Is it any wonder why Armstrongism continues its downward spiral into nothingness when little men like Norbert Link find it distasteful that Church of God members might feed the homeless, want a clean environment, or serve on a jury.
Pure and righteous Church of God members would NEVER do such things!
Feed the hungry, cloth the naked, provide shelter to the homeless? NEEEEEEVER! Not in the Churches of God!!!!!!!!
Link says to "Let the dead bury the dead." Don't waste you time helping the world around you. They are just a bunch of sick demon possessed fools that God could care less about. God only sees US, the pure, Holy and RIGHTEOUS Church of God.What IS God’s Church to Do Today?
by Norbert Link
What is the most important task and commission that God has given to His Church in this day and age, just prior to the return of Jesus Christ?
Is it to try to make this a better world by engaging in politics and political campaigns? Are we to attempt to replace the government, perhaps through peaceful demonstrations or even with violent means? Is it proper for Christians to become soldiers to fight for our country? Is it to be applauded when Christians vote in governmental elections or serve in the nation’s jury duty system? Is it the responsibility of the Church today to establish missions all over the world and to collect money for Third World countries? Does God command His Church to feed the hungry at food banks or to help environmental causes by volunteering to clean up freeways, beaches or forests?
Now, a few of the above-mentioned endeavors might be entertained by Church members on an individual basis. These would be personal decisions. However, most of the tasks listed ought not be engaged in by true Christians at all. But insofar as the organized Church is concerned, NONE of the activities constitute a part of God’s great commission for Christ’s spiritual Body.
We clearly do NOT read that Christ’s Church has the commission to do missionary work in Africa, India or other parts of the world. It is NOT the responsibility of the Church of God to try to rectify all wrongs and to make this world—Satan’s world—a better place. Christ’s words apply, in principle, to this issue as well, when He said: “Let the dead bury [or assist] the dead” (Luke 9:60). Instead, He required of His disciples to follow Him and obey His words and fulfill the specific tasks given to them.
Link feels that the only people who should be helped are Church of God members. Forget the heathens around you.
Its in all typed in CAPS, so it has to be true!
This is not to say that we are not to help others, but Paul makes very clear what this means. He states in Galatians 6:10: “Therefore, AS WE HAVE OPPORTUNITY, let us do good to all, ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO ARE of the HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.”
This sick reasoning is justified by this:
When individuals do good to others, including to those who are NOT of the household of faith, they have to make sure that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing (Matthew 6:1-4). Far too often, Church organizations that are getting involved in local, national and international outreach programs crave the recognition of the community, the nation and the world—in other words, they seek the reward from man. Truly, they will receive their reward, but not from God.
I have seen more COG members craving attention and wanting to be seen doing their "churchly" jobs than I ever have in the "worldly" churches. This is just one more lie of Armstrongism.
If Norbert spent as much time feeding the homeless and clothing the poor as he does in jumping from one COG to the next, the worlds homeless population would be fed and clothed. How many times can one man work behind the scenes to manipulate and steal money and members from his previous church?
ReplyDeleteIf we even THINK of helping the poor, know what that means? A lessening of resources that could be SENT IN to insensitive, selfish bastards like Mr. Link, to fund "important" things like the printing of more literature, or more bandwidth online.
ReplyDeleteNorbert, you jackass, a hungry person can't eat a magazine! Nor do they understand having to wait for the Second Coming for their next meal. This is how you define being a true Christian? Is Matthew 25 missing from your Bible?
He needs to read this article, especially the last two paragraphs.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.patheos.com/blogs/yearwithoutgod/2014/05/22/postmodern-faith-we-are-not-god-throwbackthursday/
Matthew 19:21
ReplyDeleteJesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
PS: What is the LINK for LINK? ;-)
Anyone who tithes to Link should stop. Then lets see what Link does once HE is homeless!
ReplyDeleteA guy who, in effect, has a subsidized existence, on church welfare which Link is, ridiculing the poor.
Amazing!
Norbert should read Math.25 about separating the sheep from the goats. Our United church does donate to a Food Bank and I ran the 1st Earth Day in my County 44 years ago.
ReplyDeleteChrist example was to reach out to those in need whether they are in the Church or not.
Ha ha, Norbert just summarized 80 years of Armstrongist baloney, right there. Consider it a public service.
ReplyDeleteMan, talk about cherry-picking. He can write the "let us do good to all" part, but he just can't seem to read it!
ReplyDeleteThe reason for this, IMHO, is the worldview that Pervert Armstrong sold, and Norbert Link bought.
Norbert seems to think the worldview he is operating with is a Christian one and a moral one. But I would posit that it is neither, and the reason why is because Pervert Armstrong was a guy who couldn't tell morals or ethics from holes in the ground. Sure he might have read to you from the Christian holy book. He might have thumped it, very hard at times! But actually living a moral life doesn't seem to be something that Pervert Armstrong was interested in. To him, the bible was a get-rich-quick manual. He sold a worldview, one that he did not personally subscribe to, but instead one that he crafted in order to part fools from their money.
