Wade Cox: If You Do Not Keep The Sabbath You Are An Ape

Wade Cox, crazier than hell.

Those periods come to an end from the arrival of the Witnesses. The people in them will be brought to repentance and brought into the body of Christ from the periods of the Witnesses, and from the First Resurrection of the Dead, as either spiritual or physical beings. The choice will be theirs alone and the reward theirs alone due to their own errors and choices.

The conversion of Judah is accomplished under the witnesses and from that time no person can enter the First Resurrection. It will be too late.

Satan will be bound and placed in the bottomless pit for the Millennium from the return of the Messiah. 

From the return of the Messiah the nations will be brought down to Megiddo and they will be brought into subjection to the Messiah.

By 2025 the entire world will be in the process of final subjugation for placement in its inheritance and the places in which it needs to be in order to prepare for the millennial system.

In 2026 the last Sabbath Year of this age occurs.

In 2027 the jubilee is blown and the new system takes its place and begins to prepare its own harvests from Atonement.

In 2028 the Millennium commences from the New Moon of Abib, which is the New Year. 

From this date there will be no harvests and no rain in due season for those who do not keep the Laws of God and send their representatives to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16-21).

It is of great interest that the religious systems of this world do not have any idea of the time frames under which they work and take no action to identify and restore the Laws of God and the Sacred Calendar (see the paper God’s Calendar (No. 156)).

Everyone in the world will be given the opportunity to repent and to take his/her place in the Kingdom of God. Not many people will achieve the First Resurrection in the Last Days.

Most will fail because they simply will not repent of the traditions of men. Hadithic Islam will fail miserably unless it repents and is baptised. As the Koran says if you do not keep the Sabbath of the Lord you are an ape (see Sabbath in the Qur’an (No. 274); Christ in the Koran (No. 163); The Koran on the Bible, the Law and the Covenant (No. 83) and the Hebrew and Islamic Calendar Reconciled (No. 53)). 

All the three main systems of Islam, Judaism and Christianity will become things of the past. They will be part of a bygone age and brought to remembrance no more, along with the people who represented them. Those people will all be in the Second Resurrection at the end of the millennial system.

Dave Pack's Awesome Insights of 2013. Let the Current Buyer Beware

                                           Why Unification  NOW!  (2013)

                                                                                            

"Now comes a series of reasons Haggai’s prophecy will be fulfilled this year. They are summarized, with only a very little detail added. More could be said of each, but the descriptions given will suffice to those willing to think just a little about them. Realize there are over 30 more reasons—many of them very powerful—that I have left off the list because some will be covered later or because they would only be recognized as proofs by our Headquarters ministry (involving various miracles, some big). Readers would be largely unable to appreciate them as proofs:  (There was a reason for that)

1) Understanding the meaning of the prophecy, starting with Haggai 1:2, automatically carries the requirement of taking a position on it. This cannot be avoided after one learns it. Think about this. The position of the remnant is that “the time is not come” to rebuild God’s House. Are they right or wrong? God indicts their thinking, meaning they are wrong! If the prophecy is not now, the net effect would be that God agrees with the remnant’s view. Worse, so should those currently in God’s one Church because they now know the meaning of the prophecy. Think this through. One does or does not agree with the remnant. God does not—and we do not. The time is now! Let’s go further.

2) Directly related, why (or how) would God command the remnant to “Go…build the House!” (Hag. 1:8)—but not mean NOW? How could He mean some undetermined future year? Why would God tell them (twice) to “consider their ways”—but not mean that they should do this now? Try to imagine God saying, “Consider your ways, but take your time. There’s no hurry. In fact, take years to think it over—even though you have been out of My Church for 20 years! You don’t have to DO anything now.”

3) Also related, if God waited 2,500 years to reveal the prophecy’s meaning (3,000 years when various related much older Psalms are considered), is not His waiting done? Does His revealing it not signal that He has reached the time to fulfill it rather than having reached a point one, two or three years out?

