Why Psychopaths in the Church of God Can't Love their Children

There have been many great discussions on various COG Facebook pages from people where were abused by parents and ministers as they grew up.  With so many narcissists and psychopaths in leadership positions of various COG's it has lead to some horrendous stories being revealed, particularly by children of psychopath parents in the church, whether members or ministers.

Here's Why Psychopaths Are Unable to Love Their Own Children

The effects are devastating.
by Lindsay Dodgson

 

"Narcissists, psychopaths, and sociopaths do not have a sense of empathy, they do not and will not develop a sense of empathy, so they can never really love anyone," she told Business Insider.

This doesn't change when they have children. There's no primal instinct to protect and encourage their offspring, because they are not seen as a separate entity. They are merely a tool which is at their disposal.

"DTPs tend to see children as an extension of themselves and a possession," Neo said.

"So rather than saying, 'I'm going to nurture you so you can grow up to be the amazing person you're meant to be,' [they say] 'you're supposed to grow up and do this so that you're my trophy.'"

This is very different from the environment a child in a healthy family would grow up in. Instead of being nurtured and taught the ways of the world, a child of a DTP parent grows up not knowing their own sense of self.

"'I can check your phone, I can do anything I want to do, I can just barge into your room, basically not respecting your sense of property,'" is what Neo said DTP personalities believe.

"There are no emotional boundaries, either. So the children grow up not really sure about what boundaries are."

The child is expected to fill all kinds of functions they shouldn't have to. For example, narcissists tend to be very unhappy people, with low self esteem, so they unload a lot of unnecessary emotional baggage onto their children.

They are used as a listening ear for the parent's problems, and a source of emotional comfort.

This continues over the years, and Neo says some of her clients have said their parents told them: "The only reason I had you was so you could take care of me for the rest of your life."

"You're not allowed to have children, and you're not allowed to get married," she added. "The parent would be meddling in all these different relationships, left right and centre, creating all sorts of drama, so the child stays single."

'The child is expected to be a punching bag'

Throughout their life, the child is also expected to be a punching bag, either physically or emotionally. This becomes harder as the child grows older, because they become stronger and more aware, so the DTP parent will counteract this by hacking away at their self esteem.

"As the parents grows older, and their health starts to decline, their sense of self esteem becomes really shaky," Neo said.

"Then the child grows up, becomes strong, becomes powerful, has more of a sense of self, and it's very difficult for the parent to watch. So there becomes this unhealthy competition, putting the child down, telling the child they're fat, they're useless, they're ugly."

At the same time, whenever the child accomplishes something, the parent has to take credit for it.

For example, they would mention the fact the child is a very good trumpet player, and the only reason is because they scrimped and saved for lessons for years, even if this may not be true.

"Every single thing is always brought back to them," Neo said. "So the child is brought up thinking, 'I have no sense of self, I have no say, and I do not matter.'"

The 'golden child' vs. the scapegoat

The dynamics shift depending on how many children the DTP has.

Sometimes, DTPs will have more than one child, and Neo says it is remarkable how often the same power dynamics play out in these families. In most cases, one child becomes the golden child, who can do no wrong.

"The child can live in fear, because all they want to do is please mummy or daddy so there's no trouble - so they will be loved," Neo said. "So they get this reward and it's almost transactional."

Then the second child is used as a scapegoat, and is blamed for everything. So much so, that the DTP parent will enjoy playing the children off against each other, and create unnecessary competition.

If there is a third child, Neo says they become the "lost boy" or the "lost girl", who is neglected and more or less completely ignored.

"If you watch the families and see the traits of narcissistic parents, this is often what plays out," Neo said.

"Essentially, it's designed to keep the self esteem of the child low, so the child will always stay small and as a possession, and there's a lot of dictatorship over what a child can or cannot do because it's all about the parents' sense of self."

Read the entire article here: Here's Why Psychopaths Are Unable to Love Their Own Children

LCG: Do the Homeless and Hopeless Find Comfort In "Concern and Compassion?"

Living Church of God wants you to know that it is doing all it can to assist the homeless and those who have no hope.  Just exactly what is it doing?  Are members volunteering in local homeless shelters?  Are they making hot meals for the homeless?  Does LCG open its doors to its meeting halls in the winter to shelter the homeless and feed them? What about those without hope in their own town of Charlotte?  Is the church contributing to international organizations that assist war refugees?

What do you think they are doing?

Here is what they are doing. As they are ensconced in their warm homes after a hearty meal, they are to think about those who are homeless, displaced and without hope.  That apparently is a great comfort to those in need and alleviates LCG members from actually having to associate with a dirty urine-stained homeless person or to really provide comfort to a person who no longer has any hope in life.

