The Gift...

The following is the personal opinion of the author. 

One of the most misunderstood aspects of the doctrines of Armstrongism has to do with the personal relationship that Jesus Christ clearly brought into being for Christians with the Father through His life, death, and Resurrection, which brought reconciliation of man to the Father. 

With Armstrongism, the corporate hierarchy were layers of separation between a person and God. The all-important concept of the Church being "the Government of God on Earth" literally poured cement into the spiritual conduit between a believer and God Himself. All of this, of course, modeled after a form of Government prior to the reconciling work of Jesus Christ - when Christ had not yet come, the Law had not been fulfilled, and access to God was barred because of the law of sin and death, which chained and enslaved. A Personal Relationship with God? Only if you went through the human layers of Government of the Church - and only if you were thoroughly obedient, thoroughly submissive, and thoroughly in agreement with the human administration that God had to go through to "get to you". The Armstrong Ministry intentionally thrust themselves directly between the personal access that one has between a Christian and God - direct, personal, spiritual communication with God from the spiritual dimension - to go through flawed, human, untrained, idiotic, unqualified "ministers" filled with the lust of power and the thrill of unchecked power and authority. 

This was all because of the way that Herbert Armstrong understood the Bible. Using the "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little" way of Biblical interpretation - a cherry-picked jigsaw of non-contextual sublimation of text with a random, non-scholarly approach bent toward personal bias and prefabricated opinion - Herbert was able to blend in the Old Testament with parts of the New Testament, pulling out key points and emphasizing other points to create an entirely different religion completely at odds with any sort of Christian thinking. What was created was an impersonal, authoritative, ridiculously physical interpretation of scripture, whose foundation was not built on what - or, rather, Who - the Old Testament pointed to - but on the foundation of the Old Testament itself. Instead of the foundation being Jesus Christ and the Gospel, the foundation was a base of crumbled, broken, obsolete, aged and cracked rubble, decayed and rendered obsolete. The foundation was based on an attempt to revive what pointed to Christ instead of Christ Himself who enabled reconciliation with the Father through the Gift of the Holy Spirit. And, in all of this, the Personal Relationship with God Christ enabled through His death and Resurrection was fully quenched for thousands who instead put their trust and their hope in the fouled up, rotten, putrid thinking of human ministers. 

I don't need to tell you where that got thousands of people who were caught up in Armstrong's deceptions. The evidence is freely available everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. 

What is available, now, and today, is a Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ - regardless of what Church you go to. Jesus Christ is far more powerful than any Armstrong Church of God. I do not care if it is Flurry's church, Pack's Church, Weston's Church, or any other splinter group you can name. I do not care what Thiel says, and I do not care what Malm says. I don't care what lies are spewed in the name of Christ - lies about when Christ will return, or how. I don't care what their voices or dreams in their heads cry to them to proclaim that end up - every time - being deceptive, outright lies. I don't care what titles they dream up in their heads. Whether or not they call themselves "Presiding Evangelists" or "Pastor Generals" or any other haughty esteemed title they can think of. These men cannot separate one from the Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ that was bought, paid for, and gifted to us through Jesus Christ. Their churches cannot separate one from the Personal Relationship with Christ. And most of all, their churches cannot separate one from the Love of God between a Human Being who believes in God and the Father. 

This is why the Churches of God are powerless, dismal, shrinking and failing. Jesus Christ is reigning on His throne for those who believe and who trust in Him. Through the Spirit of God, a new believer can, by His Power, repent and turn to God in faith and hope through the Light of Life in the newness of Grace and love. Through the Spirit of God, lies are exposed, the light shines, and people who were blind can see. The deaf can here, and the dead can be given new life. No Armstrong Church or Minister can come between a believer and God when a Believer puts their faith and trust in God. This is where freedom takes hold and shackles fall. 

I rejoice when I hear the stories of answered prayer - even in the Armstrong Churches of God. Throughout my decades in the Church I was well aware of stories within the Churches of God of how God answered prayer in simple, yet powerful ways within members of the Church. After everything fell apart within the Church, for a while, I was puzzled as to how it was that God seemingly worked miracles within the Church to "promote the Church". Then it hit me that these miracles were not "promoting the Church". God was working directly with a person, one on one, showing them He's still there - with them - God With US - Personally - regardless of the abuse, dictatorship, and harm that the Armstrong Churches of God imposed on the victims. God works with each person individually, and personally. He did then, He does now, He will tomorrow. He always has since the Resurrection of our Lord to those who believe and trust in Him. 

Our God is a Personal God. He is a God that cares about every one of us uniquely, and individually. He is a God of love, light, and peace - with us, guiding us, leading us, and directing us. God Himself has said that He who began a Good work in us will be faithful to complete it. And that promise is for all that put their trust and hope in Him - regardless if they are Protestant, Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Pentecostal, Baptist, Seventh-Day, Mormon, Armstrongite, Amish, Mennonite, or whatever physical group you can name. God transcends the physical and deals with a person personally, and spiritually, through the Power of the Personal Holy Spirit - God With Us, God in Us, and God Through Us. 

This is what Jesus Christ has done for us. This is what Jesus Christ has made possible. This is the Gift that the Father has sent to us. And no human group made by man has any power or authority to sever or disconnect that link to the Throne of God that we, through Christ, may boldly approach. 

This is the Personal Relationship with God all have access to. It's not Religion. It's a Relationship. And that, in a very broad brush, is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it is true - that He who began a Good work in us, in ALL of us - will be faithful to complete it in Him.

Submitted by SHT