How can anyone who was part of the Church of God before Herbert Armstrong's death forget the two trees in the Garden of Eden and how Adam was standing right next to Eve and together decided to eat off the wrong tree. We had one bellowing sermon after another with fists hitting the desk as we were bellowed at, constantly being reminded we were too stupid to understand what he was saying.
Sadly, many of the splinter groups had the perfect opportunity when they split off to start a new church unencumbered by COG myths and legends and instead be Christ followers. Sadly, that has never happened.
UCG is constantly looking back. The two trees, Moses, and the law seem to occupy the minds of UCG leaders. When that is your lens to look through, everything is wrong around you and the world is falling apart.
The two trees
There were two trees in the garden of Eden—one was called the Tree of Lifeand the other the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. One pictured revealed knowledge from God, which would lead to life. The other represented good and bad knowledge acquired by human self-discovery and would ultimately lead to death.
In Genesis chapter three, Moses was inspired to record the incident when Adam and Eve took of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God had warned them not to take of the fruit of this forbidden tree in Genesis 2:16-17: “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”
Not all knowledge man has discovered is bad; there is some good. Music is an illustration of this. Some of the music man has developed is inspiring and uplifting, but other music can express the evil characteristics of human beings and degrade human behavior. Some discoveries of science serve the needs of many people. On the other hand, those same discoveries may be used to develop weapons to kill people in wars. Some plants we might discover can be used to help make people well, but others can be used for poison and cause illness or even death.
Are there decent people in the world? Yes, there are those who strive to live worthwhile lives and strive to be good citizens. There are many who call themselves “Christians.” However, do they truly obey God’s laws and follow Christ? Not really—they do not completely follow Jesus Christ’s words and keep His laws. Should we hate them and the rest of humanity? We certainly do not hate anyone. What we hate is sin and evil, not the sinner.
12 comments:
Two trees…”Not all knowledge man has discovered is bad; there is some good. ”.. science, music, plants >>>
How ironic these UCG followers of the claimed apostle write of this as they and their ilk are the embodiment of the same bad things they allege they are separated from by reason of their claimed law keeping
Only Satan the deceiver climbed amongst the trees NO2HWA.
Rather condescending to make yourself the judge and jury deciding to be the barometer on who knows Jesus Christ or not. Extremely condescending but then again you are a condescending nasty piece of work.
Anonymous said..
the UCG has the same traits as its parent. I read these following words on its site:
“..There are a number of characteristics that all those who are part of the True Church will share, including teaching and living God's commands, keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days, and more; ultimately, being led by the Holy Spirit”.
And we see similar words in the post just above:
''There are many who call themselves “Christians.” However, do they truly obey God’s laws and follow Christ? Not really—they do not completely follow Jesus Christ’s words and keep His laws''
Thus this UCG makes the amazing claim they themselves really do completely follow Christ's words. This must be so as they say others are only nominal Christians and itself is the one true church. (This is like the Jehovah Witnesses who often use the term ''professing Christians''. or ''so called Christians'' - thus both UCG and JW elevate themselves to a status above all others by reason of the doing/knowledge of things.
May I now refer a reader to Matthew chapter 5 wherein we are instructed most important things about the New Covenant and the law.
Jesus elevates therein the meaning and application of the law - that is including the ten commandments - to such a high degree that it is only the vain person who would come forward and claim they really do ‘’keep’’ according to that standard which is described as being required.
This is most important to consider. Jesus elevated the law mightily so that every person taking the time, and reflecting on this, would realize their sins and be driven to the cross of Christ.
Well, you can use metaphors as constant stimulants of meditation, reaching deeper or diverse conclusions, or you can take the spoon-fed interpretation from your guru, and treat it as would a zombie, ever repeating the exact same thing over and over, never taking it any deeper, kind of like the quasi-parable of the milk and meat.
Yep, these ACOGs still consider "But Mr. Armstrong said...." to be the ultimate trump card. What a joke!
"We certainly do not hate anyone. What we hate is sin and evil, not the sinner."
That's Kenneth Copland contemporary Christianity, but it's not biblical nor observed in the real world.
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death.." This "death" includes mentally dying. All psychopaths have a negative self image comprising feelings of worthlessness, self condemnation, inferiority, plus SELF HATRED. These reactions are involuntary. They're automatic. In some psychopaths, these feelings are so intense that they're constantly struggling to not be mentally crushed by them.
...other music can express the evil characteristics of human beings and degrade human behavior.
UCG sometimes can't agree on what music is uplifting and what is "other."
I know one Pastor who banned the song As the Deer from services, even though it's in the UCG Hymnal.
Then there's the Pastor who won't allow the Lauren Daigle song Trust in You to be presented as Special Music, while other congregations and pastors have no problem with it.
UCG doesn't keep the "holy days" properly.
There are only 3 feasts and the one in the spring of the year is only 7 days in length and so does include the 14th, of Nisan - Ex 23:14-16; Ex 12:18; Eze 45:21, others.
The other annual days in the 7th month are sabbaths and are never called feasts in the Hebrew. Ex 23 lists feasts, Hebrew chag or hag or chagag. Lev 23 lists set or fixed times, Hebrew moed. Ex 23 and Lev 23 don't contradict each other. Lev 23 does not add more feasts to those listed in Ex 23. All feasts are moeds but not all moeds are feasts.
10:07 illustrates why the churches of God are divided and will never agree to cooperate with each other.
Even if they agreed 99% alike, one would say, "the UCG doesn't keep the holydays properly, but WE do!"
Another would say, "we use the correct calendar, they don't".
" We preach the REAL gospel"!
"We are the only one's doing the work"!
The list goes on and on.
The ultimate stupidity of this type of reasoning is found in John 9:16, where some idiot Pharisee says, " this man (Christ) is not of God because he keeps not the sabbath day"!
Concerning the "2 trees", that's just one example of the Bible's usage of the 2 classification of "things", (see Matthew 7:13-14, Galatians 6:8, 1 Cor. 2:12).
There is nothing sinister about it other than applying an extreme interpretation to it.
When you reject the truth Jesus taught, for the “plain truth” any clever philosophy becomes viable.
Sad part is you can’t even see that you’re deceived.
I said in a comment just above 12.05 AM
“Jesus elevated the law mightily so that every person taking the time, and reflecting on this, would realize their sins and be driven to the cross of Christ.”
Thus we read anger is the same as murder, lust the same as adultery. This elevation of the law to its utmost spiritual intent I am trying to say shows no person can claim to be a keeper or doer.
But this is the very claim of Armstrongists. So confident are they the word is capitalized - DOERS- and they claim this makes them the one true church.
A fallacy through and through.
Why did the Satan tell Adam and Eve that they would become like God by just eating a fruit. We don't hear advertisers making this claim or similar in order to sell their products. Satan's claim must have had credibility because God had said something similar. The difference is that God's offer entailed a eternal working towards that goal, whereas Satan's is the shortcut route.
It boils down to working for what one desires or taking shortcuts.
Btw, Herb took many, many shortcuts.
Majoring in the minors 7:51.
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