It's the battle of the "marks!" LCG "marks" a Church of God minister for causing division who then "marks" a COG member of another group for causing division. Only in COGdumb can this kind of stupidity happen!
The Journal is reporting that a minister from Dave Pack's financially struggling personality cult has "marked" false prophet Robert Thiel. Apparently Sydney Hull from South Africa got ticked off that prophet Thiel has been telling people to not jump ship into Dave Packs Restored Church of God. That seems to have been in response to Syd Hull's apostasy from Living Church of God which in turn earned him being "marked" by LCG.
A member of one Church of God has "marked" a member of another Church of God.The article has this concerning LCG and Syd Hull:
The unusual action, which in most COG groups amounts to a step more drastic than the act of "disfellowshipping" an errant member, came after a split from the Living Church of God, based in Charlotte, N.C.
Seventy-six-year-old Sydney J. Hull of Johannesburg South Africa, marked Robert Thiel of Arroyo Grande, Calif., because, said Mr. Hull, "my sheep have been affected by this man's efforts."
Mr. Hull, a pastor and evangelist-ranked elder who says he was ordained as a member of the Worldwide Church of God 35 years ago, recently left the Living Church of God, presided over by Roderick C. Meredith, and joined the Restored Church of God, pastored by David Pack of Wadsworth, Ohio.
In a "letter to brethren" dated Sept. 27, Mr. Hull said he left the LCG over differences of "doctrine."
He summarized the doctrinal differences as "altering the scriptural structure of government, setting dates for Christ's return, permitting marriage outside the church, use of cosmetics, inappropriate dress, Sabbath wear and hair too long for men and too short for women, denying Mr. [Herbert] Armstrong's role as the prophesied Elijah, and so much more, as seen in the list of 60 changes found on RCG's [the Restored Church of God's] website."
Before marking Dr. Thiel, Mr. Hull stated that the lay member of the LCG from Southern California errs by having his own private Web site dedicated to Church of God matters.
"Among other attacks, this site lists a host of invented reasons why one should not go with RCG," Mr. Hull said. "The shallow reader will be taken in, but those with common sense will see the utter falsehood of this man's misinformed confusion." Evangelist leaves one Church of God, then marks a member of another Church of God
The LCG has, in turned, disfellowshipped and marked Mr. Hull.
"Regrettably, the Hulls had to be disfellowshipped and marked because they have been attempting to pull people out of LCG," announced Doug Winnail of the Charlotte area, the Living Church of God's director of church administration.
In the Journal article, Bob is quoted as saying:
ReplyDelete"For the record, I have never been disfellowshipped from any church. This is the first time I am aware that I've ever been marked. I was a member in good standing of the Living Church of God before Syd Hull's actions and remain so afterwards."
"...and remain so afterwards." Does this mean that Bob is still considers himself still to be a member of LCG in good standing? If so, why does he disobey the evangelists in charge of LCG?
Is he trying to be like David in maintaining his support for the king even though God has chosen him as the new king?
What a strange odyssey this has become for BT.
Glenn Parker
Wait a minute... That issue of the Journal is dated Sept 30, 2006! NO2, WTF?
ReplyDeleteGlenn Parker
Yes, this happened almost 7 years ago... issue 114.
ReplyDeleteHey, even 7 years later, I can play the game!
ReplyDelete...I mark you.
No I mark YOU!...
.... no no no no, I mark YOU.
I mark YOU! ... poke
... should we even be talking to each other?
*Silence*
*poke*
*POKE*
Syd Hull died two years ago after supposedly "reconciling" with Rod and after Pack kicked him out for supposedly having senility. My suggestion to you ass clowns here is to not your so-called journalism professionally. You'll starve
ReplyDelete^
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry?... What?!
Be warned Lurkers Who Aren't Sure About Your Guru. DP will salt your mail with official looking letters that have just enough of a difference to them for him to see them reproduced elsewhere and knowit was YOU!
ReplyDeleteYou can also bet that if you pledged to DP and did not cough it up, he will be calling.
I was thinking Hull died as well, awhile ago. But some of this stuff is so maddening that I can see him reaching back from the dead to even the score. NOT COG Theology so much, but Saul came back for a bit at the behest of the Witch of Endor.
What a profound waste of otherwise useful human potential. Wasted lives...so, so sad!
ReplyDeleteNo matter, every nanocult of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong is causing divisions, so I mark and disfellowship you all until you repent, you are in the bond of Satan.
ReplyDeleteMay he stand beside you each day, giving you more bad advice and filling you with false prophecies (which, actually, will be no change at all, but whatever).
How appropriate.
ReplyDeleteThe double-dosed person got double-marked.
Norm
Stop the nonsense and just do it the good old fashion way and CHALLENGE EACH OTHER TO A DUEL!
ReplyDeleteThis marking and disfellowshipping is so sissified! Man up and have some gravitas!
I will provide the pistols if needed.
Joe Moeller
Cody , WY
I say, let them keep on marking one another. They're all marked, as far as I'm concerned, but if they continue to do this to one another indiscriminantly, all they succeed in doing is to remove the stigma of marking and to expose their own irrelevance. That's not a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteBB
Major end times stuff going down in the BSA, and all these "prophets" can do is worry about marking one another!
ReplyDeleteI love how BT appears to be on top of prophetic things. He quotes other blogs and the BBC such as in "Egypt could fall." What insight this guy has. Throw in The Drudge Report, Al Jazeera, King World News, Max Keiser, Gerald Celente and Rense and the man will be a modern day profit.
ReplyDeleteThis came though last night as a Google alert. I thought it looked familiar but went ahead and posted it. It shows the complete absurdity of so many in the ministry that they think they have that kind of power over others.
