Reading this article, Preparing for Rulership by J. Charles Ogwyn, feels like flipping through the strangest recruitment pamphlet you've ever seen-welcome to the Davidic School of Future World Government.
Not everyone gets in.
The curriculum? The law.
The hands-on training? Your entire life.
Job placement? That's reserved for a select few in a corner of the Churches of God.
Jesus? He's conveniently listed as King, which makes sense, because someone needs to sit on the throne while the fresh batch of administrators walks the world through ancient statutes.
There's a running joke where the New Covenant keeps returning their application, stamped with "wrong job description." Want to apply? The listing says: "Rulers. Must love the law. Christ experience a plus."
"God has chosen each of us individually," says the brochure. But in this context, it's not a wild celebration of grace-a Father who loves the undeserving. Here, it means a small, informed group who think they've been picked to be the future world's teachers of the law. Everyone else in the faith? Well, they can just be grateful for their baptism-as long as they know not to expect a leadership gig.
There's a lot of bravado packed into a tradition that's spent years splitting over dates, forms of government, or who gets to wear the legacy crown. If the nations are banking on a united legal faculty from here, they should probably keep their options open.
Let's talk Moses. He said, "I can't speak." God just said, "I'll be with you." The article, though, hears a modern pitch about "leaning into your calling"-cut from the same cloth as your average TED Talk, more branding than burning bush.
What kind of king does God actually want? The article lines up Saul and David and nails the first bit: God cares about your heart, not your LinkedIn photo. But then it fumbles: "So, better start shaping a David-like heart by treating the Mosaic code as your professional development plan." The New Testament already filled that blank in. God's ideal king isn't a more devout David with a perfect performance review and a calendar bursting with feast days. God chose David's Son. The one who kept the law, took its curse, and then finished the job for good. Paul says it straight: "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." That shreds the whole brochure. If salvation and standing with God still somehow depend on outperforming the rest at law-keeping, then Christ died to set up just another apprentice program.
Sure, the old covenant had a kind of glory. But Hebrews just calls it "obsolete." The tablets of stone were death's ministry, but the Spirit's ministry blows past it. Every time the old covenant gets read without Christ in view, a veil drops. Only Christ lifts it. David loved the law he had, but the law was pointing to someone else.
Faithfulness, trust, time spent with God, zeal, humility, correction-all of that still matters. But the focus has shifted. Faithfulness isn't about quietly keeping sheep and food laws anymore. It means not drifting away from Christ's finished work and back toward ticking old boxes. The tutor's time ended when the heir showed up.
Trust in God? Still everything. Difference now is, in the New Covenant, that trust lands on something specific-a risen Lord who's already handed down the only verdict that matters. It doesn't mean training for your future spot in a world government.
Spending time with God makes the same divide but on different terms: David meditated on the law because that's the only light he had. We have the Light Himself. The article's proposal? Step backwards into the shadows, digest the code all over again, and hope we come out better. Jesus had a word for that: "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have life, but they point to Me, and you won't come to Me."
Zeal still counts-Saul's fizzled, David's danced, Paul's was intimidating on any résumé. Paul tossed his zeal in the loss pile, though. Zeal that never comes face to face with the Son is just busywork in religious packaging.
Humility? It still looks like David heading back to the sheepfold, not like a church group declaring they've been specially prepped to outrank the entire spectrum of Christianity as the Millennium's law faculty. Revelation 5 isn't an exclusive mailing list. It's a celebration-every tribe, all bought by the Lamb, made into a kingdom and priests. Royal priesthood isn't a jump up the ladder. It's an identity won with blood.
Even the response to correction still splits Saul from David. The most urgent correction now is Galatians 2:18-if we rebuild what Christ tore down, we prove we're transgressors all over again. Turning the law into the end-all, be-all constitution for the future, with Jesus reduced to law enforcement? That's a rebuild. Real confession is, "We confused the signpost with the destination."
