Man-made traditions of the Church of God results in the power structure illustrated above. The higher up the chain of command the more in touch with God the ordained are. This kind of silliness demonstrates the chain of command present in the Living Church of God.
The first fallacy above is the idea that Herbert Armstrong is directly under God the Father. Next you will notice that in the chain of command HWA is right there beside
Jesus Christ and the upper echelon ministers. HWA and crew are on par with Jesus Christ because HWA gets far more mention than
Jesus Christ ever does in the Living Church of God. That inconvenient man named Jesus is usually relegated to one sentence or a small paragraph at the end of an article, letter, booklet or sermon.
The next fallacy is that men ordained through Herbert Armstrong received a higher degree of consciousness than the lay members possess. These men possess all scriptural and doctrinal knowledge that the LCG deems fit for its members. These men are far more enlightened than any of the lowly LCG members. That's part of the reason LCG has instituted a new policy that LCG members are not allowed to congregate together to study the Bible on their own. One of the elite ministers has to be present to give the OFFICIAL version of things.
Then you have the big tithers in the LCG. These are the ones that get by with all kinds of indiscretions and never are punished. The regular members always are at the bottom of the heap are held to a higher standard and pay the consequences quit severely at times.
This is also what has led to McNair and Meredith telling members that they are NOT to question the ministry on anything. God works with them personally and they are incapable of making a mistake. Even if what they tell you is 100% wrong, God will bless you if you do what they say. Its all about submission.
That threat of submission also intimidates members into sending in more money to LCG HQ. LCG members are reporting lots of sermons lately on money. Income in the LCG has dropped and they are scrambling to keep the money flow coming in. Certain lifestyles need to be maintained! Lil'Jimmy needs to decorate his office again. Brethren there ARE priorities!
The cash cow for the LCG and other Church of God's is the Festival season. With Trumpet's, Atonement and the Feast, money freely flows into the coffers. They foolishly make people believe they are required to give offerings and turn over a tithe of the tithe to LCG at this time of year. If you are an LCG member reading this it would be in your best interest to keep that tithe of the tithe for use by your OWN family and have the best feast possible and enjoy it to the fullest, because if Meredith dies in the next year the LCG is going to be ripped apart by division and you will never experience another Feast like this one. Besides, why are your giving a tithe of the tithe to the LCG ministry when they are all getting $4-6,000.00 in ministerial benefits to travel to and from Feast sites, stay in expensive hotels or condo's and enjoy the finest wines and delicacies while you and your family are eating at Hardee's. You are paying for Lil'Jimmy's trips to Hawaii and Rod McNair's trips. Why?
It's Satan brethren! Satan is attacking the church! Satan is causing the drop in income! Satan is casing members to leave! Satan gets far more air time in the Living Church of God than
Jesus Christ ever does. I have always wondered why they never included Satan in their organizational charts.
