The Book of Acts. Are COG Members To Complete It?

One of the great myths of the Worldwide Church of God was that the Book of Acts is the only book in the Bible without an ending.  There was a reason for that, or maybe a couple of reasons, that the church ministry put forth.  I heard this in Pasadena in class and preached from the pulpit.

Reason 1 (This one I had never heard before, but it does not surprise me)

I also remember hearing from the pulpit at AC BS that the Book of Acts was not complete and that the co-worker letters authored by HWA would be used to complete the book. Can you imagine the grotesque presumption that would lead someone to think that those blatant appeals for money would come up to the standard of the Book of Acts?  (ht: NEO)

Reason 2 

The Book of Acts has no ending because the lives of COG members would be recorded for holding fast to the faith once delivered.  The inspiring stories of church members would be recorded for future generations. 

Can you imagine future generations reading about the corruption and abuse that COG ministers and leaders have dished out on people?  Imagine reading the Acts of Dave Pack, or the Acts of Rod Meredith, or the Actis of Rod McNair, or the Acts of Bob Thiel.  I can just picture people now saying, "I should have chosen the lake of fire over this malarkey!"

Acts only deals with Peter and Paul.  It does not include any other apostles. There is nothing about Bartholomew or of Thomas and his supposed journey to what is now India.  One would think that the stories of the two James who were the first two of the apostles to be martyred would be there.  Nope, not a thing, but yet Herbert Armstrong and Dave Pack's writings will be included.

Imagine reading the Acts of Gerald Waterhouse or Acts of Vic Kubik.  It makes me want to get a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers and settle in for a good read.   NOT!

 

Wade Cox and the Islamic Unitarian Sabbatarian Church of God

Mo, 

of the

Islamic Unitarian Sabbatarian Church of God

The convoluted world of Wade Cox continues it downward spiral deeper into the cesspool of official Church of God stupidity!

Did you know that when Satan destroyed the church centuries ago, that God sent the church into exile in Mecca where it was persecuted by Jews and Baal worshippers?  Those pesky Jews destroyed the true understanding between the church, scriptures and the Koran!  Apparently, Mohammad had a Council of the Church of God there that which was Unitarian in structure as he was inspired to dictate the Koran as.

The reality is that God sent His prophets and then the Messiah and the elders and prophets of the church. Satan destroyed the church using Baal worshippers and then when the church was sent to the Arabs, Satan, using the Jews and idolaters, destroyed their understanding and used the same Baal worshippers to destroy the relationship between the church and the Scriptures and the Koran and their understanding was destroyed also.  See also the Introduction to the Commentary on the Koran (Q1) and also the various commentaries.  Most do not understand that the Muhammad was a Council of the Church of God and was a Biblical Unitarian structure as is the Koran. The church at Mecca was persecuted by the Baal worshippers at Mecca and had to flee to the sister churches in Abyssinia in 613 CE in the First Hijrah or flight of the persecution.  They were given their earliest doctrines to seek asylum among the Sabbatarian Unitarian Churches in Abyssinia (see the paperCommentary on the Koran: Surah 19 Maryam (Q019)).

Because the Church of God has failed to follow the mindless rantings of Cox, they have all be found unfit to be in the kingdom of God.  As usual, the only true followers of the end time god are those whoa re part of Cox's cult. Armstrongites have been declared dead and have been spewed out by Cox's god.

God is not losing the battle.  He chose those whom He knew would be able to survive and not be lost to erroneous doctrines and the lusts of the flesh. These were all predestined from the foundation of the world (see the paper Predestination (No. 296)).  Most of the world in these Last Days are simply not fit for the Kingdom of God, even those who are in the two sectors of the Churches of God in the Last Days are declared dead and spewed out of the mouth of God.

 

In order to be saved and make it into the Kingdom of God one must be a follower of Wade Cox, repent and be baptized by Wade Cox or one of his "authorized sabbath keeping ministers" into his cult.  The only true church today is a Unitarian Sabbatarian Church of God which keeps both the Old Testament and believes the Koran. Oh, and those Unitarian Sabbatarian Mohammedans had better make sure they don't follow the Hillel calendar of the Jews.  It was the followers of Hillel calendar that made it impossible for Islam (the Church of God of the Middle East) to be saved.

The requirements to be part of the Kingdom of God in the First Resurrection are to repent, and to be saved one must be baptised as a repentant adult by an authorised Sabbath-keeping minister of the Sabbatarian faith.  The church must be a Unitarian Sabbatarian Church of God that keeps God’s Calendar (No. 156) without postponements according to the Temple System.   

The Hillel Calendar of Modern Judaism postpones the Holy Days according to Oral Traditions of the Egyptians and according to the Babylonian Intercalations. The idolaters of Mecca simply and wilfully did away with the intercalations entirely to cut loose the feasts and so lost the feasts. They simply turned the preparation period of the Juma’ah into a Friday afternoon prayer service and did away with the Sabbaths of God and went to work and made it impossible for Islam as the Church of God in the Middle East to be saved. The pseudo-Christians of the Sun and Mystery cults moved the Sabbath to the day of the Sun and killed all of the faithful who refused to go along with them (see the paper The Jumaah : Preparing for the Sabbath  (No. 285))   Sabbath Message 18/11/40/120

Why is the Church of God filled with so many fools that have to reinvent history to fit their own perverted understanding?  The sad part is that people are stupid enough to follow these morons.

Living Church of God Members What To Know Where Doug Winnail Is

Doug Winnial has been a quiet fixture in the Living Church of God for many years. He provided a balance to the wild rhetoric of Rod Meredith. He has been a weekly fixture of weekly updates of the LCG that tended to be a little more grace-filled than the words of various other LCG ministers and leaders.

The last LCG members officially saw anything of him in print was October 19, 2017.  This is about the same time Gerald Weston brought in his new Gestapo Chief, Rod McNair.   Many LCG members do not look favourably on McNair and find him abusive and confrontational.

Ever since Weston's golden boy was elevated to more power in Charlotte, Winnail has not been heard from. With Weston's recent command to shut down its boondoggle Living University, Winnail was shoved to the wayside.

LCG wants to give the impression that it is ascending into the glory days of the church as a final witness to the world.  LCG members know that this is NOT the case and are beginning to leave the church.  They see a future filled with more rules and demands placed upon on them by leaders who are graceless and operate without mercy.

Go Ye Therefore Into all the Dot.

This is where all the Church of God drama takes place.  All the struggling for recognition,.  All the blovating over prophecy coming alive. All the me but not you, us but not them, all the drama and trauma . All of it happens on this dot.  These views, unavailable and unknowable by our parents generation helps me personally keep my own experience in perspective.  Just sayin'.  I kept that short n sweet but I suppose these two pictures equal 2000 words on perspective.

Earth and the Moon From the Surface of Mars

Earth from Saturn

Gerald Weston: Yes, LCG is Losing Members, but we are still the BEST Church of God Because we are Filled with Lowliness, Meekness and Gentleness

Gerald Weston has written a new missive to the members of the Living Church of God.  In his most recent "Personal" to the members Weston admits that the membership of the Living Church of God is dropping, but that does not mean the church will ever stop putting forth its forceful message.

The church has always loved to get up and brag, especially during the Feast, about how many were in attendance, how much money was collected in offerings, or just how special the church was compared to everyone else.

Weston writes in Is Bigger Always Better?:

During our Charlotte Family Weekend, we had a theme of keeping our focus and not getting distracted. In the Worldwide Church of God, we always looked through the lens of “the best ever” and “bigger than last time,” whether at the Feast or some other activity. In this light, we must ask the question, “Is bigger always better?” There is a human tendency to think that it is.

Yes, I bet it was hard keeping the insular focus upon self and not getting distracted by the beautiful Christmas decorations, the piped in Christmas music, the Christmas desserts in restaurants, and other holiday accoutrements, considering you keep your "family fest" in Christmas laden resorts every year.   Anyway, it was your grand guru Herbert himself that loved to quote figures on how big and better everything was, except when he was begging for more money.

He also writes:

The Worldwide Church of God also grew. Eventually, more than 150,000 attended the Feast of Tabernacles, and more than eight million Plain Truth magazines were distributed every month. At one point, there were three Ambassador College campuses, and how beautiful they were! But as the Church grew, so did the opportunities and so did the distractions. The Church lost its focus and became a comfortable social club to far too many. Large sports tournaments, exotic Festival sites, various clubs to “build self-esteem”—all took our focus off what God called us to do. We were ripe for the picking, and Satan, as a roaring lion, was all too eager to leap on the prey (1 Peter 5:8).

