Friday Musings: I'm So Dis-illusioned.

...You say that like it's a bad thing!

If you spend enough time on the planet, one of the great experiences we all will have is that of that of being disillusioned with persons, places or things. I personally hate it. It's annoying, takes way too much energy and makes my stomach hurt, or third chakra depending on your perspective. :)

Of course, we also have to admit from time to time, that we all are a source of disillusionment for others as well, so I suppose this keeps the universe balanced in some way, and the feelings we have about how it feels when we experience it in perspective. If you are like me, I tend to remember well what disillusions me for a very long time, but rather quickly try to dismiss my own part in the disillusionment of others.

I'd like to ask a simple question. Why would we want to have illusions? After all, DIS-illusionment should seem to be exactly what we want to happen. Who wants to live with illusions? Who wants to base their perspectives on that which is not real, true or accurate? We should beg for DIS-illusionment, but in fact we don't. Plainly, disillusionment in any of life's quests is painful and is the reason we tend to defend them, at all costs. Pain is to be avoided at all costs it seems.

I think we all know people who live with well thought out, well defined and deeply entrenched illusions. As a former, very sincere and hopeful pastor type, I was a master teacher of illusions and had darn good proofs that I was right to defend them. The problem was, ultimately, I was wrong.

Let me share a few. I realize that some will be quick to point out my flawed thinking, because of their own illusions, and to refute my observations as a simple lack of faith, or trust. Some will say, I was in the wrong church, had a bad attitude or simply misunderstood God. Illusions are easy to defend and difficult to let go of at best. I understand that. But when simple theological promises are made, and then applied with either no results or negative results, that's pretty darn disillusioning. But the goal here is to not have illusions, so it's all good.

So here goes. Let me share a few of the most simple and yet theologically disillusioning concepts that many Christians struggle with. I know I am not alone, nor is it inappropriate to observe just how untrue, in human experience these concepts are in practical fact.

As a minister, I often anointed "the sick" with oil and laid hands on them offering "the prayer of faith." In most cases, it was not serious stuff, but rather, the type of maladies that would pass in time with a little self care and patience. There were many times, however, where it was either be "healed" or die before one's time. I'd like to say that the "prayer of faith" did save the sick, after all that's what it says...

James 5:

14 "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."

...but it did not. I watched many die, in time, just as those who did not ask. Doing this hundreds, if not thousands of times did not result in my personally having any real miraculous stories of obvious healing to relate to you. I have a sense even now of not wanting to admit this, knowing the arguments that humans come up with to explain why this is as it is, but I experienced this simple theological promise as I did and wish to face it.

One of my more profound awakenings happened when a client , crying on the massage table over the loss of her daughter through suicide told me her minister "comforted " her with "Well now...God lost his only child too."  Uh oh...wrong answer.  She screamed "NO!  The Jesus in the story knew he would be back in three days.  God knew he would raise him in three days better than ever.  That story was a weekend inconvenience for Jesus and God. A mere soap opera.  If I knew my daughter was coming back in three days I'd be getting the party ready. MY DAUGHTER IS DEAD!  Dennis....shouldn't a sacrifice stay dead?"

Gulp....The minister apologized I never again quite looked at the resurrection and "sacrifice" of Jesus the same way myself.  Truth can be born out of utter pain and disillusionment 

I wonder now if it helped or hurt those who were facing final days who were not healed? Did it encourage them or discourage them since God did not intervene? Did they feel a lack of faith and blame themselves or is this simply one of life's disillusionments to deal with? People get sick and die. Some live long, some die young. None of us are getting out of here alive. Believe me, I have heard every explanation under the sun as to why God did or didn't do what he said so simply in James would happen. The fact is, every explanation is a simple need we have to explain why something so simple, simply didn't work.

I have quoted in sermons the financial promises "God" makes to those who give until it hurts, "good measure, pressed down and overflowing." I have noted that humans have "robbed God" of tithes and to give so that He might open the windows of heaven to the giver, and yet they simply end up with less income and worried about how to pay the bills. Again, the poor giver seems to take the heat for having little faith, patience or the ability to grasp that all of God's blessings aren't monetary. Yeah, that's the answer! "You have air don't you...why if God wanted, he could take the air away...sooooooooo." You know what I mean.

When God or the Bible  does not deliver, it's never God or the Bible's fault, it's our fault and we spend the next six weeks examining ourselves for bad attitudes, poor faith or misunderstanding the text as explained by apologists. I have even given church emergency help to those who gave too much of their income to "God". Does God really need income, or is this a organization thing?