Norbert's worldview is not his own. It's not a moral worldview. It's not a Christian worldview. It's one that was crafted by a madman so that he could take Norbert's money. Even though Pervert Armstrong has been dead for a long time already, it's still successfully parting money from fools.
You can say a lot of bad things about Pervert Armstrong, but you can't say he wasn't good at what he did. Too bad he wasn't interested in doing anything good. Imagine what he could have done if he hadn't wasted his life doing so much harm?
The last paragraph is the most telling. He confuses personal recognition or corporate recognition with recognition of the gospel. The churches who do these good works are drawing attention to Jesus Christ, not themselves.
ReplyDeleteArmstrongism always imputed ulterior motives to anyone outside of their little group who people thought of as setting good examples or indulging in Christ-like behavior. For some reason, HWA always felt as if he had to level everyone else. As we have discovered, WCG by no means had the 100% truth market cornered. Nobody can, until Jesus brings us perfect knowledge. Until then, it's what is in the heart that counts. The Christian groups that indulge in community service do what they do in the name of Jesus Christ. Feeding those who cannot feed themselves, or cleaning up your community is not a sin.
Norbert has been deceived, his character has been subverted, and he is doing great damage by preaching against allowing Jesus to express Himself through the good works we do for others. He is an elitist.
BB
This mindset makes me incredibly sad. You can cocoon up and tell yourself that someone is about to swoop down from heaven and solve all the world's problems just so you can ignore and exacerbate them, but f**k you for betting my kids futures on it.
ReplyDeleteSome people are just selfish and shortsighted, but Armstrongism actually goes so far as to obligate it.
Yes that is what the WCG I remember taught. I thought they might have moved on from these ideas by now being as we are all still here, that is the ones who haven't died a normal death. I guess some of them like UCG changed their attitude on this......
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the Bible is very contradictory in this area (like in almost every other area). There are the scriptures already mentioned, then there is the parable of the good samaritan. There is also the contradictory advice about the family, to hate them or to love them. You know those following Christ had to be willing to leave their families etc. but then there are all the scriptures that say the opposite. WCG always did have the most negative self serving take when reading the Bible (book of Hebrew riddles?)
"Norbert should read Math.25 about separating the sheep from the goats. Our United church does donate to a Food Bank"
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that the scummy UCG is trying to score sleazy points on this one!
Oh, nevermind. The scummy UCG tries to score it's sleazy points at every opportunity it can.
UCG and even LCG has changed their position on this, be it ever so slightly.
ReplyDeleteThe change is coming from younger people in the organizations who see the need. It is not coming from long time older members and leaders.
"The change is coming from younger people in the organizations who see the need. It is not coming from long time older members and leaders."
ReplyDeleteActually, there is one exception to this. Vic Kubik is an old-timer who does deserve some credit in this one particular column. Now, he scores a lot of demerits in many other columns, mind you...
If only Vic would renounce Armstrongism and stop wasting his time on UCG's bullshit nonsense theology and corrupt organizational politics, the good he does might actually outweigh the evil.
ngWhotarmouryNorbert, Your a filthy little man and what you pen is from the gutter.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 10:35, some understand the contradictory instructions in the Bible to mean that you do what is appropriate for the individual situation. Armstrongism always did take the harshest instructions presented as being the one size that fit all.
ReplyDeleteYou have to wonder how the ACOGs would see the gleaners if we were still an agrarian society. They'd probably tell the farmers to pack up the stuff harvested from the corners, sell it, and send it into HQ for the ministers.
Bob, Jesus was never part of this equation. Hence the lack of Golden Rule, thinking of others, and worship of self and position of loftiness, better and holier than everyone else.
ReplyDeleteHey Norbert, tell my stepfather Bill Grams he's still wrong, and my mother Nancy I still love her. Even though she will never have a relationship with me because of YOUR belief system! Is that enough shouty capitals for you to get the point? Splitting families, tearing people apart, certainly doesn't seem to be what Jesus said or what he did. It's *human* to help other people. It's called charity. Look it up sometime, you might learn something.
Frankly if the various COGs had a more charitable attitude, obeying 1 Corinthians 13 and James 1:27 they would be a lot more empowered, let alone shut the mouths of blogs such as this.
ReplyDeleteBut they don't seem to see the correlation between their stiff necked hard heartedness in such matters and their failure to make any significant inroad in the industry of preaching.
Luke 10:25-37
ReplyDeleteWhat I've found in my travels is that certain types of very conservative people can come up with perfectly logical sounding reasons for being selfish and chauvinistic. Obviously, it is saleable, as all of us when we were at a certain very limited stage of development, bought into this. It sounds so cruel and primitive now.
ReplyDeleteAnd, Cindy, you are right. This part of the equation they developed apart from the teachings and intent of Jesus. As nearly as I can tell, it is an HWA original, obeying which usually puts people on the wrong or opposite side if their intentions were to imitate Jesus.
BB
So, is it wrong to feed, clothe and shelter those who were so ruined by the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia that they are now hungry, clothed in rags and homeless?
