Picking and Choosing The "Correct" Biblical Hero

Rembrandt, The Baptism of the Eunuch, 1626

 

A comment was made on here today that mentioned the Ethiopian eunuch mentioned in Acts 8 and how we see no one in Armstrongism ever emulated this guy. COG leaders tend to look with giggily adoration on those they see as hyper-masculine men of the old covenant stories. This was when men were men. Manly men of God. 

"The Ethiopian Eunuch was an exemplary character, but who would pick a eunuch as their super hero?"

For those who forgot, the Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch story:

Here we have a man so dedicated to his job of faithfully serving that queen that he is castrated so that no "improprieties" could happen between him and Queen Candice. While he might have been castrated after being taken prisoner at a young age to serve the royal court or willingly did so later on is not mentioned. What is mentioned is how dedicated he is to all that he does.

That dedication is what led him to travel over 1,600 miles to Jerusalem, in a chariot no less, to worship at the temple, knowing full well that as eunuch he would be rejected from entering the temple grounds. Yet, he still went. 

He was not some poor Ethiopian out for a weekend jaunt to Jerusalem but was in a position of power and privilege that gave him access to the Queen and other influential people associated with the Queen/government. Being trusted with the Queen's money means he was not some poor little bookkeeper in the back room somewhere. It took money and dedication to travel that long of a distance through some of the most dangerous places.

He was also a person of such influence and education that he had access to a scroll or papyrus of the Book of Isaiah that he was traveling with and reading. Both scrolls and papyrus were painstakingly detailed books written and painted, not something the regular public had access to.

Here is a man so dedicated that he traveled over 1,600 miles to Jerusalem, knowing he would be rejected, yet went anyway. This is the kind of dedicated man that COG leaders should be emulating, but you never hear them doing such a thing.

Anyway, back to the story. Philip sees him reading the scroll and asks him if he understands what he is reading. He says no he doesn't and asks for Philip to explain it to him. Here is a man of such lofty status yet humble enough to admit he did not understand and asked for help. Imagine a COG leader asking for help understanding the scriptures they claim to know all about. What a sight that would be!

Philip took the Old Covenant scriptures he was reading and applied them to Jesus, so effectively that the eunuch desired to be baptized.

Much like the thief on the cross story at Jesus' crucifixion, nowhere is there any mention of the eunuch repenting of any sins he had committed. He understood the story that Philip told him about Jesus so well that he desired to be part of the "Jesus movement" that was sweeping the land at that time. He had faith and believed.

One would think that COG leaders like Gerald Flurry who has dumped millions of dollars into stage plays emulating Old Covenant prophets would see this as an amazing story about the salvational work of Jesus and the faithfulness of a "less than" man. But, that would involve Jesus, and that dude is not exactly welcome in most COGs today because beating people over their heads with the law or dancing some jig is more important.

Besides, the COG today is led by such mighty masculine men who supposedly still possess their testicles that to emulate a eunuch opens the door to women having a position of say in things. Since women also do not possess testicles and have menstrual periods that make them "supposedly" unclean, this is used against them. I remember one minister from Pasadena (now in UCG) making the statement that because women had menstrual periods and that scripture considered them unclean when that was happening, that was the reason they were unfit to preach or teach. Could you trust their words being spoken if they were having their unclean period?"

There are many men and women of faith in the Scriptures that the "men" leading COG's today could set up on pedestals as examples of faithfulness, but you never see these "men" do so. It is always more about them than anything else.

To be like the eunuch is to have humility and be teachable. This is what has led men and women of faith for centuries. People who are filled with wonder and desire for something bigger and greater than what they see around them instead of the crap spoonfed to them each week in canned sermons. 

The Church of God needs more faithful Ethiopian eunuchs in its midst than the current crop of emasculated leaders we currently have in too many of the more vocal COG's today. Today church leaders are faith killers. They have stripped wonder and inquisitiveness from people's lives by force-feeding them their answers to everything. Good people of faith need to leave these emasculated impotent men behind and step out in freedom. It's pretty cool out here!

