United Church of God recently held a conference in Australia for their ministers in that region (9 from Australia, 1 from New Zealand).
This is the result of the conference, though whenever a COG starts proclaiming they are the most unified COG, there is trouble on the horizon.
Unity is a rare thing
In a world where division, discord and an attitude of “lawlessness” clearly exist in governments and political parties, and in many of the world’s churches, true unity is a rare thing. How many of the churches of the world—which say they follow Christ—have divided in recent years over differences in opinion concerning the promotion of alternate lifestyles? How many have decided to appoint ministers who live one of those alternate lifestyles? How many have changed their position on women in the ministry, or on their teachings of how Jesus Christ looked at “love”?
People and religions change their beliefs and violate the clear word of God, simply to fit in with trends in society.
Yet, as we have the opportunity to visit God’s people around the world, we find brothers and sisters who are grounded in the Bible and truth. We have and we preach the same doctrine that Jesus Christ taught and commanded His Church to observe. We worship God on the day He sanctified and set aside for worship, and we observe His Holy Days that provide a clear vision of His plan for mankind.
God has made known to us, all over the world, the same truth and the same vision of His Kingdom. He has given us all His Spirit that makes us a worldwide family, united in spirit and truth, growing in love and one-ness with each other and Him.
Thank you, brethren around the world, for your continued commitment to God and His work and His plan. Thank you for striving for the unity that God desires for all of us, and thank you for following Him, continually coming out of the world and embracing and applying His ways and principles to your daily lives.
And thank you for raising godly children who understand His plan and way and see the benefits of His way of life as you live the way of the Kingdom, teaching His way daily “when you rise up and when you lie down.” Thank you for letting God, through His Spirit, lead you and us into truth, understanding and unity. And thank you for practicing true agape in your lives.
I'm wondering about definitions here. The way the writer expresses unity, what comes through is that regardless of hair or clothing styles or musical tastes, the unity tends to center on conservative principles and values. I know that back in the day, the liberal members of the WCG were considered to be Laodicean. One would run across liberals from time to time, but they were very much in the minority, and usually seen as being halfway out of the church, one foot on a banana peel so to speak.
ReplyDeleteWithin the bubble in which they live, there are many petty differences, and there is much fuel for argument, but I'm guessing that members find common ground in their extreme conservatism. The church is not a huge umbrella for diversity or multiculturalism. It's all subject to opinion, but I think I can give them credit for unity in their somewhat hard-right leanings. Hate hard right myself, but will admit that is indeed their unity. However, outside of that narrow focus lies all their disunity.
What a load of complete bulldung that article was!!!
ReplyDeleteToo many people had raised ungodly children.
Unrepentant, unconverted unbelievers went to the UCG to behave very badly while playing church.
Godless, wicked, and malicious people went to the UCG to do evil to other people.
Younger, unqualified, vicious, political animals went to the UCG to try to get credentialed as “ministers.”
The old ministers kept perverts and expelled their victims thinking it would keep attendance numbers up.
After initially getting some people from the WCG in 1995, the UCG was unable to grow any more. The UCG has done nothing but split and splinter from the start.
4.58, Well put. The toxic members from my 1980s congregation went to UCG. The frequent mention of "unity" is code for members to fake reality and pretend that they agree with their church's teachings. The Pretend Church of God.
ReplyDelete''We worship God on the day He sanctified and set aside for worship, and we observe His Holy Days that provide a clear vision of His plan for mankind>>Thank you, brethren around the world, for your continued commitment to God and His work and His plan''
ReplyDeletethis observation of days - said to be a commitment to God's plan, is what they say makes them the one true church
3 Feasts/Chags-Ex 23:14-16; 3 Separate Annual Sabbaths; All Times Fixed/Moeds-Lev 23
ReplyDeleteGod's Holy Days... vs.... Herbert W Armstrong's/United's Days.............
Passover Nisan 14-feast day.... vs.... Passover Nisan 14-1st feast
DUB Nisan 14-20-1st feast.... vs.... DUB Nisan 15-21-2nd feast
Nisan 15-one day feast in UB.... vs.... Nisan 15-1st day of UB
Pentecost-2nd feast.... vs.... Pentecost-3rd feast
Tishri 1-sabbathon.... vs.... Tishri 1-4th feast
Tishri 10-sabbath.... vs.... Tishri 10-5th feast
FOT Tishri 15-21-3rd feast.... vs.... FOT Tishri 15-21-6th feast
Tishri 21-LGD.... vs.... Tishri 21 (next day was the sabbath-John 7:37-9:14)
Tishri 22-sabbathon.... vs.... Tishri 22-LGD/8th day-7th feast
Unity to love Steven Allwine! Kum-bai-yah. Forgive, & fuhgeddabouddit, the evidence found was just a fuhgayzzie. Let's invite Stevie to online church singles dating club yippeeee.
ReplyDeleteI see our broken record is back again.
ReplyDeleteDoggone it 8:27, Steve Allwine broke all the damn records, & our hearts too. It is LIKE PEARL HARBOR,, to never be forgotten what that slime ball did right in church. He was a church-man bringing death damnit 8:27.
DeleteOf course as he did it to her at home, not in church "services" the way Ratzman did his own evil deed. But the meaning of "in church", was for the entire scope of each day for Allwine being "in church" as a member. At home with lifestyle "in church".
DeleteIs a 'church organisational unity' necessarily the same as a unity with God? For when Jesus was called before the Temple council the religious leaders indeed had all much "unity" of spirit.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely true. Stalinist style unity.
DeleteSome of the Splinters
ReplyDeleteThe United Church of God (UCG) splinter group started in 1995 a number of months after the apostate Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. openly threw out of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) virtually everything that Herbert W. Armstrong had taught. This massive doctrinal change was openly written up in the WCG's Worldwide News newspaper. Previously, there had always been denials that there were any doctrinal changes or that any changes were planned for the future.
This Great Apostasy caused the income of the WCG to fall so fast and so far that WCG ministers were being terminated. To continue to collect paychecks, and to get retirements that had not being planned for in the WCG, they formed the UCG.
The first president of the UCG, David Hulme, was spending all the money and putting the UCG at risk of going bankrupt, so he got voted out of office. Hulme then left the UCG and started his own splinter group. Lacking any real Vision, it does virtually nothing.
Alton Billingsley left the UCG to go with David Hulme's splinter group, but later split off from it and started his own little splinter group full of old people. Billingsley wasted people's time with his arrogant attempts to predict future trivia and is now trying to cover up his past wrong guesses with more guesses.
Ronald Weinland left the UCG to start his own splinter group, write prophetic fantasy fiction books, and become a False Witness and ex-con.
The continuing lack of unity in the so-called United Church of God led to the big split of 2010 when the Church of God, a Worldwide Association (COGWA) splinter group was formed. The ministers who were being fired by the UCG simply walked away and started COGWA.