The Philadelphia Church of God cult has a new article up today on "How Can I Get My Finances in Order?". Remember, this is a splinter cult of Armstrongism that demands 4 tithes and commanded offerings, and numerous special offerings. The average Church of God member in these ultra legalistic groups will be dishing our 40-60 of their income to their dear leaders so that they can live lives of luxury and flit around the world in private jets away from the unwashed masses and Laodiceans.
Of course, there is only ONE reason why they want COG members to have good finances in their households. The less money going out in mortgages, car loans, bank loans, etc. gives church members more money to give to the church. THAT and THAT alone is the ONLY reason members should have good finances as far as they're concerned. Forget about leaving a legacy to your children or to local charities and organizations that do good for others. God will eventually fix the world's problems at some point in the future so DO NOT waste your money on the worldly heathens because "god's" so-called church needs it more than they do so it can spread some kind of "gospel" message that they think the world needs to hear AFTER they pay for their jets and luxury lifestyles.
This is what PCG editors wrote (approved by Gerald and Lil'Stevie FLurry):
Perhaps the most heavily stressed biblical principle regarding healthy finances is to give generously. While giving may seem illogical as a step toward financial stability, God promises that when you sacrifice and serve others’ needs in whatever way you can, you will be rewarded (Luke 6:38). Therefore, give generously to others as your means allow. As your hard work and financial planning provides increase, share that with the less prosperous (Acts 20:35; Psalm 41:1).
Most importantly, give generously back to God. He created all things, and He claims the earth and its fullness as His, including all silver and gold (1 Corinthians 10:26; Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 10:14; Haggai 2:8). God can make us poor or rich (1 Samuel 2:7). By giving mankind dominion over and allowing us to use His creation, God has essentially made every man and woman His business partner (Psalm 8:6; Matthew 25:14-30). Keep God as your partner by tithing on your increase (Leviticus 27:30).
When you give God His portion, one tenth of your income, He shares in your profits and then reinvests even more in you and your ventures. God loves, blesses and promises to supply the needs of a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7-9). As tithe payers and the wealthiest men of their ages, Abraham, Job, King David and Solomon all found out that you cannot outgive God (Job 1:1-3; Hebrews 7:1-2).
40 comments:
Be sure to insure the package and use the correct address to mail your tithe of dill to PCG, but if you want to keep the dill and it's worth $10, mail a check for $12 and pay to the order of "god". Lev 27:30, 31; Mat 23:23.
If the first tithe and offerings belong to God, why isn't He spending it on Himself. Why isn't He buying the most recent fancy TV? Why is this money being spent by the ministers instead? Notice how the ministers jump through loops trying to hide that it's the members who are paying their wages. This means that the ministers work for the members and not the other way around. Remember this folks the next time your minister tries to boss you around
Yes. They should be encouraging the members to be farmers and ranchers in order to tithe of the production from the land. The Law demands it.
The sad reality for Flurry and co is just how easy it is to debunk and refute so much of what they claim is ‘gospel’ i:e doctrinal ‘truth’ within their organisations.
Which really leads one to believe they do the thinking for the ‘sheep’.
Of course.
Makes life so much easier doesn’t it.
The sheep do as they are told, ask no questions and keep sending in their cash.
What are the membership numbers PCG?
You can only squeeze so much blood out of a stone.
There are indeed blessings and good karma associated with giving, but not to the extreme or exclusivity that these people who feel entitlement associated with their doctrines would have you believe. You can't love on command. Love occurs naturally as a result of a mutually beneficial emotional attachment experienced because the parties involved meet each others' physical and emotional needs. Not because one human entity assumes the ability to command and punish for infractions. Playing up to bully type gatekeepers only ends well for the bully. They've proven time and time again that they don't have your back and will cut you loose at the drop of a hat. They weaponize their "truths" and doctrines to extract more than you actually have.
People should give from the heart. If the beneficiaries constantly demand more, turning your life into a codependency, then you should find other recipients for your heart felt gifts, recipients who actually will appreciate your gifts.
God's secret thought: "My servant Dan really has an awesome giving spirit. Just look at how he consistently functions as a caretaker for all those around him without even being exhorted or prompted by anything other than his own eyes and ears and good heart! I will bless him with blessings that make life for him and his family fuller and more abundant!"
