Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, The Bible: A Book for All Time (2001)

The fourteenth issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (September-October 2001), featured an article by Mark Mendiola of Pocatello, Idaho entitled "The Bible: A Book for All Time." (pp. 16-19.) This was the twelfth of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. Here Mendiola praises the Holy Bible and cites Christians who disagreed with many of Armstrongism's dogmas to praise the Bible but then he says the Bible cannot be understood until one chooses to obey (LCG's interpretation of) God.

Mendiola quotes Queen Victoria, William Gladstone, George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Sir William Herschel and Sir Isaac Newton as persons who revered the Bible. However all of those persons believed things very different from what is taught in the Armstrongite organizations. They all belonged to churches that worshipped on Sunday, a practice Herbert Armstrong and his imitators insist is the mark of the beast of Revelation 13. Newton was alleged to have held dissident religious views. George Washington at times refused to take communion in his Episcopal church. Abraham Lincoln was alleged to believe in universal salvation. The British monarch leads the Church of England. William Gladstone was a member of the Church of England. Theodore Roosevelt was a member of the Reformed Church in America. Since they do not share the views of LCG why did Mendiola cite them in this article? How is this not a lie? Mendiola cites these famous persons to say the Bible is revered and true in a publication designed to get recruits for LCG, an organization that teaches things contrary to what those famous persons actually believed.

He extols the Old Testament and the New Testament and then he quotes a Jewish archaeologist even though Judaism does not view the New Testament as canon.

Dr. Nelson Glueck, a renowned Jewish archaeologist, observed: “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to discoveries” (Rivers in the Desert, Glueck, p. 31).

Dr. Glueck was also a rabbi of Reform Judaism. It is reasonable to assume that in the passage above Dr. Glueck was referring to the Hebrew Bible, namely the Old Testament. This is misleading to the readers. Mendiola glides over this flaw in his article and refuses this address the problem of quoting a Jewish rabbi while promoting the New Testament. Was he hoping that his readers would not notice this flaw? The fact that Mendiola did this indicates that this article was directed at people who only have a very superficial knowledge of Judaism.

Mendiola also cites some other persons like Jeffery Sheler and Grant Jeffrey but, again, they belonged to Christian churches which worship on Sunday thus, according to Herbert Armstrong and his imitators, they bear the mark of the beast. Why does Mendiola cite people who worship on Sunday when he belonged to an organization that teaches that worshipping on Sunday is a terrible thing?

He also cites Charles Sellier and Brian Russell but those men did not appear to have been affiliated with any Armstrongite organization. Mendiola cites all these people to praise the Bible but he does so selectively. He chooses to cite certain words of theirs to say the Bible is of religious importance and reliable but, at the time this article was written, he disregarded anything they say contrary to Armstrongism by choosing to be a follower of LCG.

Then after praising the Christian Bible he insists that the Bible cannot be understood unless one chooses to obey (LCG's interpretation of) God.

Amazingly, the Bible even predicts many would not understand it and would consider it cryptic. Most people in the world are drunken with false doctrine and ideas that blur the precious truths contained within its pages. Many consider it sealed. Others think they are not educated enough or must be fluent in Hebrew or Greek to understand it. Even ministers are confused about its teachings....

Jesus Christ said that His disciples would be given the spiritual discernment to understand the hidden truths of the Bible. He told His disciples that He spoke in parables so only they would understand the mysteries of God, and the world at large would not ....

The Living God who inspired the Bible must open our minds to understand it as we show Him a willingness and humility to obey His instructions. ... Obedience to God is the key that will unlock for you the truths of the Bible: a book for all time!

Among the Armstrongite organizations it is taught that one cannot join unless (Armstrongism's interpretation of) God open that person's perception to begin to believe Armstrongism. This explanation is quite useful in explaining away why most people do not convert to Armstrongism after learning about it.

This article seems to be merely a paean to the Holy Bible but it is actually deceptive in citing persons who revered the Bible while being used in a magazine designed to attract recruits into an Armstrongite organization. The people Mendiola cited did not adhere or believe in what was taught by Armstrongites including LCG. It is deceptive to cite these persons and then insist that they are wrong in every stance contrary to Armstrongism.

In September 2006 Mendiola left LCG and joined Dave Pack's Restored Church of God. Around 2008 he left RCG and joined Don Billingsley's Church of God-Faithful Flock. He was credited as helping to produce COG-FF's magazine, The Philadelphia Remnant, as late as 2012.

Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, A Powerless America? (2001)

The thirteen issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (July-August 2001), featured an article by Mark Mendiola of Pocatello, Idaho entitled "A Powerless America?" (pp. 20-24.) This was the eleventh of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. Here Mendiola cites energy management issues as evidence that the United States will soon collapse.

Simultaneous energy and water shortages jeopardize the faltering U.S. economy’s chances for a strong recovery. Bible prophecy indicates that conditions may grow much worse before they improve.

Mendiola discusses strain upon the energy supply in west coast states of the USA. He cites President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. He also cites a future Governor of Washington.

“You can today see blackouts coming, as big as life, and an energy crisis going into the fall,” said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.

In the entire article there is no discussion about climate change.

He ends this article claiming that these energy supply problems are signs of an impending catastrophe about to hit the United States.

Is it merely coincidence that the U.S. is confronting major crises on several fronts that threaten to cause major hardships and suffering? Most experts are reluctant to cite it as a source, but the Holy Bible plainly shows a cause and-effect reason for what can accurately be described as curses plaguing the nation. Our actions— the choices we make—determine whether we are blessed or cursed. The Living Creator God who inspired the Bible warns of adverse consequences if we disobey commandments, but blessings if we are obedient to His spiritual laws. ...

God then describes curses that would result—including terrorism, disease outbreaks, farm disasters and defeat by enemies. He also describes a drought that symbolically turns the heavens and earth dry and hard. ...

U.S. energy, water and economic crises are worsening as snowpack, spring runoff and reservoir levels dwindle due to drought conditions gripping major regions of the nation. Those setbacks further weaken the nation’s power and prestige. ... Breaking God’s commandments brings national as well as individual curses on us. T he choice is ours.

LCG and the other Armstrongite groups teach that white Americans are descendants of the ancient Kingdom of Israel described in the Bible which was conquered by the Assyrians around 720 BCE. This idea is called British Israelism. This idea is used within the Armstrongite groups to insist that the frightful fate of military conquest and exile that the ancient Israelites and Jews endured will occur to the United States in the near future. The Armstrongites have been teaching this since the 1930s. But the idea called British Israelism happens to be false. Non-Jewish Americans of European descent are not descended from the ancient Israelites.

 

In this article Mendiola cites Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 11 as evidence that the United States will soon endure terrible things but those passages were describing warnings to the ancient Israelites and Jews. These warnings were alluding to the conquest of those kingdoms by the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the subsequent exiles they were forced to endure. Those Biblical passages were not talking about 21st Century America. Those Biblical passages were cited out of context. There is no need to fear the dire predictions of the Armstrongites.

In September 2006 Mendiola left LCG and joined Dave Pack's Restored Church of God. Around 2008 he left RCG and joined Don Billingsley's Church of God-Faithful Flock. He was credited as helping to produce COG-FF's magazine, The Philadelphia Remnant, as late as 2012.

LCG on Roy Moore

According to a recent report by The Washington Post has recently reported that the Republican Party's senatorial candidate for Alabama, Roy Moore, initiated a sexual encounter with a 14 year old girl named Leigh Corfman back in 1979. It was also reported that around this time Moore dated three teenagers even though he was in his thirties at the time. One former work colleague, Teresa Jones, has since stated to CNN that it "was common knowledge that [he] dated high school girls, everyone we knew thought it was weird."

In times past he had gained attention after getting into contention with federal judges regarding his placement of the Ten Commandments in Alabama's court house. His contention with federal judges was mentioned three times within LCG's writings in articles by Mark Mendiola, John Ogwyn and Richard A. Wilson. Twice LCG's writers mentioned him to condemn the increasing acceptance of the LGBT community within American society.

A century ago, who would have predicted that a jurist would be prohibited from displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom? Yet Alabama judge Roy Moore has incurred the secularists’ wrath by doing so. (Mark Mendiola, Who's Winning the Culture War? July-September 1999.) 

*** 

Israel of old was told that the promised land had "vomited out" the nations that were there before them because of such perversions (v. 28) and that if they did likewise, the same results would follow. In 21st century America, it is considered acceptable for a judge who refuses to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom to be tossed from the bench, as was Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court. Yet, on the other hand, the media labels as "progressive" and "courageous" those magistrates who perform "marriages" between homosexuals and lesbians! Such an incredibly upside-down situation would have been unimaginable even a generation ago. (John Ogwyn, Will the Terrorists Win?, July-August 2004.) 

*** 

Three weeks ago, on a Saturday night, I attended a "special" public forum on the campus of William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where the main speaker for the evening was the former Supreme Court Justice of Alabama, the honorable Roy Stewart Moore. 

Justice Moore, as you might remember, was removed from his office as Supreme Court Chief Justice on November 13, 2003 because of his refusal to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the state courthouse despite orders to do so from a federal judge. It became a national story in 2003. 

Moore's supporters regard his stand as a defense of "judicial rights" and the Constitution of Alabama. Moore continues to contend that federal judges who ruled against his actions consider "obedience of a court order superior to all other concerns, even the suppression of belief in the sovereignty of God." (Richard A. Wilson, Liberal Judge's Backlash, November 18, 2010.)

Back then it was not publicly known what he had done in his earlier days.

Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, Allies or Adversaries? A Unique Alliance Imperiled (2001)

The twelfth issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (January-February 2001), featured an article by Mark Mendiola of Pocatello, Idaho entitled "Allies or Adversaries? A Unique Alliance Imperiled." (pp. 20-24.) This was the tenth of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. Here Mendiola discusses relations between the United States and Britain to scare monger that these nations would soon endure military subjugation by a future European power.

Mendiola talks of the United States as being created miraculously linking respect for the sacrifices of the American revolutionaries with his religion.

Through a series of obvious miracles and decisive victories, Americans were able to defeat the red-coated British troops, overcoming incredible odds and predictions of imminent defeat. Following British General Charles Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, Va., in October 1781, British regimental bands appropriately played the tune—“The World Turned Upside Down.” Indeed, it was! (p. 21.)

He talks of the current friendly relations between the United States and Britain despite the history of war during the founding of the United States.

Despite what British officials considered brazen armed rebellion against royal authority, the two nations since developed a fraternal closeness unparalleled in history. That affinity has flared to prominence during times of crisis, when, invariably, Britain and the United States have come to each other’s defense like brothers. (p. 21.)

He insists that the political power of the United States and Britain is to be explained by their ancestry.

The extraordinary surge of the United States and British Commonwealth to economic and military global preeminence during the 1800s and 1900s can be explained by understanding their ancestral origins. (p. 21.)

But both nations also contain many peoples who happen to have no such blood relationship with those claimed to be modern Israelites among the Americans and the British. This problem is conveniently overlooked. Also other factors contributing to their political power are marginalized.

The United States and Britain have fulfilled remarkably God’s promise that Ephraim would develop into a multitude (a company, group or commonwealth) of nations, and Manasseh into a great superpower. History confirms unmistakably this incredible fulfillment. Collectively, the United States and Britain are modern Israel, and have been a blessing to people of all races, backgrounds and nationalities, as God promised, helping maintain peace, prosperity and civility throughout the world. (p. 22.)

Problems associated with territorial expansion of these nations are ignored. Due to the tragic fact that the Native Americans had no immunity to numerous diseases that existed among Europeans many Native Americans were killed by introduced diseases that reduced their population and rendered them unable to prevent being conquered by Europeans. Were these mass epidemics part of (LCG's) God's alleged miraculous fulfillment of this promise to Abraham as interpreted by British Israelism?

Also the conquest and dispossession of the Native American peoples are overlooked. The British Empire expanded by conquering the peoples of the territories upon which it expanded. Africans were abducted from the continent and kept as slaves in parts of the United States. These problems tend to be ignored among the Armstrongite COGs in favor of the discredited dogma of British Israelism.

Chronologically, the British Empire reached its zenith before the United States achieved its ascendancy, but just as the sun has set on that once-proud empire, the United States is now in decline, giving way to an empire forming on the European continent. ... Britain’s decline, from the most powerful nation in the world to a small offshore European island, was as swift as the rise of the United States. (p. 22.)

But why did the British Empire end? It is often assumed in COG writings that (their) God just ended it but this ignores what really happened. One of many reasons why it collapsed was that the colonized peoples could no longer believe in its claimed legitimacy. As the colonized peoples ruled over the British Empire gained more education and learned more about their colonial rulers they perceived that there was no kind of superiority that entitled the British to rule over the colonized peoples. Once a critical mass of the colonized peoples perceived this fact British colonial rule became nonviable and eventually the British government cut their losses and granted independent to the colonies in response to the widespread calls for independence. De-colonization was, among other things, a pragmatic concession to the fact that British colonial rule could no longer justify itself to the colonized.

Mendiola then talks of the various aligned interests between the United States and Britain in the 20th Century. But since this is an Armstrongite publication Mendiola then scare mongers that a future European Empire threatens Britain and the United States. He also stirs up crude sectarian hostilities by presenting this threat as part of a wider clash between Protestants and Catholics.

Since King Henry VIII’s split with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, the British defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, British-descended nations have been bastions of Protestantism, most directly challenging Catholic religious supremacy throughout Europe and the western world. 

Just as the 20th century has been called the American century, the 19th century was the British century. As we enter the 21st century, the international dominance of those primarily Protestant peoples is being challenged by a resurgent Roman Catholic Europe, which for centuries has been at odds with British and American interests. (p. 23.)

HWA and many of the COG splinter groups teach that in the near future a European Empire will arise and militarily conquer the United States and Britain.

Mendiola then presents Britain as facing a choice aligning its political interests with the United States or the European Union. Note the crass appeal to anti-Catholic paranoia.

Queen Elizabeth II swore at her 1953 coronation “to govern the peoples of the United Kingdom according to their laws and customs” and “to maintain the Protestant Reformed religion established by law.” [A eurosceptic author] points out these pledges are being negated by Britain’s deeper integration with the European Union. Relations between the Vatican and London have become increasingly close in recent decades. (p. 23.)

He then scare mongers that the Britain under Prime Minister Blair was aligning itself with the European Union by helping to place some of the British armed forces under the command of the European Union. This claim is somewhat unusual among the COGs as they tend to assume that Britain and the United States will remain aligned with each until both nations are conquered by the future European Empire.

[Margaret] Thatcher has exchanged sharp words with Blair over the direction Britain should take. She favors maintaining a close relationship with the U.S., while he supports a pro-European course. Baroness Thatcher denounced Blair’s decision to commit troops to a European rapid deployment force apart from the U.S.-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has maintained peace in Europe for more than 50 years. She called it “monumental folly.” (p. 24.)

He scare mongers that British military personnel would be propping up the European Union and would be dominated by Germany.

The European Union hopes to have 60,000 ground troops ready for deployment by 2003. British troops would account for about 20 percent of that force and would bear the EU’s 12-star insignia on their uniforms and vehicles. Ultimately, the force would have at its disposal more than 100,000 troops and some 400 aircraft and 100 ships ready to respond to crises. It would be dominated by Germany, whose militaristic past has thrust it into armed conflict with Britain and the United States in two devastating world wars. (p. 24.)

It is so strange how the COGs keep living as though we are in 1938 and not today. After World War II the United States placed military bases in West Germany and those military bases are still stationed there. How could a future German government possibly conspire to militarily conquer the United States if there are US military bases within German territory? But the COGs choose to just let HWA's dogmatic statements do the thinking for them.

The future of that historic fraternal relationship—that “grand alliance” [between the United States and Britain]—will be tested to the extreme in the years ahead.

Since the 1930s HWA and his imitators have constantly insisted that catastrophe would soon occur in the United States. Often (though not always) they have insisted that Germans would be the main perpetrators of this future military conquest. And always this dire threat has always failed miserably.

In September 2006 Mendiola left LCG and joined Dave Pack's Restored Church of God. Around 2008 he left RCG and joined Don Billingsley's Church of God-Faithful Flock.

Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, The Scourge of Pornography (2001)

The tenth issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (January-February 2001), featured an article by Mark Mendiola of Pocatello, Idaho entitled "The Scourge of Pornography." (pp. 24-28.) This was the ninth of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. Here Mendiola condemns pornography and insists that it is a sign that LCG's God will soon unleash the Great Tribulation upon the United States.

Let's see what he has to say.

Pornography is one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy as people from throughout the world buy staggering volumes of sexually explicit materials. Americans alone spend an estimated $8 billion a year on it, making pornography one of the most profitable industries in the United States. How can nations with Judeo-Christian underpinnings justify their massive production and consumption of such objectionable material? Historically, cultures that have repudiated morality have rotted from the inside only to collapse. (p. 24.)

Mendiola implies that pornography will cause the United States to collapse.

Mendiola exploits the Northridge earthquake of 1994 to insist that LCG's God is filled with wrath at the United States for its pornography industry.

At 4:31 a.m. on January 17, 1994, Southern California’s densely populated San Fernando Valley was jolted by the most devastating earthquake in the United States since the 1906 San Francisco temblor [sic]. Nearly 60 people were killed, 1,500 others seriously injured and 12,500 structures damaged, including major Los Angeles freeways.  

The earthquake measured 6.7 on the Richter scale. Its total damage estimate of $15 billion made it financially one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.... Was it merely coincidence that the quake’s epicenter was at Northridge, Calif., considered the nation’s pornography capital? More than 80 percent of all video pornography made in the U.S. is filmed at Northridge studios within five miles of the epicenter.  

The destruction that occurred in the Los Angeles area is a forerunner of the national punishment coming on the U.S. and other nations in the western world for their blatant disregard of moral standards prescribed by God’s living spiritual laws, including guidelines on marriage and sexual relations. The proliferation of pornography in western society today is a disturbing cultural phenomenon, symptomatic of a hedonistic age that rejects traditional values. (p. 24.)

Earthquakes are a natural fact of life. They are caused by friction between plates in the Earth's crust. It is terrible that a natural disaster which killed so many people had been exploited in a superstitious manner.

Whether displayed behind convenience store counters or posted on the Internet, pornography is a corrosive element eating away at the vitals of civilized society. Raunchy pornographic material in various forms—including magazines, videotapes, cable television and Web sites—is easily accessible to people of all ages. (pp. 24-25.)

How knowledgeable.

He then cites a statement from Beverley LaHaye.

Calling Internet pornography the “red light district of cyberspace,” Concerned Women for America, a public policy organization founded by Beverly LaHaye in 1979, stated, “There has never been a time in history when such massive distribution of pornographic material has been paralleled. And, sadly, because of the nebulous quality of the Internet, currently very few safeguards or age-check procedures are in place to monitor its distribution.” (p. 25.)

Concerned Women for America is a prominent organization of the religious right. So often LCG and the other Armstrongite COGs vilify the mainstream churches as false Christians and even as bearing the mark of the beast by worshiping on Sunday. But here Mendiola finds it useful to cite an organization of these supposed false Christians who bear the mark of the beast to prop up his condemnation of pornography. How selective he is.

Mendiola moans that his views are not popular.

It is not popular or politically correct today to call deviant sexual behavior “perverse,” yet God shows that indulging in widespread sexual promiscuity defiles nations. History strongly attests that such nations bring punishment on themselves. The licentious ancient Greek and Roman empires and many other nations have written that lesson for all of us to consider. (p. 25.)

But what happened to the Greeks? They were conquered by the Romans and became a part of the Roman Empire. Later the Roman Empire was split into two and the Eastern Roman Empire did not fall to any foreign power until 1204 when Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade.

In 1998, 8,948 new hard-core videos hit the U.S. retail market, up from 1,275 in 1990. Many of those were produced in the Northridge, Calif. area. (p. 26.)

Once again the earthquake is exploited to make his point even though earthquakes are a natural phenomenon.

Mendiola then insists that those who enforce the law insist that "repeated exposure to pornography" lead to dangerous and illegal sexual behavior. But instead of citing any of these law enforcement officers he claims have this view he immediately cites an infamous serial killer.

Law enforcement officials who have investigated sexual abuse, rape and murder cases confirm that repeated exposure to pornography has turned many men into sexual addicts, predators and abusers. Hours before his execution in 1989, notorious serial killer Ted Bundy stated: “I have lived in prison a long time now, and I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to violence just like me. And without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography, without a question, deeply influenced and consumed by an addiction to pornography.” (p. 26.)

It is strange to see Mendiola citing a serial killer to support his argument against pornography. It is dangerous to trust people like that. They tend to be dreadfully manipulative. They cannot be trusted.

It also needs to be asked why it is that none of the editors of this recruitment magazine removed this passage? Didn't anyone above Mendiola think this passage was a bad idea? The editors of this issue were Roderick C. Meredith, Richard Ames, William Bowmer and Gary Ehman.

Yet throughout the western world, pornography is promoted and defended by those who argue it is a form of freedom and enlightenment. (p. 27.)

Who has ever called pornography "a form of ... enlightenment"?

The COGs tend to be right wing in regards to politics and Mendiola shows this by complaining about the Supreme Court legalizing pornography. I do not condemn the COGs for being right wing but it is important to note that they are right wing because it explains so much of the political stances they choose to make.

The turning point in the United States for the commercialization of pornography came in 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. California that “pornography,” but not “obscenity,” was protected by the First Amendment, muddying the issue. (p. 27.)

He then mentions that President Reagan was strict about enforcing the law against obscenity. But he complains that Clinton then was elected and that it is implied that his administration has let pornography flourish.

However, the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography was established shortly after President Ronald Reagan gave his second inaugural speech in 1985. It included an enforcement unit that aggressively prosecuted pornographers. 

“During the Reagan and Bush administrations, the Justice Department successfully prosecuted child pornographers and large-scale purveyors of obscenity; and, in the process of effectively enforcing the obscenity laws, collected millions of dollars in fines and forfeitures to offset the costs of enforcement,” Morality in Media president Robert Peters wrote in a July 28, 2000 article. 

President Bill Clinton assured voters in 1992 that “aggressive enforcement of federal obscenity laws by the Justice Department... will be a priority in the Clinton-Gore administration.” 

However, the pornography industry has exploded with unfettered success in recent years. “During the first six years of the Clinton administration, federal obscenity law enforcement declined by over 80 percent. ...” (p. 27.)

Mendiola cites this article to cast suspicion upon various organizations blaming them for the pornography industry instead of our sex hormones.

He [Russell Peters] speculated that Clinton was pressured by elitist supporters in Hollywood, the Playboy empire, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and People for the American Way to ease off enforcing obscenity laws. Scandals in his administration also made it difficult for him to urge U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to prosecute porn cases. ... Pornographers have flourished from the benevolent neglect the porn industry has enjoyed under Attorney General Reno. (p. 27.)

Strangely in all this article there is no discussion of sex hormones. The reason there is pornography is because we have natural urges that encourage reproduction partly caused by hormones such as testosterone and estrogen. Mendiola fulminates about pornography and yet he seems to think that our sex hormones are a matter unworthy of mention. Think about it. That is a very strange omission. It is no use to fume against supposedly liberal elites instead of addressing our own hormones.

Another concerning thing about this article is how he seems to make little distinction between what is legal and what is illegal. He emotively mentions illegal sexual behavior and assumes that illegal behavior is caused by watching pornography but it is hard to prove something like that. That line of thought also fails to address the fact that there is legal pornography. How can one expect the government to stop that which is legal?

In the last part of this article Mendiola links his condemnation of pornography with LCG's proclamation that at some point in the near future a German led European entity of some sort will launch a war of conquest and seize control of the United States with much violence and take Americans as slaves back to Europe. This is taught to be divine punishment for behavior contrary to LCG's teachings.

Rather than being a shining beacon on a hill as President Reagan fondly envisioned, the United States exports prodigious volumes of some of the vilest material imaginable in the form of pornography. A nation that prides itself in its Judeo-Christian roots is accountable to the Living God for promulgating such filth throughout the world. (p. 28.)

Mendiola proclaims that the German led Europeans are coming.

What happened in the past to ancient Israel and Judah will recur in the future. The Bible shows a modern Babylonian Empire, spearheaded by modern Assyrians or Germans, will arise on the European continent.... Inspired by a charismatic religious leader who will denounce American and British cultures for their steep slide into immorality, including the export of pornography, the Europeans will justify unleashing horrific punishment on the U.S. and British Commonwealth peoples. (p. 28.)

This "charismatic religious leader" refers to the final Pope. It is taught within LCG that the final Pope will be granted power by Satan to perform miracles such as summoning fire from the sky to prop up a future political union between some of the nations of Europe in a union led by Germany. However such things are not made clear in this article. The COGs have been making similar dire proclamations since the 1930s and yet this dire news has always failed. It will never happen.

Mendiola insists that this supposedly coming conquest by Europe will lead to a catastrophe even worse than the Holocaust thus crudely invoking the memory of the approximately six million Jews who were so dreadfully murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators for being Jews. What dreadful behavior Mendiola shows here.

As unbelievable as it is to contemplate, American, British, Jewish and other modern Israelitish people will be plunged into national punishment even worse than the Holocaust unless they repent of their widespread immorality and sexual sins. Although they now are considered allies, the remilitarized Europeans primarily will be used by the Living Creator God to chastise modern Israel and Judah. ... [Ezekiel describes] a scenario frighteningly reminiscent of the Nazi death camps of World War II.... (p. 28.)

Mendiola's insistence that the United States will soon endure such terrible things is because he assumes that Americans are descended from the Biblical Israelites. This idea, which is known as British Israelism, is complete nonsense. British and Americans are not related to Jews in that way. Once British Israelism is exposed as incorrect much of LCG's other dire proclamations of doom awaiting the United States fall apart as well.

This claim seems unbelievable because it is unbelievable. It will never happen. LCG's 1% cannot see the future.

Mendiola then calls for repentance by embracing behavior taught by LCG's leaders. He implies that it is possible for the United States to repent and stop the conquest by the Europeans from occurring but within the COGs it is generally assumed that such a military conquest is inevitable.

It is not too late for nations in the western world to repent of their plunge into the cesspool of pornography and immorality, defiling themselves, but time is running out. 

The Bible shows when Jesus Christ returns to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, He will cleanse these nations and restore their former greatness after they bitterly repent of their widespread lewdness. (p. 28.)

He then ends the article with a quote from Jeremiah.

It does not matter how many times LCG's 1% insist that the Great Tribulation is near since they cannot perceive the future. From 1953 onward their predecessors in the Radio Church of God taught that this Great Tribulation would begin in 1972 and culminate with the return of Christ in 1975 to begin the Millennium. Clearly the COGs do not know the future.

In September 2006 Mendiola left LCG and joined Dave Pack's Restored Church of God. Around 2008 he left RCG and joined Don Billingsley's Church of God-Faithful Flock.

Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, Watch and Warn (2000)

The ninth issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (November-December 2000), featured an article by Mark Mendiola of Pocatello, Idaho entitled "Watch and Warn." (pp. 20-24, 30.) This was the eighth of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. (The September-October 2000 issue had featured an article by Rod McNair about US relations with the Philippines.) Here Mendiola scare mongers that a time of severe military conflict called the Great Tribulation will soon occur which is to be shortly afterwards followed by Christ's return. He also insists that the news media have failed to notice the signs that the Great Tribulation is about to occur implying that readers cannot trust other sources of information.

Introduction

Jesus Christ told His followers to watch world events, and to warn the world of what is to come. With the Bible as our guide, we can understand how seemingly unrelated events in different regions tie together as the Savior’s prophesied return draws near. (p. 2.)

In other words these separate events are unrelated without LCG's dogmas.

Momentous changes that will dramatically impact everyone on earth are occurring throughout the world.  How do seemingly unrelated events in different regions tie together?  Jesus Christ urges us to "watch" and shows us how, giving us major signs to discern.  With that watching also comes a responsibility to warn of impending troubles. (p. 20.)

In other words keeping up with current affairs and using LCG's speculations to interpret them. In this way political and economic events are exploited to make the audience more indoctrinated into believing that LCG's 1% have God's favor.

Jesus Christ, the greatest newscaster of all time, urges His disciples to remain constantly vigilant of world events. They also must stay close to God in prayer to survive the calamitous conditions that will precede His return to earth at the end of this age. (p. 20.)

And this article seeks to convince the reader that one draws close to God through LCG.

The ultimate impact of developments in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East will be profound on the United States, British Commonwealth and other nations in the western world. Yet these major developments often are barely mentioned, if even reported, in newscasts or news publications. (p. 20.)

In other words Mendiola is casting suspicion towards mainstream media outlets to make the audience distrustful of them so that they will rely on LCG to tell them about world events.

Virtually everyone on earth will be astonished at the unforeseen direction events will take in the coming years that will change the global balance of power and plunge the world into its most severe crisis ever. The destruction, loss of life and suffering will exceed even the two previous world wars. It is a scenario that seems unbelievable, but will come as surely as the sun rises and sets. Yet beyond this time of unprecedented trouble dawns tomorrow's world ruled by Jesus Christ, who proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom of God. (p. 20.)

And it is implied that "destruction, loss of life and suffering ... exceed[ing] even the two previous world wars" will soon occur. And yet seventeen years later no such thing has occurred.

Mendiola writes, "It is a scenario that seems unbelievable, but will come as surely as the sun rises and sets." It seems unbelievable because it is unbelievable. While catastrophes may well occur the possibility that LCG's leaders then based in San Diego and (after relocating there in 2003) in Charlotte could possibly know the future is utterly unbelievable.

In Luke's account of the famous Olivet Prophecy, Jesus Christ warns of conditions that will prevail prior to His Second Coming to this earth. He notes that religious deception, wars and commotions will be widespread, but the end will not come immediately as a result.... 

Wars between nations and kingdoms, however, will steadily intensify; great earthquakes will strike throughout the world; famines and disease epidemics will spread. These conditions are worsening throughout the world. One only has to witness the wars, starvation and pestilence reaching crisis proportions on the African continent for confirmation. What Christ foretells is unfolding right before our eyes! (pp. 20-21.)

But seventeen years later still in such catastrophe of the type Mendiola prophesied of has yet occurred.

Mendiola then belittles those who may disagree with him by insisting that most people are too self centered to notice his dire proclamation of catastrophe.

In other words, He strongly admonishes His disciples to wake up and be aware of world events around them. However, He also notes that most people will be so consumed with seeking their own pleasure and concerned about their own personal cares that they will be oblivious to the ominous trends happening around them.... Most people will not expect the rapid chain reaction of events leading to a great tribulation that will engulf the entire world prior to Christ's return. (p. 21.)

He shrilly insists all life on Earth is in danger.

As prophecies in the Bible show, we are to watch developments throughout the earth that will lead to a grand smash collision threatening the existence of all life on earth.... (p. 21.)

Future European Superpower

First he focuses his attention on Europe. LCG teaches that America is destined to soon be conquered by a European military power said to be destined to arise in the future and conquer the United States. He claims that Europe is arising as a mighty military power and insists that this is happening without the media's notice and scrutiny. Once again he seeks to slur the media as unreliable and unworthy of trust.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union about 10 years ago, a significant power vacuum was created, leaving the United States the world's only major superpower. What was a bipolar world suddenly turned into a unipolar world, with the U.S. the undisputed dominant nation. However, a shift in the balance of power, eroding U.S. supremacy, is under way, which has not been widely reported in the news media. Yet this development on the European continent is extremely significant. (p. 21.)

He implies that most people are obsessed with trivial matters and so have failed to notice Europe's supposed rise as a military power. By belittling the many he flatters the attentive readers that he or she is better than most of society.

A United States of Europe that threatens to rival the U.S. on the diplomatic, economic, political, and even military fronts, is emerging. It is a development that looks innocent on its surface, but has sinister ramifications for the entire world. Most people in the western world are so obsessed with celebrities, scandals, sensations and other inconsequential news, they are not aware of what Europe's unification means for their future. (p. 21.)

He cites a speech by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on May 15, 2000 to imply that the European Union would somehow remove some members in some sort of closer union. After that he once again casts suspicion towards the media to imply that they have failed to notice the supposed rise of Europe.

Yet when this United States of Europe rears its head for a final time as a monstrous beast, the Bible also shows the world will be astonished. Because the news media devote little attention to international affairs, when that powerful empire arises, it will seem to come out of nowhere, astonishing the vast majority of mankind! .... 

Watch news trends leading to a more powerful united Europe militarily, politically and economically. (p. 22.)

The Middle East

When it comes to the situation in the Middle East much of the COGs have this misconception that the problems are all about Jerusalem. This is largely ignorant nonsense. It is true that the political status of Jerusalem is an issue but it most emphatically not the only issue.

In His Olivet prophecy, Jesus Christ emphasizes the need to watch not only developments in the Middle East in general, but also Jerusalem in particular. (p. 22.)

He calls for readers to be informed about events concerning the Middle East region and Jerusalem.

Diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East between the Israelis and Palestinians, as the European Union and Vatican become more heavily involved, will not mean peace in this volatile, strategic region. Christ warns that Jerusalem ultimately will be surrounded by gentile armies and trampled by foreign troops! .... Yet are we keeping ourselves informed about what is happening in that explosive region? (p. 22.)

