LCG: Your Leaders Know What Is Best For You

The Church of God has always held a firm reign on members and what they should believe. Members were taught never to question, have doubt and express that doubt publicly, and to NEVER question the words of a minister or church leader.  To do so was tantamount to blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

Ordinary lay members were too uneducated in the Bible, church history, eschatology, hermeneutics, and other areas theological studies.  Only men trained at the feet of Herbert Armstrong were capable of passing on "truths" ministers under them. Ministers were never encouraged to attend real theological institutions and learn proper techniques.  The result of this is over 80 decades of men who have had the exact same information passed on to them as holy writ from the mouth or pen of Herbert Armstrong.  This kind of thinking has breed men like Rod McNair, Almost ordained Bob Thiel, James Malm, and others who have set themselves up as the end all in spiritual wisdom.  To doubt any of them is borderline blasphemy.

Thus, church members should always look upwards with reverence at the leadership of the church for spiritual truths.  At no point in time should ANY member EVER take it upon themselves to "correct" or "save" the church!  According to LCG, that is supposed to be Christ's job.  He does the correcting, through the leaders.

The question should be asked, What IF the leadership is so corrupt and graceless that Christ just might need to use a lay member to wake up the lazy, bloated, and self-important ministry? What happens then?  We all know that answer.  You will be kicked out and publicly humiliated from the pulpit, by the very same graceless, bloated, self-important ministers that need the correction.

Just the title alone of the Weekly Update is meant to instill fear into the LCG membership.  If you dare to question, you are misguided and the church does not like that. Questions and criticism are "misguided" even though Christ might be waking you up.

Beware of Misguided Ideas

The Apostle Paul warned, “in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1-4) and that many will not listen to sound doctrine but will prefer to follow their own ideas (2 Timothy 3:1-6; 4:1-4). Paul also warned that critics from within and from outside the Church will try to divide congregations to gain a following (Acts 20:29-31). He pointed out that Satan will try various ways to mislead well-meaning people (2 Corinthians 2:11) who latch onto and begin to spread an idea—that has already been examined and rejected by the Church—in an attempt to influence others (2 Corinthians 11:4-15). While numerous ideas created problems among brethren in the early Church, Paul’s advice was to “Guard what was committed to your trust” (1 Timothy 6:20), “hold fast” to what you have been “taught” (Titus 1:9-11) and “avoid foolish disputes” (Titus 3:9; 1 Timothy 6:3-5). When questions arise over doctrine, the biblical example is to take the issue to the leaders of the Church for a decision (Acts 15:1-31). Nowhere do the Scriptures encourage individuals to take it on themselves to correct or “save” the Church. That is something that Jesus Christ will take care of in His time as He “builds” His Church (Matthew 16:18).

Have a profitable Sabbath,

Douglas S. Winnail

"That "Only True Church" thing has been the bane of the Churches of God"

Reposting Dennis comment from the LCG-"We Are Not Wishy Washy" post.

That "Only True Church" thing has been the bane of the Churches of God as has "Government from the top down." The New Testament is a Testament to two true churches of God. The Jewish Christian one under Peter, James and John and the Gentile Pauline Church. The Jewish Christian interpretation is what we find in the COG except they try to make Paul one of them too which he isn't and fought hard against. The Gentile Pauline version is just about everything else in all their forms. Galatians 1-2 is a Pauline rant against the Jerusalem Apostles and an authentic letter of Paul. The Book of James is a Jewish Christian rant against Paul's concept of grace with no works found in Paul's also authentic Book of Romans.

The letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation were NEVER conceived as being types of authentic Churches of God 2000 years into the future. "Behold I come quickly" and "To show things which must shortly come to pass" for them back then indicate the failure of Revelation as a prophecy. It's a Jewish Book written to encourage Jewish Christians caught in the fall of Jerusalem . It failed to deliver and the Romans won. No Jesus returned to save them and it was not meant to extend one hour past the fall of the city and destruction of the Temple. Fundamentalist churches have spent the last 200 years making Revelation mean what it never meant and does not mean. 

Without the Book of Revelation the Churches of God would have no message and certainly no motivator like it to join them. Fear sells and it's all made up. Nothing in the Book of Revelation will come to pass as speculated. It was a second Daniel which was written to encourage the Jews to hang in there in the 160's BCE and they lost in the same way.to the Romans. 

I know the pull and power of the Book of Revelation as well as anyone . It barely made the cut into the New Testament Canon. But clearly its time passed and those who read it so dearly in the details will dismiss the opening and closing verses which clearly indicate something had gone terribly wrong with it being inspired or how it all will be. LIke the Apostle Paul, who after years of "soon" had to face the final curtain and wish everyone good luck on their own journey, the Book of Revelation was the swan song of the dying Jewish Church.

On top of that, no human beings know the future . It is not all planned out and all one has to do is read Art Mokarrow's. "God's Puzzle Solved" for the solution to this puzzle. There is no puzzle that needs solving . That makes Bible God a Trickster who is more interested in playing games than informing humans of whatever one thinks their incredible human potential is. 

It doesn't matter where you go to church or even if you do. There is a seat for every butt and a style for every personality. That's why we have so many denominations and while I realize no one ever says they know they attend the false church, the fight over who is the true church is equally as ludicrous and ill informed.