Halloween and the Annual Church of God Meltdown

"Objection to Halloween is a reflection of something much broader: an obsession with trivialities, a confusion of priorities, a primitive fear of the unknown, an arrogance that finds “righteousness” in being odd-ball and out-of-step. Fundamentalists can find something offensive or objectionable in almost anything. They have a world view in which virtually everything is “anti-Christian”. They have lost the ability to filter the important from the inconsequential. The traditional COG prohibition against Halloween ignores the facts of history, misrepresents the modern holiday, and demonstrates a woeful lack of spiritual discernment."

HALLOWEEN HYSTERIA

by Keith Stump

October is quickly flying by, meaning it’s time for the traditional Christian hand-wringing over that most “demonic” of holidays, Halloween! In anticipation of the usual anti-Halloween propaganda, I offer the following observations about this alleged “satanic festival of evil”:

First, there’s no need to point out that Halloween is not found in Leviticus 23. (Duh.) Leviticus 23 is obsolete and irrelevant anyway. Second, forget the lengthy dissertation about how the papacy (the alleged “image of the beast” and “great whore”) instituted the Roman Catholic celebrations of “All Hallows Eve” and “All Saints Day”. That, too, is irrelevant. Today’s Halloween has nothing to do with honoring Christian saints. For most, Halloween long ago ceased being viewed as a religious observance—and never was, by Americans.

The Halloween that many of us know today is largely an American phenomenon. And it’s a purely secular observance.

Yet some of Halloween’s customs do have roots in pre-Christian (“pagan”) practices. “Pagan” has long been a popular buzz word among Christians, especially among the COGs. As a Plain Truth and World Tomorrow writer, and occasional GHOSTwriter (how occult!) for the Armstrongs, I used the word liberally for decades. If it’s “pagan” in origin, it MUST be evil (like, I suppose, playing cards, wedding rings, dominoes, medicine, beer, the theater, the names of the days of the week and months of the year, and so on—all of which are scrupulously avoided in the COGs, aren’t they?).

Some of Halloween’s customs can be traced to practices of the Celtic New Year, particularly among the Druids of ancient Britain. The Celts worshipped nature deities and practiced a relatively benign type of witchcraft. (Shame on them for living before the birth of Christ! Why, they must have been as evil as Cyrus the Great, who worshipped Ishtar, the pagan goddess of love and war, and Ahura Mazda, god of light and wisdom. [Oh, wait a minute—God still called Cyrus "that righteous man from the East." Never mind.])

The Celtic festival of Samhain (which means “summer’s end” and marked the Celtic New Year, and is properly pronounced SOW-in, not “Sam Hain”) was considered to be a magical time, when the thin veil between the worlds was lifted, and the dead walked among the living. It was a night of ghosts and fairies, in which bonfires were lit and fortunes were told, and the thoughts of all turned to the afterlife. For some odd reason, the Celts didn’t think that exposing their children to contemplation of death and the afterlife was a problem. And, of course, the “witches” of the time were primarily herbalists and midwives. Witches as evil, devil-worshiping crones were an invention of the medieval Church, perpetuated by modern fundamentalists.

Despite fundamentalist assertions, there were no orgies or human sacrifices or cannibalism or devil-worshipping during Samhain. Anyone who claims otherwise is an incompetent researcher or an outright liar. And—despite all those sermonettes you’ve heard—there was never a Celtic “god of death” named “Samhain”.

The ancient Samhain festival in no way “glorified” the demonic world, nor—except for a relatively few “Satanists”—does Samhain today. Modern pagans who celebrate Samhain regard it as a time to look back on the past year and reflect on how they can become better people, and a time to honor departed loved ones and welcome them into their presence. Modern Halloween is even less focused on “making contact” with the spirit world.

Stop for a moment and consider rationally: Is a six-year-old girl trick-or-treating in a Cinderella costume “fellowshipping with demons”? Is a child covered in a sheet with eye-holes “associating with spirits”? Are employees attending a company costume party “consorting with the devil”? Is hanging a plastic skeleton in your window “paying homage to Satan”? Is carving a jack-o’-lantern “fashioning an idol”? Is bobbing for apples a “wicked revel”? Some who are reading this would reply with a resounding “yes”. And that’s because of the spiritual myopia that warps their thinking, as I’ll discuss in a moment. Goofball notions are de rigueur for the fundamentalist.

Others who are reading this have heartwarming memories of Halloween. It’s a slice of genuine Americana. It was one of the highlights of their childhood calendar—a time of family crafts and costume-making, a time to celebrate creativity and imagination. It was a time for children to dress up and solicit candy from their neighbors. (We were even taught to say “thank you”, which I’m sure irked Satan no end.) Trick-or-treating allowed the entire community to share in the Halloween festivities, as costumes were admired and rewarded with goodies. Halloween reaffirmed social bonds with friends and neighbors. These are hardly the “unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11), unless one is a fanatic who interprets that phrase like, well, a fanatic.

(A parenthetical note to hypocrites: Anyone who condemns Halloween, yet enjoys an occasional Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff film, or reads a Stephen King or Anne Rice thriller, or a Harry Potter novel, or who watches “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” or “The Wizard of Oz” or Disney’s “Snow White” or “Sleeping Beauty” or the “Lord of the Rings” films or who plays fantasy-based video games or visits Disneyland’s “Haunted Mansion” or watches a stage magician is a hypocrite, pure and simple. It’s like a conscientious objector being a fan of war movies. But hypocrisy is nothing new to the COGs, is it? And, for that matter, is “glorifying violence” any less “sinful” than “glorifying the occult”? (Hmm. I must have been imagining those LCG members sitting in the theater when I saw “Terminator 3″.))

To all COG members out there: Is your children’s Christianity so feeble as to be endangered by a plastic mask and a few candy bars? Are your children so inadequately grounded in their religion as to be tempted into a life of witchcraft by attending a costume party? Are you yourself so poorly rooted in your faith that you fear your children will ask questions to which you have no satisfactory answers?

