Taking a Break From the Mere 85 Years Of Wild World of God Antics and Mistaken Views

If there is any topic the Churches of God never understood and still either don't or refuse to acknowledge, it is the concept of Deep Time.  It is beyond ludicrous to believe that humans are the center of all things.  Sure, the Bible starts with a wiz bang creation of seven days which never actually happened and by chapter four,the first humans have screwed up and the four of them, Adam, Eve, Seth and Cain are left to go out and be fruitful and all that.  By the end of the Chapter 9, all flesh but a few worth souls have been eradicated by the flood and by Chapter 11 the crazy humans are at it again and have to be confused of language and sent on their ways. Critcal Scholarship considers the first 11 Chapters of Genesis to be pure mythology.  By Chapter 12 Abraham shows up and the rest is Bible "history".   All this takes place over a  few thousand years and then we get a couple thousand years of very confusing and suspect Church History to this day.

Laying aside the fairy tale of the time between "In the Beginning" and the Earth becoming tohu and bohu-ish, that pretty much sums it up.  Scientifically humans have been around .ooo4 % of all the time our one lone sun and solar system have existed. Biblically, humans have been around almost 100% of Bible Time Creation.  This of course is insane.

Now I realize that few if any here will even bother to consider the concept of Deep Time, which is reality and the folly of Bible Time as it relates to the entire human experience.  Some will scream "What does this have to do with anything!" or "Why do you bother bringing this up at all.  Or as a few have begged, "Please go start your own Blog and leave us alone." I can also hear, "I thought you gave up contributing?"   To that I simply say I change my mind from time to time. Portland Winters are cold, rainy and since I go to work in the dark, work in the dark and come home in the dark, my mind is not right  :)

And too....Understand that anything I contribute along the way is not meant to convince or change minds.  It is merely to let those who have stepped out of Church of God boxes to know they are not alone and there be few, I suppose, who actually fit into this category.  

In talking to a close friend still involved in the Churches of God, I am assured that any number of members have joined the Earth is really flat believers.  That's about as pathetic as it gets but I am also assured that conspiracy theories and Republican Politics have infected many of the Churches and Donald Trump can do no wrong. The man is to politics and the fascinating reality of personality disorders as Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Bob Thiel  and Ron Weinland are to Religion.   Moving right along....  I thank myself everyday to be out of that mess and actually enjoying what I do now.

Three personal favorites.  14.5 Billion Year old Chondrite (Stoney) meteorites that spent most of their time orbiting in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter but now are MINE!  lol.  They are the oldest thing a human being can touch and existed before or as the earth formed and before Thea crashed obliquely into the Earth giving us our tilt and whose debris coalesced into our moon. These existed before any life arouse on the planet.  The one in the middle was a $20 find in a rock shop where the owner had taken it in from an estate sale not actually knowing what it was. When I spotted it, I invested the $20 and took it to be Certified.  It now has a history of being another 14.5 Billion Year Old Meteorite from a NW Africa Fall and revalued at $800.  So, yes, I have actually found a meteorite...on a kiddies rock shelf in Portland.

A small  piece of a much larger Iron/Nickel Meteorite , also one of my babies, from the core of a shattered asteroid. The polishing of both pieces was a mental health week project. Also a remnant of Deep time at 4.5 Billion.  Of course the Universe we inhabit comes in at 14.5 Billion but that's even deeper time. 

Anyway, Deep Time should give us pause and humble even the most twice blessed, "And yes brethren, I am an Apostle" or "Presiding Evangelists" who posture their shallow understanding  about everything in the Splits, Schisms, Splinters and Slivers still around from the Wildworld of God days. 

I'll save the 15 Million year old  5" Megaladon  Teeth for another annoying reminder of geological and paleontological realities as compared to Biblical  mythologies  taken way literally to be the actual explanation of Origins and Deep Time.

Those views belonged to the Dark and Middle Ages.

Ambassador College Correspondence Course: "This Is God Speakiing..." Was this Truthful?

Today, Continuing with writings on the Ambassador College Correspondence Course, I want to talk about lesson 8. It is titled, not so subliminally, "This Is God Speaking". 

The following are untruths - read - things attributed to God that did not happen - in this writing which is being attributed directly to God. These statements were said in the 1963 edition. 

1. I come to announce the imminent arrival. (This was 55 years ago. Nothing was imminent.) 

2. It is at your very door! (It was not.) 

3. Quick and determined action MUST BE TAKEN if you are to ESCAPE! (There was nothing to escape.) 

4. At the peril of losing your life, listen attentively. (No Armageddon would occur in 55 years.) 

5. My great final intervention is poised and beginning to occur.  (It has not happened.) 

6. I am giving you personally every warning...so that you may escape (Personally, none of this applied to the 1963 adult.) 

7. I give YOU NOW a CLEAR WARNING PICTURE of the TERRIBLE DISRUPTION JUST AHEAD (It wasn't.)

This was doomsday apocalyptic cult religion. This was fear religion. 

