One thing the various splinter groups have NEVER been able to capture is the "glory days" of the old mother church, the Worldwide Church of God. With no dynamic leader leading any of the COG's, they languish and stagnate, pretending they are doing a mighty work.
Check out LCG's German church situation. They send out German-language publications to 95 nations, and in Germany, a nation of 84.5 million people, they have 6 church members. Yes, you read that right—6 church members who may show up each week.
Maybe they are sick of being the scapegoat for Armstrongite mythology, or in Bob Thiel's case, the creepily weird bromance with Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
I want to update you this week on the Work of God in Germany. Mr. Adrian Käfer, our minister there, is a one-man machine. When I first met him in 2015, he had translated most of our booklets into German and was printing them on a copy machine where he had to individually assemble, staple, trim, and mail them—all while holding down a full-time job. Now our literature is printed in Canada and forwarded to him, and he has others helping with translations, but he is still the driving force in serving this great nation. The outreach focus this past year was on Bible Study Course lessons, with 3,160 new students, a 222-percent increase over 2023’s number. There were some decreases in some categories of literature distributed and in Internet responses, but the reasons were somewhat strategic, and the picture is positive with an overall increase of 36 percent in literature distribution. Mr. Käfer writes, “Despite the slight decrease in online reach, the quality of visitors seems to have significantly increased. It is also noteworthy that we are reaching into 95 nations in the German language. However, the Church is small, with an average attendance of just under 7 people per Sabbath. I ask all of you to pray for our efforts to preach the Gospel, to give a warning message, and for growth in the nation that God calls ‘the work of My hands’ (Isaiah 19:25).”—Gerald Weston
16 comments:
The ACOGs love to trot out Isaiah 19, describing a time when "Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria". Well, those 7 LCG members meeting in Assyria [sic] constitute a larger number of LCG members than are meeting in Egypt and Israel combined!
This is amazing. I believe we had 5 or 6 German full time students at Ambassador College in Pasadena back in the mid-'60s!
We'd need to know just how many German members PCG, RCG, UCG, and COGwa have in order to know if this is a national rejection of Armstrongism.
Average age of members probably runs parallel to what we see here in the USA, which is a good thing, because with 7 members, dating opportunities would be nil.
The glory days are gone. This movement is dying a long slow death. Soon it will be gone and just a memory. A 'Great Work' no. In a nation of over 80+ million this is laughable, astonishing, only 7 members. What they 'preach' is at odds with the gospel. Divided, diminishing, done and dusted is Armstrong's legacy. Yet many are coming to Jesus Christ without any inkling/knowledge of this movement and in that I rejoice. God is far greater and more powerful and merciful than the remnants of this 'work' understand. The fact that the cogs are as divided as they are speaks loudly.
''..to give a warning message ..''
Their web site shows that Living touts itself as the truest of the offshoots and that only they qualify as the one true church.
They say they keep the commandments and that their mission is to give a "warning message'' whilst at the same time saying they are ' not prophets'.
Armstrong's 'messenger' role included his many (failed) warnings of impending disasters and punishments for sins (especially of so called modern day 'Israel'), and in all of this the preaching of the gospel receded into the background as the warnings of future and prophetical events dominated everything.
Armstrong proudly proclaimed, in capitals of course, that the 'Gospel is not about Christ'.
Living echoes this man's teaching and one hopes the seven members in Germany see the light so as to reduce the number to zero.
Seems like God is protecting the Germans from LCG.
In a nation as large as Germany, you can find lots of self-loathing people who will fall for any crazy dogma - except Armstrongism.
In an amazing parallel, Armstrong & Hitler were almost the same age and were both high school dropouts...and both ruind a similar number of lives!
I am guessing but I think there must be over the entire German speaking Region and all ACOG's combined some 100 members left from the about 1000. I believe Ellen G. White had more followers in Switzerland when she visited in the 19th Century....
In Germany alone the SDA currently has about 34000 members but they are stalling.
Of course traditionally one of the strains that brought members in was from disgruntled Adventists. Yet after their changes from a distinct cult toward a Christian Church Armstrongism would not be an option anymore in these modern times.
nck
@ 1:45
Ironically, an SDA once told me that Armstrong's multi-million-dollar media outreach, with its sabbatarian teaching, brought in many to the SDA fold!
In other words, they were able to poach many who's curiosity had been piqued by Armstrong's little-flock's big tithe rsdio spending!
Hope they can get more German members for their sake, but I also hope they don’t get offended by their ancestral sin. Hopefully they can ignore that recent booklet on Germany that was written.
One thing that LCG and other acogs ignore about current day Germany, as they want the beastpower to come during their lifetime so they can finally say that Armstrong was right.
There are over 40 or more US military bases in Germany
Germany has an aging population
The economy of Germany is struggling as well as in energy (economy)
Germany has many migrants that come from other countries
Germans don’t descend from Assyria (Science)
Many Germans have migrated to Britain and America in the past few centuries. (History)
But of course they will excitedly write articles about how the far right is pushing out those foreigners who want Germany to be for ethnically pure Germans. Perhaps LCG needs to focus more on the spiritual.
Tank
PCG reported in 2023 on its "first full service in German."
It reported 31 people showed up - but some were from other countries.
According to the 2022 American Community Survey, about 41.1 million people in the United States, or roughly 12.3% of the population, reported German ancestry. This makes German Americans the largest ethnic group in the United States.
That means when the Beast invades "Israel" he will be killing and carrying away as slaves many of his own people!
Yeah, and don't forget them good 'ol Saxe-Coburg and Gotha boys! You know, the British Royal family???
BB
No not true.
Leonardo di Caprio, Sandra Bullock, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman and Kirsten Dunst will be granted pardon...
Nck
Nck, you watch too much movies. “Armageddon” Perhaps
Just "marking" ze Germans.... Nck
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