Why does the Church of God have to ruin Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away and families are preparing feasts for themselves and friends. Traditionally in Church of Godland this was one of the "good" holidays that members could partake in along with the world. Yet, typical of the Church of God, far too many church leaders also turn this day into another Debbie-downer moment for members. It really irks the self-righteous butts of some church leaders if their members spend money on themselves and do not give it all to the church.

That brings us to the Philadelphia Church of God and their latest article on Thanksgiving. Here is how they titled their article: "Thanksgiving and Repentance". God forbid if you have one day out of the year to not worry about church leaders lording themselves over you or having to feel guilty for having a pleasant day unencumbered by flatulence from your church leaders.

The article starts off with the historical aspects of the day of Thanksgiving:

In a proclamation on April 30, 1863, for a nationwide Day of Fasting and Prayer, President Abraham Lincoln said, “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

Mr. Lincoln went on to say, “We have been the recipients of the choicest blessings of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown, but we have forgotten God.”

You can guess which part of this the PCG latches on to...REPENT!

The article continues:

America was richly blessed because of the patriarch Abraham’s faith and obedience. But President Lincoln recognized that America had forgotten God and needed to repent. What would he think of America today? Have we forgotten God? Does America need to repent? 

 

How about you individually? Do you need to repent? What is repentance and how is it accomplished?

Before you overindulge in turkey and other goodies, make sure to put on sackcloth and cover yourself in ashes and get on your knees in fearful supplication, and then repent of seen and unseen sins. Make yourself as miserable as possible and THEN try and enjoy your meal all the while knowing in the back of your mind that you are a miserable worthless worm. 

Romans 5:12 tells us that “all have sinned.” Jesus Christ is the only human to have lived a sinless life. That was necessary for Him to be the savior of mankind. But all other humans have sinned and do need to repent. 

 

Christ teaches us in Mark 1:15 that we need to repent and believe the gospel. The gospel that Christ taught is the good news of the soon-coming Kingdom of God. Repentance is a requirement of being forgiven of sin. Without repentance, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God (Revelation 21:7-8). 

 

Sin is what has to be repented of. Sin is the transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4). Abraham Lincoln realized that the war-torn America of his time was sinning and needed to repent of breaking God’s law.

 

Historically for a nation to repent it was led to do that due to the preaching of real converted men of God. Today in COGland we have no one like that either leading a church or calling the nation to repentance. Why on God's green earth would ANYONE in the world listen to today's COG ministers? Why would they listen to Dave Pack, Bob Thiel, or Gerald Flurry? All three of these blubbering buffoons believe they will be one of the two witnesses or God's official mouthpiece ushering in the end times. 

The article continues:

A major fruit of repentance for America was that it abolished slavery. It wasn’t done perfectly, but America changed its ways. The nation didn’t just feel bad about slavery, it abolished slavery. That is rare in history! It is something to be thankful for!

God wants us to repent so He can pour out His blessings on us. Christ makes an awesome promise to us in Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” 

 

If we repent and put God’s will first in our lives, Christ promises that all the blessings we could ever want will be added unto us. If the people of America—and all people—would truly repent and seek to do God’s will, God would free this world from its slavery to sin.

Godly men and women, who by their faith set an example draw people into the church and repentance. Where do we have such people today? Is there a COG leader or even a member who is so devoted to God that their calling shines bright in them, so much so that people desire to know what it is and a called to rely upon the Christ they follow? Why don't we have COG leaders who do that today?

The article ends with this:

This Thanksgiving, be sure to thank God for all His blessings and seek to do His will. Even if most people don’t repent today, you certainly can. And if you do begin to live by God’s laws and stay in a humble attitude of repentance, seeking to do God’s will, then “all these things shall be added unto you.” 

 

To help you conquer sin, request our free booklet How to Be an Overcomer.

All of you law-breaking Laodiceans had better get your acts together and REPENT! To help you with that follow us as we follow Jesus write info our free booklet and learn how to be an overcomer. Like clockwork, Jesus gets shoved aside with another booklet about law-keeping.

This Thanksgiving do you and your family a favor. Turn off the broadcasts from your church leader and don't read any church literature. Spend this one day of the year giving thanks to be free from church encumbrances. Spend money on yourself and friends. Enjoy a fabulous feast of food and even watch or play some football. Be free for one day of the year.

Prophet of Possibilities Bob Thiel Produces African Nightmare of Forged Documents

 

An update on the African turmoil of Bwana Mzungu Bob Thiel's improperly named "continuing" Church of "god".

I believe he's been totally Blind sided, as it's now been confirmed that the CCOG was never registered in Malawi, since he first started organizing there with bogus ministers of God. l mean it's a total forge job of Radson Mulozowa, but Bobby prefers to believe his so-called ministers of God over solid evidence. So, you really think he will admit any of this? Ain't gonna happen. He can't cherry pick on anything we've reported, to do so would require him to admit it's all true and that he's totally not qualified in any ministerial position. He's deceived himself and can't come back now; he's a caged rat, that has no way out. 

 

I believe around 9 or 10 years ago he started his campaign in Africa and pumped upwards of around 2 Million to fund his African shim-sham Sand Dance. 

 

The problem with Pastor Bobby Thiel is he doesn't have common sense or spiritual discernment of any magnitude. He believes lies over truth, because it doesn't fit his narrative of the CCOG being the Philadelphia Remnant and he can't possibly be that deceived! He's the Big End Time Prophet of God, and he can't possibly be wrong. 

 

This is the end for the Prophet of Possibilities and his African Sand Dance Sham. 

 

Mark my Words  you ain't seen nothin yet. Bigger things are a coming. 

