You were BORN to be A King! Prepare to RULE!

When a reader here asked why Church of God ministers/leaders constantly stick noses into church members bedrooms and lives the following response was given. It all boils down to the belief that we would become God as God is God and sit at the right hand of the Father ruling in splendor and glory.

Anon replied:

This is the result of a specific kind of training that happened in Armstrongism. This is the "training" of the following programming methods:

1) You were BORN to be A King!

2) Prepare to RULE!

These principles appealed to the egos of men in Armstrongism for decades. For generations, it was the whole being of soul of a man to be the best ruler of the house, the best "prince" of the Kingdom of God, to do good enough and to "qualify" for the highest "positions" in the Kingdom. You would a city, five cities, ten cities, a country, a planet - MAYBE even a whole galaxy to RULE over. The male egos were salivating thirstily for this ability to control, to dominate, to rule over their dominions and their territories. This was the teaching and the reality. There are many, many articles and teachings that cover this thoroughly.

When the WCG collapsed and shattered into hundreds of pieces, the path to a higher position in the Church (which many believed would lead to a higher position in the Kingdom) literally fell off the table. Many who were on their way to deacons, elders, pastors, or employment in the church or the college found themselves without a path to promotion. But the ingrained philosophies which were so thoroughly applied within their minds - the programming - did not go anywhere. That thirst, that hunger for power built on pride and ego was now starved without a central organization. 

When the WCG divided, it fragmented into several core groups. There were those who left to form splinters, those who left religion completely, and those who went into mainstream Christianity. Of those groups were a few who were not going to give up the dream of power and rulership - and thought they could use Armstrong's Formula Of Success to accomplish what Armstrong did. What we are seeing now are the results of the few men who went rogue and are making an attempt to rebuild what was broken. What I am convinced we don't hear about, or know about, are the others who have tried but failed right off the bat, which is why we don't know who they are. 

So now, we have the stories of those who have tried. We have the stories of Flurry, Pack, Weinland, Thiel, a few larger splinters trying to hold their own - all holding onto that dream of being a king and ruling a city or a galaxy or whatever territory they'll get (I wouldn't want to see them fighting like cats over borders!!!). What have been the results? Just skim through this blog or the 'net for a day and find out the results. It isn't pretty. The whole meat of the matter is simple: When you focus on authority, ruler-ship, control, power, rank, and dominion, you lose focus on boundaries, what's appropriate, good fruits, loving character, and godly characteristics. What we see here is simply the aggressive cancer of uncontrolled authority spreading like wildfire. The fruit of presumptuous behavior gone wild. And, like it or not - it was all enabled by Armstrongism's core teachings and doctrines - powered by pride and the hope of promotion. 

Zealous Church of God Members Must Refrain From Sex Three Days Before Pentecost!

In the previous post, Dennis posted about the batshit crazy things people  (COG leaders) say".  The Church of God is always up to fulfilling that that task since it is filled with self-appointed men who think their god speaks to them and who has set them apart as teachers of the word.

The latest is from the Official Church of God Chief Zealot, James Malm, a man who has prostituted himself at the base of the "law" and who is totally ignorant about Jesus Christ and the New Covenant.  His god is the law of Moses.  He has elevated it to new heights that most COG members would never dream of.

Like any good Church of God leader, he has to stick his bible-thumping nose into the sex lives of church members.

Sex on Passover, Sabbath and High Days

    The man and woman were created without sin and it was only AFTER sin entered, that Sacrifices, a High Priest Intercessor and the Law of Clean and Unclean were instituted. 

    Even then, there were clean and unclean animals, but the further details only began at Sinai with God’s detailed instructions for Israel and a PHYSICAL priesthood.

    If one considers the laws given to Israel one cannot help but come to the conclusion that it is physically impossible to avoid becoming unclean for more than a very short time.

    A woman can be absolutely perfect yet she cannot overcome the female nature [natural cycle], a man can be absolutely perfect yet he cannot prevent an emission even if he restrains himself otherwise.

    This is meant to teach us that the physical state of man once Adam and Eve had sinned is antithetical to godliness, and only God can make us spiritually clean washing away our sins. Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

    In practical terms; yes, let a man and his wife enjoy each other to the full, but refrain from sex on High Days and Sabbaths [and on the Appointed Time of Passover day] so as to be clean on Holy Time. This principle is presented when God commanded Israel to refrain from their wives for three days before Pentecost at Sinai (Ex 19:15).

    I have been in error on this point in the past and I now realize that it is proper to rest from sex on the Passover, Sabbaths and High Days. This is not a burden since one can prepare on Friday afternoon and before High Days and wash before the Sabbaths begin. 

What the hell is wrong with Church of God leaders?????????  This is what happens when zealotry takes over the minds of the hypocritical Pharisees of the church.

In other words, it is ok to breed in sexual abandonment four days prior to the three-day restriction, then just make sure to wash up afterward AND before sundown so that the Holy Spirit can descend upon you on Pentecost.

God Told Me To Tell You...

How many times have we heard, and how many times have Church of God Prophets and Apostles peppered the brethren with...

"God told me," "God has revealed to me,"  "God has shown me,"  "God is now causing, " "God will now do this...," or "God demands that we...," and all the other "God speaks to me," concepts one can come up with?  Far too often and it is a lie.   