The future, honestly, is incredible. But organizing it like a flow chart isn't the gospel. Yes, God's people will reign. Yes, the world can't limp on as it is. But the hope for the nations isn't that some law-trained inner circle finally gets their day. The hope is that the Lamb is on the throne, and His sacrifice unlocked something entirely new.
Rulers in the Kingdom aren't different because they passed an advanced Mosaic law course. They're different because they're one with a King who washed feet, bore sin, and fills hearts with the Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death. That's not a footnote. That's the headline.
Everything you suffer isn't a leadership practicum. It's the Father shaping you into the image of His Son. That image doesn't need a Future Administrator badge. It needs the cross front and center, with the law finally in its right place: fulfilled, not sitting on the throne.
The pamphlet/article pushes a code. The New Covenant introduces a King. Only one is still hiring.
I read Acts, Romans, Galatians etc etc etc and see a different gospel from the one we all once believed, and delivered to us in the past. One that is not coloured by the Armstrong model. It is the believers who are justified from what the Law could never do, amen to that. Unless as Jesus said, we become as little children, we should not inherit the kingdom of God. We know so little as to what is ahead for the saints, whose who have being cleansed by His blood. We shall enter the kingdom as little children indeed, full of wonder and amazement at what we behold. Who can be saved they asked Him, with men it is impossible but with God nothing is impossible. He did it, we cannot, no matter the circumstances situation and especially by our own efforts inherent the kingdom. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. So chill out, we all suffer in the flesh in this world as Paul said, but he lived by faith in Him who loved him and gave him for us all. How refreshing the Gospel of hope is compared to the old model. Happy holidays/festivals everyone.
ReplyDelete7:35:33 Amen to that yes how refreshing
DeleteThis is nothing but an very bitter bullying attack on the writers article.
ReplyDeleteAn article that is based on scripture. I would recommend all readers to click through and read the real article. It turns out to be the opposite of this blogs attack.
A leopard cannot change it's spots i see.
How you love now to bully others on a Holy day. It's your distinct thing to do. That's how people can see who you really are, for you bully in real life.
Of course you strive to bully others on God's holy days, who can stop you? You and your gang went all out on 7th day of Feast of Unleavened Bread this year. What evil you do to others, what pre-planning, what thought was given, what hatred shown.
How you must be proud of yourselves, but of course your the only Christians around and whatever crap you do to others, including children Jesus fully supports you...or does he???
Look. I'm going to start by asking you a question which anyone who has ever been associated with Armstrongism will instantly recognize. Why are we here???
DeleteIt should be perfectly obvious to you that we are here to expose a garbage religious philosophy, and the people who keep churning it out, and we do this because it has hurt us, and is still hurting others! It is toxic, produces some really bad fruits, and does not square with the teachings of the New Testament!
Now, you know this, yet you insist on coming here, and playing your "poor little me" game. You have not come here to learn, as so many others have in the past as they emerge from a totally bogus system, and begin to repair their lives. This site is kind, and welcoming, providing therapy for the victims of Herbert W. Armstrong, and his mantle-grabbing place holders.
You know this, yet you continue to expose yourself to something that refutes and repudiates everything which you choose to continue to believe. You need to stop punishing yourself. It should have dawned on you by now that you cannot change this site. By defending the undefendable, you expose yourself to ridicule, and then complain bitterly when scorn comes your way.
I have actually wondered if you are even a real person. In the past, we have seen cyber characters deliberately created, pretending to defend Armstrongism, just to irritate the rest of us in the classroom. These characters, while irritating, have made Armstrongism appear all the more ridiculous. And, that is basically what you are doing. You make it appear to be a religion for simpletons.
Perhaps it is time for you to realize that this is not the blog for you.
BB
BB another two faced UCG minister.
DeleteWrong, 10:06. I'm with ULC, Universal Life Church. Ordained in 2,003.
DeleteBB
You may well in 2003 have gotten ordained in ULC but it's 2026 now.
DeleteWhat? You think I'd actually go back to the Armstrong heresy with all that I know today??? I've said it before, if I'm resurrected and in the off chance that I see Herbert W. Armstrong walking, laughing, and talking with Jesus, the crowd is going to suddenly gasp as they watch me run and swan dive into the Lake of Fire!