4) Next, why would God wait longer? What would He wait for? The remnant is absolutely ripe for deliverance.

5) Internally, and this is no small thing, God’s Church is truly ready to expand the Work in a BIG WAY. The prophecy features this as the MAIN PURPOSE of the remnant returning! Without the prophecy’s fulfillment, this expansion would be delayed one year—or more! Why would God notify His Church of the prophecy’s existence at the very same time our staff is ready, our websites are ready, our literature is ready and even God’s college is ready for more students if the prophecy were not imminent? Why would God notify His Church if HE were not ready?

6) Related to this, the buildings on our campus can very soon handle significantly more staff than we have now. This is already true without the other two buildings scheduled for completion in the late fall. However, this extra size works perfectly if the prophecy occurs this year.

7) Also related, but separate, our infrastructure is ready to receive and serve a much larger flock this fall! This includes field ministry being ready, but also other things.

8) Maturing interest from many in the world due to one year of explosive television expansion requires many more laborers in the ministry by this autumn.

9) The Restored Church of God is experiencing an AWESOME period of growth and development at this time—in the runup period just prior to the prophecy’s fulfillment. This is putting it mildly! To us, this is powerful indication that we are on the right track for this year—that God is not only pleased with His Church, but that He is helping it get ready.

10) If the prophecy did not happen this year, the remnant would remain another year (or more) undergoing ever worsening false ways. Worse off, they would have a commensurate shorter time to spiritually recover before the Tribulation. Think worse condition, less time to recover.

11) If reunification occurred next year (or any year after), those with God’s Spirit would have one more year cut off from God’s Church. This carries the potential for more to quench the Holy Spirit (I Thes. 5:19) and lose salvation.

12) The readers of the Haggai prophecy announcements (this is #21) who believed them would be the most disillusioned and the biggest candidates to QUIT everything if God did not return His people to one House this year! This would work directly against what God is doing—directly opposite His overall purpose.

13) Further desolation (Hag. 1:11; 2:16-17) from God of the splinter “houses” would practically wipe out the few remaining senior leaders in them. This includes pastors and elders, all of whom are NEEDED TO CARRY OUT THE BIG WORK!

14) The onset of all future years would never come with clarity—with any certainty! Would God leave thousands who are now aware of this prophecy in such a condition? Hardly.

15) Next, for those who will see the value of how to pursue spiritual matters, there is this: After fervently seeking God about it, not one reason the prophecy is off this year ever emerged in the minds of even one of our 16 Headquarters ministers! I (we) have NEVER prayed about, studied over, meditated on, fasted about and counseled with other ministers regarding a subject more than this one—in fact no other subject is even close!

16) Similarly, as questions emerged throughout our pursuit of truth with the many details of the prophecy, so many of these details kept coming clear as direct answers to prayer. And these were often immediate.

17) Recall Haggai 1:13: “Then spoke Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people…” Haggai is the messenger to God’s people, with what is an all-important message from God. Would not God make clear in such a unique message He describes as “the Lord’s message unto His people” the correct date for action? What kind of message would it be if people did not know WHEN TO CARRY IT OUT?

18) Since the apostasy, God had not wanted the remnant back in His Church, but now He does. He would first reveal the remnant to His leader, then tell him how they would return, and finally that He meant NOW. This was the order in which these things became apparent.

19) Imagine God not revealing the year the remnant is coming—but only the day and month. Vast amounts of time would have been wasted by His leaders studying and preparing for something that was not imminent. Would God put His Church in such a position?

20) Of interest, God revealed to me during ELUL four years ago my role as the modern Joshua.

21) Also of interest, I and The Restored Church of God learned about the New Testament remnant last ELUL (August). Let’s ask: Would timing of when we were shown the prophecy not be tied to its unique timing of fulfillment during the very next available ELUL?

22) We might ask: does the DEVIL know the prophecy is on? For those who understand how the devil works—that he counterfeits EVERYTHING God does—a variety of counterfeit theories have recently appeared about how God is going to reunite His people. Should not the devil be expected to do this at the time it would cause the most confusion? You will soon see that most of these theories are coming from men standing on the wrong side of this prophecy.

