Jim Staley, Sabbatarian Church Leader Found Guilty of Bilking 3.4 Million Dollars From Elderly Investors

As the worldwide Church of God was melting down in the late 1990's many Church of God members jumped ship to join the Hebrew Roots/Messianic movement.  These expatriates had watched as Flurry, Meredith and United being formed and were totally disgusted by the way these groups went about starting their own churches.  Many of these people were particularly disgusted by the men that connived and  schemed behind the scenes, while still employed by the WCG, as they plotted to start United Church of God.

Because the Sabbath was so entrenched and forced upon people in the WCG, many thought they could not worship God in any other way than attending a Sabbath keeping group. So off to more law based beliefs systems they went. Quit a few COG members joined up with the Passion for Truth group.

Yesterday the Passion for Truth leader made news. It was in so many ways typical of the COG.  Here was another leader, claiming to be God's true leader, preaching the only truth while he was screwing people over in the background.

The leader of the group, Jim Staley, was found guilty of fraud in taking 3.5 million dollars and giving himself a commission off that amount of $570,000.00.  He is due to be sentenced in July to 3-8 years.

A June 25, 2014, release from the FBI highlighted the grave details of the indictment.

"James Staley was indicted for his alleged scheme to defraud investors by making false promises of high rates of return and minimal risk. The indictment states that Staley defrauded 11 investors/lenders by causing them to invest over $3.4 million, giving him commissions totaling over $570,000," it said.

In 2007, according to the indictment, Staley operated Wealth Financial International, the same year he started his church and the same year he became a sales agent for a premium financing company in California called B & B Equity. Staley, in his capacity as sales agent, found people to provide loans for life insurance policies.

"In many instances, several of these investor/lenders' funds were bundled together to provide financing to purchase one life insurance policy. Staley received a commission for each investor/lender that he found to contribute financing for the purchasing of the life insurance policies.

 

Staley has ties to another group that Church of God members also flock to, 119 Ministries.   I had a small blurb on the 119 Ministries back in 2013 and how it was attracting a lot of Armstrongites to it.  See: 119 Ministries:  Attracting Armstrongites That Need The Law.

Another curious side note to these two groups and the Armstrongites they attract is that these guys also publicize their works on World Net Daily, an uber-conservative Christian focused "news" site.  One of the top contributors on that site recently released a book that dealt with prophecy and end times stories that sounded like it came right out of Herbert Armstrong's literature....which it did.  Many Church of God members look to World Net Daily as a legitimate news source.  Some splinter group leaders even quote from it in their writings. (See Living Armstrongism: PCG's Reliance On WorldNetDaily)

Staley's criminal behavior has not discouraged his followers.  They are turning a blind eye to the man's criminal behavior and are throwing their unending support behind him.  Much like those entrenched in Armtrongism deny anything ever was wrong with the church or its leaders to this very day.

From Facebook:

• Just finished watching the service. All I can say is, WOW! What a congregation. You will get through this. Pastor Jim Staley your testimony of faith in trials will make more believers than you know. You will be in my prayers way down here in deep south Texas. I am sure YHVH has huge plans for you wherever He takes you. Stay faithful For HE is God.

  
  
Regardless of what he has done....we all fall short of the glory of our Heavenly Father.....no one has not sinned....that doesn't take away the gifting on a persons life,and should be forgiven, so we too can be forgiven......

• Romans 3:23 We have ALL sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. But... 1 John 1:9 if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We stand behind you Pastor Jim and family, because you are willing to confess any shortcomings and pay for them if necessary.

• You and your family are in our prays. Father is protecting you with the blood of Yhashua and the enemy can not touch you. Shalom brother

 Read more about Jim Staley's conviction here:

St Louis Post Dispatch

Passion for Truth Ministries Pastor Jim Staley Confesses to Cheating Investors Out of $3.3M and Pocketing $570K for Himself

Passion For Truth Pastor Jim Staley Says He Didn't Tell Church He Was Arrested for Fraud Because He Didn't Realize He Was

St Charles Pastor Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges

Hebrew Roots Heresy  


ht: Connie

UCG's New Dung Brown "We Are Embarrassed By Our Core Message" Web Site

After United Church of God's expensive epic campaign failure at the end of last year, the UCG is struggling to make themselves more relevant to the world around them.  They had assumed that their "Why were you born?" tag line was going to draw in scores of interested new people bringing money with them.  It didn't happen.  Tens of thousands of dollars were spent on bringing in 1 single solitary person.  No one was interested in that message.  That question is not something that people in the 21st century care about or are worried about.

Recently UCG unveiled a new and improved web page.  The striking thing about this page was the "dung brown" new mast head and the fact that they admitted that they moved all information relating to beliefs and practices to other areas of the site.  UCG thinks with this new "dung colored" site that they will appeal to the younger more progressive crowd and hook them in.  Its not going to happen.  Even if they do score one or two new devotee's, once they found out how absurd some of UCG's foundational beliefs are - i.e. British Israelism - they will exit rather quickly.

Given the continuing rumors floating around on various web sites and FB pages, United Church of God is on the brink of another break up.  Various UCG ministers think that the UCG is too legalistic and that certain doctrines need to be changed.  The diehard legalists are having major butt-hurt over this and are plotting in the background to possibly form another splinter group. When COGWA split off from UCG they took  1/3 of UCG's ministry.  Of course UCG claimed this was a good thing because the useless whiny chaff were now gone.  Will this new split also rip UCG asunder leading it into an even more useless ministry?  Time will tell. In the meantime please buy some Charmine and clean up that masthead!

Family In Desperate Need To Find Out Name of Abusive Philadelphia Church of God Minister

A family is asking for any help possible in find out out the last name of the man described below.  He is attempting to take money and vehicles from the family.  The wife is still part of PCG and the husband is not.  He is constantly taking money from the wife unbeknownst to her husband.  They are also attempting to stop him from getting proper medical treatment.

Need your help. There is a man named Todd who attends the Austin, TX congregation of the PCG. He is about 40 and a car salesman. I need his last name so he can be blocked from helping the PCG steal money from a friend's dying father.