In my denomination, members gave much to help the "poor" and often I ended up giving it back to those who gave it, so I guess they were blessed by the church in a round about way wit

h the occasional return of their own gifts to the church. But, in fact, giving to God or the Church of your choice is often just that, giving, with precious little to show for it in practical and real life returns. Oh I know we are not to give to get, but the promises of scripture plainly say we shall receive and the practical reality of it is disillusioning to say the least.

Try asking your church for financial help, in most cases, no matter how much you have given and see how far you get. "Why Mrs. Jones, if we did that for you, we'd have to do that for everyone, and we just can't. Don't you have some relatives you can call?" I always wondered if we are to give to and serve others so much, who are they supposed to give to and serve? Themselves it seems. If we are to esteem others BETTER than ourselves, what are all the others suppose to do?

Finally, there is the illusion of protection. While the Bible might boast of angels who watch and protect children and the idea that "a thousand shall fall (hey who protects them?) at thy right side and ten thousand at thy left, but it shall not come nigh unto thy dwelling," it is a disillusionment of epic proportions to believe. I have buried too many children whose lives ended because they made one bad mistake at just the wrong time, or were the victim of a moment out of their control. I've gotten too many calls to come quickly, so and so has been killed, and so and so never made it to 18.

Were "their angels" on strike or vacation? Is this the time where once again, God gets off the hook and reminds me that "all things work together for the good to those that love Him." Is this another time where I have to ask about who had faith and who didn't? Is it the fault of the human...again, that things did not work out so well? How come when it happens to a believer, it is Satan, with God's permission, trying to discourage them, and when it happens to a non-believer, it is God, trying to get in touch with them? It's all so disillusioning.

We all can come up with miraculous saves in life. I missed a plane that got hit by a fighter Jet out of LAX.  I missed head-ons somehow.  My Grandparents unbooked from the Titanic in April of 1912.  It's natural in a near miss to give credit to the miraculous.  But in my view, we often luck out in life and of course, so far.  I have scores of  sincere member stories of those who did not luck out.  

Time would fail, as would space to recite all the promises made to sincere believers by the writers of the Bible for their obedience, loyalty, belief and faith. I believe there is a book entitle "All the Promises of the Bible." After a lifetime of application, I suspect it is a list of disillusionments.

But...GOOD NEWS! DIS-illusionment is a good thing! Who wants illusions! In the long run, they are more painful,harmful and detrimental than reality, which is something we innately seem to wish to avoid at times as humans. I suspect even Jesus, who just knew that if he did his part and pushed the Romans hard enough to ignite the final confrontation at the Temple in Jerusalem, learned a lot in his final moments on the cross. I don't think he was kidding when he is said to have cried out, "My God, my God...why have your forsaken me?" I know the theology of that where we say "God had to turn his back on him" etc. 

The Kingdom did not come in the nick of time to save him. I think he died honestly disillusioned about his own perceptions, unless the line is simply for dramatic effect. I think the early disciples were pounded with their illusions about how things would be if they followed Jesus. One of the first reactions , is said ,  to flee and go home to catch fish again, like the whole thing never happened.

Every church member of the first century who was told "Soon", "The day is far spent", "Of things which must shortly come to pass," "Behold I come quickly" and we who sang 2000 years later "It won't be long now," have faced that kind of disillusionment .  

It's a lesson to live the present life you actually have and not 3-5, 10 or 20 at the outside years ahead only to get it right between the eyes again. 

The historical church, that grew out of the great dis-illusionment would go on to offer the now familiar apologetic we experience today as "The Church," with the best yet to come, always just around the corner, just ahead, in the near future, any time now for sure.

Life does what it does, not at times, but always. The experience of Disillusionment, while painful is necessary for our growth and when it comes knocking...let it in. It really does work for the good as the book says

I am the counterpart to John. I am both an apostle and a prophet of God and of Jesus Christ

From the time I had come into the Church in 1969, I knew there had not been any prophets in God’s Church during that entire period. This was even somewhat of a foreign term for the Church and was basically recognized as referring to individuals like Ezekial, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets whom God had raised up hundreds of years prior to the time of Christ. Although John, who was among the original apostles was a prophet, the Church mostly recognized him only as an apostle. But since the time of John, God simply had not had a purpose for placing someone in that position again until he gave it to me to write that book. Even then, I was still resisting somewhat and did not claim the full role of a prophet, but only a partial definition as is written on the back cover about me: “Then in 1997, he was called to be a prophet for this end-time. A prophet, in this context, is ‘one given inspired interpretation of recorded prophecies.’”

