Rod McNair recently had short little blurb up from LCG's Church Administration (CAD). In it, as usual, Old Testament passages still reign supreme. There is rarely scant mention of New Testament or new covenant teachings. The men and women of Jesus time and after him are not as worthy of mentioning as are the prophets and sages in Hebrew scriptures.
Below is McNair's take on Lamentations. Where would a COG story be without first mentioning unbridled destruction, starvation and dead bodies everywhere, before something heartwarming can be mentioned?
The verses McNair quotes and finds to be his favorite, is all about waiting. Waiting for salvation. The Church of God has been waiting for 8 decades now. Wait, wait, wait, the mantra for the church. Constantly turning their backs on Jesus has left them unable to understand what he accomplished, especially about the "waiting" part.
LCG members must wait patiently as LCG leaders abuse them or treat them like dirt. LCG members are supposed to look at the bad treatment as suffering for their salvation. After all, they are under government and how dare anyone question the leadership's abuses. Plus, it is all a test by their god to deliberately see if they are worthy. They are too blind to understand that that worthiness has already been settled.
His Compassions Are New Every Morning
The Book of Lamentations is a raw and unfiltered description of the horrific destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The book describes the Temple destroyed, gates of the city broken down, children starving for lack of food, and dead bodies lying in the streets. In one sense, this book is one of the unlikeliest places you’d think you’d find encouragement! And yet, to me, it contains one of the most comforting and hopeful passages in all the Bible. It’s in Lamentations 3:22-26: “His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness…. The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD” (Lamentations 3:22-26). When we are in sore trials we must not forget God’s power, faithfulness and mercies. He is there. He sees all. He understands our suffering. We must wait patiently, and learn every lesson we can. He loves us—and He will intervene.
When you are in trouble, remember those inspired and comforting words: “His compassions fail not—they are new every morning”!
Have an encouraging Sabbath,
Rod McNair
Contrast that with the followers of Jesus who already know they have salvation assured to them. They go about life with firm assurance, that salvation is already being experienced.
Galatians 2:16
Know that a person is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.Galatians 3:10
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."Galatians 3:24
So the law was put in charge of us until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.Galatians 3:23
Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.
Galatians 4:21
Galatians 2:4
This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.Galatians 3:11
Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because "the righteous will live by faith."Galatians 5:4
You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.Galatians 3:11
Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because "the righteous will live by faith."Galatians 3:12
The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, "Whoever does these things will live by them."Galatians 3:25
Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
John 5:24
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
How ironic that this commentary was written by a minister with so little compassion that he disfellowshipped a member for giving two weeks notice to her employer after Rod McNair told her to quit her job. He wanted her to quit immediately, even though her doing so would have been rude, against standard precedent, and possibly damaging to the patients with whom she worked.
ReplyDeleteThen again, maybe it's a very appropriate commentary, as if you have Rod McNair in your life you are likely to have sore trials.
Gal 3:10 is a justification they use to keep the law, to me it appears to be a contradiction. First it says one is cursed if they keep the law and at the end it says one is cursed if they don't continue to keep it. I know one has to put it in line with other scriptures but so do they so one could come out with 2 different interpretations.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteGal 3:10 is a justification they use to keep the law, to me it appears to be a contradiction. First it says one is cursed if they keep the law and at the end it says one is cursed if they don't continue to keep it. I know one has to put it in line with other scriptures but so do they so one could come out with 2 different interpretations.
That's due to fact that they have no concept of context. Reading the first 9 and last 19 verses of Galatians 3 helps a lot :)
WCG was founded by an uneducated man who spent 6 months studying at the Portland public library.
ReplyDeleteHe then started a College and passed on his 6 months of study to his students who are now running the COGs.
What more is there to say?
WCG was founded by an uneducated man who spent 6 months studying at the Portland public library.
ReplyDeleteJust think.... if HWA had instead spent those six months in Portland's red-light district, studying the porn industry, he might have been bigger than Hugh Hefner or Larry Flynt.
TLA
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call HWA an uneducated man. By some modern day standards such as a engineering degree, no he wasn't. But compared to today's liberal arts degrees, he was. The fact was that he had mastered marketing, and had a genius level writing style. Unfortunately, these skills were weaponized to deceive rather than enrich his followers. Truth plainly stated is better than some mixture of truth and much error stated persuasively.
I'm reading about the 1930s and 1940s FDR-Mussolini-Hitler era (Herbs generation), and can't help noticing how HWAs church, even to this day, parallels the fascist, socialist politics of that day. The ACOGs 'give way' (ownership by need) and tyrannical church government (the state is all, the individual is nothing) are the same ideologies.
6 months studying at the Portland public library
ReplyDeleteRemember that was intensive study! He emerged with a rebuttal to evolution, BI, Church Eras, 3 Tithes...
HWA also said he studied health for 12 months and decided that was enough. He didn't say it was intensive, but he came from that knowing you are what you eat (and he was Calcium Man) and that aluminum oxide from cooking utensils doesn't hurt you.
Lk 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
ReplyDeleteNO2HWA writes:
“In it, as usual, Old Testament passages still reign supreme. There is rarely scant mention of New Testament or new covenant teachings.”
I would suggest that the above, though not intentionally, is somewhat misleading.
The Old and New Testament are accepted designations for the books of Genesis-to-Malachi and the books of Matthew-to-Revelation respectively.
Lk 22:20 ... after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. (NIV).
“Blood has nothing to do with a “will” or “testament”. But it has with a covenant” (E.W. Bullinger, Companion Bible, p.1500, note on Luke 22:20).
So a better designation for the 39 books and 27 books may be Old and New Covenants respectively.
But even this is incomplete.
