UCG: People Who Have Crosses In Their Churches Or Homes Are Lazy

Church of God "logic" is never boring...

What does the Second Commandment forbid?

The Second Commandment forbids anyone from making or displaying visual images with the goal of incorporating them into their worship of God. Many Christian churches and homes display revered religious images, including crosses, crucifixes, statues and paintings that are supposed to be of Jesus or Mary or a “saint,” mystical symbols, steeples, special shapes, stained glass windows with religious designs, etc. Especially problematic is the practice of directing one’s prayers to God through Mary the mother of Jesus or some other “saint.”

Many religious people don’t understand the Second Commandment and the intent behind using images in their worship is sincere. They feel that the images inspire them and help them to feel closer to God. We can admire their good intentions, sincerity and zeal, but we must understand the problem with this practice.

Adding to the issue is the fact that many “Christian” images are in fact inherited from ancient pagan religions! For example, some pagan religions worshipped a “Madonna and child.”

Please understand that the Second Commandment does not forbid artwork showing people and animals or even artwork showing biblical scenes. God commanded intricate artwork to be engraved in God’s temple and elsewhere. But none of that artwork was regarded as representing God.

Why shouldn’t we use religious images?

It is human nature to desire to see, hear or touch God. That explains why people are naturally tempted to look at something they can see to represent God. Furthermore, human nature is lazy. It is mentally challenging to contemplate God as invisible and infinite. The human mind desires to bring God “down to earth” in some tangible form.

Such practices enormously diminish God in people’s minds. The Creator of all things cannot be equated with anything in His creation! To read how strongly God feels about this issue, see Deuteronomy 4:12, 15-19, 23-29; 7:5; 12:1-5!

By that "logic," the symbols of their "Passover" service are also lazy and diminish God.  The Church of God has always looked at the symbols of bread and wine as pointing to Christ and his sacrifice. Yet a person who has a cross in their home is a deceived, unclean pagan who secretly abhors God and is deliberately diminishing God. 

What about the Feast of Tabernacles, a "symbol" of the millennium to come?  Was it co-opted from the surrounding pagan harvest cultures the Israelites were next to because they were lazy and did not know how to relate to God?

These are all symbolizing God coming to earth in a tangible way.

In Armstrongism, the cross is the most despised symbol of Christianity that it holds in contempt. Who can forget Bob Thiel's OBSCENE display of vile insensitivity when he had a meltdown when Christians in Milwaukee erected memorial crosses for the Living Church of God members slaughtered during a church service.

Yet, the cross commemorates Jesus' death on the cross and thus the central event of the Christian faith. On the one hand, the cross represents the sacrificial death of Jesus, but at the same time, it symbolizes his resurrection from the dead and the reconciliation between humans and God. Christians do not worship the cross and never have, in spite of the lies of COG leaders claiming they do.

What about the Azazel goat that symbolized the sins of Israel being placed upon it which it carried out into the wilderness during Atonement? It is an important part of Armstrongism, yet Christians are lazy.

Then there is the fish symbol that early Christians used as a secret way of identifying themselves to other Christians. I guess they were too lazy to proudly proclaim they were Christians in the surrounding pagan Roman world. It would have meant an instant death sentence, but shame on them! They were too ashamed to talk bout Jesus, much like Herbert Armstrong was.

The rainbow, which is supposed to symbolize God's faithfulness after the flood, was a sign of the covenant between God and man. He made his promise to the people that he would always provide for them, for "as long as the earth endures, sowing and reaping, frost and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease". (Genesis 8:22).

Symbolism in Armstrongism has always been important. The Church of God has its own set of symbols, myths, and legends that make it who it is as a church today.

And while we are on symbols in Armstrongism, lets not forget Ambassador Auditorium! Hoo doggie! 

The auditorium has its worshippers facing Eastward to the rising sun for worship services. 

Or, the fact it was a Masonic cube that also had an interior room up in the ceiling that symbolized the 33rd degree. This was relayed to me by a construction worker who helped build the building when I gave him a tour years ago, He said the auditorium was filled with Masonic symbolism.

My two favorite symbols of the auditorium are its bridges in front symbolizing the female vagina opening with a phallic fountain erupting in all its glory in the center opening of it...

...and its majestic phallic columns exploding at the tips to the four corners of the earth like the gospel of Armstrongism was doing.

You may think I am making this all up, but these are actually things that people at HQ have said over the years. The best, though, was the man who actually convinced a few people in 1974 into believing that when it came time to flee to Petra, God would make the 5 egrets in the front fountain come alive, which would then pick up the auditorium and fly it to Petra with the 5th egret leading the way.

This is the legacy of Armstrongism.