It is that time of year again as Church of God members pack their bags, load their cars up for road trips or hop on planes to go to exotic locations somewhere in the world. Children are pulled out of school with various wild excuses as to why they will be leaving for 8-10 days just a few weeks after school has started in August or September. Friends and family member will be excited to meet together and share adventures. Hunger pangs will set in for new foods or gatherings in favorite restaurants. Many members who struggle financially will go into debt in order to live up to God's high standard that they deserve the best hotels, food, and alcohol. Ministers will be delighted to be staying in the finest resort rooms available, for free in many cases, and having daily access to the free food and alcohol in the ministerial dining rooms. Thousands will be spent on extravagant gift baskets for top ministers, evangelists, and Festival Coordinators because they have sacrificed sooooooo much over the past year.
It is all so heartwarming and millennial, as God has placed his name on hundreds of different locations around the world with hundreds of different COG's preaching hundreds of different messages by men who claim they are the direct channel for God's word.
But just how millennial is it? Some COG's will try and book Feast sites in areas that other COG's have traditionally used for years, all as a way of usurping them and hoping to be able to draw in a few of their members who are loyal to certain destinations.
Some cities, resorts, or convention destinations will have several COG's meeting in the same city, often within blocks of each other, and in some cases in the exact same location, but in different rooms.
Take a look at Branson, Missouri. United Church of God, Church of God a Worldwide Association, Intercontinental Church of God, Church of God in Truth and the International Congregation of Yahweh will all be meeting there. Uncomfortable moments are sure to be felt when going out to dinner, or a stage show, or at the local go-cart racing facility as different COG's all happen to meet up. Warm greetings will pour out and then awkward silence will quickly develop as they realize that they were told to not fellowship with apostate unbelievers who are not part of their only true church.
Missouri—Branson: UCG, http://feast.ucg.org. Branson: CGWA, http://feast.cogwa.org. Branson: ICG, http:// intercontinentalcog.org/ tabernacleshome.php. Branson: Oct. 3-10, Church of God in Truth, http://www.postponements.com/ id15.htm. Branson: International Congregation of Yahweh, http://www. icyahweh.org. Lake of the Ozarks: LCG, https://fot2017.lcg.org.Then there is Myrtle Beach with Church of God Big Sandy, Intercontinental Church of God and Church of God International meeting in the same city. This is sure to be awkward with all three groups having ties to Garner Ted Armstrong.
The Journal: News of the Churches of God
South Carolina—Hilton HeadGranted there are many COG members who ignore the admonitions of their ministers and Feast site coordinators to not fellowship with Laodicean former members. They will still see family and friends in other groups as some plan their Feast sites in order to do so.
Island: LCG, https://fot2017.lcg.org. Myrtle Beach: Church of God Big Sandy, http://churchofgodbigsandy.com, Lyle Kerby,(304) 354-7147. Myrtle Beach: ICG, http:// interconti- nentalcog.org/tabernacleshome.php. Myrtle Beach: CGI/CFN, http://cgi.org/feast-of-tabernacles. The Journal: News of the Churches of God
Many others will skip several services in order to enjoy their location attractions unencumbered by other church members for a few hours out of the day. Others show up the first day and make their presence known and then disappear till the last day when they reemerge acting as if this was the best eight days of sermons they have never heard.
Yes, it is 2017 and none of the Churches of God can coexist together in a foretaste of the heavenly Kingdom of God and yet they all believe they will soon be heading to Petra where they and they alone will be protected by their god during the tribulation.
For decades the church taught that we would make the desert bloom like a rose as we worked for 3 1/2 years in the place of final training. Future Kings and priests would be trained to rule cities and worlds. We would be taught how to unify and bring peace to a remnant of civilization who had just survived the nuclear war. Church members would live in harmony as the Spirit of God trained us and hovered over us protecting us from the evils going on outside the Petra mountains.
It all sounds slightly wonderful and heartwarming. But, given how almost all of the Church of God's in 2017 will not work together, gather together, or even believe the same things, can you imagine what a hell hole Petra will be!
When all of the various COG's leaders show up at the same place who is going to be the one true unifier? Almost ordained Bob Thiel? Vik Kubik? Mark Armstrong? Ron Weinland? Gerald Weston? Gerald Flurry? James Malm and his Wiccan sidekick Constance? What an appalling mess it will be! Why would any COG member sit there and watch this appalling mess as they realize they have 3 1/2 more years of this utter shitfest before them?
Does this really sound like a foretaste of the Kingdom of God?
This is so true. It is a stinging indictment of the state of the Church of God movement today.
ReplyDeleteIt's a profound example of the badness and bad fruits produced by just one extra-biblical theory that was elevated to the level of a doctrine, that of church eras.
ReplyDeleteArmstrongism has always specialized in doctrines which foment prejudice. While British Israelism produces racial prejudice, church eras make it so that white people can even look down on one another.
BB
THE FOT has been transformed into a high class extravagant vacation at overly-consumptive and environmentally unfriendly resorts. It does not resemble and follow the simple instructions in Lev 23, the "prooftext" used to support commanded festival observance. Why do they eat unleavened bread and fast on atonement, but not blow trumpets on Trumpets and carry boughs or leaves into Tabernacles, not to mention dwell in tents or booths? Cherry-picking has resulted in these odd and unbiblical meldings of the holy days into a modern culture they were not instituted for.
