Imagine that! A Church of God talking about propaganda! Given the history of Rod Meredith and Global/Living Church of God, they'd better be cautious when they start accusing others of propaganda, but, I digress.
LCG Paul Kern has an article up on their website that discusses propaganda, The Chief Propagandist.
He starts off by giving going after the news media and then gives a definition of propaganda, which incidentally sounds exactly like what goes on in the current corporate Churches of God!
Propaganda is defined by AHDictionary.com as “the systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.” The information that is propagated fits the agenda of the organization propagating it—and it’s important to understand that this is not just a modern-day issue. This credibility crisis is not new. Who is the one ultimately responsible for pushing misinformation, spreading half-truths, and eliminating important facts from a particular narrative in order to paint a picture different from the reality of an issue?
The answer to that question, when we think about it from a biblical perspective, is quite obvious—and it’s not CNN. When we look at the credibility crisis and we see the confusion in the world today, we should know that Satan the devil is ultimately the one behind it. He uses CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and other news outlets, but he is ultimately the one propagating the confusion.
And, in fact, false and twisted information existed long before news outlets and social media. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is replete with examples of propaganda being used to destroy people’s reputations and lives. Let’s examine how Satan has used propaganda throughout biblical history in his attempts to disrupt the Work of God and destroy God’s people, and then take a look at a more recent example of how our adversary can use propaganda to influence entire nations.
Kern then moves to the first example of propaganda the church believes in, that old snake in the Garden of Eden:
Satan used propaganda and misinformation in Eden. “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?’” (Genesis 3:1). Satan sowed a seed of doubt in Eve’s mind, causing confusion right from the beginning. That’s how he operates.
Kern then moves on to Absolom, the Pharisees, and the Nazis, to reach the point of no return when Satan causes persecution of the true believers in the Living Church of God. Of course, like a good COG writer/minister, Kern brings in the gays and others who will persecute the church the for might "stands" they take on certain subjects.
Matthew 24:9 reads, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.” How will Satan bring the world to the point where it hates God’s people?
The answer, of course, is propaganda. All those people in the Church of God are so full of hate. They don’t support LGBTQ rights. They don’t support a woman’s right to choose abortion. They don’t even do their civic duty and vote. What’s their problem? Why don’t they love people? Those people are evil. They’re even saying that our nation is going down the drain—those people aren’t patriotic. Those people are against us.
This attitude is something we need to expect at some time in the future, because it will lead to the persecution of God’s people. Ultimately, it will reach the point where Satan himself will inspire the beast and the false prophet, and all the world will follow their system. And if we’re not part of that system, we’ll be considered evil.
For several decades now we have all witnessed cunning propaganda from COG leaders, including Rod Meredith, Gerald Weston, Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, Ron Weinland, and Gerald Flurry.
“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:23–24). We’ll see incredible cunning and deceit in the years ahead. Satan’s greatest propaganda campaign is yet to occur, and we need to be alert to it. We need to be aware that Satan’s endgame is to destroy God’s people, and he will use propaganda in his attempts to achieve that result.
False "christs" abound in the current conglomeration of the COG movement. Never have we seen such appalling creatures that these leaders try and pass off as Jesus as we do today in COGland, when and IF they even talk about him.
We have seen how the news media have enraptured many of today's COG leaders who sound like reporters right out of NewsMax and other far-right sites, like Mark Armstrong. Regardless of where one gathers their news and information, those in the COG are supposed to be able to look to their leaders as representatives of God instead of being the liars so many of them currently are. More lies and false propaganda has been spread by COG leaders over the last 40-50 years than ever in the history of the church.
So, we must examine the agenda behind any source to which we look for information. Before reading a book or an article, ask, Who is the author? Where did the author grow up? What’s the author’s outlook on life? Does the author believe in God? Not everything an atheist author writes will be wrong, but we must ask such questions and be aware that every individual or news outlet will be pushing a particular bias. When we recognize that bias, we can more accurately sift through the half-truths and misinformation we come across.
COG members should examine the agendas of today's corporate Church of God and use critical thinking to discern who is actually telling the truth. It is going to be a long search as there are not too many truthful COG leaders out there.
The way to avoid being deceived is to stay close to Almighty God and to read sources we can trust, such as material from God’s true ministry. The one source of truth is not CNN, not Fox News, and not any social media outlet—the one source of truth is God’s word. So, keep your nose in that word, keep watching world events, and be aware of Satan, the chief propagandist, who wants to destroy God’s Work and His people.
Reading God's word and listening to church leaders interpret that word are two different things. COG members should throw out every single book, booklet, and article written by ANY past or current leader today. You might be surprised that what you discover is NOT what they are currently teaching you.
