LCG: The Hallmark of the church is NOT being a follower of Jesus but is....

One would hope that a church that claims to be Christian would have as its hallmark Jesus Christ and proclaim that unabashedly.

Then there is the Living Church of God. Guess what its hallmark is?

Its hallmark is church government! 

This was sent to be by an LCG contact and is part of the training that ministers go through:

A hallmark of God’s true Church is government conducted with an attitude of servant leadership. From God the Father, to Christ the head of the Church, to human beings positioned by Christ on the earth, this chain of government and, ultimately leadership, is essential to the function of the Church.  

Did you catch the "attitude servant of leadership"? Imagine having "servant leaders" in the LCG! Shocking, I know! 

Question

(Pose to group if you like): What causes a breakdown or malfunction in Church government?

Answer:

When people usurp authority not given to them or when they do things that are someone else’s

responsibility, or when they fail to communicate effectively. 

LCG just cannot stand anyone daring to do anything on their own without getting a minister's permission. 

 

We need to understand how to recognize, follow, and submit to God’s government in faith. This is a subject that has been preached about, talked about, and studied, yet few really understand the importance of this action. If we are to serve in God’s Church, we must understand, respect, and follow God’s government in order to serve God and His people properly and set a right example.

Here we go again. Members are too stupid to follow church government. Its all their fault. Its never the fault of ineffective leaders. 

Most worldly churches, although frequently well meaning, practice an unbiblical form of church government. The Presbyterian or democratic form of government places the “board” or deacons in positions where they direct the minister. The minister is expected to pastor the sheep, but only as far as the deacons or board sees fit. And when there is dissention among the board or deacons, the pastor does not have the ability to make decisions or solve the problems. Additionally, the pastor’s position becomes a political one, as he must avoid teaching forcefully and addressing personal sins, lest he be terminated by board members or deacons who might be offended. Churches that practice a non-biblical, democratic form of government, wind up with the same political issues that face most nations of the world today.

“Because, in our modern "democracies" (whether pure democracies or representative republics), the politicians campaigning for public office must be very selective about which facts to tell the voters. Generally, they must tell the public only what the people want to hear—whether it is true or not. If the politicians confront the public with too much reality, it is equivalent to committing political suicide!”

CLASS OVERVIEW 

 

In this class we will:

•Review God’s form of “top down” but merciful government.

•Highlight the needs for godly Church government.

•Highlight the consequences of ungodly forms of Church government.

•Highlight why we must “look to the pastor” and “look to Headquarters” as the earthly authority in spiritual matters.

“And although it is terribly neglected by most professing ministers of Jesus Christ, one of the primary emphases of Jesus’ message was the coming Government of God.”  Meredith, R.C. (March-April 2005). The Future of Democracy. Tomorrow’s World(p.7).

Although Mr. Meredith’s quote directly described governmental politics, the same can be said about church politics in democratic church governments. Today, in many churches run by boards, a minister can also commit professional suicide if he tells his congregations what they do not want to hear. Can God really use this type of government to inspire and direct His ministry to exhort and correct the brethren when necessary, and to provide “meat in due season?” No – in fact, it inhibits open, honest, God-inspired exhortation and admonition.

When has there ever been open, honest, and God-inspired exhortations and admonitions from LCG leaders????  The better question to ask is when has LCG leadership ever acted in a loving and merciful manner to its members? When, has it ever been grace-filled? When has it ever placed Christ above government and the law?

Is it any wonder why LCG is in such a mess when this is where their admitted hallmark lies?

Page from the Gnostic Gospel of Judas

The Contingent God of Armstrongism

by Neo

I do not believe that the human mind, no matter how much it might be augmented, is capable of deeply understanding God. So when we try to conceive of God, we always conceive of him differently than he actually is. God is mysterious. But this is not in tension with the idea that we may know God “through a glass darkly.” And this knowledge, though falling short of the reality, has definition. In this op-ed I will observe that the Armstrongist god belongs to a different class of being than the Christian God and is much more limited than the Christian God. This is best understood through recognizing that the Armstrongist god is a contingent being and the Christian God is a necessary being. 

