Michael Germano, LCG Minister and Living University President Goes Mental on James Malm

When I started this blog it was never a project that I took seriously.  How could I really do so when the various COG ministers and leaders constantly run off at the mouth and say some of the most idiotic things imaginable.  When Dennis and I speak on the phone we spend a lot of our time laughing at the craziness of the church.  So many of these men take themselves so seriously that that they come off looking like bumbling fools when they react to people criticizing them. Today was no exception to the foolishness that permeates the church Internet guru's.

Michael Germano threw down the gauntlet at James Malm the other day and the sniveling Pharisee and his Wiccan side kick did not take too kindly to it.  The spittle was flying so fast out of the Chief Pharisee and Michael Germano that my computer screen was wet!

Watching this smack down is like watching a heavy weight fighter slap a whiny little light weight crybaby on the cheek. As much was we have derided Michael Germano's decision to leave grace and freedom behind for legalism with Rod Meredith, Germano is no light weight with the education he has. He far surpasses any of the legalistic lightweight bullshit that Pharisee James Malm vomits out daily.  Even with that knowledge, it boggles my mind how Germano went about doing what he did.

Here we have a high ranking Living Church of God minister and the President of Living University, the official educational arm of the Living Church of God, lashing out at Malm and Constance.  Even if all of his accusations are true, which they are, why did he do it in the way he did?  His words will be forever immortalized on the Internet.  Are these the actions that a "converted" long time COG member would do?  Living Church of God members as well as followers of James Malm are equally appalled at Germano's reactions.

The Chief Pharisee is incensed that Germano has called him out on his "right" calendar nonsense.
Germano sent this to Malm's sidekick Constance:

Michael Germano Why do you and James push that phony so-called Biblical Calendar? Its a complete fraud and total foolishness. You and James have several screws loose! Beside that, why does James continue to defame me on his website? He knows absolutely nothing about me or what I believe and teach. Slander is continually in this mouth. How can he possibly believe he belongs to the Ekklesia? He is a false Christian, a complete and total fraud. You and James have not taken even the first steps of true repentance. Please stop living a lie. The Great White Throne Judgment is not going to go well for you two. Why continue to be a fraud and a deceiver? Shame, shame, shame on you!

Michael Germano It is not the calendar followed by Jesus. You are deceived. There is not enough evidence in the world to convince a mind against its will. I may as well try to convince the Pope to keep the Sabbath. It is foolishness to try to convince you of anything. I hope some of the people you have falsely recruited as friends will wake up and get rid of your heresy. There is no hope for you or James Malm. You are completely in the hands of Satan the Devil. He has you right where he wants you.

Ouch!  I feel the butthurt all the way here in Pasadena!

Michael Germano And how did you get to my Facebook page? You are teaching heresy. I have no problem calling you out. Why don't you do those of us who are actually part of the Ekklesia a favor by getting off Facebook and stop posting heresy and lies? You chose this public forum, so if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen! If that fool James Malm wants to take me on, then let him come to me directly on my Twitter Account or on Facebook and I will theologically destroy him as he does not know the Bible--he is pretending. All who you have recruited to your Facebook page need to see how pathetic your false teachings and approaches are. You two sit back with that dismal The Shininglight and control the conversation. Come on, get on my turf and see who has the high hand.

And thus the Chief Pharisee responds:

Notice that he claims that I slander him, but he does not mention what has been said which he claims is a slander; in fact I quoted his own words directly from his own papers. Where is the slander or defamation in that? 

Further he has never contacted me in obedience to Jesus Christ as per Matthew 18 to correct me or to rebut. For the record Michael has not contacted me in any way and if I have said anything in error about him it is his own fault for not obeying Jesus Christ and correcting me.  

Finally Michael is absolutely and very easily provably wrong on the Calendar.  

Today’s Jewish Calendar was NOT in use during the first century.  It was first developed over several hundred years and finally formalized, finalized and accepted in 1178 A.D.  Ask ANY Rabbi or better still ask Hebrew University’s Calendar expert Dr Roy Hoffman  when today’s Jewish calendar was established.  

Malm's Pharisaical nonsense on the calendar is worthless.  Just because he and so many other in the church  wrote a paper on the calendar does not make him an authority on it any more than Bob Thiel is an authority on the Mayans, the Catholic church, church history, grace, justification or prophecy.

