God's Only True Prophet Claims LCG's Shortening Of Sermons Will Cause LCG Members To Not Know When To Flee

God's ONLY true prophet and channeler of all things godly is still harping on the Living Church of God claiming that they are too Laodicean to know when the time will come to flee.  LCG is too stupid to not understand that God will personally tell Bob Thiel when it is time to take his flock to Petra where he will be met by Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry and other COG leaders who will put him in his place.

Living Church of God has apparently told its ministers to stop their long-winded sermons and shorten their delivery time.  After scores of LCG members complaining here about boring sermons and ungodly sermon lengths, LCG has acted.  A truly effective speaker can get his message across in 20 - 30 minutes and not bore people out of their skulls with 60-80 minute sermons.  Just because a minister quotes hundreds of bible verses does NOT make him a scholar or an authority on the topic he is speaking about.  Just look at Bob Thiel!

Laodicean Move?While listening to a live LCG sermon today, the preacher said that they (the preachers) had been directed to keep their sermons under an hour.   I have also noticed that their sermons have gotten shorter (under an hour when they have typically been 60-80 minutes).  This can be verified by looking up some recent sermons on their website (note that it can take 4 months or more for them to post sermons so some "recent" ones may actually be from before the change - great timing for when they would be expected to tell the brethren to flee, right?).  I think this limits their teaching and weakens their edification of the body of Christ.  Just in case any of the preachers have been trying to keep a Philadelphian work, this makes it a bit more difficult to feed the flock.  

I had been told of this change in LCG before. As far as LCG knowing when to flee, unless it changes some of its prophetic positions (which they admitted to me were wrong and promised to change by February of 2012), they obviously will not possibly know when to flee. Shortening or lengthening their sermons will not affect that.

The sheer lunacy of Armstrongism continues on unabated.

We'll Return to Our Sponsor in a Minute

Just wanted to share my own pictures of Meteor Crater in Arizona to conclude the last two posts challenging Dr. Bob to wake up the scientist in him and put the Prophet to bed.

The impact was about 50,000 years ago and could not have hit in a more desolate place than near Flagstaff.  I had looked down on it flying to ministerial conferences and "Refresher Programs" that were exhausting.  To sit there and consider the moment of impact and all that really is was simply amazing to me.  I have a piece of vaporized "Meteoric Iron" which is meteorite impacted with earth rock mixed.

Go if you ever get the opportunity. For big projects it beats a shovel!  :)

The 6 mile approach to the Meteor Crater wall

A bit closer

Looking over the rim

(I could not get the entire view in one pic)

Rocky upturned debris on the rim above impact point

Looking down the pulverized rim into impact point

Up ended house size strata on the rim

Turned up strata along the crater walls

Taking home a piece of real Earth  history

And now we return to our regularly scheduled postings...

Dr Bob Insists...

COGwriter

https://www.cogwriter.com/news/old-testament-history/genesis-flood-and-the-worlds-supply-of-water/

"Does the amount of water on and in the Earth support the view of the Genesis flood of Noah’s time?

Yes."

Bob goes on...

"What does science say?

It’s left with two options for what accounts for all of the Earth’s water:

• It came from extraterrestrial sources – namely comets and asteroids;
• The Earth itself is actually manufacturing water

The latest studies pointing to vast reserves of fresh water – or “primary water” – are being used to lend credence to the second option. Why? Because the previous theory could not begin to explain how water equivalent to or exceeding the water in all of the Earth’s oceans could have found itself deep beneath the planet’s mantle.

So maybe there is another explanation – God made the water."

Probably not Bob

(Nor is the Grand Canyon a Genesis Flood feature)

At a minimum, the first 11 chapters of Genesis are tale weaving and story telling in an age where "that's the best we can do",  to explain things in ways we should know better than today.  Many don't of course because "It's in the Bible".

