Isn't it awesome to have the inside track to "the truth" and to be able to say that everyone else only knows it to varying degrees? Of course every single COG group out there claims to possess the only real version of the truth while they label all other groups to be rejectors of truth.
I think after the horrendous track record the Church of God has had in claiming possession of "the truth" and the damage it has left in its wake, that the various COG groups would be careful in making such proclamations, especially considering their version of truth has led to the hundreds and hundreds of splits. Truth is a rare commodity in all of the splinter groups in 2018
Hold On to The Truth: The Apostle Paul admonished Christians to “Prove all things: hold fast that which is good [right and true]” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV). David wrote “Your law is truth” and “all Your commandments are truth” (Psalm 119:142, 151). The apostles warned that people would leave the truth, resist the truth, turn their ears away from the truth and speak evil of the truth (2 Timothy 2:18; 3:8; 4:4; 2 Peter 2:2) because they did not love the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10). The history of the early Church shows how this happened as the truth of the gospel was lost and replaced by pagan ideas and practices. However, these same practices are being repeated today. I recently visited the East Texas community of Big Sandy that was once the home of Ambassador College and a Church congregation of over 1,000 members. Today, the college is gone, and in this small town of 1,300 people, there are about a half dozen little congregations that once met together on the campus of Ambassador College. These congregations have either retained or rejected the truth in various degrees—just as Jesus prophesied (Matthew 24:4-5). To avoid being deceived and led astray, we need to follow Paul’s admonition and “continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them” (2 Timothy 3:13-14). Brethren, let’s prove and hold on to the Truth!
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
22 comments:
It must be a boring life in which one knows everything. Well, I guess it works for God, but I think I'd have a hard time with it.
Dr. Winnail somehow (wink-wink, nudge nudge) overlooks Jesus's definitions of the truth - that HE is (John 14:6), and God's Word is, whether you look at that as the Bible or the Word who became flesh (John 17:17).
When will LCG learn?
"Prove all things"?? According to church culture, that is the exclusive responsibility of 'God's ministers.' The responsibility of church members is hence to blindly believe what their ministers tell them to believe. That Borg members from The Living Church of Borg are lead astray is a natural consequence.
But then, respect for reality is in short supply in all these splinters.
You'd think having the true truth would cause good fruits to be born. Either they don't, or they have a severe problem with the application of it.
BB
pretty rich for a tin-foil loser-prevaricator to complain about the lack of good fruits of anyone else
RL
Truth is a description of that which exists. So we can also discern truth though observation. That is how for instance, mankind has discovered God's laws of physics and chemistry.
Exclusively looking at the bible results in these non stop bible juggling controversies, with no way out. Simple observation cuts through the bull.
where did he say lcg possesses the truth while others reject it in varying ways? didnt you just not tell the truth?
are you any more credible than they are when you twist the words of others? one thing that is becoming more and more obvious in todays world of digital exposure is that the one what do the most finger pointing tend to be projecting their own guilt...
Read Doug's statement carefully. It's not the usual "LCG #1" bilge. In fact, it could have been written by a COGWA minister... or by someone planning soon to become one.
TROTSKYITE tendencies were inculcated in the cult and remain with progressive ex-members today.
Doug wrote to those in the living group saying: "...To avoid being deceived and led astray, we need to follow Paul’s admonition and “continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them”..."
Doug knows deception exists and people are being led astray (like himself) and he does not want that to happen to others.
All that Doug has learned is not true. Doug still believes in the Mickey Mouse Millennium, believing his "Jesus" will very soon return to earth and continue to reign on earth forever. Where did Doug learn that from? The leaders of the Worldwide Church of God!
That "second coming" of Jesus Christ to reign on earth was/is Junk Food and not very nourishing to anybody.
Most know Jesus Christ came to earth once. Many know He died and was buried for 3 days and 3 nights. Fewer still admit that He was resurrected and visited His Father. Fewer still admit that He returned to earth with a "second coming," for a second time, which lasted only about 40 days and then He again returned to Heaven.
So, perhaps a question for Doug: who told you that some "second coming" of Jesus Christ was "soon" going to occur and He is going to reign on earth for 1,000 years?
Doug does not understand how he could have been led so astray, but he professes that he will teach us how NOT to do the same or a similar thing?
Doug also thinks the Day of the LORD (2 Peter 3:10,12) will occur very soon too, but in reality it will not occur until AFTER Satan is loosed from some bottomless pit......beyond a Mickey Mouse 1,000 years from now where it will make a lot of sense for people to think as follows:
"...WHERE is the PROMISE of HIS COMING? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." 2 Peter 3:4
Doug, driven by another spirit, preaches another gospel and another Jesus and a Mickey Mouse Millennium, has himself been deceived and led astray, but...
