There truly can be no greater church on the face of the earth than a Church of God. Everything about it, from its existence to its mission, occupies the most important moment in the history of humanity and they make sure to let us all know how glorious it is.
This is part of the latest statement on the health of the Church of God a Worldwide Association. Notice how they extend their reach all the way back into the glory days of old in the mother church, the Worldwide Church of God where everything's perfect and wisdom and truth emanated from it to the world, while inwardly it was a hotbed of corruption, immorality, and financial misappropriation, led by power-hungry men who left a trail of destruction in their wake. Some of those same men sit comfortably in COGWA where they went after their apostasy from the United Church of God.
God has apparently been shining his favor upon COGWA ever since, especially when it comes to its ministry.
In reviewing the modern history of the Church, we can clearly see that the spiritual health of the Church is at its best when there are dedicated pastors who have a passion for the truth and a genuine love for the brethren. If you take a small slice of our history, beginning in 1933 with the inception of the Radio Church of God and going forward 20 years, you will find a lot of people tuning in to The World Tomorrow program and many thousands of subscribers to The Plain Truth magazine but the Church was still primarily a radio ministry, even after 20 years. In 1953 there were only a handful of congregations in the northwestern part of the U.S., and none outside the United States. But in the next 20 years—from 1953 to 1973—things changed dramatically. The attendance at the Feast went from less than 1,000 in Big Sandy in 1953 to almost 100,000 in multiple sites in 1973. What changed? In 1952 the first graduates from Ambassador College began to be sent to the congregations, serving a year or two as ministerial assistants and elders before becoming pastors.
Later on, various educational programs were established to assist the ministry in upgrading their biblical knowledge and their abilities to better serve the brethren. At one time we had a program called DELS, or Deacons and Elders Lecture Series, and in the early 1980s the Refresher Program was established to provide this needed education.
In recent years we have seen additional programs established for ministerial education. Today we have four primary programs that we rely on for biblical education and the development of future leadership: the Focused Mentoring Program, to develop leadership in the United States; the International Leadership Program (ILP), to develop leadership outside the United States; the Pastoral Development Program (PDP), to provide continuing education for the U.S. pastoral ministry; and Foundation Institute, to provide a basic biblical education for all those able to attend the nine-month program.
In addition to these formal programs, there are various conferences that keep the ministry informed and provide additional classes. These include an international conference for the worldwide ministry every two years and a variety of regional conferences in other years. We also usually have daylong webinar classes for the ministry in the spring and fall of each year. And we have conferences annually for special groups—Feast coordinators, camp directors and the Ministerial Services team. All of these education programs create a lot of activity here in the office. It seems that each week I am either planning for an upcoming conference or in the midst of one.
Each group of the recently completed PDP had approximately 15 hours of classroom instruction—along with time for interaction and socializing between classes and in the evenings. To give you an idea of the topics presented in the PDP, here is a partial list of classes in each four-day session:
- The Importance of Integrity and Character in Doctrine and Christian Leadership.
- Your Relationship With Your Congregations.
- Divorce and Remarriage Issues: Doctrine and Process.
- If I Knew Then What I Know Now.
- The Pastor’s Role in Developing Leadership in the Local Congregation.
- Helping Gen Z and the Alphas.
- The War Against Truth.
- Preparing for the Tribulation.
- Technology for Today’s Pastor.
- Preparing for Retirement.
- Legal Considerations for the Ministry.
- Politics and Voting: What We Teach and Why.
- The Unique Stresses of Serving in the Ministry. Member letter
37 comments:
I took the old DELS program and have to say it was the biggest waste of time I have ever spent. It was a huge program to indoctrinate people into cultspeak instead of actually following Christ.
They say the proof is in the eating of the pudding. If all they say is strictly truthful, how soon can we expect accurate prophecy, dramatic and verifiable healings, and breakaway growth?
Cogwa has yet to learn a feast on Nisan 15 is not a commandment to start a 7 day festival.
COGWA: "We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing."
JESUS: (sound of vomiting)
They make no mention of the church falling apart on HWA's death. They don't want people asking why this happened and whether the underlying problems have been addressed. Have they repented or are they The Church of Herb Mk 2?
