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There have been countless stories and rumors floating around foe the last year or two about deep divisions in the Living Church of God hierarchy. Rod Meredith had to speak out at this years Feast of Tabernacles telling the members and employees that "...they MUST obey us!" Many are waiting for Rod Meredith to die with hopes of taking the LCG into a more graceful direction that is more merciful. Die hard extreme legalists what to take it even further into legalism. Its going to be one big mess once Meredith dies. If his son is put in charge you can be guaranteed that there will be a huge exodus of members out.
LCG is deeply divided between the hard line leadership types demanding absolute obedience, and the permissive folk with none being faithful to the whole Word of God. As Rod Meredith said at this Feast first High day video “We were placed in control by God and you must obey us” which is Roman Catholic Nicolaitane heresy! It is fear religion and loyalty to Rod that is keeping LCG together for the moment. James Malm
25 comments:
OMG. When you hear that rhetoric, you know that a split is well under way. The "powers that be" are polarized, and now each side has begun the desperate process of trying to corral as many people over to their side as possible. Each side tries to tell the members that god is on their side, and is not with any of the other guys. You don't see the rivening of the organization at first, as tension begins to escalate, but once the polarization of the membership begins, there's no stopping the war. It's a wrap. Same thing happened in the decades leading up to the Civil War. People are people. So much for that "holy spirit" thing that's supposed to transform everybody. Garbage. If it were to turn out that there really were a god, he sure as hell has got nothing whatsoever to do with Armstrongism.
Promises to be a good fireworks display. Sit back and enjoy the show!
“We were placed in control by God and you must obey us”
This is shown to be a direct quote. Could you specify the time in the video where he said this?
Like a stopped clock, Malm is right once in a while. On this musing of his, he is correct.
As often as the Catholic Church has allowed local traditions of the faithful to exist side by side with its own, its kind of hard to see this as "Roman Catholic Nicolaitan" stuff?
I still say that the picture of Meredith in "The Spectacular Failure of British Israelism" at BritishIsraelism.com is a classic.
I thought Jesus said something about not lording over others, like those in the world do.
Rod said: "...“We were placed in control by God and you must obey us”..."
And how does Rod prove that statement he made without proof?
Rod demonstrates his faithlessness by leaving the WCG and going off to form Global, which failed.
Why didn't Rod have faith to believe that the WCG "was placed in control by God" and they were to be obeyed. He probably taught that while he was a part of WCG!
Like Bob Thiel, Rod appears to be another wannabee group only. When Rod left WCG he left his ministerial credentials behind! So, did he recredential himself? Wasn't the rule that when a minister leaves he no longer is credentialed????
It appears that God has not asked Rod to do anything for God...and time is telling us just that.
I suppose we could apply similar thinking to the United Ass. and the COGWAssociation...and life goes on.
And James Malm...who is he?
John
At this point, nothing really works. The authoritarian groups and the more moderate ones are losing control and members at similar rates.
It is very difficult to come up with an intmidation combo like 1975 and British Israelism. And the thing is, you can only use that effectively once, or maybe twice at the very most. At this point in time most of the splinter dudes have vigorously preached their never ending revisions so many times that the so-called fear factor is no longer even remotely effective. The fact is that nobody is going to join something as weird and horrible as an Armstrong church unless the consequences for not joining are exponentially worse.
BB
Well, LCG has published 11 sermons from their FOT, including the opening night address from RCM and the final afternoon sermon, also from RCM. Therefore, I conclude that RCM did not speak on the first day, but instead, only the evening before.
I listened to that entire opening night address from RCM, and maybe I missed it, but I heard nothing to substantiate Malm's "paraphrase." He said nothing about any church divisiveness (it would be an odd time to bring it up anyways). All I heard was 40 minutes of Armstrongist tropes: 30% growth, we're special, pervert, rape, pervert, armageddon, pervert, pervert, rape, armageddon, aren't you glad/lucky that we're so special?
If RCM did say what Malm is claiming, this is not where he said it. But Malm is known to be low-quality outlet, willing to publish first and worry about corroboration later (a.k.a. being told he's dead wrong by others) in order to try to "scoop" everyone else. (As if anybody is paying that kind of attention to him...)
Anon at 6:38 PM,
Are you a high quality outlet for info?
Pardon me while I put on my suit and tie to hear your high quality info.
DO TELL!
Anon 6:38 PM -- It's a good thing when someone points out dangerous things coming from a group or organization. However, when they start being deceptive, misleading or making stuff up, they become worse than their target. I too have failed to find the quote in any of the sermons!