ReplyDeleteI recently heard how the coordinator (Smarmy Dave Register) at cogwa's Hawaii feast site complained that the luxury, top-floor suite in the convention's hotel he was to occupy was not big or good enough. Obligingly, he was moved to a different facility with a much better and more expensive room, and a less important subordinate was given the top ocean-view room he refused. Cogwa supporters, make sure you send in extra tithe of the tithe and offerings to cogwa, the most important group invested in themselves!
A well-written commentary about the 2017 dismal state of the Worldwide Church of God founded by Herbert W. Armstrong in 1934. The picture of the Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania Tabernacle building brings back my memory of 15,000 brethren seated in capacity crowds listening to Herbert Armstrong and Garner Ted Armstrong as they jetted crisscross from Feast site to Feast site, and myself as a young man eagerly going to the airport to greet and meet them. Memories of hearing leading ministers and others speak such as Raymond Cole, Bryce Clark, C. Wayne Cole, Albert Portune, Stanley Radar, Richard Wiedenheft, Leslie McCullough, Sherwin McMichael, David Jon Hill, Dean Blackwell among many others.
ReplyDeleteGiving credit where credit is due - C. Wayne Cole (who I believe is still alive) is the ONLY WCG minister who I EVER heard break ranks with the Armstrong party line of "time is short" and preached a sermon where he speculated "What if time went on 40 years or more - WHO will be the leaders of God's Church 40 years from now"? He gave that sermon at Mt. Pocono Feast of Tabernacles. I don't remember the exact year, but I believe it was either 1970 or 1971. In this sense, time has proven Mr. Cole having better prophetic insight than the Armstrongs, as well as Rod Meredith and his "3 to 5 years left" speculation which went on for 50 years.
And to answer C. Wayne Cole's question, "WHO will be the leaders of God's Church 40 years from now?", the ANSWER is NO ONE! I doubt he had in mind "doubly blessed almost arrested bitter" Bob Thiel or any of the other HWA wannabe clowns. The 2017 Feast of Tabernacles marks 83 years of Armstrongism, and none of the promises of Armstrongism ever came to pass in the timeframe predicted. The Wonderful World of Tomorrow (What will it be like) never came. This last generation that was not to pass has passed, and the Church is a dismal mess.
Richard
C. Wayne Cole is still alive.
ReplyDeleteI remember very well my first ever FOT under the tent in pouring rain down at Jekyll Island, sleeping on the concrete floor...(or dirt) and seeing these two small heads sitting at a table very far away speaking to us....HWA and GTA...I was in hook line and sinker...
ReplyDeleteHi kids. About the Feast. I struggled a great deal this year for some reason in attending. The struggle is between reason and more. In the past...since it is a millennial scene..it seems I was in the middle of arguments, marriage stupid stuff, and so on. Just want to make it clear that was my experience and I am sure others have good memories or experiences. And..you can't complain..you have to act. So, I decided to do Feast at home, with my family, hang out with them on great Fall season, buy them gifts, do good stuff..oh..and hang with my family. Further, it struck me will I was cleaning the floor..yep..that this was not a millennial scene and if it were, why aren't we ALL together?? I can't deny feeling guilty but..it just does not make sense to me anymore. It don't. Any other buckaroos feel like this or have gone through this mind maze??
ReplyDeleteThank you
Peace
What will DP think about when he takes off in a rented Jet to go to the RCG Feast sites. Who is taking over RCG when he is not in command??? Beware!!!!
ReplyDeleteI propose that we no longer call it the Feast of Tabernacles. What the COGs do is nothing like the actual Feast of Tabernacles which is being properly observed with joy and celebration by millions of Jews all over the world. Let us call the COGs' practice something else. Perhaps the Yearly Conference. I am open to suggestions.
ReplyDeleteSo often the Armstrongite 1% tell us: God names things for what they are. Well we can play this game as well. In the actual Feast of Tabernacles observed by Jews it is celebrated at home on their own property. Many differing levels of observance occur among Jews. They have Sabbaths on the first and eighth days if they live in the Holy Land. Elsewhere Sabbaths are to be observed on the first, second, eighth and ninth days because historically the date for the calendar was determined in the Holy Land but Jews outside of it had to observe the yearly Sabbath for two days in case the new moon was sighted a day later. Consequently normal life is only put on hold for four days out of nine. Children would only miss two or four days of school at most. They build booths in their houses recalling the wandering in the wilderness.
But the COGs do not do these things. Instead they go away from their homes. There are no booths made on their property. Also their normal lives are disrupted for the entire eight day period as they go to some far away place to attend numerous sermons for eight days. A second tithe is paid to fund the large expenses of attending this event for eight days. Children's schooling is disrupted all this time. The facilities they attend are called a tent.
How dreadful it is that HWA has perverted the beautiful and joyous Jewish festival into this strange thing he invented. He clearly did little research in understanding how the festival is actually observed among Jews so he ignorantly twisted it into an eight day yearly conference to hear his teachings all that time.
Consequently I suggest we should give this Armstrongite "Feast of Tabernacles" a different name to show that it is nothing like the beautiful Jewish festival it is named after. Perhaps we should call it the yearly conference. I am open to suggestions.