Living Church of God: We Are Excited About Our GOTO's But Know That Hardly Any Of Them Will Ever Follow Through

 

Check out this word salad from Gerald Weston:

There were 2,307 orders for Lesson One of the Bible Study Course last week, and February saw 245 GOTOs—individuals who ask about baptism, counsel, or Sabbath Services in their areas. We know that most people who order the Bible Study Course do not finish it, but those who do are more likely to become serious GOTOs. And while most GOTOs do not follow through to become members, a certain percentage do and that is why these two stats are so important.

Notice how LCG never shows what percentage of these people actually become members. LCG has dropped hundreds of millions of dollars over the years on people who are ultimately no-shows. Talk about tithe money being unwisely spent!

Aleksandar "Sasha" Veljic Servant Leadership Style vs Bob Thiel's Bobmbastic Perpetually Angry "I Am The Best" Style

 

When one steps back and looks at the leadership style of Shasha and his quiet respectful Christian approach vs the bellowing perpetually angry Bob Thiel it is shocking. Sadly, it always seems the good ones die off or are forced out of the church while the abusive leaders continue unabated in the misery they cause.

Sasha often mentioned he wasn't fully convinced that covid vaccines were ultimately safe for everyone, safe with no side effects. 

But he took the vaccine anyway to embark on a trip to very border-restrictive Australia, to meet someone there patiently & politlely waiting at least 7 years for their baptism service. 

The organization he & Sasha were in at that time has a fussy main top leader who reportedly later or at some point, STILL questioned the patience of the person Sasha went to baptise...while the leader constantly presides over frequent, regular & timely approvals on many, many fairly fast-track Kenyan & African baptisms.

Sasha was somewhat uncomfortable with the covid vaccine but decided in faith that it was part of service to help in spiritual matters. Is there a chance his strokes were a remote side effect of his body or genetics reaction to covid vaccine? 

Does Sasha's former leader possibly appreciate the dedicated efforts Sasha's life was all about?

The rude leader wrote an otherwise respectful brief life synopsis history of Sasha (including past Ambassador College achievements) after his passing, but took one last subtle jab at this pleasant fellow...the leader dismisses the significance of the impressive collections in Sasha's Serbian apartment, the Hope Of Israel library. The leader (Bob) then pokes one last subtle jab at Sasha, regarding : "Sasha never married, but often lived with his mother until she died a few years ago."

Sasha likely helped his Mom to serve her during any times of sharing housing with her. But his impressive home library/apartment where many church services for local & international online community were lovingly conducted, was not mentioned...although the poke of an adult's time living with a parent in a poor country holds prominece in the account from his former leader.

Commercial Break: "Five are fallen...

 ....one is, and the other has not yet come...and the Beast that was and is not...the eighth.."

 

 

"Bible Prophecy" is for the people who hear and receive it.  Bible prophecy is not something that projects thousands of years into the future, where every following generation can come up with "reasons" why it means them...and then die out having to realize it didn't mean them either. 

An excellent example of prophecy being for those in whose times it is given is the all too familiar Revelation 17. Revelation was not written for us. It was written for them who were experiencing the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem from 66 CE to the final crushing blow at Masada in 73 CE.  

And it was when Revelation fell into the category of a hopeful but now failed first century prophecy. 

REVELATION 17:

9 Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. 10 There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.

 

The first seven Kings of the Roman Empire were:

 

Five have fallen,

 

1. Julius Caesar 46-44 BCE (Founder of the Julian Dynasty)

 

2. Augustus (Octavian) Caesar 27 BCE-14 CE (Considered the 1st Caesar)

 

3. Tiberious Caesar     14 CE to 37 CE

 

4. Gaius Caesar (Caligula) 37 CE to 41 CE

 

5. Claudius Caesar  41 CE to 54 CE  

 

One is

(At the time of the actual writing of the Book of Revelation)

 

6. Nero Caesar  54 CE to 68 CE     

  

The other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.

7. Galba  68 CE to 69 CE     

(Galba was Caesar for only 7 months)

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Siege of Jerusalem

66 CE to 73 CE

Destruction of Jerusalem

70 CE

Final Destruction at Massada

73 CE

 

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Revelation 17:

11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the ,eighth and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

VESPASIAN

69 CE  to 79 CE

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In Summary

"Revelation was the swan song of the Militant Jewish Christianity. When Jerusalem was destroyed, when Rome waxed greater and more powerful, when the *False Prophet gained more and more followers, when the book itself was proved totally false within two years, when it became evident the Jewish Messiah-Christ would not come, the Hebrew Christians lost their virility and their cult faded under the combined assault of orthodox Judaism and of ** Gentile Christianity".

The Religion of the Occident

The Apostle Paul was likely, to the Jewish Christians, the False Prophet

 *The Apostle Paul

Letter Ephesian Church in Revelation

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

2 Timothy 1:15 Paul laments...

"You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes."

The "Province of Asia, Western Turkey, was the area where the Seven Churches were located. To the Jewish Christians to whom the Book of Revelation was written, Vespasian was the Beast and the Apostle Paul, the False Prophet. Both would go into the Lake of Fire. However, both Rome and the Apostle Paul won the day and all the days to come.

** Pauline Gentile Christianity

IMHO