The eight million PT readers was a complete farce.  Hundreds of thousands were thrown in the trash every month never getting delivered or making it to newsstands.  Everyone in Pasadena knew the numbers were highly inflated. Eight million magazines prove nothing. Three campuses proved nothing either, other than being huge money pits for tithes to be diverted to and their leaders being puffed up with grandiose ideas of themselves.  The fact that he mocks "large sporting events" and "exotic Festival sites" proves how out of touch he is with his own church!  Lil'Jimmy has to be having major butthurt over that comment!  Besides, not a single COG today is capable of having a large exotic Festival site. They don't have enough members or the desire to cooperate together and produce grand Feast sites like no other, even though they ALL preach the same thing when you get down to the underbelly of each group.

Weston then goes on to quote Rod Meredith:

The question remains: Is bigger better? Conversely: Is smaller better? Dr. Roderick C. Meredith frequently emphasized that the Bible is the mind of God, so how does it answer this question?

The opening verse of Genesis says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” To say that God thinks big is understatement to the extreme! Consider the vastness of the universe with its myriad galaxies and stars. The size and scope of God’s creation baffles the human mind (Psalm 8:3–4)! Jesus’ parables indicate the Kingdom of God, His family, begins as the smallest of seeds, but grows immensely (Matthew 13:31–32; see also the other parables of Matthew 13). Isaiah informs us, “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” (9:7). God thinks BIG.

But the Church of God does not think BIG, as it has sought to exclude as many as they can from the kingdom they expect to inherit first.  Instead of bringing the kingdom of God to the world today, one person at a time, by helping the disenfranchised, the poor, the widows, the orphans, etc. it has done all it can to exclude people. If church leaders think the way they run their churches today is a sample of the Kingdom to come then we and all of humanity are all royally screwed!  Would anyone want to be in a kingdom run by COG leaders?  Can you imagine any of them sitting at the right hand of Jesus and being wise judges? The lake of fire never looked so appealing!

Weston continues:

Our focus must always be on the commissions given to us. We must learn “to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1–3). It is through working together as a family, having educational programs, summer camps, family weekends, Spokesman Clubs, and more that we learn servant leadership, right government, humility, and putting up with one another’s imperfections. These activities provide opportunities to learn how to get along with those different from ourselves. We learn teamwork and come to appreciate qualities others have that we lack. We learn perseverance and patience. All of this helps prepare us to rule in the Kingdom of God. But even with this, these qualities must not be ends in themselves. We must not allow them to distract us from focusing on other commissions.

Lowliness? Gentleness?? Long-suffering??? Bear fellow members burdens in love????  Unified????? Peaceful??????  Seriously?

When has the LCG ever done any of these things?  When has its leaders ever set the example of lowliness?  When have they ever been gentle? When, oh WHEN have they ever been long-suffering with their members? Pride, arrogance, jealousy, and bitterness seem to be the things most COG leaders identify with today.  When has the Living Church of God ever been a family?  That concept died when the WCG imploded.  The "we are family" mantra was tossed in the Glendale dump as countless "lowly, gentle, meek and long-suffering" men set themselves up as splinter group leaders dividing families and wrecking lives.  Rod Meredith and Gerald Weston's dirty hands were right in the middle of that mix.

Weston then shovels the crap even deeper with this:

In all that we do we must adhere to Paul’s admonition, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:3–5). These words must be more than platitudes. They must be a part of us, internalized by the Holy Spirit of Christ in us (Galatians 2:20).

When has a COG leader or most ministers ever "esteem others above himself?" When have they ever truly taken the brethren's interests into account?  When have the brethren ever been listened to? When have the members ever had a say in who leads them?

How can the "mind of Christ" be "in" the ministry and leadership of the LCG (or any COG) when all of them ignore the guy and discount anything he accomplished.  Grace, mercy, and justice are qualities of Jesus that not one single COG leader knows anything about.

Weston ends with this:

Dear brethren, how large we will grow remains to be seen, but history indicates bigger is not always better. “Better”—that is, better quality—is always better! We must never allow the “bigger is better” mindset to guide our thinking. Nor should we think that smaller is better, because we like small. God thinks big and so should we. God uses both sizes to fulfill His plan and purpose, but either way, staying close to God, avoiding distractions, and keeping our focus on the purpose for which we are called is what matters more than size. We must constantly test our thinking and our actions to make sure they fit within the commissions we have been given. We must do this individually and collectively.

Weston apparently does not have much faith in his skills to push the LCG into the forefront of all the COG's today and proclaim a message of hope and salvation that will draw in large numbers of people.  

And why does EVERYTHING had to be a constant "test" for COG members?  They have been over-tested for 80 some years now.  Perhaps it is time for the leaders to be tested!  

So go on Gerald, show the world just how merciful and loving you and your god are.  Set the example and humble yourself so ther world can see. 

After all, the fields are white with harvest, aren't they?