Recently I listened to the August 2, 2017 broadcast of PCG's Trumpet Daily. This broadcast was hosted by Brent Nagtegaal.
In this broadcast Brent Nagtegaal spent the first half of the broadcast reinforcing PCG's vilification of Iran by saying that Iran sent food to Palestinian protesters during the protests against the metal detectors around Al Aqsa Mosque and speculating that Iran was behind the terrorist attack in which two Israeli police personnel were murdered on July 14, 2017.
The claim of linking the attack with Iran seems quite weak. Even he admits in the broadcast that it is largely circumstantial. He speculates that the attackers ran away into Al Aqsa Mosque in order to fulfill a ten year old declaration made by Raed Salah but this inflammatory claim is not verified. (How could Nagtegaal verify such a claim?) He states that one of the attackers was once photographed with Raed Salah but that proves nothing about the July 14 attack. He states that Raed Salah was once arrested for sending funds to Hamas and meeting with an Iranian intelligence agent back in 2003 but none of that proves anything about the July 14 attack. He states that Raed Salah was the head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel and that it was banned by Israel in November 2015 but that proves nothing about the July 14 attack. (Nagtegaal also incorrectly called it the "northern front" of the Islamic Movement in Israel instead of calling it the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.)
It is important to note that PCG's leaders have a strong motive to condemn Iran. Back in 1994 PCG's leader, Gerald Flurry, proclaimed that Iran would be the "King of the South" even though it is east of the Holy Land. Before World War II HWA taught that the King of the South was Abyssinia. Later in HWA's WCG and in other COGs it had been taught that the "King of the South" would be Arab rather than Iranian. Flurry staked out a distinctive position on this matter compared with the other COGs. Consequently PCG's leaders want to convince their audience that Iran is the King of the South in order to insist that their leader, Gerald Flurry, is blessed by (PCG's) God and is worthy of being followed.
In the second half of the broadcast Brent Nagtegaal discussed a recent report saying that the Lebanese people are mostly descended from the ancient Canaanites. He complains that news reports mentioned this and said that this meant that the Bible was wrong. Nagtegaal replied to that claim by saying that the Bible states that Canaanites in Lebanon remained there.
May peace soon come to the Holy Land.
While there seems to be agreement among the COGs that the King of the North will be from Germany, and which outspoken German it will be (until he dies), there appears to be little consensus on the country of origin of King of the South, let alone who it will be.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading a long article by HWA in which he deduced the King of the South will be from Ethiopia - a thought revived by Dave Pack some years ago. Ever COGleader has their own form of "logic" (or revelation) as to the country of origin of this King of the South.
My own sarcastic speculation was that the King of the South was Elvis, because his name is an anagram for "Evils" and "Lives" and so many were convinced he was still alive...
HWA fit nicely into the mold of presenting special, vital, inside information and an understanding that was not available from any other source. Like all good salesmen, he took control, starting with the airwaves on the clear channel super AM radio stations which turned up their power at sunset, and had a range extending for 1,000 or more miles in each direction. Bob Seger's song "Rosalie" was about the music program director of CKLW, Windsor Ontario, which was one of these super stations, blanketing the midwest.
ReplyDeletePCG, on the other hand, is streaming from a small campus station, and is preaching an all too common apocalyptic message that many Evangelical preachers with more firepower are doing a more effective job of spreading.
HWA's message was tied to the automobile. Cars did not have television, the preferred home medium of entertainment of the 1950s and '60s. People driving late at night, while station-surfing, would hear a captivating, booming, authoritative voice, outlining a horror story, and providing a remedy and escape. It was a very macabre and memorable experience, one that would make people search the dial to repeat the experience whenever driving at night. That pretty much went out when FM radios came into vogue. The World Tomorrow was an AM radio phenomenon. If HWA and GTA had any successor, it was Dr. Gene Scott, who could at one time be heard 24-7 on the FM stations which he owned during the 1980s. If anything, Dr. Scott was even more captivating than the Armstrongs, because he also brought a level of eclecticism and eccentricity to his program.
My point is that nobody with PCG, or for that matter, any of the ACOGs presents a captivating and audible message on that same level. The lame and poorly researched information which they serve up will not carry the lackluster presentation typical of their imitations of HWA. And, who accidentally stumbles across programs which are streamed, or are youtube presentations? Phoning it in, and pretending to be effective are street theatre for the tithepayers who need to feel that they are participating in the "great commission". That is all that any of the ACOGs are accomplishing by their backwards forays into pre-time and date stamp activities of the past. Pure nostalgia. That's all that it is.
BB
I really enjoyed that!
ReplyDeleteI hope they make a documentary on radio history one time.
I will watch it on tv.
This generation will however not tune into anything that does not effectively go viral. Today, everyone is each others salesperson based on data generated by themselves. We have succefully hyperlooped our youth into their own psychology and subconscious for the pursuit of happiness.
If we could only get nuclear Kim to use one our smartphones. His life will be reformed and we will be saved.
nck
Go to www.socalradiohistory.com, nck.
ReplyDeleteGoogle "Rosalie Trombley", or "Heard it on the X" (a ZZ Top classic). Check out Bob Seger's "Rosalie" on youtube. It's fascinating stuff.
BB
”special, vital, inside information”
ReplyDeleteAnd HWA sometimes simply implied this special knowledge. Speaking about certain world events, he would add, “right on schedule” – which at face value would mean, if God ordained something to happen, of course it will be at the appointed time. The implication was “and I know God’s schedule”.
The hundreds of failed prophecies prove that he didn’t know “God’s schedule”, or that God kept changing the timeframe. How many times has a minister used the excuse, “It looks like we have been given more time” – and sometimes we were blamed for “not being ready”.