Mark Armstrong Vilifies "Liberal Socialist Self-Righteousness" After Manchester Terrorist Attack

Mark Armstrong, leader of the Intercontinental Church of God, had released yet another one of his weekly updates. There is not much time to see this particular weekly update at the moment (May 26, 2017).

Those who are innocent of a crime are innocent of the crime. Those who are guilty of a crime are guilty of that crime. It is not right to punish innocent people for crimes committed by others. This important fact seems to have escaped Mark Armstrong's attention in regards to Muslims as may be seen below.

On May 22, 2017 twenty-two innocent people were murdered in Manchester Arena in a terrorist attack by a suicide bomber sympathetic to ISIL. After this weekly update's release three extremists murdered eight innocent people in London. The people of Britain need and deserve to have wise leadership in this time of crisis. Unfortunately such help will not be forthcoming from Mark Armstrong in his May 26, 2017 weekly update.

Here Mark Armstrong criticized the police as having "no intention of doing what is necessary to prevent the next" terrorist attack.

It was absolutely disgusting to hear the Manchester chief constable and police spokesman come out to plead that authorities were doing "all we can" to help the victims and their families in the face of the tragedy. NO, THEY'RE NOT!  They didn't do what was necessary to prevent the slaughter in the first place, and they have no intention of doing what is necessary to prevent the next one, which surely will occur.  "We now have a team of specially-trained family liaison officers who are supporting families."  Oh, goody.  Too bad there weren't specially-trained officers following the movements and communications of the Muslim terrorists, who, as it turns out should have been easy to identify and remove from the presence of the unarmed population.  

What could Mark Armstrong be thinking of when he talks of "what is necessary"?

***

Even though Manchester had just endured this terrible attack in which twenty-two people had been killed Mark Armstrong vilifies the "politically-correct," makes the ridiculous accusation that Muslims in Britain are indoctrinated with extremist views and vilifies refugees as terrorists.

Then the politically-correct constable had the audacity to say that it is "vital that our diverse communities in Greater Manchester stand together and do not tolerate hate."  What's it got to do with hatred?  Manchester's, and every place else's Muslim "communities" have been spoon-fed anti-westerner, anti-Jewish hatred from earliest childhood.  It's not a mysterious proclivity unique to the so-called "self-radicalized," it's a staple of their religion and culture.  And now, through the miracle of the UN High Commissioner for Refugee resettlement, Britain is teeming with vast numbers of "refugees" and their children who yearn for the immortality of "martyrdom" in the commission of mass murder in the name of their god.  

***

He stirs up resentment against the politically correct. Trying to assure people that the matter is being addressed by the authorities and advice to not lash out in violence in response is presented as being patronizing toward the families and friends of the victims. In this moment of crisis Mark Armstrong condemns what he calls "liberal socialist self-righteousness" among the British.

The grief of the families and those who know them must be unimaginable.  But they mustn't blame the "community" where the plot was hatched and hidden, or the panty-waisted politicians who've overseen the influx of hateful third-world strangers into their city.  It's too late for the little eight-year-old girl, whose photo you've seen, and the fifteen-year-old and the twenty-odd others killed by flying nails and bolts.  But it's not too late for hundreds and thousands of others who surely will fall victim to the followers of the "extremist" Muslim death cult.  Except once-Great Britain is doubling down on its liberal socialist self-righteousness, patting itself on the back for its diversity even as they mourn the senseless deaths of those children and young people.

***

Mark Armstrong then mentions other terrorist attacks. There is no attempt to present or understand the context of those acts of violence as situations related to those particular nations. For instance the attack in Egypt which he mentions is part of this dreadful armed insurgency against the government by extremists affiliated with ISIL based in the Sinai Peninsula which has been ongoing since 2011. These separate events are simplistically presented as being connected together.

It is here Mark Armstrong seems to suggest what he thinks "what is necessary."

Since the Manchester attack, terrorists (masked gunmen) shot up a bus-load of Coptic Christians on their way to visit a monastery in Egypt, and other terrorist attacks have taken place in Indonesia and the Philippines, all attributable to the same ideology.  The U. S. chief of Homeland Security says we'd never leave the house if we knew the full extent of the terror threat, even here in the United States.  But expelling the would-be terrorists is not an option.  Judges simply will not allow it nor will they stand by and allow potential terrorists to be denied entry to the United States.  That would be racial or religious discrimination!

