When reading various COG websites and blogs of the various wanna-be COG leaders and you stumble upon this bible quote, you quickly know things are going to go downhill, fast.
Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.And then every single one of them quote this next:
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.The first verse they ignore entirely and the second these wanna-be's use as proof of their apostle/prophetship.
These are the first two scriptures quoted by one of the lesser but more Pharisaical of the COG leaders of this age, Chief Pharisee James Malm.
He writes about himself as the final man who is set apart by God to reveal the "hidden things":
When Jesus walked the earth in the flesh he said that no man knew the day or the hour of his coming as King of kings.
Nevertheless he did say that the Father knew and it is written:
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
After his resurrection these things were revealed to Jesus. AFTER he had died and been resurrected and ascended to heaven, the Lamb of God was found worthy to unseal the hidden things of God the Father.
Revelation 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
No one in heaven or on the earth was able to open and understand the sealed books of scripture (Dan 12); until the Lamb of God was found worthy to unseal the hidden things of the plan of God.
God promised in Daniel 12 that in the last days, Jesus Christ would reveal these things and that there would be a great increase of spiritual knowledge and understanding.
These things of God were sealed and kept hidden until the Appointed Time of their revealing at the very last days; which is why there has been almost no understanding of the Biblical Festivals, Biblical Calendar and most of the end time prophecies until now.
What is so very sad is that most of today’s Ekklesia reject the expansion of knowledge and understanding that God has promised to reveal in this end time.
Daniel 12:9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Brethren, that time has come!
Now in this end time Jesus Christ has been revealing these sealed hidden things to his servants in his promised surge of new knowledge and understanding for the end times.
Who would have ever imagined that God needed some man parked at his kitchen table in the Pacific Northwest banging away on a computer keyboard as he reinterprets every single scripture in the Bible into what he wants it to mean? The more legalistic and burdensome he can make things, the better.
Then we have Dave Pack, God's ONLY chosen and most superfantabulous man to ever be born in human history, declaring he is the end time prophet sent to prepare a place in Wadsworth, Ohio for his Christ to come back to and commune with Dave as IT prepares for IT's third coming. He has prophesied that four COG leaders would die and all of their members would join his amazing church. Never happened and never will.
We also have Gerald Flurry adding his mentally disturbed reasoning into the mix. He has declared himself the King of the Church of God and is in possession of the TRUE coronation stone that his Christ will come back and sit upon when IT is crowned king of kings either in Edmond, OK or in Edstone, England. This will happen soon after he digs up Hill Tara in Ireland and uncovers the Ark of the Covenant that Jeremiah buried there.
And how could we forget Ron and Laura Wienland, God's TWO most amazing witless witnesses the world has ever seen! Old Ronnie has the distinction of being the first COG felon to run a group. Even after suffering one of the most public humiliation ever imaginable in San Francisco in 2008 and his later imprisonment, the intrepid fool continues to declare one amazing prophecy after another, all of which fail in the most delightful ways. Most here do not realize that he predicted WWIII would have begun by the beginning of this month.
And then there is Bob Thiel. Oy vey! Has the Church of God ever had a bigger liar than this man? After his idol Rod Meredith publicly humiliated him several years ago, Thiel set out to start his own group by falsely claiming double blessings and various dreamy dreams to set himself up as the ONLY end time COG doing a true work. As he communes with his Catholic and Mayan dark spirits, he dreams up all kinds of idiotic nonsense that he tells his gullible followers in Africa is the truth. They, in turn, look at the Great Bawana as their hero as they back slap him and call him all kinds of fancy names while milking him dry in funds, seeds and computer equipment.
These guys are just the top few of the Armstrongite pyramid of lying fools that have set themselves up as the one and only true instrument God is supposedly working through today in 2019.
This, however, does not leave out the lesser men leading other COG's who preach their own unique version from the same doctrinal tree of Armstrongism. From Kubik, Weston, Franks, and the others, they too believe they are leading the one and only true end time work, though they don't fly off at the mouth with as many stupidities as the above-mentioned men do. These guys want to be more accepted by the public as they pussyfoot around as little milquetoasts afraid to really expose to the world what nonsense they actually believe.
Does anyone today actually believe any of these men are the prophetic instruments of God and that He needs these kinds of morons to be his end time mouthpiece? If asked in private, most COG members would deny the men leading them. Deep down they know these men are liars but are too afraid of the god these men have created to actually speak out or leave their groups.
Fear is the greatest motivator these men are all using. Fear of losing one's salvation for failing to heed the call these men all proclaim is used as a weapon to keep them in line and submissive.
Every single one of these fools has one objective in mind and that is for you to send them your money. From Pharisee Malm to milquetoast Kubik, money is their ticket into the kingdom. So open up your wallets and be saved! After all, God needs little weak insignificant men to do his work and the COG sure has its supply of them!
