The Journal: News of the Churches of God Issue 201

The latest issue of The Journal is out. 

This issue has a tribute to Ian Boyne, a COGI minister who was a fixture on the island of Jamaica, with the public and his church members.

It also includes on the front page an article about the "Dig" in Israel that Ambassador College participated in for many years.  The "dig" was a bone of contention with many students in Pasadena and Big Sandy as it was considered a "perk" for the elite students who had played the AC/COG well.

Like all things with the COG, there were ulterior motives to the choice of the church being involved in the dig.  Much the same excuse that Gerald Flurry is using to fund his "college" students work in Jerusalem digs.

The Journal has this:

Mr. Dick, who came to Ambassador as a married student in 1957, told how it all began for him during the Days of Unleavened Bread in 1967. 

“During the afternoon sermon on the first day of Unleavened Bread at Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, Mr. Ted Armstrong [vice chancellor of Ambassador and son of church founder Herbert Armstrong] shocked his audience by saying the Jews had to build a temple,” said Mr. Dick. 

“The only place to build it was on the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem, so something had to happen soon to place it under Israel’s control. Remember, this was April 1967, and the church was expected to flee [to Petra, in Jordan] in 1972. 

“The main announcement that afternoon was about establishing an office and having a contract for The World Tomorrow.” 

Reg Killingly has an article about what it means to "turn the other cheek", something CEM needs to take into consideration as it prepares to sue Allie Dart's Ronald Dart Evangelist Association (not mentioned in this issue.)

Jesus, though, is telling His followers that they should not seek payback for hurt. His disciples should not behave as normal. 

It would be hard enough to obey if He were telling them—and us—simply not to retaliate, not to hit back when hurt. 

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. The response He expects goes much further. He tells His disciples: Don’t just passively refrain from retaliation but proactively seek to behave in a way that defies every expectation. Do the diametrically opposite thing. Your response must be 180 degrees from what it normally would have been. 

In other words, don’t just not retaliate. Actively help your adversary. 

Michael Harris has an article about how the church still has a long way to go when it comes to dealing with gay/lesbian members (of which there are quite a few spread across the various COGs)

But has the Church of God always offered a balanced and biblical approach to
ministering to people who are homosexual? 

No! No, the Church of God is not always balanced and loving towards people like me.

‘Call them queers!’ 

I remember years ago when a prominent Worldwide Church of God minister came to speak in our congregation. He was known for his outspokenness in condemning gays, so I knew what was coming. 

As he shouted out “Brethren, call them all queers! That’s what they are!” I sat in my seat in literal pain waiting for his ranting to stop. 

This man’s sermon did not help me. It left me hurting. It was not a godly way to respond to the issue of homosexuality or to minister to people who experience homosexual temptations. 

There are the usual ads that are beyond the pale at times for the sheer craziness included in them.  

Jan Aaron Young always knocks it out the park though.  He rails against Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Thanksgiving, which apparently are a result of a Masonic conspiracy.  Where would the COG be without blaming the Masons and the Catholics for everything wrong in the world and the church? He also rails against the modern day Jezebel's who wear make-up, red lipstick, jewellery, participate in beauty contests and wear high heeled shoes. As usual in the COG, women get the short end of the stick as everything seems to be their fault.  Damn it, Eve!  Why did you have to pick that apple, even though Adam was standing right next to you and is as equally culpable?  It has not been women who have wrecked the church, but the men!

There is also an ad searching for tapes by Charles Dorothy, who apparently was the greatest speaker the church ever had.  If you have any of his tapes left in the bottom of your desk drawer or in a box, they might be worth $100.00!  These tapes need to be before 1980 though.  After that, those darn liberals influenced everything in the church.

And then there is Alton (Don) Billinglsey.  All I can say is, WTF?????

He claims President Trump is the likeness of Cyrus the Great.

President Trump has been made aware of his likeness to King Cyrus by the religious people in Israel. And Christ using his brashness and lack of fear of what anyone thinks of his decisions will stir up his mind at the exact time to make the proclamation. With his support, the Jewish people will begin the sacrificial offerings and laying the foundation for the new Temple.

Lest you think it cannot get any crazier, there is this about Art Mokarow, the "Ministering Sparrow.".

