Gerald Weston has a post up on the LCG site where he states that Rod Meredith was the only man in the Church of God who was zealous enough to start a church and lead it. None of the other men out there with their own personality cults have God's blessing. Weston claims that Meredith was the ONLY ONE who had the balls when the church was changing doctrine that had the guts to step out and preserve the truth once delivered. No other human leader today qualifies or has ever accomplished as much as Rod Meredith.
That statement must be causing Bob Thiel butt-hurt! Imagine that out of all the hundreds of splinter group leaders out there God only used Rod Meredith. Rod was the ONE and ONLY brave soul out there to follow God. Ouch!Dr. Meredith’s funeral last Sunday gave a fitting tribute to a man to whom we all owe a great deal. It is so easy to take many events in life for granted, but we should never forget the contribution Dr. Meredith gave for each of us. It is true that if he had not stepped up to the plate at critical times over the last 25 years, that God would have worked through someone else to preserve His Work, but the fact is that Dr. Meredith was the one brave, bold, tenacious, and zealous enough for God to use in a special way. Guests for the funeral came from Australia and Belgium, as well as from all over the United States and Canada. There were visitors from various Church of God groups and some former Ambassador College students. A large high school auditorium was booked for the occasion and it turned out to be the perfect size, with most seats filled. A copy of the funeral is being produced for the Internet and in DVD format for member viewing. Last weekend was also a special singles activity in Charlotte. Over 60 singles from North America came for an annual event known as the BRiC weekend (Building Relationships in Christ). All reports indicate it was a huge success. Please pray that God will bless His Work and His people as we gather to worship Him in the coming Day of Pentecost. We certainly need His blessing and the guidance of His Holy Spirit at this time.–Gerald Weston
Here is a quote from the 1980 letter that HWA wrote to Rod Meredith. I think that this says it all:
ReplyDelete"Rod, in frankest candor, JESUS CHRIST will NEVER put any one at the head of His Work on earth who is competitive, covetous of power and status, and [self-righteous]. In brutal frankness, you lack the charisma to lead God's work You do not attract-as I said before, you REP[EL-] people. You are a harsh taskmaster over those under you. THAT IS YOUR RECORD!"
Did this really change during his time with the WCG (after HWA's death or when he (not God) raised up The Global or Living Churches of God?
GWeston wrote: "...over the last 25 years...the fact is that Dr. Meredith was the one brave, bold, tenacious, and zealous enough for God to use in a special way..."
ReplyDeleteIn 1997, another spoke of this same "one" and his man-made Global as follows:
"...Let’s start with GLOBAL! Now, I would have to say, out of all of the offshoots of the Church, Global has tried to do this work probably the closest to what Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong really was doing it at the time. They’ve tried to stay as true to that as they can, but even there they yielded, they backed off of the government where the man in charge, which I love very much, and some of those men I’ve known for all of these years, but they made it so he can’t even change a doctrine unless he gets approval by a committee.
Did we ever see a committee around Christ, or around Moses, or around any of the Prophets or Servants of God? No! No, that was set up for one thing. That was set up to snag people and say: “Well, see, we have these checks and balances! No one man here is going to be able to change things and then change what we believe."
Well, is he the leader of God, or isn’t he? If he’s the leader of God, then he can change anything he wants, because God’s inspiring him but, obviously, they admit in their whole premise that he isn’t God’s leader; don’t they?
God’s servants don’t go out and ask permission to anyone! They are inspired by God! But the other problem there is that their leader, who is very sincere like all of these men have been, but Hitler was very sincere too, but he was sincerely wrong. You know; he was around when Mr. Armstrong was inspired to choose the one to succeed him, and guess what? God didn’t choose him, did He?
If God wanted that work to carry on the way Mr. Armstrong did it, He would have chosen him. Obviously, He has the fruits. I mean; he is trying to carry on to the best of his ability. He’s trying to rubber stamp the work that Mr. Armstrong did, but do you see? God never chose him to do that.
God had a lot more truth to get out and He hasn’t revealed it to that man or anyone in that “church.” You know; God’s Church is always building. We see through the different eras: not always building, but if you put a graph on everything it’s always going ahead. Sometimes there are little slowdowns in information in different eras of the Church. Some had a lot more persecution than others did, but what we can see in Global “church” is that God’s Spirit is NOT leading that “church.”
There may be Firstfruits there, but He’s not really leading it, because there’s no message there. You know; all they have is Mr. Armstrong’s message and what God revealed to Mr. Armstrong, but God’s revealed now a lot more! They’re still stuck back there in the sixties and the seventies. That’s where they’re stuck. That’s where all of these little organizations are. They have some truth, but they’re not being led!..."
Where is Global today? Meredith today? Weston tomorrow? Time is telling...
John
"... a fitting tribute to a man to whom we all owe a great deal. "
ReplyDeletehmmm, we owe a great deal to a man?
where is God in the picture?...would this man be anything other than a common sinner without God's influence?
this is a major problem in the Churches....following a man instead of God....I've witnessed it for years and years, and people will not change, they are looking for a human leader.
seems like the bible tells us about that, and what the outcome of it will be....
5:10 a.m. wrote: "Did we ever see a committee around Christ, or around Moses, or around any of the Prophets or Servants of God? No! No".
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that Moses was told to delegate to others. HWA held all power. Underlings were simply yes men, with titles but no real authority.
The Church is NOT Israel. We see MULTIPLE elders in NT churches to prevent abuse of power, etc. No one person held all the power.
There was no hierarchy, (Apostle, prophets, evangelists, etc.) They were simply different functions, not ranks as in the military (and no Pastor General.
Jerry owes his position to Rod. So, obviously, he is going to select a joyous emoji. However, members owe a great deal of unnecessary badness and artificially diminished freedoms in their lives to Rod and the LCG. There is the fear of events which will never unfold, events that were so dramatized as to control and manipulate the behavior of members.
ReplyDeleteIt's up to the individual to decide whether the effect is net positive or net negative. Obviously, if the Germans had come, and members whisked off to a place of safety, it would have been net positive. Those theories and timelines have consistently failed as the followers' lives have been collectively diminished.
Armstrongism goes down as a bummer.
BB
Terry Ratzman
ReplyDeleteSteve D 7:44 AM wrote: "...My understanding is that Moses was told to delegate to others..."
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, Moses did do that. So did HWA. Those who supported both men were supposed to be "little helpers" supporting the man doing that delegating.
You also commented: "...There was no hierarchy, (Apostle, prophets, evangelists, etc.) They were simply different functions, not ranks as in the military (and no Pastor General..."
Not only that, but Ephesians 4 states:
:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
That word "some" should be the definite article "the," but what was their purpose?
:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Thanks for sharing...
John
The thing is, there are always going to be people who either do know more than we as individuals know, or appear or profess to know more. We can learn from them sometimes, tempered by the knowledge that some of them are "collectors". You have to be vigilant in keeping from being collected by them. Why? Nobody is perfect, and nobody has 100% truth. Everbody has faults. People play games without even knowing it. People make mistakes and have error. If you allow yourself to become part of these peoples' collective, you will pick up not only their positives, but also their negatives. Better to have a number of teachers than to be part of one collective. Resist the collectors and resist becoming part of their empires!
ReplyDeleteBB