The one thing the Church of God is missing...
For decades in the Church of God movement knowledge only flowed from above, through the apostle, to the ministry and finally to the sheep. Knowledge NEVER came from the sheep upwards. Many tried through the decades and swiftly found themselves blackballed and disfellowshipped. How presumptuous of them to know more than the apostle!
Preaching the Gospel has this up:
Some of the human leadership of the Church of God has managed to build a culture of hostility to new knowledge at a very time when there is a desperate need for new knowledge in the Church of God.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children" (Hosea 4:6).
Could this apply to the Church of God today?
I have said there is a desperate need for new knowledge in the Church. What is that need? What do we need God to teach us that we do not already know?
I will mention three examples, though I could probably list many more. All three relate to problems in the Church of God, problems the ministry and membership do not know how to deal with. We need knowledge from God and from His word the Bible in how to remedy these situations, knowledge we apparently do not have.The first point he mentions is addiction in the church. That one certainly is true. Alcoholism is a huge problem in the Church of God movement and always has been. Working in Pasadena for three decades exposed me to the rampant alcohol abuse of ministers and members, but particularly with the ministers. For many years I got assigned to work the ministerial dining room during the Feast. What an eye-opening experience that was! Watching ministers have to be almost carried out of the room because they were drunk was a shocking thing to see.
One is the problem of addiction in the Church. Some baptized Church of God members struggle with addictions to sins, addictions they have struggled with unsuccessfully for years and have still not overcome. These could be addictions to alcohol, drugs, sexual sin, gambling, over-eating, and many other things. In vain you may search a sermon list of a Church of God fellowship for a sermon series on how to overcome addiction with messages that are truly effective in helping members overcome their addictions. Why do ministers avoid this topic? Is it because they think addiction is not a problem? Unlikely. More likely, they do not have an answer, so they avoid the subject.They don't talk about it because they themselves are addicts. Others don't talk because their close friends are and they don't want to expose them. Decades ago, a local minister in Pasadena knew there was a problem with alcohol in the church and sought to do something about it. He knew how AA had helped many in the local community to maintain sobriety. He started working with other churches and AA leaders to start a program. It even made the news in Pasadena, until some jealous pissant at HQ went running to HWA about it. Considering HWA had an alcohol problem himself, he wasn't about to see this succeed, special when it came to cooperating with other religious organizations.
The Church needs new knowledge from the Bible on the subject of how members can overcome their addictions, knowledge that really gets results and bears good fruit.What new knowledge from the Bible is going to change people in the church from being alcoholics? Sometimes the best thing they need to is to stop listing to self-appointed church guru's and take advantage of the myriad of groups that deal with this day in and day out. Those resources will do far more to assist church members than any "new knowledge" sought from the Bible that some minister newly discovers!
The next source of needed new knowledge is on how to get the gospel of Herbert Armstrong out into the world like he did. Not one single group today is even approaching the number of things HWA did in promoting his beliefs. No world leaders are being contacted, no interesting TV programs are being produced that draw in members, nothing like this is being done by ANY COG leader today, no matter how much they squawk that they are.
Another problem is the lack of a wide-open door for preaching the gospel. Yes, the door is still open, but only a crack. We have had plenty of time since the breakup of Worldwide for faithful remnants of the Church to grow and become strong. But God has not given us a wide-open door as He gave Mr. Armstrong. Magazine circulation in the old days was about 7,000,000 or more, and growth in members and income for a time was about 30% a year. Now, typically for one of the larger organizations, magazine circulation is only about 250,000 or 300,000. Growth in membership and income is small, maybe less than 5% a year. Why? Why is the work not growing faster? At this rate, we will never get the work done in time.Since the Worldwide Church of God imploded, the COG movement has been overwhelmed with so many splinter groups that are lead by narcissistic men who refuse to release control or cooperate with other COG's. None of them have even tried to find a "wide open door" to get their message through. Their TV programs are boring as hell. Their magazines keep recycling articles from the mother church or something their guru wrote 20 - 40 years ago. None of them have ever effectively imitated HWA and the WCG no matter how hard they try. And...never will.
