Thursday, January 23, 2020

Gerald Weston: Living Church of God Members Enslaved By Lust, Alcohol, Vaping, Cigarettes, Pot and Porn

The one message you never hear in the Living Church of God. 
Instead, just constant condemnation.


Some things never change in the Church of God.

The Apostle John tells us that loving this world is incompatible with loving God: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:15–16). John was likely thinking of the Garden of Eden when he expressed these thoughts, for we are told that “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [the lust of the flesh], that it was pleasant to the eyes [the lust of the eyes], and a tree desirable to make one wise [the pride of life], she took of its fruit and ate” (Genesis 3:6). When preaching on these chapters of Genesis, Mr. Herbert Armstrong thundered to the Church that the majority of members didn’t get it. Time proved him correct! Do we get it?
These three motivations of human nature are closely related and often feed each other. Consider how even some in the Church are enslaved by the lust of the flesh. Teens and adults alike may take up vaping, cigarettes, or marijuana and other drugs to feed fleshly appetites and to appear more sophisticated to their peers. Some overindulge in alcohol. How many “just have to have” something that they cannot afford? It is not wrong to buy a new dress or a new boat, or to move into a larger home if one can afford it, but many only fool themselves into thinking that they can afford it. We live in a consumer society, and it is naïve to think we are unaffected. Everything is an infomercial! Society relentlessly tempts us to believe that happiness is found in acquisitions. The expensive sneakers of our teen years become the shiny new car of our working years. Neither are sins in themselves, but it is an illusion to think happiness is found in such things. The acquisition of goods and amusements, as an end in itself, has never produced lasting happiness—no lust of the flesh ever has.
The Internet certainly fuels the lust of the eyes. Pornography is a huge problem, affecting both men and women of every age. David wrote a psalm in which he declared, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes” (Psalm 101:3). As my Bible says in its marginal notes, the word wicked in this verse may also mean worthless.
Worthlessness is not the only problem. There are sad consequences in our lives when we follow such lusts. Jesus famously instructed, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). No wonder David prayed to God to “turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things” (Psalm 119:37)—but as we know, in a weak moment in his life, David failed to do his part to resist temptation, and it became the biggest mistake of his life (1 Kings 15:5). His son Solomon wisely advised, “Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you” (Proverbs 4:25).
It is interesting that Weston focuses upon "worthless."  Isn't this the message that the church has beat into us for 8 decades? Have church  members ever been able to do anything right? It is always the members fault that leaders have issues, that the church has issues, that income is down.  Of course, that is the ultimate goal of the unworthiness gospel.  The more we hear it, the more we were expected to feel guilty and thus contribute more to redeem ourselves in the eyes of the leadership.  Loyal tithe payers and givers were true believers.  Those who were slackards always started off by skipping tithing and giving. Then it was a direct pathway into porn and vaping.

We were always lower than worms. Always unable to understand anything Herbert Armstrong or Meredith said and certainly made to feel unworthy at Passover as we sat there listening to the unworthiness message being amplified through the speaker systems when the bread was broken.  It is no wonder they despise grace so much.

Colossians 1:12 New International Version (NIV)

12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[a] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.


22 comments:

TLA said...

Not to sure Solomon is a good person to quote. He had 1000 wives - where ever he looked there were wall to wall women he owned.
Don’t these guys ever think about who they are quoting?
Solomon is an example of greed gone wild.

Anonymous said...

Almost all of the issues mentioned above are committed by Weston's ministry. What gives him the right or the ministry to condemn us when they are more grevious sinners than the members are?

Anonymous said...

Weston wrote:

It is not wrong to buy a new dress or a new boat, or to move into a larger home if one can afford it

Compared to Dave Pack, this is abject liberalism. LCG members have it easy compared to those trapped in the Pack and Flurry cults.

Anonymous said...

> "As my Bible says in its marginal notes, the word wicked in this verse may also mean worthless"

As my thesaurus says in its entry, the word marginal may also mean fringy, borderline, unprofitable, of minimal quality, which makes it the perfect descriptor for his "notes" and church as a whole.

Anonymous said...

Vaping is terrible. Don't do that. Keep the rest in moderation and you'll be fine.

Anonymous said...

January 23, 2020 at 11:00 AM

Maybe Weston is talking to the ministry.

RSK said...

And, it all comes back to porn, in accord with the COG playbook.

Anonymous said...

RSK

"And, it all comes back to porn, in accord with the COG playbook."

Exactly! Where would LCG be without sex being part of the equation? While some of its ministers commit adultery and mess
around, its member's who are at fault. While the Meredith boys were breeding like rabbits, it was not an issue, but damn those members!

Anonymous said...

@ 1:59 PM, please don't make it sound like it's just a Meredith thing. Meredith's younger boys have grown up. One is out of the church, the other has married in the church and seems to have calmed down.

But what about the minister who broke up a younger couple and married a woman young enough to be his daughter?

What about the elders who play golf on the Sabbath and smoke cigars at the "19th hole" afterward?

What about Weston's Canadian buddy who takes money from the Chinese Communist Party to spread pro-China propaganda?

What about the underground gay clique at LCG HQ?

Meredith is dead. Stop picking on him and his family, especially as there is much, much more wrong with LCG than just the Merediths.