As time continued on, I knew and was then able to accept the fact that I was a full prophet of God. I had come to see many things God was giving me to know that only a full prophet could fulfill. However, that still was not an easy thing for me, but instead, a very uncomfortable one. Even then I did not realize that He had first made me an apostle to His Church, even before being made a prophet. God had raised up one last apostle to lead the Church from the destruction it had begun to experience in December of 1994. I was given charge to raise up a prophesied remnant of the Church that would continue on to Christ’s actual coming.

So yes, I am both an apostle and a prophet of God and of Jesus Christ to the Church of God, and to the world, in this final period of the end-time. I am the last apostle in this age of mankind’s self-rule.

Yet even more, I am the counterpart of John who wrote the Book of Revelation. He was the only other apostle whom God also made a prophet. John wrote the book, but did not understand the revelation it contained. It was not for his time, but for the end-time that would lead up to the return of Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God that will reign over all mankind for 1,100 years. Nearly all of the Book of Revelation is about those things that would occur in the end-time which lead to the Kingdom of God being established on earth for 1,100 years.

Just as John was imprisoned and placed on the Isle of Patmos and then given the contents for the Book of Revelation that he wrote, I too am currently in prison as I am writing this book.

The government of the United States has convicted me of willfully and purposefully evading paying taxes. It doesn’t really matter what I say about it, as people believe what they choose. I have stated some about this on the book website. There is no purpose in trying to unravel all that has been twisted and misrepresented concerning what is true. God will do that soon enough.

Thus saith prophet, apostle and convicted felon Ronald Weinland.

June 9, 2019 A Day To Remember (as another EPIC failure)

Here is what God's most holy righteous apostle/prophet and second witless witness has predicted to happen on June 9, 2019.

“I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he who sat upon it was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war [a war to end WWIII, to stop those who are destroying the earth]. His eyes are as flaming fire, and on his head were many crowns [symbolic of rulership over nations], and he had a name that no man knew, except Himself. He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. Armies in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron[with great power against those who resist], and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. He has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:11-16).

This is an account of what is clearly expected to occur on June 9, 2019. The long prophesied Messiah, the Christ (both words, Messiah and Christ, have the same meaning), will be sent by God to take control of this earth and to establish His government to rule over the nations. The self-rule of mankind will be brought to an end as the Messiah and his army will take control of all government over all nations. He will do so with great power—a level of power never before witnessed by mankind.

I can guarantee as a fact, that this will NOT happen on June 9, 2019.  I can also guarantee that on June 9, 2019, as the day winds down with NOTHING happening, that Ron Weinland will declare that it really did happen, but it happened spiritually.  This has been the ongoing track record of Ron Weinland ever since his 2008 prophecy failed ever so epically!

Weinland's upcoming failure should be no surprise to any of us.  Every single Church of God prophet over the last century has failed.  Every single one of them. This will also include those false prophets like Miller, Armstrong, Waterhouse, Thiel, Malm, Pack, Flurry, Weston, Kubik and many many others.  None of them has been sent by God as a prophet.

Physical and Sexual Abuse In The Church

This appalling first hand account of physical and sexual abuse in the church is just the tip of the iceberg.  COG leaders have covered up sexual and physical abuse for decades.  Every single one of them to this day still do.  Oh how they scramble and pat themselves on the back that they are far beyond this now in 2018 because they publicly claim this was only an issue from the past.

This was a comment on the LCG Member Has A Question For Gerald Weston entry.

My father was a fulltime paid minister in WCG, and an elder in UCG. The stories from others passed on about sexual abuses in the church are staggering. There are many written about online as well.

It seems that if you had to "personally witness" every act to be considered the truth, then I guess you can't believe many of the books of the bible either, as many stories are written by people that weren't there.

To my experience. The most recent was a friend of mine was kicked out our local congregation. The minister told the congregation one story (I recorded it), when I asked him on the phone what happened and why was my friend kicked out, he told a different story. (I recorded this as well) and when I asked my friend what the minister told him, it was again, a third different story.

To many people they wouldn't care about being kicked out, but this has been hard on many people, and it was done with lies and deceit.

My personal experience has been my child was attacked by a sexual predator, and the minister and elders supported the pervert over us, so we didn't attend there anymore. I regret this, and if I could have done things again, I would have stood up and accused that man in front of everyone and shamed the ministers and elders in front of everyone.

