Adult Sabbath School: A Word From the Splinter of Which We Do Not Speak.

A Familiar Journey 

Holy Koolaid

Lesson One

As Winter Holidays Yield to Spring Holydays...

are a few observations in order?
(to copy Bob Thiel's less than bold prophetic style:)

If there was an Historical Exodus, then why...?

Dare to be Curious...

"Overall, there was greater brain activation that persisted for longer during states of disbelief. Greater brain activation requires more cognitive resources, of which there is a limited supply. What these findings show is that the mental process of believing is simply less work for the brain, and therefore often favored. The default state of the human brain is to accept what we are told, because doubt takes effort. Belief, on the other hand, comes easily."
Why it's easier to just believe than do the work of disbelief

Seven Years Ago Today God's Greatest Miracle In The History Of The Church Happened!

Rejoice! God is all-powerful and on his throne as he leads his church into Petra! It has been 7 (the number of perfection) complete years since one of the greatest moments in the history of the Church of God movement happened!  Prophet Herbert Armstrong, Dave Pack, Ron Weinland, and Gerald Flurry, and all the other little insignificant splinter upstarts that exist out there pale in comparison with this great man!   No other human being (a man, of course) has ever existed that carries such a mantle as this church leader. Even Jesus himself doubly-blessed this leader and sent dreams and visions to occupy his little narcissistic mind! Isn't God amazing that he does such things?????

Our very own dreamy Chief Overseer, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Johsua Bob Thiel is touting his self-appointment as the one true end-time church with an incredibly narcissistic video sermon to his African faithful and a few deluded white Americans.

The Great Bwana tells a whopper of a lie when he claims his personality cult is a RESTORATION of the faith once delivered!  Somewhere in the world pigs are flying and jackasses are talking at this great miracle. Praise Bwana!

CCOG: 7 years of Restoration

The Continuing Church of God officially declared itself a separate legal entity on December 28, 2012. What has it been doing over the past seven years? Is the CCOG doing what God says? Is it doing things that Laodiceans overlook because of misunderstandings as well as improper traditions? What some of the similarities between its start and the start of the old Radio Church of God? What about A.N. Duggar and the Church of God Seventh Day? Did Hebert W. Armstrong teach that his wife Loma had a dream from God? Does God still use dreams? Has the ‘mantle’ passed to the CCOG? Does the CCOG have more of the signs of Acts 2:17-18 than any other true COG group? Does CCOG have the growth and fruits to expect of the Philadelphia remnant? What about Romans 11:25 and Matthew 24:14? What about the short work of Romans 9:28? Has the CCOG restored doctrine and other information? What project is the CCOG working on? What does the CCOG plan for the future? Dr. Thiel answers these questions and more.

I would put a link to his video clickbait sermon, but don't want him gloating that tens of thousands have watched it.

“Watch and pray always that you be accounted worthy to escape all these things and stand before the son of man”

A comment from the previous post that deserves its own space:

For me, this topic post was a timely topic post. A previous post topic entitled “Why the Church” got me thinking and didn’t have time to post questions that came to my mind before other subsequent topics moved it into archive.

The Radio/Worldwide Church of God once had a booklet entitled “There Is A Way of Escape”. One of the hooks that drew people into the Church was the promise to escape the Great Tribulation which the booklet explained. “Watch and pray always that you be accounted worthy to escape all these things and stand before the son of man” Luke 21:36. Classic Armstrongism taught the Great Tribulation occurring in the first week of January, 1972 (end of second 19 year time cycle) with the German attack on America. The Philadelphians are taken to a Place of Safety and the remaining “Lukewarm” Church members left were the Laodicean Church era going through the Great Tribulation. Classic Armstrongism taught half the Church would be taken to Petra Place of Safety and the other half would be tried in the Great Tribulation (another Lake of Fire type fear threat). “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your LORD will come. Matthew 24:40-42

So the question that arose in my mind when I read “Why the Church” post was how do the splinters and HWA wannabes teach Matthew 24:40-42 today? If each splinter and HWA wannabee teaches that their own splinter (and their splinter alone) are the Philadelphian era remnant and all the other Splinters are the Laodiceans in the Laodicean era, then how does the math work for the fulfillment of Matt 24:40-42 the way that classic Armstrongism always taught; i.e. half the Church taken to place of Safety and the other half remaining to go through the great Tribulation tried by fire?  

