It has to be tiring to be a Church of God member anymore, especially being an LCG member. Always having to be on alert and anxious because God is watching their every move. The problem with LCG lies in the fact that if you do not do everything that they expect of you then their god will also not be on your side later on. The entire New Covenant is built around the concept that it was IMPOSSIBLE for people to keep the law and to be perfect. That perfection was granted through the NC to all who follow that Jesus. That enormous logbook of sins that COG leaders what to shame members into having has been filled with disappearing ink. It's no longer there.
Trials and Trust: Tests and trials are a major part of life. Our challenge as Christians is how we respond. Will we trust in God and follow His instructions—or will we give in to our emotions and respond in kind, or compromise and quit? To come through tests and trials, we need to remember that God says, “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28) and that He “will make the way of escape” if we trust and obey His instructions (1 Corinthians 10:13). Those instructions include “do good” and trust God (Psalm 37:3, 40), forgive (Matthew 6:14–15), don’t return “evil for evil” (Romans 12:17), be patient and not easily provoked (1 Corinthians 13:4– 5), endure and don’t compromise and quit (Joshua 1:6–9; Matthew 24:13), learn from the experience and grow (James 1:2–4; 2 Peter 3:18). We need to remember that God is watching to see if we will trust Him and obey (1 Corinthians 3:13–14). We also need to remember that God is looking to see where He can “show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). So, when tests and trials come, and they will, trust God, obey Him, and keep your eyes on this big picture.
Have a profitable Sabbath,Douglas S. Winnail
If only Doug and LCG truly believed this:
As a child I thought God was just looking for a reason to smite me, allow Satan to take over my mind and body and that if I was not perfect I'd be burned to ash...
ReplyDeleteI finally decided around 5 years ago it's better to be burned to ash than attend any ACOG, I'm still messed up but I'm freer since I decided ash is better than HWA, RCM and the gang forever.
Y'all want that then go for it but this kind of drivel from lcg and all the other wwcg clones turns my stomach and personally should everyone else's but using your mind instead of brain is not allowed so most members do not understand they should be physically ill from their words and not just putting a bunch of people together and saying it's your lack of faith that will let you contract a deadly plague not ignoring what's in the Bible about sickness and staying away from others
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OK I'm getting off my soapbox now.Good luck and I hope y'all have a good weekend
l8rz :)
Stephen
Doug is so dangerous; he'd rather scare the people by creating a harsh God whose always looking down at your mistakes - than teach a God who justifies us and redeems us.
ReplyDeleteRomans 3:24
and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
If Doug truly wanted his people to have a profitable Sabbath, he would point the to Jesus, the Sabbath Rest.
Doug's comments, as usual, focus on self, me, I, I, me, me, self as being the all important doer, as though one could obtain salvation on their own without any of God's help, when God and the power of His Spirit and what God does through His Son with others is where the praise, honor and glory belongs, but Doug will be Doug, and virtually the same as he has been for decades, and that's okay, but here Doug writes:
ReplyDelete"...We need to remember that God is watching to see if we will trust Him and obey (1 Corinthians 3:13–14. We also need to remember that God is looking to see where He can “show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). So, when tests and trials come, and they will, trust God, obey Him, and keep your eyes on this big picture..."
Is God a dummy? Why is God watching? How smart is God.
The Bible actually tells us that God knows His sheep; He knows who has His Spirit; He loves all mankind; He will save all human beings and yes, subsequently destroy Satan and his angels. Done deal, but not through some Mickey Mouse Millennium with another Jesus very soon to return to earth to reign on earth for 1,000 years....and then allow Jerusalem to be taken over after Satan is loosed from the pit, and put Doug's "warless world of peace" into wars worldwide, deception again and lack of peace. What kind of a kingdom does Doug expect to really exist? Is Doug striving to help his followers qualify? Is Doug of little faith?
God already has names written in the Lamb's Book of Life, so why the watching during the tests/trials Doug envisions? Those God is working with, those of God's Church for example, are the workmanship of His hands, so He must be very aware.
What does Doug think about the following verse?
