Forget the diseased, lunatic ravings of those who think the Great Tribulation begins in just seven days time. God's Apostle has already spoken - and there's no finer authority than that forgotten classic by Mister Armstrong himself - 1975 in Prophecy!
Of course, there's a small problem. This inspired work was withdrawn decades ago. In fact, by the time I began reading church literature in 1970 as a teenager, 1975 in Prophecy! had already been decommissioned.
Hmm... I wonder why? I sense a liberal plot by false brethren here, the precursors to the demon-driven STP cabal and the wicked Tkachites who trashed the Apostle's other inerrant masterpieces... until Gerry's flurry of final restoration.
But why won't Gerry reprint 1975 in Prophecy! ?
The more you think about it, there's got to be a niche here for a new COG sect: the real hold fast Philadelphians. Forget the crass, watered-down liberals like, um, Meredith, Pack, Bryce, Weinland, Coulter and Dankenbring. We could call it the Church of God (1975)... It has a certain ring! But how do we explain the fact that '75 came and went? Not a problem, let Herb be true and every man a liar. Think of it as the ultimate test of faith as you write out your tithe check.
Of course, if you want to be a charter member with a private box in Petra, you'd better get familiar with the sacred text, and here's where Bill Ferguson's Ekklesia site comes in. Click on this Ekklesia link and scan down the page (no. 6) to surf your way to astounding new, or should that be old, truth. Yes folks, this is the 1956 edition in PDF format.
And there's even Basil Wolverton artwork! What bliss... Not even Ronnie can offer that.
Meantime, reset your watches and adjust your calendars.
43 comments:
I actually managed to acquire an original copy of 1975 in prophecy a number of years ago.
Armstrong definitely set the date of 1975 being the year when christ would return.
It wasn't much longer and I was able to begin my journey to freedom from Armstrongism.
Shortly thereafter it was complete freedom from religion.
Thomas Munson
Fine Tom – you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Just as long as you know ‘What is truth?’
A Booklet like that should be called,
"70AD-90-100-200-300-400-500-600-700-800-900-1000-1400-1800-2000-2001-2007-2011-2012 'N All Them Little Numbers in Between in Prophecy."
Appropriate pictures from the Fall of Jerusalem, through the Middle Ages and The World Trade Centers can be used. I'd have a picture of Mayan Calandar on the last page with a big Smiley Face superimposed over that of Quetzcoatl.
For the Cover, I'd have Two Fishermen gutting the Two Fish of Pices, signifying the End of the Age with Aquarius looking on and washing away the fish guts from his pot of water.
At bottom of Booklet...
"Behold, I am with you, even unto the end of the age..."
:)
Concerning the Lion and the Lamb Logo...
"In like a lion out like a lamb"
The origins of the expression can be found in astronomy, though later it also became associated with weather. It has to do with the relative positions of the constellations Leo (the Lion) and Aries (the ram or lamb) in the sky at the beginning and end of the month of March.
Leo is rising each morning in March-April bringing on the fierce weather of spring and heat of summer while Aries the Lamb is going down at sunset.
"In like a Lion, Out like a Lamb"
The Astro-theological look UP fella definition of March-April
I bet Isaiah wrote his "prophecies" in the Spring. The sky was more Lion and Lambish for this around 800 BC
It's another way to say that things that don't normally happen will happen and it will all work out. We can hope.
With the booklet 1975 in Prophecy, HWA made two fundamental mistakes. The first one was, he miscalculated the start and end of the prophecy of Daniel chapter two, and arrived at the prophesied 2520 years being fulfilled by 1975.
The second mistaken he made, which was even more serious, was to specify the year Christ would return, when the bible clearly states that only the father knows the specific date.
These two mistakes(and all the other mistakes and wrong doings)were made against the background of the Laodacian condition of the church, which was spiritually poor, naked and blind. This is not an excuse, it is a fact!
However, the appalling conditions detailed in the booklet, and in other articles and booklets by HWA, are currently overwhelming families, the police, civic leaders, presidents and prime ministers in every country on earth! One would have to be struck by supernatural blindness to deny what is before our eyes!
So the prophecies contained in the booklet are being fulfilled and will reach final fulfillment, despite the scoffing of the those who are wise after the event.
Goofed up the quote of all things!
This is not an exact quote from scripture but rather a combination of thoughts from a couple of verses.
Isaiah 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
I let church tradition filter out the real scripture! An oft told tale.