And how is his audience supposed to be informed about these things if (he implies) the news media are so incompetent as to not notice the important developments? Through LCG.

He scares mongers that "Islamic power" will somehow be magnified in the future.

In March 1999, Stratfor, Inc., an intelligence consulting firm in Austin, Texas, launched an experimental Web site www.stratfor.com. In December 1999, it predicted three events that will, in this decade, magnify Islamic power in the Middle East.... (p. 22.)

Page 22 features pictures of various Middle Eastern leaders to further emphasize the theme of scare mongering about uncertain succession.

The Middle East remains the world’s most explosive region, with leadership a volatile issue. From left to right: Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd; Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Hussein; Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak; Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi; Bashar al-Assad of Syria; Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Hussein and Bashar al-Assad of Syria are the most recent changes in Arab leadership; both assumed power after the deaths of their fathers. (p. 22.)

King Fahd passed away on August 1, 2005 but Saudi Arabia remains a stable nation. King Abdullah is still in power and Jordan remains a stable nation. President Mubarak was overthrown in a popular uprising in 2011. Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in a popular uprising and armed insurgency but tragically to this day Libya has been divided and politically unstable. Since 2011 Syria has been the scene of severe political instability partly caused in no small part by police brutality against what was initially a peaceful protest movement. Since then the crisis has escalated into a full scale armed conflict that among other things allowed the terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIL to exploit the troubled situation to seize power for themselves. However with its armed forces and aid from Iran and Russia the Assad regime is still intact in its territory. Yasser Arafat passed away on November 11, 2004 and was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas. In 2007 Abbas' faction, Fatah, lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas. Saddam Hussein was overthrown by US led military intervention in 2003 and hanged on December 30, 2006 after being convicted for leading a campaign of state terror in Dujail in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt. Alas, Iraq has and continues to be travailed by many troubles.

Many things have happened since 2000 when this article was published. But the Great Tribulation and other predictions of LCG's 1% remains as distant as it was in 2000.

Mendiola insists that the Arab nations will join themselves together in some kind of alliance to be led by a future political leader named in Armstrongite dogma as the "King of the South."

The Bible strongly indicates Arab nations in the Middle East will band together to form a confederation led by a "King of the South" that will provoke a remilitarized European power to take swift action in the Middle East. (p. 22.)

The King of the South has changed over the years among the COGs. Before 1945 HWA taught that it was Ethiopia. Later in the 1960s the dogma was changed to label the Arab nations with this role. LCG teaches that idea to this day but other COGs have different opinions. In 1994 PCG's leader, Gerald Flurry, proclaimed that Iran, not the Arab nations, would fulfill this role even though Iran is east, not south, of the Holy Land. RCG's leader, Dave Pack, chose to only accept Ethiopia as fulfilling that role.

It is taught among the COGs that the King of the South is fated to somehow provoke the future European superpower into launching a decisive attack and crush the King of the South and seize control of the Middle East.

This provocation could be prompted by Arab nations in the Middle East cutting off supplies of petroleum to the western world, prompting a swift response from European nations, or a controversy regarding the status of Jerusalem, which requires foreign troops. This crisis in the Middle East, in turn, will pull in nations from other regions like a vortex. (p. 23.)

He ends this section of the article with these vague words.

Watch for future changes in leadership among key Arab nations. And watch the geopolitics associated with the production and marketing of Middle East oil. (p. 23.)

Russia, China and Other Nations

Mendiola then scare mongers about Russia, China and other nations in the east. He teaches that Russia and China will lead some sort of alliance of eastern nations fated to fight against the future European superpower just before Christ's return.

Once this King of the North invades the Middle East, other major military powers in Russia, India, China and Southeast Asia will mobilize to counterattack the brazen move by the Europeans.... 

He [the future European leader supposedly fated to conquer America] will eventually meet his end at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.... This King of the North will face the massive armies of Eurasia. Even now the populations of China and India each exceed one billion people! (p. 23.)

He scare mongers against Russia and China presenting them as working towards weakening the United States.

Russia and China, both nuclear superpowers, will probably be in alliance with the kings of the east and supply most of the 200-million-man army that will launch a major offensive against the European beast power in the Middle East. Russian and Chinese leaders recently stressed the need to offset American power by encouraging a multi-polar world. (pp. 23-24.)

Why have the readers scared of only Russia and China? Why not get them scared of other nation states as well?

Watch continued cooperation between Russia and China as well as among India, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and other heavily populated Asian nations. These geopolitical developments in various regions of the world do not bode well for the U.S. and its western allies. (p. 24.)

Fall of the United States

Mendiola claims that since there is no King of the West mentioned in the Bible that it is a sign that the United States will be rendered powerless in the days just before Christ's return.

The Bible speaks of a King of the North, a King of the South and kings of the East, but remains almost deafeningly silent about a king from the other compass point—the West. There is no "King of the West" per se named in the Bible. Yet the United States undoubtedly is the leading nation in the West. 

When the King of the North retaliates against the King of the South, which will compel the kings of the East to respond, Bible prophecy shows the United States and other nations of British descent will be either conquered, enslaved or on the verge of captivity. (p. 24.)

Mendiola then makes the inaccurate and nonsensical claim that white Americans are descended from the Biblical Israelites of the Old Testament. Elsewhere LCG teaches that white Americans are descended from Manasseh, the son of Joseph mentioned in Genesis.

America and other British-descended and northwestern European nations are identified in Bible prophecy as modern descendants of Israel, the Old Testament patriarch whose name was changed from Jacob. (p. 24.)

It will not be immediately apparent to readers unfamiliar with Armstrongism but much of Armstrongism's fearful proclamations are based on the misconception that white Americans are descended from the Biblical Israelites. But white Americans are not descended from the Biblical Israelites. Genetic evidence shows conclusively that there is no such ancestral connection as is imagined by Armstrongite dogma. It is nonsense and any news of doom and gloom arising from that misconception is also wrong.

Heedless of the painful history of US slavery Mendiola insists that slavery awaits the United States at the hands of Germans, Europeans and Arabs in the future just before Christ's return.

The Bible shows these nations will bear the initial brunt of the unprecedented Great Tribulation.... He [Jeremiah as interpreted by Mendiola] also shows foreigners will enslave these nations of modern Jacob and even those considered allies will severely wound them.... Psalm 83 is prophetic in that it illustrates major powers in Europe and the Middle East conspiring to annihilate Jacob or Israel as a common enemy.... Arab nations and Assyria, the ancestral nation of modern Germany, are then described as the conspirators. They have shared anti-Semitic sentiments historically. (p. 24.)

It is also complete nonsense to claim that Germans are the descendants of the ancient Assyrians. This idea arose within the British Israelism movement due to World War I. Before 1914 the British Israelism movement taught that Germans were fellow Israelites but during the course of that cataclysmic war the teachers of the British Israelism movement changed the Germans' purported ancestry.

Watch trends in the moral decay of western nations, particularly the modern descendants of the ancient patriarch, Jacob. (p. 24.)

When Mendiola talks of "moral decay" he speaks of behavior contrary to what is taught by LCG's 1%.

Appeal for More LCG Members

The main purpose of this article and the entire magazine is to gain more recruits to join the organization behind the recruitment, namely LCG. After spending so much time insisting that catastrophe will soon occur he implies that reader has a responsibility to act on this message of doom and gloom.

As we watch the decline of such nations as the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Jewish state of Israel, there comes a responsibility to warn people in those nations as well as the rest of the world about the punishment that will ensue. (p. 24.)

Mendiola slurs "secular and religious leaders" for not sharing telling the same message of doom and gloom that is taught by LCG.

Yet the prophet Isaiah also foresaw a time when the secular and religious leaders, who should be trumpeting a warning to their people, would not because they are too wrapped up in the cares of this prosperous age and hope its comforts and luxuries will continue indefinitely. (p. 24.)

He slurs other sources of information to make his own organization and his paymaster look good.

By contrast, God's true servants are to be faithful watchmen. For more than 50 years, evangelist Roderick C. Meredith has been involved in this work of teaching, preaching and warning the world. Thousands of co-workers are supporting the Tomorrow's World magazine and telecast and are committed to crying aloud, lifting up their voices and showing mankind its sins and warning of the consequences. That is coupled with proclaiming the wonderful news of the Kingdom of God that Jesus Christ will establish beyond the horrible times that lie ahead. (pp. 24, 30.)