I personally suffered physical and sexual abuse at home, having a minister for a father didn't protect me from this, I think it even made it worse, as the physical abuse was based on "tough love" and the common teachings from HWA on parenting. I was told by my father "you have to break a child like you break a horse". (I think this is a quote he got from GTA)

I have personally talked with people that had sexual advances made on them by the minister. Another (a child in the church at the time) experienced witnessing incest at the ministers house between their children, with multiple witnesses. There were even worse beatings in his house than in mine, and his family members are more disturbed than mine.

I was a suicidal young teen with no hope for the future. "the world can't go on for even another 10 years" was the refrain I heard my entire childhood.

Read the stories online about a UCG elder sexually abusing the members in a congregation in the east coast some where in the last 10 years, and nothing was resolved because head quarters sided with the elder. ("I know this man, he'd never do anything like that" from Richard Pinelli). Finally almost the entire congregation just left.

I have relatives that were at Ambassador college that knew about the sexual escapades of GTA, their friends had slept with him. GTA bragged about his conquests.

I knew about HWA's incest issues when I was a young child, when I was a teen I asked my father (again, a full time minister running a congregation) about this, and he didn't deny it. He simply said "If Mr. Armstrong repented of it, God will forgive him".

To top it all off. I had multiple family members that were full time paid ministers. One was a paedophile that died in prison. Guess who he preyed on, church kids.

I met more perverted and vile kids at the feast than I ever did at public schools. And my own experience pales by comparison to many others.

The corporate based churches of God are on a foundation of sand. Those that follow God in truth and seek him and his kingdom, and his righteousness will eventually wake up and find others of like mind when everything falls apart around them. And if not, I hope God has mercy on them in some way.

R. Roberts

February 27, 2018 at 8:59 PM

Is Salvation Only Accessible Through Your Particular COG and Its Appointed Leader?

Lenny Cacchio has an entry up on the 7th Day Sabbath Churches of God site. I usually don't agree with a lot of what he has to say, but I find his comments below to be spot on.

He asks why church members feel the need to have an organization or particularly a leader of a church as their mediator between then and Christ.  Far too many feel the need to allow men like Flurry, Pack, Weston, Cox and others be the conduit to salvation. Through them, church members seem to feel that they have access to Jesus because they are in a particular COG and therefore have access to God.

No Church of God leader, from Herbert Armstrong to Gerald Flurry, from James Malm to Bob Thiel or even Rod Meredith to Gerald Weston, has the authority or power to grant access to Christ or to separate anyone from Christ, even when they do in outlandish manners from time to time, with their vile disfellowshipment policies. These men all seem to think salvation is available through their organizations as they sit in judgment of their members.

Over the past 20 years or more, I have changed my mind about a few things Biblical. A big one is my understanding of I Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

This Scripture might seem clear enough, but I brought a lot of past baggage to my early theology. I believed from my earliest years that God really works through an organization, and more particularly through whatever man was leading that organization. I bought into the myth that the church is the Mother of us all. (The Scriptures never say this about the church. You can look it up).

Even when I reached adulthood and changed my religious affiliation, I ended up in an organization that claimed the very same things regarding church authority as I had been taught in my youth, accept more so. The only way I could reach the Father was through the Son, I was told, but reaching the Son could only be through a particular church organization headed by a particular man.

That dangerous theological view implies shifting responsibility for salvation to the organization and its leadership, giving them a dangerous degree of control over your life and thinking. This, in spite of Paul’s admonition to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”, in spite of Jesus’s teaching about the truth setting us free, and in spite of Peter’s statement that we, i.e., we Christians, are a royal priesthood and therefore by definition have a direct private line to God without the need of a physical priesthood over us.

A Member Reminder...

Church Member Bill of Rights

The following are basic human, religious and spiritual rights any person has as a member of any and all religious organizations or church congregations.  

You have the right to expect the church to keep your personal contributions private and should be able to expect that any who deal with such things for accounting purposes will do the same.

You have the right to expect that your membership in any church or congregation is not contingent on how much you give or do not give.

You should also expect that jobs, positions, opportunities or offices are not given based on the amount anyone gives to the church.

You have the right to say I can only give this even if it is not a tithe of your income gross or net.

You have the right not to be spiritually judged or have your loyalty or sincerity questioned based on what you are able or unable to give financially to the church.

You have the right to ask a Pastor if he checks tithes and offerings for any of the above reasons before giving to a church.

You have the right to say "I'm tired and won't be there, " to any and all activities, plays, fundraisers, studies, seminars, prayer groups, rehearsals, practices and sermons.