1975 IN PROPHECY WILL HAPPEN!
HOW???... what if Spock and Kirk cant go back in time to the 1930s like they did on the episode "The City on The Edge of Forever"??
Going to the past thru the donut shaped "Guardian of Time", they were able to stop Dr. McCoy from aiding pacifist Edith Keeler from being killed in a car wreck.
Had Keeler lived, the timeline of the future would have been changed, and her political pacifism would have kept the USA out of WW2 for too long, and Hitler would have won the war enabling him to invade the USA in 1975!
I still believe that 1975 in Prophecy will still happen. It will just require that Spock and Kirk fail in their mission in the future on Star Date 2300 Mark 34 Dot Five-Six-Two.
Keep the faith!
Bill Lussenheide, Menifee, CA USA
Actually 1975 in Prophecy was 1900 years too late. "The time is (was) short" in the 60s AD according to Paul. It was in "this generation" according to Jesus. They lived in the "last days" according to John. The end of all things was "at hand" according to Peter.
Yep! HWA was 1900 years too late to get in on it. Even though, it seems that there are millions of people that really don't get it.
Wow! That brings back some memories. But, in my case, probably even more "off the wall" than you might expect. As an 8-year-old schoolboy, I was thrilled with my first copy of The PLAIN TRUTH – the April 1966 issue. The cover photo showed a rocket leaving the launch pad at Cape Kennedy. Garner Ted Armstrong's article I SAW GEMINI 8 BLAST-OFF reported: "President Johnson, after viewing the blast-off ... March 16, predicted Americans will be on the moon BEFORE 1970!" Exciting stuff, by anybody's standards!
Fascinatingly, the Personal from the Editor in that "first" issue consisted mainly of an apology written by Herbert W. Armstrong and addressed to Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield, author of The Passover Plot, taking responsibility for and retracting three sentences about Dr. Schonfield and his book which had been published in the January 1966 issue of the PT and which Dr. Schonfield had taken exception to. (Anybody else here remember that?) An interesting piece of writing, and maybe even unwittingly prophetic, although I'm sure most of the subtleties were way above my head in those days. But I did like the rocket. And I was also serious about wanting to learn more about the Bible – even if, when I heard Garner Ted talking about "immorality", I seriously believed it must just be the American way of pronouncing "immortality"! Clearly I still had a few things to learn...
But let's get back "on track": Of course I wrote off for the free literature that was offered in the magazine and on the air. One day I took the magazine, the "Who Will RULE SPACE?" booklet and 1975 in Prophecy! to school, and proudly showed them around to my classmates and teachers. My friends thought the "space" booklet was brilliant (they even adopted the title for a classroom project exhibit), and my teachers, clearly delighted that I was supplementing my reading of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish with some extracurricular material, literally said "Very good," although I do remember one of them saying "That's not a very nice picture, is it?" in relation to one of the Basil Wolverton illustrations. I'd love to know what else they might have been thinking.
As it turned out, 1975 actually was quite a momentous year in my life: having requested my first visit from an Ambassador College representative the previous year, I attended my first Feast of Tabernacles in 1975 – at Folkestone, on the Kent coast, where I accompanied Handel's Hallelujah Chorus on the Last Great Day, after arriving back embarrassingly late for the final rehearsal following a lunch date in a fish and chip restaurant. Naive I may have been (in fact, I was incredibly naive in some respects), but nobody can say I didn't have my eyes open as I proceeded to counsel for baptism and become a member in 1976. Why? I simply believed it was right – notwithstanding everything else that was and wasn't happening (and, indeed, without ever really being a fully fledged "true believer" in Eric Hoffer's sense – yes, I read his book too, as well as The Armstrong Error and The Armstrong Empire while all this was going on!) Anybody else remember Folkestone 1975 and still around to tell the tale?
Corky, two words:
inaugurated eschatology
When we were Armstrongists, we believed that we chosen few True Christians were the only ones who understood the Bible correctly, and most Christians misunderstood it. You’re not an Armstrongist any more, but you still seem to think most Christians are not privy to the true understanding of the Scriptures --- as if most Christians haven’t noticed that the Bible allegedly predicted the end of the world would occur in the time of the first Christians.
1975 in Prophecy served many useful functions-- could even be called a stroke of genius.
1) It kept the lay membership spun up about the WCG.
2) It attracted all of the science fiction fans (including me).
