Was Herbert W Armstrong senile? Why couldn't he ever get to the end of a sermon?

Question

Does any other Christian find it difficult to listen to sermons, that go on and on about what is really the sabbath, and never hear the preacher say why it matters? Does it matter whether Christmas is in December, or April? H W Armstrong was one of these. Your opinion please.

I have not been a member of his church, but I used to watch him on TV.

Answer 1

Well; from what I learned from a friend of mine, who used to be a member of the Armstrongism movement cult. He told me that they believed in being the "only ones" with the truth ( typical cultic claim). That they believed in "British - Israelism" (U.S. , Canada, U.K., Austrailia being direct descendents of Ancient Israel) - this is absolute bunk ! They base their religion in "legalism" (Old Testament 10 Commandments [including keeping Saturday as the one, true Sabbath Day God acknowledges] along with all the traditional Holy Days). They believe that salvation is attainable through "works" not GRACE from Jesus Christ. Further; they have under gone a complete over haul of those dogmas and have since embraced the New Testament as the main thrust of their practices, at the same time, observing Sunday mainly or any other day to worship God on. This change created a schism in the church where many left and a lot of the power-tripper ministers from there, took away a lot of the former members. Many of those ministers were very power-hungry and couldn't accept the fact that they would no longer be allowed to "lord" it over the lay-membership. Some of those groups formed their own, groups and continue to suppress their people with over-bearing tithing practices (some members keep up to 4 tithes - 40% of their annual income). Meanwhile, the people of these splinter groups continue under the legalistic abusive practices ordered from their leaders.
Watch out for cults - those who claim to be "the only ones". Personally; I can't see why anyone would leave the parent church when it changed, to go on to continue in legalism and abuse. People say, that there's no Satan - go and join a cult steeped in legalism - pure "soul" murder !!!

Dragon D : Are you one of those former members who left the Worldwide after the change from Old testament only adherence to New Covenant focus and adherence ? I hope you didn't join up with any of the splinter groups still retaining the cultic practices, the Worldwide had given up to focus on Jesus Christ and Grace ? After researching into the Worldwide, they seem to have a clean bill of spiritual health now, since under-going their transformation from O.T. to N.T. !

Answer 2

I don't know about senile, but from things I've heard I'll say he was one weird guy. So was his son, Garner Ted. There was something wrong with those people.