.

Members are forbidden to celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Easter, St. Valentine's Day, etc because they are viewed as 'pagan.' This is a terrible isolating mechanism that causes members to loosen and neglect personal bonds with non-members. (This is very similar to Jehovah's Witnesses.)

This church is an apocalyptic cult. In their so called Bible Study Course they forecasted that Jesus Christ 'could' return in 2017. They constantly keep members in a state of fear about the future. This has always been the case with Armstrongism. Armstrongites have asserted that Jesus Christ would return in 1936, after World War II, 1975, by 2005, 2017. It just never stops. LCG's publications are filled with lurid and crude warnings that nuclear World War III will destroy everything they hold dear. This cause members to view their links with the outside world as worthless because it will soon be destroyed and they spend all their energies on this cult. Those who join this church live in ever present (false) fear that World War III will begin according to their elaborate false prophecies.

Members are forbidden from marrying outside of their particular and rather small church. There is such little hope for members to find a spouse that they have Singles Weekends in which singles desperately try to find a mate. A personal testimony to the dreadful situation of singles in LCG's parent organization may be seen here: (http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/dee/back/single.htm). Things have not changed. They still hold singles weekends as may be seen at the first link above.

Also interracial marriage is forbidden, as though Jim Crow is still in force. This was taught in Herbert W. Armstrong's book, Mystery of the Ages, chapters three and four.

If you publish that article of theirs and run that ad for them you could very well cause some person to get into this organization. I ask you again not to publish their materials. They know how to say fine words but it is just a trick.

Please do not do this.


Regards,
Redfox712

Perhaps you would like to make your voice heard by sending your own email on this matter, (or cut and paste mine) and make it absolutely clear to them that LCG is not worth associating with. Perhaps add in your two cents worth to them so they clearly understand what sort of organization they are dealing with.

There is a lot of justified anger at what these Armstrongite organizations have done to us. Let us use it in a constructive, non-violent fashion.

Let us tell them the truth about Armstrongism.

We need to stop this.

HWA Did Not Name Us!

Why didn't HWA give his followers a name?

The Mormons got a snappy name, Mormon, because that's what Joseph Smith's first book was called. Or they prefer to be called Latter Day Saints.

Rutherford bestowed the name Jehovah's Witnesses upon his followers. They have good sounding names.

I am reminded of this relevant quote from Felix Taylor's blog.

But self proclaimed Apostle Herbert W. Armstrong, who knew enough to come up with snappy booklets and even books which drew us into his mad and crazy world, never gave his movement a distinctive name. Just 'Church of God.' He taught that God had called the church 'Church of God' and that was the divinely bestowed name.

Now I know how true believers in the COGs will interpret this. "HWA taught that Church of God was the name of the church that God gave the church. We were taught that God names things for what they are and we are the Church of God. That is what we are. So it is a good name."

"How can you complain against the name that God has given us? The Devil must be influencing you to reject that which God has given us. The Devil has blinded you into forgetting what was actually taught."

I know very well that HWA did give his church a name. But Church of God, although it expresses the beautiful idea of being a community of believers dedicated to God, because of its vague nature it was inevitable that some kind of distinctive name would be placed upon this movement unless HWA gave such a distinctive name. This would happen regardless of whatever name God placed on His church.

HWA failed his followers in neglecting to give a good distinctive name. When his organization was incorporated with the State of California in 1946 he incorporated it as the Radio Church of God. Then in 1968 he renamed it the Worldwide Church of God.

Both of these names do not help give one a proper sense of identity. In that sense both names are terrible.

Worldwide, Worldwider, that's not a name. When I first heard of that name in the letters for the first Tomorrow's World issue I immediately thought that was a bad name. Why Worldwide? That does not have any bearing on who you are. That is just an arrogant boast. 'Look at me, Herbert W. Armstrong. My church is now worldwide.'

Neither Radio or Worldwide were good names. HWA failed his followers.

And because HWA failed to give his followers a distinctive name 'the world' gave us one whether we liked or not. Armstrongite.

HWA's failure to give us a good name is yet another one of the many failings that false prophet inflicted us with. I regard this as yet another painful insult HWA inflicted upon his eternally abused flock. He should have given his followers a better name. The fact that he did not is just another of his failures towards those he convinced to follow him.

Tanaka Memorial and More

If you look at the Wikipedia article for the Tanaka Memorial you will see a mention of Herbert W. Armstrong and how he mentioned it in the first Plain Truth magazine. It is a document said to be the Japanese Empire's plan for world domination.

Also Ambassador Reports has a blog up on PCG acquiring some bronze letters for their Armstrong Auditorium white elephant and the renovations the new owners of Ambassador Auditorium have done to it.

Is Gerald Flurry 'That Prophet'?

Exit and Support Network has mentioned this website which analyzes Gerald Flurry's claim to be 'That Prophet.'

A Website Analysing Armstrongism

Here is Mr. Henrik V. Bluck's hub page on Armstrongism.

