An Inconvenient Plain Truth

I have some truth for you ...some plain truth.

Herbert Armstrong.
Now, there's a name many of you have never heard before. Many of you have no idea who he was. Before there was a Gerald Flurry or a Rod Meredith, there was Herbert Armstrong. He is the "the founder, Pastor General, and spiritual and temporal leader of  the ... Worldwide Church of God". He is the reason why there are Church of God groups today. I want to help you to know more about him in order that you can know more about your own Church of God organization.

Herbert Armstrong's primary publication - the flagship magazine of the Worldwide Church of God - was "The Plain Truth". This was the face of the entire church in print. The articles are by various authors but everything that went out in the Plain Truth was officially approved and officially representative of the church.

Know this! These articles didn't just go out to the world in the name of Herbert Armstrong or the Worldwide Church of God - it was said, repeatedly, that they went out in the name and authority of Jesus Christ and God Almighty!

For today's post, I've read nearly every Plain Truth magazine throughout the 1950's and I've brought you some quotes straight from the magazines. The 1950's should be more than enough. They are representative of the previous years and the years since, all the way up to today!

I ask you to read these quotes for yourself. Keep in mind every one of them are from the 1950's. Compare what was being said then to what is being said now. The modern leaders of the Church of God groups are all students of this material, and in Rod Meredith's case he authored some of it. While you read, ask yourself what would you think about these quotes if some completely other church group had written them - the Plymouth Brethren, for example.

FRESHNESS DATING

Here are over 60 time-specific quotes from The Plain Truth magazine in the 1950's:

"It will take a few years for all this to develop to a point where this Nazi-Fascist rebirth of the ROMAN EMPIRE will be ready to STRIKE with the most tremendous power ever conceived by man. But it’s already developing - and FAST! Much more rapidly than people know! Most certainly it is easily possible the thing will be fully developed and ready to strike in SEVEN years! Yes, TIME IS RUNNING OUT ON US, FAST, AND WE’RE TOO SOUND ASLEEP TO REALIZE IT!"
-Plain Truth March 1950, p.5

"ONE THIRD of our people will die from starvation, malnutrition, and epidemics of disease in the greatest national tragedy ever to hit the world up to that time! And this is not a fanciful fairy story - this is PROPHESIED, and CERTAIN - and in the next FEW YEARS!"
-Plain Truth March 1950, p.5

"Only ONE THIRD - a bare 50 million out of our 150 million population - will be LEFT ALIVE! Two thirds of the people YOU know - of YOUR FRIENDS, acquaintances, relatives, members of your family - will be killed!"
-Plain Truth March 1950, p.6

"The fact that nearly all the prophecies refer directly to the END-TIME events of this 20th Century, A.D."
-Plain Truth October 1951, p.14

"But this I DO know. SOMEWHERE there lives, and breathes and walks, TODAY, the very man who is to rise up as the LEADER Of this UNITED STATES OF EUROPE. The IDENTITY of the individual is not revealed, but it IS definitely prophesied that such a man is living, and PLANNING, under cover, AT THIS VERY MOMENT."
-Plain Truth June 1952, p.2

"For it is those of this very present generation who shall be worshiping this “Beast” or his “Image,” or shall have received his “mark,” that will suffer the unspeakable tortures of the SEVEN LAST PLAGUES!"
-Plain Truth June 1952, p.5

"The time is at hand! The plagues of Gods WRATH will be poured out..."
-Plain Truth June 1952, p.5

"Every sign tells us these things will happen, plunging the world into the most frantic, frenzied state of anguish ever known, WITHIN A MATTER OF A FEW YEARS!"
-Plain Truth June 1952, p.5

"But now, once in the END of this age, just before God takes all power and authority and rule away from mortal man forever, God’s last and final intervention in the affairs of THIS WORLD IS occurring before your very eyes!"
--Plain Truth June 1953, pp.1-2

"This same DUAL PRINCIPLE runs all thru prophecy! First, a former, or preliminary fulfillment which is merely the type or forerunner of a second, the final climactic fulfillment occurring, usually, during this CRISIS AT THE CLOSE we already have entered!"
-Plain Truth July 1953, p.4

"’These days are more terrible than most realize. The time is ominous, storm clouds are brewing above and below the horizon. Within less than a quarter of a century this world will be plunging to destruction in order that men might know once and for all time that rhe Creator RULES and that His laws alone bring peace and happiness."
-Plain Truth Nov. 1953, p.13

"John was projected into the period of OUR present, and the immediate future. ... Ezekiel was not actually taken to Jerusalem, but the SPIRIT lifted him up and carried him IN VISION to Jerusalem. In like manner, John, IN SPIRIT, was carried to see IN VISION the events of the DAY OF THE LORD - the events ALREADY, now, beginning to take place on earth - the events YOU AND I SHALL LIVE TO ACTUALLY SEE! This vision is VITAL! The theme, or subject, of the prophecy is NOT the Middle Ages - it is the teeming, chaotic PRESENT - this very time you and I are just now starting to LIVE THRU! GOD HELP US, then, to UNDERSTAND! And so the very purpose of this Book is to show US of this generation NOW LIVING, the coming world-shaking events of the DAY OF THE LORD - the time of GOD’S JUDGMENTS at this age - END leading up to, and climaxing in, THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, and the happy, peaceful WORLD TOMORROW!"
-Plain Truth Aug.-Sep. 1954, p.6

"John appears to be taken up to heaven, to the very throne of God. There, projected some 1900 years into the future - into our PRESENT LIVING GENERATION - he sees, in VISION, the events already occurring, and those SOON TO TAKE PLACE, on the earth."
-Plain Truth Oct. 1954, p.3

"But in verse 14, Jesus interrupted to tell them WHEN the end shall come - AFTER THE VERY EVENT NOW TAKING PLACE - YES, ACTUALLY TAKING PLACE THIS MINUTE. [quotes Mat. 24: 14]. ... And THAT’S the world event of THIS VERY HOUR! THIS HOUR is THIS SCRIPTURE FULFILLED IN YOUR EARS! He that hath an ear to hear, LET HIM HEAR! ... so here we have THREE successive world-shaking events to come-first, and, now, NEXT to occur in a very few years, THE GREAT TRIBULATION."
-Plain Truth Oct. 1954, p.15

"We are now in the very WORLD-CRISIS at the CLOSE of the allotted duration of man’s rule over his fellows."
-Plain Truth Nov-Dec. 1954, pp.15-16

"[Title] A Prophecy for Today!" "This last resurrection - the TENTH - has, of necessity, to be in OUR TIME, and YET IN THE FUTURE ... There you have it! The TEN Dictatorships forming the UNITED EUROPEAN EMPIRE - a resurrected ROMAN EMPIRE - which the United States and the British governments are now bending every effort to bring about! But this United Europe will not cleave together long - IT COULDN’T! The prophecy reveals its very SHORT duration - 'must continue a SHORT SPACE,' - 'receive power as kings ONE HOUR with the Beast.' WHEN it, therefore, arises, THE SECOND COMING WORLD will be very NEAR. And today we SEE this very thing BEING FORMED. It may take a very few more years. But it is ON ITS WAY - conditions are shaping to this end far more rapidly than anyone seems to realize - yes, IT’S LATER THAN YOU THINK! These things are already BEGINNING to come to pass!"
-Plain Truth Nov-Dec. 1954, p.16

"Weather Bureau experts are frankly frightened about America‘s future. They KNOW that within 20 years this nation will be toppled from its dizzy economic heights by the worst drought in history! Here are the FACTS and what prophecy says WILL HAPPEN!"
-Plain Truth Jan. 1955, p.1

"Prophecy proves it [great drought] will happen - before 1975! Here are the FACTS."
-Plain Truth Jan. 1955, p.1

"WE CAN understand it [prophecy - specifically Revelation], because JESUS CHRIST is the Revelator! HE is the interpreter! And we have found HIS interpretation, which is TRUE! Yes, we CAN know where world affairs today are LEADING. We CAN know what’s GOING to happen during the next 5, 10, and 20 years!"
-Plain Truth Jan. 1955, p.3

"WORLD WAR IS HERE - NOW!"
-Plain Truth Feb.-Mar. 1955, p.1

"Here is an amazing prophecy, which few understand, yet which explains the real meaning behind Russia’s struggle for world dominion. It explains what‘s going to happen to our nation IN THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS!"
-Plain Truth Sep. 1955, p.1

"He has revealed that there remains only the one more 19-year cycle (of which we are well into the 4th year already) - after which it will be Too LATE!!! It’s far later than we think!"
-Plain Truth Apr. 1956, p.2

"What happens by the middle of the 1960s ... This SEVEN YEARS of national trouble takes us - if the dates which appear so definitely indicated by these prophecies are correct - from 1965 to 1972! Many of you will remember that over three years ago we told you of the strong indication that the last half of this - Gods-work of spreading the gospel of the Kingdom of God to all the world would probably end in 1972!"
-Plain Truth Apr. 1956, p.22

"Notice what God says is going to happen to our people in about ten years from now!" [Goes on to describe severe drought, war, Communism, economic collapse, slavery...]
-Plain Truth Apr. 1956, p.23

"WOULD you say that it is an amazing thing if 2600 years ago there were men who could look down into the future and foretell what is going to happen to Egypt? - and to all major nations in the next 15 or 20 years in this last half of the 20th century? You would say that that is impossible, I suppose. But Is It? Such men did exist! Such prophecies were made."
-Plain Truth May 1956, p.1

"To understand the time, the place, and all the facts of the prophecy of Ezekiel 38, we need to begin at the 1st chapter of Ezekiel’s prophecy and read the book clear through. ... [goes on to speak about British-Israelism] ... Ezekiel’s Message is for our day - and it is, therefore, a message for America and Britain, NOW! ... No such destruction and captivity has ever yet come to the House of Israel since this was written! Therefore it is still in the future - IN OUR TIME! It is a warning to Britain and America - NOW!"
-Plain Truth July 1956, pp.3-4

"Coming to chapter 6, the local scene of the vision shifts to the mountainous land of Palestine - but the MESSAGE is for AMERICA AND BRITAIN, today!"
-Plain Truth July 1956, p. 4

"If YOU would rather hear God’s Truth in place of the soothing cries of 'Peace, Peace' (Jer. 6: 14), write in immediately for Mr. Armstrong’s AMAZING booklet, '1975 in Prophecy!' This startling booklet is profusely illustrated with pictures-actually showing you a step-by-step account of what God says IS GOING TO HAPPEN within the next 10, 15 to 25 years!"
-Plain Truth Sept. 1956, p. 14

"No matter WHAT the immediate and temporary outcome of the present Suez Canal crisis, Britain and America will not have control of it when this amalgamated European power rises up-and it will occur inside of 15 or 16 more years - perhaps sooner."
-Plain Truth Sept. 1956, p. 20

"The Nazi underground is now plotting a war that shall end AT ARMAGEDDON! It is the START of the final WORLD WAR! It is NOW being prepared UNDERCOVER! Do you really REALIZE it? IT IS STARTING NOW! This war now secretly being prepared will Only END with the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST! Are you ready for that event? It is now NEAR - EVEN AT THE DOORS! Now is the time to GET READY, for Jesus said, 'BE ye also READY!' REPENT! BELIEVE! PRAY!"
-Plain Truth Oct. 1956, p. 18 [article title: "The SUEZ Crisis In Prophecy!"]

"The Prophecy for OUR DAY ... And notice, this coming martyrdom will be like the previous one - only 1000 times more terrible in intensity. Christians living today are to be martyred 'as their brethren were' in past ages.... This coining horrifying tribulation is now being plotted in secret, underground, by a fascist [Hitler and his Nazis hold up in a secret compound in Antarctica] Babylonish religious [Roman Catholic] political system ...
-Plain Truth Nov. 1956, pp.5-6

"For many years, the Plain Truth magazine has been bringing you the actual prophesied events scheduled to happen within the next 10, 15 or 25 years."
-Plain Truth Feb. 1957, p.14

"If you haven’t yet read Mr. Armstrong’s amazing point-by-point summary of prophetic events from now until 1975 - write in immediately for the booklet '1975 in Prophecy.' We’ll send it to you by return mail."
-Plain Truth Feb. 1957, p.14

"In less than 40 years all nations are going to live in a Utopia! They will be forced to learn the ways of peace. A Utopia of God’s making - not man’s - is fast approaching."
-Plain Truth Mar. 1957, p. 3

"Notice that this whole abominable system is to culminate in a great False Prophet who is to be manifest in OUR TIME - before Christ’s second coming and is to be destroyed by Christ when He returns. This diabolical individual is living TODAY!"
-Plain Truth Mar. 1957, p. 15

"For You - for your family and loved ones - the really significant point in this is that these men and many of their counterparts in Germany and France are NOW beginning to build the very power which God says will ultimately destroy our people! And they are basing it on the same principles and describing it in almost the EXACT way that The PLAIN TRUTH has been warning you to watch for over the past twenty years! Prophecy is future REALITY! It is NOW taking place before your very eyes!"
-Plain Truth Apr. 1957, pp. 7-8

"[Speaking of Ezekiel chapter 5] No such destruction and captivity has ever yet come to the House of Israel since this was written! Therefore it is still in the future - IN OUR TIME! It is a warning to Britain and America - NOW! ...  Coming to chapter 6 [of Ezekiel], the local scene of the vision shifts to the mountainous land of Palestine - but the MESSAGE is for AMERICA AND BRITAIN, today!"
-Plain Truth June 1957, p. 4

"WHETHER YOU want to believe it or not, you are CERTAIN to be affected by the rapid fulfillment of Bible prophecy!"
-Plain Truth Aug. 1957, p.3

"Here is something DEFINITE! Here is something you can TEST and PROVE! ... God is going to use this power to PUNISH us for our sins and our rebellion against His laws! This is DEFINITE. Most of you will live to SEE it come to pass!"
-Plain Truth Aug. 1957, p.4

"After 1965, we are destined to run into increasing trouble with the Gentile nations. America and Britain will begin to suffer from trade embargoes imposed by the brown and oriental races, and by the coming German-dominated United States of Europe” or “European Empire” - whatever it will be called. We will begin to experience the pangs of starvation and of scarcity of goods! ... Finally, when we are weakened from drought, hunger, disease and riots within our borders - and our economy crippled by foreign trade embargoes - the revived “beast” power in central Europe will attack us! Fully one third of our people will perish in the hydrogen bomb attack."
-Plain Truth Aug. 1957, p.6

"But meantime, these prophecies are REAL! They are DEFINITE and SPECIFIC. They WILL COME TO PASS! ... You can KNOW! You can be SURE! You are NOW BEING WARNED!"
-Plain Truth Aug. 1957, p.6

"In former articles in the Plain Truth magazine, we have shown you what the Almighty God says is SURE to happen to OUR NATION within the next few years. We have made those articles specific - definite, actually NAMING the nations which will be involved, and showing from the scriptures what your Creator says will happen. Here is another specific occurrence that you are going to SEE happen! [Describes wars never again being won by military might, rather there will be trade wars.]
-Plain Truth Oct. 1957, p.4

"World War III Is Already Begun! Believe it or not, the next world war is already being fought - and America and the British Commonwealth of Nations are rapidly LOSING that war! ... There is at this moment a tremendous world-wide struggle going on for domination of WORLD TRADE - and we are LOSING OUT, EVERYWHERE!"
-Plain Truth Oct. 1957, p.4

"Germany, after becoming REUNITED with Eastern Germany, and finally united with a group of NINE OTHER NATIONS in Europe, is destined by the sure, un-breakable, unchangeable Word of God to CONQUER THE UNITED STATES AND THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS!"
-Plain Truth Oct. 1957, p.5

"Methods of warfare have changed. Most people, however, are not really aware of HOW these changes will affect THEIR LIVES in the next few years. It has suddenly become possible for madmen in seats of great power to speak the word that might plunge this fear-filled world into a great, awe-inspiring HYDROGEN BOMB WAR! Frightened scientists and world leaders WELL KNOW such a war could mean the frightful END OF ALL HUMAN LIFE! This is REAL! THIS IS YOUR LIFE!"
In what way could we possibly be besieged? IN A TRADE WAR!
-Plain Truth Dec. 1957, p.19

"Trade War Here Now !"
-Plain Truth Dec. 1957, p.20

"Two years ago, Mr. Herman Hoeh showed in this magazine how God’s word prophesied DISEASE EPIDEMICS would strike the United States in TWO SHORT YEARS! THOSE EPIDEMICS ARE BEGINNING NOW! And they will grow MUCH WORSE! God prophesies that finally, within the next fifteen years, fully ONE THIRD of our whole population will die of dis- ease and famine! While we are so weakened-with a monstrous problem of dead and dying in our lands, we will “call” upon our “hired lovers” such as Germany."
-Plain Truth Dec. 1957, p.23

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE LONG TO WAIT, NOW, TO FIND OUT WHETHER THE BIBLE SPEAKS WITH AUTHORITY! For your Bible foretells all about today’s chaotic scientific world bent on the destruction of WHOLE NATIONS! It tells what is SOON GOING TO HAPPEN! You won’t have long to wait-then you’ll KNOW - yes, and most of you will come to know too late!"
-Plain Truth Jan. 1958, p.4

"SLAVE LABOR CAMPS are coming back! America is heedlessly plunging toward the greatest national humiliation of her history! It’s time you faced the cold FACTS of prophecy - it’s time you KNEW the truth about YOUR OWN FUTURE!"
-Plain Truth June 1958, p.1

"Now turn to Ezekiel 25. Here is another prophecy for our day. Here is a prophecy revealing what is going to be the fate of the Allied intervention in Jordan and the Lebanon. This is a prophecy to be fulfilled in the early 1970’s. This prophecy has never been fulfilled before! ... My sanctuary, [a temple or sanctuary is yet to be built by the Jews in Jerusalem!) when it was profaned [which shall happen in less than 14 years from now]..."
-Plain Truth Oct. 1958, p.4

"Jesus said certain specific things HAD TO HAPPEN prior to the “end of the age.” Read it! This is a prophecy for NOW! ... In the pages of The PLAIN TRUTH, and over The World Tomorrow broadcast, you have been reading and hearing forewarnings of these very occurrences that are NOW BEGINNING TO MAKE THE NATIONS’ HEADLINES! It’s time to wake up, and realize WHO is causing it to happen!"
-Plain Truth Nov. 1958, p.4

