PCG Says California is Cursed by (PCG's) God

Currently the State of California is experiencing massive wildfires that have so far killed at least 40 people. PCG's response to these dreadful events is to insinuate that these fires are a sign that the State of California has been cursed by PCG's God. (Richard Palmer, Why Yet More Californian Wildfires?, October 14, 2017.)

Why is California being hit by so many fires? This is not merely a freak incident. According to California governmental statistics, the state has experienced nearly 6,000 fires so far this year. Over the same period last year, that figure was 4,400. 

The total area destroyed is also increasing. This year over 300,000 acres have burned. The five-year average over the same period is 200,000.

"Why is California being hit by so many fires?" Palmer asks. One could mention the baneful influence of climate change caused by the excess emission of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Let us look at another source to note how climate change appears to have exacerbated this dreadful situation.

Nonetheless, the California fires do align with what researchers expect to see as average temperatures rise. 

“The length of the fire season is increasing in the Mountain West,” said the University of New Mexico’s Hurteau. “The mechanism for that is in part because [as] the atmosphere warms up, the air expands and can hold more moisture.” 

This warming draws moisture out of plants, creating drier conditions earlier in the season. It also causes an earlier snowmelt in the spring, leading to more arid conditions in the summer. 

“We could have a lot more fire on these landscapes,” Hurteau said. (Vox, October 15, 2017.)

But as noted previously PCG's 1% have a history of denying or minimizing climate change in order to promote other "explanations" for various natural disasters that have occurred, such as claiming that such events are some sort of sign of the wrath of (PCG's) God for behavior contrary to PCG's teachings.

Palmer then quotes a booklet originally produced by PCG in 2011. This leads to Palmer making the following statement.

God is behind these weather disasters, and it appears California is being singularly pummeled. 

Palmer links to a 2007 article by PCG's leader, Gerald Flurry, which insinuates that the State of California is cursed because of the receivership case with WCG in 1979-80. Gerald Flurry's PCG is an offshoot of WCG which was founded in 1989.

These allegations are ridiculous. It is grossly grotesque that this absurd and offensive superstition is being promoted while so many people are suffering. PCG's 1% are wrong to claim that the State of California is somehow cursed by their bizarre, misanthropic version of God.

Incidentally this also shows why PCG's 1% historically have insisted that climate change is not real. If they admitted that the excess emission of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases were causing or exacerbating natural disasters and bringing about climate change then they could not make this absurd and superstitious claim that the State of California is somehow cursed by PCG's God.

If PCG's 1% admitted that climate change is real then they could not claim that these fires were some sort of sign by their hate filled parody of God.

It is strange to see that people who could say something so terrible and dreadful also think that they are worthy of being followed and getting tithes from the lay members and donors outside of the organization who are called "co-workers."

PCG on Colonialism in New Zealand

New Zealand flag.

One peculiar claim HWA made was his insistence that in the Millennial reign of (HWA's) Christ all of humanity would speak one common language. Recently PCG has released an article citing the New Zealand Wars (1845-72) to prop up this bizarre claim. (Jeremiah Jacques, Does the World Need a Universal Language?, October 12, 2017.)

Does the World Need a Universal Language? 

A study of the main cause of the New Zealand Wars points emphatically toward the answer.

He presents this article as a study of "the main cause" of the New Zealand Wars. Let us assess his article.

First he talks about a battle in Opotiki that occurred in October 1865.

This bloody October 1865 clash was just one short chapter in the nearly-three-decades-long conflict now known as the New Zealand Wars. All together, the violence of these wars claimed the lives of some 2,150 Māori and around 745 representatives of the British Crown.

What a terrible situation! And yet this historical fact is now going to be used to prop up HWA's bizarre claim that there will only be one language among humanity during the millennial rule of Christ.

The article gets its chronology confused.

Historians agree that the seeds of the conflict were sown 15 years before that Opotiki clash. 

The author is in error saying 15 years. He actually means 25 years referring to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 as is seen later in the article. PCG cannot even get that detail right and yet they expect their audience to believe that PCG's leadership is somehow uniquely connected to God.

[Update: October 31, 2017. Someone at PCG has since corrected the "15 years" statement to "25 years".]

Let us continue with the article.

Historians agree that the seeds of the conflict were sown 15 years before that Opotiki clash. Ironically enough, they were sown in pursuit of peace: Māori chiefs were seeking protection from sailors, convicts and merchants who were bringing strife into their villages. The Māori also wanted security from any potential takeover by colonizing powers such as France, and to bring an end to the intertribal Musket Wars that were killing tens of thousands of their people.

