If you have even the slightest connection with most of the hundreds of splinter groups of the Church of God you will see that they all share one predominate theme. Government. Government from the top down, not from ANYPLACE that comes through the membership. No regular church member has the understanding, the training or the blessing from God on high as do the ministry of the church. This does not even include the fools that have self-appointed themselves. This is still coming from ministers that have been part of the "good old boys club" for the last 50-60 some years.
The Church of the Eternal God is reinforcing the understanding that all spiritual knowledge comes from and through their ministers.
The task of feeding Christ’s lambs and feeding and tending His sheep, is primarily accomplished through the ministers’ inspired speaking and teaching of God’s Word, and through ministerial counseling. In this regard, the ministry is to look after and protect Christ’s disciples by “feeding” and “tending” the flock”—which includes, standing up to savage wolves which might come in with the attempt to spiritually destroy and devour the sheep (Acts 20:29; compare also John 10:11-13).There are several problems within this paragraph. For the vast majority of the ministry "inspired" speaking is NOT a quality that most COG ministers possess. Most of them do not have an original thought in their heads. They parrot and plagiarize messages from predecessors over the last 80 some years. There is no deviation from the rote understandings. Note the definition for rote:
- ROTE
Almost all COG ministers ignore the teachings of Christ and the New Covenant. They've protected themselves to the law and the law only. And as for counseling...we all know that NONE of them have ever had adequate training in psychology, therapy or counseling. None have taken classes or obtained licenses in counseling. Church member literally have died from these morally and spiritually bankrupt counselings.
- A memorizing process using routine or repetition, often without full attention or comprehension: learn by rote.
- n. Mechanical routine.
Norbert Link believes Church of God members cannot understand scripture or spiritual things WITHOUT a Church of God minister telling you what to believe.
Brethren need Christ’s ministers to be fed. Romans 10:14-16 tells us that we cannot hear “without a preacher.” We are also told, however, that God must send the “preacher.” We are encouraged to “test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets [or preachers] have gone into the world” (1 John 4:1).The Church of God is filled with lying false prophets. From Bob Thiel to James Malm, Norbert Link, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Rod Meredith...the list is endless. Theses people have thrown sincere members searching for God to the wolves as they've ripped member lives apart. they've spiritually destroyed their flocks.
In the first part of this series, we warned against deception which is prophesied to occur—including in the Church of God. Feeding the flock includes a warning against deception, lying spirits and the falling away from the Truth. In part 2, we continued to address the importance of not deviating from the Truth. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, the ministry of God’s Church has the duty to feed the flock by preaching the Truth in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:1-2).Sadly the Church of God has been filed with lying spirits. Just took at the recent liars who have set themselves up as God's chosen. Dave Pack, Bob Thiel, James Malm, Gerald Flurry, just to name a few of the more egregious offenders.
One of the ways that Norbert Link's group brings the light to the world is dealing with teaching prophecy.
We also stated in part 4 that a warning message must go out to members and prospective members of the Church of God, including a message about prophecy which should help us to see more clearly how close we are to Christ’s return.Not once in the entire history of this dispensation of the church has any COG leader EVER said anything accurate about Christ's return or about any other aspect of prophecy. Every single one of them have uttered one false prophecy after another. Lies upon lies. According to scripture all it takes is one lie for a minister to never be believed again.
Link and his buddies lay down further laws for their small flock:
only ordained ministers of God should perform baptisms.
only God’s ministers were given special authority from God to lay their hands upon the sick, when praying for them (while anointing them with oil).
only ECG ministers can perform legitimate marriagesAll of these ordinances require the laying on of hands that Link believes is required. In his eyes this is "feeding" the flock. Link believes that the true ministry can trace there linage back through the ordination of Herbert Armstrong. Any ministers ordained by anyone outside of that lineage is a fraud.
The doctrine of laying on of hands requires and demands a functioning godly ministry, who are God’s representatives (Malachi 2:7), if they are truly chosen and ordained by God (Hebrews 5:4). God has decreed that an ordained minister of God is necessary for proper baptism (leading to the receipt of the Holy Spirit); healing; Church weddings; the blessing of little children; and ordinations as deacons and elders. All of this serves the purpose of feeding the flock.As usual in the Church of God, fear and threats need to be dumped upon the brethren. If any member dares to question or reject ministers advice then their lives are in spiritual danger. If you do not submit you re guilty of rebellion! Rebellious CO Members could go and start practicing witchcraft or Wicca.
Someone who rejects God’s ministers, thinking that he has no need of them, is in mortal spiritual danger. Someone who is unwilling to submit to the ministry of God is guilty of rebellion, which is as bad as sorcery and witchcraft (1 Samuel 15:23)....As it is the duty and responsibility of God’s ministers to feed the flock and protect it from harm, the “sheep” and the “lambs” are told by God to accept and obey the guidance and protection from God’s true ministers (Hebrews 13:17; 2 Thessalonians 3:13-15).OBEY! OBEY! OBEY! Only COG ministers can give you really guidance and protection.
From:
How Does the Church of the Eternal God and its International Affiliates Differ From Other Christian Churches? (Part 5)
16 comments:
"...the teachings of Christ and the New Covenant."
when I hear phrases such as that, it tells me that the person hasn't a clue...
they say something like "we're under the new covenant now" or other such silliness..
as if the "new covenant" did away with the law, or something like that...
the new covenant takes the law to a new level, increasing it actually, along with the reward..
so, the new covenant doesn't let anyone off the hook for anything...it makes the law all the more binding, because now the spirit of the law is important, not just the letter....