When has Rod McNair ever washed a homeless person's feet or fed one of them a hot meal?  When has Gerald Weston stooped down to care for a homeless veteran laying on the sidewalk?  When have the students at the most incredible "university" in the world volunteered at a homeless shelter or worked a suicide prevention hot line?  When has the elite ministry of the church ever gotten their hands dirty or their suits soiled?

Wiping away a tear as you watch some tragedy on the news as you "feel" concern is nothing like putting your feet to the pavement and doing beneficial deeds.

Oh wait, I forgot!  God's going to fix it all in the end, so why waste resources on the homeless when it can be better used to publish the Tomorrow's World magazine.  Most LCG ministers will totally miss the irony in that.  God forbid if they might actually have to get off their pampered butts to bring a foretaste of that Kingdom to the world today.

Homeless and Hopeless: How many people long for a place to call home? How many people globally do have a place they call home? According to a new United Nations study, “One person [is] forced to flee their home every three seconds by war and violence” (The Guardian, June 19, 2017). This translates into over 65 million displaced persons in 2016! The study notes that the majority of these displaced people are refugees and half of them are children! If you have a peaceful place to call home, do you realize how blessed you are?  Are you able to feel concern and compassion for the tens of millions who are on the move, living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions? Stable homes and families are two criteria that are used to identify the ever-elusive human state of peace. Peace is something that everyone seeks and few are able to truly attain. Government agencies and politicians strive for peace, but often little is achieved. The prophet Jeremiah warned that the time would come when the leaders of the world would claim “‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11, 15). However, Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth and usher in a true time of peace in the Kingdom of God (Isaiah 9:6-7). The God of the Bible states about this exciting future, “My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings [homes], and in quiet resting places” (Isaiah 32:18). 

The Great Joy When Leaving The Church

From Exit and Support.

A person describes the joy they have when leaving the abusive Philadelphia Church of God.   This is the same joy that thousands have shared on different FB pages as they talk how their lives have been since leaving the church.

June 29, 2017
I don't even know where to begin. It's so difficult to summarize my experience and sort out how I'm feeling about everything that this so called "church" has put me, my family, and countless others through. The abuses that we undergo are covered up kept hush-hush and resolved through gossip started by who knows. I started becoming very skeptical when my own family began to be ripped apart by the ministry, who were not to be questioned ever! Every problem was pushed back on us not having it all together, or not praying and studying. No biblical proof was offered, just the opinion of a man who thought he spoke with God's authority--although certainly not with God's LOVE. It's so clear to me now why no one was ever allowed to compare stories or talk about counseling sessions. They did not want us comparing notes on our interactions with the ministry.  

But my last service was when our local minister aired all my family's dirty laundry in front of the congregation, blaming everything on my father's inability to lead. Taking no responsibility for his own interference and meddling. FURIOUS. I left knowing I'd never be back. I told no one and refused to talk to anyone after. A clean cut was the best resolve for me. I was so sick of being dragged into everyone's drama when I had no part in it. And I was certainly tired of feeling beaten down--not good enough and chastised every week at services. Also, if I missed a week, I felt like a child being scolded. I wish I'd left sooner. No, I wish I never would have attended at all.  

Since I've been out, I've been happier than I thought possible. I'm happy to let God judge me. At least it will be true justice. If anyone is considering leaving, do it now. I waited years and regret it deeply. I will mourn family left in and pray they leave. --Raised in WCG; joined PCG as adult

I Know More Than The Apostles And The Prophets Of Old! I Am Super Dave!

Super Dave

Dave's own words:

I want to hold up a tool here and explain something that is coming, and you can maybe appreciate from afar little more than the fact that it is a long list, two pages. A list of the sequence of events from now till we’re inside the final phase of the Kingdom of God. Absolutely everything that is going to happen, I have put into a list that I’m told everybody will be thrilled to see. I actually got the idea before I heard from Mr. Kaidannek and some others how much you brethren here and around the world would love such a list. Well, it now exists. It’s currently got 83 separate points on it, and I’ll selectively read a few just so you can kind of appreciate… 

Point number 12: The first two shepherds are cut off inside a month from Christ’s Coming. 

Point 43: The famine of the Word occurs in Judea only, with the Gospel continuing worldwide and also in nations of Israel. 

Point 67: The whole house of Israel, billions, is resurrected. 

And there are many, many other details in here…I would say down to almost exquisite detail…that form a single list, in order of everything that is going to happen from the very book of Daniel being unsealed, which is the first thing on the list, all the way to the Kingdom of God has come in its full and final form, and what that means. 

So, before I give it to the Church, I would like all of you to know that, because of what’s at stake—and, I’m going to release it. There’s never been a document like it. Nobody has ever put all these things together. The list is still growing, and therefore, I want it to be…number one, thorough. I want it to be crystal clear and easy to read, and I want it to be right. And so, before we give it to you, I want to be sure that I have achieved those three goals. 