3) It made it seem like the financial support of The Work was absolutely urgent.
4) It made lay members feel special. The knew and others didn't. They would be taken to a place of safety and others would not.
But the warnings came earlier. I was in the Field House at Big Sandy in early 1972 when Les McCullough asked the question "Why are we here?" to a wave of snickers in the audience. This was the question that he usually asked before preaching the meaning of a Holy Day. In this case it referred to the fact that we did not flee to the Petra.
The downside was that 1975 was a fixed date. Credibility hinged on it. And the hinge broke.
-- Neo
Only about a week to go 'till the great tribulation. I don't hear of any strange and massive troop movements in Germany. The Germans must unite 9 other countries in a week, then send millions of troops here and other NW european countries.
The only other thing I can come up with is that the beast is not human. Rather the beast power and all it's soldiers are from the planet Zorkahn in the Beta Symplazoid Star system. They are humanoid, high IQ, born only to enslave us in the last days to force us into repentance.
But how could we have known the "truth" when Ron's church won't even allow us to attend his services or even know where they ar
I just sent in the comment about the planet Zorkahn, but it really is not about 1975.
Anyway I remember a sermon from Dennis Diehl, prob'ly on the Feast of Trumpets at Toledo's Bowsher High School in I'm thinking 1975. Dennis do you remember? A combined Toledo Findlay service. You said " Admit it now, we really did believe today would be the day that Jesus would return" We all snickered, chuckled. I said to the man next to me " The day ain't over yet" Well the day did pass and is well over.LOL
Tom said ...again, here we go...
So the prophecies contained in the booklet are being fulfilled and will reach final fulfillment, despite the scoffing of the those who are wise after the event.
********************************
Did the end come in 1975? Yes or no.
If not, then Herbert was a false prophet. His credentials as an prophet and authority figure were suspended at the stroke of midnight January 1st, 1976.
Tom also states with authority granted by himself....
"...appalling conditions detailed in the booklet, and in other articles and booklets by HWA, are currently overwhelming families, the police, civic leaders, presidents and prime ministers in every country on earth! One would have to be struck by supernatural blindness to deny what is before our eyes!"
Every generation thinks the new generation is more corrupt then the last one. The Romans killed their children just like the world does in this day and age. Your statement that we are blind is one of your self imposed, chosen by God and holier than thou arrogant rants from a mind that is mentally unstable. Go see a shrink and tell him this stuff. You might make a friend among those in "white coats."
As for this blog, that is it. When we can no longer discuss items of common interest without this blow hard named Tom, then the fun and education has ended! If I want to hear his crap I will stay up to 3:00 AM and catch old Spanky or Flurry speak Toms yarn of doom, gloom and hatred. Religious fools are a dime a dozen.
Gavin, he is yours! Keep him!
Kscribe.
Tom Said:
"These two mistakes(and all the other mistakes and wrong doings)were made against the background of the Laodacian condition of the church, which was spiritually poor, naked and blind. This is not an excuse, it is a fact!"
By what logic do you state that "These two mistakes(and all the other mistakes and wrong doings)were made against the background of the Laodacian condition....it is a fact!"
If it is a 'fact', please succently prove it to all of us.
Dennis said, "Goofed up the quote of all things!
This is not an exact quote from scripture but rather a combination of thoughts from a couple of verses.
Isaiah 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
MY COMMENT: Dennis Diehl, I always thought Isaiah 11:6 read: ".....and a little child shall lead them INTO THE WORLD TOMMOROW".
:-)
Richard
Jared Olar said...
--- as if most Christians haven’t noticed that the Bible allegedly predicted the end of the world would occur in the time of the first Christians.
Allegedly? It's not allegedly, they did predict the end of the age in their lifetime. The problem is that christians refuse to believe what Jesus and the apostles said.
They say they believe in Jesus but they deny what he said about "must shortly come to pass" and "this generation". Was Jesus a liar? You are saying that he was, I'm not.
>>Gavin, he is yours! Keep him!<<
I don't remember offering myself to Gavin, and I am absolutely certain that he won't want to be responsible for me.
Corky said...
>>>Actually 1975 in Prophecy was 1900 years too late. "The time is (was) short" in the 60s AD according to Paul. It was in "this generation" according to Jesus.<<<
Firstly, these are bear assertions, unsupported by evidence or argument - and another bear assertion is enough to deny them!
