Living Church of God wants to warn us about false teachers. We know this was posted quite a while back in response to Bob Thiel's heretical blasphemies, but isn't it the pot calling the kettle black? Isn't the Living Church of God also filled with false ministers?
Sadly, the Church of God today is filled with wolves masquerading as true ministers of God who are dominant out one blasphemy after another. Great will be the day when Bob Thiel, Gerald Flurry, Ron Wienland, and Dave Pack are silenced!
Beware of False Teachers: Warnings about false teachers are found throughout the Bible. Jesus warned they will come in “sheep’s clothing” (smooth-talking, congenial, appearing spiritual), but are actually “ravenous wolves” seeking to divide and devour the flock of God (Matthew 7:15–19). As the end of the age approaches, Jesus warned that “many will come in My name” claiming to be representatives of Christ “and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:3–5). The Apostle Paul warned that these false teachers would be guided by a different spirit and preach a different gospel about a different Jesus, and are actually ministers of Satan masquerading as ministers of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:4–15). Peter warned they will promote “destructive heresies” that deny the truth of Scripture—and that many will follow their erroneous teachings (2 Peter 2:1–3). Let’s remember these warnings and ask God for the discernment to recognize false teachers and their misguided ideas (2 Timothy 1:6–7)—because we will all be tested in this crucial area.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
24 comments:
Actually, isn't it kind of admirable when people warn others about themselves?
Is that it? Subject is far more complicated than that.
ACOG ministers define Christianity purely as having the right doctrines. So they think nothing of lording it over or being partial with members. When I attended services, it was the wild wild west. They have a narrow definition of wolves in sheep's clothing.
Have a profitable Sabbath, Indeed - sabbath demanding churches are also careful tithe demanders as one is alleged to follow the other and commandment keeping makes them a one true church. Profitable indeed , and also hypocritical. A sickening masquerade which is what the wolf is doing
“. The Apostle Paul warned that these false teachers would be guided by a different spirit and preach a different gospel about a different Jesus..”
Each offshoot loves to drag out this statement by Paul as if in the quoting of it their gospel gets a deal of approval.
The astounding paradox is this is a falsehood - as Armstrong’s and their invented gospel is to do with a prophetic millennial kingdom which they append their “ work” to is in fact not the gospel in the scriptures including by Paul whom they quite.
The gospel in the scriptures is all about the salvation achieved by our repenting and accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour
Winnail has been republishing that same warning since September 2006, again and again, with only minor variations, and as recently as January of this year. Maybe he should consider publishing a note about teachers who lazily repeat themselves and show little or no sign of growth.
Doug devours *extorted tithes.
Extortion: obtaining money by misrepresenting scripture. Broken record: there is no record of a commandment by God to tithe on monetary income. There is no record of ....................
Y’all should google airwolf logo
I think that patch is a perfect image of a wolf in sheep’s close
As for characterizing false teachers as genial and warm, I do not experience our LCG ministers as genial and warm. No. Unless you are one of their proxies maybe. To me they feel forbidding and severe and almost ready to boil over. I sensed this especially in the late Gary Ehman. I had to pour oil on his water for sure. As for good shepherds being gentle and reasonable with the sheep, well I have never experienced this either in LCG. No. Never. Not ever.
I sometimes ruin everyone’s fun by picking nits. But there is a difference between a false teacher and a heretic. If someone approaches you with a message that diverges from the message Jesus brought, it is difficult to know if that person is a false teacher or a heretic. A false teacher is described like this by Jesus:
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
The difference between false teachers and heretics is dissimulation. False teachers dissimulate but heretics do not. We debate even now if HWA knew he was preaching falsehoods. I do not think he did. There was no dissimulation so he does not technically fall into the category of a false teacher. I believe HWA believed his beliefs. But how do we discern this? Unless someone fesses up and says they told a bunch of lies to deceive people and get money from them, we don’t really know much about their motivations and can only speculate.
In my view, a heretic is a better person than a false teacher with regard to belief. Especially when you consider that most of us believe stuff that is not in alignment with the truth of the Bible. And we don’t know we are wrong about it. It is just a misunderstanding but we honestly believe it. You have probably had the experience, like I have, of talking to someone who has exited Armstrongism and the exiter will yet say something that they learned within the WCG. They don’t even know it is wrong. They are unwillful heretics. Can any of us be perfect in our beliefs? Is there a perfect statement of Christianity?
And what of Apollos of Alexandria who was apparently a follower of John the Baptist. It is written in Acts:
“He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately.”
He was a brother but his message needed tuning. I used to give sermonettes in the WCG. I gave a lot of them. They were all traditional Armstrongism. If Dennis Diehl can be faulted in this, so can I. But we were honest heretics – preaching what we believed. And you may have been sitting in the audience – your very presence giving affirmation to the message coming from the Armstrongist pulpit. Your presence in the audience encouraged others to believe.
It’s a sticky wicket.
Scout
Excellent post there Scout.
Food for thought. As iron sharpens iron, so many of the comments posted on site here are as informative as the topic in question itself.
You may be right about Armstrong regarding some of his doctrines - yet we do know he consciously covered up his false prophecies, and despite knowing of them pretended he had the mission to pronounce even more and every time yet more cover ups occurred.
He built his whole gospel on such false teachings.
So best we aren’t too kind on this man, in my view at least.
False ministers?
In regards to prophecy, because the LCG claims to know the keys to bible prophecy and they are the "only true church." From these ministers or prophets, I don't want to hear "in the next 5 to 10 years" from this organization or some 1973/1975 prediction from their former association.
Deuteronomy 18:22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
I do not fear those LCG men.
In 1995, taking notes during one of Rod Meredith's sermons, I wrote down his claim that Christ would return in "5 to 15" years. In 2010, I left LCG with a clear conscience.
A lot of those leading men over there wanted to be the two witnesses at the end.
You did the right thing and many should have done the same but for reasons that remain elusive chose to stay
Scout, I definitely know that Herb knew he was teaching certain falsehoods. My source? Answered prayer. The holy spirit affirmed my suspicion that 1975 has Herb attempting to coerce Christ to return prematurely in order to cover up the then failing Warsaw Pact communism.. And that wasn't his only deliberate lie. Yeah, I know answered prayer is proof to me but not to others. It's up to every person to check with God themselves.
It's difficult to "get over" growing up believing that you'd be fleeing with your family to Petra in 1972, "knowing" that your non-Armstrongite relatives, whom you loved, would be tortured by the Germans. When someone you look to as your spiritual guide gets something like that so wrong, it's common sense to cut them loose, and no longer trust them, or pay any attention to them, let alone continuing to believe they were entitled to your tithes. I just shake my head in sorrow when I think of the people (even if the numbers have dwindled) who have let these idiots get away with their wrong prognostications for all these years. They actually call you a "crown stealer" for trying to help them with a little common sense.
By the way, I believe that teachers of Armstrongism are simultaneously false teachers and heretics. You really can't be a serious student of Armstrongism without eventually having serious questions about it, or becoming aware of some of the problems with it. You can't tell me that some ministers who know better don't feel trapped but are faking their way through it because it's their only job skill. They could even come off as being outwardly nice guys as part of the disingenuousness.
Accepting there is merit to some of the above replies it does seem Armstrong may be seen to be both a heretic and a false teacher? Food for thought.
Every time this group continues to "teach" BI (as though that matters compared to spiritual Israel) and the Germany/Assyria doctrine, well then you'll have false teachers. I remember a minister in the LCG came down to our congregation and in a whole sermon justified American slavery while a few black members were present, it was at that point I was done with this organization.
The thing that makes this absolutely laughable is that HWA taught that having the correct doctrines, the correct pattern of obedience (which he claimed to have had revealed to him, and then to have restored) was why God trusted him and us to reveal the correct understanding of end time prophecy to us.
By his own standard of judgment, the doctrines are total shite! He restored nothing! Actually, he did restore something that had been lost for 1900 years. Phariseeism!!!
ROTFL!! 👍👍
Smooth-talking, congenial, appearing spiritual, and profitable Doug Winnail in another of his repeat messages wrote: "...Let’s remember these warnings and ask God for the discernment to recognize false teachers and their misguided ideas (2 Timothy 1:6–7)—because we will all be tested in this crucial area..."
******
Doug, why will we all be tested? Tested how, specifically? And the verses quoted are true, but where is that “test” specified?
Is it in 2 Tim 1:6-7?
2 Time 1: 6 “Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Doug does have his own share of misguided ideas, and he is driven by another spirit (James 4:5), but is God a dummy? Wouldn't God already know? Why would Doug's God have to test anyone? And if one fails that "test," then what, Doug?
I thought God, that God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, sent His Son to save the world and not condemn it (John 3:16-17). Did something change? Did Jesus Christ fail His Father, His God, somehow?
Now, if one lacks Gods Spirit, that’s one thing. But to be given a Spirit of fear, power, love and a sound mind: what could be better than that? What would overcome that Spirit, Doug?
Unless, Doug is Jesus’ identical twin, how will a Doug Winnail pass the “test” he has in mind. After all, isn’t Jesus Christ the only 100% human being to ever walk this earth and be perfect?
Is smooth-talking, congenial, appearing spiritual, and profitable Doug preaching his repeat message of “fear religion” to us? Have we been lied to? Is somebody lying to us?
Time will tell...
John
LCG warning us of themselves? They have some truth, and some false teachings. I recall when Dr Meredith set up the Global Church of God, having left WCG. It quickly fell apart due to infighting. "You shall know them by their fruits."
And so Dr Meredith set up the LCG which became the Laodicean Church of God.
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