I find the intro to this to be kind of strange for a COG video. At first I thought it was a spoof, but what they are doing is mocking Christians. LCG knows all and the rest of Christianity are idiots and followers of Satan's "jesus"
I was just send this link for an LCG video sermon on why you MUST respect the church and that the ministry has the authority to speak on behalf of Jesus Christ concerning the forgiveness or retention of your sins. Without the Church you cannot know God. We need the church to tell us who the "true" Christ was. The Christians of the world do not know anything about Christ.
Retention? Retention? That word alone shows LCG is Biblically ignorant.
Over one hour of blabbering that could have been wrapped up in 20 minutes.
Who was this guy? What a boring message, what little I could listen to. If he handed out Jim Jones Flavor Aid, I would have drunk it just to put myself out of my misery.
ReplyDeleteDave was one of the people whom I went out of my way not to know while I was a student at AC. Let's just say I had been previously warned as to what kind of person he was by someone whose judgment I trusted. Who knew then that he would become what he is now as opposed to being spun under the wheels of the bus?
ReplyDeleteRCG members, I'm telling you, the Germans or the Lake of Fire would be preferable if you had to make those choices, but but fortunately you don't.
BB
Oops. Touch screens can be touchy, especially when you are in a hurry and stuff is moving! That should have been a response to Dennis's latest article!
ReplyDelete(Burrrrpppp!)
BB
LCG and others cogs become more like the Roman Catholic Church all the time. Vicars of Christ indeed.
ReplyDeleteGlenn Parker
To tell people that 1) they have a monopoly on Jesus, and that you can only reach him through them, 2) that they have the "authority" to tell Jesus who he can and can't forgive, is to deny that they think they are "ministers" and instead set themselves up as priests and mediators. This is Old Testament theology, and directly contradicts the New Testament.
ReplyDeleteThis is what HWA did from the get-go with the Radio Church of god. He set himself up as a priest, but called himself a minister. I'm not surprised that you have guys like whoever this LCG ministurd is, and John Elliott over at UCG who claim to stand between you and god, and you and salvation, blocking the way. If you ask them directly, they'll mostly claim to be "ministers" who stand beside you and help you, but they act like priests and claim many of the powers of a priesthood.
At least the Catholics are honest enough to call themselves priests, not ministers. It's Old Testament theology for them, too, but they don't care because they claim to stand on their own authority, not the authority of the bible.
The JW's have taught that you cannot understand Scripture without reading their literature to explain it. In fact, if you read only the Bible, and not their literature, you will end up in darkness. I recall HWA saying to us at AC "Don't believe me, believe your Bible." I guess the churches of God have discarded this Berean concept, also.
ReplyDeleteHead Usher said, "This is what HWA did from the get-go with the Radio Church of god. He set himself up as a priest, but called himself a minister."
ReplyDeleteMY COMMENT - I am not sure this is entirely true (although it was definitely true by the time my family started attending in the 1960s). HWA wrote an article on "Church Government" in 1939 that repudiated top down hierarchical government - the opposite of what the WCG became.
Additionally, in the 1950s, HWA allowed his Radio Church of God members to attend Church of God, Seventh Day congregations in cities where there were no Radio Church congregations established. As pointed out the last time I posted this information, some of HWA's converts stayed in the COG7D.
Contrast with LCG, can you imagine Rod Meredith allowing his members to attend Dave Pack's congregations or any other splinter? Can you imagine Rod Meredith's reaction if his Tomorrows World TV program was adding members to United Church of God?
Top down church government is all about money and control. HWA realized sometime in the late 1950s early 1960s that in order to maximize the income stream from the dumb sheep, he had to shut down the competition and have total mind control over members pocket books under threat of the loss of salvation and Lake of Fire eternal damnation.
Richard
the headline is a bit misleading....he said that by refusing to baptize someone they can be kept in their sins, but.......there are instances in the NT where Jesus tells someone that their sins are forgiven, and there is no record of them being baptized......so, that poor fellow doesn't have all of the authority that he thinks he has ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'im sure that there are some sincere, genuine members of God's Church in LCG, but all of those in visible leadership that I'm aware of seem to be a bunch of kooks.
it can be difficult to tell the wheat from the chaff, until you get them separated.