I have seen no evidence of children being psychologically warped or seduced into a life of witchcraft and perversion as a result of innocent Halloween activities. I HAVE, however, seen many fearful and superstitious COG children who have been conditioned to be abnormally hypersensitive to anything blackened with the feared label “occult”. One child in particular comes to mind, whom I witnessed shrieking in stark terror at the mere sight of a jack-o-lantern. Are you raising fearful children who, like medieval peasants, see Satan lurking behind every tree and demons skulking in every dark corner? Are you raising children who fear they will “open themselves up” to “demonic control” at any moment by the slightest misstep? What a tenuous, precarious and paranoid spirituality! Satan is a defeated enemy! We need not shrink inanimate mortal remains. Explain that fear of black cats is an ancient superstition of the ignorant. Talk to them about the fanciful creations of horror fiction, like werewolves and vampires. It’s healthy to examine the things that frighten us. Tell them about “ghosts” or disembodied spirits. (The dead are relatively safe; it’s the living you need to watch out for!) And talk to them about the subject of life after physical death. Tell them about the Lord of Life who overcame death. Assuage their fears about those who can kill the body but not the soul.

Halloween is also a good time to reconsider our own views about death and the afterlife. The unbiblical doctrine of “soul sleep” would be a good place to start. The Bible clearly teaches (and centuries of experience demonstrate) that death does not interrupt self-awareness; personal identity survives death! By contrast, Herbert Armstrong’s so-called “restored truth” about “What is Man?” is totally without biblical foundation, though his followers blindly accept it. Measuring truth by the teachings of a morally unprincipled deviate who was indisputably unqualified for ministry by biblical standards (i Tim. 3:2-7; Titus 1:6-7) is far scarier than any aspect of Halloween! (A rule of thumb, which I’ll throw in free of charge: The farther an individual or group moves away from the teachings of the so-called Philadelphia era of the Church of God, the closer he moves toward genuine truth and balanced spirituality.)

So here’s my point: Objection to Halloween is a reflection of something much broader: an obsession with trivialities, a confusion of priorities, a primitive fear of the unknown, an arrogance that finds “righteousness” in being odd-ball and out-of-step. Fundamentalists can find something offensive or objectionable in almost anything. They have a world view in which virtually everything is “anti-Christian”. They have lost the ability to filter the important from the inconsequential. The traditional COG prohibition against Halloween ignores the facts of history, misrepresents the modern holiday, and demonstrates a woeful lack of spiritual discernment.

So, in a nutshell, my message to Christians about Halloween is: Lighten up! There is nothing spiritually harmful about this tradition. Sensibly observed, Halloween can be a day of wholesome fun and merriment. Believe it or not, not everything in life has to have some deep spiritual connotation. Halloween is “Satan’s Holiday” only to those who concede it to him or arbitrarily label it as such. Christians have been redeemed from the forces of evil. We don’t have to give credence to Satan’s claimed authority in any area of life. Don’t surrender to the fear, superstition and hypocrisy of the fundamentalist, who wouldn’t recognize a little harmless fun if he tripped over it, who is oblivious to the value of fantasy, who has no idea what “magic” and “witchcraft” really are, to whom everything paranormal is “demonic” and who trembles before the power of Satan and his demons (whether he admits it or not). Don’t fall prey to shady “scholarship” and flawed arguments about this holiday. Don’t let anyone judge you in respect of this or any other occasion. Safe, fun Halloween activities are NOT “of the “devil”.

To believe other wise is just plain silly!

LCG Members Need To Be More "Jesus Like" So They Can Make It Into The Kingdom

 

Work, work, work...

Stay Focused: Jesus taught, “Seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33), and He warned against being sidetracked by the cares of this world (Matthew 13:22). The Holy Days just ahead picture the culminating events in the Plan of God, and Satan will use all kinds of devices to distract us from focusing on God’s plan for mankind (2 Corinthians 2:11). Atonement pictures the time when Satan’s influence on the world will be removed. The Feast of Tabernacles pictures the coming Millennial reign, when Jesus Christ and the Saints will reign on this earth and “restore all things” (Acts 3:19–21). The Last Great Day looks forward to a time when all who have ever lived will be resurrected into a very different world to finally learn the Truth (Revelation 20:5; John 7:37–38). During the Feast, make time to pray for the sermons and for God’s people. Take some quiet time to reflect on why you are at the Feast and how you can be a light and serve others. Identify changes you need to make to become more like Jesus Christ so you can be in God’s coming Kingdom.
Have a profitable Sabbath and a wonderful Feast,
Douglas S. Winnail

Ex Member Stories - Interview with Scott Williams and how UCG Destroyed his father's life - Part II

 

Scott Shares How Elder Father Was Ex-Communicated by United Church of God - Affecting His Health - Eventually Killing Him. Scott shares how he believes today, More on his 10 years of breakdown and dealing with this. How did he get out and why. What he still struggles with today - "the wall" he put up (and likewise his father) in order to protect ourselves. The moment we stop playing god in our lives and in the lives of other and the process of "Surrender". The splintering of the church and still splintering to the point of so much splitting, division and splintering that we begin to go straight to God.

Facebook: Ex-Worldwide Truth Seekers 

Facebook: Angela's Inspirations 

Dan & Angela Clark - YouTube Chanel: Ex-JW Cult Recovery Life After Religion

YouTube: Ex-Worldwide Church of God Truth Seekers

I Am The Apokathistemi Sent To Restore All Things

 

California has always been known as the land of fruits and nuts, and no one is nuttier than our Great Bwana Bob Mzungu Thiel, the anointed one set apart by God as the foundations of the world were whirling about. A man so awesome that he was to rise up in the late 20th century to bear witness to the church and the world as a prime example of what happens to deluded men when mental illness and deviant doctrines of the church join forces.

Today the Great Bwana is all in a snit thanks to Gerald Flurry claiming that Herbert Armstrong was the Elijah and restored all things to the church. This just frosts the Great Bwana's butt to no end. How dare Flurry proclaim such a thing when he, the Great Bwana Bob, is the REAL endtime Elijah who has restored all previous as well as new truth to the church! How dare Flurry say otherwise!

Christ said this Elijah would “restore all things.” Mr. Armstrong then noted, “Now John the Baptist didn’t restore anything. They already knew about the law, and he called them to repentance; but he didn’t have to give them sermons about what all the law is. They knew that. He just called them to repent and turn to another way, and baptized them.”