Secondly, if we accept your logic or interpretation of what Jesus and Paul said, we are driven to the inescapable conclusion that they were just as mistaken as HWA, and that Jesus was not perfect!
Tom observes, "if we accept your logic or interpretation of what Jesus and Paul said, we are driven to the inescapable conclusion that they were just as mistaken as HWA, and that Jesus was not perfect!"
Hey Tom, BINGO! You got it!
Jesus was human. He got things wrong once in a while and even threw an occasional tantrum (in the temple and over the fig tree) if you believe the historicity of the gospel accounts.
But on more weighty matters: those "bear assertions" of yours have me worried. Cookie Bear? Pooh Bear? Yogi Bear?
You could make a great ghost writer for Dr. Thiel. That's an assertion I dare to bare.
And now I'm off to make a honey sandwich.
Ned
'...as if most Christians haven’t noticed that the Bible allegedly predicted the end of the world would occur in the time of the first Christians...'
Check the article: The Second Advent - mistaken? in New Horizons magazine (www.cgom.org)
CORRECTION
'...as if most Christians haven’t noticed that the Bible allegedly predicted the end of the world would occur in the time of the first Christians...'
Check the article: Second Advent...mistaken? in New Horizons magazine Sept/Oct 2007 (www.cgom.org)
Ned said:
>>And now I'm off to make a honey sandwich.<<
Make me one as well. It might help my dyslexia and word blindness, and I also hope it improves your logic, at least BEARly-:) Oops, should that be barely?
"But why won't Gerry reprint 1975 in Prophecy! ?
let Herb be true and every man a liar."
Too funny, Too funny !
I came in around the time of the 1972 Herbal editorial "apology" where Herb stressed he "never actually set dates". What a pack of lies, this booklet proves it !
This topic brings back a lot of unpleasant memories, particularly after reading Tom's (yet another) post stating that herbie's prophecies are being fulfilled "As we speak".
To the people lurking here that believe this as well as Tom, I have this to say in all seriousness as one human being to another:
You can take *any* 10-20 year period in the last 2000 years and apply the same logic to it. There have been, currently are, and always will be, wars, earthquakes, famine, disease epidemics, genocide, etc. The first few years of the 21st century are no different than any other. This is not in dispute. What I suggest in the strongest possible way is that you consider the possibility (however remote you may feel it is), that you are wrong in your interpretation of current events. This is especially important if you have young children. Many of you were not born into the WCG but joined of your own free will and I can advise you with full confidence that to tell your children that "Time is short", "The tribulations is near", and everything else that goes along with that, does *terrible* things to a child's mind and perspective on life. If you as adults want to believe that everything is going to pot in the next 5-10 years, that is your business, but to burden your children, who look to you for truth and guidance for all information, is child abuse of the first order. Your children will live fearfully, have nightmares, be more prone to depression, suffer a sense of separation from peers, and will make or not make decisions as they approach adulthood that they shouldn't based on this feeling of impending doom.
Think about it...How many times do you have to be wrong before you consider the fact that the very basis for your thought process is or may be flawed?
Your children will wonder with each passing spring or fall feast if *now* is the time things will happen, they will worry that they will not grow up, graduate school, get married, have kids, a career, and a future. They will worry that they are not going to make it to your fabled 'place of safety'.
Delude yourselves if you want, but do not cast a pall on the years of childhood and potentially seriously harm their psyche and influence them to make poor choices.
Let them plan for the future you don't think is in store for them...The good one.
PS to Tom: It isn't accurate to label us as scoffers. We are simply applying common sense. People like you and herbie have been making these pronouncements regarding current events for 2000 years...and failed *every* time.
Check the article: The Second Advent - mistaken? in New Horizons magazine (www.cgom.org)
Personally, you could do me the favor of not "outreach"ing to me, K? Thanks. I've already been a member of the Armstrong cult and out of it for 33 years, so I am not the least bit interested.
Tom Mahon said: <<< With the booklet 1975 in Prophecy, HWA made two fundamental mistakes. >>>
I disagree, Tom. Herbert did exactly what he wanted to do, and it worked. The only purpose of 1975 In Prophecy was to terrify people into sending money to Pasadena. It worked. When 1975 didn't happen, Herbert used a different tactic to terrify people into sending money -- he said "You people AREN'T READY!!!"
And it worked again.
