Those fun boys in Cincinnati are back letting us know that they are the best source for unbiased news that there could possibly be! With their claim that 57% of Americans distrust the news, they want you to know that they are the best source of news you could ever possibly need.
It’s important to note that these numbers represent journalists and media on both ends of the spectrum—liberal and conservative. And government doesn’t fare any better.
What is disturbing about this for us in the Church of God fellowship? Follow-up research conducted a few weeks ago found that a majority (57 percent) of Americans interviewed noted that divisiveness is so extreme that they believe the United States “is in the midst of a cold civil war.”
Then the boys say this:
Consider these parallels: even before he was president, Abraham Lincoln saw similar issues. Back in 1858, he declared: “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it” (Lincoln’s emphasis). When he spoke this, the United States was bitterly divided. He famously then paraphrased the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 12:25: “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Today, this is more important than ever. In this current crisis of mistrust, we need to recognize that people on both sides have become radicalized.
As Lincoln stated, “what to do and how to do it” are critical. In this world where credible, reliable and trustworthy information is all but lost, where can people turn for real truth?
Hmm...let me guess...just where are people to turn to for real truth? Hmmm...I wonder where that could possibly be?
The biblical answer is found in John 17:17: “your word is truth” (English Standard Version, emphasis added throughout).
Imagine that, the "truth" found in a Church of God, particularly the United Church of God. Who knew!
Remember, these are the same guys who plotted and schemed, behind the scenes, while still employed as ministers of the Worldwide Church of God. This went on for many months with them meeting in the SOG apartments and off-campus to figure out how they could start a new church, take as many people as possible to fund a new organization that would keep them all employed as ministers. And while they did this they were actively kicking out WCG members left and right who disagreed with the changes. Depending on how well they liked you and if they thought you had a lot of money, they would then pass on to these people to wait and a new church would be formed and they could join it.
Yes, these are the men now asking you to trust them with the "truth".
Never mind that though, the boys want you to imagine that they answer to a higher power.
But consider this. There is a certain Greek word that refers to vocabulary. The phrase for vocabulary that is simply translated “word” in English is lexi (from which we get lexicon).
But lexi is not the Greek word that is in the inspired prayer from Jesus to God in John 17:17. This is a critical point: Jesus uses the Greek word logos—the verse actually reads: “your logos [Word] is truth.”
Why is that Greek word logos important? Beginning a few hundred years before the coming of Jesus as the Messiah, many philosophers claimed and used the Greek logos to refer to the ability to think, as a means to persuade, as reasoned discourse, as the difference between humans and beasts. Logos was the center of many teachings.
I guess Logos is as good a word as Jesus, or getter actually. UCG, like most COG's do not mention Jesus that much. Its law, law, law. Or, law, tithe, government, hoy days, and a little Jesus.
If we now revisit the entire prayer of Jesus in John 17:17, we then see Jesus praying for us today! “Sanctify them [set apart for holy service] in the truth; your word [logos] is truth” (ESV). This Logos—Jesus Christ as the Word—must be living within us (Ephesians 3:17).
How can Jesus be living in the COG when the church has basically ignored the dude for decades? These are the same men who were embarrassed to even say the name Jesus for many years. Today it is cool for the more liberal COG's to say the name Jesus more as it makes them think they are appealing to real Christians in the world.
Think on this: if we indeed are to fulfill our personal individual mission of being lights to this darkened world (Matthew 5:14), a world darkened by mistrust, we must fully know, understand and be living the precious truths that we hold. We must be anchored in faith and active in trust! People in the world should see that Word of truth openly living in us.
As we approach the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, I call upon each one of us to revisit the spiritual trunk of the tree and hold it fast. A most crucial part of this trunk of the tree is the precious plan of God, highlighted by the knowledge and application of the Holy Days.
Jesus, plus the holy days. That's how it works. In the COG it is always a "+" god that needs to be affirmed. Something always needs to be done to placate the angry god they actually follow.
Do we consider that this Word, this Logos spoken of by John, who is today our Elder Brother who stands ready to help us, is the One who both gave the Holy Days we observe and also lives in their meaning? Does the understanding of these Holy Days live and manifest itself in our daily lives?
It is always important to do something to make the angry god happy. Do a lot of works and God will be pleased and then it may drop a few spoonfuls of grace upon you. The Jewish holiday s were vital to the identity and growth of the Children of Isreal to gain their identity. These laws were to them alone and not for anyone around them. Contrast that with what most Christians understand, that with Jesus, grace overwhelms everyone and everything, not just a certain group of people.
But then again, this is a COG and the law must reign supreme. The Cincinnati boys want their members to pray about their message during the upcoming holiday instead of placing their focus upon that dude that embarrassed them. the dude who can give them rest, comfort, and distress them from the rigamarole of everyday life.
Allow me to address one more issue: as we approach the upcoming Holy Days, I would also ask you to consider and pray about the fact that the message of the Church must endure and prevail in this turbulent environment of mistrust. We don’t speak for the Left or Right—we openly declare the reality of the coming Kingdom of God! We contrast the truth of the Bible with the events of the day, “crying aloud” (Isaiah 58:1) and proclaiming a warning message to repent of national and personal sins.
One of the COG's biggest fear tacts was to constantly whine about a "famine of the word". For two millennia there have been Christians who have fought and died to preserve the word they claim as too important to keep let die. These martyrs who died knowing the truth they found never once believed that it was going to disappear at some point in time. Their God was more powerful than that. Not the god of the COG's though. It was so impotent that it let its message disappear for 1,800 years till Herbert Armstrong discovered it in a public library.
We should solemnly consider that the Bible warns of a coming time of spiritual famine, “of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11). That time is not yet, but in a time when research confirms that media and government leaders are “purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false,” we must double down in prayerful vigilance, holding fast to the spiritual trunk of the tree.
For decades the COG has misled people with what they call the "truth". A truth that many of them don't even actually believe because that truth needs to focus upon Jesus and that just pisses them off. The COG in 2021 places more emphasis upon sacred rocks, double blessings, dreams, and visions of apocalypse as the god they look to than it does at any time upon Jesus and what Christianity knows and understands. Some day the COG might catch up to that understanding.
From Personal from the President Victor Kubik
