People Are Not Impressed By Meredith's Fasting Plea

Some comments from Apostle Malm's acolytes.  It's pretty bad when even diehard believers find it troubling that Meredith has declared a fast for his own healing.

Some I have talked to in LCG said that they will NOT be fasting this weekend.  They said that Meredith won't fast for regular members when they are ill, so why should they fast for the bigwigs when they are ill.  They are no more important than the regular folk.

One thing should be noted about LCG’s fast: it deeply troubles me that R. Meredith seems to use repeated enforced fasts not as a spiritual tool for his people, but more a political tool to his own benefit. He always uses terms like “leading ministers” or “leading elders” which explains to anyone that he Meredith is the “leading leading” minister. This latest fast is mainly for the health woes of LCG leadership. Boy when the Supreme Leader and/or his Lieutenants don’t feel well, the whole world should care! It’s odd that bizarre sicknesses keep striking LCG leaders more so than any other group I know.

So now members of the ekklesia of God, one of the most controversial (and the truth to tell one of the most detested)leaders in Church of God history has asked for your prayers for himself and others suffering from health problems and for his corporate business, LCG Inc.

I don’t know much about LCG, but if Rod M is very old and it is time for him to die (it will happen to us all), then perhaps we should pray that he will be able to finish off his last days, allowing God to work with him and helping him to give up his leadership of LCG.
Does he need to just accept that it is time for his life to end? I

A very large percentage of members of the COGs are dying either of disease or old age. Maybe it is just time to go and be in their place of safety (the grave) before the tribulation. If people are fasting perhaps it should not be for healing but that the members concerned straighten out their lives and repent of sin while we can. God is giving these people time to get their spiritual lives in order.

We can’t twist God’s arm into giving someone more time to do the things they want to do before they die.

What we should be concerned about is getting rid of the idolatry of putting ministers and the organisations on a pedestal as this letter from LCG is doing again. The death of a leading minister is no more important in God’s sight than the death of any other church member.

Rod Meredith over the years has consistently linked fasting with asking something of God, because there was a lack of faith, sicknesses and not as many healings as he wanted from God, yet his current letter indicates things are worse, not better. So, what “good” has been accomplished by those past fasts (usually on the Sabbath too)?

Rod Meredith (RM) wants those of his group to be: “…asking for His special mercy at this time and for the supernatural healing…”

But, as RM not read what God said about fasting and people lifting up their voices to Him to get something?
“Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.” Isaiah 58:4

I thought more about RM’s letter…where he wrote: “…let us all cry out to God for more of His Spirit, more of His power…” Isn’t that making one’s voice to be heard on high? Also, is God a respecter of persons? Why would God give more of His Spirit, and more of His power, to some sealed Firstfruits and NOT to other sealed Firstfruits of God’s Church? Does God have “favorites?”

I feel the leadership have used fasting to beat us over the head and convince us that any problems in the church organisation are our fault, not theirs.

Emergency Fast Declared For Rod Meredith

Living Church of God has been struck with numerous health issues regarding it's leaders and HQ employees.

Therefore, lo and behold, Jesus spoke to Rod Meredith in a private conversation the other day, and told him to declare a church wide fast so that God would intervene in the health situations of Rod and Ames.

I guess Jesus was too weak of a pansy to do anything about it so he told Rod to go above him (Jesus) to get some action on the situation

Meredith writes:

From the Presiding Evangelist

(Special letter and announcement to be read in all congregations)

Dear brethren and ministers around the world,

Greetings to all of you and love from all of us here in Charlotte! We are very grateful for the love and loyalty shown by virtually all of you and for the wonderful blessings showered upon us during the recent festival season. As some of you may have heard, we were blessed to have more than 9,000 people attending the Feast of Tabernacles this autumn! That is a new record—for which we are thankful! Most of all, of course, God is concerned with the spiritual strength of our brethren and we certainly do want to emphasize that which is more important. However, we are grateful that God is adding to our numbers in the Church, and that we are continuing to have wonderful responses to the telecast nearly every week and that the impact of this Work around the world is certainly growing—especially as prophetic events speed up.

However, my immediate purpose in writing all of you at this time is to explain the reason for the upcoming Church FAST on the Sabbath of December 17. There were many instances in biblical times when God’s servants called for a fast. Remember how—as the “Day of the Lord approaches”—God’s true ministers were exhorted: “Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty” (Joel 1:14-15).