The “restore all things” part of Christ’s statement is at the heart of what makes this the most pivotal end-time prophecy.

There are many end-time prophecies, and people naturally tend to focus on the ones about wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and supernatural disasters. Some people focus on things like blood moons.

But this prophecy is what Jesus Christ focused on.

This prophecy is directly connected with His Second Coming: He said this man would restore all truth within the Church just before the Day of the Lord. This is a sign of the nearness of Jesus Christ’s return that you must not ignore!

And what makes this even more important is that this prophecy has already been fulfilled!

Already Fulfilled

There was a man who fulfilled this preparatory role in the end time. A man who did “restore all things.”

That man was Herbert W. Armstrong.

This did not sit well with the Great Bwana Bob. After all, he is the chosen one sent by God for this end time age to warn the world and the church to repent and return to the one true faith. The Great Bwana writes:

Herbert W. Armstrong did restore various doctrinal truths to the COG, but Herbert W. Armstrong did not restore all things–though he did claim to restore at least 18.

Since Herbert died never restoring all truth, this obviously means there is someone yet to do that, at least in the Great Bwana's eyes. Of course one can make one guess as to who that end time Elijah must be.

The “very end” of the Church age was not over 37 years ago! The 6000 years have NOT yet been fulfilled. Since the “very end of the Church age” has not happened, and Herbert W. Armstrong died decades ago, his writings support that there must be another Elijah. And he was referring to an individual in the Mystery of the Ages. 

The Great Bwana then drags out Dibar Apartian, as if he is a reliable source of information (he is not).  

That being said, sometimes Herbert W. Armstrong did think that he may have fulfilled the Elijah role, but he told the late Dibar Apartian (who told me) that he was NOT the Elijah. Dibar Apartian did not believe that Herbert W. Armstrong was the Elijah when we discussed this several times and he agreed with me about this. Furthermore, essentially on his deathbed, Herbert W. Armstrong admitted to his closest aide, Aaron Dean (who told me this multiple times) that there could be an Elijah to come after he died. 

 

Combining what Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in The Mystery of the Ages and the length of time since his death demonstrates that Herbert W. Armstrong could not have been the final prophesied Elijah. (Note: All hyperlinks to blasphemous heresy have been removed)

The Great Bwana Bob continues:

So there is an ‘Elijah’ past – John the Baptist. And Matthew 17:11 does NOT say that “All things” = God’s laws and all the true doctrinal teachings while WARNING His chosen people, Israel, of the Great Tribulation.

Herbert W. Armstrong could not have restored ALL THINGS (Mark 9:12) as scripture and his own writings show he could not have been the final Elijah since he died so long ago. Neither did he nor the Bible define ALL THINGS as Joel Hilliker has.

Since the Bible does teach that there will be an ‘Elijah’ who is alive right before Jesus returns (Malachi 4:5-6), thus it is not possible that Herbert W. Armstrong was the prophesied final Elijah.

Now, presuming Jesus will return within the next couple of decades, then that ‘Elijah’ would need to be alive now. And he would be part of the church that places the highest priority on the truth.

You can easily see where this is headed.

Yet, most Christians seemingly refuse to accept that.

Well, I wonder why? The church has seen some of the most idiotic men proclaim themselves over the decades as Elijah sent by God to warn the world and the church. Every single one of them has been exposed as liars. Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, and Bob Thiel are liars all.

We in the Continuing Church of God are regularly restoring more truth about church history, Jesus, the Bible, doctrine, and prophecy. And we have done this more (and in more languages), by far, than any other group in the 21st century (COG or otherwise for that matter). Plus we have restored important truth about why God created anything and His plan for each human.

What a load of useless crap!

The crap gets thicker as the Great Bwana Bob attempts to prove that he is a prophet, the Elijah and soon to be one of the two witless witnesses. I can just picture him and Laura Weinland roaming the streets of Jerusalem together. What a hoot!

The Great Bwana then proceeds to link to one of his bouncing videos on why he is the 21st Century Elijah:

Was John the Baptist the prophesied Elijah or at least a type of Elijah? Is there an Elijah to come? Have Sabbatarians been teaching this a long time? What were 18 truths that Herbert W. Armstrong said God had him restore? Was anything to be restored in the last days, consistent with Daniel 12:4 and Matthew 17:11? Was God supposed to restore dreams and prophets in the last days? Did the Worldwide Church of God teach such would happen again? Have we seen signs of Acts 2:17-18 in the Continuing Church of God? Is Bob Thiel the final Elijah or one of the two witnesses? Why or why not? Has there been the restoration of important truths in the CCOG? Is the CCOG at least setting the foundation for the 21st century Elijah? Dr. Thiel gives information relating to all of that in this sermon.

If you truly believed the Bible then you would believe everything the Great Bwana Bob says and kneel at his feet acknowledging him as your end-time prophet, your Elijah, and 1/2 of the two witless witnesses. But none of you will do this since you are all Laodicean reprobates sent by Satan to disrupt the glorious truths the Great Bwana has to share.

Sadly, just as many would not hear Elijah’s nor John the Baptist’s messages, relatively few will pay much attention to the end time Elijah as well.   

 

That is not a surprise as most Christians in the end times are to be Laodicean, and Jesus warned the Laodiceans since they would not ‘get with the program,’ that they would be punished (Revelation 3:14-18). 

 

Of course, if you are willing to believe the truth and do what the Bible teaches, that does not have to include you.

There you have it! The Great Bwana has spoken. Repent! Return to the one true faith that even Rod Meredith rejected as did the ENTIRE Living Church of God ministry and its membership.

Beware of Cocaine Sharks At Your Feast Site!!!!!!!!!

 

The things that capture the minds of Armstrongite leaders are fascinating. Mark Armstrong warns us about cocaine sharks! Who knew?