23) With God’s people split up, it is now almost impossible to do a powerful Work. (This might be the one area where the splinter leaders would agree.) God’s Church is largely stymied in working with both brethren and the world because of the confusion and deception from top leaders about where God’s Church is, who has the truth, who is carrying on after Mr. Armstrong, who is doing the true Work, etc. (Reread #22.) There is no other way to proceed than for God to remove leaders who have lulled with deceit many thousands who were blind (Rev. 3:17) to begin with.

24) World conditions cry out for a big Work NOW!!!—not one or more years from now.
I repeat: There are many more reasons for a 2013 fulfillment, with a few of a personal nature—and others involving God moving miraculously to reveal crucial things at certain times within an extraordinarily complex prophecy that involves hundreds of verses. I have not included all of these reasons because others would likely not accept them as legitimate. They are, however, on MY much longer list (now 56 total). And these reasons stand on bedrock in the eyes of ALL our Headquarters ministers.

Again, some of these other reasons—VERY POWERFUL POINTS—can only be brought out when I go into other scriptures in the final two announcements (these are verses outside Haggai, not yet covered). I will carefully denote these reasons when we come to them. There are at least seven or eight.

Some summary review. Since the prophecy has been revealed, brethren have new knowledge. They know God disagrees with the remnant’s decision that it is not yet time to come together and build His House. With knowledge comes responsibility (Jms. 4:17; Heb. 10:26). Since God revealed the prophecy NOW, He clearly does NOT agree with the remnant NOW. If it were not to be fulfilled this year, He would essentially be agreeing with the very people He just commanded to change and come to work in His Temple. This would make revealing the meaning of Haggai pointless—because it would still not yet be time. Would God do this? No!

The timing of this reunification is wonderful news for you, but terrible news for the leaders of the large organizations. They must continue attacking and lampooning these announcements. ou may begin to see a new level of viciousness appear regarding the work of The Restored Church of God—or me.

Many reading the announcements are intrigued. Some are fascinated. Most are dismissive.....

WITH REASON DAVE...WITH REASON......

Wade Cox: Unless you Prosecute Murderers They Will End Up Being Sabbath Breakers and Will Start Keeping Christmas and Easter

Wade Cox shows the world once again just how disturbed his little cultish mind is.  He has posted a comment on his Facebook page stating how important it is to prosecute murderers.  If murderers are not prosecuted they will end up being Sabbath breakers and will start celebrating Christmas and Easter. Who knew!!!!!!!!!!

Cox is a prime example of what happens to one's mind when one claims to be a Christian yet denies the one whom they claim to be following.  To Cox, Jesus is a created creature just like koala's and panda's.

It is mind boggling that there are a few hundred followers of this buffoon.

Dave Pack: Christ personally picked the Wadsworth compound because of the trees

Oh Dave!  You are such a lumberjack!

“Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars” (Zech. 11:1). Trees are a wonderful thing or, they can be a terrible thing. Again, I’ve been mentioning this…Cutting a lot of trees…I’ll be back tomorrow. I have cut about 500 trees myself, personally, over the last three Sundays. Most of them are small…

I read an interesting article about trees, and it tells you something interesting about the Garden of Eden environment that God wants to bring to the whole world, and I think why the living Christ…Before we get into a story of “bad” trees, let’s talk about “good” trees for a moment, because the world will be filled with beautiful trees. I was just sitting the other day writing down the number of kinds of major trees on the campus…About four major indigenous oaks. There are a couple of kinds of ash; there are three kinds of maples; there is black locusts; black cherry, wild cherries; there are king nut hickories and shagbark hickories; a couple kinds of poplars, a tulip poplar and then standard American poplars, and American elms and so forth…and they all look different. I’ve gotten to where I can pretty much spot them in the winter. We’ve got some flowering trees and apple; hawthorn and dogwoods, and some ornamentals.

