Sunday, October 21, 2012

Bob Thiel on Judging Others



Dr. Bob Thiel, the "unofficial" Official Spokesman for the Living Church of God, world renown author on prophecy, Catholicism and Mayan gibberish, is all a twitter today about Pope Benedict XVI wanting good conservative Catholics to turn more to Mary.  Bob is upset that they are turning to Mary and not Jesus Christ.

Bob writes:

COGwriter
Today, after declaring 7 others ‘saints,’ the Roman Pontiff Benedict XVI, Bishop of Rome Benedict XVI said following:
…let us turn to her who is the Queen of all the Saints, the Virgin Mary, thinking of Lourdes, stricken by a grave overflowing of the Gave, which has also flooded the grotto of the apparitions of Our Lady. Today we would especially like to entrust missionaries to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary – priests and laity, who sow the good seed of the Gospel in every part of the world. We also pray for the Synod of Bishops, which, over the course of these weeks, is confronting the challenge of the new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith.  http://www.zenit.org/article-35781?l=english

I find it hilarious that Bob is mocking the Catholics for giving Mary more air time than Jesus Christ, while he and the Living Church of God only pay Jesus Christ lip service. Most of the Church of God's are in the same boat.  They can talk about Father God 99% of the time but can't even say the name Jesus without adding Christ to it.  Entire sermons are preached in Armstrongism with the name Jesus never mentioned.  There will be 500 scripture references on law keeping but nothing about Jesus or grace.

Bob writes:

Mary is not one to pray to or to entrust oneself to–including Catholics, Hindus, etc.

Jesus is.  And this is something that the Pontiff knows, but did not seem to mention today.

It's also something that Rod Meredith knows, Flurry, Pack, Malm, and all the rest of them.  You never hear them talking about Jesus Christ except when he will be retuning with guns blazing to destroy the wicked.  Armstrongism gets off on that.  The only time COG members hear Jesus discussed the most is at Passover when they beat him to death year after year with the amplified breaking of matzo's.  Then when the service is over they have basically left Jesus Christ hanging on the  cross stake, in the grave, or still in the high school gym till next year. 

The only time you hear Jesus Christ is even mentioned in Armstrongism is in the last 5 minutes of an hour and half sermon on the law, or in the last couple of paragraphs of an article.

Before Bob throws any more stones at the Catholic Church he had better open his eyes to his own church and how it ignores Jesus Christ too.

Why Would Anyone Want to be Part of the COG Millennium?


Preaching the Gospel (COG) has an entry up about the great white throne judgment and the Church of God's part in it.  This guy is a little more gentle in the roll he thinks church members will play.  This is in sharp contrast to the other spiritual deviates out there in COGland  who are looking with relish at the thought of ruling with rods of iron and whipping people into submission.  However, the things he claims COG members will be doing in the millennium is in sharp contrast in how they do these things today.

The billions who will come up in the white throne judgement will need to be fed, clothed, and housed. They will need a multitude of supplies and equipment. There may even be more people raised up than the earth can feed with the farming produce that is produced during the white throne judgement period.

Growing needed food, manufacturing the clothing and other needed items, and building the housing that will be needed can be the work of the people during the millennium, and by so laboring, they will be learning the give way of life, not just by our instruction, but by putting the lesson into action.

It's interesting how they claim to want to help feed, cloth and house people in their "millennium" yet won't lift a finger in this present age to help the hungry, homeless and the downtrodden.

God has given the Church a great work of love that goes beyond the Church itself - a labor of love of warning Israel about the tribulation to come if they do not repent of their sins and of preaching the gospel to the world as a witness. 

A "work" of "love?"  LOVE?????  Really??????  When so many of the splinter groups rage and spit about the Germans, Chinese, Holy Roman Empire, concentration camps, being sold as sex slaves and being hung up on meat hooks, just WHERE is the love in that?  Trying to scare people shitless is NOT showing love.  Armstrongism's love is totally directed inwards instead of outwards.  Jesus love and concern was directed outwards and upwards, drawing in the rejects of society, while the ministers, evangelists and splinter group leaders of that time were left outside either pissed or wanting in.

Likewise, in the millennium, we will preach to the people of the world the way of love and of give, but also, they will learn that way of life by putting it into practice - by contributing to the buildup of food, clothing, supplies, and physical needs of the billions who will come up in the white throne judgement. They will all be poor - there is no indication their possessions will be resurrected with them, just their bodies (Ezekiel chapter 37).

Does anyone in the world want the "love" that most all of the splinter groups exhibit in 2012?  We have seen that love in action with hundreds of splinter groups formed by angry men who wanted to form their own empire because they, and they alone were right.  Other than Victor Kubik and GCI, none of the larger splinter groups do anything for those around them in the world. They do not care for the hungry, the poor, the homeless, or the stranger at their gates.  If they can't and won't do it now they certainly will not do it in the future.

But the giving will not necessarily all be by compulsion as it was when Joseph ruled Egypt. Rather, we will teach the people to give willingly of their time, labor, and material possessions as their are able, and they will know that by contributing they are helping those who will come up in the white throne judgement, who will need all these things. 

True leaders set the example.  If these people really think they are going to teach people to "...willingly give of their time, labor, and material possessions..." then they need to be setting the example today in the 21st century!  To do otherwise is to do nothing more than blow hot air.

We will be able to teach the people this way of life because that is the way we are learning ourselves when we give to the work of preaching the gospel to the world. We are not just helping our own Church of God group. We are extending ourselves outside of the group we are part of to serve the world - the millions we don't even personally know, people who are sinners and have not yet repented. Yet, just as God loved the world, which was sinning against Him, enough to sacrifice His Son for the world, likewise we are to love the world and give them what they need to repent, that is, the truth.

What a load of bullshit!  What are they learning NOW? Their focus in this day and age is inwards.  They care ONLY for their respective Church of God community.  There is no cooperation between COG's, there is no extending themselves to care for those around them, there is no concern for neighbors, etc.  As for those who have not "repented yet" if you are really a follower of Jesus (who was not mentioned in there article except for one word "son") then you would realize that at that point in time those sins are 100% forgiven.

So just as God has us learn the give way of live by giving to the work of preaching the gospel to the world and the Ezekiel warning to Israel, so also we will teach the people in the millennium the give way of life by leading them and teaching them to contribute what they are able to the physical preparations for the white throne judgement, cheerfully and with a willing heart.

Right now, in this day and age, the "give way" that the Churches of God claim to proclaim is totally worthless and hypocritical.  Most COG's today are all about stealing members from other groups, claiming exclusive leadership that they think are Apostles, claiming right doctrine over all the other groups, damning others for so called "sabbath breaking," etc., etc., etc.

They cannot wake up to the fact that none of them have anything to offer any more.  Look at the hundreds of thousands who have left Armstrongism over the years.  Look at the 700+ splinter groups that are more divided today than Christianity is.  Sadly, their kingdom, their millennium, their world tomorrow, leaves us and the rest of humanity with a bitter taste in our mouths.  Why would we ever want to be part of that again?