An Argument for US Health Care Reform

This is not COG related but I just saw this amazing and quite intense video of Keith Olbermann arguing for health care reform. It is a very powerful message.

I may not agree with everything this Democratic-led government does or with Mr. Olbermann's politics, but I really hope health reform is passed to solve the problems highlighted here.

• Transcript

• Part 1

• Part 2

• Part 3

• Part 4

• Part 5

HWA, World Leaders and Who Else?

In HWA's later life he often went to visit with many world leaders.

Beginning with the King of Belgium he began to visit many world leaders. Among those he visited included Haile Selassie, Salvador Allende, Indira Gandhi, Deng Xiaoping, Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Franz Joseph Strauss, Otto von Hapsburg, Emperor Hirohito. This is featured prominently in the introduction for The World Tomorrow TV show.

I remember once he suggested that Elijah also went and visited world as he (HWA) did. I wish I knew where I saw it.

What was his proof? He used 1 Kings 18:10.

"As the LORD thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord [king Ahab] hath not sent to seek thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not."

However even he realized just how weak this argument was so he only 'suggested' it. Hedging his statement as is done all too often in the world of Armstrongism.

Here Ahab is looking for Elijah in other countries. But HWA used this Scripture to 'suggest' that Elijah visited these world leaders in the same manner he did. Look at this scripture and you will see it says no such thing.

It is much more reasonable to assume that he was communicating with the authorities of other countries to find where he was, in the same way states today send out information to relevant agencies internationally. This is not evidence that Elijah was visiting world leaders as HWA did.

This "evidence" also conveniently ignored the fact that another religious leader has also done very similar things to HWA in consorting with the great and powerful of the world.

In a manner very similar to HWA, Sun Myung Moon makes it a habit to get into the good graces of the high and mighty.

Sun Myung Moon makes teaches many things that are contrary to traditional Christianity. Some of their distinctive teachings may be seen here, including their belief that Jesus was supposed to marry and have children but failed to do so and Moon did what He could not.

He met with Nixon in 1974.

He even managed to get himself crowned by an American Cogressman in the Dirksen Senate Building on March 23, 2004.

George H. W. Bush has long been linked to this man. He appears in this recent video.

Moon also founded The Washington Times, a publication the prominence of which puts WCG's Quest magazine to shame.

There are many other fascinating connections which this man has established within the American conservative movement.

So we see that HWA's "commission" to the leaders of the world was not unique at all. Sun Myung Moon has also been able to hobnob with the great and powerful just like HWA.

Rick Ross Interview on Cults

Here's an interview of the noted anti-cult activist Rick Ross with The Wittenburg Door made back in 2004. (Update: Dead link.)

It is a fascinating expose of how cults operate. He even mentions WCG when discussing Yisrael Hawkins.

John Allen's Sect and Against the Gates of Hell

Thanks to AW's blog on the Purple Hymnal I ended up writing about John Allen's COG sect.

I ran across his website years ago. It was one of the few other COG websites I visited when I started exploring the COGweb in late 2000.

It was one of the first sites that had a lot of HWA writings that I found. However I soon migrated to another COG website for HWA materials.

I remember John Allen used to have a page that condemned Flurry for 'idolatry' (absolutely correct), and condemned Meredith for using juvenile slang. I'm still not entirely sure what he meant by that.

As far as I know this is the only place you can read Rader's book Against the Gates of Hell online.

There's a reason no one else has bothered to post it online. It is not a good read. I tried reading that dreary book and the first time, I stopped after the third chapter or so. Chapter 2 was just a recap of HWA's early life. Since I already read his autobiography I just skipped it. I don't think I went much further than that.

Later, after I renounced the Armstrongism, I reread it, but I only read the first half, which was about the forced receivership. That account was totally one sided. It's somewhat exciting and dramatic.

But the beginning is strange. He makes sound like everything's fine and happy under his watch, the day is beautiful, flowery language is used to describe the scene. It's like the happy beginning of some camp movie. Even when I was an Armstrongite I somehow couldn't quite accept this description of his.

Now that I am out I can see it is just a self serving depiction of those events. The events are simply black and white. No gray at all. Those supporting him are loyal, courageous, are in the right, etc. Those who are against him are sinister, evil, enemy agents. He even compared some of the receivers and investigators to Nazis.

"persons who were barging in like SS troopers making a midnight raid in Nazi Germany." (Chapter 1, p. 23.)