But trees are all unique and different and serve different purposes. Here is an article. I just wonder, as I think of this magnificent campus filled with thousands of trees…about this article title, “Being around trees makes you less stressed”…and Christ picked this property.

Has there ever been a man in human history who is as macho as superfantabulous Dave?

Dave Pack: "the Bible, almost is like reading McGuffey’s Readers" to me

Dave is so theologically brilliant the the Bible is now equivalent to children's story books.

A strange thing is happening, brethren. And I’m going to show you some more absolutel fascinating things later. It’s almost as though, now, I have reached a point where so many things have opened up—that I’ve battled for half a century—that the Bible, almost is like reading McGuffey’s Readers—“See Spot run.” I mean…I open things up now and it just talks in a clear way. I’m going to stun you later…Maybe not any more than making Haggai 2:7 and Revelation 11:18 compatible…or maybe, not necessarily any more than explaining verses about the resurrection of the dead and how they come and when they come…maybe not any more than that, but because of the eminence of the things I’m going to describe later, I know that will stun you in a powerful way. You can be sort of the judge of what stuns you more than anything else in all of this.

Dave then makes the claim that he takes all of his new understanding to his inner circle of elite ministers and asks them what they think.  Is he really stupid enough to think that any of them would ever disagree with him?  They don't.  They are all "yes men" who will validate anything Dave comes up with, even though deep down they know it is a load of manure.

I sometimes sit with all the ministers, and I will show them a whole bunch of things I have learned, because I kind of want to see what they think, and we come to agreement. I do that always. I never just come up here. I could, but I choose not to. I don’t think it would be wise to just come up here without having talked to a lot of men that I greatly respect, who are deeply converted, have a lot of God’s Spirit. We sit for hours and go through these things. And so, I’ll often say, at the end of sessions…I did it a couple times this week…with some of what we’re covering here, as a matter of fact…What grabs you most? What do you find the most fascinating? And you get different answers. They don’t all say the same thing—they all believe all parts of it—but they may react to or find a certain part is more visceral with them or punches them or exhilarates them…you can be “punched” with things that are exciting.

James Malm...The Cowardly Lion

James Malm has been one of my favorite Church of God liars and false prophets.  Even Almost Arrested Elisha Elijah Amos Joshua Second Witness Bob Thiel pales in comparison.  In Malm's world "zeal" is the most important thing a COG member can have in his/her life.  Zeal for the law.   Not zeal for Jesus though, that is little too effeminate and wishy-washy.

Besides prostituting himself to the law, he also makes many phantasmagorical false prophecies.  His editing of scriptures to fit his shallow law based belief system he is theologically bankrupt.  Wild end time prophecies about Clinton, Trump, 2017, 2024 and other wrong dates makes him and his Wiccan sidekick look like like fools.

Even other COG's realize Malm is theologically bankrupt.

The Cowardly Lion, the Straw Man and the Tin Man

James Malm is the cowardly lion, hiding behind his keyboard, spreading and even entrenching himself in slanders and lies. Instead of repenting of his evil ways, he digs in his heels whenever caught in a lie or at very least excuses himself with the wave of a hand. He engages in straw man arguments continuously, but then he goes far beyond even that.

By creating fictitious viewpoints of the various COG groups, he stands up his straw man and then knocks it down at least a couple times per week. A straw man, of course, is a lie. It is not the truth, and Malm trades in lies and gossip.

However, he also takes it one step further. He will then engage in a tin man argument as well.

In Malm’s world, not having a heart = “no zeal”. Even worse than the tin man argument, though, he first sets up the straw man, knocks it down, and then proceeds to use the tin man argument that because of the (straw man) false belief, the COG organizations have no zeal. It is such an obvious ploy that only the truly deceived can fall for it all. Dunce caps for the lot of them! 

