Break Your Addiction To End-Times

Several times over several years, As Bereans Did has demonstrated Armstrongism is a branch of the Seventh Day Adventist movement. Even though Armstrongism decries Adventism as a false church, it is undeniably a demonstrable fact of history that Armstrongism is a branch of Adventism, and the core doctrines within Armstrongism originate with Ellen G White. Among those core doctrines I refer to are the seventh day Sabbath and pre-millennialism - and by pre-millennialism I mean the doomsday prophecy. That is where I want to focus today.
But first, I want to point something out.

If you look at the history of the Adventist movement, which came first, the doomsday prophecy or the Sabbath? Answer: the doomsday prophecy.
William Miller, founder of the Adventist movement (aka. Millerites), was entirely a Protestant doomsday prophet. That is the reason for the name Adventist after all - they proclaimed (and still proclaim) the imminent Second Advent of Christ. Doomsday prophecy is right there in the name. Miller was at least honorable enough to give it up in late 1843 when his prophecies failed for the second time. He left his own movement but the movement continues on, still heaping failure upon failure in their doomsday prophecies to this very minute.
Ellen G White, the new de facto head of the movement, invented some ridiculous excuse regarding the failed prophecies and then continued on as if it was all going swimmingly. It wasn't about law at this time. The Whites were introduced to the Sabbath doctrine in late 1844. (For more on the history, read our article "COG Worldwide Association Claims False Roots (long version)".) So, the Sabbath doctrin which inspired the Seventh Day part of the name did not come until some years after the doomsday prophecy which inspired the Adventist part.
The COG7 split from the Adventists in the mid-1800s. Herbert Armstrong was hired as a COG7 minister. He was still technically a COG7 Minister when he started The Plain Truth magazine. What was he printing in 1934? Doomsday prophecies. He predicted the return of Christ in 1936. When that failed, he simply changed his formula and continued on as if it was all going swimmingly. (For more on this, see our article "All Systems Are Go".) This is how it went until the day he died.

Why take you through that? To demonstrate that first and foremost the Adventist/Armstrongist movement is about doomsday prophecy. Before there was a Sabbath doctrine, before there ever was a debate over holy days, before a single word was mentioned about meats or tithes, there was doomsday prophecy. One can make a solid case that is still the core message of the current Armstrongist splinter groups. I defy you to find a single big name in the entire movement today that doesn't go about predicting the time of Jesus' return. The movement is not about first and foremost about law, it's about doom. Or, in other words, fear.

But why does doomsday prophecy have such a hold on people? What is it about us that makes us attracted to it in the first place, and what holds us enthralled for decades after? What causes so many to dump their life savings and life's dreams into the bottomless pit of the doomsday prophet's pockets? The answer is complicated and nuanced. It's slightly different for everyone. But slightly different is still mostly the same. I believe it boils down to fear.

People look around at this world at the ponderous mess we humans have created in what would otherwise have been a beautiful world, and we are inherently disappointed. We know it could be better - SHOULD be better. We are afraid of disease. We are afraid of persecution. We are afraid of enemies foreign and domestic. We are afraid of natural disaster. We are afraid of ruin. We are afraid of the past, present, and the future. Fear, fear, fear, fear. So, we long for a better future, a happier future - the better, happier future promised in the Bible. 

I think doomsday prophecy is first and foremost an escape. A tragic escape, based on what many call "fear porn". It's a coping mechanism with a heaping spoonful of schadenfreude.
I think doomsday prophecy is also a means to get some justice in a world practically devoid of it. When bad things happen, we can say it was deserved. Finally, they got theirs. And someday, someday very soon, the people who hurt me are going to get theirs, too.
I also think doomsday prophecy is a means to get some hope. We can cope with many evils so long as we have an inkling of hope. I just have to endure for 3 or 4 more years.

I could go on and on analyzing it, but that's not what I'm on about today. I don't want to talk about the problem. I want to talk about what to do about it. I just didn't think it best to talk about a solution without talking a little about the problem.
There is one more part of the problem I want to mention because I think it's key to the solution.

We look at all this disappointment ...and we blame it all on anyone but ourselves.

You see, a critical part of the problem is we took ourselves out of the equation for both the cause and the solution. We tend to see ourselves only as victims of something we didn't cause and can't fix. The cause is that other people are godless, and doomsday prophecy becomes the solution. But that misses the mark.

Doomsday prophecy is like a drug. How do you break yourself from its grip? Recognize how you participated in the nastiness of this world in your own way, and because you did in fact help to cause this mess you can therefore take steps to change yourself and your own little sphere of this fallen world.
In a phrase: confess and repent.

"But xHWA, I did confess and I have repented. I am keeping the law as best as I can!" No, that's not what I mean. I am not talking about confessing sin and repenting to law-keeping. I am talking about confessing that you played a part in this fallen world. You have not always been the person you could have been - you SHOULD have been - to those people you've met along the way. In one way or the other, you helped this world to be the misery it is. Confess that. And I am saying that there is still time to try, in whatever small way you can, to make your own little corner of this world a brighter place. That is what I mean by repent.