Contingency

A contingent being is one that in essential some way depends on external conditions for its existence. A necessary being has no such dependencies but is self-existent. This latter statement is brief and apophatic but I will focus on ontological contingency in this op-ed rather than God as a necessary being. Armstrongism has no document titled “The Doctrine of God.” Its ruminations on God are scattered through booklets, magazine articles, and homiletic messages. So I will rely on my 30 years of experience as an Armstrongist and some internet research to describe the Armstrongist notion of god.

The Armstrongist god is a contingent being. Under this proposition, imagine how the universe started. There was nothing but an empty universe – space with no contents. God lived there but in a spirit realm or dimension. He resided somewhere in the “sides of the north” as viewed from the location of the yet-to-be-created earth. God, in this scenario, is so much a part of the physical universe that GTA stated that you could get into a rocket ship and fly to where god is, if you had enough time. To theologians and philosophers, this means that the Armstrongist god is immanent in the universe but not transcendent.

God as creator populated the empty container of space with celestial bodies. One, in particular, earth, he made habitable for biological creatures. But an issue is that the empty space in which god lived already had properties. It just did not have material objects. It was dimensional and was pre-made to accommodate the laws of nature that we know. Empty space is not the same as nothingness. God did not create spacetime – he had always lived in spacetime. The Armstrongist god is then dependent on eternally existing spacetime – as if it were a divine uncreated environment. But now we know that spacetime is not divine but physical. Spacetime reacts to gravity. This dependency on the spacetime environment means that the Armstrongist god is a contingent god.

A further example is that Armstrongists assert that their god always had a body (see the Mystery of the Ages, pp. 46-47). The human body is patterned after the body of god. So, bodily parts were an inherent part of his eternal essence. This means that god had teeth before ever envisioning the idea of eating. It was like he wondered what the hard, white things were in the unusual orifice we call a “mouth”. So, he started with teeth which had no purpose, they had just always been, and had to make something that they could be used for. So he invented this idea of nutrition and made this stuff called food so that these hard things in his mouth could have something to cut and grind up. The surfaces of these eternally existing hard, white things were already designed to cut and grind. So the engineering design of the teeth encouraged him in a certain direction in his creation. So the Armstrongist god is contingent on an eternally existing bodily construction with its already engineered mechanics.

A myriad of such examples could be constructed but two should be sufficient to arouse some reflection and questioning in the minds of those who accept the notion of the Armstrongist god. But in summary, the Armstrongist god did not create his environment or his body but he is dependent on these external elements. This dependency makes the Armstrongist god not necessary but contingent. Armstrongism does not account for where these external and eternal elements, both highly engineered, might have originated or what their status is in the divine realm. Given the Armstrongist model of a contingent god, one might speculate these elements were created by another superordinate being who is necessary.

There is in Gnosticism a kind of postulated being that matches the description of this kind of contingent god. This category of this created but powerful being is called a Demiurge. The definition below is from the Wikipedia article on the Demiurge:

In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge . . . is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe.
The Gnostics adopted the term demiurge. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the monotheistic sense, because the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequences of something else. Depending on the system, they may be considered either uncreated and eternal or the product of some other entity.

Many human religions have adopted a demiurgic view of god. And this view is particularly popular among atheists like Dawkins and Dennett because it is a much easier target to attack. This is because their arguments are rooted in materialism and the demiurgic god is mostly involved with the material universe. But this contingent god is not God as understood in Christianity. Consequently, many atheists begin their pleadings with a category error.

Who Cares?

Humans have differing perceptions of god. Does this mean that how we conceive of the Christian God is a matter of choice? For instance, the God of Calvinists Christians is much different than the god of Arminian Christians. Also, sociologists Paul Froese and Christopher Bader (“America's Four Gods: What We Say About God--And What That Says About Us”, Oxford University Press, 2015) determined by a survey that Americans attribute one of four different personality profiles to god: The Authoritative God, Benevolent God, Critical God, and Distant God. Because the view of God, both theological and popular, is varied, this does not abnegate the fact that there is a revelation of God contained in scripture – a revelation that permits broad agreement in the Christian movement on important divine attributes. For example, Calvinists and Arminians both believe that God is not contingent but necessary.

