One thing Roderick Meredith did in his booklets is to cite numerous scholarly works in a manner to support his positions even though most of them had nothing to do with Armstrongism.
In one booklet of his, Restoring Original Christianity (formerly titled Restoring Apostolic Christianity) he quotes the following sources. At first glance it would seem as though Meredith reached his conclusions after much study and research.
- Samuele Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, 1977.
- W. D. Davies, Judeo-christianisme, “Paul and Jewish Christianity,” 1972.
- Will Durant, The Story of Civilization.
- Eusebius, The Life of Constantine.
- Søren Kirkegaard, Attack Upon Christendom, 1956. [Originally published in 1854-5.]
- Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
- Edward Gibbon, The Triumph of Christendom in the Roman Empire, 1958.
- Frederick C. Holmgren, “Preaching the Gospel Without Anti-Judaism,” Removing Anti-Judaism from the Pulpit, ed. Howard Clark Kee and Irvin J. Borowski, 1996.
- Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity, 1976.
- Rufus M. Jones, The Church’s Debt to Heretics, 1924.
- Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1999.
- John Romer, Testament: The Bible and History, 1988.
- Stern, Jewish New Testament, 1995
- Carl von Weiszäcker, The Apostolic Age of the Christian Church, 1895.
But Meredith was ordained a minister by HWA back in 1952 long before most of these works were written. Where did he get his ideas from?
What happened was that his uncle, C. Paul Meredith, started listening to a radio broadcast by one Herbert Armstrong back in the 1940s. In time he started listening to the radio broadcast as well. Both of them moved to the unaccredited Ambassador College to be taught by HWA and became ordained ministers of the Radio Church of God. Meredith chose to listen to HWA. His citing of these sources in this booklet obscure the real source of Meredith's views, namely HWA. But this fact is hidden behind these quotations of works made outside of Armstrongism.
Also Samuele Bacchiocchi was a Seventh Day Adventist and adhered to the same day taught in Armstrongism. That detail is not mentioned in this booklet.
Meredith indulges in yet another version of proof-texting to support his belief in Armstrongism. It would be far more impressive and intellectually honest for him to test his premises rather than indulge in attempts to prop them up.
ReplyDeleteMany literate people of today will recognize blatant apologetics. The numbers of readers who cannot are sufficient to provide a fairly substantial income for teachers similar to Meredith.
BB
Those COGs claiming to be the mythical true church must prove themselves the legitimate successor to HWA. In doing so, they must either support, distort, ignore or deny HWA's dogma.
ReplyDeleteHis false prophecies are ignored, some early teachings and stealth changes are distorted or denied, and core doctrines vigorously defended and supported with eisegesis and selective scholarship.
Sometimes in COG and academic papers, I've followed up selected references, and found they don't always provide the support the authors claimed. With COG biblical citations, some verses only appear to provide support when viewed through the filter of Armstrongism: how a reference in, say, Daniel, can be used to support a claim that the USA will be conquered by Germany would baffle the average Bible scholar.
Yes Hoss. It would baffle scholars. For the thought pattern however one needs context and a grasp of history. Did not some 50 years before hwa was born the habsburg rule Pasadena under the vice royalty. And did not in hwa s younger years the " Zimmerman telegram" raise suspicion for a "german" invasion in California in 1917 drawing the USA in a real and gruesame war. Taken out of context and its proper timing all may look ridiculous in hindsight judging from our current understanding of events . (Like the events of 70 ad.) nck
ReplyDeleteIt's just more British Israelism worst science fiction ever.
ReplyDeleteThe error of the "true church" concept is that the church is an organization, a corporate entity. My understanding is that it is not an organization but an organism, consisting of all believers, regardless of where they come together to worship and fellowship. All organization have their share of wheat and tares. It will be interesting to learn what percentage of the Church of God congregations consists of tares versus "mainstream" churches and those who have simply given up on churches, but remain active Christians through other venues.
