Know God Better: Don't Ask Living Church of God!

Know God Better: Don't Ask Living Church of God!

On the Living Church of God's website, they have an article posted by Dexter Wakefield titled Know God Better Through His Statues. For those who are familiar with the Armstrong Churches of God, that title will come as no surprise to them. However, for Christians of a more traditional inclination, it may provoke a bit of a puzzled look - as in what do they mean by that? For Mr. Wakefield, as for most Armstrongites, Torah is a window into the heart and soul of God. For these folks, Torah IS GOD's Law!

Never mind that the "commandments, statutes, and judgments" of Torah were addressed to the children of Israel over and over again throughout those writings. Never mind that those "commandments, statutes, and judgments" were designed to meet the needs of a primitive and tribal people who embraced paternalism, polygamy, and slavery and were surrounded by pagans. Never mind that after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Levitical priesthood, it became literally impossible to fulfill many of the requirements of those "commandments, statutes, and judgments" of Torah. Never mind the New Testament claim that Christ fulfilled those same "commandments, statutes, and judgments." Never mind that Christ summarized Torah into Two Great Commandments, which he claimed comprehended the entire legislation! Never mind, that the epistles of Paul, Peter, James, and John all point to LOVE as the foundation and focus of God's Law!

That's right, according to Scripture, GOD IS LOVE (I John 4:8, 16). Hence, if you really want to know God better, it seems to me that the best way to do that is to learn about what motivates God and his "commandments, statutes, and judgments." Indeed, when Christ was asked about the greatest commandment(s) in Torah, he replied: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40, ESV) The Apostle Paul said that "love is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13:10, NKJV) Notice, that it isn't the Law which defines love, it's love that defines the law! In other words, Torah was motivated by God's love for the children of Israel. Moreover, Christ underscored this principle for his followers when he gave them a "new" commandment. He said: "Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." (John 13:34-35, NLT)

Interestingly, the above Living Church of God article references God's prediction through the Prophet Jeremiah that God would establish a New Covenant someday: We read there: "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 31:33-34, NKJV) They quote it, but they apparently completely miss how God intended to fulfill this prophecy about putting his law in their minds and writing it on their hearts. Remember, Jesus Christ's mission was to fulfill the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17)

In his famous "Sermon on the Mount," Christ did just that! For his followers, the law would be internalized. The Old Covenant outlined in Torah and typified by a long list of dos and don'ts was to be fulfilled and replaced by him. Christ's disciples would be expected to measure their behavior by the principle of LOVE. In other words, is this behavior motivated by (and consistent with) loving God and each other? Now, as Torah was motivated and summarized by the same principle, we can see that many of the commandments which are associated with how they behaved toward other people and God are consistent with this new iteration of God's Law. For instance, we can readily see that being unfaithful to one's spouse would NOT be consistent with loving him or her. Likewise, we recognize that striking someone or murdering them is NOT consistent with the principle of love. Indeed, as Torah was motivated by love, one would expect the "commandments, statutes, and judgments" found therein to reflect the love which motivated them!

Think about it, if you wanted some insight into the character of the United States would you study the laws of the nation or the principles on which those laws were promulgated? Which came first: the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution? Didn't the principles espoused in the Declaration motivate and serve as the foundation of the laws that followed? In other words, these Armstrongites have it all backwards. To truly know and understand anything, one must start with the foundation. What is the motivating principle? Sure, you may eventually discern that principle by studying the many individual laws but isn't that taking the long way around and increasing the likelihood that you might get bogged down in the details and miss your destination? Hence, if we are really interested in knowing God better, we might want to start with reading about what love is (see I Corinthians 13:4-7). What do you think?

 Miller Jones/Lonnie C Hendrix 

Crackpot Prophet On Vitally Important Salvation Issue: Was Goliath Tall?

Dang, Bro! What size sandals do you wear? 🫣

It has always been fascinating to watch how Church of God leaders and ministers constantly place their focus on unimportant things instead of having to focus on the one they "claim" to be following. Ask them about Satan, clean and unclean meats, the color your car or truck should be, the Azazel goat, did Jesus have long hair, the length of your hair, and makeup on women, you will quickly witness they will be unable to shut their mouths due to all the "facts" and useless information they will sprew out. Ask them to talk about grace, justification, sanctification, or even Jesus himself and you can usually hear a pin drop in the Grand Canyon.

Ever since that time the Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were sitting around the kitchen in the 7th heaven discussing the end of humanity, we have been "blessed" with the presence of the Great Bwana Bob Mzungu Thiel. When they pulled the names of Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinalnd, Rod Meredith, and so many other men they knew would self-appoint themselves in the end time of humanity, they were left with one last name in the bowl. When the Great Bwana's name was pulled out, they just sat there and laughed and laughed and laughed. 

This brings us to our resident crackpot and the vital information that he thinks you need to know that is important for your salvational walk.

Forget about grace and what it means to be justified, you need to know how tall Goliath was. After all, knowing his height "proves" the Bible and once you prove Goliath was tall, you will then understand that all prophetic utterances from the Great Bwana Bob Mzungu will be true because they come from the Bible he claims is 100% true!

Could Goliath Have Been 9 Feet Tall?
he (sic) Bible says that Goliath of Gath was six cubits and a span (1 Samuel 17:4, Masoretic Text). Various ones put that to be between 8 feet 6 inches to 9 feet 9 inches? Skeptics say that was not possible, and that his height grew because of exaggerations. Could Wikipedia or Daniel Hays be right that the wrong height has been pushed? Is there skeletal evidence that points to people being that tall 3,000 or so years ago? Did David kill Goliath? Is there any archaeological evidence that the Philistines even used names like ‘Goliath’ three thousand years ago? What about the so-called ‘Goliath Ostracon’? Were David and Goliath real or just myths? What about the ‘Qeiyafa Ostracon’? Do scholars know true facts that contradict the Bible? What about the Exodus? Steve Dupuie and Dr. Thiel go over these matters.

If the end time Bobbsey Twins says it is true, it HAS to be true! 

Contributions are now being accepted for the new archeological dig 

that the Great Bwana Bob and Steve Dupuie are starting.

His Royal Majesty David C Passover

 King of Britannia, The Celts and The Scots!

I believe awhile back he also said he was also a direct descendent of the Israelite Priestcraft so he was actually "both a king and a priest".   

Psssst...Dave!  So am I....

Yes, you are probably descended from royalty. So is everyone else.

"You are of royal descent, because everyone is.

You are of Viking descent, because everyone is. You are of Saracen, Roman, Goth, Hun, Jewish descent, because, well, you get the idea. All Europeans are descended from exactly the same people, and not that long ago. Everyone alive in the tenth century who left descendants is the ancestor of every living European today, including Charlemagne, and his children Drogo, Pippin, and, of course, not forgetting Hugh.

If you’re broadly eastern Asian, you’re almost certain to have Genghis Kahn sitting atop your tree somewhere in the same manner, as is often claimed.

If you’re a human being on Earth, you almost certainly have Nefertiti, Confucius, or anyone we can actually name from ancient history in your tree, if they left children. The further back we go, the more the certainty of ancestry increases, though the knowledge of our ancestors decreases. It is simultaneously wonderful, trivial, meaningless, and fun." Excerpted from A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford.