Bob Thiel Struggling To Find Money To Support His African Churches

Robert Thiel reports that the church building in Nigeria has been completed. 

“In Nigeria churches are required to own at least one building or the government will shut them down. It really stretched our finances to have to help with the Nigerian building project and we still have not fully recovered our fund situation. 

Evans Ochieng reports from Kenya: “I met three congregations in Kisii.

The first congregation I met was Singera. This is a new congregation of Peter Omuya. I was very happy because this congregation has completely changed from Sunday to Sabbath and they are very active. The problem which they have is a hall ... they are just under trees. I promised them that they should get some poles, so that I will help them in some other areas like iron sheets, nails and roofing nails and roof timbers. So we came to conclusion that in April we shall try to make that hall before heavy rain starts.

After that I met another new congregation of Mageche. They are in a small town where we rented for them a hall, This congregation is bigger than Singera. They have 38 members. I paid for them a hall for four months. They are very serious in God’s work. Since many things are new to them, they are active to learn many things.

Lastly I met our old congregation of Eberege. This is an old congregation with over 80 members.” Church of God news

Carl Jackson Likens Trump Supporters To COG Cult Members (The Worldwide Church of Trump)

Many of the Churches of God look to World Net Daily as their ONLY source of "real" news that is conservative in bent.

Carl Jackson, a former COG member, talks about his exit from the Tea Party and the COG. He then likens the followers of Donald Trump to those followers of Armstrongism.

This is gong to be a bitter pill for COG groups to swallow.

THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF TRUMP 

Exclusive: Carl Jackson likens candidates' followers to cult members 

I grew up in a cult. You may have heard of it – the Worldwide Church of God (WWCG). Herbert W. Armstrong was its founder and pastor general. By the grace of God, under the leadership of Joseph Tkach, Armstrong’s successor, the church was transformed by the truth of Jesus Christ. You’d think most people would’ve been happy about that. I mean, the concept of being saved from the wrath of God by some dude named Jesus who atoned for our sins eternally by being crucified on a tree trunk sounded pretty cool to me! Unfortunately, it didn’t sound so great to many others. 

Cults always have a man they follow – a figurehead who will lead them to drink the poisonous Kool-Aid. True Christians don’t take the bait; Christ alone is our answer. Many conservatives have taken the bait on Donald Trump, when our litmus test should be the Constitution alone. 

New sects quickly spawned from the breakup of the WWCG . Lives were ruined. Ironically, as I reminisce, what I regret most is how contemptuous we treated others. We oozed a puss of holy superiority. We were nice enough, I suppose, as long as you didn’t disagree with us or stayed quiet – kind of like Trump supporters.

How The Church Helped Ruin The Life Of A Promising Baseball Athlete

The world made more sense to Danny Thomas when he was on the baseball field. Not always enough sense, but when things were going well, it was a respite from his demons. When he struggled on the diamond, however, his problems overwhelmed him. A longing search for inner peace eventually put him out of step with the game. He sacrificed his career for his God, but found religion to be no more of a permanent fix than baseball. In the end, there was no fix for Danny Thomas. 

Danny Thomas bounced around a lot as a kid, from Birmingham to Mobile to southern Illinois and to the rough outskirts of East St. Louis. He described his mother as a “religious fanatic” who dabbled in all kinds of faiths before settling with the World Wide Church of God (WWCG), a sect of Fundamentalist Christianity that had been founded in the 1930s as an over-the-air radio church. For a time, Danny joined his mother in the church, but lapsed when its decree that no member shall work between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday interfered with his baseball schedule.
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His newfound inner peace came at a cost. Having rejoined the WWCG, Thomas was now forbidden to work between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday, when he was expected to meditate and attend church services. It was standard practice for teams to play Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, which meant Thomas would be unavailable for two games every week. Factoring in scheduled Saturday doubleheaders, Thomas estimated he would miss 40 games per season because of his religious convictions. “[The Brewers] were quite surprised,” Thomas said of his declaration. “They asked me to reconsider and I did. I thought about all the things I’ve been through and whether I should go back and become the old me or not. I decided there is something more important [than baseball] and said I couldn’t play on my Sabbath.”

