Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders

Sunday, February 25, 2024

After 29 Years UCG Says: "Now we must get to work."

 


UCG/Rick Shabi sent out its Home Office update on February 22 and it was a sight to behold. For 29 years now they have been wandering around trying to figure out their purpose. They have finally decided what they need to do.

Let me address just a few of those areas as we begin to focus with a greater sense of urgency. Jesus Christ is the head of His Church, and we look to Him to guide and direct what we do. It must be done His way, or it will not bear fruit. God has provided the physical resources—both monetary and human—to do the work. Now we must get to work
 
Christ commissioned His Church to “preach the gospel in all nations, to make disciples, and to teach them to observe all things He commanded” (Matthew 24:14; 28:19-20). This is a key part of the operation plan that we, as Church administration, will be presenting to the Council of Elders at their meetings here at the home office next week. We have begun implementing this through our more extensive use of direct, clear messages to the world available now on YouTube.

Apparently, they never thought to consider their international regions and the potential they had there. 29 years of neglect and now they are waking up. Note, it doesn't mean they will do much but they are "endeavoring" to understand. WTH? They would have had a better return on their money in the Latin American countries and in Africa over how much they have wasted in the United States and Canada with their messages that have had minimal impact.

Following the principle in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, we are endeavoring to learn and understand more about our international regions so the gospel can be preached in them more effectively and in a manner and form that is best suited to be heard and received. You can help us with this, and we can help provide content and materials to assist in the preaching of the gospel in your area.

Now, the plan is to "cry aloud and spare not", though if they are going to accuse those around them of their sins they need to clean their own house first. Plus, it appears that UCG members are getting sick of hearing about all the end-time scenario crap they have been subjected to for decades.

In Isaiah 58:1, God commissioned us to “cry aloud, spare not, and show My people and the house of Jacob their sins.” Even those not a part of the Church are beginning to loudly proclaim their doubts about the future of the world. It is time, and we will “cry aloud” with a bold, clear and direct message to the house of Jacob (and the world) of the sins and heinousness of the actions and direction of this world, reminding them that repentance is necessary for salvation and that Jesus Christ will return to “save” mankind from the utter destruction he would inflict upon himself. We will continue to do this as God leads and provides the direction and message He wants delivered.

Our Great Bwana is going to beg to differ. He and he alone is doing that.  

Not only will they be crying aloud, but they will be unified! Woo Hoo!

One more thing that needs to be mentioned as we remember God’s will and actively begin to practice it in our lives, is this: Jesus Christ, before He was crucified, prayed in John 17 for His people to become “one” with each other and with Him and the Father. In Ephesians 4 we are admonished to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”

With their newfound focus on unity, great things are in store. Unity has never really been their focus when they rebelled from the Worldwide Church of God, when David Hulme split off, and when COGWA split off. But, heck! It looks good in print. 

Passover is quickly approaching and their previous sins over the last year will be forgiven and they can start anew.

Indeed, when we take of the bread that symbolizes Christ’s body at Passover, we are reminded that it is the koinonia (fellowship, partnership) of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). It pictures unity, being at one with each other and learning and practicing that “oneness” that we must have and develop as God’s people. 

Word has been circulating for a while that there is more unrest in the UCG ranks. I guess they are trying to nip it in the bud with this: 

To achieve that, humility is required. We must put aside our thoughts, our pet ideas, learn how to reconcile with each other, and strive to work together as one under Christ, following His lead and supporting the direction of His Church. That includes “speaking the same thing” (1 Corinthians 1:10) as we have been focusing on with the ministry this year and “advancing His mission” as has also been stressed. 
 
It is time for us individually and collectively to focus on what God wants, to yield to Him, and to move forward in becoming the people and Church God would have us be.

27 comments:

  1. UCG has been dying for a long time. Rick Shabi is putting the final nail in the coffin.

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  2. “With their newfound focus on unity, great things are in store. Unity has never really been their focus when they rebelled from the Worldwide Church of God, when David Hulme split off, and when COGWA split off. But, heck! It looks good in print.”