Cocaine Sharks
As if sharks weren’t scary enough… A study conducted off the coast of Brazil found cocaine in the liver and muscle tissue samples taken from all of the 13 specimens they studied. The causes are thought to include insufficient wastewater treatment and runoff from illicit processing centers as well as the sharks actually attacking packages of the drug set afloat by smugglers. Waste and water samples also contain detectable contamination from cocaine. The exact effects on shark behavior are unknown. Similar problems can be observed with pharmaceutical drugs. One Australian study involved exposing guppies to various levels of Prozac found in water supplies. The effects of exposure to the highest concentrations were particularly pronounced in male aggression, physical traits, and reproduction over multiple generations. Individuals were encouraged not to flush unused medications down the toilet but many of the detectable medications find their way into the water supply primarily through waste processing. 21st Century Watch

The Most Pathetic Feast Prep Member Letter Ever

Imagine being part of dead Ted's group as you prepare for this year's Feast of Tabernacles and you get this uplifting member letter from your leader. If we thought Bob Thiel was scrapping the bottom of the barrel, Mark Armstrong puts him to shame.

The world is going to hell in a handbasket, though we have heard this exact same phrases for 8 decades now:

Greetings from Tyler, 

Here we are on the eve of the Day of Atonement, and worrying about our situation.  I can’t remember a time when we were in more trouble.  The Middle East?  Nobody knows what will happen, but it looks like Israel is going deep inside Lebanon, in essence pushing the terrorists back if they can’t kill them.

The media is all in. They’re non-stop in their constant accusations against the former President. Meanwhile, Kamala has landed on the cover of Vogue magazine.  Who’d have thought?  The left used to love Elon Musk.  After all he’s known for battery cars, and operating space rockets.  We thought they were all about saving the planet and making us drive cars we don’t want.  Wrong.  Elon’s been seen jumping around at a Trump rally, the kiss of death.  He wonders aloud how many years he’ll do in prison if they don’t win.

Top generals are warning that Trump will be a fascist dictator if he wins.  Didn’t we already go through a Trump presidency?  Was he a fascist dictator?  General Milley is putting out a warning that if re-elected, he will be.  The media is salivating over what kind of dirt insiders can throw, and who knows what’s happened in previous lifetimes?  I listen to his rallies, all of them, and don’t know what they’re talking about.  Wars?  We’ve got two dangerous ones in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.  Both, as you know, got underway afterward.

I saw an interaction with one of Elon Musk’s robots, and have to admit I was impressed.  The thing carried on a conversation with somebody.  Maybe there’s no stopping it now, especially since the price tag is only around twenty grand.  Everybody will have a robotic slave!

We’re getting ready to go to the Feast.  Yes, I know there have been hurricanes spawning countless tornados.  I’d rather chance it in Panama City Beach.  Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped flying to all the sites.  It was already miserable, and with Covid there were just too many regulations.  It was bad before, and it got worse.  Maybe these people do a good job, but don’t mind handing out abuse to regular Americans.  That’s me.  It’s all too much.  If they back off their airline authoritarianism maybe I’ll do it again, but don’t count on it. 

The new WATCH magazine has arrived at our office, and we’ll be bringing, or sending copies to each of the Feast sites.  You’ll get to at least see it at the Feast, and maybe page through it.  We are particularly proud of this edition, and I hope you’ll agree.

I hope I’m wrong, but I think we’re facing a dangerous time in America.  Something tells me neither side is going to accept losing the election.  What are we looking at?  Another round of the agitators burning cities?  Assassinations?  We have no idea what’s about to happen.  The left is smearing Donald Trump with every headline.  Having listened to almost all of the Trump rallies and some interviews, I’m not afraid.  Not of Trump, anyway. 

Mark should have said: Now that I have crapped all over your mindset, I want you to get ready for a fun feast as we are working to make it memorable...sigh 

I hope that all of you are getting ready to go to the Feast.  We’re working hard to make sure each and every one of them is memorable for all the right reasons.  

Mark

Why are so many COG leaders such miserable and angry guys? Does anything make them happy? It's like they make a concerted effort to depress their members so that they live in a constant state of fear. The more fearful they are, the more they cling to controlling gaslighting ministers to lead them

Opening Night Of Feast: "This is God's time", Yet Many Still Skip It

One anomaly in the Church of God was that the church was never able to completely make its members attend the opening night service of the Feast, and still cannot to this day. For many in the church, making it to this service on time, if at all, was due to the fact many did not have the luxury of taking off lots of extra days to leisurely travel to a Feast site. It ended up being a rush to get to the site and check in, exhausting many, especially those with children.

Here we are in 2024 and this is still an issue. Not only is that is an issue, but members skipping out on weekday services is a problem too. After traveling long distances people don't want to be parked in some dank hotel ballroom listening to a canned sermon you have heard for decades by the same person. 

United Church of God has this up:

As we head to the Feast, let’s determine in our hearts to serve Him first and observe the Feast as He commands. Make it a priority to be there at the opening night service (or the first scheduled service) at your Feast site. This is God’s time—be where and when He wants you to be. When faced with the choice between attending services or Bible study and what “we want to do,” choose God first. There is plenty of time for the other activities we can enjoy at the Feast. 

 

And remember to pray and make extra time for prayer. We gather where He placed His name for the Feast—to His house, the temple He is building in us. His house is meant to be a “house of prayer.” During this time, draw close to God. Use this time to commit to growing closer to Him. Dedicate yourself to keep His ways, truly “coming out of this world.” Grow daily in faith and trust in Him.

COG martyr unencumbered by a distracting wife and family faces the prospect of a lonely life

Imagine living a life so deluded by Armstrongism that you will give up relationships with others and deliberately live a lonely life.

God says in His Word, that it’s not good for a man to be alone.  

 

That a man needs a helpmeet.  

 

Ive prayed, and looked for a wife for 15 years now. I was told by one woman, who ended up being my friend, it seemed to her I was the one of the last who believe what believe. There didn’t seem to be anyone in my age group who believes what I believe, she keeps telling me. They all seem to be in “other churches”. 

 

She doesn’t understand why I am fighting so hard to keep my church alive. There doesn’t seem to be much for me here, she said.

My spiritual family are those of God’s Church.

I care about them. And yes, it is sometimes like me placing a letter in a bottle and tossing it into the ocean, hoping it reaches those in need of reaching. I don’t necessarily see who I am talking to, who I’m warning.

