For decades we have had it pounded into us that the Church of God was the ONLY true church preaching the truth in this sick and perverted world. Our truth was so precious that it was discovered by Herbert Armstrong in the 1930s that no one in the entirety of Christianity understood, well, at least for 1,800 years. Once HWA discovered this he set about broadcasting it to the world in radio programs, magazines, booklets, and books. That truth was so precious to him that he traveled the world trying to get his message across, even if it was about a strong hand from SOMEPLACE. He was passionate without worrying too much about what people thought.
Then, the COG imploded in such a horrendous implosion that hundreds and hundreds of little splinter groups shot out in every direction with some of the most outlandish tales and messages imaginable. Through all of this, each and every one of them thought they were the one and only possessors of truth.
Over the last three decades, hundreds and hundreds of these splinter groups faded into oblivion with only a few of the "larger" groups who have been able to hold on and continue to proclaim a message, in their own way. It is no longer a unified message that HWA instilled in them, but now many independent messages instilled with visions and mindless mind-farts by certain present-day leaders that they think is now the gospel.
Yet, at least three of the current Churches of God, the Restored Church of God, Living Church of God, and the Philadelphia Church of God, have started banning their sermons from being heard by the public, hiding and editing certain writings, and have "members only" areas for sermons and special writings from the leadership.
As their spiritual leaders say more and more outlandish things, the brakes are slamming down hard to keep their words from flowing out to the public, especially to COG members and "dissident" blogs and web sites. Even with all the prohibitions many of them have put into place, the absurdities they say spread like wildfire within minutes to hours.
Three of these COG groups, the Living Church of God, the Restored Church of God, and the Philadelphia Church of God have also resorted to devious means in order to flush out whistleblowers in their midst. Certain video or audio recordings are sent to certain people that have been altered in ways that when they show up on the internet and blogs they can quickly start narrowing down who the whistleblowers are. Some of them also send out documents and articles with edited words added or deleted to find out who is passing the message around. Some of them even fabricate bogus stories to see who spreads it, like PCG is doing.
If the words these churches say are the "truth" then why are they so embarrassed to have their sermons and utterances being heard? Even if it leads to "persecution" by authorities of government, isn't that message too precious to hideaway? The sad fact of reality in the COG movement is that it is currently led by a bunch of cowards who bluster and bloviate on their uniqueness and yet are actually little man-boys who are constantly getting their delicate feelings hurt.
The Church of God movement is no longer a reality but a minor blip in the grand scheme of things. They are like nasty farts happening in the middle of church services. It stinks to high heaven and takes ages to disappear, but it finally does, pretty much like what the current COG's are doing.
COG members need to stop fearing their leaders and their supposed ability to cut people off from salvation. It is not something that any of them are able to do nor is it the action of God they claim to follow. COG members don't need to be giving huge amounts of money to their leaders, having bake sales, selling fruit, having garage sales, and any other manner of "works" these leaders claim members need to be doing. Salvation is not something we need to work for, it's a free gift from God and actually works for us.
So the next time your leader starts hiding things from you, telling tall tales, and actively spying on church members to find moles and whistleblowers, you should walk out the door and never look back.