Michael, get informed about what I really teach before launching unwarranted attacks. Solomon had something to say about judging things you know nothing about (Proverbs 18:13).  

YOU have attacked me; and YOU have challenged me!  Put up, or apologize and admit the truth.

Now the ball is back right square in your camp!  Read the material, do the research and then send me your biblical or historical factual proofs of any error.  

Indeed have your entire doctrinal committee take the matter up and have the whole LCG team work on the matter. Even invite the other COG corporations to join you.  All of you believe the same thing so why not get together and prove me false by the Word of God! 

All of the Ekklesia is waiting for – and is entitled to – a scripturally and historically accurate answer.  Take the time you need; do you need a year?  Hopefully sooner than that. 

My address is jddm3@hotmail.com  

Every time this FOOL spits out that COG members have no zeal, that they lack faith, it is actually a personal attack by Malm against all COG members.  All of the Ekklessia could car less about Malm's calendar issues, and rightfully so.  No new covenant Christian needs to concern themselves about the new moons and calendar issues.

I call all of LCG and all the COG groups to witness that Michael Germano has declared that he will theologically destroy me, and has challenged me on the Calendar issue, and I have accepted that challenge.  

Michael, I will not be bullied and I will not allow you to bully Constance; I fully expect you to “put your money where your mouth is” and do a proper,  spiritually honest and scholarly study on the subject of the Calendar in the Holy Scriptures and in the facts of history; which I will gladly publish for all the COG community to see.   You can win me over with the truth but you cannot intimidate me with insults and vain bluster.  

By the time the sun sets on the next Sabbath, most of the brethren across the COG constellation will be aware of your challenge on the Calendar.  

I know that you must be a very busy person, but the brethren in LCG and across the COG community will expect a timely, scholarly, intellectually and spiritually honest research paper on the Biblical – Rabbinic Calendar subject; without personal rancor.

Next Germano publishes this on his own Facebook page:

Michael Germano

4 hrs · 

For all of my Facebook Friends that have been bombarded on the News Feed with the phony gospel of the unbiblical calendar guru James Malm, I would like to share a photo of his lovely headquarters. The drive needs a little work. You can call him on the phone and tell him what you think of his heresy at 1-604-941-5807. His basement headquarters for his false, deceptive unauthorized ministry is 1735 Morgan Ave, Port Coquitlam BC V3C1J6, Port Coquitlam. This humble clapboard shack needs a little maintenance, don’t you think? Maybe James should spend less time writing religious propaganda and defaming people on his computer and go out and work at something physical. It would be more profitable. Poor old fool! 

James Malm then responds:

This shows the quality of Michael’s research. I moved from that rental house into a small rented apartment almost seven years ago, I do not even live in the same town! The Phone number is wrong as well. May we see a pic of the Germano home please, I expect that it is no humble dwelling.

I never cease to be amazed at how so many of these fools take themselves so seriously.  Put down your damn concordances and Bibles and get outside and enjoy the creation around you and live life instead of parking you butt in front of a computer and commenting on every single scripture and writing your own interpretation of it.  That is all the calendar issue is to the foolish Pharisee and his acolytes, his own distorted interpretation that God no more cares about than he does Gerald Flurry buying his own jet.  These fools lie to their followers leading them off into useless and unnecessary legalistic tangents that serve no purpose other than puffing up leaders vanity.

Was Germano right in doing what he did?  I do not disagree with anything Germano says, but really is this the kind of leader a church needs as its public face, even if he is right about the lies of James Malm?

The Church of God comedy stream is never ending!

Grand Jury Formally Indicts UCG Elder Stephen Allwine on First-Degree Murder 3/24/17

STILLWATER, Minn. — A Washington County grand jury indicted a Cottage Grove man for premeditated first-degree murder in his wife's death last year.

The indictment announced Friday elevated the charge and potential sentence against Stephen Carl Allwine, 44, who was charged earlier this year with second-degree murder in connection with his wife Amy's Nov. 13, 2016, death. A premeditated murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of release.

Prosecutors allege Allwine killed his 44-year-old wife in their 110th Street home and attempted to stage her death as a suicide following a failed murder-for-hire plot against her. Amy Allwine was found in their home with a gunshot wound to the head, police said.

Investigators allege that in months preceding the death Stephen Allwine made contacts in the Dark Web — an area of the internet where users often are anonymous and involved in criminal activity — in connection with the murder plot and an inquiry into the purchase of a drug found in an unusually high concentration in his wife's body after her death, according to court records.

