No longer abiding (and other stuff)

The tiny Abiding Church of God is apparently no longer abiding, given that its website is down and its FB page hasn't been updated since last year. The group first came to public notice just last year as a splinter from Dave Pack's Restored Church of God (RCG). Maybe the webmaster just gave up, or perhaps the whole mini-sect has imploded. Does anyone care? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

If you haven't already seen it on Gary's blog, there's an excellent interview with Dennis Diehl available on the Ra-Men YouTube channel. Gotta say it, Den does an exceptional job. The interviewer is "Amon-Ra", who recently took Pack's idiotic take on creationism apart (one largely shared by other COG bodies) one bleeding chunk at a time. Great questions, great responses. The presentation lasts just under an hour.

What's happened with the Painful Truth blog is a bit of mystery. There are only three current posts up, then everything seems missing till it starts again back with May 2011 posts. What happened to everything in between? Douglas?

Note: the Abiding website is up again. Whew, what a relief.

Siesta time for Otagosh

UPDATED.

Keeping two blogs running is a demanding task, at least as far as I'm concerned. Over the years the balance has shifted back and forth between Otagosh and Ambassador Watch. The idea was to post more theological material - particularly related to biblical studies - on the former, and Church of God stories and commentary on the latter.

To simplify things I've decided to include all new Otagosh stories on AW first. The existing blog won't disappear. If you just want to view the latest posts that relate to the kind of things Otagosh has covered you can weed out the often surreal COG content with the Otagosh-specific link http://ambassadorwatch.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Otagosh 

Every so often, time permitting, I'll reblog relevant posts back over on AW as well. We'll see how it goes.

Gavin
 

The dangers of rose coloured glasses

Ah, the good old days before the world went to hell in a handcart. Things are just so bad these days, and they're only going to get worse. Oh, to wind things back to simpler Fred MacMurray My Three Sons times.

That's a popular narrative today. These are unsettling times.

But were they any less unsettling twenty, forty, sixty years ago? Really?

Pam Dewey has been busy producing a short (20 minute) "docucommentary", The Best of Times, part of her ongoing MythAmerica project. Here's the link where Pam introduces her work (which she also narrates) and where you can access it. Just hit play and don't forget the set it for full screen.

The Plain Truth About Balaam's Ass

If you thought you already had a handle on the famous talking donkey tale, you might want to check out Paul Davidson's blog. Things are not as simple as they seem. Paul provides a mixture of archaeological data along with some impressive textual detective work that explores the contradictory information found in the Bible. This is one of the smartest biblical commentators I know of, and he makes a pretty watertight case. The Balaam character evolved down the years from a prophet of God to a pagan bad guy.

If you needed any further evidence that the Bible can't just be read at face value, this about clinches it.

Rehashing Ernie

If you were around in the 1970s you'll remember the name Ernest L. Martin. Arguably Ernie was the greatest threat to the WCG at one stage, a former high-flying faculty member at Ambassador College with a disarming personal appeal. He was the Herman Hoeh of "the resistance" (like Hoeh his doctorate was unaccredited) and hugely influential as members started questioning things for themselves in the wake of the 1974 ministerial crisis. Martin talked and wrote openly about the New Covenant, the irrelevance of tithing and Sabbaths and something he termed "progressive revelation". He also adopted a form of "universal reconciliation" - inspired in part by Alfred. E. Knoch's Concordant Publishing Concern.

Not to say that Ernie was a "liberal" by non-COG standards. In many ways he continued to embrace a very wooden, literalist understanding of the Bible. Theologically tolerant he was not. I well remember a peevish letter he sent to Christianity Today making fun of an article on the Trinity. Many in the ex-WCG community however considered him a scholar without peer, especially as he churned out book after self-published book on everything from the Jerusalem temples to the star of Bethlehem. He died in 2002, and is modestly immortalized with a short Wikipedia entry.