On the other side of the negotiating table were the British who sought to expand the reach of their stabilizing empire.

The author insists that the British had a "stabilizing empire." But this view depends on who you are talking to. In order to rule over so many peoples and territory it was necessary to subvert, cripple or even destroy whatever governmental institutions existed among those persons and within those lands.

PCG and many of the other COGs teach British Israelism, the idea that the white British and American peoples are descendants of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Old Testament. Part of their teaching is that when the northern Kingdom of Israel was defeated by the Assyrians in c. 720 BC part of (their version of) God's punishment on this people was to withhold bestowing blessings upon them for 2,520 years until AD 1800 onward. At that point (their version of) God blessed the white British and American peoples with vast material blessings. They insist that the vast colonial expansion of the British Empire was ordained by (their version of) God.

Jacques then mentions that about 535 Māori chiefs and the British signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 but the Māori chiefs were using a version of this document translated into Māori whereas the English version used different words.

But due to mistranslations in the Māori version and misunderstandings, many on the Māori side did not think they were giving up sovereignty. Instead, they believed they were assimilating themselves into the British legal system and giving the British the right to keep the peace, but that the treaty allowed them to maintain the right to rule themselves and to manage their own affairs. ... 

During the months after the treaty was signed, the conflicts caused by these “different understandings” grew increasingly intense. They eventually erupted into war. ... 

And the dispute did not entirely end at the conclusion of the New Zealand Wars. To this day, the Treaty of Waitangi remains the subject of heated debate and disagreement between factions on the two sides. Disputes about the Treaty’s meaning continue to cause strife that is the antithesis of the harmony it was intended to bring about.

Jacques links to an article about remembering the New Zealand Wars of 1845-72 but it seems he has nothing to say about the article's discussion of the pain that the Māori people have endured since those times, an common experience for those who have been colonized over the centuries. That is a shame but unsurprising. Armstrongism's views of British Israelism leads people to think that colonization was a good thing and causes them to ignore what it wrought to the colonized such as the Māori, Native Americans and indigenous Australians.

But Jacques puts aside the issues of colonization to prop up HWA's bizarre claim that in the future there will be one language spoken by all of humanity.

In a world of 6,700 languages and 39,000 distinct dialects, communication problems are inevitable. ... Often, as in the case of translating the English word “sovereignty” into Māori, approximations must be used. ... In most cases, the confusion stays within the realm of embarrassment and inconvenience. But sometimes—as in the example of the Treaty of Waitangi—it ends up veering into more serious territory, and causing long lasting problems.

It is terribly naive to imply that difficulties in translation were "the main cause" of the New Zealand Wars. When one overthrows a government by force, such as the governmental institutions that existed among the Māori before colonization, it is not a misunderstanding. It is not because the colonized and the colonizers just spoke different languages. What an absurd thing to say.

Jacques insists that after the second coming all of humanity will speak a common language.

The Bible plainly shows that after Jesus Christ returns to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth, the peoples of all nations will come to speak just one universal language. ... this future worldwide language will also be free of the ambiguity and imperfection that corrupt all modern languages. It will be free of the type of impurities that contributed to the Crown and the Māori lifting up weapons against each other in the New Zealand Wars.

Again, it is naive to imply that "the main cause" of the New Zealand Wars and colonization were misunderstandings in a meeting in 1840.

Also why does he think it necessary to destroy all of our languages? Many languages are endangered and many people are struggling to preserve their languages so that the unique insights they contain and the heritage of their ancestors may be preserved. Many languages have already fallen out of use among humanity. It is not good that these communities all over the world are losing their languages. But this dogma of HWA's that there will be one language in the Millennium ignores the problems that the lose of languages presents to all of us.

In the present world, rife with linguistic confusion that contributes to frictions of all kinds, it is difficult to imagine such a bright and harmonious future. But the Bible makes clear that the dawning of that age of pure speech and lasting peace is very near.

HWA's promises, including his insistence that there will be a single language shared by all humanity in the near future, are empty words which will never be fulfilled. It is clear that Jacques' claim that misunderstandings were "the main cause" of the New Zealand Wars is completely wrong.

