We should all know by now that Living Church of God members are FAR more special than anyone else in the world. Those trained under Herbert Armstrong and Rod Meredith are privileged to have the inside track of hidden knowledge that somehow no one else was able to discover for 1,900 years. And, if you are in the Living Church of God you are even more special!
Though they may be special, apparently, some LCG members are not as "called" as they think they are. They are becoming lax and lukewarm in understanding. Plus, if you do not fully believe the Living Church of God's version of the old covenant holy day demands, then you are unconverted. Satan has BLINDED your eyes! Dang it, they pesky dude gets blamed for EVERYTHING that goes wrong in the LCG.
Doug Winnail
Thankful for the Truth? The Sabbath and the Holy Days are good times to reflect on an important question: How thankful are you for the Truth? It is easy to take the Truth for granted if you are a long-time member, or if you have grown up in the Church. Yet, Jesus said that no one can come to a real understanding of the Truth unless they are called and their minds are opened to see the big picture (John 6:44, 65). God calls us through the power of His Holy Spirit—which is described as “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16–17) and which “will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13) if we are willing to be “led by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16–18). The capacity to understand the plan of God as pictured by the Holy Days, the purpose of life, and the true way of life is a gift imparted by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) that God is making available to only a few at this time (1 Corinthians 1:26–28). These precious truths are a mystery to most people (1 Corinthians 2:6–12) because Satan—“the god of this age”—has blinded their eyes (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). Jesus said it is an incredible privilege to be given an understanding of God’s Truth (Matthew 13:10–17). The Apostle Paul said that to be called out of darkness into the light of the Truth is something to be extremely thankful for (Ephesians 5:8–20). Let’s never forget to be thankful for the opportunity to understand God’s precious Truth.
Have a profitable Sabbath and Holy Day,
Douglas S. Winnail
12 comments:
I still say that LCG is no fun without good old Spanky…
Punch out and go home, Charlottens!
Yes, I'm thankful but it's not because I'm a Christian. It's because the truth set me free and so I left.
No more answering to the unfriendly ministers, elders and the SS.
"led by the spirit" in these splinters doesn't mean God directly leading a Christian, but rather a middleman minister dictating "God's will" to the members. It's the Catholic Church doctrine. Otherwise these churches would be writing articles or giving sermons on how recognize God's lead in ones life. Which they historically never have or never will.
They give lip service to one thing, then do the opposite.
Go and read your newest audited financial statements, LCGers! Last year, your leaders spent just 34 percent of donations on Preaching the Gospel. Your church has turned inward and lukewarm, just like all the others!
PS, when Christ died, the veil in the holy of holies split in two, giving Christians direct access to God the Father. Christ had to die to give this blessing to mankind, yet the splinters play games with this. Worse still, 'fake Christians' such as Kenneth Copeland and Joyce Myer teach the truth about God directly leading Christans. How damning is that? So Herbs Minister's put power lust and their pay packet before teaching the truth.
Even when they are writing to members in their weekly update they cannot help but talk as though the members are new to Armstrongism. Is it not amazing that they seemingly do not know how to describe their teachings without acting as tgough the reader is a beginner.
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On other matters I would like to state that back in 1964 one Gerald Flurry wrote an article about the Feast of Tabernacles in which he praised Roderick C. Meredith.
There is even a photo of him from 1964.
More may be seen here:
https://livingarmstrongism.blogspot.com/2019/06/gerald-flurry-praising-rod-meredith-in.html
The Pharisees kept the Sabbath and Holy Days too.
Membership cards, and membership roles actually mean little in reality. What really counts is what one does "behind closed doors", in "ones mind" and in private, where only the Good God dares to know about us.
Sadly, most of us are found wanting in that department, so glorying in our "righteousness" and being in "the right church" is somewhat futile. Thankfully, there is the ever amazing grace and mercy of God, or all of us are doomed.
I noticed that while he quoted Jesus a couple of times, and talked about the Spirit leading into all truth, he left out quite an important scripture in John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, “*I* am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."
While Jesus gets mentioned in the cogs from time to time, He is usually not treated as "the" truth as they claim to seek and actually already have that 'truth'. It reminds me how Jesus told the Jews that they search the scriptures, (OT), looking for eternal life while those scriptures pointed to HIM, and He was right there. It seems like that continues to this day within the cogs who claim to have all that truth that is so important and makes them so special.
The Armstrong churches see themselves as the new chosen people. So of course they are better than everyone else. The attitude comes from the mother cult of Judaism.
How odd of God To choose the Jews.
-- SAMUEL HOFFENSTEIN (Jew).
