UCG Struggle With Women Writers, Is It Even Part Of The Law That Women Remain Silent?

Church of God News had a blog entry the other day quoting my posting about UCG's battle over women writers in their publications.  This is all in response to the over-delicate and over-sensitive men who just CANNOT  get over the myth that women must remain silent and subservient to them.  After all, God's mightiest holy apostle laid down the law that there is a power structure in the church with women at the bottom, just above their children and animals.

GOD

Jesus

Herbert Armstrong

Evangelists

Paid Ministry

Non-paid Ministry

Retired Ministry

Men

Women

Children

Animals

Rest of creation

This is what Church of God News posted:

Rex Sexton began the session (3mins.) by reading from a “public form letter that is sent out when people write to UCG here and ask about women writing.” He read from the form letter, quoting v.34: “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law of God says.” 

The Freudian slip of adding the phrase “of God” to this verse reveals the subconscious mind set of church leaders - who know that this statement of the role of women in church (or rather lack of it) cannot be found in the law of God. 

In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul begins to address “the things of which you wrote to me.” The first of these is (v.1-2): “It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.” 

Paul expresses his ideal view in v.7-8: “I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am.” 

How can it be good for them, if a “law of God” hampers their learning, as they do not have husbands to teach them at home? (14:35) 

The ISV also adds to the literal text of 14:34: “The women must keep silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak out, but must place themselves in submission, as the oral law also says.” 

The translators of the ISV realized that the law referred to here is an oral law of Judaism, which the Orthodox Jews continue to observe today. Only men may speak in the churches (synagogues), only men may sing. Women were segregated and must remain silent. Women were expected to marry when young, and their husbands (who had received religious instruction as boys - which girls did not) were expected to teach their wives at home - “if they want to learn something”. 

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is another of “the things of which you wrote to me.”

In v.36 he gives a disdainful response to their “law” with this rhetorical question:

“Did God's word originate with you? Are you the only people it has reached?”

UCG's men are so conditioned by HWA, Meredith and others postulating on the role of women that their responses are automatic.  They think it is true because the Apostle said it.  Never have these men really studied into the background of Paul, why he wrote what the did in the way he did.

Assumptions have always been the foundational model for Church of God beliefs.  Due the cherry-picking and proof-texting that the church uses, doctrines and church teachings have been decided by men who are without much theological education and who are incapable of sound research methods.

It's time for women to start teaching the men because so far the men have done an extremely poor job.

UCG Women: Be Seen, Don't Preach, Be Silent and Above All Don't Write In Case A Man Reads Your Article

It's hard  believe in 2016 that UCG still can't get its act together in regards to women writing for church publications.  The patriarchal hierarchy of UCG seems miffed that women are writing better than they are.  It continues to be such a sore spot that it had to be brought up AGAIN by whiney little men in the church.

From the latest Council of Elders Report:

Role of Women in Media—Rex Sexton 

Rex Sexton, the chair of the Media and Communications Committee (MCC), led the discussion on the role of women authors in media publications. The discussion began on March 1 and is continuing as a discussion with the Council to see if there is anything to be remanded to the MCC or not. The genesis of this discussion was raised by someone on the committee during a standard editorial review.

Mr. Sexton began by mentioning the importance of God’s love and God’s laws. God’s laws are to guide in making correct judgments.

Since when?

There is a form letter response that the home office has been operating from for over 15 years, and the discussion today was to find out if further official review was warranted and if it would possibly be remanded to the committee for recommendations, including the possibility of a policy statement. There was much discussion from the media department to give their input and, there was discussion from the Council as well.

Scott Ashley, as a key member of the media department, explained his review process for many years and shared a letter written by one of our women contributors regarding why and how she wrote.

Why do women have to write letters to DEFEND why and how they wrote something?  Has any man in UCG ever had to do that????

There was discussion regarding the possible “blurring” of what is doctrinal and what is “Christian living” type of articles and appreciating the fine line that needs to be considered by reviewers in regards to editorial contributions submitted by women.

Silly women!  How dare you "blur the line" between doctrine and Christian living!  How theological immature and bankrupt that kind of reasoning is, but that is what UCG does all the time.