22 comments:
There’s only one possible explanation. God IS the author of confusion! He uses it on His enemies, like the constuction crew at Babel, the armies of various nations doing battle with Israel, and those pursuing Jesus and the disciples before it was their appointed time to go.
Armstrongism as a group has been burned as any sort of credible messenger regarding the end times. One by one, the men mentioned have received their burn notices, but fail to acknowledge them. If there is a job to do, God is going to need to raise up someone who has not falsely cried wolf too many times!
BB
They are all false prophets! Jesus said it's not for you to know and only the father knows when it's coming.
Smarten up people, don't believe it.
These 'leaders' claim the God is using them to reveal the future in detail. This ignores that God gives humans free moral agency, which makes the future in detail unknowable. It's the nature of reality that absolute security is non existent. No one knows what tomorrow or next year holds. The best 'seatbelt' to this uncertainty is to develop ones skills and knowledge. A peephole into the near future is a fantasy.
And a unnecessary one.
PS. Why didn't any of these groups predict the smartphone and it's impact. It only came out in 2007.
If asked in private, most COG members would deny the men leading them. Deep down they know these men are liars but are too afraid of the god these men have created to actually speak out or leave their groups.
You are only partly right. Most current long-time ACOG members are not afraid of God. They think God doesn't object to their staying in dysfunctional or harmful churches that teach falsehoods. They know that many of their ministers are blowhards and jerks, and they say so among close circles of friends. What they are afraid of is the loss of friends and paychecks. Not only do the ministers and home office employees rely on a paycheck that would be hard to match outside the church; many members own businesses that cater in large part to fellow church members. Combine that with the complete loss of friends that comes with leaving an ACOG, and many prefer to stay put, confident that "God will understand" their choice.
If there is a job to do, God is going to need to raise up someone who has not falsely cried wolf too many times!
"This is Dogbert W. Armstrong, for the Worldwide Church of Dog. Brethren, I have been sent as one with a message. That message is not a message about a man. It is about a Kingdom. Brethren, we await the coming Kingdom of Dog. Foolish men have failed us far too often. We now know to look for truth in the smile of a bouncy young puppy, and to look for wisdom in the grin of a faithful old service dog."
It should be acknowledged that for some members 'going to church' is the boost they need to spiritually stay afloat. In that sense, they are trapped in a ACOG.
Apparently very few have faith that the "3 Angels Message" is a Biblical truth. At the appropriate time, these ANGELS , not any man, will provide a thorough warning. There is absolutely NO NEED for the crazy cult leaders like Malm, Pack , Flurry, Weinland, Thiel etc...
Summary paraphrases of the 3 Angels' messages:
Angel One (RV 14:6): Has the everlasting gospel to preach to all who are on the earth, "for the hour of his judgement has come."
Angel Two (RV 14:8): Babylon the great is fallen because she caused all nations to drink of the wrath of her fornication.
Angel Three (RV 14:9): If anyone worships the beast, & receives its mark, they shall drink of the cup of the wrath of God.
End times? God isn't even revealing basic Christian truths to the current generation of ACOG ministers. Notice this heretical article by LCG:
The Value of Wisdom
From the article:
Is there one all-important quality that every true Christian must have in order to overcome the temptations of this life and rule with Jesus Christ at His return? Or are we to balance a myriad of godly characteristics and traits, always taking stock of where we are falling short and subsequently making “course corrections”? Put simply, the answer to both questions is “Yes.” However, without one all-important trait, everything else God expects of us becomes impossible to achieve. Christians must possess wisdom as a foundation if we are to develop the mind and character of God our Father and Jesus the Christ.
No one would say that stupidity or ignorance is preferable to wisdom, or that the unwise will fare better than the wise. However, for LCG to elevate wisdom as the single "all-important" and foundational attribute that one "must" have, more important than faith and repentance, is to turn their religion into Gnosticism. With this article, LCG has renounced Christianity and established itself as a Gnostic faith, teaching salvation by works and gnosis.
Genuine Christianity might argue that "faith" is foundational, or that "repentance" is foundational. By contrast, wisdom is certainly important, but to call it "all-important" is to deny the true foundation of Christianity.
As an aside, it sure seems to me that LCG's new website is much, much slower and unresponsive than its old site. Once again, LCG moves backward instead of forward.
Wisdom? Anon 9:29 AM ought to look at page 27 of that same Living Church News. LCG kept the Feast last year in Goa, India, but published (page 27) a photo of a minister and wife sitting in front of the Taj Mahal in Agra, a thousand miles away from the Feast site. How many of the brethren attending in Goa traveled a thousand miles to see this Muslim mausoleum? Would LCG illustrate a San Diego Feast site with a photo of a minister sitting in front of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, or a Florida Feast site with a photo of a minister in front of the National Cathedral in Washington DC? Illustrating the Goa site with a Muslim monument from Agra suggests either a ridiculous level of ministerial elite privilege, or a profound lack of geographical and religious knowledge on the part of those who wrote the Feast roundup.
