A New COG Blog

Gavin Rumney has introduced a new COG blog, cbmilne33's Sabbatarian Watch.

He has an informative chart showing how many of the Adventist movements are linked together by a common ancestry with the Millerites of the 1830s-1840s. You can see it in all its glory here.

I'm a bit jealous. I wanted to do something similar myself but I could not be bothered to learn how to do something like that. But I must say it is far better than what I would have produced.

Michael Jackson and Jehovah's Witnesses

Michael Jackson has been mentioned before upon his tragic and premature passing away. But he was also a Jehovah's Witness, a religion from which Herbert W. Armstrong plagiarized many of his ideas.

So here's an account of his life as a Jehovah's Witness and the troubles he had with the dictatorial hierarchy.

Courtesy of JWFacts.com.

A Journey into American Health Care

Here's very interesting article on why health insurance costs so much in some places in the USA. The Cost Conundrum.

Here one reporter goes to McAllen, Texas, which has one the most expensive rates for health insurance in the country and tries to grasp why it happens to be that way.

I hear there is a renewed push among Democratic Senators to get the Public Option passed using reconciliation. I hope that initiative works.

On Herman Hoeh

For anyone interested here's a little profile of Herman Hoeh readers may be interested in Spiritus-Temporis.com.

It also features some discussion on the infamous time cycle belief.

Introduction.

Ministry and Writings of Herman Hoeh.

Creator of Time Cycle belief.

Time Magazine and 'Christian Identity'

Here's an article from Time magazine concerning our embarrassing racist cousins, so-called 'Christian Identity.'

It even mentions us!

The COGs are intellectually related to 'Christian Identity' by their common use of the historically and genetically inaccurate doctrine of British Israelism.

The Kingdom of Matthias

This is a re-posting of a previous blog. I wanted to add an image to it to make it better.



One book that those interested in Armstrongism may find intriguing is the history book The Kingdom of Matthias (1995) by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz. It is the tale of another false prophet, Robert Matthews, who started up a little community of brainwashed followers in the 1830s, and who claimed to be a reincarnation of the Apostle Matthias. I read it a few months ago and I found it a superbly written history book, very easy to read. It reads like a novel and you can really visualize it all.

Now without spoiling the story the reason why I wish to highlight it here is that this particular prophet, like HWA, adopted various Judaic practices, such as Sabbath observance, observing Old Testament meat laws. Those details do not impact upon the story in any major way. He also shared some other disturbing similarities with HWA's WCG. But I will not go into them here lest I spoil the story.

I am not suggesting that there is any connection between the two men but it is curious that they should have such similarities. This book is not about Armstrongism at all. It just so happens that this false prophet shared some doctrinal similarities with HWA.

HWA's Lie about Scriptural Support for the Trinity

I have already mentioned this before but I feel compelled to bring it up again.

One of the more brazen accusations Herbert W. Armstrong hurls from his last book, Mystery of the Ages, is that arguments for the Trinity are mainly based on the Johannine Comma, a piece of spurious writing placed within 1 John 5:7-8.

This false teaching is propagated through M. John Allen's book, Restoration of Truth, when he quotes these words from Mystery of the Ages in Chapter 1. (Emphasis added.)

“There is only one small passage in the Authorized Version of the Bible that is generally used by Trinity adherents to support the Trinity doctrine.

Is this accusation true? Before we address that let us observe further what HWA has to say.

This passage is found in I John 5:7-8, and is bracketed in the following quotation: ‘For there are three that bear record [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth], the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.’ The bracketed words were added by editors to the Latin Vulgate translation probably in the early fourth century. They do not appear in any of the older Greek manuscripts nor in other modern English translation. They were added to the Latin Vulgate during the heat of the controversy between Rome and Dr. Arias and God's people.

“Bible commentaries explain that these words were never written in the apostle John's manuscript or any existing early copies of it. The apostle John in his three epistles and the Revelation speaks of "the Father, and... Son" (I John 1:3), but never of ‘the Father and the Word,’ except in this uninspired part of I John 5:7-8.

This is totally untrue. There are other Scriptures which can be used to justify this teaching. That is what I discovered after reading Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults.

Here's one argument from Mr. Kevin Quick. (Italics mine.):

John 16:13-15-"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine [Jesus'] and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

How can the Holy Spirit "guide" someone into "all the truth" unless He is a person?

