GF’s fear tactics are getting stronger. If members dare to get into their 2nd tithe, it’s considered not only “stealing” (as HWA used to say) but now is “embezzling“! He says it “does not work” to do that and if they refuse to set aside their 2nd tithe, or get into it, they will “surely suffer financial and spiritual penalties for disobeying God!” To strengthen this fear tactic, he says, “Quite a number have learned the hard way that ‘this borrowing’ does not work.”
First of all, tithes are not commanded under the New Covenant and neither is keeping the O. T. festivals, but all HWA cult leaders (con-artists) must enforce tithing by twisting Scripture, or they themselves fear they won’t be rolling in the dough anymore. –[name withheld] Exit and Support Network
Flurry and the PCG recently bragged through Andrew Locher that the PCG was now debt-free and owed money to no one. I am sure members breathed a sigh of relief that they could ease up on sending in their last dime for Flurry's latest demand. But that relief did not last but a few days when Andrew Locher opened his mouth and told members that they were expected to continue to fund the Flurry family's private jet and to continue to give for big projects Flurry's "god" has in mind for the PCG.
“Thanks to your sacrifice in the aircraft fund and other fundraisers,” Mr. Locher said, “the purchase price as well as a new paint job, avionics and safety upgrades, and planned (and unplanned) maintenance has all been paid. … Already this year, we have made several trips, with additional flights already planned. Thank you so much for your sacrifice! We still average nearly $80,000 per month in operating expense.This figure fluctuates quite a bit depending on our flight activity, but we can still really use any contributions you can make toward the aircraft fund.” (Excepted from PN, 5-7-21)
“There is no doubt that God has big projects in mind, so let’s keep pace with God and continue to give as we are able.” (Ibid, Andrew Locher) Exit and Support Network
"Keeping pace with God" is helping the homeless, feeding the poor, helping refugees, caring for their neighbors, and not lining the pockets of Flurry, Pack, Weston, Kubik, Thiel, or the rest of the leaders of the COG's. They above all should be giving the most to their churches to the point they have nothing. They are all like HWA though. They have huge homes filled with fine art, gold, silver, fancy offices, fancy campuses, and more. Even while demanding members tithe and give all they could HWA never tithed 10% on his income. The COG is filled with hypocritical leaders who make demands upon their followers that they themselves never keep.
The only embezzlers the Church of God has right now are its leaders.
34 comments:
If you are a legalist-minded ACOG member, the concept of 2T is almost meaningless when you figure in the need to travel to services held on the weekly Sabbath, not just for the three annual Sabbath seasons.
Your 2T is 10% of your increase, or 9% if you accept the tithe-of-the-tithe fiction. However, weekly Sabbaths amount to 14% of your days, and the three annual seasons add another 3%. So, once you realize that 2T is meant to cover your cost of traveling for worship for 17%+ of the year, you are unlikely to have "excess 2T" if you've spent it properly.
If you try to argue that 2T is solely for traveling to "Jerusalem" you've got a problem. The OT Temple is gone, replaced by the Christian as the new Temple of God. When you go to weekly Sabbath services, you're going to "Jerusalem" just as much as when you go to a "Feast of Tabernacles site." Or will you dare to say that your ACOG can legitimately determine a FOT site but not a site for weekly services? If God ordains that you worship at a place, your 2T is meant to help you go there.
But even if your reasoning is so convoluted that you only use 2T for expenses during the three annual Festival seasons, and you exclude the weekly Sabbath, this means you're using 9% of your income for 5% of your days, which isn't that big of a deal.
I vividly recall a sermon given by Colin Wallace in the Winnipeg church decades ago on the subject of second tithe. It was a sermon filled with threat and menace with respect to how exacting members must be in calculating their second tithe, but also in how they spent it. Wallace was notorious for giving incredibly legalistic sermons, and in this particular sermon, he intimated that members might face dire consequences if they failed to save the tithe or only saved a portion of it. One of the disaster tales he recounted was the story of a church member whose basement had flooded, and he suggested that it was likely because he wasn't diligently saving his second tithe.
“Dipping Into Your Second Tithe Is Now Embezzling”
The really serious lying and stealing is done by the False Prophets:
Gerald Flurry
David Pack
Ronald Weinland (Ask this guy about embezzling.)
Robert Thiel
25+ years out of date.
First of all, tithes are not commanded under the New Covenant and neither is keeping the O. T. festivals
Oh, yes, I read that the other day:
"And Jesus said unto his disciples, in the New Covenant, nothing applies anymore. Nada." And He admonished them, "When you write your Gospel accounts, in 20 or 30 years, BE SURE TO WRITE THAT! Otherwise people might think when God told Moses His commandments were FOR EVER, He may really meant it!"
