Worldwide Church of God: End Time Commi$$ion

I certainly hope that you can find some gentle way to awaken them to the plain truth of Gerald Flurry. That man will suck every last possible dollar, quarter, dime, nickel and penny from your parents that he can persuade out of their pockets, (in the name of God's work, of course) and offer no help whatsoever in their final years of greatest need. That IS the proud tradition of Herbert W. Armstrong. Unfortunately, there are THOUSANDS of honest, earnest, God-fearing Christians that are now destitute living with relatives or crummy little apartments somewhere waiting for death to end their earthly misery. Meanwhile, thousands of Worldwide Church of God ministers are in their comfortable retirements with nicely landscaped clean warm homes, up to date cars, cared for by medical insurance complete with dental.

I had a friend that was married in the church and had two beautiful daughters. After decades of double and triple tithing, the financial pressure finally shattered their marriage. His wife left him and he took up drinking to ease his loneliness. He would call his daughters (now in their early twenties) every weekend for the family update. About two months ago his daughter checked on him because he hadn't called. He was found dead in his tiny run-down abode hardened with rigor mortis. What would you call that? A natural death, or a long drawn out suicide? Only God knows for sure.

I knew him. He didn't deserve to die like that. He loved his family. He loved the World Wide Church of God. He loved Herbert Armstrong. But unfortunately, Herbert Armstrong did not give a rat's rump about him or the sufferings that his unbiblical tithing principles were inflicting upon REAL people. People that he convinced that the ONLY way to serve God was to obey a man (himself) who claimed to be God's only representative on earth.

I think the quickest way to freedom from Armstrongism is to carefully examine, or prove, his original claim to be called of God to do "His Work." In the Painful Truth there is a copy of Armstrong 1939 letter to his co-workers-to-be. That is very essential reading because in it he uses every argument to dismiss any claim of authority that a church body could hold over a sovereign human being. He used this argument to justify leaving the Church of God Seventh Day (or whatever it was called) and start his own church with himself as the self-appointed leader. Then, as soon as he was entrenched as leader of a small tithe paying group of people he immediately backtracked to his former church's position that you HAD to belong to the correct church to obtain salvation. Now, according to Armstrong you had to belong to the correct church to avoid going to the Lake of Fire. And of course, Armstrong was the head of the only CORRECT church on earth. Armstrong's early editions of the Plain Truth were literally filled with horrific visions of Adolph Hitler coming out of hiding in South America and Hitler's Third Reich overrunning America and drenching our land with the blood of the unrepentant. The Germans are coming to get us, he would rant, and we can only get to the Place of Safety through strict obedience to God's True Servant. And that naturally, was himself, Herbert Armstrong.

But Mr. Armstrong did not lead us out of Spiritual Egypt. And contrary to his greatly exaggerated publicity, he was not instrumental in bringing even two countries together in peace. When holding his banquets overseas (at tithe payers expense, of course) he never once preached Christ. Every banquet was loudly heralded as a bold step forward in completing the "Great Commission." And yet, he NEVER once forewarned even one world leader of the great tribulation to come. Not one. He did occasionally reference an "unseen hand from somewhere," and sadly, that was enough to satisfy us morons at home that an evangelical work was being accomplished. No, the end-time message of doom was for us alone. It was a message of fear to his cowering followers that provided Herbert W. Armstrong with an endless supply of tax-free cash which was consumed upon a lifestyle unimaginable to most of us.

Now Gerald Flurry, who has ALWAYS coveted Armstrong's authority and regal lifestyle wants to resurrect the old Armstrong empire from the ashes of shame, corruption and exposed hypocrisy. Flurry's strategy is to maintain a slavish adoration of Herbert Armstrong. Then he must reject Garner Ted's claim to rule because of the fact that he is Herbert's biological son by stating that Ted is disqualified for the task by his widely known personal misconduct. And finally he must place himself above all other contenders for top spot of "Apostle" by claiming to be the only one obeying the doctrines of Armstrong, and the only one fulfilling the end time mandate of Matthew 24.

Interestingly, Herbert Armstrong lived and died without completing the "End time Commission," and yet he and his cohorts managed to spend the nearly TWO BILLION dollars in TAX-FREE cash sent in by the fearful followers. The "End time Commission" of Matthew 24 is simply a cash producing industry to these men of fraud, and nothing more. If God had given you two billion dollars to complete a contract (commission), how would you have spent it? Would you have spent nearly the ENTIRE two billion dollars on overhead and salaries and left the contract unfilled as Armstrong and his successors did?

If you were an unscrupulous man, what would you say to unsuspecting people to generate that kind of ongoing tax-free income? What lengths would you go to to appear to be a man of God? If you were a liar, would you lie? Of course! If you were a liar and a thief, would you steal without conscience? Of course! If you were a lying cheat, would you cheat? Of course. Was Mr. Armstrong a scrupulous man? No, he was not. In fact, in one of those "abundance of the heart" moments Herbert Armstrong is recorded to have said, "I would lie, cheat and steal to keep this Work going." For whose sake would he have done that? God's sake? Is God so weak that He needs ANYONE to lie, cheat or steal for Him? Unlikely. No, the primary beneficiary of the two billion dollars spent by the World Wide Church of God was Herbert Armstrong and his "high-ranking" ministers. It was the ongoing stream of tax-free cash that Armstrong stated he was willing to lie, cheat and steal for.

And this too, begs the question. Who could Armstrong lie to to generate income? Whom could he cheat to get money? From whom could he steal to generate revenue? People in the world? Heavens, no. His ONLY source of income that could keep "the Work" going were those who were trusting him to lead them to spiritual salvation. There was NO ONE else he could have lied to, cheated or stole from to keep "the Work" going. So when he said he was willing to lie, cheat or steal to keep the Work going, he meant US! He was talking about us, the lay members of the World Wide Church of God who were stupid enough to give money to a SELF-PROCLAIMED lying, cheating thief! That means to me that Herbert Armstrong swindled us with malice of forethought! Armstrong was a con artist of the first order, and even he knew it! He was NOT self-deceived.

You have to look at the fruits. Armstrong was NOT used by God to complete any "end time commission." Armstrong died without doing that. And Flurry, too, will die without completing any "end time commission." How can I say that with certainty? Because Flurry bases his claim to apostolic authority on a succession of authority from Herbert Armstrong. And based on Herbert Armstrong's 1939 letter we know that Armstrong would say ANYTHING to reject and get himself out from UNDER the authority of others and later claim for himself that same power and authority he craved OVER others. Authority over people who, like me, were foolish enough to believe he was God's only and true apostle, simply because he said he was God's apostle.

By the way, Flurry is a liar. Period. Once when confronted with his drunken driving arrest, which is a matter of public record, he simply denied it. Calling it a lie, and a Satanic attack on God's True Apostle. I think a true man of God would have admitted the truth and moved on in a spirit of humility. That proved to me, at least, that he was not only not humble but more interested in image than honesty. Flurry is truly a faithful student and a true heir of Herbert Armstrong. Beware.

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