Will Armstrong Apologists Ever Accept Reality?

The easy answer is no. 

To the fundamentalist Armstrongite - the serious, hardcore, fully-indoctrinated believer in the methodologies of Herbert Armstrong - looks at reality in an augmented way. A good way to call their worldview is "Augmented Armstong- Based Reality."

Augmented means simply - to make greater than it really is. Which is their view of their role in the world, their vision, their reality, and their God, to be point blank. They have a distorted position from what reality really is. This is very provable - irrefutably provable - based on the track record of their claims vs. what really happened. Their realities, as  claimed, never, not even once, have happened. Every last one of them has been humiliated by the extreme reality of the epic proportions of their failures. Yet, the cling on, in divisive, arrogant, unsubstantiated, ignorant, and uneducated blindness as to the reality of what they are proclaiming as irrefutably false.

It is not just one lone, isolated, rogue case among Armstrongites. This lies at the very core of their ideology. Every speculation. Every prophetic utterance. Every promise. Every prediction. Every claim, and every date has been proven - yes, proven - to be a lie. A misjudgement. An error. A presumption. They just call it "overzealous" behavior. Or, mistiming. Or, just a "partial revealing", only when fully revealed to be twice as false as the first revealing. They lead their believers on a wild roller coaster that always gets bumpier, and never has an end, an infinite loop of chaos and confusion, while running the meter the full trip. And yet, the hardcore believers seem just fine with it.

Ignored - willfully - is the abuse. Ignored, willfully - is the condemnation. Ignored is the dissonance, the abhorrent behaviors, the greed and the love of money and mammon, the harm it has done to themselves and their families, their income and their well-being. Ignored is the blatant untruths preached from the pulpit - and most ignored, and most obvious - the mind-numbing, unintelligent, theological bull which comes from the pulpit. Rinse and repeat, and settle for it all, like a failed and abusive relationship - which is really, what it is. 

What's behind this? What's the real story? Why, or how - could anyone staunchly defend the indefensible? Why- or how - could anyone be involved in this level of emotional and psychological - and sometimes, physical abuse? How can anyone be duped into literally handing over so much of their income to be mismanaged by Pharisaical idiots whose greatest skill is how to bully, to lie, and to deceive? How does this happen?

It happens because of one word: Fear.

The Pharisaical Idiots have successfully deceived their congregants to believe that their physical organization is the way, the truth, and the life - not Jesus. The Pharisaical Idiots have convinced them that apart from them - whichever organization it is - or Armstrongism as a whole - they are lost. Doomed. Gone. Forsaken. Abandoned. Hopeless. and the dreaded A-Word - "Apostate". The believers believe these Pharisaical Idiots - because of years, upon years of mind-conditioning which is piled on layer after layer after later of the Paint of Fear on the fortress of the mind. They have grown to love the darkness, and have blinded themselves from the light.

Fortunately, this is not the case for everyone.

There is a continuing group of those who drank the Kool-Aid who are slowly coming around and waking up to the reality of what really has happened in their lifetimes. They are slowly awakening to fact, to reason, to reality, and many to the love of Jesus that Armstrongism has robbed them of for so long. They are slowly seeing what was the true story all along. These people - once they see - some, for the first time - are shocked, traumatized, stumbling babes - many of whom have been conditioned to believe the antithesis of reality in so many cases and situations. It's overwhelming. But evidence has shown they are coming to grips of the reality based on three words - Herbert was wrong.

I guess the answer to the question is yes - for some. Regardless of how great or strong the "awakening" may be - there will always be a subset of Armstrongism in the world. My prediction is , however - and this is becoming more sure - that in very little time, it will be as insignificant and unknown as the little church on the corner of your small town that no one's ever heard of but the locals. You all know what that church is in your town - and every town has one.

For those who refuse to accept reality? For those who staunchly defend the indefensible, and excuse the inexcusable? The power of belief is their reality. They have defined their hope, their dreams, and their futures based on their personal faiths. Their personal story will be based on their foundation. What that foundation is? That's only personal to them. My hope is it is built on Jesus Christ. Because any other foundation - according to the very Gospel they claim to know - is sinking sand.

There is a Boat, and his name is Jesus. His nets are drawn. His hands reach out. He urges them to come to Him. He pleads with them with love in his eyes and heart.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy ladened, and I will give you rest."