From these varied views, one might conclude that the idea of god is indeterminate for most people and that any notion of god will do. And for that reason, the Armstrongist god is just as valid as the Christian god. But this rejects the broad areas of agreement, based on Biblical exegesis, among denominations in the Christian movement. Given the state of knowledge in contemporary theology, there is no reason for a denomination to adopt the retrograde idea of a contingent god. And the boundary between a necessary god and a contingent god is, perhaps, the lowest threshold separating Christianity from non- Christian religions. That is why this issue is worth caring about.

Progressive Revelation and Contingency

I believe it is likely that the ancient Hebrews believed that God had a body. I also believe that they cast him in the role of an ancient Semitic Warrior God or Storm God. We can now see, with the New Testament available, that God’s characterization by Old Testament writers was anthropomorphic but to them it was realistic and they wielded the pen. As Dr. Peter Enns has stated, “God let his children tell the story.” The Logos resolved this problem by coming to earth himself and delivering a message about the nature of God. For this reason, a progressive revelation of God can be seen across the Old Testament and New Testament with the final revelation in Jesus himself.

In these opposing views, we have God as spirit (John 4:24) in the New Testament at one pole and God with a body in the Old Testament at the other pole. Armstrong used a hermeneutic of integration, rather than the hermeneutic of progressive revelation, to reconcile these two strongly divergent viewpoints. Armstrong innovated a novel non-Biblical concept that made God contingent, perhaps inadvertently. Armstrong asserted that god was of “spirit composition” which made it seem like god was composed of some kind of ethereal substance. (This also gave God locality which contradicts the Christian belief that God is omnipresent.) God is not made of spirit but God is, rather, a spirit. The concept of “spirit composition” does not occur in the Bible.

God as a theophany may appear to human eyes but that appearance does not imply he is made of some kind of visible “spirit substance.” Does God require eyes composed of some kind of spirit substance in order to be able to see? First, eyes would be a limitation to God. His sensory capabilities transcend anything we know as humans with our five senses. Second, if he requires eyes, then he is like a sighted created being, dependent on the functioning of internal organs to live. To assert that God is composed out of spirit substance with various organs is to assert that he is contingent and not necessary.

In the last analysis, Armstrong integrated the Old Testament characterization of God as having a body with the New Testament revelation of God in Jesus. He did this instead of simply accepting Jesus and his word as the ultimate and final revelation of the necessary God. My guess is that he did not use this hermeneutic simply to create the heretical concept of a contingent god. I believe he did it to achieve consistency between the Old and New Testaments concerning the nature of god and inadvertently cast god as contingent. We are now unable to ask him about his decisions.

(For the terms “spirit composition” and “spirit substance” see, for instance, Armstrong’s booklet “What Science Can’t Discover About the Human Mind”, 1978. In his “Mystery of the Ages,” Armstrong wrote that god is “composed of spirit.” The verb “compose” is transitive, requires a subject and object, and leads to the question “Who composed God of spirit?”)

Closing Remarks

Nobody knows the scope of God’s grace that he would extend to those who believe in a mischaracterization of him. Any judgment is above our pay grade and involves factors that I have not addressed. One could make the “Thief on the Cross” argument. The thief knew nothing about contingency and necessity yet Christ received him. But how many of us are really in that thief’s circumstances?

Even though God is unknowable in his fullness, there are some obvious errors that can be avoided. For instance, is it reasonable, based on the Bible, that the Christian god could be contingent in view of John 1:3 that states “All things (panta, Greek, meaning “all”) came into being through him?” It only takes a little reflection to understand that God created spacetime and is not captive to it.

There are enough relevant and incisive questions concerning contingency that I believe that the Armstrongist groups should review their beliefs about God, with consideration given to existing Christian dogma, and that their doctrine of god should be documented. And they should start by understanding that God is a necessary being, not a contingent being.

UCG Member Arrested For "gross sexual imposition and one charge of luring a minor by a computer."

 

This information came in today:

Robert David Teitgen, 52, is facing three charges of gross sexual imposition and one charge of luring a minor by a computer. If convicted of gross sexual imposition, the more serious of the charges, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine for each of the three charges. He faces an additional maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted of luring a minor. 

According to court documents, Grand Forks police received a follow-up on a Suspected Child Abuse of Neglect report that 12-year-old Jane Doe told her older brother she had been "molested" by Teitgen. 

