Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
The Ethics Committee is tasked with addressing ethical violations by any elder, overseeing the Member Appeal Committee and the Elder Appeal Committee, in addition to any other matter the Council would remand to it.
Currently there are no pending matters before the Ethics Committee. However, since the December 2019 meetings the Ethics Committee was involved in three proposed Member Appeals. Those Member Appeals were rejected because the individuals submitting the appeals did not meet the criteria for a Member Appeal (specifically, they had not received any “disciplinary measures” to appeal). The Ethics Committee worked collaboratively on the letters to explain to these members why their appeal was not being considered.
Later in these meetings, the Ethics Committee will discuss moderators for the GCE Elders Forum and ask the Council to appoint men for the Member Appeal Committee.
Members on the Ethics Committee: Dan Dowd (chair), Bob Dick, Darris McNeely, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff.
Church of God members have never had a real avenue of justice in the church when abusive church leaders assert their power over members. Usually, that justice was a swift kick out the door. These people will soon get a pretty little letter filled with UCG's version of we "love you, but we are not going to do anything about your accusations." As we are all well aware, no one exemplifies love more than the boys in Cincinnati.
One of the Church of God's self-appointed lawgivers and prophet of doom is not happy today. For many years now he has been telling various Church of God groups how wrong they are and that they are doomed to suffer mightily in the tribulation because they ignore him. No one in the Church of God or the entire universe is as zealous as James Malm, no one can there ever be. No one can ever live up to his zealotry and extreme expectations. That's why a new covenant was given to humanity, but this has failed to sink in to this prophet of zealotry.
Mario Seiglie’s Doctrinal Committee confirms that UCG will continue to pollute the Sabbath. This guarantees God’s correction in the tribulation for UCG, along with COGWA and LCG and all those who likewise pollute God’s Holy Sabbath Day.
Malm is incensed that UCG is refusing to force members to not eat out in restaurants on Friday nights and Saturdays. Nothing infuriates the Pharisee more than seeing people ignore his demands that he regularly sends in emails and letters to UCG and other COG's. Imagine a god that damns people to the tribulation for having a nice meal on a Friday night in a nice restaurant after a long week, or buying some food on a Saturday and heading off to the park with the children. Malm's god is NOT happy!
Doctrine Committee Update—Mario Seiglie
A brief update was given on one completed project by the Doctrine Committee (DC). This project did not receive any support from the DC or its sub-committees. Presenting this project follows the guidelines for the DC to inform the Council of its completion and the author was informed there was no support. This project was “Eating Out on the Sabbath.”
No matter how long the unemployed prophet bangs away on his keyboard, everyone seems to ignore him. Prophets are always without honor in their countries, but that especially hits at home with Malm as he begs for others to support him with financial contributions. He never seems to realize that no one supports him because they are sick of his unnecessary demands.
One thing the Church of God has been an abject failure at is its prophecy addiction. The church has vomited out so many self-appointed prophets and false prophecies over the decades that you would think they would have learned to keep their mouths shut. But they cannot. In their self-righteous narcissism, they go on spouting endless streams of illogical and baseless nonsense. So far, the track record of every single COG leader and self-appointed prophet of doom in the church has a batting average of ZERO. All except for one church of God. The Living Church of God has the SURE WORD of prophecy. They know it all and exactly how it will happen.
LCG is so sure of its self that they have a warning for us all. BEWARE! There are self-proclaimed teachers and nasty people with blogs that ridicule the lies and false prophecies of the church and its various leaders. How dare anyone accuse them of "prophecy addiction"! Seriously! How can they ever be wrong? Rod Meredith never told any false prophecies. Nor does Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, Don Billingsley, and James Malm. Nope, every single word they have ever said is 100% true. As the end-time prophets to the church and to the world, God is secretly speaking to each and every one of them with the exact timeline on how things will soon be happening. It is impossible for them to make a mistake and say something wrong with god on their side. The problem with false prophets in the church is that they usually tell partial truths. There's a Yiddish proverb that says, "A half-truth is a whole lie." These predictions sound good to naive church members and they quickly fall for these guys. Don't expect anything less from these fools. Outwardly they look as innocent as sheep, but inwardly, they are ravenous wolves ready to devour the gullible ones. Because the bastardizers of the law have taken the focus off the one they are supposed to be following, the members are not well-grounded in the new covenant and therefore become easy targets when they hear these fools say things that sound "right" but are actually statements filled with error.