 

The Truth Shall Set You Free; Free from Pastor Bobby Thiels African Night Mare.

Terry Nelson 

Church of God International Capitulates

 

Bill Watson Has Won the War Over CGI’s Messaging

Lonnie Hendrix

The Church of God International’s long internal struggle over control of that organization’s messaging has resulted in a triumph for Bill Watson and his allies. For the last decade, Bill has been advocating a “conservative” political message for the church. Indeed, during that period, he has embraced Trumpism, QAnon conspiracy theories, authoritarianism, and anti-immigrant, anti-vaccination, anti-globalist, and America-First policy stances.

Why this fascination with extreme right-wing political beliefs? I believe that Bill’s views were forged in the fires of Herbert Armstrong’s teachings. In short, Bill believes that the English-speaking nations of the earth are the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, capitalism is God’s system (and socialism is the Devil’s system), the church should be preaching a warning message which focuses on interpreting today’s headlines using biblical prophecies, illegal aliens and immoral people are destroying America’s Christian values and society, and most of the evils in the world are the consequence of elaborate and satanically inspired conspiracies.

Of course, some of the folks in CGI saw Bill’s partisanship as a potential liability. They believed that it was unwise to take sides in the divisive political and cultural wars raging in the United States. In other words, immediately alienating half of their potential audience did not seem like a wise course of action to them. Some of the folks in CGI leadership (like Vance Stinson, Jeff Reed, and Wynn Skelton) believed that the church should be preaching Christ’s Gospel message and avoiding the bankrupt preoccupation with headline theology which had resulted in so many prophetic failures for Herbert and Garner Ted. Many of these folks recognized that Anglo-Israelism had been thoroughly discredited and made its advocates look like a bunch of racists. Moreover, many of these folks thought that the church shouldn’t be taking any position on things like vaccinations and other public health measures.

Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that Bill’s views have prevailed within CGI. Indeed, in his most recent sermon, Defining the End Game, Pastor Watson delivered a detailed justification of his views, and the church posted it on their website! In his message, Bill’s longing for the “good ole days” of his youth was on full display. In short, the fear and grievances which have been the hallmark of Trumpism were front and center in his sermon. He noted that things are changing in America and around the world. He said: “This isn’t the same United States of America that I grew up in.” Watson then went on to reiterate: “We are living in a different country.” For Watson and his followers, America is morphing into something foreign and frightening.

The problem with this longing for the America of the past will be readily apparent to some of us. The truth is that America has always had its moral failings. While the 1950’s and early 1960’s may have been a golden age for folks like Mr. Watson, they weren’t so nice for people of color, women, and homosexuals. Those were the days when it was still acceptable to discriminate against, control, beat, jail, and lynch folks that weren’t white heterosexual males. Those were the days when it was OK to dump just about anything you wanted to onto the land and into the oceans, lakes, and rivers and into the air that we all have to breathe. Those were the days when the United States and Soviet Union were building great stockpiles of nuclear weapons capable of erasing all life from this planet and were engaging in proxy wars against each other around the globe.

According to Bill, too many folks simply cannot discern what is currently happening and are basically in denial about just how bad things really are for America. For Mr. Watson, it is incomprehensible that so many people cannot see this. In his view, they are like the frog in the pot of tepid water that is gradually brought to a boil. He declared: “I’m watching the United States slip away right before my very eyes!” According to Mr. Watson, bad people are changing our culture and the very nature of our social structure. For Bill, the culprits are homosexuals, transgender folks, abortion advocates, euthanasia advocates, and those nasty socialists and globalists.

What does all of that have to do with religion and things spiritual? Bill then proceeded to quote extensively from the seventh and eighth chapters of the book of Daniel and chapters 13, 17, and 18 of the book of Revelation. For Pastor Watson, these prophecies point to “Agenda 2030” and “The Great Reset.” Bill believes that corporations, governments, and the media are gaslighting all of us and are actively working to establish a socialistic system which controls everyone. He suggests that most folks will concede and conform to these controls, and that those who resist this governmental structure will suffer. Indeed, in this part of his sermon, his message sounded an awful lot like the Seventh Day Adventist’s predictions about laws enforcing Sunday observance.

Of course, the pastor completely dismisses any notion that folks like Soros and Gates are actually trying to help folks and prevent us from destroying ourselves. Once again, Mr. Watson believes that the objective of these folks is socialism and control. They are the servants of the Devil, and Bill and his allies are warning everyone about their nefarious activities. He quotes the very conservative Imprimis in the same breath that he quotes Scripture and doesn’t see any irony in employing the two together.

Finally, Bill ended his hour and fourteen minute long message by quoting from the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew (an old Armstrongism favorite). For the pastor, Jesus was talking to the members of CGI in this passage – telling them to be alert to what’s going on in the world. Mr. Watson doesn’t want any of his followers to be caught off guard when Christ returns to this earth. Of course, Christ’s real message that his disciples should be prepared at all times – busily doing the things which he had commanded them to do – is completely lost on Bill. For Bill, this passage is an endorsement of his messaging – it validates his preoccupations with headline theology and right-wing politics.

Now, while it has been sad to see Bill and his allies go down this rabbit hole, it is even more disheartening to see people who know better providing a church platform for his messaging. Moreover, their website disclaimer seems weak, ineffectual, and pathetic when it is compared to the determined convictions of Bill and his allies. Yes, the website notes that the “information and opinions expressed on this website do not necessarily reflect the collective beliefs and doctrines of the Church of God International, its members, ministry, or leadership,” but that sure sounds like someone trying to justify something they know is wrong to me. For me, images of Pontius Pilate washing his hands and declaring his innocence come to mind. What do you think?