Living Church of God "Updates" On Understanding Has Led To Major Discontent in LCG

There has been several years of constant rumblings about discontent of LCG members in what the Living Church of God is doing.  I received the following email that sheds some light on what has been transpiring and what has led to the continuing discontent.

This letter from Meredith, in my opinion was the beginning of the end for LCG. Around this time was when I noticed members start to openly criticize the leadership in LCG. Winnail came out with an "upgrade" about the "Falling Away" wherein he promoted the notion that the entire world was going to fall away from Christ and His teachings in opposition to the belief that only the little flock or God's true church would have members fall away in the end times which had been widely preached in the COGs for decades. Ames came out at the same time with the "upgrade" that the Saints would go to heaven for the wedding supper in opposition to the belief that was, again, preached for decades, that only the Father and Son were ever to be in heaven and that the Saints would be resurrected to establish the Kingdom on earth. They both gave one sermon on the topic and then expected the sheep to just accept their new "knowledge" without question. They were inspired by God after all so we sheep should just swallow it whole. Forget the notion of "prove all things". We sheep are no longer allowed to think for ourselves. If one were brave enough to question the ministry it would likely lead to the accusation of "causing division". It was at this time that they began to promote the notion that if RCM supported it, it was the same as if Christ himself had stamped His name to it. The mistrust of LCG ministry has been growing ever since. 

 
 

LCG Weekly Update: May 10, 2012

From the Presiding Evangelist Greetings dear fellow servants, It was really great to see nearly all of you at our recent General Ministerial Conference! It was so wonderful to renew old friendships, make new ones and have the loving fellowship and inspirational talks that we did. Many, many of the older ministers expressed their feelings that it was the “best ever” conference even going back to Worldwide days. So I want to thank all of you for your part, for your prayers, and for your love and loyalty. I especially appreciate the wonderful help in organizing and setting up this conference which came from Dr. Doug Winnail, from Mr. Ames, from Jim and Sue Meredith and so many others here at Headquarters. So many pitched in to make it a success—for which we are thankful. All remains well here at Headquarters, and we appreciate the outpouring of positive response to the conference and for the Work in general. Please follow through by doing all you can to build, to strengthen and inspire our brethren around the world to draw closer to God and to do their part in this vital Work which Christ has given us to do! Please help them think through these “upgrades” in our understanding of the Wedding Supper, of the timeline of final events and also the great apostasy. This is a vital challenge for all of you, and I hope that you can be alert to anyone’s misunderstanding and help them—or help your local elder to work with them to come to understanding on these basic issues and help them realize that these changes are, in fact, simply “updates” of our understanding. As you know, we have always said—at least I have—that “someday” we would get the chance to go to heaven to see our Father even before the end of the Millennium. But we have not nailed it down and given the details of all of this—as Mr. Ames has done in recent months. We have always indicated—at least Mr. Armstrong, and I—that the apostasy would be much broader than just the falling away of a few people in the Worldwide Church. As I indicated at the conference, over 99% of the world never even heard about the Worldwide Church and certainly nothing about that falling away. So the really huge apostasy is still ahead of us—as we have explained—and will affect billions of human beings before it is all over! Also, I hope all of you will do all you can to “hustle” and personally contact or visit all of the new prospective members coming in from the telecast, from our campaigns and from the Internet and other sources. Please realize the opportunity we have out there right now—before they lose interest—and help bring these new people along and bring them into the Church, if God is calling them, so they can be truly strengthened and made part of the “body” which is helping back the Work and get this Message to the whole world. Things are moving! Even since our conference, as you know, the state of North Carolina overwhelmingly voted against “same-sex marriage.” Yet, the very next day, our American President came out in favor of men marrying men and women marrying women! As one who has been in the ministry now for about 60 years since my graduation from Ambassador College in 1952—this frankly is astonishing in one sense—though many knew this was in President Obama’s heart all along. Never would we have even dreamed of such a thing back during the years of Presidents Truman, Eisenhower or Kennedy. May God have mercy upon us, and upon the other nations where all of us live. We need to pray for our leaders that they will at least not interfere with our opportunity to worship and to do the Work. But we need to cry out more than ever, “Thy kingdom come”! It is very obvious that God’s Government is desperately needed as more people in Syria are butchered by their own government, as more people are “starving” or being raped or humiliated in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere, and as our own “western,” former “Christian” nations turn further and further away from the God who gives us life and breath. But we can take heart, “fellows,” for as Jesus said, “When you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21:31). May God continue to inspire, use and bless all of you in this end-time Work. My prayers are certainly with you—and I deeply appreciated seeing so many of you again. Thank you, again, for your love, your prayers and your dedication to serving God’s people and preparing for His Kingdom! Your brother in Christ,   Roderick C. Meredith