Gerald Weston: If You Do Not Support This Work You Do So At Your Own Peril And Risk Your Salvation

Gerald Weston has written a pre-Feast letter to his declining faithful. In it he says the following:

As we know, and as we celebrated earlier this year at the Feast of Pentecost—the last of the annual Festivals so far to have had its historical fulfillment in this age—God is not calling everyone to salvation at this time. I have previously asked the simple question, “If God is not calling everyone, why is He calling anyone?” As a member of God’s Church, you should know the answer. He is calling some—that is, you and me—to do a Work now. If we fail to do that Work, we fail to fulfill the incredible calling we have been given. We dare not do that. Seeking only personal salvation and neglecting the Work for which we’ve been called will end in disaster (Ezekiel 33:1–7; Proverbs 24:11–12).

When Jesus walked the dusty trails in Israel, He worked through the physical body given Him. Now He is at the right hand of the Father, and it is abundantly clear that the Church is now His body (Colossians 1:18, 24; 2:17; Ephesians 1:22–23). This is vital knowledge we must deeply understand. It is part of the big picture that both Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong and Dr. Roderick C. Meredith passed down to us. We lose sight of it at our own peril.

Then he proceeds to ridicule both the men and women in the Living Church of God. LCG members just cannot do anything right in this man's sight! He has to get a dig every letter he writes. While we may all know of vainglorious men who feel the need to be seen in the church (Bob Thiel, for example) they are few in numbers. Most men could not give a rats ass about being an LCG leader considering how abusive they have been and still are. 

God made us with the potential for incredible variety. Some are tall, some are not so tall. Some are slender, some are not. Some are light-skinned and blond, some are darker and have black hair. More than outward appearance, though, we all have varying degrees of abilities. A brilliant computer programmer may know nothing about plumbing or electrical work. A gifted engineer may be lost when it comes to surveying land, running an earth mover, and mixing concrete. It is obvious that we need them all: computer programmers, plumbers, electricians, engineers, and construction workers. It is a beautiful thing when everyone knows his part and plays his part.

In the same way, the Apostle Paul explains that the body of Christ is made of many different parts (1 Corinthians 12), and we know it is human nature to desire to be one of the comelier parts of the body (1 Corinthians 12:22–25). How many men have striven to hold an office in Spokesman Club or to be in front of the congregation leading hymns or speaking? And it’s not just the men. We’ve seen ladies get into what we sometimes call “coffee pot wars,” fighting each other over where best to place the pickles on the serving table. This may sound humorous and even preposterous, but those of us who have been around for any length of time know that these things really do happen!

Then he has to get ina veiled dig against Sheldon Monson for failing to grasp the "bigger picture" and stay unified for unity's sake. 

As Paul explained, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling” (Ephesians 4:4). Then, one of the clearest passages of Scripture—yet one of the most difficult for most people to accept—is found just after that. Christ has placed in the body positions of responsibility so we can have unity and, “speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (vv. 15–16).

To those who really get the big picture and faithfully hold on to it until the end, God will give a great reward. The current spirit ruler who directs the course of this world, along with the angels who fell with him when he “got the big head” and thought he knew better than God, will be removed and replaced (Revelation 12:4; 20:1–4). His removal is emphatically shown in the Day of Atonement. And the fact that we will replace him and his minions is stated in numerous scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments (Daniel 7:27; Matthew 19:27–29; Luke 19:16–19; Revelation 20:4, 6).

Unity in the Church of God is a comedy routine any more. The Church of God is more fractured than the Protestants they love to mock in their denominational divisions. Unity is nothing more than a control buzz word to keep the members in line. Any questioning or disagreements is an immediate assault upon unity and therefore leads to expulsion and loss of salvation and your chance to become a god!

Further, we are not to become angels or some kind of super-humans in the resurrection, as so many professing Christians mistakenly believe. You do not need me to remind you that we in God’s Church have been called to become sons and daughters of God, the very children of the living God—brothers, sisters, and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14–21; Hebrews 2:10–18; 2 Corinthians 6:18). Can there be a more glorious future for such flawed beings as we now truly are?

The question needs to be asked again. Can LCG members EVER do anything right in this guy's sight?