That losing friends and community is the biggest fear of all. For some reason, it didn't scare me. I've had former friends sneer at me and turn their backs when they saw me. Didn't phase me, but it does have a profound effect on many others. I just have confidence in myself and don't have an overwhelming need for the approbation and self-congratulatory approval of others.
Some people developed deep psychological problems and became damaged when things did not turn out as they hoped in 1975, and they have not been man enough to recover despite the passing decades.
"I just ... don't have an overwhelming need for the approbation and self-congratulatory approval of others."
To paraphrase Hitler, needing the approval of other is for the weak and the feeble minded.
"No one would say that stupidity or ignorance is preferable to wisdom, or that the unwise will fare better than the wise."
Actually, a regular participant to this form pretty much says exactly that, and uses it to explain why he relies on what he calls "common sense" (going with the flow) rather than researching the facts.
Another whopper taught by the article cited at 9:29 AM:
Notice that those who “shine like the brightness of the firmament” are not described as loving, merciful, kind, hopeful, or any other quality that God says we are to possess. Instead, it says that the wise will shine brightly. If we possess the true wisdom from above—the wisdom that only comes from our loving Creator—then we are able to love as He loves, showing mercy, kindness, gentleness, and every other fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).
The man who wrote this is apparently a minister in LCG, yet he (and his editors) cannot tell the difference between eisegesis and exegesis. The author twists the English language of his proof-texts in order to make a point that the original text does not make. The authors of Daniel, Galatians, and James would have been horrified to discover that a reader twisted their words into the false teaching that without wisdom you cannot have the other fruits of the Spirit.
Readers, if you expect God to reveal his end time plans through LCG, you may want to adjust your expectations. If God isn't even revealing the basic milk of Christianity through LCG's ministry, it is highly unlikely that He will reveal any meat, and certainly not any detailed end time information that He wants His people to know.
Moderator's question: Why is the Lord God so desperate that he has to reveal the end times to so many COG leaders?
I have been running a similar question through my mind for the past few weeks. I am wondering why such an intensity of overboard and outrageous claims of personal religious titling and prophetic predictions by the COG leaders in and concerning the year 2019?
The ministry in my time in the WCG spoke often of the increase of demonic activity during the end times because Satan and the demons knew prophecy and therefore knew their time left was going to be short.
When the disciples asked Jesus Christ what would be the sign of your coming and the end of world; his first reply was TAKE HEED THAT NO MAN DECEIVE YOU. Verses 5, 11, and 24 of Matt. 24 warn of false Christs and false prophets.
With these COG leaders obviously not led by God, They certainly have been stirred up in the latter part of 2018 into early 2019. Will the world experience what these men are predicting to happen in 2019, or are we just witnessing evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse?
@ 9:29 AM, just look at the very verses the article cites which use the words "wisdom" or "wise." The scriptures that are cited use at least four different words Hebrew or Greek words, each with different meanings. Notice, too, that one of the verses says that if you don't have wisdom, you need to pray for patience, after which you can have wisdom. So, even though the article calls wisdom foundational, it admits that patience is foundational for wisdom.
The article is a confused mess, as if the author thought, "I want to encourage people to be wise, so I'll do an English-language text-search instead of a proper Bible study." Anyone who has studied even a tiny bit of Hebrew or Greek will recognize that article as made-up crap, disrespectful of the readers to whom it is addressed.
Is this an anomaly? We notice that the author received a Certificate in New Testament Studies from Living University, and earned a 4.0 GPA while doing so. This article was written by the cream of the crop of LCG-trained scholars. I feel so sorry for the poor innocent LCG members who are being malnourished by such confusion.
To paraphrase Hitler, needing the approval of other is for the weak and the feeble minded.
This statement is more than a little naive and ironic, considering Hitler's penchant for leading large rallies of his adoring followers.
No need to overthink this.
We're witnessing rapidly crumbling ministries attempting to squeeze out every last dollar from the diehard Armstrong believers.
Question asked was: "Why Is The Lord God So Desperate That He Has To Reveal The End Times To So Many COG Leaders?"
Of course, God isn't so desperate. It is the deceived xcog hireling leaders who are the desperate ones, b/c things just aren't working out their way. So, they continue to pursue the mammon, but to what avail?
And the "end times?" When is that? Does Satan think he has a short time, now? Really? How does one know that Satan won't realize that "short time" period until after that vile, evil, thing is released from some pit after 1,000 years? Doesn't that make more sense? End times: duh! Well, not to the xcog hireling leaders, who are blind and in confusion.
