"Her Majesty reacts to LCG 's continual whining about being persecuted..."
Poor Gerald Weston. He believes that the Living Church of God has been suffering much persecution after he gained power. Stations are not letting some of LCG's programs to be aired. But never fear! Weston says they will continue to be a forceful witness to the world. If he is referring to his witnessing here in Los Angeles, you would be hard-pressed to find anything from LCG available.
June 20, 2018
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers,
The assault against religious freedom is massive throughout the so-called Western world, and too many professing Christians fail to see what is at stake. Censorship of religion is real. We at Tomorrow’s World experience this first-hand. We see our world transforming on a daily basis.
I received a letter recently from someone complaining that our message is not strong enough. Little does he understand how many Tomorrow’s World telecasts are turned down in his country for reasons that would be laughable five years ago. For example, our program mentioning the miraculous weather at Dunkirk was banned because we did not mention global warming. What global warming had to do with events in 1940 is anyone’s guess.
Another program was turned down for saying that abortion and pornography are sins. Programs on family are censored for not promoting “non-traditional” families. Apparently, upholding the traditional family and not recognizing same-sex “marriages” is no longer permissible. The list could go on.Weston clams they have to warn the unrighteous in the world, yet his HQ is a hotbed of unrighteousness.
Please do not misunderstand. Tomorrow’s World will continue to preach the truth and will not back down from doing so, but sometimes one station or another will refuse to air our message due to their own constraints. We are called to courageously tell the truth. We are to preach the good news (gospel) of the Kingdom of God as a witness to the entire world. This requires a call to repentance from sin, which means we must define sin in a world that no longer understands what sin is! “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10). Yet, those behaviors can be changed, as seen in the next verse: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (verse 11).Just like his predecessor Rod Meredith, Weston has a burr up his butt about a certain group of people. One guess as to who they are...the gays!
The behaviors listed in this Bible passage are the very ones promoted today, and anyone who fails to celebrate them will pay the price in this society. It is in this context of political correctness that we see our freedoms of speech, expression, association, and religion eroding away. How long will it be before it is impossible to tell the truth by way of mass media?
One baker in Colorado experienced firsthand the power of the LGBT movement when he refused to bake a cake celebrating a same-sex wedding. He did not discriminate against homosexuals in general, but he refused to use his talents to create a wedding cake for a celebration with which he disagreed as a matter of religious conscience. He also refused to bake Halloween cakes as they too went against his conscience, but no one protested that. Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in his favor, but only after great damage was done to his business and personal finances. Also, the decision was based on narrow factors, and other court victories will be needed before small business owners who hold strong religious convictions can breathe more easily.
What happened north of the U.S. border is not encouraging.
Trinity Western University, a small evangelical university in Langley, British Columbia, found itself on the other end of a Supreme Court of Canada decision. The court decided that they will not be allowed to confer law degrees, because all their students must sign a “community covenant” that prohibits sexual relations outside of a marriage between one man and one woman. The law societies of Ontario and British Columbia decided that no one who signs such an agreement is fit to practice law in Canada. Or, to put it another way, you cannot openly agree with biblical standards and be a good lawyer! Why? It would not be fair to the LGBT community.
Some wonder why we talk so much about the LGBT movement. This is why. It is a defining issue of our day. It is not a matter of private individual behavior, although that is something that must be repented of if one cares to be given eternal life in the Kingdom of God. However, LGBT activists are out to destroy ALL biblical foundations of morality. This is more than a culture war. It is a war against God! These anarchists are not interested in discussion. They are not interested in diversity. They are interested in removing all biblical restraints and silencing all opposition, and this is why the decision on the Trinity Western University case is so chilling. If these radicals can silence individuals who hold strong contrary views, they can control the judiciary—which they already do for the most part. So while they call for “tolerance” and diversity, it is only tolerance and diversity for their views.
My friends, the speed with which our freedoms are collapsing in country after country is shocking, as the noose tightens on anyone holding godly values. How much longer will we be able to openly proclaim the truth? How much longer before a loving God must step in to save mankind from itself?We don't know how much time we have left, but it is getting rough for us now!