"Jesus Christ Himself had foretold this event! [The first broadcast of the World Tomorrow radio show]... What really occurred that Sunday morning precisely at 10 o’clock was a momentous event. It was the fulfilling of a definite corner-stone prophecy of Jesus. More than that, it was the initial, start-off event of the fulfilling of some 90% of all the prophecies in the Bible! And approximately a third of the whole Bible is prophecy!"
-Plain Truth Jan. 1959, p.3

"For years, The World Tomorrow broadcast and The Plain Truth magazine have been shouting this message - revealing from the prophecies in your Bible the coming UNITED EUROPE now being formed. But first Germany must PULL OUT of NATO, and she must have an understanding with Russia!"
-Plain Truth Jan. 1959, p.8

"YOU LIVE IN THE PROPHESIED 'TIME OF THE END!' The end of all man’s allotted 6,000 years is at hand! And it's MUCH CLOSER THAN YOU THINK!"
-Plain Truth Jan. 1959, p.8

"Prophesied for OUR TIME! ... This [speculation about reunited Germany spearheading a European 'Beast Power'] is conclusive PROOF the prophecy is for OUR TIME - the time just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. ... Almost unnoticed by the world that CRISIS IS ALMOST UPON US! ... As already reported in the pages of The Plain Truth, a vast TRADE WAR is underway."
-Plain Truth Jan. 1959, p.9

"Jesus promises protection from the colossus that is rising to bathe the world in blood. A time of GREAT TRIBULATION is just ahead - and may well come within 13 years!"
-Plain Truth Jan. 1959, p.14 .. [Why 13 years? 1972!]

"Here, Daniel saw four great BEASTS. And again, nearly all of the commentaries, the Bible reference books, are agreed on the historical fulfillment of this chapter. But almost NO-ONE, it seems, understands the PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE FOR OUR DAY, NOW!"
-Plain Truth Apr. 1959, p.5

"The six nation “Euromart,” or the “common market” now in effect in Europe, already comprises the bulk of the nations included in the “ten toes” of Daniel 2, and the “ten horns” of Revelation 17! So far, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy have bound themselves together into a single unit for economic cooperation. FOUR MORE ARE TO FOLLOW!"
-Plain Truth Apr. 1959, p.17

"Mr. Armstrong reports from Germany the world‘s greatest miracle of our time. It was prophesied. It spells DOOM for U.S.A. in ten to fifteen years - unless we HEED!"
-Plain Truth Aug. 1959, p.3

"And yet, about 90% of all of the prophecies in the Bible pertain to events that are yet to happen in the next 10 to 20 years from now, believe it or not!"
-Plain Truth Aug. 1959, p.3

Compare what you've just read to what God says in Deuteronomy 18: 20-22.

PROPHECIES OR PREDICTIONS??

What is a prophet? Is he not one sent from God with a message?
What is the difference between a prophecy and a prediction? Is it not that one claims to be sent from God? A prediction comes from men; a prophecy is revealed by God.
Which are these?

"I do not speak to you by authority of men, or any politically organized church of men - but in the name, and by the AUTHORITY of JESUS CHRIST, the living HEAD of the TRUE CHURCH OF GOD!"
-Plain Truth July 1953, p.6 (bold mine)

"The most startling book of this generation is Mr. Armstrong’s forthcoming book ['The United States and Britain in Prophecy"] revealing tremendous prophecies closed and sealed until now!"
-Plain Truth June 1954, p.1 (bold mine)

"And the time has come for The Eternal - the Creator - RULER of the universe - to reveal to us exactly HOW world events, from here, are going to work out the tremendous CLIMAX of that divine PURPOSE! The whole earth is now shaking with convulsions, preparatory to the mightiest happenings of earths history! We are now in the very CRISIS AT THE CLOSE of this present evil and unhappy world!"
-Plain Truth Aug.-Sep. 1954, p.1 (bold mine)

"But today we live in the dynamic, exciting, terrible “time of the END” - the world-crisis at the CLOSE of the Age! The prophecies and mysteries of God, sealed until now, are today REVEALED to those whom God has chosen to carry His last Message to the world as a witness! Jesus Christ, Head of His Church, is the REVEALER! Christ has opened these mysteries to His servants! The time has come for God’s servants to open up to YOU-to lay bare before your startled eyes-these tremendous prophecies of the Book of REVELATION!"
-Plain Truth Aug.-Sep. 1954, p.2 (bold mine)

"THERE’S the key to this riddle! The Lion of the Tribe of Judah - the ROOT of David - is JESUS CHRIST! No MAN can interpret this momentous prophecy - but Jesus Christ - God the SON - here standing BEFORE the throne of God the Father - here standing at the very RIGHT HAND of God - is able to open these seals, and to REVEAL to us the meaning. JESUS CHRIST is the Revelator! ... Jesus Christ is the Revelator who alone can open up the MEANING of this greatest of all prophecies, pertaining to WORLD EVENTS TODAY, and the tremendous world-happenings of these immediate years JUST AHEAD!"
-Plain Truth Aug.-Sep. 1954, p.7 (bold mine)

"If I am to bring you the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, I certainly cannot bring you the popular INTERPRETATIONS you have been hearing from MEN - from the great religious leaders of THIS WORLD."
-Plain Truth Oct. 1954, p.15

"But we’ve seen that the one MASTER-KEY to this tremendous prophecy is the fact that JESUS CHRIST IS THE SOLE REVELATOR - the SOLE INTERPRETER!"
-Plain Truth Nov-Dec. 1954, p.3 (bold mine)

"We were very plainly told that NO MAN can understand, or REVEAL the meaning of this prophecy. .. But NO MAN can interpret this Book of Revelation. JESUS CHRIST is the Revelator. The Apostle John was not the Revelator. No modern religious leader is the revelator. This is the Revelation of JESUS CHRIST, and we must accept HIS revelation - HIS interpretation - or fail to understand! THAT’S the master key of this mysterious PROPHECY."
-Plain Truth Nov-Dec. 1954, p.4 (bold mine)

The authority, the message, the understanding, the interpretation, the revelation -- none of it supposedly came from any man at all. It came straight to you, through the Plain Truth, directly from the throne of the Almighty God. This was key! The master key! We were warned, "Accept HIS revelation ... or fail to understand!"
Definitely not predictions.

'YOU HAVE SAID IT'

Is there any way to test if it really is a prophecy? Is there any way to prove if it really is from God?
Don't take my word for it; read it for yourself!

"Scripture is full of warnings about false ministers and false prophets. The world is filled with such men and organizations today. Out of this Babylon of confusion God must somewhere have His work TODAY. How do you recognize it? Here is the test Jeremiah was inspired to give: 'The prophet that prophesieth of peace, when the word of that prophet shall come to pass, THEN SHALL THE PROPHET BE KNOWN THAT THE LORD HATH TRULY SENT HIM' (Jer. 28: 9). That is how you can know who is preaching the truth today - when what he says comes to pass."
-Plain Truth Dec. 1956, p.3

"But who today understands what the prophets foretold? Why, only the ministers today whose word comes to pass! - those who are appointed and guided by God to preach the truth! Those whose utterances do not come to pass have not spoken the prophecies truly. We give you here the record of what we have been proclaiming for the past 2 years - a message which no other voices, to our knowledge, have been proclaiming.... But what we have been warning you about is happening! - precisely as we have stated.... This is how you can know that our work is not of men but of God!"
-Plain Truth Dec. 1956, p.3

"WHERE ARE God’s true prophets today! In this age of world chaos and sudden death, you had better rid your mind of preconceived ideas and prejudice and honestly seek to find out! Listen! This work has been warning America of definite and tremendous events to come for many years! ... They use the words “may," “could,” or “might.” They are afraid to be definite and specific! The truth of the matter is that they DARE NOT be specific about the future because they just DO NOT KNOW what the Bible says is going to happen! But on “The World Tomorrow” broadcast and in this magazine we have dared to unlock the Bible prophecies and apply them to specific nations and events that are NOW being affected. Do you grasp the SIGNIFICANCE of this?"
-Plain Truth Aug. 1957, p.3 (bold mine)

Out of their own mouths! By their own words!

Gerald Flurry says, "He was right!"

Was he? Did these things come to pass just as they said? Were they accurate? Did those people really understand? Were they inspired by God? Were they "true prophets"? If these were written by the Branch Davidians, would you accept them?
The word "prophets" was used; dates were set; divine inspiration was claimed; fulfillment was guaranteed -- on God's authority. They called Herbert Armstrong "Elijah"; the greatest of the prophets!
No. It never came to pass. By their own criteria they are not true.

Anything that they were supposedly "right" about was only partial, since they added circumstances and conditions that never came to be. For example, they claimed that Germany would reunite, leave NATO, make a pact with Russia, unite with nine other European nations under the leadership of the Pope, start a trade war with the United States and the British Commonwealth then destroy them with hydrogen bombs and enslave any survivors, then turn to conquer Palestine, then turn to fight a nuclear war with Russia and China, and finally come to an end in the Second Coming of Christ - all by the end of the 20th century (actually 1972). They cannot then claim "He was right" just because Germany reunited and joined the E.U.! Every other condition, which were every bit as important as these two, failed to materialize. What in fact came to pass was not what they said would come to pass!
...Just like today, when new predictions are made and never come to fruition.

Where is Ron Weinland? In prison for tax evasion. What of his predictions from his book "2008: God's Final Witness"? Failed. Twice! And he's going for a THIRD try!! Yet calls himself "the spokesman of the Two Witnesses", and an even better "Elijah" than Armstrong!
What about Rod Meredith? Some of the above Plain Truth quotes are from Rod Meredith. And he calls himself "God's Annointed"!
What about Dave Pack's prophecies of COG splinters all reuniting by the Feast of Tabernacles 2013? Failed. And because they failed he calls himself a "true Apostle" and "Joshua" [implying Armstrong was "Moses"]!
What about Gerald Flurry? Read our article "Flurry's Follies". Gerald Flurry idolizes Herbert Armstrong perhaps more than anyone else does, and calls himself the "Elisha" because Herbert Armstrong was called "Elijah"!
I haven't the space nor time to go over the remaining hundreds of other splinter-group leaders, but I suspect you will find more of the same. The apple never falls far from the tree.

They are doing the same things today, giving the same messages today, that have failed and failed ever since Adventism was invented in the 1830's. They keep hoping you'll give them more time [what they really hope you'll give them is more money] - by Pentecost; just 1 more year; just 3 to 4 more years; just 5 to 10 more years; just 25 more years.

CONCLUSION

Well, there you have a pretty good introduction to who Herbert Armstrong was.

Is any of this news to you? It was news to me! Why were people told to burn this material? Why was it hidden? Why was it even so much as glossed over? If these things were so "true", so Divinely inspired and revealed by Jesus, why not proclaim these exact same words loudly even today? When does a truth revealed "by AUTHORITY of JESUS CHRIST, the living HEAD of the TRUE CHURCH OF GOD" become an inconvenient truth? Is this how truth conducts itself?
Ask yourself .. what kind of true system comes from a line of false prophets? (The Worldwide Church of God is a descendant of the Adventist movement of William Miller and Ellen G. White. We have several posts on this, including: "True History of the True Church".)  What kind of "true" system produces so many false prophets? What kind of "true" system hides and changes its past? How is that even possible for a "true" church?

God's beloved and desperately sought after children, trust me, I know you just want to please God with your whole heart, but I wonder something....
How much longer are you going to tolerate false prophets and false apostles? How much longer will you fear them? How much longer will you prop them up while they heap titles and honors upon themselves? How much longer are you going to look the other way while they make excuses for themselves? How much longer are you going to let them make a living off of you?



(JER. 5: 31) The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?
(JER. 14: 14) And the Lord said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart."
(EZE. 22: 18) Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord had not spoken.
(MAT. 7: 15) Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
(MAT. 24: 11) Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

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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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Striving to be Righteous

Gal 5:5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.
It seems that we are always at war with something. It could be any number of things most of which are rooted in our own flesh. Alcohol/drug abuse, anger, sexual issues and anything else that diverts us from our march toward God. We war against our own nature. In our spirit we want to be righteous; our own flesh however opposes this.
I like to fish and hunt. One deer season I harvested a deer and needed to field dress the animal. (I don't want to gross people out and if you do not like or approve of hunting - this is not the time for that discussion.) My friend Pat and I secured the deer from a rafter in the barn and proceeded with processing the carcass. We dropped the organs into a trash can and set it aside. It was full on dark and we intended to return the next day and dispose of the material. As with all battle plans, our "plan" did not survive contact with the enemy.
We, for a laundry list of "reasons", did not make it back to take care of the, uh-hem, (cough, cough) "issue." It actually took us a full week to get back to it. Now keep in mind the organs were placed inside a black plastic trash can and was sitting in direct sun light and it was still rather warm weather. It is hard just to imagine the smell, let alone the appearance, of what used to be the internal organs of a deer. Pat and I discovered a whole new level of disgusting that our imaginations could never otherwise achieve. We also discovered that when it comes to the worst smells, PVC and/or ABS do not contain this level disgusting smell. We got wind of the problem about 50 feet away, and we still had to deal with properly disposing of the gut retching (no that is not meant to be "wrenching." I mean "retching") mess. It was all we could do to not become ill.
As Christ's disciples contend with our own flesh. Even knowing that ALL of our sins are forgiven (past and future) we still try to live a Spirit-led life, striving to do what is right before God simply because we desire to please God out of His love for us and our love for Him. But, our "flesh" often gets in the way. It is like trying to dump that trash can full of deer guts. It was a horrific sight and a worse smell. And this is our daily struggle. We are human and our fleshy nature gets in the way of our spiritual self. It is by faith we know that the righteousness that we desire will one day be an actuality. By faith in Christ we will receive the promises given us by grace. This not the vain hope of winning the Powerball jackpot (I still buy a ticket anyway) but it is the hope built upon the unbreakable promises of God. We will one day have within us the righteousness we desire. It is promised to us by the One who cannot break His word.

Reader Testimonies - Centurion

It's time once again for one of my very favorite things about having this blog -- reader testimonials!

Here’s a testimonial from one of our readers who is going by the name “Centurion". This reader left Armstrongism just recently, and what a story they have. I am eager to share this with you. By the end of it I found myself sad that it was over. I hope you enjoy this and find some inspiration in it.

I would have you know - the reason we do reader testimonials is so that you, whoever you are, can see that you are not alone out there. There are others out there like you. Maybe you are currently attending a Church of God splinter group but you are hesitant to leave. Maybe you have already left and you wonder what others went through. Regardless of where you are, I hope you find something in these testimonials that help you along your way. I hope you find something you can relate to. And that they bless your heart and give you reassurance.

I was born into the Worldwide Church of God.

I used to feel really lucky about that. Turns out that might be right after all, but more on that toward the end of this testimony.

I grew up thinking that Herbert W. Armstrong was God’s end-time apostle, and the Elijah for-to-come, a man who was like a wise-old grandfather who was close to God and understood Bible Prophecy and held the very keys of unlocking Bible Prophecy! He was probably one of the two witnesses of Revelation and God would not let this man die before the return of Christ. His name was effectively revered in our home.

Conversely, I understood that all the rest of the world, including all other “Christians” were deceived and not a part of the true body of God. Those poor people – if only they would listen to Mr. Armstrong, but apparently God was not working with them. At all.

I followed all the clean and unclean meats laws, paid double and sometimes triple tithes, Sabbaths and holy days, and all the other Armstrong doctrines and believed them with all my heart. I believed that the US and England were secretly the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, that we were the Philadelphia Church era, and that this 19-year time cycle was important. All we all had to pay and pray for “The Work” of preaching our unique gospel to go out to all the world.

I was part of this glorious “work”, so I could tell myself I did not care if I could not fit in at school, believe my history teachers, compete in sports (due to Sabbath and Friday night conflicts), or go on dates. I tried to overcome poor grades caused by keeping feasts and therefore missing weeks of school which eventually gave me trouble getting into the colleges of my choice.

My small sacrifices were worth it because we were told how successful the Plain Truth magazine was, and how Foreign Leaders around the world wanted to speak to Mr. Armstrong and needed his advice; the church was growing and my whole world revolved around being in “The Church” – no friends in “the world” because we were told not to… what does light have to do with darkness?

As a child, my parents told me I would never go to school, because the church was going to “flee to the place of safety” before I ever reached school age. Then I reached school age. “Don’t worry,” I was told, “the dates may have been wrong, but it will still happen soon – you will never go to high-school.” By the time I graduated college, Worldwide had begun to change things, and I began a life-long process of spiritual blinders coming off. Blinders I did not want to come off, or even realize I had on. I was not deceived, not me, I was special, I had the secret knowledge that no one else in school had, no one at work had; how could the chosen, the called out, the elect ever be deceived? God would not allow his church to be deceived!

A crack forms in Armstrongism

I did not leave the Worldwide Church of God. I was kicked out. Marked, and disfellowshipped before the whole church.

It sounds like a scene from an anti-Christian movie, but this happened to me. The minister actually gave a sermon about how we should not talk with, or fellowship with those who are marked. (Well that “light has nothing to do with darkness” bit sure backfired!) And I got walked out during the sermonette as a visual aid to all 400 people in attendance at church that Saturday. My crime? The minister found out that I had read some “outside the church literature”. I was “turned in” by my well-intentioned aunt. Oh they gave me one chance to “repent” and never do that again; but at this point I actually wanted to know what other churches taught. I told the minister , “I think I should read whatever I want for as long as I want, so long as I remember to think.” My reward? Bad Christian – you are hereby banished from the body of Christ! This was devastating. I had no friends outside “the one true church”. I had no life outside the church. I could not even apply for a new job, as I had no one I could put as a reference! I learned something critical which is this: “the church” is not the Worldwide Church of God, a physical organization, but rather a spiritual organism composed of all the people God had given his Holy Spirit to. My first step away from Armstrongism; the first fracture in the shackles on my soul.

Cults have “conditional love”, and love you as you support the organization, but hate you if you leave.

One thing was certain in my mind: I was not going to get my life burned down by a church organization again.

Another crack forms – Church Eras

I joined an Armstrong split-off group. (retroactive facepalm) It was the church group whose “outside literature” I was reading that got me kicked out of WCG.

At that point, I still embraced the vast majority of Armstrong teachings, but there was no path back to WCG, nor a desire to return, so an alternative to WCG made perfect sense at the time. From this group I learned that the “Church Era” theory was false.

The church era theory taught that the seven churches found in Revelation 2 and 3 were actually representative of time eras. The churches/eras are Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

WCG taught that they were the “Philadelphia era”, probably because there is nothing but praise for that church, and because it’s nearly at the end of the list and therefore at the end “time”. The whole Church Era concept was fraudulent. As proof, all you have to do to shut that concept down is to say “prove it” – which you can’t. Done.

But some argue, “No you can’t ‘prove it’ but it still makes sense. So it’s still true because it fits.” But does it?

I was told to draw 19 lines on a piece of paper, each represents 100 years; it was another way of looking at 100 separate “19 year time cycles” (anyone associated with WCG should be familiar with Herbert Armstrong’s love of 19 year time-cycles).

Now let’s fill in the chart:

The last 100 years could be filled in by the Philadelphian church. But also the Laodicean church was to emerge when the Philadelphian church was hiding in the ‘place of safety’ – so there was overlap between the two eras during the last 100 year time era.

Sardis, taught by WCG to be the “dead church” of the Seventh Day Adventists, also existed simultaneously alongside of Philadelphia and Laodecea – so that last 100 year time period on your paper… shade that in with 3 overlapping and simultaneous church eras.

The first era was Ephesus, that was believed to have ended with the death of John the apostle around 91AD – so the first 100 year period? Shade that in with Ephesus.

Ok, the first and last 100 year periods are gone, and we’ve used up 4 church eras in only 200 years. That’s 3 church eras left to cover the remaining 1,700 years! This doesn’t sound very much like church eras at all and doesn’t make any logical sense.

So now that I don’t believe in church eras, or in church exclusivity, I started to be on the lookout for other potential issues than need a bit of tuning up. Armstrongism was still clearly true in my mind at this time, but there were a few issues, so there could be a few more. I decided to keep my eyes open.

Why aren’t we keeping ALL the laws?

I started reading the Bible, mostly Old Testament and happened across Nehemiah 10, which read…

And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath, or on the holy day

Victuals literally means food prepared to eat. So, no eating out on the Sabbath then? Bummer, because I loved eating out on the Sabbath – nearly the entire church group I was now attending with went out together to eat at a restaurant every Sabbath after services. But here it was in my Bible, and so I followed my conscience and stopped eating out on Saturdays.

People started asking me why I wasn’t eating out with everyone on the Sabbath anymore, I simply told them: I don’t believe we’re supposed to because it says so in Nehemiah 10. This started to become quite an offense to everyone. I didn’t even need to be in the room, my simple lack of attendance at these meals became sore point for many in the church group. One of the church leaders tried to “explain” to me that I didn’t understand the verse correctly, and that he would sit down with me and explain it so I could eat out again. I told him “I have a Strong’s Concordance and a Young’s, I’ve looked up all those words, I have no doubt about what they mean.” No further attempt was made to reason with me. My loss, they figured. They told me I’d come around as God gave me understanding.

Week after week I didn’t eat out and the minister begrudgingly / patiently tolerated it. But every week I didn’t eat out was like poking him in the eye.

But my take away was this: Why are we keeping only SOME of the laws and not ALL of them? Doesn’t it say in the Bible that we are to keep the whole law? And not to take anything away or add anything to it?!?

But I was still a law-keeper, a legalist, I thought we just weren’t keeping the laws right, and Armstrong had a little more wrong than I’d thought.

Bible Editing

The minister at this church group also had a bad habit. He tended to “correct” the words in the Bible to be what he meant for them to be. This was normal in Worldwide. We’d go back to Strong’s Concordance, find another place where the same Greek or Hebrew word was translated some other way elsewhere in the Bible, and substitute this new word into place in the offending verse, and voila! Instant meaning changes! But this guy did it a lot – to the point it started to bother me. I started keeping “tally marks” at the top of my sermon notes, so that every time he would change a word I would keep track. I did this for many months. I call this the Strong’s Game. He always scored. Sometimes he only scored 5 or 6, but other sermons he would score in the 30s or 40s!!

I wondered , “Why can’t I just read my Bible and believe it?” It seemed to me, that the more we played this Strong’s Game, the more we were correcting the Bible instead of letting the Bible correct us. One day after the sermon, where this minister spent a goodly amount of time telling us that Jesus was crucified on an upright stake and not a cross, I confronted him about it – nicely.

I said, “My Bible translates the word as a ‘cross’, and I’ve read in history that at different times the Romans crucified people both ways – so how did he know which way Christ was crucified?” Furthermore, to his point that “God would not allow Jesus to be crucified on a cross because the cross is pagan.” He said the cross was actually the symbol for the letter “T” that stood for “Tamuz”.  (They had English in ancient Babylon?) I replied that the upright post was also pagan, and that May-poles, obelisks and all manner of pagan phallic symbols filled the pages of pagan histories, therefore whether or not there was a cross beam, Jesus was without question crucified on a pagan symbol.

His reaction? Suppressed anger, red-in-the-face anger, though he did nothing yet. Still, the line had been crossed.

It was only a matter of time now before I would be kicked out of this church – this WCG split-off church that did not practice disfellowshipping – as well. I was not towing the line. But they were wrong about things, and the more things I caught, the more I got on my guard. Now I was listening to every message closely, listening for the errors (and marking the times he corrected the Bible in the Strong’s game).

Put out…. Again

Eventually the church that taught me to question everything and not to believe the speaker but rather to “believe your Bible” had that doctrine starting to backfire.

This time when I was “put out of the church” it did not faze me at all – I was ready, and when I was kicked out this time for finding yet more laws the church wasn’t keeping, my attitude was that of “challenge accepted”.

And so, my Holy Spirit was revoked - again - by no longer being part of the one true body of Christ in the form of the church - again.  This time I was cast into utter darkness over the phone.

During this phone call, I was actually reading this minister scriptures directly from the Bible and asking him to respond logically with scriptures while he instead shouted over top of me that “you do err, not knowing the scriptures”. I read him more things, and he yelled over top of me as if from some rehearsed script. He was livid. He was about to hang up and I said to him: you realize I’m reading you scriptures and you can’t respond to them right? You don’t have any way to defend against what I’m reading to you in your own Bible, you’re only recourse is to shout over me?

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He responded that I was put out of the church and kicked me out. I took it as a win. This time I was ready for it, it did not destroy me, or hurt at all – I stuck to the Bible, and he stuck to his old Worldwide ways.

It seemed to me that the Worldwide ways were starting to appear to bear bad fruit. By now I’d now seen many lives destroyed by Armstrongism. I’d now seen marriages broken up by order of Armstrong ministers. My love for Herbert Armstrong was all but wiped out as I had seen Herbert Armstrong’s MANY failed prophecies – hundreds.

I also learned this: Cults have “conditional love”, and love you as you support the organization, but hate you if you leave. I can testify.

You’ve got to be kidding

Yet somehow I managed to reason, “Ok, so apparently Armstrong’s prophecies were all totally wrong, and a lot of his other doctrines were wrong, but some of his other doctrines were still correct, right?”

If you guessed that the next thing I would do was to find yet another Armstrong split-off group, you would be absolutely correct. (facepalm)

But that’s how God was working with me – remember that I was born into this cult, and thought that I was persevering though trials, but holding fast to the knowledge revealed to the saints. I was slowly but surely taking steps out, one doctrine at a time, but it was not my intension to do so.

Every time I made some large steps away from Armstrongism via new understanding, I was blessed in other ways, sometimes impressively; and I did not believe that Satan blessed people to trick them out of Armstrongism. This was a common saying among Armstrong’s people, that if someone left the Armstrong church and had a difficult life afterward that it was because God was cursing them for leaving, but if you were blessed when you left as I was, then Satan was blessing you to fool you into staying out of the one true church. Reminds me of the witch trials – throw her in the water, if she swims she’s a witch and we’ll burn her. Can’t win for losing this one.

When I accepted another step away from Armstrongism, I noticed something in my head, that I now believe to be the Holy Spirit, pointing me to the next thing to challenge. Sometimes I stepped up to that challenge right away. Other times I’d delay, often for months or years before I’d really challenge that next doctrine. All the while, I attended Saturday church with this last Armstrongist group.

I remember talking with a buddy who would later be instrumental to my leaving Armstrongism. We’d read about the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and we saw one of them was ‘joy’.

  “We need that one” I said.

  He agreed, “And we don’t have it, and I think I really want that one. Joy would be my favorite fruit”.

    “I’m angry all the time at everything”.

       “And I hate everyone, and everyone’s an idiot”.

          “Maybe we’re doing something wrong.”

Lifeline tossed down

I was blessed with the acquaintance of a few real friends in this third group. Real friends – people that were true. No small amount of emphasis should be placed on this.

Nearly everyone in this final group were lifelong ex-members of the Worldwide church, and had found themselves orphaned away from other Armstrong groups, and formed a church by default because they had no other place to go. I still believe most of them to be honest and good people who were sincerely deceived.

