LCG's John Ogwyn Lied about Herbert Armstrong

If anyone is interested you can buy the late John Ogwyn's writings for the Amazon Kindle. Here is the first in the series, "Proof of the Bible". It was released for the Kindle on October 29, 2013. It appears to be the transcript of a "Bible Study" he gave on July 21, 1987.

There are ninety-one such "Bible Studies" by John Ogwyn available for sale for the Amazon Kindle. However if you look hard enough you can still find these writings viewable on the Internet. They are still online on the Internet.

I pity anyone who would pay money to buy his writings because John Ogwyn was a shameless deceiver. Look at what he wrote for the first issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World, in 1999.

It was an understanding of [biblical] prophecies that led Herbert W. Armstrong, our predecessor in this Work of God, to write in the April 1952 Plain Truth [he actually meant Good News here], at a time when the Russian boot seemed permanently planted on eastern Europe, that East Germany would be reunited with West Germany and that Russia would "be forced to relinquish her control over Hungary, Czechoslovakia and parts of Austria" (p. 16). (John Ogwyn, 'NATO at 50--Historic Past, Hopeful Future?', Tomorrow's World, May-June 1999, p. 11.)

Very deceptively there is no mention of the fact that HWA taught that Christ would very soon return. From 1953 onwards HWA taught that Christ would return in 1975. One would never know HWA made such false prophesies reading John Ogwyn.

The fact that HWA made such false prophesies prove that HWA was a false prophet. The Holy Bible itself stands as a witness that HWA is a false prophet and commands Christians to pay no heed to such persons as HWA.

When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:22.)

By continuing to claim HWA was a servant of God John Ogwyn violated this command of God and was therefore in a state of rebellion against God on this matter.

In case anyone suspects this is another man observe these words from the preview for this "Bible Study", Bible Study #97, Book of Revelation Series - Revelation 11-13. Here John Ogwyn mentions his booklet, The Beast of Revelation, and is boasting of its continuity with HWA's teachings. He is comparing the chart in his booklet, The Beast of Revelation, with older charts HWA came up with in pre-World War II issues of The Plain Truth.

There was one difference, and I will show you exactly what it was. If you will go to the far right hand side, it says, "Italy and Germany ending in the HitlerMussolini Axis 1870-1945." See that? The only difference in the original chart was the fact it said, "Italy, united by Garibaldi, 1870-[blank]" because it was 1937 or 1938 and 1945 hadn't gotten here yet. Mr. Armstrong didn't know the date would be 1945. He didn't know what date to put in there, but that was the only difference.

Of course HWA did not know that Mussolini's fascist regime would end in 1945. Actually HWA taught that Mussolini would conquer the United States and gather his forces to fight Christ at the second coming. Later HWA changed this teaching to say Hitler would do these things. But none of that is mentioned by John Ogwyn.

Also HWA taught that Mussolini would be the Beast who would conquer America. For a long time HWA taught that Mussolini was the real mastermind puppet master behind Hitler. It took a long time for HWA to catch up with the rest of the world and see it was Hitler who was the source of the turmoil in Europe, not Mussolini as he so confidently claimed.

John Ogwyn admits that "Mr. Armstrong didn't know the date would be 1945." But HWA's errors were far worst then Ogwyn lets on here. HWA was completely wrong about many things.  These facts prove HWA was a false prophet.

John Ogwyn also notes how as an Ambassador College student he was able to read many of the oldest issues of The Plain Truth. He avoids mentions the numerous false prophesies he made in those days. Those false predictions prove HWA had no special access to God's secret knowledge as he claimed.

At the time he gave that talk it would have been fairly difficult to read such materials. Thankfully the old issues of The Plain Truth are now freely available on the Internet and they reveal the great errors HWA taught in those days.

John Ogwyn graduated from the unaccredited Ambassador College in 1971. He worked as a minister in HWA's WCG, then the Global Church of God after Meredith left Tkach's WCG, and after the schism within GCG erupted as a power struggle between Meredith and a Board he felt was insufficiently subservient to him Ogwyn chose to throw in his lot with Meredith.

Alas, he is no longer alive. He died on June 14, 2005, shortly after Pentecost, of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). His death is discussed in the July-August 2005 issue of Living Church News.

(While looking through the website of a certain self ordained false prophet, namely Bob Thiel, I learned that John Ogwyn's funeral was also blighted by near tragedy. While returning from the funeral another LCG minister, Glen Gilchrist, was repeatedly bitten by a spider and from this contracted the same infection that killed John Ogwyn. Thankfully he survived. However he has himself since passed on recently.)

I am not going to speculate over why John Ogwyn's writings have now been released in this manner. I will not comment about the people who have released these writings. But people deserve to know the truth about what John Ogwyn wrote and that he wrote in a highly misleading manner about HWA.

John Ogwyn deceived people about HWA. And I was one of those people. It was eight years before I woke up that HWA was not a man sent by God. 

John Ogwyn even insinuated that Christ would return by 2017. That was the message of one of his "lessons" in the so-called "Bible Study Course" that LCG supplied to me. It was in Lesson 2 that this fear inducing "lesson" was placed in. Very likely LCG has since altered that false and deceptive speculation from that indoctrination course.

John Ogwyn has been discussed elsewhere on this blog.

A Lie that Tricked Me discusses how he deceptively claimed HWA miraculously foresaw world events back in the 1950s. There is no mention of the fact that from 1953 onwards HWA claimed that Christ would return in 1975.

Notes on LCG's Beast of Revelation discusses how John Ogwyn mimics HWA's charts in his booklet, The Beast of Revelation. Indeed they are quite similar. It is also highly deceptive in claiming that

LCG's John Ogwyn's Failed Prophecy on Iraq discusses one column he wrote in 2003 speculating that Iraq would splinter apart into nation states divided by the Euphrates river. Nothing in the current crisis in Iraq prove that it will splinter apart in that particular way.

HWA and Polycarp discuss how John Ogwyn misleadingly taught that Polycarp was a true Christian but Ignatius of Antioch was part of the alleged apostasy that created what later became the Roman Catholic Church. In fact Polycarp spoke of Ignatius with high regard, and Ignatius also spoke of Polycarp with great respect. This is clearly seen in their writings. Polycarp and Ignatius were of one accord, not bitter rivals as John Ogwyn ignorantly claimed.

How LCG's John Ogwyn Discusses the Stanley Rader Era shows how he tends to gloss over why there was so much turmoil within WCG in the 1970s.

The Receivership LCG's John Ogwyn Barely Mentions discusses how he skirted away from the serious issues surrounding the receivership crisis.

xHWA on Armstrongism's Distorted Dogmas of History shows that, alas, this dishonest approach to COG history is very widespread within the COGs.

Anyone spending money on the highly biased and very misleading writings of John Ogwyn is wasting their money. Why waste money on the writings of a man who had so little regard for what really happened?