Dueling Feast of Tabernacles Sites

The latest issue of the Journal (issue 176) has up the listing of all the hundreds of Church of God Feast of Tabernacles sites around the world.

The sad thing about this list is the numerous sites of separate Churches of God that are really close to each other.  Certain groups publicly forbid their members from attending or associating with the other groups close by.  Some have even been in the same complexes and refused to speak to each other.

In California we have several really close to each other in the Central Coast area. This listing does not include GCI's Monrovia location which adds to the mix.  The most pathetic mixture is in Missouri.

California

Carlsbad:
Rock Valley Christian Church,(951) 600-9555, http://rockvalleychristianchurch.org/content/tabernacle_welcome.php.

Indian Wells: LCG,https://fot2015.lcg.org.

King’s Beach: ICG, intercontinentalcog.org/tabernacleshome.php, (903) 561-7070.

Oceanside: UCG, http://feast.ucg.org.

Oxnard: The Father’s Call, http://thefatherscall.org/feast-plans.

Pismo Beach: Church of the Eternal God, eternalgod.org/feasts.

Solvang-Buellton: COGWA, http://feast.cogwa.org.

Ventura: Guardian Ministries, David Antion, P.O. Box 50734, Pasadena,Calif.91115, daveantion.com.

Florida

Destin : Church of God Big Sandy, churchofgodbigsandy.com, (800) 946-5545, P.O.Box 690, Big Sandy, Texas 75755.

Fort Walton Beach :
CGI,
Life Resource Ministries,
Common Ground Ministries,
Church of God Cincinnati,
Common Faith Network, commonfaithnetwork.com.

Lantana: The Christian Church of God, fla-ccog.com.

Melrose: Multiple study groups, Sept.28-Oct 6, http:// fallfeast.com.

Navarre: LCG, https://fot2015. lcg.org.

Palm Harbor: LCG, https://fot2015. lcg.org.

Panama City Beach: UCG, http://feast. ucg.org.

Panama City Beach: ICG, intercontinentalcog.org/tabernacleshome.php, (903) 561-7070.

St. Petersburg: Church of God Miami and CGI, http://godsbhurch.org/Feast.htm.
St. Petersburg/ Clearwater : CGI,http://cgi.org/feast-oftabernacles, Aleida Fontao, info@GodsChurch.org, (305) 752-5275.  

Missouri

Branson: UCG,http://feast.ucg.org.

Branson: CGWA,http://feast.cogwa.org.

Branson: International Congregation of Yahweh, feastgoer.org/metamorph_spring/branson15.html.

Branson : Providence of God Outreach Network, providenceofgodoutreachnetwork.org/2015-fotupdates.html.

Branson : Eternal Church of God, eternalcog.org/holydays/ecgholydays.html#tabernacles. Greenville: Yahweh’s Restoration Ministry, Sept.28-Oct.6,http://yrm.org/fot2015.

Kimberling/Branson: ICG, intercontinentalcog.org/tabernacleshome.php, (903) 561-7070.

Lake of the Ozarks: LCG, https://fot2015.lcg.org.

Lake of the Ozarks: Season of Our Joy, sooj.org/index.html.

West Plains: Congregation of Yahweh,Sept.30Oct.6, yahschosen.org/tabernacles.html.

We spent decades in the Worldwide Church of God mocking the hundreds and hundreds of various church denominations of the world.  Now that bitter vehemence has come back to bite the Church of God in their holy self-righteous posteriors. The Churches of God are divided into hundreds and hundreds of factions and personality groups that despise each other.  If these sad people cannot get along in the present world why would ANYONE want to be a part of their "kingdom's to come?

With the exception of Philadelphia Church of God and Restored Church of God that required registration and name tags to attend, most COG members ignore their leaders admonitions and visit other groups to see friends.

The Profound Ignorance of UCG Leaders

A comment was left on Gavin Rumney's OTAGOSH blog in relation to an article in UCG's Good News magazine on Iran and its nuclear deal.

