Of course, we know the answer to that question. Herbert Armstrong and his spiritual guru, Rod Meredith, taught him well. Having spent most of his life in a church that proclaimed itself superior to all others and that claimed to have the answer to EVERYTHING spiritual and most of all represented "original Christianity" why shouldn't we expect him to always act like a self-righteous jerk?
Weston recently wrote an article for the Living Church of God News about "Why are we here?".
In typical Church of God fashion, he mocks other Christians and people outside the LCG as inferior to the superior LCG members. He starts off by mocking Christians and others because of funerals. As we are all well aware of by now, due to the many years we spent in Armstrongism the church always thought they held the monopoly of the proper way to conduct funerals and what to say.
Westons says:
Funerals tell us a lot about how people think. Family members often speak emotionally of the deceased, while others tell humorous anecdotes as a means of coping with their emotions at such a difficult time. When one tries to discuss the big questions of life and death, however, most who are not of God’s people sit there bored, looking down or off into space.I have to say that the many funerals I have been to outside the COG have been far more loving, gracious and God-centered that most of the bunk I heard in COG funerals and memorials where ministers mocked heaven and other Christian beliefs.
Weston continues to mock them with this:
Deep down, people do want to know “what it’s all about,” but most do not think there is a real answer. “Heaven” does not excite them. Clerics of various persuasions try to make their ideas about the afterlife sound exciting, but although they rarely agree with each other, they even less often consider that the deceased have a productive future ahead. But you and I understand what most do not. Why would God create beings to go where there is nothing productive to do? To most outside God’s Church, the afterlife is what I often call a “candy store in the sky” or some kind of celestial LSD trip. For Roman Catholics and many others, it may be the so-called “beatific vision”—staring into the face of God for eternity—that brings supreme happiness and satisfies all our longings. But is this what God is doing—creating beings to find final happiness just staring into His face for eternity?And yet Weston and his cronies believe they are going to become a god as God is God, which is just as ludicrous as people floating around on clouds playing harps for eternity.
Weston then goes on to talk about his finding of the "truth" and the kingdom of God. Weston and most in Armstrongims love to claim that Christians never talk about the kingdom of God that is expected to come. I have heard more said about that kingdom by Christians I am in contact with than I have EVER heard ministers and members ever talk about on a personal level.
When I was first beginning to understand the Truth, I thought the difference between Heaven and the Kingdom of God was only a matter of location. Rather than exist up in the sky, Heaven would come here on earth. I certainly never thought that my reward would be to stare into God’s face forever, but my ideas were vague and, frankly, not exciting. Heaven, though, certainly seemed like the better of the two options, and attending church services seemed to be essential to reaching the better alternative.He continues, with the typical smug COG belief
We should all know that the Gospel is about the Kingdom of God, and that Christ is central to the Gospel message. The good news is that His Kingdom is coming, and that we can be born into it. Christ, the King, is the way into that Kingdom (John 14:6). The Bible is an expression of His will, and it shows us what our part in the Kingdom will be. But let us not get ahead of the story.The sad part with Armsgtrongism is that
If the COG and LCG are filled with such glorious knowledge that is unknown to Christians, then why are so many in the Church of God so miserable? Church members are leaving the groups in droves. Others are driven to suicide, perversions and even murder. Why would any real Christian ever what to be in a kingdom governed by these people?
19 comments:
Growing up with a loving family, in my younger years, I looked forward to heaven as a time when the family would continue, but without all of the earthly problems, sorrows, and illnesses humans face. God and Jesus were our friends who were watching over us, rooting for us, and making sure we'd all get there. Yes, this is a simplistic view from the mind of a child, but I was certainly never left wanting more. My psychological and emotional needs were being met, and I felt secure, as children are supposed to feel. That was a very good space in time.
