(For the record, AW regards British Israelism in any form as irredeemably fallacious, totally discredited, and intellectually indefensible.)

It would seem that the Bible and Scriptures are very clear in what to do in many situations, but between what it says and what people actually do is a tragic gap. Let's take what practices people within the church of gods use with the ministers of the church of gods.

Let's start with Roderick Meredith. Note the bulleted items below:

"documented proof Hitler did not die in his bunker" Plain Truth, February 1965 [Actual fact: Hitler probably didn't die in his bunker. More likely he was taken out of his bunker and shot by the Russians. However, what the Divine Dr. M meant was, that Hitler was still alive.]

"trade embargo by European Common Market will ruin Britain and US" Plain Truth, February 1965

"within three years by 1969 society will have collapses in America; millions will flee into cities" Sermon, 1966

Turkey will prevent the United States Sixth Fleet from fleeing from Nazi European air attacks and will stab America and Britain in the back, Plain Truth articles in the Sixties

"at the conclusion of the drought and floods we are now just beginning to suffer this nation is going to be punished by horrifying DISEASE EPIDEMICS - plagues." Plain Truth, August 1957

"In addition to those warnings ...we will soon find that hoof-and-mouth disease will spread COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL!" 1956 Plain Truth; Title of article: 'Disease Epidemics Threaten USA in Two Years!'

"After 1965 we are destined to run into increased 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.' ...We will begin to experience the pangs of starvation and of scarcity of goods." 1956 Plain Truth; Title of article: 'Disease Epidemics Threaten USA in Two Years!'

"Protestant leader credited the Roman priests of Europe as being 'the minds behind the (European Common) Market', the real planners of this coming Holy Roman Empire which is prophesied to arise in Europe and CONQUER America and Britain within the next 10 to 12 years ... It is later than you think." Plain Truth, June 1963 [Actual truth: the true "Minds behind" the European Community after World War II were Robert Schumann, Jean Monnet and - most of all - Winston Churchill.]

Meredith proclaims Jerusalem will remain a divided city between Israeli and Arab states until it is taken into captivity: "HALF the city is taken into captivity - yet the other half is not killed or taken away! So Jerusalem is now READY for his prophecy to be fulfilled. It is already a divided city. The stage is set!" Plain Truth, August 1963 [Actual Truth: Less than four years later, far from losing Jerusalem, Israel conquered the other half of it and still retains control at this moment of writing 31 years later. Not only were the Israelis not taken into captivity or driven out, they didn't do that to the Arabs either. The Palestinian Arab population of Jerusalem is at the time of writing more than double what it was at the time of the Israeli conquest.]

"Dozens of prophesied events indicate that this final revival of the Roman Empire in Europe -and its bestial persecution of multitudes of Bible-believing Christians - will take place within the next seven to ten years of YOUR LIFE!" Plain Truth, February 1965

Franz Josef Strauss will build the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe back into the most powerful air force on earth, the terror of the world--Plain Truth, Repeated in  articles from 1956-1962, when Strauss was German defense minister.

"I will abide by the Board's decision" Sermon, 1998. Actual Fact: But Meredith had no intention of obeying the orders of the church board:

But other ministers came with us and were being added to the Board of the Church and to the Council of Elders. As time went along, some of the Board and Council members began to talk of cutting back on doing the Work of God. As I resisted this, they became more and more presumptuous over the last year. Threats and insinuations made it obvious that if I did not "go along" with them that they would try to remove me from the Board or Council. In fact, in our September Board meeting, they even - over my objections - removed my wife, Sheryl, from the Board and changed the By-Laws so that they can REMOVE ME not only from the Board or Council, but actually disfellowship me from the Church! This makes it VERY CLEAR where they are headed!

The board of the GCG was quick to respond to Dr. Meredith's throwing down of the gauntlet. Almost immediately, evangelist Larry Salyer, the director of the GCG's ministry, wrote to the GCG ministry with the approval of board members Raymond F. McNair, J. Edwin Pope, and Norbert Link. A second letter, covering most of the same issues, was written jointly by the four men and directed to the entire GCG membership. In the letter to the GCG ministry, Salyer wrote:

This is a very difficult message to write, and I know that many of you have somehow come to believe such accusations and rumors about me that you may not even care to read what I write. Nevertheless, it is my duty to write, and I will.

This message is from the Board.

