After the improperly named "continuing" Church of "God" that claims to be the one true representation of 1st century Christianity, there is the United Church of God that thinks their church is God's one true church. But is it?
We have already seen the huge debacle with the Church of God a Worldwide Association breaking off due to the slow creep of Laodiceanism they saw creeping in the UCG. Then, last week in a letter to the fateful they seemed to admit the church is having problems:
The only way to survive those times as His people is to be very close to God. When the pressures of society and Satan bear down on us, it will then be too late to develop the relationship and trust in God that we must have. If we don’t actively make the right choices in our lives and ask God to strengthen us and deepen our conviction to Him now, we will fail.
Unity of heart requires us to put away selfish ambitions and the desires of this world that divide us, and this must happen now. We must yield ourselves to God, let His will be done and trust His will is being fulfilled—and we bind together as His family.
Apparently, prayer and reading the Book of Deuteronomy will save their asses. Forget Galatians, Romans, and Hebrews, the law trumps all.
Brethren, I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it at this: let us all commit to real, heartfelt prayer—beginning now and continuing throughout the rest of our lives.
Remember to keep up with the recommended reading of the book of Deuteronomy. Combining that reading with prayer will help us all to understand and implement God’s will in our lives.
8 comments:
Whatever is wrong? with any church, from any denomination, trying to encourage the reading of any aspect of scripture.
Is Timothy acceptable?
2 Tim 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Are you perfect? Nor is UCG.
That is stretching it quite a bit to try and say UCG is succumbing to the pressures of the world from one little phrase. We all have pressures from the world regardless of whether we are in one of these groups or not. Let us all be honest and not act like the mainstream media.
Unconfirmed speculation has UCG finally starting the New Testament part of the "Bible Reading Program" this winter - perhaps starting in Acts.
It's been a long time coming.
When I was working at Ambassador College long ago, one of the ideas that constantly received attention was the idea of being “balanced.” If someone was balanced, they were person loyal to Armstrongism. If they were unbalanced they were not and let your imagination run wild as to what that might mean in specific terms. So, the view I express here should resonate with those who lived in the “balanced” era. I think it is possible to look at a certain section of the Bible in isolation and get an unbalanced view of matters. What if all we had was the book of Ecclesiastes? I think you can see the issue.
There is something in Source Criticism called the Deuteronomist Bible (see “Deuteronomist” in Wikipedia). It consists of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings and Jeremiah. The Deuteronomist Bible does a couple of things prominently. It dwells on the Law and the Covenant. And it portrays God in a certain way. God is a transactional God to the Deuteronomists. The logic of transaction is “If you do A, I will do B” and is as inexorable as a computer program. While that has contextual substance, when taken in isolation, it can lead to a legalistic view of God. But God transcends human notions of legality. (The Deuteronomist Bible was salient feature of Basil Wolverton’s Bible Story. I believe the indoctrinating power of Wolverton’s work is greatly underestimated.)
So, to temper the Deuteronomist pericopes we have the books of Job and Jonah and also many of the Psalms. I see in Job’s “friends” a personification of the Deuteronomist approach to God and the Law. “If you are punished then you have sinned.” God in the last chapters of Job rejected this approach. This connects with an event involving Jesus. When scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman who should be stoned according to the Law of Moses, Jesus said that the person without sin should cast the first stone. Jesus exemplifies this as the way the Law should be applied and Jesus is the one who gave the Law to Israel. The examples of Jesus and Job elucidate the intended spirit of the Law.
Scout
The UCG: 29 years of godless behavior.
"We must yield ourselves to God". God being UCg? So, UCg, why do you disagree with Deut 16:16-17? There are only 3 feasts and 3 offerings, not 7 feasts and 7 offerings as UCg teaches. They took up an offering at their "Feast of Trumpets" last Thursday but there's no command to offer money on their feast which is not a feast but a sabbathon and the Hebrew never calls that day a feast, but is a fixed time - "moed"-Hebrew. Lev 23:2 should read ..........even these are my fixed times (moeds): 3 feasts, 3 one day sabbaths in the 7th month, and the weekly sabbath.
As do all cults, these splinter remnants continue to redefine words and concepts in accordance with their own control techniques and brainwashing needs. "Being close to God", via their substitution axiom, simply means that one does implicitly what the church teaches or tells them to do in an unquestioning and obsessive compulsive manner.
HWA assigned "eras" to the group attitudes of churches in particular cities on an ancient trade, mail, and evangelistic route, and arbitrarily took Philadelphianism, the best attitude, for his own church. Laodiceanism was also used, but only for fear-mongering purposes, and to great effect.
It really doesn't matter what any of these churches say or do. The time and date stamp has expired on Armstrongism, and they will never reach the lofty heights, number of members, level of income, or fame and notice that was experienced during the HWA years. His "hook", the prophecy mold, has faded into ineffectiveness because it has failed so many times already due to constant embellishment and overusage. I'm afraid some really nasty shit is on the horizon, but it has everything to do with a divisive authoritarian politician, Global climate change that is now on autopilot and because action against it was so fought and thwarted, it is too late in the horrible cycles that have been initiated to be able to terminate the progression, and the boiling over of the primary hotspots on the international geopolitical scene.
Buckle up! We're in for a rough ride, but it has nothing to do with a lame little quasi-spiritual philosophy based on one man's approach to Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
ORIGINAL POST STATES-- there is the United Church of God that thinks their church is God's one true church. But is it?
RESPONSE-- It is my understanding that the UCG does not claim to be the one and only "true church" and have not found any such declaration on its fundamental beliefs page. Rather it says "We believe that the Church is that body of believers who have received, and are being led by, the Holy Spirit. The true Church of God is a spiritual organism. "
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