The Living Church of God not only FORBIDS its members to study the Book of Enoch, it now also forbids its members to study the Holy Bible.
LCG has had the policy that its members are not permitted to have private Bible studies with "10 or more people without a minister" for some time now. Their justification is that studying the Bible without one of "God's ministers" present could potentially lead to a wrong understanding which could in turn lead to potential problems and "divisive ideas". Several Charlotte members have been suspended and/or put out for participating in "private Bible studies".
Of course it's far better for the controlled to be spoon-fed their information from those in control. After all, lay members are probably too stupid to understand the written Word all by themselves. The control of information is always the best way to maintain one's authority over the people.
Gone are the days of HWA pounding his fist on his desk shouting, "Don't trust me! Look it up in your own Bible. Prove these things to yourself brethren!".
They have been fully replaced with, "If you don't understand our doctrinal upgrades, perhaps you aren't fully converted" and "is it your job to question God's ministry?". And the ever popular, "you may not fully understand it brethren, but if you have faith that we are God's chosen ministers, you should have the faith to do what we say, even WHEN you don't fully understand it".
Apparently not trusting or even questioning a LCG minister is akin to not trusting Christ Himself. Who knew?!
All that was crazy enough but LCG has tightened the reigns EVEN MORE of late. Now the private Bible study rule has been extended to ALL groups regardless of size. Even a group of two constitutes a forbidden offense in the Charlotte congregation.
Of course many continue to study their Bibles with friends. Just don't get caught by LCG Gestapo or you will have Rod McNair to deal with! Guess who's name will turn up as the next "Visiting Minister" prize winner???
The old-timers aren't happy with the new rule and are having a difficult time understanding how a church feels it has the right to tell its members NOT to study the Bible. When questioned, McNair spouts non sequiturs like, "you might be strong enough to study the Bible by yourself, but what about the babes in Christ and what about the teens? Should they be able to do Bible study without a minister?"
It's convenient to use the "we must have the same rules for everyone" line when it suits them. Only, everyone has seen that the same rules do not, in fact, apply to everyone in LCG where favoritism and unbalanced scales abound.
If you are an LCG member reading this and you don't believe it true, don't trust me, go ask you minister.
Or don't. Sometimes not knowing how tyrannical the church you've pledged allegiance to is easier than the change that acknowledgment will likely foster.
23 comments:
So I guess a family bible study could get you and your family kicked out of the church.
Now the private Bible study rule has been extended to ALL groups regardless of size. Even a group of two constitutes a forbidden offense in the Charlotte congregation.
MY COMMENT - Absurd control without any Biblical foundation. I suppose anyone questioning what book, chapter and verse from the bible LCG is applying to make this absurd rule gets threatened with Lake of Fire eternal damnation. Perhaps their first ministurd supervised bible study can be a study of this topic.
Of course, LCG has to control bible studies - can't have the dumb tithe slaves thinking for themselves. Who knows what could happen - they might splinter and leave the LCG cult along with their LCG income stream. Can't have that!
Richard
What do you expect?
It's a cult, after all.
I'm thinking most of these members should probably secretly visit their local Calvary church in whatever abandoned shopping center they meet at in their town. They'll get a second opinion type Bible Study, and learn that not only the ACOGs get into scripture deeply. Of course, this will eventually lead to the dissolution of LCG, but, hey. Too bad for the Roddomites.
BB
In Catholicism we weren't allowed to read the bible, just in case you found some lies. JW are told they are NOT to read other material for the same reason.
IF members of lcg must have a minister present they must have something to hide? Are they teaching wrong doctrines as in God works through a hierarchy, which is untrue.
If the phones aren't ringing off the wall, requesting a bible study appointment. They will soon find out, nobody is listening. Or they will need many new ministers for bible studies. I study when I can, not when it's convenient for a minister.....
If they are making this a policy, they must have serious internal strife.
Is that all head ministers have to do?
Rod Meredith has always been a brute and his henchmen have gotten progressively worse over the last year as they have felt the pinch of the negative publicity on websites such as Banned and Silence. LCG headquarter's ministry may typically have their noses so high in the air that they stay out of touch with the gossip and scrutiny of the lowly members but the growing discontentment of late is far too big and widespread for them to ignore.
People have started to wake up and ask if what they are doing is okay. If what they are doing is Biblical.
The are consequences to breaking the commandments and the Meredith/ McNair dream team can't avoid those consequences despite how hard they try.
Cut off shall liars be.
They don't want members to study the Bible because then they will see that their upgrades are foundless and that they are ignoring about 30% of the scriptures while boasting about keeping the whole book.
The thing to do is to get a dozen or so folks together without a minister for a Bible Study.
Use II Timothy 3:1-5.
Have everyone analyze how the Scripture applies to the leader and the top ministers.
Be set to follow the advice in verse 5.
LCG also tells it's members to not read literature from other sources and to not go digging around on the internet, not just blogs like this one but in general. Most ministers are also against social media except for the use of sharing LCG'S literature.