The Church needs new knowledge from the Bible on what changes the leadership and membership need to make in order for God to bless us with a wide-open door for preaching the gospel and the Ezekiel warning to Israel and the world. We have about 500 million people or more just in the nations of Israel to reach with that message, and we have barely scratched the surface. Blood guilt is on our heads - we become murderers in God's sight - if we fail to get that message out (Ezekiel 3:18). We talk endlessly about the sins of the nation - how 60 million or more unborn children have been murdered - but we do not consider that God may put the deaths of 500 million people on our heads if we don't warn them in time.Since the church has spent 80 some years ignoring Jesus and anything he accomplished, how can we expect them to start now? 500 million people in Israelite nations do not need to hear more Armstrongite nonsense. What good has it ever wrought? Look at the mess it is today. It is like a harlot laying in a drunken stupor in the gutter, totally helpless and lost. 500 million people do NOT need the message that supposedly is lost by the present COG movement.
The third area he sees is the need for the church to have more "healings" in it.
A third area is healing. We have far fewer cases of miraculous healing than we had in Mr. Armstrong's day, especially in the early days of the work God did through him. Why? God is the same (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8). What are we doing wrong? We need to know. We don't know now, but we need to learn, and we need to learn the answer from God's word, the Bible, just as we learn all our doctrinal knowledge from the Bible.The countless splinter groups out there today are filled with vain narcissistic men who are not about to give up their little empires to cooperate with other COG's. It just irritates the hell out of all of them when too much Jesus enters the picture. God forbid if any member asked about grace, justification, and the things of the new covenant because living under the heavy thumb of the law has left them broken and wanting.
Yet, at the very time when the Church needs to learn new knowledge from God and His word, the Bible, many in the Church of God are busy building a culture that is against learning anything new. Members who come to the ministry to learn more of the truth of God and who want to learn something they did not know before and not just be reminded of old knowledge are rebuked instead of instructed. Those who want to learn something new are belittled. Those ministers or members who have ideas they want to share with the ministry - ideas for new knowledge they feel they have discovered in the Bible - are warned not to focus on new ideas. Their ideas are rejected outright, sometimes without any real examination, not because they are wrong, but only because they are different from the present traditions of the Church.This applies to Bob Thiel, James Malm, Dave Pack, Vic Kubik, Gerald Flurry, and all the other legalistic self-appointed leaders who have set themselves up as God's most important men. Until the members kick these sorry men to the curb, they will NEVER be free.
The writer then makes this comment:
There is a myth in the Church that goes around that says that correction only comes from the top down. This is true if the correction means discipline or punishment or taking authoritative action. In God's way of life, correction in that sense only comes from the top down. But there is another kind of correction that comes in the form of respectful suggestions and advice given in private (whether asked for or not), and that does not always come from the top down.When has church members voices EVER been heard in the Church of God? From Herbert Armstrong on down to every single splinter group leader out there today, there has never been a single one of them that ever considered any suggestions or advice from the membership.
The writer then goes on to mock the Church of God Seventh Day for their so-called empty works because they refused some of Herbert Armstrong's demands to change their beliefs.:
Read Mr. Armstrong's autobiography. When he first came into the Church of God Seventh Day, he came as a lay member, not an apostle. He had not been ordained as a minister. Yet he offered doctrinal suggestions, suggestions that Church of God Seventh Day leadership did not accept and teach. One was the identity of the lost tribes of Israel. The other was a matter Mr. Armstrong did not identify in his autobiography, except that it was a correction to an error in Church of God Seventh Day teachings. My guess is that it was about our need to observe God's annual holy days and festivals.The Church of God Seventh Day is doing a far better job of spreading the gospel than any COG is doing today. At least they focus upon Jesus, which the COG does not.
But that Church rejected the new knowledge God was revealing through Mr. Armstrong, a lay member.
And God rejected that Church from doing a powerful work.
Why?
The person or group to do a powerful work, the person or group to whom God would reveal lost knowledge, had to say to the public, "Don't believe me, don't believe any man, believe God, believe your Bible". Why? Because the people who would hear the message were raised in false traditions. They had to reject their traditions and believe the Bible.
