Dennis On: "It is Appointed Unto All Men Once to Die...."

It is Appointed Unto All Men Once to Die....

 

One of the hallmark traits of the COGs is that somehow "we" are unique to the history of humans dying.  When I was a pastor, I taught the "we who are alive and remain," concept.  It was very nice knowing that of all the times in history where humans have come and gone by dying, I was NOT going to have to experience that.  Of course, that was bullshit.

 

EVERY COG minister teaches and inspires by telling the faithful that they are unique in the history of mankind and will not have to die.  We live in "awesome" times.  We are the special, the chosen  those who will not have to die as billions have before us.  We will be changed, and "in the moment, a twinkling of an eye," shall be changed. 

 

Of course, Paul was very very wrong.  The Apostle Paul, 2000 years ago, 2000 YEARS!, was wrong.  He finally had to give in to , "I have fought a good fight..." etc, but he was toast.  He had told others to think "time was short," but had to finally admit it wasn't. 

 

Much of the motivation behind the COG "time is short," is the absolute fear of death.  Everyone dies.  If you agree to show up, you agree to leave.  I would love to think that somehow I was living in a time and in touch in such a way as to never die.  I'd love to think that , "we shall not all die, but we all shall change, in a moment, in a twinking of the eye.."  but, alas, we do all die.

 

The idea that humans  can know the future is terribly flawed.  Prophecy makes us feel as if we are special and not subject to the common fate of all those before us.  The COG guru's teach as if they will not die and will live over into some kind of amazing change not common to men.  But they are wrong. 

 

Roderick C Meredith will die before Jesus returns.  David C Pack, will die before Jesus return.  Gerald Flurry will die before Jesus returns.  Joseph Tkach will die before Jesus returns.  Ron Weinland will die before Jesus returns.  We ALL will die as it is the nature of agreeing to show up! 

 

In hindsite, I realize I wanted to be special.  I wanted to be excluded from the common experience of all human beings before me.  I wanted to feel special as to being called of God.  I wanted to feel that I was among those that would not die but would be "changed."   The reality is that no one is special and that all of us will die.

 

How motivational is the idea that "you won't die as others,"  But it is a lie.  The Apostle Paul spent a few years thinking he was special in this regard.  He said, "we who are alive shall be changed," yet ultimately had to admit he was wrong.  He finally had to admit he had fought a good fight, finished his course and was going to die. 

 

Dying sucks.  But it is what ALL humans experience.  There is no way out of this biological demise.  Cells can only replicate so many times and old age is a function of the failure of cells to do this efficiently.  All life form get about the the same number or breaths.  A mouse lives about 3 years and breathes about the same number of times as a human does in 70 years.  An elephant that live 125 years breathes about the same number of times as a human at 70 years.  Life and cells last only so long.

 

So give up the idea that some COG minister can get you out of this experience.  Dying is good for our soul.  We are not, then we are, then we are not.  That's how it works.  Fighting it is futile.  Thinking that some church or religious view can free us from this reality is vain. 

 

Jesus died.  The Apostles died.  The Apostle Paul, who thought he'd not die, died. All gurus died.  HWA died.  GTA died.  Gerald Waterhouse died. Raymond McNair died.  All will die is just how it is. 

 

Learn to live now as now is all you have.  Don't give in to the "just around the corner," or "soon" types.  Reject them. Live your life in the now. Enjoy and learn as you go. 

 

The whole idea that those in the COG "know" how it all will be are wrong.  They are afraid of dying just like everyone before them and misuse the Bible to get them off the hook. 

 

NO ONE gets off the hook.  Live in the now.  Forget the past and do not speculate into the future for you will probably be wrong. 

 

Amen.

 

Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com

 

COG Splinter Cult Leader Hates Abraham Lincoln

Several years ago when the alt.wcg-newsgroup was functioning there was a group of people who jumped on it proclaiming that a new  leader for the Churches of God had emerged. His name was Neville Stevens and his new Church was Zion Ministries.  Stevens was a former COG member who went off the deep end. Despite that, he had a small group (less than 20) people who clung to every word he said.  If you thought the worship of HWA was bad, worship of Stevens and his words was even worse.

Neville in all his glory

Stevens had his followers wrapped up with the idea that they would be the instruments of God that would help usher in the tribulation.  They would be used as bearers of swords that would kill all who opposed Neville and the COG.  Many of them bragged about carrying swords to kill those who opposed the COG.

