There is No Need to Live in Fear

Recently I listened to an episode of The Conversation in which two women who had gotten out of destructive cults discussed their experiences in the cults and getting out of those destructive life styles. At one point in the conversation of the interviewees mentioned that for years after leaving the cult whenever the words judgment or last days, the apocalypse, end of world, etc, she would be distressed at such talk.

With about seven and a half billion people on Earth it is safe to assume that at any point in time something rather bad is happening somewhere. Watching the news bad things have recently occurred. The fire in Grenfell Tower in London. The mass shooting in San Francisco. The attack against Republican legislators practicing for the congressional baseball game with Representative Steve Scalise still in a critical condition. An Israeli border guard was killed in an armed attack in East Jerusalem.

There are many things that can be said about such harrowing events but these events certainly do not provide any evidence that Herbert Armstrong or any of his imitators know what will happen in the future. Herbert Armstrong and his imitators have made many predictions that have miserably failed.

From 1953 onward Herbert Armstrong, Herman Hoeh and the 1% of the organization taught that the Great Tribulation would begin in 1972 and end with Christ's return in 1975.

In 1985 Herbert Armstrong wrote in his book, Mystery of the Ages, that Christ would return within twenty years, that is by 2005. (That passage has since been removed in copies of that book published by Gerald Flurry's Philadelphia Church of God after acquiring the copyright in 2003.)

Clearly there is no need to fear or give any respect to the dire proclamations of Herbert Armstrong or any of his imitators. There is no need to live in fear.