Pay Attention to Prophecy: Jesus told His disciples to stay alert and watch for the fulfillment of specific Bible prophecies that will mark the approaching end of this age (Matthew 24). He also warned in the parable of the foolish virgins that many will be caught napping and unprepared by the surge of events that will precede His return to this earth (Matthew 25:1–13). It is truly amazing how God has given His Church a “more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19, KJV) so we can warn this world about the prophetic significance of both current and impending world events (Ezekiel 3 and 33). Yet, misguided, self-proclaimed teachers have ridiculed the Church’s understanding of prophecy and accused members of suffering from “prediction addiction,” or promoted the idea that end-time Bible prophecies are not really for us today, but for some time off in the future. As we see world events building to a prophetic crescendo, let’s make sure that we are building a closer relationship with God and His word, and that we are learning to study and live by that word every day (Matthew 4:4; 2 Timothy 2:15). Have a profitable Sabbath, Douglas S. Winnail
"It is an undeniable fact the 'fruit' of the Protestant Reformation is the divided 'churchianity' of our day. We must say at the outset that this is bad fruit. Paul tells us that the Spirit of God produces unity-not division." -p.104 The Plain Truth About The Protestant Reformation, Rod Meredith
The quote about the "undeniable fact" that the Protestant Reformation resulted in divided "churchianity" and the observation that God's spirit leads to unity and not division is priceless. All I can say is wow! The lack of self-awareness and utter denial of the leadership within many of these groups is truly amazing. I simply cannot think of any other explanation as to why this stuff would be published since it is so descriptive of the current state of the splintered cogs that has just gotten progressively worse over the last twenty-five years, with little effort or even desire from the leadership of our various factions, or denominations, which is what we are, to try to remedy the situation. What then, should this tell us about any evidence of the Holy Spirit working through the governmental structures and leadership of these groups when we are a reflection of the very thing we criticize about those we consider Protestants? What conclusion is any thinking person supposed to come to? Or are we simply to read the words but not make too many connections with the reality of the Corporate COG itself, and therefore not learn the lesson that God seems to be placing in front of our own noses. We point to the lack of clothing someone else is wearing, when we ourselves are poor, blind, miserable, and naked. If the Roman Catholic "system" is truly to blame for the ills of Christianity, then why do so many of our corporate church leaders mimic and defend their governmental system? Does the fact that we call the man in charge a president, presiding evangelist, or pastor general instead of a pope, somehow make it okay? We claim Jesus as our head, but so do the Catholics. They claim Jesus as their "invisible head" while the pope occupies the position of "visible head". Are we so very different? Ask your average cog member or minister where their "headquarters" is. Most will tell you it's in Charlotte, Cincinnati, etc. It won't even occur to them to tell you that it resides in heaven, where the true head of the body currently sits. We pay lip service to Jesus as our king, while we seek out human kings, just as Ancient Israel did. Want more proof that the governmental system many of us grew up in and have largely continued is in many cases effectually the same as theirs? Here is a quote from a letter HWA wrote to the ministry in a publication called the Bulletin in the 1970s..."Meanwhile, Christ, who KNOWS better than we that He is dealing with fallible humans --but who are HONEST with His Word, has BOUND in heaven what His Church, even in unrealized error, has bound in earth." (Dec.3, 1974) In other words, what is being said here, is that even if the "church", meaning the corporate structure, or guy in charge is in "error" Jesus binds it anyway. How is this in practice any different than what the Catholics teach about humans being given the authority to bind and loose? And what happens then if we as individual Christians within the body come to see that something is in error? Are we to just wait until Jesus somehow "unbinds" it, and hope the guy in charge or "church" picks up on it? Or do we have a responsibility to work out our own salvation with trembling and fear? Will we be held accountable if we continue to practice or believe something that is untrue, because it has been "bound" by the human powers within the corporation we attend? This is just one of the pitfalls of a strict pyramidal hierarchy, that does not allow for the practice of faith and conscience of the individual Christian. Concerned Sister
Jesse Moskel tells his amazing story about his life from prison in Thailand to owning a successful copywriter business. Moskel was the son of a COG minister and tells an emotional story about how his sister died because his parents did not get her medical treatment.