People often ask, “How much longer do you think we have?” The simple answer is, we do not know. What we do know is that events in this world are moving rapidly in the direction the Bible indicates (see Matthew 24:32–39). Morality is plummeting. Marriages and families are in shambles. The forces of evil are growing stronger. The Middle East is in perpetual turmoil. The majority of nations are lined up against the Jews in Israel, and Jerusalem is a troublesome stone to all nations (Zechariah 12:3). Europe is coming to a crisis state, where a strong leader will step in and the Beast power will rise up. It is evident from a historical perspective that time is short.
The prophet Daniel speaks of our day. “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. . . . Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:1, 3).
The prophet Malachi also refers to the time leading up to the return of Jesus Christ. “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. ‘They shall be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘on the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’ Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him” (Malachi 3:16–18).then Weston gets to the gist of the matter. He wants money. It has been a task laid upon church members to support the church. If you do not, then Jesus cannot come and you will be left behind to suffer horrible indignities. Give him money and his god will NOT be ashamed of you.
Dear Members and Co-workers, the task laid upon us is great. It is great, both collectively and individually. The time has come when each of us must stand up and be counted, just as the Colorado baker refused to violate his conscience in the face of persecution. As Jesus said, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. . . . For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:34–35, 38).
God has called you to be part of His Work at the end of the age. The challenges ahead will be great, but, for those who fulfill His will, the reward will be far greater. Thank you for your prayers and generous support.
Sincerely, in Christ’s service,
Gerald E. Weston
Does Weston even have an original thought in his head? This is the same crap that Armstrongism has been preaching for decades as a tool to scare people. With all of the beauty in the world and in peoples lives, both in and out of his church, you would think he could write an uplifting article on the goodness of God every once in a while. That might inspire members to give some money. This doom and gloom crap is turning them off.
To their credit, LCG has posted their 2017 audit, and I can understand why they aren't publicizing it:
ReplyDeleteLCG 2017 AUDIT
Highlights include the fact that 2017 donation income was down about 8.5 percent from 2016, and that just 40 percent of expenses now go toward "Preaching the Gospel" while the remaining 60 percent go toward "Feeding the Flock" and covering administrative costs. Assistance to the needy dropped by $162,468.
I'll leave it to other readers to share with us any other interesting details they may find.
This phenomenon has been treated in the mainstream. A controversial book by Dr, Michael Youssef was published in 2011, called "When the Crosses are Gone", about an America without the Christian cultural symbols which have been an integral part of Anericana since the founding of our country. It's also no secret that Christians around the world are being persecuted and even martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ.
ReplyDeleteHowever, he speaketh with forked tongue. LCG did actually attempt to get on one or more of the Christian TV networks several years back, by deliberately (deceptively?) muting or deemphasizing some of its core teachings. When it became known who they really were, and what they really believe and teach, it wasn't simply a matter of the beliefs Weston enumerated that they actually share with a number of mainstream Christian churches that got them kicked off. It was the toxic and cultic beliefs that go beyond and even separate them from the Seventh Day Adventists, or sabbatarians and holy day keepers like Perry Stone who regularly broadcast on TBN.
I'm also womdering how Gerald Weston manages to get the news so late. Accommodations have been made, since Donald Trump took office, for people of faith acting in accordance with their beliefs with regard to birth control, abortion, the morning after pill, and gay marriage. Earlier this week, at a Walgreens in Peoria, AZ, a pharmacist refused on personal moral grounds to fill a prescription for a pregnant woman for medication which induces miscarriage. The pharmacist had not properly understood that the woman badly wanted her baby, but that her doctor had informed her that sadly the baby was stillborn in her womb, and presented her with the options of a medical procedure, or the medication. She opted for the meds. Walgreens has a "step aside" policy which came to light as a result of this breaking news, allowing people of faith to refuse to violate their beliefs, and to refer the customer to other employees for service. The woman in this case went to another Walgreens a few miles away where she was able to get her prescription filled.
Perceived persecution has always been an exploitable unifier for those holding certain ideologies. Obviously, some persecution rises to the level of needing to be taken seriously. Some persecution is even warranted, if it has been caused by bad beliefs which cause harm to participants. In most cases, those in Armstrongism have at best received "diet persecution", or "persecution light". A few eggs thrown at a car, a house toilet papered, a school suspending a student for non-vaccination, or refusal of employment for sabbath-keeping have sometimes greeted ACOg members. These are hardly life threatening when compared to throat slashings in Muslim countries, or long prison terms for possession of a Bible in China. Let's face it. Proscription of personal evangelism has immunized most Armstrongites in the USA from the majority of the persecution experienced by evangelicals. Gerald Weston is attempting to associate LCg with a totally inappropriate bandwagon. For the most part, the ACOg bandwagon has seatbelts, airbags, and bulletproof glass to protect its members. Unless, of course, your name is Scarborough. Then you get thrown under the bandwagon.