When I went to Ambassador, I had been unable to pray for nearly my whole life. It seemed futile because I never could convince myself that anyone was listening. To keep my dorm monitor and fellow students from finding out, I would go into the prayer closet with my Bible and just read, without consulting Plain Truth articles, study guides, or sermon notes. I discovered there are some pretty good stories in there, a spark of wisdom from time to time, a bit of interesting wild fantasy, and quite a lot of grotesquerie obviously written by sadists and other madmen. None of it led to the conclusions Armstrong came up with. The only way a normal human could have believed him was to put aside all natural doubts and accept his claim that his opinions about what the Bible means had been revealed to him personally by God Himself. However, to me it was even harder to believe there was a god talking to Herbert than that there was one listening to me.
Church doctrine held that human reasoning is faulty; I was expected to reject it and take Armstrong's word on faith. That I could not do. It was ludicrous that Armstrong and his ministers could possibly believe their god had given me and other human beings the power to reason and then forbidden us to use it.
So what I am trying to say is, LCG is doing the smart thing in forbidding uncontrolled Bible study meetings. Some members of the group might read the Bible using their independent human reason the way I did, instead of placing faith in Rod Meredith, whose doctrine is carefully constructed to keep church members fearful of the Lake of Fire if they fail to live up to every jot and tittle of Rodly Law, which not incidentally involves sending great quantities of money to the church.
This is bad, and I'll bet some of these COG leaders wish they could get away with some of the shit the Catholic priesthood did!
The Council of Toulouse decreed, "We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the Old or New Testament; but we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books."
The Council of Tarragona decreed, "No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after promulgation of this decree, so that they may be burned..."
John Wycliffe was against the exorbitant luxury of the Catholic priesthood, and even had the balls to say that a righteous person was morally superior to a wicked ordained cleric. He translated the Bible into English (which had been declared a sin by the Catholic Church). In response, the Catholic Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic, banned his writings and decreed Wycliffe's works should be burned. Further, on Pope Martin V's order, Wycliffe's corpse was exhumed and burned, too.
The Catholic clergy were absolute control freaks.
The Catholic Church issued a death sentence for any unlicensed possession of the Bible in English.
Later, William Tyndale translated the Bible into English. In response, the Catholics arrested and jailed him, convicted him of heresy, strangled him and burned his body at the stake.
I'm sure COG leaders would like to also burn at the stake people who have the temerity to question the hierarchy and luxury of the COG priesthood! (Hmmm...Dave Pack's "prophetic death sentences" for his detractors comes to mind.)
-Norm
Rod McNair is just trying to protect his dummy followers from their own understanding. He is so much wiser after all lol.
on September 22, 2015 at 4:48 PM
Anonymous said...
"....such as Banned and Silence."
I understand this blog to be the "Banned" but "Silence" is a new one to me. Would you give me the full web address?
cheers
ralph.f
Silenced can be found here. http://silenced.co
Thanks for that NO2HWA. The 'd' at the end makes all the difference to Google.
cheers
ralph.f
Bible Study, or B.S.--Which?
RE: “Living Church of God: Forbidden Bible Study”
Don't worry too much about this. What they are really forbidding is not actually “Bible Study” at all.
Why would any nobody in any of the COGs ever want to have a so-called “Bible Study” with a bunch of other members but no “minister” present? This is virtually always a case of some nobody wanting to spout off his own absolute nonsense and wrong prophetic guesses, and lead the people away into following him as he starts his own splinter cult. The so-called COGs are full of kooks passing off all sorts of their own personal nonsense, wrong prophetic guesses, and evil stupidity as “Bible Study.” After all, that is how so many of the current splinter groups got started in the first place. A lot of wrong and shameful behavior got passed off as “Bible Study.”
James Malm of Shiny Black Hole Blog infamy just wanted to rebel against HWA but thought it would sound better if he called it “Bible Study” rather than ignorance, rebellion, and confusion. His now ex-wife fell for that “sacred names” nonsense, the two got divorced, and poor James was left “calendar confused.”
Bob Thiel of the CCG would like to pass off his own ideas that he got from studying pagan Mayan, Kenyan, and Catholic prophecies as “Bible Study.” Retroactively tricking someone into anointing him to the office of prophet when the poor dupe thought he was merely anointing Bob for some physical ailment shows the results of the spiritual illness that is often misdiagnosed as “Bible Study.”
Roderick Meredith would like to pass off his own so-called “upgrades” to the LCG's teachings as the result of “Bible Study” rather than as the result of plain old rebellion against what HWA had taught in the WCG due to Rod's resentment against HWA for once exiling him to Hawaii for about half a year.
