Check out this lovely little tidbit from Gerald Weston. Aren't we all so lucky to be part of the Church of God where compassion is embedded in the bedrock of the faith!
I have observed that there are more deaths and funerals in the winter than at other times of the year, but my observations are anecdotal, so I decided to check to see if the facts agree. According to the American Council on Science and Health, my observations are accurate. More people die in the months of December, January, and February than at any other time of the year. This is what we have seen recently here in Charlotte and elsewhere, with another funeral this past Sunday. It is never easy to lose a loved one, but God has given us a living hope—resurrection to eternal life in His family, with no pain, no suffering, no sorrow. However, death is important in God’s plan as it reminds us that we are not yet immortal and that the decisions we make are important. Death is a governor on human behavior, at least for many people. Can we imagine what life would be like if people were already immortal and there was no check on behavior? Paul wrote to the Thessalonians to remember the big picture (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). Because of age and other factors, we have many members suffering from serious ailments, but let us not lose sight of why God allows suffering and death. And let us not forget Paul’s words to the Romans, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (8:18).—Gerald Weston
22 comments:
Weston wrote: "More people die in the months of December, January, and February than at any other time of the year."
He should have added "and we have the expert example of Herbert W. Armstrong, who died RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of that time on January 16th, 1986!"
Well, Tonto, does that mean Bannedbyhwa can now say: Unbelievable, HWA finally got something right.?
If so, now we can go on to more uplifting topics. Yeah.
In the Worldwide COG, a funeral was always seen as an opportunity to witness to outsiders what REALLY happens when a person dies! It has been my experience that most folks within the ACOGs snigger and make fun of things like compassion, kindness, and love - none of that mushy, effeminate, touchy-feely stuff for them! They're like Hans and Franz, they just want to pump you up!
Did he go on to talk about how after the "bleak midwinter" (to borrow from classical music), there's the hope of new life in spring - as pictured by the resurrection of Jesus?
Sometimes people "hold onto life" until a special day arrives, such as a family member's wedding, or a trip. Some might hold on until Christmas, hoping that their family members will finally give them something they really want. When they get another crappy gift (a tie, a copy of HWA's autobiography, etc.) instead of what they really want (a bottle of Jack Daniels's, a box of good cigars) they say to themselves, "Crap, I'm out of here." They give up the will to live and die. I told my psychology students if they have a favorite uncle or grand dad, the one who gave them their first drink of beer and let you smoke a cigar with him, and you want to keep him alive, always have something to look forward to. Before Christmas, tell Grampa, "Next spring we're going to rent a Mustang convertible and go to Vegas" Keep giving him something to look forward to and he will live longer.
Maybe grand councilman Weston allowed too much cholesterol served in LCG potlucks over the years. And heaped up too much guilt pressure on the elderly if they retire.
Or maybe rival PCG Cal Culpepper cast the hex on LCG when his pupils roll back to glare with only the whites of his eyes.
UP here in the great white north, more die in the dreary, cold wet and depressing fall. When
the bright sunny days of january, february and march, they cheer up because of the sun shine!
Why is it that Weston and Winnail always come across as flippant and condescending? Stupid sinful brethren have problems because they are sinners.
Tell El Jefe Weston it might be cheeseburgers bumpin' off his dwindling laity. COG & LCG dismiss one helpful health tip practised by Messianic Jews...that of avoiding to mix meat & dairy too often.
Americans (even COG) keel over in their 50s & 60s after a lifetime of cheeseburgers, lasagna, pizza, taquitos con queso, instead of more cheesy salads maybe.
You don't need to subscribe to the 613 mitzvot either in order to adhere toward the health tip of avoiding meats often slapped on with cheeses. Try eatin' cheese separate or on grains. Or try guacamoley-ish spread on a burger maybe. 🥑🌮🥪🍔
The camo-wearing, pickup-truck drivin' rednecks in my area typically live ONLY into their 50s & 60s too after a lifetime of pub & tavern food menu : greasy fries & queso-y cheeseburgers & pizza.
Look at how puffed many of the LCG sermon fellas are at the lectern, filling out their oversize business suits. Maybe PCG is worse. If there's even 1 LCG guy in Haiti, he won't be so stuff'd with fluff & puff.
