The United Church of God has published a paper lecturing everyone on why its members shouldn’t serve on juries. Their big complaint? The “world” is far too obsessed with the mere “letter of the law.”
Let that sink in for a second.
This is coming from a Church of God splinter group that has spent decades treating the letter of the law like their personal golden calf — worshiping it, polishing it, and beating members over the head with it — while forgiveness, grace, and mercy have been MIA for as long as anyone can remember. Those three pesky virtues apparently didn’t make the cut in the official COG doctrinal priority list.
In their own words:
“In our modern society judgments are primarily concerned with the letter of the law. In contrast, God looks on the heart and is concerned with the spirit and intent of the law…”
Wow. The hypocrisy is so thick you could spread it on toast.
These are the same people who’ve turned Sabbath-keeping, Holy Day observance, and dietary laws into the ultimate test of righteousness, while genuine mercy often gets dismissed as weak, liberal, or “worldly.” They love quoting Matthew 6 about forgiving others and 1 Corinthians 6 about suffering wrong rather than going to court — right up until it might require them to actually show a little grace in real life.
But sure, go ahead and lecture the rest of us about being too focused on the letter of the law while your entire identity is built on rigid, joyless legalism that makes the Pharisees look positively warm and fuzzy.
Nothing says “We’re all about the spirit of the law” quite like a church that has systematically elevated the law above Christ’s forgiveness and then acts shocked when the world behaves exactly like they do — only without the fake piety.
Truly masterful. Peak Church of God hypocrisy.
16 comments:
As bad as they are, I do not see anybody who is any better. They are all messed up in one way or another. Truly hopeless.
Interesting rationale. Doesn't sound like they understand the public too well though.
These church leaderships are hypocrites. They will go to law before each other like PCG. Some of them have even taken a minister to court, (as some of them should). š It's sort of funny, because then some of the ministers will mention certain infamous court cases in US history in their sermons.
They hurt though. I mean 70% of their ministry is based on the OT letter of the law system. The third tithe, TWO holy convocations on the 1st and 8th day......
This is a really weak excuse for shunning jury duty.. Members could do their jury duty with the attitude of being a force for goodness in the process. Also, in their particular lingo, they'd be gaining experience to qualify for rulership in the Kingdom. What do they expect? Work your menial job and then when you wake up in the rez, God pours all the experience you need in order to rule with a rod of iron into your brain? I don't think it works quite that way.
The OT never "lettered" a 3rd tithe, 2 convocations on one day, 7 feasts, 7 holy day offerings, eat UB 7 days and an adjoining day.....
YOU DID NOT STAY FOR THE SECOND SERVICE 7:06, YOU ARE NOT IN THE RIGHT ATTITUDE!
UCG don't have two services on Feast of Unleavened Bread Holy day's only Tabernacles.
Nice try. The spirit of the law is what is taught in the COG. Of course, one can't keep the law in spirit without also keeping it in letter. They go hand in hand. And, the spirit of the law helps one to understand the letter.....
Perhaps. However, Amrmstrongish teachers do not allow the spirit of the law. Never have. In their bubble, the spirit of the law is replaced by ministerial authoritarianism, meaning that humans are presumptuously taking for themselves the role and duties of the Holy Spirit. This is the result of failure to understand the Holy Spirit and how He works. They only acknowledge 2/3 of God, and even much of that only partially. Quite a pity!
@Anonymous 1:22 - Some UCG congregations DO have a second service on U.B. 7. It depends on whether the Pastor has to run a circuit, as opposed to combining his congregations.
So easy to call out hypocrites when no one can see what you are doing, and who you really are. What makes you better? God is not fooled, God will judge the hypocrite, and sees through those who just like to throw stones to distract from their own sins.
Thanks 9:12. I'm glad to hear that.
Oh, I suspect God will have something to say about self-righteous people who falsely judge others as well.
Some "United" Ass. hirelings wrote some paper saying: “...In our modern society judgments are primarily concerned with the letter of the law. In contrast, God looks on the heart and is concerned with the spirit and intent of the law…”
That sounds like something Doug Winnail of some "living" group would write, but virtually all of the careless (John 10:13) hirelings who fled from the former WCG, leaving their ministerial credentials behind and abandoning sheep, to make up their own groups to continue lording it over others, think the very same thing to this day. These hirelings virtually all think they can just "use God's Spirit," but they can't explain that, because it isn't true.
God uses His Spirit to work out His Will and purposes!
God, The God, Jesus' God, Jesus' Father, knows what is in the human heart, and without His Spirit working in the workmanship of His hands, He, and we will see things like as follows:
"He hath made every [thing] beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart..." Eccl 3:11
"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually." Genesis 5:6
That was before the Flood!
But after the Flood the heart still had not changed!
"...and the LORD said in his heart...the imagination of man s heart [is] evil from his youth;..." Gen 8:21
God knows the heart, without His Spirit, is the same today.
"Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Romans 8:7
And that includes both the spirit of the law, and the letter of the law!
Why don't those hirelings of the former WCG "get the point," as Gerald Waterhouse used to often say.
These "blind-sighted" hirelings continue to blame/judge others, of what they themselves are guilty of, and cannot see it in themselves (I John 3:8; John 8:44; Eph 2:2; James 4:5; Eph 6:12, etc.), so they do come across as like modern-day hypocritical Pharisees. Without God's Spirit guiding them, they cannot even help themselves.
Might even their carnal minds be enmity to Jesus' God, Jesus' Father? Time is telling. "Know thySELF" said someone, but how do that if one is blind and does not know it?
People today may, or may not, make: "...modern society judgments … primarily concerned with the letter of the law…,” but they will do as the hirelings do: blame/judge others as if all others were so much worse than they themSELVES are.
These hirelings cannot do themSELVES what they insist others must do. They think: "Be like ME; Be like US," and they are eventually found out to be hypocrites. They can't do it (Gal 5:17), and neither can we, of and by ourselves.
God gave us the inspired example of ancient physical Israel to prove that they could not, and would not, keep any spirit of the law. They proved they could not keep the letter either. What makes these hirelings think they are so different? Can John 8:44, I John 3:8; James 4:5; Phil 6:12; Eph 2:2; Gal 5:17 teach them anything?
There has been only One who had what it takes to perfectly keep God's Law: both physically and spiritually. And Jesus' God, within His perfect Plan, only needed One, so far, to do that. The rest of us are still learning to discern good and evil, and learning to hate evil, and we need help (e.g. John 6:44, 12:32; Phil 1:6, 2:13) and only God can do it, but it must be according to His Will being done. That is not our choice; we, like our "fore parents" Adam/Eve can't do it!
So, when will the United Ass. (living, cogwA, "philadelphia group, other xcogs of former WCG) hirelings and their followers, all whom God loves, learn about and practice things that were MIA in their lives: "...forgiveness, grace, and mercy...?"
Time will tell...
John
I personally have nothing against jury duty other than the fact that what happens most of the time is the case is eventually settled before the jury has a chance to assemble, and in typical governmental fashion, you just wasted a week of your precious time sitting in waiting on a hard chair twiddling your thumbs for $15/day. The good ole justice system at work!
You claim that former WCG ministers leave their ministerial credentials behind when they join another church? Do professional people or tradesmen leave their credentials behind when they change jobs? Your claim makes no sense.
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