Do you trust counseling with your minister?

 

In the Church of God movement it was and still is consistently reinforced that members should counsel with their ministers about their problems and not go to licensed counselors and therapists. The COG said that since these people were not church members they were incapable of counseling and actually used Satan's deceptions to lead true believers away from God.

In each of the respective COG groups out there today you can count on one hand the number of ministers who have received training from licensed counseling professionals. Almost all ministers had their "training" from another minister who also had their "training "from another minister and so on. 99% of them had no real counseling training at all. David Antion is one of the standouts who has had professional training and runs a highly successful counseling service on South Marengo in Pasadena.

Do you agree with the Living Church of God's statement below? Are LCG ministers, or ministers in any COG actually dispassionate and without bias?

Sometimes, it is good to have someone outside our context take a look at how we might do better. Couples who are struggling in marriage can benefit from inviting their minister in to look at the problem dispassionately, without bias. 

"...this theater of the absurd that we call Armstrongism "

 

The As Bereans Did site has a most excellent post up today about how we seem to be on an endless loop in Armstrongism that keeps repeating itself.

They start off with this observation:

 ...one cannot read the articles at Banned and not get the impression that this has all happened before.

There is not a day I wonder why I still do this, yet almost every single day some Church of God leader or member says or does something so appallingly stupid that it cannot be left on the sidelines as if it was just an innocent COG thing. People are still being lied to and spiritually damaged by every single one of these larger groups that make up the face of the church today. They all try so hard to be little mini-me Herbert Armstrong clones and yet none of them can do it and never will.

The article says this:

How many times do you have to be lied to, fleeced, stepped on, and taken for a fool before you say "enough already"? How many times will Jesus not return next month before you say, "Huh, maybe this guy isn't a prophet after all, and I might do well to question other things he says,"? A 504th sermon? A 900th? How many more duplications of Ambassador College or the Plain Truth magazine or the World Tomorrow television program will it take before you say, "Huh, maybe that wasn't the best use of millions of dollars, and I might do well to question if this organization is really being led by the Spirit,"? How many self-aggrandizing leaders need to rise up, with their petty in-fighting and their posturing, before you say, "Huh, these people aren't any different than that Herbert Armstrong guy, and none of this looks like what I see in the New Testament,"?

Then there is this: 

If you're staying because of the Sabbath, I've written articles since day 1 recommending you try it over at the Church of God - Seventh Day. See for yourself that they aren't like this. They did the right thing and fired Herbert Armstrong in the 1930s. Here we are almost 100 years later and many still haven't learned that one simple lesson. 

 

What became of these men? What became of Herbert Armstrong, Garner Ted Armstrong, Rod Meredith, Gerald Waterhouse, Herman Hoeh, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, Dave Pack, etc etc etc etc? Did their work pass through the fire or did it burn up? Do you suppose those wells gave fresh water or bitter?

All we have seen, at least in this latter-day dispensation of Armstrongism, is division, back-biting, self-aggrandizement, and superiority complexes as its major minor players thump their puffed-out little chests and bellow at us as to how great they are.

The article continues:

I want you to take an inventory of the past 100 years, an honest inventory, and ask if these are the fingerprints of Jesus you see. Was it Christ who got the prophecies wrong so many, many times? Was it Christ who caused church leaders to struggle for power and influence? Was it Christ causing these men to say "I am Elijah", "I am the Inkhorn", "I am the Two Witnesses"? Was it Christ who caused so many divisions? Was it Christ who misrepresented the facts of history and scripture over and over again? Was it Christ who ruined families financially?

Or maybe was it not Christ at all. Maybe, just maybe, is Jesus Christ to be found elsewhere?

Sadly, very few of the present-day COG groups are even actively looking for Jesus. Their personal interpretations of scripture, their assumed superior knowledge on all kinds of ultimately useless topics, their obsession with legalism, and their blatant narcissism prove that Christ is not part of the picture. 

Some are waking up and leaving the church and there are others seeking to replicate it every day.

That's why I continue to post stuff about Armstrongism and its absolutely CRAZY legacy. If they are going to be dumb enough to say, I am going to post it. The longed for glory-days-of-old that so many look fondly back at were days of zero accountability. Those days are over and many today actively hold their feet to the fire, whether it be this blog, As Bereans Did, The Painful Truth, and the numerous xCOG Facebook pages where people share personal stories of spiritual and physical abuse at the hands of the church.

Read the entire article here: What Will It Take?