BB
Good for Weston. Rod Meredith often said, "We can't speak out as loudly as we'd like on TV about issues like homosexuality and abortion." Weston says, "Baloney. We're going to obey Isaiah 58 and cry aloud and spare not, even if Rod Meredith did ignore God's clear instructions." Meredith's mission was to preach the gospel as a witness, and he couldn't do that if he got banned from some stations, so he disobeyed God's Isaiah 58 instructions, cowered to the leftist bullies, and instead followed his own non-Biblical mission statement. (As I've said before, nowhere does the Bible tell us to preach the gospel as a witness.) But again, good for Weston. He is obeying Isaiah 58 and letting God take are of the results. That's faith that Meredith never showed.
ReplyDeleteIt is my understanding that after Paul urged the church to expel the immoral brother he said in I Cor 5:12 "What business is it of mine to judge those OUTSIDE the church? Are you not to judge those INSIDE?" My understanding is that Paul didn't expect non-Christians to live like Christians. For instance, a Jewish neighbor wouldn't expect me to keep kosher. The church should focus on the church members' behavior, not focus on condemning those outside the church. When Amos condemned the countries surrounding Israel, he didn't condemn them for not observing the Law of Moses.
ReplyDeleteI believe that if I attended a Church of God worship service, it would feel as if I had taken a step tack in time to the early 1970's. The sermons haven't changed. Why? Because the ministers haven't grown in knowledge. They never read much outside of what the church published. Once they read those articles and books, their education stopped. Nothing new going into the mind, nothing new coming out of the mouth.
The Churches of God always talk about the "Gospel of the Kingdom of God", the real Gospel that most churches ignore. Hadn't they ever read I Cor 15:2-8. The Gospel includes not only the fact that Jesus is coming again, but that he has come once already and has reconciled us with God. They like to cherry pick their passages to promote their teachings.
Man,
ReplyDeleteThat picture of the Queen, the heir apparant and that accompanying text.
That actually is the original reason I am attracted to this blog.
There is a hidden crazy mind somewhere some place, behind this work. And that is the Plain Truth.
Live well and prosper!
nck
Think about it, the only preaching they do is attract new paying members. They use the old scare tactic, that there is a way to escape. And that starts, by ministerial control before you get to sit for 2 hours and 4 hours on a high day.
ReplyDeleteThat about sums up your life in lcg, pay, obey, pray and stay.
BB
ReplyDeleteSo church members have seatbelts, airbags and bullet proof glass. Which goes to show his ignorant you are of what conscientious Christians endure at home, with relatives, at their workplace and even at church.
You are a armchair critic who lives in a bubble.
Glad to know I’m “a” (sic) armchair critic, Jethro. Also, you redefined. I said ACOgs, you say I said Christians. I don’t consider ACOg members to be Christian because they only have a partial understanding of 2/3 of God, and only preach half a gospel (diminishing the “Jesus Saves” part), while also insisting that all the rituals of the Old Covenant were not fulfilled by Jesus.
DeleteWhen I was a WCg member, we brought most of the persecution on ourselves by making everyone around us accommocate our rituals and other weirdness. We weren’t persecuted for doing good or our Christlike kindness to strangers. Fact is, we deserved to be persecuted.
BB
But of course no one at LCG is persecuted like their wayward son, Bob Thiel. Both COGs are stuck with the same perception of their mission, preach the Gospel, and be the Ezekiel Watchman - claiming they must cry out and spare not and show the people their sins.
ReplyDeleteEven with their bag of false prophecies and doctrinal wedgies, they should be able to preach the Gospel free of censorship - it's the "show the people their sins" that gets them in trouble.