Allwine appeared in Washington County District Court Friday on the premeditated murder charge. District Judge B. William Ekstrum set Allwine's unconditional bail at $2 million and conditional bail at $1 million.

"We have great faith in the grand jury process and those people serving on the grand jury exercising their civic responsibility," Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said.

Read the entire article here:  Grand jury indicts Allwine on first-degree murder

What was the most destructive doctrine of the church?

Gerald made the following comment in an earlier thread.  This is, in his opinion, the most destructive doctrine the church believed?  Do you agree or is there something else even worse?

I would say HWA's most harmful doctrine was his continued proclamation that the Return of Jesus was just around the corner---at most 2-5 years. And not only that, if I just hang on to HWA's coattails, I will be with him, ruling and reigning (quite a few rungs down on the ladder, of course) over the tribes and nations of the world!  

If you really believe in that kind of a promise/declaration, why would there be any incentive to do anything with your current life?

Why buy a house, or have it painted? Why get an education? Why look for a better job? Why plan for your children's education? Why have a savings account or plan for retirement? Why try to help the poor or feed the starving? Why vote, or become aware of political issues? Why do anything to improve the here and now? 

Very soon, it will all be taken care of for you. All you need do is wait, have faith, and presto, you will be part of the ruling class in the World Tomorrow! You may be an ignorant slob today, but in the World Tomorrow, magic will occur and you will become a decision-making, political genius.

The real problem is that this may be (most probably) the only life you will ever have to live. Please, don't waste it believing in the stupidity of false prophecy. You may be squandering the most precious gift you will ever be given. The magical promise from HWA is a cruel and devastating myth. Many generations since Jesus have wasted their entire lives, waiting on the promises of these liars.

There a ton of hurtful HWA doctrines: God will heal, divorce and remarriage, church government, avoid the world, even your unconverted family members, tithing, abusive child-rearing, Holy Days vs. pagan holidays, ministers standing between you and God. It is all pitiful, but prophecy (if you believe it) will steal your life, the only one you have, and give nothing back in return. 

Bulletin: NOBODY KNOWS THE FUTURE. 

Christ has been kept out of the loop on when he is to return

In the grand scheme of the biblical story, Jesus Christ has been sitting in heaven eagerly waiting for his dad to tell him it is time to come to earth.  Apparently his dad is not aware yet either, at least according to Dave Pack. Apparently Jesus Christ did not know about church eras, so he has been receiving some schooling in that matter.

The apostles spoke and wrote as they did, and asked the question they did, because they knew nothing of Church eras. But the greater question we never asked, and that is, did Christ?

Christ is still waiting, and has been waiting for thousands of years. Sixty-five years waiting to find out about Church eras is a kind of a short wait. He said 2,000 years ago, He didn’t know when the Kingdom would begin. He’s still waiting. Now, we could suppose, I guess, at some point along the line the Father told Him…if the Father knows.

 What will happen if you rely upon 

Dave Pack, Bob Thiel, Gerald Weston and Gerald Flurry 

to tell you when Jesus is returning.

New Book: Fooled Into Thinking: Dylan, the Sixties, and the End of the World

Buy it here 

Fooled Into Thinking

Prelude
Sunday afternoon in the Catskills in August 1969. An irregular column of young people straggled along a road half-blocked by abandoned cars in the tired, haze-filtered sunlight. 

I was one of them, a slender 21-year-old clad in a pale blue chambray shirt and jeans. My eyes, as pale as my shirt, took in the sight through plastic tortoise-shell glasses. My shaggy light brown hair was shorter than that of many ambling alongside. A canvas backpack from an Army-Navy surplus store held a new Nikon camera, which served as my ticket to the event, my reassurance that I was merely there to observe; I was in the midst of what was happening yet not a part of it. In addition to the camera, the pack held a second lens, a few rolls of film, and two steak sandwiches on rye bread. 

My press pass for the festival was good for the entire three-day weekend. Why then was I among the last arrivals, shortly after noon on the last day? 

The day before, I had been in my home state, New Jersey, attending Sabbath worship services of a strict, Bible-believing group living in expectation of the end of the world. A group into which I had been baptized less than four months earlier. 

What was a member of a fundamentalist sect doing at Woodstock? Or, to turn the question on its head, what was a baby boomer rock fan doing in a conservative apocalyptic church? 

