Friday, June 3, 2016

Rod Meredith FINALLY Speaks Out and Claims Suicide and Other Deaths are "Tests by God" Against the Faithful



Stung by complete silence after the death of Karl Beyersdorpher and over-the-top public accolades for Bruce Tyler on the front page of his web site, Rod Meredith has finally spoken.  He claims all  of the recent tragedies in the Living Church of God are actually "tests" by his god in a most unusual way.  After a year of many blessings by his god over the year, his god pulled a complete 180 and swiftly started testing the church.  What a cruel god it must be that has to strike down three people that were loved by many and  then lead a man to kill himself just to see how strong the members of LCG are in their faith.

Rod Meredith has never taken any responsibility for anything down through the decades. Everything that happened in his life was a direct result of everyone else around him and never a result of his own dark actions.  It was Garner Ted's fault he was removed as President of two colleges. It was not his fault that he was exiled to Hawaii.  It was all Stan Rader and others. It was not his faulty that he lied on the stage in Tuscon about Leona McNair and then had no problem at all in letting the church  spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend his vile, vindictive mouth.  It was not his sermon that drove Terry Ratzmann over the brink, leading him to murder numerous people in an LCG service.

As usual, Meredith seems to place the burden of these envious upon ht members of LCG's shoulders. Members should be in their knees appealing to God as to what they are doing wrong.


Yet, this year, God is “testing” our Church in an unusual way. We have been blessed and the Work is going forward. But we have had three or four terrible tragedies all take place in the last week or two. These events should drive us to our knees even more powerfully and cause us to “cry out” for God’s Spirit as never before! First, one of our fine local members in Paris, France, Mrs. Monique Dalle, was one of those who perished in the well-publicized “mysterious” downing of the EgyptAir airplane in the eastern Mediterranean a couple of weeks ago. She had a family and many brethren who miss her terribly. God allowed this, as He does not protect us from every tragedy—as we all know—yet He does protect most of us most of the time which we have also experienced. We are very sorry for her death and the sorrow that her family must feel. Then, we have recently heard about the deaths of three of our fine ministers—Mr. Bruce Tyler in Australia, Mr. Gideon Benitez in the Philippines and Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer here in the USA. All of these men were very dedicated men who gave of themselves to serve God’s people in many places around the world. Mr. Tyler was an outstanding servant of God who served—often in dangerous situations—in many parts of Australasia. He ably built and held together and helped “grow” the churches all over the Australasian region. Mr. Gideon Benitez was a fine and dedicated minister serving many brethren in the Philippines. And Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer—for many years living in my own hometown, Joplin, MO—was noted as “Mr. B” around the whole region and made himself beloved by constantly serving and giving of himself to the people in that area as Christ’s minister.
The church knew that Beyersdopher had serious bouts of depression and yet I can almost guarantee the they never encouraged him to get professional help.  Therapy has always tended to be looked upon as a tool of Satan.  I certainly hope he went outside the boundaries of the church for help.  He was seeking medical treatment and I hope it included counseling.

However, in Mr. Beyersdorfer’s case, it was a double tragedy in the sense that he took his own life. Hundreds of brethren in that area know that Mr. Beyersdorfer had had quite a number of serious physical ailments—leading to deep depression at times—and finally, about two years ago, completely of his own volition, asked to be removed as the Pastor. He asked that Mr. Gene Hilgenberg carry on and he would just “assist” him as best he could. He was under a great deal of stress and was sometimes not “himself” according to his wife and many others. He was under medical treatment and at the time he took his life was undoubtedly in one of the “spells” under deep depression.

Brethren, Almighty God our Father understands all this. He is called:  “The Father of mercies” (2 Corinthians 1:3). Our Father in heaven knows that all of us have moments of great weakness. We who really understand the Bible are fully aware that God does not judge just according to what we do in some moment of weakness. Although we want all our young people to be fully aware of the awful consequences of suicide, we feel that Mr. Beyersdorfer will eventually be resurrected and be honored for what he did do in the decades of faithful service to God’s people when his physical and mental condition were normal. But we certainly need to pray for Mrs. Beyersdorfer and her whole family in this situation. And she has let me know that she has no problem with me telling you about the nature of his death. It is better that it gets “all out there” now rather than having it come up and be asked of her and others over the months and years to come.

LCG members need to be prepared for more tragedies like this in the coming years.  Satan is on the warpath and hates the LCG.