It also includes two cartoons that exemply what is wrong with the church:

You too can read this second to the last issue of The Journal here.   Issue 201

The Laryngitis of the Gods

My "that's pathetically ignorant" button always gets pushed when Bob Thiel searches the globe for the nasty effects of weather, mostly in due season, inflicted upon the dregs of humanity and attributes this to "God trying to get our attention."  The concept that a god has to try has always escaped me.

Now  we see that, in keeping with COG Apostle think, PCG also finds their weak god , unable to speak up evidently, punishing California since the70's because they persecuted God's Apostle so called. It's a ridiculous concept and someone said it well when they noted that the Churches of God see themselves as the center and reasons EVERYTHING happens in this world.  That's Theological Narcissism to me.

God does nothing directly himself anymore.  That trait died out rather soon in scriptures as well as middlemen, weather and natural geological phenomenon took  over for the direct voice of God. When we read "thus saith the Lord" or "and God said",  if it's in the Bible we just think, "well ok..if you say so. "  Today we'd not be so trusting with good reason.  It never seems to cross the minds of we sincere folk  to ask just what do you mean "God told me" or the mechanism by which the "thus saith" actually comes from.  I got "called" into the church.  I got "called" into the ministry.  But only because I chose to do those things of my own free will.  I never actually got a call from any god nor did I hear his/her/its voice literally.   Everyone I know today who hears the voices  of the gods in their heads today is on medication to curb it and try to control the behaviors that don't lead to a quality life.

Dave Pack heard his own voice in his head and started his true church.  Gerald Flurry did the same but filtered his hallucinations through a prayer rock.  Every Christian Church on the planet traces their origins to the Apostles.  Bob Thiel does but he divines the gods through dreams and words spoken with meanings other than what he came away with.  Ron Weinland divines his calling through who the hell knows what.  Herbert Armstrong wove the tale of the steering wheel being practically ripped from his hands taking him where he had no intention of going.  Others divine the favor of the gods or God because "prayer proves it."   I prayed a lot in 30 years, for lots of right things and not "amiss."   I prayed over a gazillion sick and never saw a healing. People got better  or died but that's about it.  Prayer proved nothing to me and don't shit me about having no faith or being insincere and asking amiss. Dave's, Gerald's, Bob's and back when, HWA's calling were all self inflicted and they do not and did not hear any voice of a God.

There are some indications that Bible God can speak up, for himself and "with a mighty voice" at times, but over time even a cursory read of the scriptures will reveal that this boldness disappears leaving the Psalms to plea with a God who seems so far off and of asks "where did you go?" I think those who said God has a mighty voice never heard it personally but imagined it so to be.

"Jeremiah's" Lamentations reflect this loss of God's voice and intervention probably now having simply left Israel to her desolation and destruction and it's the fault of the people...nice going.

The evidence of Bible God's dwindling loud voice and personal relationship with individuals is evident in scripture.  In Genesis we have a God who walks and talks in the garden with humans.  He is seen face to face and humans are his friends.  But it isn't long before God only speaks through pillars of cloud and fire and speaks from mountains  with rumblings (earthquakes and volcanos) . Soon enough, he disappears normal communication and has to resort to intermediaries in the form of prophets and priests who hear the voices and pass it on.  Today God speaks  only through Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Robert Thiel and/or James Malm ...whatever.  When they aren't available, he tries to get our attention with weather.

God, who is said not to live in temples, lives in the Temple, specifically the Holy of Holies, and can only be divined by the leader or later by the priesthood. He never comes out and only accepts visitors once a year at Atonement. I've stood in the space once used as the Holy of Holies, but God had left by then.

Even in the history of the times, the voice of God disappears and men are left to discern it with stones and bones, animal entrails, dice and lots. The early Apostles were even force to figure out who God wanted to replace Judas by casting lots.  God ain't sayin'.  Consulting Oracles were also popular to figure out what the gods wanted as He had pretty much disappeared from the surrounding nations as well.

Eventually in the New Testament we have God speaking through his son Jesus and that all becomes a matter of faith just as believing the voices in the heads of the prophets were actually that of God. An argument could be made for Ezekiel showing all the signs of schizophrenia, which would not have been understood in the day, as well as the young Samuel who was told by Eli the next time they spoke to him to do what they said.  Classic schizophrenia which tends to show up in the teens into the 20's.  We'd scoff if Dave Pack said the voice of God in his head told him to "send it in."  Most scoffed back then too and were right to be cautious of "God told me."