They would threaten and bully anyone who disagreed with them. They would have all kinds of names they would call people. They were and still are nasty people.  Yet through that nastiness they thought they were the most perfect COG members and Christians who ever walked the face of the earth.

Steven's writes are incredibly long and incredibly boring.  If you ever had any contact with Tony Almo's nutjob cult and the flyer's they placed on car windows you will quickly see the same writing style from Stevens.

Looking through one of his latest entries today, I saw the following from him about Abraham Lincoln.

A prime example would be the United States of America, though it wasn’t called a civil war, but the War of Independence.  It began as a challenge to the ruling body – which was the English Crown.  This war, believe it or not, was a fulfillment of Bible Prophecy.  What emerged was a nation which became the best that human beings could devise.  It was a Christian nation and it was established on a system of law and order, with clearly defined parameters so that everyone knew what the law required of them, along with suitable penalties for anyone who failed to comply.  The presiding government, including the President himself, would be appointed by the people and for the people, and they could easily be thrown out of office according to the will of the people.  The checks and balances were complete, and the nation prospered – at least until the other war, the Civil War of 1860.  This was the most insane period of America’s history.  And it all began when one man wanted absolute power over the states, and the maniac went to war against his own people!  But some form of justice prevailed in the end.  Thank you, John Wilkes Booth!  Well done!  God considers those who kill their own people to be satanic: Isa 14:19-20 “Like a corpse trampled underfoot, ²⁰ you (Satan) will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and killed your people.  The offspring of the wicked [one], (that is Satan) will never be mentioned again.”  I prefer not to mention Abraham Lincoln either!  By a bizarre coincidence, Lincoln’s body was not buried either, but later dumped in some sort of mausoleum, and covered with scrap wood, from where it was stolen – though later recovered.  Finally, years later, they put it in a hole and covered it with a concrete slab in a new mausoleum (the old one had started to collapse).  I don’t know of any other President whose body was subjected to so much bizarre humiliation and interment disruption!  It seems to be telling us something!  You may have your own opinion, but personally, I don’t like the man!  I can think of no good reason why God would’ve either.  The deaths of 620,000 Americans, plus an undetermined number of seriously wounded, should be enough to condemn any man who wages war against his own people.

So why is he pissed at Lincoln.  Part of Stevens problem is his clinging to the British Israelism baloney.  Blacks were less than and inferior beings compared to the British Israelite peoples.  So any man who went to war to stop slavery is despicable in their eyes, just as many in Armstrongism still think to this day.



Stevens then goes on to tell why the US is in such bad shape.....we refused to obey King George!

What proved to be unique about the American system of government is the absence of a royal or kingly line.  After getting rid of King George III, they didn’t want another king.  This too, turned out to be prophetic:  Hos 3:4-5 “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice (there’s no religious sacrifices conducted in America) or sacred stones (As a matter of fact, they don’t worship ‘The Rock’ either), without ephod (Levitical priestly robes) or idol 

Then after a long tirade he gets into the meat of his message.  His followers and the TRUE followers of God will be lifting up swords to kill all heretics and blasphemers:

On top of this, the Order of Aaron takes a new role.  They must now be warrior priests in the Order of Melchizedek.  This is the New Order that is spoken of.  Elijah and the Levite Brotherhood are of this caliber, and they are prepared to fight for God’s Kingdom.  The enemy is already at work fighting to take the Kingdom by trying to expel the Jewish Israelis.  Does any rational person believe that God won’t order retaliation when the Kingdom of God is imminent?  With formidable odds against His servants the imbalance will be redressed.  Just to remind the reader of what this means, God has made it very clear: Zech 12:8-9 “On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David (Wasn’t David a mighty warrior?), and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them. ⁹ On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.”  Don’t expect to see the Sons of Jerusalem walking around in prayer shawls and praying on street corners.  Or holding prayer meetings in the public places and calling on the Muslims to repent!  It will be far too late for any of that sort of thing, and the Sons of Jerusalem will be preoccupied elsewhere clearing the borders!

Of all the crackpot splinter cults of Armstrongism this one has the potential to cause harm to others outside the cult.  They despise Muslims and claim to be ready to go to any length to kick them out of Jerusalem and Israel.

COG False Prophet Indicted On Tax Evasion Charges

It's another fun day in Paradise!  Another corrupt, lying false prophet of Armstrongism has been charged with another crime.