"When Herbert Armstrong wrote a letter to the Church, the state's Gestapo, in conjunction with collaborating enemy agents within the organization, stopped the mails." (Chapter 7, p. 123).

It is also rather strange that he tries to portray the receivership as effecting church-state relations. This is obviously in order to gain support from other organized churches and make them scared that something like this might happen to them. After years of condemning mainstream Christianity as being the whore of Revelation 17 and her children they then run to them and try to get their help.

To this day I still can't be bothered to read the second half, which was about the AICF and HWA visiting world leaders. I did read the chapter on China but only because China fascinates me.

PCG Still Watches Stoiber

Look at the latest September 20-26, 2009, Trumpet Weekly. On page 4-5 you will find an article about the German politician Edmund Stoiber. It is entitled, 'Stoiber's Work Making Waves in EU.' It is credited to The Trumpet.com, so this is something PCG itself wrote.

The article ends with these words: "The Trumpet is watching for a charismatic, organizational genius to emerge as a strongman to lead a united Europe."

Earlier back in 2002 Gerald Flurry & Co. hinted that Edmund Stoiber, then the right wing candidate for Chancellor of Germany, might become the Beast, the European dictator they expect to arise and bring the world to the verge of destruction.

As LCG apologist Bob Thiel observed: "in the May 2002 edition of the Philadelphia Trumpet, PCG's Gerald Flurry wrote that he felt that the then 60 year-old Edmund Stoiber who was then running to be Germany's chancellor was a likely candidate to be "the king of fierce countenance of Daniel 8" (vss.23-24). Although he presents some interesting reasons for his position, [Flurry tries to argue that Stoiber is Strauss' successor] I personally wrote years ago that I felt that Stoiber may be a little to old to fulfill that position."

HWA used to think this European dictator would be Mussolini, then Hitler. After World War II their suspicion focused on Franz Josef Strauss and Otto von Hapsburg. Stoiber is simply the latest figure highlighted in this so far hopelessly inaccurate prophecy game.

Personally I am amazed that PCG is still focusing on him and still hold lingering suspicions that he will still be the Beast.

Scattered Witnesses

We all know how hopelessly scattered the COGs are. Well Jehovah's Witnesses also have many splinter groups as well. Two links that may be useful to seeing what sort of Watchtower splinter groups are out and and about may be seen with these links.

• JW Schisms of the Watchtower Society from Christian Witnesses.com

• Splinter Groups, a relevant thread from Jehovah's Witnesses.net

Pack is the Angel to the Church of Laodicea?

In the last post we saw how Pack is now claiming to be Joshua the Priest. But there's more. LCG apologist Bob Theil's source now reveals the following:

He alluded to a connection between his “office” of High Priest and his last name meaning “Passover.” It seems that he believes he makes intersession for the Church in some way (I really wish I was joking or exaggerating, but he actually does make this insinuation).

He has also taught for some time that he is the “angel to the church of Laodicea” of Revelation 3 and that he is the last end time Apostle. With this latest discovery of himself in the pages of the Bible, he seems to be going more and more the way of Gerald Flurry.

So Pack now says he is the "angel to the church of Laodicea." What is he talking about? This makes reference to one doctrine HWA taught in Mystery of the Ages that is rarely brought up.
In that book he adds an unusual twist to the seven church era doctrine:

"Of the Philadelphia era of God's true Church we read: "To the angel of the church...." This word angel translated from the Greek aggelos means messenger or agent. This is not necessarily always referring to a spirit angel but can refer as well to a human agent....it may also apply to the human messenger or agent God has raised up to lead this era of his Church [HWA]." (Mystery of the Ages, Chapter 6, under the heading 'Restoration of God's Truth to Church.')

Clearly Pack has used this doctrine, assumed that HWA was right, assumed that HWA is the "angel (messenger) of the church (era) of Philadelphia," and then applied the label "angel to the church of Laodicea" to himself.

Where did HWA get this idea from?

The Watchtower.

I discussed this topic in a previous post. Here is some of what is written there.

On the grave of Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the members of which would later be named Jehovah's Witnesses, it is declared that Russell was "The Laodicean Messenger."

While HWA was only willing to identify the Philadelphian messenger (himself), the Watchtower Society went even further than HWA and claimed to identify each of the seven messengers. They were Paul, John, Arius, Waldo, Wycliffe, Luther and Russell. Notice what is related here.