You have the right to say "I don't care about that."

You have the right to question the advice, counsel or sermon of any minister, elder, deacon or any other person in authority.

You have the right to question authority and to still expect to be allowed to attend your church.

You have the right to question a minister who declares himself one or both of the Two Witnesses of Revelation, a Prophet, the Supreme Watcher of Mankind for God, The Only True Apostle in this Age and any other title or position he can come up with to impress you as to why you need to support him.

You have the right to suggest a pastor get spiritual or psychological help should the need arise. You have the right tell him that the congregation is noticing a trend here.

You have the right to ask why the church believes what it does when the Bible might say otherwise, or why the Bible says something that the church practices that seems scary, weird, inappropriate for this time, out of date or controlling.

You have the right to notice that ministers often quote scriptures out of context 

You have the right to ask all the "how can that be," "how could that happen," "why does it say this here and that there," questions you can come up and expect an intelligent answer. If you are told that you are using human reasoning, ask the pastor what kind of reasoning he uses. If he says "God's," find another church.

You have the right to not want elders, deacons or your friends accompanying the minister on visits to your home to talk to you.

You have the right to discuss or not discuss your life with the minister as you see fit.

You have the right to expect absolute confidentiality and for your story not to show up in the sermon next week, even though "I won't say the name."

You have a right to be called ahead of time when the pastor wants to ask about stopping over.

You have the right, when he calls to say, "I'm tired," "I'm busy," "No, but I appreciate the call," without repercussions.

You have the right to keep a dirty home, grass not mowed perfectly, an older car, red in color and kids that don't say "yes sir, nice to see you sir," in just the right way.

You have the right to watch and read what you wish even if the pastor just got done bashing that particular program, movie or book from the pulpit in his sermon on "Demons in Your Home--Six Ways to Assure Your Eternal Death."

You have the right to ask the pastor not to call on you at work, even if you own the business.

You have the right to say, "I can't afford to take you to lunch." "I can't afford to give you free wood or brick." "I can't afford to fix your house up free," "I can't fix all your teeth," to your pastor should he expect professional courtesies, even if he offers to do your funeral free.

You have a right to expect free use of your church for weddings and funerals.

You have the right to expect these usages are not dependent on you, your parents or children living a sinless life six months prior to the date of the event.

You have the right not to answer questions your pastor may ask you or your children about your sexual practices. If he insists, then insist that you all share together.

You have the right to not let the pastor inform you as to who you can and cannot date or marry.

You have the right to enjoy your sexuality free of church or pastoral approval. Something that is wrong for the pastor is not necessarily wrong for you in how you express yourself to your partner. There is no Bible prohibition against....well you know. And if there were, you'd have the right to disagree with that too.

You have the right to not share which or if you are taking medications or treatment of any sort with the pastor.

You have the right to take such medication and receive said treatment and not be judged as having a lack of faith or trust in God to heal you.

You have the right to seek professional help without informing your Pastor of the nature of the help and you have the right to not be helped solely by the pastor under threat of repercussions.

You have the right to insist the pastor get professional help should the need arise and the man is causing more harm than good. You have the right to remind him that God does not directly speak to him nor express His will only through the mind of the pastor and that makes you uncomfortable if he thinks that is so.

You have the right to be wrong about a many things.

You have the right to believe you are correct about many things without repercussions. 

You have the right not to care about everything that others think you must care about to be a good Christian.

You have the right to tell the pastor he is wrong, mistaken or exaggerating.

You have the right to dress as you wish, wear the jewelry you wish and make up you wish or not wish without being labeled a whore or a goody goody.

You have the right to feel that dressing as if it was still 1957 and only watching Disney Movies or How the West Was Won as proof of your pureness is baloney.

You have the right to not be told that the best times for entertainment, movies and TV was when the Pastor was a boy.

You have the right to like the food he does not like and to not like the foods he does. You have the right to like the schools he doesn't and not like the ones he does.

You have the right not to bear your soul to the ministers wife.

You have the right to like or not like, agree or not agree with the ministers wife.

You have the right to not view the world through the pastor's eyes morally or politically. You have the right to hate the war while he believes the war in Iraq is God's will and thinks it's all in the Bible.

You have the right to expect him to speak clearly where he thinks the Bible speaks for us today and to walk slowly and drink cool water where it doesn't.

You have the right to tell the pastor that that is his opinion and not necessarily the only true opinion on earth.

You have the right for you, your children, your partner and your friends to be themselves.