The girl's father told police that he and his son then located sexually inappropriate texts, photos and videos on Doe's phone. See rest of story here: St. Paul man pleads not guilty to sexually abusing a Grand Forks 12-year-old

And here: Massachusetts man accused of sexually assaulting Grand Forks teen

He is the son of the late UCG minister named Herb Teitgen. He is also attended UCG's, Ambassador Bible Center and worked briefly for LifeNets.

LCG: You have a bad attitude!

 

Why has the Church of God, and in this case, the Living Church of God, always used the epitaph of "you have a bad attitude" to shut down members? Rod Meredith and others in Pasadena were notorious for doing that. One would think after all that has transpired and the grievances COG members have talked about during and after the changes that COG leaders would learn to be more compassionate. Apparently, that is not the case in 2021.

 A comment from an LCG member in response to LCG: Keeping Track Of Troublemakers?

As is the case in LCG, their reasons here are to cover what they really do and their internal attitudes not for the public. Just for one instance, I had been travelling for some weeks away from my home congregation, being with family elsewhere and working through the passings of several loved ones far away. When I got back weeks later and showed up at church, it had been already concluded that I had left the church. They were suspicious of me because I hadn't showed up in my home LCG congregation for just two weeks, and so that was that. Did they reach out to me with genuine outgoing concern, or even just to casually find out where I had gotten to? No. they were skeptical of me rather than reaching out to at least offer a safe place to worship and to grieve. Their ranking deaconess who just loves the attention and praise of the ministers got it in her mind that I was out of the church, and so they believed her, and Iwas "on probation" since that time. Try as I might I could not snap them out of it, and I was accused by the ministers, who never even spoke to me directly, of trying to cover up a "bad attitude" on my part. No, no bad attitude, whatever that means. I was actually one of their more loyal and knowledgeable members, and I was travelling and spending time with loved ones. that's all. But of course they were right, the deaconess said so, and God is inspiring and leading his true ministers because he is the head of his church, so logically how could it be otherwise. For those of us who believe (broadly speaking) in the teachings from Mr. Armstrong, it is impossible for me at least to recommend LCG to others as a Jesus-centered church which holds to the truths. Its leadership has contorted it into an insidious corperation with the veneer of some things familiar to us, not as blatant as Dave Pack but in ways actually worse, and in which suck-ups and players like this deaconess damage and even destroy the faith of the lay people. In 1987 at a Feast Of Tabernacles a Mr. Wainwright gave a sermon entitled The God Of The Barbecue, in which he preached against this climbers' mentality just like this deaconess. A few years ago one from our congregation slipped her a copy of that sermon as a nudge. Well, it didn't do any good. It is easy enough to superimpose a veneer of religious duties on one's lifestyle, change their day of worship, stop eating certain meats and so forth. This is all well and good inasmuch as it should be done and as far as it goes. But, I wonder how many people, like these insidious ministers in LCG and the high-strung deaconess have really and truly begun their inner spiritual journey, let alone understanding true conversion. When LCG's stats policy began to be enforced I did challenge the elder on the real reasons for why they were more aggressively and thoroughly taking down notes like this, and he did acknowledge that it was to keep tabs on members.

LCG: Rebellious Church Members Who Are Rebelling Against Church Government And Pursue Their Own Selfish Ambitions

This is what happens when LCG members

rebel against respecting church government...

It's that time of year when leavening products make their way into the trash bin and members examine themselves as to why they refuse to follow church government due to all of their lusting, coveting, and hatred going on. I can't figure out if he is talking about church members or Charlotte HQ employees!

What exactly are "selfish ambitions" that church members are being accused of pursuing? Is it doing something fun in their lives that costs money that LCG thinks should be sent to them? Or, is it taking the kids to the zoo on Saturday instead of subjecting them to another mind-numbing sermon that you have heard 50 times over the years? Is getting a good education or being successful in your work a selfish ambition?

Let's see how "forgiving" LCG leadership is over the next year towards members. So far the track record is not good.