One friend I found I happily found I could talk to about the doctrinal errors I would hear in the sermons. He was an older gentleman, superficially a grumpy old man, but he was wise and wily. Every Sabbath, after the sermon one of us would find the other one, and we’d say something like, “did you catch X today?” and we’d totally trash the errors in the sermon, often using our Bibles right then and there. We did not trash the speaker, our effort was to improve our understanding, and to identify error to improve our beliefs and seek truths. This went on for years.

I lost an argument

I was always sincere in my beliefs and was honest with myself in what I’d argued regarding Armstrong’s teachings, though there was less and less I actually agreed with. It almost felt like I was clearing a forest, one tree at a time. But now there weren’t a lot of trees left, and I didn’t want to lose those precious last few; besides, I had no doubt in the requirements of the Sabbath and the Holy Days, those trees were mighty indeed.

In retrospect, the reason I didn’t actively start reviewing every doctrine I believed in is because one of the hardest things to do in life is to eat crow and admit that the guns you stuck to were completely false. What if I was wrong? Have you ever argued with someone, and then come to a point in the conversation where you suddenly realized you might actually be wrong? What a horrible sinking feeling. Do you stick to your guns and keep arguing? Run away? Come clean? There’s nothing good, short-term, at the end of this. Fortunately, I knew I was not wrong.

Those who would say, “You should not discuss religion with someone and all you can do is pray for them”, I believe to be missing a big part of the picture. I understand this point of view, and the allure of not having to do anything at all except talk to God because it’s an easier thing to do. However, is that the Biblical example? We see Paul kept trying to win over the Jews and Gentiles, despite personal hardships (beatings, stoning, shipwrecks, left for dead etc.) and tried to convince them away from their defunct or false religions and into Christianity (Phil. 1:22-24).

Paul said in 1 Cor. 19-20:

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.

I think the example here is not that we can't help - Paul says he planted, Apollos watered, but Jesus gave the increase - instead, I think our approach needs to be like Paul's. For Armstrongists, we should approach them as one under the law and help win them to Jesus. I think our mistakes (especially after being IN Armstrongism) include bad-mouthing the prophet/apostle, and engaging in name calling. That's sure to turn those people away. But if we can follow Paul's example of being all things to all people, then I think we have a large role to play. That was the case for me.

Friends that didn’t give up

Another close friend had completely left Armstrongism. It was kind of shocking. We were in this third church group together for a few years. We grew up in Armstrongism and he’d thrown the baby out with the bath water! Sure there were some doctrinal issues, but we should just fix them, understand them and get better, not abandon everything we’d learned in our lives, right?

But he did abandon everything. I thought he’d lost his mind, and was deceived – there was not much I could do but pray for him, because I couldn’t actually win arguments with him – he did a lot of homework and was ready with answers. I was good at this too, but here I was on the losing end – had I lost my edge? No, he would come around someday.

I never really lost an argument before, at least not one that I had to admit to myself that I’d lost. Remember that Armstrongism is an entire framework of beliefs. Doctrine X can’t be wrong, because that would affect doctrine Y, and no we can’t argue about doctrine Y either because that supports doctrine Z and so on. Yet now I found in my religious discussions that I couldn’t solve some of the logic problems that hadn’t occurred to me before.

The problem is that I was discussing doctrines with an ex-worldwide member, someone who knew how Armstrongists think and reason, and he could make points than no Protestant or Catholic ever could. People like this were put-out and excommunicated for a reason back in WCG days - they know what to say, they know how you think.

New Challenges

I remained honest in my beliefs, and my arguments were for myself as much as anyone else. My buddy would drop little time-bombs off in my head. I knew what he was doing, but I could take it, right? For example, he mentioned that the doctrine of the United States and Britain being Manasseh and Ephraim was just false. Well that’s a pretty core belief that Worldwide held. All the prophecies were dependent on it, and it was one of the ‘vital keys’ to understanding Armstrong’s prophecies. I looked into it, and couldn’t find a shred of evidence supporting the claim. Another core doctrine gone.

I quietly knew there was nothing prophetical that Armstrong said that was correct. Ouch.

But at least I’m not a Trinitarian! I’m not a Sunday keeper! There was always some reason not to check out other churches, not to abandon everything I’ve known in my life.

Then something odd happened. I’d never experienced anything quite like this. I felt an actual urge to go check out the Sabbath and the Holy days. What?! No! I don’t want to do that – these were some of the only doctrines I had left! If I didn’t have these, then I had nothing! Let me be clear, I did not want to investigate the Sabbath and holy days. We are nothing if not law keepers. I’m not going to do that. But some urge inside me pointed me to do that. Seriously? I really don’t want to do that. But that’s what I had to do. I felt a sinking feeling when I contemplated what would happen if I were to lose this argument.

Fine. I’ll look into it. But I have my proof-texts – I can do this. I still felt pretty good about keeping the law. After all, they’re God’s laws, and God changes not!

The Law

This study expanded from just the Sabbath to all the laws we were keeping – I didn’t realize I was challenging legalism. After all, who wants to be illegal? Nevertheless, that’s what was happening. I had to look at the entire requirement of the law itself – into the covenant issue that supports the Sabbath and the Holy Days. I felt a degree of confidence. I’m on solid ground here.

Acts 15 was a critical puzzle piece for me. Here was a New Testament church group that was being told to “be circumcised”:

24 Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law” —to whom we gave no such commandment—

Wait, what was that? “The law”?? “To whom we gave no such commandment”??? What the…. Wait, no!

This scripture was just about circumcision! Not the law. But there it was – and there was nothing I could do about it.

And then Paul follows that up with these verses:

28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

That’s it? That’s all that the gentiles were ever supposed to do? No mention of the Ten Commandments? No other burden at all? I had just learned that I’m a gentile, and now this? Repercussions of this knowledge started bouncing around in my head.

Hebrews also started saying some really crazy things:

Heb. 9:13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Heb. 7: 22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

Heb. 8: 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

You can read Hebrews any way you want, but you can’t get that the old covenant is still in effect.

But the covenant is NOT the law – sure the old COVENANT is gone, but the law remains, right? I was taught that the covenant is just the agreement to keep the law; it’s not the law itself. The covenant changes, but the law remains. After all, God says “I change not”!

Ex. 34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

Seriously? The covenant IS the Ten Commandments? My subconscious must have known that was a bad thing to learn. Because if the commandments of Moses ARE the old covenant, and the old covenant is gone, then….

No, this was unthinkable. Surely the law remains! I found these scriptures regarding the law in the new covenant.

Romans 7:6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Galatians 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Hebrews 7:18 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness.

And there are many more scriptures regarding the law, similar to the above, I won’t put them all here, but there are a lot of them. A lot.

The Roller Coaster

All the tenants of Armstrongism were chopped down now, and I came to a point I call “the Roller Coaster”.

Death blows had been struck to my religion and I realized I had nothing left of Armstrongism. This was incredibly unsettling. I felt like I was in free-fall. Prophetic events of Armstrong, gone. Identity of nations and church eras, gone. The law, gone. Sabbaths and holy days, gone. What did I have left?? Tithing, unclean meats, gone. Church exclusivity, gone. The Armstrong gospel, gone. My identity is being stripped away. The law, gone. Is this what it feels like to be deceived??

It was so emotionally scary, and I felt like I was spiritually going over the big hill on a roller coaster. My whole life, and all these challenges to Armstrongism were click-click-click going up the hill, but now, … now I’m finally going over the hill and I don’t know what happens next, but it is so scary. There is no escape, and I don’t want to go.

Jesus.

This new guy I’d never really been taught about but read all about. The Gospel. Jesus was all I had left, and he’s the one who caught me. Jesus is what’s left when everything else is stripped away.

Peace.

For the first time in my life, I felt peace. No more anger at other churches for being wrong. No more frustration at other Christians for refusing to see the Armstrong truth. No more hating Christmas carols. (Why did I hate “joy to the world” so much?) No more anger with incompetent or deceitful ministers. No more Puritanical anger towards any behavior that didn’t meet the Church’s high standards. No more ager at my own lack of being able to keep the very law I defend. No more sweet-sweet anger at all. Just peace. And I liked it.

Joy. Finally!

As I started re-educating myself in the scriptures I found that elusive fruit of the spirit – joy. Yes, this is good and real, not self-righteousness, or arrogance that I know something others don’t know, but just real honest joy for the chance Jesus gave me. It feels like this huge weight has been lifted off my heart; a weight I clung to for so long, for no reason. I have never felt freedom like this.

Another friend, who was never associated with the Worldwide Church of God or its many splinter groups, also had a lot of answers I needed. I would assault him with my various proof-texts from Armstrongism, and he had some profound-while-simple answers for me, patiently explaining things. He’ll never know how much I needed those answers. There were lots of proof-texts to investigate, but now seen in the light of New Testament Christianity, and the new covenant, things made sense.

I didn’t have all the answers, but I had to step out on faith that the answers would come, and they did.

The Worldwide Church of God always taught that Paul is extremely difficult to understand. Yet now the writings of Paul were simple, and plain. Paul became easy to follow as he taught about the law, grace, faith, salvation and the gospel – it felt like the New Testament was magically unlocked as it never had been for me before.

Epilogue      

Thankfully I never converted anyone to Armstrongism. I tried. I thank God for that failure.