Instead of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ - and His power, accomplishments, and what is available for Christians today - the message of hope, life and truth was replaced completely by this fear-inducing series of lies.

Let's be frank about what was really going on here:

1. Fact: These were sayings attributed to God that God would say according to the Church. Truth: Herbert said these things, not God. This was presumptuous and false teaching. Challenge: Disprove this. 

2. Fact: What was said to occur was not at their very door. Truth: 55 years and counting after this date, no Armageddon. Challenge: Disprove this. 

3. Fact: Listening attentively had no bearing on anyone's life being lost whatsoever. Truth: This was a fear statement which had no bearing whatsoever on reality outside of Armstrong. Challenge: Disprove this. 

4. Fact: The Biblical "beginnings" of a great intervention have not "begun". Truth: There have been times on this planet far worse - FAR worse - than the 20th Century and today. History is the truth on this. Research. Challenge: Disprove this. 

5. Fact: No person needed any "personal" warning from Herbert Armstrong. Truth: 55 Years later, those who were warned have either lived out their lives to an old age or have died. Herbert's Warning to that generation was a lie and a false warning. Challenge: Disprove this. 

6. Fact: The Terrible Worldwide "Disruption" was not "Just ahead". Truth: The warning was not "clear". It was a lie. Challenge: Disprove this. 

The General Population was who was spoken to here in majority. Those who joined up with Herbert to his Church would be the ones who would experience tribulation in their lives, upheavals, "trials", loss of friends, loss of income, ministerial abuse, dictatorial control by overbearing ministers, loss of relationships with spouses, relatives, friends, depression, anxiety, and fear in many cases. They would be in constant fear of Petra, famine, Germans, Armageddon, they would believe that Satan had so much power and was ready to attack them in a heartbeat at the slightest let-down of zeal, and they would experience the massive upheavals of GTA, the Receivership, and The Changes of 1995.Those who did not join continued in life as if Herbert Armstrong and his propaganda never existed. 

Was the foundation Jesus Christ? Or was the foundation doomsday fear mongering religion with selfish, money-loving, greed-oriented, power-focused lies and deception? Without a doubt in the world - it was ALL LIES. This was a SCAM. This was spiritual extortion. This was deception. This was NOT the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and this was NOT truth. History proves this without a shadow of a doubt with hard, cold, factual, indisputable evidence. I'm not out to change minds. I am presenting evidence. What anyone does with it? That's on them. 

submitted by SHT

Church of God Pedophiles and the Cover Ups.

I have been asked to repost this because certain COG groups are denying that there were pedophiles in the church.

For many decades the Church of God has had a string of child abuse cases that were quietly hushed up by the ministry and the administration.  Only when the police or child protective services got involved did the stories ever make headlines.  "What child abuse cases" you may ask, "I never heard of any."  There is a reason for that.

Negative publicity was anathema in the Church of God.  No one dared bring ridicule or scorn upon the church.  The ministry and the administration made that well known.  Those that did so were immediately put out of the church for doing so.  This included families who reported the child abuse.  Somehow it was their fault it happened.

The Jehovah's Witnesses are reeling from child abuse accusations right now that involve cover-ups of the abuses by their ministry and leadership.  The excuses are the exact same ones the COG  ministry used and STILL uses.  This should not be surprising since we all share the same religious heritage dating back to the Great Disappointment with William Miller in 1844.  That is the root of our religious heritage corruption.

Over the last several years I have reported on several high-profile cases on this blog.  Click on the links under the pictures for the previous stories.

John Aubrey Pinkston  

Monroe, Louisiana Worldwide Church of God Pastor

KENNESAW, Ga. -- A pastor was sentenced to prison Thursday when a jury determined he molested at least two young girls and took "no responsibility whatsoever" for his actions. 

Jurors deliberated half an hour before convicting 78-year-old John Aubrey Pinkston of two counts of child molestation. Pinkston is the founder and former leader of Congregation of God Seventh Day in Kennesaw. 

"Mr. Pinkston, you've been convicted of the unforgivable sin of molesting the most vulnerable members of your flock. You've taken no responsibility whatsoever," Cobb County Superior Court Judge Robert D. Leonard II said before sentencing Pinkston to 20 years with 10 to serve in prison.

Stephen Gough, former WCG member

 and minister in the Christian Biblical Church of God

A former Auckland teacher posed as a God-fearing churchgoer but behind closed doors molested children while reading passages from the bible, a court has heard.

Stephen Gough - who can be named for the first time after name suppression lapsed - was jailed for three and a half years at Waitakere District Court yesterday after admitting nine sex charges.

The 79-year-old man, who propped himself up in the dock with the aid of a walking stick, committed "persistent, relentless and repeated" offences against three girls and a boy between 1976 and 1987.