Living Armstrongism's Sponsored Link to RCG

I've just noticed Dave Pack's Restored Church of God have a sponsored Google link when you type 'living Armstrongism.'

Gerald L. K. Smith: Lust for Money, Anti-Semitism, 'Back to Africa' and 'Christian Identity'

Gerald L. K. Smith (1898-1976) was a notorious anti-Semite and racist who had remarkable speaking abilities which were used to promote fascist movements and goals in America. He was well known for throwing hate speech at Jews, African-Americans and very often associated with extremist movements.

I frst heard of him when reading Michael Barkun's Religion and the Racist Right, an analysis of the origins of 'Christian Identity.' He mentioned him as a man who caused many racists within America to get in contact with each other, thus helping the early teachers of 'Christian Identity' to have access to a receptive audience for their message of hate. Although he himself was probably not a follower of 'Christian Identity,' he played a vital role in helping like minded people to get in contact wth each other.

I have been reading this 1953 report on Gerald L. K. Smith produced by the American Jewish Committee. There are some facinating things in there that have relevance for us as former or current members of the Churches of God.

(Please note: the writing is quite bad in this file so I strongly recommend you read it in as large a font as possible. Expand the size to 130% or more, as much as you can, to make it easier to read.)

In this report Gerald L. K. Smith is portrayed as a man who often claims to be agitating for great and noble causes but in fact it is all just a scam for his personal enrichment.

The report begins in this manner, "ever since 1933...the constant pattern of Gerald Smith's activities has consisted of a deliberate exploitation of the prejudices and fears of the people for his own personal profit. Anti-semitism or any other "ism" is merely the vehicle through which he operates his highly profitable ventures in demagoguery....

"Smith's operations have always been conducted as a "one man proposition." Despite his use of over thirty impressive, high-sounding "front" names, he has never had any actual organization or movement. An actual organization presupposes a board of trustees, treasurer, an official depositary, financial reports to the membership body. Smith wants none of these. He receives and controls all donations personally. He accounts to no one." (p. 2. All page numbers are PDF page numbers.)

This sounds a lot like HWA and the dictatorial manner in which he ran WCG and gained wealth for his eternaly abused flock.

Unlike HWA and most COGs (Fred Coulter's Christian Biblical Church of God seems to be an exception, I wish I could say otherwise) Gerald L. K. Smith was a virulent anti-Semite who hated Jews. He unleashed "thinly veiled attacks on Jews under the "code" of the lunatic fringe, using the phrase "international bankers" as a synonym for Jews." (p. 12.)

Here's another example of the evil anti-Semitic hatred that his organization threw at Jews, delivered just a few years after the Holocaust, "the oratorical efforts [at 'Christian Nationalist Crusade' meetings, a Gerald L. K. Smith front] consisted of attacks on Jews, on the Government as being completely under "Jewish-Communist" domination." (p. 27.)

He also hated African-Americans, even giving some eerily familiar advice.

"In addition his Detroit activities gave him a knowlege of the anti-Negro [sic] feeling prevalent there, which lost no time in exploiting. One of the chief points in his program still being to ship all Negroes [sic] back to Africa." (p. 12.)

Doesn't that sound familiar? Doesn't that sound like Herman Hoeh's insistence that the race problem could have been solved if only African-Americans went back to Africa as mentioned previously?

On page 28 Wesley Swift is mentioned as attending a meeting of the Christian Nationalist Crusade, one of the many front organizations of Gerald L. K. Smith. Wesley Swift would later become one of the founders of "Christian Identity," a virulently racist and anti-Semitic movement which is related to Armstrongism by its common belief in British-Israelism.

Wesley Swift appears again on p. 30: "Smith's long standing affinity for Los Angeles and the West Coast may be explained by the fact that together with Wesley T. Swift, local leader of a an Anglo-Saxon religious-racialist movement, Smith is able to muster his largest audiences. Swift in effect "lends" his following to the Smith meetings, so that with the aid of these numbers, Smith "rallies" often have aggregate attendence of as many as 800-1200."

Very scary man. The stuff he says is absolutely hateful and profoundly disgusting.

Richard Ames Appointed Successor For LCG

Roderick Meredith has appointed Richard Ames to be his successor once he dies.

This is from Roderick C. Meredith's January 13, 2010 Co-Worker Letter.

Before I close, dear brethren and co-workers, I want to be sure all of you know that I have appointed our other leading minister, Mr. Richard Ames, the First Vice President of the Living Church of God parent organization in the U.S., as my successor over the whole Work. In fact he has been in this position of First Vice President working right here with me for some time now and has proved himself to be one of the most dedicated, balanced and loyal servants of God on earth. With that in mind, and with my increased age, I will be asking him to write these co-worker messages and other letters from time to time in the future. So I hope you will welcome his participation, and that you will pray for him that God will guide him, protect him and use him increasingly.

I am indebted to LCG apologist Bob Theil for this information.