Dan's ACOG "superiors". "Hey Dan, we see that God has blessed you! Give those blessings to us or you are going to the Lake of Fire like Annanias and Saphira!"
1Timothy 5:18 "..a workman is worthy of his wages."
This means that ownership is determined by production and not need as the commies and greedy churches claim.
Excessive giving violates this principle.
True religion, (not phony social club religion) that God finds acceptable is 1. take care of those in need and 2. live an ethical life (James 1:27). How are members of these churches doing this? I think that God would be more pleased if members reached out to those around them and used their tithe money to help the homeless, isolated elderly shut ins, etc. How much of this is taking place by these church members?
The ACOG leaders see their members as batteries and vending machines. It's all take, take, take.
Dave Pack's "Common" is going after "11th Tithe"~ !
The very best way to give your money to God is to take it all in cash, throw it into the air in your living room and sincerely tell God that you are giving him all of your money, and he can keep it all, and please send back to you what he doesn't want.
"the ministers work for the members and not the other way around"
Tkach found that out the hard way...ROTFLMAO
Gerald Flurry tells people to GIVE GENEROUSLY to him so that he can GET GREEDILY from them.
Wow, I havent heard the "you cant outgive god" fallacy in a long time.
I am so glad I left WCG over 25 years ago. Religion is a business. Making money is their priority. To the members it is give, give, give and give some more. To the men at the top it is get, get, get and get all you can.
I won’t give a dime to a church unless I know the money will go to help the poor, homeless, or the sick.
Jim-AZ
Four tithes plus offerings? What is the fourth tithe? Never heard of this before.
The tithe of the tithe con game to supposedly fund feast sites which really paid for full housing and perks for people in charge of sites so the could stay in first class accommodations while the pee ons were in sub par locations.
Tithing seems to be the only "OT law" that even antinomian churches cling to.
"Ending Your Financial Problems", "Your Best Investment", ... and then Dave's "Common".
"Contact our legal department about leaving everything to the church in your will". Dave argued that it may be a long time before you die, and processing the will takes a long time, and over time money loses it's value -- so just give it all now".
I think Bob Thiel talked about another potential member for CCOG, but there was an issue over tithing, so nothing came of it.
According to the link below, the governor of Alberta has jailed more Christian pastors than China. So, the next time Flurry flies to Canada, he might get arrested. Hurray! If they can arrest pastors in Canada, what's the matter with America?
https://www.streetchurch.ca/news/you-are-called-to-make-a-difference/
10:29 wrote: "the next time Flurry flies to Canada, he might get arrested. Hurray! If they can arrest pastors in Canada, what's the matter with America? "
Wouldn't that be great!!!! The next time Flurry or Bob heads to Canada we should notify the appropriate people to arrest them!
Always about the money. Hey, it must be the monaaaay!
The guy arrested in Canada in the province of Alberta was feeding the homeless in the city of Calgary during the big flu-19 scare campaign.
Gerald Flurry would never feed the homeless at any time. Gerald will be safe from arrest.
Zippo at 9:38 AM,
Even the ham-eating, Sunday-keeping, self-appointed, religious leaders love their twist that people should tithe to them. All the other laws of God are supposedly very bad for you, a horrible burden, outdated and obsolete, but the tithing law as twisted by them is sacred, and you will supposedly be miraculously blessed to the point of almost not even having to work if you obey their twisted version of it.
Some very expensive, not free, not gratis booklets: Starting Your Financial Problems, Your Worst So-called 'Investment', and Dave's “Common” Theft Scam.
The guys from Africa probably wanted Bob to sort of tithe to them. Otherwise, what would be in it for them?
"I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread."
https://biblehub.com/psalms/37-25.htm
This scripture is proof that the bible is a fraud. The righteous cannot afford to have children. That's why their children don't end up begging. Tithing just makes it worse. I tried it for decades.
Even the late James Malm called the tithe of the second tithe uncalled for and grubbery.
The tithe of the tithe was a pure con game on the membership by church leaders, as was mentioned above.
Then on top of all that, you were supposed to give "freewill" offerings at the Feast that were not supposed to be 2nd tithe money. Another blatant rip-off. We never did it. We set aside part of the 2T (less than 5%) and that's what they got. They are all crooks when it comes to money.