I am truly sad to say that after a full day of discussion and guts-out "negotiation," Dr. Meredith has separated himself from the Global Church of God, and as a consequence the Board had no choice but to terminate his employment with the Church. In spite of the rancor apparent in the letter Dr. Meredith mailed to all members on Monday [23 Nov.], today's meeting ended amicably, with handshakes and hugs. We bear Dr. Meredith no ill will, and told him we would continue to pray for him. He hoped we could have friendly contact in the future.

We, the remaining Board members, must respectfully but categorically deny the long list of charges and accusations contained in Dr. Meredith's letter. We consider the letter extremely libelous. Particularly alarming is the fact that Dr. Meredith revealed in his letter that he was already setting up a competing corporation and that he was asking members to send all their tithes and offerings to his personal address, while still in the employ of Global and drawing his paycheck from Global. In addition, we consider this to be a breach of his fiduciary duties as an officer of the corporation.

It should be understood by all that the aforementioned letter was written and mailed during an interim period in our discussions, which we had agreed to so we could all pray about these decisions. Let me amplify that. We held 8 hours of Board meetings on last Thursday and Friday [19 and 20 Nov.] without reaching a successful reconciliation. Both "sides" had proposed certain actions and neither was able to bend enough to solve the conflict.

Dr. Meredith had posed the possibility that he would "leave Global," which he had also mentioned during our recent Council meeting. We recessed the meeting until Tuesday [24 Nov.], at Dr. Meredith's request, so that he could have time to pray about it. We asked him directly if he would "try to stir up the Church this weekend." He said "No, I won't do anything this weekend." Nevertheless, during the weekend we heard that he made many phone calls to field ministers asking for ministers to "stand with him."

Then, late Monday afternoon [23 Nov.], in what could have only been miraculous intervention, we learned that more than a quarter of a million dollars had suddenly been drained from Global's bank account, through the use of unauthorized checks, signed by Dr. Meredith and another individual who had no power to sign any checks. Further, one six-figure check was payable to the very person who signed it without authority. Thankfully, this miraculous intervention allowed us to stop payment of those unauthorized checks. But we learned that fully one half million dollars was moved from our investment account to the operating account to cover the checks. The only conclusion we can draw from this even larger unauthorized transfer of funds is that even more unauthorized checks were planned to be written later. A logical conclusion considering that all of this was done in secrecy!

By the way, these actions were justified by saying that the money was being used to pay back loans to individuals. Maybe so, but that process always involves authorization and is done according to strict agreements and payback schedules agreed to by all parties. In this case, the loans were not due and payable, and the checks were hand-written, apparently outside office hours, and not through the person who is responsible for such checks. The immediate effect would have been to put the Global Church of God in financial jeopardy and on the verge of bankruptcy. When pointed out that this action, in our opinion, might potentially constitute criminal activity, Dr. Meredith suggested that we could just tell the bank that the signer was a 68-year-old man who didn't quite know what he was doing.

Roderick Meredith went on to break his promise, left Global with a loan they couldn't pay, and went off to form the Living Church of God.

He lied, he broke his promise and he turned on his own hand-picked men to make them his victims, all because of ego. Worse, he proposed that they all commit a felony! He is also a criminal thief, more than willing to suborn perjury.

Prophecies pass, they don't fail.

How many failed prophecies does it take to make someone a false prophet?

Just one.

Concerning prophecy, Kscribe of Church of God Industries had an excellent presentation on "1975 in Prophecy", where he made the point that anyone who abuses others is obsolete. Church of gods leaders have used false prophecies of "secret knowledge" for years to abuse others, just as an abusive husband abuses his wife. Roderick Meredith is obsolete.

Just in case things are not clear enough, check out Matthew 7:15 and note that Jesus Christ himself is quoted as saying that false prophets are ravening wolves. Prove one and you have the other. There is no Generation-Y "make nice" where "we can't judge what people are inside". We can. And we were commanded to do so. If you are a lamb who has compassion for a wolf so that you insist none of us say bad things about him, will you be any less dead when he eats you?

Notes on British Israelism and Prophecy

Once you find that British Israelism is a crock, you pull out all the hidden belief systems in your brain associated with it. Everything but everything in Armstrongism revolves around British Israelism and is what distinguishes it from any other Church of God, Sabbatarian or not, and from the Charismatic Jews who keep the Sabbath and the Holydays.

Without British Israelism, the whole system of Armstrongism falls apart, even the True History of the True Church--which has a lot of British Israelism embedded in it.