Eliminating Spiritual Leaven: The Scriptures clearly indicate that leaven is to be removed from our homes and not to be eaten during the Days of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:15). However, we need to remember, this is a physical exercise to help us understand the importance of identifying and eliminating spiritual leaven that tends to creep into our lives from this world. Spiritual leaven includes breaking the commandments of God by lusting, coveting, and hating as well as compromising or rebelling against God’s laws and instructions and His government. Spiritual leaven also includes the works of the flesh that Paul mentions in Galatians 5:19–21— adultery, fornication, outbursts of wrath, sowing seeds of contention and division, promoting personal doctrinal heresies, pursuing selfish ambitions, etc. As we take the Passover and go through the Days of Unleavened Bread, let’s ask God to show us any spiritual leaven that we need to eliminate from our lives. Let’s also be forgiving of others and be thankful for the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us so we can be forgiven. 

 

Have a profitable Sabbath, 

Douglas S. Winnail

LCG: Keeping track of the trouble makers?

 

Apparently, the boys in Charlotte are not doing too well with maintaining their membership data or this is a slick way to keep track of your members to see who is causing trouble.

Church Survey—Repeat Announcement
Earlier this year, all Church pastors were sent membership listings of their congregations for conducting the periodic Church Survey. This Church Survey is needed from time to time to keep our files up to date. For example, the survey is vital to make sure all members receive their Church literature in the mail. We also need this information for Festival registration, to begin this year on May 2. Thank you to all members for helping your pastor collect your updated contact information!

CGI: “Why must your son be so disrespectful of you and your religion?”

An Open Letter To My Father’s Tormenters

Every time I post something about Armstrongism, the Church of God International, or Bill Watson my poor father is subjected to numerous incredulous phone calls and/or e-mails from his “friends” in the Church. “How can your son disparage Bill or the Church in this manner?” they demand. “Why must your son be so disrespectful of you and your religion?”

For the record, I stopped sharing most of my posts and other writings with my father long ago, because I know how vehemently he disagrees with me regarding most religious and political topics. In other words, I discerned long ago that there wasn’t any value in underscoring my profound differences with a man I love and respect – why rub his nose in it? Moreover, I am very much aware of the fact that my father is devoted to his church and best friend, Bill Watson (and I have no desire to disparage, disrupt or disrespect any of that). Finally, as his son, I have been very cognizant of the fact that my father is suffering from debilitating health issues and have no interest in placing any additional burdens or stresses on him on account of that fact.

However, feeling this way, I have often asked myself: “Why would my father’s Church friends insist on bringing these things to his attention?” “Are they trying to rub his nose in this stuff?” “Are they trying to hurt him or my relationship with him?” “Do they think that he actually agrees with my positions on these issues (despite the large body of sermons and writings which clearly suggest that he doesn’t)?” In short, what could possibly motivate folks to bring these things to my father’s attention and cause him such distress/upset/misery?

The only answer that makes any sense to me is that they are somehow hoping to use my father to bring pressure to bear upon me to stop criticizing the teachings of CGI and Bill Watson. In fact, I can think of no other logic that would motivate an otherwise decent person to resort to such cruel and discordant means to achieve some end – the belief that they were defending/protecting their faith and minister(s).

To be clear, however, it is deceitful and manipulative to use an innocent person in this fashion to exert pressure on the one whom they perceive to be the guilty party. In other words, if anyone has a problem with anything that I write, they should directly confront me with their issues – NOT my father! And, for the record, I will NEVER be dissuaded/deterred from expressing opinions about teachings which I consider to be erroneous or harmful to others by such despicable methods! If anyone has a beef with me (or anything I’ve written), bring it to me (I’ve been an independent adult now for many years). As Scripture plainly teaches, the father shall NOT be held responsible for the deeds of the son, and the son shall NOT be held responsible for the deeds of the father (see Ezekiel 18:20). In other words, leave my father alone!

Miller Jones

Dingy Wade Cox Believes Moon Is A Hollow Structure?

 

Just when you think the Church of God cannot get any crazier, along comes Wade Cox...the second Great White Bwana to Africa, leader of tens of millions of converts in Africa and a few white people in the U.S. Old Wade regularly posts all kinds of conspiracy crapola on his site alongside his COG/Muslim silliness.

Here is the link to the video on his Facebook Page....  Christian Churches of God

PCG: New Blog Holding Doctrinal Issues and Teachings of Gerald Flurry To Account

 

There is a new blog up that is holding PCG accountable.