The Third Witness wrote: "Fascinatingly, the Personal from the Editor in that "first" issue consisted mainly of an apology written by Herbert W. Armstrong and addressed to Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield, author of The Passover Plot, taking responsibility for and retracting three sentences about Dr. Schonfield and his book which had been published in the January 1966 issue of the PT and which Dr. Schonfield had taken exception to. (Anybody else here remember that?)"
No, I didn't remember that, so I went back and re-read the whole editorial online. Herbert the pervert apologizing? That didn't sound right. In the purest technical terms he apologized, but he spent several pages deflecting the blame onto several other members of his staff. In the end, he comes off as so righteous that none of his readers would blame him for any mistakes. Now that's more like the Herbie I knew.
What catastrophic event led to this retraction? One can only wonder or speculate that a team of high priced lawyers were about to take Herbie to the cleaners. Money is the only thing that would motivate him to such a phoney act of contrition.
You make some good points, Baashabob. The focus in my comment was elsewhere, but I had similar thoughts myself (this time around, I mean, with 42 years of hindsight!) There's also a remarkable sentence near the beginning: "Now I didn't intend to make this particular mistake." Think I'm going to have to seek counsel on that one (next year in Jerusalem, Dennis?).
This Herbie recap is minor history compared to the Apocalypse Ronnie the Terrible is about to unlease on the world, REPENT! I SAY REPENT! and recognize Herr (opps) MR.Weinland as your only personal savior, time is running out. Ronnie going to Jerusalem for Passover all hell about to break out, no more Mr. Nice Guy for Ronnie.
This just in.....First photos
Weinland Begins his Ministry in Jerusalem.
Film at 11
http://rense.com/general81/prophet.htm
My Worldwide Church of God reflections
1972 in Prophecy! God’s Practical Joke?
By Richard [Last Name Deleted]
Bombs dropping on America in January, 1972!
So proclaimed the prophecies of the “Apostle of God”, Worldwide Church of God head Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA). I still have vivid memories of the dark and cold January nights of 1972. I would hide in my bed under my covers trembling in fear of the beginning of the great tribulation as prophesied by God’s Apostle and the church’s ministry. Occasionally, I would get out from under my covers and look out my Laurel, Maryland bedroom window to see if I could see the Germans that were ready to strike in my neighborhood as God’s punishment on America. Years of sermons, co-worker letters and congregational chat had prepared the way for the final climax with the German attack. There was even a gruesome Armstrong booklet entitled “1975 in Prophecy”. According to Armstrong theology, the great tribulation was to begin in January, 1972. God’s Philadelphian people were to be taken to a place of safety in the Middle East land called “Petra” while the remaining Laodiceans were to go through the horrible great tribulation with the rest of the world, and Christ would return to earth in 1975 commencing the wonderful world tomorrow.
The 1972 prophecy revolved around Armstrong’s commencement of “The Work of God” in January, 1934 and a belief in “19 year time cycles”. Armstrong theology taught that God’s Philadelphia Church era began in 1934, and that exactly 19 years later, the significant event of the Church’s radio broadcast going on the air internationally in Europe occurred in 1953. The second 19 year time cycle would complete the work in January, 1972 and the great tribulation was to begin lead by Germany attacking the United States.
People strove to be Philadelphian to be counted worthy to escape the great tribulation. This meant having zeal for “the Work”. The amount of zeal displayed for “the Work” often translated into the amount of financial support sent to Armstrong. When January, 1972 arrived, I assumed I was not worthy to escape all these things since I was still in Laurel, Maryland and not in the Petra place of safety.
Apparently, God (or somebody) forgot to tell the Germans about their unique rendezvous with destiny slated for 1972 as the prophecy didn’t quite turn out as Armstrong and the Church had preached!
Background
Many years have now passed since I stopped attending the Worldwide Church of God (I now refer to Armstrong’s multimillion dollar business empire as the Worldwide Church of Fraud). I’ve had virtually no contact with the Church or its members in almost 30 years. Yet, the impressions of this religious experience remain with me. This retrospective essay is written based on my own personal experiences, my handwritten Sabbath Service notes and several of Herbert Armstrong’s Co-Worker letters.
Recently, I rediscovered some old boxes while cleaning out a closet in my home. In those boxes, I found old Herbert Armstrong co-worker letters and my Sabbath Services sermon notebooks. To read the sermon notes and Armstrong’s letters 30 years later is quite amusing. Some statements made by “God’s ministers” are now very laughable. It is also quite shocking as they record an unhealthy church that was quite manipulative and greedy in nature.