Too bad the leadership doesn't demonstrate the same level of respect for its members.
ReplyDeleteI'd love a minister to tell me that to my face lol
ReplyDeletedd
Hmm right you are Glenn! The sad part is that these Xians in the ACOGs can't see it though, but others who are outside of these cults or once were in them do see how the ACOGs are VEEEERY similar to the RCC! Imo it goes right back to HWA's adoption of the primacy of Peter doctrine! After years of teaching the truth of the matter i.e. that Peter wasn't chief over the early Church and that it was more congregational than hierarchical he did a 180 degree and promoted the Cat-lick doctrine basically to cement his own authority and power in the WCG. It begs the question if HWA was right to adopt the Petrine doctrine then why not jump ship to the RCC seeing they use that same dogma to add legitimacy to their role in the Xian world?!
ReplyDeleteAnd Head Usher the problem with the purpose of the RCC "priests" or Protestant "ministers" that function like the former is that it's unbiblical--period. The Bible teaches the priesthood of the believer and that's why there's no need for a special class of "priests" today who live off "tithes" and supposedly "draw near" to God on our behalf!
The members are the church. Not the corporation.
ReplyDeleteLake of Fire Church of God said... "Contrast with LCG, can you imagine Rod Meredith allowing his members to attend Dave Pack's congregations or any other splinter? Can you imagine Rod Meredith's reaction if his Tomorrows World TV program was adding members to United Church of God?"
ReplyDeleteCase 1: Two LCG families lived close to each other, but in a remote area. Too far to go to a congregation. Too far for a minister to come there. LCG prohibited them from meeting together on the Sabbath because there was not an ordained person there. Hebrews 10 says don't forsake assembling. LCG says do forsake assembling.
Case 2: A similar case of two remote families, but in this case, LCG was OK with them meeting. There were also 3 UCG families similarly remote. LCG permitted the the UCG members to come and watch an LCG message at the LCG home, but forbade the LCG members from going to the UCG home. UCG encouraged their members to interact with the LCG families wherever they were.
Case 3: I know of at least 3 people who now attend UCG who first heard of the COG thru the LCG telecast. They wanted to visit LCG, but weren't permitted. UCG welcomed them, and now they attend UCG. Instead of being thrilled that he contributed to someone coming into the church, I'll bet Rod Meredith is instead disgusted. Regardless, don't look for him to change his policy of prohibiting visitors. At least LCG is consistent with its unbiblical mission statements. Rod Meredith is far more interested preaching the gospel to the world as a witness (which Jesus never commanded) than he is in gaining disciples for Jesus Christ (which Jesus did command).
Anonymous said: "I'im sure that there are some sincere, genuine members of God's Church in LCG, but all of those in visible leadership that I'm aware of seem to be a bunch of kooks."
ReplyDeleteThey are all somewhat suspect, having allowed themselves to be be duped by RCM. Nevertheless, there are some decent men in the leadership, namely, Ames, Smith, King, Hernandez and Crockett.
And you're right concerning the regular members. Most are decent folks. I can't be too hard on them for their blindness concerning Meredith, as I was once blind, too.
This gentleman looks to be the same as the one that left RCG. Is it the same person?
ReplyDeleteI noticed several deceptive statements concerning that one needed to be part of the church in order to determine certain things and to grow.
What purpose is the Holy Spirit if the church is the only entity that is available to teach and guide, etc?
Abraham didn't need a church council to guide him as he worshiped Yahweh? Neither do we. by church, I mean an established organization that we have to belong and go through in order to have contact and receive knowledge and intervention from Yahweh.
The entire message concerned the mistaken concept that the church is a compulsory necessity to have in order to have access to Yahweh and without it, one cannot have a relationship with Yahweh, nor receive knowledge, wisdom, or blessings, without the church.
What utter crap!!! First off, Yahshua never established a church. A church is a pagan concept that comes from the word circle, which is used by witches and wizards to contact evil spirits.
Yahshua established an assembly. the people in that assembly were given the spirit of the living Elohim that guides, teaches, and gives them wisdom.
All those that have that spirit do not require a human intermediary, for Yahshua Himself is that intermediary, and any organization or person that jumps into that role, is a lying, conniving, wicked entity that is usurping the ever living Son of Yahweh.
John