Reflections on Armstrongite Yearly Conference (Feast of Tabernacles)

Banned by HWA has a very fascinating post pointing out that many of the sermons taught at the Feast of Tabernacles are still very similar to what has been taught within the COGs for decades.

Feast of Tabernacles 2017 Sermons..."Don't these people's brains rot after listening to the very same thing for decades?"

Considering that what is taught is so similar this calls into question why is it necessary to attend these yearly conferences for eight days every year just to hear the same things?

Bibliography of Roderick C. Meredth's Plain Truth About the Protestant Reformation

Over the last few issues of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World, they have reprinted a narrative that the late Roderick C. Meredith wrote back in 1958.entitled The Plain Truth About the Protestant Reformation. The purpose of the narrative was to discredit the founding of the Protestant churches as illegitimate in order to make joining his own organization seem like the righteous thing to do.

What follows below is a list of the books he cited in this narrative. It should be noted that even taking into account that it was written in 1958 he instinctively referred to older books, many of which date before the start of the 20th Century.

One wonder why did he choose to get his information from such old works? Did nothing made by more recent historians at least made him curious to learn about what they were saying?

• Alzog, Johannes. Manual of Universal Church History. 1878.

• Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand. 1950.

• Bainton, Roland. The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. 1940.

• Bebington, John Albert. The Reformation. 1901.

• D'Aubigné, Jean-Henri Merle. History of the Great Reformation. 1843-1853.

• Deharbe, Joseph. A History of Religion. 1881.

• Fisher, George. History of the Christian Church. 1887.

• Fisher, George. The Reformation. 1873.

• Gibbon, William. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776-1789.

• Hastie, William. The Theology of the Reformed Church. 1904.

• Hausser, Ludwig. The Period of the Reformation. 1873.

• Hislop, Alexander. The Two Babylons. 1853, 1858.

• Hurlburt, Jesse Lyman. The Story of the Christian Church. 1918.

• Jones, Rufus. The Church's Debt to Heretics. 1924.

• Kurtz, Johann Heinreich. Church History. 1889.

• Lindsay, T. M. A History of the Reformation. 1906-7.

• Michelet, Jules. The Life of Luther. 1846.

• MacKinnon, James. Calvin and the Reformation. 1936.

• Moncrief, John Wildman. A Short History of the Christian Church. 1908.

• Moore, Audrey Lackington. The History of the Reformation. 1890.

• Mosheim. Johann Lorenz von.  Institutes of Ecclesiastical History.

• Neander, August (1789-1850). General History of the Christian Religion.

• Perrin, Jean Paul. History of the Old Waldenses. 1884.

• Plummer, Alfred. The Continental Reformation. 1912.

• Qualben, Lars P. A History of the Christian Church. 1936.

• Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. 1858.

• Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, third edition, 1908-1914. Named after Johann Jakob Herzog (1805-1882) and Philip Schaff (1819-1883).

• Vedder, Henry C. A Short History of the Baptists. 1907.

• Walker, Reginald F. An Outline History of the Catholic Church. 1944.

• Walker, Williston. A History of the Christian Church. 1918. [Link omitted due to quality issue with at least one previously offered source.]

• Wharey, James. Sketches of Church History. 1840.

PCG Implied "Technocrats" Want to Confiscate Firearms (2013)

The idea of the federal government confiscating firearms at present is very unlikely and it is not a serious proposal despite the terrible massacre in Las Vegas. Those who wish to implement gun safety laws are more concerned by other issues such as restricting bumper stocks (which turn semi-automatic rifles into automatic machine guns even though automatic machine guns were banned from sale in 1986) and high capacity magazines. But despite this state of affairs PCG's Joel Hilliker once scare mongered of this largely exaggerated fear in his article, Beware the ‘Well-Educated Technocrats’ (November 11, 2013).

Here Hilliker is lambasting government officials he labels as "technocrats." At the time the presidency was held by a member of the Democratic Party and true to PCG's political stance towards the right they tended to condemn that political party.

These are the people who believe that monitoring the digital communications of all citizens is essential. They believe we’re only safe if they are the only ones with guns.

Who proposed that only the government should have guns? No one. What kind of guns is he referring to? All firearms? Does this include include pistols and hunting rifles? Or do such restrictions only apply to semi-automatic machine guns? He does not say. But these words make people fear that they might lose all their guns when in fact this fear s largely unfounded.

***

Also Hilliker's article also states that a certain congressman (who is now currently a senator) had given a presentation at PCG's Armstrong Auditorium back on October 31, 2013. This article was mentioned in a previous post.

Last Year PCG Thought Muslims Might be Thrown into Walled Off Ghettos

Back on July 14, 2016 an ISIL sympathizer took a truck and murdered eighty-four innocent people. Following this mass murder PCG's Richard Palmer wrote an article speculating that France would be compelled to throw Muslims into walled off ghettos in response to such violence.

Armed guards and security scanners will not be enough. It would not have stopped this attack—it has not stopped terrorist attacks in Israel. There the nation had to physically wall off the majority of Muslims in the region and set up secure checkpoints before there was a substantial reduction in attacks. These are the only kinds of action that can end this.

Even now, that is anathema to modern Europe. But this is the direction it will be forced in. A couple of hours’ drive from Nice, the city of Marseilles is one-third Muslim. The same is true for many big cities in Europe. Walling off these populations would not be easy, and it would prove much harsher to local Muslims than Israel’s West Bank barrier. (Richard Palmer, Nice Attack: ‘We Should Learn to Live With Terrorism’, July 15, 2016.)

Now a murderer in Las Vegas murdered at least fifty-nine innocent people and injured over five hundred people. He was white. His brother says he had no religious or political affiliation. We must face reality: That dreadful and extremist Islamophobic idea would not have stopped this terrible massacre. The murderer would never have been able to commit such a dreadful massacre without possessing deadly weapons designed only with the purpose to kill and maim human beings in an armed conflict.

Shame on PCG for letting such extremism be published on their media outlet.

PCG's Gerald Flurry Cited Gun Control Measure to Slur President Obama as "Another Antiochus"

Back in 2013 PCG's leader Gerald Flurry slurred President Obama as "another Antiochus" comparing him with two individuals he loathes: namely Antiochus Epiphanes, the ruler of Hellenistic Syria who infamously persecuted Judaism and even set up an idol in the Temple in Jerusalem; and Joseph Tkach who implemented the changes within WCG renouncing much of what was taught under HWA. In making this inflammatory accusation Gerald Flurry cited President Obama's signing of twenty-three executive orders concerning gun control following the Sandy Hook massacre on December 14, 2012.

On January 16, 2013, President Obama signed 23 executive actions on gun control, and then urged Congress to pass even stricter gun laws. When he signed those orders, he surrounded himself with little children who had written letters to him asking, Mr. President, would you please do something about the violence in schools? Who wants to debate with him when he has little children all around him? 

The president is so eager to restrict guns. But what is he doing to stop drug cartels making inroads into America? What about stopping the drug wars between gangs in America’s big cities? What success has he had in stopping Chicago, his home town, from becoming the murder capital of the world?  

I am sickened by what Adam Lanza did. But what makes me sicker is somebody using that massacre to promote a political ideology! I think those 23 executive orders are really about getting around the Constitution and conditioning the minds of the people to accept the president saying, Don’t worry about the supreme law of the land! Listen to me! Just like Antiochus did! (Gerald Flurry, America Under Attack, Chapter 3, 2013.)

More details about this ridiculous and inflammatory accusation may be seen in the previous post: Gerald Flurry Says President Obama is an "Antiochus-type" Figure Just Like Tkach.

Catastrophe in Las Vegas

Thoughts and condolences to all those affected by the mass shooting in Las Vegas. What a horrible crime that has been committed and how awful it is that so many innocent people have been harmed.

Mark Armstrong Moaning About NFL Protests and of the "Promise of Government FREE STUFF"

Intercontinental Church of God's leader, Mark Armstrong, has another weekly update posted (September 29). This time he complains about protests held by the NFL as the Star Spangled Banner played before their football matches. And as is often the case in these weekly updates he also brings up many other topics as well in a confusing word salad.

At first he talks about the recent controversy regarding monuments alluding to the tragic events in Charlottesville. Here his ire is reserved for those who argue or call for the removal of monuments that are now out of sync with how society is today.

Greeting from Tyler,

It is obvious that we live in a nation deeply divided, with most of the media, and now even the sports industry intent on dividing us further.  RACIST, white supremacists!  It's come to this.  There was no doubt, when the “protest” mob began pulling statues and historical markers down, that it was only the beginning.  It was all but useless to engage in the discussion of statues of Robert E. Lee because anyone could see it was just a stepping stone.  We knew they'd be coming after the Founding Fathers next, then the Constitution and ultimately the Bible, assuming somebody would be left to defend it publicly.

