The One Thing Today's COG Groups Have Perfected

Church of God International: Covid-19 Ain’t That Bad!

CGI: Covid-19 Ain’t That Bad!

The Church of God International’s follow-up to Pastor Bill Watson’s Coronavirus Report is out. The International News (Summer 2020 edition) features an article on its front page by Mike James entitled “No Need to Panic Over This Pandemic.” In fairness to Mr. James, this offering is better sourced and more thoughtful than his colleague’s presentation on the subject. Unfortunately, his attempt to provide some historical perspective on humankind’s experiences with pandemics ends up trying to minimize the seriousness of our current predicament.

In the article, Mr. James provides a brief summary of several historical pandemics and provides estimates of the mortality rates associated with them. However, the information he presents about them seems to contradict his own conclusion that “this present virus is not as significant” as the events he references in the piece.

James begins with the Peloponnesian War and estimates that between 75-100,000 Athenians lost their lives in that pandemic. He tells us that approximately five million souls perished during the 115-year period of the Antonine Plague. James also references the horrific death tolls experienced during successive episodes of bubonic plague, possibly numbering 100-200 million people. He also references the number of Native American deaths attributed to smallpox and measles over the five-hundred-year history of European settlement in the Americas. James informs us that one or two million souls perished over one-hundred years of successive cholera pandemics. He talks about as many as 150,000 folks dying as a consequence of yellow fever in the waning years of the 19^th Century. After referencing another 15 million deaths due to bubonic plague in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries, he proceeds to discuss several flu pandemics. Mr. James informs us that about 360,000 died because of the Russian flu, 50-100 million because of the Spanish flu, one million attributed to Asian flu and 200,000 worldwide deaths because of swine flu. Finally, Mr. James reminds us that as many as 35 million souls have perished over the last fifty years because of AIDS.

Historical perspective is good. We must not ever forget what a horrible toll these diseases have exacted upon humanity in times past. Looking back reminds us of the terrible cost of these pandemics and the fact that we must be ever vigilant about the threats which they pose to our existence as a species. These past sorrows, however, should NEVER be used to minimize the threat that we are facing in the present.

Over the last seven months, we have lost over 330,000 souls to this pandemic worldwide (as of 5/22/2020) and over 95,000 in the United States. How do those numbers compare with the statistics that Mr. James cites in his article? The facts speak for themselves and do not require any further commentary from me (or anyone else).

Miller Jones  

Is Jesus Currently Living In Oregon and Ready To Curse This Blog?

When it comes to the Church of God movement, there is absolutely NOTHING that can surprise me or probably most of you anymore. From hundreds of splinter groups to self-appointed dictators ruling over their little empires, the Church of God movement that has ties to Herbert Armstrong is one screwed up mess with some of the most insane people imaginable leading churches.

We have Dave Pack claiming Jesus is returning to Wadsworth to work with him to plan Jesus' 3rd coming. We have Gerald Flurry who dug up a dirty old rock in Oregan, deified it, and now proclaims it will be the throne Jesus will return to sit upon. We have Bob Thiel, the self-appointed lapsed Catholic, that has attached so many self appointed titles to his name that no one even knows what or who he is anymore. He was so messed up that even Rod Meredith had to kick him out of the church. There is Ron Weinland, the first COG leader to ever be a convicted felon, proclaiming he and his looney wife are the two witless witnesses. Every day that goes by, there seems to be a new crackpot on the scene.

That brings us to Jon Brisby, the leader of the Church of God The Eternal, based out of Oregon. He took over the reins of COGE when Raymond Cole died. Brisby is young and charismatic and that has delighted some and offended others.

Reading his bio on Amazon is as mythical as Bob Thiel's fantastical imaginations about himself.