An American, a convicted drug trafficker, traces his redemption and good fortune to a decision one day to be the happiest person in the prison. He not only survived what is for some, a death sentence but also, in short order, became a free man, a stronger man and one with a mission. Thai prisons have a significant mortality rate for those serving long sentences.
Next week, the story of an American who spent five years in Thai prison and who survived an ordeal which saw him facing a death sentence and finally a jail term of 104 years, will be published by National Geographic Channel, the paid-for TV channel coast to coast. The inspiring story shows how Jesse Moskel’s response to his predicament, at its darkest point, transformed his life and put him on the right path.
The story of the 44-year-old American who now runs a PR and advertising business in the city of Columbia in South Carolina is about to become national news in the United States next week when featured by TV channel National Geographic. It is another inspiring story of a western man who finds himself, after plumbing the depths of the despair and the nightmare of being locked up for life in a Thai prison.
Initially facing the death sentence
Jesse was facing two very serious charges, one carrying the death penalty and the other, a lesser charge with a potential four-year term. Even if spared the death penalty, he was facing a lifetime in prison and that in itself would take costly legal representation.
One year later, after spending all his money on lawyers, Jesse Moskel’s finally determined sentence was reduced to one hundred and four years. A result. Fortunately, it was later reduced again to twenty-seven years in prison.
People don’t admit it, but there are uplifting moments of comfort inside a grim Thai prison
Even during this ordeal, however, Jesse found himself adapting to the situation. He readily admits what most people don’t acknowledge and that is that there are ways of coping with an ordeal like the nightmare he found himself in and at times, there were even some high points and things that happened that gave him comfort.
The turning point – a decision to be happy
The turning point for the American was one day when he decided that he was determined to be happy and break away from the negativity of many of the people about him.
He set himself the target of being the happiest person in his cell and the prison for that one day.
It worked. The American says not only did he feel better but through repeatedly practising this, he attracted other people towards him who had a more positive mindset. Even among the criminals, murderers and rapists, there were some.
Turned to God and not to crime
The American also faced the choice of which direction he would take with his life from that point. That is when he decided to recommit to God and religion rather than the other path which led to more illegal activity.
One Columbia man embarked on a trip to Thailand in 2007 after teaching English in South Korea for a year and ended up locked up.
Jesse Moskel, who now owns a public relations firm in the Columbia area, faced the death penalty for one drug charge and a life sentence for another in Thai prison. After five years and time in five different prisons across that country, he came home to the U.S.
Moskel said he was sitting in a jail cell in 2008, crammed in with dozens of others. He had just been arrested and had no way to call loved ones or even a translator to explain his sheet of charges. That is, until he found another prisoner who spoke English, and delivered some devastating news.
“He looked up after reading it and said, ‘Jesse, you’re never going to go home,’” Moskel said.
Moskel said he was charged with the death penalty and a life sentence for manufacturing and dealing drugs, a mistake he does admit to.
“It’s one of those weird things you can’t really calculate how painful it is to have that door slam behind you and have a guy explain to you that you are going to be there for the rest of your life. The sense of regret is so deep and so wide,” Moskel said.
"If you are true to materialist atheism, you should not apologize to anyone for anything. What would be the grounds? There is no morality other than what you arbitrarily determine. And even it you determine a "morality" for yourself, it doesn't mean anything to anyone else. And since you are just roiling protoplasm, not really different from an flowing amoeba except in size, why should you expect anyone to apologize to you? And if you know God does not exist, why should you be angry at Him or resentful? You should be totally chilled out waiting for the expiration of your meaningless life."
BannedHWA : Apologies and Why They Matter
Comment
(total bullshit :)
Atheism is one of the "splinters" that arises when religion fails to deliver historically or personally. It can arise, as in my own experience, from years of soaking in the scriptures and recognizing the problems therein with the stories. In my personal experience, it is not because of the failure of "that Church" or "those people." It is not "You're just angry at God." Perhaps I am in the same way I could be angry at the Witch in Hansel and Gretel putting them in cages. Other than that I think we realize that I can't really be angry at the characters in a myth or human construct.
I can't tell you how many churches I have been invited to that claim they are not like that and I would be totally happy with them. It arose because I have always been one who wants to know. It got me into the church as a teen and out as an adult having spent way too long doing so. Or maybe it was just the right amount of time needed. That is what I accept along with all that went with the transition back to who and how I have always been as a person. Religion put my natural curiosities on hold and the way things really are on the back shelf for a time.