And, behold, none of the disciples remembered what He said, and didn't include that in their accounts.
Ideally, the fear of God should lead to good behavior.
It should not lead to people supporting false prophets who plunder them.
"Tithe of the 2nd Tithe" is no where to be found in scripture.
It was sold on the idea that the church needed to pay for halls and costs for the FOT. Back in the day, Chamber of Commerces were clamoring all over the church to not only pay for halls, but to have blocks of hotel rooms to be given as perks to the church for ministerial accommodations, gratis, in exchange for all of the other bookings.
Additionally, the concept that "excess 2T" had to be donated to the church is unscriptural, as well as the many spending limitations that were put on 2T, like not being able to buy new suits, or any other thing that was "of your hearts desire".
Looking at the current online issue of The Trumpet with morbid fascination, I amazed at how far down the Trump rabbit hole Flurry has gone. I am also puzzled. Flurry's goal in life seems to be to imitate Herbert Armstrong as much as possible. Flurry has his own college, and his auditorium, and his bird statue in front of the auditorium, and his student performers, and his concerts, and his English campus, and I guess even the rock upon which Armstrong prayed, although I really haven't kept up with the rock story. Flurry also has his magazine called The Trumpet. But by and large, Armstrong kept egregious political commentary out of the Plain Truth magazine; reading between the lines indicated conservative sympathies, but the Plain Truth mostly avoided partisan politics. Flurry, on the other hand, has turned his website and his magazine into blatantly political tools, railing against liberal Democrats and COVID vaccinations and prophesying the return of Trump to power. So now Flurry has two human idols --- Armstrong and Trump --- but it seems he is not really imitating HWA. He is rather more like Jim Bakker or some of the other religious right wing nuts. I am surprised, but perhaps consistency is not a proper expectation when it comes to the Gerald Flurry.
None of today's COG leaders are Levites so I do not need to give them my money. You are also right that there is no command to do so. The example given is that if members are moved to give because they want to be part of a following, then they give freely and of no set amount.
NONE of the many teachings of the Armstrong Churches of God has been more pernicious than tithing! The financial sacrifice and harm which it has inflicted on members is incalculable, and I believe that the leadership of these groups WILL be held responsible for the damage they've inflicted through its use and application.
The PLAIN TRUTH is that tithing is NOT required under the terms of the New Covenant. Tithing was employed by God to support the Old Covenant religious system for the Israelites centered on the temple in Jerusalem. Moreover, it was based on an agricultural economy and calculated on the INCREASE of Israel's farmers (the crop yield and the livestock that were born that year). The notion that folks should be tithing on their gross income is ABSURD. Finally, there NEVER were three tithes under the old system. There was ONE tithe used at various times for three different purposes!
As for using tithes to celebrate festivals, under the terms of the Old Covenant as specified in the Law of the Central Sanctuary, there was only ONE God-designated feast site - the temple at Jerusalem. That temple no longer exists, and it hasn't been rebuilt. Moreover, Scripture is clear that there were THREE pilgrimage festivals, NOT ONE (as in the WCOG tradition of a Feast of Tabernacles). Hence, not matter how well-intentioned, all of the ACOG celebrations of these Old Covenant festivals fall short of the expectations laid out in the Torah!
Finally, there we should also take note of the fact that the notion of a paid ministry is an entirely modern one. The New Testament makes very clear that member donations were used to support the poor of the Church and helping the apostles to proclaim the gospel. No where in these writings do we see tithe money being used to construct fine homes, auditoriums, administrative buildings, chariots (they didn't have airplanes), fountains or Steuben crystal!
Sorry about the typos - I was righteously indignant when I wrote this and anxious to get it posted!
I remember hearing Rod Meredith telling members it was time to send in their tithes of a tithe to LCG members & thinking how disconnected the ministry & leadership was from lay members and it seemed as if they really did not care about the average lay person's lot in life or their circumstance.
Hi, Myself I cannot find an end date for 1st tithe & thanks to all that those acog Targs put into my head & soul I cannot bring myself to even listen to my bible. Oh and as I can recall there are not end dates on the sabbath, sabbaths (holydays) nor the celebration of the new moon which I did not even know existed in the Bible until I started to escape the "thought reform".