But more than that, you need to consider that without British Israelism, there is no return of Christ for the Churches of God. None. You see, God is powerless: He cannot allow Christ to return until the United States and British Commonwealth go into captivity. Maybe the Arabs today, the Germans, yesterday. I'm not sure anymore who the "King of the North is". No, wait! That's just crazy talk.

Unfortunately, asking one to forget about British Israelism, once it is introduced, is like telling someone not to think of a bright green rhinoceros with rippling zebra stripes for the next five minutes. Once it's there, it's there for good. It's insidious because of its persistence: It just never goes away. When you adopt Armstrongism, British Israelism just sits in the back of your brain to take over control of your thinking every time you touch history or look at prophecy. No longer can you take an objective look at, say, World War II, nor can you read Revelation and Daniel without this inner voice leading you to put historical or future events in the framework of Ephraim and Manasseh dominating the world because they are the sons of Joseph. Every thought begins to be colored. You can't open the New Testament and read what Jesus said to his disciples without somewhere in the background thinking of some aspect of British Israelism. It's just there. You can't rid yourself of it. If you could, you could be a reasonable person again--even after 40 years of utter confused nonsense. But, unless or until you can rid yourself of the idea of British Israelism, you are doomed to be trapped in a fantasy world from which there is no escape.

Concerning that fantasy world, it might be well to look at an article by John D. Keyser. There's nothing like being confident and provably wrong.

So, did you forget about the bright green rhinoceros with rippling zebra stripes? You bet you did: British Israelism kicked in to make you forget all about the rhinoceros.

As a religious narcissism, British Israelism is also replete with racism and sexism. I've heard various church of gods cult leaders at various times note in passing that the black races will serve the yellow and white races because of the blessings and cursings of Noah and also who the United States and British are in relationship to Israel.

Knock off British Israelism and you might still keep the Sabbath, Holydays and even New Moons, but it won't be Armstrongism any more. The class distinctions of the peerage were carried over into the ministry. The oppression of the poor and the neglect of the fatherless and widows were justified for the superiority of the Lords of Royal Blood--Herbert Armstrong related to the Crown of England, a direct descendent of King David, if you don't believe the class distinction. Unfortunately, the religious narcissism of British Israelism fit right in with the narcissism of Herbert Armstrong in the Church of God, Seventh Day, even though Dugger and Dodd passively resisted his attempts to bring it in as the core of their religion. But Herbert Armstrong dug in his heels and rebelled and we have paid for his belief in British Israelism.

Not to put too fine a point on it: British Israelism is a form of Nazism--Nazism with a twist, but still right of Genghis Kahn.

One more thing.

False Prophecies.

There are dozens of false prophecies by Herbert Armstrong, none of which came to pass in his lifetime. Guess what? For the most part, nearly every false prophecy that he gave was rooted somewhere in British Israelism. And God was so very stubborn: He just wouldn't let the prophecies of Herbert Armstrong come to pass!

Just as false prophecies can never produce anything of any worth, British Israelism has shown that it is incapable of producing anything of any worth. In other words, British Israelism cannot and will not produce positive fruit, ever. None. Nada. It is less than useful; it is harmful and damaging.

And British Israelism is at the core of Armstrongism.

Continuing:

What was the reaction of the people following Roderick Meredith and what should they have done?

Let's create a matrix based on the Bible, shall we?

[My personal thanks to Bob Etheridge for finding the relevant Scriptures.]

One could make a similar matrix for Gerald Flurry. He's so bad, he claims to be "That Prophet!", which means he is teaching that he, himself, is Jesus Christ in the flesh and not just in the spirit. If that is so, it would appear the Jesus is an alcoholic and a wine bibber after all.

And then there's GTA, but he's already dead. The people follow his divorced son instead (I Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6).

If you want Prophecy, check out David Pack and Norman Edwards.

And what about Tkach? Assuredly, he is innocent?

From the Ambassador Report, AR49, we have this:

Those who remember him as a student at the WCG's Imperial School in Pasadena during the late 1960s and then at Ambasssador College from which he was graduated in 1973, say he was not a brilliant student. Indeed, some classmates considered him "a goof ball."

After graduation he was a ministerial trainee in California, Indiana, and Arizona. Ordained in 1976, he was also cut from the WCG payroll that same year. Between 1976 and 1986, Junior took a few extension classes in psychology from Arizona State University, worked as a social service worker, earned an MBA from the small Western International University in Phoenix, and then worked for Intel Corp. for a couple of years. Since being lured back to employment in the WCG, his father has had him raised to evangelist rank.