How can the Holy Spirit "speak" unless He is a person?

How can the Holy Spirit "hear" unless He is a person?

How can the Holy Spirit "declare to you [Jesus' disciples] the things that are to come" unless He is a person?

Thus it can be seen that HWA's accusation that, "There is only one small passage in the Authorized Version of the Bible that is generally used by Trinity adherents to support the Trinity doctrine" is just a LIE!

That is just a vicious lie. And, whether knowingly or unknowingly, M. John Allen is continuing to perpetuate that vicious lie in his book.

M. John Allen and Restoration Ministries

I have mentioned this particular COG before but recently I went back and tried to understand this COG sect better.

After I began exploring the web for information on the COGs in late 2000 one website that caught my attention was that of the Restoration Church of God (now Restoration Ministries), led by one M. John Allen.

It had quite a selection of HWA's works. However my allegiance was firmly with LCG and I had little idea of what this organization was, so I paid little attention to any original works by this Restoration Ministries. I went there simply to read its archive of WCG materials.

I was vaguely aware that he disapproved of HWA's doctrine on government. Truth be told, at the time I had little understanding what that doctrine was. From my perspective, being a lone man reading COG materials, it was very difficult to see what was the doctrine of government anyway, as it is a topic not generally discussed in recruitment literature to potential recruits. It is a topic discussed among seasoned COG followers, which is not discussed by the COGs when they are trying to convert people.

He began to associate with WCG in 1977. According to his own account from the start of his association with WCG he had misgiving about the spiritual state of it.

Mr. Armstrong, because of his huge ego, simply could have never accepted the fact that the church he was used to found could be SPIRITUALLY DEAD. THIS CONDITION OF SPIRITUAL DEADNESS, THOUGH, I RECOGNIZED ALMOST FROM THE BEGINNING OF MY ASSOCIATION WITH THAT CHURCH, STARTING IN 1977! (M. John Allen, Restoration of Truth, Chapter 3.)

M. John Allen went to Ambassador College in 1980. He also heard HWA's last sermon.

I listened to Mr. Armstrong's sermons in person over a period of about five years. In fact, I was privileged to hear the very last sermon he gave, which was on the Day of Atonement, 1985. Even though sick and weak, Mr. Armstrong felt that it was HIS DUTY TO PERSONALLY TEACH GOD'S PEOPLE AS MUCH AS HE WAS ABLE. (Restoration of Truth, Chapter 3.)

He left WCG in 1992, disgusted at the transformation Tkach had unleashed upon WCG. In that year he also released a book entitled The Restoration of Truth. It is essentially a rewrite of Mystery of the Ages, with a few personal changes to HWA's teachings, notably on government.

Another intriguing innovation here is his spin on the church era doctrine. M. John Allen identifies Thyatira as the Seventh Day Adventists and the Church of God (Seventh Day). Sardis is WCG under both HWA and Tkach. And Philadelphia is today, which includes his sect, unsurprisingly.

Presently M. John Allen is situated in Costa Rica. He seems to have been there for quite awhile.

In the late 1990s he shared through the Internet his dreams of creating an online University called Destiny University. It seems to have gone nowhere.

Another innovation I recall from my first encounter with this sect is his contention that the process of disfellowshipment should by done by the entire assembly and not just the church hierarchy.

Do not be fooled by any of these criticisms of HWA's Armstrongism, he still regards this false prophet as being a man used by God.

What is this sect's position on healing?

I cannot say for sure but among the works of HWA available is his murderous and damnable 'healing' booklet.

He seems to have several interlinking organizations.

It seems to be a very small sect. LCG apologist Bob Thiel in his COG Links page states that this sect only has one or two congregations.

And that is Restoration Ministries, led by M. John Allen, a sect which I had some encounter with in my early days with Armstrongism. I cannot recommend it to my readers as it continues to propagate the grievous errors of Armstrongism.

The True Young Ambassadors

J over at Shadows of WCG has just written that the Young Ambassadors might be a rip off of the Young Ambassadors from Brigham Young University.

Another rip off from Mormonism?

An Article on Getting Out of a Cult

Here's an anonymously written article, How I helped my Family Leave Jehovah's Witnesses, which some readers may find helpful.

Courtesy of Freeminds.org.