Laws are complicated. That's why we have lawyers. In certain circumstances authorities can expel people deemed a threat or even people simply unwanted or who failed to fill out the proper paperwork. In other cases this is not legally possible. Also it is hard to detect criminal activity of this sort especially if just one person plans to do such a thing. 

Furthermore it is not legally possible to discriminate against everyone who just happens to be Muslim. Religious discrimination is illegal. Mark Armstrong should be happy that such a thing is illegal since if it were not then someone with governmental authority might decide to discriminate against the Intercontinental Church of God.

***

Mark Armstrong viciously demonizes the (alleged) politically correct as being like those who practice human sacrifice. He also implies that they expect the British people to be "smug in their open-minded acceptance of the "new normal" of periodic suicide bombings, beheadings, stabbings and vehicular terrorism." He also makes the inflammatory and false accusation that those who commit acts of violence are somehow carrying out "the instructions of their prophet." This is a terrible false equivalence which unfairly slurs all Muslims with ISIL like extremists.

So, we're supposed to be willing to sacrifice our baby girls to the evil religion of "tolerance" of those who espouse terrorist ideology in their mosques and at some moment in time might well snap and carry out the instructions of their prophet.  The British are expected to attend scores of funerals and memorial gatherings and then return to shopping and the pursuit of entertainment, smug in their open-minded acceptance of the "new normal" of periodic suicide bombings, beheadings, stabbings and vehicular terrorism.  In essence, the authorities are saying, "Get over it, we're doing all we can...or all we're going to do within the boundaries we've created for ourselves."

It is just astonishing seeing the bitterness and hostility that lies in his heart. How can the members of ICG accept this sort of behavior from their leader?

***

Mark Armstrong then talks about President Trump's visit to Europe, his speech berating NATO allies for not spending enough on their own military forces and discussion about the Paris Accords regarding climate change which President Trump would later reject. He then states the following.

Whether man has anything to do with "global warming," if in fact that's what's going on, will be argued for the rest of our lives.  But Islamic terrorism is a FACT with mutilated bodies as proof.  The list of attacks worldwide just since the start of this year would consume page after page.  But unless we "care" more passionately about the plight of "refugees" and "climate change" we're simply not educated or compassionate.  That's the DOCTRINE of the mainstream media, and of the political elite from London to Brussels to Paris.

Mark Armstrong implies that climate change is not real even though the vast majority of scientists are persuaded that human being are causing climate changes due to the excess emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

Mark Armstrong also incites resentment towards those who call for the fair treatment of refugees and for addressing the climate change crisis. He presents such persons as having a patronizing attitude to his audience. That is one reason why ICG's members accept Mark Armstrong's behavior. Assuming they take Mark Armstrong at his word it seems that at least some of them think they are 'resisting' assorted elites who happen to view matters differently from them.

***

Mark Armstrong ends his weekly update with expressions of exasperation that the various terrorist attacks by ISIL sympathizers and like minded extremists have not turned societies in Europe and the United States into being as hostile towards Muslims as himself. Maybe they are simply stronger and smarter than Mark Armstrong could hope to be.

At some point, it will break down.  Bible prophecy shows that a conglomeration of nations ultimately will unite in Europe and take it to the Muslim world in a war that will spread to threaten the existence of all human life on Earth.  With Europe's present leadership demanding that the ruination of Continental culture is an acceptable price for their version of empathy, it's hard to imagine what it will take to turn the tide.  Airports, streets and concert venues littered with mutilated bodies obviously is not enough, just as the attacks and murders here in the United States have been insufficient to wipe the smug smirks off the faces of America's most prominent news anchors.

September 11th wasn't enough, nor were the Charlie Hebdo murders, nor the Brussels airport attack, nor London, Berlin, Nice, the Bataclan theater in Paris, Westminster Bridge or Manchester brutal enough to alter the narrative.  It's hard to imagine what event will finally change the thinking of the masses, assuming democracy survives.  The murder of little girls in Manchester, rubbed in the face of the western world by ISIS, clearly wasn't nearly enough to pry stubbornly self-righteous socialists from their "progressive" doctrine.  

Based on my reading of previous weekly updates by Mark Armstrong his claim that "Europe's present leadership [is] demanding ... the ruination of Continental Europe" seems to be a reference to the arrival of refugees, many of them fleeing the cataclysmic war in Syria.