For this is a time when the attacks of Satan the Devil—the “murderer” and the “liar” (John 8:44)—are going to intensify as never before. So we all need to be ready! The next few years will be the prophesied time when Satan comes down to this earth “having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child” (Revelation 12:12-13). 

LCG members need to be shaken awake because of the sins in their lives that lead to these tragedies.  They need to be shaken up so that they see what THEY are doing wrong

I urge all of you at this Pentecost time to truly “cry out,” as I have said, and beseech God to pour out His Holy Spirit upon the Church as never before, to inspire us, to empower us with the gifts of His Spirit. May God grant that these events—in the right way—“shake us” and bring us closer to God than we have ever been before. For we cannot and must not take all these terrible events coming on the world for granted. We must use them as events to drive us to our knees and draw us closer to our Creator and to His Son Jesus Christ. 
 You can read Meredith's entire Co-worker letter here.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

After you pointed out here the glowing tribute to Bruce Tyler and nothing for Karl Beyersdorpher, they took the picture and dedication down. Such hypocrites!

Anonymous said...

No, they didn't.

https://www.lcg.org/memoriam_btyler.shtml

Byker Bob said...

Certainly, better late than never, but how much more would it have meant for the church and family if this had been the first reaction, and immediately following the event?

BB

Ralph said...

Anonymous, please make up your mind!

cheers
ralph.f

DennisCDiehl said...

These are not "tests by God." It is life. People die of disease, accidents, strokes, heart attacks. It's not only "appointed unto men (and women) once to die.." it is sure without the appointment.

Denial of death and perhaps the fear of it are a great motivator in the COGS. Changing or being alive and present at the Second Coming is the rule of mind, but dying?...no. Paul's, "we shall not all see death, but we shall all be changed." (I Cor 15:51) has not served a reality based life well. Of course, Paul was dead wrong as he was in all his promises and rules for those who just knew their time was short and the change was coming where they would rule.

I have never gotten the impression that being hid in the ground until "thy wrath be passed," was much of a desirable option for the Church.

Life is short even when long.





Anonymous said...

Mr. Meredith forgot to mention that Lcg has already been shaken by the upcoming expensive lawsuit. Tithe money definitely will be used to defend this case. What a big blow to this org that claims to be doing much of the work. And again, he would not accept it's his fault, it's the Scarboroughs'.

Unknown said...

While I'm glad that RCM is finally acknowledging Karl Beyersdorfer's death, I'm a bit confused by the wording. While he's certain that Bruce Tyler will be in the 1st Res, he is confident that Karl will eventually be resurrected. Is he thinking of the 2d (meaning that Karl in his judgment was not really converted) or the 3d (and we know what that means)?

Unknown said...

While I'm glad that RCM is finally acknowledging Karl Beyersdorfer's death, I'm a bit confused by the wording. While he's certain that Bruce Tyler will be in the 1st Res, he is confident that Karl will eventually be resurrected. Is he thinking of the 2d (meaning that Karl in his judgment was not really converted) or the 3d (and we know what that means)?

Anonymous said...

7.50 AM Rod has obviously left Karls eternal fate ambiguous, since only God knows if he qualified for the first resurrection. By contrast, he felt confident that Bruce Tyler had succeeded. By only complaint is that he shouldn't claim to be Gods spokesman on such matters. Let his opinions be just that, his personal point of view.
Alternatively he could claim that the holy spirit tells him which members have succeed and which haven't. Presumably out of fear of God, he keeps his mouth shut.

Byker Bob said...

In his delusion that by default, following the death of the Armstrongs, he is now God's main man on planet earth, Rod would naturally assume that any of his people who were totally loyal to him and caused no problems would be in the first Resurrection. And, that assumes that "soul sleep" is the way in which all of the judgements and resurrections unfold. Admittedly, there have always been time anomalies in the Bible, as evidenced by creation "week" in which days are described prior to the creation of the very bodies which keep time, and in prophecy where days and years are often interpretively interchanged. This is what would happen when a God is not governed by the time-space continuum, and events and concepts must be explained in such a way that mankind who is so bound must be made to understand. It has never made sense to me that God would wait to judge all of the billions of humans who ever lived at once, as opposed to conducting that process one by one, as they died. With all of the people who die every day, their own resurrection would seem like a major judgement event to each of them, as they looked around them. How could the souls of the beheaded be in heaven by God's throne if this were not true?

BB

Anonymous said...

BB God does not time travel. He is not Doctor Who. He has designed a firm fixed reality that He honours. God might make known His judgment on billions of people all at once, but He would have spent adequate time assessing each person. God would not be sloppy on such a grave matter. Observing animals and plants, one does not find design 'loose ends.' God is meticulous.