The Church of God Seventh Day could not be used by God to preach that message because they weren't living it. They did not reject their traditions to believe the Bible. They rejected new knowledge - new knowledge God offered them through a lay member, Mr. Armstrong - in order to keep the traditions of their organization. In this they were like the Pharisees
Read Mr. Armstrong's autobiography. When he first came into the Church of God Seventh Day, he came as a lay member, not an apostle. He had not been ordained as a minister. Yet he offered doctrinal suggestions, suggestions that Church of God Seventh Day leadership did not accept and teach. One was the identity of the lost tribes of Israel. The other was a matter Mr. Armstrong did not identify in his autobiography, except that it was a correction to an error in Church of God Seventh Day teachings. My guess is that it was about our need to observe God's annual holy days and festivals.
But that Church rejected the new knowledge God was revealing through Mr. Armstrong, a lay member.
And God rejected that Church from doing a powerful work.
Why?Herbert Armstrong, even back then, was a loudmouth who demanded that his "new " understanding be accepted because he said so. He never really sat down with any of them to explain things in detail and have a decent conversation. His bloviating narcissism did not allow him to ever back down, even when they exposed his demands as wrong.
British Israelism has been so thoroughly debunked that no New Covenant Christian ever needs to concern themselves with the topic. COG groups cannot stop teaching it because of they do then their entire belief system falls apart and they would lose control of their members.
Besides, COG7 has never been rejected. They do fa ar better "work" with their members than ANY Church of God group does today.
The person or group to do a powerful work, the person or group to whom God would reveal lost knowledge, had to say to the public, "Don't believe me, don't believe any man, believe God, believe your Bible". Why? Because the people who would hear the message were raised in false traditions. They had to reject their traditions and believe the Bible.This has proven to be a load of crap in the church. The "don't believe me, believe your Bible" was never taken seriously in the COG. The top-down leadership considered the members too stupid to understand the Bible and therefore had to interpret it for them with hundreds of letters, articles, booklets, books, etc., specifically spelled out how members were to beleive as all the material proof-texted the Bible to fit the narrative the church needed to promote in order to be "called out". as special in the eyes of the members.
The Church of God Seventh Day could not be used by God to preach that message because they weren't living it. They did not reject their traditions to believe the Bible. They rejected new knowledge - new knowledge God offered them through a lay member, Mr. Armstrong - in order to keep the traditions of their organization. In this they were like the Pharisees who favored their traditions over the word of God (Matthew 15:1-9).What absolute nonsense!
The Church of God desperately needs new knowledge from God and His word, the Bible. And God can reveal that new knowledge through any ministers or members He chooses, just as He revealed new knowledge from the Bible to Mr. Armstrong before Mr. Armstrong started a new work or was ordained as a minister. God can do this by opening our minds to see what has been in the Bible all along, but we have not noticed it.
God does this through His Holy Spirit and through His word, the Bible. God speaks to us directly in the Bible, and through His Holy Spirit He helps us understand the Bible, one part at a time. And as we believe and try to obey what God reveals to us, He reveals more. But if we disbelieve, the help to understand stops, or is diminished.
This is how a Church of God fellowship can spiritually die. To be alive means to grow, in knowledge, in numbers, in power to do God's work. But if that organization builds an atmosphere of hostility and antagonism towards new knowledge, that is the exact opposite of an atmosphere of faith that believes what God says in the Bible when God teaches us something new.There is not one single member of the COG that needs new knowledge through some minister. We have an 80 some year history of the church destroying members lives by the ministery and leadership. Why continue this farce?
God gave Church of God Seventh Day time to repent. Mr. Armstrong fellowshipped with them for about seven years before he separated to do a Philadelphia work. But they did not use that time to repent and accept new knowledge from the Bible.This is the same crap that Bob Thiel spews out today. He claims he gave rod Meredith and LCG plenty fo time to correct their mistakes that he claimed they had in order to believe what he believes. Meredith knew Thiel was a blithering idiot at times and refused to bow down to him. Meredith had to publicly rebuke Thiel for his utter nonsense.