As Armstrongism came into our lives, I never really felt excited about it. I felt trapped. God and Jesus became horrible ogres who were going to see that the Germans tortured, enslaved and killed the relatives whom I loved if they weren't "called" to be part of HWA's church. The more we got into the minutiae about being forced as our "reward" to be rulers who taught and enforced all of this horrible stuff on everybody on the planet, the more I began to wish that I'd never been born. It wasn't a bed of roses growing up under the church's childrearing doctrines either.
So, the sun went behind the clouds for a number of years. I did not become excited about life again until the movement failed the acid test which it had imposed, and then got into all of their lying and backpedaling in an attempt to explain it all away. I did not quit early, and easily, either. I already had a pretty good idea in 1972 that the church had been a fraud, but hung in there until 1975 to be absolutely sure. Here we are, nearly 45 years after the fact, and I was able to regroup and live a pretty darned nice life.
What could possibly cause someone to be excited over the afterlife Armstrongism teaches? And it's not that the sabbath, holy days, and dietary laws are bad, because there are many very happy Jews who love these. Customs are customs. It is how you use them that determines their effect. And, in Armstrongism, the badness is rooted in the totalitarian governance, disproportionate punishment, elitism, spying and ratting, the destruction of joy normally found in style and the music of the common man, the constant fear of hovering, malignant ministers, diminishment of anything normally considered pleasurable, the destruction of hope for any sort of future in this life, and yes, racism.
The stupid funerals in Armstrongism are impersonal recruitment tools as much as the booklets, broadcasts, and magazines. When we left the cult in 1975, my brothers and I made a pact that we would never allow each others' bodies to fall into the hands of our parents or relatives still in the church, or the ministers. We kept that pact once already, and If somehow I end up being the last one standing, I'll sign up for the Neptune Society so fast it'll make everyone's head spin. If we've done our jobs properly, perhaps by then the few relatives still in the splinters will have left.
The preceding was a message of hope from
BB
I went to ACOG funerals.
They where cold, without any emotion, no feeling's of loss, no love, completely callousness.
These groups are not made up of normal people. This is why it is so easy to leave behind these satanic groups.There is no real loss.
Weston wrote:
Deep down, people do want to know “what it’s all about,” but most do not think there is a real answer.
BULL$**T!
Most people have figured out that the real answer doesn't involve keeping some but not all of the OT laws, nor does it involve giving your money to an organization that does very little of the on-the-ground help of neighbor that Jesus taught and did. Most people have figured out that God would never reveal new truth through a vain failed salesman who was too vain to cooperate with his fellow ministers, and who committed incest with his own daughter while mocking as "dumb sheep" the brethren who were faithfully giving him their tithes. Sorry, Weston, but if you recognize HWA as bogus, you know LCG doesn't have the real answer.
At the same time, most people have figured out that Weston derives his authority from his appointment by Rod Meredith, a man HWA said could not and should not ever lead a church. So, if you believe God was using HWA, you must believe God used him to warn us against RCM, which means that the real answer cannot possibly involve Weston.
Contrary to what Weston wrote, billions of people around the world, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, and others, believe they have found the real answer, and many millions believe fervently. Truly, there is no reason other than confusion or stupidity to be part of Weston's LCG, unless you are one of the insiders who is in on the con and profiting handsomely.
But is this what God is doing—creating beings to find final happiness just staring into His face for eternity?
Does Weston not realize that his comment is outright blasphemy? To say that "doing something" is more joyous than experiencing God's awesome majesty and beauty is to say that your personal activity is more wonderful than the Spirit of God, which is basically blasphemy of the Spirit and is certainly an offense against and diminution of God.
Yes, if the awesome and beautiful God tells you to do something during eternity, that something will be wonderful and joyous. But to teach that being in the presence of God is "not enough" is an alarming statement from someone claiming to be a minister.
To most outside God’s Church, the afterlife is what I often call a “candy store in the sky” or some kind of celestial LSD trip.
A candy store I can believe. But how does Weston know what an LSD trip is like? Maybe there's more to his history than his bland, Putin-like demeanor would suggest?
What Weston doesn't want to talk about is his salary!