Gavin writes in The problem with The Good News magazine:

There is really no way to successfully negotiate with such people. Whatever they agree to is merely to buy time to prepare for the needed world conflagration.

UCG Iran "expert" Robinson

Where's the balance here? This is a petulant piece by a man with - please correct me if I'm wrong - zero expertise in this subject, and who has one suspects been spending far too much time on the sofa with Fox News and WND.

What's the allure of this kind of rant? Why won't the GN provide some sort of sane overview of the situation - which is what it would claim to be doing but clearly is not. Why are they incapable of even hinting at an optimistic assessment of the Iran deal... even if only to provide some much needed balance.

It just doesn't fit the narrative.

The narrative, based on a profound ignorance of what the Bible is (and isn't) has the world going into an irrecoverable tail spin. Things might look bad right now but they're going to get worse. And there's nothing you can do about it but belly-ache and moan. This constitutes "warning the world", which (don't laugh!) constitutes preaching the gospel.

Almost all of the various splinter groups seem to get giddy at the thought of world wars, famine, disease and human suffering.  It has to happen because Herbert told them that it would.  Almost none of these men have any education outside of Church of God institutions or circles of insular thought processes.

Almost all of the men in UCG leadership positions are men who apostatized from their mother church in an act of rebellion in order to keep their salaries in tact.

One reader on Gavin's blog, whom no one ever agrees with, had this accurate comment about UCG:

UCG is a political organisation, which was started by a pack of hirelings, to fleece the gullible out of tithes and offerings! In civilian life, these men couldn't get proper jobs, to maintain the lifestyle they were accustomed to in WCG. So they started their own chuch, and now paid 6 figure salaries for talking and writing nonsense! They should all be in prison!

Church of God leaders and various ministers have set themselves up as authorities on all kinds of world news and events.  From the Philadelphia Church of God to the Restored Church of God, poorly educated men rely on Fox News and WorldNetDaily for their news, though only as long as the news fits the COG perspective and can be used to prop up pet fantasies (prophecies).

You Know You Grew Up In The Church of God...

God's Most Favorite End-time Work Moves To New Offices

God's most favorite Church of God in this end-times has moved into new offices on the Central coast of California.  Being doubly blessed has brought multiple thousands to gather at Theil's feet, thus the need for new offices.

Bob Thiel has announced this his global work has expanded so much over the last few years that bigger and better offices are required.  Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry look like first graders running lemonade stands compared to this theological giant and his global work!


Notice that he is using money from his homeopathy work to pay for this building and his justification for it all.  Apparently having a church composed of 96% African members does not bring in much income, thus he is mingling his work money with church business.  Don't worry though.  Thiel claims he is just like apostle Paul and has forfeited his RIGHT to an income from his church.  I love how all of these self impotant COG leaders always talk about themselves in the third person.

Because of the need for more storage space, the main office for the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) has been relocated to Grover Beach, California.

It was the most cost-effective building we could find.

Perhaps it should be mentioned that CCOG is NOT paying for the building space, Dr. Thiel’s business is–he also draws no salary from the Continuing Church of God.  While he does believe that he is biblically entitled to be compensated (beyond being reimbursement for expenses, etc.), he, like the Apostle Paul, have forfeited taking a regular salary from the (Continuing) Church of God for the current time–nor did he ever taken a salary from CCOG, or LCG or GCG for that matter over the past nearly two decades).  He makes his family’s income another way–owning a business that he works at part-time (the Apostle Paul made tents, apparently part-time, to support himself at times per Acts 18:3, while he also proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom).  He does not take a salary as there are other needs in the work that he has placed as a higher priority during this “present distress” (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:26).  For those who wonder, perhaps it should be mentioned that all the tithes and offerings collected thus far by the Continuing Church of God have been used to proclaim Christ’s gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 24:14) and other end time aspects of the work (Revelation 3:7-13), teaching those things He commanded (Matthew 28:19-20), preparing for the short work (Romans 9:28), supporting the poor, widows and orphans (Galatians 2:10; 1 Timothy 5:3; James 1:27) mainly in Africa and Asia, and only relatively minor amounts have been spent for administrative aspects of the church (1 Corinthians 12:28; 2 Corinthians 9:6-14)–government-related legal costs probably being the single biggest administrative expense (and those are fairly minor).

