Get Out - Get New Focus on Life

I recently received a question in my inbox concerning how to survive Armstrongism, and what people could do to restore their spiritual sanity. I will gladly answer that question in the hope that others can benefit from this also.

As you know, Armstrongism is all about mental control - people have been brainwashed into reading scriptures from a specific perspective. Things are 'read into' the scriptures, and therefore, restoring clarity involves getting out of that mental trap.

You need to restore your ability to read the Bible for what it TRULY says. Not what any minister told you it says.

In other words, you need to leave the Scriptures for a time. Getting a new focus on life involves prayer, going through the many errors and all the confusion you had - and THEN, and only then, you will be able to read what was actually in your Bible again.

Some will argue that they would want to do it another way, and if it works for them, that is just fine. But offering my perspective was the point of this reply to the question, and that is the best advice I have to offer on what worked for me.

Happy new year. I hope 2015 will be a year of freedom for all of you out there in the blogosphere. :-)

Mind Control - Very Unsettling

In reading the book The Last Great Day, I must say it is a very dramatic book. Much of the information has previously been available in the Ambassador Report edited by John Trechak, but reading it in a more personal setting has been very unsettling. It clearly illustrates the type of mind control involved in cults such as that of Armstrongism.

It does annoy me a bit that names were changed, i.e. The Plain Truth was called The Pure Truth (since it was in no way pure, yet with a clarity that to the untrained eye could appear as 'truth'), Ambassador College was called Apostle College, Garner Ted identified as Gideon etc.

I have reached just over the middle of the book, and in the timeline that is around the 1979 era of that cult. A time with great turmoil in the group, and certainly one where there is much confusion among some.

The most thought-provoking thought that comes out of reading this was the recent purchase by chief-imitator Gerald 'Six-Pack' Flurry (leader of Philadelphia Church of God) who boasted of owning copyrights to all materials. Oddly enough, 1975 in Prophecy is not mentioned anymore by the idolators of Armstrongism. Herbie long ago proved he was a false prophet by setting dates (both 1972 and 1975), yet none of the people who idolize this person who in no way could live up to the ministerial requirements set forth in Scripture have given it any thought that Herbie and his minions DESTROYED the beliefs of many by their unscupulous acts of blasphemy in taking God's name in vain by their actions.

Mind control has been rampant in splinter groups, and there is no doubt that Ben's book is excellent reading for those who want a good impression of what took place during the founder's reign of terror. Even though the book does have a few inaccuracies it is still very nice to get the whole history served in about 400 pages - and should be read by anyone interested in the cult of Armstrongism