As an introduction, my earliest memories of Herbert Armstrong are found in my grandfather’s old farmhouse near Traer, Iowa in the early 1960s. We would take our annual summer vacation to visit our family in Iowa. I have an early childhood memory of my grandpa sitting in the kitchen listening to Armstrong on the radio, no doubt over 50,000 watt KXEL originating from nearby Waterloo, Iowa. I must have been about 7 years old at the time. My grandfather had been a subscriber to the Plain Truth magazine since the early 1950s. My father took no interest in the broadcast, but my mother certainly did, and she became a subscriber to the Plain Truth in the early 1960s.
In the 1960s, we listened to Garner Ted Armstrong on local religious station WBMD in Baltimore, Maryland, and in the evenings on the 50,000 watt powerhouse WWVA from Wheeling, West Virginia. The broadcast could also be heard on Sunday evenings from WRVA, Richmond, Virginia. My mother subscribed to the magazine and enrolled in the Bible Correspondence Course for 5 years before she became aware that there was an actual Church behind the broadcast and the magazine. In 1968, my mother was visited by ministers Ken Westby and Tom Williams of the Church. Both ministers had just transferred to the Washington, D.C. area, and invited my mother to church as a result of the visit, but they themselves did not know exactly where the church met because both had just transferred to the D.C. area that week.
My mother and older brother began attending the Washington, D.C. church. I was not interested, but my mother later convinced me to go and I began attending church several months later. My church notebook records my first services to be on October 19, 1968. Mr. Bruce Nedrow gave the sermonette on “Avoiding Post Feast Doldrums”. The sermon was given by visiting minister Milo Wilcox on the subject, “Why Don’t We Have
Biblical Articles in the Plain Truth Magazine?” Oddly, I must have missed the point as my sermon notes don’t provide an answer to the sermon question. Worthy of note, however, is Mr. Wilcox quoted as saying, “The Vice President has heard the broadcast”. Based on the date, the U.S. Vice President being referred to had to be Presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey. How he knew Vice President Humphrey had heard the broadcast is unknown, but statements like this were no doubt made to re-enforce Armstrong’s importance and credibility in members’ minds.
Similar statements about important people who knew of “The Work” are found later in my Sabbath Service notes. On January 31, 1970, Mr. Westby gave a sermon on the “The Work” in which he made the following statements:
• “Senator Edmund Muskie flew from Boston to Washington with Mr. Garner Ted Armstrong. He knew about our work and what Ambassador College is doing”.
• “We know as a fact that President Nixon and Vice President Agnew have heard and know about us.”
• While Mr.Westby was at the Ministerial Conference, the President of Metromedia Television was touring the College.
• “A top official of Belgium was at Ambassador College”
• “When the Rohan case came up, Israel leaders wanted to know about us, so Mr. Armstrong wrote two letters to the leaders. Now the leaders regard Mr. Armstrong as a prophet.”
In December, 1968, I received my first doses of traveling evangelist Gerald Waterhouse. At a bible study on December 4, I learned World Tomorrow prophecies such as “Job will straighten out the cities” and “Noah will take the job of solving the race problems”. On December 7 (a date that shall live in Worldwide Church infamy), we had a combined church service with other churches at a dark and dingy old rental hall on Eastern Avenue in Baltimore. Reading my sermon notes from this occasion over 30 years later reveal a manipulative message that I now realize was intended to extend control over the peoples’ minds. Waterhouse preaches “God’s people are different from society. The only way you can be out of a society is for God to take you out….God has to take us to a place (of safety) to mold us into the right society”. Waterhouse later preaches, “There will be no rebels in the World Tomorrow. By the end of the work, all the people who stayed loyal will be taken to a place of safety”.
These were the beginnings of an eight year period of my life which I attended the Worldwide Church of God with my family. During that time, since its local churches did not own their own buildings, I received quite a tour of local rental halls and school buildings in the Washington/Baltimore area. In the early 1970s, the Baltimore Church met at Westview Cinema on Route 40. This meeting place was quite unique for the Worldwide Church because it was a nice large twin movie house with very plush comfortable seating. My recollection of the Baltimore Church was an attendance of about 600 people at the time.