The false prophet Malm writes:

A Trump presidency also does not bode well for the Internet. Recent advances in net neutrality may be derailed (“Will net neutrality survive Trump’s first 100 days?“). Privacy concerns is also not a top priority for Trump, and it is likely that government surveillance will increase. With his talk of “law and order”, we could well become just a little closer to a police state.

Everyone wants to talk now about healing and unity, and even Bernie Sanders is attempting to quell dissent (“Bernie Sanders is ‘prepared to work with’ Donald Trump“). In spite of all the politicians playing nice post-election, it is only a matter of time before Republicans and Democrats start fighting again. There already are protesters in the streets who don’t want to accept the rule of law, and it is unlikely that Trump can really stem the tides of riots and police tension any more than President Obama could.

I have increasingly felt this year that within 15 years, we will probably be in a state of civil war. In fact, I believe it will be much shorter than that, but something could still happen to forestall that. A Trump presidency is not that something, however.

Our problems will only increase because our society and our politicians are utterly delusional. They have rejected the truth — all truth, not just biblical truth. Good is evil, evil is good, up is down, down is up. Gender is called “fluid”, but the human body is fairly solid material and is only vague in the case of undesired mutations. In every culture, marriage comes with religious groundings, but our society has tried to pry religion even out of marriage. When you pry too hard, things break, BTW, and the structure that comes tumbling down will be the nation itself.

This process has been long in the making, and Trump, who himself is delusional in at least one or two areas, is not going to make that any better, either. In fact, his backing of so-called LGBT “rights” will likely only quicken the demise of the US, which has stuck its finger in God’s nostril and dictated it has a morality superior to even that of the Bible. Just go to any atheist website, and you can clearly see that they characterize the God of the Bible in very unflattering terms, most often by taking Scripture out of context and twisting it to mean something it does not say. 

When will all of these lairs ever get off their butts and stop begging for money and help the widows, feed the hungry, asset the orphans and act like Christians that they claim to be?

Dave Pack: Herbert Armstrong will be resurrected ahead of other people

Dave Pack's god is going to resurrect Herbert Armstrong before a lot of other people. HWA will be resurrected so can he arise along side Abraham and Moses.  This the same myth that the church has been preaching for decades.  When David, Daniel, Moses, Abraham and others come back Herb will be there waiting for them on the Pasadena campus.  Everyone knows the campus will be spared and used as the HQ for the invading armies. Oh such wonderful Church of God teachings!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Now we have seen that God will resurrect vast billions at once; 144,000 at another point. Who knows how many were resurrected on the day Christ died, or individuals—the widow’s son, Tabitha, aa, Lazarus, and so forth. He is willing to do one at a time, or medium size numbers, or great numbers. God has a plan for resurrecting each and every person. I have wondered…This is speculation. I don’t know…I have wondered if…At the time we all are born into the Family of God and made of the Holy Spirit, which the later part of this chapter talks about, I wonder if certain ones like Abraham or Moses or others will go first…Noah, Daniel, Job…We are all there, and God will honor certain people and they will come up first. This is important, because I can prove to you, right here—Mr. Armstrong is going to come up ahead of other people.

Dave Pack: I am "settling the score" when it comes to biblical interpretation

Superfantabulous Dave.  He may think he has the inside track on true Biblical knowledge but he has been usurped by the self-appointed false prophet Bob Thiel.  Pack though gives it a mighty try and claims that he is now setting once and for the true the interpretations of scripture that has been lost for decades.

Now, I know I say this every week—and I’m going to continue to say it until it’s not true—but each sermon presents awesome, inspiring new things that are game-changing and, in many ways, continue to make the entire Bible come clear. It has almost become a tradition, not by design, but by accident, that I will open with certain interesting things by way of just “settling the score” on certain questions that have existed for decades and making things clear.

The buffoonery that comes out of Dave's mouth is just more foolishness that has been a long standing tradition in the Church of God.  Countless self-appointed liars and false prophets have claimed they and they alone possess the true words of God.  Every single one of these fools, from end time witless witnesses to evangelists, to those that whore themselves out to the law and to know-it-all ministers, all have ended up being liars.  Dave and his contemporaries are no better then the previous 7 decades of false teachers.

