In another "uplifting" message to the faithful, the Living Church of God has laid out instructions on how to Count Your Blessings. Nothing about Jesus, but lots of Old Covenant whiners and moaners.
William Williams writes an article on being thankful for the blessings God has given us.
Of course, like any true COG leader, he starts the first paragraph off letting you know you are incapable of being thankful to God.
The first sentence lets us know we have great opportunities to thank God, but the second lets us know that we are too dumb to do it and that God is apparently going to be really, really pissed when we don't.
At Thanksgiving, we have a natural opportunity to reflect on our blessings, and to renew an “attitude of gratitude” in our lives. How important is our attitude? God expects us to be thankful, and in Scripture He left us many powerful examples of the danger of thanklessness.
He then goes on to talk about the Israelites and their whining about manna. When they should have been thankful, they were tired of the same tasting food, day in and day out. They whine, God gets pissed, and showers them with meat to eat till they vomit it out their nostrils.
So, how did the Israelites respond to God’s gift? They complained about its lack of variety, and asked for meat (Numbers 11:4-6). These people, who had not shown themselves willing to abide by their covenant with God, were already putting Him to the test by their complacency and ingratitude! If God could give them bread, they reasoned, why not meat? They forgot that God did not have to give them anything at all!
But God heard their complaints, and gave them what they wanted—and it was a harsh lesson in being careful what you wish for! He brought waves of quail, and fed them meat until they grew literally and physically sick of it: “You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is amongst you, and have wept before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?’” (Numbers 11:19-20). God then sent a plague to finish off those who most offensively allowed their desire for self-gratification to get ahead of their remembrance of their Deliverer (Numbers 11:33-34).
So what does this have to do with us today? Well, God has blessed us with so much yet we are incompetent fools and ungrateful idiots. We don't appreciate it all. (Only those in the COG can be appreciative.)
God has done something very similar for many of us today. He has allowed us to live in abundance, and blessed our nations in just about every way possible. Even when times are relatively hard, we must be careful to remind ourselves that such blessings are not shared by all, and are not guaranteed to last.Apparently the Living Church of God members are not up to snuff right now in being thankful and for not giving enough money to go through all those open doors before them. Yet again, the members are too stupid and incompetent to do what God wants so the church is suffering.
When God opens a door for us, as He did for the Israelites, we show tremendous gratitude by going through it, but we often betray a profound ingratitude when we do not! We should have confidence that, as with the Israelites and early Christians before us, God will not “hand us a stone” in place of bread if we ask in gratitude and righteousness (Luke 11:10-12). But if we slap from His hand the gifts He offers, or if we simply walk away in ignorance or self-will, He might sometimes let us have a brush with a scorpion, or give His blessings to others more grateful. So, pray always that you may see—and walk through—those open doors (Philippians 4:6)!
Then to close the letter, Williams writes that while Thanksgiving might be OK, but just be aware it is a human made holiday invented by pagans. Only the enlightened ones in LCG and certain COG's know about those other special days that they think still are required.
Although Thanksgiving is a natural occasion for us to reflect on our attitude of gratitude, it is a holiday invented by mankind. God Himself has given His people an annual series of Holy Days that are even more meaningful, yet have rarely been practiced. Those Holy Days are true gifts from God. If you want to know more, please write or call for our free booklet, The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan, and learn about how God’s Holy Days can change everything you ever knew or thought about “the holidays,” and show you what most to be thankful for.
9 comments:
Since God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, perhaps UCG could ask God to sell a few and donate???
M.T.Coffers
Williams wrote: "...Well, God has blessed us with so much yet we are incompetent fools and ungrateful idiots. We don't appreciate it all..."
Well, I'm glad he didn't mention the blessings of Abraham, because the USA, nor any other nation on earth, has received the blessings of Abraham (except ancient physical Israel for a very short period of time) to date. It's for a future time and it's to be a blessing upon all families...not just the USA family:
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Genesis 12:3
Any believe that the USA received those blessings? Go read the details and admit that we've been short-changed if we have!
Williams also wrote: "...God Himself has given His people an annual series of Holy Days that are even more meaningful, yet have rarely been practiced..."
That is true for His people: ancient physical Israel...and spiritual Israel, those of God's Church wherever they are...and it's not in Lcg, USA, etc.
When God wants to grant repentance He will do it. It never was our choice. Proof?
Has ancient physical Israel received forgiveness yet? Did Israel ever repent yet? No, and no!
"Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Acts 5:31
Oh, the Prince and Saviour exists, but that repentance of Israel and forgiveness of sins is for much later than most of us can imagine...but time will tell.