Malm has added "paraphrased" before the RCM quote (either that or it was there all along and no2hwa left it out)
Whatever successes Armstrongism enjoyed in the mid twentieth century were directly related to the zeitgeist of those times. For an identifiable percentage of people, there existed a synergy or synchronicity, even for those who were actually exploiting and playing against the zeitgeist, such as HWA. This had begun to diminish by as early as 1980. At that time, changes were unfolding, and the handwriting was already on the wall, but most ACOG members failed to grasp the impact.
Nothing of any consequence is happening within the ashes of the Armstrong movement, as it is at this point simply a nostalgia phenomenon. The quality, talent, and abilities of those seeking to take up the mantle of leadership tells us all that we need to know. Couple this with observable growth patterns, or any factors involving noticeability, and the evidence becomes conclusive.
BB
I left a polite comment on Malm's Oct 21 blog entry detailing where I searched for the "paraphrase" the fact I did not find it, and clarification as to where it could be found. This morning, Malm has a new blog entry up, meaning he's serviced his blog in the interim, yet my comment does not appear in the Oct 21st's blog entry comments, meaning: he scuttled it!
This is what I mean, 10:46PM, by a low-quality outlet. Even when he is given feedback notifying him that he is in error, he prefers to bury the truth, and leave the errors uncorrected.
For all Malm's trumpeting about things like "whole words of gods" or "integrity," he's a hypocrite. This is not the first time this has happened either. He's just looking to gather a following for himself and his ego, he's only interested in the keeping up of appearances, and meanwhile behind the scenes, he's an "unconverted" mess. He's a pharisee promoting himself as the most (self) righteous man on the planet. I guess he already has his reward?
As for the ad hominem:
A) I am not an outlet
B) As for the quality of my info, duplicate the research and judge for yourself
C) If you usually dress up to read a blog, then feel free to knock yourself out.
But the bible does say that if you do not hear those he sends you don't hear him.
He also backed up the men he choose to lead like Moses, Joshua, etc.
"But the bible does say that if you do not hear those he sends you don't hear him. He also backed up the men he choose to lead like Moses, Joshua, etc.
But my problem with that is, just assuming for a second that all gods, the fake ones, the real ones, assuming there are some real ones, they ALL seem to resort to the same method of communication—some man or woman who says some god says, "blah blah blah," how do we "know" those who the real gods have "sent" from just some guy who says "I come in the name of such-and-such a god"? The pythia spoke for Apollo, therefore, what, Apollo is one of the real gods, and the words of the pythia were the words of "god"?
And just to point out how notorious difficult it is for the average religiously-inclined person to decide who is and who is not "sent," just consider the many obvious frauds on television, including our own dear pedophile apostle, who spoke many false prophecies, and even though Deut 18:21-22 says he couldn't possibly be "sent" by the "god" who he claims "sent" him, thousands of people still follow him 30 years after his death! So if a "god" is "real" or not, and if so, whether he's "backing up" this guy or that guy, is all in the very subjective eye of the beholder...
Ok, Union, where were you going with that?
Hello Union NJ Resident,
Hey, I used to attend WCG services in Union, NJ!
Remember when the congregation met at the Fox Theatre, and the theatre was showing an X-rated film, so the deacons had to go early on those Saturdays to cover up all the offending posters with sheets?
Or when Leonard Nimoy was at the Two Guys next door and all the church teens cut services to get his autograph? Oh, the memories.
What a hoot!
BTW, keep in mind that the Bible was a book written by men to impress and maintain loyalty, and that the mythological character Moses was likely an embellished version of a composite of minor desert warlords and Canaanite lore, and not who the story says he was.
For those who believe the stories in the Bible about Moses, I can only say, "Holy Broken Bullshit Meter Batman!"
Cheers!
-No Longer in Union NJ
Byker Bob,
1975 in prophecy was 40 years too soon. The scam may have worked better in these current days with the current turmoil in the world and a community organizer at the helm of America, steering the ship onto the rocks.
The key month to watch is December.
COG's have had December splits in three of the last four years: UCG-COGWA in 2010; LCG-CCOG in 2012; David Hulme's group blowing up in 2013.
Anon 9:26 AM --
Not trying to make fun of your post, but it's just so hard to try and consider Thiel's leaving LCG as an actual split! When I see any of his videos (not often at all) I have to remind myself that he's serious. Watching him is reminiscent of SNL skits!
COG's have had December splits in three of the last four years: UCG-COGWA in 2010; LCG-CCOG in 2012; David Hulme's group blowing up in 2013.
Isn't December also the month when Meredith broke away from WCG, and when Bryce broke away from Meredith?
And, LCG left GCG in late November, 1998.
Doesnt help that he looks like Dana Carvey.
Uh-Oh.
We're getting close to another December, which is 'split season'.
Notice: Don't try to explain 'Split Season' to a climatologist.
(It's only a thing in the COGs.)
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