Van Robinson: Dear Worldwide Church of God splinter groups, my sister is a Mormon

Dear Worldwide Church of God splinter groups, my sister is a Mormon.  Like all church of God groups, she fervently believes that "truth" is defined by her religious persuasion.  Never mind that her indoctrination radically differs with all other religious groups on earth, because to her thinking there is only "one" source of all "truth" on earth, and that is the belief system of "The Latter Day Saints."  

The world is overrun with religious zealots who live and die believing that what they think is truth and will some day overtake all humans. Not so!  Humanity is extremely diverse and will never in a billion years think alike in terms of religious beliefs. 

The Worldwide Church of God splinter groups are nothing more than a speck of sand upon the seashore of religious humanity.  They will all extinguish in time as their overlords pass on from this life.  They may have fun times at their "Family Winter" event, but anyone who observes this charade knows full well that scheduled activities at Christmas time is a total religious scam. 

The true motive of "Family Winter" time for church of God splinter groups, is the seduction of naive and gullible people who financially sacrifice their families and children for the wealth of their overlords. 

Virtually anyone can start a religious group and seduce the simple minded.  All religious groups are spearheaded by self-appointed men or women who sail through life living at the expense of their gullible followers.  In the end, the religious rulers rest in the graveyard and so do you.

So who is your God?  Your preacher?  Oh my, he will return to dirt, the same as you do.
Then what?  Your "Bible" is nothing more than ink on paper, and it to will decay and return to dirt also.  You see, God is NOT your church pastor, nor ink on paper.  You have NEVER seen God, nor so much as heard his voice. 

Who is God?  He is NOT your church, your pastor, your ink on paper or your imagination,  or your Family Winter Weekend.  God is in fact someone you have never seen, never encountered and whose voice you have never heard.  And guess what?  Neither has your preacher seen God or heard his voice.  So who are these vain men who stand before you and pretend to speak for God?  Total frauds whose only motive is your $money.

Van Robison

Dave Pack: Ministers who recently left the Restored Church of God were demon possessed

Dave has always believed in a magical god that is desperate to slaughter as many people as possible.  That same god is also an impotent fool who is unable to stop Satan from influencing members and ministers.

Dave has had several recent defections from his ministry.  In typical COG fashion he attributes these defections to the ministers being influenced by demons.

“Also of your own selves shall men arise…[Men who were faithful and turned. There’s a difference. We’re going to see that’s important later on.]…speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). Now “perverse” means “distorted, misinterpreted” That’s what it means. If you look up the word, it can be translated “perverse or even corrupt,” but the primary meanings are “distorted or misinterpreted.” 

I have watched ministers leave the Church for many years…they will fire off emails where things are distorted or misinterpreted. Now, a lot of stuff in a recent round of emails is just pure fiction; written by inventors of evil things. Almost suggesting the man who wrote these emails is outright demon-possessed. To be in this category, all you really have to do is distort and misinterpret, and that’s a form of perversion and corruption, so that’s important. Men of God can turn and become that way. Never mind those that creep in and never were of God. Here is what struck me, in addition to what I’ve said…

Dave Pack: His "god" Is Sending Angels Incognito In Order To Test His Followers

Can you imagine how difficult it is for Restored Church of God members to ever truly measure up to Dave's high standards?  Even though these standards are not God's standards, Dave feels that his members need to be ready to be "proved."  In order for this to happen Dave's god is going to send angels incognito to see if the RCG members will take them in.  It is highly likely that they won't since they will not even help the homeless and hungry people begging at the Giant Eagle several hundred yards across the street.

One thing GTA had going for him in the late 70's was that he saw a need to care for the homeless and hungry in Pasadena.  When Herb had his melt down and closed Pasadena, Ted thought that the Student Center should be used to feed the homeless.  The proverbial Armstrongite caca hit the fan.  Ted soon found himself homeless and on his way to Texas.