When Daniel sorrowed over the “desolations of Jerusalem,” and the need for God’s intervention, what did he do? “Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, ‘O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments’” (Daniel 9:3-4). And when the soon-to-be Apostle Paul was struck down and blinded to humble him and to “awaken” him, notice what he did: “Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (Acts 9:8-9).

Dear brethren, as you know from our previous announcements, we have had an entire series of extremely serious illnesses among God’s people in recent months—including a number of our leading people directly involved in the Work. We all know that the radiant faith of people like Peter and Paul is very seldom found among God’s people today. We remember Jesus’s statement: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

After meditating and praying about these things and conferring with our leading ministers here in Charlotte, I have been led by Jesus Christ to call for a Church-wide fast on the Sabbath of December 17—beginning, of course, the previous evening at sunset. I urge all of you faithful members, in Jesus’ name, to join with us in this day of fasting and prayer and in earnestly seeking God and asking for His special mercy at this time and for the supernatural healing of His people through the “stripes” of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:24). 

Dear brethren, as the end of this age approaches, let us all cry out to God for more of His Spirit, more of His power through divine healings and the “gifts of the Spirit.” I will not expound on this more here as a special taped sermon should arrive in time to explain all of this even more thoroughly. But I wanted to get this message to all of our people—ahead of time—so that you may be preparing yourselves—both physically and spiritually—for the upcoming fast. May God continue to guide and bless every one of you as you walk with Him.

With Christian love,

Roderick C. Meredith

** Please Announce: Mr. Meredith has requested that the special Must Play DVD titled, “Faith for Healing,” that he recorded about the Church-wide Fast, which has been called for the Sabbath of December 17, is to be played in services on December 10 (next Sabbath).

Apostle Malm has included the following in his announcement:

After his recent trip to Europe the health of Rod Meredith is in decline, his brother in law and designated successor is also elderly and in poor health.  In addition there are other health issues among the LCG leadership including one minister’s wife suffering from a brain tumour; and two workers at HQ and an elder’s wife struggling with cancer.

These issues have prompted instructions to play a message recorded by Rod on ”FAITH FOR HEALING” Dec 10th, and a day of fasting concerning health issues on 17 Dec.

Dennis Says: "We" Were Worng...

"We" Were Worng...

I have met a lot of people who are never wrong. They never take back that which they spoke which proved to be either stupid, inane or simply wrong. They waffle, redefine and deny, but they are never wrong. These people are incapable of saying "oops," much less, "I'm sorry," You find them everywhere. They might be a pastor, a politician, a CEO or a President. They might be your mother- in-law, father-in-law, dad, mom, brother or sister. Of course, it could be you, but you won't notice that.


One common thing they share is that they are NEVER wrong. Of course they are wrong, misinformed or just plain stupid in the way they view and filter their world, but they are never wrong in fact. Their inability to say "I am sorry," or "I was wrong," is legendary in the family, the church, the office or the government and the damage inflicted on those that fall victim of these people can be humorous, mildly annoying or catastrophic.


In my WCG experience, "I was wrong" was not something one was used to hearing.  Now I do recall when some genius figured out a Monday Pentecost should be a Sunday one the phrase "WE were wrong," came up.  However, that is not the same as the one who gets the final say in such things saying, 'I was wrong."  "We" was a common word inserted in the rare "were wrong" moments, but in fact it was not We but He that was actually wrong.  It is easier to be collectively wrong than individually wrong.  Very rare.


So in WCG "We" were wrong about makeup, Divorce and Remarriage, Baking soda is leavening, and many other such earthshaking topics. In fact, this all was a "He."  However, "we" were not wrong about Jesus not coming in 72, but rather it was 'He" being wrong about it.


We all know Politicians who call people names and then say they didn't, or knew it was an insult but claim being oblivious to the fact, are this kind of which I speak. Men who can't come up with anything better to say than "she's ugly" and then waffle around trying to come up with another reason as to why they say such stupid things fit the bill too. "Im sorry, I was rude and wrong," will do just fine. After years of being told we are going to "stay the course," we now are being told that never meant this or that when it did as it was thrown back in the faces of those that asked about rethinking the course.


The average American is not stupid when they hear the answers given to questions by those that really don't want to give the answer. We even mostly know the answer before we ask the question and we certainly can tell when the answer given is not the real answer. How many "oops, sorry about that," have we heard after these great observations and declarations? How many White House press briefings can you listen to before you realize either, "the guy is lying," waffeling or they must think we are absolutely brain dead and stupid.