Probably, there will be a few verses included here and there in various places on the list, and in most cases though, there will not be, because every teaching aid cannot contain everything or it would be just massive. But when you put them all together, then all these aids that we’re producing provide all the answers that people want. If they want detail, they can…they can, of course, read the transcripts. 

There is a point up to which this project would be too thin, not any meat on the bones, and therefore, not as useful as it could be. There is a point past which, maybe it’s sort of a range in there, a place past which it’s too much, too long and too detailed. So I want to strike that balance as well and leave you with something that is enormously helpful. It will cause a firestorm in the splinters, I promise you. Tens of thousands, scores of thousands of people will see it. It will be eventually, I’m sure, shared far and wide in places we can’t imagine. Hence, again, the need for it to be thorough, clear and right. 

Nothing, again, like it obviously could have ever been produced before because first, the prophets, who were prophets, did not understand even what the apostles were taught by Christ personally. The apostles did not understand what John was taught, in the book of Revelation, after they’d all died. John didn’t understand what Mr. Armstrong came to know 2,000 years later, essentially—19 centuries later—because he saw various heads of the beasts in Daniel line up with Revelation, and he saw the Church eras play out, and he could speak with a greater authority. But let’s face it, Mr. Armstrong did not understand anything that’s been in the last 64…Now here is Part 65…sermons in the newness of those parts. He understood much of it, of course, where we’ve referenced things. So there never has been or ever will be a tool like this again, and I’ll just say one last time, hence the need that it is thorough, clear and right.

Dave Pack: When it is time to flee do NOT go back home and get your expendable wife

Super Dave has a warning for those men who are at work or not at home when he issues his Clarion Call.  They are not under any circumstances to go home and get their wives.  Apparently, their wives are expendable.  I think in this case though if should be the wives not going home to get their husbands since so many COG men are so emasculated.

“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married…they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all…[So that’s likened to Christ’s Return, we’ll see that in a moment.]…Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat…drank…bought…sold…planted…built; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:26-30). So it’s talking about Christ’s Return.

Now here’s an interesting statement…“In that day…[I want you…I want to read this and see if you can figure out what in the world Christ is saying.]…In that day, he which shall be [on] the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back” (vs. 31). Stop. Now, how in the world could people be thinking about that in the face of salvation?…What?! Want to go back to the house and get mom’s picture and a favorite sweater?

It’s interesting, “stuff in the house”…“stuff” is quite a word…It means “a vessel, implement, equipment or apparatus, specifically, a wife as contributing to the usefulness of the husband…” You wives never thought of yourselves as “stuff,” but now you know…and, presumably, if your husband was on the housetop and he was coming back for a vessel, implement, equipment or apparatus, he’d better be looking for you, too, right?

So…a little humor, there, but that’s what it means. The Greek is skeuos, and there’s a spiritual point. It might literally mean: No, this is you. Don’t go get your wife, and certainly don’t get your favorite chainsaw or hammer or, you know, the expensive vase you bought, this expensive vessel. Don’t go back there!” And if you’re in the field, don’t go back. Now, who would be thinking of that in the face of an angel taking you to the reckoning and the joy of the Lord and salvation! Who would be thinking that?! Let’s keep reading…

“Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it…[What?! How could you be thinking “save your life” when you just made eternal life, if you will? You won’t have a spirit body yet. This is the Return of Christ.]…and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it” (vs. 32-33). Who would be wanting to hold on to this life, on the very day they’re offered the next life?! See the problem?

“I tell you in that night [verse 34] there shall be two in one [couch]”…We know this now…One taken; one left. Two grinding, one taken; one left. Two in the field, one taken; one left (vs. 35-36). Now…whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…taken, just gone. An angel arrives and says, “You ready to take a ride?” Boom—there’s no decision. So which is it? Are you taken or is there a decision point? See the problem? Make yourself come to grips with this. Are you just simply swooped up, the way rapturists think, off to heaven…Only we understand the truth of it…or are you a person who has a decision to make? You’re on a housetop, you’re in the field; there’s things you want, or you want to look back. Remember Lot’s wife turned to salt.

COG Members All Over The World Will Work For Dave Pack For 45 Days As He Vexes The Man Of Sin

He is sorely vexed!

Did you know that you will eventually be working with Dave Pack's cult, regardless of where you live in the world?  When the Man of Sin gets really pissed off because Dave is vexing him, all COG members will lose their jobs.  They will quickly join together in their local church areas to spend 45 days doing a work never before seen in history.