    The focus of the disUnited Church of Godlessness splinter group was for the former Worldwide Church of God ministers to become re-employed and continue to collect paychecks and then later get a retirement plan.

    In his old age, Herbert W. Armstrong had made it appear to be so easy to grow the church that everyone else thought that they could do it too, and even better than HWA had done.

    When the UCG splinter group started in 1995 just months after the Great Apostasy of January 1995 in the WCG, the UCG bragged about how it already had as many people as it had taken HWA many years to attract to the WCG. Of course, the UCG was benefiting from what HWA had done. The sudden influx to the UCG from the WCG in 1995 soon stopped and no new people were interested in joining the UCG.

    At the start of the UCG the thinking was that they would be soft on the people rather than harsh like Rehoboam had threatened to be with the Israelites after the death of Solomon. The UCG allowed everyone to believe and behave however they wanted to. The only exception was some innocent victims who had to be put out of the UCG to please and keep the guilty perverts who attended.

    The apostate Tkaches destroyed the WCG within nine years, even though they had gone on and on about how scholarly and wise and thrifty and spiritual and loving and competent they were, and about how uneducated and foolish and wasteful and Pharisaical and harsh and incompetent HWA had supposedly been.

    The splinter group leaders have done nothing but splinter the church and then cause it to split and decline some more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You should legally marry HWA at this point. You’re astounded that all the splinters/slivers are corrupt but can a bad tree bear good fruit. HWA was a liar and his legacy is trash.

      Delete
  3. Reading this article, it just feels so........stale. There's no energy, no enthusiasm, no excitement. Rick Shabi is a decent speaker so this makes me wonder if UCG is showing its age. It's almost as if UCG has become was GCG was 25 years ago.....mostly old, mostly stuck, mostly decrepit.

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    Replies
    1. Taking a athiest double minded blog like this as a balanced source on ucg is a major mistake.

      Delete
  4. What's upset you now NO2HWA????? You write as a depressed person.
    Why are you worried about UCGs international areas ????

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  5. NO2HWA writes " word has very circulating for awhile the is more unrest in the ranks" ...How do you know ?

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  6. We attended briefly with UCG in the late 2000's. We noticed that they seemed to lack purpose even then. They acted like they were just starting out. Much of the membership back then was 55+. I'd say much of it now is 65+. We know members there who are in their 80's and 90's.

    Many younger families bailed out years ago and went with COGWA. No wonder UCG has open door policies in some areas. They are desperate for growth!

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  7. I wish the first thing seen on this site was the most recent post, instead of the New Year's post. Have to search for the most recent post. Can this be fixed?

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  8. The problem is likely on your end if you saved as a bookmark for the blog the day you read the New Year's Eve posting. Then you will open that page up every time you click on your book mark. Click on the banner of the blog and it will open to front page, save that link.

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  9. These ACOG groups are all just feel good nostalgia acts at this point in time. They are place-holders or substitutes for HWA. And, how could they not be? Everyone has already done everything they can to stir interest and create a revival including calling themselves prophets and apostles. No second acts have taken off. So, they're just sheltering in place waiting for the Trib.

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  10. I groaned when I read "We must put aside our thoughts, our pet ideas, learn how to reconcile with each other,...“speaking the same thing."
    The bible is plain on not lording it over members faith. Yet the putting aside of "our thoughts, our pet ideas" means exactly that. As a long time member, I know this from personal experience. My former ministers thought nothing of, and enjoyed stomping on members to get them to conform to church doctrines.
    Genuine unity only comes from members striving to follow Christ rather than the morally compromised church culture.

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  11. The gospel is good news. The Armstrong sect is not.

