Ah, the Living Church of God, always the beacon of positivity and peacefulness of Christ. Where would the Church of God be without them?
Like their apostate man-child, Bwana Bob Thiel, they cannot find anything ever positive to write about unless it is how superfantabulous their own COG organization is. Instead, it is always a laundry list of whatever evil they can find that cause a negative reaction in their followers to make them feel superior and enlightened as compared to the evil world around them.
Richard Ames carries on that tradition today in LCG, though when has he ever deviated from it over the decades? Gloom, doom, and damnation is the wonderful gospel message they have to deliver to the world. Never one to focus on Jesus and much of what he accomplished they instead focus on a pissed-off God who is just itching to destroy the world. Nothing delights a COG more than to preach this message. Preach about Jesus? Nah. Preach about tribulation, disease, starvation, death, Hell yeah!
Their God has got a shopping cart next to him which he keeps adding things he is pissed off about so that when the end times come (once Dave Pack determines it) then he can unleash the biggest load of whoop-ass the world has ever seen! COG leaders will be ecstatic!
The many carnal anti-God, anti-Bible ways of the Western world are storing up God’s punishments soon to come in the Great Tribulation, the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). Also in the current Tomorrow’s World magazine, be sure to read Mr. Weston’s featured article, “Repeating Rome’s Mistakes.”
A better thing to read would be "Why It Is A Sin To Keep Repeating Herbert Armstrong's Mistakes".
As our current world accelerates toward self-destruction, one of the obvious dangers is that of nuclear proliferation. We’ve cited the nine current nuclear nations in our booklet, Armageddon and Beyond. The Wall Street Journal reported North Korea’s recent boast of increased nuclear missiles...
This dangerous development is not only a threat to the U.S.—it is also a preview of the terrifying weaponry that will destroy a third of mankind. The sixth trumpet plague describes that powerful judgment:
So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths (Revelation 9:15-18).
Some of you may already know of the recent Doomsday Clock advancement, based on increasing dangers of world war and devastation. Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on January 24:
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set its Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight the clock has been since it was established in 1947 to illustrate global existential threats at the dawn of the nuclear weapons age…. Rachel Bronson, the president and CEO of the Bulletin, said the clock had been moved forward from 100 seconds to midnight, where it had been for the previous three years, “largely, though not exclusively, because of the mounting dangers in the war in Ukraine. We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality.”
If only LCG and Bob Thiel talked about Jesus as much as they do the "doomsday clock"
Philippians 4:6-7 - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
4 comments:
This fits right in with the zeitgeist of our times. Each of the political parties has found fear-motivation to be very effective in terms of inciting the "necessity" of frenzied mob mentality amongst their faithful. Based on some of the rhetoric from the losers of the 2020 election, by this point in President Biden's term, we should be in the middle of the worst depression in the history of the USA, unparalleled crime and violence in the street, and pretty much under the control of the Chinese. And of course, following 2016, there were similar fears generated by the losers of that election. From the politicians, we have learned that fear mongering is invaluable to the grifting process which fills their war chests. We who have an Armstrong experience in our lives already knew how effective this can be, because unfortunately, we are the living proof from an earlier era.
There is just enough going on and in the news to substantiate the worst of the fear, making one susceptible to the grifters both political and religious. I'm just glad that my children are not of school age, and in public schools, learning how "cool" gender dysphoria can be. It was bad enough watching out for drugs, gang affiliation, and pregnancy!
The Tribulation is the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). My understanding is the tribulation is not the time of the Bride of Christ or the church's trouble, but that of Israel. The church needn't worry, it won't be here. The wheat will have been harvested, the tares (non- believers who were members of the church organizations) will remain. For the church to remain through the tribulation would be "spouse abuse" on the part of Jesus.
This post is a good example of how this blog, regardless of its mission, does preach the Gospel more than the COGs - and - how LCG stays in business by peddling fear, despite Philippians 4:6-7.
Not only do the COGs fail to mention Jesus much, they have no clue about Jesus making us at peace with God because they need their membership to believe God is not too happy with them and may decide to spank them at any moment.
LCG needs its members to believe that Satan is likely to steal their hearts and minds because Jesus is too distant and weak to guard them.
The COGs are big on preaching their special prophesy but never mention how Jesus fulfilled prophecy.
Therefore, in the continual effort to preach the Gospel more than the COGs (which is not hard to do), I offer the passage from Luke 4, in which Jesus said he fulfilled Isaiah 61 and thereby preached a Gospel very different from LCG's message.
Luke 4:14-21
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
These individuals on the COGs need to focus primarily on their discipleship with Jesus Christ. It wasn’t some gloom and doom outside force that broke u worldwide. It was an inside job. They got their “Worldwide Trouble” before Jacobs Trouble.
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