To approach an answer to this two-sided question, let’s go back six years, to another event that helped define the young lives of those born in the U.S.A. in the aftermath of World War II.

Chapter 6 (excerpt)

On the following Saturday, a married couple with two boys arrived at the dorm to pick me up and were disconcerted to find Sian there as well, intent on accompanying me. They were momentarily flustered, having been told only to bring me, but when she assured them that she had met the ministers as well, they figured it would be all right. The two of us arranged ourselves in the back seat with one of the two small boys, and we set off for the drive to services in Manchester, New Hampshire, an hour away. The church may have been “worldwide” (it had only recently changed its name from Radio Church of God), but their congregations were few, and widely scattered.

We arrived and found that services were held in the Odd Fellows Hall, a name that seemed appropriate as we entered the auditorium. The people we met were friendly, but shabbily-dressed, and seemed, for the most part, ill-educated. It was nearly time to begin services, so we found seats near the back. A mother sat in front of us with her small children; their frequent squirms were answered with sharp swats. Even though I had accepted what I had read in the book on child rearing, I found this disturbing, but it was more upsetting to Sian for the memories it evoked. 

There was a buzz of excitement in the hall. A leading minister, called an “evangelist,” was visiting that day. Raymond C. Cole was there to give the sermon; he pastored congregations in New York and Newark, close to my home, and oversaw the churches throughout the northeast as district superintendent. He occasionally contributed articles to The Plain Truth, and I was impressed that, on the occasion of my first service, I would see such a personality. It took a while, however, to hear from him. First, there were hymns, more like the Baptist hymns I had heard on visits down south than the Lutheran hymns more familiar to me. Many of the melodies were written by an Armstrong; it turned out that Dwight was Herbert’s younger brother. There was no organ. Again, like Sunday morning down south, the accompaniment came from an upright piano in the corner.

After three hymns and a prayer, Platt came to the lectern for what was announced as a sermonette, something I had never heard of before, although it was clear that the word must mean a small sermon. “Small” was a relative term, though; it was certainly shorter than the message that followed but was longer than sermons I was used to. Apparently, he had spotted my uninvited fiancée, and he peppered his message with what seemed to be gratuitous impromptu anti-Catholic remarks. The discomfort level rose. There was another hymn, but still no sermon. Instead, Cole was introduced for what were called announcements. Cole spoke of various events in the news, to which he assigned prophetic significance, and developments in “the Work,” which turned out to be the term used for what the Worldwide Church of God was doing. Although he rambled, the tone of these remarks, as well as the lengthy sermon he eventually gave, was on a more refined level than the first message. More than two hours, and many squirms and swats later, a closing hymn and prayer ended the service. Sian and I were eager to leave, began gathering our things, but the sidekick from Platt’s first visit tapped me on the shoulder and told me that Mr. Platt wanted to see us in the counseling room. We joined a line and waited for our turn. He may have planned to interrogate me about why I had brought Sian, even though only I had been invited. In those days, the church expected persecution, due to be part of the “Great Tribulation,” which at the time they were sure would begin in five years, in 1972. Services were closed to outsiders, the time and location not published; those who were curious were told about the gravity of hearing things they were not spiritually mature enough to understand. If they heard them anyway but failed to act on them, they could be held accountable in the judgment. For this reason, church members and ministers spoke of “dangerous knowledge.” This is what I assumed Platt planned to say, but he never got the chance. Not only had Sian been disturbed by what she heard and saw, but I was agitated as well. We were both ready to burst, and our question was urgent: “Where is the love?” Platt mumbled something about how we express love by keeping the commandments, but the conversation had the feel of a stand-off.

Perhaps the question was provoked in part by the fact that this was summer 1967, the media-acclaimed summer of love, the height of Hippiedom, a movement in equal parts non-stop party and spiritual yearning. But even without this, it was clear that a vital aspect of what we read in the Bible was missing. The protagonist of the Bible, God, is spoken of with many attributes, but only once does it say what he is: love. While it was impressive that the congregation, in addition to being multi-racial, was multi-generational, more so than most worship services we had attended, the display in the row in front of us, as well as the steady stream of parents with a child in tow for a short visit to the “family room,” the room that after services became the counseling room, had seemed hard to reconcile with that definition of God, as was much of what we heard from the lectern.

The interview ended, with both Platt and I convinced that maybe I wasn’t quite ready to attend services. 

 

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