The Apostle Paul was called, so says Luke though Paul says he was called from the womb, on the road to Damascus seeing a light brighter than the sun and the voice of Jesus....in his head.  The accounts are muddled nicely.  They can't all be true.  This description also fits the classic symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy with religious content, but I'll spare you that concept for God's voice for now.

"Paul himself makes no mention of a conversion on the road to Damascus, whereas Acts of the Apostles has not one, but three accounts:

• At Acts 9:3-8, Paul was blinded by a light and fell down, then heard Jesus, who told Paul that he would be told what to do when he was in the city. His men did not see the light, but heard the voice. They remained standing.
• At Acts 22:6-11, Paul told the people he was blinded by a light and fell down, then heard Jesus, who again told Paul that he would be told what to do when he was in Damascus. This time, his men saw the light but, unlike Paul, were not blinded, and did not hear the voice.
• At Acts 26.13-19, Paul told Agrippa that he saw a brilliant light and heard Jesus, who gave him his mission, but did not command him to go to Damascus. He fell down, but there is no mention of blindness, nor is there any mention of the men seeing or hearing anything, although for some reason they also fell down. He told those at Damascus and Jerusalem about his conversion experience.

https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/15532/why-are-the-three-accounts-of-pauls-conversion-on-the-road-to-damascus-differen

Throughout scripture, the voice of God gone from mighty to "a still small voice" .  From the beginning almost, one can see that literal wind, fire, thunder, lightening , hail and rushing water was perceived by those desperate to hear from God as the voice of God.  Individuals heard the voice of God and reported to the group but hasn't that always been a rather unfair way credibly communicate such important things?

Reading between the lines indicates that all too natural, though dramatic,  weather phenomenon and geological events were heard as the voice of God. It's what humans do and  have done for thousands of years endeavoring to divine the divine and explain natural events they had no understanding of. 

Exodus 24:16

The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

Numbers 7:89

Now when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim, so He spoke to him. 

1 Kings 19:12

After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.
IT WAS THE WIND

Psalm 68:33

To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times; Behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice.

Psalm 29:3-9 

     

The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; The God of glory thunders, The LORD is over many waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful, The voice of the LORD is majestic. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
IT WAS THE WATER. IT WAS THE THUNDER. 

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, And Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the LORD hews out flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"

Psalm 46:6

The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted.
AS IN MAGMA

2 Samuel 22:14

"The LORD thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered His voice.

Psalm 18:13

The LORD also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire.
IT WAS A THUNDERSTORM.  IT MAY HAVE BEEN A VOLANIC EVENT

Ezekiel 43:2

and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.
RUSHING WATER DIVINED AS A VOICE ALONG WITH GOD AS THE SUN

Revelation 1:15

His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 
                             

Jeremiah 10:13

When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, And brings out the wind from His storehouses.
STORMS.  Baal was the original storm God but Israel appropriated his traits for YHVH's, who originally was a Mountain God. 

Ezekiel 9:1

Then He cried out in my hearing with a loud voice saying, "Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand."
"IN MY HEARING...NOT YOURS"

Ezekiel 10:5

Moreover, the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks. 

Ezekiel 1:24 

I also heard the sound of their wings like the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army camp; whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings.

Revelation 1:10

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,
A VOICE AND A TRUMPET ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS.  ALSO HEAD ONLY IN JOHN'S HEAD

Revelation 4:1 

      

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things."

Daniel 4:31

"While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you,

Matthew 3:17

and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

John 12:28-30

"Father, glorify Your name " Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes.
THOUGH THEY DIDN'T UNDERSTAND IT OR HEAR IT AS A VOICE.  

2 Peter 1:18

"and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain"

So which is it ?   

John 5:37

"And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.

PCG: California Storm Damage Due To Fact State Of CA Attacked The Living God In 1979

That magical god of Armstrongism is constantly being called forth by the many COG false prophets and getting blamed for any recent natural disaster to hit the world,  but particularly if it happens in the United States, and even better if it happens in California.

Brad McDonald, a Philadelphia Church of God minister, let the "god is angry" spittle fly once again when he had to talk about the recent fires and landslides in California.

