LCG ministers are trained about government with this:
God’s form of government is clearly laid out in His inspired word, the Bible. God’s government begins with the father, followed by Christ, then down through the leaders that God puts in place in His Church. These leaders submit to each other, and ultimately to Christ and the Father. Government God’s Church is designed to mirror the Father’s relationship with Jesus Christ, teaching us more about Him. It includes the creation of offices and responsibilities in the church, and was designed to facilitate order, peace, and decency (I Cor 14:33, 40) and to eliminate confusion.
God wants His people to learn more about Him and His government. He outlined His form of government for the Church and the family, because His government will be implemented globally Tomorrow’s World. God’s form of government teaches us to humble ourselves before Him and to submit to each other—in accordance with the example that Christ left for us. Ultimately, following God’s form of government requires faith in the leadership that God places in His church. Godly leaders must earn and maintain that faith by exemplifying and practicing the fruits of His spirit, including love, patience, and mercy. These Godly characteristics should permeate and exemplify God’s government. Practicing God’s form of government now, not only enables God to work effectively through leaders in His Church to do His work, but it will also enable us to easily transition into His government in His Kingdom!
Optional Homework for Next Class:• Review and discuss (with a partner) the qualifications and responsibilities of ministers, deacons and deaconesses outlined in 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1 and elsewhere.
Quotes on the Importance of GovernmentThe state is a bankrupt institution. The only alternative to this bankrupt ‘humanistic’ system is a God-centered government. —R.J. Rushdoony
I am really surprised to see LCG use this quote by Rushdoony. He is an extreme far-right "dominionist" that advocates for total church control of society which includes stoning of adulterers, homosexuals, kids that talk back to parents, and much much more. Though it should not surprise me because one of the big proponents of dominionism is Rushdoony's son-in-law, Gary North from Tyler Texas. North's books were widely circulated on the Pasadena and Big Sandy campuses in the mid-70s - early 80s.
"Dominionism comes in “soft” and “hard” varieties. “Hard” dominionism (sometimes called Christian Reconstructionism), as Clarkson describes it, explicitly seeks to replace secular government, and the U.S. Constitution, with a system based on Old Testament law.
The father of hard dominionism, the late Presbyterian theologian R.J. Rushdoony, called for his followers to “take back government … and put it in the hands of Christians.”
Rushdoony’s legacy has been carried on by his son-in-law, Tyler-based economist Gary North, an unapologetic theocrat who in 1982 called for Christians to “get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.” (North, founder of the Institute for Christian Economics, did not respond to my request for comment.)" The Radical Theology That Could Make Religious Freedom a Thing of the Past: Even devout Christians should fear these influential leaders' refusal to separate church and state.
LCG's minister training on government continues by quoting Rod Meredith as an authority on government. Rod Meredith is the last person in the COG movement that needs to be commenting on church government, especially considering how he disobeyed Herbert Armstrong, got himself exiled to Hawaii refusing to admit he had done anything wrong, and then proceeded over the following years to wreck people lives and run off at the mouth till he cost the church millions of dollars after he libeled Lona McNair. She sued him and he lost all because of his rebellious loud mouth.
Lord help us if Rod Meredith is going to sit in some lofty throne and pass judgment upon us all, as he claims below.
“Although democracy may be one of the best humanly devised forms of government, it is not the "wave of the future" by any means. Truly, we all need to learn and understand God’s form of government, for the true saints of God will soon be called on to administer that form of government in Tomorrow’sWorld.” Meredith, R.C. (March-April 2005). The Future of Democracy. Tomorrow’s World (p.27)“Throughout the entire Bible, it is made very clear that there will be no "democracy" and no "voting" in Christ’s Government. For as we read in Hebrews 13:8: ‘Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.’" (Meredith, R.C. (March-April 2005). The Future of Democracy. Tomorrow’s World(p.8).
Minister training quotes are from an LCG source.
The ACOG form of government:
ReplyDelete"We are Borg. Resistance is futile."
Last week someone posed the question, Does God have a sense of humor?
ReplyDeleteBy letting COGleaders think the world will be ruled "LCG style", my answer is Yes! Definitely!
"government" was probably HWA's biggest error....
ReplyDeletejust as in the secular world government leads to those least qualified craving positions of power, government in The Church leads to false ministers positioning themselves to move up the ladder to become the head honcho, creating false churches based on the following of a man, the "apostle", the infallible one....(sounds just like the RCC, doesn't it?)
there has never been a single man at the head of The Church...man is corrupt, incapable of governing himself, and especially The Church.....
"God’s government begins with the father, followed by Christ, then down through the leaders that God puts in place in His Church."
ReplyDeleteThis is the Slippery Slope into spiritual ruination. It flows like this:
1. A denomination proclaims that it is an earthly branch of the perfect government of God.
2. Therefore, its decisions and policies are unquestionably backed up by God.
3. Therefore, its decisions and policies are perfect.
4. Therefore, its leaders are perfect in governing no matter what they do.
And the consequences of this unorthodox and partisan model:
1. The leaders achieve an earthly, functional perfection not through Jesus Christ but by simply being a part of a perfect government. The need for Jesus and any humility becomes superfluous.