But I’ve determined that God and His Church comes first. God says to “seek first the Kingdom” then everything else will be provided for.

And so while I am a man who seeks to please and serve God, somewhere out there is a woman who seeks to please and serve God as well.

My body has weakened over the last few years. My youthfulness is turning to aches and pains as I age. And I am only 33 years old! My dad would laugh and say “it’s the years, it’s the mileage”.

lol.

But I’m learning I can’t do it all myself. I’ve learned more to rely on Jesus Christ for my strength, and ability to finish out the day, to walk by faith where I used to stride with self confidence only years ago!

It’s not good for a man to be alone. I’m alone because Christ has given me something to do and it requires no distractions! And Satan would certainly be hitting me harder if I had a wife and children. Right now he is hitting those close to me, in order to get to me. To isolate me, and to remove any help. So perhaps like Paul it so best to stay single. I don’t know. God’s help is more than enough. I trust His guidance and Headship.

And with God’s Church, it’s going to take all of us to focus, and to help each other. Satan has scattered the flock, because alone we can’t accomplish what we could accomplish if we were together! That’s what we need brethren. To repent and to be unified together all speaking the same thing! As one Worldwide Church of God! Samuel Kitchen

Armstrongism in Contention with Christianity: A Meditation on God and the of Attribute of Size

 

The Giant

by NC Wyeth (Fair Use)

 

 

Armstrongism in Contention with Christianity:

A Meditation on God and the of Attribute of Size

By Scout

 

When I was in the Ninth Grade, I discovered that size is an inviolable physical property of the Universe. Size is real and size has meaning. My physics textbook stated that the giant spiders that appeared in a recent horror movie could not have existed.  The reason why is that the proteins that form the hard exoskeleton of the spider could not support a creature of that weight.  If there were such a big spider, it would collapse under its own weight.  Likewise, even though dinosaurs are made of stronger materials, there is a limit to how big they can get before their weight can no longer be supported by their structure and they fall apart.  No doubt N.C. Wyeth’s great giant, illustrated above, cannot really exist either and for the same reasons. There is a range that governs the size that biological creatures can attain and humans are within that range.  This limitation is not something that evolved in the Cosmos.  It simply exists.

God is not Governed by Size

God is absolute and not relative.  Almost everything we know is relative.  (I will omit some of the spooky things in quantum physics that happen outside our zone of perception.) “That fish is bigger than this fish” is a principle that applies to everything in our environment.  Objects exist in three-dimensional space. And that space can be calibrated.  Just look at a ruler.  And every object has size as one of its properties. 

The idea that God has a body in his essence, as Armstrongists assert, means that he falls not into the absolute category but the relative category, like material objects.  He is bigger than this but smaller than that - he can move faster than this but not as fast as that,  etc. This is a great restriction because the Cosmos is very large and God, by comparison, would be very small.  So, he is confined to working remotely with the Cosmos since flying around to different parts of the enormous Cosmos to fix things up is an impossible task.  Some will propose that he works through his spirit which is like a “tractor beam” from Star Trek.  But this places God at the end of a tool as if he were a man fabricating something rather than God creating something.  The Gnostics call such a being a Demi-urge. 

If God were really big, the problem of governing the real estate of the Cosmos would not go away.   A Christian mystic, I cannot recall which, had a vision of God and he handed her a small object about the size of a walnut.  As she held it in her hand, he told her that this is all that was ever made.  The complexity of the Cosmos remains, however, independent of size.  If God is very small in comparison to the Cosmos, there is the macro problem.  His smallness is a hindrance. If he is very large in comparison to the Cosmos, there is the micro problem.   His bigness is a hindrance.  Either way, God is still like a Demi-urge, he just has to use a tool set that works for the size. 

But, of course, God can appear as big as he wants to be or as small as he wants to be because he is absolute in essence and not relative.  This is the nature of a theophany.  A theophany is presentation and not substance.  It is close to the idea of anthropomorphism.  A theophany is a presentation that is actually sensed and anthropomorphism is a presentation that is literary.  Yahweh is a storm God.  A powerful storm was about the biggest, most dramatic thing the ancient mind could encounter.  But one has to maintain perspective.  There are impressive, big storms on earth but the Red Spot on Jupiter is a storm that is 1.3 times the diameter of earth.  All of our yardsticks are relative and do not apply to God.

My guess is that if you were to ask Armstrongists how big God is, they would say that he is the same size as Jesus. This is because they misinterpret the scripture where Jesus states if you have seen me you have seen the Father.   Archaeologists know what the average Jew looked like in the time of Jesus.  If Jesus were average, and scripture does not suggest otherwise, he would be 5’ 1” and would weigh 110 pounds.  This is the logical conclusion towards which Armstrongism moves. 

But there is a problem with this conclusion and that is its implications about God’s “origin”.  Who said to God that he can be only a little guy and no larger?  He makes beings that are much larger.  I am just over six feet tall.  Did someone create God to be a certain size in his essence? This conclusion is an absurdity created by believing God is bound by size.  Jesus told us that God is a Spirit.  He transcends human categories such as size.   

My Personal Theory

I have a theory about this and I will present it in summary.  This is a conjecture and not a part of the Christian Doctrine of God that I know.   I don’t expect you to believe this but you might find it worth contemplating. I believe that God does not have boundaries and I think this implements what we call omnipresence.  And, of course, no boundaries, no size. But omnipresence is a much more limited phenomenon that what God actually is.  There is a difference between being at every location in the Cosmos and having no location at all.  

And here is the heart of my conjecture.  The Cosmos is bounded.  And the Cosmos exists within the unbounded God.  We could spend some time on the meaning of the spatial preposition “within” in this context but we can let that pass for now.  Paul said in the Sermon on Mars Hill, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being”.  If Paul had just said that we have our being inside God, I would have seen the whole statement as spiritual concept with no spatial meaning.   And the preposition “in” would be allegorical.  But he says we have our physical movements within God.  This gives the “in” our usual spatial meaning.  Paul is saying that we, citizens of the Cosmos, exist, have our being, both physically and spiritually, in (“in” both actually and allegorically) God. 

