All the mainstream Christian churches have wonderful works:
Gideons Bibles in all hotel rooms
Hospitals
Great universities
(picture below is Oxford, England)
Community centers
Missions like sister Teresa helping the poor
Paul’s view – same as Jesus
Galatians 2:1010All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
And one scripture from the old testament:
Deuteronomy 15:10-1110Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
Christ criticized the Pharisees for only keeping some of the laws – though they did them extremely scrupulously. Luke 11:42 – great tithers, but ignored justice and the love of God.
Are the ACOGs trying to emulate Christ or the Pharisees?
submitted by TLA
The reason I am Pentecostal is because they are the only Christians I know who will go above & beyond to help out those in need.
ReplyDeleteUh, you actually have to ask that final question? Just yankin' your chain. The question is rhetorical and carefully crafted for the further education of current ACOG members and the new Spokesman dropout quality wannabe leaders. I get that. Let us all enjoy a good belly laugh at the Pharisees' expense!
ReplyDeleteAre the ACOGs trying to emulate Christ or the Pharisees?
ReplyDeleteThat's easy. Christ was not a Levite entitled to collect your tithes. The ACOG ministers want to be able to collect your tithes.
I don't mean to push in, but has anyone noticed the Trumpet article 'Joshua's Dual Crown.' The article claims that there has only been two king-priests through out history. One was Christ, the other is their own church leader. Again, leaders giving themselves all sorts of titles.
ReplyDeleteGod's system is separation of church and state, so I don't believe a human would be given that dual responsibility.
Great post.
ReplyDeleteIt always amazed me that the WCG never did any local outreach in any community. Even now, in GCI, what exactly DO the ministers DO all day? Not one ever visited my 92 year old mother, a member for over 60 years, when she was declining. They have miniscule membership, there's no real holy days to prepare for? You never see them at any ecumenical breakfasts sharing their "good news", or taking up any kind of cause. What the hell?
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:24 AM, I'll bet my food stamps that there isn't a Christian in GCI or in any of the other Armstrong cults.
DeleteThe only thing wrong with Paul's recollections in Gal 2:10 is that he was told in Acts 15 to enforce the Noahide rules on gentiles coming to the faith..which thing he proved uneager to do😇
ReplyDeleteAre the ACOGs trying to emulate Christ or the Pharisees?
ReplyDeleteMy comment:
Or HWA.
If you pull up any literature from the splinters, count how many times HWA is mentioned, then how many times Christ is mentioned.
Very telling!
The ACOGs always have been, and still are Pharisaic. Their human church leaders names are spoken more frequently than Gods. Their leaders are Popes and their ministers are little popes.
ReplyDeleteChrist said "follow me" 23 times in the OT. He did not say, "follow your popes."
What about the UCG "Good Works" program?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ucg.org/members/outreach/good-works
Where are all the good works?
ReplyDeleteWhat are the good works the bible is referring to and who is to be doing them? One example is the nation of Israel and Jesus was talking to the other example a group called the Pharisees. A church is not a political nation nor is it made up of people who are steeped in Jewish Torah extremes. The true believers in Jesus Christ are called as individuals to receive the Holy Spirit to enable them to grow in the grace and knowledge to be molded and shaped into the character of Jesus Christ. The good works are produced by individuals who are reflecting the character of Jesus Christ in their relationships as they live each day. An AB opinion
If you do a good works within WCG and its splinters you will surely be punished in due course.
ReplyDeleteNo good deed goes unpunished.
The world has changed. We no longer live in poor agrarian societies. Helping the biblical poor is unnecessarily exalted by today's churches, since they live off charity themselves.
ReplyDelete10:24
ReplyDeleteYou are to modest!
re: king priests
"so I don't believe a human would be given that dual responsibility"
I believe gta in his re-write of usbr in prophecy felt that the druids in their dual leadership-priest role resembled a travesty of the judean religion. (northern kingdom religion and therefore proof of their middle eastern origins) I don't know if he drank to much of the he-brew. I do know that it is an ancient concept. Kings wearing mantles at coronation to magically touch the earth and bring it to fruition. Lords being "loaf-wards" meaning distributors of bread.
So yes the assumtion of titles seems to come with responsibilities.
nck
R.L. UCG good works is small, but a good start. It looks like it uses additional contributions from members, but not anything directly from UCG resources. Hopefully someone from UCG HQ will comment.
ReplyDeleteI was a member of WCG for four years, spent two at AC in Pasadena. I don't recall ever hearing someone preach from James 1:27. The church, as an organization, didn't seem to follow this verse, but individuals should have been doing so, on their own, but they were not encouraged to do so. Gal 6:10 "let us do good to ALL people (including non-believers), especially to those who belong to the family of believers." The WCG didn't teach us to do good to non-believers, we were more likely to hold them in contempt. We oftentimes avoided them as much as possible. True religion? I doubt if you would find a clear expression of it in the WCG.
ReplyDeleteTLA's post,
ReplyDelete"additional contributions from members" First, second, third tithes and offerings. How much money do these members have?
When will the leaders see?
This is all so strange in a way. wcg taught James 2:26 “faith without works is dead” to solidify our teachings. The splinter cogs do the same but vaguely. Everything in Cogwa especially and Ucg is vague hoping that members will hearken back to the detailed teachings from their wcg days. That way no one can hold them accountable on a particular sermon. They never dare define “the truth”, “the church”, etc. They simply count on your remembering it however you do, which is enough obviously as it keeps you filling a seat. They know they can’t really prove things like their special understanding of truth, church, first fruits, tithing, etc. So they only use the terms but leave the definitions to your memory. Disingenuous for sure.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, back on topic, we believed we did more works than other churches because we kept the sabbath, tithed, ate clean food, kept holy days, showed faith by avoiding doctors, suffered job losses and strained family ties due to our beliefs. All these were considered works. I believe this idea changed a bit in the 90s but not too much.
So, you see, we believed we had real works above those of other churches. Strange how we were able to twist our doctrine into being works so we actually believed we could use James 2:26 against other churches (that actually we’re doing works). Such a veil placed before our eyes!
Earl
ReplyDeleteThe UCG is not a good example. UCG is the Spiritually-Asleep Church of God. Everything is deliberately kept flat so that members feel comfortable. It's like a retirement home.
wcg taught James 2:26 “faith without works is dead” - this is where the works of mainstream religion really shine.
ReplyDeleteThe key point of 1 Cor 13 is that if we do not have love we are worthless. All our other works are useless.
The epistle of James emphasizes Christianity in practice.
I believe in keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days - but in addition to love and mercy, not instead of.
2 Peter 3 v18: "But continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, now and forever! Amen." (Good News translation).
It seems like the ACOGs feel they have grown enough - already reached perfection.
I observe the sabbath and holy days as well. I recognize these are not works as they are simply part of the doctrine I practice. The cogs believe that these and the things I listed above are works and thus by practicing them they believe this confirms their faith. However, when real works are done by other churches/Christians for others the COGs treat them as counterfeit because that Christians doesn’t perhaps keep the sabbath. The cogs don’t understand that a true Christian follows Christ and this is never done perfectly, but Christ makes that person perfect. Sabbath keeping is not the sign of a Christian in the new covenant.
ReplyDeleteIt’s strange to hear James 2:26 applied appropriately against the cogs when for so many years we wrongly thought it was a verse that confirmed our being the elect.
Once in LCG, a longtime member stood up in a bible-study and confidently said that it is not our job to try to solve the world's problems(no-one including a minister verbally disagreed with him). So there you have it,we are excused from doing good works as long as the person is not in the Church of God.
ReplyDelete