Martin's magnum opus was supposed to be a fresh translation of the Bible putting the various books in what Martin considered their original order. After his death the task was passed on to James Tabor, from where it seems to have been slowly killed off.

In recent times Ernie's legacy has been faithfully promoted by David Sielaff. Sielaff continues to beat the prophecy drums, and to turn up to events like a recent "prophecy conference" in Colorado Springs. In his latest monthly newsletter to the dwindling faithful he explains how his views differ from the prophecy-obsessed evangelical fringe which he seems to freely mingle with. Sielaff also regurgitates a 1977 article on prophecy by his master.

The disciples of Ernie and his Foundation for Biblical Research (since morphed into Associates for Scriptural Knowledge) once made up the most radical wing of the WCG diaspora. Today what remains is looking very tired and shopworn. 

Everybody forgets Fred

Pack, Flurry, Meredith, Thiel, even Weinland. The narcissistic sect leaders we all so love to comment on and critique. If this was a soap opera, these would be the stars. Stringing along would be the leaders on a leash; Kubik and Frank (it's a shorter list) under the "also starring" label. Everyone else is relegated to an occasional "guest appearance". I suspect David Hulme is looking at a complete contract cancellation.

But trotting alongside patiently, often barely noticed, is Fred Coulter. Fred parted ways from the mother-ship shortly after Ted jumped into the shark-infested waters in 1978. Prior to that he was a California-based pastor, produced his own self-published Harmony of the Gospels and occasionally hosted a call-in radio show. Fair to say that, even then, he was a bit outside the usual ministerial stereotype. Perhaps he jumped before he was pushed. Fred established the Biblical Church of God (BCG) and produced a magazine called Bible Answers.

Alas, Fred had a Spanky moment (or more accurately, in later years Spanky was to have a Fred moment). Problems arose. The peasants were revolting. People were getting ideas above their station. Fred relaunched with the Christian Biblical Church of God (CBCG)... leaving the stroppy underlings out of the picture.

While Fred doesn't have a lot of profile, it isn't through lack of effort. In some parts of the world (New Zealand is one of them) the faithful followers of Fred are batting in the big league (the big league here being any COG sect with a mailing address and a minister).

It seems to me that Fred isn't to be counted among the more abusive COG leaders, which may be why he flies under the radar as much as he does. Listening to his sermons is an acquired taste - he makes Rod Meredith sound simply riveting by comparison. Don't believe me? Try his 1 hour 20 minute ramble on Brexit.

CBCG has recently held an Elders' Conference. Counting spouses, kids and curious members, over 150 are said to have turned up at the Hilton Cincinnati Airport Hotel. Actual elders? 17, including Lyall Johnston from New Zealand. Other registered attendees? 7.

(Lyall is an interesting chap. I knew his parents and brother's family in Invercargill many years ago. Genuinely nice people. Lyall returned here several years ago in the wake of WCG's dissolution and - please correct me if I'm wrong - attempted to get credentialed as a mainline minister. He apparently took on the job with Fred after the Stephen Gough fiasco and an initial transfer of leadership to son Chris Gough.)

Being a sprat in the fishpond doesn't stop Fred from thinking big. Some years ago he translated the New Testament into a kind of updated King James Version (A Faithful Version). No mean feat. How many COG translations other than Fred's can you think of? The Old Testament followed, but as I understand it he just bought an existing translation then edited it to fit his agenda, tweaked the proof texts (Hebrew isn't on his CV), then bunged it on the front of his New Testament. Full page ads in the BAR followed lauding the excellencies of this Bible, though he had to scrape pretty deep to find any favourable reviews to quote.

Speaking of the Bible, hallelujah, there's an app. The Fred Bible on your Android or Apple device. I needed to have a lie down and slowly sip a cup of weak tea just to bring my excitement under control. Sadly, I have too many thirsty apps on my phone as it is, so I guess I'll give this one a miss.

G(C)I Joe on Brexit

Joe Tkach has ventured forth to offer enlightened commentary on Brexit in his Weekly Update.

