Former Church of God Member Was Imprisoned In North Korea For Smuggling In Bible

Glynn Washington had a link up on Facebook to an article about Edward Fowle, who was imprisoned in North Korea, for leaving a Bible in a bathroom as a way of evangelism.  You may remember this story from last year.  It made the news everywhere, though the connection to Armstrongism was missing from most reports.

The complete story is here and is absolutely fascinating to read.  Holiday at the Dictators Guesthouse:What possessed a family man from Ohio to smuggle a Bible into North Korea?

On the morning of August 1, 2014, Jeffrey Fowle woke before seven in his room at a guesthouse in Pyongyang, North Korea. Soon a young woman arrived with his breakfast of rice, broth, and kimchi. She smiled as she set the tray down on the large desk at the foot of the bed, then walked out of the room and locked the door behind her. It was Fowle’s 87th day in custody.

He sat at the desk, watching a shadow play across his window. An opaque vinyl film had been applied to the glass, so Fowle could see only silhouettes walking past. That April, when Fowle had traveled to Pyongyang, he’d felt that God wanted him to help North Korea’s oppressed Christian underground. His attempt took the form of a Korean-English Bible, left behind in a bar bathroom; he was taken into custody as he tried to leave the country. Fowle poured the broth over his rice and began to eat.

An hour later, Mr. Jo, Fowle’s interpreter and minder, appeared at the door: His slacks were ironed, and he’d traded his usual polo shirt for a crisp dress shirt. “Today is the day,” Mr. Jo said. “Be ready.”

A few weeks earlier, Mr. Jo had told Fowle that he might be allowed to speak with international media. It would be his first chance to tell the world about his situation, and to remind the U.S. government that he needed help. At noon, Mr. Jo led Fowle to a conference room on the other side of the guesthouse, reminding him of his talking points along the way.

“Emphasize your desperation for wanting to get home and that your family needs you back,” Mr. Jo said. “Put some emotion into it.” He suggested that it might be good if Fowle cried. In the conference room, Fowle was seated at a long table with a couple of North Korean journalists from the Associated Press Television News. Instead of press badges, each reporter wore a pin with the smiling face of Kim Il-sung.

Later on in the article there is this bit about the Worldwide Church of God:

Fowle had stopped going to church when he was 12. His parents, Edward and Virginia, were Episcopalian when they married. Edward was a guidance-systems specialist in the Air Force. They lived in Florida when Fowle was born, in 1958, but a few years later, Edward was assigned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, outside Dayton. The family built a house in nearby Beavercreek. Virginia was a homemaker, raising Fowle and his three siblings. Each Sunday, they attended services at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.

As the family settled into their new home, Edward began to have a crisis of faith. At a time when new religious movements were multiplying, he became fascinated by the Worldwide Church of God, an organization led by Herbert W. Armstrong, who had helped pioneer the use of radio and television to reach far-flung worshippers. His teachings leaned heavily on the Old Testament and British Israelism, which held that white Europeans of the British Empire descended directly from King David.

Edward quickly became serious about his new beliefs. He forbade the family from celebrating Christmas, pushing them instead toward Old Testament celebrations. In the fall of 1967, he took the children out of school and drove the family to the Pocono Mountains, to celebrate the Feast of the Tabernacles. During the festivities, Fowle’s brother, Jaime, ran through a window, slicing his eyelids open; his younger sister, Lynn, developed pneumonia. Virginia’s patience ran out, and she returned to St. Mark’s.

Despite the rift, Edward’s commitment deepened. When Armstrong said that his adherents could serve only one master, God or government, Edward left the Air Force after 13 years of service. He resigned without hesitation and without Virginia’s blessing. He continued working at Wright-Patterson as a private contractor but forfeited his pension.

The Fowle household was divided. On Saturdays, Edward dragged Jeffrey and his sister Laurie to Worldwide Church of God services. On Sundays, Virginia took Jamie and Lynn to St. Mark’s. By 1970, Jeffrey Fowle had stopped going to church altogether.

Jeffrey Fowle, American Detained in North Korea, Was on Vacation, Lawyer Says

Jeffery Fowle, American  Detained In North Korea Released

Jeffrey Fowle, American Held By Norht Korea, Is Freed 

Rod Meredith: Why Is He Incapable Of Loving Servant Leadership?