ReplyDeleteNear as I know, nobody ever officailly marked me. I was too little a fish in that pond and most of them look on me as a pariah anyway. Ho hum. Like I care. Must drive them nuts to realize there are so many who don't tremble when they speak. I know I was listed on their files as an "inactive member" for years.
ReplyDeleteAfter 40 years in three different COGs I have never been disfellowshipped or marked.
ReplyDeleteI feel left out and unimportant because of that. You aint anybody unless you have been either disfellowshipped or marked and my self image is suffering because of it.
SOMEBODY! PLEASE MARK ME!
Pack, Flurry, Thiel, Pack, Meredith, Malm please validate my existence as meaning something, even if it is negative validation!
Joe Moeller
Cody, WY
Cats are excellent at "marking." I'm thinking that Mr. Becker's cat could be gainfully employed for a long time in marking all cog members.
ReplyDeleteGlenn Parker
I am with Joe Moeller and Allen C. Dexter. I have never been marked so I feel very left out!
ReplyDeleteHas anyone publicly marked and disfellowshipped Terry Ratzman - posthumously of course?
Richard
Here's a movie idea. Hey, it could even be filmed at the Pasedena campus!
ReplyDeleteIt would star Arnold Schwarzenegger as Bob Thiel, who, after starting the Continuing Church of God, discovers that many of the males in the church are not "appropriate" enough.
So, Thiel (played by Schwarzenegger) goes on a rampage, shooting the "inappropriate" men, and each time saying, "Consider yourself marked!"
Here are some possibilities for the movie title-
The Sabbanator
Predator(of Disaffected COG Members)
Twins- Me and the Baron Get Busy
True Lies- My Time at TCU
Jingle All the Way to Walmart's Ammo Department
Terminator 4: Judgment Day for Inappropriates
Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch could provide the soundtrack.
-Norm
Oops!
ReplyDeleteI forgot to include the last scene of the Bob Thiel movie, where he appeals to the Judge in his trial for shooting the "inappropriate" men.
Here it is.
She'll be back!
-Norm
I had to get up from the GRAVE to WRITE THIS!! You people have me at my wit's end!!! ;)
ReplyDeleteThis is an URGENT, EMERGENCY comment, because this is a time of CRISIS in God's CHURCH! I have JUST NOW, this MINUTE, heard from the Director of Services and have learned, UNBELIEVABLY!!!, There are many here who have the desire to be "Marked"!!!!! ;)
As you are aware, "Marking" is a very serious ecclesiastical duty. But the "DESIRE" to be MARKED is a SIN!!! Your heart and mind is not RIGHT WITH GOD!!! And the very thought that you would WANT to be MARKED is a sign you are in the BONDS of the DEVIL!!!! This is a serious ATTITUDE PROBLEM and is NOT to be TOLERATED in the ONE TRUE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD! *shakes jowels, pounds fists* ;)
Therefore, I am forced to MARK you people who have the DESIRE to be MARKED!!! So CONSIDER yourself MARKED!!!!!!!!!! Where's my black Magic Marker so I can "Mark" your forehead?? and DONT WIPE IT OFF! EVER!
*brushes your forehead with a squeaky magic marker*
And you have to LIVE with that odor. Bahahahahahahha. :)
In LOVE,
Squirbie DoubleYou HarmWrong
...I mark YOU.
No, I mark YOU! ....
... I mark YOU!!!
NO, I MARK YOU!!!!
All the above satire and joking aside, marking is a ridiculous authority power play that preys on beliefs to give leaders power. And to disfellowship others just because they were talking to someone on the marked list? Unreal.
Somehow, in spite of the flagrant bad examples which I set, I never was marked either. That's why a certain department at Ambassador College continued to consult with me regarding their equipment years after I quit attending.
ReplyDeleteNow, that's not to say that some of the bad examples were never mentioned from the pulpit, but those citing them generally kept them anonymous.
BB
Bob,
DeleteWhat was the name of that little bar (I think on Green Street) where David Jon Hill and some of the press people and other assorted AC folks would go for a drink?
Glenn Parker
Bob, that brings to mind that I did carpet cleaning for some members of the church and through Bill Evans, for the church itself for some time after I was firmly an "ex." It was strange to get a check from the church. They didn't always have as much control as they thought. I guess the fact that I just quietly went my own way kept me from being regarded as that much of an enemy.
ReplyDeleteEh, my father came close to being DFed in the mid-80s by the Gestapo lay-ministry (we never ever had problems with the paid pastors), but in that case, he actually did deserve to be DFed. For whatever reason (I think the pastor at the time may have intervened), he wasn't DFed, and then a couple of years later, when the excrement hit the oscillating air circulator, the lay-ministry gunned for said pastor's head on a platter, because he gave a "We must evangelize [i.e., our friends, neighbours, coworkers, etc] for Christ" sermon a full year before the 1994 bombshell (which we actually received in the rural wilds of Canada in January 1995.)
ReplyDeleteStated Church policy NOW (I have had a slew of ministers impress this upon me, I don't know why they insist on making it known, or why it is so important) is not to DF anyone, though I have heard they will ask you to stop attending services if you're a troublemaker...which is tantamount to the same thing, as far as I'm concerned. (Not that one should be a troublemaker in church, I add.) So maybe they still do DF, just not without the letter and the counseling process? I don't know....
Glenn,
ReplyDeleteYou mean Harry's 120 Club? That was the bar owned by WCG member Harry Rabani, and it was a regular watering hole for students and employees during the '60s, '70s, and maybe later.
BB