Living Church of God: Are You Willing To Let Them Be Your Teacher?

Are you willing to let the Living Church of God leaders "teach" you? Better yet, are any of them qualified to teach you?  One thing for sure is that LCG makes great teachers of the law but not so much about Jesus or anything about the New Covenant.  For LCG it is all about falling in line and not questioning church leaders or certain pet teachings of the church.

Are You Teachable? The Scriptures reveal that one of the important qualities of character that God is looking for in future leaders in His Kingdom is teachability—the desire and willingness to listen and learn. Abraham was teachable and responsive to God’s instructions (Genesis 12:1–4). Moses was a very capable leader, yet he was also humble and teachable (Numbers 12:3). David’s attitude comes through in Psalm 119:33 when he writes, “Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes.” Solomon recognized his human inadequacies when he asked God for wisdom and for an “understanding heart” so he could learn to rule God’s people wisely (1 Kings 3:9). When Jesus said the meek and the poor in spirit are blessed, He was emphasizing their teachability and their willingness to learn and grow (Matthew 5:3–5). The Scriptures also make it plain that if we harden our hearts to God’s instructions we will reap serious consequences (Proverbs 28:14). We have been called to reign with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God—and being teachable is one of the keys to attaining that reward. Let’s strive to develop that most important quality!
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail

One thing Jesus did when he walked this earth was sitting down with the marginalized and those weighted down with all the asinine versions of the law that the Pharisees had heaped upon the shoulders of the people. Living Church of God is just like the Pharisees, the more they can weight peoples lives down with rules and their own asinine versions of the law, the more righteous they feel, especially in the sight of their god.

Imagine what it is like sitting in church and having to listen to Rod or Jonathan McNair bloviate their nonsense from the pulpit. An LCG member sent to this blog the following comment in 2017  when Gerald Weston announced that he was bringing Jonathan McNcNair to Charlotte:

Anon 620 wrote:    "Did you notice that in Gerald Weston's December 7 update, he announces that Jonathan McNair will be moving to Charlotte to coordinate the new educational initiative?"

This made my jaw drop.

It is EXTREMELY telling of the direction in which Gerald Weston in going to take LCG. Jonathan McNair is as harsh, unloving, tyrannical, merciless, ego-centric and maniacal as his wicked little brother Rod.

Weston obviously prefers this brand of harshness to Doug Winnail's "softness". I've been waiting to see in which direction LCG would go after RCM's death.

I predict that this is the beginning of a further decline into the right ditch for LCG. I further predict that the Winnails (Doug Winnail - LCG Head of Church Admin and Scott Winnail - LU) will be "transferred" (aka demoted) from LCG headquarters.

When the Winnails fall from grace, it will be interesting to see if they wake up and make a move (likely to COGWA).

Doug and Scott are super indoctrinated but they are also intelligent (actually smart, not just in their own site like Wyatt Ceiseilka and Rod McNair who have a combined IQ of 150).

They have been making excuses to themselves for years to dismiss the wickedness they see at LCG headquarters. They tell themselves, "be patient, God will work it out in time".

When the machine turns against them, it will be interesting to see if Scott and Doug are able to maintain their cognitive dissonance!  Dec 11, 2017

And don't forget about Rod McNair when he declared that demons inhabit the elderly people in nursing homes!  An LCG member sent the following in 2015 to me:

Rod McNair recently ordered one of his members to quit their job at a nursing home where they worked helping sickly senior citizens. His reason? Demons. It is his belief that demons often inhabit the elderly. LCG recommends that its members stay away from people with mental illness and now they have added to that, the elderly. Ironic since the average age of an LCG member is about 75 and its leader, Rod Meredith, is 85.  According to sources, this member obediently quit their job immediately after being told to. Most professionals understand the importance of giving a notice of resignation out of respect for the employer and to maintain ones reputation in the industry. But not McNair. This member was subsequently accused of being disobedient to God's ministry by not quitting quickly enough once McNair learned that the member worked a two week notice to wrap up their obligations to the company. The member has now been disfellowshipped.

This raises several questions. What kind of church tells a member to quit a job that entails helping the needy on a daily basis? The elderly are often forgotten or neglected in our society. Is that what Jesus would do? What kind of member obeys this insane request, likely to their own financial detriment? Is it Christian to avoid the sick? The mentally ill? Is it fair to treat the mentally ill as demon possessed? Even if this person was told to quit and didn't, would that really be grounds for disfellowshipment? Are LCG members outraged by this or are they onboard with this type of behavior? 