Read the entire story here:  The Strange Story of the Sundown Kid:  Troubled Milwaukee Phenom Danny Thomas

UCG Members Do Not Appreciate Atheists On Their Web Site Talking About Evolution

A few years ago Mario Seiglie write an article in Beyond Today about how you can disprove evolution without the Bible.  Prove Evolution Is False - Even Without Your Bible

Seiglie offers up some rather simplistic "proofs":

Can we prove that evolution is false without using the Bible? Certainly we can! Evolution is a scientific theory that stands or falls on the physical evidence. In fact, one can be an atheist, a person who doesn’t believe in God, and still not believe in evolution!

In order to remember key points that disprove Darwinian evolution—the “molecules to man” theory—we’ll use the acronym FALSE. (A few of these points also disprove the compromise of theistic evolution—the notion that God employed macroevolution over eons in forming the creatures we see on earth today.) 

F for Fossils
I collect fossils of what are deemed the earliest type of complex creatures with hard bodies—trilobites. No previous ancestors of these arthropods have been found. 

So our first "proof" is that since no ancestors of trilobites have been found, it is impossible to have evolved.

A for Assumption
When there is no real evidence, evolutionary scientists simply make assumptions. 

L for Life
The law of biogenesis as taught in biology class states that only life can produce life.

S for Symbiosis
When one living thing needs another different living thing to survive, it’s called a symbiotic relationship.

A good example of this is the relationship between bees and flowers. The bees need the nectar from some types of flowers to feed while these flowers need bees to pollinate them. Both depend on each other to exist and survive. The question for evolutionists is: How did these plants exist without the bees, and how did the bees exist without these plants? 

E for Engineering
All living things are exquisitely engineered or designed. Qualitatively, a bacterium is as majestically built for its purpose as a human body is for its function. Yet evolution says it’s only an illusion of design—that there is no real designer behind it. Reality is not an illusion! Living things are multi-functional, which means they do many complex things at the same time, something evolution with its step-by-step process has never been able to demonstrate. 

For some reason UCG allowed people to actually voice their opinion about whether they believe din evolution to not.  This did not go over well with the enlightened UCG members. One member wrote:

I am really intrigued by the number of athiests who feel compelled to post on a Christian website,…come on guys, post to any of the suedo scientific sites that will have you. If just looking around doesn’t convince you that a huge intelligence made you and everything you see, there is little hope for you. Incidently, we Christians have the only thing that non believers will never have; a genuine hope for better things to come. The agnostic and athiest world has NO hope of anything other than the forever dirt lunch. For those of you non-believers that are still with me, …hook up with a believer and see if you can learn the world of FAITH and begin to see a future for yourself. No more commentary is necessary,….this has been worn to a nub. 

Dave Pack: We Are Christ’s Leadership Team; Woe To Those Who Ignore Us

The leader of the worlds most superfantabulous Church of God to ever exist has his concluding video up on his series foretelling the awesomeness of his work.

 A few of Dave's comments are:

Great prophecies discussed in this series will soon unfold, world conditions virtually DEMAND Christ’s first dominion.
 Rev 10:11  Pertains to the Restored Church of God.  Herbert Armstrong reached nations and countless leaders.  That work came to an end. Now it is time for the RCG to do it again.  Dave Pack says he and his little crew will take this mind boggling work even further than HWA did.  Jesus told his disciples before he ascended to heaven that Dave Pack’s church would be doing a global encircling work that will lead before the tribulation and afterwards.
 Isaiah 40:9 -10   Dave Pack’s “work” will proceed Christ’s coming.
 Luke 14:16-17   Woe to those who ignore the Resorted Church of God.
 

True followers of the church must forsake house, brethren, or sisters or father, or mother, or wife, or children, in order to have everlasting life.  Its not an easy path but the reward is beyond imagination. 

Is Dave preparing his dwindling membership to forsake family and friends in order to send in as much money as possible and move to Wadsworth?  That's part of the reason he is buying so much land.  Hundreds of new employees will soon descend upon the Wadsworth campus in order to take Dave’s work to the world.

Luke 14:21 is about Jesus Christ being angry at those who refuse to follow Dave, so hundreds of thousands from around the world from very nation will join Dave’s church to make up for the disbelievers.  The reason this will happen is because Dave will need some extra leaders in Christ’s first dominion.  A bleak future awaits those who do not come to Dave’s side.

Dave warns us to be very careful in dismissing his work. 

Jesus told him to tell us that.

