For some reason, those fun boys in Cincinnati believe they are teaching "the Way". When an Armstrongite COG claims to do this they tack onto that journey law keeping, following church government and tithing. Christians for centuries have understood that as followers of "the Way" they are on a journey with Jesus. Knowing and trusting in him daily in their lives and walking in faith that he is the way. No amount of Sabbath keeping, kosher eating, or holy day keeping will ever help someone on that faith journey. Christians have understood this for centuries, yet those boys in Cincinnati have to reinterpret it into what they want it to be, further enslaving their members to a works-based belief system that is an exclusive belief of the United Church of God and its members.
Rick Shabi writes:
Teaching the Way
It is also a time for us to be teaching very clearly the truth of God—“the Way”—as the early New Testament Church described it. We must be dedicated to deepen our knowledge of the truth, and we must be committed to living that truth every day—in every aspect of our lives. We give witness to God’s way of life by the words we speak and by the example we set in our daily lives. Each day as we draw closer to God, He promises to lead us and prepare us individually and collectively.
The world around us is crumbling fast and every day the forces of evil deepen their grip, united in their goal of destroying mankind. Much of it occurs “behind the scenes” but we can have eyes to see if we are paying attention and staying awake.
Now is the time for God’s Church and His people—us—to focus even more deeply on His will and truth, becoming “one” with Him and each other—united in purpose, mission, vision, understanding, message, speech and commitment to do His will.
Be prepared for what lies ahead
Interestingly, a notable event in the history of the world will occur this weekend as the throne in Britain is passed to a new king. This ceremony should remind us of the time just ahead when that crown will be passed to its rightful owner—Jesus Christ.
The time of Christ’s return is growing nearer. Every day we must be allowing God to prepare us and get us ready for what lies ahead. That He will do, as we yield more and more to him—a united people under Him—called out of this world to do His will.
The time is now.
I ask everyone around the world to pray for God’s will to be done, His direction to be provided, and His Spirit to lead and guide everything done in these important meetings that will occur next week, and for His will to be done in all our lives every day.
COG members have been so conditioned to be constantly working for some goal that is constantly outside their reach instead of resting in the One they claim to follow. It is no wonder that so many COG members are exhausted by trying to keep up with the demands of the church. The way that they think they are following is not the way they should be following.
"However, Jesus makes it clear that they (or we) won’t know the defined way we are supposed to travel in life. We are instead tasked with simply knowing and trusting in Jesus daily, and walking in faith that HE is the way. When we abide in him, we will not know a defined course, but we can rest in the comfort of faith – that he will lead us exactly where we need to go as we walk in him.
This leads to the second meaning. In John 10, Jesus compared himself to a good shepherd:
"When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture." (emphasis added)
Jesus is comparing himself to a shepherd and us to his sheep. Sheep don’t choose their own path to safety and protection, but rely on the shepherd to guard and care for them. In order to be safe, we have to trust the shepherd, and not wander off on our own adventures and try to find out own way. That will lead us to danger and pain. But when we follow Jesus, he leads us to exactly where we need to be.
Finally, he is making clear that he is the way to the Father, and by extension, to heaven. He says that he goes to prepare a place for us, and this suggests that after we have completed the journey of this life, we will find ourselves in a place of rest where the Father is."
"Jesus is teaching us that what we are to really be concerned with is not this life, but with eternal life. The Scriptures speak often of the life to come after our life on this earth, and as we follow the voice of our shepherd, we can grasp what that eternal life is in the here and now. We can live this life in such a way that we are not chasing things that don’t last but chasing the things that do last and have eternal significance. This type of life has eternal impact not only for us but for untold others around us.
When Jesus refers to himself as the way, the truth, and the life, he is giving us a better way to live our lives through him. He is showing us that through following him daily in faith, he will lead us to a better, richer, more meaningful life than we could ever find on our own." I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" - What Jesus Really Meant
13 comments:
No amount of Sunday keeping, pork eating, or Xmas/Easter keeping will ever help someone on that faith journey.
Unity in the UCG
The only thing that the UCG leaders are united on is their desire to continue to collect paychecks while deceitfully pretending to be righteous.
The only thing that the little people in the UCG are united on is their desire to continue to behave badly and keep on sinning while playing church.
The problem with the COGs is that they only teach THEIR idea of God's way of life, as interpreted and mandated by the ministry, It is not based on an exegetical understanding of all of Scripture, as practiced for almost 2,000 years now. It is warmed over HWA leftovers, tweaked here and there to best suit the current leaders' wants, to fool enough new people into tithing and unpaid service by uttering the name Jesus and keep the older ones stuck in their seats, by claiming to most closely follow the teachings of HWA. Two separate man made religions, under one roof, so to speak.
It bears absolutely no resemblance to God's way of life, Jesus.
Tonto wrote:
“ No amount of Sunday keeping, pork eating, or Xmas/Easter keeping will ever help someone on that faith journey.”
Who here ever said any of this did? None of these are spiritual issues.
Armstrongism requires that in order to make it into their kingdom that a person tithe. Keep sabbath, keep kosher, keep holy days and other non essentials. Failure to do any of these is automatic expulsion from the place of safety and the kingdom.
ANON @ 2:31
I was responding to the post which said "No amount of Sabbath keeping, kosher eating, or holy day keeping will ever help someone on that faith journey."
If you are talking about salvational issues, we are saved by grace thru faith. Im sure that the UCG teaches that. The fine print back in the Armstrong era would have said he same thing, however, there was definitely a legalism stamp back in the Armstrong era. The official statements by most COGs then and today is that you are SAVED by grace, BUT rewarded for your works. That there would brighter and lesser stars in brightness.
I certainly do believe that keeping the Sabbath, Holy Days et al, have been very useful to me on my faith journey in learning about the plan of Salvation thru the Holy Days, and learning about the mind of God and Jesus his son.
Incidentally, I am not a member of the UCG or any Armstrong spinoff, however, have family members and friends, and follow closely .
Nothing at all here (or on the UCG Members site when I checked last Sabbath) about the General Conference of Elders meeting.
No news about it... in a week?!?
Maybe those meetings aren't the big, dramatic deal they used to be.
As I said before, "The Pope and Armstrong have a lot of parallels kicking God, Jesus, & Holy Spirit out & replacing their authority with themselves to manipulate, threaten, and steal from people. They come at it from different angles. The rotten fruit Armstrong and the Popes produce are the same.
The thief on the cross did none of those things. Jesus accepted him for his confession of faith. So Armstrong does not represent God, Jesus, or Holy Spirit
I have to chuckle to myself. These guys believe they inherited a certain "guiding spirit" that came with the empire. All they have done is to prove that the Armstrong empire was built by HWA on his own, a robber-baron not unlike the early industrialists, only in HWA's case, one who had been thwarted by the great depression, and basically succeeded by building on a philosophy which had no start up costs.
No new robber barons are emerging these days, and the Armstrong movement did not train any, so here we are!
We are here today because of silence from people who chose not to speak up or do anything to fight evil. They held the door wide open for Baal which today is Planned Parenthood. They could have voted for candidates with moral values if they had looked at voter guides to see clearly if they were defending good or evil on different issues.
We are here today because of people who call themselves "good" or "righteous" who did nothing to stop evil.
They just complained about it. We did not hear their voices in the public square.standing up for what is right.
Tonto,
Do those in UCG believe good works equate primarily to warming a seat on saturday, avoiding pork, and not observing Christ's birth or resurrection?
What other works might they include? I've noticed that none of the COGs even include prayer requests from members of another COG. I suppose doing things for those outside their group is not encouraged.
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