Being doubly blessed, regardless of how deceitful the process was, has reworked Thiel's brain into imagining all kinds of theological wonders.  Thiel considers himself to be the final authority on end-time prophecy, the Mayan's and homeopathy.  No human that has ever walked this earth is as intelligent or theologically sound as he is.

That greatness has brought forth the need for a new office that is conveniently located between Ace Hardware and a foot massage parlor.  I guess after he builds his own shelving from Ace Hardware he can go get his feet massaged, as all good prophets do.

Living Church of God: Can You Trust It To Use Morgan's Scholarship Money Wisely?

Living Church of God has announced that the flights and funeral expenses for the Montgomery family have all been paid. 

Living Church of God is still continuing to ask for money to go into the fund.  They claim that this money will be used to help send youth to the various summer camps AND for providing IMPORTANT services to the church youth.  That comment is drawing a lot of negative responses.

Just what criteria will the LCG use to determine what is an IMPORTANT service for the youth.  This opens the door to wide spread abuse.  This is nothing new to Rod Meredith and crew, considering what Meredith has done in the past with church monies.  In the 1970's he was caught using 3rd tithe to remodel his home.  While widows and orphans around the church struggled, the privileged elite in Pasadena found convenient ways to manipulate the church coffers for their own purposes.

One person with connections to LCG recently said:

Donations should be payable to Living Church of God and they are totally trustworthy so I'm sure they will only use the money for camp scholarships, right?

Living Church of God and trustworthy in the same sentence...oh my.

Philadelphian Era: Did it ever happen? Are any of the groups today Philadelphian?

For many decades we all heard the "Philadelphian" labeled attached to Herbert Armstrong's version of Christianity.  He claimed the doors were opened to the "Philadelphian" era to take the "gospel" to all the wold.  God was working specifically with the "Philadelphian" era. It was alive, vibrant. and powerful.  Prophetic messages abounded with abandon.

God loved the "Philadelphian" era so much that he was going to protect it in Petra for 3 1/2 years while the lukewarm "Laodiceans" languished during wars, famines and persecution.  It was to be their wake-up call to really choose the right path.  Though they were still loved by God they were having their lives strengthened by fire and tribulation.

Then, horror of horror's, Herbert Armstrong died.  The prophet and end time apostle that was going to usher in the Kingdom of God on earth died and left the church in the hands of others.  The church imploded swiftly with hundreds and hundreds of splinter groups breaking off to start their own versions of the "Philadelphian" era, or at least they thought they were.  Armstrong always said that the era to follow the "Philadelphian" era was the the "Laodicean" era.  None of these groups could ever accept the fact that they were/are lukewarm and "Laodicean."  Its always the OTHER group that is the "Laodicean," never ones own group.

Armstrong taught otherwise, even though Pack, Flurry, Meredith, Hulme and others all claim they are NOT the "Laodicean"era.

A reader here  sent the following to me. 

Christ warns that the Laodicean Era of Revelation 3:14 is asleep and about to be "spewed out" of His mouth.  Given that the present Laodicean Era followed the Philadelphian Era with copied doctrine and ministry, what's that tell you about the teaching of the present ministry?  What's that tell you about the ministry during Mr. Armstrongs time?

Not one of Mr. Armstrongs prophecy's ever came to pass and since he proclaimed them, he obviously considered himself to be a prophet (amongst every other conceivable title he could think of).

This applies also to those who profess to be prophets today.

Given the warnings by Christ regarding false prophets and teachers to come at this time (time of the end), apply this doctrine to the present day ministry/organizations: Revelation 19:10 .... for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. It follows that without the spirit of prophecy, which is blatantly obvious, they "DO NOT have the testimony of Jesus".

That should shock and rock their laity to the very core.  

Don't count on it. Everyone of these groups feel they do have the testimony of Jesus and are God's only mouthpiece.  All truth resides with in their isolated groups.