So these are just some things you need to understand about what it means to escape. It isn’t to escape and we go hide in a warehouse for 45 days, or we escape and just relax here at Headquarters. We’re given assignments. Joshua was given assignments to walk; but the men right with him are, too. So, we’ll learn more about that as time goes on.

So we have, maybe you could say, five assignments that I can think of. Number one: We probably confront three men…Maybe six assignments…and we warn the splinters that they’re next. We deal with the rich men and maybe other leaders in Jerusalem, number three. We work with the world, and no doubt, focus on Israelite nations, because Christ starts everything by beginning to restore the Kingdom to Israel. And if you want to put a sixth one in there, at a point, we start to bite and vex the Man of Sin.

Pretty easy to see he’s going to call us the only thing he can, and one of the telltale signs of who’s the antichrist, who’s the fraud, is that he won’t be able to dispatch us. At some point, his narrative collapses. If he’s “God,” how come you can’t deal with this person or this group of people and followers, or however we’re described…Assuming that I have that right. If there’s some other candidate to be the antichrist, you tell me who it is. Unless he just comes and says, “There never was going to be any antichrist.” Now, that’s a little hard to understand.

Dave Pack: I Will Soon Be The Man All 400 COG's Look To To Unite Them

Superfantabulous Dave, God's mightiest man ever in human history will soon be looked upon as the man to unite all 400 splinter Churches of God.  When the Man of Sin arises (Thiel or Lil'Stevie  Flurry as some are speculating) Super Dave will be there to unite the Churches of God into one massive work that will do a mighty work for 45 days.

There may be certain warnings to the ministers in the splinters. You know, where you start dealing…you start calling certain people out—“that man is not of God”—or certain other men may have to be ready to lose their lives. It’s going to be a busy 45 days. The Man of Sin does not personally enter the splinters, probably then unified…Now, let me just explain something. If I judge the house, I’ll just tell you what I would decide. I’m going to tell them immediately, “Guess what, you’re now one church, because God has one church. You’re not 400 churches anymore.”

If I’m given the authority to rule them…Think of Matthew 24 and we are, we’re not going to work with them in 400 hundred groups…I’m going to tell them, “Guess what, today you’re in one organization” and they will be looking for help. They’ll…Absolutely, they all want to be together. Not the ones who aren’t converted, who are going to follow what I call the “spiritual sleeper cells.” They were appointed to this ungodliness when they crept in unawares long ago and then they rise up to do their evil according to Acts 20, verse 30, when Christ says, “some will rise among you” and so forth. Those people are not going to agree and the people who follow them aren’t going to agree, but thousands of brethren are going to be looking for direction. Maybe with or without their own ministers, so, you know, we will be in a position to say a lot of…a lot of things that I hope will be very, very helpful.

Dave Pack: I Will Be Like A Mongoose Challenging A Cobra

Dave Pack Attacks the Man of Sin

Superfantaublous Dave will be able to show the world that he has God on his side when he stands up to the Man of Sin (Bob Thiel?) that's arisen out of the church.  As the Man of Sin attacks the church, all of the splinters will be sooooooooo impressed that Dave holds him at bay that they will flock to his side in admiration in order to finish the greatest work ever imagined.

Now, we read and heard last week and the time before, there’s a period of 45 days from 1,335 until the 1,290 when the Man of Sin sends his system and his representatives directly into the Church, and the fire explodes in intensity on the Church, because after 45 days, there’s a group of people that didn’t buy in and there’s another group working with them. Now God allows some of them to die. We understand that some get slain. Some get killed, James said…They’re called the flock of slaughter; we know all those verses…but most, I would hope, do not.

So, we’re looking at what does that first 45 days look like? Because, here again, in Zechariah, Joshua’s given “places to walk.” Now that doesn’t mean places to stroll around town or the campus. It’s places that you’re going to go. “I’m going to give you ‘access,’” the Hebrew means, and this is important.

Now the entire world descends into chaos. Somewhere on Earth there has to be an authority that says what’s going on. So, number one—during that 45 days, the Work of God will continue, and probably mushroom. Because they’ll realize…And many, many, many, many millions know there’s already…there’s a place that speaks with authority, not exousia. In a certain way, I guess, it’s like exousia. The apostles were given some exousia. So I guess, in a certain way, we have authority in that regard…as though you were casting out a demon, that kind of authority.