***

It is safe to say that Mark Armstrong's words in this weekly update will not help the people of Britain in this time of crisis. Ignorantly comparing criminal actions to religious observance is wrong. Comparing "liberal socialist self-righteousness" as being like human sacrifice is disgusting. No good can come from his Islamophobia and his loathing of those who view matters differently from himself.

Another Failed Prophecy from the Late Roderick C. Meredith (2003)

Yet another false prophecy brought to us by the late Roderick C. Meredith. This one was written in 2003 during the second intifada of 2000-5.

Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians are capitalizing on recent events to intensify their anti-Israeli and anti-American propaganda campaign. Watch for Israel to come increasingly under pressure and for Jerusalem to be brought under some kind of international control, probably involving, in some way, the Roman Catholic Church and the European powers. (Roderick C. Meredith, Prophecy is Speeding Forward, Tomorrow's World, July-August 2003, p. 6.)

What actually happened was that Yasser Arafat passed away in 2004 and the State of Israel overcame the insurgency. It ended in 2005. Fourteen years later the State of Israel is still firmly in control of all of Jerusalem even though the international community only recognizes the State of Israel's right to rule the land it controlled before the 1967 war. And even with the recent peace efforts are being propelled by the United States rather than "the European powers."

This prophecy failed. There is no need to fear their dire proclamations. They cannot see the future. They are but false prophets.

Australian PCG Writer Condemns His Own Country over an Award to Black Lives Matter

PCG has constantly vilified and condemned the Black Lives Matter movement even connecting them to their false prophecy of "race war." But now a charitable foundation of the University of Sydney, the Sydney Peace Foundation, has decided to award Black Lives Matter the Sydney Peace Prize. The award is to be presented on November 2.

PCG has released a petulant article condemning this foundation for contradicting PCG's negative stance regarding Black Lives Matters. The PCG leadership even got an Australian, one Callum Wood, to write this article. (Callum Wood, Black Lives Matter Wins Sydney Peace Prize, May 30, 2017.)

Let's take a look.

The article begins with this ridiculous statement in which Wood throws his own nation under the proverbial bus to keep his bosses happy.

Australia condones the division of American society.

If Wood just bothered to actually read the website of the Sydney Peace Foundation he will see that it is a charitable foundation of the University of Sydney so it is absurd to somehow equate this foundation with all of Australia. How could Wood neglect to see that?

Here we see Wood ridiculing his own countrymen and women as ignorant for showing favor to the Black Lives Matter activists.

The same website is awash with praises to BLM. Understandably, it can be hard to see the looting, rioting, murder and call to arms from across the Pacific Ocean. But if the Peace Foundation stands to “support their vital work” then it must stand in support of the following.

It is clear where Wood's loyalties lie. He chooses to condemn his own fellow Australians to PCG's audience.

Wood insists that more white Americans are killed by police officers to delegitimize the Black Lives Matter movement. He insists that it started based on "wrongful accusations."

BLM rode in on the wake of wrongful accusations leveled against George Zimmerman, and again in the Michael Brown case. Both incidents and their trials saw looting, rioting and mob rule at the hands of the BLM. Both incidents also saw BLM supporters baying for police blood despite a black-inclusive jury exonerating the accused officers. Worthy of a peace prize?

It is concerning how Wood ignores the fact that Black Lives Matter is primarily a protest movement. It has attracted support from white Americans as well. Protests that do not end badly are ignored in this article. Instead sensationalist acts are mentioned to vilify the movement. The protests and activism that has no direct connection with the sensationalist acts are ignored slanting how the protest movement is portrayed.

Wood is wrong to imply that the case of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown ever went to trial. It actually went to a grand jury which threw the case out even though a grand jury's mission is to simply agree to indictments rather than determining guilt or innocence. A grand jury is only supposed to do what the prosecutor tells it to do. If Wood can't even get that detail right what else is he wrong about?

Once again Wood seemingly criticizes the people of his own country for not caring about alleged hostility towards the United States Constitution.

BLM’s disdain for the United States Constitution might carry less weight for non-U.S. citizens. But when it is understood, it shows BLM’s true intent.

Even if this inflammatory accusation happened to be true mere disdain cannot overthrow the government or the Constitution. This is emotive rhetoric.

