Rulers of Church and State? They won't be ruling over a Hamster!
So they think they are going to rule "Church and State".
These are the words of certain Armstrongism leaders who think they somehow are qualified to be world leaders. Who somehow think they are the heirs of the Kingdom of God under Jesus Christ. They believe they are preparing to be world government administrators and leaders in their "World Tomorrow". They honestly believe Jesus Christ is going to appoint them as the highest rank of rulers and leaders in what they call "The World Tomorrow".
Yes, they do. I know, because I once thought as they did, and acted as they did. I sat in their shoes, in their worldview. I don't doubt for a second they believe - with their whole minds - that somehow, this is their destiny. That they are earning and qualifying for the corner office and highest positions on the 4th floor of Universal Headquarters of Kingdom, Incorporated. Yes, they believe this.
They believe that because every seventh day, and every festival time, their gatherings and their method of worship are exactly what God demands and requires of His people. They believe, that because of their ties to their magnificent End Time Apostle who Restored All Things, and their obedience to the Restoration, that if they hold fast to that Faith once Delivered, that they will hold such magnificent offices that they will be right "up there" with Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and in their minds, Herbert, Garner Ted, Rod, Raymond, and all of the other pioneers of Armstrong's short-reigned movement. They think these things because this is what they have accepted as truth, and have committed their lives to. They think these things because to think otherwise would make their entire lives a lie. To think otherwise would be - to them - unconscionable.
Yet by this train of thought, they not only ignore the deep, spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ, but they also ignore the entire core and foundation of the entire Gospel they think they proclaim. They ignore the countless failures that they proclaim as present truth. They ignore the harm they cover like a cat covers its dung in the litter box. They reason their way around any evidence that completely refutes their viewpoints. They instead ingest a toxic diet of pride, hubris, power, lust, mammon, arrogance, and abuse and spew it all over well-meaning members with the force and smell of a bad night's drinking binge. They do this unashamedly, and unapologetically. They do this blind and deaf to any reason, to any logic, to any emotion, or to any evidence of truth. They are intoxicated with the delusions of power and the poisons of the drug of brainwashed thinking and cult mentality. They think they act in love, but stab their claws deep into the hearts of the shackled and the chained, thinking they are holding them to ordained Law and divine submission, not seeing the dungeons and depth of depravity they tie their victims to, and as starving vampires, suck the living life and energy out of their victims while energizing themselves with their lives.
While molesting the Gospel of Jesus Christ with their depravities, and spitting on the face of the Lord with their doctrines of satanic nightmares, they sit in their high lives relishing in their "blessings" and "favor" from the spiritual extortion of their victims. As we have read, many have, under the full duress and victimization of their abusers, entered the depths of depression and anxiety due to being cut off from their loved ones. Many have taken their own lives because there is no longer any reason to love in their own minds. Others sit there as lifeless drones, listening to rehashed garbage over and over and over again. Others sit there and take the berating, uncompassionate, loveless "authority" of their spiritual "overseers", never measuring up and always not doing enough. Most sit under the threat of punishment and disfellowshipment for their mistakes, always fearing their loss of salvation or not "qualifying" enough to make it, and stay restrained by their slave masters because they fear if they leave what little they have will be taken from them. They do this because they have bought into the lies which came from Herbert himself and have been taught over and over again by his hirelings.
God has said in his word that those who want to be the greatest must become the least. He has said that those who want to rule must become servants. He has said if you want to be rich, give to the poor. He has said that he is looking for those who are the hands and feet of Jesus. God has said to feed the hungry. To clothe the unclothed. To visit the jailed. And to nurse the sick.
God has condemned the love of money, and the advancement of sordid gain. He has condemned those who take advantage of the widows and the fatherless. Those who take advantage of the poor, or make merchandise of the brethren. He has spoken time and time again, over and over again in the scriptures about the importance of the fruits of the Spirit, and the manifestation of love in His people to God and to man. He has said over and over again the importance of mercy, of grace, of forgiveness, and of truth. He has said that His people would humble themselves, and look not to worldly possessions, but spiritual discernment and God's guiding Spirit.
But what do we have? What do we have in the Church of God scene?
We have leaders who build compounds and mansions. Who take their members for everything they have for what? For jet aircraft. For trees. For BMW's, and gemstones. For buildings laden with crystal and Steinways. For the finest desks and offices, suits and ties. For posh surroundings and expensive dinners. For trips, and for the best Feast-cations. Instead of embracing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his ministry of love - they've traded it all in for mammon and selfish ambition and wickedness. And they seem to be blind, deaf, and mute to it all.
They think they're going to rule church and state? They are not qualified to rule a hamster or a gerbil, much less any sort of world government! Anyone who has any knowledge of the words of Jesus Christ knows they are making a sham out of the Gospel, and perpetuating an ongoing scam. The only reason why they keep going is that there are people who continue to buy into the lies and the untruths that these false prophets, teachers, and ministers have convinced them to believe.
These "ministers" - no matter what they say or believe in their delusions - are not qualified, nor will they have any part of the rule of God's people, since they refuse to obey and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, and instead embrace the shadows that pointed to Him. They don't exhibit the love or compassion that marks a servant of Jesus Christ. They live in a make-believe world of empty threats and empty words. I will say it again. The only authority they have is the power of deception to those who submit themselves to such deception. Otherwise, they are just weak men who make a mockery of the Lord they claim to serve and know.
Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest". And there are thousands of members of the COG's who absolutely require rest for their souls and minds and hearts. A rest that cannot be found in one physical day out of the week no matter how perfectly they observe it - but only in Jesus Christ's indwelling
spirit. That is the promised Rest that's available, if only people would take the hand of their Savior and enter into it, and run from the lies and the shackles and the chains.
submitted by SHT