For well over 70 years now Rod Meredith has been bellowing about government, control and authority from the top down.  It has always been more important him to use power to lord it over people than to be a serving servant to the people.  On top of that he is not even a true shepherd of the flock.  He doesn't care about even the least of his members.

Every few years I hear from some of our men on the West Coast, and elsewhere it's happening – some back in the Midwest – but every few years Satan comes around stirring up people to try to argue about counting Pentecost, or counting the Passover, or they talk about the sacred names or something like that. They manage to get upset about something and it seems like it goes in cycles; a few year will go by then the same thing will pop up that we discussed with Mr. Armstrong, and sometimes even back then the whole Council of Elders, and thought it was all settled. But people get mixed up on these things and we do need to have strong leadership in God's Church, and a strong understanding of these things to keep our balance. Because Satan is going to come at us with all kinds of things to think about and get upset about, believe me.

Satan always seems to be on the warpath against Meredith for some reason.  Of all the hundreds and hundreds of Churches of God out there to wage war against, Satan always has to pick on Meredith and crew.

In his sermon he rambles on with a lot of incoherent babble till he gets to this. Apparently some in the LCG are getting sucked back into the mythology of the sacred names and new moons legalism. This is another one of his reason to enforce authority upon his members and rule with an iron hand.  He validates his authority by claiming the scriptures were translated wrong and inserts his interpretation so as to give credence to LCG overlords deciding what is right or wrong.

The weekly Sabbath, coming every seventh day, is a type of the Millennium. The 7,000-year period, a time to rest from sin, it's definitely a type of that. And of course the annual Holy Days picture, step by step, various aspects of the plan of God, and so they "are a shadow of things to come, but the body…" or, "the substance," it says, "is of Christ." And the Greek word here, brethren, in this verse 17 – look it up yourself – is soma, s-o-m as in Mary, s-o-m-a. Now that same word exactly is used back in this same book, here in verse 18 of chapter 1; it talks about Christ being the head of the Church, "He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence." The Greek word is "body." it means the basic physical structure. So it talks about that being, of course, applied to God's Church; we are the physical structure that God is using today. When Christ was on Earth he had his own physical body; he does not have a physical body today, he works through us, we are his body. So don't let any substance or something like that judge you, but the body of Christ. And when you understand it makes sense; the Bible is not translated correctly here, it's talking about the body of Christ. Who judges you? The body of Christ. Who leads the body of Christ? The ministry, as we'll see as we go through this chapter and this whole subject. The ministry leads the body, and so the Church makes decisions as to how we keep – we don't change the Holy Days – but we make decisions about when they're held and where they're held, and we make decisions about what we can eat or not eat, or if we're going to have snacks or not have snacks, or all kinds of things to do with the body and with the Church of God and how we observe these Holy Days. So don't let any man judge you, but the body, the structure, the body of Christ which is the Church of God. And so that's an important thing to understand in this passage: the body of Christ does have that authority and they are given that authority by God. 

So there you have it folks!  No man can judge you, but the church certainly can!  The church has the right to tell you everything you will be doing.  There are no exceptions to the rule.

He then continues whining about those that don't bring their doctrinal questions to the church and instead run to others that will actually listen to them. LCG members should never be running to theses people because God has set aside the MEN in the one and only true church to make all the decisions.  MEN are to make the judgments in the Living Church of God.  That's why Rod McNair, Meredith and others have turned into such tyrannical beasts of prey.  They have been set into position of power where they assume they have all the answers and that the lowly members are nothing more than pond scum.

Now let's go to something we often refer to, but I want to talk about this aspect a lot today, turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 1 Corinthians (sipping tea) 1 Corinthians chapter 6 in your New Testament here, and you'll notice in verse 1 the apostle Paul tells the Christians, "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?" You're to go before the Church of God when you have a disagreement about how to count the Passover, how to observe the Sabbath, how to keep the Holy Days, all kinds of things, but even if you have personal disputes we're to come there also. "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" Aren't you able to be judges? You're training to be judges forever in God's Kingdom. Know God's Church is to learn that today; all of you in this room are to learn that. "Do you not know that we shall judge angels?" We're going to judge the angelic hosts through all eternity if we're in God's family. "How much more, the things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning thing pertain to this life, do you appoint…" or some translations have it as applied, "WHY do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church…" Why do you go to outsiders who don't even know the truth; why would you have them try to be your judges? "I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren?" So we are to learn to be wise judges – God has intended that men know that – and that men are able to make judgments in the Church of God

Meredith and crew have the capability to make ALL the decisions in the LCG as to how church members are to believe.  None dare question that mode of thinking  because to do so is to question god himself.