I agree with BB. I don’t consider members of LCG Christians. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. All the Sabbath keeping, holy day keeping, titheing, reading LCG material and “qualifying for the kingdom, doesn’t a Christian make. I am not saying there are no Christians in LCG. Christ did say Blessed are the poor in spirit, meek, humble and one who esteems others better than self. One who feeds the orphan, the poor and homeless. A Christian realizes Jesus paid the price and by believing Jesus paid the price, he/she is promised eternal life. LCG is always going to “shake the world” with this important message. Events are always speeding up, but then Christ can never return became the church isn’t ready, so more fasting and “crying out to god” then the church will be ready. Nothing about just being a follower of Jesus. Why all the infighting, why all the back stabbing, why all the “looking down” on others, why not let God decide when he will send Jesus to do what He is going to do. Who knows HWA and RCM might not be the central figures in Jesus’s headquarters team
ReplyDeleteJim-AZ
"Persecution"?
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty big plank in your eye, Gerald! Until LCG repents of its persecution of its own members who happened to stand up for the truth against a rebellious, carnal, empire-building LCG minister, it has no business complaining about outside persecution.
Will LCG repent of its persecution of Charles Bryce and apologize for its conduct, and invite him to return to the fold (whether or not he wants to return)? Will LCG admit that David Meredith drove away several valued employees, apologize to those employees, and re-hire them? Will LCG admit that its conduct with Patrick and Elizabeth Scarborough, and with the whole Scarborough family, was reprehensible at times?
Fortunately, it appears from the latest audit that LCG members are "voting" with their money. LCG Holy Day offerings were down 2 or 3 percent last year, and overall donation income was down by something like 8 or 9 percent. God is certainly not blessing LCG for its pattern of persecuting its own members.
LCG Expositor,
ReplyDeleteSo what's the results? If I cried aloud and spared not where I was employed,with say,100 people,how would that go over? Would people really be interested or would they ignore me? Or do you catch more people with honey than vinegar?
I would love to see this picture used for a 'Stone of Scone/herbie-rock' thread!!
ReplyDeleteBB
ReplyDeleteI did say conscientious Christian. And yes, they are persecuted for doing good. Christ warned that Christians would be falsely viewed as evil. Cain killed Abel. Ministers and their minions persecute their betters in the ACOGs, etc.
Doing good is viewed as an entitlement by the recipients, so there is no gratitude and protection from persecution. The fact that you do not know this from personal experience says something.
You are so f.o.s., 4:49! I remember counting it as joy when I was fired for not working on the sabbath. And then at some point, I realized a basic truth. Employers are willing to make special exceptions for exceptional employees. Had I been an exceptional and desirable employee, my employers would gladly have overlooked needs based on my faith. My performance simply didn’t override a simple negative like occasionally being unavailable for weekend overtime. I adjusted my attitude accordingly.
DeleteThere was an FBI file on me dating from my 18th birthday when I first registered as a conscientious objector to the draft. My local draft board was a real strict one, and for several years, prison was a very real possibility as each appeal but the final one was denied.
We were also known as weirdos in our local school system for being early anti-vaxxers, requiring special days off, inability to participate in normal social activities such as sports or clubs due to the sabbath, and bizarre and conspiratorially-based political views which occasionally came out in class discussions.
In my subsequent life experiences, I came to realize that, yes, as a religious minority, we were often treated differently. However, my friends who happened to be members of minority racial groups often encountered much more difficult circumstances and far worse treatment than we, and they often showed us up in terms of handling everything more graciously, and actually working harder. Our “handlers” in Armstrongism worked the brainwashing not so much to spur us to excel, but to constantly see ourselves as victims, and to count our victimization as validation of our status as Christians. What a load of crap, and frankly, some people will never see through this and “get” it. It’s become embedded in their character.
Every time a formerly Islamic Arab Christian has his throat cut by his own townsmen, and he bleeds out in front of his wife and children for his commitment to Jesus Christ, it really pales into insignificance some of the relatively minor persecutions which we suffered as ACOg members.
Yeah! We did have airbags, and seat belts, anti-lock brakes and safety glass. And still, we were programmed to be a bunch of crybabies. Boo hoo!
BB
Isnt that the damned truth. Thousands of what we smugly referred to as "so-called Christians" are experiencing horrors we cant comprehend in the North Korean kwallisos, yet we have American adherents whining "someone was meeeeean to me, persecution!"
DeleteBB
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you didn't go to uphold the dominoes. It was only in 1982 that Chairman Mao's friend took 45 minutes to explain to HWA that the dominoes were set to fall because of the Russian Soviets and that the Chinese had nothing to do with pushing dominoes. Then Rader slips a paper to HWA and briefs him on how the Chinese must have been briefed on HWA's "containment" speech in Beijing. By that time my "conscientious" friend was already enjoying the perks of free trade on his motorcycle.