2. This is in the subtext, but in the sequence of 4 steps above, the influence of God is overthrown and replaced by an imperfect government of men. It is a formula for a humanistic revolution through the putative appropriation of God's perfection.
3. Congregants have no recourse because if they take issue with a patently bad decision, it is going up against the perfect government of God and its perfect human leaders on earth.
4. There are no checks and balances on the will of a few. Servant leadership is impossible because there is no compassionate negotiation of issues. What is defined as service itself becomes a unilateral concept.
Now, if I were an impartial HWA or Herman Hoeh, I would find the story of Nimrod or Simon Magus in this somewhere.
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Rod Meredith is the last person in the COG movement that needs to be commenting on church government, especially considering how he disobeyed Herbert Armstrong, got himself exiled to Hawaii refusing to admit he had done anything wrong, and then proceeded over the following years to wreck people lives and run off at the mouth till he cost the church millions of dollars after he libeled Leona McNair.
ReplyDeleteYou're forgetting another big one. Rod wrote his words just a few years after the Global Church of God disciplined him for rampant lying, causing division, and mismanaging funds. Did Rod follow church government in Global? No! He arranged to divert Global's income stream, then ran off and started a new church that put him in Flurry-type control of the whole operation.
Rebelling to church government? For us it began with HWA and CG7. And from the way he wrote up accounts of it in his Autobiography, he saw no wrong in what he did.
ReplyDeleteBut, of course, that was before "church government" was "revealed" to him...
I had lunch with Rod Meredith shortly after he formed Global. Rod explained how Global was set up. He said the government was set up to be so the council had the final word on governance. That lasted until the council didn’t go along with what he wanted. So he was off to start another splinter with him in charge.
ReplyDeleteJim-AZ
I had lunch with Rod Meredith shortly after he formed Global. Rod explained how Global was set up. He said the government was set up to be so the council had the final word on governance. That lasted until the council didn’t go along with what he wanted. So he was off to start another splinter with him in charge
ReplyDeleteDid God inspire RCM to start Global, but not inspire him to set up the right form of church government? That's some pretty poor inspiration, if that's what happened. Or was Global formed because of RCM's will to lead, not because of God's desire for a splinter group?
Did God inspire RCM to start Living? If so, did God change his mind about the government structure of the church, or was the change RCM's idea?
I see no biblical or even logical way to explain how God could have inspired the formations of both Global and Living. One or both of them must have been formed outside of God's will. And, if RCM was operating outside of God's will, it is hard to believe that God would use him to form ANY new splinter! Could an LCG apologist-lurker please chime in and explain how LCG members make sense of this?
I was an usher at the Hawaii feast site one year. It was an ushers meeting and one gentleman was late. His first question was, “Who’s in charge?”
ReplyDeleteThat guy eventually left for RCG. Apparently he needed more top down government like Christopher Walken needed more cowbell.
I was an usher at the Hawaii feast site one year. It was an ushers meeting and one gentleman was late. His first question was, “Who’s in charge?”
ReplyDeleteWas this a year when either Jim Meredith or Jeff Fall was the Festival Coordinator there? If so, I understand the usher's question. Those two men have a habit of delegating responsibility downward, but not delegating authority. If they put a deacon in charge of an area, they'll ignore his pleas for big-picture direction or support as if it's beneath them as mere deacon-work, but they will then undermine the deacon in a heartbeat if an "important" member goes around the deacon and complains to a visiting speaker or the Festival Coordinator.
Too many volunteers at LCG feast sites seemed to share a common affliction. They wanted to serve in positions senior enough that they would be noticed by the bigwigs and would have underlings to do most of the real work. Yet they wanted to be sure there was not just someone below them to blame if something went wrong, but also someone above them who could be scapegoated if necessary. What should have been a group of Christians banding together to fulfill a function of service often became in LCG a political free-for-all.
In their defense, these political members were just emulating their ministers. But it was still sad to see.
Rod Meredith had put out a church booklet on a more collegial form of "God's government" which means "church government", but when the so-called "global crisis" occured that church book was quickly pulled and disappeared. I asked a family for a copy who had a hardcopy of it, but they can't seem to find it for now. RCM's church booklet on the non pyramid "Government of God" should be found and reposted on the internet.
ReplyDelete10.54 AM
ReplyDeleteSo according to you, a church is either inspired by God or "outside of God's will."
Hmm, let me think. Is what I have for dinner inspired by God or outside of His will? It's neither. God gives humans free moral agency and self responsibility.
God is not a micro manager, and people do not need a permission slip from God to choose their dinner or start and maintain a splinter.
That God created humans so that He can get His jollies by micro managing them, is a common point of view, and stems from people making God in their image.
For those interested, Friends of the Sabbath have an online version of RCM booklet "Church Government and Church Unity". A good read and definitely a far cry from what LCG is now. Especially interesting is that he addresses some of these arguments that LCG is forwarding lately, i.e. the leader is Moses, rebels are Korah, simultaneous church "eras" etc, and also talks about the Jerusalem conference in a way that LCG people wouldn't recognise today.