Time will tell...
John
"Prove all things" = "Our things"
Cite references from Trotsky then.
well, I heard a Baptist preacher talking about some mission church the Southern Baptists had established somewhere in remote Africa...he concluded by saying something to the effect of "at least there is a True Church there now"...
and yes John, time will tell.
Doug, I know your not allowed to think on your own. Just maybe they did prove all things and left, because "You shall know them by their fruits".
Like Jesus said about the tares and grain, the tares will be separated at the harvest.
The term "truth" is thrown around with abandon by Armstrongists. My conclusion is that they are not using this word in the traditional sense that we would all be familiar with. After all, a part of their "truth" once delivered is BI which can incontrovertibly demonstrated to be fallacious by the science of genetics. (Isn't it interesting no geneticist has made the alarming, head-line grabbing statement that he has discovered that the Anglo/Celtic people are descended from Abraham!) I think many Armstrongists believe that BI is a mystery that does not yield to scentific inquiry and can only be revealed by the pseudo-history of Herman Hoeh. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I recall men giving their icebreaker in Spokesman Club and talking about when and how it was that they came into "the Truth." Here it was used as a synonym for Armstrongism. That is a highly idiosyncratic and fallacious use of the term but it starts people thinking in a certain way. And that way is: The truth is not something that is subject to independent verification and validation but is rather something spoken by someone who is thought to be somehow credentialed with the Armstrongist organization structure and verification and validation need not apply.
I am sure there are many people who would like the truth to be a purely subjective phenomenon that can be used to manipulate others. The Donald (in this case Trump and not Ward)developed the term "fake news" so he could manipulate information flowing to his base. And, of course, much of the "fake news" is actually truth. In that sense, Armstrongism is a "fake theology" founded on the principle that the truth is whatever the Armstrongist leader says it is.
So what! I happen to have the...
TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUETRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE....
TRUTH!
John
Actually many others including myself believe in the soon to be established 'Mickey Mouse Millennium' and the day of lord just before Christ's return. We believe this because we have read it many times in our own bibles, not because of brainwashing. Accusing us of being deceived and led astray on such simple points is insulting.
You must have some 'homebase' that you are hiding from us. Perhaps Jehovah's Witnesses or similar. Care to tell us? Do you have any history with Herbs church at all? Did you ever attend services?
Anon 9:56 AM wrote: "Actually many others including myself believe in the soon to be established 'Mickey Mouse Millennium' and the day of lord just before Christ's return. We believe this because we have read it many times in our own bibles, not because of brainwashing..."
I never called your belief a result of brainwashing; however, I have been where you are; you have not been where I am. I believed identical to you for about 28 years (history with WCG/United Ass.), and I am fully aware of what you have been taught so that you believe like you do, but I no longer see the Bible backing up the MMMillennium...and that Day of the LORD being on this side of that MMMillennium.
Think about the state of the world, using the Bible, after that MMMillennium, AFTER Satan exits the pit. The entire world is again deceived, war will be learned again, and it makes whatever you think Jesus Christ was supposed to accomplish end in a huge failure.
If that weren't enough, Jesus Christ is supposed to be at His Father's right hand (as expressed by over a dozen verses) until all enemies are subdued. You can look the verses up. Enemies still exist AFTER the MMMillennium.
Have patience. Continue to believe what is in your own mind. Nobody is asking you to change anything.
But, as you know, time will tell...
John
"AFTER Satan exits the pit. The entire world is again deceived, war will be learned again, ..."
it's all part of the culling process...remember, God is sorting out who is with Him, and who isn't...
the people who lived during the millennium come up in the second resurrection and are given access to the Holy Spirit, and are exposed to Satan as a test (as all in The Church are).....no great mystery here.
Anon 8:22 AM,
You give no scriptures for what you believe, to back up your theories about God "culling" and some "test," so what you say is a "great mystery." As I said, I used to believe all of that too, but no longer.
Let's just consider your culling process, whatever that is. You said: "...it's all part of the culling process...remember, God is sorting out who is with Him, and who isn't..."
God is not some dummy that He needs to cull anyone, or for that matter, test anyone.
What culling and testing do you see in the following verse?
"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:44
Where is the culling/testing in the following verses?
Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the CALLED according to his purpose.
29 For whom HE DID FOREKNOW, HE ALSO DID PREDESTINATE to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also CALLED: and whom he called, them he also JUSTIFIED: and whom he justified, them he also GLORIFIED."
What culling/testing is in the following verse?
"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" Phil 1:6
etc.
What is there to sort out?
"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Acts 15:18
Anyway, believe what you like. Time will tell...
John
"As I said, I used to believe all of that too, but no longer."
then there is no point in continuing this discussion.
Time is telling! Make it a great day! :-)
John
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