Robin Webber thanked everyone for their comments. His personal thought was to avoid a policy at this time. We currently have a form letter that is in place, and we have a structure that has oversight in the standard review process, which includes the Council at this time. Mr. Webber emphasized placing trust and confidence in the administration and not to create a policy at this time.

Bill Bradford commented that guidelines were mentioned, but he isn’t sure that those guidelines are understood. The Council should be able to create a policy based on God’s laws, and it can be done if we need it done in the future.

The Council settled for simply the discussion, and no formal action was rendered beyond the ongoing editorial review with every article that is submitted by everyone, whether man or woman.

Rex Sexton thanked everyone for their discussions and input. This discussion is very valuable to clarify for everyone on the editorial team what guidelines we are following and the process when questions come up.

Mr. Webber felt that both discussions on this subject were useful in moving forward towards adhering to biblical principles as well as appreciating the contributions of women.

The Council went into scheduled executive session to discuss ordinations for about an hour.

Book: Bad Faith When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine

Official web site

The Churches of God have a dark history of deaths caused by lack of proper medical treatment because of the extreme devotion to "faith healing."  Scores of children and adults have died as a direct result of this belief system, many who could have been saved by the simplest of procedures.  But pressure from the ministry or other church members prevented many from seeking proper treatment.

This is not isolated to Armstrongism though, it is a belief held by many conservative religious groups and cults.

This book looks into the mindset of the people who refuse medical treatment for themselves and their children.

When Jesus said, “Suffer the children,” faith healing is not what he had in mind. 

In recent years, there have been major outbreaks of whooping cough among children in California, mumps in New York, and measles in Ohio’s Amish country—despite the fact that these are all vaccine-preventable diseases. Although America is the most medically advanced place in the world, many people disregard modern medicine in favor of using their faith to fight life-threatening illnesses. Christian Scientists pray for healing instead of going to the doctor, Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood transfusions, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish mohels spread herpes by using contaminated circumcision tools. Tragically, children suffer and die every year from treatable diseases, and in most states it is legal for parents to deny their children care for religious reasons. In twenty-first century America, how could this be happening? 

In Bad Faith, acclaimed physician and author Dr. Paul Offit gives readers a never-before-seen look into the minds of those who choose to medically martyr themselves, or their children, in the name of religion. Offit chronicles the stories of these faithful and their children, whose devastating experiences highlight the tangled relationship between religion and medicine in America. Religious or not, this issue reaches everyone—whether you are seeking treatment at a Catholic hospital or trying to keep your kids safe from diseases spread by their unvaccinated peers. 

Replete with vivid storytelling and complex, compelling characters, Bad Faith makes a strenuous case that denying medicine to children in the name of religion isn’t just unwise and immoral, but a rejection of the very best aspects of what belief itself has to offer.

Evil Jesuits and IBM are Collecting Church of God Members Names for Database

Did you know that Church of God members are currently being rounded up, tortured and killed today.    Well, not actually, but spiritually and metaphorically.

Yes!!! Just as God's Church was rounded up, hunted and TORTURED and KILLED during the middle ages, we are facing similar tactics being used on us today!

We are living in dangerous times!  Various Church of God groups are out there robbing the gullible members of their money and spiritual lives.

We all have seen websites claiming to be God's Church, trying to sucker you into handing over to them your name and location, using the promise of helping you find fellow brethren in your area. Isn't that wonderful?

Well don't be so sure. We are living in trying and dangerous times! How do you know if such a group isn't scamming you for your information? Jotting your information down in a log, creating a database out of your information, and anyone else who fell prey to these people who "claimed" to have been fellow members of God's Church.  

Are they conceded about Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Rod Meredith and Ron Weinland?  Are these the "false brethren" that are taking tithe money that doesn't belong to them?  Are these the men on power trips rung members lives?

Revelation 3:9, reveals that what we are facing today are FALSE BRETHREN who claim to be God's Church but DO LIE! They want your money & God's Tithes. They want your information, your name and location. They want the power, to govern God's people, but they can't receive that authority and rank, because they simply are not in God's Church! Jesus Christ is the head of the Church of God and He will perform His righteous duties! And they can't go around Jesus Christ! 