ReplyDeleteHere is an interesting quote,
"Mr. Armstrong knew and many of us who have studied church history know, that in fact VERY SELDOM in its 2000 year history has God's Church ever had one administration, with one man in charge." (p.8)
(http://www.friendsofsabbath.org/ABC/Global%20Church%20of%20God%20literature/Church%20Gov%20&%20Church%20Unity%20-%20RC%20Meredith(1993).pdf)
As for Rod Meredith, it was easy for him to see that one-man rule led to WCG's demise, so he wisely determined not to set up Global that way. But, when the Global council wanted to do differently than Rod, his arrogance led him to conclude that "all dictatorships are bad unless I am the dictator", whereupon he founded LCG on the un-biblical form of one-man rule. Often Rod claimed ministerial infallibility: "This is the church of God, and Jesus Christ is the head of the church. If He ever wants to remove me, He can, but since He hasn't, that means He is not unhappy with me as the leader of His church. So if you leave, you are judging Jesus Christ." Left unsaid is that any man in the world could say the same thing, as we've seen from Pack, Flurry, the Pope, and countless others, and Jesus hasn't lifted a finger to remove any of them.
ReplyDeleteNEO, I agree with most of your points, although the idea that any of these men could achieve any sort of perfection, even one that is earthly, is debatable. Sooner or later their "perfect government" implodes, leading to infighting and ultimately more division.
ReplyDeleteI would also add that this sort of reasoning also removes any responsibility of the individual Christian to prove whether what they are being told is true or not, or to cultivate their own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If all you have to do is follow other men who represent "God's government" and questioning any decisions they make or teachings they promote is tantamount to doubting God, you are no longer allowed to think. Your reading of scripture doesn't matter, since you are only allowed to believe their interpretation, and even if it's wrong, God will back them up.
This in essence is what we are being told.
Concerned Sister
Power corrupts & absolute power corrupts absolutely
ReplyDeleteAgree 2:18 applies to every form of church governance or organisation.
DeleteMeredith hung on to WCG for as long as it took for it to indemnify him for $750k in the McNair lawsuit. After that, quickly, he formed the Global Church of God.
ReplyDeleteWhen Meredith started out, he promoted , (what he called), COLLEGIAL church leadership. He did this because of his reputation of being a hard nosed , autocratic bully, and to recruit as many as he could.
Once in place, he reverted back to his old ways, while even LEAVING his Global Church of God, when they tried to reign him in, and starting the Living Church, while leaving all of the debt and financial obligations back at Global.
Not ethical or righteous in the least as far as modus operandi, and a historical provenance that is certainly one of harvesting and opportunistic motivation.
Tonto said: Meredith hung on to WCG for as long as it took for it to indemnify him for $750k in the McNair lawsuit. After that, quickly, he formed the Global Church of God.
ReplyDeleteTrue. As the story goes, September 1989, Meredith wakes up to the apostasy of Tkach, marches into the 4th floor office, slams his fist down and says,
"I will not allow you to destroy the church. I will do whatever I can to stop you."
"No you won't. Because if you do, we will separate the Leona lawsuit into the 3 defendants, of which you are primary. And, we will bill you for all the legal expenses we have been so generously covering for you. And since you were the perpetrator of the libel, you will be held primarily responsible for the damages, possibly a million dollars. Not only that, if you leave WCG, or are fired for cause, your retirement goes away, as does your income. You have no social security. You are 59 years old, with no career, and a wife and 2 boys to take care of. Oh, and you know that home of yours...? So, I repeat, you will not stop us."
So Meredith was confronted with complete bankruptcy and no prospect of earning a living with a family of 4 to provide for. After 40 years of training (he came to A.C. in Sept 1949), was God putting him to the ultimate test? Would he give up everything he had for the church and the people in it? Would he give up everything for the truth? No. Right when the church needed him the most, he was nowhere to be found, and tacitly supported the apostasy.
It is true, who can blame a man for putting his family before his service to the church, but when Rod did not confront Tkach, he turned his back on any higher calling he might have had.
It is entirely possible that the apostasy might have been stopped. But we'll never know. Finally, when the pieces were all in place, and the apostasy was assured, WCG settled the case and Rod started Global the next month, December of 1992. Too late. And Rod spent the rest of his life bitter that the majority who left WCG never followed him.
When Paul wrote that God gave the Church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor/teachers, HWA looked upon these titles as rankings, not different but equal positions of service. These titles were on a vertical axis, not a horizontal.
ReplyDeleteMore like a military structure. Imagine if in the Hall of Administration, different positions weren't treated as ranks. If everyone had similar pay, perks, office locations, office size, prestige, authority, etc. these positions wouldn't attract the greedy and power hungry types. The WCG, which loathes the way of the world and the world's government, etc. yet HWA uses the same structure in his church. And, the same as the RCC. But in the NT church, each church was autonomous, led by more than one elder. Elder's weren't elevated in the minds of the members. With multiple elders there wouldn't be deranged pastors lording over the people. Unless, of course, there are two deranged pastors in the church. But, again, in the NT church, Paul told the church to appoint elders. Imagine if the congregation could "fire" a pastor.