To demonize Black Lives Matter protesters to his audience he cites one heated yet marginal article from one college student written in 2015 instead of citing a statement by an organization connected with the movement. This article has been used several times by PCG's leaders since March 2016.

Blake Simons, a University of California–Berkeley student and Black Lives Matter activist, wrote a chilling article on Nov. 4, 2015. 

Actually the article in question was first published in September 2015. Then it was taken down from the website and then reposted on November 4, 2015. Wood can't even get that detail right.

Also Wood's sentence is quite similar to how Joel Hilliker mentioned Simons' article. Is this plagiarism? The highlighted portion is the same as in Wood's recent article.

Blake Simons, a University of California–Berkeley student and Black Lives Matter activist, wrote a chilling article on November 4 peddling the same lies. (Joel Hilliker, A Most Menacing Attack on the United States Constitution, March 2, 2016.)

Also both Hilliker and Wood refused to link to the article.

After quoting Simons' article he uses it to scare monger against the Black Lives Matter movement.

Does that sound like the mindset of an organization intent on fostering peace? How do you suppose Australians would react if the Aborigines told us we need to scrap our own Constitution or “get the bullet”? Would everyday Aussies take that as a peaceful statement?

Wood takes Simons' article and equates it with the entire Black Lives Matter movement. That is absurd and a false equivalence.

Also why does Wood exclude Aborigines from his "us" when he says "if the Aborigines told us we need to scrap [Australia's] Constitution"? Are they not Australians as well? Why is it that he thinks of them as not like himself?

Wood also clams that the Black Lives Matter movement lies. The possibility that the movement is an attempt to solve problems concerning the African American community is carefully ignored.

This article is not intended to single out the Sydney Peace Foundation as the only organization that has fallen for BLM’s lies. With significant help from America’s liberal left, BLM has gone mainstream. Beyoncé’s backup dancers raised the Black Panther fist at the Super Bowl while former President Barack Obama weighed in on racially charged cases before even hearing the facts.

Wood stirs up feelings of hostility and fear among his readers by slurring Black Lives Matter as supposedly demonizing law enforcement personnel. Wood makes no attempt to give Black Lives Matter activists the benefit of the doubt.

Now BLM is celebrated as a peacemaker while America’s law enforcement is demonized! And the radical machinations of BLM are celebrated as a step toward peace? Race relations have never been worse! But the Sydney Peace Foundation decision shows the mindset of Australia’s left wing is not too dissimilar from its American counterpart.

Wood ends the article by implying that his PCG can solve the problem of racism against minorities. That is a ridiculous claim.

Australia might not suffer quite the same crippling race relations that America does, but we have our own set of unique problems that threaten our society. There is a way to solve them all, and it doesn’t start with rewarding the divisive actions of Black Lives Matter.

It is so hypocritical for PCG to condemn Black Lives Matter activists as "divisive." What about PCG? From the day it started in 1989 PCG has insisted that it and it alone is the only true church. All other churches are belittled as false Christians. It is widely reported that PCG members are even told to shun members of the other COG groups.

PCG is quite ill suited to solving the problem of racism. A book they publish, Mystery of the Ages, insists that interracial marriage is against (PCG's) God's will slurring thousands if not millions of happy marriages and families. PCG also teaches this ridiculous and racist idea that African Americans will launch a wave of riots against the white majority in the days shortly before Christ's return. Clearly PCG is woefully unable to solve the problem of racism in the United States, Australia or anywhere else.

More information about the unfortunate problem of racism in Australia may be seen this previous post.

Why is PCG's Leadership Worried for President Trump?

Listening to recent broadcasts from PCG's radio station, KPCG, it seems clear that PCG's leadership is not at all happy about the controversy regarding the ongoing Trump-Russia situation. They have brought up other issues to their audience to insist that it just a biased, partisan attack by the left.

But if they believe what they teach then why are they worried about it? Do they not trust their God to protect them? They insist the United States will soon be destroyed by Germans. If they really believe that nonsense then being worried about allegations concerning Trump seem to be a terribly trivial matter compared to Germans conquering America. (By the way, that will not happen.)

And besides even if President Trump should happen to be kicked out of office over this matter the PCG leadership can still look forward to a Pence presidency. If such a thing were to happen it is safe to assume that the PCG leadership would welcome such a thing. So why should they worry?

Oh well. Might as well enjoy hearing the PCG leadership squirm over this matter.