A personal collection of Carbonaceous Chondrites containing water. These are pieces and left over debris, 4.5 billion years old, of the formation of our  solar system and spent the vast amount of their time between Mars and Jupiter before ending up on my desk.

The origin of Earth's oceans has been a topic of much scientific debate. But with a genuine understanding of Deep Time for our origins and the nature of the chemistry of  not only our Solar System but of the Universe itself, water would come naturally to a planet just as did Gold, Silver and platinum and iron from the cores of exploding Super Nova.  These rare elements are formed in the last seconds before a star explodes and spews them into clouds that later coalesce into new stars with new and planets with these elements within them now. 

Long wonderful story brought to us by science, not religion.

As a counter point to Dr Bob's simplistic and faith restricted nonsense...

If the topic actually interests anyone and Answers in Genesis is not found to be all that satisfying, there are many well done lectures on the topic and what is known and suspected to date as to the origins of water on earth. None of them will reference Noah or the Genesis Flood. 

Did Asteroids bring water to Earth?

Adult Sabbath School for the Holidays

"The further one regresses in time, the more obvious it becomes that the principal and singular

 religious worship found around the globe has revolved around nature. This nature worship has included reverence not only for the earth, its creatures and their fecundity, but also for the sun, moon, planets and stars. For many thousands of years, man has looked to the skies and become awestruck by what he has observed. This awe has led to the reverence and worship both of the night and day skies, an adoration called  "astrotheology."

 While fertility worship has constituted an important and prevalent part of the human religion, little has astonished humankind more than the sky, with its enormous, blazing, white day orb in the azure expanse, and with its infinite, twinkling, black night dome. So fascinated by the sky, or heavens, has been man that he has created entire religions, with organized priesthoods, complex rituals and massive edifices, in order to tell its story."

Acharya S. 

And the reason for the tilt and the origin of our moon

{Nice moon this evening. Take a look}

is...

At the time Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, other smaller planetary bodies were also growing. One of these hit earth late in Earth's growth process, blowing out rocky debris. A fraction of that debris went into orbit around the Earth and aggregated into the moon.

https://www.psi.edu/epo/moon/moon.html

 

The 23 1/2 Degree Tilt is definitely the reason for the Season

The Friday Night Dilemma

LCG's Weston, Ames and Winnail: Fear was the primary motivational driver behind their "conversion"

Watching the Behind The Work video at an LCG feast site this year, one admission from Weston, Ames and Winnail was unmistakably clear: Fear was the primary motivational driver behind their "conversion" and complete immersion into the WCG cult. This makes sense when you consider HWA's delusional vision of himself and God's role in Herb's plan.

Herb settled on a niche that allowed him to get very rich whoring for money in the name of God. His approach was time sensitive that masterfully created a worldview of urgency, danger and imminent death and destruction. You literally had no time to argue with his message. There was no need to critically analyse his message. God either gave you the ability to agree with everything Herb said or you were simply not called and on a crash course with the worst time in human history in just a few short years or months.

Herb's message was fueled and justified by one key verse:

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come."  -Matthew 24:14

HWA was a "wolf in sheep's clothing" in my opinion and never converted. But Paul makes an important observation when he says,

"It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry...preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely...But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice."  -Philippians 1:15-18

Over the years, I watched many brethren wake up to the dark truths about HWA and the WCG and even find that not all the teachings were sound. Unfortunately, the response is often to throw it all away, going as far as to even declare themselves agnostic or atheist.

Once one allows cognitive dissonance to begin to pop holes in the worldview HWA created for us, the initial response is, as expected, anger. How could I have been so stupid? How could that person do such a thing? If there is a God, why would He allow someone to do this in His name?

The hard part is waiting out the anger and letting reason drive the car. In doing so, we can understand WCG in the context of Christianity as a whole. Not only was it NOT "the" church or "only" church BUT it is just another church made up of people who generally mean well, want to have a relationship with God and none of which have all the answers.