These are but a few of the rights any member of any Church, congregation or religious organization has. In short, you have the right to not be required to check your brains, your insights, your perspectives and your free will at the door to be welcome and a member of any church.

LCG: Richard Stafford on emulating a man (Rod Meredith) instead of Jesus

A reader here posted the following information about a sermon given recently by Richard Stafford, a member of Living Church of God's Council of Elder's.

From LCG's latest weekly update:

"Mr. Stafford gave a very moving sermon on “Seven Character Traits of the Late Dr. Roderick C. Meredith,” and how we must use his example and build these character traits as Christian soldiers."

How many inspiring examples does the Bible give us of men and women whose character traits we should emulate? As a Bible-believing church, LCG should know of at least a few Bible examples they can follow.

So, what do they teach their members? That they must follow Rod Meredith's example! It's cultish and unbiblical! Even if Rod Meredith had been a man known for his great holiness, it would still be far more seemly to point church members to the Bible than to their dead cult leader. 

On the other hand, if we are going to honor dead cult leaders, shouldn't we first honor Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong? Let's look at Mr. Armstrong's own testimony, in his own writing, of twelve character traits of Rod Meredith:

• blind to self-will

• angry 

• doctrinally correct 

• blind to the spirit of God's law 

• competitive 

• harsh task-master 

• rubs the fur the wrong way 

• rank conscious 

• covets power and authority 

• unfit to lead God's Church 

• repels people 

• has a will to lead but lacks the qualifications

I wonder whether Mr. Stafford discussed more than one of those qualities? Or does Mr. Stafford consider himself a higher authority than HWA or the Bible?  

Enjoy the cult you have inherited, Mr. Weston. I hope (but doubt) you will do something to change it for the better.

This is why websites, books, and blogs like this exist. If any human RELIGIOUS leader is going to emulate anyone, it would be the Master himself, Jesus.  Jesus is the ultimate example of a man RELIGIOUS leaders should be emulating with the qualities and characteristics of what a grace-filled justice-oriented leader would be like.  Has any minister in the Church of God ever tried to emulate Jesus? Most cannot look any further than Herbert Armstrong, Rod Meredith, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry or Bob Thiel. Most even dread mentioning the name of Jesus.

Dennis Diehl: Mea culpa Doug Winnail

Dennis asked me to post this on his behalf since he is at work.  He would like to make a correction about a comment he made about Doug Winnail the other day.

Dennis previously said:

"From what I understand Doug's wife left him a few years back and married a Presbyterian minister. In time, and I honestly have never heard of such a turn around, she returned to Doug."

For the record:

Doug's wife NEVER married a Presbyterian minister, though Doug and his wife were separated for a while.

Apologies for any direct questions this may bring up for Doug.

Dennis can always be contacted directly here.

LCG Member Has A Question For Gerald Weston

Dear Mr. Weston:

I sat in church listening to you speak about church members who read and/or participate on “hate blogs.”  I have been a member of God’s church for well over 40 years and have witnessed much of its growth and transformation into what we are today. I made the move out of the Worldwide Church of God during its apostasy from the truth into the Global Church of God when Mr. Meredith started it.

With many of us that came over to the GCG were many ministers and elders. These men carried on in GCG just as they did in WCG.  Many were still gracious and loving while many were also still as abusive and controlling as they were in WCG.

Church members are sick of the abuses still going on and that is why we come to these so-called “hate blogs” to air our grievances and concerns.  Concerns of which you seem to deliberately turn a blind eye to.

My question to you Mr. Weston is, why after all of the many abuses and stories told here do you fail to do anything?  You in essence have called all of us liars. You have been made aware of the things said here and cannot sit idly by any longer.  Have you no integrity to do what is right and correct these abuses? God will certainly hold you accountable if you fail to do anything. 

Name deleted by request

Last Issue of The Journal: News of the Churches of God

Issue 202

Issue 202, the last issue of The Journal is out. 21 years of publishing news and articles from across the turbulent landscape of the hundreds and hundreds of Churches of God. Articles were written by members and ex-members covering the gamut of church upheavals, doctrinal issues, newfound beliefs and rejection of beliefs. And then there was the advertising, oh, the advertising!  Sometimes it was the best thing to read in the issues and many it was whackier than hell. Many times those ads were filled with prophecies that were immediately expected to be happening. So far Jesus has returned so many times we have all lost count.  We have been to Petra and back again, again, and again. The "sure word" of prophecy has never been unsure!

