Living Church of God's Deep Obsession With This Blog

Within minutes of posting the previous post about Rod Meredith, Charlotte came alive with countless hits coming through.  The boys at HQ are constantly monitoring us.  It is actually quit hilarious!

Rod Meredith: Did Christ Actually Start Both Of His Churches?

Lots of empty seats for God's greatest COG leader

Rod Meredith is making the claim that Jesus Christ is the one that started both of his splinter group personality cults.  Did Jesus Christ actually do that?

As I have previously explained, Christ did raise up the Global Church of God in early 1993, through me—just a very few months after the blasphemous, “God Is...” booklet came out, along with other heretical changes in doctrine. But many were not aware of Christ raising up this Church—or had been poisoned against us by vicious rumors and accusations. So, instead of zealously searching out and proving to themselves where Christ was continuing His Work, many just stayed put or even dropped away from the Truth altogether.

Did Jesus Christ start Global?  The answer to that is a bold NO!  Try a child molester and some of his rich friends.  It was a group of employees and church members who connived and plotted behind the scenes while the Worldwide Church of God was defending Meredith's loud mouth in court.   Once Meredith lost the lawsuit and WCG had to pay damages, Meredith and his little crew of weasels began plotting his new church.  Then after Global quickly realized what a tyrant Meredith was, they tried to remove him.  Meredith and his conniving group of ne'er-do-well's  then took all of Global's money and started a new church, another one that Jesus Christ had nothing to do with.

But—mark this!—the living Christ did give people in early 1993 a “way out”—He did raise up a Church with a trained, dedicated ministry of long standing who preached the full Truth and who quickly—within weeks—went on the radio, published literature and began to revive the Work. So Jesus Christ did not “desert” you or anyone else. He is still the living Head of the Church. He is alert, active and powerfully in charge of His Church and His Work! And in His great wisdom, He is now “testing” His people to see what is really in their hearts.

Why is the god of Armstrongism always "testing" its followers?  For eight decades now it is obvious that the members have never measured up.  They have missed the mark.  The god of Armstrongism is still displeased.  Its anger can never be vanquished.  It is eternally pissed

Has the splintering of God’s people been a trial? Of course it has. But God specifically reveals that He allows trials for our good and “tests” us through them. Notice these words of the Apostle Peter: “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7). The Apostle James was also inspired to tell us the same thing: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2–3).

The splintering of the church over the decades has been the direct result of self-serving men setting themselves up as know-it-all's with their new churches focus entirely upon their personalities.   Money flow has always been the top priority in the starting of the various splinter groups.  The ministers and leaders need that money stream coming in.  That was Meredith's prime issue when starting Global.  Huge amounts of money needed to be collected BEFORE he jumped ship.  He had no faith to step out on his own.  He let his flunkies do it for him. If he truly was a man of conviction and principle then he would have required no money and no followers but stepped out in faith.

Meredith claims his group is the ONE church that is doing the real gospel and exemplifying the real form of true godly government.  That real government is supposedly a foretaste of what the government will be like in Petra and the world tomorrow.  It that is true, then the church and the world is screwed!  Government in the COG has always been a joke.  If they actually practiced what they preached, then not a single one of them would have started their own groups.  There is nothing godly about the form of government that many of the COG's pretend to use.

Meredith continues:

Christ is alive! He has not gone off and left His Church! He is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33).

If that statment is true, then WHY is the current Churches of God in one of the most confused messes in Adventist/sabbatarian history?  Hundreds and hundreds of personality cults run by their own special guru's stealing tithe money of their own benefit.   The COG can no longer mock the hundreds of Christian denominations any more.  The Church of God is a complete and utter fractured mess.

Additionally, remember Jesus’ powerful promise in Mark 11:23–24: “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” 

Brethren, if we in the Living Church of God “feed” on these and related scriptures, then we certainly will begin to build “an atmosphere of faith.” Also, obviously, we cannot just “work up faith.” Each of us must do his or her part in fervently studying the Word, meditating on the examples of faith in the Bible and on the things we see God do even in His Church and Work today. Then, we must CRY OUT to God in heartfelt prayer and fasting that our heavenly Father would give us the “gift” of faith through His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7–9).