Divorced from his first wife, Jill, in 1978,⁸⁶ Junior remarried in 1980. Those familiar with Junior's first marriage say it was a tumultuous relationship. Friends of Jill say Junior was an habitual wife beater and Jill, now a born-again Christian, has told friends that Tkach Sr., himself, even struck her on two occasions. The following letter from a former member of Junior's Arizona flock reveals something of Junior's character and personality:

I knew both Joe Tkach Jr. and Jill, his first wife, in a personal way [because my wife and I spent considerable time traveling with them on church business].... It certainly came as no surprise when we were apprised of Jill divorcing this "Hitler"! Certainly I could not blame her for such overdue action. I say this not from hearsay, second-hand scuttlebutt, or rumor, but because my wife (who still clings to the cult) and I witnessed his outrages first hand.

On one occasion, Mr. T. invited my wife and I to ride along on their trip to Prescott, Arizona where he was to give a Sabbath sermon. Jill was driving while Mr. T. Jr. was in the back seat preparing his sermon. Jill missed the turn-off to Prescott from the Phoenix to Flagstaff freeway. She had driven about 10 miles past the turn-off when we realized that she had gone by the Prescott exit. Mr. T. Jr. blew his top, to say the least! He cussed and swore at Jill from that point, 10 miles past the turn-off all the way to Prescott, about 60 miles from the freeway as I recall. He called her every vulgar name in the book: "an S.O.B.," "a stupid imbecile," "a F---ing bitch,"; and he said "God D--- you!"- except he said whole words, not just the starting letters. He just kept screaming the epithets at her. While he continued to scream out those deplorable rantings and ravings, I wondered if I should tell him to shut up. But I knew that if I did I would be disfellowshipped on the spot. After searching for years to find what I most ignorantly assumed to be "God's One True Church," and being taught never to question, much less upbraid, one of "God's ministers," I bit my tongue and felt embarrassed that a fellow human being would react so disgustingly to such a trivial mistake.

It's interesting that the moment we pulled into the church parking lot, Mr. T. Jr.'s personality did a 180 degree somersault. He smiled and greeted the deacons in the parking lot, apologized for being late, gave his sermon, and acted as though none of the turmoil in the car had ever happened. Mind you, he had carried on in the car ranting and raving for over one hour straight! Jill was left in tears by his tongue lashing. I remember thinking at the time - if he would mistreat his wife so horribly in our presence, how far would he go in brutalizing her in private?

Some time previous to the above incident, we were visiting his home when my wife asked him a question about [erotic] fantasies. He told her that fantasizing was perfectly normal, that he himself did this, and that he even encouraged his wife to fantasize about other men!⁸⁷

I recall he said that he hated his Dad and that his father was a "little dictator" who had never shown him any love. The picture he painted of his father was nothing like the picture painted of Mr. T. Sr. in the Worldwide News where he is supposedly a family man who loves children. However, the description given by Mr. T. Sr. in the 7/17/89 WN of people in the WCG jockeying for position does fit perfectly my recollection of Mr. T. Jr. When Mr. T. Sr. became transformed from being a "little dictator" - as his son had described him - into being a "big dictator," he dangled a one-quarter to one-half million dollar carrot in front of his son's nose. That is what caused Mr. T. Jr. to want to gravitate to Pasadena in 1986. At his going away party, he told my wife that he had really changed. Well, I have to wonder. Someone who has, doesn't have to boast about it.

A considerable amount of evidence accumulated by AR indicates Junior has really not changed at all, but has only gotten better at concealing his leopard spots.⁸⁸

So what's wrong with that?

Proverbs 22:24 "Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:
:25 Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. " (KJV)

Like father, like son. Tkach, Senior had a legendary temper. Perhaps, his son inherited his father's intermittent rage disorder.

The point is that Scripture clearly advocates the wisdom of not participating with an angry man, to keep from falling into the trap of following a bad example. Proverbs 29:22 says "An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. " (KJV). If congregations follow the example, they too will abound in transgression.

United has its own problems with allowing gay men write articles in The Journal about their sexual appetites, permit fondling of under age teenagers by local elders and allow a stalker to pursue his infatuation with a married woman, instead of putting him out of the church until he shows forth the fruit of repentance as commanded by the Apostle Paul in Scripture--the couple went to court to prove their point and got a restraining order effective to bar the man from the same Feast Site they attend.