PCG Watch is a site dedicated to analyzing the claims, doctrines and predictions made by Gerald Flurry and the PCG. In order to do this we will also need to analyze many of the doctrines and predictions of Herbert W. Armstrong. 

 

Gerald Flurry and Herbert W. Armstrong have through the years made many specific prophecies—predictions that can be confirmed or falsified. While many members forget these claims, it is our purpose to make you remember and judge for yourself whether they came true. Many other claims, about the history of Christianity, about the origins of doctrines, about the whereabouts of historical peoples, about the nature of ancient prophecies, have been made by Flurry and Armstrong which we will ask you to reconsider in the light of facts and perspectives the PCG and Gerald Flurry—whether by ignorance or by willful deception—do not mention. 

 

The authors of the website believe there is more independent thinking within the PCG than many members may realize. We have received numerous articles from members discussing PCG doctrines in the light of previous Armstrong teachings, biblical scriptures, historical facts, or secular writings—most times this independent thinking is rewarded with a suspension or a disfellowshipment.
We welcome any submissions from members or past-members who believe they have something to say about the accuracy of PCG teachings. 

 

We would also like to encourage responses or rebuttals from PCG authorities, which we will freely post here. One of the defining features of the PCG is that their leaders spend almost no time addressing criticism of their doctrines from the outside, choosing instead to ignore them and hope their members have not heard.

Please check out PCG Watch here.

 

Dave Pack: I may have been wrong, but I am always right.

 

Some things never change with Dave:

Dave Pack: "I was wrong, but I'm still right..."
Now that Mr. "We don't set dates" is laying out his own template for blaming and backpedaling, how long will it be before he realizes that "If I build it, no one will come..."? How long before he has to come up with new tactics in order to reel in tithepayers who don't even remember HWA much less believe he was the "final Elijah"? How long will Mr. "Sixty is the new thirty" be able to convincingly threaten his members with Tribulation and Lake of Fire if they don't give until it hurts and then give more? How long will he be able to bash from the pulpit any unemployed members who don't go out and "collect cans" in order to not "appear before the Lord empty" on any given "holy day"? How long will he continue to berate his members for not exceeding the previous holy day offering? (That particular mandate isn't even in the book. Maybe the Hebrew for "give as you are able" really means "Fork over every last red cent.") How long will he continue to threaten members who dare to take it upon themselves to determine whether or not they should pay "third tithe"? (At least he is gracious enough to extend the ministry's "guidance" to anyone who is "confused" about the terms of "eligibility/exemption"...) How long will he continue to promote his idea that "Heresy = sin, and sin = heresy" while defending HWA's alleged indiscretions? (He actually stated that even if he knew that HWA were guilty of everything he was accused of -- even incest -- he would still follow him. He loves to shuffle the deck of "doctrine vs. conduct" at his convenience.) 

 

How long will Pack preach that his biblical heroes' mistakes are recorded in order for his members to learn from them (and not make the same), while condoning his and Herbert's date-setting (false prophesying) by pointing to the "apostle Paul," etc.? How long will he continue to promote the idea (in regards to other false prophets) that "If a man predicts an earthquake for Friday, and it happens even a minute into Saturday, the man is a false prophet"? (paraphrasing, but that's basically what he wrote) -- but come up with excuses as to why that doesn't apply to HWA or himself? How long before he acknowledges that he is no different from Flurry when it comes to title-grabbing, lying, stealing, and just blatant hypocrisy? How long before he acknowledges that the term "servant leadership" is the greatest oxymoron he has ever pronounced, and that it in no shape, form or fashion describes his position? How long before he admits, from the pulpit, behind-the-scenes facts that prove HWA's double standards? (Many will be tempted to argue that those things don't matter -- but if a man's own actions contradict what he thunders from the pulpit, then he himself does not believe the words coming out of his own mouth, so why should anyone else?) How long will Pack get away with preaching, "Prove all things...except the things you can't prove -- just take my word on those"? 

 

How long will Pack (and all those like him) get away with such things? As long as there are enough people willing to close their eyes and believe...

This was written in 2013. Eight years later and Dave is still pulling the same crap and his foolish followers sit there and lap it up as new truth.

