On the other hand, Mr. Weston takes a dig at Sheldon Monson by claiming the all-powerful God of LCG has replaced all of the malcontents who left the only true church to go with Monson with new true believers. Isn't God awesome!
Oh, and LCG's Tomorrow's World magazine has finally reached 500,000 subscribers. Its taken them how many years to get to this point?
Despite the rapid spread of the Delta Variant, LCG is planning on its Feast sites. After all, its god will protect everyone, just like it did with Mr. Weston when he caught COVID. In the meantime, they are scrambling to make all kinds of alternative plans. I am just surprised he did not blame this on Satan as a means of stopping members from attending one of LCG's prime money-maker events.
Greetings from Charlotte,
We are now less than two weeks away from the Feast of Trumpets, and while the Trumpets are yet to blow, our world is hurtling toward oblivion, as anyone with eyes to see can see. It should be obvious by now that too many people in government, academia, and the media do not love this country—open borders, this Afghanistan disaster, and the push toward immoral behaviors provide more than enough evidence. This goes beyond politics. What God predicted would happen if we forsook Him is now coming to pass. How we long for that seventh Trumpet to be blown to bring mankind’s foolishness to an end. Meanwhile, I noticed an interesting trend the other day. While we regret that some members left us after the 2020 summer camp, in fact the number the number of Member/Co-worker letters sent out here in the U.S. has not only remained steady but has grown, and income has followed the same trend. One would have expected a dip, but God rapidly replaced those who left and the Work continues—adding four issues of the Tomorrow’s World magazine each year (from six to ten), hiring new ministers, sending out all- time high numbers of Bible Study Course lessons, and approaching half a million Tomorrow’s World subscribers. Brethren, as we approach the Feast this year, let us put our hearts into our prayers for God’s guidance and protection as this Delta variant of COVID continues to spread rapidly and, as a result, is affecting some of the requirements our venues are placing on us for our use of their facilities. Many alternate plans are having to be made all around the world.—Gerald Weston
See:
LCG Takes a Big Hit When Over 500 (?) LCG Members Defect To Sheldon Monson and Church of God Assembly
23 comments:
Weston gave no specific numbers.
If the numbers looked good, he would have stated them.
I encourage the LCG people who read this blog to comment on whether they've seen new people show up in their congregation - if you do, please use numbers.
This post brought back great memories!
In fact, as I'm typing I'm listening to Anything Box - Living In Oblivion (St. James Club Mix) and it will probably make me go deep into a '80s music marathon all day.
Then there's also that great 1995 movie, Living in Oblivion - such fun.
Seems like we've been living in oblivion for a long time, yet Weston is still blabbering his warning about it.
I had a great time in the '80s and '90s - despite the WCG.
However, I wish the church had taught me about Jesus, instead of all the lies about the end is is in the next few years.
I don't think all that free stuff - fundamentalist magazines, Bible courses - is appealing to an educated demographic any more, only undereducated minorities, ESL immigrants, poor foreign countries..
For example, a few tenets of Armstrongism are the creation of modern man 6000 years ago and the reset of human population (Noah's family) even more recently.
-- Would anyone who finished high school believe that? --
HWA believed it, though, granted, he was a high-school-dropout.
I personally feel it foolhardy for anyone to go to the FOT this year. I think the ministry will do anything to have it as they finally will have something to do.
3.30 AM
Spot on. All the ACOGs have a history of playing games with their numbers.
The amount of people who stay on COG magazine lists (all of the groups have similar numbers) is extremely small, especially considering that the magazines are FREE!
About 50% do not renew after the first year. Thereafter another 25% per year fall off from that declining base. Thus after about 5 years, only around 10% of the original list is still subscribing.
The COGs are constantly refreshing these lists to add numbers in order to maintain an image of "doing the work". UCG for example puts MILLIONS of inserts in Sunday newspapers for example , to find enough replacements to maintain its magazine list numbers.
UCG Baptized less than 100 people last year for the whole US , and the large bulk of them were warm market relatives , ie children , second generation etc. . The amount of people actually "moved" by the efforts of the COGs is extremely small and limited, in spite of MILLIONS of dollars thrown at it.
Anon 3:49 wrote "HWA... he was a high-school-dropout.
In his time, not unusual. When I went to high school, those destined for learning trades left after 10th grade. Thomas Edison went to school for 12 weeks - though, granted, he was then homeschooled.
