Once upon a time it was a popular apologetic ploy to track the "true church" down the pages of history. The "true church" being, quite naturally, your church. Down the ages a faithful remnant had remained, believing things just like those taught by your particular denomination. The Roman Catholics might have apostolic succession, but that was irrelevant. There might by Orthodox churches that claimed continuity with the congregations of Paul's day - but no need to sweat it. Insightful apparatchiks at church HQ somewhere in the DIY culture of middle-America would delve into popular history books and reconstruct a chain of true belief to contrast with those in the majority who had so clearly "fallen away". Ellen White did it for the Seventh-day Adventists and Herman Hoeh (pronounced 'Hay', not hooey) did it for the Worldwide Church of God in a thin booklet with the modest title "A TRUE History of the TRUE CHURCH" (emphasis in the original).But in between those mighty treatises came Dugger and Dodd's 1936 "A History of the True Religion". These two blokes were leaders in the pre-Armstrong Church of God movement, and drawing inspiration from the indefatigable Mrs White, they produced their own imaginative account of how to trace the 'true church' through the inconvenient murkiness of Christian history. I first stumbled on a copy - lovingly photocopied from an original and specially bound - while visiting at the home of a Dunedin member of the WCG in the late 1970s. This book, I was told, made it all clear. Why, even "Saint Patrick" was a Sabbath-keeper!
Okay, so I was sceptical even then. But a few years later a redaction of the original opus (third edition), published by a Jerusalem-based Duggerite offshoot, came my way, and I've never had the heart to toss it.
It's a romp from Pella to "Dr. Arius" ("the most talented, intellectual, and spiritual power of the fourth century"), from the Vaudois and Paulicians to Peter Waldo and on and on to the Seventh Day Baptists, and you can probably guess the rest. Dugger and Dodd were also fans of the "seven church eras" of Revelation.
"The history of the early days of the church in America, from about 1620 to 1789 is covered by the latter part of the Sardis period... The Philadelphia period evidently had for its beginning about the year 1789..."
What is interesting about this is that the Church of God (Seventh Day) has just published a new history of their movement, authored by prominent minister (and past president) Robert Coulter. The latest issue of Dixon Cartwright's Journal includes a review by Horst Obermeit.Coulter, to his great credit, debunks the entire fiction of a connection with the various individuals and groups Dugger and Dodd cherry-picked from history. It's worth downloading this Journal issue just to read the review, which contains some interesting quotes.
One can only imagine the wailing and gibbering in some of the loopier COG sects as one of their favourite sacred cows heads off to the butcher's slab.
(See also Gary Leonard's take on the new book.)
Anyone notice a huge contradiction that while pushed an unbroken (Sabbathkeeping) Succession-Theory,
ReplyDeleteHWA simultaneously promoted a Suspension-gap-Theory: "no true church for "nineteen-hundred years"!
I believe Herb's position was that the gospel - his version of it - hadn't been proclaimed for nearly 2000 years due to persecution, but that the Church of God had nonetheless existed through the various eras.
DeleteYes, Herb's reckless claim was weakly hedged to avoid outright contradiction with brother Hoeh's succession treatise, and as Corky points out: the 'Coming Kingdom' message was basically a bust by the end of the fist century - until revived by 19th century fundamentalism? - succession theorists being unable to pin it to piddling Middle Ages Sabbatarian sects. We could then ask Armstrongites how could this flimsy chain of heretics be the "true church" without "the Gospel"?
DeleteI wondered how long ago somebody came up with the crazy idea that the 7 churches in the book of Revelation meant "church eras" - not enough to really check it out, mind you, but I did wonder. Well, the 7 churches in Asia don't mean church eras and they also had no idea they were about to be eliminated either...the Revelator should have told them, I suppose, but maybe the Revelator didn't know it either. 'Cause, after all, they were to hold fast until HE came...which would be "shortly" because the "time was at hand". I guess it was - for them anyway.
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely nothing in the NT to suggest that there was to be an "Apostolic Succession" but there is plenty to suggest they were living in "the end time" and Jesus would return in their lifetime, in that "chosen generation". But, just because it all turned out to be bunkum shouldn't give anyone the excuse to burn people at the stake for no longer believing it.
We knew this for quite some time: There's even a flip book version of "Daughter of Babylon" by Bruce Renehan over at ambassadorreports.com.
ReplyDeleteWhile you are there, check out "History of the CoG7" by Ken Durham. I've talked with Ken. He has not read Robert Coulter's book yet, but does want to compare it with his own history, since they have disagreed in the past. He did say that he expected Robert Coulter's book to resolve some of the discrepancies that Robert had held in the past. Ken and I agree that the true reaction of the Armstrongists is simply to ignore the truth. They only have two choices anyway: Ignore it or make up flimsy excuses to mitigate the damage (such as what Richard Rittenbaugh does in "Fragmentation of a Sect": Herbert Armstrong couldn't be a false prophet, because he was an apostle, not a prophet. Wait! What?). My take is that they've run out of excuses (like a teen caught by his or her parents doing something really bad) and anyway, it's too much effort to sustain, so just pretending the problems don't exist is the course of least resistance. Pretend evidence doesn't exist and continue with business as usual (except before they were ignorant... possibly... but now they are rank liars and hypocrites for sure).
The Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia is sick and (in the words of Law and Order SVU) heinous. You might check out "Tangled Web" while you're over at ambassadorreports.com. It's a dying breed sick with entropy that's just not dying off fast enough. You may note that Robert Coulter takes swipes at Herbert Armstrong saying that he was less than honest. If you want an accurate translation of that, Herbert Armstrong was an outright liar (and you may note that many of those in the CoG7 who knew him also knew of his incest with his daughter). I have also talked with several people who have known Robert Coulter very well for a very long time. He was teaching at Vale Academy when Ken Durham attended there. The others I have talked to have interesting stories to tell about him.
It may all be entertainment, but the victims of Herbert Armstrong have suffered terribly. Robert Coulter's book primarily centers on the development and history of the Church of God Seventh Day. He admits the error of Dugger and Dodd and some of the things the CoG7 allowed decades ago. They've made changes. They've dropped the prophecy stuff a few decades ago. This should clear up a lot about the CoG7. It should also be noted that last year, the CoG7 issued "This We Believe" on the doctrines of the CoG7 after having a congregationalist consensus taking some 5 years to set the foundation for their doctrinal booklet.
I've taken Robert Thiel to task for his pot shots against the CoG7. He even acknowledged it in a posting whining about why I had so criticized him. He represents the worst of the "CoG7 is the Sardus Era of the church" proponents. Watch for his non reaction to the publication of the book. It tells the story of the failed CoHAM.
And as a side issue, I don't suppose you missed that Dr. Germano published that DNA refutes British Israelism back in 2007. Why would you? It was on your blog. You have also noted that he's gone over to the enemy camp to work for Roderick Meredith at LCG to promote their rubbish. This is an example of what I am talking about: The Corporate shills have adaptable consciences to serve their idol masters for gain. They have always ignored the truth to promote their own offal. I expect this time to be no different.
And the stupid lost sheep continue to eat and drink the poison, willingly ignorant with a seared conscience: The members are innocent little lambs either -- they know better, they just won't give up their addiction.
But you can be sure that more revelations are coming and it won't be pretty for them.
When, as an institution, you include Alexander Hislop on your very short reading list, you also validate his flawed methodology. This methodology permeates every foray Armstrongism ever made into history. The so-called "True History of the True Church" is what we might expect if Hislop himself had actually written it.
ReplyDeleteOne would think that the basic theology of the group would be a guiding influence upon their research, and it in fact is. They carelessly proof-text, cobbling together scriptures, and making counterintuitive leaps to substantiate their own doctrinal approaches in much the same fashion as Hislop substantiated his conclusions. This would appeal to an individual schooled in the field of advertising as being a very powerful tool. And, it actually worked on the statistically negligible percentage of the world population of which we were unfortunately part.
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Byker Bob: It's called Finagle's Law which states, "Draw the curve and pick the points to match". It is in the realm of magic, but it is sloppy magic. For example, if people insist that the Ashkenazic Jews are the real Jews to circumvent DNA proof, then if they match the Europeans, they won't match the Arabs. Either way, DNA continues to refute British Israelism. It's also closely related to "the end justifies the means" ethic, producing the greatest amount of entropy for the effort, particularly with collateral damage accompanying "the means" as unintended consequences to "the end".
DeleteThe problem of using magic rather than science is that magic is even more restrictive than science. Sure, mix the ingredients just a little off and you might end up with an explosion, but with magic, if just one part of a chant is off, if one part of the incantation is wrong, if you used chicken blood instead of Dragon's blood, you might suffer more than just having an explosion in your lair. You could open a portal to hell or even worse, open a portal to Purgatory where the Leviathan go when they die. Not a pleasant outcome.
In this case, there's no more excuse: Robert Coulter basically calls Herbert Armstrong a liar and utterly debunks the church eras hypothesis. Herbert Armstrong just made up the church eras (actually, he plagiarized it from debunked sources). It's magic. Fortunately the Coulter "ward" protects us from it.
If rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, then Herbert Armstrong was a warlock (Yes, it works either way: Herbert Wolf Armstrong or Herbert Warlock Armstrong), practicing his witchcraft to turn WCG members into zombies. It's ugly stuff.
Fortunately, we can use science to trump magic, since magic neither works nor does it provide any real power at all. Most of those attempting to use the sort of magic promoted by Herbert Armstrong in his coven are weaklings who are best described by the DSM-5.
It's turned rather terrible out there for the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia. They have to pretend that their belief system is useful. They have their incantations at their coven corporate conventions, but the main result is boredom and then it's off to eating, drinking and play time so they don't have to face the pain of being abjectly wrong in their delusions as warlocks and witches practicing black arts and paying dearly for it in tithes and offerings.
At least they don't offer human sacrifices in their pagan mysticism, but that's little comfort.