Propaganda in the Church of God has kept it in operation for 80 some years and will continue even as each group shrinks in numbers until people finally wake up.
24 comments:
Tune in to the Flurry News Network. Shoveling out more BS than CNN!!! He has had more failed prophecies than Madame Cleo. Brought to you by Harvey's Bristol Creme. Big Beak's favorite libation to get trashed while listening to Gerald's mind numbing 2 hour+ insomnia curing sermons.
Peter says it best. Well, maybe not exactly as here but I like these two translations of the same verse of 2Peter 2:3: NTE: and in their greed they will exploit you with fake prophecies. Their condemnation has not been idle for a long time now, and their destruction has not fallen asleep.
NLT: In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.
Speaking of propaganda, an LCG picnic in the Sacramento area is responsible for members getting COVID. Super spreader event perhaps? The illustrious hireling jeffrey fall (area pastor) said that a number of people who were at the picnic "happened" to get COVID.As if the gathering wasn't the event that helped the virus spread. Because LCG isn't a transparent "church" that will be truthful or open about this, I wanted to put it out there.
Boy, is this guy ever misguided in his thinking! The problem right now is that the leadership of both political parties has been seized by radicals who damn the facts, putting out propaganda to promote their own agendas, and are no longer prepared to compromise with one another for the greater good. Because nothing else has worked for them, and because we're at about a 50-50 ideological divide, we are trending towards authoritarianism, and it's just a matter of time until we see whichever party is in control setting up their version of the camps, and rounding up people. Reeducation and sensitivity camps by the left, and camps for ethnic cleansing and incarceration of liberal "traitors" by the right.
The ACOG members don't need to fear being persecuted for being anti-abortion or anti-LGBTQ+. They'll have the protection of the whole Republican Party! They won't even stand out as being weirdos, because that was only possible before everyone else had become so radicalized. They can no longer even be "special" or noteworthy in that regard. Also, there are no longer enough of them to attract notice.
What are these poor Armstrongites to do? Our world around us is crumbling, but it has nothing to do with Armstrongism, and everything to do with divisiveness and liberals and conservatives now outright hating one another and being out to fight and destroy one another. It's just like Josephus's description of the three warring political factions in Jerusalem in 69 AD who were destroying their city from within, and the Romans coming along to mop the whole thing up and finish the job. Plus we have exotic diseases and climate change making things so much worse today! The followers of Herbert W. Armstrong are going to be very disappointed, because in the melee, nobody will even notice them, or hear and know their half a gospel message.
Hardly. I think the blog runners would like to think it so. This blog is already defeated in being neither one thing nor the other. More a waning blog by ex WCG /Joe Tkatch Snr era. One minute you express belief in God then the next God is reduced to nothingness.
This blog likes to try things on with Sabbath believers, then retreat in cowardness when you've gone to far.
The COGs will never be important enough to merit "persecution". Sorry to pop their ego balloon.
That "stay close to God" thing has always been tricky. No one thinks they aren't if they are given to such fantasies.
HWAs training in advertising made him a master of propaganda. We were often told at services that reading dissident literature is the same as reading porn magazines. I would have loved to have had heard someone disagree with Herbs 1975 prediction at that time. If he believed that, why were nice AC buildings being put up at the same time. And many other lies such as Gods social system being tyranny rather than freedom. And not forgetting the murderous mental shrinking of members by attacking self esteem , self confidence, self interest etc. What part of "don't murder" didn't Herb and his minion ministers not understand. But these lies are OK to them since all the other contemporary churches are doing it. Forget the follow Christ thingy. Follow the COG7 and the Kenneth Copeland ministry instead.
Btw, self love is still demonized in these ACOG churches and by some posters on this blog. My bible in fact demands self love with its "love your neighbor AS YOURSELF."
Persecution against the Restored Church of God is intense
God's true church was called the Radio Church of God, then it became known as the Worldwide Church of God, then it became known as the Global Church of God, and now it is called the Restored Church of God. LCG and the rest of the WCG splinter groups are NOT the Church of God. The Worldwide/Global/Restored Church of God is the ONE TRUE CHURCH. NOT any GROUP made by anyone that BREAKS AWAY FROM IT to START THEIR OWN CHURCH.
Such as?
Thanks 11:41 (TC/DCP/TROLL). We all really needed that little history lesson for the thousandth time. Perhaps you should write a booklet. Might I suggest you call it "The True History of the True Church". If you rush it to print, you might just be the very first to give it away, for free, of course! All our literature is free and we never ask the public for donations.
