Mr. Generalities..Truly, Truly Terrible
Teaching
Why people would drive hundreds of miles to
hear this man speak is an enigma to me. On top of that, all one would really
have to do is listen to any sermon given in the past year and it is the current
one. All his sermons sound the same and contain precious little comment
other than his own comments. These ramblings were taken from
today's sermon
but could just as easily been taken from his past 100 sermons.
"They have no
understanding..
The Jews don't understand
Passover
They don't obey God's
law
They are blind
They are not free
When God opened your
mind
You came kicking and
screaming
They don't want to
change
They don't want to obey
God
This is the last Passover in
history
People don't understand the bondage they
are in
Don't you want to be
free
What an incredible
thing
We are not at a time when God has
determined to work with a spiritual Israel
They are in spiritual
Egypt
This indeed a most historic
feast
God has begun to share more fully with
us
We are to grasp the deeper meaning of
Israel
God's message is
intensifying
We are living it more and more the closer
we get
The first nation of Israel would not and
could not obey God
Except for a few who were
special
They were being worked with on a
physical plane
You can't obey without God's
spirit
Anyway...
Israel as a people have failed .
Their ways only bring oppression and
destruction
Only with God can they
succeed
To gain the mastery of
life
People are in
bondage
People are not in
control
Only when you know the truth can you
begin to come out of it.
What an awesome thing we have moving
closer and closer to what God is giving us
The closer we get, depending on what God
does....God has not revealed to us ...the more you are going to be
tried.
Not everyone is going to make
it
You should be
sobered
Not everyone is going to come thru
this
You need to apply it now in a way far
greater than ever
Now is the time, more than ever before.
It isn't much further and it won't be
easy to hold on
Not everyone will come through
it
Always, always , always every year , some
leave.
Even at the very end, not too long before
He returns, some leave
It all comes down to how spiritually
alert you are and how sure you are
What an incredible thing God giving human
being life
Then we can learn about the quality of
life we can live by obeying God
Wisdom is of God
Well...anyway.....
We don't know how blessed we
are
Morality, it is becoming less and less in
the world
This feel good
thing.
I loathe the Protestant
spirit
It just make you sick
inside
Everyone just love each other if you know
Jesus
What a sad thing
Look at some of these platitudes in a
store
This feel good thing about
God
That's not what it is
about
It's about NOT LYING TO PEOPE
(Watch it Ron)
If you lie, you have to keep track of the
lies so you remember the lies you told
it's not these feely good
things
Have you accepted Jesus
Christ
Not your Jesus Christ, thank
God"
They don't understand
Christmas
They kept it hidden
They are in bondage
They have this syrupy kind of
song
No, that's a repulsive
thing
Mr. Armstrong wrote a book called Mystery
of the Ages
I got to hear HWA that
day
He was so excited
After seeing all the 50 plus years and
finally able to write a book from beginning to end with the
truth ...
Put in plain terms
What an incredible
thing
All of a sudden opens your
mind
The sabbath and the seven thousand
years
We are at the end of the six
days
More awesome and more
exciting
We can talk about it, we can share it
with each other, we can't share it yet
Again, how awesome is
that
It shows how things are so mapped
out
So meticulous
We were talking about Adam and Eve and
the attitude was like God hitting himself in the forehead...What am i going to
do now
How narrow minded we were not to be able
to see a fuller picture.
God knew exactly what it would
take...
Sometimes we think Einstein was a
genius
How did they build the
pyramids
They weren't morons
Very skilled, some things were lost in
understanding
Incredible
I have lost my
place
awesome
Ok, enough. I'm making myself
dizzy. You lost your place? What place? What kind of a
sermon is this? What the hell is the topic, the purpose? Where is
the flow and what is the point? Who are the people that sit week after
week and listen to this dribble believing this man is inspired by a God?
Why do they drive so far to be taught so little? If this is Godly
inspiration, I might suggest God is drinking and having a grand
time.
Ron wanders all over creation from one
topic to another and most are not remotely connected to any real point he is
making. Truly you can go from explaining the Exodus to how ignorant
Catholics are about Christmas.
The vast majority of the COG ministry are
mere Bible readers. They are commentators perhaps, but not teachers.