Meredith can "feed" on scriptures all he wants.  Because he ultimately denies the one he claims to follow.  All of that scripture feeding will be of no benefit to him or the church.  As long as legalism runs amok the church it cannot be a follower of Jesus.  Plus, fasting in order to appease that eternally pissed off god is not in scripture and is not a new covenant requirement. Therefore it is a waste of time and ultimately does nothing more than create hundreds of grumbling stomachs.

Next Meredith resorts to his usual doom and fear mongering.  Tough and violent times are ahead...in a very few years, of course.  That eternally pissed off god is getting ready to spank LCG members.  After being part of three different COG movements, they STILL cannot get things right.  Of course it is always the members fault and never the corrupt leaders.

Remember, God’s Word tells us, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Building an atmosphere of faith within God’s Church today is absolutely vital. We cannot even fully imagine the trials, tests, persecutions and difficulties that will come upon His people during the next several years. We will all need living faith in God. And to do the Work which God really wants us to do, we will have to walk with God, commune with God and wrap our minds around some of the direct statements of Jesus Christ, such as John 14:11–12: “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

The scripture that COG members need to find assurance in is this:

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 

29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 

30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 

Gone is the burden of having to worry if your have "made it" or if you have been "fighting the good fight."  There is no need to worry about those things.  Grace and justification abound, legalism and the law destroy.

From Editorial: Living Faith

Doug Winnail (LCG) Does Not Like LCG Being Accused of "Prediction Addiction"

Doug Winnail has a short little piece up about how important prophecy watching is to the Living Church of God, while ignoring the fact that every prophetic utterance that has come out of Rod Meredith and Herbert Armstrong's mouth has failed to come to pass.  He is especially suffered major butthurt over LCG and its leaders being accused of suffering from "prediction addiction."

Jesus told His disciples to stay alert and watch for the fulfillment of specific prophecies that will mark the approaching end of this age (Matthew 24). Jesus also warned in the parable of the foolish virgins that many will be caught napping by the surge of events that will precede His return to this earth (Matthew 25:1-13). God has given His Church a “more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19, KJV) so His Church can act as a watchman to warn about the prophetic significance of both current and impending world events (Ezekiel 3 and 33; Proverbs 24:11-12). Yet over the years, misguided teachers and preachers have ridiculed the Church’s understanding of prophecy and accused anyone watching Bible prophecy of suffering from “prediction addiction.” However, as we see world events fitting into the end-time scenario that is outlined in Scripture, we need to make sure we are building a closer relationship with God and that we are learning to live by every word of God—as we continue to pay attention to prophecy.

Have a profitable Sabbath,

Douglas S. Winnail

What really irradiates LCG and Winnail is that the "prediction addiction" phrase came from Grace Communion International who finally woke up to the fact that the decades of prophecies that the church and Herbert Armstrong uttered were nothing more than speculation.  There was nothing prophetic about any of the predictions.

Here is what happens. You conclude from your study of prophecy and its chronological calculations that we are in the “end times,” and that a catastrophe of “biblical proportions” is going to befall us in “just a few short years” (they are always “short” years, it seems). You then “watch and pray,” anxiously (or perhaps eagerly), fitting the events and news of the day into your predetermined framework. You watch with growing anticipation as the evidence piles up.

The problem is that the pile of evidence starts to get very shaky, and the “short years” stretch into decades. Although the pattern of major world events may not fit neatly into your prophetic scenarios, you can still find enough catastrophes to stay in the game, while you hastily recalibrate your prophetic timetable. GCI UPDATE: Prediction Addiction

Armstrongite ministers have always had to "recalculate" their predictions, or if you want a more accurate word...LIES.

