One of the stranger men in charge at the Philadelphia Church of God cult compound in Edmond Oklahoma is Dennis Leap. He used to write a lot for the PCG propaganda magazines but has somehow made fewer and fewer appearances.
He is back once again with an article about Daniel 12:3 and the potential for PCG members to be shining as bright as the stars of heaven because of their worthiness and ability to remain true to the one true prophet of God and his teachings.
As usual in the PCG and COG's as a whole, church members are encouraged to emulate Old Testament heroes and sayings. Seldom are they asked to follow Christ or do anything he says. It's too inconvenient to be a Christ-follower and much more easy to be a law keeper, at least in their eyes.
Dennis asks:
We need to be honest with ourselves. Are we living by Daniel 12:3?
He claims PCG members must be wise and diligent as they prepare for the rapidly approaching end times and their trip to Petra. PCG members must constantly be doing something in order to impress their god and their dear leader.
Word came out at the Feast this year that they are excitedly awaiting that phone call to flee.
To help us respond quickly and urgently to Daniel 12:3, God ensured that two action steps were coupled with the two poetic images. Notice the first part: “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ….” The English word wise in the Hebrew is sakal and can mean to act, be, or make wise. To fully comprehend what God wants us to understand here requires all three of these definitions. It is also important to recognize the context of Daniel 12.
Verse 1 tells us it is the time period just before God’s people must flee to a place of safety—your people shall be delivered. That time period is rapidly approaching. Now is the time that God’s people must work diligently to become more wise and to act on that wisdom. Time is short. Jesus Christ’s return is imminent. How do we get such wisdom? Christ has shown us the way and provided the means to obtain it.
In these wild end times and the intense persecution being dished out upon the church by Satan and the world around them, PCG members need to be attuned to the one true prophet of god in their midst. Many false prophets (like Bob Thiel and Dave Pack) have rised up in the church deliberately used by Satan to deceive PCG members. Only Gerald Flurry has the truth and the true interpretation of scripture.
Who can and will properly explain Bible prophecy to you? Jesus Christ warned that many false prophets would arise just before His Second Coming (Matthew 24:24), so we must beware of what men we listen to and follow. “God wants His prophecies understood, so He reveals that understanding through His faithful servants. ‘Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets’ (Amos 3:7),” wrote Royal Vision editor in chief Gerald Flurry in his May-June 2020 Trumpet personal, “Prophecy Is Proof of God.” This personal is a must-read to understand the connection between Bible prophecy and world events! If you have not subscribed to the Philadelphia Trumpet newsmagazine, now is the time to do so. This magazine consistently and expertly brings Bible prophecy to light!
Realize, there are many church denominations in existence today that call themselves Christian. But how much of their religion is Bible-based? One of the largest denominations does not view the Bible as the sole source of its doctrine. Its members are not typically Bible readers. Prophecy is not a line item in its religious instruction. Regrettably, many other denominations follow that example. Jesus Christ said that His one true Church would be a small and persecuted flock (Luke 12:32; John 15:20). So we should not be fooled by religious groups with large members. You need to prove where Christ’s Church is today so that you are taught properly about God’s prophecies. A truly wise Christian is a student of prophecy and watches carefully, noting prophecies as they unfold. How wise are we?
The Philadelphia Church of God is on a mission to "turn people to righteousness." Considering how morally bankrupt they are as a church they have a hard mission ahead of them. But, that is of no concern because money is. PCG members become active in "turning people to righteousness" by giving money to the church so it can support its ministers in spreading its message. Of course, like all COG's out there, there has to be one prophet in charge who has a direct channel to God who regularly dumps prophetic nonsense into their empty minds.
How do Church members turn many to righteousness today? By supporting the work of the Church. This work involves getting God’s warning message out to this sin-sick world. God has trained ministers to teach the members and help prepare them for their future. But God’s chosen apostle and, to a lesser extent, his evangelists also speak out God’s message to this world, primarily as a warning. These faithful men still cannot do it alone. It is the encouragement, daily prayers, offerings and tithes of God’s faithful members supporting God’s Work that greatly helps hasten righteousness today. God also uses that warning message to call new members into His Church so the work of the Church can continually expand. Again, what an opportunity!
What new members is Leap talking about? PCG has been declining in membership for years, as has all the other Churches of God.
This world’s immediate future will be full of some black days and nightmarish calamities. The vast majority of humanity will be caught off guard and shocked mentally and emotionally. At Christ’s return, many will be depressed and hopeless. But that is where God’s resurrected and changed saints come on the scene. We will be as brilliant as the clearest blue sky and shine like the stars forever and ever. Let’s take these poetic images—our hope—and use them to prepare for the future God has prepared for us. Our final brilliance depends on what we do today!