Church of God Assembly Internet Sites

 

The first COG to not use a lion and lamb, a picture of Herbert Armstrong, 

or the Ambassador Auditorium in their logo.

Last week Sheldon Monson announced the new name of his splinter group, Church of God Assembly. 

Sheldon or one of his followers did not do due diligence and research the name. There is already a church named that, based out of Middlesex/London, England, and pastored by Abigal Borquaye.

Church of God Assembly

Soon after Monson mentioned his new church name, two different sites popped up on the internet. If these are actually pages for Sheldon's group then they need to steal some web designers from Living Church of God! Talk about pathetic! 

I took screenshots of each page just in case they disappear soon.

This is the main site screenshot (double click to enlarge) or go to the main site here: Church of God Assembly

We know almost for sure that the site is fake. Imagine a Church of God using a WOMAN on its front page, particularly one holding a Bible! Blasphemy!!!!

The next page includes updates on this most amazing work:

double click to enlarge

Then, the best site of all is the Facebook page. It looks like a QAnon site:

Church of God Assembly Facebook Page

The only comment on the Facebook site, so far, is that the lead graphic "...looks like Sun God."

Why do all of these Church of God groups set themselves up to be mocked so easily?

My hat is off to whoever grabbed the domain names before Sheldon did. This is too funny. 

Thanks, Gerald Weston! This is all your fault!

"Well Whatever the Context is, You Have Definitely Taken That Out of It!"

(Posted by request and originally posted in the 

Ambassador College Pasadena Forum.)

When I worked in Church Administration just prior to graduation, all local churches had to send in a picture to HQ of their choirs.  They were gone over and if a picture showed a handicapped person of any kind, they were sent a "Snowflake From Heaven", my term for HQ Memo, telling the Choir Director to remove that person from the Choir.  In context, it is referring to the priesthood but I don't think ministers with disabilities were disqualified or removed from a local church. 

This was the OT Scripture used to justify such a request. 

"For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is broken footed, or brokenhanded, Or crookbacked, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken. No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God." (Leviticus 21:18-21)

I also had an experience or two with fellow Pastor types who struggled as to what to do with both children born out of wedlock and the girls, usually teens, that gave birth to them.  One member called me and said her daughter was dead. A shocker as I had just buried a teen hit by a car recently. (Oh not again!)  But he meant she got pregnant and she was now dead to him. We had a long talk about "love never fails".  I 

""A bitched shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 23:2)

A bitched is someone who was born outside of wedlock, which means you were born before your parents were married. Being born out of wedlock makes you filthy, apparently; so filthy in fact that it takes ten genetic steps down the line to wash how filthy it makes you.

So even if your family's 100% awesome you can't come to church in like a century or two if you're a bitched, which I guess is only fair. After all, "God is love". 

I always found a heavy dose of compassion, kindness, and understanding went much further in the long run of life with teens in trying times than banishment and scorn. I have had many a teen, now adult, who had such experiences call me to update me on their very beautiful children's success in life. 

Four separate then teens now adults have called me to tell me they were gay. Interesting. "Does that surprise you?" they all asked me.  I said, "No, it seemed rather apparent from the start when I knew you."  I asked why they called to tell me and each said, "Because I knew you'd understand.".  That's a much better answer than "Because you ruined my life."  

One mother called me in a rage and panic as her daughter was pregnant, by her father.  What to do?  I told her, for her long term mental health of her daughter and the dangers this situation posed,  to go to the ER, explain it all, and do what they suggest. It was already what she wanted to do but felt she needed "permission".  No permission needed.  You can speculate on the conclusion all you wish. 

It got crazy out there as a pastor at times. (not even counting bi-annual corporate church scandals and drama) I don't recall any classes on the reality of ministry. By nature, I probably would have disagreed anyway as my "send the pastor a note telling the Choir Director to remove the handicapped person"  experience was something I was not about to do back then either. (My older and only brother is blind, deaf and cannot speak from birth trauma as a "premie" so I was a bit sensitive to the concept in the OT. Fortunately, he can't sing and was never called into the one True Church. 

Lots of pastor experience tales I suppose. They ran the gamut from interesting to insane.  and often endeavoring to explain the concept of "CONTEXT" seemed to escape most in the Churches of God ministry and member.