PCG Leaders' Pathetic Flattering of Gerald Flurry

While reading through the May-June 2017 issue of PCG's recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet, I could not help but note the numerous times the writers will quote their leader, Gerald Flurry. Look at how they flatter their leader.

This is from Brad MacDonald's article written shortly after the attack at Westminster in which five innocent people were murdered. This issue was published before the frighting attack in Manchester in which twenty-two innocent people were murdered.

“People are just not alert to what’s happening in this world, and that includes the media,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry said in his Dec. 22, 2002, Key of David television program. “God calls most of the watchmen just dumb dogs. They won’t bark! They won’t tell you what’s really happening, either because they don’t know— and even if they do know they won’t really tell you the blatant, scary truth about all this.” (p. 6.)

This is from Jeremiah Jacques' article about race relations. This article also ends with advertising for an article by Flurry.

In 2015, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry called attention to a similar situation. That year, a psychopathic, white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina, opened fire on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, killing nine black people. The victims’ relatives shocked America by saying that instead of hating the racist murderer, they forgave him. They said they were in deep pain, but that they were praying for the killer. “This example should have been held up for the whole nation to follow,” Mr. Flurry wrote. “This is a lesson and an example for all of us in a way of life that can really solve our problems!” (July 3, 2015). (p. 17.)

This is from Brent Nagtegaal's article scare mongering that Iran is supposedly using the Houthis to control the Bab el-Mandeb Strait passing Yemen. For whatever reason Brent Nagtegaal quotes Flurry three times.

Ever since the Houthis took over Yemen’s capital Sanaa in late 2014, the Trumpet has emphasized that this was actually a victory for Iran. In the April 2015 issue, editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote, “The Houthis’ takeover of Yemen was not just a grassroots revolution. It was a part of a deliberate and calculated Iranian strategy to conquer the Red Sea. (p. 20.)

***

Gerald Flurry wrote in 2015 that the “Houthi takeover in Yemen proves that Iran is implementing a bold strategy to control the vital sea lane from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea” (op cit). This was at a time when most commentators were focusing on the Houthi rebellion as an attempt to take over land and destabilize Iran’s rival, Saudi Arabia, which is Yemen’s northern neighbor. But Mr. Flurry foresaw that Iran’s interest in the Houthi uprising was aimed at a vital strategic goal: domination of the southern Red Sea passage. (p. 21.)

***

Since 1994, Gerald Flurry has forecast that Iran would grow to become the dominant power in the Middle East, heading up a powerful alliance of radical Islamic nations known as the king of the south. The king of the north in this prophecy is a united Europe led by Germany. While the world is mostly blind to it, some in Europe are waking up to Iran’s plan to capture the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The Europeans see that this strategy and Iran’s overall strategy of aggressiveness and terror is a definite push. And Europe will eventually push back.  

On February 3, in a letter to supporters of the Trumpet and other Philadelphia Church of God projects, Mr. Flurry wrote that the aggressive king of the south is about to push the world into an all-out world war. The increasingly violent actions by Iran and its proxies in the Red Sea are one part of that push; a push that will ultimately succumb to a violent and forceful counterstrike by a superior force from the north. (p. 36.)

This is from an article by Jeremiah Jacques scaring mongering that the United States is supposedly losing power and influence among allies in Asian nations. He cites the infamous attack in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 in which four brave, courageous and innocent Americans were murdered. It is terrible to see their memory being used to prop up PCG's dogmas about the future.

On Oct. 1, 2012, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry said America’s flat-footed reaction to the Benghazi massacre the month before meant that the Leviticus 26:19 prophecy had then been fully fulfilled. He said: “It’s no longer God saying, ‘I will break the pride of your power.’ It’s now God has broken it! I’ve never seen America in such a low as this!” (p. 25.)

This is from the recruitment magazine's WorldWatch section scare mongering that Iran might get a nuclear weapon from North Korea.

Editor in chief Gerald Flurry asked in the April 2016 Trumpet issue, “Why were Iranian officials present for North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons tests? Are the Iranians outsourcing their nuclear program, or at least parts of their nuclear bombs?” (p. 29.)

This is from Richard Palmer's article about the rise of the far right in Europe and the recent Dutch elections. He quotes Flurry twice and also quotes Brad MacDonald.