When I look back on my Worldwide Church experience, after years of brainwashing, I never dreamed in 1970 that I would someday live to be 20, 30, 40 or 50 years old or more. It was so drilled into my mind by the Church that “time was very short” and “the end was very near”. I never ever dreamed that I had a future to live in this life, and subconsciously deferred life experiences, even after I stopped attending the church, because I believed time was very short!
END OF EXCERPT
Richard
Charlie,
Excellent post!
The Apostate Paul
Charlie said:
>>>You can take *any* 10-20 year period in the last 2000 years and apply the same logic to it.<<<
I don't know about "any," but I agree that history often repeats itself, with different characters in different locations. But if you are arguing that world conditions are not worse than they were 30 years ago, then, you must have found serenity in some isolated community.
However, I am old enough to remember when it was unacceptable, at least in the UK, for couples to live together before marriage; when to have a child out of wedlock was an embarrassment, as it was a bastard. Today, couples just "shacked up" together, to used the degrading phrase, and don't care that their children are bastards. In fact, many couples now have a number of children from several unmarried relationships. And what is disturbing, they are devoid of the shame that nature has bestowed upon natural human decency!
In addition, I also remember when homosexuality was cloaked in secrecy, because those who wallowed the perversion were ashamed to display it in public. Surely, you don't need me to tell you what the situation is these days!
Furthermore, I could write about the rampant, gratuitous violence that plagues every neighbourhood, town and city of of our respective countries. Our prisons are bursting at the seems, and most of the criminals are not even being caught!
This post is already too long, and I haven't mention corruption in business and government, wars, upset weather conditions, which Douglas said was control by Satan, but my bible says is controlled by God, and a flawed economic system founded on the rich lending to the poor at extortionate interest rates, which God commands his people to come out of.
If the horrors listed above, do not indicate to you that our so-called civilisation is unjust and degenerate, and will collapse like Sodom and Gomorrah, then, feel free to go back to sleep. You might be awaken with a bang!
Tom Observed:
"Today, couples just "shacked up" together, to used the degrading phrase, and don't care that their children are bastards."
Let's see, God, or the Holy Spirit was married and living with Mary when Jesus was conceived. No wait...Mary was 12 ish when God...hmmm, God made Mary pregnant, but didn't marry her, but then she lived with Joseph who disappears from the Birth Accounts faster than a speeding bullet and Mary ends up alone again with Jesus being born of some kind of fornication making him a bastard according to the locals and biological realities.
"Mom, I'm pregnant. But don't worry, it's by the Holy Spirit."
"Oh ok Mary, no problem. Kinda young aren't you?"
"Yeah, but I guess underage teen is ok when it's a Deity"
"Ok Mary, I agree...did you tell Dad?"
"No, could you tell him?"
"If the horrors listed above, do not indicate to you that our so-called civilisation is unjust and degenerate..."
Tom, Charlie wasn't talking about "horrors" such as homosexuality and the breakdown of marriage, he was speaking of "real" horrors, the kind that are supposed to presage the end of the world- "wars, earthquakes, famine, disease epidemics, genocide, etc," and how that these things have been happening since the dawn of recorded history.
The Apostate Paul
It's a shame that in this modern age there are some who would have us believe that things are worse than 2,000 years ago when warfare was a way of life.
Back in a day when life expectancy was only about 30 years - if a person was lucky enough to survive the first 12 years of life, that is.
Back in those days were better than today? Things are getting worse and worse? The impossible German/Assyrian is sneaking around in the back yard, ready to pounce on us and take us captive to a non-existent ancient Assyria?
Why do people want/need a boogey man to scare them into being decent acting hypocrites? Is it because people don't give up their hard earned money unless they are scared out of their wits first?
You should know that a god would know that you are only pretending to 'love' him to escape his wrath. So, pretending to love him/her/it to escape him/her/it won't work. Fear tactics only make hypocrites, that is, "god-fearers".
That's why "love god or he will throw you into the lake of fire" will not work. Love cannot be commanded, "thou shalt love the Lord thy god" is a totally empty and absurd commandment that cannot possibly be obeyed. It's as empty and meaningless as "know god", you can't know something that is unknown and unknowable. That's why religion is only an exercise in futility and wishful thinking.
We can't even believe what Jesus said because we don't even know what Jesus said. All we have are copies of copies of gospels written a full generation after he supposedly lived. All we have is what someone said that he said, in fact, the whole book is hearsay, nothing more.
How's all that for bare assertions? Basis for the assertions is 2,000 years of a "no deposit no return" Jesus. You may wait 2,000 more years and the same basis will still be there.