Or the new luxury car he's driving!
Funny how these charlatans keep harping about "emergency funding", but live like kings!
WESTON WROTE: To most outside God’s Church, the afterlife is what I often call a “candy store in the sky” or some kind of celestial LSD trip
MY COMMENT: Experience in the COG was the same as "Taking candy from a AC ministerial stranger in a white windowless van", and definitely was a "celestial LSD trip" to say the least!
A few weeks ago someone noted that Weston would look very good in a Nazi uniform. What about doing a gofund me for Weston, and present him with an authentic, brand new Gestapo uniform?
Anon 5:36, Thanks for this comment. I was going to state something similar, but you stated it well. When would a minister of God grow weary of looking upon the Lord and being in His presence??
BB "diminishment of anything normally considered pleasurable, the destruction of hope for any sort of future in this life"-- so true
PT said: I went to ACOG funerals. They where cold, without any emotion, no feeling's of loss, no love, completely callousness. These groups are not made up of normal people. This is why it is so easy to leave behind these satanic groups. There is no real loss.
When I read comments like this I wonder what ACOG funerals a person has been and if there are any ministers or members viewing this blog site that have conducted funerals. In the years that I attended COG I attended and conducted funerals. Even currently I attended a funeral that was conducted by minister of the United Church of God that presented a very comforting message of a person was not and never was a ACOG congregation member. I am reasonable sure that the many if not most ministers in the WWCOG when I was a member had encouraging messages. Things may have changed in the last twenty years, but the corruptive comments that assume that all people are in satanic groups that do not fit a persons image do not know the God that I know. ASB
As a teen I was attracted to the church by the teaching we were not going to heaven but would stay on earth because heaven sounded incredibly boring.
It never occurred to me that if it was boring for me it would be boring for God.
If you were around for the 14 billion year life of the universe, what would you be doing for fun?
Weston says, " When one tries to discuss the big questions of life and death, however, most who are not of God’s people sit there bored, looking down or off into space."
He makes an assertion, but doesn't back it up. I wonder how often he has sat through funerals of those who are not in the church? Other ministers used to do the same thing, tell you how other people believe and act, yet they have spent very little time out of their WCG cocoon.
Jim wrote:
When would a minister of God grow weary of looking upon the Lord and being in His presence?
Revelation 3:12 says, about the Philadelphian church: "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more."
"Go out no more"? According to Weston, the Philadelphians get the crummiest reward of all, as they are stuck in the temple looking at God, while members of the other churches are able to get out and do stuff. Maybe Weston is a secret non-Philadelphian?
... not know the God that I know. ASB
December 26, 2019 at 10:37 AM
___________________
You don't know God if your worshiping the one in the bible.
Anon 11:37 AM, don't you get it? "Philadelphians" will be "HQ ministers" for all eternity. God the Father had better watch His back, considering the level of backbiting and infighting and political influence-seeking we find among "God's HQ Ministers" here on the earth!
PT said: You don't know God if your worshiping the one in the bible.
If the God listed in the bible is not the God of the Christian faith I am not interested in the god that you may believe exists. If the God who has guided my life for 89 years is not the God in the bible I must say that my faith; hope, and love has produced a life that I would not trade with anyone I see commenting here. ASB
Whatever your view, the God in the Bible interacting with humans is God the Father and Jesus Christ.
Any other God is Satan.
Let's be clear about that.
Satanism has been growing at an alarming rate in recent years and i have no doubt there are Satanists in COG.
3.28 AM
Some of the ACOG ministers are Satanists.
Well, if Weston's big sermon today is any indication, he truly does worship an evil deity. He was a little subtle about it, but toward the end of today's Family Weekend sermon Weston used an Old Testament example (after citing a famous Jewish conservative ideologue) to make his point that God backs and rewards those who lie for the good of the church.
That's cult-talk, even if Weston doesn't rant and rave with the visibly unhinged energy of a Dave Pack or a Gerald Flurry.
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