Since its inception in 1990, the Trumpet has intently watched for the emergence of a strongman in Germany. “Routinely in German history, when Germans become anxious about world events, they call on a strongman to lead them!” writes Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in [a 2016 booklet entitled] A Strong German Leader Is Imminent. “They have done so throughout history—and they are going to do it again.” “The weakness being demonstrated by the West is exposing the crying need for stronger leadership. And whether or not people want to believe it, that leadership is going to arise in Germany,” he writes. “Today, Europeans are looking for another ruler like Charlemagne.” (p. 32.)

***

In A Strong German Leader Is Imminent, Mr. Flurry writes, “Daniel 11:21 prophesies that this strong leader will come into power ‘by flatteries’—probably not by votes, but through a coalition government of some kind.” “The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary says ‘the nation shall not, by a public act, confer the kingdom on him, but he shall obtain it by artifice, ‘flattering,’’’ writes Brad Macdonald in the same booklet. “In other words, a deceived public, or a group of European leaders, likely invites this man into power.” “This soon-coming ruler could literally be called a king,” notes Mr. Flurry. “Even if he is not, the Bible gives him that label. When the Bible talks about a king, in most cases it’s saying that this is not a democratic government.” (p. 32.)

It looks pathetic seeing them flatter their leader by quoting him. So often PCG's leaders bad mouth mainstream society as somehow failing to meet their standards

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.

An Ambulance in Gaza in 2014

The leaders of the COGs have shown over and over again that they have little regard or concern about the Palestinian people. So often they are portrayed as a crude, one dimensional stereotype and not as the complex human beings that they are.

In 2014 war broke out in Gaza. One film maker in Gaza, Mohamed Jabaly, followed an ambulance crew as they worked to help the injured and killed in those terrible days of violence.

AMBULANCE ￨Official Trailer, June 17, 2015,

Ambulance - Trailer, May 10, 2016.

Synopsis:

A raw, first-person account of the last war in Gaza in the summer of 2014. Mohamed Jabaly, a young man from Gaza City, joins an ambulance crew as war approaches, looking for his place in a country under siege, where at times there seems to be no foreseeable future. While thousands of things are published on the recurring violence in Gaza, the stories behind them remain hidden. Not this one.

May peace soon come to the Holy Land.

Mass Palestinian Hunger Strike Ends

After forty days a mass hunger strike by 1,187 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails has ended,

More than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails ended a mass hunger strike against detention conditions. 

Israeli officials said the move - at the start of the holy month of Ramadan - came after an agreement to allow two family visits per month, not just one. 

The action was led by Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian leader jailed by Israel for life for five murders. 

Barghouti has been touted as a possible future successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. 

Some 1,187 detainees observed the strike, according to Israel's prison service. (BBC News, May 27, 2017.)

May peace soon come to the Holy Land.

Painful Truth Celebrates Twentieth Anniversary

This is the 2100th post for the Living Armstrongism blog. I wish to thank you, the readers, for inspiring me to carry on with this blog.

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Recently The Painful Truth has commemorated its twentieth anniversary. Without question The Painful Truth has helped many people to wake up from the indoctrination of Armstrongism.

This includes myself. I will never forget how it was that I read "A Treasury of Famous Prophecies," an article from the first issue of Ambassador Report (June 1976) which is hosted on The Painful Truth, and that was the moment I finally woke up and realized that I did not have to listen to what HWA and his imitators in the COGs had to say. God is not with them. There is no need to fear their dire proclamations.

Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, America's Shocking Military Decline (2000)

The fourth issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (January-February 2000), featured an article by Mark Mendiola entitled "America's Shocking Military Decline." (pp. 16-20.) This was the fourth of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. Here he exploits problems within the American military during the Kosovo War (1998-9) to insist that the US military was falling apart. He had no idea of what would soon happen starting on 9/11.

Let's take a look.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s relentless bombing of Serbian military forces and strategic targets in the Balkans, during an air war that lasted 78 days last March to June, exposed how badly recent defense cuts have limited United States military might. It also drove home to the Europeans the urgent need to beef up their own military expenditures to protect their national interests. ... 

The United States continues to downsize its armed forces, but European nations appear to be on the verge of a significant military buildup, which does not bode well for America or Britain. As "the American Century" comes to a conclusion, many experts see the rise of a Europe much more powerful economically, politically and militarily in the 21st century —a superpower that will be able to challenge the U.S. on various fronts in its own right as a modern empire.

