Saturday, March 4, 2017

Living Church of God/Doug Winnail: That Big Bad Internet




Doug Winnail is having a hard time again with the big bad meanies on the internet.  Apparently the LCG big boys have been unable to stop their members from checking out web sites, blogs and news articles about the ongoing corruption in the LCG/COG's.  Bad brethren! Bad, bad bad!

We live in an age when people say “whatever they think” in personal conversations or on the Internet—and everyone has an opinion to express! However the Bible offers very different advice. Long ago, Solomon observed that “a fool’s voice is known by his many words” (Ecclesiastes 5:3), and 
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise” (Proverbs 10:19). We are also told that “A prudent man conceals [is reluctant to display] knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims foolishness” (Proverbs 12:23), and “Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles” (Proverbs 21:23). I once had an English teacher who was fond of saying, “Make sure you engage your brain, before putting your mouth in gear”—which is the same advice we find in Proverbs 16:23, “The heart [the mind] of the wise teaches his mouth and adds learning to his lips.” In order to speak wise words and avoid troubles, we need to remember the admonition of King David who wrote, “The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of justice” because “the law of his God is in his heart” (Psalm 37:30-31). The book of James offers this advice: “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20). This is sound advice concerning wisdom with words.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail

22 comments:

Hoss said...

“a fool’s voice is known by his many words”

As in 4-hour sermons?

Byker Bob said...

I was going to say, "If you can't stand the heat...", but the Kitchens have come to the internet.

BB

Retired Prof said...

Notice how many words Winnail expended urging people to keep it short?

Anonymous said...

These days, the wise check the Internet before buying.

It's clear that this has absolutely ruined business for the LCG.

eddby said...

rod merideth is a gigantic let down, a swindler, and is greedy for money and power!

There you have it, short and sweet.
Where's the fool in that?

Anonymous said...

rod merideth is a gigantic let down, a swindler, and is greedy for money and power!

There's not much room for greed when you're housebound, in the final stages of terminal cancer.

His hearing and eyesight are almost gone. He spends his days sitting in front of a television set, "watching world news."

Keep your eyes on Weston's first evangelist ordinations, as these will tell you much about the direction in which LCG will go. Several ambitious pastors at LCG HQ are anticipating a big move upward after Meredith dies.

DennisCDiehl said...

Every one of the scriptures referenced by Doug was written by a Priest, King or Scribe who had had enough of the little people questioning their decisions and views. You know...if someone notices that Jesus has not returned in 2000 years and whatever "soon" was to them must not be the same kind of "soon" to the ministers and Apostles, you call them a scoffer. Noticers are always called scoffers by those who have vested interests in not having those who notice speak up. The idea in Peter to explain noticers called scoffers was to add something to the "understanding" that was not mentioned years earlier. "A day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day..." Ohhhhh..... now you tell us! Why didn't you say that back when you thought soon meant will not tarry or the hour now is???

The scriptures provide all the needed put downs for critical thinkers and those who notice.

"There is a way that SEEMS right to a man, but the end thereof is death"

"The wisdom of man is foolishness with God."

"God will confound the wisdom of the wise."

The heart of man is deceitful above ALL things and desperately wicked..." so there and so on.

You can't win.

I suspect Doug, Gerald and LCG leadership is stressed out by their ways and ideas being scrutinized as never before. Dave Pack won't actually get very far with all the attention he draws to himself and his crazy views. To him it is Satan and demons thwarting him. To us..it is just our noticing how crazy his theology and who he thinks he is, is.

Anonymous said...

Doug's many words for those "sheep" he is addressing could have been summed up by drawing attention to the following 4 phrases that I saw on the borders surrounding a license plate on an automobile:

Get In
Sit Down
Shut Up
Hang On

Now, that too is sound advice concerning wisdom with words.

John

Unknown said...

Dear Gerald Weston:

Do you realize the irony of your diatribe?. It was posted by your church on the internet!

Anonymous said...

"The idea in Peter to explain noticers called scoffers was to add something to the "understanding" that was not mentioned years earlier. "A day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day..." Ohhhhh..... now you tell us! Why didn't you say that back when you thought soon meant will not tarry or the hour now is???"

But, but, but!!! Dennis, II Peter 3:8 - "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" is invalid because it is widely known that II Peter is a forgery! And of course, that Scripture about scoffers is in II Peter 3:3. The book is still forged. It is not only legitimate, but it was written at least 30 (and probably more) years after Jesus supposedly died.

It gets worse and worse and worse. Those Priests, Kings and Scribes made it all up. Chronicles proves the Exodus from Egypt never happened and furthermore, the Israelites probably weren't -- not really -- not a lot of them, any way. Lies, delusions, deceptions all the way through. And if you've been reading along with Orlin Grabbe's Letter to Mother, you'll realize that "The Proof of the Bible" wasn't. Those in charge at A.C. knew the booklet was crap.

So now we're supposed to take people like Winnail seriously? Really?

Armstrongism is a joke. Not a very funny one. It's funny like a heart attack. Nevertheless, how is it that any of the 1%ers of Armstrongism expect any respect? They are irrational, chaotic and absolutely nuts. No one should take them seriously at all. There's no basis for that.

And in the scheme of things, they're really irrelevant.

The mystery is why don't they admit the truth?

There should be a special place in hell for them because they don't.

Anonymous said...

They want a government monopoly on information and news. When this is the case, information is always twisted to serve the selfish exploitive ends of those in power. This was the common experience in church. Keep your mouth shut, don't have a opinion, and let the daddy ministers tell you what to believe. Be a good little Borg drone.

Anonymous said...

"Be swift to hear and slow to speak"

Right. Do that in Flurry's church and the fools with many words will walk all over you while they charm the doe-eyed brain-dead minister's socks off.

Anonymous said...

The church had a monopoly on information during the Herbie era. The result? Just before Herbies death, there were three monthly magazine publications, The Plain Truth, The Good News, and the World News and Prophesy. Just about every article was bait and switch. No matter what the article headline and accompanying first few paragraphs, the article always ended in give, help and serve. This avalanche was murderous mind twisting. Free standing give, help, serve is a anti-concept that attacks action-reaction, cause and effect, you reap what you sow. This is advocating lawlessness.
The church had it's desired monopoly, and blew it. Big time.

Anonymous said...

This sounds like Pack's message from a few years ago. He compared the brethren to bricks in a wall. We were all supposed to fit in our place, and basically "shut-up", and just do your part wherever you fit in that "wall"...

Assistant Coffee Maker said...

Words of wisdom, Doug is full of it

Byker Bob said...

During my membership, we had the Plain Truth and the Good News, and for a few years, Tomorrow's World. During the recessions of the early '70s, they killed TW, and the PT went to a newspaper format.

The majority of the articles exposed problems of the then current era, and the final paragraph basically stated that there is no solution to the problem until Jesus Christ returns. So you knew while you were reading an overly simplistic and melodramatic overview of whatever topic exactly how the article was going to conclude.

Also, the member letters and coworker letters eventually took on a sameness. You knew that they were going to be about some sort of emergency, open door, or gunlap, and that the old man would be begging for money. Totally predictable! Yet, I know there were some people who would actually break down and cry as they read them, and dutifully go for their checkbooks as they hastily revised their own bare survival budgets for the month.

At some point in time, I stopped reading the magazines, and didn't even open HWA's letters. They were the same old tired formula over and over and over again, and were actually depressing. We used to joke about how many times could they possibly use pictures of starving African babies on the cover of the PT. To my knowledge, they never did a single thing to relieve the suffering of Africans, or any of the other unfortunates who made good cover stories.

These publications were intended to "fire up" readers about "the work", and to recruit new members. Their continued effectiveness with any given member would fade with time. I believe that such a fade is why we see increasingly outrageous and ridiculous pronouncements coming from all of the splinters. 30-50 years in Armstrongism, and no real fulfillment of the prophecies, would naturally immunize one into a blase state of mind.

BB

Byker Bob said...

Wow! Sounds like Pack may have been into Pink Floyd! Who knew?

BB

Anonymous said...

This viewpoint of everyone having an opinion and the internet being for fools is the 2017 panic cry of the modern day Pharisees. They cannot control the information the brethren hear and read anymore. It is not 1979 anymore and they cannot control the brethren as they once did. And the fear of loss of power and control is deeply embedded into these men. Fear strikes at their heart. Linking brethren who view the internet with their own freedom of choice with scripture about fools is a cruel mind control rubbish. He takes a huge jump comparing the two. Oh of course there are wacko Jacko types but much of what you read is sincere comments and many first hand witness accounts of what they experienced.
God gives freedom of choice yet many leaders throughout CoG land do not. God gives individuals accountability for their actions but many leaders of CoG Splinter groups do not. It is not only the attitude from LCG but goes on in many if not all COG groups.

Anonymous said...

LCG kicks people out who dare to have a differing opinion or dare to point out wrong doing in the ministry. If they were wise, they would try to work through the problems in a respectful, adult, Christian way instead of thumping people's noses and drawing blood in so doing.

As it stands, they (LCG) act like bullies and batter the sheep. Then the sheep have an active distain for LCG because of how harshly the ministers deal with those who aren't all rainbows and unicorns (dare to have opinions, study the Bible with friends, etc.).Those same people likely would have just weeded themselves out over time if their difference were never resolved but because LCG loves to use a hammer instead of a fly swatter, these people often have a hard time "getting over it" and continue to blog on sites like this and/or share their opinions of LCG on Facebook and elsewhere.

Stupidly, LCG no longer has control or bargaining power with such people because LCG has cut its nose of despite its face instead of taking the time for peaceful resolution with would be disgruntled individuals.

LCG knows not the way of peace and they seldom consider the long game in their reactionary demonstrations of forceful authority.

Byker Bob said...

Paraphrasing what you just posted, 4:29, LCG grieves the Holy Spirit! No member can grow in grace and knowledge under those conditions. They've got their members spiritually throttled!

BB

Anonymous said...

Doug Winnail writes as though the members of the Living group need to be under Living's control 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week...that God's Spirit is impotent in the lives of their members. Where is God in all of that?

What means it?

Let's assume they all attend services for 2 hours a week. That's it! A minister has jurisdiction over their lives during a 2-hour service. So, why want to control the remaining 166 hours of each member's life too?

Are all members dummies?

Or, to think about it another way. There are 1440 minutes in a day. Services last for about 120 minutes. Why does Doug Winnail think he needs to control the remaining 1320 minutes of each day in every members life?

Perhaps Doug cannot see any fruit of God's Spirit working in the lives of the members of the Living group. Is that possible? Does God's Spirit work only in a minister's life? Duh!

If God's Spirit is not working within a person's life, then just what are Doug's words really going to accomplish in the long run? I mean; if God isn't doing something, then what is a human being...like Doug going to do?

Is Doug still striving to help members of the Living group qualify by their works to attain some position in God's Kingdom? Are all of the members still just weaning babes? Needing more "milk?" Does Doug think the members can't read scriptures? Do they need Doug to remind them of all of these verses?

Well, why haven't the Living groups members changed by now? Doug needs to come up with a new message with some "meat" for the members. Well, maybe that is what Westin will promote...soon?????????

Enuf, already....time will tell...

John

Anonymous said...

Sound, wise, Biblical advice Mr. Winnail. Thank you.