Every time I hear another one of these stories coming out of Charlotte I am left wondering... what will it take to make people realize that this isn't what being led by Christ looks like. By their fruits they will be known... wake up sheeple. August 25, 2015

Can you imagine sitting in church and hearing a so-called minister say this kind of crap?  Would a REAL teacher ever say that?  Would a REAL teacher go up to a man and tell him to quit his job, a job he really liked, because he was supposedly surrounded by demon-possessed elderly?  The only thing a teacher like him deserves is a swift punch in the jaw to shut him up!  Now respectable Living Church of God should ever let some moron like this be their "teacher."

How can Living Church of God members forget when Rod Meredith launched a campaign to kick out church leaders and members who dared to think differently than him:

Rod Meredith has now appointed an inquisition to cleanse LCG of any who are not in full agreement with everything he says. “I’ve asked Mr McNair and Mr League – they’ve been working as a team to get all the information on many of these things – and I’m working with them and other leaders … 

We’re trying to keep God’s church clean.” That is, they are now purging LCG, due to the extensive divisions in that organization, which until now Meredith has lied about.Rod Meredith then lies in an effort to defame those who do not follow him as their idol. Roderick Meredith says, “We found that some of these people we’ve had to put out (of the church) … they often lie and lie, and they’ll twist and turn, and turn things around …” which is exactly what Rod does.

For some time there have been more than a dozen elders and a large number of brethren who have been very unhappy with changes in LCG teachings and with the heavy handed obey Rod or else, exalting Rod Meredith above the Word of God. It appears that Rod now knows who they are or he would not have announced the League/McNair team. It is easiest to gather such information in secret before announcing what is being done.  Nov 18, 2014

What gives the right to any minister in the Living Church of God to claim they are teachers and to demand respect?  Respect has to be earned and certainly, LCG is far down at the bottom of the well in regards to being teachers.

Any self-respecting Living Church of God member should start examining the lives of these sad men and turn and face the door of freedom.  Your very lives may depend upon it!

Asking for a Friend: Why Would Mary and Jesus Brothers Believe Jesus was Insane?

Why would the author of Mark tell such a story?

Mark was the first Gospel written and contains this enigmatic story of Mary and Jesus brothers coming to retrieve him thinking him insane.

Mark/s Mary and Jesus Brothers  knew of no miraculous birth stories of Jesus, declarations of Angels to Mary nor Mary's joyous response as we find in Luke. Only Mark notes this embarrassing moment and all other Gospels do not repeat it and did not include it.

 In the context, Jesus family (Mary and Brothers) hear about Jesus meeting and went to get him just as one might go retrieve a naughty child at the neighbors and bring them home.

Then to add insult to injury, Jesus rejects their visit, disavows his mother Mary and brothers and tells the crowd that they are his mothers and brothers if they believe on him.  It seems Jesus shunned them, in part, because he knew why they had actually come to see him.

Mark already noted Jesus awareness of his family rejection in Chapter 6. Obviously in Mark, his family is not presented as knowing anything about Jesus birth in Matthew and Luke, who don't agree with each other either.

"Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us as well?” And they took offense at Him. 4Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is without honor only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household.” 5So He could not perform any miracles there, except to lay His hands on a few of the sick and heal them.…

Questions:  

1. How could Mary not recall all the miraculous birth circumstances of her own son Jesus                        including affirming angel, deaths of the infants, fleeing to Egypt not to mention her                              miraculous impregnation?

 2.Why did Mary and his brothers originally believe Jesus was insane?  

 3.   Did Jesus dishonor his own Mother?.  (In John 2:4 Jesus snaps at Mary when she                           notes there is no wine for the wedding, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?"  which                          seems also rather rude and disrespectful)

Matthew 15:4 ⁴For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.'

It's in the Bible

Asking for a Friend

Mark 3:20-21 ²⁰Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. ²¹When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Mark 3:20-21 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

²⁰ And He *came ^[a]home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat ^[b]a meal. ²¹ When His own ^[c]people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

Mark 3:20-21 J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

^20-21 Then he went indoors, but again such a crowd collected that it was impossible for them even to eat a meal. When his relatives heard of this, they set out to take charge of him, for people were saying, “He must be mad!”

Mark 3:20-21 Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

²⁰ and the people [and the company of people] came together again, so that they might not [neither] eat bread.

²¹ And when his kinsmen had heard, they went out to hold him; for they said, That he is turned into madness.

Which prompted C.S. Lewis in "Mere Christianity" to say:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Which Way?

NCK said in a thread recently:

"The difference between Judaism, Islam and (traditional) Christianity, is the focus on practical application of "a way of life", not persons!

This simple remark is a simplification of a huge and profound theological difference and application of tenets and the basis of SHT's misunderstanding of the Armstrongite premiss (sic)."

The Way of Life when it comes to Christianity is about a Person. Jesus said "I am THE WAY, the Truth, and the Life." As Armstrongism was concerned about "God's Way", Christianity is Concerned about God's WAY. As In, The WAY, As in Jesus Christ, The WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. 