One file. Does 500 pages of restricted "FBI files not to be released for reasons of national security" count as "persecution" or "witness protection?"
nck
I’ve come to realize that persecution is largely a matter of perception, nck. This perception resides within the individual. A jury in a court of law may not always see it in the same way that the individual does. To me, persecution implies that there is a victim, and I refuse for various reasons to be depicted as a victim. Survivor is a much better fit.
DeleteSo much that I write here is written from the former viewpoints which We had all held when we were part of Armstrongism, and that is done for the sake of relating and participating in meaningful discussion. That is also, I believe, why the atheists amongst us will occasionally make their points by quoting scripture.
Would I prefer that there had never been an FBI file on me? Obviously the answer is yes. It is unlikely that there would have been any such file had I not been part of the HWAcaca as a young man. Nothing in my motorcycle or professional activities would ever have raised any suspicion on the part of our government.
BB
10:04
ReplyDeleteWhat I said in so many words was: "I am glad you didn't go to Nam."
Are you saying you would have, if you hadn't been part of the pacifist quaker philosophy at work?
nck
People from my neighborhood didn’t usually go to Vietnam, I found out years later. But, if I were going to have served in the military, the Navy would have been my preferred branch. I did threaten the parental units to the effect that either they lightened up on the punishment/abuse or I would join the Marine Corps rather than go to Ambassador College.
DeleteThe thing is, once you registered as a conscientious objector, everything escallated. You weren’t just looking at the possibility of a few years’ military service and vocational skills training. It did go wrong for some in the WCG, and they did end up in jail. Others did join the military to get away from abusive parents, and I personally know of friends from SEP who were killed in the Nam.
Today, I can look back and know that I was blessed in making it through that era and surviving, but there were some scary days back then. I didn’t like the hippies, so the establishment considered me almost as the ideal potential soldier. Went so far as to take my pre-entry physical and tests and had every recruiter in Pasadena after me.
BB
Glad you made it Bob.
ReplyDeleteSince november is a bit far. I will remember those SEP dudes at the 4th of July instead.
The first SDA WWI objectors were fiercely persecuted.
I think kids in high school can be cruel or family members who are not open minded on religious experimentation.
But I agree that type is not the persecution of christians I have seen in Syria. Those lovely aramaic speaking ladies did get out though before their village and church was razed. In Egypt I deliberately do my groceries at Coptic shops, just to help them a little bit to let their light shine. In the (now) razed Armenian quarter of Alleppo I went to church for cultural reasons (I admit) the women did look like the Kardassians, which was a huge incentive.
In Soviet Union Bukharra I saw the main mosque and madrassah turned into a warehouse. No wonder some turned into fundamentalists nowadays.
I guess some WCG people in third world countries could indeed claim a level of persecution for religious reasons, or my SEP buddies from Sunday bloody sunday, Belfast.
nck
Me too, nck, and thank you for that.
DeleteI just wonder if some of the church kids decided that it would be more of a gas to be cut down by Viet Cong machine gun fire than to be enslaved, homoed, and tortured by the Germans for 3-1/2 years. That would have been a real tragedy, because in retrospect today we realize that “the Germans” were the HWA version of being lied to about Santa Claus, a fact that was by no means known back in the thick of things. Most of us actually believed that God really had something to do with HWA. The human genome had not yet been mapped, and we certainly didn’t know about Dorothy.
BB
I don't know about the Germans. In my time a stint in the army meant both cooperation with the germans aswell as being part of the 3 million occupational force. Remember "muss I denn" by the hip swingin man from tupelo. After all we only made peace in 1992 officially.
ReplyDeleteMy objections were based on the belief in the commandment to "not kill". I cant recall mentioning hwa in the conversation with the selection officer.
I think I steered clear from a lot of atrocious interpretation by focussing on hwa, or better put, the bigger picture. At least I wasn t affected that much by further "fringe interpretations" of local ministers.
Dorothy. Yes, that was the lady that travelled with him as far as I was concerned at the time. That changed a little bit after 1978 when most of his family did not seem to have "turned their hearts to their father". But I d seen that phenomenon happening in many prominent families before.
Human genome. Well besides the human genome, the evidence was overwhelming with the right glasses. Especially as a political theory explaining existing power structures. Even with the genome, but I will not explain that part of BI. Might get some people thinking.
Nck