You know the Lord's Prayer (aka. the Our Father)? It says, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in Heaven." (MAT. 6: 10). Let God come to your heart now. Let His patient, merciful, loving will be done through you now. Let His kingdom reign in your heart this very day. Be a light in an otherwise dark world (MAT. 5: 14-16).
In the mind of a person addicted to doomsday prophecy, this prayer points to some future time. To a person who rejects doomsday prophecy, it refers to now and a future time. It referred to now when Jesus said it almost 2,000 years ago. It refers to now today. It is always now and in the future coming Kingdom. I talked about this in my article "Once And Future Kingdom - part II".

You break the yoke of doomsday prophecy and end-times by taking up your cross each day and following the promptings of the Holy Spirit each and every day from now on (MAT. 16: 24).

"But xHWA, I do follow Christ. I keep the Sabbath and tithe and help out around church." At no point did Jesus ever say, "Take up your cross and sit on your hands every seventh day." He didn't say, "Follow Me only on Saturdays." He didn't say, "Wait around until I return and then follow Me into charity." He didn't say, "Tithe and you're pretty much done following Me." He didn't say, "Follow Me but only with people at your local church."
Look at how Mark records Jesus' command to the Rich Young Ruler:

(MAR. 10: 21) Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.

The man literally got done telling Jesus that he kept the Sabbath. That was great and all, because they were yet in the Old Covenant, but Jesus said to take it farther. That is where the man walked away. And that is where we all tend to walk away. When the onus falls on us to take responsibility for our own actions and our own calling to make this world a better place, we fall back on our efforts at law-keeping and we walk away, sad. Precisely as the Rich Young Ruler did.

Herbert Armstrong used to teach that making this world a better place is literally the same as fighting against God. Don't vote. Don't serve. Don't give to charity. Don't pray for. He said God is trying hard to punish this world, and by doing what Jesus clearly taught us to do in multiple places - working to make this a better world - we are fighting against God.
That's not what I read in my Bible.

Don't think I am pointing my comments at Armstrongists only. This blog is about Armstrongism, so naturally that is what I write about. In the interest of fairness, please allow me to hammer Christianity in general for this same thing.
In my own life, if I had to make a list of the top ten people who have done the most awful things to me, most of those would be Catholics. Almost all of them would be Christians. Maybe even all of them. (I don't actually have such a list, so I am just guessing.) So, yeah, in 2,000 years of Christianity we still have a miserable world. We Christians have collectively done a miserable job, for the most part. And guess what --- that includes me! Mea culpa!

But I'm off topic.

When you isolate yourself and dwell on your own fears and problems, the world becomes a prison. End-times becomes your salvation. But when you try to help others in their problems, you tend to forget about your own and the world becomes a better place. When you try to make yourself smile, it's difficult. When you try to make someone else smile, you smile, too. The Kingdom comes, little by little, as His good and loving will is done on this earth as it is in Heaven.

Sadly, we know we aren't going to fix it all. We know Jesus must return. We know there are things actively working against us. It's not like Christians behaving badly is the sole cause of this world's misery (though it certainly is a big part of it) therefore Christians behaving properly will not be the whole solution. You're not going to save the world. But, then again, I am not suggesting you should. I am suggesting you change yourself and your immediate sphere of influence. Don't let not being able to change the world stop you from taking responsibility for your own actions and reactions! Repent and change anyway. Make your personal area of influence a thing that praises the Lord. Withhold that sharp comment. Lend a hand. Do good things so people can see and praise God. If you were given a job to do, then do it. Do what you can do. Today.

How do you break your addiction to end-times? Change yourself. Live your life as if the Kingdom has already come. Become part of the solution. Make someone's life better today as you are able. One man died and the whole world changed. Who knows what great things can be done through you if you are willing.

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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; )

Acts 17:11

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I pushed the Jesus button, nothing happened

I was reading Russell Millers post for today (4-19-09) Why I'm so hard on Christians, all I can say is wow, but I relate to what he says. I too tried to attend churches many times, and failed. It made me think of my own story, and it's conclusion.

I didn’t finish seventh grade because there was to be a parade that the school band was to play in, and seeing that it was on a Saturday, I couldn’t go. The band instructor was kind enough to announce in class that a few Seventh day Adventists were allowed to come, he pointed out me and my brother and said, “well I guess if your church wont let you come, far be it from me to fight God.” This of course resulted in getting ambushed after school over the next week or so with the finale being my brother attacking one of the animals that was trying to kick me in the kidneys.

My brother was that way, pent up rage burst out, but the guy was too big and threw him to the ground and had a thumb in each eye apparently trying to poke them out. I snapped at that point and kicked him in the ribs, and in the flurry, that guy disappeared and this 9th grader was all over me, my shirt was soaked in blood, and tears were streaming down my face, some girl was laughing and handed me a tissue, then we were at it again, all in slow mo, until In the process of falling backwards, a lucky kick under the chin knocked him out, and I landed on him with both knees. One of his buddies began wailing on me screaming, “you don’t hit them when their down.” Fortunately an adult showed up at that point.