So, what do Captain Kirk and Spock see when the come to the boundary of the Cosmos, the really final frontier?  They don’t see anything.  Because human eyes cannot see spirit.  Kirk and Spock can see only as far as the boundary.  And on the other side of the boundary is God infinitely and God cannot be seen.  He is invisible to us.  So, what cannot be seen, appears to our retinas as the darkest dark that you can imagine - no photons, no image.  My guess.

Conclusion

God transcends the human notion of size which is bound to the physics of the Cosmos.  This does not make the Old Testament scriptures a lie but, rather, makes the scriptures poetic.  The problem is that some people do not want to admit that the Bible is literary and it uses figures of speech about God that are anthropomorphisms..  They insist on a literal Bible but who gave them the right to require that?  God gave the message he wanted to give and human curators added their verbiage as well.  It is what it is.  And it serves its intended purpose.  

Gerald Flurry To Personally Deliver The Final Message To Christ When He Returns

 

There are two absolutely batshit crazy elements in the following letter from the Exit and Support Network site.

First off is this:

Gerald Flurry has declared it a SIN to not refer to their mini-me auditorium as God's House:

October 6, 2024 

 

I am writing about two very concerning things that have recently come from Gerald Flurry. 

 

The first being from the latest Royal Vision magazine. September/October 2024 in an article titled “Two Psalms That Make You Stop and Think” by Gerald Flurry. 

 

On page 6 he says: 

 

“That house [speaking about their Armstrong Auditorium] is called by God’s name! What kind of a sin it is to call it a different name, or not call it God’s house! What a terrible attitude that shows. This is God’s house!” 

 

So now that GF has declared it a sin not to call their silly little auditorium “God’s house” we shall all be waiting for them to publicly make this change–hopefully starting with their web page, X account, Facebook, Instagram account and even their Pinterest page! Let’s see if GF can put his money where his mouth is……. Or would that public proclamation interfere with the image they are trying to cultivate in the community? “We aren’t a cult!”

You can guarantee that there is no way the Philadelphia Church of God will start announcing concerts performing in "God's House" instead of the Amstrong Auditorium. This is all meant for his dumb sheeple to keep them under control. Flurry uses this phrase because Herbert did the same thing with his Ambassador Auditorium. No one called it God's House back then other than in a few limited articles and appeal letters. 

That building was soon a den of iniquity where alcohol and drugs flowed freely and where molestations, sexual assaults, thefts, and enough gay and straight sex that it would have taken weeks to sanitize it. Demons were reported to be active in it. Yet, it was God's House, at least Armstrongism's version where we pollute anything we came into contact with.

Next, we move on to the blasphemous King Gerald Flurry and this utter balderdash about where he will deliver spoken words in a final message to Jesus Christ when he returns.

Second, in a recent Key of David program, titled “Who is that Prophet? (2024)” the narcissistic, megalomaniac Gerald Flurry, made one of his craziest declarations thus far! At approximately 50 seconds into the program, he stated, 

 

“this man, who is ‘that Prophet’ is going to deliver the final message to Jesus Christ when he returns.” 

 

This blasphemous statement was also printed along the bottom of the screen, no mistake was made. And for those who may be new to learning about the PCG, Gerald Flurry claims he is “That Prophet,” among other tiles such as Apostle, King, etc. (Read: Biblical Titles Gerald Flurry Has Appropriated for Himself) 

 

So to clarify, GF has claimed that he receives revelation from Christ both through scriptures and hearing voices. This then begs the question, if GF has to give this message to Christ, who then who is actually “revealing“ these messages to GF? He actually believes he is so special that God will use him to deliver a message to His son Jesus Christ. Absolute insanity! He is essentially placing himself in a position above Jesus Christ! 

 

Those familiar with the workings of a cult and cult leaders will already know that things like this often happen with leaders. 

 

If this won’t raise a few eyebrows of the mind-controlled members, then at the very least hopefully it prevents new people from joining this religious cult, as their leader continues to escalate. –Z. A. Exit and Support Network

In spite of all this craziness, Armstrongism in its various imaginations claims they are God breathed into existence. God supposedly speaks directly to various leaders telling them all kinds of super fantastical tales and they then feel the need to report it to their dwindling flocks. There is no message that so many of these crazy loons proclaim that has worth for humanity. Jesus is never the center of attention of these groups.

Crackpot Watchman Tooting His Horn

I just posted a story from Living Church of God with them claiming to be the Watchman. Look who got his itty-bitty feelings hurt and had to proclaim he and his little cult are the Watchman. Our Great Bwana Bob Mzungu Butt-hurt Thiel, chosen by God before the foundations of the world were laid to emerge in the perilous end times to proclaim a nutty message of salvation by works,.

The Feast of Trumpets runs until sunset October 3rd in 2024. 

 

The book of Revelation outlines God’s future use of trumpets. This message is for the entire world, and concerns events before and including the return of Jesus Christ, who will soon return to rule this earth with God’s government. 

 

We in the Continuing Church of God are working to perform as that modern-day watchman today. We boldly tell of sins of society and how world events are aligning with properly understood prophecy–which we also explain.

Yeah right. Dream on buttercup. 

Just How Many "Watchmen" Does the Church of God Need?

LCG believes their message to the world is far superior than talking much about Jesus and the salvation work accomplished. They much prefer the death and damnation route to keep people living in fear. Nuclear war, famines, children being eaten by their parents, concentration camps, WWIII and so much more keeps people that come into contact with them living in a constant state of fear. End of days porn is far more profitable and titillating.

Sadly, this is not limited to the Living Church of God. The Great Bwana Bob  Mzungu Thiel hilariously claims he is a watchman. Gerald Flurry says he is. Dave Pack thinks he is...well, on second thought, that changes hour by hour. Alton Billingsly thinks he is. UCG and COGWA think their churches are.

Does anyone care? Especially when most of these churches are corrupt to the core. Would anyone in their right mind trust these guys?