Some highlights of the last issue:

Linda Cartwright discuss what it was like publishing The Journal:

Publishing THE JOURNAL has been our effort to keep the avenues of communication open between us and all of our brethren in the Churches of God after the doctrinal upheaval in the Worldwide Church of God. 

We have also wanted to provide a forum for people to air their points of view on doctrinal issues who would never have been able to while in our former affiliation. 

You have not needed to have ministerial credentials or approval to get an article published in THE JOURNAL. We didn’t have to agree with your article. Our basic requirement was civility in your presentation. 

Members in and out of the World- wide Church of God had been studying their Bibles for years. They had so much to say it was almost over- whelming.

Sometimes it was hard for some of our readers when we published articles they disagreed with. Our premise was if you read only things that you agree with how do you ever learn anything new.

Most of the groups that were in existence or came into existence after the various breakups of the WCG had their own publications to promote their tenets and beliefs and would never publish anything that wasn’t sanctioned by their particular organization.

We were not that way. It was our newspaper. We couldn’t be compelled to print something by any organization.

Of course we lost subscribers now and then, and we were vilified from the pulpits of some organizations because, and I quote, “no one controls THE JOURNAL” (which we considered a compliment). 

Molly Antion remembers life at Ambassador College and in the church.

There is a review of Wade Fransson's latest book from his trilogy "Rod of Iron."

Unveiled are frankly astounding discoveries on subjects as diverse as quantum mechanics, classical physics, free will, the inside story of Too Big to Fail, its relationship to Babylon the Great, the identity of the Beast and the fulfillment of the most important biblical prophecies are those I can but mention without spoiling anything for the reader.

Morris Foster has an article on "Who is my brother?"

It is my objective to speak the truth in love. To do this, I must address the elephant in the room in some of the Church of God organizations.

That elephant is the desire of some COG organizations to discredit others, claiming they are not brothers and sisters because they do not attend their man-made organization, thus denying their brother and treating them (God’s children) in an ungodly way. 

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Among the Church of God organizations, unfortunately, there have been a lot of war stories.

These have been on my mind a lot the last few years.

Let’s replace war stories with love stories. Let’s have a heart to follow Christ’s example and the instructions we have read in Scripture and in this article.

Let’s meditate, and follow through, on ways we can love our brothers. Let’s pray for our brothers. Let’s do random acts of kindness to them. Sometimes you can simply wear peo- ple down with kindness.

Let’s let God use us to give the love of God to our brothers. Let’s build real love stories that will just melt the hearts of our brothers.

Let’s inspire love stories that will be repeated for decades—and generations.

Let’s resolve to maintain our relationships with our brothers, wherever they may attend or not attend.

Who can you reach out to and rekindle a friendship with? Maybe reignite a friendship that has dwindled on the vine? 

Art Mokarow...oh my.... Art seems to have replaced Herbert Armstrong as the teacher of the brethren. God's truth has never had a greater mouthpiece than Mokarow.

I was in the house on Lakeshore the night I heard
Art passed away.
I guess I thought he’d live forever. He helped
shape my thoughts each day.
Now, the world looks somewhat different than it
did before this tune.
He was my greatest inspiration, and that’s why
I’m telling you.
He taught me from The Bible how to learn and
discern the truth.
Sometimes he talked too loudly. I guess he didn’t
want to see me lose.
He made me humble in the realization that we
were just two clumps of dust.
But he was my greatest inspiration ’cause he
taught me who to trust.
So I am kind of lost in a world without Mokarow.
Now who will expound what’s truth to me?
Then I remembered what he taught me about
God’s Spirit.
And how that’s all I’ll ever need.
He spent his life studying the Bible . . . spent his
money to publish and send.
God said: Where your heart is goes your
treasure.
He was faithful to the end.
If I had one last tough Bible question, I’d want
Art to sort it out,
An honest voice of reason who just wanted to
serve God.
Still, I’m kind of lost in a world without
Mokarow.
Who will now expound what’s truth to me?
Then I remembered what he told me about God’s Spirit
And how that’s all I’ll ever need.
And how that’s all we’ll ever need.

J. Phillip Arnold as an article "Who Taught Herbert Armstrong."  He makes the claim Herbert Armstrong took teachings from Ezra Taft Russell (Jehovah's Witnesses) and conscripted s his own.

Stop and think. If I could show you proof that the Russell circle(s) taught these two exact doctrines over 50 years BEFORE HWA, would you be willing to consider that HWA may have gotten these ideas from Russell’s circle one way or the other?
 