Gavin Rumney had this up on his blog in 2013:

Our Roots of Prediction Addiction 

Some of us have learnt over the years to view "Bible Prophecy" with a jaundiced eye. The attempt to turn the complex texts of the Old and New Testaments into a coherent road map for the near future is doomed to failure from the outset. Ancient writings simply can't be read that way with any integrity. It's not just bad theology and rotten exegesis, it's a display of dull and incompetent basic reading skills. 

Where did we pick up the bad habit? When did the peculiar blend of Bible-quoting, fear-saturated fantasies we are familiar with first take recognizable shape? Doomsdayers have of course been with us from the earliest days of Christianity - with deep roots in Jewish apocalyptic. If we are honest about it, we can probably trace the trail even further back to the influence of dualistic religions like Zoroastrianism. 

But the version we're most familiar with owes a great deal to the Adventist "Midnight Cry." Stepping back into the nineteenth century we find the seeds of our particular prediction addiction. The various churches that have historic ties to William Miller (and, on the other side of the Atlantic, the equally disturbed John Nelson Darby) are still largely in thrall to bizarre and naive biblical misinterpretations, and the delusion that they have some kind of special "inside knowledge" about the future.  Our Roots Of Prediction Addiction

The extreme lengths we go to in the Church of God's is all due to our Adventist roots in William Miller and Ellen G White.   These two set the stage for HWA, Meredith, Thiel, Malm, Waterhouse and others.

Don Solin had an excellent article in The Hufffington Post about "prediction addiction."

Do You Have “Prediction Addiction”?

While his comments are geared more towards the stock market, it is applicable to "prediction addiction" in the Churches of God.  He writes:

This addiction is a particularly bad one. Not only are our brains hard-wired to believe we can predict the future and make sense out of random acts, it rewards us for doing so. The brain of someone engaged in this activity experiences the same kind of pleasure that drug addicts get from cocaine or gamblers experience when they enter a casino.

When predicting the unpredictable goes south, as it inevitably will, the neurons in the brain start misfiring, causing panic and anxiety.

Anything less than total confidence in our predictions implies that we have lost control. The brain resists this conclusion. Random events are perceived as the enemy.

In Armstrongism everything seems to be the enemy.  Some of its leaders find no joy in anything.  They need the world and church members to be just as miserable as they are.  Just look at the mindless rankings of James Malm and Bob Thiel.  Has the church ever seen two such unhappy men?

Living Church of God also blames Jesus for this addiction.  Note what John Wheeler had to say:

Allegedly, Jesus Himself set His followers up for "prediction addiction" in Matthew 24:3-7 when He warned of religious deception in His name, "wars and rumors of wars," famines, pestilences and earthquakes. "These things have always been around since Jesus' day," scoffers say (cf. 2 Peter 3:3–4). But they overlook the real significance of Matthew 23:8: "All these are the beginning of birth pangs" (literal Greek). When a woman is in labor, her birth pangs come in cycles, but they come more quickly and more strongly over time—leading to the "crisis" of childbirth itself. So it would be in the "latter days." During the space of a generation (Matthew 24:32–35), first broadly relevant events would occur with increasing frequency and intensity. Then, very specific events would occur with little or no warning in a very short time (cf. vv. 4–31). And all that is what students of biblical prophecy need to be watching for! No need to try to predict the day or the hour of Christ's return; that cannot be done (vv. 36–44). It is enough to be ready, no matter when all these events take place (vv. 45–51).  Tomorrow's World: Prediction Addiction 

If all of these people were actually followers of the Jesus Christ they claim to follow then they would not need to be in a constant state of worry and fret over events in the world.  World events happen as they happen, some may fit some imagined timeline, most will not.  Resting in the one you are supposed to be following is far more rewarding than following crackpots like Malm, Thiel, Meredith and others who make outlandish claims about world events.  These liars have no idea about "end time" events any more than your cat or dog does.

Matthew 11:28-30The Message (MSG)

28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”