So, Williams, your statement of: "...Those Holy Days are true gifts from God..." is true, but it isn't for today...and your group will not bring about that repentance/forgiveness of sins spoken of in Acts 5:31 for Israel...or any family on earth.
God will just do it when He knows it's time to happen....or it won't happen and God is a liar!
John
John
confusing theology
Now, now, ungrateful LCG members are not SMART enough for church to go through Open Doors and Leave Living (and any other 700+ collections of the followers of Herbert Armstrong led by false prophets).
Maybe they should wise up.
Or else, next Thanksgiving they may be grateful they weren't the ones being shot in church by a disgruntled member.
These kinds of biblical passages and the resulting theology I think is some of the strongest internal proof that the Jewish god was made up. The people who made him up were really clever, but this is where they fell short.
If the god of the old testament really did create mankind, he would not behave this way. If I made a robot, and that robot consistently failed to perform according to my expectations, would I blame the robot, get angry with it and think to destroy it? If I were extremely juvenile, I suppose. Or would I take responsibility, conclude that I needed to make some design changes, and then go back to the drawing board and try to fix it?
Let's just take this quail story. Let's say YOU were the creator of these people, and you saw that they weren't sure about you, and even if you were omnipotent, maybe you were leading them into the desert to leave them there. They can't be sure. They're scared, they don't know what to expect, they're complaining, they're sick of manna already. Well, what did YOU expect? So when they ask for something else to eat, you decide to get all upset and vindictive and make it come out their nostrils? Because the reason why they're not performing according to your expectations is WHOSE fault again? If it isn't your fault, then you did not design them or create them.
The story of Pharaoh is a great example too. First, I'm going to get Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let all his slaves go free. Next, I'm going to "harden his heart" so that way he'll deny my request. Then, I'll use that as an excuse to blow up his whole damn country. (Haha, see what I did there? I'm such a troll!)
Humans do not have enough evidence to confirm or deny what is really going on down here. There are many conflicting religions. There might be one right one, they might all be partially right, or they might all be wrong. Most religions teach that theirs is the one right one. If we accept the religious premise, it would then follow that whichever one of those many gods is really calling the shots is denying us the information to make the right choice, and then is requiring us to "guess" the right choice, or else. Logic would suggest that if this god really wanted people to make the right choice, he would at least allow them to make an informed choice instead of forcing us all to merely gamble. If the Hebrew god is the one calling the shots, he's blaming us for the fact that he has not allowed us to make an informed choice, or, maybe even that he's even purposefully intervened to prevent us from making the choice he's pretending he wanted us to make.
The guys who made up all those bible stories, they did a great job of instilling fear in people for thousands of years. They were successful beyond their wildest dreams at doing that. But if they wanted to make their god believable as a creator that could pass scrutiny, they probably shouldn't have made him such a troll.
Precisely, Usher, and it also applies to the notion of "burning in the Lake of Fire," or, as traditional Christianity likes to describe it, "burning in hell."
So we're to imagine an omnipotent being, existing pre-time and -space, deciding to create a universe, and, off in a remote part of it, humans (why? nobody knows), and make them so they die, but also so they can live again, but only if they figure out this complicated system of do's and don'ts (at least, as they're explained to them by other humans), and, if they don't get it right, well, you'll just BURN 'EM!!!!!
And then call yourself "Love." It's a lot of nuttiness, what's been foisted on people in the name of religion.
I remember well a Thanksgiving Eve Wednesday night Bible study in WCG years ago, the first one I attended after moving to a new city.
Even though I got lost on the way to the hall and walked in late, the impact of the "Thanksgiving" message was strong. It left me feeling so guilty and crestfallen that I drove home and did some serious repenting in prayer.
Looking back on it now, I suppose I've learned the main lesson. I make sure I thank God in prayer every day for the blessings and lessons he's given me -- even though a new list of "have you been thankful for....?" surely will be preached in November. A bit like the "did you check...." leaven lists some ministers do in April.
Head Usher and Assistant Deacon, you've nailed it: the reason I not only cannot place faith in the Judeo-Christian god, but believe he absolutely does not exist. Too many contradictory traits.
I don't totally reject the possibility that there could be a plane of existence outside the parts of the universe we can either detect or mathematically model where some sort of creator lurks. However, Judeo-Christian myth does not describe that plane or that being in any coherent way.
Well, the ACOGs have no small need for explanations for their continued failure, do they? I guess this flies amongst the membership about as well as any other delusion which would tend to make them think they are part of God's endtime work. It's something they can all get personally involved in, as if that were the determining factor of the outcome of something God might be doing.
BB
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