McDonald writes:

Perhaps you’ve heard that Southern California this week is experiencing terrible flooding and mudslides. Whenever a catastrophe like this happens, it’s easy to simply note the particulars and move on, not giving much thought to the human suffering. For me, it was when Johnson said, “We don’t know where [the baby] came from.” Imagine a sleeping toddler swept from its crib (and family), carried away violently, and eventually deposited in an unfamiliar place under four feet of cold, wet mud.

This is California. One month it’s drought and massive wildfires; the next it’s torrential rain, flooding and mudslides. Peppered in between are crises like the Oroville Dam crisis, enduring drug and crime problems, and debilitating debt. Meanwhile, the tectonic plates beneath the state continue to creak and groan, hinting disconcertingly that another massive earthquake is imminent.

With each crisis, one question comes further into focus: Is California cursed?

A strong case can be made proving that California’s demise began in the late 1980s. On Oct. 17, 1989, a massive earthquake rattled Northern California. The Loma Prieta quake caused 63 deaths, more than 3,500 injuries, and billions of dollars’ worth of damage. It occurred during Game 3 of a World Series that, interestingly, was between two California teams. The game (and earthquake) broadcasted live to millions of Americans.

In a sense, the “World Series earthquake” was a sign to the nation of the disasters, tumult and suffering that was to become routine in California over the next 30 years. It was a national sign that California was cursed. In May 1992, Los Angeles erupted in the worst riots in United States history. On Jan. 17, 1994, the Northridge earthquake killed 60 people, injured 9,000, and inflicted $20 billion worth of damage on Southern California. Both of these crises were “historic.”

Since the late 1980s, California has experienced one colossal—in many cases, “historic”—crisis after another: floods, drought, wildfires, mudslides, mass shootings, economic crisis, protests and riots. Exactlyone month ago we published an article on California’s historic wildfires, the worst in state history. In 2017, nearly 9,000 fires burned 1.2 million acres of California, destroying more than 10,000 structures and impacting tens of thousands of people.

As the wildfires raged, it was common to hear people—average, nonreligious people—discussing the fires in apocalyptic terms. Many seriously wondered if the fires were a sign from God, or a sign that the world was about to end. But now that the fires have died down, most people have moved on. California’s apocalypse, many believe, is over (unless you live in Southern California).

But is it?   from You Need to Know: Is California Cursed? January 10, 2018

There is a method to his madness as to where he is going with this. California has always been the COG's favourite whipping post. From liberals to gays to everything in between, the church found fault with everything. All of that pales in comparison as to the real reason California has had several crises over the years.  The reason CA is in such a mess is because it attacked the Living God when it launched its lawsuit against the corrupt administration of the Worldwide Church of God when it tried to seek accountability to the millions and millions of dollars flowing through the church coffers  that was being squandered on all kinds of things.

According to Gerald Flurry, when the State attacked the church, they attacked the Living God himself!  When that happened, Flurry's god got really really angry and started punishing the citizens of the state in revenge.

Gerald Flurry writes:

In an overt attack against Mr. Armstrong, the state of California, through the attorney general’s office, launched a massive lawsuit against the WCG in 1979. On January 3, that office initiated a sudden, armed assault on the Pasadena headquarters, in an attempt to claim ownership of the Church’s property and assets as well as its continuing income—in violation of the U.S. Constitution. A receiver, secretly appointed by the court, tried to take over and operate God’s Church. Completely false, outrageous and baseless allegations of financial mismanagement were made—despite financial and all other required records having been regularly and voluntarily filed. No evidence of wrongdoing was ever found, and on October 14, 1980, the attorney general dropped all charges and dismissed the case. Later, the higher appellate court ruled that the lawsuit was without foundation.

California is the only state that ever attacked Mr. Armstrong and his work. Actually, it attacked a lot more than that. California really ATTACKED THE LIVING GOD!

Is God now intensely cursing California for its attack against the living God’s work under Herbert W. Armstrong?

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). Is God now taking vengeance against that state for what it did to His work? Yes, He is! And California is only the beginning.

The sooner we repent, the sooner the curses will end.  From Is California  Under a Curse?  December 2003 Trumpet

McDonald also includes this absurd comment about how his god may get really pissed on January 16th, the date of Herbert Armstrong's death.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if California was pummeled again really soon; maybe even around January 16 or 17? (the anniversary of the death of Herbert W. Armstrong).