About Jon W. Brisby

Jon W. Brisby was raised in the Worldwide Church of God by parents, Don & Pat Brisby, who joined the church in 1959. In 1968, Don was recruited by Herbert Armstrong to work at the Ambassador College Press in Pasadena, CA because of his expertise in commercial color printing. That is how the Brisby family, much like the Beverly Hillbillies, made it to southern California from middle Tennessee. Jon attended the church's private grade school on the Ambassador College campus (Imperial Schools) from 1968-1972. His own experience as a child "at headquarters"--as well as that of his parents during this significant time period for the church--would leave lasting impressions.

After 1972, the family moved first to Denver, CO, then to Houston, TX, and finally made it back to Nashville, TN, where Jon graduated public high school in 1980. He chose to attend one year at Ambassador College in 1980-81 as a freshman, but did not return for a second year due to his personal conviction that things were not right in the church, even though he still held a personal respect for Mr. Herbert Armstrong. 

He joined Church of God, The Eternal (a remnant fellowship) in 1981 at age nineteen, was baptized the same year, and finally found a spiritual home through the influence of Mr. Raymond C. Cole. It was Raymond Cole who showed him by example how a minister can both defend divinely-revealed truth and at the same time show loving and patient support to individual members. Without that particular personal example, it is very likely that Jon would have chosen to reject his "parents' religion" as a young adult, even as most of his childhood friends in the WCG had already done. 

Jon married at age 24, had two sons, finished his business degree with the University of the State of New York, had a successful career in corporate middle management, and remained a devoted lay-member of the church. It was in 1996 that Raymond Cole pressed Jon to become a minister, a course that he never would have chosen of his own accord. He was ordained by Mr. Cole on the Feast of Trumpets in 1997 but did not jettison his corporate career until late 1999 when the church was in dire need of more full-time helpers. He moved his family to Eugene, Oregon that year and worked as Raymond Cole's ministerial assistant until Mr. Cole's death in 2001. Thereafter, Jon became Pastor and Director of Church of God, The Eternal, a position of service he holds to this day.

Brisby has turned out to be filled with a lot of ideas and some of them are old school Armstrongism. One of them would make Rod Meredith proud:

Church of God, The Eternal (COGE) is a small group. The lead minister is Jon W. Brisby (age 55). He has some wild ideas. A married couple came to the group from LCG a few years ago. They had been married for about 18 years. Brisby soon found out that the man had been married briefly to someone else when he was a really young man. They divorced and his ex married someone else. Anyway, this married couple of 18 plus years were instructed to split up and live separately but not get divorced. Jon Brisby told him that if his ex wife happens to die then and only then can he and his current wife live as a couple again. The couple have remodeled their home and made it into a duplex. They each live in one of the side by side units. They are allowed to go back and forth to each other's apartment for meal times but not allowed to sleep, shower or linger at each other's place. At the Feast of Tabernacles and Pentecost they were not permitted to sit together for services. This couple is in their 50's also.

There is another man, a single man around age 60. This man was also married but years ago his wife left him and married a Seventh Day Adventist. Brisby told him he must never remarry. This man said God would not allow him to marry unless his ex died. Brisby stays in total control of the dating and marriage relationships in the group. He comes off as very intensely and genuinely kind, but if he feels you cross him, then he gets an attitude and can be very arrogant.Jon Brisby sinks to a new low

When I posted the above story in a blog post in April of 2018, I had no idea that it is the most commented-on post on this blog. The comments range from being totally disappointed in him to those totally enthralled. Enthralled so much so that some even believe he is now the embodiment of Jesus here on earth.

Many of his devoted followers now are claiming Jesus is present within Jon and speaks through him. Jon is apparently a living walking Savior in our midst.

This has to be a major disappointment to Dave Pack, Bob Thiel, and Gerald Flurry as they and they alone think Jesus will appear to them first.

Sometimes though the comments go off the deep end and are just plain ludicrous and others are deeply entrenched in the teachings of Armstrong.

One thing though, many do not like anyone criticizing their dear leader. And that makes this blog the target for allowing criticism.

This is so much fun!

I love being cursed!