Sunday, March 3, 2013

The Duty of COG Members




Here is an interesting comment from the All About Armstrongism blog about the duty of Church members in the Church of God.


A WCG Christian’s duty, in brief, then, was to send in tithes, pray for Herbert Armstrong, support the ministry, attend church, give offerings, and serve the Church – not the world.

Service, in fact, was a huge part of the WCG Christian’s duty. They usually kept you so busy, it was next to impossible to do anything else with other groups, anyway. If you didn’t volunteer, it sometimes would not be too long until you were literally assigned a service position. Again, there were many. Greeter, Library, Tape Library, Usher, Sound, Setup, Kitchen, Lectern Mover and Waterboy, Youth sports, childrens educational programs, hymnals, you name it, there was a job. If you did all of these duties, you were doing what was considered a Christian’s duty. Love God, Love Herbert, Love the Work, Serve the Church, and forget the rest of the uncalled, unsaved – they’ll have their chance at the second resurrection.

Community Service, then, was the job of Pasadena, the Headquarters, and Herbert Armstrong, not the lay member. They had the large jewel of Ambassador Auditorium, and they “served the community” by offering extravagent performances by the world’s finest artists. Pavarotti, Rubenstein, Bob Hope, and many A-list musicians and performers were brought in to grace the stage of Ambassador to the delight of Pasadena’s culturally elite, at great expense to the Church. These concert series put the church in great standing with Pasadena and the rich and famous of southern California, and also put Herbert Armstrong in a great light in the community. But there were no programs to my knowledge for the poor and destitute of Pasadena. In fact, the Church bought out the slum houses around their complex and turned them into magnificent grounds for their college. The work was too grand to be around low income housing. So, the homes were bought and the college expanded. There were to my knowledge  no pancake dinners for the poor, no soup dinners for the homeless, no evangelical outreach for the needy, no charity clothing drives for the scarcely clothed. The poor were shunned and the rich were served.

When a person has stepped back from Armstrongism and investigated it, the above comments are glaringly non-Christian.

Growing up in  the RCG/WCG we drove 150 miles each way to church.   Wednesday nights were Bible Study (commanded), men had Spokesmen Club, members were expected to keep the ministers lawn and home in good condition,  Monday nights were set aside to dress in Sabbath wear to listen/watch the telecast, Youth group met on Thursday evenings and so on.  My family spend the other evenings growing huge gardens so we could feed other church members.  In my mother's spare time she was making quilts for new mothers and senior citizens. It was one thing after another to keep a person occupied and away from the evil satanic world that surrounded them.  Satan was working overtime to ensnare us with earthly delights and the Church felt its duty was to keep us snared in its grasp.


The comments about the auditorium were spot on.  It was all about impressing the community and the world. Nothing was done for the poor.  They were poor because they had sinned and God had not blessed them.  Besides, God was going to take care of them in the Kingdom, so why waste money on them now.

The Chief roll of a church member was to support the work and NOT to take care of the world.  Herbert Armstrong wrote:


Anyone who does not have his whole heart in that work IS NOT A MEMBER OF GOD’S TRUE CHURCH, and has no right whatsoever to attend or fellowship in any of its local congregations. The very FIRST purpose, then, of each local congregation is the FIRST purpose of God’s Church as a whole — to encourage, pray for, hear reports about, and help in — in whatever manner may be possible — the great work of God of preaching and publishing the true GOSPEL to all the world.

In other words, pray, pay and obey. 




Saturday, March 2, 2013

False Prophet Thiel Is Still Shocked That The Living Church of God Ignores Him



Prophet Thiel writes about how the Living Church of God ignored his articles and papers he sent them.  They refused to join his version of the "final work."  He still apparently finds it shocking that he is ignored.

While I did submit a detailed paper to my former church related to this on December 14, 2012 (which they failed to directly respond to, despite oral statements to me of support previously) since at that time I had hoped they would wish to be part of the final phase...
False prophet Thiel feels that there will be an "ecumenical" rise in the worldly churches that will persecute the COGers instead of the Catholics being the persecutors.  The false prophet tried to talk Meredith into accepting this vital truth many times. Each time Meredith ignored him.

False prophet Thiel also believes he is the ONLY COG out there that is BOLDLY taking a stand and preaching out against sin in the nation, something the wimps in the rest of the COGs do not do or are afraid to do.

A bolder, yet truthful, willingness to “name names” and call out what is happening will need to happen than the official COG groups formed between 1986 and 2011 have done–and this would seem to have to be led by the Continuing Church of God. (I have emails from one or more LCG evangelists where they objected to doing parts of this themselves, as well as notes from a meeting where they told me, and one was Dr. Meredith, that they were afraid that I was could become too bold and that they did not want to take bold proclamation steps that could trigger the persecution that they teach is biblically prophesied.)

Prophet Thiel: Still Waiting For The GCG/LCG/WCG/UCG/COGWA/EnCOG/ECG to Move Over To The Dark Side



Prophet Thiel's bitterness towards Rod Meredith and the Living Church of God grows stronger each day.  Prophet Thiel writes how he had to tell Meredith that he and the LCG are no longer doing the work.

Perhaps I should mention that Dr. Meredith did send me an unusual email this week, and in my reply, I told him that "without changes, I do not believe that LCG can possibly be the group that God will use to complete the final phase of the work. I have totally committed myself to support the Philadelphian end time work of God, which is why, to a great degree because of steps you did and did not take, the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) had to be formed."

Maybe those in LCG should realize that God may not be giving that group as much favor anymore? LCG no longer truly leads God's work. Hopefully, possibly because of its fast today, some will be better able to reflect on that.
Then the prophet makes a comment that shows he just does not  truly get it.  He thinks that all the people in the hundreds and hundreds of splinter groups will eventually wake up and move over to the dark his side.  Doesn't he realize ludicrous it is to even write this? 

GCG/LCG/PCG/RCG/WCG/GCI/UCG/COGWA/EnCOG/ECG......

Doesn't the worlds biggest buffoon prophet realized that the hundreds and hundreds of splinter groups will NEVER join together to accomplish any mighty work  There are to many egos and big heads in the picture.  Just look at the ego of prophet Thiel!  He will not share the spotlight with anyone.  He wanted to do it with Rod Meredith and got swiftly rebuked.


We in the Continuing Church of God are boldly going forward with the work. We are leading the final phase of the work. Hopefully, more who were once part of GCG/LCG/WCG/UCG/COGWA/EnCOG/ECG, etc., as well as those who are newer seekers of the truth, will be like the Bereans and search to see that these things are so (Acts 17:10-12).

The Bereans would laugh at the Continuing Church of God!