There is one trait that differentiates COG followers and Christians in the so-called world when it comes to understanding spiritual maturity.
Church of God leaders what you to remain as little whiney babies, totally dependent upon their words, and teachings. The most dangerous thing a COG Christian can do is decide to move on from the baby pablum that is spoon-fed to members and to become a mature Christian, grounded in Jesus Christ.
Almost-arrested Elisha Bwana Bob Thiel, the self-appointed savior of Africa and 299 Caucasians let it be known tonight that he does not expect spiritually mature Christians to be part of his cult. If you were, you would be out the door so fast his Fatima's skirt would be even higher than it is already!
Bwana Bob said on February 25th in his weekly "sabbath" letter to his African faithful:
Until we are born into the Kingdom of God, we are all spiritual babes and need “the pure milk of the word, that we all can grow spiritually.
Bwana Bob needs his followers to be dependent upon his every word, as silly and unimportant that it is most of the time to any REAL Christian. When you look at Bob Thiel's websites, his articles, sermons, animations, blogs, it is nothing but rubbish. Pure unadulterated pablum for babies who have to wait for their spiritual daddy to tell them what to believe.
When looking up different definitions of what a mature Christian is, I came upon this great definition which describes Thiel's theology to a "T:".
'Baby Christians', a baby is a person, a little person who is utterly dependent upon another. It is a person who is amused, often times, by rubbish - you can give it the box of the toy and not the toy, and it will be more amused with the box than the toy. A baby is a creature that seems to put into its mouth anything that it finds lying on the ground. As that little baby gets older - and it doesn't need to get too old, I can tell you, to go into little tantrums when it doesn't get its way. When we look at the figure, or the metaphor, or the illustration, the analogy that Paul gives us of baby Christians, we see that he's talking about people who are always dependent upon others, who never learn to have spiritual independence and growth individually. They are often amused by rubbish, by things that don't really matter, they'll put anything into their mouths, they'll feed themselves on anything except the word of God, and they are often - within the church of Jesus Christ - prone to tantrums. That's what a baby is like, and if you can imagine what an adult like that would be, you have now imagined what the Corinthians Christians were like in the days of Paul. Baby Christians
COG leaders never teach their members to reflect upon scripture, to question it, to examine it, and determine if it will fit life situations.
For the last 16 years, I have been leading a 4-year course on the Bible, church history, and living your life fully as a Christian by looking at ways to put your faith into action in the world around you. Every four years the theme for that year is Living as Spiritual Mature Christians. A couple notes from the lesson plan has this:
Within the arena of Christian ministry a person demonstrates intellectual maturity as one reflects carefully and critically within life situations in ways that increase and enhance the ability to discern God's self-revelation and action.
Every age and culture must apply the model of Jesus to its own times and circumstances. The question of what constitutes Christian maturity must be answered afresh by each generation. What first-century Christians in Antioch thought about being Christ-like would be vastly different from those in pre-Reformation Europe or from those of us in the United States at the close of the twentieth Century. Christians in every era and location seek to model Christ out of their own experiences of the world, with their different needs and responsibilities, with their vastly different self-concepts. (Parent, Educating for Christian Maturity)
This is why when you hear COG leaders spout off, today in 2021, that that are practitioners of 1st century Christianity you know that it is pure bunk. For them to say this proves they are not mature Christians. They are so immature that they cannot even model Christ in 2021 but struggle to model Moses. But, of course, the reason for that is that the COG cannot and will not focus upon Jesus. Its focus is upon the law, rules, proper church government, and idiotic worthless topics that have no meaning whatsoever to a Christian walk.
God is not after spiritual police but passionate followers. Mature Christians are so convicted by their belief that they are not so close-minded that they see everyone else wrong. That can sit down and glean wisdom from people of other Christian faiths, Muslims, Buddhists, and even atheists. They can share stories and support each other and not wag the crooked finger of COG hypocrisy in their faces. One can listen intently and not always agree, but still be kind and gracious to others. Baby Christians cannot stand the thought of even associating with a Catholic, Pentecostal person, or sitting in a Gospel praising African American church service, and God forbid if a Mulsim or an atheist ever came into their presence.
Baby Christians only love themselves and the group they are in. All others are Laodiceans destined to the lake of fire. It just irks their pharisaical knickers that Jesus had a special love for those on the margins. This was the dividing line between him and the self-righteous Pharisees and other law keepers. Jesus surrounded himself with that with no voice - women, poor, lepers, the sick, centurions, slaves eunuchs, tax collectors, the dead, and others considered unclean
Mature Christian's hearts break for those in the world suffering and who have no voice. For the hungry, those suffering from famine, war, and persecution. They do something about it. They don't sit in their lovely home in Grover Beach CA and bitch about being persecuted when real Christians are being persecuted in Syria, Iraq, Malaysia, India, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. Some of them are even in prison or dying for their beliefs, while fake COG prophets whine like little crybabies that Youtube or Twitter blocked some poorly made video.
Why would ANYONE let some self-righteous turd tell them to remain spiritual babies? Babies are easy prey for predators and the current Church of God movement is FULL of predators!14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. The Message, Ephesians 4:14-16
Therefore let us get past the elementary stage in the teachings about the Christ, advancing on to maturity and perfection and spiritual completeness, [doing this] without laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God...Hebrews 6:1