But, it is critical to understand that the world is going to wonder, who’s got the answers? Is this right? They’re going to see things that do not add up! That’s why, in Habakkuk, it says some people know this is just a thief, or he’s an adulterer, or he’s raping the world! And there will be somebody saying, “You’re right”—biting and vexing him, I’m sure, because he can’t get the Press to agree with him, at least a little part of it that may have a big authority, if you will. So there will be many in the…

So let’s break this 45 days down. “Places to walk”…I wonder…It’s hard for me to believe, really. Is it…Is it possible…I suppose it is…but is it possible that there’s never any direct confrontation with this man and the two with him? Well, I have my doubts about that. I just have my doubts. I cannot imagine there isn’t a kind of a cobra-mongoose moment, if you will. Where, you know…Moses in front of Pharaoh…Elijah and the Prophets of Baal…or John the Baptist and Elijah confronting the Sadducees and the Pharisees and calling them serpents. I just would be surprised if that’s not one of the “places to walk,” if you will. I can’t turn to a verse; but conversely, I cannot imagine that it doesn’t happen.

Obviously, we’ll have 45 days to tell the splinters, “If you think it’s bad now, wait a month and a half,” and to get them ready so they have a maximum chance when tremendous pressure comes on them—tremendous miracles and power and fear—and maybe even, they see some people they know and love die—that they not collapse. Because remember, God’s overall purpose is that they pass—that they make it.

I can’t imagine going into Jerusalem and not saying things to the leaders there…“This is the wrong guy. The right one will be along shortly.” But there’ll even be another one that’s wrong called the prince of Tyre and the king of the North, and we’ll get into get into that more I hope next week. I can’t imagine not going to certain Israelite nations during this period, before Christ comes to sit on David’s throne, and telling the leaders of Israelite nations…I mean, I just can’t imagine. I had a long time to think about this…and certain things are not said to the leaders of those particular nations that things are about to change. There’s a new ruler coming…

Dave Pack: RCG HQ Will Be Protected During Tribulation

World Headquarters Campus

One of the myths that the Worldwide Church of God promulgated was that their Pasadena Campus was somehow sacred.  It was so beautiful that when the German Armies invaded the United States they would arrive In Pasadena and stand in awe of what they saw.  They would be so impressed by it that they would make it their war HQ and thus preserve the entire campus.  This idiotic lie was one of many that Gerald Waterhouse belched out and field ministers latched on to.

Gerald Flurry feels the same about his campus in the middle of the Oklahoma plains.  It too will be preserved because of its beauty and its sacred auditorium.  However, Flurry will have already abandoned his Edmond cult compound by that time and will be in England with Herb's prayer rock getting ready to dig up the Ark of the Covenant so they can haul ass to Jerusalem and let Jesus sit on Herb's rock and be crowned King of Kings.

Dave Pack, is late to the game.  His compound is stuck in Ohio next to a pollution belching freeway and a big lot store across the street.  Due to his inability to impress tens of thousands of COG members to join him in his superfantaulous work, he has had no money to build his holy auditorium or even his student center.  Since Jesus is returning to Wadsworth before heading over to Jerusalem, he is going to be mighty upset to arrive and find no auditorium in existence.  However, Dave's cult compound is so significant that a wall of protection will be around it in order to keep the man of sin out and anyone wanting to persecute the church.

But just not everybody is going to agree with us, and they can’t just come strolling onto God’s World Headquarters, into this time of enormous difficulty, as though God says, “Well, they can destroy the campus, but they can’t touch you.” You see? So the Work of God will be enormous during that period. Now let’s leave that for a moment. The devil will be blocked from stopping us and there’ll be angelic protection, but walls and super power will be necessary, because not everybody is going to adhere to what the devil is rebuked to understand, so to speak, if you can…if you can understand the obvious there.

Dave Pack: Jews Will Be Rooting For The Man of Sin To Loot The World So They Can Build Temple

Dave Pack's mind continues to spin more tall tales as the days roll by.  He has been discussing the Man of Sin arising out of the COG who will be possessed by Satan and will the pretend to be Jesus.  He will start looting nations around the world in order to send it all to Jerusalem so that the Jews can rebuild the Temple.  Workers will stream in from around the world to build the finest building ever built. Jesus apparently does not want to return to Ambassador Auditorium, Armstrong Auditorium or Dave Pack's unbuilt auditorium.

One additional point from last week, however, before we get back into more regarding exousiacomes. If we go back to Ezra, chapter 3, it’ll give you an interesting insight into how the Jews and the Man of Sin will think once the sacrifices begin, and it probably would have been a good thing to mention last week, but…I, I had it in my notes and then just skipped over it…but in Ezra 3, you’ll recall that as soon as the Jews came back from Babylon and they were prepared to build Zerubbabel’s Temple in the wake of Solomon’s being destroyed, the first thing they did, in the fall of the year, right around Trumpets, was start the daily sacrifices. Verse 4, we can pick up…

“They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required” (Ezra 3:4). The first thing you do, though…you start the sacrifices, and then you build the temple. But actually, there’s something you do between the sacrifices and building the temple, and I wish I would have included it last week, but here we go…

“And afterward [verse 5; they] offered the continual burnt offering, both…the new moons…all the set feasts of the LORD that were consecrated…of the LORD that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the LORD. From the first day of the seventh month [That’s Trumpets] began they to offer burnt offerings unto…[the foundation]…But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid” (vs. 5-6). So they started the sacrifices, and immediately, they began pouring in tremendous amounts of money and funding to build the temple.

