Many Church of God Ministers and Members Ask...Critical What?????

Thousands sit and wonder...

(or should)

"That doesn't sound right to me"

Critical Thinking-Does It Matter?

The Latest Issue of The Journal (Issue190)

The latest issue of The Journal is out with a nice article about Gavin Rumney.

There is also an article by John Robinson detailing Ken Westby's take on the 1974 "rebellion" of some on the East Coast.  I remember this time in the church.  Westby called it a "reform movement."

Mr. Westby was also known as the leader of a movement from within the Worldwide Church of God in the 1970s sometimes referred to as the 1974 East Coast Rebellion. However, Mr. Westby said it wasn’t a rebellion. He called it a reform movement. 

The article then goes on to talk about how they estimate that up to 10,000 members left the church during this time.  I know in the Dayton church we lost quite a few members from this.

Living Church of God has another ad up for their "university."   They don't like their members associating with other COG's but they think it is appropriate to poach youth from other COG's. Something is wrong with that picture.

Don Billingsley is back with  another one of his outlandish articles about his vision of end time prophecy in action.  As usually his goal is to get you to read The Mystery of the Ages along side your Bible, since it is the most important book ever written.

Time is Running Out—Based on what is made known by the news media, coupled with the end-time proph- ecies, it should be real- ized the handwriting is on the wall for this na- tion, and the end of it is now very close as it was for Belshazzar King of Babylon (Daniel 5:1-31)! Prophecy reveals super- power America will be conquered by the Revived Holy Roman Empire as was the impregnable Babylonian Empire by the Medio- Persian Empire. 

MYSTERY OF THE AGES—Study your Bible together with the last book Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong wrote: the unedited MYSTERY OF THE AGES, ISBN 0-396-08773-6, and believe it. This could save your life from the worsen- ing troublesome times before us. R emember— Mr. Armstrong was the man Jesus Christ used to teach all of us His truth (II T imothy 3:13-14) 

Marie Casale has an ad up telling COG members to leave their spouses if they have remarried after divorce.

We are told to flee from fornication (1 Cor 6:18). This means that members who have unlawfully married or remarried should flee from those marriages. It also means that prospective church members who are in an adulterous second marriage while their first spouse still lives should flee from that marriage before they are baptized. Why? Because baptism does not change the definition of an adulterous marriage, nor does it forgive adultery that people are still going to continue living in.

We are also told not to company with fornicators (1 Cor 5:9-11). This means that we should separate from and stop having a one-flesh relationship with our spouse if he or she is an adulterer. If we don’t, we will defile our temple of the Lord. This is why divorce is allowed for fornication and why the Lord’s example was to divorce Israel for her fornication. 

You can read issue 190 of The Journal here.

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Dave Pack: My Church Members Are So Electrified By My Sermons That NONE Are Leaving The Church

Superfantabulous Dave,

the most electrifying COG minister ever!

Well Dave should have kept his mouth shut.  He has lost many member since stating this, including family members.

I learned the truth that Ambassador College. It was fairly well established by the mid-1960’s God called me, as I often say 50 years ago now this month. Next week 50 years since I began to learn the truth. We heard things ahead of the brethren—but it’s been a difficult thing for our ministers. We’re learning so much, so fast, and I know everybody has riveted. I ought to just tell you, it’s been weeks, quite a number of weeks since even one person, anywhere in the world has left the Church. That tells me that the reports I’m getting that people are just riveted, and electrified are real (if you will), and there’s going to be much, much more again, including today (of course).

Dave Pack: Gleeful at all of the ministers dying in LCG and other COG's. Calls all those COG's "The Widow's Convention"

Dave thinks that the recent deaths of COG ministers are a sure sign that his god is displeased with all of the COG's.   The god of Armstrongism has always been a magical god, ready to wreck vengeance upon all the ministers and COG's that certain leaders disagree with.

I wanted to talk a little bit about something that relates to prophecy in a way that we would not normally talk about or think of. If a certain verse came to mind…that I’m going to show you in a moment…that, again, is another one of those that nobody ever understood, you certainly wouldn’t think of what I’m going to tell you. I’m just going to pass on something that is not pleasant, but, in a way, it can be, once I explain the whole picture.

For a number of days now, maybe a couple weeks, in a large splinter…One of the large groups; the one I was in when it was called Global…one person after another, one minister after another, has died in an unbelievably tragic way. It’s just unprecedented. For a long time, in some ways before we even got to the things that I’m going to mention, I often thought of that group as a place of death and tragedy in some ways.