BTW Christ as far as I can recall said he did not come to cancel the old laws And since I'm emotionally unable to listen to my bible (visually impaired, centrally blind) due to growing up under the twisting & fear induction training of the acog system I cannot find the scriptures :(
Since when did British Israelisim instil fear into people either baptised or not ????
There is really nothing wrong with a church asking for money based on some Biblical notion. It's a free country. Separation of church and State. A church could require almost all of your money and leave you to live in penury. If that were to happen the issues are: Is that ethical? Are you sane? The legality is not a question.
Collecting money is simply a church administrative policy. Tithing may even be used as the foundation for the policy. There is nothing wrong with that. For example, my son was circumcised on the eighth day. That was based on Biblical example. And it was for perceived health reasons. It could have been foregone.
The problem, the serious problem, emerges when someone says that the church money collection process, whatever it may be, is required for salvation. Saying that tithing is required for salvation is like saying circumcision is required for salvation. And it is also like saying that Jesus is not sufficient for salvation but other things must be added in. To this Paul replied:
"Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."
From context we understand that he is speaking of circumcision as a qualification for salvation.
What Splinterdom should do (my business consulting is tongue-in-cheek, of course) to get square with the Bible is to simply say that there is no Biblical basis for rolling forward Old Covenant tithing into the New Covenant - tithing has nothing to do with salvation. But then add that "we are going to follow our Splinterist tithing schema because we want to as church policy." The downside is that the convenient leverage of OT law is lost.
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Anonymous said...
Since when did British Israelisim instil fear into people either baptised or not ????
May 10, 2021 at 6:03 AM
Simple. White Americans, British, Aussies, and similar 12 tribes will go to the Tribulation for being disobedient to God who bless them bountifully. The fear of Tribulation.
the terms of the New Covenant
Which can be found where?? My Bible must have them edited out, but since it's the new NIV, that's not unexpected. Where were the terms of the New Covenant listed in the KJV? For the "old Covenant" there were five books!
Since when did British Israelisim instil fear into people either baptised or not ????
Since people became afraid of the Germans attacking "America and her Anglo-allies".
Stephen Schley:
I am very sorry about your visual impairment. So I don't know if you will see this response but I am writing it anyway.
The Sabbath was decreed in the OT as a part of an eternal covenant. So was circumcision. And physical circumcision is no longer binding on Christians. We now have circumcision of the heart.
The physical observance of the seventh day was described as "'olam" in the Hebrew text. This word 'olam in some cases can be translated "eternal." But it means an epoch or an age or an extended period with a natural term. In Deuteronomy 15:17, 'olam is used to mean the lifespan of a slave, for instance. It is equivalent to the Greek word "aion" from which we get "eon."
But the OT Sabbath was not simply dropped as if it were a grocery item with an expiration date. It was transformed out of existence through being subsumed into the NT with different properties. Christ is now our Sabbath and in him we find the rest that the OT Sabbath could only hint at.
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Embezzling? This from a power hungry ministry that embezzles all of it's members rights. Which is why the ACOGs are as fruitful as your typical banana republic.
Anonymous 5/10 @ 7:25,
The terms of the New Covenant are simple and are made plain throughout the writings we refer to as the New Testament. However, Paul summarized the terms very concisely in his letter to the saints of Rome - He wrote: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9). If we accept Christ's sacrifice on our behalf, we will be saved. Those are the terms of the New Covenant - there is no list of dos and don'ts in its terms (see Galatians 2:16).
Miller Jones
We are to live by EVERY word of God rather than Miller Jones's cherry picked verses.
The whole world will be involved and affected by the Tribulation. Not so simple. Why so fearful?
Love the comment Anon 9:13. Sums it all up. Members are begrudged by the ministry on making any decisions in their life. And disaster and misery is wished upon them by the beloved ministry.
Anonymous 5/10 @ 12:13,
You said: "We are to live by EVERY word of God" Do you really mean EVERY word? Does that include not sitting in a chair or using a bed that a menstruating woman has occupied? (Leviticus 15:19-21) Does that include not wearing blended fabrics and planting more than one kind of seed in your field? (Leviticus 19:19) Does that include following the regulations regarding mold and mildew and animal sacrifices? And should we consider every word in the Bible to be the word of God? What about those instances where Paul plainly states that he is not speaking on behalf of the Lord? (I Corinthians 7:12 and 25) Do you consider Psalm 137:9 to be the word of God? And which teaching on divorce are we supposed to follow - the one Moses gave the Israelites or the one which Christ revealed as God's real will in the matter?
