The question needs to be asked of LCG ministers. How can you focus your members upon the person you call4. Are we suspicious of government—or do we see Christ in charge? Some brethren can get discouraged because they hear about problems in the Church or problems at Headquarters. It’s important to encourage them to see that Jesus Christ really is the literal Head of the Church (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18). There will always be problems when humans are attempting to work with other humans. But we all need to keep Christ’s leadership clearly in focus. Satan hates Church government, and will do everything he can to destroy its right and proper use. LCG Pastoral Manual pg. 2-5
Satan is a busy guy with all of these COG's that he has to work on ruining day in and day out.
The Bible says to follow church leaders AS THEY FOLLOW CHRIST who left for us a perfect example.
ReplyDeleteLCG leadership is filled with vanity, pride, envy, greed, hate, vendetta and arrogance.
Christ was love, mercy, forgiveness and, most importantly, GRACE.
Meredith and his henchmen have demonstrated over and over again that these character traits are completely absent from their personas.
Verily, verily you call me Lord but do not the things I say... I have not known you.
Nah! Satan doesn't have to put any effort into the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia.
ReplyDeleteThey're just great at creating all that evil all by themselves.
This is something that sounds "spiritual" when said from the pulpit, but unless validating fruits are consistently there, the deep implications become very vague, not really subject to accurate interpretation to the point of being reliable for guiding one's life.
ReplyDeletePlacing Jesus in charge is commendable. But, they don't just do this. They actually equate Him with their authority and with their group, which automatically makes Him responsible for everything that happens. If Jesus has a "laissez faire" management style, and people assume that He is actually a legalistic micro-manager, as all of the ACOG leaders are and always have been, that would automatically give rise to incredulity, frustration and anger, internally fighting what they assume to be their relationship with Christ. This is especially true in cases of large and obvious ministerial failures and mistakes.
When an ACOG leader tells you that Jesus Christ is the living head of His church, what he really means is that you are to assume that whatever he, the minister, says as if Jesus Himself had said it. They have said as much! He intends this to be especially applicable to areas of his authority. The fact that Jesus didn't return in 1975, and hasn't honored the "prophecies" of any Armstrong leaders since is proof positive that He does not assume responsibility for any of the ongoings within this branch of theology. Even cutting them some slack, if these churches had a close relationship in any recognizable way with Jesus, He would have been quick to validate them as the real deal. Wouldn't that identification be the strongest possible basis for growth?
I doubt that Satan is particularly interested, either. He doesn't need to be, because all of the unguided floundering is catastrophic in and of itself. This is a movement whose clutch has been figuratively slipping from the very start, and the vehicle is now drifting backwards for lack of repair.
In your church life, best advice would be to respect what is worthy of respect. Go for the stuff that you can see that is obvious good, and don't allow yourself to be conned into rationalizing or accepting bad as good. Good doesn't require spin. It stands on its own.
BB
“Satan hates Church government, and will do everything he can to destroy its right and proper use. LCG Pastoral Manual pg. 2-5 “
ReplyDeleteHow and/or why would “Satan” hate something that was never authorized by the Bible in the first place? The word “church” is an incorrect use for the Greek word (ἐκκλησία) “ekklesia”, thanks to the best “queen” England ever had. However, the RCC is a fine example of “Church government,” if someone or something wants to hate something. I suppose that goes for ACOG “Church governments” as well.
There are those who say the generally accepted concept of “Satan” is also an incorrect use of the Hebrew word (שׂטן ) “saw-tawn” which simply means adversary or opponent. Does tradition play any role in our understanding? If the generally accepted concept of “Satan” is incorrect, then how could something that doesn’t exist hate something that shouldn’t exist?
If we oppose something like the ACOG churches, does that also mean that we are Satan?
Tis a weak Jesus n God that can't do any better running their show without all the confusion they are not supposed to be the authors of...just sayin...
ReplyDeleteDoesn't Satan and all worldly governments use a TOP DOWN hierarchal system of government?
ReplyDeleteAll the great evils of our time, and in history, can be traced to the idea of top down hierarchy. Hitler got a modern nation to become twisted because of the mindset of "Im just following orders".
The Church was and never should be a pecking order system of hierarchy centered around a persona in a top down chain of command, whether locally or nationally. There must always be accountability, recourse, collaborative and due process in all human organizations or they will ALWAYS devolve into hellish narcissistic fiefdoms.
Satan may hate the Living Church of God, but he must LOVE Rod Meredith.
ReplyDeleteRod Meredith protects pedophiles.
Rod Meredith gives favor to stupid, abusive liars with terrible reputation among the brethren.
Rod Meredith puts his children and family members in positions of wealth and influence far beyond their limited capacity.
Fortunately, the ekklesia listens to God, not Rod. LCG's income is plummeting as more and more brethren wake up and realize that Rod hates God's way and loves Satan's way.
Speaking if favoritism.... The ENTIRE LCG Council of Elders recommended NOT bringing Lil' Jimmy to Charlotte but Ol' Spanky Boy did it anyway. Nepotism rules. Common sense lacks. And NCIS Jim spent no time taking control of departments he had no cause to take over and making huge financial decisions for the Church. He now has his homo-hating hands in ALL the pies.
ReplyDeleteThese people must believe that Satan is dumb as a rock! They take Revelation literally, reading themselves into it, and attempting to assign a timeline for each detail rather than realizing that it is imagery, one possible scenario for the way in which mankind's dominion could draw to a close. The examples of prophecy in the Old Testament included a basic outline for the history of man, and some scenarios for punishment (with allowances made for repentence), if certain groups persisted in their hyperevil ways.
ReplyDeleteFree will was always a potential factor, and even partial obedience lessened or postponed the punishment. The fudge factors involved, the unknowns, were most likely why Jesus stated that nobody could know specifically when the end was coming!
The minute you write a script for Satan, what do you suppose he would do? A devious, disobedient being would naturally go off script! That is precisely how he would attempt to disrupt God's plan. To force him to get into Gog and Magog, the beast and the false prophet would be to make him into a robotic automaton. The gist is that he will be working to thwart God's plan, but he's certainly not going to be docilely memorizing and acting out the script which an imprisoned disciple has written. If he knew scripture at the time of Jesus, he knows it now, as well.
There are take aways from Revelation. The most profound one is that ultimately, good will triumph. But, taking every word literally makes about as much sense as taking a creation narrative involving days and nights literally when the time keepers aren't even created until the fourth day.
BB
Once again, Satan is given much more credit than deserved among the ACOGS!
ReplyDeleteWhat if God and Satan didn't even notice that there is a Living Church of God. I mean, don't they both have bigger fish to fry?
Richard
What if the Christian icon Santa was just as real as the Christian icon Satan?
ReplyDeleteHmmmm....
It amazes me how people can get caught up in such things, but...
On the other hand, if a cult wanted to procure your love for them, they'd do well to have you believe in both a God and a Satan that they'd define for you.