While the Apostle Paul may be "hard to understand," Ron Weinland is easy
to understand and hard to stomach. There is no real content. There
is no hint of understanding the background of the books he so freely comments
from and reads as one would read a newspaper. Ron betrays no modern
knowledge of Science truly so called nor would he ever speak of it. To
Ron, the earth is 6000 years old and the full plan 7000. (Look up Golbeki
Tepi Ron) For a grown man, who claims to know the mind of God and how everything
all is on this planet and yes, even the entire universe, to utter such
ignorance of science is simply unacceptable in an age when such information is
freely available. COG ministers, for the most part, are 2000 years out of
date.
One of the proofs that COG ministers are
stuck on auto pilot for decades is that no newer understanding of even some of
the most basic scientific realities can be acknowledge. Most have to know that
in fact the earth is 4.5 billion years old and our universe around 14
billion. Most have to think about the implications of fossil hominid finds
or the pictures from Hubbell that show how utterly insignificant we are on this
one of now thousands known in our neighborhood that may or even must hold
life. I can't believe an educated or even curious man in our times would
think that there literally was an Adam and Eve as presented and the origin of
language is the Tower of Babel mythology. The problem is that so much New
Testament theology does depend on the mythologies being literally true. They are
not.
And finally, I do have to wonder what kind
of thinking keeps people stuck in their seats listening to the same things over
and over and believes the unbelievable as spoken by Ron Weinland? Does the
average PKG member not know how to read or look around the Net for other ways of
explaining what Ron so badly generalizes? Are they afraid for him and themselves
to not be correct and so won't consider anything else? Do they not see
they are heading over another "time is short," cliff and all that is left then
is to tell them that "I NEVER said it was literally true. It is
spiritually true!" Will that send them back into Theocomas again for
yet more speculation and repetition?
I truly don't understand what keeps the
average COG member attached to their seat as these old memes and stories play
over and over each week, without end and all coming to nothing. I
suppose "almost here" is just such a powerful hope that some minds can't
see that almost postpones their living in the actual moment they have in
this life.
Always living for the future is such a
waste of the present moments in life. You can't get them back.
I predict that all these men will simply get old and die like everyone before
them. I expect they have yet to even consider this reality for themselves
but life has a way of making its point.
It is obvious Ron is deeply wounded by his
WCG experience. He refers to it often in his sermons and how
incredible and difficult it all was. It was difficult. That
part I can attest to. It has and does leave its scars. We
all process our pain and disappointment differently. Some just church hop
looking for the cure of the anxiety we all have over our mortality and "what's
going to happen to me." Others , as myself, become cautiously skeptical no
longer willing to commit to the ideas of others.
It's a journey I suppose, but I do marvel
at those who hunker down in a COG and allow that one man to tell them how it all
is and to draw their identity from the lives and minds of how other men like HWA
saw and filtered his world. Around here when you ask many who they are,
they respond by "I am a Bob Jones student," or "Jonesers"as the locals call
them. Kinda sad actually. They draw their identity from a man and a
theological dynasty and his name sticks to them.
So, the beat goes on. The
Weinlanders, Flurrites, Meredithians, Packers and Tkachians sit each week
hearing the same thing over and over. In the case of the Tkachians, they
hear over and over how to invent the wheel yet again. None of it has much
basis in reality and from the above example, it is clear some are getting
nothing from it or if they are, what's wrong with them?
I don't know. Maybe it is all awesome
and amazing, unbelievable and incredible, it really is brethren, but I just
don't see it and I surely cannot understand how anyone gets anything of value
for the heart and soul from the above example of a sermon from Mr. Generalities.
Dennis
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
8 comments:
It is absolutely true that COG ministry are merely bible readers stuck on an autopilot of regurgitating whatever Herbert Armstrong said. Nothing they say is ever new. They have never had an original thought of their own. They have never battle-tested anything they preach. The bible says "prove all things." COG ministers have never proven anything in their lives. They're just pollyparrots telling you what someone else told them. Time marches on; the world marches on, but Armstrongism long ago stagnated in a past that is growing increasingly distant and irrelevant day by day.
Doesn't this "witness from the book of Revelation" have a roundezvous with destiny soon - and I don't mean in Jerusalem clothed in sackcloth? I mean the Federal Pen for tax evasion and failure to report $350,000 in income over a four year period?
How is this buffoon Weinland going to keep his brain dead followers and their income stream from behind bars? And will the other witness of the book of Revelations, wife Laura, be there with the buffoon Weinland witnessing Ron in the Federal Pen, or did she turn "States' Witness" and testified against the buffoon Weinland? She's his wife - did they file joint tax returns or did she file separately?