"You have likely heard a lot over the last couple of weeks about “Brexit.”"

Yes, likely.

"GCI-USA Regional Pastor Rick Shallenberger was in the UK the week of the vote and sent me this report".

 On holiday was he? I guess Rick is one of the few left on the payroll.

"What bothers me the most, Joe, is to hear Christians speculate that this decision fulfills prophecy, some indicating that it aligns with British-Israelism. I even heard some say this decision makes way for the rise of the Holy Roman Empire. It saddens me when people read more into an event than is there. The British people need our prayers as they transition into a new reality for the country. Whether or not this was a good decision, it happened and so we pray for the people involved. We also continue to pray that God provides the means for the gospel to be shared in Great Britain."

The trite comments about providing "the means for the gospel to be shared in Great Britain" deserve a separate response, something about "American Evangelical Imperialism", but maybe another time. More to the point, given that Rick will have been chatting to local GCI members, not rabid LCG/PCG types, it seems all that quoting of Torrance and "Trinitarian theology" has had little effect on the doughty survivors from WCG days. Guess that's a "fail".

Back to Joe Jr.

"Years ago, Hebert Armstrong (our denomination’s founder) did say that Britain would eventually leave the European Union. But he did not get that idea from Scripture—he got it from others who taught what is known as Anglo- or British-Israelism... It’s all too easy to grab hold of a few prophetic statements someone makes, thinking they are right and thus should be followed. But we must look at the larger picture. Herbert Armstrong (along with others) made multiple prophetic statements eventually proven wrong. Mr. Armstrong twice wrongly predicted detailed time-frames for end-time events, including Jesus’ return. Major erroneous predictions like those far outweigh the few, relatively minor predictions that actually came to pass."

Did you catch the typo... Hebert Armstrong? Not a professional look Joe. Must have fired all the employees willing to proof read his stuff.

Overall what Joe says is fair comment, and the sort of thing you might read here. I suppose we have to acknowledge that Joe at least addressed the elephant in the room as Brexit has dominated news... Herb's prophecies on Europe, albeit in a hand-wringing, passionless sort of way.

Then it's back to the gelatinous platitudes.

Real or Knockoff? The Pack magazine.

David Crowl Pack's The Real Truth mag reminds me - more than any of the others on offer - of The Plain Truth which arrived in the family letterbox when I was a teenager. There's a certain nostalgia in the layout, the fonts, even the graphics that take me back to 1970 or thereabouts.

Which is no surprise really. Pack apes "the Work" as it once was. He's not smart enough to realize that time moves on, and the gold standard for the PT in the seventies rapidly evolved by the time Herb Armstrong passed on to his eternal reward. If you're in your thirties, forties or even fifties, the trick won't work nearly as well, but if you're just a tad older you might well do a double take. It's as if time has stood still - only the bylines have changed.

For a start there are those long 'personals' from the editor. In Two Keys to Success! we learn about Dave's Uncle Frank who embodied the first key; out-thinking those who get in your way. The second key is perseverance. Wow, never would have thought of that by myself.

The cover story is The Real Story of American Freedom in which Ryan L. Caswell asks "Why is America Different?" Guess what? It's all to do with British Israelism.

Edward L. Winkfield writes about "The Hidden Economy of Drug Trafficking", while someone without a name opines on "What does God Think of Political Debates?" It must be nice to have the inside track on what God thinks about things that never existed in Bible times. David J. Litavsky is the designated expert on the Yemini civil war, and Packatollah Dave returns with "What is the Unpardonable Sin?"

Full page ads promote a reprint article (remember those?) titled Are You Being Called? (unlikely if you're reading The Real Truth), a booklet called You Can Build a Happy Marriage (run, run like the wind, and don't look back! Dave is the guy who said in a sermon "you don't have a voice woman") and on the back page Dave's slavish rewrite of America and Britain in Prophecy.