Armstrongism is concerned about the way - not as in the Way, Jesus - but in a pathway towards what they believe is the ultimate goal - the Kingdom. Nearly Every Life Goal in Armstrongism is future, always on the horizon but never within reach. The Measuring stick when it comes to how well you are doing is not based on a relationship with Jesus Christ, but is based on your adherence to the Path that the Church dictates for your life. In short, the "way" of Armstrongism is obedience to their control. 

This explains a lot when it comes to exactly what one of Armstrongism's Most Vehement Pharisee , James Malm, is trying to do. When he says:

"I am calling on all of these organizations to observe God’s Feasts and all of God’s Word in a wholehearted way. "

What James is actually, I believe, stating, is that he is calling on ALL Churches of God to follow him. Not HIM, no. But him - James Malm - who, in his mind, seems to believe he has the correct "way" in which all peoples are to go - which is, of course, observances of festivals. 

James seems to have a real problem with "associating with the unclean", when Jesus constantly associated "with the unclean", also angering the pharisees of his day, just as James appears to be angered by COG members associating with other COG members who are "unclean apostates who refuse to return to God", who are subject to, of course, condemnation, and cast into "great correction" should they not heed James' "way". 

James, of course, puts down a time-frame, the exact same thing many other COG "leaders" have done, and have failed at, miserably, pathetically, and spectacularly. A certain Dave did the same thing, with a vision of everyone flocking to him. A Certain Ron also imagined everyone flocking to his group. Other COG leaders constantly envision growth to their groups, all of them believing they have the "way" and eventually filling up big sports arenas, controlling the entirety of the Church of God in a Gigantic Worldwide Church of God Revival. Each of them have the same vision but only applicable to their own self-centered visions. 

Armstrongism is about a "way", but not THE Way. Armstrongism is about the proliferation of one man's vision - whether it's Herbert's, or Ron's, or Dave's, or Gerald's - each of these men has a vision of growth centered around themselves and their way and yes, their control. 

This is what has been behind every split, every faction, every splinter, every disagreement, every doctrinal dispute, every faction, and every quarrel about the Law, doctrine, and interpretation of policy. The "way" of control as envisioned by whatever leader is heading up their movement is the power of the movement in every case, but also, in every case, has turned out to be only a form of power without fruit, substance, and most importantly, without truth. Because embedded within these selfishly motivated power plays based on a sole vision, is a three letter word that seems to come out every time. That word? LIE.

The Armstrong "way" has been a LIE. It has been a lie when it comes to prophecies. It has been a lie when it comes to speculations. And many, many splinter leaders while trying to grow their particular self-motivated and self-seeking faction have embedded within their pitch of truth a total and complete LIE. The lie that this or that could, should, or will happen within just two to three years and will grow their faction to overwhelm and take over all the others. 

This is not a spirit of cooperation. This is not a spirit of love. This is not a spirit of teamwork. This is a spirit of selfish desire, zealous control, false speaking, discord, untruth, and the spirit of lies from the pit of darkness that is exposed every time one of these people opens their mouths and focuses on THEIR "way", not THE WAY. The WAY of course, being Jesus Christ, who alone is the author and the finisher of our faith. 

Each one of these men has been, is, and will be continually and categorically embarrassed and proven wrong when lies are exposed in their blabbing, because their foundation is based on the wrong way, not the WAY. Their foundation is embedded with lies they refuse to stop telling because of their very apparent lust for power and control. 

It's not as if it's not seen. This is why people aren't running to them. This is why people are ignoring them. This is why people - COG's and non COG's - shake their heads in disbelief every time one of their mouths open up with another self-centered hope that turns out to be nothing but deception and lies. 

Here is the message that should be coming out of these "leaders". It's the proclaiming of THE WAY - Christ, and Him Crucified, and what He accomplished. How he lives in us and through us in the power and fullness of the Kingdom of God. And everything that means in daily life for those who believe and follow Him. So long as they resist The WAY and hang on to their way, an obsolete way, a lying way, a way that has long ago been replaced with the true way, they shall continually be shown for exactly what they are. Lying cons who do not have any truth in them, proclaiming a form of godliness and denying the Power thereof. 

Jesus said HE is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Any OTHER way in any other form is a counterfeit way, embedded with all the lies and deceptions and old signs of an abandoned highway left desolate long ago that certain deceivers continually try to repave and restore but to no avail. They don't learn their lessons. They refuse to learn their lessons, and they are adamant that THEY are right. Each of them. Each fighting, warring, self-centered one of them. Which tells the story clearer than any "gospel" they're trying to get out and failing at - spectacularly.

submitted by SHT