Did you know that the Living Church of God is the most loving COG because they keep correct doctrine? Because of that love, we also know that LCG has true disciples! Amazing!
Every few years the leadership of the Living Church of God has to remind its members that they are to be loving towards one another and be reminded that the top leadership truly loves them. Never has there been a Church of God that loves its members more!
Remember that love? That love that was shown the Scarborough's when LCG maligned them and publicly sought to humiliate them? What about the love that just oozes from Rod McNair's fingertips? We have seen LCG members share stories of that love on this blog over the last 8 years and it has not been very loving!
Gerald Weston has this to say about love, correct doctrine, and the LCG.
Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). This is a powerful statement and should not be minimized. However, contrary to what many profess, love is more than a warm feeling in one’s heart. It involves sacrifice and caring actions toward God and toward our fellow man.The Church of God has always sought to demonize Christians outside the small circle of the Armstrong Churches of God. They never measure up to the glorious standards that LCG or the COG sets. All others are "fake" or so-called" Christians who "claim to profess" Christian ideals. Only real love and real truth are to be found within the ACOG movement.
Correct doctrine is vital to the Church of God and love is at the heart of correct doctrine. After all, the Bible is an expression of the mind of God and God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). The Apostle known for his love tells us, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). So why is this subject so important that I take time to address it in this monthly letter with you dear members and co-workers?When has "correct doctrine" ever been a benchmark of the ACOG? It always claims that it is, but with 400 some different active splinter groups there are 400 different ideas on what doctrine should and should not be.
Doctrine, we might say, is simply teachings or instructions, and in this case, the teachings of the Bible. The Apostle Paul confirms that doctrine is important. He warned the Church of God at Ephesus that they “should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. . .” (Ephesians 4:14). And he urged the members in Rome to “note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them” (Romans 16:17).Doctrine is simply the teaching of Jesus. That inconvenient dude that most ACOG's have built pillars of stone upon where they have engraved the law. Jesus has never been able to crawl out from under the weight of that monument to the law, which is probably the reason most of them cannot find him.
Right doctrine is what allows us to have unity. Paul told the Corinthians that they should all speak the same thing, meaning they should be unified in the basic doctrines they were taught by Paul and other ministers of the truth (1 Corinthians 1:10). And he pointed out that we must strive to keep the unity of the faith: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).When has the Armstrong Church of God ever been unified? Rebellion and schism created it and continues to form it to this day. Unity is NOT part of the ACOG way.
As for the Living Church of God following Paul...truly laughable!
A servant of God must teach sound doctrine as found in the Bible, not ideas with roots in pagan philosophy and heathen practices. He must also be bold in proclaiming the truth and in fulfilling God’s command, “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1). We live in an age where God is despised, because this generation, especially, hates His laws. Biblical values are rejected at every turn and a totalitarian-minded elite is convincing a whole generation to do everything it can to wipe out any remembrance of God and His Word. The “culture war” is, more precisely, an assault against God.When has the Living Church of God ever "cried aloud and spared not?" They deceptively spread their version of the truth on cable and Internet stations in mediums that they whitewash their story to in order to be put online. LCG presents themselves as visions of light and glory to the stations and channels while secretly looking at them as deceived heretical fools.
Sure there are a lot of LCG members who truly do exhibit love towards others, and some even towards those outside the LCG circle, but not so much so with the leadership.
Perhaps on Pentecost, the next high day in COGland the Living Church of God leaders could instruct members to give their offerings to the local food bank or homeless shelter and go there and serve that day. That would truly be the Holy Spirit in action!
17 comments:
Our local United Church donates to the local Food Bank and another United Church I attend does a "soup kitchen" once a month. I wish we could do more but we are small, old and scattered.
Has Weston been reading the classic novel "1984",?? which has these famous quotes as philosophy...
Love is Hate
War is Peace.
Freedom Is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength
I will say this much about Gerald Weston. He lacks the personal meanness and cruelty that Rod Meredith so readily displayed. Rod Meredith would treat you nicely to the degree that you weren't under his control. Unfortunately, if you were one of his close insiders, Meredith would from time to time deliver a cruel blow "just to remind them that I'm in control." To remain one of Meredith's insiders, you had to take his occasional abuses meekly, almost: "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" A Robert Kuhn saw nothing but sweetness and light from a Meredith who wanted to hobnob with a wealthy and influential man. A Doug Winnail, however, had to accept that Meredith would routinely undermine him and poison his relationships with other church members. By all accounts, Gerald Weston is a "straight-shooter." You may find him to be a relic of 1960s Armstrongism, but if you are being straight with him, he'll usually be straight with you.
Tonto wrote:
Love is Hate
War is Peace.
Freedom Is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength
Updated for LCG (and other ACOGs):
Love is Obedience
War Is Spokesman Club
Freedom Is Tithing
Ignorance Is Mandatory
Jesus Is Hippie-Speak for Christ
Britain is Ephraim
The USA is Manasseh
LCG loves its members the way a wolf loves sheep.
Correct doctrine?
Has Gerald Weston repented of RCM's refusal to teach that competitiveness is the way of Satan? Or does he continue Meredith's practice of pitting people against each other?