The Role of a Watchman: Many churches today feel their mission is to tell people about Jesus and hold numerous social activities. Yet, Jesus instructed His disciples to be alert and watch for events that will mark the approaching end of the age and the return of Jesus Christ (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). The events making news today—natural disasters, increasing violence and wars around the globe, and the increasing moral, religious, and political decline of Israelite nations (2 Timothy 3:1–5; Deuteronomy 31:29)—are occurring along with the emergence of adversarial powers in Asia and the Middle East (Leviticus 26:15–17). Just as God sent prophets to warn ancient Israel and Judah of their coming punishments, the Church of God has a similar mission to function as a watchman to warn modern Israelite nations of the coming consequences of their sinful ways (Ezekiel 3:17; 33:2–7). This powerful warning must accompany the preaching of the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God (Matthew 24:14). Let’s stay focused on this God-given mission.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail

LCG Lectures Members How To Dress At The Feast And Beach

Appropriate Dress for Feast Services
While Scripture teaches that God looks on the heart, dress and outward decorum are also important (Matthew 22:8–14). As we prepare to be “lights to the world” at the Feast, it’s good to review some basic principles for attire at Feast services. For men, in most western countries, coats, collared shirts, ties, and nice slacks are considered appropriate on special occasions. This may vary somewhat in tropical climates. For ladies, 1 Timothy 2:9–10 explains that dress should be “modest apparel, with propriety and moderation.” Short, tight, form-fitting dresses, necklines flaunting cleavage, bare shoulders, backless dresses, crop-tops, etc., are not appropriate for Church services. We come to services to worship God, not to display our bodies. Our challenge as Christian men and women is to come out of this world (2 Corinthians 6:17) and be lights to a world that has lost its way (Matthew 5:14–16). This is especially true as we gather to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles—picturing Christ’s glorious reign on earth! 

 

What About at the Beach?
Appropriate beach attire for women and men at the Feast of Tabernacles is swimwear that is modest and in good taste. We should be guided by the two great commandments—to love God and love neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39; Mark 12:29–31)—so as not to offend God or neighbor in our dress at the Feast. Accordingly, beachwear at the Feast for ladies should be a modest one-piece or a modest tankini (covering the mid-section), and for the men, no Speedo-type suits (unless pool facility rules require them, as is the case in some countries). Fathers and husbands have a responsibility to be leaders in their families to teach and guide regarding what is appropriate and what is not (Ezekiel 22:26).

LCG Palmetto Feast Site: Please Isolate Us From The Riff-Raff

 

As the east coast of the United States reels from the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene, the boys in Charlotte want to make sure that the general public does not mix with their site in Palmetto, FL. Apparently, part of the property is used during disasters and power outages. 

LCG has been working with the site to keep those people separated away from the glorious Gospel of the Good News of the Kingdom of God and the millennial setting picture by the Feast of Tabernacles. God forbid any unwashed heathens might happen to sit in the back during church services. That would be a shame.

Also, pray for the brethren in these areas, not so much for the rest of the population.

Hurricane Helene 

 

As Mr. Weston mentioned in his weekly video message, Mr. Ryan Dawson, Festival Site Coordinator for Palmetto, Florida, has been in contact with the site administrator concerning the incoming storm. The property is not expected to sustain any major damage or to be closed for any length of time. However, the property is an emergency shelter, and the south end of it is used when there are power outages. Mr. Dawson and our contact with the venue have discussed a plan to isolate our event from any potential traffic. We do not currently anticipate any major disruptions to the Feast site in Palmetto. 

 

Some of the local brethren in the potential path of the storm may experience a direct hit, though most are fairly far inland. However, they may be subject to flooding or wind damage. Just last year, one member's house was left uninhabitable due to hurricane Idalia. Please pray for God’s protection for the Palmetto Feast site as well as the one in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and for all the brethren in the path of the storm.

Bearing Witness to Laodiceans and the Worldwide Declaration That WCG Still Exists

 

Anyone who has been a part of the Church of God movement over the decades has witnessed or maybe even known one of the various Elijahs, Elishas, and men who self-appointed themselves as the overlords of the so-called restored truth from Herbert Armstrong and then expected us to respect their decisions. We have seen how well that has played out over the decades, especially since 1996.

Yet, here we are in 2024 and these self-appointed ne'er-do-wells continue to flap their jowls about how God has sent them on a mission to preserve the truth once restored, which was apparently lost by an impotent god who could not preserve it. Never fear though, that god has sent Bob Thiel and Samuel Kitchen to preserve that truth as they prepare to walk the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming a loud and forceful message...

Samuel has this up about his 2022 Jerusalem/Jordan Feast of Tabernacles experience.

Sometimes I run across someone writing about me or my family.

It’s hard to tell the full story, without dragging up dirty laundry on the other person. So I’ve refrained from writing about it.

When I went to Jerusalem in 2022, I was originally going alone.

Satan was really attacking that time, and what kept coming to my mind was, even Christ had to escape to solitude to continue on in life. He used that time to draw close to God the Father.

So I was going to use that time to draw close to God.

What ended up being, was the announcement of the Worldwide Church of God existing and assembling to keep the Holy Days of the Lord. It was a worldwide declaration.

I had let my brother choose where we were all staying in Jerusalem. We found out we were scammed(it wasn’t my brothers fault)but Christ did intervene on our behalf and we ended up in Petra, Jordan keeping all the Fall Feast days.

It was made apparently clear, God had placed His name THERE in Wadi Mussa, as we ended up there without foreknowledge.

So that was exciting news for us. Not only was we allowed to declare to the world from Jerusalem we, the Worldwide Church of God, still existed and were still assembling, we also felt Christ revealed what “her place” meant in Revelation 12:14 with this trip.

We were filled with bewilderment!

We never would have thought we would end up in Jerusalem and then Jordan! So briefly we thought on what our attitudes should be! We left our homes thinking on Gods Word, where it says “remember lot’s wife”.

We didn’t want to “look back”.

Trouble begins in paradise, a woman enters the picture: 

Now as we ended up in Jordan, we were still in contact with loved ones back home. We told them the possibility of us not returning home.

So my brother became excited because his estranged wife and their children, decided they were coming to Jordan! I was seeing woman at the time, and she flew out to Jordan as well!

But now, things turned from “the church” and “her place”, to family problems.