What it really looks like is that the leadership of the church of gods wants very much to look like, be like and be respected as Moses. If so, it is fraud. It is also an inappropriate lust which is one of the worst forms of idolatry possible. You can be very sure that any hierarchical church corporate environment will see you as a lesser entity and will not accord you any respect. Equality is the only workable relationship which will produce good results. Demand it. If you find you cannot work as a mature partner because someone insists on dominating the group and cannot be stopped, it is time to leave. The very first time those in positions of respect break their promises and lies and it cannot be mitigated, it is time to leave. Lack of trust does not foster a healthy relationship, only a sick one. Arrogance severs relationships.

Stability is another factor to consider, which is the companion to the integrity of keeping promises and telling the truth. The church of gods has a long unfortunate history of instability. According to Scripture, God is not the author of confusion. Nevertheless, confusion reigns. It's just one thing after another. A person would accept a job at Ambassador College at Pasadena, quit a good paying stable job to gather his family and travel 3,000 miles, only to find that the job had disappeared in the middle of the trip. How does that old Frank Sinatra song go? "Call me irresponsible, call me unreliable, throw in undependable too! ...But it's... undeniably true!" According to the Bible, God is reliable. You can have faith in Him. If you can't rely on anything in a church of gods and find it is unstable and unreliable, it is not of God and it is not something with which you want to be involved. You will regret staying.

The congregation has a responsibility to keep their leaders accountable. They have not done so. Will they not bear the consequences and be held accountable themselves?

In some cases, it appears that the leaders have committed felonies.

Phil Frankford observed: "I wonder if these folks ever thought of starting a prison ministry? It might be something they should look into and get ready for. "

Phil proposes that "Without public confession, public sin is not forgiven".

It would appear that the people are not in the practice of doing what the Bible says to do.

What will be the consequences?

Death?

Just how explicitly clear does Scripture have to be?

When will congregations do what they are supposed to do?

What tragedies will have to ensue before people wake up?

Maybe the church of gods is not the place to be?

As cold, cruel and insensitive as it might sound, Jesus Christ may very well have had this in mind when he commanded, "Let the dead bury their dead", but note what he said first: "Follow me". Do what Jesus said, "Follow me"? Now that would be a really significant change for the congregations of the church of gods who follow men instead.

A congregation needs to take control. The people of a congregation should run 'church business' by consensus. A church should run itself as a "high performance work group". The days of autocratic control by one person or a small cadre of elite should have been over long ago: The form of structure predates the Twentieth Century and should have scrapped. There is no "authority from the top down". We are supposedly discussing "converted" people who know how to put their differences aside for the good of the whole. The New Testament shows no advocacy of having a human dictatorship in a hierarchical government over "church people". It would appear that to do so, would be against everything Jesus Christ taught.

At some level, the people in the congregation know this, but have elected to sit in the back seat in order to engage in little more than entertainment. Giving up personal power creates a vacuum into which a scoundrel or group of scoundrels quickly fill. Once the scoundrels take control, it is almost impossible to get it away from them. Usually, the entire congregation must leave and create a new charter to start over, if they want any semblance of equality in the say how their own congregation should run. People have abandoned their responsibilities to hold each other accountable and follow the pattern of Scripture they claim to believe--but in practice do not. As long as people are lazy and not diligent to be observant, they will let the wolves enter in and make all the decisions for them--and they will pay a severe high price for their lack of diligence.

The lazy oldsters are going to pay in another way: As generation-y, "The New Millennialists" look at what their elders have done, they will abandon the church of gods for something more reasonable and more fun. The youth of the next generation is lost to the church of gods, which is now a place holder in history for people who lack any kind of true spiritual maturity in spite of their gray hair and have been all too willing to give their power over to those who can't even get prophecy right. The church of gods has become nothing more than a place holder for salaries and retirement for the highest ranked scoundrels in the church. If the ministry can't get the prophecy right, what makes anyone think they are qualified to teach any of us about God: They don't even know right from wrong. Respect for the ministry is totally inappropriate: They have proved that they don't know what they are talking about. Why continue to listen to them? Why bother to go to them for counsel? They don't know anything of any worth. Or, to put it another way, they are totally wrong. If congregations persist in allowing this, there is nothing but grief ahead. There can be no excuse for listening to narcissists, psychopaths and crazy people at this point, not to mention tolerating gross incompetence.

Isn't it about time the congregations of the church of gods followed the precepts of Scripture as they claim to do?

If they don't, do they have any right to complain?

Also visit http://www.cultabuse.com

Ambassador Watch: http://www.ambassadorwatch.co.nz

Last Updated: Saturday, April 09, 2005