Dave says:

Expect a gigantic earth rattling work.  One so far reaching it will stagger the mind.   It will never be fully comprehended till it is seen.  Those that hear about it won’t believe it.

So be prepared to see amazing things to soon happen in Wadsworth.  His magnificent campus will be so mind boggling amazing that the invading German/Chinese/Muslim armies will stand in awe when they see it.  They will all know that the most awesome Church of God in history has a work here.  They will be amazed.  As you should too!

 

Living Church of God: The Church of NO!

From a  reader:

The Meredith/McNair dream team (more like a nightmare) are no different than the crazy sharia law kooks. God says not to "add to or take away from" his word but that is precisely what LCG excels at. 

No private Bible studies, no Biblical discussions without a minister present, no costume parties (after all, the Pagan's used to wear masks so they could have anonymous sex), no crosses (aka penis'), no hearts (aka vaginas), no 2 piece bathing suits, no free style dancing, no spaghetti straps, tithing to non-Levites, British Israelism, and on and on and on....

Meredith is obsessed with sex like a lot of those Sharia men are too. They stone or hang homosexuals all the while they are having sex with their tea boys. LCG's views of women are similar as well. Women are to serve and satisfy the men. Men have larger brains (Meredith preached it so it must be true).

Weak PCG Men are Stopping the Flow of the Government of God

Things are not easy for men in the Philadelphia Church of God, and it is even worse for those women and children under them.  They have been conditioned to perform in order to please their masters and when they don't, the family structure and the government of God breaks down.  Rebellious, cantankerous wives are to be dealt with and TOLD just exactly WHO is in charge!

Think about that: The government in the home is the same as the government in the Church—and the same as the government in the eternal Family of God! The government in your marriage is the same as the government in Christ’s marriage!

You must get the government right in your home to prepare for those greater responsibilities. You have to rule well! This is a critical job in your family—and God gave that job to you. For your family to function, you absolutely must fulfill this God-given office.

It is easy for a man to defer too much to his wife. It is too easy to back off, to let her handle the child rearing, to expect her to establish order. But that is not the way Christ operates.

The direction for the body must come from the head. That means you must hold to your Head. Then you must provide direction, guidance, leadership and nourishment so your wife can hold to herhead! Otherwise you are blocking the flow of government from God, and cutting yourself and your family off from some of God’s blessings.

If you don’t do your job, you hinder God’s ability to lead your household. If you don’t step up, there will be confusion, and Satan will fill the leadership vacuum.

These are more comments by Joel Hillier.

Satan Watching PCG Members Who Do Not Date...He turns Them "Hard"

Its no wonder the women in the Philadelphia Church of God look like such sad sacks in church photo's.  They seem sapped of joy.  I guess sit is all because they have become "hard."  It seems that the women in the PCG can never get a break.  They are blamed for everything.

Joel Hilliker claims that the single women of the PCG have become "hard" because they have no men to protect them.  As a result, Satan sends worldly men from the world to woo them over to the dark side where they sink into sexual promiscuity and might even leave the church.

One single woman said, “We women with no men get hard because we aren’t being protected by anyone.” That is usually what happens when a woman has no protector: She starts to protect herself—and she becomes hard. Then some single men respond by saying, I’m not interested in her because she’s too hard! They simply write her off, without feeling any sense of obligation or responsibility toward her. Yet they may well be part of the reason she has had to harden and protect herself! 

These women occasionally need a man’s help. This woman said she really appreciates one marriedman’s effort to look after single women as sisters and doing maintenance or yard work for them.

Single women: Work and fight not to become hard! Look to God as your Protector—and even to the men in the Church where possible. Be close to your minister. As God’s representative, he fights to protect the flock. Don’t harden yourself! Exercise faith and patience.

Single men: Be a protector toward the single women in God’s Family! This isn’t something you can wait to do until after you marry. Do this in your dating. Care for and look after the single women. Look for opportunities to step up and take care of them. Every time you do so, you make God’s women feel more secure—and you strike a blow at your selfish nature.

And realize this: When the women get no dates from the men in the Church, Satan notices—and often begins to come after them with men from the world. Those women become lonely and more vulnerable to that kind of temptation. You can protect your sisters from that by helping them to know that they are very cherished members of God’s Family!