Christ said not to put new wine into old wineskins. Meaning, don't project evil practises into the bible and Christian life. But 'Gods ministers' have a doctorate in doing this. They are masters at plastering evil behaviours with nice sounding bible verses.
Notice the 'obey the guidance' as an example. Guidance or counselling by definition means people have a right to say no. So what's really being advocated is dictatorship.
Christ in the parable of the talents, gives every Christians certain responsibilities. The ministers disagree, believing that all these member talents rightfully belong to the ministers. Christ messed up with this talents thingy.
So they believe that God is wrong and they are right. After all, all the other Protestant churches are doing it, and it also had Herbs approval. So despotism is OK.
How many brethren are in Eternal COG these days? About half a dozen ? Control usually becomes worse when they realize they might be losing members. Panic control. In your article you forgot the obvious that along with no psychology or any sort of counceling training many of them have held no proper job or career before they became AC ministers.
11.01 PM
Never having had a proper job means that many of these ministers are mentally stuck in the school yard. It's the only world that they are familiar with. In so called minister counselling, I felt that I was talking to a young teenager. The adult world and adult mindsets are foreign to these ministers.
I'd like to add that the ministry want to have total power over the brethren yet they live in absolute sin themselves. The hypocrisy is blaringly obvious on the eyes of the brethren. Who's going to take any notice of speakers living in sin with their girlfriends with no intention of getting married. Hypocrisy of the highest order.
You forgot part of the title: Eternal Church of God: Only Ministry Capable of Feeding the Flock with Crap Like This!
Anon 1059 wrote: not to put new wine into old wineskins
Sorry, but to quote Dennis, Context, context, context.
Disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus why his disciples did things differently. Jesus used two examples (the patched garment and the wineskins) to show new teaching, new disciples. He didn't want guys who already had been taught by someone else, but unschooled ones fresh off the boat.
Same here, I prefer teaching freshmen to sophomores.
It should be noted that this blog entry is about the Church of the Eternal God, not the Eternal Church of God.
They are quite different in their approaches.
The article is technically incorrect. There have been a couple of ministers who have actually received true degrees in psychology or counseling, including Bill Jacobs and Dave Antion.
Ultimately, every minister is "self appointed" as they were all stripped of their ordinations once they left the WCG. But even the WCG ordinations back in the time were all the legacy of the "self appointed" Herbert Armstrong, whose ordination was stripped from him by the Church of God Seventh Day. There is no provenance or legacy to be found here, just a bunch of guys who ultimately just said "Im a minister" and you are suppose to pay me! LOL!
As far as Norbert Link is concerned, he would be better described as PASTOR KLINK! (ala Hogans Heroes!) ;-)
Hoss
You make an interesting point, but it's too trivial and unrealistic in the real world. It clashes with Christ 'repent (everyone) for the kingdom is at hand.'
The context is Christ responding in Mark 2:18:
"Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
This is repeated in Matthew 9:14 and and Luke 5.33, so it must be an important point.
So the context is trying to blindly force old rules (one size fits all) and mindsets onto Christianity. So yes, it is context, context, context rather than trying to fit square pegs into a round holes.
I once heard my interpretation given in services by a elder. I'm surprised they allowed it. Perhaps the minister was away. But it makes sense since it's a common phenomenon.
Dennis has a strong agenda, so he is hardly a impartial source.
Connie, your "they were all stripped of their ordinations once they left the WCG." is debatable. If it was God who ordained them, then this issue is very messy. So much so, that I like many others, am still not sure who is who and whats what. Confusion reigns.
According to you, baptisms performed by these men since the WCG days, are no longer valid. Are you really sure??
So you think God ordained Dave Pack? If you find enough exceptions to the concept of "God-ordained", then you've got to begin considering the fact that the ministers on the other side of the spectrum who are well-loved and universally respected are just naturally nice guys who have accumulated wisdom over the years.
Although most people want to learn, thus creating a demand for teachers, I really believe that God has very little to do with most ACOG ministers. They surely want everyone to believe that God has given them authority, but then show their lack of respect for what that would mean by abusing it.
Baptism is a completely different thing from ordination. It's basically berween an individual and God, without the element of corporate status, authority, or entitlement that is considered to be imbued through an ACOG ordination. I do believe that there are people who receive the Holy Spirit through baptism performed at other than Armstrongite churches. I wouldn't necessarily believe this happened through HWA's baptism, but apparently he believed it was possible as he was baptized by a Baptist minister who later fell from grace in scandal.
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As I say 'are you sure.' We are talking about the bride of Christ and eternal life. Considering the stakes, I would not make dogmatic statements on this issue. God is above and we are below, so sometimes it pays to play safe by saying little or keeping ones mouth shut.
None of us can be sure of anything, and none of us knows specifically how everything is going to turn out. If anyone tells you they know these unknowable things, then they are lying to you, in order to manupulate you, which is precisely what has happened to us through the Armstrong experience.
The only things upon which a Christian can rely is trust in the Father's love, and His character, and reliance on the saving power of Jesus Christ.
You do realize that if upon the resurrection, we see HWA and the other abusers standing there smiling with Jesus, as a mainstream Christian, I'll end up in the same group as our atheist and agnostic friends here. Fortunately, I have greater faith than that. My faith is that God is not willing to lose any of His children, and somehow, He's going to make sure that current nonbelievers make it too. But, not by "qualifying". That's something humans can never do.
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If you believe that people don't need to 'qualify,' let me introduce you to my sister and brother in law. They will quickly change your mind.
You could have a point, 11:12. I once had a wife who was studying to become an elephant. I loved her in spite of it, but following our divorce, she got more into health and physical fitness.
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