govern@houxf.UUCP (07/01/83)
HWA and Garner Ted had a major falling out about 2 years ago, partly for personality reasons, partly because of the emotional stress of having the State of California take over their financial affairs. Garner Ted has moved to Texas or Arizona, and started his own church and such; Herbert took over the "World Tomorrow" radio show and the "Plain Truth" magazine; I don't know who got Ambassador College. Their theology is distinctly different from what Protestants or Catholics would consider "orthodox"; among other things they teach that the "Holy Spirit" doesn't count as a separate form of God (--> no Trinity), strict adherence to dietary laws and other Old Testament-based legalism (different from Jewish interpretations of the Law), triple tithing, Saturday Sabbath (which makes a lot of sense, if you're going to observe sabbath customs). Their view of God's grace is "follow the Law perfectly, or else!", but that He might give you a break if you follow it pretty well and belong to the right church. They also get into the bizarre on occasion; listening to HWA talk about healthy eating made me think some of the wierder heath-food people are rational. Sometimes HWA shows good common sense, even if I disagree with his theology; sometimes he's just plain off the wall. The British-Israelite theory basically says that after the Babylonian captivity (Assyrian?) the northern 10 tribes of Israel got lost, headed up to Europe, acquired blond hair & blue eyes, and became the Anglo-Saxons. Aside from the general oddness of this idea, there are New Testament references to members of the tribe of Asher (one of the "lost tribes"), and the name Cohen is (I think) associated with another tribe. Somehow, it's a fundamental part of their theology. If you want more specifics on their beliefs, I have some sources for looking them up. Bill Stewart
govern@houxf.UUCP (07/01/83)
Sorry about the title of the preceding article; I had intended to say less about the Armstrongs and something about the Mormons, but it had gotten too long for that. Bill