    If these COGS are right, then Jesus failed in His mission to take away the sin of the world. When you’re waiting for a future fulfillment of that promise, all you’re saying is that Jesus death on the cross or tree if cross offends you, isn’t sufficient. It will only be fulfilled when Christ lays the world’s sin on Satan. And Satan becomes the goat who removes the sin of the world…

    In case anyone is confused, that would mean Jesus isn’t the savior.

    False gospel.

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  12. Reading between the lines, UCG's recipe for unity is conformity. They're exhorting the members to stop thinking for themselves, and believe what they're told to believe like good boys and girls.

    "Don't believe me, believe the Bible" turns out to be empty rhetoric, because if anyone does read the Bible and come to any different conclusions, they will be told

    * You're having your own thoughts (oh noes)
    * You're proud and think you know better than everyone else
    * You're failing to respect the wisdom of the elders who have had consensus for decades
    * It doesn't make sense that God would reveal falsehood to His called-out true church
    * You're failing to trust Jesus Christ to lead His church
    * You're creating disunity
    * If people have "different ideas" it's an indication that they're not truly called by God

    Counterpoints to this would be

    * UCG ministry themselves aren't united on all doctrines
    * Mr Armstrong changed doctrines (divorce & remarriage, Monday Pentecost) and had to abandon failed prophetic interpretations/predictions
    * UCG changed doctrines (church government, birthdays, interracial marriage, 8th day, king of the south, Petra is the place of safety, healing & doctors)
    * UCG talks about changing doctrines, then quietly stops talking about them so nobody is quite sure about them (is Jesus still "the God of the Old Testament", or not? Have they backtracked that 8th day stuff?)
    * UCG appears to slowly walk back or de-emphasise some "traditional" doctrines, but they may live on in sermons by the old-timers (Assyria = Germany, 19-year time cycles, church eras)

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  13. Armstrongism has never been big on individualism. The fact is there are distinguishing characteristics which make each of us unique as individuals. Becoming a yellow pencil to qualify for the Kingdom is a fool's errand. That would even get rid of some of the things God put there that He likes. When will these whip crackers ever learn?

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  14. Forty-Nine years after 1975 when the world was supposed to end, the UCG decides its time to get started on their mission... Armstrongism is a joke. UCG and all other cogs will continue to fleece their members without doing any charitable works that the "worldly churches" do. If anyone is still with these groups, let me tell you, you're being scammed, by scam artists who have been telling the same old lie for decades.

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    Replies
    1. The problem is, no one knows about the failures of the past. No one born after Armstrong died knows about any of it.

      It’s been conveniently and deceptively swept under the rug. The narrative is controlled. Sincere minds are controlled and it takes an act of God to remove the mud from your eyes. I’m one of those people who was born after that man died. I never considered him as remotely important to my faith until I learned that he wrote all of the doctrines.

      I didn’t find that out until I learned one of them was wrong through simply reading and accepting the word of God as my only source of truth.

      Dominoes fell. The house of cards crumbled and well, we left. I never thought I’d be debating people over what the Bible explicitly states, but alas here we are.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous at 2:05 said:
    "No one born after Armstrong died knows about any of it"

    MY COMMENT: Actually, who under the age of 20 when HWA died knew much about it? Armstrong has been dead for
    over 38 years now, and adding the 20 year "age of accountability" and anyone under the age of 58 remembers barely a thing or nothing at all about the "HWA Era".

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  16. The big discussions amongst people alive during the Armstrong era took place on the forums and blogs in the early 2,000s. At that point we often speculated as to whether the people who we knew would inevitably be screwed over by the emerging Armstrongite splinters would be having their forums to process it all. They just joined in with us and the scene has kind of morphed. But, everyone still needs recovery, and it's a gas to have such an effective support group.

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  17. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  18. Comments made were:

    "...UCG/Rick Shabi sent out its Home Office update on February 22 and it was a sight to behold. For 29 years now they have been wandering around trying to figure out their purpose. They have finally decided what they need to do.