Well, that’s what is going to drive the Man of Sin, with the Jews rooting for him, to loot the world. One of the reasons he does that, of course, is to have the funds and the materials and probably even the skilled labor to build the temple of the Lord. So it’s interesting, the Jews’ next problem was money after the sacrifices began; the first problem when the Man of Sin, the antichrist, comes, after the sacrifices begin, will be money, and he’s “God,” so he’ll go obtain it. And so I thought you’d find that interesting.

Obeying the Voices in Their Heads: Was Ezekiel Mentally Ill?

How would one ever know who was influencing who?

Was it the voice of God?

The Voice of Satan?

or

Mental Illness?

"Encouraging people to embrace those voices and then trying to normalize that behavior, is the most dangerous approach yet. Doctors will try anything. Well, almost anything. If you tell them this is a spiritual problem, you’ll be shot down. Voices, they reason, are just a product of physical abnormalities and we have to learn to live with them. There couldn’t possibly be any other explanation.

The answer is clear and simple, however, if you believe in God, read the Bible, and understand that there is a spirit world. 

Revelation 12 explains that Satan the devil “deceives the whole world.” The Bible says he was cast down to Earth along with the demons! This may sound strange or old-fashioned to the intellectuals of this world, but if they would work from this foundation, understanding that this world is held captive by the devil, they would be able to understand why so many people are hearing voices and why those numbers have increased since the mid-1980s. They would understand that encouraging people to entertain those voices is the most dangerous prescription they can give! It is incredibly dangerous for society to try to normalize this sort of behavior!"

Sam Livingston

"Is It Normal to Hear Voices in Your Head"

The Trumpet

July 3, 2017  

The Major Prophet Ezekiel listened to the voices in his head and obeyed them to the letter. His behaviors were bizarre. Was the stress of the times driving his psychosis?  How could we ever know any prophet or OT Patriarch such a Moses or Abraham wasn't simply mentally ill in a day and age when such behaviors were not understood but held to be a spiritual manifestation from God?  Why is Ezekiel considered a True Prophet while anyone else with the identical behaviors would be considered hearing the voice of Satan by religious zealots or mentally ill in the medical world?

Even Mary  and Jesus's brothers were troubled with Jesus behaviors and...

"When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."
Mark 3:21 
(This Mary had never heard of the miraculous visitations by Angels and  Virgin Birth of Jesus obviously or she had a very short memory )

Back to the Major Prophet Ezekiel...

Ezekiel 4New International Version (NIV)

Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

4 “Now, son of man, take a block of clay, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. 3 Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the people of Israel.

4 “Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon yourself.[a] You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. 5 I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel.

6 “After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. 7 Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.

9 “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. 10 Weigh out twenty shekels[b]of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. 11 Also measure out a sixth of a hin[c] of water and drink it at set times. 12 Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” 13 The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”

14 Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign Lord! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No impure meat has ever entered my mouth.”

15 “Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.”  (The voice changes its mind)

Modern Psychiatry comments about Ezekiel's behaviors and symptoms...

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/196/2/101

"Like any prophet, Ezekiel hears the voice of God and it is his prophetic task to relay God’s message onto the people. He hears the voice of God more often (93 times) than any other prophet, and the way God addresses him as ‘ son of man’ or ‘mortal’ is also unique. Ezekiel experiences a variety of other auditory phenomena, including command hallucinations which are not described in any other prophet, 3:3 ‘He said to me; mortal eat this scroll that I give to you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.’

Even the rabbis thought it was strange that Ezekiel actually ate the scroll and they explained it by saying he was ingesting the wisdom of the Torah (law). Other examples of command hallucinations which are carried out are the shaving of Ezekiel’s head (5:1) which would have gone against priestly prohibitions to shave. He is also commanded to dig a hole in a wall in his escape from the city of Jerusalem during the siege, 12:1 ‘ The word of the Lord came to me... 12:5 Dig a hole through the wall in their sight and carry the baggage through it... 12:7 I did just as I was commanded brought out my baggage by day as baggage for exile and in the evening I dug through the hole with my own hands.’ Note that the phrase ‘ in my sight’ denotes that others must have observed this. Ezekiel also hears people gossiping about him by the walls, 33:30 ‘As for you mortal your people who talk about you by the walls and at the doors of the house say to one another each to a neighbour “Come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord”.’ Ezekiel hears the conversations God was having with others, 9:5’To others he said within my hearing “pass through the city and kill, your eyes shall not spare”.’ Sometimes this voice can be loud, 9:1 ‘Then he cried within my hearing with a loud voice saying “draw near your executioners of the city”.’ Like many individuals with schizophrenia, Ezekiel does his best not to listen to these malign voices, 8:18 ‘and though they cry within my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them.’ In his visions he also sometimes hears voices, as for example in the ‘Chariot Vision’, 12:5 ‘And there came a voice from above the dome of their heads’. Also in these visions, as well as voices Ezekiel hears non-verbal auditory phenomena, 1:33 ‘each of the creatures had two wings covering its body. When I heard the sound of the wings like the sound of mighty waters like the thunder of the almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army’. No other prophet hears command hallucinations, conversations with third parties about himself, hears voices in their visions, or has non-verbal auditory experiences. All these auditory phenomena are said to be characteristic of schizophrenia.