The JEW against the Goy is allowed to rape, cheat and perjure himself.
-- TALMUD: Babba Kama.
TOB SHEBBE GOYIM HAROG! (The best of the Gentiles is to be killed!)
-- TALMUD: Sanhedrin
The words "are called" in vs.26 of I Corinthians 1:26-28 are in italics. This is an indication that those words were not included in the original Greek. Vs. 27 and 28 show that it is the "choosing" that Paul is referencing, and not the "calling". In order to be saved we must be called, chosen, and faithful.(Revelation 17:14) "For many are called, but few are chosen" says Matthew 22:14. Acts 17:30 states that God commands "all men, everywhere, to repent."
The difference between being called and being chosen has to do with one's willingness to turn to God in repentance. This is why "many" are called, but "few" are chosen. Most ignore God's call to repentance, thus closing their minds to true knowledge which comes from a "fear of the Lord."(Proverbs 1:7) When we draw closer to God, He draws closer to us.(James 4:8) And, contrary to common COG teaching, we do get more than "one chance" to answer God's call as demonstrated in Romans 11:17-31. Israel was rejected by God because of their "unbelief"(vs.20), but God has the capacity to "graft them in again", if they do not continue in their unbelief.
Winnail is simply continuing the teaching promoted by HWA that only a "few" are "called". One could argue that he, and others are teaching their own version of Gnosticism, maintaining that "special" or "mystical" "knowledge" is given when God somehow flips some magical switch in our heads, thus "opening" our minds, and He only does this for a few, while leaving the rest of mankind in a state of ignorance until some later time. In the mean time we are to preach the gospel as a "witness" because God intends to "punish" those who through no fault of their own are unable to understand the warning we give, because God hasn't "opened their minds" to the "truth", and has allowed them to remain "blinded by Satan".
While this teaching may be slightly preferable to the Protestant or Catholic teaching of heaven and hell, it has some major flaws. First of all this would make God a respecter of persons, which He is not.(Acts 10:34) Secondly, this teaching denies the fact that upon the death of Jesus the veil of the temple was ripped in two, giving all of mankind access to God through Jesus Christ who is now our High Priest, rather than any human or institution.(John 3:16, Matthew 27:50-51, Hebrews 4:14-16) Thirdly, it makes God out to be some sort of masochistic monster, giving mankind a message they have no ability to understand and a warning they have no ability to heed. We of the "called few" however can smugly rest assured that "we" will be saved, since we have done our duty in giving the warning, and maintain our arrogance in our "knowledge" of the "truth". As alluded to above, we have joined the right club, or the "true church".
Instead of preaching a gospel motivated by a love for our fellow man and a desire to share the "good news", we preach a warning message out of duty, so God will not hold their blood over our heads and to save our own skins. We have completely missed the point. The Jews have a traditional prayer that goes something like this... "Blessed are you, O God, King of the Universe, who has not made me a gentile, a slave, or a woman." While we may not completely agree with this sentiment, we are no less self righteous in our proclamation of "Thank you O God, for placing me in your one true church (insert which ever group you happen to belong to), whose leader you have given sole access to more truth than the others, so that he might share it with us, your called few. And thanks for not making me a Protestant, Catholic, unclean sinner, or member of XYZ COG who meets across town."
Concerned Sister
How dare you insult the one true church!!!
Or at least one of the 400 one true churches.
At least we are the ones who preach the gospel better than the others.
Or at least we used to.
Plus we follow Jesus command to love one another as He loved us - except for the other 399 churches who are not as righteous as us.
Plus we have a wise and experienced council of elders with over 800 years of experience who can answer your questions when your foolish minds cannot understand what you read in the Bible.
We can tell you what scriptures do not really mean what they say - like the dead Samuel appearing to King Saul - does not really mean that. Or under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" - the Bible really does not say that - they are dead I tell you dead - don't believe the Bible, believe US!!!
The vision of the transfiguration - Moses and Elijah are dead - this was just a hallucination.
Listen to us and you will never go wrong.
Remember the wise words of Job:
“You people really know everything, don’t you? And when you die, wisdom will die with you!"
Pay attention to us until we are dead and do not need your money anymore.
We have the truth!
Seriously? The authors of the Bible thought that we lived in a dome, that weather phenomena was a blessing/cursing from God, and that all mankind only came from two people. There was no understanding of cells, DNA, or atoms. Our greatest advancements have come from utilizing the scientific method.
The "truth" is we have much to discover about ourselves, the universe, and the world, and constantly going over a book written thousands of years ago offers little in the way of new insights and understanding.
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