    Let me address just a few of those areas as we begin to focus with a greater sense of urgency. Jesus Christ is the head of His Church, and we look to Him to guide and direct what we do. It must be done His way, or it will not bear fruit. God has provided the physical resources—both monetary and human—to do the work. Now we must get to work..."
    ******

    I doubt that Rick Shabi attended the Indianapolis Conference in 1995 when the United Ass. was established, but he may have been there; I don't know. Rick may just be one of the babes, compared to those who attended back then.

    Physical resources-both monetary and human-certainly have been available since 1995. Whether provided by God, or not, may be debatable, as time will tell, because Jesus Christ "...said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Matthew 15:13

    But, now Rick Shabi, admits: "...Now we must get to work...!" ?????What does that mean?

    29 years have lapsed since 1995. Weren't they supposed to have gotten to work way back then? Where was Rick Shabi? Might today be "a day late, and a $dollar$ short?"

    Perhaps Rick Shabi could do himself a favor by going back and watching the 4 Videotapes of that Indy Conference and read the transcript for it to understand better how the United Ass. was established, what organization he became president of, and how they planned to have others, anyone else, to follow them. It may be worth revisiting those items if he did not attend back then.

    29 years ago, near the conclusion of that last day's meeting, Victor Kubik, thinking of the establishment of the United Ass. as a birth, said: "...But we have a big work ahead of us, organizing and being able to reconstitute. But the work has been done here...I know you want to be a part of this historic occasion, and putting in your signature to this birth..."

    Birth? What's that?

    And Vic's last words, leading up to a huge applause, spoken were: "...And now with what we have done we have provided -a baby, and a carriage, and a bassinette, and a crib..."

    Well, what was next? What does the United Ass. provide today, 29 years later? Spiritual milk, junk food or meat? More splits, factions, etc.? Any more "babies" coming?

    Time will tell...

    John

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  19. The dude in the blue shirt and yellow tie? I think I saw him at a Grateful Dead concert back in the day, back when Jerry was still alive! 'Cept he had hair down to the middle of his back.

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  20. When COGWA started as a split from UCG, it was because the UCG leadership despised the international areas, especially Latin America. They sacked all the ministers in Latin America, who then decided to get together and start again with COGWA, along with other ministers who decided to abandon a bullying church which was becoming a sinking ship.
    Not that COGWA are perfect, but at least they cared about members in international areas. It has taken a long time for UCG to admit they have no understanding of people outside the USA, which is typical of lots of US citizens.
    I am not in the USA so this is important to me, the WCG and UCG never seemed to care for non-US (and non-Canadian) members.

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  21. UCG didn't rebel from WCG, they fled because it was a sinking ship. It was the apostates in WCG who rebelled against the Constitution. They had the keys.

    Shabi says: We must put aside our thoughts, our pet ideas, learn how to reconcile with each other, and strive to work together as one under Christ, following His lead and supporting the direction of His Church. That includes “speaking the same thing” as we have been focusing on with the ministry...

    So it seems that it's the (aging) members who need the humility, not the ministry since they all seem to be on the same page.

    And "learn how to reconcile"? We've learned that enough. It's time to practice it. But the ministry always say, "I don't like your attitude", "You're too self-righteous", "You're rancorous and divisive", "Others say this about you", etc., leaving no room for any possible reconciliation, even though the Corinthian church reconciled with the fornicator to give us an example.

    The plan NOW is to cry aloud and spare not? How can they do that when they DISFELLOWSHIP members for crying out about the sins in the church? Who are the self-righteous ones here?

    And he says to remember John 17:11? How can we when we have lost our peace and fallen from righteousness and corporate viability, assets and image are the most important things to uphold?

    Anyone who dares show zeal in the church is called a fanatic or trouble-maker because "who are you to tell us what to do?"

    Your house is left unto you desolate (lonesome) unless you repent. (Lk 13:35)

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