He ends this article with an appeal to the reader to respond to the article.

Those involved in this Work are soberly striving to heed Jesus Christ's command to watch world events and, like sentries, sound an alarm out of love, about the terrible times ahead for all people on the earth. They fully realize that the message will not be popular, but an urgent warning is needed. Beyond the gloom and doom of the immediate years ahead lies a glorious world governed by Jesus Christ. But meanwhile, we all need to sincerely hope and pray people will repent and turn around as a result of this message of warning and hope. You have just read that message! How will you respond? (p. 30.)

What is intended is for the reader to be moved into sending money to the organization behind this recruitment magazine and perhaps even the organization. And yet sixteen years later his message of doom and gloom is still unfulfilled. While many things have happened since this article was written what he and LCG teaches has not occurred. The United States is still the most powerful nation state on Earth. Europe still relies on the military protection of the United States under the NATO alliance. No "King of the South" has arisen in the Middle East. Russia and China are strong but LCG teaches that it will be a German led Europe that will conquer the United States.

There is no need to listen to LCG's dire proclamations. They are but false prophets.

In September 2006 Mendiola left LCG and joined Dave Pack's Restored Church of God. Around 2008 he left RCG and joined Don Billingsley's Church of God-Faithful Flock.

Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, A Crude Awakening? (2000)

The seventh issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (July-August 2000), featured an article by Mark Mendiola entitled "A Crude Awakening?" (pp. 14-18.) This was the seventh of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. Here he scare mongers that America was vulnerable to the effects of a future oil blockade.

Let's take a look at what he has to say.

As oil prices spiral upward, the United States is facing the consequences of its dependence on foreign oil—and on the nations that control the oil. How and why have the oil-exporting nations kept the United States “over a barrel”—and what does this mean for America’s future? (p. 14.)

Mendiola emotively compares high oil prices to an act of war.

Just as it did in the 1970s, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) still has much of the world over a barrel. Back then, U.S. President Jimmy Carter called a paralyzing global energy crisis the "moral equivalent of war." But if this is a war, who is winning it, and why? How does this crisis fit into Bible prophecy? And what can we expect for our future? (p. 14.)

He complains that Americans are complacent.

Complacent Americans, accustomed to cheap gasoline, faced a rude awakening as prices crept up past $2 per gallon. In a matter of months, gas prices nearly doubled, bringing about a startling reality check for Americans unaware of world events. (p. 14.)

Although he spends most of this article complaining about OPEC nations in the following paragraph he admits something that he fails to note elsewhere in the article, namely that OPEC is severely divided and rarely acts in a united manner together.

In many other nations, high taxes bring gasoline prices to $5 per gallon. Most of the world envies the United States' low gas prices. But these prices spiraled when OPEC decided in March 1999 to reduce a worldwide oil glut by cranking down production. Oil producers stuck to this agreement with a 90 percent compliance rate—an impressive feat for a cartel notoriously unable to maintain unity. (p. 14.)

Seventeen years later OPEC is, if anything, even more divided today as much of the Middle East is affected by intense rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran. But focusing on OPEC's disunity might make Mendiola's readers less worried and less inclined to listen to him.

He cites a Republican Senator who mentions that at this time the United States was importing some oil from Iraq even while the United States continued to impose sanctions upon that nation.

Murkowski said the failure of U.S. energy policy is illustrated by the import of 700,000 barrels of oil a day from Iraq, despite the Persian Gulf War and U.S. military efforts to contain Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "We're bombing the guy who is refueling our warplanes," he said. "What kind of an energy policy is that?" (p. 15.)

LCG like most of the COGs tend to lean to the right but nevertheless they are certainly capable of acting like they are not so partisan.

Democrats countered that Republicans blocked energy conservation and more fuel-efficient vehicles, would not consider a ban on Alaskan oil exports to Asia, ruled out a drawdown of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—where 565 million barrels of crude oil are stored for emergencies—and resisted creating a heating oil reserve in the Northeast because such measures were opposed by the U.S. oil industry. (p. 15.)

He moans about Saudi Arabia having so much oil.

Consuming about 20 percent of the world's oil, the United States imports much more than the 35 percent it imported in 1973 when Arab nations retaliated against the U.S. for its support of Israel by imposing an oil embargo, creating long lines at gas stations. In December 1999, OPEC was the source of nearly half of U.S. oil imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. Saudi Arabia was by far the largest source of those imports, supplying 43,118,000 barrels that month. 

OPEC supplies more than 40 percent of the world's oil and owns about 78 percent of the world's crude oil reserves. It produces about 26.6 million barrels of crude oil daily, with the Saudis accounting for about a third of that total. (pp. 15-16.)

Citing a Democratic Senator he scare mongers that the United States is more vulnerable to an oil embargo than back in 1973.

In remarks made on March 20, Sen. John Breaux, D-La., explained how the U.S. finds itself increasingly addicted to foreign oil, noting Arab countries hobbled the U.S. nearly 30 years ago when they only slightly restricted supplies and when the U.S. was importing much less petroleum percentage-wise. (p. 16.)

And then Mendiola starts to cite Armstrongite dogma to interpret this problem.

The United States of America has been blessed beyond any other nation in history with an abundance of natural resources, but it is starting to see those blessings stripped away. The oil, gas, mineral and agricultural wealth enjoyed in such great abundance in North America and other English-speaking nations has come from Almighty God. The Holy Bible is plain about that. (p. 17.)

This statement is based on the discredited dogma of British Israelism. Much of Armstrongite dogmas about the future is based on this assumption. Once it is recognized that British Israelism is false then so much of the assumptions stemming from that false conception falls away. Americans are not the descendants of the Biblical Israelites so the dire warnings of the Old Testament do not specifically apply to the United States. The author talks of nonsense.

But Mendiola is devoted to the discredited dogma of British Israelism so he continues to use it to insist that (LCG's) God's wrath will soon descend on America.

Just as parents discipline children when they go astray and engage in harmful activities, God punishes nations when they refuse to keep His commandments, veer from His ways and no longer fear Him. (p. 17.)

Mendiola melodramatically proclaims that the western world's baskets, stores and reserves are cursed by (LCG's) God.

It is no coincidence the western world find itself under what appears to be a worsening economic curse as westerners more blatantly sin by breaking God's divine law. We are witnessing a dramatic reversal in our fortunes. Cursed are our basket, our store, and our reserves! ... Hostile nations are on the rise as we are on the decline. (p. 17.)

He shrilly insists that the American is already brought low and is prostrating itself to oil producing nations in a crass appeal to parochialism.

The oil crisis is one of many national curses the U.S. faces as it rejects God, refuses to acknowledge His blessings and flagrantly breaks His law. Yet, it is official federal policy for the nation to prostrate itself before foreign nations that have been antagonistic in the past and allies who easily could turn on it. (p. 17.)

After moaning about Saudi Arabia he then complains about Iran and Kuwait.

Iran is OPEC's second largest producer. An international crisis was provoked in 1979 when Iranian religious revolutionaries overthrew the Shah of Iran, shut off the Persian nation's oil spigot and kept 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. An oil price surge peaked at $39 a barrel in 1981; U.S. interest rates climbed into double digits; the U.S. inflation rate flared up to 9 percent and unemployment approached 8 percent.
Iran opposed, vehemently, OPEC's decision last March to raise production and ease pressure on the world's petroleum markets. Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, Iran's representative to OPEC, said Iran balked at going along with the rest of OPEC to protest American pressure on the cartel. It questioned whether the international oil shortage was extreme and whether production needed to be escalated. 

One major disappointment for American officials was Kuwait's resistance to increasing production. That is despite the massive investment and sacrifice made by western and other allies in Operation Desert Storm to repel Kuwait's invasion by Iraq. Kuwait aligned with the likes of Algeria, Libya and Iran earlier this year to adopt a hard line against raising OPEC production levels, but later agreed to ease output after U.S. diplomatic arm twisting. (pp. 17-18.)

Mendiola then shrilly insists that the American government's alliances with oil producing nations are somehow "worse than prostitution".

The Living God who has so richly blessed the U.S. and other western nations frowns upon our policy of buying off friends and enemies in exchange for their favors, turning our backs on Him. Such policy earns the disdain of friend and foe alike. In God's eyes, it is even worse than prostitution and will backfire! (p. 18.)

"Treaties and alliances will not save them," Mendiola proclaims belittling diplomatic relations with oil producing nations. He insists that "unprecedented national tribulation" is about to come to the United States.