David Pack actually hung out with a Prince Money Seminar guy from Nigeria and came up with the idea that everything that everyone has is to be called “common” and sent to him! In the RCG, “common” now means “Dave's.” David Pack totally butchered Haggai and Zechariah, came up with an August 2013 prophetic guess that totally failed (in spite of his 56 reasons for it), and yet later decided that he was Elijah and that HWA was not. All this disaster was the result of Dave's intensive “Bible Study.” None of the emasculated, paycheck-controlled, yes-men goons at RCG HQ could see anything wrong with any of this since they did not want David Pack to shout at them, spit on them, fire them, and leave them destitute. Rather than repenting, Dave Pack recently put up some videos at his website called The 12 Rules of Bible Study. Truly, there is no limit to the evil that can be done under the guise of “Bible Study.”
Another extreme impostor, anti-Christ, and anti-Elijah, That False Prophet Gerald Flurry has done too much evil in God's name and under the guise of “Bible Study” to list it all here. From stopping the preaching of the gospel, to usurping God's titles, and breaking up families, Gerald Flurry epitomizes not only the tyranny of Satan, but also the evil that can be done under the guise of “Bible Study.” The numerous old sex maniacs, sex perverts, and predators who run wild and out of control in the PCG think they are doing some diligent “Bible Study.”
Wicked people in the COGs ought to be deeply ashamed of the things that they have done under the guise of “Bible Study.”
Any decent people in the COGs need to beware of what others in the COGs will try to do to them under the guise of “Bible Study.”
If any of those weirdo nobodies who were attracted to any of these cults ever invites you to a private “Bible Study,” you might be best off to tell the stupid, lying freak that you are in enough trouble already with the current cult and don't need to fall for a new start-up one.
In the past, whenever anyone mentioned having a “Bible Study” I used to imagine that it was a good thing, or at least well intentioned.
Nowadays, whenever anyone mentions having a “Bible Study” I am immediately suspicious and shudder and cringe.
Anon above:
It is true, freedom does come with risk. When people are free to communicate, free to associate and free to choose, some will fail, and some will make discoveries and journeys that may change the world.
However, COG paternalism does not solve a thing. Every cockamanie idea has come from the hierarchy over the last 80 years. Government of all types fail miserably in being the stewards of the world.
The greatest aspect about freedom, is not the guarantee of success, but the freedom to try , to think, and to fail. Freedom requires the ability to think. Slave masters however, never want the slaves to think, read or assemble. Banned, although prurient ,voyeuristic, and times a bit vulgar, does act as a modern day "underground railroad" or perhaps a "pirate radio" for the enslaved.
Great point Connie.
And to add to it, I'd like to say that these oppressive ministers types like McNair and Meredith would do well just to let the natural process of people weeding themselves out if their Bible studies move them in another direction.
When they use such force it draws even more questions from other members in the congregation that likely would have been otherwise clueless of the situation. Which in turns plants more seeds of doubt and further exposes the minister's poor shepherding skills and poor character.
Telling people that they aren't strong minded enough to study their Bibles makes them look insane and even more cult-like. Why can't they get a clue?
I know a woman who was in WCG and is now in LCG who got in trouble for studying the Bible with 1 other woman. Both of them were old enough (I think one of them has been in the church for 40-50 years)that no man should have a right to be telling them what they can and can not read.
Wake up people! When your minister tells you not to read the Bible you might be in the wrong church!!!
Who else might tell you not to study the Word of God? Could it be...... Satan?!?
And to add to it, I'd like to say that these oppressive ministers types like McNair and Meredith would do well just to let the natural process of people weeding themselves out if their Bible studies move them in another direction.
One problem LCG's Charlotte church is having is that many of the older members are much more knowledgeable than their pastors. There are AC graduates and 50+ year members in Charlotte who have learned the Bible in depth and for many years, in some cases before their hireling ministers were even born!
Why would any mature member want to have a Bible study with some recently ordained youngster who doesn't even know his own church's doctrines very well, and who knows even less about the Bible? It's in McNair's interest (and the other pastors) not to expose the ministry's ignorance to the rest of the congregation. There are people who have faithfully attended official Bible studies with the LCG Charlotte ministry, and have proved for themselves that some of those men are idiots, and that most are company men who will tell whatever lies Meredith and McNair want them to tell. The couple of ministers who will tell the truth to members have to do it practically in secret, so they won't be detected and squashed by Meredith and McNair.
Also, the last I heard, you cannot send anyone a copy of any sermon without first getting that sermon approved by headquarters (which never happens). So, if I happen to hear a particularly good sermon (admittedly a rarity), I can't even send it to my brother in Iowa.
They also don't want you listening to any John Ogwyn, Carl McNair, Dibar Apartian and Charkea Bryce sermons, unless they have been specifialcally approved and added to the official, updated sermon library. There are many DVD's floating around from the time before Meresith's "upgrades" and other doctrinal chanfes and LCG doesn't want to acknowledge the fact that those pillars preached something different than they do. It's easier to make changes if the sheep are kept in the dark.
Another reason is because Meredith is so wack these days that one never knows what craZy crap he's going to say so they want to get the crew of editors on it before it's published. Damage control is now a necessity process of " preaching the gospel"!
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