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from a reader....

LCG: Fearing COVID-19, Restricts Feast Site Attendance To 200 People

From a reader:

We got the following from the church the other day. HQ is limiting the number of attendees at all U.S. sites. I guess our leaders no longer have faith that God will protect them 4 1/2 months from now. Gone are the days of boasting that God is on our side and protecting us from Satan like he used to do in Jekyll Island. 

Limiting Numbers at Feast Sites (USA)

In his recent (May 11) member letter, Mr. Gerald Weston explained that we will be limiting numbers at this year’s Feast sites, lower than what we are normally used to. A number of questions have come up about this. Accordingly, here are several points to address these questions.  (Note: This discussion pertains most specifically to sites in the United States. If you live outside of the United States, please consult your Regional Office for specific instructions about your congregation.)

• Why the number 200? If groups are restricted to 250 by government regulations, then our cap of 200 will be well within that range. If groups are restricted to 100, our benchmark of 200 will give us the flexibility to still continue with a Feast site by cutting the group in half and having morning and afternoon services of 100 each.

• Why not set different maximum numbers for different states? There are wide swings of predictions by experts about the next four to five months, so it is impossible to predict where individual states will be at that time. Some that are now “open” may not be then, and some that are currently “closed” may likewise not be closed then. Thus, 200 is a reasonable, conservative, workable number that gives us flexibility for most places.

• Why limit numbers when restrictions are being lifted? The possibility of a second wave is real, bringing new restrictions, and we can’t assume states will stay opened in October even if they are in July.

• Having more sites of smaller groups means more people will be attending fairly close to home, which is much better for both the patient and the family if someone comes down with the virus.

• Having smaller groups reduces the number of people who may be infected if someone does come down with the virus at the Feast. Because symptoms sometimes don’t show up for days with COVID-19, we must assume that if someone comes down with it at the Feast, they will have already exposed others to the virus even before they knew it. Thus, a smaller group limits that exposure. 

• With many elderly brethren in the Church, we want them to feel safe and comfortable enough to attend the Feast. Smaller groups will help make that happen.

The Church is not alone in coming up with this type of guideline. Professional meeting planners around the country are expecting many conferences to be “small and local” over the next six to nine months, as everyone waits to see how the COVID-19 crisis levels out. One way or another, we know we’ll have the Feast! And the Festival Office is planning for as many brethren as possible to be able to join together and worship God. At the same time, the Church is trying to exercise due diligence to be prudent and prepare for potential problems, even as we hope and pray for a best-case scenario. Thank you for your patience, and for your prayers that God would guide and bless this year’s Feast planning.—Festival Office 

Prophet Bob of the Tabloid Church of God speaks out on Chinese eating while Americans and Brits starve

Every day in the mythical land of Thielism it starts off with one gasp-inducing headline after another.  99% of the time the topic that the self-appointed prophet of the improperly named "continuing" church of god breathlessly pops out is of little importance to anyone in the world, let alone his few thousand "followers" in Africa, who have more to worry about than the opinions of a privileged pill-pushing white American cult leader.

This is one of his latest headliners headbangers:

Will Americans and Brits Starve as the Chinese Eat? 

Although Seventh Day Baptists (SDBs), Seventh-day Adventist (SDAs), and Messianic Jews keep some version of the seventh day Sabbath, are they Protestant or Church of God. What do they claim? What do they teach? What do SDAs and Messianic Jews teach about their history? Do SDBs cite groups who held Church of God (COG) and not SDB doctrines? Which group teaches the original biblical Christian faith? How do the SDAs, Messianics, and SDBs agree with Protestants on issues such as salvation, history, and the Godhead, which differ greatly from the Continuing Church of God (CCOG)? Are there really 613 laws of the Torah? Are the 613 mist What are 28 ways the SDBs differ from the CCOG? Are ‘Black Israelites’ right about Jesus being a black African? Was the Day of Atonement on October 22, 1844 according to Rabbinical or Karaite Jews? Did the SDAs or COG come out of the Millerite movement? Did Ellen White make false prophecies that she insisted came from God? If so, what were some of them? Did the SDA church send out literature it knew was clearly wrong? Was Ellen G. White’s sanctuary interpretation the “complete system of truth”? Did SDAs once teach crosses were pagan, but now include them in their official logo? Which of the 4 churches (SDB,SDA, Messianic, CCOG) doctrines have the most biblical and historical support? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more.

The self-appointed leader of the improperly named "continuing" church of god needs to have the name of his cult changed to The National Enquirer Church of God. It would be much more fitting for his tabloid prophecies.