OR Did you really mean to say that God expects Christians to practice the law of love that Christ talked about, and that Paul said fulfilled all of the requirements of the law? Are you suggesting that all, some or most of the laws which were incorporated into the Old Covenant should be regarded by Christians as part of the conditions of the New Covenant? If so, have you ever read the fifteenth chapter of the book of Acts? Would you like to clarify for us what you mean by EVERY word of God? OR Have you been cherry-picking?
Miller Jones
I find it hard to believe that in order to escape their eventual eternal destruction, all demons need do is believe in Christs resurrection and accept His sacrifice.
Anonymous 5/10 @ 6:43,
Both covenants were made between God and humankind. Angels have no part in the New Covenant and cannot participate in it. Christ "took not on him the nature of angels." Hence, if repentance and salvation are ever to be made available to demons, it will be through some other plan, arrangement or covenant of God.
Just read Ron Kelly’s book “Should the Church teach tithing?” and the blindness shall be removed from one’s eyes re the evil of lying teachers who command Christians to tithe money to them. You’ll be able to sing “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I’m free at last!” of being a tithe slave!
FALSE. Do they even read the Bible? The bible would permit borrowing as a charge exists to buy back a tithed item.
“One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to Him as holy. If you want to buy back the LORD's tenth of the grain or fruit, you must pay its value, plus 20 percent.”
- Leviticus 27:30-31 (NLT)
I'm not 12:13. Well if that's how you feel Jones why don't you actually live that life then ?
Oh of course you preach in CGI congregations, yeah, yeah of course you have.
Thanks Normalized_Eigenvalue_Orthogonal :)
I'm grateful for your words of advice. Sounds a lot like how people say Jews were given the oracles of God and his sabbaths, i.e. holydays when they were only told to keep track of the 7th day of the week according to how Lev. 23 uses a hebrew word for sabbath and a greek word for sabbaths/holydays in Lev. 23.
My computer reads the text for me (windows+ctrl+enter on windows 10 can demonstrate)
the 1st tithe I'm going to keep paying for now "when" I can access things religious I'll visit the topic again. I barely get anything that's an increase so not much to tithe on (I get disability but I do not count that as an increase but what I live on)
Oh and for those wondering about fear, I was born into WCG & was so narrow minded that when I left I fell right into lockstep with GCG/LCG all of which use psychological warfare developed fear induction and hypnotic speech rhythm "brain-washing" which is called thought reform by the medical community.
Margaret Singer who sadly died before I ever heard of made a video that demonstrates hypnotic speaking patterns (i'll find the link later, it's on youtube somewhere).
I hope y'all have a good one,
l8r y'all Stephen :)
Anonymous 5/10 @ 11:03,
I live by and in the grace of God, and I have NOT "preached" to ANY CGI congregations now for many years (I'm long gone and well rid of that organization).
Anonymous (6:43) you wrote "I find it hard to believe that in order to escape their eventual eternal destruction, all demons need do is believe in Christs resurrection and accept His sacrifice."
I believe you are referring to James' observation:
"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble."
James had heartburn over the idea that someone could easily profess Christ in words yet not be a Christian. I think he had seen some religious con artists in his day. His remedy was to look to that person's behavior - AKA works - for an indication of the person's true spiritual condition. Living faith connects with motivation and behavior. This does not contravene but augments Paul's statement that we are saved by grace through faith.
Miller was citing Paul on the topic of justification leading to salvation. Paul said works alone would not justify a person when the proximate cause of salvation is faith. To cite the last clause in this foregoing sentence is not "cherry picking" nor is it an argument for "cheap grace." It is a statement about proximate cause. If anything, it presumes that the reader have a reasonable level of sophistication in understanding the joint operation faith and works.
James was worried about people who only talked Christianity. Paul was worried about people who only put on showy displays of self-righteousness (boasting as he called it). These two approaches fall within the category of nominalism. James and Paul both had valid concerns about nominalism.
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Dave Pack is the master of hypnotic speech rhythm.
N.E.O., you mention nominalism in relation to a distinction between James and Paul. This is an anachronism. Philosophical nominalism became a topic in the medieval era. You've got apostles concerned about a viewpoint that had not yet been proposed.
Besides, the concerns mentioned do not actually "fall within the category of nominalism," at least not according to its standard definition. I found it difficult to define nominalism concisely in my own words, so I turned to dictionary.com: "(in medieval philosophy) the doctrine that general or abstract words do not stand for objectively existing entities and that universals are no more than names assigned to them."
Obviously you are using a different meaning for "nominalism," one I have not run across before. Can you explain what James and Paul understood it to mean? And where they expressed their concerns?
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