In fact, God may already not be pleased and may be withholding from us the power to bring more people in for that very reason. He sees our hypocrisy, and He sees that we offend new people by our double-standard, and so He is not bringing them into the Church of God in any great numbers right now.It has been quite obvious for 24-years now that God is not pleased with the Church of God. Never in the entire history of the church has the COG movement been so disjointed and filled with so many self-serving men whoa re deliberately lying to their members.
The Armstrong version of the Church of God will NEVER be a great work again. It thankfully is impossible. No COG leader will ever do this.
The only two commands that Christians need to heed. Not one thing more. Sadly, neither of these two simple commands are evident in any of the COG's today. They cannot love each other so how can they love God?
Love is not enough. To get anything done you need an army of tithe paying suckers.
ReplyDeleteHWA used to go on and on about "agape" love and having "outgoing concern" for your fellow man. All he meant though, is that you the tithepayer should have "outgoing concern" for your fellow tithe recipient, himself most of all.
ReplyDeleteStill, I don't know that love is the only thing WCG lacked, and the COGs still lack today, but I'd be fine with it being #1 on the top 10 list of things they lack.
UCG has been taking on addictions for several years with its "Breaking Free" series online. The link is under the "blogs" tab.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly it doesn't get promoted much these days - perhaps because Melvin Rhodes played a big role in starting it, before he was sacked.
And how can you call Victor Kubik "self-appointed", when the UCG Council of Elders reviewed him and voted on him again this year?
This should be sobering to anyone who ever imagined that members of the Deity actually had anything to do with the Armstrong movement. The “fruits” (bad ones) that Preaching the Gospel demonstrates have always been part of the movement, and should have been huge neon redflags for us or the parents who went off the deep end and dragged us in.
ReplyDeleteIn certain ways, the thinking patterns of WCG/HWA/AC+splinters are a microcosm for all groups who have ever allowed partisan “collectors of people” to take over and do their thinking.
What a Labor Day weekend we are all about to have, knowing that this past week presents a very sad and dramatic case in point! Surf’s up in Greenland, as young people don their swimming attire and take to the beaches for some summer fun! Meanwhile, Southern hemisphere Native Americans are losing their ancestral home turf to record-breaking fires in the Amazon rain forests. At least we need not worry about our Floridian brethren who have become all too accustomed to Cat 4 hurricanes in recent years. The irony is that this past week, POTUS, who is in dire need of, but totally resistant to, reeducation, has relaxed methane (the most devastating greenhouse gas) emission standards in our oil fields and has taken to Twitter to castigate the huge multinational oil companies who refuse to join the ranks of his fellow ostriches
As people become more partisan and polarized, those of us with balance in the middle become codependent to the extremism of the see-saw of the idealogues as it alternates between upward and downward positions. At least in Armstrongism the see saw was eternally held in the downward or negative position!
BB
I personally have a deep concern for the people attracted to those who have leadership skills that are not living by the biblical standards and teaching the fullness the love that reflective of God's love revealed by Jesus Christ. The problem I see is that God has not given me the power to do a job that only He can do.
ReplyDeleteSince God has not given any indication that He wants me to point out the flaws and failings that I have not been involved in or can take any action that move the mountains of sinful behavior the best I can do is be an example of His Love in my little world of life. Sincerely ASB
RL
ReplyDeleteKubik and crew felt they were the true men to start a new church to carry on the "truth" that WCG was "rejecting." They plotted and schemed for months on end while in the employ of the WCG. They met regularly in 360 Apartments on campus where several of them lived. The entire organization was self-appointed to start their own church, which did later elect the men that they wanted in charge, not men qualified, but men who would toe the party line to ensure that the tithes and offerings came with them. Every single COG group out there today is led by men who self-appointed themselves up as the end-all prophet to lead the church into glory.