The world has certainly seen some dark times recently. Wars and rumors of wars abound. Famine, pestilence, fires, earthquakes, all make the news gatherers in the COG's go into orgasmic fits as they claim these are sure signs of the end. the problem we all have with this is that we have lived through eight decades of these self-appointed liars spouting one false prophecy after another. They lie and lie and lie without any sense of guilt or embarrassment.
What does embarrass them all is that if they actually followed the teachings of Jesus they would not need to sit around worrying day in and day out about how awful things are as they need to see things. There is a reason Jesus said that with him the yoke is easy and the burden is light.
23 comments:
Why live freely and lightly when you can be constantly worried if you’re doing enough or are good enough to enter the kingdom?
Why focus on loving your brother when you can look down on him for not being a part of your true called out “Philadelphian” end-time church?
Why focus on working to make this world better when you can just pay and pray and sigh and cry while this world burns?
COG Christianity is a spectator sport and all they ever do is watch for the end times which are always approaching quickly but never arriving.
Did not Gerald Flurry go to Jordan several years ago & get kicked out or told to leave? I guess they got wind of his Petra beliefs and wanted no part of this. I heard GTA personally talk about how this belief originated when Loma had saw an article about National Geographic about Petra and mentioned it to Herbert. I also remember going to Birmingham when I as around 7 years of age on a weeknight & having to hear Gerald Waterhouse blather on til past 10:30 pm about Petra and people were falling asleep, with a guy seated behind us snoring loudly in spite of constantly being bagered by some jerk Super Usher.
"Seldom are they asked to follow Christ or do anything he says."
oh you mean like "if you will enter into life keep the commandments" ?
Masochists might not mind being lied to, and having their money stolen, and getting their lives wasted and ruined, by false prophets like Gerald Flurry.
However, these masochists need to realize that by supporting a false prophet like Gerald Flurry they also become sadists who help him to harm other people. This is totally wrong and evil.
By supporting a false prophet like Gerald Flurry, people become sadomasochists who love to harm both themselves and others.
They become a bunch of SICKOS.
PCG members must be wise and diligent
An oxymoron? "PCG members" and "wise and diligent" are mutually exclusive categories...
The PCG propagandists sometimes can yak a good yak and scribble a good scribble, but the real “acid test” is in actually going to the PCG. The PCG is totally toxic. It is a bunch of filthy old sex maniacs, sex perverts, and predators who are there for their own selfsh and immoral reasons. There is nothing godly about anything that goes on in the PCG.
Does knowing what prophecy says or means change anything at all?
Ultimately, you only have control over a very small limited universe in ones own life. What will be , will be,
and as one poster here used to say "time will tell".
If you have to be motivated to live a good life because of an imminent , soon "End Times" you have to ask whether or
not you are led by God at all.
Love God and Love others. Its simple. Knowing the future does not matter in the least.
Anonymous (5:27) stated "oh you mean like "if you will enter into life keep the commandments" ?
Did Christ really say in this passage to keep the OT laws and regulations that have been subsumed by who knows what unbiblical methodologies into Armstrongist practice by Armstrong and Hoeh? The issue of the OT laws has well a documented history that you need to look into instead of parroting what you have heard from glib speakers at Armstrongists pulpits.
In brief, because you follow the misinterpretation of this passage and its context, you once again fail to follow Christ.
Did Christ really say in this passage to keep the OT laws and regulations
What other commandments were there when he said that?
The whole business of shining like the stars gets back to sun worship.
-- In the transfiguration, the face of Jesus shone like the sun (sun-god).
-- The halo represents the sun (god).
-- The face of God shines like the sun because he is a sun god (Revelation).
-- Even the face of Moses shone like the sun after he met the sun god.
-- In the resurrection the saints shine like the sun (sun-god).
-- Lesser saints are less suns (lesser stars).
-- Jesus is called the SUN of Righteousness.
-- The sake was the sun god, and the snake on the pole represented Jesus.
-- Lucifer was a light bringer and a fallen morning star.
-- The 12 tribes represent the 12 signs of the zodiac
-- The list goes on.
A study of both pagan and bible history will show that these parallels, and many many more, are not mere co-incidences. If you don't also study pagan history, you can't know where all these "bible" symbols came from.
I did not get any of this from Hislop. Attempting to brush it all aside by bashing one source (Hislop) is to ignore VAST numbers of other sources of information.
9:35
Love your neighbor as yourself is a command in Leviticus where you are not to take vengeance or hold grudges. Matt. 19 which you quote is revealing that none are keeping the law or can. James says if you keep all the law but stumble in one you are guilty of all. Sitting in a seat listening to a bad sermon and not eating pork is really not much in the large scheme of things---it is certainly not commandment keeping as there are many you are simply not observing . You are guilty under the Law...and faith alone is the remedy through which our Lord grants salvation.