So Mr. Weston & all the COG bigwigs ought to preach on eatin' light & easy, instead of so much meaty & cheesy. He'll be able to cut back on all the "oh, we'll see them soon in the resurrection anyway". And, Mr. Weston, if even ONE of those many recently dearly departed was a smoker, then somebody fooled somebody...
Is there any such thing as an ACOG whose ministers and members are cool? What a buzz kill these dudes are!!! How can people like that even get up in the morning? I'd be on heroin if I had to live like that.
No pain, suffering, sorrow in the resurrection? That's not the way life works. If God doesn't trust the angels, they must be fallible and be making mistakes. There's no point in acquiring traits of character if the afterlife is trial and suffering free.
Does anyone think that God doesn't suffer in observing the carnage in the Ukrainian war? Or groan at the prospect of throwing the unrepentant into the lake of fire?
The next life will be vast improvement to the present one, but it will not be pain free. Life will never be like an old time Disney movie.
Assuming others are devoid of any character is a mistake.
Gerald Weston's tidbit on "compassion" is more about suffering and focusing on some of Paul's words, and living with it, but to help us out he thought it was most important to only quote Romans 8:18 (Weston apparently thinks these words are more important for us to "see" than those of 1 Thess 4), but wanted us to put forth effort if we want to really know about the "big picture" of 1 Thess 4:13-18 (If these words are so important, then why didn't Weston quote them verses?)?
But, I believe Weston may just want to "magically" comfort us somehow, so let's look at one verse in that "big picture:"
I Thess 4:17 "Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
And yes, those words sound comforting, while people still are suffering and dying, but only a very small number of those sufferers/dead are going to meet the Lord in the air.
Is this a big picture for a small group of "little helpers," those of the living group only?
We know where the Lord is today, but when those who suffered meet the Lord: where are they then to go? Yes, they follow the Lord, but where to?
1. Will they stay cloud-bound?
2, Will they follow the Lord to earth and reign 1,000 years (Belief of fleeing/scattered uncaring xcog hirelings of former WCG including Winnail/Weston's Mickey Mouse Millennium?), until Satan exits the pit for a little/short season/time, world at war again, Jerusalem overtaken again, etc.?
3..Or, will they, saints, follow the Lord to heaven (Oh, "God forbid" writing out that "dirty" word "heaven," which Satan hates and has a very negative view of!)?
What did Paul have in mind? Paul understood where he was going, but what about Weston/Winnail? Remember, you say, this is the big picture! Where are you going?
Will Weston/Winnail truly give us the rest of the puzzle pieces so we may more clearly see this big picture they are wanting their "dumb sheep" followers to understand so that we may know where everyone goes after they enter that cloud?
No, the sheep aren't dumb at all, but all of the sheep will suffer, and it is appointed once (not twice dead) for all sheep to die.
Paul knew what God had planned vengeance for Satan and his angels (Eph 6:12), but that's in 2 Thessalonians:
:6 "Seeing [it is] a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
:10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day."
Remember, those saints: they followed that Lamb, who is being revealed from heaven (Oh, that word again, God forbid?)!
So, Gerald Weston/Winnail and those uncaring (John 10:13) xcog hirelings who fled/scattered from the former WCG: after you enter that cloud, where will you then go?
Will Weston/Winnail some day expound on that big picture puzzle piece of where they intend to go after "meeting the Lord in the clouds?"
Time will tell...
John
9:30
I get your point, but there are some technical issues.
As long as the existential way of humans does not match the ontology of humans there will be pain and suffering (see William Paul Young). That is, as long as we are not the beings we were created to be, there will be pain and suffering. Armstrongists vaunt the Millennium as the wonderful world tomorrow and yet there will be nations doing business as usual while the government of God is at work in Jerusalem, if we are to accept the description of Revelation. This means that God is not going to precipitately alter the world of man. And the Millennium will not be the wonderful world tomorrow for everyone, yet. Even at the end of the Millennium, Gog and Magog (symbolizing nations in rebellion) will arise and take a shot at overthrowing the government of God in Jerusalem. There will be some people who just don’t get it. They will live in a world of conspiracy theories and faux news. And this will extend throughout the Millennium.