Poor Herman Cain can't bring himself to say he was wrong in his past judgements and relationships.  He can't even admit they happened.  Now he knows these relationships that never happened have taken him out of the Presidential race, but that is only because of the rumors and not the facts of the matter.  He talks a lot of "we" as well.


Let's have some fun seeing where "I'm sorry, I was mistaken," never seems to reveal it's graceful presence.


Concerning the now obviously mistake of going to war with Iraq which had NOTHING to do with 911...

"Now that the combat phase of the war in Iraq is officially over, what begins is a debate throughout the entire U.S. government over America's unrivaled power and how best to use it."
(CBS reporter Joie Chen, 5/4/03)


"Congress returns to Washington this week to a world very different from the one members left two weeks ago. The war in Iraq is essentially over and domestic issues are regaining attention."
(NPR's Bob Edwards, 4/28/03)


"Tommy Franks and the coalition forces have demonstrated the old axiom that boldness on the battlefield produces swift and relatively bloodless victory. The three-week swing through Iraq has utterly shattered skeptics' complaints."
(Fox News Channel's Tony Snow, 4/27/03) I think we can see why Tony may have gotten the job White Press Secretary...


"The only people who think this wasn't a victory are Upper Westside liberals, and a few people here in Washington."
(Charles Krauthammer, Inside Washington, WUSA-TV, 4/19/03)


"The war was the hard part. The hard part was putting together a coalition, getting 300,000 troops over there and all their equipment and winning. And it gets easier. I mean, setting up a democracy is hard, but it is not as hard as winning a war."
(Fox News Channel's Fred Barnes, 4/10/03)


"The war winds down, politics heats up.... Picture perfect. Part Spider-Man, part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan. The president seizes the moment on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific."
(PBS's Gwen Ifill, 5/2/03, on George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech)


"We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple. We're not like the Brits."
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, 5/1/03)


"If image is everything, how can the Democratic presidential hopefuls compete with a president fresh from a war victory?"
(CNN's Judy Woodruff, 5/5/03)


"It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really was in the broadest context..... And the silence, I think, is that it's clear that nobody can do anything about it. There isn't anybody who can stop him. The Democrats can't oppose--cannot oppose him politically."
(Washington Post reporter Jeff Birnbaum-- Fox News Channel, 5/2/03)

Often those who find it difficult to say "I was wrong," or "I am sorry," are very quick to accuse everyone else of that inability, only to later have to eat the proverbially crow, though it still always tastes like steak to them.

"I'm waiting to hear the words 'I was wrong' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians and Hollywood types.... I just wonder, who's going to be the first elitist to show the character to say: 'Hey, America, guess what? I was wrong'? Maybe the White House will get an apology, first, from the New York Times' Maureen Dowd. Now, Ms. Dowd mocked the morality of this war....


"Do you all remember Scott Ritter, you know, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector who played chief stooge for Saddam Hussein? Well, Mr. Ritter actually told a French radio network that -- quote, "The United States is going to leave Baghdad with its tail between its legs, defeated." Sorry, Scott. I think you've been chasing the wrong tail, again.


"Over the next couple of weeks when we find the chemical weapons this guy was amassing, the fact that this war was attacked by the left and so the right was so vindicated, I think, really means that the left is going to have to hang its head for three or four more years."
(Fox News Channel's Dick Morris, 4/9/03)


"Well, the hot story of the week is victory.... The Tommy Franks-Don Rumsfeld battle plan, war plan, worked brilliantly, a three-week war with mercifully few American deaths or Iraqi civilian deaths.... There is a lot of work yet to do, but all the naysayers have been humiliated so far.... The final word on this is, hooray."
(Fox News Channel's Morton Kondracke, 4/12/03)


"This will be no war -- there will be a fairly brief and ruthless military intervention.... The president will give an order. [The attack] will be rapid, accurate and dazzling.... It will be greeted by the majority of the Iraqi people as an emancipation. And I say, bring it on."
(Christopher Hitchens, in a 1/28/03 debate-- cited in the Observer,
3/30/03)

I'm sure some of these commentators have since admitted to having been a bit prematurely enthusiastic for that which, to date, has proven to be one the biggest miscalculations in American history. The "V" word has even been spoken by the man who we may have hoped had learned something from his generations experience with Vietnam. Of course most of us are not privy to other agendas besides spreading freedom around the world.