Weston wrote: "We are now less than two weeks away from the Feast of Trumpets, and while the Trumpets are yet to blow, our world is hurtling toward oblivion, as anyone with eyes to see can see..."
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Oblivion? Israel today is in oblivion, but weston, also, is in Oblivion!
How so? What is oblivion? Via Webster's dictionary, Oblivion: the fact or condition of not remembering : a state marked by lack of awareness or consciousness
So, how much remembering, awareness, and consciousness does Weston have?
Where are those seven trumpets? And it's trumpets with an "s"!
Weston, a former hireling of the wcg organization, did not care too much for those sheep that he (like professing evangelist Doug Winnail) left behind, which in turn were scattered and unprotected, no thanks to Weston or Doug!
Did they forget? Were these two men already in oblivion, and unaware of it?
Neither of these two hirelings are aware of God's true plan of salvation, which includes Grace and a lot of it.
Weston goes on to say: "...How we long for that seventh Trumpet to be blown to bring mankind’s foolishness to an end..."
Again, neither of these two guys knows God's true Plan of Salvation, Or, have they forgotten that at the end of a thousand years Satan is loosed from the bottomless pit, and goes out and deceives the entire world again. And guess what? Foolishness still prevails with human beings then, so the foolishness of man has not ended as Weston has stated.
Additionally, what happened to the Kingdom of God? Why wasn't it evident when Satan came out of that bottomless pit? Where was Jesus Christ? Where were all the little helpers? How come Satan again snags all the human beings in the four quarters of the Earth, again?
Again, these two guys do not know God's true Plan of Salvation! They are being driven by another spirit, to follow another Jesus, with another gospel it is a counterfeit of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of peace! There will be no everlasting peace at the end of the thousand years when Satan comes out of that pit.
The knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of the living (dead?) group has stagnated, if not gone backwards, since 16 January 1986.
All that Weston and Doug have to offer, within their organization, is milk and junk food!
Oh, and their brand of Fear Religion (Heb 2:15, bondage? 2 Tim 2:26), just like the other organizations such as (Dis) United , loveless Philadelphia, flurry's group, Pack's group, Wineland's group, cogwassoc, etc!
When will these former wcg hirelings, and groups, driven by another spirit, finally come out of their distribution of milk, junk food, Fear Religion, a supposed Millennium with another Jesus reigning on earth, false Jesus', false gospels, gospels without grace?
Time will tell...
John
Armstrongist/LCG Genesis literalism is really hurting the quality/quantity of converts.
Many would be surprised at the outdated fundamentalism of Armstrongist daughter cults (pictures of Adam & Eve, Noah's boat..they don't emphasize this so much now compared to, for instance, their fellow dumbass Millerite cult, the Jehovah's Witnesses.)
LCG churches should organize bus trips to the big Noah boat in Kentucky!
LCG leaders should have the balls to publish what their founder believed in Genesis!
"What God predicted would happen if we forsook Him is now coming to pass."
What makes apocalyptic Millerites believe that this is even the end of the age? All we know from the Bible is that we are living after the time that Jesus ascended back into the heavens and before the time that Jesus will return. That span of time is indeterminate in duration.
Identifying now with the End of Days is the outcome of idiosyncratic speculations and calculations. That's how William Miller marched augustly into The Great Disappointment with his followers clothed in white.
Apocalyptic Millerites typically pull that scripture out of their pockets about "no flesh" being saved alive from Matthew to anchor the End of Days in current time. And they recruit this scripture to their cause by making its scope global instead of local. This overlooks the fact that the Bible is focused on the Jews not on the global thicket of Gentiles. And it is unlikely that nuclear war would kill off everybody anyway. It would probably leave at least a spare population of mutants. And how long will the nuclear era go on before a comprehensive war using such weapons would happen? Is it now? Or is it 2,000 years from now?
And how about the meme that it can't get much worse than this - has to end soon. Yet, Covid is nothing like the Black Plague in sheer lethality. Afghanistan is just another Saigon. To me, everything seems business as usual. If you think things are really going to pop so you will be warned ahead of time, what about Jesus' statement: "...for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." Interestingly, he addressed this statement to his followers. Does that sound like a tidal wave of prophecy sloshing over pulpit and pew?
Calculations, speculations and the odd exegesis does not make this the End of Days. Only fervid Millerites with a taste for cash flow can have the audacity to bang this tired drum. The rest of us just wonder what it will take for those hard hearts to be finally embarrassed.