Now, you might say that’s awfully strong…but there’s so much. There’s been murder. There’s been a vastness of the ministers that have died; been incapacitated. I’ve often called the group a widows’ convention…and there are a great many.

About two weeks ago, maybe just a little over two weeks ago, a senior minister—a man who was ordained an evangelist over there in Australia—died suddenly. A massive stroke—dead—and left Australia rudderless. They put his son in charge because all the other ministers in Australia have grave health problems, and they can’t put any of them in charge. I know these men, because I’ve been to Australia for the Feast 20 years ago. I helped this man come into Global. I remember meeting him back in 1973. He was a faithful man in many regards. Love him dearly, and suddenly—gone.

Another minister—this week—killed himself, and I knew him very well. The name is very personal to me. He was my first wife’s dear friend, beginning in 1960. She was in Milwaukee at age 14, and he was in the teenage group from Chicago, age 15. She would have graduated from college in’ 67; he in’ 66. Her childhood friend…I’m glad my wife is not here to learn how he took his own life.

When I got to meet him, it was a joy, because I’d heard so much about him, and how, when my first wife’s grandmother, who was from Germany, came to services one day in Chicago for a Holy Day, this man’s father…very German family…also from Germany, walked up to the two Germans, on a Holy Day at, I believe it was McCormick Place in Chicago in the early’ 60s, and said, Oh, are you a member of the Church? She said no, and he goes, Ahh, du bist ein Heide. In other words, “You’re a heathen.” [laughter] I’ve never forgotten that story. And I kidded this man about his father, and it was a fun story. There are many wonderful memories I have of this man.

I also helped him…even though he was older than I was by about four-, four-and-a-half years; five years ahead of me in college…I helped him come into the Global Church of God. Now, they’re both suddenly gone.

Another pastor, in the Philippines, dropped dead this week. Just dropped dead, in the same group—heart attack, massive heart attack—longtime pastor.

A member in this splinter was on the plane that went down—Egypt Air. A member in France left a grieving husband and son…and she’s never to be found. A terrorist act or not…I don’t know…but they were coming in…If you know the story, about two-and-a-half weeks ago. That’s a sad situation.

So, there’s four, right there, and I wanted to just to cover this. I don’t “speak to” every one of those people. I’m not about to say that, if you take your life…That’s why I don’t want to get into his name…that you’re just going to come up in the Kingdom. Because very difficult things are going to happen, and to suggest to people—who, really, in the end, don’t endure to the end—that’s all right, you can die this way or that……But, that’s okay. You take your life, even though you didn’t endure to the end, you can be in the Kingdom. Because you suggest, to other people, that if the going gets tough—check out, and you’ll be in the Kingdom.

There is a horrible, horrible message being portrayed about this…I hope the man, who was a friend of mine, was never converted; then maybe he could be someday. It’s a confusing time. One other thing that makes this man personal to me, and I guess I choose to share it with you, this particular minister took the Real Truth magazine for many years, right till his death. His name is still on our subscription list. He used my book on the trinity to help people in the splinters. The fact that the Worldwide Church of God introduced the trinity at a point was a big, big problem, in a particular way to this particular man, and he saw the book that I had written…and he’d studied the subject a lot…and he asked if he could have copies of the book.

There was certainly a very interested and zealous side of this man, and none of you would have ever known he was on the Real Truth list, but now that he is gone, I will make you aware of that. But one of the concerns that we have, brethren—and I’ve seen this—where we sort of judge in more than one way. We have to be very careful we do not judge that people don’t make it into the Kingdom. You have to be very careful. And I’m not doing that. But when you declare that someone is in the Kingdom, you have also overruled God in a different way. You have judged for Him.

We can understand sin. We can know people by their fruits, but when it comes to such matters, at the end of the day, where they do or don’t go, we stay out of it. I just bring that up, because there are so many different elements of the tragedy like this in an organization that’s full of tragedy, where sometimes that tragedy can personally touch us. And in this case, I’m very personally touched. I’m just glad my wife, again, is not here to know how her dear friend, from the early 1950s, ended.

It’s a very confusing time with some of these people. The person who went down in that plane…Is it random? It’s kind of like the tower of Siloam fell on certain ones, you recall Christ’s account—except you repent you shall all likewise perish. These were not chief sinners, Christ said. There are tragic things that happen in a world. Why does God let a woman like that go down in that plane, leaving a grieving husband, and son? It also happens in other splinter groups where a lot of people are dying, not just ministers. I listed both there.