ReplyDeleteThe most heartening aspect to the Zimmerman Telegram, nck, was Mexico's assessment of the scenario presented by the Germans, and their reaction to it. Some people may have a problem with undocumented aliens, but Mexico has been an amazing ally at critical times in history.
ReplyDeleteBB
Of course. It was an entirely unpractical proposal. Im talking about the impact on the collective consciousness and the move from isolationism to first steps involved in world affairs with the germans as the boogieman. Nck
ReplyDeleteThe isolationism had set in again prior to WW II, and then Pearl Harbor shook us into reality. There are some subversive stories behind that one, too.
ReplyDeleteBB
Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi is dead now.
ReplyDeleteWe've all heard of the dead poets' society.
It seems that we are being subjected to the dead prophets' society.
Meredith seems to have a penchant for quoting authors who have died.
No matter.
Meredith himself will be dead... probably in 3 to 5 years.
No doubt people will be quoting him for a long time after he dies to support their pet hypotheses (and hopefully, his quotations will be dreadfully taken out of context to mean things he never intended).
Roderick Meredith insisted upon being called Dr. for a long time. The academic standards involved with actually acquiring either a Master's degree or an actual PhD is something Meredith never did. He got his academic grade from the unaccredited Ambassador College - and even the lack of accreditation was somehow talked about as though it was more important to be 'approved' by God than by man. If that isn't arrogant to even believe one can speak on behalf of an all-powerful creator, well, then nothing will convince you, would it?
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with both article author and commentators. Spanky is a sick man. He has much to account for if and when he meets a judgment day. His authoritarian style could have earned him quite a few stripes if he was subjected to his own measuring stick. Well, I just forgot that for so-called Evangelists, there was no standard. They could do as they pleased...
Armstrongism was a sick period indeed. Today, it seems funny to think we believed that balloney :-)
Interesting how RCM changes. At the FOT in the 1970s he said Dr or Mr would be fine, he didn't care. In a WN article, he apparently said at a meeting with HWA present that he wanted to drop the Dr because it sounded too haughty. But things change.
DeleteI heard that when he was in CGI, GTA insisted on being called Dr Armstrong...
Just so it's not lost in the discussions, it should be pointed out that Roderick Meredith also was never an Evangelist.
DeleteTo be an Evangelist, he'd have had to preach the gospel and he never did, in fact, he never actually knew what the gospel was.
"Did not some 50 years before hwa was born the habsburg rule Pasadena under the vice royalty"
ReplyDeleteI answer the question with a question, "Isn't that nuts?"
And did not in hwa s younger years the " Zimmerman telegram" raise suspicion for a "german" invasion in California in 1917
And another question, "Isn't that plain crap?"
See I do ask questions, rhetorical though they might be (since we already know the answers to them because some commenters have a practice of over reaching).
The official explanations regarding usage of the title "Dr." from back in the '60s were that GTA didn't want to upstage his father, HWA who did not have such a degree. Rod Meredith did not want to diminish his uncle, who was a Dr., albeit a veterinarian. Others did use the title, like "Dr." Hoeh, whose degree was from AC. Dr. Charles Dorothy had some of his education from an outside source. Dr. Zimmerman was a chiropractor. In the '50s, there was a Dr. Czerny who was an actual MD. He was gone by the time I became a student in Pasadena.
ReplyDeleteUnless a college or university has Doctors on their staff, protocol is that they cannot confer that degree. Clearly, Ambassador College was overreaching from the very beginning. Not only were they not accredited, the types of doctors normally found in academia were not present. All of the degrees were questionable from the very beginning. That is partially why we began calling it "Embarrassing College" back in the mid '70s.
BB
Hi Black Ops,
ReplyDeleteEarlier I commented on the "Apartheid" thread regarding the Californian fear of Germans because I did not want to disturb this threat dedicated to the Meredith topic. I limit my comments there as not to annoy the host to much. It contains legitimate research for sour sake this time, I know you like legit.
nck
Off topic, but about research, britishisraelism.com is finally more or less reopened again, with the caveat that there is much work to be done yet....
ReplyDeleteEnjoy (if that's your thing).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete