Neville Stevens: Proof That Armstrongites Will Believe Anything!

Neville Stevens, a crackpot Armstrongite from Australia has been flooding the internet for the last 14 years with his incredibly looooooooooong missives on TRUE prophecy.  He had a minuscule following of really weird people that used to promote his silliness on the old alt.wwcg newsgroup.  They were a creepy band of lunatics that bragged that they would take up sword and kill all who opposed Neville as he went to Jerusalem as a true witness.  A couple of these lunatics threatened to come out here to CA and kill me for bad mouthing Neville.

He never has been able to gather any of the wandering people from the various COG splinter cults to follow him. All anyone has ever done is mock him horribly as they did  on the newsgroup

Today I noticed he has posted his final missive to the lost sheep of the Church of God's.  I guess he considers us a all a lost cause.

He writes:

Eventually the time had to come when we would be saying farewell to our website friends.  It’s been 14 years from the inception of this Levite Brotherhood and now we have other duties to perform.  We can only hope that our readers have learned something from our teachings.  After all these years, it seemed appropriate to leave some parting words which might hold our readers in good stead in the coming difficult days.

We’ve come to the end of the age when everything must be fulfilled according to what God planned from the very beginning.  Exactly what God planned has remained elusive to Bible students to this very day.  Most Christians have their own ideas of what to expect, but none of these ideas, generally speaking, relate to what God has said in the Scriptures.  Jesus Christ and all the Apostles spoke of Bible prophecies for our time, that is, the end of the age, and they all quoted from the Old Testament – the only Scriptures that existed at that time!  Well, the end of the age is to bring catastrophic reversals to the fortunes of the nations of the earth, and it’s the Christian nations who will suffer the most – so you need to understand why!  To this end, this article details all that is prophesied to happen during this most unhappy period of human existence; but importantly, why it must happen this way.  By understanding what is to happen, you will be in a better position for survival.

Some of his words of wisdom in his farewell message are:

Did they become like God?  No!  Instead they became like Satan!  Or at least, Eve did!  Eve’s action resulted in the end of innocence and the beginning of evil intent.  

If Neville is gong to take his Bible literally, then he must know that Adam was there too and he gladly ate the apple too.  But, as usual in patriarchal Armstrongism, women are the evil ones, the unclean ones, the fallen ones, and now the satanic ones.

Presently, the spirit rulers are engaged in persecuting the Church of God for their obedience to God and His Laws, and the time will come when they will actively seek to kill them – and this time is not far off!  The Commandment-keeping Churches of God will be hunted down and killed, and just like God’s Son Jesus, they must go as sheep to the slaughter.  They must follow Jesus Christ!  They must be willing to lay down their lives for God and their brother Christians.

Why should anyone be surprised at this?  The rulers and authorities of the spirit realm actively sought to wipe all the Jews off the face of the earth during WW2.  The sole reason for this is because the Jews were Commandment-keepers and have remained faithful and obedient to God for thousands of years.  However, the stated reason for this onslaught against the Jews was because they were generally wealthy, and to demon-inspired maniacs, this made them the enemy of the people.  Demonic Socialist reasoning requires the rich to ‘spread the wealth around’!  (Where have we heard this statement before?)  The truth is that the Jews had been blessed by God and the demonic forces knew this, and they set out to counter it by generating hostility towards them.  The response came fast, but the demons had other motivations. 

Where are there any COG's being persecuted today?  The only one in the news is Ron Weinland, the lying false prophet indicted for tax evasion.  That's not persecution.  Neville hates Obama and nonIsraelite people.  Whites will be the rules in the Kingdom.

Then he goes of the deep end, like many Armstrongites are prone to do.


UFO's

Who are these evil creatures that Paul warns us about?  He goes on to warn us in a symbolic fashion to don protective spiritual armour against them, using every device to resist them.  They are very real and totally evil!  Today we collectively refer to them as demons.  Like human beings they come in all shapes and sizes, with some of them more powerful than others.

Many people have seen them exercising their powers in the air.  We generally call these things UFO’s or Unidentified Flying Objects.  These things are very real, even though government agencies continually lie to deceive people that they are not.

Haunted Houses

What people are viewing in these haunted houses are demons.  There are more than 50 million of them living on earth in exile and are forbidden to approach the Creator God.  The sole exception to this is Satan – who still has periodical access to the One who created him (Job 1:6-7)

Flying demons:

Satan and all his demons live on earth.  They travel around in their own space ships, which we call UFO’s (Unidentified Flying Objects).  By this means they have the power to fly through the air, hence the title of ‘rulers of the kingdom of the air’ (Eph 2:2).

 The demons mode of transpiration

The demons have craft which can be invisible to the human eye – and they can switch this capability on and off at will.  This is real stealth capability.  Nothing that humans have ever devised can match these UFO’s for speed either.  Also, their ability to hover noiselessly is way beyond the capability of human technology.  And neither is there any human device that can match them for acceleration.  These craft can accelerate out of sight in the blink of an eye.  The bodily stresses of such acceleration would kill a human being.  The creatures that fly these are decidedly not human beings, even though they’ve lived among us for six thousand years.  In fact, they were already exiled here before human beings were created!  Furthermore, they actually rule over this planet and its inhabitants.  In fact, all the human inhabitants of this earth belong to the devil and his demons – with the only exception being the Saints who belong to God.  

God doesn't give a rat's ass about humanity (except of course for Church of God members:

It’s wild-eyed deception to imagine that God has any interest in those who won’t obey Him – and the vast majority of human beings don’t!  Yet God never had any interest in the vast majority of human beings; instead He chose just one group of people out of all the families of the earth and chose them as His own: Amos 3:1-2 “Hear this word the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel--against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt: ² "You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins."  From this passage of Scripture we learn that God’s only interest is in the 12 Tribes of Israel.  

God lives in a huge cosmic space ship that has an altar here Jesus works all day.

The spirit world has a vast arsenal of airborne craft, and in the final days before the end, they intend to make use of them – which is actually predicted in the Book of Revelation.  They intend to attack the huge dwelling-place where God lives – which is itself a huge space ship capable of housing millions of angels.  It also has a Temple and Altar where the Lord Christ serves and worships the Father (Heb 8:1-2).

Demons are rioting mobs here on hearth:

You’ve probably seen demon swarms on television where mobs of people turn into lunatics and start destroying and killing everything and everyone in sight.  Looting and burning usually quickly follows.  Well you’ve seen nothing yet in comparison to what is coming.  When Satan vents his fury, no-one is safe!  Least of all, Christians and Jews!

I guess they hop back on their space ships after the riot.  Who knew!

God sits on his space ship close to the earth's atmosphere:

But getting back again to the demons who infest this planet, and who use every device to deceive and humiliate the inhabitants of the earth, they are facing some serious punishment.  What is more, those people who have emulated these evil creatures will likewise be punished.  The first myth to dispel is that these creatures are not extraterrestrial, they are terrestrial and they live on earth – and have done for thousands of years!  They presently have the power to fly and navigate in our solar system, but not beyond it.  They don’t come from distant stars!  They live here!  Even God Himself lives in close proximity to earth: Isa 40:21-23 “Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been told you from the beginning?  Have you not understood since the earth was founded? ²² HE SITS ENTHRONED ABOVE THE CIRCLE OF THE EARTH, and its people are like grasshoppers.  He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. ²³ He brings princes to naught and reduces the RULERS OF THIS WORLD to nothing.”  

With all the various space craft that have been flying for decades out into space, not a single one has sent back pictures of God's spaceship hovering.  But of course, it could have been in stealth mode.

There will soon be a cosmic battle in the skies that all will see.  Exploding Battlestars and Battlestar Galactica fights will pale in comparison!

The battle will rage under the light of the sun as well as the light of the moon and stars until every spaceship is destroyed and Satan and his demons confined to earth.  And this is where they will stay.  This indicates that this battle will last a number of days and everyone will see it!  All these so-called ‘alien’ spacecraft will be hunted down and destroyed even though they’ll go to great lengths in an attempt to escape.  These evil creatures have bases all over the earth and even under the sea – all of which will be destroyed!

UFO riders have brainwashed the American military officers:

Over the years, the US armed forces have been deluding themselves, believing they’ve communicated with ‘aliens’ from outer space.  These demons present themselves in a quasi-human form to high ranking officers of the Armed Forces, to convince them they’re peaceful.  Hence the frequently stated official phrase, “These ‘sightings’ pose no threat to the national security”.  So they no longer investigate them.

One of God's space ships lead the three wise men to the stable where Jesus was born:

The angels of God commute in spacecraft and so do demons.  Demons commute in these ‘UFO’s’ which so many people have seen, and likewise, so do the mighty angels of God.  It was one of God’s spacecrafts that guided the shepherds to the birthplace of Jesus at the time of His birth.  This is what the shepherds followed, and it stopped over the manger where Jesus and Mary were.  Sure they described it as a star; after all, how else would they describe it in those days?  Try following a real star to arrive at a certain destination.  All that would happen is you would travel due west, but you would never know when you reached your destination.  So what the shepherds actually saw was a bright shining light which was a flying vehicle and manned by an angel of God.

Lot's wife was killed because she look back and saw God's spaceship destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, thus God had to kill her.

It involves forces that are not discoverable in the human realm.  To give some ideas of the powers involved, Almighty God passed judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, and these two cities were reduced to ashes (2Pet 2:6), and were never found again.  Lot and his wife were told they must not look back to see the means by which God would destroy them.  Lot’s wife disobeyed and looked back and was instantly killed.  What God didn’t want them to see was the huge combat craft that delivered the coup-de-grace!  It was not the time to be disclosing such things to humanity.  This type of spacecraft is sometimes described as an ‘eagle’ in the Bible. 

Your youth can be restored to you in this lifetime!

The Lord Jesus spoke of the renewal of our bodies or flesh.  Our bodies count for nothing with God!  He is interested only in the development of our minds through His Holy Spirit.  Since God raised Jesus from the dead and renewed His body with life, we should understand that He can renew our bodies too.  What is not widely understood or accepted is that God can renew our youth in this life, and as we’ve just read in the Book of Psalms, He intends to do so – along with any diseases!  This is why Jesus said our flesh or bodies count for nothing

Neville's followers will take Jerusalem by FORCE, killing all who get in their way.  Oh, and you stupid COG members who did not listen to Neville will pay a high price too!

And why are the Churches of God – who obey God’s Commandments – left behind?  The reason is that they have a number of duties to perform.  They too, have refused to listen to God’s prophet, even considering him a maniac.  They’ve been steeped in false prophecy for years now, and still refuse to recant their views. 

HWA was named in the Bible:

The Churches of God (who’s founder is actually named in the Bible by means of a parable in Zech 11:15-17 (which we won’t go into here since we’ve posted many articles about it; however, the founders name was Herbert Armstrong) and which identifies which Church congregation carries the banner of the original Church that Jesus Christ built.  By virtue of the fact that no other church on earth obeys God’s Commandments and keeps His Holydays in the prescribed season, it means that no other church can claim to belong to God.  There is no prophecy that relates to the Church of God that Christ built which relates to these others.  If they are not a part of the Body, then they are not the Church of God.  

Satan has been raising an army south of the US border:

Yet, Satan’s long-term planning doesn’t end there!  For years now, Satan has been building additional reserves of murderous insurgents south of the border, ready to flood in and create mayhem.  It will become an unstoppable flood!  President Bush tried to build a wall to keep them out, but that demon Obama has done nothing but obstruct the building of it.  It will be a sad day when the American people are confronted by these murderous swine flooding in over the border.  As we all know already, kidnapping and murdering Americans is a national sport south of the border, and this has reached such prominence only in the last few years.  In view of all that has happened during these last few years, America will have very few friends to call on in time of trouble, and this will be a time of trouble never before experienced in the annals of human history.

Neville is the way, the truth and the light. Your COG minister is nothing more than a mealy-mouth weakling.

The truth is that since this Zion Ministry began exactly 14 years ago, to the very day as I write, much Bible prophecy has been fulfilled and is rapidly proceeding.   This ministry began as a prophetic ministry and has continued ever since.  The purpose and function of it was to warn the Churches of God, the 12 Tribes of Israel and the world of what to expect, and to explain the Scriptures in order that whoever might listen might be spared the horror they now face.  Did anyone imagine that with such ominous disasters pending that will result in the deaths of millions of people – including His people Israel, no less – that God wouldn’t send a prophet to warn?  Well, He did send a prophet at the appointed time; He sent me!  And I have done as I’ve been commanded.  All that I’ve written was under the instructions of God Almighty.  I’m merely the instrument in His hands.  Nothing more – and nothing less!  The difference between me and the many false, self-proclaimed prophets is that I believed God always and never deviated from this belief for any reason.  And the other difference is that I was taught by God Himself!  I’ve merely taught others what God has taught me, thereby leaving aside all the pseudo doctrines and sanctimonious nonsense that vain preachers find so compelling to their congregations.  Never mind that these vain creatures are leading others to their deaths, thereby depriving them of life!  If you are still in awe of the flowery, pathetic nonsense taught by your local preacher as he endeavours to entice you to follow him, then like Humpty-dumpty you’re about to take a great fall.  These mealy-mouthed weaklings will take you nowhere – except to your doom!

Drug users should be put to death:

The truth is that it would be kinder to drug addicts, and the rest of the community in general, to put them to death.  This would prevent a lot of grief for the rest of the community who continue to be victims of their crimes!  Everyone knows that most of these druggies live off the proceeds of crime to fund their drug addiction.  If you think putting them to death seems a little harsh, then be aware that when God’s Kingdom is set up here on earth, this will be their fate!  

Neville's deviate followers will be happy to do this!

What is more, those who serve the Almighty God will be happy to see it carried out.  Otherwise, how would righteousness prevail if this blot on the community continued?  Does anyone seriously believe these lazy degenerates should continue to live among decent people?

Presbyterians will have a hard time getting into the Kingdom of God:

It will be mainstream Christians, and especially Presbyterians, who will have extreme difficulty in entering the Kingdom of God.  It was, in fact, the Presbyterians who made a big show of divesting of all investments in Jewish companies.  So they must be seen to pay the penalty for their treachery, and – trust me – they will!  The example of the Presbyterians shows just how divisive false Christianity can be.  They know there is nothing in the Bible that favours Arabs over the Jews.  In fact, Arabs have no favour with God at all!  Yet these Presbyterians use their fake Christianity to garner favour with them by ostracizing Jews.

Neville continues in the long article with comments about Obama, Muslims and a demon who attacked Admiral Byrd in the Antarctica.  The craziness knows no boundaries.

Neville ends with a final word for the faithful and the idiots that mock him:

The Creator God has made His position clear to everyone, so all are without excuse.  God gave His people Israel the choice between life and death, and counseled them to choose life.  Today, more than ever, that choice is before you, and from now on you’re on your own to make that choice.  Before you prepare yourself for conquest, be sure and certain you have God’s Holy Spirit or your fate will be to return to dust - forever!  Perhaps we, the Brotherhood, will see you in our Father’s Kingdom!

 

 Read the entire load of crap here:  FAREWELL TO OUR WEBSITE FRIENDS

Ron Weinland: If You Live In LA Your Car May Not Work When Jesus Returns

Armstrongisms' biggest certified fool and false propeht is Ron Weinland who has predicted Jesus is returning in the wee hours of the 27th of May.   Just as the sun is setting on Saturday night May 26, Jesus needs to return to usher in Pentecost and the wrath of God on this earth.

His acolytes have apparently asked him if they could meet together to see Christ return.  He has not encouraged it and has told them that if they do, they need to be aware that their car may not start when Jesus returns. If you are in a big city waiting for Jesus you need to haul ass out as the city starts rioting and destruction reigns. If all hell is to start breaking loose what use would a car be? Will they need it to return when they see Ron is an epic failure, yet again?
 
Below is an excerpt from his sermon on the 19th than Bob Thiel has posted.

A lot of questions keep coming up because of where we are in time, and again, it’s an incredible thing thinking about where we are…

But questions have come up about the 26th and the 25th…and the 27th is pretty well set.  But we think of different times. We know that what’s going to happen is going to happen at Jerusalem time; not Australia, not New Zealand, although the day starts there as far as the world is concerned. As far as God is concerned it starts in Jerusalem and when Jesus Christ begins His return it’ll be at the end of the Sabbath before Pentecost comes, right at the very end. Don’t know exactly how it’s going to transpire but we believe those things, we understand those things. And so questions come up about different ones, because in… I don’t know what the time between here and Jerusalem is – one hour. So what is it, 7:30ish before Pentecost begins in Jerusalem, it’ll be 6:30ish – somewhere around there – on the Sabbath. You’ll be almost to the end of your Sabbath. In the States, in the eastern time zone it’s around 12:36. So anyway, people are thinking about what do we do on that day? And I’ve made some comments about whether or not to get together and as I had mentioned in the United States, we’re not going to have services in our normal locations, we’re going to have people pretty much stay in their own home areas. If some want to get together in some areas I’m not going to say you can’t. You have to decide for yourselves because wherever you go, as one example here, someone was asking about getting together on the 26th and wanted to ask about it, they said that some live 40-50 miles away and they were planning on getting together even that night of the 25th, and that’s fine. But please understand, those who live 40-50 miles away you may not get back… that’s Los Angeles. Your car may not work. I don’t know what’s going to happen and where it’s going to happen. It’s not going to be a nice time. We thought this could have started at the very beginning of what’s referred to as the ‘great tribulation’, understanding that’s about the Church now, far more so, which we’ve always understood, but as far as the world was concerned we haven’t understood fully because it’s in God’s timing, how He does it. And what’s going to take place, especially with Russia and China and what they finally do, it says they destroy a third of the earth. That’s very clear language. They destroy a third of all the earth. And the United States is not going to escape that, Great Britain is not going to escape that, Europe is not going to escape that. So there are some cities in some places that aren’t going to be a great place to be in some respects. That’s just the way it is. I don’t know where they are – God hasn’t told me those things – I’m not a fortune teller. Sometimes people think I should know everything – No, I don’t. God has given me an outline of prophetic things as far as the Bible is concerned; we have that outline that we’ve had for so long. How it’s going to all transpire…? We understand some of that as far as tribulation and what that means for us now. It’s going to be right up to the end. I understand. I understand more deeply now than ever before it can be in the last hour of the day!

Why don't any of the leaders of the hundreds of COG splinter cults speak out about this liar and fraud?  Why don't they expose his as the spiritual deviate he is?  They know for a fact that Ron's predictions will not happen, yet they sit by and do nothing.  Is it that they still consider him and his followers to be  part of the Church of God and are afraid to say anything bad about him?  Or, are they afraid that if they speak out publicly that their absurd predictions will be exposed?  By sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing  as he spouts these dangerous lies they implicate themselves. This is just more proof that there is no accountability in Armstrongism.  Never has been and never will be. 

Ron Weinland Exposed As Fraud On TV

New Book: The Fragmentation of a Sect: Schism in the Worldwide Church of God by David V Barrett

Click image to enlarge to see COG organizational splits

Not from Barrett's book.

David Barrett is coming out with a new book this December about the fragmentation of the Worldwide Church of God in the late 1990's into the numerous splinter groups that exist today.  Barrett's earlier book, The New Believers is an extraordinary look at the growth of new religions.  He wrote at that time about the rise of Scientology, Moonies, and a large section of the book on the Worldwide Church of God and it's evolution away from Armstrong teaching towards "mainstream" belief.

Description

In the mid-1930s an unsuccessful American advertising executive, Herbert W. Armstrong, founded a millenialist, Sabbatarian Christian sect with a heterodox theology. Over the next half century, despite a number of setbacks, scandals, criticisms, and attacks from former members and anti-cultists, Armstrong's organization, the Worldwide Church of God, grew to around 100,000 baptized members with a world circulation of between six and eight million for its flagship monthly magazine Plain Truth. In January 1986, Armstrong died. His successor changed most of the Church's distinctive doctrines, leading it towards an increasing convergence with mainstream Evangelical Christianity. This revision created a massive cognitive dissonance in ministers and members: should they accept or reject the authority of the Church leadership which had abandoned the authority of the founder's teachings? Groups of ministers left the religion to form new churches, taking tens of thousands of members with them. These schismatic churches in turn faced continuing schism, resulting in over 400 offshoot churches within little more than a decade.

In this major study David V. Barrett examines the processes involved in schism and the varying forms of legitimation of authority within both the original church and its range of offshoots, from hardline to comparatively liberal. His book extends the concepts of rational choice theory when applied to complex religious choices. More important, he offers a new typological model for categorizing how movements can change after their founders' death, including schism, and explores the usefulness of this model by applying it not only to the Worldwide Church of God, but also to a wide variety of other religions.

To preorder:  The Fragmentation of a Sect: Schism in the Worldwide Church of God by David V. Barrett

Are You "SAD" Because You Don't Believe In A Literal Adam and Eve?

E. W. King thinks so! You are such a sad lot of people!  You believe in UFO's and all kinds of beasties, but not in Adam and Eve.  So sad! Sad, Sad, Sad!  So really, really sad!

Those sad people….what will they think of next?

There are many who have decided that God is not powerful enough to create a literal Adam & Eve. They doubt every story in the Bible. Why? I call these people, “sad people”. This is so amazing. These people believe in extraterrestrials, flying saucers, gurus who can levitate and make things appear out of nowhere, etc yet they spit in God’s face.

Is King upset that people don't believe in Adam and Eve or the fact that he has been labeled a fundamentalist?  I think that is more of an issue to him than people questioning the Bible.

They think that this way they will sound much smarter than those “old fashion” fundamentalists. That word,… “Fundamentalist” …..hhhmmm. That word is not in the Bible. I guess this is a title that the “sad people” want to label true Christians with. It gives the sad people a sense of authority.
 

[I use the title, “Sad People” in response to their title, “fundamentalist”]

So what happens when you reject Adam and Eve? You turn into a pro-abortion gay drug user.

So now, let us look at how these poor sad people live, those who think that the Bible is make-believe. Some are homosexuals; some believe in abortion, some use drugs. 

Oh, and you watch American Idol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Sad!  So very very sad!

Hhhmmm. Again, these sad people who reject the Bible sit and read stories of Buddha, little fairies, make believe space aliens and watch American Idol. 

So what is there left for a poor non believer to do?  You cuss! You curse, and cuss, and curse.....

They think that their little pea brain has all the answers. Sad, sad people. They cuss and curse, they cheat and lie, they abuse their relationships and their bodies. This is the fact!

Once you have sunken to this low moral cesspool there is only one place left to go.  STARBUCKS!

Many of these types sit at coffee shops with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. They begin sentences like; “Yes, the mythological stories of all the religions are basically teaching the same thing. Oh, did you see the recent extraterrestrial documentary? The ET’s are watching us.” Sad, sad people. These fundamentally decadent people.

Then, after you have reached your caffeine high that is causing you to turn into an atheist, you have the moral dilemma to consider whether to go home and feed your dog or go to Burger King.  Such tough decisions!  Obviously, cussing coffee drinking gay abortionists can't make up their minds on what to do. Does one feed Rover or get a Whopper with cheese.

The subtlety of their theological errors is what I began to notice. Most of them are atheists. Doesn’t take much to start believing the wrong way. Doesn’t take much to swallow bad food, drugs and false doctrine. People just jump right in. They want to be with the crowd. It is so much safer in the “big group”. The perverted and doctrinally twisted herd. It’s like deciding: “Hhhhmm, should I feed the dog today or go to Burger King.”

There you have it folks!  The sad life of a questioning nonbeliever.

Those Sad People

Is Eric the 7th Messenger?

This is too dumb to pass up. 

Eric King (E.W. King) has written "A Song of Beauty to the Worldwide Church of God"

Eric feels that because of his awesome dudeness he may be the 7th witness/last messenger to the Church of God.  All of these endtime messengers are starting to get pretty ridiculous.  Just how many "witnesses" does the COG need now?  There is Meredith, Flurry, Pack, Cox, Weinland, UCG, COGWA, and many more who feel they are some kind of "special agent" here on earth to present some "special message" to the lost sheep of the COG.

Is Eric King the Seventh [last] Messenger? This free booklet has information not posted on this site or any other. It is a prophetic revelation! Who is the antitypical Cyrus, David and just who is the Seventh Messenger [angel]? 

The Church of God has crossed over to each new era. From the Ephesus to the Smyrna, from the Smyrna to the Pergamos, from the Pergamos to the Thyatira, from the Thyatira to the Sardis, from the Sardis to the Philadelphia, and from the Philadelphia to the seventh and last…the Laodicean. Each church era had a faithful angel [messenger] which helped it cross into the next phase. Herbert W. Armstrong was the sixth messenger in the sixth church age. Who is the Seventh Messenger? It is this Seventh Messenger who is to give the Church “meat in due season”. [Matthew 24:45-47] I am speaking the Truth!

Can these buffoons just give it a rest?

 

Legalistic Religion Ruined My Life: Lonely Man Today

A blog entry Saturday on Experience Project: I am a Loner

That realization came to me after months of honest in depth bible study . I felt that I had to leave the church.  The church had been my only family and all my friends were in the church. My own real family had abandoned me years earlier. When I left KY to go to Pasadena CA, for years I went by and nobody from my family bothered to call and check up on me. I could have been dead all those years and they would not have even known.

Anyway back to Worldwide Church of God.  Sometime around 1989 I decided to leave the church. I was living in Milwaukee WI at the time. When I left my phone stopped ringing. Nobody invited me over anymore. It was as though I had died. None of the church members kept in touch with me.  My real family had abandoned me earlier and now my only friends from church now left me alone. I was living in Milwaukee, no family and now no friends. It was tough. I had never been alone before. I grew up in a family of 8. Never knew what it was like to be alone. Now I was all alone. 

Complete story here: Legalistic Religion Ruined My Life: Lonely Man Today

Are You A Wicked Divorcee?

The apostate apostle has this word for warning for anyone who has been divorced in the Church of God.

The wicked party who will abandon and not reconcile with their mate is to be cast out of the assembly and is to be accounted anathama from Christ; and to be considered as dead in trespass and sins.

We are now living in a time of extreme apostasy and great falling away from God and his commandments. Let every abandoned law keeper remain unmarried until we are in the place of God’s preparation.

Let those already living in a state of adultery by the word of Christ; repent and live a chaste celebate life from this time forward. Let these things be worked out in the wllderness based on who goes and is faithful to God and his commandments; and who is faithless and remains behind to die. James

Sounds like another reason to avoid Petra.  With all these angry divorced people fighting over who gets to stay and who will be cast out the narrow gate, it sounds like one hellish place to be!

Apostate Malm: God Does Not Listen To Sinners Prayers and Will OK Polygamy Soon

The apostate apostle has this to say about prayer and multiple wives.  God does not listen to prayers of sinners and God will allow polygamy after the tribulation because of the shortage of males.  Apparently killed off in one of Malm's wars.


An acolyte of the apostate apostle writes:

Do you think that God is involved in the marriages
of the unconverted or just those in the church.
Lets say like someone in the jungles of Borneo. I think that is the way the church used to see it or maybe they changed it.
Thank You

The apostate apostle responds:

In personal matters God is directly involved mainly in the affairs of his called and hears not the prayers of sinners. Of course his intention is that each man have his one wife. Even that is occasionally loosed by God in mercy, to help in some situations; for example immediately after the tribulation, polygamy will be allowed for a short time due the the shortage of males. is 4:1.
Those who say that the innocent mate must be made to suffer for the sins of the guilty in departing; have lost sight of the law of mercy and the genuine ox in the ditch.
marriage is until death, and the mate who departs from the faith and from their mate is indeed a walking dead person. James

BREAKING SPECULATION: Apostle Malm: 70% Chance Tribulation Will Begin Late This Year

You would think that apostle Malm would keep his mouth shut, consider the soon coming failure of Ron Weinlands end time predictions.  However, apostate apostle Malm considers himself to be more informed and more in tune with God than Weinland or most of the splinter group leaders.

Today he made some more predictions well informed speculations on what will soon be happening.  He wants to make it clear that this is NOT a prediction, but a WELL INFORMED speculation.

Events and trends in the Middle East  are now becoming much clearer and the following scenario is certainly possible.  Events could happen in many different ways.  This is NOT a prediction; it is a reasonable informed speculation based on present information and trends.

I still say that there is at least a 70% chance that the tribulation will begin late this year.

I can guarantee you 100% that apostate Malm is a liar and nothing will happen at the end of this year regarding the end times.

Here is the scenario apostate Malm sees leading up to this tribulation:

Israel has a history of taking action behind other major media events.  For example they entered Gaza killing several people to trigger the last major Gaza war on the last US presidential election day.

This predilection makes the idea that they would use the July 28-Aug 12 London Olympics to act against Gaza and keep that story on the back pages seem quite reasonable.

Speculating that they would move against the Gaza militants during the London Olympics and be ready to move forces North by mid August;  one could almost expect an allied ultimatum or attack on Syria around late August. 

These events set up the possibility of an international peace conference in conjunction with the UN General Assembly meetings in the third week of Sep.  With a new pope set up in Rome on or near 16 Sep and calling for a new order in Europe which has already been prepared and is ready to be established.

Last Sermon of Ron Weinland

Ron Weinland preached his last sermon before the end of the world today.  You would have thought Ron would have instructed his loyal followers on how to deal with the horrendous events to soon unfold.  You would have thought how he would have given them comforting words when they know their relatives and friends will all be killed in the fires of Armageddon.  You would have thought there would be comforting words on how God was going to protect them as members, and to persevere because "...we all know how it works out in the end."

So what do you think Ron was talking about today in his sermon?  Litterbugs!  Litterbugs tick him off!  WTH?

Doesn't he realize the blazing fires of nuclear holocaust and Armageddon will burn up all that litter?  The end of the world is happening in a little over 7 days and Weinerdude is worried about litter.

ht:  Dennis

When Church of God Prophecy Fails

Here is a great article detailing what went on in the minds of Harold Camping's followers when the end times did not happen according to Camping's predictions.  The ironic thing about this article is that Bob Thiel posted excerpts on his blog about this.  Thiel obviously does not have the brains to see that this article is talking about himself and how he defends the false prophecies of Rod Meredith and Herbert Armstrong.  Hundreds and hundreds of false prophecies, predictions, and baseless speculations have been uttered over the years by these men and yet there are lemmings that refuse to look at all the errors and defend these men as "men of God."

Ron Weinland's cult will be the next to experience this.  Then it will be Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, David Hulme, and  myriad of others who open their mouths and make statements that never come to pass.

A Year After the Non-Apocalypse: Where Are They Now? A reporter tracks down the remnants of Harold Camping’s apocalyptic movement and finds out you don’t have to be crazy to believe something nuts.

“God’s Not Going to Let Us Down”
Some believers stayed up all night. They watched TV or sat in front of their computers, hitting refresh on their browsers, confident that reports of a massive earthquake originating near New Zealand would soon appear. Other believers went to sleep, assuming that they would awaken in the presence of the almighty.

When the sun rose on May 21, they were taken aback. Maybe it would happen at noon. When noon passed, they settled on 6 p.m. When that came and went, some thought it might happen at midnight. Or perhaps it wouldn’t happen until May 21 was over everywhere on the planet. “It will still be May 21st in American Samoa (last time zone before the International Date Line),” someone posted on Latter Rain, an online forum for believers.

By Sunday morning, new theories were floated. “It was God’s plan to warn people. It was His purpose to hide the true meaning behind May 21. It’s about us suffering what He went through,” a believer commented. One hypothesis had it that three days would elapse before the actual rapture, just like the three days between Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Someone else wondered if it might be seven days considering that seven is a holy number, or forty, the same amount of time Noah was forced to sail around with a boatload of animals.
When those deadlines passed, another narrative took shape. What happened was a test. God knew that believers would be mocked when He failed to return on the assigned date. Would believers hold firm or would they allow the jeers of the world to weaken their resolve? The Lord was separating the wheat from the chaff, they liked to say, paraphrasing Matthew 3:12. It helped that Camping, before he vanished from the airwaves, had seemed to endorse this view.

When a prophecy fails, it’s crucial that a group’s leaders provide an alternate explanation of what happened, or what didn’t happen, according to Lorne Dawson, a professor of sociology at the University of Waterloo, who has studied apocalyptic sects. “The followers of the group are so heavily invested that they have tremendous incentive to accept these rationalizations,” he said. But the revised story needs to be issued rapidly—wait too long and your followers will fall away.

United Church of God: What's Wrong With This List?

Look at the list of names below and see what you can see out of the ordinary.  These are the men making the decisions in UCG.

• Doctrine Committee: Scott Ashley, Bill Bradford, John Elliott, Darris McNeely, Don Ward and Bob Berendt as chairman.
• Ethics Committee: Carmelo Anastasi, Gary Antion, Mark Mickelson, Robin Webber and Mario Seiglie as chairman.
• Education Committee: Scott Ashley, Gary Antion, John Elliott and Don Ward as chairman.
• Media Committee:  Carmelo Anastasi, Scott Ashley, Bill Bradford, Mario Seiglie and Darris McNeely as chairman.
• Strategic Planning Committee: Bill Bradford, Mark Mickelson and Robin Webber as chairman.
• Roles and Rules: Carmelo Anastasi, Bob Berendt, John Elliott, Mark Mickelson and Gary Antion as chairman.

What's that? You see nothing out of the ordinary? You are correct.

It is 2012, well over 15 years since all of these men were WCG employees kicking people out of the Church for not following Tkach's new teaching.

Fifteen years later and these very same men are STILL in charge. No new blood has entered the picture.

The same corrupt power structure is still running UCG.

It's no wonder the UCG is losing members and not growing.

Is anyone on that list under the age of 50? Where is the new blood coming up through the ranks with new ideas and new focus?

UCG is aging out, like all the other 700 some harlot daughters of Armstrongism.

Larry McElroy's Magical "god" Only Heals In Restored Church of God

Larry McElroy, apparently back from his reeducation camp stay, has written another article about the mighty and magnificent Restored Church of God.  Healings—Why Only in The Restored Church of God     Yet again, he has opened his mouth and made a royal fool of himself.

Dave has been telling all the various COG's that his little group is the most important, most magnificent, most technologically advanced, prints better magazines, and has more money than any other COG out there.  God oblivious is dwelling in Wadsworth, Ohio.  Because god is only working through Dave in Wadsworth, it is only natural that healing can only occur under Dave.

God’s “benefit package” includes healing of diseases that befall brethren, especially in the end time. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from destruction; Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies” (Psa. 103:2-4). How many of God’s people have forgotten His promises? Forgotten His benefits? When you consider all of God’s benefits, He truly is the ultimate “Health Maintenance Provider” all should look to in times of physical distress due to poor health and the need for healing.

While scores of millions need healing, how many are ever healed? How many look to God for healing? How many of His people today seek Him for healing? Those in the Restored Church of God DO look to God. Many dramatic healings take place in the Body of Christ, which is teaching the full truth of the Bible. The remainder of this posting will explain why God is healing individuals in His Church and almost no one in any of the splinters. (emphaisis mine)

McElroy writes about several "healing" that have supposedly occurred in his cult.

These dramatic miracles occur for a reason. Mr. Pack writes in the “Fruits” letter, “Healings are only one of many kinds of miracles we see in God’s Church on a regular basis, miracles that God’s enemies cannot gainsay.” But again why are there healings and other miracles in The Restored Church of God?

Then he states something that all RCG members had better take note of.  If Dave says it, you had better believe it and NOT qwquestion it.  Otherwise you will NEVER be healed!

God’s Church teaches the full truth of the Bible. It is the “pillar and ground” of the truth (I Tim. 3:15). God’s people are required to OBEY ALL TRUTH without compromise. Obedience includes commandments, doctrines, sayings of Christ and traditions set in the Church by apostles. These purify us: “Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth…” (I Pet. 1:22).

So what happens when you get sick?:  You are sick because you are a grievous sinner!  You have sinned some great sin that causes you to be sick. Healthy people apparently are sin free.  How depressing is that!

Also, fewer and fewer ministers taught the doctrine of healing—taught that God is our healer! Most of these men did not tell people that sickness was caused by physical sin—violating God’s principles of health. Many of these negligent ministers now lead the splinters and it should come as no surprise that they are SILENT on God being our Healer and “health maintenance provider.”

The deviate teachings continue with a subtle wranning that if you disobey God you will get sick!  It's your fault!

So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” God’s Church teaches the gospel and the doctrine of healing—and God’s promises in this regard. It also teaches how to acquire faith. Brethren must hear the FULL truth to develop faith sufficient to trust God for healing. Individuals who are doing their part to obey the gospel and trust God in faith can EXPECT God to intervene for them! Healings take place where God’s ministry is teaching His Word regarding faith and healing, and the brethren take heed and implement that teaching.

If you dare to question or ignore the holey writ from Dave and crew then you are damning yourself to a life of sickness and disease.

Did you know that the  government of the Church is the healer.  That's a new concept for me. God only heals through the proper chain of command.  God is apparently to stupid and weak to just pop down and heal a person out of the blue that has never kept a legalistic law in his life.  Instead, Dave's god has to heal through a governmental power structure.

All of you COGgers in the various splinter group had better beware! You cannot and never will be healed because you are following heretical idiots who do not preach government.

Splinter groups do not have God’s government in their organizations—none of them! Properly ordained elders and ministers who have the authority of Jesus Christ are NECESSARY to administer the healing doctrine:

Understanding the LEGITIMATE government of God is critical to understanding why healings take place within the Body of Christ.

“Government is everything,” as Mr. Herbert Armstrong stated. Healing is, in essence, a government function within the Church..

Dave also is the sole heir of the apostolic chruch tradition.  God only is working through Dave because Dave was ordained under HWA.

During the 20th century, a unique individual trained by Christ came to lead the Philadelphian era of God’s Church—Herbert W. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong was an apostle, as well as the end-time Elijah that came to restore all things to the Church (Matt. 17:11). The fruit of his 52-year ministry involved MANY healings and mighty deeds, including the largest Work of God ever seen on Earth.

In the 21st century, Mr. David Pack leads God’s Work. The fruit of that Work includes many dramatic healings and miracles—and the gospel being taken powerfully to all nations. Apostolic authority is in place in God’s true Church—“mighty deeds” and signs such as miraculous healings will continue to occur in The Restored Church of God.

But never fear, God may just slip up and heal you outside the RCG, but only on the condition that you immediately join the one and only true chruch, the Restored Church of God.

 Here is another great reason for healings occurring in The Restored Church of God and nowhere else: The Bible lists healing as a gift given within the Body of Christ. Notice this: “Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that…gifts of healings…” (I Cor. 12:27-31). While God may on rare occasion choose to heal someone outside the Body of Christ, for the purpose of getting their attention and bringing them back to the Body, healings as a whole occur ONLY WHERE JESUS CHRIST IS HEAD!

Dennis on: "Oh God! No!"

"Oh God!  No!"

He had fallen into the now abandoned and half full of rainwater family swimming pool unnoticed.  The pool had not been used for some time due to financial reverses in the family company which saw them lose many of the material acquisitions of better days now gone by.  When he went missing and a search was made for the boy, they missed him in the first check of the now muddied swimming pool.  Having run out of places to look, they looked again and found him drowned in the murky pool. 

When they weren't looking other relatives washed the muddy hand prints all around the water line off before the parents could see them....  That image has always stayed with me. It also made me wonder what kind of a God could sit idly by and watch, if one does watch, this horror unfold.

It was another of many "Oh God! No!" moments in my ministry.  Those phone calls are tough and the initial minutes arriving at the home is usually chaos.  I have made any number of such return trips to a church family home in the immediate hours after such unthinkable personal family losses.  I have had to restrain the arms of a parent attempting to beat on me while they screamed "Why!!!  Why us?"   I learned to just hold on and the aggression would soon turn into a total collapse into my arms of weeping at a deep deep level most never want to discover in themselves.  It is almost primitive.  Next would follow a listing of sins or faults such as knowing they did not pray as much as they should or attend church as often as they must.  All in the name of finding a reason for two things.  1. What bad things have I done to deserve this?  2. Why did God not protect my son or daughter, as clearly written he would,  in such a time as this?

On one other such horrific occasion, I had just left the home visiting before the twin teenage girls loved by all got off from school.  The Twins were the center of moms world and even though they had a son, it was the Twins, both beautiful and precious that seemed to get all the attention.  On that visit the thought crossed my mind, "I hope she never has to lose one of these girls for it would be too much to bear."  I drove home and arrived for the phone call from the mom.  The one Twin had been hit by a car crossing the road to get to her Burger King job.  I said I'd meet her at the hospital.  When I walked in I was greeted by a Zombie who took my hand and said she'd take me to see her.  As we walked thru the basement I realized what I had not been told.  We were going to the morgue.  We walked in an there she lay in her Burger King outfit.  Beautiful and not a mark on her.  She was gone.  She was dead.  Those minutes seemed like hours as we just stood there and then the typical hell broke lose in that morgue and the screams were,  "Oh God!  No!"  Where were you!"

I had no answer and didn't try.  I held her when she collapsed and eventually buried her daughter in the Prom dress she had bought for the YOU prom that weekend. It was odd to see her living exact twin standing next to her casket.  The picture kinda sticks with you...  I believe the family left the church in a short time and became Mormons. 

It was VERY COMMON for the bereaved family to LEAVE the Church to seek solace elsewhere.  VERY COMMON...almost expected.  In one case that happened under my watch but I was transferred out of the area at the same time, the minister following finally told the family "It's been six months now.  It's time to get over it."  I remember being absolutely enraged at that fool.  The family left the Church to seek actual and not non-encouraging encouragement in short order.   Can you blame them?

I have a number more such events that all contain that element of "Oh God!  No!"  With many of those behind me as pastoring went on I always thought how ridiculous it was when someone told me how God healed them from a cold or the flu or helped them pass a gall or kidney stone.  "Luck of the draw.." I tended to tell myself.

"Mystic and writer Amos Komensky, who lived during the 17th century, wrote that God assigns guardian angels to help protect children “against all dangers and snares, pits, ambushes, traps, and temptations.” But adults get the benefit of guardian angels’ protection, too, says the Book of Enoch, which is included in the holy scriptures of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. 1 Enoch 100:5 declares that God will “set a guard of holy angels over all the righteous.” The Quran says in Al Ra'd 13:11: "For each [person], there are angels in front of him and behind him, who guard him by Allah's command."    (Whitney Hopler)

Scriptures to skip during the funeral...

Matthew 18:10

¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

Hebrews 1:14

¹⁴ Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation

Psalm 91

¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

³ Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹ If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation. ”

 

Concepts and Non-encouraging encouragement NOT to bring up to the family.

 

"God promises not to give you more than you can bear."

 

Answer to this 100% of the time.  "I can't bear this...

"At least you will see them in the Kingdom if you remain faithful"

 

Answer to this 100% of the time. "I want them home tonight for dinner."

"At least God has blessed you with other children"

 

Answer to this 100% of the time.  "Please don't say that...."

"God lost his only Son as well and understands ...."

 

Answer to this 100% of the time.  "No, God knew his Son would die and be back in three short days better than ever.  That was a weekend inconvenience.  My child is DEAD!"   (Usually this can be followed by..."A sacrifice should STAY dead to be a real sacrifice.")

"God does not think as we do in such cases."

 

Answer 100% of the time.  "Then don't tell me He understands what human is!"

"God's ways are not our ways."

 

Answer 100% of the time.  "Then He shouldn't promise to do things the way we understand in only our way or talk in spirit codes"

 

"There is a way that SEEMS right to us, but it ends in death..."

 

Answer 100% of the time.  "Then I don't understand this God, never will and am not sure I want to.

 

Like Job getting back ten brand spanking new children from God after the loss of the original ten, it just seems this God doesn't understand how these things work for humans.  We generally don't want another child replace the lost one.  We want THAT ONE BACK!" 

The apologetics for God are typical in such cases.

" We have looked at God’s sovereignty and how important that truth is. Because if I am not convince that God is sovereign, then His promises will mean nothing to me. In fact I might even observe that God doesn’t keep His promises because my understanding of God is superimposed with my experience with man. Man fails, doesn’t keep promises and really has no power to ensure that any promise is kept. We wrongly transfer those weaknesses of man onto God, but God is not limited as man is. He is perfect love, complete, lacking nothing. The promises of God are identical with His character, to us as temporal beings, they are a revelation of the character of the Most High."

(If God promises to protect us, why doesn't He?-Crave Christian Apologetics)

 

Which being interpreted is...see above for encouragement that is not encouraging..

 

And more...

"We can give thanks to God for his protection by angels.  We never worship angels.  We worship Jesus (God).  God created the angels before Adam and Eve were made.  Some of the angels did not obey God and decided to follow the worst angel of all, Satan.  He is very bad.  He is a real and powerful angel that was so bad God threw him and the bad angels (demons) out of heaven.  You have a good angel that loves and obeys God that is watching over you.  Satan, the bad angel, tries to get us to do bad things.  But since Jesus created him, Jesus is stronger than Satan (the Devil ).  Jesus will protect us and use His angels to protect us from harm because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)(ChildrenSermons.com  Angels Watching Over Me)

 

It simply isn't true or if it is true it is so in way that makes the scriptures on such things meaningless. 

 

I never had a good answer for this.  I had good apologetics where no matter what the Bible actually said, it could be denied, altered or tweeked in such ways as to absolve the author or God from it actually meaning what it said.  The Bible is like that as are humans who , no matter what, can't imagine the advice or promise is really lame and unrealistic in real earthly experience.

 

Perhaps it would be better to just admit that in life, "shit happens." How many have been dis-illusioned when the SHTF in life becasue of what seemed so quaint and nice in scripture actually proved to be of no value in reality? Dis-ILLUSIONED is actually a good thing however painful.  Reality is actually our friend if we can face it instead of ignore it, try and end run around it or turn around and run.

 

I have buried a lot of children and young people. All flower shops smell like funeral homes to me. Well meaning, Bible reading Christians often cause more harm than good with their unrealistic and sometimes smug one liners of encouragement, as if they knew.  Please, please think before you open your mouth in shallow assertions about the why of such events or think that the many Biblical references in such cases meant to be encouraging are actually encouraging.   When push comes to shove, they seldom deliver and drive those caught up in harsh reality further from you. 

 

Most people can only offer sympathy.  Sympathy is imagining what others might be going through but one has no personal experience with what they are actually going through.  Empathy is knowing what people are going through because you have actually gone through the same thing and lived to tell about it.  Don't quote the Bible flippantly thinking it will help.  It doesn't and it won't.  Or if it ever does, that time is years ahead when the person has at least survived long enough for the memory of it all to dull. 

 

Conscious human beings are sensitive to these loses. We are not animals that can discard their dead in the bushes and walk away.  Encouragement should actually be encouraging to one who is discouraged.  Often times in fundamentalism, it is not.  Wise up and hope we choose our words carefully when "Oh God! No!"  comes to call...

Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com