These men are all cunning and manipulative as they sway members to believe their lies.  They are right when they refer to Thiel, Flurry, Pack and others with their perverted doctrines.

These false brethren however want the opportunity to sway you over into their perverted doctrines and heresies, playing the part of a minister of God, but being a minister of Satan the Devil. 

Never fear though, there are a group of church people out there that are the preservers of the truth once delivered, true 1st century church beliefs.

We are mirroring the first century Church. Do you realize that these same tactics were used against God's Church in those days? 

Thiel claims to be doing this, as does Flurry, Pack, Wienland, Meredith, Kubik and others.  Who is right?

Dangerous times are ahead.  Rome is rising again in Europe. Concentration camps, torture, murder and unbelievable atrocious are in store for he United States and all COG member who follow the false teachers of the church.

Rome sent spies to search out brethren. They hunted your fellow brethren, and then when found, use them to hunt other brethren.And all at the bequest of the Roman Catholic Church.  

We are coming to a time where the resurrected Holy Roman Empire will rise up as the United States of Europe, and will do FAR MORE ATROCITIES THAN HITLER in World War 2!!!

Did you know that evil Jesuits are starting to gather the names of Church of God members in preparation of the evil atrocities to happen?  They are starting data banks on church members names.

This all reminds me of the garbage floating around Pasadena in the late 70's and 80's.  If it was not the evil Zionists it was the Jesuits and Catholics.  Forget about Germany, Jesuits were the ones to kill us all.

DO you realize that Hitler, with his Jesuit gestapo, went around before time and cataloged all of the people? They went around creating database after database, with help of IBM, and look at what happened after that! 

That is exactly what is happening now. 

Websites, ran by non-members of God's Church are looking to gain your information to log you into their database. They lure you with the Church's material, but they are not of God's Church!

They pretend to be ministers, and they set up Sabbath services, and they collect God's tithes as if they were, BUT THEY ARE NOT MINISTERS OF GOD! Their heart is with the apostates who left God's Church in the 1970's! Their hearts is with the false COG groups out there, and what they are trying to do is to CAPTURE YOU BRETHREN, who have escaped from the hands of these false COG groups, so you can be bound under their corporate umbrella as sureties, and then the resurrected Holy Roman Empire can come back around and find you in corporate CHAINS, unable to leave the country! Left behind while God's Church is protected in a place of Safety. WATCH OUT BRETHREN! 

Whats going to happen 60 years fro now when these men are old and Europe has not invaded the U.S.?  We have been hearing this malarkey for 80 years already.

This inspiring message is courtesy of Church of God Archives 

Because Daddy Rod Meredith Rejected Me I Had To Start My Own Church

Why is it that so many look up to Church of God leaders as father figures?  Many think this is the case with Nearly Arrested Elisha Elijah Bob Thiel.  Have you ever noticed that Thiel never talks about his birth father?  Nothing is ever said. All he ever mentions his "spiritual" father Rod Meredith.  Thiel used to wax eloquent on Meredith all the time.  Daddy could do no wrong.  Daddy sat and ate lunches and dinners with him.  Daddy had him over for cocktails   Daddy personally had an audience in his office with him. Then his daddy had to go and reject him.  Daddy publicly humiliated him in church, a double whammy. His father figure Rod Meredith rejected him and refused to listen to him when he approached him with concerns that the church was preaching the wrong things.  Now Thiel has lashed out once again bemoaning the fact that Meredith ignored his silly recommendations.

The problem this time is that Thiel is attempting to use an article from Living Church of God to prop up his absurd belief that he is a prophet.  The only true prophet in the church now.

Sometime back, Dexter Wakefield wrote an article on "spiritual gifts."  Thiel quotes Wakefield:

Statement on 1 Corinthians 

Let’s look at some of the statements in the order Dexter Wakefield wrote them. Let’s start with the following:

To serve the needs of the Church, God—through His Spirit—gives different members different gifts. “…to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits … the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually … (1 Corinthians 12:4–11) 

Yes, as it states in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, there are differing gifts AND prophecy is one of them. But also notice that the discerning of spirits IS NOT taught as being given to all as he seemed to imply. 