"While [Russell] implies that there were precursors to his work (who of course had a very different theology than Russell accepted [very similar to HWA's "church history" doctrine]), it was only in The Finished Mystery (Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 7) published after his death that a direct line is sketched from Paul and John through Arius, Waldo, Wycliff, and Luther to Russell." (Gene Edson Ahlstrom, The Church in the Thought of Charles Taze Russell, under the heading 'Sectarianism and Church History.')

So we see that, just like HWA, Pack is imitating the Watchtower Society. Pack is unconsciously taking up the mantle of Charles Taze Russell.

Pack, not Tkach, is Joshua the Priest

You know how Gerald Flurry teaches that Joshua the priest, mentioned in Zechariah 3, is Joseph Tkach? First he said it was Sr, now he says it was Junior.

It is well known that Flurry's Malachi's Message plagiarized the ideas found in Jules Dervaes' Letter to Laodicea in 1987 before MM was first published. You can find Dervaes identifying Tkach as Joshua long before Flurry here.

Well apparently Flurry got it wrong. Dave Pack now tells us actually that prophecy is referring not to Tkach, but to himself.

LCG apologist Bob Thiel broke the news on September 15. He revealed the following from a source of his on his News of Those Once Associated with GCG page. This is what Bob Theil's source says.

This weekend he has posted a two part sermon (http://www.thercg.org/news.html) titled “Zechariah 3—Joshua Identified.” I listened to portions of the second message.

He is now teaching that he is the end time (or the third) Joshua. He reads Zechariah 3 and identifies himself as this Joshua and claims that he is the “High Priest” over this era of the Church. I didn’t listen to every word, but he seems to identify the “filthiness” of verse 3-4 as the sins of the Laodiceans that he had to bear by spending time in GCG (though he claims they are not his sins…but the sins of the era). He said he wears the spiritual miter of authority over the Church. He takes verse 7 and identifies himself having “charge of My courts,” meaning the end time Church....

And so Pack now says he is Joshua. Don't tell Flurry that.

This letter from ESN also shares this information.

And so now we see that Pack is going the way of Flurry. That's not all I am afraid. More on this later.

Zechariah 14, FOT and Second Tithe

(Update: ESN has published another email which states that Dave Pack will be on the History Channel, 14 or 15 October.)

Since it's that time of the year to bring paradise to God's people for eight days I think it would be good to highlight this previous post that was published last April. (And yes, I am imitating Ambassador Watch.)

By the way when it is called the Feast of Tabernacles and this is what one of those tabernacles look like. They are not some sort of big meeting place, which is the practice of the COGs. (Image courtesy of 'Sukkot,' Wikipedia.)

And now onto the post:

Awhile ago I ran into this Ambassador Watch post. There it was written that 'Yes it's Sukkoth (sue-coat), a.k.a. the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. Not that anyone in the post-WCG tradition constructs booths from branches, or even sets up a bunk bed in the garden shed, but that's another issue.' These words got my mind on a track of thought which I will now detail.

Here is what I thought:

Zechariah 14: 16-19 is often used to say that the Feast of Tabernacles is to be observed by Christians today.

According to Armstrongite interpretation this shows that those living in the Millennial rule of Christ must observe the Feast of Tabernacles.

But there are actually severe problems with this interpretation for Armstrongites.

Let's be really generous and assume the Armstrongites have got most of it right in this matter of the interpretation of Zechariah 14: 16-19. Let us, for the sake of argument, assume that this scripture actually does refer to events after Christ's return and that those verses are an accurate depiction of what shall happen in the Millenium as it is interptreted by Armstrongism.

Even if we assume all those points to be true, Zechariah 14: 16-19 still cannot be legitimately used to prove that we should embrace Armstrongism or that Armstrongism is the one true religion.

Why?

Because the Armstrongite Feast of Tabernacles is all wrong.

Observe how it was observed in Nehemiah 8: 14-17:

14 And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month: 15 And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. 16 So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. 17 And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.

This scripture shows that the booths which the children of Israel were required to dwell in were tents which were small enough to be placed on a flat roof. These booths were placed on each individual person's roof.

When I read the recruitment writings LCG made and I learned about the Feast of Tabernacles I read about it in the Bible. I perceived then that it should be observed by being in a tent in the appointed time.

But the COGs do not observe it in that manner. Instead they observe by coming together into large gatherings all over the world. They do not set up tents on their property. (Of course because we do no use flat roofs we would have to place the booth in our property.) This is not what is described 'in your own Bible' in Nehemiah 8: 14-17.

