There Is Hope:
Herbert W. Armstrong Was Never Right About Anything!
By MarkSomeday there will be hope and security for this troubled world of ours. Rational hope, perhaps provided by science or perhaps by politics. Take a look outside and look at all that has been provided at man’s hands.
This push-button universe so degraded by Herbert W. Armstrong and those who seek to fit themselves in his long, dark shadow, really ain’t so bad. We worry about holes in the ozone and the lack of fish in the oceans. We worry about the quality of the air and the paucity of clean water worldwide. Today our worries extend to the Congo and Antarctica and the rain forest and even into outer space. Hey, we might get nearly missed by a comet or an asteroid any second now! Keep your eyes open.
We have these worries because men have made measuring sticks to gauge them. These problems existed before we had measuring sticks to gauge them. And all of these measuring sticks are new. Weirdly, the world continued to exist even before these measures and weights and sciences came into our hand-made perception. The problems, the worries themselves, have a history that has a longevity that outstrips the history of our measures. Even without our knowing that the next passing cosmic fad might snuff us out in a blink, humanity has continued to strive, thrive and otherwise blunder on.
Armstrongism is a religion of fear. It is more dependant upon the measuring sticks, the push-button universe, than it is upon any neglected portion of the Bible. Moreover, it sees what it wants. It doesn’t see that the air is cleaner than it was twenty or thirty or forty or one hundred years ago. It doesn’t see that water can be cleaned. It doesn’t see how much wealthier the average western man is now than he ever was. Instead, it uses man’s new measuring sticks to point out its own dark phantoms. But at its core, Armstrongism tells you not to trust your own eyes or thoughts or emotions. One wonders at their point.
Lately, the Armstrongists are in a flutter about the world’s immediate condition. Europe may actually come together. The United States is loaded with debt, both from a governmental standpoint and from a consumer perspective. This government is engaged in a very long-term war against the Islamists. The US is going down!
Again, here we see the measuring sticks misused. Currency collapse! The US will lose this war! Europe will unite and will, under the Satanic Pope John Paul II, destroy the US and the UK. And after that a bunch of crap happens.
Let’s say they are right. What happens? The US gets thrown out of Afghanistan, Iraq and then just retires as a world power. (I am entirely for that. I am an American. I don’t think our largely teen-aged volunteer army should get themselves killed because the rest of the world has their heads up their rears.) Our currency collapses. We become mired in debt. Europe unites and the 300 million people in Europe throw the US out.
According to Armstrongism, the Pope takes over. To take it to the most fantastic reaches of Armstrongism, the Pope Satan orders the occupation of the US (good luck), UK and the other Protestant nations with his forces from the Catholic countries. Mexico, Spain, Argentina and other Catholic countries which really don’t have armies then walk in and….
The situation is utterly ridiculous. The Pope has no armies to begin with. All Armstrongists do is monger fear. They keep spouting off about how the Tribulation will be triggered. They always use the measuring sticks. When it comes down to making sense, or just having a coherent story, the whole thing falls down.
Armstrongism and Adventism have a very long history of having never been right. It is and always has been a hand job constructed to exploit money from fear.
Historically, the consequences of currency collapse are nothing. Gold collapsed as the world’s currency 20 years ago. Japan had their entire economic model tank on them 20 years ago. Oddly, Japan is still the world’s second biggest economy. All of their banks are fictional at this point. OK, Japan is about to cave and concave into a grouping of collapsed thatched huts. After all, everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Ready. Lets count—one, two, three… Japan is still there. No riots in the streets. Japan, oddly, has blundered on.
In the worst case historical model, the United States has the same problem that Japan has had for 20 years. In the worst case historical model, the United States becomes something like France or Germany—only a lot larger.
The United States is not some stupid polyglot. We aren’t Japan. We aren’t France and we aren’t Germany. The people of the United States are a distinct society and a distinct economy. Armstrongists contend that the bigger you are, the harder you fall. Thanks to hand made measures, this is no longer the case.
Now, will the United States come to an end? Everything comes to an end.
Armstrongists tell us that the end of the world is immediately at hand. They do so using those measures that man has constructed to control his destiny. They whack you over the head with them. Fortunately for us in the here and now, THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NEVER BEEN RIGHT ABOUT ANYTHING. Unfortunately, the world is a sad and dangerous and strange place right now.
History is on our side: Armstrong was wrong about everything, especially when it comes to geopolitical conflict. History is on our side: our enemies the Islamists have decided to organize themselves by disorganizing themselves—not just desperate, but stupid. History is on our side: civilization almost always wins out against attacks by small groupings of the thugs. (Only the Roman Empire ever collapsed because of terrorism or thugs—and then only because they were internally disorganized.)
The Islamists are a thug force, a depravity and abomination even to their own religion. History is entirely on our side. The Armstrongists don’t know history for the most part and discount it where it becomes too hard to circumnavigate.
The United States is involved in a very odd war—a war of aggression. Next stop, Iran. Next stop, Syria. Next stop, Lebanon. It only seems like an odd war if you look at it as a modern war. At best, it’s an old-fashioned campaign for the defense of the US and the entire western world. At worst, this is just killing Arabs until they stop killing us. Or my perspective may be silly and contrite and patrician. However, none of this has anything to do with the Bible or the Tribulation or anything Armstrong. Saying so is circumnavigating the Armstrongist's own religion. Reality and Armstrongism long ago parted company.
--Mark
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