Byker Bob said...

Basically, 1:58, as the Jewish scholars, rabbis, and priests have always affirmed, God is unfathomable. Most of us live under 100 years, and are restricted to five senses and an IQ with a governor on it. There is no way you can quantify God, and limit Him in the ways that Armstrongism teaches. We can know that His character is perfect, as is his sense of justice, but there is much that we simply cannot know about him. And, your first statement is 100% correct. An omnipresent being has no need to time travel. The realities of times and days on planet earth do not bound or limit Him, although He lived by earth time while residing in the tabernacle and first temple.

BB

Anonymous said...

"Rod Meredith FINALLY Speaks Out and Claims Suicide and Other Deaths are "Tests by God" Against the Faithful"

Nope. It was a test that Rod failed. Rod and his underlings chose to shun and ignore, instead of choosing to understand what another brother-in-christ was going through and how they could help.
Yet, they claim they are doing God's work!

DD said:"Life is short even when long."
...nobody deserves to be lonely,
no one should be left all alone,
time doesn't wait,
it will only accelerate...

I get the feeling the church leaders shunned him. I know because, I'm also guilty for doing this to a family member who eventually succeeded at suicide.

DBP

itstimecog said...

Hi BB, you said "It has never made sense to me that God would wait to judge all of the billions of humans who ever lived at once, as opposed to conducting that process one by one, as they died."
Perhaps this will shed some light on why all of mankind can be resurrected and judged at one time.
The first decree God gives is for man to be like Him as the end result.
How would that be possible if man were not given the Holy Spirit of understanding?
Righteous judgment is not based on the physical but rather on the spiritual understanding.
Hence, when mankind is resurrected, they collectively are found guilty but “justified” as their understanding of God was based solely on the physical.
Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

It’s a question based on our acceptance of the sacrifice by Christ and the Father. He either died for our sins, or He didn’t.
Act 13:39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the (physical) law of Moses.
Again, in order to be judged by righteous judgment, we must first have the ability to not only understand our transgressions but to also repent of them. That simply is not possible with only a physical understanding.
That capability is not given to mankind (with the exception of those who live during the millennium), until they are resurrected and their minds opened.
Bare in mind that like now, Christendom will not be the only belief system that requires repentance.

Anonymous said...

10.23 PM Christs generation only had a 'physical understanding' of God law, yet Christ condemned ('woe onto you..') many cities for not repenting, including the Pharisees themselves. Back to the drawing board you go. Try again.

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

Henry Sturcke, I remember you from the Washington D.C. Church. I just can't remember if you were there in the Ken Westby years or the Larry Salyer years. I hope time has been good to you!

Richard

itstimecog said...

Anon 1:05, I fail to see your point in that the word "woe" simply means "excamation of grief;, from strongs G3759. Isn't that the case with not only those you mentioned but indeed all of mankind?
That decree of woe falls on all who refuse to repent, the difference being that those to whom Christ spoke, knew God's (physical) law.
That will remain the case with mankind until they are resurrected and given that understanding. They themselves are evidence of that since they couldn't understand the spiritual aspect because it wasn't given to them, Matthew 13:11.
The spiritual understanding is withheld from man for his own protection for if he understood it now and transgressed it without repentance, that individual would cease to exist.
In contrast, the breaking of the physical aspect will indeed bring on a multitude of woes which will eventually culminate in our physical death. The fate all men face.
But, not all men face the eternal (second) death since to this point, only a few can be judged based on the spiritual.

Anonymous said...

I thought Rods letter was quite heartfelt. Never been in LCG, and im no relation to him but I thought it was a well written decent letter.

Anonymous said...

Rod Meredith truly believes he can judge the hearts of men.

I knew Karl and found Meredith's letter to be too little too late.

It seems every time RCM has to make a decision on how to best handle a situation, he chooses the wrong way.

He used to have men that protected him from his own poor character but after Dibar Apartian died all that were left are 'yes men'.

Anonymous said...

Rod Meredith wrote early in his letter saying: "...Yet, this year, God is “testing” our Church in an unusual way..."

Why? Why would God want to test Rod's Church, or as Rod said, "our church?" Rod does not even consider the Living Group to be God's Church, but "our church." Well, that makes sense since Rod Meredith, left Pasadena years ago, and when he did he left his ministerial credentials behind. He started the Global group, or Rod may have called it "our church." God has nothing to do with Global, or Living, for that matter. Why should God be testing "our church?" Is God a dummy?