If “the elect” have been spread among all the splinters, and each is claiming that they are the Philadelphian remnant, then the numbers don’t work 50%/50%. Even if they still taught classic Armstrongism; i.e. that within their own splinter group, 50% will be taken to a Place of Safety while 50% are left behind to face the Great Tribulation with all the other Laodiceans in the other Splinters, the math still doesn’t work overall to fulfill Matt. 24:40-42, thus the question I posed.

If the Armstrong Churches of God are as many as 50,000 people today consisting of two types of people: 1) Philadelphian remnant in the Laodicean era; and 2) Laodiceans in the Laodicean era, then there is no one Splinter Group that is large enough for 25,000 Philadelphians (50%) worthy to escape all these things (Luke 21:36). Which means ALL of the HWA wannabees have to acknowledge that there are Philadelphians in other Splinter groups for the math to work. BUT WAIT, that would mean that, consistent with classic Armstrongism, we are still in the Philadelphian era and the two eras co-exist together. 

OH, BUT WAIT! It gets even better – Herbert Armstrong admitted that the dead Sardis era – the Church of God, Seventh Day – was also God’s true Church too, just doing a dead work!!! So do their membership numbers get included in the Place of Safety Matthew 24:40-42 prophecy that classic Armstrongism always taught that half the Church would be taken, and the other half left to go through the Great Tribulation? That would imply there are Philadelphians and Laodiceans in the Sardis era remnant.

Now that we are out of it, isn’t Armstrongism fun?  

Maybe the Doctor from the degree mill “Almost arrested for Sabbath keeping, doubly blessed” Thiel can prophesy an answer to my simple naïve question.

Richard

Church of the Eternal God: Norbert Link and Crew Don't Practice What They Preach

Norbert Link's man-made empire called the Church of the Eternal God, has a blurb up on its web site about people who give selflessly of their lives, sometimes even to the point of death.

That article is written by Robb Harris and is titled, "Reckless Endangerment".

While many have selflessly given their lives to help those in dire need, what about those who place themselves in danger by their own choice or ignorance?  The desire to climb Mount Everest has become a worldwide endeavor since Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Since then, “Some 290 people have died climbing Everest in more than a century of attempts, according to the Himalayan Database, an archive that tracks expeditions in the Nepalese Himalayas going back to 1905. About a third, 94, have been Sherpas (npr.org).”

While many might argue that Sherpa deaths are part of the job they have chosen to take part in, it still doesn’t excuse so many deaths merely for man’s folly in desiring to conquer a mountain.

Like any typical COG leader, the brethren, in their eyes, are incompetent idiots who can never do anything right. So as usual. the blame members for not being in the right frame of mind.  That wrong thinking then allows "believers" to be led astray by unscrupulous men like Bob Thiel and James Malm...and Norbert Link.

When we seek to conquer and overcome our own mountain of human carnality, are we being conscientious in how we attain that goal?  Spiritual recklessness can cause our own defeat and quite possibly that of those around us. Christ warns of this mindset and the dangers it poses, “‘But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea’”(Mark 9:42).

There is no place in God’s Family for those that lead believers astray. Those words are terrifying in implication and will be the ruin of many who have walked this earth lead by deceit. But the warning given by Christ should not dissuade us from trying to do good. We must continually lead by example and be lights to those in darkness. Christ didn’t call us IN perfection, He called us TO perfection. Paul, with all of his troubles, understood this quite well. “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).

All of these men who have started the various splinter groups set themselves up as the chieftains of their empires.  God had no part in it.  These self-appointed upstarts are the ones leading brethren astray and down paths that lead them further and further away from the One, they are supposed to be following and finding their rest in. Jesus Christ died and is still on the Masonic Lodge or high school gym floor where he remains till next year. They never seem to go any further than that death. What it did and accomplished are rarely discussed.  If they did, there would be zero excuses in running CEG or any of the other splinter groups that these charlatans use to deceive members.