When does ANY COG, past or present, ever do a critical self analysis, and have anything other than "ROSE COLORED GLASSES" reports about themselves??
''.. a partial list of classes in each four-day session:''
It's a busy schedule one notes. Within it is: ''Preparing for the Tribulation'', and ''Preparing for retirement'' - I assume they must foresee the tribulation as being a long way off?
No man, you retire in Petra during the tribulation. It's their version of forced retirement! And then during the Millennium you come out of retirement and teach Armstrongism to the people who are still human. Remember, when Christ returns, He's going to set up Armstrongism as the government of God for all eternity. Now do you understand why Flurry worships HWA so fervently? I mean HWA is going to be right up there with Moses!
Back in the former days they should had had a program " How to pad & prolong a sermon/message to last 2 hours and have attendees butts numbed sufficiently on fold out chairs at an old stinky Odd Fellows Hall.
AS a member of COGWA for 3 years, after several years in another COG, I have yet to hear or see any of the allegations that this smearing mocking sites mention. Most on this site apparently have had some bitter experiences (as I had in another COG) and have tossed the baby out with the bath water.
Maybe a better strategy would be to work on the log in your own eyes before criticizing the splinter in others.
It is good and right and proper for a denomination to ensure that its ministry is trained. That was my first reaction when I scanned this post. Maybe this little neo-Millerite denomination is getting it together. For sure, the education their ministry received at Ambassador College based on hierarchy needs to be updated. Surely, they don’t still believe that the lay membership is “church trash”, famously “the cream of the crud.”
Then I saw this item on the training list, “Preparing for the Tribulation” and the brief moment of light went dark. Millerism surfaced. The loud and reverberating echo of the Great Disappointment of 1844 rang out. The foundation is still there for the fear, the autocratic control, the retreat from doing good in society and the sharp fund-raising strategies.
The Tribulation has already taken place. It happened in 70 AD. It is not eligible for type-antitype promotion. Jesus said explicitly, “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.” “Nor ever will.” It was a one-time occurrence. Maybe Jesus didn’t know what he was talking about. Maybe Jesus needed HWA and LaHaye to give him a clue - to let him know the plain truth. Here is an article on this topic:
https://armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com/2022/04/why-i-do-not-believe-in-end-time.html
Scout
''I have yet to hear or see any of the allegations that this smearing mocking sites mention.''....'' have tossed the baby out with the bath water.''
You must know of all allegations over a long time to make this statement. Look at the archive.
Does cogwa go out of its way to smear churches of ''the world'' that don't adopt Armstrong's doctrines and prophecies? From what I've seen each of these offshoots of wcg do take pleasure in denigrating them as they press claims to being the one true church.
Before lecturing people here best to consider your own ''logs''.
The one true church claims are entirely false and all that came with it and deserves being well and truly tossed out.
JPM, all the splinters are cut from the same cloth. They all view their members as chattel to be heartlessly exploited with the ministers informal role being that of living their members lives for them. It's a carnal self preservation technique but hardly biblical.
As I said above at the get-go, JPM, if COGwa has finally gotten everything correct, your prophecies should start being correct, as a group you should begin to experience real and dramatic healings, and your church should begin to experience growth both in numbers of members, and in financial resources. And your message will be powerful and actually noticeable to "the world".
Many have waited for that breakaway group to emerge, the specially blessed splinter whose message finally has power and is visible, and able to complete the great commission. So far, all we've seen has been braggadocio, smoke and mirrors, with each claiming to have the conch. Perhaps that is why you have seen so many critiques and allegations here. Let's see what you've got. Will COGwa truly emerge and produce fruits and activities that shut everyone else's mouths? Will you guys be the group that finally draws members from all the other groups because the difference between the bogus and the real is so dramatically obvious? You've already had what? Going on ten years to get it together?
These are your standards for "proof of the pudding"? Your standards say much about yourself, I think.
cog wa like all of the offshoots demands tithing. When one clicks on the search one of the first couple of things one sees is the ever present 'donate' button. Click again and the first words say '' Tithing is commanded by God''. This fallacious statement for this age has been so thoroughly discredited by now that it alone stands as evidence nothing has changed. COGWA is Just another version of the old fake wcg pretending to be the one true church linked directly back to the apostles. I suppose one improvement there is no fake apostle?