I John 3:20 says: "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things."

If God truly knows all things, then why would He have to test anybody?

So, Rod is controlling and running "our church," his own man-made organization.

Rod continues to write: "...We have been blessed and the Work is going forward..."

Blessed? How so? How blessed was Global?

Work going forward? Really? If so, then what's the problem?

The Living group, like so many xcogs (including James Malm's group) are stagnant in self-righteousness, full of SELF, doing their own thing. They have lots of milk and junk food for spiritual food...no strong spiritual meat to speak of.

I suspect Rod was informed by others, who are familiar with this blog site, that Rod made a major mistake with not initially mentioning Karl Beyersdorpher. Maybe Rod has "repented!" His coworker letter mentioned him.

Rod Meredith thinks his group has been going "forward" for a long time now, but the group's fruit shows otherwise. It's the old familiar song: "Blame the people. The fault is the people."

When will it all end? Surely all of the professing churches of god can't be God's Church.

Oh, and Lake of Fire Church of God, I know of only one Henry Sturcke, who back in about 1970/1971 attended the Boston Church, then associated with the Worldwide Church of God. I think he attended Boston College and eventually ended up in Germany, but I suspect Rod Meredith has no proof to determine which resurrection Karl Beyersdorpher or Bruce Tyler are going to be in.

If Rod could get his hands on the Lamb's Book of Life, then Rod would know. Rod does not know whose names are written in that book.

And time will tell...

John

Byker Bob said...

I'm not a really big fan of this in most cases, but I wonder if medical marijuana might have been of benefit to Mr. Beyersdorfer.

BB

Anonymous said...

I know that the LCG Headquarters reads this blog site, so I just want to say the following. Mr. Meredith, if you and all of LCG really want God to pour our His Holy Spirit upon your organization, then you must REPENT from calling the Holy Spirit an "it" and instead call the Holy Spirit by the same name that Jesus Christ did, which is "He" and "Him". You must REPENT from teaching that the Holy Spirit is an impersonable force or the impersonable power of God. The Holy Spirit is a Person and He is God (Acts 5:3-4)! You and LCG are rebelling against what God's Word says about the Holy Spirit, teaching false doctrine and suppressing the actual truth of the Holy Bible. REPENT! In love and outgoing concern for you and LCG, I tried to warn you, your clergy and your family, but you all didn't want to listen and instead felt better to excommunicate me. I don't want to come back to LCG, but I do care about you all and will continue to tell you to REPENT!

Anonymous said...

9.30AM if the holy spirit was a person as you claim, Christ would have mentioned him many times in his long prayer to God, prior to his arrest in John. Instead Christ repeatedly refers to the Father.

Priam said...

Re the supposed personality of the Holy Spirit. In support of 12:30PM.

Study the opening preambles of all the letters by the various Apostles - Paul, Peter, John and Jude. You will find that Godly blessings are sent to recipients of the letters. But in each case only the Father and Jesus Christ are listed as God. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned like the other two personages.

NO2HWA said...

Anon @ 9:30 You are correct that LCG HQ monitors this site. As soon as I post something the lights come on around Charlotte on the revolving map. their ip addresses register for LCG HQ and the surrounding area where employees live. LCG is connately trying to find out who the sources are for information. LCG members and employees in Charlotte are sick of the corruption they see daily that the big boys cover up and allow to happen. LCG is in the top 6 corrupt Churches of God...LCG, PCG, RCG, UCG, CCG, COGWA.

If we were not having an impact on the church then Meredith had no need to get up an publicly rebuke members for reading and contributing to this site. The day he did that the readership increased dramatically here.

All I can say is, Thanks Rod, both for the publicly and the continual feed of news stories.

Ralph said...

on June 6, 2016 at 5:29 PM
Priam wrote:-

"Re the supposed personality of the Holy Spirit. In support of 12:30PM."
and
"The Holy Spirit is not mentioned like the other two personages."

I'm convinced that the 'Holy Spirit" is simply the 'attitude' of Yehovah. Jesus was filled to the brim with it.

cheers
ralph.f

Anonymous said...

I thought it was their essence and lifesource or a spiritual vessel that holds a much greater supply of consciousness.

Anonymous said...

6.07 PM but wouldn't RCG be the worst offender since as posted here, some have literally 'given their all' financially to that church? Many will lose their homes when they can no longer service the mortgage that they took out to donate to the church.

Anonymous said...

12.10PM very New Ageist .