The sheer ignorance is truly amazing to me what people think and say about Church of God (Seventh Day). After ridding itself of the narcissist, Dugger in 1948, the COG7D grew steadily from 10,000 members in 1948 to 400,000 presently. All without scandal and a cult structure. LCG has 9,000 members and combined with COGWA, UCG and PCG, they might total 30,000. The problem with WCG and its splinters is they bought into the idea that the "work" was Matthew 24:14 when the real work much of Christianity figured out long ago is Matthew 25:31-46.
ReplyDeleteA follow up to my comment a few minutes ago.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting thing from my notes of HLH in 1984, this time on October 17: "'What do we [the WCG] believe about the world before Adam?' The Church does not take a stand. Mr HWA does not want to get involved, so we may do our own study & draw our own conclusions, remembering that is our beliefs & not the Church's."
Why didn't WWCG and its splinters address the issue of alcoholism? Likewise, a high percentage of members are domineering and exploitative, yet I've never heard a sermon our read a church article on this problem. Instead there's the odd article on gym etiquette. Reading such an article, an outsider would think that the church has mastered the basics and is now only concerned with details.
ReplyDeleteThe reason serious problems are not addressed is fear of offending the tithe payers. The people who pay for the ministers comfortable lifestyle. So it's a policy of not rocking the boat and instead telling the members "smooth things." That such a policy might do harm to members salvation is ignored. Minister comfort comes first, and the members can go eat cake.
This is like king Saul, who disobeyed Gods instructions because he feared the people.
the whole "one man at the top" leadership plan is bogus....it's just a version of the Roman Catholic system.
ReplyDeleteGod doesn't work through only one man, and as far as I can tell He never has.
the idea that HWA was the physical head of the Church on earth has led to the idolatry practiced by the many COGs today....the man is idolized whether any will admit it or now. (if you don't believe me, say something negative about him after services and watch what happens)
there is absolutely no reason to quote the writings of HWA in a sermon....if his writing is accurate, then the idea is in the bible...so use the bible passages and let HWA rest in peace, and put a stop to the idolatry.
thankfully this is not a big problem in the group I am associated with, but there are a few that think he hung the moon.
the cogs have yet to master the "old knowledge": focus on the simplicity of Chrsit, and the Way, before you pursue any "new knowledge"...
ReplyDeletec f ben yochanan
please stop censoring me. .
Anyone remember HWA's statement - only the true church (or something like this) will admit to being wrong and change?
ReplyDelete(Of course there was some serious damage control over the admission he totally screwed up the counting of Pentecost because he used his understanding of KJV English instead of the original Hebrew, and the disastrous divorce and remarriage doctrine.)
Has any of the current COGs been willing to admit any errors?
I tried and gave up on questioning leaders about why we did not follow scriptural instructions - such as to avoid schisms, and start working together with other COGs, as well as omissions of early church practices.
The answers I received was it was the other COGs fault or not our policy.
As far as DNA goes - same as Carbon-14 dating - they don't believe it.
The Bible is the inerrant word of God, except for the many scriptures they explain away.
To Stoned:
ReplyDeleteCOG7 may not have had a "scandal." But it came awfully close to a breakdown at a General Conference several years ago:
https://cog7.org/churchright/Churchright_Images/Churchright-11-5-August-September-Eng.pdf
It's also had some local splits through the years - like after someone offered a rap music selection during a service in Kansas City.
I just came across an article that described competition 'as a precess of creative discovery. This explains Herbs frequent railing against competition. After all, how dare anyone turn their creative discovery against his religious dogmas.
ReplyDeleteYet it's creative discoveries like the smartphone that has given religious organisations the opportunity to reach millions of poor people in countries like India.
Mocking COG7 for rejecting knowledge. Funny, WCG never allowed anyone to discuss doctrinal issues. We just supposed to have parked our brains in the corner when we read the Correspondence Course and then just have that funnel in our head that HWA was so fond of mocking.
ReplyDeleteThe selling point of British Israelism for me was imagining what the world would look like without Britain and the USA. The other selling point has been revealed over the last few decades with how much the liberal progressive worldview is threatened by it.
ReplyDelete"As people become more partisan and polarized, those of us with balance in the middle become codependent to the extremism of the see-saw of the idealogues"
ReplyDeleteHilarious!!!!!