But there will be a resolution. It will happen at the time that Jesus calls The Renewal of All Things (palingenesia, Matthew 19:28-29, Rev 21:5). Humans will be renewed. Angels will be renewed, if they have not already been. Their existential way will match their ontology. This is the time that the Patristics referred to as the Apokatastatsis. Pain and suffering will end. The former things will pass away. It is difficult for us to conceive of this, because all we know at present are “the former things.”
I might add, I do not believe in eternal punishment. I am not an Infernalist. Eternal damnation or punishment (Matthew 25:46) is a product of the political view of the KJV translators. Eternal is the Greek word “aionios” which refers to an age, a finite and eventually ending period of time. It is seldom used in contemporary koine as the English word “eternal.” And punishment is the word kolasis in Greek which refers to rehabilitative correction and derives from the word “to prune.” So, Matthew 25:46 states “these shall go away into a period of rehabilitative correction.” Both eternal punishment and annihilationism are lame concepts declared by a church that conveniently used fear to make people do its bidding. (Not a foreign idea to some of the readers here.) Sorry, to insert my own two cents but it seemed fitting.
Scout
Notice the context of Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”
The sufferings come from being a Christian (overcoming sin) or being persecuted like the 1st century church was. NOT OLD AGE. Millions of people suffer when they get older, but that's not the sufferings that Paul was referring to. Come on Mr. Weston
notice the verse before:
Romans 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
5.59
Which comment made that claim?
Right, 5:59. Our black and white thinking former mentors fail to understand the concept of percentages. Nobody is 100% good, and nobody is 100% evil. Possibly the worst people on the face of the earth are sociopaths. Yet, they often walk the face of the earth acting within normal bounds, and undetected. Some are even principled. It is the small percentage of bad, uncaring, nonempathic activities in which they indulge that makes them different from the norm, and dangerous to the rest of us. The smartest go undetected. Successful executives often share many sociopathic traits. It's why the man on the street often believes that the wealthy mogul "got there by being crooked".
HWA's doctrine of the "one true church" (his!) is an example of binary thinking. All churches have percentages of truth, but none has 100% truth. A human, though guided by God, is still capable of error, whether through limited understanding, or the injection (contamination) of his own human thoughts into various truths. I would speculate that the belief that there is one true church is actually the foundation of binary thinking. It sets members off looking for one true everything, and also seeing bad everywhere. Not so amazingly, they end up very much like the guy who dropped his gum in the chicken coop. He thought he found it a couple times!
6:01:00 PM PST
Q. "Why is it that Weston and Winnail always come across as flippant and condescending?"
A. It's because they think they sit at the right hand of God, & are linked via super-duper spiritual wifi or bluetooth device connection with Him that directs these fellas to be so, as you said flippant & condescending. (they might've watched R. Lee Ermey on Full Metal Jacket at least once also)
Anon, Saturday, February 17, 2024 at 7:21:00 AM PST, said:
"...Notice the context of Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”
The sufferings come from being a Christian (overcoming sin) or being persecuted like the 1st century church was. NOT OLD AGE. Millions of people suffer when they get older, but that's not the sufferings that Paul was referring to. Come on Mr. Weston
notice the verse before:
Romans 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
******
Excellent comment shared with us: for Weston to look at that previous verse to understand what the suffering was all about.
Similarly, if Weston thought about suffering in the way you expressed it, rather than just suffering/dying from old age: had he considered 2 Thess 1:5 rather than 1 Thess 4:13-18, he could have addressed the connection between suffering and being counted worthy of the Kingdom of God (something positive):
2 Thess 1:5 “Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
Should Weston repeat his message in the future, like Doug Winnail loves to do, will he consider our positive feedback (if our comments are read by him)?
Time will tell...
John
That organization Gerald posted to back up his claim is hilarious. It’s a shoddy opinion management org masquerading as scientific at best. A little ironic coming from Gerry considering he smugly knows better than scientists anyway.
Thank you John,
and yes time will tell if the two Ws (Weston & Winnail) read our comments. And yes the latter one does repeat repeat and repeat himself over and over.
Gerald should elevate Wallace Smith to be his direct assistant. Then they'd be Smith and Weston!
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