• © 2010 Royal College of Psychiatrists

What if?????

PCG Asks: Is It Normal to Hear Voices in Your Head?

Of all of the Churches of God out there, one would never expect Gerald Flurry's group to be asking this question:  "Is It Normal to Hear Voices in Your Head?"  

PCG'S Sam Livingston writes about this very important topic.

People who hear voices in their head are more common than you’d think. The largest survey ever conducted on the subject found that between 10 to 15 percent of Americans have had some sort of audible or visual hallucination. That’s according to a 1991 survey aimed at discovering how widespread these sorts of experiences are outside the mental health clinics. Over 25 years later, this subject is grabbing a lot of attention. And the big question isn’t how to stop the voices, but how to manage them. 

Is there a Church of God splinter group leader out there that do not hear voices in their heads?  That is how every single one of them got started!  They heard a voice in the heads that told them to set out and start a new group.  They heard a voice that told them they had insider knowledge about how God was going to finish the work.  They heard a voice that gave them new revelations.  The problem with COG leaders and false prophets is that not a single one of them ever asked how to stop those voices, instead, they let their minds rampage unhindered.

Livingston proceeds on with this:

The Hearing Voices Movement is a growing network of support groups designed to help people who hear voices. “The groups encourage an approach in which, with the help of a facilitator or counselor, hearers listen to, speak back to, and negotiate with the message they hear in hopes of learning to cope,” Frankel wrote. The New York Times reported that these types of groups “have tripled in numbers over the past several years, to more than 80 groups in 21 states.”

It was around the mid-to-late-1980s that the Hearing Voices Movement began to gain momentum. In the Netherlands, a woman named Patsy Hage began hearing voices. She sought the help of a psychiatrist named Marius Romme. The two of them are credited for revolutionizing the way society handles “hearers.” They stopped diagnosing people who admitted to hearing voices and started a global network that encouraged people to talk to and entertain those voices. 

Isn't that what Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, and Bob Thiel currently do?  They all talk to and entertain the voices in their heads.  How else could these three guys come up with the absolute crazy stuff that they do?  It certainly is NOT from God! 

Livingston continues on asking "who is controlling who?"  Is Bob Thiel controlling the voices in his head, or are the voices controlling him?  What about Dave Pack?  Are his voices controlling him?

Psychiatrists will admit they don’t know much about the science behind voices. For the intellectual community, it’s hard to decipher the physical cause of what appears to be a spiritual problem. Some think it has to do with the way the brain interprets its own thoughts. The list of theories could go on, but frankly, no one in the scientific community has an idea that can be backed by evidence; they’re wandering through this trying anything they think will work.

Encouraging people to embrace the voices in their heads is a new approach and it is quickly becoming the accepted course of action for “hearers.” Corlett and Powers want to help people control the voices in their heads, but what they’re really doing is telling people to submit to those voices—this is incredibly dangerous.

You will have guessed by now who Livingston claims the voices are from:

Encouraging people to embrace those voices and then trying to normalize that behavior, is the most dangerous approach yet. Doctors will try anything. Well, almost anything. If you tell them this is a spiritual problem, you’ll be shot down. Voices, they reason, are just a product of physical abnormalities and we have to learn to live with them. There couldn’t possibly be any other explanation.

The answer is clear and simple, however, if you believe in God, read the Bible, and understand that there is a spirit world. 

Revelation 12 explains that Satan the devil “deceives the whole world.” The Bible says he was cast down to Earth along with the demons! This may sound strange or old-fashioned to the intellectuals of this world, but if they would work from this foundation, understanding that this world is held captive by the devil, they would be able to understand why so many people are hearing voices and why those numbers have increased since the mid-1980s. They would understand that encouraging people to entertain those voices is the most dangerous prescription they can give! It is incredibly dangerous for society to try to normalize this sort of behavior! 

