When David Hulme's personalty cult imploded this past December, several of his ministers formed a new "church" along with Brian Orchard. Stephen Elliot and Bob Rodzaj were two men who plotted behind the scenes in Hulme's group to start this new "church." Then as soon as they jumped ship with Orchard, they started plotting again. This time they were negotiating with Rod Meredith to remain as ministers and still get paid. Surprisingly, Meredith welcomed them in with open arms and did not give these two a "grace" period to see how they fit in theologically. Many LCG members are not happy with this, including some ministers!
As a clarification to a previous announcement, Mr. Stephen Elliott will become the Associate Pastor, under Dr. Jeffrey Fall, of congregations in southern California as well as Las Vegas. Mr. Bob Rodzaj will become the Associate Pastor, under Mr. Rodger Bardo, of congregations in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Mr. Gary Stein will pastor the Dallas, Abilene and Midland, Texas, congregations.
Looks like the ORCHARD church...WILTED!
ReplyDeleteReward? They have already been demoted! Several weeks ago, RCM announced that these men would be the pastors in their various congregations. Now they are already demoted to "associate" pastors!
ReplyDeleteThey are still paid ministers running their own churches by themselves.
ReplyDeleteA tale of treachery and survival in corporate Americana, only a church happens to be the brand name in this case, and involved parties from mid management are members of the ministry.
ReplyDeleteBy the time it all filters down to the little guy, how do these groups provide any tangible benefit, improve quality of life, or benefit the psyche? From our vantage point, all seem to be squarely in the negative column, and based on exploitation.
BB
It's all crazy I'm tellin ya!...they're all Shapeshifters!
ReplyDeleteYeah. Too bad they weren't into Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead! Bear Owsley and Sonny Barger woulda straightened them out!
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I sent a question to the LCG through their website asking about the teaching on soul sleep. I asked,"who is speaking in Rev 6:9-11?" It appears to me that there is consciousness after death, I wrote.
ReplyDeleteThey responded, referring to Ecc. 9:5-6, "Therefore, their speaking had to be a characterization of their speaking. In other words it was not real. It was imaginary speaking, not real speaking. The writers were characterizing what they felt they would be saying."
I responded, "Imaginary speaking"? Is that what Jesus was doing in Acts before his ascension and while on the Road to Emmaus? Were his words what he would have said had he risen from the dead?"
Is this not totally nuts?
There are such things as personification and figures of speech such as allegory and metaphor in the Bible. The problem becomes that Armstrongism falsely invokes these things in places where they actually don't apply, and this is where some of their key heretical doctrines come from. They take the example of the personification of wisdom and apply it diminishingly to the Holy Spirit. They take the words of the martyred souls in Revelation and call them imaginary, to support their doctrine of soul sleep. For a movement claiming to have God's truth, Armstrongism has way too many debatable or conflicted doctrines. They clench their eyelids closed and refuse to acknowledge these conflicts, just as they have other ways of dealing with their continued failed prophecies.
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Sometimes when people hear that their names are mentioned on sites they check it out. So, if this is the case and you happen to be Gary Stein, just remember: Beatles, '65!
ReplyDelete~Hotrod