Armstrongism has always thought of itself as special and set apart. God was only working with and was only going to save COG members in that great day of trial and tribulation. The world was not to be bothered with other than to warn them to shape up or else. Nothing else was done for the world because God was going to fix it all later.
E. W King the new and current leader of the REAL Worldwide Church of God proves that point with this idiocy:
The Worldwide Church of God is the center of Christian Life. We are the “body of Christ”. As true believers and those experiencing true conversion we continue to grow together and learn from each other. We are most importantly the Church at home, with fellow family members. The home is the sacred meeting place for Christian Life.The observant Christian begins the day and ends it with prayer. All of our meals are accompanied by prayer and concluded with it. We eat the diet that our Heavenly Father advises. Our every week ends with Holy Sabbath rest. We as families come together in our homes on Friday evening and light Sabbath candles and say prayers to invite the Sabbath experience into our lives. This is consistent from childhood to adulthood. We also observe all of God’s holy festivals. As family and friends come together God is praised and fellowship begins. Our children are taught the moral commandments of God and experience the importance of family life. We learn that ALL LIFE is precious.The entire life cycle of the child revolves around God’s church. From baptism to weekly Sabbath experience, from holy festival to holy festival, from eating to sleeping, from praying and talking with mom and dad, husband and wife - we experience God’s love like no other people on this earth. Home worship is extremely important. Preparing our children to one day marry as God has ordained is extremely important. We pray and worship without ever having to leave our homes to go to some fancy building.
That's rgith, clos eyourselves up on your homes, homeschool your kids, only read boks written by Herbert Armstorng, associate only wiht your closest church members and above all NEVER, NEVER help the world!
Many denominations today have lowered the standard of God. They do this to get members. The true Church of God is not worried about membership numbers. The true Church of God will always be a remnant. [Revelation 12:17] We should all pray for courage to talk with others about the true gospel of the Kingdom. Only God’s coming kingdom will solve all of our problems. In the mean time we can rest in His one true church. This Devil-ruled world does not want the Good News of the Kingdom or the laws of our Great God. Truly obeying all of God’s laws will indeed bring health and healing on all levels.
sabbath candles, at that!
ReplyDeleteNow we know how to let our lights shine! Selfishly cloister ourselves and become Christian separatists. The only people who might be able to see this type of light would be hypothetical FBI agents conducting a covert investigation!
ReplyDeleteThe Armstrong movement is certainly not the only one to use this approach, although I think we comment on it because we see in retrospect that it has done damage in our own lives. King is not advocating best possible path. His way breaks up functionality of the Christian within extended family, and within the community. It is a modern version of the old Levitical "ceremonially clean" vs "ceremonially unclean", and the shunning that Peter's dream was intended to curtail.
Oh well! Sad part is that some people reading King will be thinking, "Wow! What awesome spiritual maturity!" Attention, Mr. King: There is a "Mr." Gamaliel who would like to have a few words with you...........
BB
That sounds about as much fun as staying home on Halloween, hiding in a back room with the lights out and hoping nobody knew we were home.
ReplyDeleteThere's a few things I want to say about Señor Reyes' horse manure:
ReplyDelete"...we experience God’s love like no other people on this earth."
This statement is absolutely, 100%, certifiably false.
"The entire life cycle of the child revolves around God’s church."
This was my experience, growing up. As a youngster, my whole life was made to revolve around confusing and incoherent claptrap edicts of HWA and his many minions. I cannot begin to express how much damage this has wrought upon my adult life, which, in large part, is what I am here trying to undo. If there are any COG parents out there, please do not do this to your children. If you love them at all, in due course you will come to regret twisting their impressionable minds in this way.
"Preparing our children to one day marry as God has ordained is extremely important."
If you and your children follow Señor Reyes' advice, the result will be that they will not marry at all.
"Many denominations today have lowered the standard of God."
Even though I doubt the literal existence of Jesus of Nazareth, I like much of what the stories in which he appears say about him, simply because it is civilizing. What I find troubling is that such large swaths of xianity pay lipservice to him, claim to follow his example, and yet do not do anything it is claimed that he said or did. The gospels do not claim that Jesus sat at home lighting candles, but instead, was out, mingling with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other scum, clearly "lowering the standards" of Señor Reyes' stupid god.
"Only God’s coming kingdom will solve all of our problems."
That's right douchebag. So, keep ignoring the storied example of the Jesus you claim to follow, sit at home with your candles and your prayers waiting for a miracle to take away all your problems without so much as an ounce of productive effort on your part, and see where that gets you. What a jackass.