The above snapshot is from a local church in South Pasadena, CA.
Can you imagine a Church of God ever doing such a thing? Instead, it hides behind closed doors while belching doom and gloom to a negligible part of the world around them. 99.99% of the world has no idea who or what a Church of God is anymore.
This church is in South Pasadena, CA, a small town of 26,000, where almost 1/2 of the population is registered as members at the church with at least 3,500 of those attending church services each week. Most COG's nowadays are lucky to have 30-40 people present on a Saturday or a couple hundred at a Feast site.
Each week this church provides food for over 300+ homeless or needy families in the area. How many Churches of God feed the needy in their areas? Sure, one or two now collect food and clothing for homeless shelters or food banks at a couple Feast sites, but as soon as they leave the city, where the local population has been watching them dump tons of money for 8 days, they go home and do nothing.
Jesus is rarely talked about but church members know all about the Mystery of the Ages, Herbert Armstrong, the law, which kind of meat is ok to eat, and what time sundown is. Ask most of them what the New Covenant is about and you will get a blank stare. They will tell you what they think it is NOT about, though.
When have you ever heard a Church of God member being extolled to live as a missionary disciple?
When have you ever heard of a COG encouraging members to build a personal relationship with Jesus? Church members are usually only encouraged to shine the light inwardly to other church members.
When has a COG member been extolled to discover their faith relies entirely upon Jesus and not some book or booklet written by Herbert Armstrong or some self-appointed prophet or even on the law?
Incidentally, this is a local Catholic Church, so-called Christians as Bob Thiel and Armstrongism calls them.
You really have to downplay Jesus in order to place so much emphasis on "the law". It's unavoidable. And, if we were living in Old Testament times, and there had as yet been no Messiah, that would not only be the correct attitude, it would be the only possible attitude for those dedicated to loving, worshipping, and serving God.
ReplyDeleteHerbert W. Armstrong used to be fond of saying that he had restored the true gospel. He added that somewhere along the way, man had changed the gospel, and had made it all about the person of Jesus and not the message that Jesus preached. He continued that Jesus message was the gospel of the soon coming Kingdom of God.
Well, it was not man who made the gospel all about Jesus, it was Jesus Himself. All that Herbert needed to read were two passages, John 3:16, and John 14:6. Had these resonated with him, he would have realized that Jesus was the facilitator of salvation, and you must preach and emphasize that. It does no good at all to preach a kingdom, but to then neglect the One whose life, death, and resurrection makes preparing for the Kingdom and entering the Kingdom possible, and emphasize the law instead!. Without Jesus, there could be no Kingdom. So, of course the gospel is all about Jesus. Mainstream Christian churches do preach the gospel of the Kingdom. They just show more reverence to Him who made it possible.
Shame on Herbert W. Armstrong for preaching half a gospel!
What is the new covenant?
ReplyDeleteHallelujah, praise Jesus for a church like that!
ReplyDeleteI love this post because it does illuminate what is fatally missing from the Armstrongite churches.
The good news is, if the Armstrongites want to repent and turn to Jesus, instead of their heterodox Herbieism, they too can participate in the love and gifts of Jesus.
May the COGs seek first the Kingdom of Jesus and the righteousness of Jesus so that all things will be added to them!
Pal that the mainstream church system does not work! So let's accept God's calling and move out of the error.
ReplyDeleteThe Prophecy Chapter: I Curmudgeons 13:
ReplyDelete1 Ok, even If I speak as if I have never ever read the New Testament or understood it, which of course I don't, and do not explain and read the Bible like a tabloid or Internet News and are obsessed with "you can sure tell Jesus is coming soon", I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal even if you think I already am one.
2 Since I have the gift of prophecy and fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and since I have blind belief that if you "send it in", I can move mountains, build God's Headquarters or buy lots of trees and a horse or two, because I have the true understanding of when Jesus is returning, then "yes brethren, I am Elijah to come".
3 Since I give all I possess, and you send it in, to the church and give over your body to the aches and pains of building God's Headquarters and fundraising and I can boast about it because I have the ability to make the news and people in it mean what it does not mean or who they are not actually in these end times, I'm still always right.
4 Prophecy is the whole point, prophecy is profitable. It should make others envy us, it does not actually have to be true, it will change week to week depending.
5 The "Prophet" does not give a rat's ass for the understanding of others, it is self-seeking, it gets easily angered when you don't gyrate in your seats of what we did not understand but now I do, it keeps no record of wrong predictions and dumb ass speculation presented as that which cannot be denied. That would be more than embarrassing and diminish the status of the Prophet in the eyes of the brethren who are blind, and dumb...good thing.
6 Prophecy does not delight in common sense but rejoices with each new discovery of what we did not understand but now I do.
7 It's always wrong, always mistaken, always subject to change, always is the carrot that brings the fearful into the fake Church.
8 Prophecy always fails. But where there is loving our neighbors, pffft...; where there are the poor and hungry, they will be ignored because that will be fixed in the Kingdom.; where there is knowledge, it can get you disfellowshipped and dis-membered should it not flow from the Elijah to Come.
9 For I know it all and I prophesy as if I do,
10 and though there is no more completeness to come, and I know it all, I can die on this hill of that which absolutely cannot be questioned, and you'll grovel at my feet for my being so accurate, just you wait.
11 Since I am a child, I talk like a child, I think like a child, I reason like a child. And since I still am a child, I refuse to grow up.
12 For now we see the whole big thing and someday, when we see God face to face, He'll also be amazed how we could absolutely could not have gotten it any more correct. Because I know it all; and there will be no need to learn anything more, as I am fully nuts.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But, forget these. The greatest of these, hidden from all mankind but myself, is seat gyrating Prophecy which if I was honest, which I find impossible to be, admittedly has been 100% mistaken 100% of the time since the foundation of the world...but I'm a master baiter of the brethren with it, so it's all good.
(Sorry..sleep eluded me and coffee beckoned! :)
Saturday, August 26, 2023 at 3:18:00 AM PDT
"Can you imagine a Church of God ever doing such a thing?"
ReplyDeleteNO. That's just marketing on their part, trying to sell their organization to the masses. The worlds churches are just businesses and they must constantly change and adapt to the marketplace. Catchy phrases and gimmicks are their way of filling the pews.
God does not place anyone in those organizations.
11:15 said “Pal that the mainstream church system does not work! So let's accept God's calling and move out of the error.”
ReplyDeleteAccept God’s calling and leave the filth of Armstrongism! It is obvious that it does not work!
Dennis
ReplyDeleteThat was great!!!!!!!!!! So spot on.
Did Ron Darts popular series 'Words of Jesus' pass you by ?
ReplyDelete