It is none other than our illustrious Wienerdude himself!

Ron Weinland has been indicted with federal charges for tax evasion for failing to report over $356,000 in income.  He is accused of using the money on himself instead of his "church."

Cincinnati.com is reporting:

Ronald Weinland, 62, of Union evaded $357,065 in taxes from 2004 through 2008, according to a federal indictment.


The minister understated his income, used church money for personal expenses and tried to hide the existence of a Swiss bank account., said a spokesman for Kerry B. Harvey, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Weinland also allegedly failed to report any interest made on that Swiss account as income.

Weinerdude Weinalnd's splinter cult is a harlot daughter of The Living Church of God.  Weinerdude also thinks he is a prophet capable of predicting the end times (just like Harold Camping).  So far every word that has come out of his mouth has been a lie.

Long ago he declared himself one of the two witnesses. But because he as so few followers he needed another sidekick to be the other 'witness", so he appointed his wife.  So together he and the Mrs. make up the Two Witnesses who will be sent out as a warning to the world and then murdered in the streets of Jerusalem only to be resurrected in 3 1/2 days.

Sadly this FOOL is only one in a long line of liars and frauds that make up the so called "ministry" of Armstrongism.  The corrupt nature of Weinland is also carried over into the corrupt leaders of the various harlot daughters of the Worldwide Church of God.  It is only a matter of time fore these other fools make the headlines.

More on the story here:  Boone Co. Minister Indicted On Tax Charges

Local Minister Idicated On Tax Evasion

REAL Men Only Wear White Shirts To Church

Some of the legalistic stupidity that occupy the conservative Armstrongites is simply mind boggling.  This was sent to me by a person on a Yahoo forum.

Can you imagine having to live on this person's world in the World Tomorrow?  Oy! His world is going to be filed with so many signs, rules and regulations that life will be a living hell!  People will probably throw themselves into the lake of fire just to end the misery!

There are some who had brought out about that in regards to skirt length, hair length, ect.. Common sense should prevail. I wonder how many of you remember how that Mr. Armstrong had instructed his ministers that they must wear white shirts with full length sleeves instead of colored shirts. It is my opinion that all men should come before God in white shirts for proper dress, though that is my personal opinion. You see salesmen all week long in colored dress shirts, but on the Sabbath, should be white, (just my personal opinion)!!  Of course today it`s the women who are the salesmen with their pants suits, which is even now being permitted for women`s Sabbath wear!!!!

The COG fashion police are letting their standards down. Herb also wanted to see men in french cuff shirts with red ties.  Red power ties let everyone, women and weaker men know who is in charge.  Weak sissy men wear colored shirts - probably pink or yellow and probably never graduated from Spokesmen Club.

He also seems to forget that Spanky Meredith said that real men wear white socks with their dark suits.  Black socks for dark suits were created by homosexuals to feminize men.

Spanky Meredith thinks he is  the worlds greatest authority on effeminate men and fashion. 

So when you REAL men attempt to wear a pink shirt to church this is the reason why you have been feminized:

May God help you to realize that this problem of effeminate men is not concerned just with weak, "queer" characters in some other part of your town or city. It is a thing affecting MILLIONS of American men of all ages and backgrounds! Our very SURVIVAL as a nation is directly affected by this vital problem! As the above report so vividly points out, the American man is just plain WEAK!

And the sickening TRUTH is that these soft, MARSHMALLOW-like men very easily turn to HOMOSEXUALITY and become "queers" in every sense of the word. They are neither MEN nor WOMEN— they are a wretched, PERVERTED "it"!

That's why they are "softies." They are completely UNLIKE the pioneer men of yesteryear who were constantly walking, chopping down trees, plowing behind a team of horses, working and DRIVING their way through the wilderness and over obstacles! Unless, alas, they are already too old or have heart trouble or some similar condition, American men need to exercise vigorously and really SWEAT. They need to feel their blood stirred up and get the male hormones stirring in their system! They need to feel a firmness and hardness in their muscles, an agility and coordination in their body as a whole and a sense of ENDURANCE when the going gets rough. Even physically, they need to feel what it is like to be a MAN!

Satan is a "QUEER!" Your Bible speaks of him in this manner: "And the great dragon was cast out, chat old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which DECEIVETH THE WHOLE WORLD: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" (Rev. 12:9).

Why do we find the "leaders" in men's clothing styles trying to palm off on British and American males little "pink" shirts and socks and ties to wear, nylon under pants like females wear, and cute little bows and buttons and other childlike contrivances on their suits and sports outfits? Why? 

Sometimes reading his writing is like reading a porn novel!  "Blood stirred up, firmness, hardness, DRIVING, plowing, sweat and more  sweat."

What a stupid, stupid little man!

Prophet Wienerdude Declares "In 2 Months Endtimes Begins"

Forget about disgraced Congressman Wiener.  We have our own COG Wienerdude!  That is none other that Ronnie Weinland the failed prophet of Armstrongism.

Wienerdude has published a long missal to his acolytes declaring how magnificent he is as a prophet and how everything he has declared has come to pass (even though every single things has failed so far.)

Weinerdude says:

In two short months, the world will be thrust into the seventh and final phase of this end-time. This period will be marked by well over fifty percent of all Bible prophecy being fulfilled.

 God first revealed to His two end-time witnesses, His final two prophets that His Son would return to this earth in a second-coming as King of kings on May 27, 2012. That revelation gave way to numerous other revelations concerning end-time prophetic events. But anyone who hears of this, in the world or in the Church that was scattered, considers this to be absurd, presumptuous, arrogant, and filled with self- aggrandizement. Such was also true concerning the world’s behavior toward Jesus Christ at his first coming.

So God is speaking directly to Mr. & Mrs. Wienerdude?  How incredibly stupid can two people be?  Even worse, how incredibly stupid can those people who believe this filth can be!

The Apostle Says: Stop Sending Money To Your Sinful COG HQ!

Poor Herb just cannot get a break anymore.  Dissidents have picked at him for years. Ministers and members have rebelled.  Now the latest Apostle is claiming Herb started watering down the gospel and doctrines starting in the late 1960's.  Of course there is the proverbial bogey man that caused it - Stan Rader.  Rader caused HWA to slip further down that slippery slope into grievous sin.

The Apostle writes today:

You should also know that there was very little real difference between GTA and his father, Ted’s ouster was a political maneuver arranged by Stan Rader and come over Ted’s sexual problems rather than doctrine.  You should also know that the major COG Groups today only pay lip service to HWA and have actually made many changes to his positions.   In fact they SHOULD be willing  to grow and change and should have never paid lip service to him in the first place.  Instead they have paid lip service to him as if he were a god while continuing on the path of more and more doctrinal laxity and lukewarmness.

HWA was always all about the money and always ran the church as a business, and his way of dealing with the financial crisis was not to cut back on his friend Rader, but to loosen the baptismal requirements that he had been using before about 1969.  After that time a gradual loosening came about as first one thing and later another went by the wayside.  The fundamental requirement had always been loyalty to HWA so they were just loosening the degree of doctrinal understanding that they required.

That is to say, if they agreed with whatever HWA said than they were acceptable.  Herbert himself watered down doctrine greatly after the late 60 including such things as buying food and drink on Sabbath, traveling on Sabbath, attending pagan religious activities like christmas was allowed by him, he changed from one extreme to the other on D & R allowed birthdays etc etc.

In fact the Tkach changes were only the natural end result of HWAs process of becoming personally lukewarm for doctrine and zealous for numbers and money; into what the COG Groups now teach.

The Apostle is trying to warn the COG's that they are grievous sinners because they eat out on Saturdays, might watch some TV or go to the park.  Gone are the days of having to dress up in "sabbath wear" while at home whenever the broadcast came on.  Gone are the days eating cold leftovers on Saturdays when you got home from an incredibly long and boring church service. Gone are the days of having to eat dried beef sandwiches on stone ground whole wheat bread and carob cookies while during home on the long 150 mile trip.  Of course having to drive over 300 miles for church services was not considered a sin for some reason.

Today all the major groups pay lip service to the Sabbath as they routinely pollute it, by buying in restaurants, going on extensive travel and fudging on the Sabbath  and Holy Days

Disgusting sinners!  Vile reprobates!  You deserve to be thrown in the lake of fire! Filthy commandment breakers!

So how does the Apostle plan on stopping this grievous abuse of the sabbath?  He wants members to stop sending in money to these organizations.

These people are about M O N E Y and are lax on doctrine.  As long as people pay or contribute in other ways they will tolerate a great deal.  Stop contributing, or make waves so that others may be influenced and watch how quickly they act. 

While he doesn't say it, you can bet he wants that money sent to him so he can perform his mighty work of warning to the church!

All of this is enough to make me go out and buy a McRib on Saturday.  Might as well kill two birds with one stone......maybe that's three considering that money is going to a pagan business when it should have been sent to a True Church.

Does Gold Hoard Prove HWA Was Right!

Have you ever read a National Geographic article, looked at it's pictures and immediately found that it supported your understanding of Herbert Armstrong's teachings?  Most of us no longer do that, but there are still splinter cults of Armstrongism that look to these kinds of stories to legitimize their teachings.

The National Geographic has an article up about a hoard of gold and jewels that were discovered in a farmers field in Straffordshire England.  You can read the article here:  The Strattforshire Gold Hoard and see the fascinating pictures here:  Strattforshire Gold Hoard pictures

One day, or perhaps one night, in the late seventh century an unknown party traveled along an old Roman road that cut across an uninhabited heath fringed by forest in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. Possibly they were soldiers, or then again maybe thieves—the remote area would remain notorious for highwaymen for centuries—but at any rate they were not casual travelers. Stepping off the road near the rise of a small ridge, they dug a pit and buried a stash of treasure in the ground.

For 1,300 years the treasure lay undisturbed, and eventually the landscape evolved from forest clearing to grazing pasture to working field. Then treasure hunters equipped with metal detectors—ubiquitous in Britain—began to call on farmer Fred Johnson, asking permission to walk the field. "I told one I'd lost a wrench and asked him to find that," Johnson says. Instead, on July 5, 2009, Terry Herbert came to the farmhouse door and announced to Johnson that he had found Anglo-Saxon treasure.

I guess when an Armstrongite sees the words. "Anglo-Saxon, he immediately thinks of HWA and his British Israelism myth that he plagiarized from "Judah's Scepter Joseph's Birthright", by JH Allen.  This book and Dugger and Dodd's, "The History of the True Religion" were important WCG "historical" documents when I came to Pasadena.

The History of the True Religion was used to legitimize HWA's standing as an ordained minister who was supposedly in direct lineage from a long line of "true ministers" from the time of the Apostles.  JH Allen's book was used to legitimize the existence of the Church.  But it had a more insidious history in the church though.

During HWA's six month bible study in a public library, he was exposed to the books popular from the mid-1880's to the 1930"s.  This was also the time period in which the British Empire was winding down in it's colonial conquests.  British and American libraries were filled with a myriad of books describing those conquests and some even trying to prove them by Scripture.  There were scores of British Israelism books in print and there was even a British Israel Society in existence during HWA's study phase.  Many of the books tried to prove the existence of the British Empire as directly inspired by God through the lineage of Joseph and the wanderings of the 12 tribes.

Numerous books were also in print at this time on Pyramidology and how the Great Pyramid of Giza was reportedly built by Joseph as study in future prophecy.  The Ambassador College library in Pasadena was filled with these books on pyramidology. Some even had HWA's had writing in the margins.

These books and more were all in public libraries that HWA used when he was doing his equivalent study of a semester of school. It also goes to show that HWA did NOT originate British Israelism.  He just copied all he could from other people and claimed it as his own.  It quickly mushroomed as a proof of the Bible and that God was working through him.

The trouble with all of this was that hundreds of books had already been printed refuting British Israelism.  This caused Meredith, Hoeh, and others to have a knee jerk reaction and to double their efforts in legitimizing the half balked theory.

We have all see the result s of that theory in Armstrongism. It was and still is used to legitimize racism in the church and in society around them.  It is used to claim that God hates intermarriage and will separate all races from each other in the kingdom. I guess that scripture of there being neither Jew nor gentile, male or female does nto apply to this, but I digress.

Anyway, back to the present day and the National Geographic story. The COG splinter cult  The Knock is all hyper that the article PROVES beyond a shadow of doubt that:

Saxon Gold Treasure found in Central England – of Sythian Origin – Evidence of the Lost House of Israel!

Say what?  No where in the National Geographic article does it say any such thing!  Armstrongism once again is jumping to conclusions to make the story fit the mold they want it to.  Usually though, they are just deliberately lie knowing that the uneducated COG members are usually too lazy to do any in depth research into the story. Far too many COG members are willing to let others tell them what to believe.

So yet again, we see items from history being slipped into COG history as legitimate proof of HWA's claims.  It didn't work back then and still does not today.