One thing the church has been really good at is creating a "persecution complex" in many of it's so-called leaders. They self appointed themselves as leaders, started their own splinter personality cults, and claim to proclaim the gospel message with "authority." Because all of these so-called leaders claim their message is the most forceful and truthful message they will be persecuted for the things they preach.
These so called leaders are so paranoid that they think the entire world is out to stop them. They are persecuted when their magazines are thrown in the trash, when TV/cable stations cancel their programs, and when they are mocked on the internet.
All of them fear that the government is monitoring them and is ready to shut them down. None of these so-called leaders have been more paranoid than the Almost Arrested Prophet Elisha Elijah Amos Joshua Chief Overseer Bob Thiel.
Today the so-called leader of the so-called Continuing Church of God said:
It is my view that the USA no longer has the type of ‘freedom of religion’ or ‘freedom of speech’ or the freedom to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ its founders envisioned.
Furthermore, the time will come when the USA, and likely some private companies (probably with direct or indirect governmental pressures), will apparently stop the efforts of websites like this one. As well as our numerous video channels on the internet.Consider the following prophecy:13 Therefore the prudent keep silent at that time, For it is an evil time. (Amos 5:13)
The above indicates that even those that are doing nothing wrong will need to be silent at the coming evil time. The times are evil.Yet, currently, it is still time to:1 Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins. (Isaiah 58:1)
Which is what we in the Continuing Church of God are doing. We have denounced, not only sins that the world sometimes seems to consider politically correct, but also sins that many claimed 501(c)(3) COGs will not do, because of their own concerns about their political fates and/or fates that could happen if they offended their financial supporters if they told the truth to truly fulfill Isaiah 58:1 (cf. 501(c)(3)? Why the Continuing Church of God chose a better option).
Many in and out of the government have plans and are watching the internet with plans to deal with materials that they some day hope to silence.
And while you might think that if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear from surveillance, consider that many in the government of the USA consider that not supporting homosexual marriages is an extremist position.
As mentioned before, I also saw someone once on a documentary that stated that people who believed in the millennium could not be trusted and should be considered as potential terrorists. The fact that we in the Continuing Church of God would be considered pacifists, does not change the fact that since we hold to millennial and other biblical views that we will not be improperly classified by government employees with various agendas.
We are getting closer to this time. And consider that until this century (and perhaps theoretically, the latter part of the 20th century), it was not possible to really control buying and selling. But certainly that ability exist now–and it will come to pass.
I believe that the USA is paving the way for the final European Beast power to spy on people and monitor financial transactions, as well as preaching restrictions.