The human sacrifices will come into play if they ever get to their place of "safety". They are going to want to practice the full range of Old Covenant law once the protections under the Constitution and Bill of Rights no longer afflict them! Maybe they are limited to being able to disfellowship and mark individuals now, but in their own sovereign territory, they will be flogging and stoning people. Mark my words!
DeleteBB
Yes. How do these people manage to continue in their delusions? Once such a Journal article as Horst's exposes some of the last remaining cherished doctrines, how does the Journal even continue to have a purpose? By definition, Armstrongism is a man-made faith, constructed from pure fantasy. Its only half-way quasi basis is the supposition that someone was an apostle. It seemed obvious sometime late in 1975 that there was something horribly wrong with it all, but that was the mere halfway mark of this church's lifespan to date. With 700 splinter groups, each still speaks of Petra as if all the other groups is going to be locked out.. That sounds as if it's going to be a worse battle ground than Armageddon!
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No doubt they will have a Lake of Fire in the Place of Safety for the human sacrifices who do not believe the rubbish daft fantasy rubbish of British Israelism, little factions warring with one another while the majority of the rest of the world is at peace for a change.
DeleteYou'd think that God was downright stubborn, seeing how nothing but nothing these nim nulls say seems to occur.
The book took only two business days to arrive! Way to go, CoG7!
ReplyDeleteThe book proves again that Armstrongism is all the cult you'll ever need.
Check out Chapter 23: Herbert W. Armstrong's Relationship to the Church of God.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the subheadings:
- Affiliation with the Church of God
- Oregon Conference's relationship to the General Conference
- Armstrong's ongoing relationship to the Church
- Breaking a pledge
- Study on the feast days
- Play on the names Sardis and Philadelphia
- Demise of Armstrong's church empire
- Garner Ted Armstrong's favor
The last entry recounts how the CoG7 received the deed to the Sis-Q Meadows camping facility in Oregon from the owners by developing the Bible camp.
It should be pointed out that A. N. Dugger divided the church: On page 298, Robert Coulter writes, "Dugger wrote of the division of the Church of God in 1933, again demonstrating his lack of veracity...." Dugger and Dodd should not be used as "authorities" concerning the Church of God Seventh Day. It looks like, along with Herbert Armstrong, they were kooks.
After reading this, I have concluded that Herbert Armstrong should have a new title: End Time Liar although the End Time seems to have come and gone... several times now....
They were ALL Kooks, my friend. And so were most of us when we were WCG members.
DeleteProfessor Hooey's little white booklet might have worked in the 1950s but won't cut it today with the democratization of information.
ReplyDeleteThe "End Time" is what all seriously kooky Christians think about more than anything else - unlike their "apostles" who are thinking about money and how they can keep that stark fear of death before Jesus returns alive in their followers. The offered solution is that the members can buy their salvation with tithes and offerings and perfect obedience to their favorite "apostle". All preachers have one hand on your shoulder and the other in your pocket. Yeah...some are more "tame" than others but they're all the same at the bottom, parasites, every one of 'em, even those who don't even know it - and yes, there are some of those too. And, no, they are not "called" by something that nobody knows anything about or even if it exists. But, would they admit they don't know? Not on your life...their living depends on it...well, that and your money.
ReplyDeleteGavin, I gotta hand it to ya. A post like this always brings out the loons!
ReplyDeleteIt's hilarious that Larry declares himself a loon by posting here.
ReplyDeleteAll things considered, having been lied to about Santa Clause prior to my parents joining the WCG scam did one heck of a lot less damage than being lied to afterwards and taught there was such a thing as an all-knowing end time apostle. And, as we see from the article above, that was just the beginning of the lies. We believed the entire chain of lies because we believed the apostle lie. In most cases, that was the only "proof".
ReplyDeleteBB
That's because we believed the original lie that there were "apostles" who knew everything. The truth is there were a certain group of men who studied the Septuagint and could see in those writings an obscure vision (especially in Isaiah 53) of the messiah and what he would really be like. Then they pretended to have known this "man" and put together unrelated passages from the Septuagint until they had the whole Jesus story. And, guess what? People unquestionably take their word for it, assuming they weren't liars. The Jews, however, were not fooled. Which, by the way, is the main reason why Christians have always hated the Jews.
DeleteIt's doubtful that the CoG7 should have foreseen that the major value of the book was for former Armstrongists to prove Herbert Armstrong was a fraud, but it may well be that history (in the very limited sense) will demonstrate that many of the purchasers of the book weren't so interested in CoG7 history as getting the facts to disprove Herbert Armstrong, not that other sources already haven't been provided and should have sufficed.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of the Ministry of Truth in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. Winston Smith's job was to re-write history to fit the current view of the IngSoc party. He doctored documents and photographs. No doubt this goes on everywhere, but this case seems blatant. Dugger and Dodd fashioned a history to support an idea. HWA found the history useful in credentialing himself. We sat agog waiting for more revelations of truth.
ReplyDelete-- Neo
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