What it is like seeing the world in a new way after leaving the church

I think this best describes what it feels like for so many when they leave the church and suddenly realize that all of the malarkey we were spoon fed about the "world" was a load of crap. The beauty and complexity of the world is vibrantly fresh, rewarding, beautiful and challenging, all at the same time.

To experience that richness without having to find fault with ever thing is a scary thing for some and it is hard to deal with.  For others the world is waiting to be explored as a world full of grace and beauty.

This was posted on a Facebook group of ex-church members today.  I have permission to post this.

What it was like to leave the church for me and see vibrancy in 'the world' for the first time. When I realized the reality of the relationships I could have had and that I could have nurtured had we not been brain-washed to think we were were special, chosen and set apart. The world was grey, and deceived and they were all bad. They would see some day. 

I think I was more happy than sad though. I realized what lay ahead of me was going to be thousands of times better than what was behind me - but there were and still are some waves of 'could haves'.  

The relationships I have with those still *in* are still also in black and white. And today I realized that some in my life who have left the CoGs, are still steeped in that judgemental critical outlook in select relationships - at least I hope it is in select relationship, because if it is in all of them, their life is sadly miserable.  

Did you experience this bitter-sweetness when your vision altered the first time?

Your Well Being As A Religious Person Does NOT Depend Upon Any COG Leader

From Exit and Support:

Thinking For Yourself

December 2,2018

I have for the longest time been monitoring your site to keep updated on what is going on with the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG). It would seem that over the years it has become so secretive that hardly any information is coming out about what's happening in the PCG. It only makes sense that the supposedly only one true Church of God which is the only one that has the truth would want to hide its operations from the world and even its own members. There are a lot of clues for those who are paying attention that the PCG is not what it claims to be. Nowhere in the Bible is there any indication that the members of God's one, true Church are to mindlessly follow whoever comes along and appoints himself as the one having "THE” truth. In fact, the members of the Church are repeatedly warned of false teachers arising right from within the ministry and that each and every member of the church is responsible for proving for himself using the Bible whether what is taught them agrees with the truth of the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that members are to mindlessly follow the leaders in the Church as all are but fallible men whose ways can become evil; having been honest in the past is absolutely no guaranty of continuing to be honest in the future. Men are not to be trusted; none of them; all their preaching has to be constantly verified against the Bible and if they cannot be proven with the Bible, they are not to be believed.  

Your well-being as a religious person does not depend on you finding the man that in your estimation looks the most trustworthy but in you personally and always verifying everything men say against your Bible. Your salvation does not and has never depended on any man. Your salvation is between you and God and your criterion for sorting truth from error is your Bible. Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ and if I am not following Christ then don't follow me.  

There are many lamenting that they have been misled for years and had to endure all sorts of abuse from the ministry and I am sure this is very true. However, there was never any need for them to let themselves be the victims of such abuse. Our salvation does not depend upon belonging to a specific organization which has somewhere in its title the words "church of God.” It is not a question of belonging to the "right” organization or of following the "right” man. God places squarely on your individual shoulders the responsibility for your salvation which is wholly based on your personal efforts to understand the truth as written in your Bible — not according to what men say is the truth — and your resolve to apply it in your life to the best of your abilities.  

You do not need to be at the mercy of men running organizations they call "churches of God” who abuse you (not very Christian to say the least) and who callously exploit you financially to provide a life of luxury for themselves and their inner circle supporters who are often family members and close relatives. 

If you are feeling miserable and hopeless, the key to your freedom is and has always been in your own hands.  

Your salvation is between you and God and not you and some organization or man who calls himself a prophet. God looks on the heart. Are you really trying to know and understand the truth and to follow it to the best of your abilities? Then there is a crown of glory reserved for you which Christ will bring at the time of His 2nd Coming for all those who will delight in his appearing. God's Church is not a physical organization but a spiritual organism made up of all those who sincerely are hungering and thirsting for the truth and who resolve to obey it when they find it whether they be by themselves or part of a group.  

Don't let any man make your life miserable by impoverishing you, disrespecting you and your family while claiming to be God's true servant. Their actions speak louder than their words and make plain the truth about who they really are and what they are doing. 

It just doesn't make any sense to believe that such an organization or person could be what and who they claim to be. 

You have it in your power to set yourself free; right now. God will not forsake anyone who sincerely wants to obey Him.  

--EX-PCG Member (left the PCG over 20 years ago and I'm still standing and YOU can too)

The Real St Nicholas Punched Arius

...the “real St. Nicholas” was said to be at the Council of Nicaea, where a major theme of the debate was whether Christ was “homoousios”–meaning “one substance”–with the Father, or “homoioousios”–of similar substance with the Father.  In other words, is Christ truly God, as St. Nicholas and the other orthodox bishops believed, or is He just similar to God, a very special creation, but just Man and not God, as Arius and his faction believed.

St. Nicholas was so zealous for the deity of Christ that he actually is said to have assaulted Arius. Advent, St. Nicholas, & the Deity of Christ

Almost-arrested tin-foil Bob has had another yearly meltdown over the original St. Nicholas and how he is tied to the Christmas tradition.  Since Armstrongism was considered at times to be Arian in its beliefs, Tinfoil Bob was none too happy to discover Nicholas assaulted Arius.

Notice the following from the St. Nicholas Center:

In 325 Emperor Constantine called the Council of Nicaea, which was the first ecumenical council ever held. More than 300 bishops from all over the Christian world came to debate the nature of the Holy Trinity, one of the early church’s most intense theological questions. Arias, from Egypt, taught that the Son Jesus was not equal to God the Father. This was the Arian controversy which shook Christianity’s very foundations. According to one account, when confronted by the unyielding Arias, Nicholas slapped him in the face. For such a breach of decorum, Nicholas was brought before Constantine, who stripped him of his office and had him thrown into prison. During the night, Jesus with his Mother Mary appeared to Nicholas: Jesus bringing the book of the Gospels, and Mary, the bishop’s stole which had been taken from him. In this way Nicholas was reinstated. (Bishop of Myra. St. Nicholas Center. http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/bishop-of-myra/viewed 12/05/14) 

While Jesus is God, since Jesus said, “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), this should help prove that Nicholas was wrong to punch somebody who claimed to believe something like that–plus Christians are not to be violent.