I consider and have ample evidence in my life that spirituality does not escape me. If anything, I have the freedom to be more spiritual than I did confined in WCG or Christianity itself. . This spirituality is not Bible based. It is not Buddhist based. It is not something that someone else delivers to me. It comes from the absolute awe of being alive. It comes from within and a gratitude for being conscious of this experience of being alive.
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It is reflected in my desk here covered in meteorites 4.5 billion years old, trilobites 450 million, Megalodon teeth the size of my hand at 12 million and many stone tools where once was the hand of another and now mine. They range from 1.8 million out of Africa to the last Ice Age though the stone age. They speak to me of lives lived .
In spite of the way some think they can define atheism, it is not a religion and takes no faith to practice it. Faith, as we should all know by now, is belief in that for which there is no evidence. I am evidence based plain and simple and it fuels the wonder of it all.
It's why the living room looks like this too...
The orange 5 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain has been with me for 45 years. I look through it as a young man. The 10 Inch reflector is my upgrade of late 45 years later. The small one got me through the Church scandals of the 70's. The large one provides evenings of awe at the other end of my life.
This flowing Amoeba composed of roiling protoplasm is this and feels this every day of my life... "My Spirituality as an Atheist" or whatever...
“All knowledge hurts.”
―
Cassandra Clare,
City of Bones
“There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you've carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand.”
―
Sarah Dessen,
Someone Like You
Curiosity outside of Church dogma, organizational control and faith in the one true view is what the Churches of God, by nature, suppress. A lack of curiosity keeps you in place. An abundance of it gets you watched, judged and marginalized. It can get you dis-membered if you're not careful
All speaking the same thing (right or wrong evidently) that there be no division among them is more important than the freedom to explore other points of view, possibilities and interpretations. Curiosity outside the box is dangerous to the One True Church interpretation. It is fatal to the organization.
We create purpose and meaning in the world and in our lives now
The belief and expectation that one has "found it" and need look no further for any other belief or explanation is the belief that eventually dis-illusions.
Always ask questions. Always keep an open mind to the answers.
After Rod Meredith's death, LCG made a big-to-do of publishing his master's thesis from Ambassador College in 1956. The title of this 138-page booklet is "The Plain Truth About The Protestant Reformation." On the back cover, it says, "Before his death in 2017, he began editing and lightly revising his thesis for a brand-new audience."
After reading it, I had to wonder why there was not a single person in the boardroom who said, "Given our own church history, would it be wise to publish this?"
Maybe one or more did. And maybe that is why they state it is for a "brand-new audience." But I couldn't help but think how this book will not bode well for the old audience and those in-the-know on the history of Herbert W. Armstrong and his Worldwide Church of God cult.
Certainly, we are aware of the arrogance that exudes from the AC elite running all the splinters. Quite possibly, Gerald Weston settled the matter by saying something like, "It is true that the booklet reads as if it was our own putrid history but it is not likely our sheep have the mental capacity to make such a connection. After all, we are selling this to the generation born in this church after 1986. Surely, our youth won't scan the internet to learn the truth about the Church their parents birthed them into. And any of their parents who do happen to be able to make the connection have been embroiled in the lie for so long that the cognitive dissonance will not allow them to challenge it." (You read that with Weston's voice in your head, didn't you?)
What I want to do is just review the booklet and point out, in particular, the ways the Protestant Reformation mirrors the history of HWA and the WCG. By doing so, I will prove that Roderick C. Meredith was indeed, a prophet. His thesis is, in fact, a not-so-encrypted prophecy of who HWA would prove to be and what his cult would become over the next 30 years. (Save the stupid comments. I'm being facetious about the prophet thing.)
As is true of just about every argument made in the churches of God, RCM plants his whole thesis on a straw man. He asks the same question, chapter after chapter, "Was the Reformation a return to the faith once for all delivered?" He then sets his own prophetic trap by saying in the close of chapter one pertaining to his central question above:
"This is the question that should burn itself into the minds and hearts of all thinking men and women, because the final answer to this question will determine -to a great extent- the real meaning of the religious division and confusion of our time."
He also states at the beginning of his thesis that, "We must weigh any religious denomination or movement in the balance of Christ's prophetic saying: 'You will know them by their fruits.'"