******** Click on my icon for Disclaimer
In GA the numbers have drastically declined one congregation has only 4-6 people now. In fact all the GA congregations have declined not increased.
The Sudbury ONT church has not grown in years. they are down to
less than eight. They never really had more than 12 at any one time!
If you account for the mental suppression that occurs in the mebership, the growth is negative. So even though more butts may be added, brains are diminishing.
"As cults tend to discourage and severely punish those who question their leaders or practices, they tend to prevent both vertical and horizontal integration from happening. This means that negative emotions are more likely to get stuck (eventually surfacing as trauma), while critical thinking and reasoning are suppressed. Mentally incapacitating their members in this way allows a strict following mentality to flourish as suppressing emotional processing and critical thinking not only keeps them vulnerable, but also unquestioning of their leader."
https://www.labroots.com/trending/neuroscience/15729/cults-change-brain
Thanks for providing numbers for Georgia and Ontario!
It's good to get the truth about what's really happening.
How does it make you feel when Weston claims that numbers are growing?
Just wondering, what is the main shtick of Monson's group, no masks? Heck, Trump was in Alabama speaking the other day & even he urged people to get vaccinated & wear masks indoors as it is the best of two undesirable options. I don't see how a " No Mask" variant of one of Worldwide spin offs is really gonna have much of a half life. It really does not matter it's origin whether covid came from a pangolin or the Wuhan Lab( the most likely source) it is here and it is not going away and I am afraid til vaccines and herd immunity from exposures reach a high majority of the population, we are gonna go thru waves of pandemic outbreaks.
Trump got booed which is alarming, but not unexpected.
USA was founded by rebels and with our population coming from a vast number of countries and ethnic groups, it is not surprising we have so much dissension.
The liberal press and politicians like to focus on skin color, but our population is a lot more fragmented than that.
WCG liked to say we were mainly Manasseh, even though we come from every nation in the world.
Meanwhile, I noticed an interesting trend the other day. While we regret that some members left us after the 2020 summer camp, in fact the number of Member/Co-worker letters sent out here in the U.S. has not only remained steady but has grown, and income has followed the same trend. One would have expected a dip, but God rapidly replaced those who left and the Work continues—
Wait a minute.. excuse me? What a very bold statement to make. I highly doubt the legitimacy of the claims Gerald Weston made. Maybe the numbers flew under his radar. I believe around 400 or so left the Living Church of God and the number has probably steadily grown. It seems to me, people are starting to wake up to LCG's bullying tactics and their approach which is lacking real zeal and life. No wonder some are supporting a different work. This would seem to indicate a lie. I'm not going to accuse him of that but boy does that seem suspicious. Looks like he's trying to cover his tracks. I believe a dip was expected and occurred in LCG. I know a former LCG minister by the name of Todd Lawrence from Indiana who has left and joined COG Assembly. He is a farming millionaire who reportedly gave hundreds of thousands of dollars on beck and call to The Living Church of God. Apparently Living requested him for money and he gave! If that's not a dip, I don't know what is.
It's also been reported from Roderick Meredith before his death, the Living Church of God does not even make 15% of income through tithing. And they're probably making less now! Dr. Meredith believed that sins cause COG groups to have less than 30% growth, and therefore he was hoping for 15%. There are clearly sins in LCG. If you look, you will find. (Personal - Pray for Our Financial Growth! Roderick C. Meredith January/February 2016)
"One special prayer that I would ask all of you to join me in praying is this: let us all together beseech God to grant us in this Work at least half of the financial increase that He gave Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong for about 35 years! For, as Mr. Armstrong explained many times, God gave the Work under his direction about 30 percent increase year by year for about 35 years."
-Roderick C Meredith
Neotherm asks: "What makes apocalyptic Millerites believe that this is even the end of the age?"
It's right there in My bible, Neo. Matthew 24:34 says "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
Now I ask you, which generation are we in right now? This one, of course. That's us. What other conclusion can we come to?
Total BS!! More people have WOKEN UP and LEFT!! God is NOT doing the calling, THEY are!! Hence all of the BS Meetings they hold to try to get new members. (SUCKERS!!) The Fox is guarding the Hen House!! God is a God of LOVE and GRACE and there is NONE of either in the LCG!! They are a brood of VIPERS!! You will know them “BY their * FRUITS*”!! The others are not much better!! I wonder if they still play their LAME tv broadcasts for sermonettes in their rented hotels?? They send out cheap booklets to the brethren and keep all of the money for THEMSELVES!! SHAMEFUL!! They don’t even BLUSH!! If I were Weston or Winnail I would be shaking in my boots!!