So there you have it!  Demons are controlling Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, and Gerald Flurry!  Livingston says so! We all knew that was coming, though all three of these guys claim their god is telling them what to do and say.  It never could be that their minds have short-circuited and need some serious medication.

Livingston then goes on to tell us what we should be doing when we see these guys and hear them.  

Livingston uses Paul's words:

The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:11, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” In the Revised Standard Version it says, “but instead expose them.” This is exactly the opposite of what doctors are advising people to do.

Anyone with half a mind can see the fruits of darkness in the improperly named "continuing" Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God and the Restored Church of God.  Things just are not right in these groups. 

According to Livingston, as these end times rapidly wind down, Satan and his crew are normalizing the voices in people's heads.  Apparently, this is now various COG leaders justify their irrational behavior.  Of course, there is a remedy for this.  Read The Mystery of the Ages and you will never hear voices again!  Oh, and Gerald Flurry can help you stop those voices too!

Society, under the sway of Satan the devil, wants to normalize behavior that directly contradicts what God teaches in the Holy Bible. Undoubtedly, the media and the so-called educated of this world will label this as a progressive stance—but just keep watching, because the more people embrace this sort of behavior the crazier this world is going to get. The academics of the world are just as confused about how to solve the problem as the people going to them looking for answers. But it doesn’t have to be a mystery. You can understand why this is happening. You can understand who is involved and how they’re involved. And you can even know when these problems began to intensify. Chapter 2 of Mr. Armstrong’s book Mystery of the Ages and Trumpet editor-in-chief Gerald Flurry’s booklet America Under Attack will help you straighten out the confusing mess you see in the world today.

If the psychiatrists of the world set about examining all of the present day COG leaders they could publish hundreds of volumes on the craziness that fills the minds of these deluded guys.  While our craziest leaders today might be Thiel, Weinland, Pack, and Flurry, this does not let off the leaders of other COG groups.  While they are a little more benign, they are just as deadly in the end.

Why Do They Still Join?

The Tribulation CANNOT and WILL NOT Happen Before 2022, so says Bitter Deluded COG Wanna-Be Prophet

It has now been guaranteed to the entire world that the tribulation will not and cannot be happening before 2022.  Everyone now has a few more years left to go to school, get a new job, buy a new car, get married or just party down for the next five years.  If a COG prophet says this will happen this way it HAS TO BE TRUE!  Would a COG leader or minister ever LIE  like this to members?  COG leaders are the most truthful men who have ever walked this earth!  God speaks directly to them in dreams and revelations.  You MUST believe this...and them!

Is the end of the world near? 

When is the earliest year that the Great Tribulation can begin? 

Various ones seem to feel that it can begin in 2017 or 2018 or that it already started some time ago. 

Those who believe and understand what the Bible actually teaches realize that the Great Tribulation cannot begin before 2021. 

While I wrote that I did not feel that the Great Tribulation could start during Donald Trump’s first term (which ends in January of 2021), it should now be more certain for others to realize that this is so. 

Jesus gave a variety of signs/events that had to happen prior to the start of the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24. Not only have many not happened, a preceding event in Daniel 9:27 involving the confirmation of a seven-year deal still has not happened. Since it did not happen as of July 3, 2017, this means that it is not possible for the Great Tribulation to begin for at least 3 1/2 years (half of a biblically-prophetic week). 

At this instant, unless we see more major conflict in the Middle East between now and the end of the Summer, it is unlikely that the Great Tribulation can begin prior to 2022.

So there you have it!  God's most important man in this end times has assured you that the Great Trib will not be happening till 2022! 

This great man then goes on to mock James Malm and Ron Weinland for their equally deluded end time malarkey:

People who claim to be COG, like James Malm and Ronald Weinland, are in error as to timing as they have looked to their own understanding instead of what the Bible teaches. 

The Great Tribulation is coming, but it will not begin in 2017.

While these two men are admittedly crazier than hell, God's only end time man through whom he is working in this present age is apparently incapable of making a false prophecy too.  So what will this equally deluded man say in 2021 and 2022 when not one single thing will happen according to his revelation?  Oh wait, I know...

Jesus delays his coming because the church members are not ready. Besides, it is not up to us to know the day or time of his coming.

We have heard this bullshit excuse for 60 some years now. 

In 2022 when Delicate almost-arrested, Elisha, Amos, Elijah, Joshua, Habakkuk, doubly cursed, bitter "son" of Rod Meredith and world renown authority on Fatima visions Bob Thiel starts making his usual excuses, we can always remind him of his own idiotic false prophecies.  The great smug one in Arroyo Grande is sitting there right now snickering to himself as he reads this that he will be proven right and is incapable of being wrong. 

And, we will be watching the Beijing Winter Olympics.