Before moving on from his opening chapter, I do want to share this rather bizarre quote from page 20:
"We need to bear in mind that these men [pre-reformation reformers] -and Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and their associates-had all been reared from childhood in Roman Catholic doctrine and practice. They had been taught nothing else, and since there were practically no religious books or Bibles available in the common tongues , they knew of little else than the Roman Catholic faith, ceremonies, rituals and traditions. Therefore, it was virtually impossible for them to objectively look at the religious system in which they had been reared and compare it to the beliefs and practices of Jesus Christ and the inspired New Testament Church."
Wow! So, let me get this straight. They could not approach the Bible objectively because they were Catholics but apparently, former Methodist, Gilbert Cranmer was able to found the Sabbath-keeping Church of God. And of course, Herb, of Quaker stock, and self-evident narcissist and incestuous child rapist, had the "objectivity" to get baptized by a Baptist preacher, collect minister checks from COG7D for 5-7 years, then start his own (information marketing business) religious cult, cherry-picking ideas from others who thought them, built by already impoverished dupes who kept sending him money even as his false prophecies piled up on radio. Makes sense.
In the 2nd chapter, his first concern about the Catholic church was the Pope's "insatiable craving for money." (You can't make this stuff up.)
The Roman pontiffs were able to extract this money from their unwary subjects by various means concealed under the appearance of religion." -p.24
He goes on to say that much of early reform and revolt was from German nobility who wished to free themselves from "papal taxation." Later, he calls it a "ruthless financial policy." But what RCM was very careful not to call it was "tithes" which is exactly what it was. The Apostolic church certainly never collected tithes as it was understood that it was done away with the Old Covenant. It wasn't until the 500's that the Catholic Church attempted to collect tithes in order to pay for their ornate cathedral buildings but was rejected. The Catholic Church finally succeeded in duping Europe into tithing in 777. The sick irony is, of course, that WCG went on to demand 30%+ in tithes and offerings. As far as I know, that record of financial extraction hasn't been surpassed until Dave Pack declared 100%.
In chapter 3-5 (and a few other places in the booklet) is a personal attack on Martin Luther. Here is a list of character traits he brings out:
a desire to escape authority and obedience
periods of exaltation and depression
moodiness
dogged by perpetual guilt
deep sense of personal inadequacy
spiritually drunk
practiced eisegesis
rejected or ignored Scriptures he disagreed with
justified using violence
became enmeshed in politics
condoned bigamy
chose division instead of fellowship over petty differences
stubborn and self-willed
lived life as though above the law or what he taught others
inconsistent and self-contradictory
proclivity to pick-n-choose from multiple sources to formulate a private system of belief
Obviously, anyone with first-hand experience with or read about HWA knows RCM is describing his very own "spiritual papa." Martin Luther and Herbert Armstrong suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. One noteworthy reference on the subject is a book by Sam Vaknin called, "Malignant Self Love" with a chapter addressing religious leaders. Another is a video on Youtube by Dan Rogers covering the Adventist roots of Grace Communion International. You can watch it below.
Chapter 6 is spent attacking John Calvin for essentially the same character traits as Luther. He does spend more time on his theology but also emphasizes his violent character in enforcing very strict rules of life and carrying out acts of torture and murder on sinners. Sharing more narcissistic traits with Luther and Herb, Calvin was never wrong, refused to change anything he committed to and justified the death of fellow Christians over extreme petty doctrinal differences. HWA (as far as I know) never advocated for the death of anyone openly but one has to realize, placing a narcissist in the right setting where he knows he can get away with it, will indeed stoop to any heinous sin, whether it be fraud, sexual immorality, theft, torture or murder. In addressing the sheer harshness of Luther and Calvin, RCM concludes by saying:
"This very dominance of Luther and Calvin was, in many ways, detrimental. It led men to accept without question their doctrine and practice-never thinking to prove these ideas by the holy word of God...Protestants often have tended to make infallible popes out of Luther, Calvin and the other early reformers."
Is it just me or does Herb deserve a seat at the same table? For Herb's-sake, the man has been dead for 34 years and if you question even the pettiest of doctrines in the churches of God openly, you are red-flagged by both minister and some members as a rebel, heretic, dangerous, etc.