Tim, my brother, needed to be the head of his household again. He had been separated from his wife for several years prior. But he had no money to provide for them and take care of them in Jordan. Our group ended up taking care of them, even after protesting. We didn’t have enough for everyone, and when they showed up with no money, we protested.

This was not an unfamiliar problem, as when my brother initially got married, they showed up at our home with no money and no means to provide for themselves. Even my brother had to admit God seemed to shut all the doors for him to provide for her and her children! She eventually had to run back to her parents and go elsewhere for the privisions. Now my brother worked very hard and is working hard to provide for his family. He wasn’t lazy. He was seeking to do good. God just intervened on certain things, because he knew all hearts.

In Jordan, my brother simply had no ability to provide for the addition of his returning family, and so he leaned on church assistance for it, which we did give at our own peril and loss.

His wife placed him in that position. I don’t look down on my brother for him wanting his family together again.

He would have given if he had it to give.

But with us not being able to help THEM,

He chose to stick with them, as they had to go elsewhere for assistance.

That’s what problem we faced in Jordan.

He stayed with his family. I stayed with the brethren.

Now afterwards, he did take the YouTube and social media away from me. That was wrong of him. He, finding himself in the new role of “head of family”, which was handed back to him by his wife, began to encroach all areas he was included in with the work online.

And since I discerned a wrong spirit with his wife, I was at odds with him too, because he felt wronged by me. It was his wife, I was saying who had a wrong spirit.

So he felt I was attacking his “headship” of his family, and therefore was attacking the God ordained family government.

So he felt, it was his duty, to remove me from my own YouTube channels and social media over this problem.

Later he found out his wife, in her private messages online, went to Jordan to “pull” him away from me because I had too much influence with him.

She went there to divide brothers.

And after looking at things, and praying about it, we had a lot of growing up to do after mom and dad died. Lots of socialization needed to happen.

I don’t have any hard feelings against my brother. I don’t think he necessarily did wrong. With exception of usurping me on the channels and social media. My dad placed me in charge of those things and not him.

As soon as he did that, however wrong it may have or not have been, I continued on with new social media and new YouTube channels, doing what I was led of Christ to do, which set up a scenario of someone going after them, shutting me down using a new trademark.

As soon as my brother and I started to talk again, our little brother was working on being healthy and to my excitement was becoming more and more interested with God’s truth and work! Well in his quest to be more health, he started to supplement testosterone. Which made him extremely aggressive. He didn’t seem to be thinking right and clearly, and being “a babe in Christ” he didn’t know enough spiritually to defend against the Devil and his demons. So a wrong attitude developed.

Bad attitudes. The church seemed to be filled with them, or that is the excuse that was convenient to use. 

He ran to my brother with this attitude, and I was “executed” swiftly, without question, and once again my brother took the YouTube channels and social media away.

That hasn’t stopped me from working where I have been placed by God. But it’s clearly Satan trying to DESTROY us brothers, and doesn’t want us working together.

I’ll hope, my brothers can forgive me. I forgive them. We all have done wrong or have given the appearance of wrong. Satan capitalized on it. But the work of God isn’t destroyed thankfully.

I think Christ needed to establish whom He is using.

Mr Armstrong is Christ’s apostle.

Through him, Matthew 24:14 was fulfilled “as a witness to all nations”.

The Worldwide Church of God, was raised up through such preaching, and gave a second witness by living and putting into action the way of God which was preached by the apostle!

The publishing stage for this Church ended roughly around 1986. That’s when the organization was taken off the track and used for other purposes by non believers.

The internet stage was raised up simply to preserve such publishing for future engagement.

As we address the departures from Jesus Christ, and the dangers set against the Church, we have a true witness to show how it’s meant to be, Jesus Christ is there leading the Church.

But in warning, I do give my own testimony and witness, in observing the departures in order to raise alarm!

People ask, how do you know this isn’t Jesus Christ? I point back to the witness work done through Herbert W Armstrong and point back to the Head of this Church, back to Jesus Christ leading this Church! So the mouth of two witnesses the thing is establish. My voice alone is worthless. And without someone raising the alarm and seeing the departure, and bringing forth the true witness work, that witness work is locked into 1986- and prior!

So my family has been bringing forth the true witness which was done through Herbert W Armstrong and the church, and raising the alarm with our own witness and testimony!

Now, what happens to the “archives” if the beast system shuts down the internet? It cuts off our ability to bring forward the true witness! We can no longer direct people to the preaching of Herbert Armstrong, and the church, if we can no longer access those archives!

So what would be needed? Assembly at Jerusalem, for now there requires TWO WITNESSES.

This is also about the freedom to assemble as the Worldwide Church of God!

Those of the Body of Christ, the Worldwide Church of God, will go into a place of safety. “Her place”(Rev. 12:14)

No one can stop that assembly.

But right now, the warning to the Laodiceans, is going out through our work. We have been warning of departures, of becoming a “separated church” and from joining “other churches”. We are admonishing brethren and ministry to come back and return and reassemble as the Worldwide Church of God. And boy have we seen opposition!!!!!!!!

I think that opposition will continue until the place of safety. Then the world will know!

Our job with preserving the archives, is not to hold possession of the archives, but to ensure their preservation and to stir up engagement!

In fear of us holding possession, others have fought much harder, and with more money we could ever provide, to keep us from possessing all of the archives. In that attempt, they have made it possible for more people to engage with those archives, and to expand our reach with the warning.

So I feel everything my brothers and I, my family etc, have gone through has been for the good of God’s Church. For the preservation of the witness work, and engagement people have with it.

 

All of you rebellious Laodicean heathens need to repent and return to the one true Worldwide Church of God! 

NOW! 

Get your lamps trimmed, your Petra bags packed, and all of your money ready for that final push and be ready to buy your plane tickets to Jordan where I have been assured by the Jordanian government that they will welcome tens of thousands of COG members flying in from all over the world to take over their prime tourist destination.

Be warned though. The Great Bwana Bob Thiel has laid dibs on the Petra Marriot Presidential Suite for his place of lodging. While you suffer in heat and cold in some dank pissed filled cave, the Great Bwana, the first Witless Witness,  and the Second Witless Witness Samuel will be living in luxury. God is great!