Has Weston repented of teaching Doug Winnail's nutty new doctrine about the "falling away" which contradicts what WCG taught for many decades?
Has Weston repented of teaching Dick Ames' "marriage supper in heaven" doctrine, which contradicts the old Correspondence Course and several other old WCG publications, and which makes a mess of understanding the timeline of the book of Revelation?
Has Weston repented of allowing Mario Hernandez to teach several doctrines that aren't tolerated among English-speaking members of LCG?
If Weston wanted to proclaim LCG "The True Church" because of love, he could make a good case by comparing it against insane asylums like PCG and RCG. However, if doctrine is the measure of love and truth, COGWA is now much closer than LCG to the "faith once delivered."
Are ACOG leaders or their members ever capable of accessing the vast stores of wisdom which lie just beyond their collection of tired old cliches?
Unbelievable!
BB
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples:
If you tie up heavy burdens upon men's people's shoulders which you are not willing to bear.
If you fast twice a week and tithe on your mint, anise, and cumin.
If you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as the filthy cockroach that he is.
If you pluck the speck out of your neighbor's eye.
If you prophesy, cast out devils, and perform many wonderful works, all in the name of the Lord.
If you make broad your phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of your garments.
If you strain at gnats, and swallow camels.
If you are pristine and white on the outside.
If you serve both God and mammon.
If you love the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts.
I heard that Charles Bryce was so alienated from RCM that he would not even talk to him when he was still at HQ - does anyone have the inside knowledge on whether that was true?
Having spent much time at teen camps run by him, and seeing the cutting and undermining having gone on, I would have to disagree.
Why would anyone have to repent of these things you mention? I’m no fan of LCG or Weston, but all you’ve mentioned is that he’s spoken things different from old WCG stuff, which last I checked is not scripture!
And as far as LCG/COGWA; that’s like trying to sell dog crap and horse crap...one may be more beneficial than the other, but at the end of the day, they’re both still just crap XD
Biblical values are rejected at every turn and a totalitarian-minded elite is convincing a whole generation to do everything it can to wipe out any remembrance of God and His Word.
Weston wants LCG members to wipe out any remembrance of what HWA taught, so they'll fall for LCG's new doctrines. Weston also write:
Right doctrine is what allows us to have unity.
Why, then, does Weston uphold newly invented doctrines that keep LCG dis-united from other ACOGs that won't accept the foolish changes away from what HWA taught? Weston wants just enough dis-unity to let him have a separate ACOG to rule, but not so much dis-unity that other people separate themselves from him.
The problem is, if you start with crap, and then you modify crap, you still have crap. HWA was crap. If folks think they are “getting back” by recapturing vintage HWA at 1956, ‘66, ‘76, or ‘86, they still have nothing but worthless garbage.
BB
His fundamental error is that unity is dependent on doctrinal alignment. It is not. "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" is about agreeing to walk together. Unity is based on commitment --- the decision to be unified.
HWA should not be the standard by which truth should be measured. Jesus Christ should be the standard we hold ourselves and others up to. Human beings are flawed and fallen creatures, and even the best of them make mistakes and get things wrong. The problem is that instead of pointing to Jesus Christ as our standard and true head and source of truth, we have substituted a man who has been dead for 30 years and made him our standard, or we have substituted one of his successors/hirelings to fill the gap for us. If Jesus Christ is the vine and we are the branches then it is our job as Christians to study the Bible and prove for ourselves whether someone is telling us the truth, is in error, or just trying to sell us a line. Reading articles and booklets does not constitute proof of anything if you do not measure what is said against the Bible, and in some cases other primary sources. Unfortunately most who came into the church simply read the booklets they were handed and thought they had "proven" the truth. As long as we allow others to do our thinking for us, we are not true followers of Christ, but merely followers of men. We have not learned to rightly divide the word of truth if we continue to allow others to spoon feed us as if we were babies. Most of the leaders of the various COG groups are frankly more interested in keeping people loyal to their own respective corporate organizations and promoting themselves then developing true disciples of Jesus Christ who learn to function as a spiritual body and grow together in grace and knowledge, which is a process that requires working together, forgiving one another, and being patient and merciful with each other. As a result we have corporate organizations both larger and smaller whose leaders separate the brethren and pit themselves against each other with each claiming to be more right or doctrinally pure than the others. What you see when you look at them each individually however, is that some have gone completely off the deep end, while others may be more or less balanced in one area or another depending on the personality and weaknesses of their respective leaders. The body is dysfunctional and does not work together because while the leaders pay lip service to pointing to Jesus as the head of the body, they have usurped His position and have claimed headship for themselves, making themselves the standard by which truth is measured and either directly or indirectly implying that to listen to or fellowship with others would be to compromise the "truth".
Concerned sister
Anonymous 1:28 PM,
Exceptionally well said. I wish more COG-ers would understand what you've said here.
Anon 1:28 Yes, well said. The COGs have carefully crafted their beliefs on paper so as to be able to claim a teaching that can be argued more broadly when necessary than they really believe or teach. But, doctrine is not what you write down as your beliefs it is what you actually teach and practice.
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