"For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." 1John 3:20
Does Doug's "god" know all things? Is Doug, inspired by another spirit, involved with "another Jesus," and another gospel?
If anything, I would think that those God is working with will trust God, obey Him, and keep their eyes God's true Plan of Salvation to save all humanity, and destroy Satan and his angels, b/c His Spirit is involved in each of their lives, and God will be 100% successful with each of them, but again, the good news is for everyone. Doug's plan of his idea of "good news" is full of problems, failures, losers, perhaps unless everyone becomes a clone of Doug?
I believe that God will even later make Doug successful, but not according to Doug's current theories, especially of "no grace," all self striving to qualify to get salvation for self. God already knows human beings of and by themselves won't qualify for life. If anything, we all sin; we all earn wages; we all will die once (Doug included), but God, who knows all things, has the power of resurrection!
Will Doug save himSELF by his idea of "Fear Religion?" Or, will Doug learn, like Job did, that God has a lot more on the ball than Doug could ever have imagined, or been taught by others at Amb College?
Time will tell...
John
That "all things work together for good" Romans 8:28 is a mistranslation. As a matter of observation and personal experience, it's not true. Toxic people love this translation as it's a get out of jail free card for their sins against of others. The "wages of sin is death" means that sin has inherent negatives, and no, God is not waving a magic wand negating this.
ReplyDeleteA proper translation of Romans 8:28 is "God is with us in all our trials."
Well, that word "obey" is in the Book, as in Hebrews 5:9: And having been perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him.........
ReplyDeleteExactly! You must obey God to get your salvation.
ReplyDelete🤷♂️ Grasping for straws on this one. If it was written by someone outside of the COGs it probably wouldn’t be a problem
ReplyDeleteThe COGlodyte who mentioned Hebrews 5:9 brings up a good point.
ReplyDeleteThat point is, the COGs do not know how to obey Jesus, as evidenced by their complete lack of teaching on Justification.
Acts 13:39
Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.
The COGs think they keep the law - while they attempt to keep some parts of the law as stated under the Old Covenant - they ignore the parts they don't like. For example, unclean meats are forbidden but mixed fabrics are fine.
The COGs have no idea of what the law is under the New Covenant and therefore have no idea how to be righteous.
The COGs reject the Savior qualities of the Savior.
The COGs reject justification, grace, and redemption.
Romans 3:24
and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Doug Winnail likes to think of himself as a minister of Jesus Christ.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Doug is not proactive in leading his people to Jesus.
Doug closed with “keep your eyes on the big picture”.
Most Christian ministers would have said, keep your eyes on Jesus.
Hebrews 12:2
Fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
For Jesus is the key, the COGs do not have - the key to obedience and righteousness.
Acts 13:39
Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.
Romans 3:24
and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Speaking of Winnail, he once described what occurs at LCG's public presentations. (I think it was in a Behind-the-work film.) The minister will meet visitors and make a determination whether they are being called by God or not, and thereby worthy of an invitation to church. The arrogance of this practice is astounding. Who the hell does Winnail think he is? My former minister used to laugh about the absurdity of people calling him and asking for directions to church, thinking they could come without first being vetted by him.
ReplyDeleteNotice that none of LCG's locations are public.
THE SECRET CULT OF LCG
LCG's practice of secret meetings stems from the old practice of WCG, where they tried to position themselves as an elite, sacred group. "We are the only ones who know the truth. The only ones God is working with on this entire planet. You can't just make yourself a member; God has to put you in. And we determine whether He is doing that. And once you are in this secret, elite group, it is so special you'll never want to leave, even if there is some abusive leadership. There's nowhere else to go. If you leave us, you're turning your back on God and on His selected leaders, and headed for the lake of fire.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, Flurry and LCG still engage in this detestable behavior, although LCG has toned it down.
This practice started with the idea that "church" comes from "ecclesia" and means called-out ones. And we in the ministry get to determine whether you are called out or not. The problem is that while the word ecclesia is derived from "call" and "out-of", that is NOT what it means. Look it up in any Bible dictionary. Ecclesia means "assembly". Often an assembly of Christians, but not always. And nowhere in the Bible do we see any inkling of this arrogant exclusivity.