The latest issue of The Journal is out. The lead article is about Herbert Armstrong's perception of "godly hierarchy" in the church, with him the human leader, of course. The article is based upon a letter that a church member wrote to HWA asking for him to answer some questions regarding new moons, church hierarchy and other topics.
The part that I found interesting is the last couple of paragraphs. The church always told us that various men were always trying to get doctrines changed. In this letter, he blames a lot of this on women!
I have taken considerable time on
this, because we have a history over
45 years of individual women trying
to upset the whole Church by wanting
to change God’s Festival dates. Especially we MUST ALL SPEAK THE SAME
THING, and what we speak is put into
the Church by JESUS CHRIST, through
His chosen apostle.
You did right in bringing this
directly to me, and I trust I have made
clear what we are all to speak in
regard to this. But you MUST NOT carry
this as a personal hobby to others in
the Church, lest you come under Romans 16:17. Christ is now setting His
Church back on the track of UNITY,
rooting out all division. Nevertheless,
I’m sure your research on this has
given you experience.
The front page also includes a short article about the Texas community that as shattered by the church shooting in November that killed 26 people and injured 20 others. COG members know some of these people. Another article is on page 3 about the shooting and the heroes and the people first on the scene.
The second page has a snarky comment from Fred Coulter, the COG phrenologist, happy to see that The Journal is shutting down.
Page 3 also includes a story on, "How do churches protect members?" also in response to the church shooting. It includes a list of 18 other church shootings over the last 11 years, including the Living Church of God shootings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Page 5 has more from Dixon Cartwright on why he is shutting down The Journal. It includes the reasons he started it and why he published some of the things he has over the years.
We were different from In
Transition in that
John’s aim was
to have two of his
trusted friends
check out articles before they were published in In Transition for correctness of doctrine.
The friends were Ron Dart and
Leon Walker.
Doctrinal opinions welcomed
I did not share the view with John
that that was an appropriate consideration for my newspaper. Rather, from
the beginning I welcomed creative
essays, even those advocating unorthodox versions of doctrines, and did not
feel the need to make sure they were
correct or for me to agree with them As a result, we printed many such
opinion pieces—editorials, letters,
essays—with many of them disagreeing with each other, frequently in the
same issue of THE JOURNAL.
My main consideration was that
writers deal politely with each other in
their doctrinal and political discussions, especially since people with different interpretations of Scripture can
all reasonably prove their varying
doctrines from the Bible.
In the beginning I believed my publication, at least my reason for publishing, was almost a necessity: if not a necessity then something that I thought would be a worthy service to the brethren.
I still think that it is a worthy service, but not a necessity. Thinking THE JOURNAL was almost a necessity was presumptuous and naive. I can further make this point by mentioning my opinion about salvation.
Later he has this to say:
I do get some
flak from some of
the anti-Armstrongism bloggers for
supposedly being
an “enabler,” as one
of my critics likes to say. (He also likes to say I’m
insane.)
However, I’m not trying to enable
anybody. I’m trying to provide a forum and an avenue for fellowship.
I’m not concerned about supporting
or refuting, for example, Herbert Armstrong or other preachers.
If I enable people to communicate
and fellowship and voice their opinions, then I guess by definition I am
some kind of enabler.
While I have questioned some of the crazy articles submitted by COG leaders, I have never called him an "enabler."
Page 5 has another story regarding the Texas church shootings. Page 5 also includes a letter defending William Dankenbring. It includes a story on how a bunch of mean ministers ganged up on him in Australia which led Tkach to start a witch hunt spurred on by these mean ministers who intensely persecuted Dankenbring.
Reg Killingley has an article on the Protestant Reformation, which is far more informed than Rod Meredith take on it in LCG's latest magazine article.
Check out the full issue here:
Issue 200
