Ching Du Pai Gu
In fulfillment of his self-appointed Matthew 24:14 commission (And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.), Herbert Armstrong traveled to Beijing not once but twice to meet with Chinese leaders. I found a recording on the Internet of his speech from his first visit to China, 30 years ago this week.
The 26-minute recording (MP3 download) includes an introduction by Stan Rader, a welcome by a Chinese official, and translations between Chinese and English. After all that is taken out, HWA’s speech is less than 10 minutes. Did Herbie fulfill his commission by preaching about Jesus? He talked a lot about societal ills and the dangers of nuclear weapons, but the closest he got to talking about the return of Christ was in his conclusion of his talk:
Some time ago the editor of a weekly news magazine in the United States said in an editorial that now our number one problem is that of survival of the human race. And he said it would seem now that the only hope that we have in the world would be the sudden intervention of a strong unseen hand from some place. Now I have the pleasure to announce to you tonight, not to try to convince you but to announce to you, that what some of the leading scientists say is our only hope [a single one-world government] is going to happen, and that unseen hand is going to appear and we are going to have world peace in our time.
All of the troubles in this world have come from living the wrong way. Having the wrong attitude toward ourselves, toward others, toward one another. And we’re going to come to the time of world peace. We’re going to have a utopia on earth. People will laugh when I say the word “utopia”. Why should it be impossible? Why should we not have it? All we have to do is live the way we ought to, and all of us are going to be doing that and in our time in this generation.
Well I’m not here to convince anybody of anything. I’m merely here to make an announcement. And to tell you that that is coming. And peace and happiness and joy is coming. We’re going to learn the way to live. We’re going to begin to live that way. And it is coming in our time. That is the world’s only hope and that’s what I’m proclaiming around the world. Thank you very, very much. [Polite applause after the translation.]
Now 30 years after he made these statements and 24 years after his death, we can add these statements to the “Herbert Armstrong was a false prophet” column. But Herbie made no mention of Christ, just a vague notion of “strong unseen hand from some place”. And this is backed up by a statement in Mystery of the Ages on page 28:
As I write I recently returned from my second four-day visit in Beijing (Peking),… I did not try to tell them who and what God is, but I did tell two large and important audiences of leaders what God is very soon going to do.
And for that Herbie probably spent for aviation fuel for his jet, bribes, etc several times what my father has paid in tithes during a half-century of being an Armstrongite. But wait, there’s even more. According to Ron Weinland, Herbie ate pork and another source indicates it was at one of those events. “This was the rationale Herbert Armstrong reportedly used when he went to China and ate pork with the Chinese leaders.” Speaking in a sermon from 2002, Weinland said (MP3 download, 19 minutes into file)
… what is the balance? Talked about Mr. Armstrong — eating pork. Once. Before a king. …. Brother, there has not been a man closer to God in the last 100 years than Mr. Armstrong was. And who of us, any of us, has the audacity and the gall to judge and condemn that man?
I do. I condemn Armstrong. HWA invented a religion with elements and even literature plagiarized from others. He siphoned off tithe money from his followers with some forced to borrow money to make it through their third tithe year. He exposed several generations to the fear of his false prophecies. And when it came time to stand up for his doctrine against unclean foods and to explicitly fulfill his “commission” to preach the gospel, he fell down on both counts, eating pork in Peking and being vague on the gospel.
I recall a minister giving a feast sermon in the 60′s about how it was OK to eat pork to avoid offending a host, and then being required give a sermon correcting himself (David Antion IIRC). Hypocritical Herb.
And Ron follows in his spiritual idol’s footsteps with his own version of hypocrisy. Fortunately Weinland’s following is smaller, yet still too large.
Tags: Herbert Armstrong
Good for you, Mike. I think it’s vitally important to keep pointing out, over and over again and as many times as it will take to open people’s eyes, that HWA was a false prophet and anyone who still holds to his teachings is following a dead, unrepentant false prophet.
It’s the height of hypocrisy for Ron to excuse HWA’s failings as a preacher and a prophet, and to so thoroughly condemn anyone who “fails” to live up to his standards. He willfully blinds himself to HWA’s faults, even going so far as to insinuate that he is above God’s law. In reality, HWA is subject to a stricter judgment, because he was a false teacher.
HWA’s visit to China was a fiasco; after that he had no business telling anyone what they should or should not eat, and his failure to preach the gospel was shameful considering how he liked to exalt himself.
We all need to have the gall and audacity to call sin what it is; HWA did not believe in eating pork so for him to eat it, in front of ANYONE, for any reason, was wrong. Armstrongism is not about Christian liberty, it’s about OT law; HWA never understood the concept that having a clear conscience toward God is the spirit of the law, he was too hung up on the letter of the law, including the ones that didn’t apply to him. Well, he tried to live by the law, now he’ll be judged by it.
What HWA did was lead many astray to a false “gospel” message, all the while cloaking it as the “true gospel”. Everyone who follows in HWAs footsteps preaches a variation of that false gospel. It really isn’t a gospel message because gospel means “good news”. They have no good news. Ron certainly doesn’t. His followers don’t. They have a message of destruction, hate, vengeance, control, lies, idolatry, deception, and greed.
Ron often rags on HWA’s critics — he’s been dead for 24 years. So why are people still upset with him?
My response: he’s been dead for 24 years. So why do you idolize the incestuous hypocritical money-grubbing bastard?
“he’s been dead for 24 years. So why do you idolize the incestuous hypocritical money-grubbing bastard?”
Obvious answer? Because Herbert is a rung in Ron’s ladder that Ron must climb to become the 3rd most powerful and respected living beings in all creations. 1) God, 2) Jesus, 3) Ron…
I wonder what ol Herb would have thought about being used as a rung in a ladder to elevate his direct followers up atop himself in the celestial order? Somehow I rather imagine he would not like that one bit, using his dead body as a stepping stone for Ron to mentally ascend to near-god-hood. After all, that is what Herb wanted for himself, not his acolytes.
“What HWA did was lead many astray to a false ‘gospel’ message, all the while cloaking it as the ‘true gospel’.”
And what is wrong with that? Doesn’t every religion say it is the “true” one?
It is wrong when preaching the “true gospel” involves the characteristics of a cult.
It is wrong when the preacher claims to be a prophet, apostle, or one of the Two Witnesses, etc.
It is wrong when none of the prophecies come true, and the claimant doesn’t have any of the Witnesses’ powers.
It is wrong when the claimant is guilty of religious fraud and extortion.
http://foresight-of-hindsight.blogspot.com/2009/08/two-witnesses-of-revelation-by-dennis.html
“And what is wrong with that? Doesn’t every religion say it is the “true” one?”
When you say “every religion” are you referring to all religions of the world or only those who say they are Christians? No other religions, outside of Christiandome, talk about “the gospel”. HWA’s battle wasn’t against other religions which deny salvation through Christ, it was against Christians who put their trust in Christ alone, not through the works of the law. Sprinkle in his own interpretation of “the law” with his false prophecies, as well as what he read in an Oregon library about “the lost ten tribes” (which is also a discredited theory), and you have the man of HWA.
The reality is, your question IS the right question. The “war” isn’t about this church or that church, but about Christ. Ron Weinland denies Jesus’ divinity and therefore rejects the gospel as revealed by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those who follow Ronald are following a false prophet, false teacher, and are themselves not under grace.