I got kicked out of school the next year when I was 13, for “behavior problems” that in actual fact was me trying to mask my descent into nervous break down. Hostility could keep me from disintegrating, and yeah, I got into some running battles with some freaks that my pride wouldn’t let me back down to. These were some jocks that literally got rid of the English teacher by coordinated foot stomping on queue from the ringleader who was a jock, and therefore an untouchable, who was not disciplined period. I, however, was expelled for returning a punch to the face of one who had attacked me in the classroom, and as the final straw, disrespect to the librarian, who had said something rude, and judgmental to me. I liked the English teacher because she had read one of my compositions to the class, and praised it as excellent, a rare taste of approval. The juvenile mafia didn’t like this, which was a root of the developing conflict.

After I was expelled I never went back to school. My nerves were fried. I just wondered around, and prayed for help. No help was forthcoming. I survived, my mother became afraid of me and never again laid a hand on me, even though I was programmed to where if she had told me to kill some one, I might very well have done it, since in my mind, she was part of the chain of command from God on down. She had me do some sick things that violated scripture, but in my mind, a command over rides principle.

I survived, educated myself as best I could. My bible studies began to cause me to see contradictions in what I had been taught, particularly starting with church authority. The local minister was a tyrant, who was both demeaning and a taskmaster who assigned fasting and set hours of knee time with regular written reports to be turned in. Every church member became his spy, and I frequently had to park my old van many blocks from the people’s place who let me sleep in their garage to prevent the minister from finding out.

After I left WCG around 1990, I was cut off from every one I knew, since WCGers were the only people in my world; even though to them, I was a pariah, actually called me to my face, “the church outcast.” I had no way of getting a job, and no where to go. I had met the black sheep brother of a social misfit bachelor church member. He took pity on me and invited me to come over to his place in the country and stay in an old trailer parked there. This guy was a rude crude outlaw; a wonderfully kind man who grew marijuana, cussed like a sailor, said every thing that was on his mind with unabashed bluntness, and seemed to support a host of people, gave dope to cancer patients, and even kept his mother happily stoned while she was dying with what his mother only knew as “sleepy time tea.” This mans kindness far exceeded any kindness ever shown to me by one bearing the name of Jesus. I wanted to do something for him in return, so I began watering his babies, and essentially was doing this for four years while I rethought everything.

To make a long story short, I watched preachers on TV, and heard the message that Jesus will come and do all these wonderful things which never materialized regardless of my diligence. After this four year period, which was full of sometimes terrifying events impertinent to the point, after a little police intervention, I again found myself with nowhere to go, and alone, and wondering where was God. And why did my life have to be like this. It’s hard for some one with a chronic anxiety disorder to function in any normal capacity.

I had done enormous amounts of reading, and had followed many paths, but the only solid thing I could find was the prophecies that were accurate, so I returned to excepting scripture as true, but the disconnection between what the preachers said and reality was beyond being rationalized; so I dumped any further expectations from Christians, and looked to see if their message was some how a misrepresentation. I’m going to tell about my answer, which I’ll not represent as ‘the‘ answer, but an answer none the less. I read Jacobs words as anomalous to the candy coated come-ons I was being fed.

Gen 47:9 “And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,”

If God left Jacob in his troubles, how can Christian preachers tell every one that all you need to do is follow some little formula and be freed of the world’s sorrows? Jesus said in parables that bad things would happen, and he wasn’t going to stop them.

Jesus is speaking of himself in this parable, and of the fact that he was going to leave here, but while he is gone… Mat 24:48 “But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,’ Mat 24:49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. Mat 24:50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. Mat 24:51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Here again Jesus portrays the scenario of his going away during which things happen according to the will of men… Luk 19:12 "There was once a man of high rank who was going to a country far away to be made king, after which he planned to come back home.” In between verses men invest talents without interference. Luk 19:15 “He was made king, however, and returned home.”

Here Jesus tells his disciples that they may well be poor, hungry, hated, excluded and insulted, and with reason to shed tears, It all sounds quite familiar to me.
Luk 6:20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Luk 6:21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Luk 6:22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Luk 6:23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
Luk 6:24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.

Here, as I see it, Jesus is speaking of himself : Mar 12:1 “He then began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey.”

Now while Jesus is away, In between Jesus going and coming, I will insert something written about Israel, but that illustrates Gods attitude, and also speaks to the fact that evil will be allowed during this time where God essentially steps aside while the evil men do reaches it’s full measure… Eze 34:18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?
Eze 34:19 Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
Eze 34:20 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.
Eze 34:21 Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away,
Eze 34:22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.

Mar 12:7 But the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'
Mar 12:8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
Mar 12:9 What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

There is more, but I’ll leave it here for now. Bob Marley when asked about how he handled poverty said that it all depends on your expectations, when I quit expecting what the preachers were saying, I quit feeling like some thing was extraordinarily bad about me, and that I was being personally rejected. I see enormous deception going on with a motive to gain a following, and offering money from churches at large; but out of all of them, I expect there are some individuals who are genuine; but as for me, I have no desire for organized religion, and I can see why Jesus hung out with the prostitutes and the tax collectors.

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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom.

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