Philadelphia Church of God Propaganda To Woo The Public

 

Here is a slick ad that the Philadelphia Church of God commissioned to promote the Armstrong Auditorium and its concert series.

While PCG women and students can't wear lipstick or clothing such as the woman in the video is wearing they deceive the public by paying for this kind of deceptive advertising. Imagine the shock of this couple if they ever decided to join the PCG cult and they find out she can't wear make-up and dress in revealing clothing and he will seldom ever have a chance to ever wear a tuxedo again. The money they waste on those clothes, going to frivolous concerts, and living in a well-appointed home will be a thing of the past, especially when they find out they will be sending in 40-50% of their income to the cult to fund the travel of the Flurry family and their grandchildren for Irish dance competitions.

To become entangled in the Philadelphia Church of God cult is the farthest thing one could do in "Rediscovering Joy."

PCG's "Puny Little Men With Puny Little Brains and Puny Little Masculinity"

 

A former member of the Philadelphia Church of God does not think well of the men making up the organization. This is an issue that has been brought up here many times in the past.

When I was in PCG, I noticed that the fellowshipping was almost completely segregated among male-female lines. There were a few men in our area who insisted their wives stand right beside them every moment. The wife was not allowed to talk to another woman without her husband’s approval; he had to be right there to hear every word said to her, and she could not give an opinion unless it was his opinion. It was a horrible abuse of power from puny little men with puny little brains and puny little masculinity, who were big losers in real life, but on Saturday they could put on a polyester leisure suit and pretend to be important by browbeating their wives. In general, women just did not talk to men in PCG because men knew their brains were created superior, and that women did not have the reasoning ability they did, which is why God put them in charge. I also remember a lot of women reading plenty of “stand-by-your-man-right-or-wrong” books, which is absolutely the wrong thing to read in an abusive situation. –Former PCG member Exit and Support Network

 

PCG: "...you will find but one singular Church that has literally been flooded with divine revelation of end-time prophecy..."

Upon this rock, a cult will build a church...The Herb Stone

Stare in wonder and awe!

From PCG's lips to your ears....

I guess JC was really ticked off at the mother church and deliberately assisted in destroying the lives and faith of thousands of people.

Since the split in the Church of God, which occurred on Dec. 7, 1989, Jesus Christ has overseen the progressive shattering of the body that was once His Church. This was prophesied by God over 2,500 years ago! “And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished” (Daniel 12:7). 

Never fear though, the PCG is the one true restoration that holds fast to EVERY SINGLE THING that Herbert said or wrote. This is an absolute lie. Gerald Flurry and others have gone through all of HWA's writings and WCG literature that they paid3.5 million for rights to use, and edited things to fit PCG's current teachings, which constantly change with every bad nightmare Flurry has.  Even HWA's writings are not allowed to conflict with Flurry's imagination.

The Hebrew word for “scatter” literally means to break in pieces or shatter.The original corporate body of the Worldwide Church of God is now split into numerous enterprises ranging from a handful following one man to quite sizable bodies of ex-wcg members following others. Search as you may and you will find only one singular entity holding fast to all of God’s truths as restored to the Church by Jesus Christ, through His end-time apostle Herbert W. Armstrong. 

The crap that flows out of the PCG is supposed to be divine revelation. God no more speaks through Gerald Flurry than he does in the dreams of Bob Thiel. Yet, we are supposed to believe these apostate heretics. 

God reveals that where His lamp is burning brightly, one of the most powerful witnesses will be the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). Search again, and you will find but one singular Church that has literally been flooded with divine revelation of end-time prophecy since God split the Church. The Philadelphia Church of God, by its fruits, is proved to be the very Church which continues to revive and perpetuate all things that God restored to it through Mr. Armstrong. It is the true Church of the firstfruits.It has the law and it has the great vision of prophecy. “The firstfruits are being harvested now—this very minute! This is our moment in life. There will never be another like it throughout eternity! …

PCG claims to have the law. Note that, the law. No Jesus, but the law. It also claims to have visions of prophecy. That's a lie too. Not one single thing that Flurry has prophecized has come to pass. Much like the lies of Bob Thiel and Dave Pack. The COG movement is filled with outlandish blowhards that can't keep their mouths closed.