If he did, it would mean that the two MOST DISTINCTIVE doctrines that HWA taught were taken from the Watch Tower circles! Something he never admitted publicly. Something he denied. Something that may have been covered over by that first generation of ministers and Ambassador graduates—if they even knew. 

It would mean that HWA’s debt to Russell was never admitted or paid.

Netflix has a new movie up that features Harry and Sarah Sneider:

Sarah Sneider announces an “inspiring” documentary film called "Impossible Dreamers" that features her and her late husband, Harry Sneider, available at Netflix and Amazon.

Gerald Weston Lashes Out At "Hate Blogs" Throws the tired and worn out stink bomb: "Accusers of the Brethren"

Poor Gerald.  Would someone please buy him a shovel so he can dig his way out of the crap?

This is just in from an LCG source.  Weston has lashed out at this blog and others that LCG members are closely following for news on LCG's problems.

From latest sermon posted by LCG, recorded Nov. 18, 2017. Obviously your site seriously bothers LCG leadership. He's trying to shame the membership into stop reading it. Notice that he says he doesn't read "hate blogs", but somehow knows all about what is written there.

57:00     When the Church gets off track - I say “when” - IF the Church were to get off track, it’d be obvious, as it was before. When you start doing away with the Sabbath, and the Holy Days, and laws of clean and unclean meats, and the purpose of life, and go back into keeping Christmas, and Easter, and Halloween, and all the rest, that’s pretty obvious isn’t it? In fact, you didn’t have to go that far before it became obvious where the Church was going.

                (Discusses people who find fault with him and other ministers)

59:00     We have a lot of hate blogs out here, we have gossip columns in the newspapers. And I just have a question - I wanna present it to all of you: Is following, looking for information about the Church, following hate blogs, is that “thinking no evil” or expecting evil? I’ve never understood - I understand why sometimes people do find some of the hate blogs to find out what’s going on, what they’re saying about us and that sort of thing - I don’t, I really honestly don’t. Why don’t I? Because I know some of these people, and when a man is violating the 10 Commandments and doesn’t even believe in God, WHY would I think that he’s going to give me the truth of what’s happening here? If his WIFE cannot trust him then why should we? But people look to this stuff and they think, “this is where I’m going to find out what’s really happening.” What’s REALLY happening in the Church, not what they’re saying, but what’s really happening in the Church. Well, is that 1 Corinthians 13:5 or is that more Satan’s way, the ACCUSER of the brethren? We need to think about those things

Hey Rocky, watch me pull a Bible verse out of my hat...that'll scare them!

LCG Still Hates This Blog...Somebody Call Whine-One-One!

This is all just so delightfully fun!  Who would have ever imagined that a little blog would have LCG in such a state of disarray! The fact that Rod Meredith had to publicly ban LCG members from reading this blog shows just what a thorn in the side it has become. It is all quite comical.

I want to make it clear to any Living Church of God member that you may post or send things to me anonymously, as many have. If you want to share your story, abuse you have experienced or seen going on in Charlotte or your local church area, please feel free to post it here.

None of us here have any beef with the membership, but do with the men who claim to be Christ's representatives here on earth who run rampant wreaking people's lives. Grace and love have been in short supply in the church for decades.  Abusive ministers from Worldwide Church of God jumped ship with their same desire to control as they went into Global and then in Living. How can any church ever expect to accomplish an end time work when they treat their own members with such disdain?  Why would any member of the public ever be interested?  Why would Jesus even be interested?

@ Anon 12:15 PM wrote:

Wyatt Ciesielka is the main troll here. He reports back to Rod McNair. Rod, Gerald and the others at hq would like to shut this blog down but so far are helpless.

A reader here with ties to LCG responded:

LCG cannot shut this blog down. All it can do is fire employees who are caught posting here. The problem is that there are already enough ex-employees who are beyond their reach, who have seen old abuses and still hear about new ones from their friends in Charlotte, that the leaks will continue even if couple of employee leakers get fired.

Wyatt and Rod can run their spies and create a climate of fear at LCG HQ, but they cannot stop former employees from getting the word out when HQ inmates reach out to their friends. Mr. Evil and Mr. Stupid cannot touch ex-employees BB, CB, DB, JB, KB, MB, SB, TB, LC, KF, VF, LK, JM, RM, BO, CO, LP, RP, BR, HR, JR, KR, GS, LS, PS, RS, SS. That's 27 sets of initials, and some of those initials are shared by two ex-employees. Add wives and LU students, and the number of potential leaks from the LCG grapevine is way beyond what Rod and Wyatt can control, even if they succeed in instilling fear into current employees.