In the words "ultimately the Bible" Mark Armstrong links to a WorldNetDaily article from August 2003. Many within the COGs seem to adore WorldNetDaily and rarely criticize that far right media outlet. More on the COGs' reliance on WorldNetDaily may be seen in the posts below:

• UCG's Reliance on WorldNetDaily.

• PCG's Reliance on WorldNetDaily.

• PCG's Reliance on WorldNetDaily: Part 2.

• PCG's Joel Hilliker and WorldNetDaily.

• LCG's Reliance on WorldNetDaily.

• RCG Quoting WorldNetDaily.

Mark Armstrong's initial paragraph leads up to his main topic in this weekly update: the protests held by the NFL.

Well, they have.  Now Americans are being made to choose between their love of football and their love for country.  Most have little idea what's going on around the world, other than the devastation of Puerto Rico with blame heaped upon the head of President Trump for not caring. Because there's an unrelenting argument out of every media outlet, as to whether football players should be allowed to express themselves in protest during the national anthem.  Commentator Mark Steyn made a great statement the other night.  “The national anthem can be a ceremony honoring the American flag and what it represents, or an opportunity for self-expression.  It can't be both.”

He claims that "Americans are being made to choose between their love of football and their love for country" to make sympathizing with athletes who choose to protest as an unthinkable option and equating it with somehow hating the nation instead of educating oneself about the problems that brought about these protests.

He writes that, "Most have little idea what's going on around the world". What does this statement mean? If he is implying that most Americans have little knowledge of world affairs then that is simply not true. It seems to be a foreshadowing of his later comment about the rise of the far right Alternative for Germany party in the recent German elections.

No mention is made of the fact that the mass protests were in response to President Trump's comments regarding NFL athletes who had knelt during the performance of the national anthem.

Also the lamentable situation in Puerto Rico after experiencing the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria is mentioned to complain about people's complaints about President Trump.

He also complains about racial issues, absurdly demonizes colleges as teaching its students to hate America, condemns environmentalism, and makes the inflammatory accusation that such people are prepared to wage violence even though back in 2015 the far left were responsible for only 1% of politically motivated murders in the United States. White supremacist extremists have been far more dangerous in regards to political violence in America.

People on every side of this issue are all ramped up.  Some burning their memorabilia and season tickets, others crying RACISM, Police brutality, and “Trump is a white supremacist!”  How this got to be about race is unclear.  But what's not, anymore?  College kids are being “taught” to hate the United States.  They're being taught to hate capitalism on the premise that it's “destroying the planet.”  They're ready to destroy property, stab or bludgeon any who disagree with them, and they want the downfall of more than statues.  They're going after the Founders, the Constitution and needless to say, the Bible.

He says, "How this got to be about race is unclear." The first athlete is knelt during the national anthem was Colin Kaepernick and he did that as an attempt to highlight the problems facing the African American community such as police brutality. It is hard to understand how he would fail to notice that point.

He then excoriates those he disapprove of as condemning the Bible and complains that these controversies over race are making Americans not notice the election of the far right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) in the recent German elections.

As far as they're concerned the Bible is full of hate speech, even the New Testament, because it condemns homosexuality just as directly as in the Old Testament.  The “race” rhetoric is so hot now that most have no idea what is playing out across the pond in Europe.  As you know, Angela Merkel won re-election in Germany, but the AfD party also won seats in parliament for the first time.  That is the anti-immigrant party, but its emergence into government also raises the specter of anti-Semitic German nationalism, and it certainly has Israel's attention and that of Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The Armstrongites teach that Germany is fated to conquer the United States in the near future consequently they see any advance of the far right in Germany as a sign that Germany's conquer of America is just around the corner even though Americans soldiers are based in Germany to this day as part of the NATO alliance. While it is certainly concerning it is not a sign that Germany will soon conquer the United States.

He mocks the protesting NFL athletes as wanting "government FREE STUFF." Where did that thought come from?

But that's no big deal, because we've got disgruntled football players to worry about!  It seems that all involved are in for a revelation.  We love our country more than football!  The promise of government FREE STUFF is no substitute for the respect we have for God, family, the American flag and all it represents.  History is being rewritten and re-interpreted by universities, media outlets and corporations to try to shame us into they’re [sic] socialist group-think.  But we already know where we stand, and if they'll excuse us, we're pausing for the Day of Atonement and soon leaving to keep the Feast of Tabernacles!  