ReplyDeleteOh, right.
Since they are homeless, you don't know where they are and since you walk on the opposite side of the street to avoid them, you would never know that they were once WCG members fallen on hard times.
Also, we all know that people are poor, hungry and homeless because they aren't obeying God by tithing and going to the Feast, not to mention worshiping a dead false prophet to the point of idolatry. They have to suffer because of their inattention to narcissistic sociopathic cult leaders full of themselves.
Got it.
Never mind, Catholic Community Services and the Tacoma Rescue Mission will fill the void, even though you consider them pagan and godless. Maybe the Pope will intervene for them because you certainly won't.
Those are true words, Cindy.
ReplyDelete"Splitting families, and tearing people apart" are things that have been accomplished all too well by these preachers.
I hope your family relationships change for the better in the future.
Perhaps even sadder are those who don't have a preacher telling them to be separated from their primary family members, yet still choose to be separated- and all the while claiming their hearts have been "totally transformed" by Jesus!
With a collection of cults so dysfunctional and extreme -- like the Twilight Zone on steroids -- it's surprising that there haven't been more incidents like the LCG in 2005.
ReplyDeleteBut keep it up and keep making people crazy, and with a little bit of luck you can have a lot more violence in your little sociopathic sub cults.
Maybe you'll have to be like Herbert Armstrong have have hired armed body guards with loaded guns.
Armstrongists are hypocrites and will use one little verse to ignore the poor..."there will always be the poor"... against hundreds of verses saying to feed and clothe the needy and poor. Even in the old testament the fields were left for others to glean as Ruth did on Boaz's field so no one would go hungry. This is the work of satan..they can carry the name "church of God" all they want, but He is not there! It's all about me, myself and I...us, we vs they..they are so wrong!!!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, most of the leaders of ACOGs are not anal expulsives. They are anal retentives and exhibit the personality characteristics known as the Freudian anal triad: extreme orderliness, meanness, and obstinacy.
ReplyDeleteIf you examine all of the control patterns and precepts of Armstrongism, they tend to drive people in those three directions. Which is to say, that people naturally predisposed to those areas will be attracted to the things taught by HWA and his successors. The anal retentive triad is nourished and reinforced by Armstrongism.
BB
There's an old saying, familiar to most I'm sure: "Those who can, do, those who can't, teach." If you're really good at a discipline, you're out there practicing it. However, the good professors teach on the side.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, what's wrong with Armstrongism is it's all theory which is based upon a pretty ideosyncratic interpretation of book, which a yet older theory says was inspired by some deity. If the older theory is true, and HWA's theories are true, neither of which are givens (even though they've been treated that way) then hopefully there's a way to test it.
Well, as it turns out, there is a way to test it. And that way is by living by what you think you know and comparing the actual results with the promised results, yaknow, the fruits? Hell, even the damn book hints at this, even though it's none too clear about it, kinda like most other practical things one might think they read in there.
Well, right off the bat we run into problems. For 7 days out of every month half of the population is unclean, during which time it says they are literally untouchable. That's a quarter of their lives! If a married man (it doesn't say there's an exception for ministers either) cheats with a married woman, both must die. What about the commandment forbidding domestic interest? Jesus' saying that if you are beaten or stolen from, you must let him abuse you further? Conspicuously absent from the bible, however, is a commandment explicitly forbidding sexual activity between a man and his own daughter. Curious.
Is the fact that women don't spend 1/4 of their lives sequestered, we don't do execute people for adultery, we decided to go ahead and have domestic capital markets (and an actual economy) anyway, and when people abuse us we don't facilitate further abuses, a sign of how godless our society is? Or is it a sign that saner heads prevail? Maybe it's a sign that actually obeying this god without cherry-picking is unimaginable in practical terms. The fruits of obedience to these particular commandments are so bad, that obedience to them is totally out of the question.
What about historic WCG the splinters? How many have spent any time actually, seriously, literally trying to get good at keeping just the ten commandments? Or maybe the things Jesus said to do? How many have ever even spent time trying to put their theories into practice to know if they even work? How many have ever tested their interpretation of the bible to see if it could possibly be practical? Do they have any clue what the fruits of their theories are before they open their traps? I mean, there's a lot of assumptions underlying any believer's interpretation of the bible, some of which have an infinitesimal probability of being true. You might think they might want some kind of validation they're in the right ballpark. But you'd be wrong.
And that is why people like Norbert Link, the other splinter leaders, HWA, and fundamentalists everywhere say a lot of stupid shit. They're undisciplined. They have no expertise in their field because they've spent no time practicing to see if the theories they promote have a snowball's chance of being even in the general vicinity of correct, or of producing good fruit. It's all theory and guesswork, but no practice. They're totally unqualified to teach anything. It's the blind leading the blind. All I can say is, good luck with that.
^^ Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteJames 1:27 TRUE religion is taking care of those in need. Enough said.
ReplyDeleteThe hypocrisy of these people is nauseating.
ReplyDelete