My buddies pointed me at church groups that could help me in my new-found Christian walk. I’d always identified as a Christian, but now I think back that I wasn’t really one after all. I’m the walking wounded, wondering if I can really be redeemed for the lifetime of deception I’ve lived. Jesus can fix that. God, I love you.

It’s not all easy either, being on this side. I’ve had to forgive people, and that is hard to do – but found later that I’ve been the one who’s healed by forgiving other people (even if they think they’ve done no wrong). For me, that’s really hard to do, but it gets easier each time. You can’t understand it till you try it.

I’ve had to eat a lot of crow. I have friends and family still in COG splinter groups. I’ve had to tell my parents that I’ve left the church they raised me in – that they’re still in – and this creates a lot of family and social awkwardness for us. They think I’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water. I pray for them most every day and try to plant subtle time-bombs in their heads when I can. I want them to have the peace and joy I have.

But through the challenges of leaving the Worldwide Church of God culture, and the challenges of living this new covenant Christianity, it’s still completely worth it. To know that I have life is so amazing. To not wonder if I’m going to make it into the afterlife. To know that I’m forgiven, and yes, even will be in heaven someday – that’s provable too. The peace and joy and life is worth it. I finally understand what Paul meant when he said:

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

I spent a good year kicking myself for being so stupid and believing things so easily disprovable. How could I believe things that were so well documented and patently false? What an idiot I’ve been. So much to atone for, so much humbling myself before friends and family, because it’s not easy to admit to being so monumentally wrong.

Recently, I’ve thanked the Lord Jesus for giving me the Worldwide experience. I’ve mostly stopped kicking myself. I am actually pretty lucky to have been in the Worldwide Church of God. Why? Contrast! I know what I believe, not just because my parents told me this or ministers preached that, but because I’ve studied and am ready with an answer. I can help people still in the clutches of Adventism and Armstrongism and Legalism in a way few other people are able. I can show people that the opposite of legalism is not “illegalism”, but rather a real relationship with God.

It wasn’t a lifetime for nothing, or a wasted life, it was the journey God set for me to take, and He never gave up on me. It’s been an amazing roller coaster ride, and it’s not over.

Thanks, "Centurion". We hope all the best for you on your journey. There is much hope in your testimony!
No... not over at all. Just beginning.
We are very proud of you for having faith in our Savior and stepping into the New Covenant in His finished work on the cross. Praise the Lord!

Current State of Armstrongism

A good friend of mine was asking about why the Armstrongist COGs splinter groups these days are stagnating and declining in attendance. I thought that was an excellent thing to ponder over.
General consensus among those in the discussion fairly well revolved around these major areas:

1) Availability of information on the Internet.
2) Lack of novelty.
3) Lack of charisma in leadership.
4) Sheer number of COG groups to choose from.

Some minor supporting points include:
- In-fighting between splinters.
- Aging membership.
- Failure to reach out in today's methods.

I want to expand briefly on the major points listed above.

Availability of information on the Internet

The fact of the matter is that the world has changed since 1843 when William Miller started the Adventist movement.
Back then, a KJV Bible and some spotty history was the recipe to a grand following. The United States was rife with optimism and naivete, and Protestant religious revival was in the wind. People were very low-information, yet zealous. It didn't take much to please them. Access to real information was a privilege of the elites in academia, and even then the information was inferior compared to today.
For some reason which I personally do not understand, the mid-1800's gave us some of the most regrettable events in religious history. From this time period came Alexander Hislop, the German History of Religions School, the Mormons, the Adventists (which in turn gave us the Jehovah's Witnesses, Sacred Names, the COG7, Armstrongism, the Branch Davidians, the popularizing of Sabbatarianism, and etc) - to name but a few.

When Herbert Armstrong began his research, he spent time in libraries reading books. He had this spare time because he was a failure at his career of advertising. His access to information wasn't even sufficient to bring up a cogent argument against Sabbatarianism, so he joined the COG7. Once inside the COG7, he came in contact with unorthodox ideas from the likes of Ellen G White, Charles T. Russell, G. G. Rupert, A. N. Dugger and C. O. Dodd, and of course J. H. Allen (not to mention various other sundry authors such as Adolf Hitler).
To his credit, Armstrong was an avid reader. That is good! Unfortunately, he did not seem to understand that one should always distinguish between good and poor souces of information. That is bad! He did not seem to make any distinction between the quality of one source or the other. He either was not able to get the information necessary to refute these poor sources, or he was unwilling to do so (or both).

The information problem compounded when he set out to start a college to train up a ministry. When Herbert Armstrong mixed with pseudo-intellectuals such as Herman Hoeh, the avalanche tore loose. Herman Hoeh would use his association with Ambassador College to gain access to books only available at Ivy League college libraries. With these rare works in hand, Hoeh invented and Armstrong approved a series of bogus historical narratives no average person could possibly look in to let alone cogently refute. The average Armstrongist simply had no hope of getting both sides of the story. They simply had no way of knowing that the histories they accepted as true were completely fabricated.

Not only that but when the lack of resources available to the laity meets up with the Worldwide Church of God's strict control over what information the laity was allowed to access the recipe was laity blissfully ignorant of what their leadership was up to. Not only did we have no access to necessary information, we were forbidden to access it even if we would have had it.
This isn't limited to academic material only. Church members had no idea how money was spent and wasted by the millions, how ministers were abusing their congregations, how Garner Ted Armstrong was womanizing at an astounding rate of speed, how Herbert Armstrong was eating pork with dignitaries the world over and barely even preaching to them, or anything about the true details regarding Herbert Armstrong's divorce or the receivership of the late 1970's. It's not as if these things weren't known. They were known! Just not by the rank and file membership. We had no access. One outlet, the Ambassador Reports, tried to shed a light on the truth but they were not taken seriously by most.
The situation regarding material generated by the church wasn't much better. Older church publications were destroyed and ordered to be destroyed, so few church members had access to past material that showed prophetic failures, doctrinal turnarounds, contradictions, plagiarisms, and a host of other foibles that might have saved them untold misery had they but known.

These days, that level of ignorance simply is no longer the case. At least it doesn't have to be. The Internet is a blessing and a curse, but thank God for it if you ask me! I'll take my chances. All of those things we couldn't get to before, they're all there now. The information is all there for anyone who is willing to look.

More and more people have come forward. Multiple blogs and websites exist to help Armstrongists and former Armstrongists. Doctrines are refuted. Plagiarism is exposed. Reader testimonials are shared. Contradictions and prophetic failures are pointed out. Abuses are brought into the open. Specific details of the court records are readily available. History can be set straight because books that were only available to the elite are (or were for a time) available to anyone on the Internet. Support groups are but a button-click away.

Today, there is little excuse for being unaware of these matters. Yes, there are websites dedicated to promoting and prolonging the errors of the system, and people have a natural tendency to believe whatever they read so long as it agrees with what they want to be true - it's not perfect - but at least we now have the tools to access the truth whether we accept it or not.

Armstrongist COGs these days are stagnating and declining in attendance because people are simply better informed.

Lack of novelty

One thing that Herbert Armstrong did not do during those early years when he was separating himself from the COG7 was that he did not just duplicate the COG7. He did not simply set out to gain followers by heaping titles and honors upon himself. Yes, he eventually did heap titles and honors upon himself, but that's not what made his following prosper.
What he did was he differentiated his product from his competitors. (And do not be fooled, people in those days knew full well what they had was a product.)

Armstrong was an advertising man. He knew the value of product differentiation. He knew what it meant to stand out in a crowd, and he knew what death awaited for any product that was just more of the same. He saw the appeal of British Israelism and the annual holy days. When he failed to really sell these and certain other notions to his branch of the COG7, he set out to sell them to the public. He had a niche and he had the know-how to capitalize on it.
Herbert Armstrong used his advertising experience to take his message to the radio waves. From the 1930's to the 1970's, most of the people who heard of the Radio Church of God, which eventually changed its name to the Worldwide Church of God, did so from radio programs.

What was that niche?
In short, J. H. Allen's British Israelism compounded with a few additional legal requirements created an attractive elitism. Toss on Alexander Hislop's concocted historical narratives to create a secretive conspiracy, and voila! It wasn't just about Protestant versus Catholic, nor was it just about the Sabbath versus Sunday. Now it was about being one of an elite group of people who were chosen by God to be given secret knowledge of a conspiracy stretching back 4,000 years, kept secret until this final hour before the return of Christ. Members of this elect group were called and chosen to fulfill prophecy by spreading the warning that doom and death awaited anyone not vetted into this "one true end-time church". This church superseded all previous churches; none of them would do. This was the final offer and it was only available while supplies last.

What a potent combination! Doomsday and Conspiracy. Fear and Pride.
Eat your heart out, Little Orphan Annie with your secret decoder ring. We have the keys to understand prophecy!

The problem with today's group of post-Armstrong leaders is that they have not learned the lesson of effective advertising.
They were told for so long that they had the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth that now they are in a predicament. No one boards a plane intending to be locked into a holding-pattern. How do you differentiate your product when you are more or less forbidden to change it and make it distinctive, and there are nearly a thousand other people selling the same thing?

Some groups are fence-sitting with this novelty stuff and trying to have their cake and eat it too. They want to be a new church, but still the old church, at the same time.
Herbert Armstrong died over 30 years ago, and the Worldwide Church of God had gone mainstream as Grace Communion International. Some people in the current splinter groups look at that and conclude Herbert Armstrong isn't important to their faith. But I call B.S. on that!