Later,
Mark

So he also mentions the festivals that Intercontinental COG is preparing to observe. One particular feature of their Feast of Tabernacles is that followers are expected to attend a yearly conference that lasts for eight days. They call that their Feast of Tabernacles.

This is very different from the Feast of Tabernacles described in the Bible and observed by Jews all over the world today. Jews celebrate this precious festival by building booths on their property and celebrating the festival in their homes. They do not take their children out for eight days out of school. They celebrate it at home.

But when the false prophet of 1975 adopted this festival, partly influenced by the writings of the independent Adventist minister Greenbury George Rupert (1847-1922), HWA had little understanding of the Feast of Tabernacles so he ignorantly twisted it into an eight day long yearly conference which has imposed many restrictions upon his followers. What a terrible thing HWA did caused partly by his failure to understand this precious and ancient Jewish festival.

He also announced the mailing of the latest issue of his organization's magazine.

P. S. We’ve been getting everything done, all the mailings out and requests filled, so that we can attend the Feast of Tabernacles knowing that we're all caught up.  We mailed the new edition of 21st Century WATCH magazine last week.  If you've not received your copy yet, we will have them on display and available for your perusal at each Feast site.  We bid you safe travel, and God willing, we'll see you there.

The Feast is something very different from what Jews observed in the time of the Old Testament and today. Jews celebrate the Feast in their own homes in booths on their property which they build. It is a happy and joyous festival celebrated at home. They do not go to some far away place with their families to attend an eight day yearly conference filled with religious services.

And so we see that Mark Armstrong has given his followers yet another serving of his vituperative polemics against anyone politically standing to the left of him.

The COGs' Error Regarding the Feast

(Starting at sunset on Wednesday, October 4, the COGs will begin to observe the yearly highlight for religious observance within the COGs, namely their Feast of Tabernacles. The observance continues until the Last Great Day on October 12. This follows their observance of the Feast of Trumpets on September 21 and the soon approaching Day of Atonement on September 30. The following is a repost of a 2013 post, Herbert W. Armstrong's Error Regarding the Feast, discussing how the Feast of Tabernacles is observed by the COGs.)

Very soon the Feast of Tabernacles will occur and the COGs will observe them by gathering themselves together to the various Feast sites and fellowship with one another and listen to sermons for eight days as the entire COG from all over the world unite together for eight days of fellowship and communion with each other.

But there is a problem with their observance of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Notice Leviticus 23:40-43:

And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

And that is exactly what the Jews do today.

Look at how the Jews observe this day. They do it by building booths, called sukkah (sukkot plural) in the Hebrew language, within their houses or somewhere on their property.

Take a look at how the Jews observe the Feast of Tabernacles and the booths they observe it in.

They do not go around gathering themselves up together to assemble to listen for eight days to their Rabbis teaching the religion to them, instead they have fun and socialize with each other while staying at their own places or visiting their friends' places.

Does Leviticus say, Assemble yourselves together in a large warehouse far away from the world and go on vacation for eight days while you listen to my priests explaining the mysteries of the universe to you that you have already been hearing all year?

HWA has willfully misunderstood what this Feast is about. Instead of getting his followers to rejoice and celebrate with each other by meeting together in booths (sukkot) as seen above, in their own places, he exploited the peoples' misunderstanding and ignorance of this feast to get the COG members to assemble themselves together in a hotel, warehouse, campus, or some other such place in order to indoctrinate them into his syncretic religion.

Recently I had the honor of reading Carla Powers' book, Matches in the Gas Tank. She well described how the Feast was a terrible burden as her family had to drop everything from their regular lives and take a compulsory eight day vacation by order of HWA.

The Feast is designed to isolate COG members from society. It makes keeping a job that much harder for the COG members as they try to take eight days off. Kids are forced to take several days off from their education at school. Going to the Feast likely forces COG members to sacrifice by not using their hard earned money to go somewhere else. Instead they must go where the minister orders them to go.

They have no idea that they are not following God, but instead are following a man made tradition invented by one Herbert W. Armstrong.

Instead of observing the Feast as it is actually described in Leviticus and how the Jews observe it, HWA devised his own man made tradition in order to indoctrinate his followers.

The truth is HWA invented this man made custom of assembling together to hold a great feast in which every member is ordered to attend. The COGs think they are following God's law. In fact they are following a tradition invented by HWA.