I actually like the “Helping Gen Z and the Alphas.” because it’s putting a focus on the next generation. And not having the self righteousness attitude of knowing when the end time actually is and saying “OH YOU YOUNG PEOPLE IN YOUR TEENS, WILL NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT GETTING BAPTIZED BECAUSE CHRIST WOULD HAVE COME BACK BEFORE YOU BECOME AN ADULT” Talk about having it all figured out.
I also like the ‘preparing for retirement’, because it’s about what we go through in this real life that we have to live/work that takes money. Only thing is, the lay members can’t be spending their excess money in building these auditoriums that don’t mean a thing. Especially if “they have to prepare the tribulation” I guess.
Herbert's fruits, the splinters, seem lately to be filled with gloom and doom. UCG ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ont1jyphTVs&t=244s ) thinks the saints are going to be killed, referring to Rev 13:7 but the Greek indicates they will be only subdued. Another Greek word not in 13:7 but in 13:15 means "killed". And on and on it goes with lots of subtle twisting of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures by COg ultracrepidarians preaching their "truth". Such as: "third tithe". No, third year. "Seven feasts". No, 3 feasts. "Feast of Trumpets". No, sabbathon of noise. "Last Great Day". No, 8th day. "31 AD". No, 33 AD. "Prophecy dual". No verse states that. "Feasts" - Lev 23:2. No, fixed/set/appointed times. "Seasons" - Ex 23:14. No, times.
As the days of Noah were.................
There is another factor. If we here were damaging or stunting anything which God had wanted to grow and flourish, He would have zotted us a long time ago. We'd all get diseases or be in unexplainable accidents, o asperiance soden D-mancia. (Hah! Couldn't resist a little humor!) God allows us to do what we do in critiquing the Armstrong movement for whatever His reasons might be. And, thus far, he has not validated any of the ACOGs by making their prophecies come to pass, or by making their messages go viral.
Why is this? America may soon experience the home grown emergence of the Fourth Reich, and all the ACOGs can do is sit back and helplessly watch our freedoms vanish. Events are not unfolding according to the Armstrong prophecy mold. It's easy to see possible end times through what actually is happening, but it's nothing like HWA and his successors expect. There is a complete disconnect between analyzing the news and the Armstrong prophecy mold. We ain't in 1941 Kansas any more, Dorothy!
There is some improvements, but they realize that the old WCG model is outdated. Surely there should be some improvements from the former associations. The only old model that would have ben benefitial today is still having the physical structures of at least two ambassador colleges, world wide church still in tact, and having local church congregational buildings around each state (that would have been paid off in the 20th century), much like the JW do. But they left those estates and rejected those models. At least the OT men of God set up altars.
"The only old model that would have been beneficial today is still having the physical structures of at least two ambassador colleges, worldwide church still intact, and having local church congregational buildings around each state"
If the WCG had been smart, they would have leased the land in Pasadena and had a substantial income in perpetuity. Instead, they sold it for pennies on the dollar and only a few GCI congregations have their own buildings. If they had all stopped believing they were fleeing in 5-15 years they could have been meeting in local congregations in buildings paid off and had a steady membership.
I would put it to you that many commenters here like myself had a rather positive time with wwcog. Not all granted. As for throwing out the baby with the bath water, absolutely. If that baby is the theology of BI and tithing among many, this web site has dealt with and exposed these doctrines for what they are. There is no doubt the theological foundations of Armstrongism are deeply unsound. That there are hundreds and hundreds of completing Armstrong churches, some openly hostile to each other, speaks against them, and is at odds will the very gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Bingo!!
People out in the world quickly realize that the splinter groups are all on the GETTING side of things and just want their money. To make matters even worse, there is no justice in the splinter groups, just lots of godless, wicked, and malicious people running wild and out of control. The splinter groups simply have nothing of value to offer anyone out in the world.