LCG: Oh Noes! Time Is Short! Again...There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth

Members and co-workers, time is short. 

By that I do not mean that next year, or the year after, 

will begin the three-and-a-half year period the Bible calls 

the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord, 

but stage-setting troubles can and will come at any moment.

Oh, Noes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

It is always a pleasant surprise to see Gerald Weston speak about uplifting things instead of war, disease, famine, and widespread death and destruction.

Oh, wait! Wrong article.

Never fear though, you can write for a free booklet on British Israelism and then feel all warm and comfy as you know that by joining the one true church your salvation is assured. Eternal life...here we come!!!

Dear members and co-workers, those who have eyes to see can recognize that world events, as outlined in Scripture, have sped up dramatically. Many troubles—too many to list here—are converging during this most dangerous time in mankind’s history. Israel’s government has been severely divided for several years. The United States left behind billions of dollars in military hardware in its disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal and is dramatically depleting military supplies over the war in Ukraine. Many question the cognitive state of the president and wonder who is really in charge calling the shots. On the other side of the political aisle, Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his position as Speaker of the House of Representatives—a first in the nation’s history—effectively putting all business on hold during this critical time until a new Speaker can be elected. It appears that if anything can go wrong, it will. 

 

Referring again to my “2023 in Bible Prophecy” telecast, recorded in November 2022, I stated: “Yes, when you think it can’t get any worse, 2023 may once again prove that notion wrong. The United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, and other British-descended peoples are on a downward spiral, and unless we turn back to God—and we see no evidence of that—no elected leader will save us. We will have ups and downs, but the trend will continue down.” 

 

Members and co-workers, time is short. By that I do not mean that next year, or the year after, will begin the three-and-a-half year period the Bible calls the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord, but stage-setting troubles can and will come at any moment. The time of Jacob’s trouble (see our booklet The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy) could descend on us sooner than we might expect. However, God gives us fair warning: “But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:48-51).

Nevertheless, let us never forget these words of Jesus Christ: “By your patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19). Nor, let us fail to remember these encouraging words: “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (v. 28).

Yes, there is good news. Christ will return to stop our insanity (Matthew 24:21-22). He will set up a world-ruling kingdom, and He will be “King over all the earth” (Zechariah 14:9). Nations will “beat their swords into plowshares” (Isaiah 2:2-4). And there will be a lasting peace under His rule when adversarial nations will work together in harmony (Isaiah 19:24-25). 

 

Thank you, dear members and co-workers, for all your support in this Work of the living God. Life on this earth is short, but there is a reward for those who put God first in their lives, and that reward is eternal life. That is the reward that truly matters.

Sincerely, in Christ’s service,

Gerald E. Weston

Four Yahovah's and Thousands of Lesser God's

 

Christianity has been infected with heretics from its earliest days and Armstrongism is right there in the midst of that madness. No one in the history of Christianity has ever publicly said that Church of God leaders are theologically well-trained and grounded in Paterology and Christology. No one!

Check out this gibberish from Wade Cox, the other Great Bwana to Africa, Islam, and a few Caucasians in Arkansas about the four Yahovahs and Jesus being an actual physical son of the Eloah (the Father) who is subservient to him and the elevated one of thousands.

Wade got his self-righteous Christo/Islamic undies in a huge knot over a sermon by Frank Nelty in 1994.

It is true that Yahovah is a name used for multiple sons of God and Genesis 18 and 19 refers to four Yahovahs at the same time. One stayed with Abraham and two went to Lot at Sodom and then they called fire down from the Yahovah in Heaven. This is explained in the paper The Angel of YHVH (No. 024).

Thus the language of the text can admit of a subordinate Yahovah of Israel; however, if the wording of the First Commandment were to apply to Christ or another Yahovah it is direct idolatry and the Sin of Satan. 

Such a view comes from the false assertion that the God of the OT was Jesus Christ which is the false theology of Armstrong running directly against the OT texts. Were the claim to be made that the Yahovah here refers to Christ and not to God as Ha Elohim then we are faced with the fact that this text, being singular, makes Christ demand that he is the object of worship in Israel and not the One True God. 