It's like stepping into a time machine and arriving forty plus years in the past. Unlike Discern and the unlamented Vision, you can apparently get The Real Truth in print form, though with Dave juggling those nasty bills who knows how much longer that will continue. Alternately you can download the issue from here.

Advocating a Different Spirit

I'm conflicted about the Bible Advocate. Years ago - we're talking the early 1980s - I was a hard copy subscriber. If nothing else it proved to me in my traumatized post-WCG state that a kinder, more generous form of COGism did indeed exist out there, albeit relatively small and distant. I still check out the magazine, though these days only online. It's not exactly riveting reading, especially for folk raised on the decadent triple-chocolate prophetic confections promoted by the mad-as-a-meat-axe Armstrong wing of the movement. The BA - published by the Church of God (Seventh Day) - is more like home made vanilla bread pudding. No artery-clogging additives, and "way healthier".

So why conflicted? Well, it's still a fundamentalist magazine, and for some of us that's now a very far country indeed. But it's not so "in your face", and gentler in tone than it's off-the-wall rivals. It's detractors in the shards of Herbal Empire might label it "Protestant", though I would question that ... who the heck knows what "Protestant" even means these days. Evangelical? Well, kind of, in an irregular sense.

The first thing that struck me about the July/August issue was the number of women contributors - Scott Ashley would have a hernia. The staff box lists a number of women too, including Associate Editor Sherri Langton. Fancy that.

The second thing that strikes an ex-WCG/LCG/UCG/PCG/whateverCG member is the absence of prophetic bullroaring. These folk actually know better. Compared to Beyond Today or Tomorrow's World the BA is positive, up-building and encouraging. If you're addicted to circus acts, you'll need to find an Armstrong periodical.

One item caught my eye in particular; a letter on the Questions & Answers page which asked: "Is the Holy Spirit a force or a person? What does CoG7 teach about the Spirit of God?" Interesting response.

Available to download.

The Fasting Strategy

Gary has a great post up about the LCG's recently announced "church-wide fast" for July 30. In LCG, when the going gets tough the Presiding Evangelist announces a fast and the chorus of yes-men shout amens and hosannas.

It's a long-standing strategy in LCG, the most fast-obsessed COG sect I know of. There was, for example, the March 2007 fast. Here's a comment from the AW archives:

Saturday March 28 is also, apparently, a designated fast for members of the Living Church of God. Exactly why isn't immediately apparent. Guru Rod Meredith calls these things with little reason, other than perhaps whether he's feeling a bit depressed. Rod is on the wane, mind and body are letting him down - alas, the fate of all who are fortunate and blessed enough to live a life to their three-score and ten and beyond. What to do? Let's call on the brethren to share the misery! That'll show God that we're good people and deserve a break!

The whole concept is infantile. What's more, it's introverted. It does nothing for anybody outside the ghetto. I suppose it does help shore up the sense of identity, specialness and separateness from the wicked world - and those in deviant Laodicean pseudo-COGs. But then, is that a good thing?

Then there was the August 2007 fast... hardly time to recover from March. Again, a comment from the archives:

Poor old Rod. Every time something goes wrong, guess whose fault it is? Yes, you brethren have been getting Laodicean! Notice that the Grand High Poobah doesn't include himself in the backsliding. My question would be whether the saintly Presiding Evangelist will himself be fasting on the 4th. Obviously he doesn't seem to think he needs to, and longtime observers will remember Herbert Armstrong's reputation for drinking coffee on the Day of Atonement, which he shrugged off with a "well, I always said there was no nutritional value in cup of coffee!"

How many fasts has Rod called since then? Most of us have given up counting. Is this one any different. Read Gary's piece and the answer is pretty apparent.

Rod however should fast. He's the one who rattled his tonsils irresponsibly on the Scarborough affair, pulling his church into the legal quicksand. He's the one who consistently ignores the sage advice in James 3:1-12. Somebody should frame that passage and place it in a prominent place in Rod's office where he can be constantly reminded of it.