James Malm wrote: "...God promised in Daniel 12 that in the last days, Jesus Christ would reveal these things and that there would be a great increase of spiritual knowledge and understanding..."
God promised what in Daniel 12? That Jesus Christ would reveal "these things!" Well, what did Daniel know about Jesus Christ? And what does Malm know about those "last days?"
Just a big guessing game!
Malm should have quoted the following verse from Daniel 12, but he didn't:
:4 "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."
Daniel was told to shut up the words, and seal the book! And that was done...at least to "the time of the end," which Malm thinks he can best guess that period of time.
If I were allowed to give a suggestion to the xcog hireling wannabee leaders, it would be the same advice that was given to Daniel: "...shut up the words..."
Actually, I'd shorten it even further, so it simply said: "...shut up..."
We're all learning to hate evil, and we're learning hate seeing the xcog leaders continue to make "fools" out of themselves, as though God needed their help.
Doug Winnail keeps replaying his same basic messages, through the years, over and over again. Why? What good does it do? Are the living group's followers that dumb, that they need repeat messages, b/c they just don't seem to "get it?" Or, does it just keep showing everyone that it is the leaders who don't "get it?"
I suggest they learn what God had taught Daniel, and that was to "shut up!" Will any of these xcog leaders do that, or will they continue to put their feet in their mouths and still not "shut up?"
Time will tell...
John
Tonto writes:
“At the appropriate time, these ANGELS, not any man, will provide a thorough warning.”
John is in vision and sees “these ANGELS”. But are these three angels picturing “cosmic realities that underline human history”?
Ezekiel was also so in a vision and saw seven angels.
This post, Part 1 looks at the six angels together; while in the next post, Part 2 looks at one angel. (Not enough characters for one post).
Eze 9:2 And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.
Eze 9:5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
Eze 9:6 Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
2Ch 36:17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.
“Certainly the carnage in the Temple (v.17) depends on the visionary slaughter carried out by angelic executioners (Eze 9:5-6), who were to show no compassion, and the killing was to begin at the sanctuary and to embrace old men, young men, and young women. The destroying angels turned into flesh and blood, wearing Babylonian uniforms...” (Leslie C. Allen, 1 & 2 Chronicles, NIB, Vol.3, p.656).
The Lord “summons six “guards,” each of whom appears armed with a club. The guards would normally have had the responsibility of standing at the gates, protecting the realm of the sacred from profane intrusions. Here they appear together with a priestly figure dressed in linen, armed only with a writing kit.
“These figures are normally interpreted as angelic beings because of their superhuman role in the vision and the symbolic nature of their total number (seven). However, it is worth noting that if 9:1-2 existed as a fragment, without the surrounding context, we would naturally understand it as speaking of normal human figures obeying the summons of the king. This helps us to remember the dual nature of the these figures. On the one hand, in the vision they are the angelic servants of the Most High, wreaking his judgments on the earth; on the other hand, those same judgments are carried out in history through human agency, so the six destroyers may equally aptly be seen to represent the Babylonian invaders...” (Iain M. Duguid, Ezekiel, NIVAC, pp.133-34).
“When interpreting these chapters, it is essential to remember that what is recorded here is a vision. That does not mean that the events recounted here are unrelated to reality. For instance, the destruction of Jerusalem that Ezekiel witnessed was the foreshadowing of the very real destruction of that city by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. But it does mean that are not directly related to historical events. The six armed guards represent the Babylonian forces, but they are not the same as them...” (Iain M. Duguid, Ezekiel, NIVAC, p.135).
Part 2
Eze 10:2 And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight.
2Ki 25:8 And ... came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:
2Ki 25:9 And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.
“Chapter 10 opens with a continuation of the judgment scene of Ezekiel 9. There we saw the city overrun by divinely appointed executioners, scattering dead bodies in their wake as if starring I a cosmic Rambo movie. Now, on the top of the that destruction of life, follows the destruction of property. The seventh angel returns to the fray. This is a priestly figure, who in Ezekiel 9 is the sole mediator of life in the midst of the cataclysm, marking out for salvation those who sigh and mourn over the abominations of the city. This time, however, his actions are not intended for salvation but for destruction. At the Lord’s command, he takes burning coals from beneath the heavenly throne in order to burn the city to the ground (10:2). Like the city of Sodom, who Ezekiel calls Jerusalem’s sister in 16:46, Jerusalem will be burned up by fire from in high.
“Ezekiel is here simply giving us a glimpse behind the scenes at the cosmic realities that underlie history. When the physical Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar and was raised to the ground in 586 B.C., the Babylonians were nothing more than the human instruments in the hands of an angry God...” (Iain M. Duguid, Ezekiel, NIVAC, p.146-47).
Well the fact is, He isn't. HWA's wet dream is NOT going to come to pass. Germany is NOT Assyria, it is Nordic, just as the Swiss.
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