Final Construction Starts On Ambassador Campus

When the Worldwide Church of God decided to sell the Pasadena campus, it faced a lot of criticism because it did not remain the owners an lease out the land.  If they had done that, the church would have been endowed in perpetuity with money.  Local churches could have been built in communities where they could actually have made their presence known.

That never happened and now the church has shrunk into nothingness.  Instead, others are reaping the benefits.

The construction of townhouses on the Ambassador property are entering their final stage.  They are selling for between $2,000,000 - 2,750,000, all sitting upon land owned by someone else. Money in their pockets.

How Much Is An Ambassador gardens townhouse In Pasadena?

The Newport Beach-based developer will unveil a designer showcase home on Saturday with those features and more in conjunction with the release of the final 17 homes in its upscale Ambassador Gardens development in Pasadena. 

The home will be shown through March 29 as part of the Jamieson Place enclave of 39 townhomes and flats, where homes are now selling for $2 million to $2.75 million. 

Jamieson Place follows two earlier phases — The Bungalows and the The Grove. Since construction began in 2012, Ambassador Gardens has sold 57 homes. 

Situated on the lush grounds of the former Ambassador College, the 19-acre community is unique, according to Ben Besley, vice president of development for Insignia.

Being wise stewards has never the hallmark of the Church of God.

Caroline McGraw: You never know when truth is going to find you. But you need to do your part; you must open your eyes.

There is a great blog out there that helps people, especially women deal with the messiness of life, some of which is a result of abuse in the Worldwide Church of God.

You never know when truth is going to find you. Truth sets you free, and that’s the best news there is. But you need to do your part; you must open your eyes. You need to look around your small cell and see Truth next to you, ever patient, holding the keys. 

Truth is not outside; it’s there in the cell with you, close as your own heart. The Eagles had it right: So oftentimes it happens / that we live our lives in chains / And we never even know we have the keys. 

Sweetheart, I just want to give you a heads up. Someday soon, you will find yourself writing an essay in which you describe your childhood church. You’ll want to link to a basic description of the organization, so you’ll do some research. By this time, you’ve Googled the church before, but words like “cult” and “abusive” made you look away. 

You don’t see how your positive experiences—summer camp, close friendships—could fit those descriptions. You don’t understand how the warm, loving people you knew could be categorized by a word as cold as cult. You will feel confused, to say the least. 

But in the midst of your confusion you will realize how well you’ve been trained to obey. You’ll see how a wall—subtle but strong—stands between you and free choices. Before, you didn’t recognize the bedrock of control beneath the good memories: Trust us, don’t trust yourself. Don’t question. If you want to wear a Halloween costume, you’re misguided. Halloween is the devil’s holiday. If you don’t fast and tithe, if you don’t believe that this is the ONE (and only) true church … then you’ve fallen astray. 

So this time, you’ll keep reading the words you find online. You’ll learn about spiritual abuse. You’ll visit a support network for former church members. The whole process will be akin to seeing a car crash. It will be awful, but for the life of you, you won’t be able to look away.

She encourages people to tell their stories and to write them down and share them.  That's part of the healing process for so many that share their stories and experiences here about life in Armstrongism.

Telling the truth about your life will be the best decision you’ve ever made, because it will help you to forgive others, and yourself.

She gives public speaking appearances and has written several books.  What I found particularly intriguing is her work with L'Arche.  One of my favorite writers that help in dumping fundamentalism and transitioning out of Armstrongism was Henri Nouwen.  He spent the last eleven years of his life working at L'Arche in France and Canada.

L’Arche, a faith-based non-profit wherein people with and without intellectual disabilities share life together, is Caroline’s training ground for forgiveness.

You can follow her blog here and contribute your story.

A Wish Come Clear

She Loves Magazine 

Jesus and Bacon

Was Herbert Armstrong America's Greatest War Hero?

I received a document in the mail the other day about Herbert Armstrong.  I was not going to post it here, but its entertainment value is too great.   I am sure this will draw out a LOT of comments!  😀

Here goes...though you may need a barf bag before you reach the end of it.

Even the best history books include a little bit of error here and there and, as long and detailed as they may be, they occasionally can gloss over some of the most significant aspects of specific historical events.  Strangely enough, this is the case for one of the most widely researched wars of our times, World War II.  It is difficult to believe but true that, to my knowledge, not a single historian has recognized the most compelling story of World War II.  This is an amazing story about one of the most patriotic, hard-working, dedicated, self-sacrificing individuals that has ever lived.  