And on p.107, he says:
"Before gaining political power, the reformers all insisted upon the inalienable right of every Christian to search the Bible for himself and to judge its teachings independently. But once they were in power, woe be to the Catholic, the Anabaptist, or to any other who continued to insist upon this inalienable right!"
The COG7D was established with Congregational governance. By the time HWA came into contact with that church, Andrew Dugger was throwing his weight around, attempting to centralize more power over the church to himself. Narcissists, when not in charge, are all for rebellion, revolution, anarchy or whatever it takes to dismantle power and control. One of Herb's better articles was on church government in 1939. It is clear that he was absolutely opposed to top-down hierarchical government and made a decent case for it being unbiblical. But as some know, by 1979, HWA had just finished using RCM and RFM as his toady henchmen to rid HWA of his "liberal" enemies and secure his papal status in his Armstrongian Catholic church.
RCM is very careful not to attack Roman Catholic government throughout the book, but instead, zeros in on the problematic effects of that government. In his mind, the government wasn't the problem, it was the people. The Catholics are devoid of God and His Holy Spirit, therefore they could not do good. But WCG was Spirit-filled and Spirit-led by "holy" men and therefore "holy" men can make any government function properly.
RCM candidly admits in his Global Church of God government booklet that it was he and Herman Hoeh who convinced HWA in 1953-54 that top-down, hierarchical, one-man rule is the New Testament government. In many ways, RCM played right into the narcissist monster in hiding, feeding him all the narcissistic supply he needed to continue moving forward, his money-making cult venture.
[An interesting side note: he dedicates a page to the lust of nationalism that was sweeping the continent of Europe alongside the Reformation. What he obviously didn't catch was the fact that what started out as a theological theory in England at the time, because of the Reformation, evolved into British-Israelism.]
"It is an undeniable fact the 'fruit' of the Protestant Reformation is the divided 'churchianity' of our day. We must say at the outset that this is bad fruit. Paul tells us that the Spirit of God produces unity-not division." -p.104
Just imagine how easy this was to say in 1956 and not have a clue that what he put in motion with Herman Hoeh in 1954 would lead to what we have today! Here is another easy thing to say in 1956 in the last chapter of the booklet, having no clue what the next 30 years would bring:
"We are forced to conclude that the Reformation certainly did not lead men to the Bible...nor return men to the faith which was once for all delivered...We must recognize that the leaders of the Reformation were only transferring authority to themselves within the same pagan system."
This is exactly what Rod Meredith and Herman Hoeh did in 1954. The two most important doctrines every false church must have in place, in direct opposition to what Christ required in Matthew 20:20-28, in order to draw all power, control, and authority to itself is:
top-down, hierarchical governance
tithing
I don't care if all your other doctrines, dogmas and traditions are spot on, you are disqualified on these two false doctrines alone. Period. Spirit-filled or not, men are not qualified to practice God's hierarchical government (He does indeed have in Heaven) because we are not God. The history of HWA and his cult business is ample proof that this is simply an undeniable truth. The history of man proves this undeniable truth.
The back cover claims there were light revisions made. If I had to guess, these two comments at the very end were probably part of that:
"The true church will be a body of people continually growing into more complete truth and knowledge and deeper understanding!...For decades, this church has dared, as no other church on earth, to proclaim definite, specific prophetic events to occur-and they have been happening!"
Seriously? The only thing remotely close to being prophetically accurate from the churches of God is this booklet I facetiously pointed out at the beginning. Growth? The churches of God are in suspended animation and have been for at least since Herb drew his last breath, but arguably longer. Some members and their children in the churches of God are actually growing in truth, knowledge and understanding. It is the AC elite that refuses. The churches of God are filled with good people who want to transition from a cult to a church but I wonder if the long shadow of a dead gnostic narcissist will forever prohibit such a jubilee.
I will just conclude with a quote from a Protestant reformer, John Knox, whom RCM quotes on pg. 3:
"All worshipping, honouring, or service of God invented by the brain of man in the religion of God without His own express commandment is idolatry...it shall nothing excuse you to say, we trust not in idols, for so will every idolater allege; but if either you or they in God's honour do anything contrary to God's word, you show yourself to put your trust in somewhat else besides God, and so are idolaters, Mark, brethren, that many maketh an idol of their own wisdom or phantasy; more trusting to that which they think good not unto God."