We need a witness!
Richard
Dennis Diehl said, "It's a journey I suppose, but I do marvel at those who hunker down in a COG and allow that one man to tell them how it all is and to draw their identity from the lives and minds of how other men like HWA saw and filtered his world."
MY COMMENT - I think there is a certain small segment of people who will believe a snake oil salesman which most ACOG leaders are because they are heavily invested in time, money, energy, mental activity and belief.
It's no different than riding a $45 stock investment all the way down to corporate bankruptcy and delisting on the pink sheets. After the initial investment and watching the stock drop like a rock, common sense would be to stop losses at $25 or $30 per share. But like the WCG and its loony derivatives, the investment has already been made in tithes, offerings, special offerings, the Emergency Fund and the all important Building Fund (because time is short), The investment in Armstrongism is HUGE. Let's not forget the family estrangement and personal pride. "How could I be wrong and mislead for 30+ years, or a lifetime?"
So, like the $45 bad stock investment, there are people who will ride it all the way down to delisting. Who were the people who were left "holding the bag" in the stock of once high rollers such as Enron, WorldCom, PSINET, Teligent ($100 per share with only $50M in reveneue and never made a profit - went from $100 per share to ZERO in a little over a year), etc.
PSINET and their corporate ego put their corporate name on a NFL stadium because that was more important than demonstrating that their business model worked and making a profit for their common stock investors. PSINET went belly up in two years. The example of PSINET is no different than Packatolla and Flurry building Colleges for their personal Church ego even though they can hardly afford it (Oooops, I mean the dumb sheep brethren who will be abused and threatened with eternal Lake of Fire damnation for years in order to payoff the bank loans).
The stock market equivalent of "stop losses" on individual stock investments never kicks in with these dumb sheep even after hearing for 50 years from the Rod of God that we only have 3 to 5 years left, or from HWA that "time is short" and "1975 in Prophecy" booklet pulled from Church circulation because it documents another failed prophecy.
So Dennis, what is there to marvel?
Richard
Very good analogy Richard. I once worked for an telecommunication firm who sold downward trend stocks to their employees. I bought about $1700 worth and within a couple of years it was worth about $50. I also had some Worldcom stock. Lost about $10,000 in the stock business. But that is not anywhere near what I had given to WCG/UCG through almost 35 years of tithes and offerings and other emergency needs. I no longer invest in the stock market or give to any religious organization. They have both been losers.
Homer, at least you could start a fireplace, if you have one, with those worthless stocks. That's more to show than any of us can claim from our COG experiences.
Dennis, Nice job disecting the ramblings of a mad man.
Really, not one thought linked with another and it makes you wonder how close he might be to a nervous breakdown if he did not have one a few years ago.
My thoughts on the 7000 years though would be that most who listen to him would have in perspective that man and 'this world' (age) would have 6000 years after the fall of man, keeping in mind the 4+billions of years of earths existenced was covered by what some refer to as the gap theory.
That being said, this man has no context for his word, no concept of true humanity and real christianity and no conscience.
Good review Dennis and thanks for the comment on the Tkachian's. Looks like the UCGers are headed the same way. They are always starting from the beginning with Jesus and his sacrifice and little more beyond that.
Thanks again for your clear thoughts. All the best.
"Ron Weinland is easy to understand and hard to stomach"
That in so few words says it all about every single one of 'em who has sought to follow in HWA's footsteps and appoint themselves as his "successor"!
"COG ministers are stuck on auto pilot..."
So true not unlike what Andrew said, "They're just pollyparrots telling you what someone else told them"! In my own experience, they refuse to "repent" and change themselves and admit error when confronted with new truth that threatens their worldview just to keep their own traditions as "Pope" Herbertus Armstrongus set! And a recent experience of mine proves how stuck in the past they are e.g. After a Sabbath service one time a few of us hung around to listen to a recording of HWA giving a Bible study. I can't even remember what it was on! But, it was so boring a few even fell asleep! I didn't even want to stay as it was mid-afternoon, but the guy giving me a ride home wanted to stay and I didn't know how to get back home! So I was stuck in a time warp of sorts praying for it to end. Arrgghh!!!
Well, there's an anti-Obama bumper sticker that was just recently banned. Fact is, it never should have seen the light of day. I won't quote it, but I'll paraphrase it, thus providing good advice for Weinland's followers:
"Don't re-Wein in 2012"
~Miguel de la Rodente
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