This is what Dave says to his followers:

People would be horrified to think they turned an angel away. Even though the angel didn’t need any of the things that it might appear to when it came as a human being. You see. You’d be horrified to think “Ohh, I turned an angel away? Well, then how much worse would it be to turn a son of God away? Nobody would turn an angel away. No one would turn Christ away—Lord, when saw we Younaked, or hungry, or a stranger? And He said, Inasmuch as you did it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it unto Me. [Paraphrase, Matthew 25].

Do you realize God could test you? And He says so right here. If there are no strangers near you that you would need to take in, He might actually send an angel to test you. There can be no other reason. Angels don’t need beds. They don’t need food, or water, or clothes, and if you said no to them, they would just fly away. So that would be a problem—but if you say no to a little one, or “the least of these, My brethren”—Christ said, “You did it to Me.” Nobody would ever say no to an angel, and that’s better than saying no to one who Christ said was the equivalent of saying no to Him.

What????

So, you may have never thought about that verse, but that’s the context, and it’s the chapter, that it follows, quoting Haggai. And now that we understand the resurrection of the dead, a lot of people I was talking to after services were just floored. They had never thought about thousands of people with enormous needs.

God will test you, even if there isn’t somebody with a need. If you live in outer Slobovia, He might send an angel. I don’t think there is such a place. Wherever it is, it’s outer…[laughter] I think maybe more of you are familiar with inner Slobovia…but I was referring to the outer one.

Just How Real Are Church of God Friendships?

For decades we have heard the stories of thousands who have left Armstrongism and how that action impacted their lives.  One of the most shocking things many experienced was how fraudulent the friendships that they had with fellow church members actually were.  The minute any one starts questioning the church, beliefs, the minister, or its doctrines those once "loyal" friends would instantly turn their backs on you.

Armstrongism has always been belief system that was based upon superficial appearances.  It was vitally important to the church to be seen as special.  Beautiful campuses, exquisite homes for leaders filled with gold, silver and the finest art.  Impeccably dressed leaders pounding lecterns while living repugnant lifestyles.  Beautiful videos, visually striking booklets and magazines, produced by some of the most morally and spiritually bankrupt men/churches imaginable. All utterly fake and insincere.  Just like relationships.

Real friends stick by one another, regardless of the situation.  Real friends would refuse to follow the admonition of lying fools who tell them to turn their backs on spouses, family and friends.  Friendships in the Church of God have always been superficial.  They never have been truly sincere and usually never deep.  Deep abiding love is hard to find in the Church of God.

The following letter was posted on the following thread:

Rod Meredith's Super Special Not So Special Christmas Sermon

My family left LCG about two years ago.

The first three months or so were somewhat lonely, but we looked around for community organizations we could join to meet people with shared interests.

By six months out, we had a social routine that was as busy as our old LCG routine, except that we never had to drive more than a half-hour to go to a meeting with any of our new friends.

After about a year, we had started to develop some close friendships with our new friends.

Around that time, my wife became seriously ill. We let our old LCG acquaintances know about her illness, and one of our children who still has some close LCG ties even got his mother's name on a prayer list.

So, who was it who came to visit my wife in the hospital? Was it the LCG friends she had known for nearly 20 years? NOT ONE of the LCG friends visited or even phoned to express their concern or support. It was our new friends, people we had known for no more than a year, who rallied to my wife's side and gave her the encouragement that she so needed.

When she was discharged from the hospital, my wife reminded me of my own time in the hospital about a decade ago. Even while we were LCG members in good standing, nobody from LCG had bothered to visit me in the hospital. At the time I didn't think anything of it, as I just assumed everyone was busy with their work and with their many church activities. But seeing how non-LCG-members rallied for my wife, the contrast was too great to ignore.

If you are still in LCG, do not fear. Life is much better on the outside. You will have friends. Real friends. Better friends than you ever had in LCG.

Where In The World Is My True Church?