The Bible shows that both allies and enemies ultimately will turn against the nations identified in the Bible as modern Jacob. Treaties and alliances will not save them. Only God's divine intervention can save them from the unprecedented national tribulation that looms! (p. 18.)

In certain contexts Armstrongite writers talk as though the conquest of the United States by Europeans can be avoided but generally it is believed within the COGs that this military conquest is inevitable. In practice the COGs teach that only they themselves will be supernaturally protected by God and taken to a place of safety during the times of turmoil just before Christ's return.

Mendiola insists that relying on other nations for the supply of oil is "a potentially fatal weakness."

The United States is leaving itself exposed and precariously vulnerable by increasing its dependence on foreign nations for vitally important oil, putting itself in a compromising position and revealing a potentially fatal weakness. (p. 18.)

He complains that the Middle East is an unreliable source of oil.

As crises in the extremely volatile Middle East have underscored in the past, the western industrialized world cannot rely on that region for a steady, uninterrupted flow of petroleum. Even the European Commission issued a rare plea in February for OPEC to boost output to prevent slowing the world economy. (p. 18.) 

He scare mongers that various oil producing nations might turn against the United States and stop selling oil to the United States.

Should pro-western leadership in oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico suddenly turn anti-American, the national and economic security of the U.S. could be severely jeopardized and a dramatic shift in the international balance of power could occur. (p. 18.)

To this day Saudi Arabia and Mexico are closely aligned with the United States. Venezuela turned away from being closely aligned with the United States but it has not proven to be much a threat to the United States. But little did Mendiola know that soon the oil industry would soon shift its focus to extracting oil using fracking techniques making the United States less reliant on overseas oil. Although there is widespread concern about environmental and social repercussions of using this method.

Mendiola ends his article with these words insisting that America will face "horrendous suffering and calamity" unless his audience follow LCG's teachings.

As in the past, geopolitical events could turn Islamic countries violently against the U.S., Israel and other western nations, prompting Arabs to take drastic measures and sharply crank down their oil production in retaliation.  

Unless there is heartfelt repentance and a return to God in humility and gratitude for all His blessings, our national punishments will intensify and worsen before Jesus Christ returns to liberate us from horrendous suffering and calamity. ... There is wonderful news beyond today's troubling world as we approach the dawn of Tomorrow's World! (p. 18.)

What clap trap. He makes these dire predictions and now seventeen years later we are still no closer to his dire words being fulfilled. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are still closely aligned with the United States. Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in a bitter power struggle with each other so they cannot unite together in OPEC against the United States. Venezuela embraced turned to the left but that country is currently going through intense political and economic turmoil so it would be absurd to view it as a threat in its current state.

There was as a matter of fact a sharp rise in the price of oil back in 2008 but it shortly afterward went down to a more reasonable price and the reason for that spike had little to do with the OPEC nations or supply and demand. (That story is explained in chapter 4 of the 2010 book Griftopia by Matt Taibbi.)

Clearly there is no need to fear Mendiola's dire proclamations.

In September 2006 Mendiola left LCG and joined Dave Pack's Restored Church of God. Around 2008 he left RCG and joined Don Billingsley's Church of God-Faithful Flock.

Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, The Ten Commandments: A Sacred Law for All Nations

The sixth issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (May-June 2000), featured an article by Mark Mendiola entitled "The Ten Commandments: A Sacred Law for All Nations." (pp. 14-18.) This was the sixth of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. Here he makes a political tract condemning the political left and lawyers for requiring publicly funded facilities to not post religious displays, namely the Ten Commandments. One reading this article by itself would have no idea that it is from an organization which teaches things that the vast majority of Christians do not teach.

Let's take a look.

Lawlessness and violence sweeping across the western world have brought the Ten Commandments to the front pages of today’s newspapers. Courts and legislatures contend over public displays of the commandments. Are the Ten Commandments sacred laws for all nations? The Bible’s answer may surprise you.

While the article's title may make the reader think that this is a devotional article it actually reads more as a tract defending attempts to display the Ten Commandments in publicly funded court houses. Instead of a song of praise to God the reader gets a political tract denouncing rulings by federal judges concerning the public display of the Ten Commandments on government property.

Mendiola shrilly claims that the Ten Commandments have been outlawed by federal judges.

Yet, today many want to completely remove the Ten Commandments from public view or consideration—in effect outlawing the greatest, most sacred Law ever given to mankind!

What nonsense. Anyone who wishes to observe the Ten Commandments in the United States is free to do so.

It is ironic and almost unthinkable, but in United States courtrooms American lawyers and judges are hotly debating the legality of displaying the Ten Commandments. This is the very law on which Judeo- Christian principles and civil laws have been based in the western world for hundreds of years. 

And so does this individual  who is not a lawyer or a judge presume to know better than them?

Mendiola proceeds to denounce a Supreme Court ruling in 1980.

... the Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that the Ten Commandments could not be posted in public schools or taught to the nation’s children in public classrooms. In that Stone vs. Graham ruling, the Supreme Court decided that posters of the Ten Commandments displayed in Kentucky schools promoted religion and could not be allowed.

In other words this ruling is the law of the land. We are under no obligation to like this ruling but it is there and has to be adhered to.

Justices on the highest U.S. court also shockingly concluded, "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments." Apparently, the justices believed this was an undesirable outcome! 

It was about the separation of church and state. There is a debate about whether or not it is appropriate for religious displays to be present in publicly funded buildings considering that some tax payers funding such buildings happen to not share Mendiola's religion. This debate is reflected in the various legal cases concerning this issue and the judicial rulings on this topic. Regardless of how the Supreme Court may rule on this issue if one wishes to observe the Ten Commandments then such a person is free to do so.

Mendiola bewails the legal cases regarding the separation of church and state.

Many state officials also continue to challenge an aggressive attempt on the part of the American Civil Liberties Union and others to remove any display of the Ten Commandments in courthouses or on government property. 

There have been legal clashes in California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah where government officials have defended the right to display the Ten Commandments. In fact, Alabama’s governor in February 1997, threatened to call out state troopers and the National Guard to protect a carved rendition of the Ten Commandments in a judge’s courtroom! 

Mendiola insists that the Ten Commandments will lead to wonderful prosperity for the people of the United States even though he taught elsewhere that the United States is destined to be destroyed.

For the United States or any nation to draw near to the Living God and reap His blessings, the Bible is plain, we must carefully observe His law and commandments and teach them to successive generations. That is how we can obtain wisdom and understanding. 

Mendiola insists that not adhering to his religion is causing all kinds of problems for American society.

By rejecting or breaking God’s Ten Commandments, the United States and other nations are bringing curses on themselves. If the first four commandments that teach respect for God are not kept, the last six also are held in low esteem. The U.S. and other countries are witnessing an outbreak of social problems as a result of violating God’s commandments. It is not well with our nations!

And seventeen years later the United States is as powerful as ever. The possibility of America being conquered by Germans is as distantly remote now as it was back then.

Even though Christianity is the predominant religion of the United States Mendiola bewails that the Ten Commandments are held in contempt.

Yes, God wants our children instructed in His Ten Commandments. Yet, how many young people, let alone adults, can actually recite them at a time when they are held in such contempt?

Mendiola cites various politicians past and present to say that Christian morality is essential to how American society operates. Then he talks about how (LCG's) God expects the Ten Commandments to be taught to children which is freely permitted since the legal argument over publicly displaying the Ten Commandments in court houses is about the separation of church and state. That argument has nothing to do with restricting anyone from observing the Ten Commandments should he or she choose to do so.

One distinguishing feature of LCG and the other Armstrongite organizations is the insistence that the Old Testament laws are to be followed by Christians today.

Ministers who claim Christ did away with the law and that the Ten Commandments are no longer in effect are hard-pressed, however, to explain the Apostle Paul’s plain statements in his epistle to the Romans praising the commandments and God’s law. 

Paul was raised a Jew. Christianity was first taught and adhered to among Jews. Among those early Christians it is reasonable to believe that they continued to adhere to Jewish rituals and practices as part of their culture. But when Christianity began to find an audience outside of the Jewish community the question arose, Must one be a Jew to become a Christian? The church concluded and then taught that it was not necessary to for non-Jews who had converted to become a Jew. Paul strongly taught against this idea as may be seen in Galatians and Acts 15 when they talked about circumcision to become a Jew. Later Jewish religious authorities proclaimed that Christians were not Jews. There is no need for a Christian to keep the Jewish law to be a Christian. HWA was wrong to teach otherwise. Unfortunately Mendiola continued to promote that misunderstanding with this article.

