Doug Winnail has the following up about "agape love".
What the World Needs Now: Bible prophecy reveals that “in the last days perilous times will come” because people will be selfish, materialistic, proud, unthankful, unloving, and brutal (2 Timothy 3:1–5). Our world today is angry and increasingly violent, which only engenders more strife and hurt. What the world needs now—as a song title goes—is love! Real love—agape—is an unselfish, outgoing concern for others. This kind of love does not envy or hate, but is patient, forgiving, kind, and caring (see 1 Corinthians 13). Godly love is one of the fruits of God’s Holy Spirit, and it promotes peace of mind and peace between human beings (Galatians 5:22–23). The Scriptures remind us that “the whole creation” is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the sons and daughters of God, “who have the firstfruits of the Spirit” (Romans 8:19–24; 2 Corinthians 6:18). These loving and caring leaders will rule with Jesus Christ in the coming Kingdom of God. Let’s prepare to be there.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
Given the task record of Rod Meredith while in the Worldwide Church of God and his heavyhanded mistreatment of members and ministers, is it possible to look towards the Living Church of God or even any Church of God as standard bearers of agape love?
Does Gerald Weston practice it? Does Gerald Flurry? What about Dave Pack? What about Bob Thiel? All of these guys seem to be in a constant state of anger, lashing out at everyone and everything every time they open their mouths.
From Herbert Armstrong and on down through the ministry to today's splinter leaders, none exemplified agape love. United Church of God is no better than Flurry, Pack, or Thiel.
How can we ever trust these guys to be 'loving and caring rulers' with Christ in some mythical kingdom to come when they are so abusive in this age?
2 comments:
All of these so-called 'ministers' n̈eed to read I Corinthians 13 until a light bulb turns on over their heads.
Let's face it. If any of these groups truly had agape, an ancient Greek word describing the highest form of love, the Godly level of love, such an incredible level of love would automatically bring into their lives a much more spiritually advanced system of faith, worship, governance, and behavior than Armstrongism. It would have transformed and corrected all of the problems and abuses of Armstrongism which we chronicle and discuss here.
They believe that the only things which are missing that Jesus and the Apostles had in abundance were the supernatural, miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some of these, they have attempted to fake over the years, such as healing, multiplication of food, and the gift of understanding prophecy. They mock others, such as the Pentecostals for substituting gibberish as a fake version of the gift of tongues. The truth is that agape is just as much a miraculous gift as the other more dramatic gifts. All of these other gifts are functions of, or automatic byproducts of agape. You cannot fake it by using will power to adhere to strict rituals, nor can you claim validation for the whole system because outsiders mock you for the sheer weirdness your church culture brings to your behavior.
The remnants in the ACOGs of today are people who failed to pick up on various checkpoints of their beliefs, the largest and most obvious of which was the disappointment of 1972-75. Many of the ministers and members mocked William Miller, and the Seventh Day Adventists, yet did worse than the followers of old William, who at least had the common sense to realize after gathering once more the following year that the date that had been set was neither accurate, nor imminent. It's just a shame, but in many ways, surrounding culture in the greater system in which we live has caught up with the same sorts of cultic belief and behavior as we witnessed as members of Armstrongism, many of us all those years ago when common sense was much more common.
BB
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