Anonymous (9:35) wrote "What other commandments were there when he said that?"
You suffer from the Armstrongist blind spot. My diagnosis. Christ was referring to the commandments he gave in the Sermon on the Mount (a literary parallel to Sinai) and elsewhere in the NT. And I know all the Armstrongist counter arguments. If you want to know why your reasoning is flawed just read Morrison's book entitled "Sabbath, Circumcision and Tithing." This stuff is not hidden someplace.
Let me ask you this. Did you keep the FOT as God commanded this year? Did you build a brush arbor and spend eight days in it? Or did you disobey the commandments as God stated them and stay at the Holiday Inn? Are you as Paul said "a debtor to do the whole law." Do you think that the WCG Church Administration can change the laws as they were written? By what authority? Did you obey man rather than God at the FOT this year? Where did HWA's authority to change "times and laws" come from? From Elder Oberg in the COG Seventh Day? From the librarian working the night shift at the Des Moines Public library?
You have a lot to look into.
Dennis Leap is the father in law of Brad Macdonald.
Leap and McDonald two of PCG's creepiest and nastiest ministers. Are there two men more disliked than these two?
NEO
I disagree. Christ gave no commands in His sermon on the Mount. Christ did not not have the power to change the laws of physics, chemistry or the moral laws. All Christ could do is teach the practical application of laws set eons ago. That's what He did in His sermon. It's like the advice offered in women's magazines that typically does not work because of the many unstated assumptions in the situations presented.
Jesus Christ did command Christians to Watch amongst other things Tonto.
Christians are supposed to actually be doing.
"What will be, will be" is a rather middle of the road, middle aged muddled response.
NEO
I do the best I can, as would any observing disciple in the Diaspora. HWA had no authority to change anything except his bad attitude.
Anon 530, you got it! If Jesus actually did some of the things people think he did, he wouldn't have been crucified, because he would have been stoned by observant, obedient Jews.
Anonymous (5:30)
The OT code was an instantiation of God's eternal moral law. And the NT code is an instantiation of God's eternal moral law. The eternal moral law remains the same but its implementation or application can vary by decree of God. When Christ used the word "command" he was talking about the NT instantiation.
The odd notion that Christ gave no commands is rooted in the fact that Armstrongists conflate the OT code with the eternal moral law rather than understanding that it is a specific instantiation of that eternal moral law for theocratic Israel. The entire thrust of NT is that the OT implementation has been totally abrogated and replaced by the NT instantiation. The entire thrust of Armstrongism is that the NT is just a writing of the OT implementation upon the heart.
Read Chapter 4 of Morrison's book.
Homework: If the OT instantiation is your interest, discontinue using your toilet. Instead make yourself a special paddle and defecate in a hole in your back yard and use the paddle to cover it up. Carry the paddle with you. This way you will not be a "debtor to do the whole law." This is what is written on your heart according to Armstrongism. And then give us a report on how your outdoorsmanship went.
Tonto
A healthy respect for prophesy is motivating. So it does matter. It sounds like you've put your feet up, and are living the retired lifestyle.
A healthy respect for prophesy is motivating.
Consider a few Bible verses:
Anyone who does not prophesy does not know God, because God is prophecy. - 1 John 4:8
There is no fear in prophecy, but perfect prophecy casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in prophecy. - 1 John 4:18
So now faith, hope, and prophecy abide, these three; but the greatest of these is prophecy. - 1 Corinthians 13:13
Prophecy does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore prophecy is the fulfillment of the law. - Romans 13:10
Do you get the point? People can become DE-motivated by false end-time prophecy (of which 100% of such prophecy has been false up to this present moment). However, people can always be motivated by Jesus' exhortations regarding LOVE.
10.34 AM
You seem to play off prophesy against love. In fact, they are not in conflict. One can be motivated by both. Plus biblical prophesy need not be confused with Herb and his minions playing games with this topic.
It's every Christians responsibility to examine the bible writings on this matter, and to come to one's own conclusions, rather than being led by the nose by manipulative ministers. The prove all things thingy.
"When Christ used the word "command" he was talking about the NT instantiation."
Just how do you know that? Did he tell you that himself?
Anonymous (6:35) "Just how do you know that? Did he tell you that himself?"
Yes. He told us all that in the New Testament. The leitmotif of the NT is that the OT has been abrogated and replaced. Why then would Christ refer to its laws as if they were yet vital and prescriptive?
This has really been discussed ad infinitum by Christian writers especially in connection with Galatians. The most accessible writing to you probably would be Morrison's book. The text is available on the internet. Fifteen minutes of open-minded reading can give you a new and true perspective. Barring that, at a minimum it will give you much to think about.
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