But I digress...


Ministers are not above the inability to say I am sorry or I was wrong as well we know. I pastored in a denomination that was never wrong from the top down, but always wrong from the bottom up. Come to think of it, that sounds like the government too at the moment or maybe all moments. Countless, and I mean countless ministers have predicted the exact time that Jesus would return and have been wrong, oh let's say...100% of the time.


Will Ron Weinland of the PKG apologize for either his Swiss stashing of member funds or his mistaken view of Jesus returning at this or that time?  Don't hold your breath.  Will Gerald Flurry see the lack of wisdom in building a very expensive replica of the Ambassador Auditorium in a corn field during a depression?  Nope. Will David C Pack ever admit that his stupendous, overarching, amazing, incredible self and church is just another blip on the radar screen of one man shows?  Nah.  Would Joe Tkach Jr. ever apologize for sucking the spiritual brains out of tens of thousands and telling one minister that other ministers who leave would only find work at Walmart?  Prolly not. Would his father ever have admitted he was not well trained enough in theology to travel around in a 737 thinking he was?  Nah again.  Would HWA ever to admitted he was wrong about anything?  Nope...it was always 'we'.


Even the Apostle Paul was never wrong. After years of telling people not to marry, time was short and send it in, nothing happened that he predicted.  Rather than "I was wrong,"  he just said "oh well, I fought a good fight, I kept the faith, therefore there is laid up for ME, oh and others too,......"   Actually Jesus himself was wrong a few times but I won't torment you with that.



Whole denominations have mislead the faithful on a myriad of topics but to say "We're sorry, we were wrong," is just not something even the humble in Jesus can come up with very often.


Saying one is sorry is usually something that occurs only after one is caught or trapped. It's has taken over 400 years to absolve the then heretic Galileo from thinking the earth revolved around the sun and that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system, but maybe not the universe.


Churches hold on to their fables and apologies way beyond what most normal institutions do. How long will it take to apologize when Church officials decide that Limbo is not the place where the unsaved babies go, like they know, when they announce this reality to the faithful? You can bet you will hear things like, "It was never a doctrine," or "It never was an official teaching," but you won't get away with that kind of "we're sorry," with the average person who was either tormented or only mildly comforted by this when they lost a child prior to the arrival of the sprinklers. Too many ministers have the subconscious belief that if they are wrong, God will correct them and, of course, any apologies or admissions of wrongness will be spoke privately to the deity. They will, however, announce to you that they have done this, but you will never really know. Ministers need to apologize to people for it is people they offend at times.


Some of us can't say we are sorry or we were wrong because we falsely believe that somehow it a weakness to admit such things. More than one psychologist has noted that "Fool me once..shame, shame...on...you," is not so much a gaff as the deeply psychological inability to say "shame on me," which is another way of not being able to admit to being wrong or a committing a misstep. To choke on the words expressing shame, sorrow, apology or being mistaken is not a good sign when we are talking about mature leadership. To come across as anything less than human is not going to win points with the not as stupid as one might think average church goer or American.


We lie when we can't admit we are wrong, mistaken or perhaps have another agenda that we do not wish disturbed. I think Americans are beginning to believe that this last reason is more the case with Iraq and perhaps Iran. Even church goers are beginning to question the motives of those that demand too much of their money for the Lord and remind you that you can be "dismembered" when you ask uncomfortable questions about doctrine or the Bible itself. "Just trust me," is no longer going to work among the informed. Lie Snickers, the Internet is a gift from God Himself.


We live in a time where Presidents, Politicians and Pastors who have the inability to say that they have been misguided, unguided, mistaken and plainly wrong is endangering not only our intellectual health, but our lives on the planet. Suck it up guys. Just say it when it dawns on you. Allow it to dawn on you from time to time. "I was wrong, I am sorry."


When was the last time you heard your executive, judicial, senatorial, congressional or pastoral leaders say "I was wrong," "We were wrong," "I am sorry"? From "I did not have sex with that woman," to "those weapons of mass destruction must be around here somewhere," just saying "I'm sorry," seems the hardest thing to do. The problem is that most of the time, it is others who pay dearly for such mistakes.


Now I noticed the title should say "Wrong" and not "Worng."  Opps...my staff didn't catch that and we made a mistake...  :)

Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com