When you discover that tithing is not a New Covenant command then it becomes all more blatantly offensive and how greedy the church leadership is.
What artifact possibly located in Calgary can we start a whisper campaign about?
tithing is not a New Covenant command
Any time I read that something is or isn't "New Covenant" I like to ask for scriptural support and never get it. I stand corrected, someone wrote "it's in (Matthew or Hebrews or ...) somewhere" but that's very vague.
6:02, have you ever read Galatians?
Not sure exactly what you’re saying, but tithes were solely from agriculture and were given to the levites that were not given a portion of land to grow food on in the promised land. The levitical priesthood was done away with, thus so too were tithes.
But, if you would like, you could send me a tenth of your income and I’ll put it to a better Christian use than the COGs and I won’t even pocket any of it.
All they care about is giving to the church not the poor or the disabled all Armstrongite care about is making their leaders rich.
Between Jesus and the Book of Galatians, I d don't know which one is discussed less in the COG. Probably Galatians because it makes mincemeat of Armstrongism's legalistic beliefs. They despise it so much because it sets the captives free. Captives can be told what to do and forced to tithe. Free Galatian people give freely to the church as they feel blessed or when seeing the need to help others, not out of demand or expectation, but because of love.
It just shows how little concern leaders like Flurry really has regarding the average tithe paying church goer. They are constantly bombarded with exhortations to give while they themselves live a luxurious existence. It is true that they will lay great burdens on the lay membership while they themselves will not lift their little finger. They mistreat young members in the faith and in the end convert many to atheism with their idolatrous exaltation of HWA and Flurry himself while they purposefully de-emphasize that of Christ. Only Christ is the redeemer of sins and paid our debt not HWA or GERALD FLURRY.
My understanding is that Jews today don't tithe, because there are no Levites or temple. But they do urge their people to give (which is voluntary) 10% to causes to help "heal the world." It's all voluntary, not compulsory based on laws. The Law of Moses imposed as part of the covenant between Irael and God, not the Chinese and God or the Kenyans and God. And it was to be in effect "until the Messiah comes", Ga. 3. To keep holding onto these laws is to deny that Jesus was the Messiah.
I worked with several orthodox Jews and you are exactly right. They knew that without a temple tithes did not make sense, but voluntary giving was encouraged.
After seeing the PCG’s UK financial reports, I can’t believe anyone would still give them their hard earned money! A bunch is crooks. Helping people is not something the want to do as proven in how much 3t and FOT assistance. Sick!
I still remember when Tkach Enterprises inc. had to sell their jets after the biggest Tithe-strike in the history of Christendom!
Third tithe was ancient Israel's social security safety net. There was nothing spiritual about it. Today people are more than paying for this with their regular taxes. The ACOGs ignore this since much of these funds are funneled elsewhere thanks to creative accounting. Bob Thiel wrote in his bog that most of the third tithe should pay for ministers retirement since the government's "social security is broken and HWA had forbidden ministers to save for retirement." That HWA had the power to tell his employees how to spend their pay is ridiculous. Again the ministers are not expected to financially struggle like the laity.
6:30, what you just brought out is yet another reason we can know that the laws and cultural aspects of what God gave to Israel was designed specifically for them and in that era and geographical area. In fact, the holy days are out of sync with the imagery of the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere, and there are sabbath anomalies in the polar regions. God set up a people whom He called His own as a theocracy. We are not a theocracy today, however many of our secular laws treat the same subjects in a slightly different manner. What we can preserve from the old for our times today is what Jesus later stated as being the embodiment or fulfillment of the law. In general terms, love for God, and love for fellow man. They go hand in hand in that love for God is love for fellow man, and vice versa. Armstrongism, through HWA's legalism, often pitted one against the other, which made life far more of a battle field than it needs to be.
As a general rule, I agree that generosity is a key to financial well-being. But for someone to say that and also ask for money is unscrupulous.
IMO if you’re going to preach giving, you should suggest giving to charities that do not benefit you.
The problem is that in guessing which anonymous wrote what, there will be wrong guesses, and innocent people will suffer. In Armstrong culture, rats are seen as having more honor than those who are ratted on. In so many cases, the victims of the rats are very easy targets.
This practice is yet another reason for not allowing Armstrongism access to your life, or the opportunity to guide it.
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