The splinters get everything they have from that man. Their leadership, their anointing, their doctrine, their sacred history, their traditions, their music, the format of their church services, their views on history, their views on prophecy, their writing styles, even their name. It all comes from Herbert W Armstrong. He was their end-time Apostle! You tell Rod Merideth that he was baptized and anointed by an irrelevant and false prophet and you see how he responds to that. Look at Gerald Flurry's website and see how references to Herbert Armstrong by far and away outnumber references to Jesus. Every last modern splinter COG is a continuation of Armstrong and his WCG whether they want to admit it or not. This is a fact and wishful thinking won't make it otherwise.
Besides, consider the hypocrisy of this denial. These same ones who say that Herbert Armstrong is not important to their faith rush to rub everyone else's noses in things that happened hundreds of years ago. Mention "Catholic" to an Armstrongist and one of the first things they think of is "Inquisitions". Well, the Inquisitions ended centuries ago. How can anyone hold modern Catholics accountable for the Inquisitions that ended long ago while simultaneously giving themselves a pass on Armstrong's failures which are to this day being continued!? "Do as I say not as I do" is textbook hypocrisy.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. It's not enough for a splinter group to verbally proclaim itself a new thing under the sun when in fact they are really just a re-heated leftover of the original.

The ones who forego the taboo of changing the "truth once revealed" are the ones who prosper. They aren't afraid of product differentiation. They have embraced novelty!
Ron Weinland changed so many things that his group barely resembles the Armstrongism of the past. He's got a created Jesus, women Elders, 32 "new truths", a long prison sentence for tax evasion. (Oops! That wasn't supposed to be in there.)
Bob Thiel has started his own group and now is, in some desperately cerebral way, attempting to create a brand new sacred history that merges his group with certain tenets of Greek Orthodoxy. If the Roman Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon and the Protestant denominations are her harlot daughters, then away with them! We'll just rewrite history again. Jettison the roots of Adventism altogether and anachronistically claim descendency from the East! One simply requires a feat of historic ledgerdemain and a degree of intrepidity. Ignorance takes care of the rest. (Problem is, few people understand what the heck he's on about.)

Armstrongist COGs these days are stagnating and declining in attendance because they lack novelty. Most will ride this same tired old message out until the last die-hard member simply passes away from old age and someone has to come along to turn off the lights.

Lack of charisma in leadership

Most of the current COG leadership try to solve the problem of brand differentiation by heaping upon themselves titles and honors. "I am this or that prophetic messenger!" "I am going to train this or that prophetic messenger!" "I have the most pure and unadulterated continuation of the original."
Unfortunately this approach is almost entirely dependent on the charisma of the glorious leader. If you don't have a glorious leader with charisma, as Garner Ted Armstrong had in abundance, then you simply cannot win with this approach.

Herbert Armstrong's personal charisma was high, far higher than any of his remaining followers, but Garner Ted's was higher. It was Garner Ted that was personally responsible for the greatest increases in membership from the 1950's through the 1970's. There was nothing in the entire organization or any of its competitors who could match him. He was handsome, intelligent, well spoken, had a baritone voice soft as butter, was educated in the areas that mattered, and you couldn't ask for better rhetoric. The women loved him. And through it all, he still seemed down-to-earth and approachable. He was a leader for the people. I tell you the truth if he hadn't been caught up in the church he would have been somebody.

Compare that to the current leader of the Intercontinental Church of God.
"Who?" you ask. Exactly!

Certain ones in the current crop of splinter group leaders have a portion of charisma, but they simply don't have enough. Their charisma is a flash in the pan. It may keep established believers, but gaining new believers is much more difficult. Cult of Personality can only take you so far. As with the Intercontinental Church of God, when the leader is struck, the sheep will scatter.
The universal method to overcome lack of charisma is to spend money. You have to have members to get money, then you have to spend money to get members. It's a catch-22. Not only that but you have to keep spending more and more money, which means you have to keep asking for more and more. There's only so long you can squeeze blood from that turnip. It never, ever lasts. It never truly can replace charisma.

Armstrongist COGs these days are stagnating and declining in attendance because their leadership lacks the charisma of old.

Sheer number of COGs to choose from

If you refuse to differentiate your product, and you lack charisma, how on earth do you expect to survive? Every "Tom, Dick, and Harry" ambitious leader believes they can split off of a larger group to start their own following. Then what? Who's going to pay for your little adventure? Who's going to buy you air time, or publish your "free booklet", or organize your Feast of Tabernacles site discounts and activities? You have all these "true" doctrines, but you have a living room with ten people in it ...half of whom are your relatives. Do you honestly think you're going to outlast the ages with ten people in a living room?? There are a thousand other groups out there who started just like you did and tomorrow there will be 1,001.

When the laws of supply and demand have their inescapable way on the sheer volume of COG splinters the result is the value of each is necessarily lessened.
For example, when the WCG was the world's only one true church, you bet your sweet bippie we marched in step. But now that there is a new splinter on every corner, why should I really bite my tongue with Minister A when Minister B is more than willing to take me in? Why should I worry if Minister A disfellowships me when Minister B is plenty happy to accept my tithe money? Why exactly should I not read all of the articles on As Bereans Did and tell my close friends what I've learned?

Oh, sure, we all dreamed of the day when the splits would be healed and the whole church would come together again like in the good old days. It would appear that was all just wishful thinking.

Groups that exist on charisma and split into ever smaller groups only exist by stealing away members from other groups. This is by definition. The very act of splitting means that the group only exists because it stole members away from another group. These members in turn eventually leave for other groups. This is just how it goes.
Global Church of God breaks off of Worldwide Church of God. Then Global breaks up and becomes Living Church of God and splinters such as Harold Smith's Church of God Fellowship and Al Buchanan's Belleville Church of God. Eventually, Al Buchanan retires and his church dissolves entirely while Elder Rick Railston splits off from Harold Smith's group to start Pacific Church of God. And on and on it goes.

Armstrongists tend to hop from group to group to group over the years. This looks great for the membership numbers of the group they are currently in, but overall the total number of Armstrongists as a whole diminishes. The trouble comes in trying to get an accurate head count. Artificially inflating numbers is a long-established practice that began in the Worldwide Church of God. If people think the product is more popular than it really is, then it sells more easily. This is beginner-level P. T. Barnum humbuggery, folks. Not only that but when someone enters a group they are counted, however when someone leaves a group they aren't necessarily marked off.

The end of cannibalism is you run out of other people to eat. They are defeating themselves and their dissenters don't even have to lift a finger.

Armstrongist COGs these days are stagnating and declining in attendance because of the sheer number of COGs to choose from.

Still, even with all of these challenges, some splinter groups continue to bring in new members. Good thing we have the Internet for just such an occasion!

If you are a new member in a Church of God, or if you are thinking of joining a Church of God, or if you know someone like this, or even if you are a long-time member in a Church of God, won't you please take a moment to check out our FAQ and Categories pages and hear us out? We believe we have something to say that you might just want to hear. We believe that we have a good case to make. And we would be honored if you take what you read here and challenge your close friends or even your minister with it; see what he has to say.

Dear reader, I do not intend to be insulting in any of this - not to you nor to anyone else. I speak about these things because they are relevant, not because I can't wait to poke someone in the eye or kick them when they're down. Maybe you have never thought about these things. Maybe you have thought about these things a lot and you have something to add to this list (comments are open).
Regardless, I hope and pray that our Lord grants you courage to face these problems head on, and that you do not fear. Do not fear to take a close look at how Armstrongism came to be, and what the state of it is today.
These systems feed on fear and uncertainty. Don't give it to them! Trust wholly in Christ whose ability to save far outweighs your ability to sin. Yes, dear reader, His grace is sufficient ...even for you.

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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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Rest In Christ

God was not tired when He rested on the seventh day of Creation. He did not rest from exhaustion; He did not rest from sin. He was simply done working.

So He stopped.

Day 1: Day and night.

Work done. Next task.

Day 2: Sky.

Work done. Next task.

Day 3: Dry land and plant life.

It was good. Work Done. Next task.

Day 4: Ordering the cosmos.

It was good. Work done. Next task.

Day 5: Sea life.

It was good. Work done. Next task.

Day 6: Beasts and man.

The work was all done. It was all very good.

Day 7: He stopped. There was nothing more to do.

No next task: there is no next task. It is finished.

At some unspecified point…. Adam sins.

It was bad. Work begins again.

Next task: bring mankind to salvation; heal the breach between man and God.

To do list: Prepare a lineage for the Savior. Preserve the people until the coming of the Savior. Prepare laws and prophets that identify the Savior. Be born. Fulfill laws and prophets. Die. Be resurrected.

(JON. 19: 30) So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

The work of salvation was finished. The veil was torn and the breach between man and God was healed. This is the very definition of “Savior”. It was all very good.

So He stopped. Not because He was tired, but because He was finished.

He sat down.

You can rest with Him from laboring to achieve salvation. He will give it to you, as a free gift. Just accept and believe that He is your Savior and stop trying to earn it yourself. Rest with Him.
Rest in Him.

(HEB. 4: 3a) For we who have believed do enter that rest

(HEB. 4: 9-10) 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

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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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