Mendiola cites various figures from the New Testament to praise the Ten Commandments. While mentioning the Apostle John he mentions a fear inducing prophecy of LCG's to insist that terrible times await for his readers.

John describes Satan the devil launching an all-out attack on God’s Church and true saints at this end time.

Armstrongites have continuously insisted since the 1930s that terrible catastrophes will soon occur. And yet the doomsayers of Armstrongism have always been completely wrong. The evidence is clear. The Armstrongite doomsayers are but false prophets. We do not need to fear them.

Mendiola insists that since American society will not adhere to his understanding of the Ten Commandments all sorts of frightful things are happening in the United States.

It is no coincidence that as God’s commandments and law of love are rejected in society, criminal acts of indescribable hatred and violence are breaking out throughout the land.

Mendiola then insists that a new world will soon be established in which the Ten Commandments will be obeyed by everyone and world peace will finally be a reality.

Oh, that there were a heart in all of us that we would read, meditate upon, venerate, obey and keep all of God’s Ten Commandments, that it might be well with us, our children and grandchildren forever! Think of how much different our nations would be if no one broke the commandments against killing, stealing, cursing, lying, coveting or dishonoring our parents or our God. Society would be radically transformed almost beyond comprehension. Then, lawyers, judges and legislators would not need to debate whether the Ten Commandments could be posted in public places or taught to our children.  

Such a wonderful utopia is coming and will be established on earth when Jesus Christ returns as the Great Lawgiver and King of kings in Tomorrow’s World.

HWA and his imitators have always insisted that they had advance knowledge of what will happen to the world. But since the 1930s HWA and his imitators have made so many predictions that simply have not occurred. They clearly cannot see the future. These words cannot be trusted.

And so this political tract comes to an end. Mendiola kept complaining about the Ten Commandments not being allowed to be displayed in publicly funded government buildings such as courthouses following a decision by the Supreme Court in 1980. But regardless of whether the Ten Commandments can be displayed in courthouses or not there is freedom of religion in the United States so Mendiola is free to teach his religion to anyone who is interested. And yet in this article he seems to not notice how much leeway the federal government gives to all religions including his own.

In September 2006 Mendiola left LCG and joined Dave Pack's Restored Church of God. Around 2008 he left RCG and joined Don Billingsley's Church of God-Faithful Flock.

Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, Is Time Running Out for the U.S. Economy? (2000)

The fifth issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (March-April 2000), featured an article by Mark Mendiola entitled "Is Time Running Out for the US Economy?" (pp. 24-28.) This was the fifth of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. Here he scare mongers about the US economy being destined to somehow go through "the most ignominious economic collapse ever experienced in 6,000 years of history." Seventeen years later his dire prediction is still unfulfilled.

Mendiola starts by stating that the United States had never been as prosperous as it was then in early 2000.

Some historians say the affluence enjoyed by Americans, and others in the western world, is unprecedented. Never have so many enjoyed so much for so long! Yet, are there indications the remarkable growth could come to an abrupt end?

At this time Mendiola belonged to an organization, LCG, which taught that the United States is destined to soon be conquered by a European Empire led by Germany as divine punishment for behaving contrary to LCG's God's will. LCG and their predecessors stemming from HWA have continuously made dire predictions of this sort since the 1930s and yet this catastrophe simply never happens.

In November 1999, President Clinton signed a bill that dismantles the financial safeguards installed in the 1930s to prevent a recurrence of the 1929 market crash. The new bill, in effect, repeals the Glass-Steagall Act, which had erected “firewalls” to separate banks, investment firms and insurance companies, prohibiting them from engaging in each other’s businesses.

Following the financial crash of 2007-8 this act of legislation was often cited as one of the factors which made that financial crash possible. However it is clear from the context of this article that Mendiola was implying that this would lead to the Great Tribulation not just another market collapse. Yet seventeen years after this article was published and nine years after the fall of Lehman Brothers the United States is still by far the most powerful nation state on the face of the Earth and the prospect of Germany conquering the United States remains as absurdly remote as ever.

Yes, those trusting in this world’s financial system for their economic security could be in for a very rude awakening if they find their savings and investments shattered overnight in another crash. 

Here we see Mendiola making his readers fearful and scared. Such fears can be used to grab the attention of the readers and make them listen. Many readers of this recruitment magazine will have no idea of the many flaws in what this organization teaches.

Mendiola then scare mongers about the federal debt failing to understand that it is public debt, not private debt.

While Congress and the White House have trumpeted the first balanced U.S. federal budget in decades, little has been said of the fact the national debt, or the accumulation of annual budget deficits, stands at about $5.76 trillion and continues to grow at the rate of $211 million a day! Each U.S. citizen’s share of this debt is about $21,000. Despite the strong economy, the number of Americans filing personal bankruptcies in 1998 also reached a record 1.4 million; up more than 300 percent since 1980. 

Unlike the private debt that so many of us have the US federal government can simply print more money legally. At present it is not possible for the United States to go bankrupt. Furthermore even today the United States was more in debt per capita back in the 1940s because of World War II. Also about half of the federal debt is owned to Americans, not foreigners. Mendiola is sorely mistaken in using the federal debt to make his readers think that economic catastrophe is about to happen.

Also noteworthy is the way the public federal debt is placed right next to a discussion of bankruptcies. This shows he has a flawed understanding of these matters to link the tow topics so closely together. Public debt is not the same as private debt.

After that Mendiola moans that his message of impending catastrophe is not popular.

The Apostle Paul said that covetousness is idolatry.... He also warned that the last days would be perilous, and men would be lovers of themselves, lovers of money and lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.... It is not popular to warn of punishment coming on our people, who think they can blatantly break God’s spiritual and economic laws without paying the consequences. Yet, a day of reckoning looms.

Since the 1930s HWA and his various imitators including those in LCG have made dire predictions that the United States will soon be conquered by a menacing, European power. Nowadays many people who may become interested in joining LCG can simply look them up on te Internet and access critical information about HWA and what he taught. Many will simply realize that HWA or any of the splinter groups stemming from him are not worth joining not least because of the countless failed predictions that they have made over the years.

Also while preaching of catastrophe is not as popular as Mendiola would like in actual fact there is a market for this kind of talk. LCG and the Armstrongite organizations live off of inciting and providing (terribly flawed) solutions to fears of the end of the world.

Mendiola insists times of desperation even worse than the Great Depression is fated to happen. He also calls the United States "spoiled."

Tough economic times— even worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s—are looming for American and British peoples living in spoiled nations accustomed to soft, luxurious lifestyles.

Mendiola shrilly insists that the United States is just like the Titanic before it sank.

Bible prophecy plainly shows there is going to be a recurrence of such disaster on a national scale. The American and British peoples are steaming full speed ahead to their own rendezvous with catastrophe!

Seventeen years later his dire catastrophe has still not occurred.

Mendiola then criticize Americans for trusting in themselves to create wealth. Well how else are people supposed to get anything done without believing that they can do it?

U.S. currency is stamped with the motto “In God We Trust.” Yes, in God we should trust, but most Americans and Britons are trusting in their own abilities to create wealth!

In God We Trust has appeared on US coins since 1864 and was adopted as the national motto in 1956. The phrase stems from a line of the fourth verse of The Star Spangled Banner.

Mendiola ends his article shrilly insisting that America will soon go through "the most ignominious economic collapse ever experienced in 6,000 years of history." LCG teaches that the United States is fated to be conquered by a European Empire led by Germany with "Israelites" (white Americans) being killed off and the remaining survived taken captive as slaves.

Unless our peoples repent as a nation and reverse course, they are doomed to suffer the most ignominious economic collapse ever experienced in 6,000 years of history. God help our nation to repent and turn to Him wholeheartedly before the rapidly inflating bubble bursts!

Clearly Mendiola was not talking about the collapse of the Nasdaq in 2000 or the crash of 2007-8. He was alluding to the supposedly inevitable collapse and conquest of the United States. And yet seventeen years later this "most ignominious economic collapse ever experienced in 6,000 years of history" has simply not happened. Mendiola's words have failed miserably. There is no need to fear LCG's dire proclamations.

In September 2006 Mendiola left LCG and joined Dave Pack's Restored Church of God. Around 2008 he left RCG and joined Don Billingsley's Church of God-Faithful Flock.