Much has been written about the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Omar Bradley, Henry Arnold, Douglas Mac Arthur, Dwight Eisenhower, and George Patton. Much has been written about the great heroism of numerous individual soldiers and the important advantage the United States had with the efficient mass production of airplanes, tanks, guns, and battleships.  Much credit has been given to the Manhattan project.  At the same time, not a single history book has been written to tell the incredible story about the efforts of one visionary man who, in the end, achieved what no amount of tanks, planes or armies could have accomplished.  This visionary man almost single-handedly was responsible for helping the United States turn the tides of war and snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. 

It is now time for America to hear "the rest of the story"... 

In 1940, America was totally unaware of the significance of World War II.  The nation was worried about Germany and the risk of entering a prolonged war when there was something much more certain and dangerous looming for the nation...Eternal judgment and punishment that was absolutely certain.
Fortunately there was one man who recognized this fact and he was a man that knew what to do about it.

Amazing Historical Fact No. 1:  World War II was a judgment on America and America would lose the war unless it repented!

·       Plain Truth, September/October 1941 page 7   "Our God is now about to punish… if our stiff-necked and rebellious people go on defying… trusting only in material and military defense… We shall be invaded, CONQUERED, uprooted from our homes and transplanted to other lands across the seas—ruled over as slaves."

·      CO-WORKERS BULLETIN, December 24^th, 1941:  "...Remember this war is PROPHESIED! It is the LAST war! It is for a PURPOSE! God's JUDGMENTS are about to fall!


·       Plain Truth March/April 1942, p. 11:  “UNLESS America WAKES UP, repents, turns to God and puts her faith in Him, the punishment we already are suffering in greater and harder doses from week to week shall continue until there is invasion - and utter SLAVERY!"

Amazing Fact No. 2 - One man was willing to take on the responsibility of turning America around!

This man knew the nation had to be warned and he had the ability to build the support needed to fund this incredible effort to get this critical, patriotic message out to the entire nation. 
·       Co-Worker letter November 1942:   “God Almighty says in His prophecies we cannot win in this war UNLESS OUR PEOPLE REPENT AND TURN TO HIM.   

Co-workers, OUR contribution to the war-effort---OUR patriotic DUTY, if we would back up the boys in uniform and have their lives spared---is to SACRIFICE EVERYTHING and GET BEHIND THIS VITAL MESSAGE that it may go out with rapidly-multiplied POWER until this nation is AWAKENED, and TURNS TO GOD, and is SPARED! This war is a JUDGMENT SENT FROM GOD! Help me to warn this nation, that defeat need not come to our shores!”   
                                      
·       Co-Worker Letter August 24^th 1942:  “This war, for us, is a judgment sent from God.    ... THE DAY OF RECKONING IS HERE.

If we fail to WARN this nation, God says He will require the blood of the people at our hands. (Ezek. 33:1-6)
 
·       Co-Worker letter Feb. 16, 1943 To proclaim this life-and-death warning for our nation IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BUSINESS IN THIS WORLD TODAY.

It is more than just preaching the Gospel. THIS NATION MUST BE WARNED! The sure Word of prophecy says definitely the only way we can win this war is to REPENT as a nation, turn to God, seek Him and FIND Him, and put our trust in HIM! God has SENT this war upon us, as a JUDGMENT! The day of reckoning, for this nation, is HERE. This is of GOD! HE SAYS SO! “

We all have witnessed who well THAT worked out.  However, this person continues with this:

Amazing Fact No. 3 - This amazing man got America to repent!

Although this mass repentance has not typically been documented, there can be no doubt that it happened since the United States of America did not suffer defeat nor did we lose 1/3 of our population, nor did we become slaves.

Amazing Fact No. 4 – America’s greatest war hero was too humble to take credit for his patriotic effort and his place in history remains untold!

Although only one man could recognize America's true problem in World War II, understand the only possible path to avoid certain defeat, and then to have the skills necessary to devise and successfully implement such an ambitious plan to assure victory for our nation, this man was too humble to take credit for doing so. This man was Herbert W. Armstrong!

And although HWA accomplished what no amount of tanks, planes or armies could do, he never spoke one word about his success in this area. 

How incredible humble he was!