 ...we have to make binding decisions as to how to observe the Holy Days, what days they are to be observed upon, and all this kind of thing; whether we should eat or not eat, or how much and so on. So, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be loosed, whatever you loose on earth shall be bound."

Then to further intimidate LCG members, Meredith claims that everything he and his ministers do is bound in heaven.  He also has the capability of stripping away LCG members salvation and standing with god, just because he says so, his god will do it in heaven.  In other words, LCG members are eternally screwed!

"Moreover if your brother sins against you…" now this is not just a judgment about Holy Days, this is a judgment about some personal offense; people are causing trouble – John starts flirting and carrying on with Joe's wife, and Joe's upset, what does he do? He could go punch John in the nose, but the right Christian thing to do is to go face to face with him [and] say, "You're gettin' too friendly BACK OFF, that's my wife," and if he won't back off you take one or two leading brethren with you – preferably two, "so in the mouth of two or three witnesses (it) will be established," whatever the offense is. So he says you're to do that and to have two or three witnesses. "And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church." Do you go announce it, do you ask Mr. McNair, "Can I make the announcement that Joe was bothering me?" No you don't do that, you tell it to the leadership of the church, and all the way through the Bible that's in fact what they did do. "Tell it to the church…" they are to make the judgment, "But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector." You don't have regular fellowship with him, he's not in the church anymore, he's deliberately left the church in his actions. "Assuredly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth…" Jesus Christ said, talking to his ministry, his leaders, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And I say to you…" verse 19, "that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name…" you see, to make some judgment, to be used by God. It doesn't mean whenever two or three brethren get together at a movie, or a skating rink, that he's with them in some special way – he's with us all the time – but he's especially those leaders who would be together in judgment. So he says, "I will be with them, whenever two or three are gathered together in My name…" in Christ's authority to make these judgments, "I am there in the midst of them." So Christ guides this as we shall see, and as God did all the way through the Bible, and we do need to clearly understand that. 

In the above quote Meredith also claims to profess that members have the right to go to the church to have their voice heard.  Sadly that has never been an avenues most LCG members could take without repercussions.  The slamming down of hammer has been swift and severe against those that the church labels as trouble makers.  LCG members have never had any recourse when McNair and others go on their purge campaigns.  No recourse whatsoever!

 

Rod Meredith: 63 Years Later And His World Is Still Coming To An End

Here is the logic that trickles from Rod Meredith's aging mind.  It is his PROOF that the end times is rapidly pounding down upon us.

I think all of us know that things are speeding up in the world – events are happening, that they are exciting. And many of the news analysts – famous news analysts – admit that there are more vast changes in this society than have ever taken place in hundreds of years; just one thing after the other. So it certainly shows that the end of this age is near, it really does, and that's exciting to me after been preaching these things for about 63 years to see them speed up to the degree they are.

Every decade brings about new and exciting discoveries.  This is nothing new.  It most certainly is NOT a forewarning of the end of the world.  It really doesn't!

He immediately jumps into his other trademark scare tactic...Big bad meanie Satan is on the warpath...again...through this blog and dissident members. Satan and the world HATE the LCG and is making life horrific for its members.

But brethren, as the end approaches we know that Satan's going to attack. God shows us the people of God are going to have a great deal of persecution, and also we're going to have Satan attack us. God describes a massive attack by Satan in Revelation chapter 12, where he fights God, he's cast back down to the earth, and he's going to cause trouble – the people on Earth are going to suffer as never before – we're not having that yet. But we need to be close to God, and we need to be ready for that kind of thing and understand what's ahead and really learn to put our full trust in Christ as the living head of God's Church and our living head. And the one that we walk with, talk with, personally know and have faith and trust in him and in his leadership.

Since when has the Church of God "walked and talked" with Jesus Christ?  How can the Living Church of God know anything about Jesus Christ when the church refuses to discuss him?  The law trumps Jesus Christ every time.

The first two paragraphs quoted above are the very first words out of Meredith's mouth in a sermon he preached on August 1, 2015.  Does Meredith have the capability of ever preaching anything positive and uplifting?  It's death and damnation from the get go in every single canned sermon he repeats anymore.  He apparently is incapable of coming up with new material.