God tells a lot of people to do a lot of things evidently. Women have drown their children because "God told me to." Men have killed others, either as individuals or in whole groups because "God told me to." Ministers , falsely so called, in the Churches of God have with great authority announced what God is going to do or what God has revealed to them and now I pass it on to you only to make fools of themselves, again, with a false report.  Traditionally they salvage their butts with "God is giving us more time" but I think that is just an excuse for mucking up. 

I never heard a Church of God Prophet or Apostle say "God has shown me.... , however, I don't buy it and I am not going to pass it on to you because it is just rubbish."   Rather, how often that voice just happens to agree 100% with how the receiver is thinking on that topic as well. How convenient. I guarantee you that David C Pack has never passed on what God wants or has revealed to him without Dave first thinking it all up on his own. That's how it really works. 

Why can't we understand that when we talk to God, that's called prayer and relatively harmless. But that when God talks to us, we might be dealing with a whole new ball game here and some red lights might need to start flashing. How often do members of churches, sit "weakly"  and listen to their pastor recall how God has told him this or that and no one even considers what the man is really saying. And they certainly don't seem to take exception to it.  I find the ministry of Dave Pack's Restored Church of God to be the most either gullible or most kiss ass one can be in this regard.  They have plenty of proof that Dave Pack is blowing smoke and yet they act impressed and compliant to their Dave-illogical beliefs

Thomas Paine, in The Age of Reason, made some interesting observations about the obligation those who do not hear the voice of God directly have to obey the words of the one who says God did talk to THEM personally.

"No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such a communication, if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and consequently they are not obliged to believe it.

It is a contradiction in terms and ideas, to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second-hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication -- after this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner; for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.

When Moses told the children of Israel that he received the two tables of the commandments from the hands of God, they were not obliged to believe him, because they had no other authority for it than his telling them so; and I have no other authority for it than some historian telling me so. The commandments carry no internal evidence of divinity with them; they contain some good moral precepts, such as any man qualified to be a lawgiver, or a legislator, could produce himself, without having recourse to supernatural intervention."

As teen and certainly as a minister I knew this tale that the Apostle Paul wove and always found myself asking,  "was that so?"  I found it hard to believe it really happened then and I know now it never really happened literally.  Yet Paul insisted...

1I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to gain, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.

…2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows. 3And I know that this man — whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows — 4was caught up into Paradise. The things he heard were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell.…

ll Corinthians 12:2-4

Of course, Paul was talking about himself . But why bother telling us this happened when you can't reveal what happened or what you saw?  I always thought he just wanted to sound important or called and special so he makes up this "God showed me" story to give himself credentials and credibility of some kind.  

It's a familiar ruse. I grew up myself near Hill Cumorah, the place where Joseph Smith found the Golden Plates of Mormonism. 

"According to Latter Day Saint belief, the golden plates (also called the gold plates or in some 19th-century literature, the golden bible)^[1] are the source from which Joseph Smith said he translated the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the faith.^[2] Some witnesses described the plates as weighing from 30 to 60 pounds (14 to 27 kg),^[3] being golden in color and being composed of thin metallic pages engraved on both sides and bound with three D-shaped rings.^[4]

Smith said he found the plates on September 22, 1823, at a Hill, near his home in Manchester, New York, after the angel Moroni directed him to a buried stone box. Smith said the angel at first prevented him from taking the plates but instructed him to return to the same location in a year. In September 1827, on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve the plates, Smith returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box. Though he allowed others to heft the box, he said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original "reformed Egyptian" language. Smith dictated the text of the Book of Mormon over the next several years, claiming that it was a translation of the plates. He did so by using a seer stone, which he placed in the bottom of a hat and then placed the hat over his face to view the words written within the stone.^[5] Smith published the translation in 1830 as the Book of Mormon.

Smith eventually obtained testimonies from eleven men, known as the Book of Mormon witnesses, who said they had seen the plates.^[6] After the translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to the angel Moroni. Therefore, the plates cannot be examined. Latter Day Saints believe the account of the golden plates as a matter of faith, and critics often assert that either Smith manufactured the plates himself^[7] or that the Book of Mormon witnesses based their testimony on visions rather than physical experience."

The Golden Plates 

Wikipedia

I'm going to guess Joseph Smith was a liar.

Plainly put, if you didn't hear it from God, you don't have to believe it! How simple. How much misery could be saved if we could look those in the eye who say God speaks to them and say, "well, I'm glad for you, but don't expect me to give up my job, money, home, family, my vote or my life because God told you to tell me to....Because if he can take the time to have a direct chat with you about these, he can take a few extra minutes and come over to see me too." This way there won't be any room for doubt and I can make up my own mind as to whether that was really God or not. I'd tend to vote no.

Just because Dave Pack announces that now we all hold everything in common because that is what God wants, doesn't mean we have to do it.  Just because God tells his man of faith and power it's time to flee to Petra...well I hope you get the point. 

While we might kid about those through whom God channels his will to us, without verification, it's not all that funny when things go wrong with misdirected religious organizations and self appointed Apostles, Watchers and Prophets. We do have our Jonestown, Heaven's Gate and Waco to haunt us. But it is almost a habit of mind for those that follow others in their religious perspectives to agree with everything they say or do simply because they are told it the context of "God told me," or "God wants us to.."  and never think a critical thought asking if that really be so.

Remember what the scripture says..."In the last days, narcissists and schizophrenics shall wax worse and worse and shall deceive many...and if they say, "lo hath God told me this or that, believe it not, give not of thine shekels nor offer up thine children on hearsay and much speculation as if it were from God. For it prolly be not of God and thou shalt save thine self and all thy household with thee..."