Putz.
True 11:41 am many do not realize Global and LCG are different churches.
11:41 What a bunch of stupidity. Prove that the radio church of god was God's True Church. Same applies to the Worldwide Church of God. Pure fiction. If you believe Scripture and I do, there is only one true church and Jesus Christ is the head of it. It is not limited by boundaries to any man made incorporated organization. It is composed of those who have the Holy Spirit. No man is the head of the True Church. It is called the body of Christ. The rest of what you said is pure unsubstantiated nonsense flowing from the mind of a demented madman who projects his unsound mind into the Scriptures thinking they apply to him. Unconverted madness ....
Davie, put the houses up for sale and sell the horses. Reality is closing in.
Dave broke away to start his own church. So did HWA.
Could this TC person actually be Tom Mahon? Tom used to annoy us all with similar puerile statements, and then of course, he went off and joined the Jehovah's Witnesses!
Banned is having an impact, hence the trolling in the comments.
To Banned keep going, and keep exposing these groups and their leaders.
Darkness hates light and exposure.
Back when I was in college, the refrain was "tell it like it is!" The fact is, nobody really tells it like it is. And to believe someone does is to believe in the redolence of horse apples. But there is a difference between innate and inexorable human subjectivity and the cynical manipulation of information.
The Armstrongist brother cited in the post understands the destructiveness of manipulating information. This type of maniuplation places the influencing of human minds for self-serving purposes above the communication of the truth. But the Armstrongist brother is making his righteous appeal from a position of weakness.
Anyone who propounds British-Israelism has a problem with the judicious use of information and should not be pounding the lecturn in support of facts and objectivity. British-Israelism is scientifically untenable. One can acquire just a little knowledge of genetics and understand this - like an encyclopedia article. The question then becomes how does one hold this dissonance in mind and yet advocate with integrity the principle of "tell it like it is?"
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The irony is strong in this one....
BTW, a message to LCG- a good idea to get the names of the Pastors correct, its Paul Kearns.
Though COGlodytes cannot see that they are in a cult, this piece by Kerns is one proof of their cultic brainwashing.
If propaganda was not an essential part of the COGs, they would all be trotting out recorded predictions made years ago by their founder, a prolific prognosticator, instead of hiding his prophetic failures.
Herbie founded the cult on propaganda, built it with evil propaganda, and taught methods of propaganda to those who sustain the cult today.
Herbie’s earliest writings cannot be shown to the public or COG members today because they were full of proclamations of what would happen but have been proven false by history.
Perhaps Herbie learned a bit from predicting victory for the Nazis and then reshaped his propaganda to be less specific about individuals and timeframes became in the next few years, but certainly in your lifetime.
Herbie, the original climate change profiteer, began making predictions about extreme weather, famine, and calamity that was soon to strike the “Israelitish Nations” yet those same nations went on to experience greater prosperity during the time of their predicted affliction.
However, Herbie did remain very specific about the huge hoax of 1975 in Prophecy.
Despite the falsehood of the 1975 in Prophecy scam, Doug Winnail is on record for identifying that booklet as one of the writings that convinced him he had found “the truth”.
Today, LCG tries to assure their people, and the few nonmembers who may stumble upon their cult, that LCG is “original Christianity”, yet, their unabridged volume of publications prove that their propaganda is not similar to any of the writings of the New Testament.
The COGs don’t care to write much about Jesus, while St. Paul said he only wanted to speak about Jesus.
The COGs downplay the saving nature of the Savior, ignore justification, redemption, sanctification, and glorification – all the concepts that the early Christians were enthralled with.
Instead, the COGs preach a message of saving oneself by adherence to a selected blend of Old Covenant laws, re-tooled to their preference.
To this veneration of re-worked law favorites, the COGs add bizarre prophecies that were not part of any original Christian ministry.
To prove that your favorite COG is all about propaganda, just read through the New Testament and jot down every concept you come upon that is not taught in your COG with the same importance something like not eating pork is taught, or the coming calamity for the US is pushed, or British Israelism is adored.
COGlodytes who dare come out from under their rock of oppression could also take a look back at all of the early, salacious COG writings about events and time frames that were proven false by time and face the fact that COGs exist on the emptiness of propaganda.
The truth shall indeed make you free.
3.47 AM
Contemporary Christianity doesn't have it right about Christ either. In my books, they don't teach the narrow gate on the subject. They endlessly talk about Christ, but ignore the "eating His flesh" and "drinking His blood" part. Which means striving to become like Christ by developing His noble qualities.
The bible is disinformation and should be banned, now that we are censoring all disinformation.
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