When I attended services in the WWCG in the 1980s, some members claimed that church attendance was dangerous. The few times I complained to a minister before realizing it was unwise to do so, I got a "I wasn't there," or "don't tell me that member's name" or similar. One minister, in hostile tones threatened to put me out of the church for complaining. I hadn't even given any specifics. It was a paradise for the lawless.
So as a member of COGWA (your tithes and offerings went there), after several years in another COG (your tithes and offerings went there), and if you were a member of the old worldwide (your tithes and offerings went there). You know HWA wrote in an article a long time ago, Christ is not going to be a polygamist. He is not coming back to marry a bunch of churches (that's what he said). This is the dilemma of splinterdome. What's the next move?
Why is leaving UCG being described as 'apostasy' by this blog ??????Doesn't make sense.
HWA apostatized from COG7 because he thought he knew more than they did. He formed the WCG. UCG apostatized from the WCG because they thought they knew more than WCG did. COGWA apostatized from UCG because they thought they knew more than UCG did.
As we make our arguments, we often choose words which would be used and understood by Armstrong stalwarts. Obviously, 10:21 and I both realize that apostatizing from shit isn't really apostasy, but one man's eschatology is another's scatology. 😇 💩
Anon, Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 7:11:27 PM PDT, wrote:
"...People out in the world quickly realize that the splinter groups are all on the GETTING side of things and just want their money. To make matters even worse, there is no justice in the splinter groups, just lots of godless, wicked, and malicious people running wild and out of control. The splinter groups simply have nothing of value to offer anyone out in the world..."
******
A couple of thoughts come to mind:
What does Jesus Christ think about self-made, man-made, groups like cogwa, which rooted off from the United Ass., which rooted off from former WCG?
"But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Matthew 15:13
When will cogwa be rooted up? Time will tell.
What else did Jesus Christ say? Go to His transcript of His Sermon on the Mount:
" No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and $mammon$." Matthew 6:24
Is cogwa serving God and/or $mammon$?
Time will tell...
John
The membership of Cogwa is probably the youngest and richest of the cogs, though Hulme’s group might have something to say about that, particularly per capita wealth. Nevertheless, It’s a pleasant group that is primarily told to discern and stay the course without much theology. A similar feel as that of a mormon congregation, but probably less mormon-like than Hulme’s group.
I remember an former ambassador college student who accompanied someone to one if the many "ministerial conferences back at Pasadena" in the heyday and saying how what actually went on was pretty much a farce & then later the Minister went back to his home area and gave updates in glowing, syrupy terms.
Scout,
Wonderful insights by By NeoDromos and I agree with most of the commentary For instance, Armstrongism teaches that the woman in Revelations 12:1-3 is the church. When it’s not, as the woman represents Israel with its symbolism that correlates to Genesis 37:9 (12 tribes of Israel). This also correlates to Romans 9:4-5. The woman (Israel) gives birth to the Child Christ. The Church or New Testament Church can’t possibly give birth to Christ (That would be in reverse). And John recording Revelations is receiving the prophecy in the 90’s AD, the Roman sieges of Judea/Israel had occurred in 70 AD and that was their version of the great tribulation. And some of it is related to this chapter.
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman (Judea/Israel nation), and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring (Jewish Church/Church), who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Two distinct groups
Satan went to make war with the woman (Jewish/Israel nation) and to persecute the Church in the first century after the Roman/Titus siege. Those in Judea were to flee to the mountains (Matthew 24:16)
I looked at a few commentaries and only a couple have it right. The Cambridge Bible for Schools & Colleges and the Expositor's Greek Testament had it more aligned with the woman being Israel.
I love this quote from the Expositor’s Greek Testament concerning the woman:
“The prophet views the national history of Israel as a long preparation for the anguish and woe out of which the messiah was to come.”
This is the starting point, if you get the woman wrong, then your resolution fails.
Thanks Scout!!!
The best thing about COGWA is that it is not one of those other really crazy splinter groups.
HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa
I used to attend COGWA, they taught tithing in a convincing way, but studying it myself, I see that it was never on money, not commanded for Christians, and has no place in the Church of God. I left COGWA due to a bully-like pastor. In fact, I left several COGs due to bully pastors.
In some ways, COGWA were better than other COGs, but I lost respect for them when their leader stated that he wanted to follow the government rather than follow God.
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