William Koeneke

Church of the Eternal God

The Eastbourne Herald is reporting about a former deacon in the Worldwide Church of God who was convicted  for child molestations. Koeneke is a minister in the Church of the Eternal God, also known as Global Church of God in England and the Church of God, A Christian Fellowship in Canada.  He has ties to Raymond McNair, Wray Zehrung, Rod Meredith,  Norbert Link and Ed Pope.  He has also co-authored booklets promoting the myth of British Israelism and the supposed prophecies in the book of Revelation, among many others.Abused in Everyway  in the Worldwide Church of God

Joseph D. Wagner  

United Church of God and Church of God a Worldwide Association 

   

A former UCG member who jumped ship to the Church of God a Worldwide Association (COGWA) has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of raping two little girls.  The judge in the case is quoted as saying:

The judge also told the defendant the sexual abuse was similar to a life sentence for      the girls. Binette said he took into that consideration plus a woman's testimony who alleged Wagner abused her decades ago -- and possibly at least five other victims -- when he decided the defendant's sentence. Child Rapist Gets Life Without Parole

Binette, according to the Sandusky Register, told Wagner he groomed the victims "in your own sick ways" and made his bedroom "a torture chamber for those two children."

Robyn and Graydon Drown

Worldwide Church of God

The court was shocked yesterday by at the presentation of an audio tape, recorded in secrecy by the oldest son, in which the six year old daughter was allegedly beaten severely with a fiberglass tent pole with a knotted cord dangling from it for over two minutes, while a voice of a woman, identified as Robyn Kay Drown chatted in the background. According to the tape, at no time during the beating did anyone come to the defence of the little child who screamed and cried while her father called her "rebellious" and mentioned "the promised land". There also appeared on the tape to be at least one other child present during the beating. 

Robyn Drown was indicted with her husband Graydon Drown on 25 counts of second-degree assault and criminal mistreatment of nine of their children. Alleged weapons of abuse include a metal pipe, a switch, 2-by-4 boards and other household objects such as a fiberglass tent pole with a knotted cord, and wooden spoons. 

Kevin Owen Dean

Worldwide Church of God

Wanted Fugitive

Arrested, escaped, arrested again

In prison

SUSPECT: KEVIN OWEN DEAN, 61
CARTERSVILLE DISPATCH 

• Description: Caucasian man; 5-feet-11-inches tall and 175 pounds; brown hair and hazel eyes.

• Last Known: Kennesaw, but Dean owns Imperial Medical, a business in Cartersville.

• Accusations: Dean is wanted to stand trial on aggravated child molestation and 12 additional charges. Authorities say he avoided the first trial by "running from the courtroom," an offense for which the judge issued a bench warrant. Dean is out of jail on a $75,000 bond.  

Anyone with information on Dean's whereabouts should call  BCSO's dispatch, non-emergency line at 770-382-5050, option 7. Cartersville-Bartow County Crime Stoppers accepts anonymous information on its tip line at 770-606-TIPS (8477). It gives cash rewards for tips the lead to an arrest in some cases. 

United Church of God Elder Molestations

Click on the above link to the story on Silenced and how UCG covered it up.

Several years ago there was an entire UCG congregation in West Virginia which seceded from the mothership after a local elder molested a young lady in the congregation. The local elder had a history of doing this sort of thing. He had repeatedly been admonished by church leaders to stop, but as is so often the case, he didn't because he knew they would never discipline him. Keep in mind, this was back around 2004 - 2005 when all the leaders of COGWA were still running United. Doug Horchak, Jim Franks, Richard Pinelli, Clyde Kilough, etc., were all aware of what had taken place with this elder and how he had molested a young girl. 

Nathan Albright, who is not shy about publicly addressing problems in the COGs, sent Richard Pinelli an email about the problems created by the Council's lack of action to resolve the situation: 

Dear Mr. Holladay and Mr. Pinelli The attached message concerns a lively thread about the alleged fondling of a young lady in [...] by a local church elder. The situation has led to a lot of discussion, not all of it friendly, and the situation needs to be dealt with, as some people are threatening to call the police on the situation. Some of us know some (or all) of the parties involved in this particular situation, and I hope that the case is dealt with fairly and faithfully (and, at this point, quickly). Nathan Albright

 Yisrayl Hawkins

Worldwide Church of God 

and present-day leader of the House of Yahweh Cult

The House of Yahweh compound in Abilene, Texas has been in the news countless times for child abuse and bigamy accusations.  Pedophilia has been reported to be rampant on the compound.

The House of Yahweh is referred to many times as the "Sex Cult."  In fact, Yisrayl Hawkins himself was arrested for bigamy.  Hawkins first wife Kay Hawkins has written a book about her life in the HOY and how Hawkins,  a serial adulterer, took another wife before casting her aside.  See The House of Yahweh: My Side of the Story.

The few public cases presented here are just the tip of the iceberg of what really has gone on over the decades.  Child abuse was rampant in the church and yet was little known because church leaders covered so much of it up.  It still goes on to this day in most of the larger Church of God splinter groups, including UCG, PCG, RCG, LCG, COGWA, CGI, and others.

All of this is from a church that claimed to be the "restored faith once delivered."  We mocked and ridiculed "worldly" churches because of their scandals, yet we were just as sick, if not more so.