Gift of Prophecy 

Let’s look at another of Dexter Wakefield’s statements:

Similarly, the gift of “prophecy” is primarily the gift of inspired speech, and can be exercised in a strong sermon that covers no “new ground” but simply explains with clarity and power the meaning of Bible prophecy and end-time events. 

Dexter Wakefield is correct that most of the time, one with a prophetic gift is properly explaining biblical prophecy and end time events. That occurs in the Continuing Church of God.

Apostle Thiel is working up to the point that he is a prophet because he has the gift for inspired speech which leads him to preach sermons with the only accurate interpretation of prophecy and end-time events. 

No other man outside of the Continuing Church of God has the correct interpretations:

It should be noted certain leaders of other COGs (including in LCG in several instances) have disqualified themselves on certain matters of prophecy, especially when they insist on matters that are wrong, or at best questionable...

Thiel clans that Rod Meredith personally said that his god "might" consider Thiel a prophet.  

The Apostle Paul makes it clear that not all are prophets. Prophet is an office and prophets are to prophesy. LCG’s position is that it has NO prophets (which is likely the case as I stopped attending late on 12/28/12).

But it should be noted that its top leader had repeatedly taught in the past that God may consider Bob Thiel to be a prophet...

Thiel then set himself up as the third Elijah  The problem is that Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack and Ron Wienland have already claimed that they are.  How can the "true church" have sooooo many end-time Elijah's?

Dexter Wakefield continued with:

“Prophets” in the sense of Elijah are rare, 

True. But rare does not mean that there are not and cannot be any. Now while Dexter Wakefield did not make that error, many in various COGs have concluded that rare means none. The New Testament is clear that God has prophets who prophesy (1 Corinthians 12:28-30) and will do so in the last days (Acts 2:17-18). Those in LCG and all other COGs need to realize this. 

As far as ‘Elijah,’ the position of the Church of God since the beginning is that there would be three biblical ‘Elijahs.’ The original Elijah (e.g. 1 Kings 17:1), John the Baptist (Matthew 7:12-13), and an Elijah to come at the very end of the church age (Malachi 4:4-6) to restore all things (Matthew 17:11).

Thiel continues:

CG has taught that Elijah will either be a man younger than its Roderick C. Meredith (Meredith, Roderick C. The Elijah Question. VTE 131, May 19, 2001) or that the Elijah is not a person but an “Elijah-type work” which fulfills the Elijah prophesies in Matthew 17:10-11 and Malachi 4:4-6 (Winnail D. The Mission of the Church. Living Church News, March-April 2006, p. 7). The Bible shows that ‘Elijah’ will be a person (see also The Elijah Heresies). 

As far as rarity goes, I would ask, “How many people were told by an actual top evangelist in the Church of God that God may consider him to be a prophet?” In the 20th and 21st centuries, there is only one who comes to mind. So, while prophets are “rare,” and being told one is a prophet by an ordained evangelist is also rare, rarity does not mean that there are none. 

As far as “Elijah” goes, he is to “restore all things” (Matthew 17:11).

One guess as to who that third Elijah is... 

We also get to the point where we see what is really still eating at Thiel's soul.  He was rejected by his daddy, Rod Meredith.  Because of that rejection Thiel HAD to start his own church.

The truth about early and apostolic Christians is that it is PROVABLY NOT IN LCG AND IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT than Dr. Meredith realizes. When I was in LCG in 2011, I was trying to help them restore much of it; Dr. Meredith agreed, but then failed to keep his word. Dr. Meredith’s failure to keep his word on that and other matters was a major reason that the Continuing Church of God had to form.

I used to think Dave Pack and the Flurry clan were the biggest liars in the Church of God, but no longer. Everything that comes out of Thiel's mouth is a lie.  God no more appointed Thiel to lead a church than he did Dave Pack or Gerald Flurry.  No double blessing, no dreams, no prophetic truth, no mindless rants of of assumed titles.  Nothing credible comes from this delusional man.