This was written in 1999. Eighteen yeas has now passed and Europe still has not arisen as a military force capable of conquering the United States. This prophecy has failed miserably. Clearly God is not with Mark Mendiola or LCG.

During the bombing of Kosovo, the Air Force banned all pilots, navigators and support crews from leaving the service, affecting about 6,000 Air Force personnel who already had approval to retire and return to civilian life.

He had no idea that in less than two years American soldiers would go to war in Afghanistan and later in Iraq. Clearly LCG cannot see the future.

Critics of cuts in American defense spending have said the U.S. is no longer capable of launching another Desert Storm operation such as the one initiated nine years ago by President George Bush against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. There are doubts the nation could even repeat the Kosovo campaign! 

What an absurd claim. That Mendiola and the editors of LCG's recruitment magazine thought that claim was worth mentioning shows they did not know what was going on. They do not know what will happen. They are as surprised by world events as any of us.

The Clinton administration and Congress have slashed the nation’s military personnel by about 35 percent since 1991, cut the money needed to train those remaining and reduced equipment purchases. Depleted, untrained crews in all branches of the military have resulted.

Considering that tensions had eased with the Soviet Union it was perfectly reasonable that some would call for a reallocation of public resources since the major threat to the United States was now no longer so pressing. Little did Mendiola know that circumstances would change so soon.

USA Today on October 22, 1999, reported that military recruiting costs per new enlistee hit an all-time high in 1999, even as the Army fell short of its goal by 6,300 soldiers and the Air Force missed its goal by 1,700 people. The Navy also needs an extra 22,000 sailors, who are difficult to recruit as high school graduates find lucrative employment in the booming U.S. economy.

So often the COGs insist to anyone who would listen that the US economy would soon collapse. They did not foresee that in the late 1990s the economy would be "booming."

In August of 1999, retired Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, a former chief of staff for the Army, warned in a letter to members of the Association of the United States Army that the Defense Department needs an immediate investment of $90 billion for new equipment to maintain U.S. combat readiness. But the chances of that amount getting appropriated is slim, as an increasingly isolationist nation prefers to spend its surpluses on domestic programs. 

Should Mendiola really be surprised that the US government would reallocate resources once the Cold War had ended? That means more money for the civilian population like Mendiola. But he still complains.

The COGs have a long history of demonizing Germany since they teach that Germany is destined to lead Europe in conquering the United States in the near future. Mendiola continues that practice in this article.

[New York Times columnist Roger] Cohen noted that German leader Gerhard Schroeder, nicknamed the "Kriegskanzler" or war chancellor, committed 8,000 German troops for deployment in post-war Kosovo, the second- largest contingent after Britain. In fact, troops in Kosovo from the four major European Union countries will total about 33,000, eclipsing the planned American unit of 7,000 troops. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. troops stationed in Europe have dropped by 200,000 to 100,000 or 66 percent! 

Seventeen years later the possibility of Germany conquering the United States remains as distant as ever.

Even though the United States back in 2000 and at present has the most powerful military force that humanity has ever beheld Mendiola ludicrously imagines that the United States just might find "itself virtually defenseless against the growing threat from ballistic missiles." What a joke.

This worst case scenario is not beyond the realm of possibility, as the U.S. finds itself virtually defenseless against the growing threat from ballistic missiles. Antagonistic nations like North Korea and Iran are likely to join Russia and China as long-range missile threats to the United States over the next 15 years, the Central Intelligence Agency reported recently. These emerging missile forces "potentially can kill tens of thousands, or even millions, of Americans, depending on the type of warhead, the accuracy and the intended target," the CIA said, noting Iraq also posed a more distant threat.

Mendiola cited this source to say that Iraq "posed a more distant threat" compared with those other nations. Clearly he had no idea that just three years later the United States would go to war in Iraq and overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime. Seventeen years later there has been no war against any of the other nations mentioned above.

Western Europe’s arsenal of ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads also could be easily aimed at the United States. ... The implications of the shocking decline in U.S. military power are absolutely frightening, but there is wonderful news beyond the unprecedented trouble looming for the U.S. and Britain!

Seventeen years later and Europe has made no attempt to take American nuclear weapons stationed in Europe.  The idea of Germany leading a European Empire to conquer the United States remains as bizarre and absurd as it was back in 2000. LCG are but false prophets. There is no need to fear their 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.