 

Satan Is Not Happy That Aaron Dean Will Soon Be Returning To Restore The Worldwide Church of God To It's Former Imagined Glory

 

Sometimes you just can't win when it comes to big bad meanie Satan who works his diabolical plan through those who criticize or mock the idea of Aaron Dean as some later-day savior to the church. Satan is so incensed at the idea of Aaron restoring the faith once delivered through Herbert that he is using this blog and other sites to turn people off to the idea. Too funny!

What Candlestick was raised up through one man, by Jesus Christ, in this Philadelphia era?

Answer: The Worldwide Church of God.

Does this Church face identity thieves and liars?

Answer: Yes. Revelation 3:9

In Revelation 10:7, we read "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets."

Now Mr. Armstrong wrote "Mystery of the Ages" a synopsis of the Bible, and through explanation of God's plan up to the World Tomorrow, which begins at Christ's return. Jesus Christ does not return until the seventh angel blows the trumpet.

Apparently, no one was able to understand the Bible till Herbert wrote Mystery of the Ages which cleared up 100% of any questions anyone could ever have regarding scripture. MOA is right up there next to The Incredible Human Potential book as the church's two most boring books that few have ever read completely through.

Now who was trained and who assisted Mr. Armstrong, and even co-wrote "Mystery of the Ages"?

Answer: Aaron K Dean.

Who alone, remains, out of the "casting of lots" of the ministry that Mr. Armstrong performed, to be the next Pastor General?

Answer: Aaron K Dean

Tkach Sr left Jesus Christ. Almost immediately. The rest left Christ or have died. So when there is only one left, it leaves little imagination who could be the next Pastor General out of that selection.

Mr. Armstrong according to the testimony of Mr. Dean, told him that God wanted him(Aaron Dean) to be the Next Pastor General. He said he talked Mr. Armstrong out of making him the next Pastor General.

So Mr. Armstrong went on to Tkach Sr, but then he gave Mr. Dean a SPIRITUAL ROLE over Mr.Tkach. He made him promise many things.

This is one of the stupidest things ever. No COG minister, assistant, apostle, supreme leader, pastor general, or chief overseer has any spiritual role over ANY member. 

And when Tkach left Christ, and broke his own promises to the apostle, he was NO LONGER IN THE BODY OF CHRIST!

But Aaron Dean continued. 

Now the UCG, according to Victor Kubik, was started with the purpose of constraining power from concentrating to one man. It is in total opposition to the government of God.

Victor Kubik gives a false report, saying that TKACH Sr. received concentration of power from Mr. Armstrong. This is untrue. It was the Advisory Council of Elders who gave it to Tkach Sr in 1991.

Victor Kubik assisted the TKACH regime with new organization structure, which brought about the destroying of the FACILITIES that aided the Worldwide Church of God. His solution was NEW CHURCH organized with the State, to OPPOSE the type of power they faced when dealing with Mr. Herbert W Armstrong.

Aaron Dean was the first "ordained minister" of the UCG, as a guinea pig to see if it would work, according to his testimony in 2010(I believe).

Why him out of all the ministers?

Also, in 1990 he asked God to give him 20 years for a family of his own. That ended in 2010 when he was hired by the UCG, and got on their payroll that year. Prior to this he was not on a payroll.

From 1991-2010 was a 19 year time cycle.

Ah yes, the good old stand-by, the 19-year time cycle. More crap theology. 

That Incidentally was the year my family came online, and began warning brethren about GROUPS who have departed from Christ, and the establishment of the FACT that the Worldwide Church of God continues to exist!

And so, as a result I came into contact with Mr. Aaron Dean. And so I mention him, because I believe Jesus Christ showed me he is the one God picked.

Did you know that UCG was started to thwart God's plan of having Aaron Dean become the new church leader? UCG is also a stumbling block stopping ministers from returning to the restored WCG. Someone has been smoking a little too much herbs.

But he is UNABLE to do his ministry in the Worldwide Church of God, while attending with ANOTHER CHURCH, which has now come out admitting they were started to prevent what God has plans for HIM.

They are literally a stumbling block to stop the ministry from returning to the Worldwide Church of God spiritual structure!

They are an idol, in which gold has been applied to, like a golden calf.

So I'm trusting the Word of God here. God knows who He wants for the job of the second witness.

It has to be a man in the ministry, of the Worldwide Church of God aka the Philadelphia candlestick, in whom the Mystery of God is finished. He is Separated from the Worldwide Church of God, and is called up on to REPENT and to Come out of the other assembly, to fulfill his job Jesus Christ wants him to do!

And the fact that AARON DEAN'S NAME IS NOW BEING TALKED ABOUT, and the fact that those Outside of the Church, DISSIDENTS, are all worked up about it, shows me Satan is not liking it! So I press on... determined more than ever to talk about these points, which concern the future of the Worldwide Church of God.