Tonto said...

Weston wrote : "Pornography is a huge problem, affecting both MEN and WOMEN of every age."

BUT He left out...

Agender
Androgyne
Androgynous
Bigender
Cis
Cisgender
Cis Female
Cis Male
Cis Man
Cis Woman
Cisgender Female
Cisgender Male
Cisgender Man
Cisgender Woman
Female to Male
FTM
Gender Fluid
Gender Nonconforming
Gender Questioning
Gender Variant
Genderqueer
Intersex
Male to Female
MTF
Neither
Neutrois
Non-binary
Other
Pangender
Trans
Trans*
Trans Female
Trans* Female
Trans Male
Trans* Male
Trans Man
Trans* Man
Trans Person
Trans* Person
Trans Woman
Trans* Woman
Transfeminine
Transgender
Transgender Female
Transgender Male
Transgender Man
Transgender Person
Transgender Woman
Transmasculine
Transsexual
Transsexual Female
Transsexual Male
Transsexual Man
Transsexual Person
Transsexual Woman
Two-Spirit

So I guess those folks are off the hook!

Anonymous said...

I was at an LCG site this year meeting up with friends. I was shocked to watch people and how they reacted when GW entered the room. It was like God had suddenly appeared. People looked with awe upon him. A few even clapped. It reminded me of the sick way people acted in HWA and Meredith's presence. There is nothing this man or any other COG leader says that is worth following. It reinforced why we had left the church a couple years ago. If it wasn't for meeting up with friends so we could go and have fun after their service, my feet would never have crossed their doorway.

Anonymous said...

6:14 PM is misunderstanding what he saw. Yes, LCG members clap and fawn and treat GW with awe and reverence and outright worship when they are in his presence.

However, their expressions of support are exactly like what we see in North Korea, where people realize that if they do not show enough appreciation to the ruling Kim, they may be harassed, mistreated, and maybe even sent to a prison camp or executed.

What you saw was not love of Weston, but fear of Weston. Keep in mind that this is how they are trained to treat the Father and Jesus Christ. Disrespect the wrong minister, and you might be on your way to the Lake of Fire!

Anonymous said...

King David had a 300 strong harem, so he's no Snow White in the worthless or lust department.

Anonymous said...

6.51 PM
When I attended services in the 1980s, it was my experience that many members worshiped the church and revered the ministers. Their names where spoken in aristocratic tones. Which explains Dave Packs success in robbing blind his members via his common doctrine. After HWAs church splintered, ministers power level dropped since members can take themselves and their tithe money to another splinter if significantly mistreated. So I doubt that your North Korea comparison applies to most members. But it might to those who have family or lifelong friends in a certain group.

Byker Bob said...

We didn't have vaping back then, but the rest of these activities surfaced in the church bigtime sometime shortly after 1972 as it began to become obvious that the church had not in fact been given the gift of prophecy.

In the decades since I left, this prophecy thing seems to have been a continuing thread, waxing and waning in a wave-like pattern. It appears to be on the wane currently, with leaders desperately fanning the flames, and cracking the whip like Weston, while members who have been manipulated one too many times find it difficult to take it seriously any longer.

I have no use for cigarettes, vaping, getting altered, or porn, but will enjoy an occasional beer. There are a lot of useful hobbies available which lend themselves to a far more constructive life than do the ever popular vices.

BB

Anonymous said...

Anon January 23, 2020 at 6:35 PM

Excellent observation!

Anonymous said...

Treating GW with awe and clapping - is this a new thing or maybe location specific? The time he visited my congregation as RCM's replacement over a year ago, there was none of that.

Anonymous said...

there is no condemnation to those that belong to Christ Jesus...



now, who does the bible say are the ones that belong to Christ Jesus?

and, what was Jesus' instructions? (if you will enter into life, keep the commandments)

the unbelieving mind will find a way around all of that....

Anonymous said...

Uh-oh, Hang onto your wallets, Mr Weston's mansion needs new upscale furniture!
He's gotta compete w/ 'Dr' Tkach's mansion down the street!

$$$

Anonymous said...

It is not wrong to buy a new dress or a new boat...

Hardly comparing apples with apples. I remember a WCG minister (who converted from Armstrongism to Tkatchism) who mentioned he passed by a marina every day and wanted a boat, but for him it must be "all for the work". That may have also been a dig at a successful member of the congregation who did own a boat...

Anonymous said...

Treating GW with awe and clapping - is this a new thing or maybe location specific?

Weston visited two Feast sites last year. One of the sites was run by a very rank-conscious minister who has a reputation as an ambitious brown-noser and who bullied volunteers into creating for Weston an atmosphere that Flurry or Pack would have found comfortable. The other site treated the Presiding Evangelist's office with ample respect and appreciation but was more in keeping with Weston's unpretentious nature. Weston expects to be in control, but doesn't need for you to lick his boots. Unfortunately, one of Weston's Feast sites last year displayed the boot-licking mentality in a way that worried some of the LCG members who attended.

Anonymous said...

Just maybe, I'm reading this wrong. Could it be, that it's about MONEY?
If you don't drink, smoke, buy a new dress, car or boat. That you could send him more money.
Just reading between the lines!