The Gnostic's made a point in their teachings to claim that they possessed secret knowledge that was hidden by God and revealed only to them. It was a knowledge gained by progression in one's understanding. The more you studied, the higher your progressed. Possessing this secret knowledge allowed adherents a special place in it's "god's" presence.
The quote below is from the Preaching the Gospel Blog, a Church of God related blog. This silly belief is not limited to this group. All the COGlets think they posses secret hidden knowledge that was discovered by Herb after his impotent god lost it for 1,900 years. Who knew that the hidden knowledge was secretly hidden in a public library in the Pacific Northwest! It sounds like a Dan Brown novel.
Apparently God's "great plan" isn't so great since God apparently lost it for 1,900 years. All those dumb Waldensian's and Sabbatarian Rhode Islanders were not REAL COG members like the present COGlet members are today. Only the enlightened COG members today are the REAL converted followers of God. Only they posses that secret knowledge.
As we observe Trumpets, Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, we hear sermons on the meaning of those days and thus learn, or are reminded of, God's great plan of salvation for mankind. We thus know the future. We know what God has done, is doing, and will do, and we know WHY! But for us to understand these things requires that God opens the mind of each and every one of us to accept the truth.
These things are hidden from almost everyone on earth. They can study the Holy Days all their lives and never figure it out or even believe it when we explain it to them. God has allowed Satan to blind them. Not one of the uncalled people of this world is stronger than Satan and able to resist his deceptions.
Yet God has revealed these secrets to us, not just as a group, but to each one of us individually (1 Corinthians 2:7-16). If you understand God's plan as illustrated by the Holy Days and Feast, it is only because God has opened your mind to understand.
What a gift!
It is an act and an expression of love towards us when God shares His secret knowledge with us.
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When you sit in services at the Feast of Tabernacles, or any of the holy days, and you understand the messages from the Bible, that understanding is a precious gift from God that shows He loves you. It is as if God goes to you personally and says, "Do you want to know a secret? I don't reveal this to most people, but I am revealing it to you because you are my friend" (James 2:23).
How they got the above quote from the following I have no idea. There is nothing secret or hidden.
23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[a] and he was called God’s friend.James 2:23
New International Version (NIV)
The most coherent presentation of knowledge I ever came across about the meaning of the festivals came from sources outside of the COGs, by far. Not even close.
ReplyDeleteThe notion that no one outside of the COG understood "these days or their meanings" was and is incorrect, to the point of being silly. Nobody told me this. I discovered it for myself, while I was in the WCG, in part from volumes of material contained in both the AC library and the college bookstore. One author after another was way ahead of us on all of it.
Of course, these sources outlined unanimously the scriptural evidence that the festivals pointed to Jesus, and were fulfilled in him. The staunch refusal of the old WCG, and its now many offshoots, to acknowledge such evidence continues to contribute to their undoing.
God's Super Secret Message Only Understood By Select Few in COG
ReplyDeleteComing from the voices in their heads, when they are off their meds.
Assistant Deacon is correct: The Festivals and holydays pointed to Jesus and are fulfilled at his coming -- everything but everything in those shadows have meaning only if Christ is at the center of them.
And people in the ACoGs are blind because of those voices in their heads.
Yeah, that passage from James has been discussed on a number of forums, but this is a kind of unique interpretation. You're never going to get proper understanding of it from an Armstrongite, though, because in spite of what Paul had to say, HWA taught that God gave what was later called "the Law of Moses" to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
ReplyDeleteI take James as agreeing with Paul here, that since the law had not yet been given in Abraham's time, his faith and belief in God was what made him God's friend. Attitude, pure and simple.
While we were growing up in our WCG home, my siblings and I were taught that we were receiving from "Mr." Armstrong some very special knowledge, knowledge which if acted upon would cause a Philadelphian attitude, allowing us to be spared what the Laodeceans and "the world" would have to go through at the hands of the Germans during the tribulation.
When I first heard of gnosticism, and salvation through special knowledge, I immediately made the connection between this and the supposedly special, restored knowledge which HWA was allegedly preaching in his gospel message. WCG doctrine, in my mind at least, became equated with the basic concept behind gnosticism. But, try to tell this to a zealous ACOG member and see if it tracks!
BB
Yep, just because the COGs might teach 1 truth doesn't mean that everything else they teach is the truth or that they have a monopoly on that truth. I can choose to observe the feasts if I want to. I can choose to take the Lord's Supper once a year if I want to. I can donate my money towards charitable causes if I want to. I DON'T have to be a member of any group to do what I believe is in accordance with Christ's teachings. Else that's like saying that just because the Catholic church teaches the truth about abortion means that everything else it teaches is true as well and so we all should be Catholic. *bowm-bowm* wrong answer! Wake up people!
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