Also note how the Jews celebrate Sukkoth. Look at the Wikipedia articles on Sukkot and Sukkah. Look at the pictures. The Jews certainly do not observe this festival by gathering themselves together in some massive gathering far away to meet with like-minded people but, rather, observe it in their own homes.

Since Armstrongism observes this feast in an inaccurate manner therefore they cannot legitimately claim this as a proof that they are right. Therefore their Feasts of Tabernacles are inaccurate.

Since the Armstrongite FOT is illegitimate than Second Tithe, which is mainly used (if I understand it correctly) to allow the believer to observe this incorrectly observed festival, is thus being used for improper purposes.

As far as I understand it HWA first ordered his followers to pay Second Tithe in a October 3, 1945 co-worker letter, specifically to pay for the members' participation in the FOT.

Since Second Tithe is being used to celebrate the FOT in an inaccurate manner therefore the COGs have no right to use Second Tithe to pay for the incorrect observance of FOT. The Armstrongite practice contradict the Biblical practice as recorded in Nehemiah 8: 14-17.

So if the Armstrongite FOT is inaccurately observed then there is no legitimate reason to use Zechariah 14: 16-19 as a proof text for their observance of FOT because their practice of it is inaccurate.

However if the 'Apostle' HWA chose to observe the FOT in a more scripturally based manner, with his followers building a sukkah at home, he would have found it impossible to solidify his followers and bind them even more under his control. How do you build up an identity, a shared consciousness among fellow believers, by having everyone celebrating in tents in their own homes for eight days?

So he chose an observance style more effective for his purposes of further solidifying his control over his followers. He did this by commanding them to come together, meet many other fellow believers, make them feel part of something greater than themselves. Also HWA and his minions could make the members to listen only to what HWA and the leadership desired. Create milieu control,which is one of Lifton's Eight Criteria of Thought Reform.

And so the inaccurately observed FOT is used as convenient mind control method and used to justify the acquisition of Second Tithe.

And so one can see that there are many problems with using Zechariah 14: 16-19 as a proof that Armstrongism is the true religion because the Bible shows that they do not observe it properly. And furthermore once the Armstrongite understanding of the observance of the FOT is rejected this also removes the purpose for Second Tithe. So it is seen that error builds upon error.

Also relevant to this discussion is this testimony that argues that the FOT is a mind control trick and this article under the heading 'All Will Keep the Feast (Zechariah 14)' which argues that during the future Millenium it will be required to observe the FOT but that under the New Covenant observance of the FOT is not required.

And so that was the train of thought my Biblically-derived, non-Armstronite expectations of the FOT and that comment on Ambassador Watch led me to think concerning Zechariah 14 and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Meredith's Selective Memory of HWA

Here is how Meredith presents HWA to his followers in his September 9, 2009 Co-Worker Letter.

This is a special week to me, personally. For exactly 60 years ago this week, the Eternal God led me to Ambassador College in Pasadena, CA. There, as a “pioneer” student, I was personally instructed in the Bible and the whole purpose of life by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong—a man many of you have heard about. This man was used by God to “restore” more biblical Truth to the Church of God than any other human being for hundreds of years! He was used by Almighty God to reach tens of millions of people all around the world with the knowledge that the very real kingdom—or government—of Almighty God would soon be set up on this earth based on the laws of God.

Decades before the events happened, Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that the nations of eastern Europe would break free from the Soviet Union and that the Berlin Wall would come down!

HWA did believe that some eastern European nations would break away from the USSR's dominance and enter a united Europe, however he also believed that the USSR would survive this and would continue to exist till several years after Christ's return in 1975 to have its military destroyed in the destruction of Gog and Magog. This is not an honest portrayal of what HWA actually believed. It carefully hides the countless false prophecies HWA produced.

Furthermore it is not true that HWA was a man "used by God." He was a false prophet and a plagiarizer from the very beginning.

He said Christ would return in 1936.

He hid the influence of other religious movements upon him, pretending God revealed these truths to him when practically every idea he taught can be traced to other sources (Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, British-Israelism, Mormonism).

HWA was guilty of committing gross sexual immorality in the very time in which he (supposedly) began the Philadelphia era of the church.

God could never work with a man like that.

Meredith is wrong to idealistically portray HWA in the manner that he does. This is done in order to hide the truth about HWA, that he was never used by God.