End of the age? They are missing it, and actually as it happens are not the gatekeepers as was taught.
The reason 9/11 was such a shock to Armstrongites was that they only expected an onshore attack from the Germans.
Similarly, the sun is becoming hotter as in Revelation, due to climate change caused by man's poor stewardship, and not through orchestration of a messenger from God such as Moses. This process is also causing the death of animals and sea creatures, and as the glaciers continue to melt, will disrupt the volume of the world's great rivers, for which irrigation of food crops are required. The iron jawed refusal to compromise by ultra leftists and ultra rightists is reminiscent of the three infighting factions of Jerusalem which Josephus chronicled circa 69 AD leading to the fall, and the biological phenomena leaking from, or deliberately engineered and released from laboratories closely emulates the disease epidemic patterns outlined in Revelation.
The ACOGs can't see this? They are so blind that Mark Armstrong apparently sees Donald Trump as some sort of solution!
There was a time when I lamented having been born too late. At this point, I'm grateful to have experienced the best world history had to offer, living in the time right before we self-destructed.
Anonymous Retired Prof said...
Neotherm asks: "What makes apocalyptic Millerites believe that this is even the end of the age?"
It's right there in My bible, Neo. Matthew 24:34 says "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
Now I ask you, which generation are we in right now? This one, of course. That's us. What other conclusion can we come to?
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The "this generation" and all the "you..."s was to them not us. The other conclusion we can come to is that Jesus, the Apostles and First century church were sadly mistaken.
The apologetic that "this generation" is the generation "all these things" happen in is us is simply untrue. That kind of view would apply to every generation over the past 2000 years.
The New Testament documents the evolution of "soon" to "I fought a good fight..." goodbye.
The "don't you know to God a thousand years is as a day and a day as a thousand years" is another apologetic that no one knew until it all went long and never came to pass. In other words, "Peter" made that up rather than admit they were wrong about Jesus "behold I come quickly"
That's right, 2:03, about the three Jewish factions that were fighting with one another in Jerusalem at the time when the Romans beseiged the city.
This is an interesting fact because it parallels conditions in the church today where the church has disintegrated into three main warring groups (UCG, LCG & COGWA).
But our ministers like to justify themselves by saying that "it was a peaceful or amicable break-up" or "it was the other side's fault", or some other such balderdash, in essence minimizing their sins as if they don't exist, something that would be expected from an antichrist.
And why do the ministers still keep condemning the members for causing discord when they themselves caused the current division in the church with their squabbling and dissension? Ye, hypocrites, does the word of God only proceed from you when truth and understanding has to be reached? (1 Cor 14:36)
I've often said that the COGs have more in common with Catholic theology than they would care to admit.
Seeing what the Theologian (meaning one who has thoughts on God), Dennis Diehl wrote about Matthew 24:34 reminded me that COG theology has some things in common with atheist theology too.
The atheists and COGs have no coherent idea of what Jesus meant when he said, "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
The atheists believe this verse proves the fallibility of the Bible - because they do not know Victorious Jesus.
The COG confusion leaves them twisting with misstatements that this verse applies to now - because they do not know Victorious Jesus.
Most Christians pair Mathew 24:34 with John 19:30 - When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Referring back to Matthew 24:34, Jesus fulfilled the law and became a perfect atonement at the moment of his death - it's all finished = the Believers' fate is sealed - we are righteous, victorious, saved ... on and on - and the outcome of humanity is also sealed - because Jesus reigns victorious after this triumphant accomplishment.
The atheists just don't/can't believe. The COGs prefer to believe that they must work to become their own savior to make up for the things Jesus really could not finish by himself and they also must give lots of money to a "work" that they believe will make Jesus return - and then he will become a victorious king.
To the COGs, their fate and the coming of the Kingdom is not at all finished - so they must work to finish it.
The atheists miss out on the current Kingdom of God because they are not interested in it.
The COGs cannot see or feel or believe the present Kingdom of God, with a currently Victorious King, because they are looking for it and him only to be in the future (and yes, it will come more fully to Earth in the future).
With Dennis being soundly in the subset where atheist theology intersects with COG theology, it is easy to see the why behind his thoughts on Matthew 24:34.
Christians are not waiting for sunset, a day from now, to rest in the finished work of Jesus; however, we do wish the atheists and the COGs could enjoy it with us, now.
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