While HWA's message was embodied in Matthew 24:14, it was not the driving force for some to respond and become members of his church. Some actually found other doctrines having to do with God's mercy, love, kindness and inclusive plan for all mankind as their inspiration and motivation. Unfortunately, these are not the AC graduates that made their way into leading the church. Instead, many were drummed out throughout the 70's. The intellectuals were burned at the stake and narcissist managers won the day.

But I have found (and this is largely anecdotal evidence) that after the failures of prophecy culminating in the 1970's, generation x born in those years and others coming later in the 90's do not have the prophetic fear factor as part of their personal Christianity. I believe this shift from fear to love is real and the reason why old goats pushing the HWA "work" falls on deaf ears today. Gen X and Millenials are pioneers of the Information Age. Baby-boomers gave us every reason to be skeptical.

HWA certainly trained more wolves to follow in his steed but I would argue many are more like goats than wolves. To understand my perspective on this, consider Jesus' parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46.

Creating a church around Matthew 24:14 diverted the resources that enable Christians to exercise love and care for humanity, into a message that justified leaving acts of kindness undone. As one friend pointed out to me, when you demand 30%+ of people's incomes to fulfill Matthew 24:14, there is literally nothing left to exercise those things Christ said would make you a sheep in His good standing.

HWA's gospel created a clergy and laity of goats. The good news is we don't have to remain goats. And I am inspired by more Gen X'ers waking up and Millenials that are challenging the old guard. I no longer tithe and divert most of those resources to helping people in my community. And I don't require those people to be members of my church or even professing Christians. The only criteria to receive love should be in being a "biological" made in God's image.

When Christ said to love one another in John 13:34-35 as evidence that we are His disciples, He obviously didn't mean that Christians or members of a Christian sect showing love for one another was the evidence. He already made that clear in the Sermon on the Mount.

"For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?" -Matthew 5:46-47

When He said we have love for one another, He meant all of humanity. That is what would cause observers to notice such action because nobody does this.

HWA created a church that naturally (but not necessarily) locks its members into being goats. We must overcome this by no longer supporting a Matthew 24:14 message with unbiblical tithes. We can abandon the wrong teachings and the unbalanced approach without giving up altogether. We can continue to call the errors out publicly on blogs like this without the fear of being silenced, marked and defamed by the old goats keeping the gates. The AC alumni can't live forever and the spiritual generation gap in the church is real. Christ said if we really want to make a difference, it will not be in supporting one man in "his" mission to usher in the Great Tribulation. It will be in acts of kindness toward those that would never expect it.

Bronze Age Noah or 21st Century NOAA? Is Weather More Than Just Weather?

Dr Bob Thiel , as always....

https://www.cogwriter.com/news/prophecy/australia-bushfires-record-number-of-emergencies-in-new-south-wales/

The BBC reported the following:

Australia bushfires: Record number of emergencies in New South Wales

Australian authorities say an “unprecedented” number of emergency-level bushfires are threatening the state of New South Wales (NSW).

More than 80 blazes were raging across the state on Friday.
Gusty winds and up to 35C heat have exacerbated the fires, many of which are in drought-affected areas.

"Fires should get people to consider. But will people in Australia or the other Anglo-descended areas heed?

As regular readers of this page are aware, I have repeatedly warned of weather problems coming. Back in 2009, in my book, 2012 and the Rise of the Secret Sect,..."

"...And weather-problems are one tool that God uses to urge people to repent (cf. Haggai 2:17; Amos 4:7-12). But most will not. Nor will most Christians as they should (cf. Revelation 3:14-18; see also The Laodicean Church Era).

Most will ignore weather changes and simply believe that weather changes all the time and the changes do not have to do with God or disobeying His laws.

Yet, the Bible shows that weird, severe, and odd weather patterns are part of the warning messages that God gives.

Are you paying attention to those messages?"

On the other hand it is pretty obvious in the human history of god making and according to the modern day NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration),  and not the Bronze Age Noah...

What do you think?

Bronze Age or 21st Century?