The text linguistically cannot refer to two beings, although the claim that they were two beings as one is obviously the false premise on which they rely. The real understanding of the OT is clouded by the error of Armstrong being perpetuated by his advocates blindly accepting the false assertion and building on it as we see here. We have no doubt that Armstrong himself would have censured this view re the First Commandment referring to Christ. 

 

As was also pointed out here, the point should be obvious to anyone that if those were the commandments of Christ, then worshipping the Father would be a transgression because we would be worshipping the Father in the place of Christ. It's absurd. When we read Ezra chapters 4-7 we see that the Temple belonged to The Deity (SHD #433 Eloahh, Eloah), and the laws were those of The Deity, and in John 17:3 Christ called this Deity the One True God. Christ also identified this Deity as his God in John 20:17 and as such this would make this God Christ's Creator and it makes Christ a subordinate elohim who acts at the behest of his Creator. So those laws can only be the laws of God the Father and that would also explain why the First Century Church considered Christ the Great Angel of the OT who gave the law to Moses, as the Bible states.

 

Our God is Christ's God. We only have One True God. We serve Him, as does Christ.

 

This insidious heresy of two true Gods and the lie that the Father is not mentioned in the OT has been spread by these people to the extent that we see that one or two COG people in Africa have been approached via the Internet by one or two other ex-WCG people, seemingly in South Africa, who are trying to advance the possibility that the First Commandment applies to Christ. Fortunately it is being rejected as utter heresy by those of whom we are aware.

 

The Bible is quite clear that there is One True God and that God is identified in the OT as the Father and creator and His name is Eloah, and he has a physical son. Proverbs 30:4 directly challenges anyone who thinks he has understanding of the texts to declare the name of the Father and the name of his Son. The text then proceeds to identify Him by name as Eloah which is a singular name that admits of no plurality and it refers to the Father only. Understanding this name of God is the test of understanding in the Holy Spirit.  Ditheists or Binitarians fail this test. They deny or misrepresent its application.

A little later this is this absurdity:

He is the Most High (El^eyon or Elyon) and there can be only one Most High by definition and the logic of language. He divided the nations according to the number of the sons of God (Deut. 32:8 RSV and DSS). He gave Yahovah's portion to be the Children of Israel. Thus Elyon and Yahovah, as God and son of God, are set in place here in the Torah where Yahovah of Israel is one of the sons of God and Eloah is set as the creator. For this reason the MT was forged in this text in the post-Temple period and that is why the KJV is false.

Job mentions Eloah in 45 places. The redeemer is listed as one of the Thousand and is not Eloah in Job (Job 33:23).

As you can see, Wade Cox is not the brightest bulb in the package.

Christ has partners or comrades in association with him that shared in his position and above whom he was appointed or anointed. The absolute requirement of this position logically is that he cannot have always been above them. He was one of them until he was anointed above them. 

The asshattery just gets worse and worse:

What is it then that sets Christ apart from the other sons of God in the Angelic Host? The answer is that he was elevated above the other sons of God from his resurrection from the dead and his appointment as High Priest of the Host after the order of Melchisedek. We will all become elohim (Jn. 10:34-35) and be equal to the Angels (SGD 2465 i.e. SGD 2470 + SGD 32 equal or like an angel) (Lk. 20:36; Mat. 22:30; Mk. 12:25) who are also elohim by definition and as sons of God and the Council of the elohim of the OT texts. Christ will confess us before these angels of God (Lk. 12:8). They are referred to as sons of God in numerous places in the OT and we as sons of God will be as elohim as stated in both the OT and NT. They are sent with Christ to the earth at his return (Mat. 13:41; 25:31). Christ confesses us before them in order that we may be accepted among them as elohim. 

You can read this complete mess by Wade Cox here if you dare: Effects of 20th Century Churches of God Doctrines on the Nature of God

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For the grammar police