DeleteI notice that the article puts "humility" near the bottom, when actually what is required is it must be the prerequisite. And 1:26, it's not just about the Holy Days, as scriptures says Isaiah 1:12-17. You have to come with something more from the inner man.
ReplyDeleteHumility is the first step, and that's what's missing within Armstrongism.
https://youtu.be/h5vcVwDlEOc
That may be true, but when have you ever seen a humble COG leader other minister? They preach the talk but never walk the walk.
DeleteBut perhaps maybe one day in the future it can happen. You would have thought they would be humble after what happened to Worldwide, but they kept the same attitude "We have been given this special knowledge above all others"
DeleteThere are certain systemic elements of the franchise which they cannot change. The HWA leadership model is one of them. The COG has always been an authoritarian church system which does not recognize the human rights enumerated in the Magna Carta or the founding documents of the USA.
DeleteThe funny thing is, you could kick most of these ministers' asses on the street, but if you want to be a member of their little club, you have to let them walk all over you.
I'm 1:26 and I never wrote it was 'just about the holy days'. Thanks for reading.
DeleteThe New Testament says how to arrive at the cannon, yet that is not how any of the CoGs (or anyone else) gets the cannon. The ignorance and folly is beyond belief.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite obvious the owners of this blog are outraged on so many levels!!! and furious to say the least, that peasants, (church members) peasants!! Peasants!! have dared to discern and recognise the two faced ministry who run this blog.
ReplyDeleteNo matter the elaborate waffle and lying backstories presented, if a person can discern they can see. So the vile insults have flowed out, insults, mockery, spite and cruelty peppered with swear words and even blasphemy. But still the peasants fight back.
The famous painting by Rembrant showing a man having a brain operation is to be compared to when men stand before an audience and preach. Especially men holding a holy bible. You were supposed to be honest was that too much to ask?
It does not cross their high and mighty minds that God himself has allowed this to happen to them.
Did you actually petition the Lord with prayer before wrting that, 10:28? Cause it's about as bogus as Armstrongite prophecy!
DeleteMooooo!
OK, 10:28! Now I've gone back to thinking you are just a cybercharacter someone is making up as they go, purely for shock value.
DeleteIf you ever want to get deloused, join in and go legit, I'd love to hear some of your real ideas.
If one keeps stirrng the muddied water, you get continuous muddy water. Stop stirring and the mud can settle and you'll get cleaner and clearer water. Seems simple enough.
ReplyDeleteStirrng ? You should throw that laptop out 11:38 it keeps betraying you.
DeletePeople who make Armstrongism appear even more ridiculous are on the right blog. Those who want to get rid of them are not.
ReplyDeleteTypes you 12:01.
DeleteFrom the point of view of the old testament, the new testament is dissident literature.
ReplyDeleteArmstrong's twisted false math......3 = 7, as in 3 times (Dt 16:16) = 7 holy day offerings.
ReplyDeleteHey BB. Didn’t know you were with ULC, and ordained. Had to go online to find out more. Glad you are not with ucog or any of the Armstrong movement any longer, same here. Some of the comments and accusations thrown about here are appalling, and I think show some real bitterness. I still have friends within this movement and without, who have left. And there is still contact, which I’m glad for. I attend a local synagogue or as we call it Shul. Have Jewish heritage and enjoy my new community immensely. Nice people and certainly a vast array of options there, religious and otherwise lol. Not perfect, neither am I. Lived in Israel for 2 years. Oh yes, the traditions are rich and many within Judaism. I said to a Catholic friend of mine that we have much in common ha ha, with all the traditions. Life’s a journey and often takes us where we wouldn’t necessarily have ventured without a Hand guiding us from above. What liberty we have in Him. I yearn for the day when those still tied to the Armstrong model are truely free.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 10:28 "elaborate waffle "
ReplyDeleteI am on a gluten free diet, and I would kill for an elaborate waffle.
Scout