It is suggested that the books Genesis-to Malachi may be designated the Old and New/Renewed Covenant with Israel the Kingdom and the books Matthew-to-Revelation may be designated as the New Covenant with Israel the Church. As the first designation is rather long the designations would simply be the Kingdom Covenant and the Church Covenant respectively.
Gal 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
Gal 4:23 His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
Gal 4:24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
Gal 4:25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
Gal 4:26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
Gal 4:27 For it is written: “Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud,
you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” (NIV)
It is also suggested that this allegory, though not internationally, is also incomplete.
From the above Hagar and Sarah represent two covenants.
Ge 25:1 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
Ge 25:2 And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
“Keturah cannot be known, for she only comes when Sarah as an outward form has passed away. But if this is done, then Keturah will come in thousands who are faithful by her spirit.
"... Keturah [comes] ... when the truth which Sarah represents has passed from an outward form into a higher state. St. Paul’s epistles are full of Keturah. All those exhortations which are not mere law, and which as clearly are not the promise, though they are meant to follow it, are this third wife, given to be embraced by those in whom Sarah of the New Covenant has already borne fruit... ” (Andrew Jukes, Types in Genesis, pp.279-80).
End of Part 1
Part 2
ReplyDeleteIf the “slave woman” and the “free woman”, mothers of two sons of Abraham, represent two covenants then it would follow that Keturah, the mother of six of Abraham's sons, would also represent a covenant.
“As Sarah stands for “the mother of us all,” i.e. of those who, by grace, are one with the true Son of promise, of whom Isaac was the type John 3:6-8; Galatians 4:26,28,29; Hebrews 2:11-13 and joint heirs of His wealth; Hebrews 1:2; Romans 8:16,17, so Keturah (wedded after the full blessing of Isaac) and her children by Abraham may well stand for the fertility of Israel the natural seed, Jehovah’s wife Hosea 2:1-23 after the future national restoration under the Palestinian covenant” (C. I. Scofield, “Scofield Reference Notes,” notes on Genesis 25).
It is, therefore, suggested that Sarah and Keturah represent the New Covenants with Israel the Church and Israel the Kingdom respectively. The New Covenant is made up of the Sarah and Keturah Administrations.
The earthly Keturah Administration of the New Covenant “comes when Sarah as an outward form has passed away,” that is when the earthly administration of the Sarah Administration has passed into the heavenly, when Christ and the Saints replace Satan and the Demons in the heavenlies.
“The Tabernacle seems to be the type of Christ and His Church now; the Temple, of Christ and His Church in resurrection glory...” (Ada R. Habershon, “Study of the Types”, pp.54).
Rev 7:15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
Eze 44:11 They [the Levites] may serve in my sanctuary, having charge of the gates of the temple and serving in it; they may slaughter the burnt offerings and sacrifices for the people and stand before the people and serve them. (NIV)
Under the Old Covenant there were three successive administrations - two tabernacle and one temple. In the New Covenant there is one tabernacle dispensation followed by two contemporary temple administrations.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
From the ‘New Covenant sections’ of the Kingdom Covenant (the books from Genesis-to-Malachi):
“The Book of Isaiah can be called “a Bible in miniature.” There are sixty-six chapters in Isaiah and sixty-six books in the Bible. The thirty-nine chapters of the first part of Isaiah may be compared to the Old Testament with its thirty-nine books, and both focus primarily on God’s judgment of sin. The twenty-seven chapters of the second part may be seen to parallel the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and both emphasize the grace of God.
“The “New Testament” section of Isaiah opens with the ministry of John the Baptist (40:3-5; Mark 1:1-4) and closes with the new heavens and the new earth (Isa 65:17; 66:22), and in between there are many references to the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and King. Of course, the chapter divisions in Isaiah are not part of the original, but the comparison is still interesting...
“The heart of Isaiah 40-66 is chapters 49-57, in which Isaiah exalts the Messiah, God’s Suffering Servant. And the heart of chapters 49-57 is 52:13-53:12, the description of the Savior’s substitutionary death for the sins of the world... So at the heart of the “New Testament” section of Isaiah’s book is our Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for our sins. No wonder Isaiah has been called “the evangelical prophet”...” (Warren W. Wiersbe, “The Prophets” The Bible Exposition Commentary, p.48).
To be more precise, HWA did not have a theological or even a liberal arts education.
ReplyDeleteYou can see various blowhards on the internet - some of them quite popular - with their conspiracy theories - like the holocaust, 9/11, school shootings did not happen.
Back in HWA's day, there was no internet - but there was radio and magazines.
A charismatic person could find a few provable items and then weave a web of dubious facts around them.
This still happens today - Madoff and Theranos being 2 recent examples which duped even intelligent people who should have known better.
The advantage of religion is there is less law to break if you are a fraud.
Religion can help a person create the perfect crime. Who can prosecute you for demanding 30% of their followers' income and threatening the lake of fire?
TLA
ReplyDeleteIt's true that HWA did not have a formal liberal arts education. Rather, he was self taught as was common for his generation. I believe his training and experience in marketing and advertising, as described in his autobiography, to be true. As a package deal, he would have been considered a educated person by the standards of his generation. Considering the nonsense taught at many colleges today, such as gender studies, he would still rival this present generation.
He was no book worm or intellectual, but by everyday standards, an educated person. That's my belief.
On this note, I know many people with degrees who have no interest in furthering their knowledge or understanding. After college, they gave up on learning. How 'educated' are such people?
It's stupid to condemn "conspiracy theories" just for being "conspiracy theories" especially when official sources are full of their own conspiracy theories, ahem, "investigations".
ReplyDeleteEach situation has to be judged on its own merits, after thoroughly listening to BOTH sides.
There are no educated people today. Just brainwashed people.
ReplyDelete