I'm often accosted by some who mindlessly cut and paste a list of Herbert W. Armstrong's "failed prophecies." I respond Herbert Armstrong was ahead of his time and served as an early warning system. What follows is one of these many exchanges:
...is it really enough to dismiss this written record as "beingahead of his time?"
Yes. Why don't you just be honest and admit you hate Herbert W. Armstrong because he spoke the plain truth that CANNOT be refuted? that your traditional Churchianity is merely baptized paganism the Bible condemns as part of Mystery Babylon? For exposing your SUNday as a pagan counterfeit of the biblical Sabbath; your pagan holidays you've sought with your replacement theology to replace the biblical festivals; that sheeple like you bleat they're born again and don't have a clue what they're talking about, since we're born again at the Resurrection only; that God is not the sadist traditional Christians make Him out to be; that the meek inherit the Earth - not float off to Heaven; that you're not an immortal soul, eternal life is a gift from God; the wicked will be destroyed, ashes under our feet; we can become literal God-beings, members of the Kingdom-Family of God? Why don't you just confess and forsake your sins of murderous hatred against HWA for slaughtering your "sacred cow" and exposing it as religious bull from Babylon?
Haven't I refuted Herbert Armstrong by showing his timing was off?
No. The Apostle Paul also thought Christ would return in his lifetime. He was ahead of his time, as he, like Herbert W. Armstrong, later realized.
The enemies of God and Herbert W. Armstrong can't refute the plain truth of the Bible that anybody can read and see for themselves. That's why they have such a murderous hatred against Christ in him, just like the "religious" violently opposed Jesus for standing up for the TRUTH over their tradition.
May such misguided folks repent of their mob mentality against God's servants, and learn to go against popular error instead and start teaching the plain truth of the Bible (that contradicts their present idolatrous traditions). Otherwise they'll die in their sins and traditional darkness (John 15:22).
...by what criteria did he speak truth?
Mr. Armstrong spoke the plain truth by the criteria of the Bible that counterfeit Christianity has rejected for their own traditions. The Bereans were noble for checking out what Paul said compared to THE BIBLE - not compared to their traditions (Acts 17:11).
...are you denying he said the things I posted?
I said Mr. Armstrong was ahead of his time. The PRINCIPLES of prophecy he spoke of remain absolutely true: a final revival of the unholy Roman Empire is prophesied and the EU is forging ahead with that Frankenstein Monster now.
I'm stating categorically that what you've thrown up against Mr. Armstrong is a DIVERSIONARY TACTIC, a dishonest attempt to discredit him, since you can't refute the black and white of the Bible he taught on the plain points I've made and you know it. Who do you think you're fooling by such pretense? God? Man? Why play your foolish games?
Proof that you're offering lame excuses is because every one of your popular traditional ministers or groups have taught and said worse things that, unlike HWA, aren't even true according to biblical prophecy, such as Russia attacking America (when Mr. Armstrong alone warned it will ultimately be a German-led Europe that attacks us that even some Protestants now agree is true) and yet we never see you get all hot and bothered about them or post against them or call them false prophets. Why your glaring double standard? Perhaps you're too blind to see it yourself, but now that it's been brought to your attention, prayerfully think about it and see this is the plain truth.
"For exposing your SUNday as a pagan counterfeit of the biblical Sabbath; your pagan holidays you've sought with your replacement theology to replace the biblical festivals'" --
I believe Judaizers were addressed by Paul, not by me.
According to your vain traditions and popular error, Paul would be a Judaizer since he kept and taught the biblical Sabbath and festivals, just like Jesus did and will command all nations to keep when He returns and reigns in Jerusalem.
Are you in denial of this plain truth? It says Christ will command both Jews, Israelites and Gentiles, all nations, to keep the Feast of Tabernacles - not pagan Xmas or Easter (should tell you a lot right there!)- when He reigns from Jerusalem with the glorified Saints, then brilliant God-beings. Is Jesus a Judaizer? Rather, your kind are Roman wolves in sheep's clothing with your replacement theology, seeking to demonically replace the Sabbath with pagan Sunday, the biblical festivals with your hollow days of pagan origins that GOD HATES, and you do many other similar things with your idolatrous and tinsel traditions.
"that God is not the sadist traditional Christians make Him out to be; that the meek inherit the Earth - not float off to Heaven;" --who said anything about floating off? I have specifically said our hope is in the new earth.
Thankfully, you're correct about the New Earth, but your traditional Churchianity teaches folks go to "heaven or hell" when they die, which is a RELIGIOUS LIE. And I see you still misrepresent God as a sadist rather than a loving God who puts the wicked out of their misery, who mercifully destroys them completely in the Lake of Fire and lets them return to dust while the rest become divine.
"that you're not an immortal soul, eternal life is a gift fromGod;" --Yes, a gift already given to all.
Another RELIGIOUS LIE. Why don't you believe the clear teachings of the Scripture rather than Catholic-Babylonian doctrines of demons? Satan said, "You shall surely not die." In other words, you're an immortal soul! Yet God's Word says the soul that sins it shall die, and Revelation speaks of the second death (from which there is never a resurrection), and Jesus spoke about destroying both body and soul in "Hell fire." Why don't you believe Him? God isn't the sadist you counterfeit Christians with your serpentine ministers make Him out to be.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not PERISH (death), but (on the other hand) have everlasting life." Life or death - those are the only two choices. Not life and life. And who would consider it a gift if they had eternal life in torment? You're not even being logical or biblical. "The wages of sin is DEATH, but the gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23). Life or death, plain and simple. And "no murderer has eternal life dwelling in him" (I John 3:15).
"the wicked will be destroyed, ashes under our feet; we canbecome literal God-beings, members of the Kingdom-Family of God? Why don't you just confess and forsake your sins of murderous hatred against HWA for slaughtering your "sacred cow" and exposing it as religious bull from Babylon?" --
I don't believe you ever answered as to why HWA was lying to youabout the Greek language, his sole basis for his beliefs; that it does not concern you......
Why are you still wrestling dishonestly, desperately, with YOUR straw man? I've clearly shown how biblical it is to know and believe and teach we're to become literal God-beings and I don't need to know Greek to read it in the Bible and believe the simplicity that is in Christ.
Why are you so dishonest and trying to squirm around clear statements like "flesh and blood does NOT inherit the Kingdom of God," and "we shall see Him as He is for we shall be like Him," and even as we've born the human image of Adam, so we'll bear the divine image of Christ, the FIRSTBORN OF MANY BRETHREN.
Why don't you believe those clear Scriptures that you're afraid to address and go off on your little tangents, dishonestly? Why don't you let the Truth set you free from your lying traditions? Why resist the Holy Spirit of truth? You should praise God for exposing such darkness to you and be glad to forsake the Babylon you're in enslaved within. Regardless, it's your choice: you can become dust or divine, have eternal life or eternal death. But, like God, I encourage you to CHOOSE LIFE.
David Ben-Ariel, a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall, shares a special focus on the Middle East and great interest in Jerusalem, reflected in hard-hitting articles that help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Visit the Herbert W. Armstrong blog.