The incessant beat of the Tom-tom goes on and on. He is as ignorant of history as he is of spelling and grammar. Like I said earlier, I doubt if he even passed his O-levels.
He decries the poor state of modern marriages. I guess he is unaware that marriage has never been defined in the bible as holding a piece of paper or having the priest officiate at a ceremony. Biblical marriage is living together, in the same way that he deplores. I would rather be raised in a loving, committed, "shacked up" family than in any of the abusive "legitimate" marriages that I knew in the "church".
Then he rants on about open homosexuality in today's society, ignorant of the fact that in Greece and Rome, and in other societies down through history, homosexuality was, from time to time, an accepted norm. That doesn't make it right, of course, but it isn't new either.
Violence, corruption, wars, and bad weather have all been around for millennia.
And last but not least, he points to usury as a sign that we are in the end time. Duh, if usury wasn't already a problem back in Moses day. then perhaps the Tom-tom can explain why it was necessary for a law against it in the OC?
But according to Tom-tom, these things are all sure signs of the end of the age!
Baashabob said:
>>>Then he rants on about open homosexuality in today's society, ignorant of the fact that in Greece and Rome, and in other societies down through history, homosexuality was, from time to time, an accepted norm.<<<
If my arguments were as cogent and persuasive as yours are, I would also adopt an alias.
May I recommend reading John B. April 10 article entitled "Death Sentence" over at the Painful Truth website. I could very much relate to John's 1960s WCG experiences, and the feeling of no future as I've tried to relate in my essay excerpts here on the AW website.
Richard
DennisDiehl said...
"No wait...Mary was 12 ish when God...hmmm, God made Mary pregnant, but didn't marry her..."
This is a lot of points here that I would take issue with....
But first of all on what basis do you state as a fact that Mary was '12ish'?
Corky said: Allegedly? It's not allegedly, they did predict the end of the age in their lifetime.
Well, some people think so.
The problem is that christians refuse to believe what Jesus and the apostles said.
Or Christians disagree with you about the interpretation of what Jesus and the apostles said.
They say they believe in Jesus but they deny what he said about "must shortly come to pass" and "this generation".
But that only raises the question of why the people to whom Jesus and the apostles spoke accepted their words as true, wrote them down and copied and recopied them, making sure they were never lost or forgotten -- even though they knew those words were false. Think about it: does anybody quote the words of William Miller as uniquely authoritative and insightful any more? Do Armstrongists still carry around copies of 1975 in Prophecy? No, all the false predictions are swept aside or covered over with a stream of fresh spurious predictions from Armstrong's wannabe successors.
But that didn't happen with the alleged predictions of Christ's First Century A.D. Return. They were meticulously written down and transmitted to future generations. They're still quoted and discussed and debated today, whereas most Armstrongists today are unaware of the predictions and dates he came up with back in the 1940s.
Was Jesus a liar? You are saying that he was, I'm not.
You're saying Jesus was a false prophet, so yes, you are saying he was a liar. I, on the other hand, am saying he did not lie, because he didn't do what you claim he did. He and his apostles didn't say the world would end in their own lifetimes. And yet Christians also believe that we today live in the Messianic Kingdom, and that the Second Coming has both already happened and is yet to occur. This is why Byzantine Catholics and Eastern Orthodox pray in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, "Remembering, therefore, this command of the Savior, and all that came to pass for our sake, the Cross, the Sepulchre, the Resurrection on the third day, the Ascension into heaven, the Enthronement at the right hand of the Father, and the Second, glorious Coming, we offer to You these gifts from Your own gifts in all and for all."
For Christians, Calvary 2,000 years ago just happened a couple seconds ago, and the Second Coming will happen in just a few more seconds, and indeed happened just this morning, because time works differently for a Man who is God. In the Eucharistic liturgy, timeless eternity meets earthly temporality -- the future is now, and the past isn't past.
Corky said: I've already been a member of the Armstrong cult and out of it for 33 years, so I am not the least bit interested.
I took a look at the CGOM article. It takes the approach that, "Yeah, the apostles did say Christ would return in their own lifetimes, but sometimes prophecy is conditional, like Jonah and Nineveh. Christ was only going to return if Israel had repented, but Israel didn't repent, so Christ changed His mind. Israel [i.e. the white people of Western and Northern European origin] still hasn't repented, so Christ still hasn't come back yet."
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