Gerald Weston On Democracy

 

From an LCG source:

(Gerald) Weston said,

"But neither democracy nor a military approach correspond to the model Christ gave us."

I agree with the military comment, but the democracy comment is 100% incorrect.

Jesus used the Greek democratic "ekklesia/ecclesia" to describe his model. Even if he didn't intend for every detail of a Greek ecclesia to be mimicked, his first followers would have immediately associated it with a democratic approach. 

From “The Assembly,” C. Blackwell, ed., Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy :

The Assembly (ecclesia) was the regular opportunity for all male citizens of Athens to speak their minds and exercise their votes regarding the government of their city. It was the most central and most definitive institution of the Athenian Democracy.

From Encyclopedia Britannica entry "Democracy":

What political institutions are necessary for governing?—the Athenians adopted an answer that would appear independently elsewhere. The heart and centre of their government was the Assembly (Ecclesia), which met almost weekly—40 times a year—on the Pnyx, a hill west of the Acropolis. Decisions were taken by vote, and, as in many later assemblies, voting was by a show of hands. As would also be true in many later democratic systems, the votes of a majority of those present and voting prevailed. 

 

Aside from the question of whether Jesus and the Apostles restricted participation to only males, the pertinent issue in this discussion is whether Jesus endorsed a democratic model. If he did not then he would not have used "ecclesia" to describe what he was building, because the people of his time would have known exactly what an ecclesia was, and that it involved direct participation in decision making by all the members of the group, so it would not have made sense to use "ecclesia" if he meant an elite hierarchy or corporation.

If Jesus had meant to adopt a human hierarchy with governance by a few then he would have used another term besides "ecclesia" to describe what he was building such as "dikasteria," which was a smaller group that served as a powerful court, or "aristocracy," “the rule of what Herodotus called ‘the one man, the best’” Ancient Greek Democracy

Or Jesus could have said he would build his "boule" which was a "council of 500 men, appointed annually by lot from among citizens aged at least thirty, and with severe restrictions on repeated membership. Its chief function was to prepare the agenda for meetings of the ekklesia, and to undertake certain routine administrative duties, in particular, that of coordinating the activities of numerous boards of minor officials" A Glossary of Athenian Legal Terms

King James I had the same concern about government and ecclesiastical authority that Gerald Weston has, and so when he authorized the English translation of the Bible, he made sure to give the translators the rule:

"The Old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept, viz. the Word Church not to be translated Congregation etc."

This is where King James insisted that when the translators find the word ecclesia that they make sure to substitute the traditional institutional word "Church" and not use a proper translation of "congregation" like Tyndale used and was murdered for. What would be King James’s motive for forbidding the proper translation of ecclesia and using "Church" instead? I think the answer should be obvious, but it has to do with maintaining a separation between clergy and laity and ensuring that the authorized translation supported ecclesiastical authority over and repression of the masses. The COGs today fall right in line with King James’s rule when they insist that their groups must use the term "Church of God" to be valid.

Even the popular ISBE (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) says this in the first line of the entry “Church”:

The word "church," which is derived from kuriakos, "of or belonging to the Lord," represents in the English Versions of the Bible of the New Testament the Greek word ekklesia; Latin, ecclesia.” 

 

What this is saying is that “church” is not derived from ekklesia, and that English Bibles substitute (“represent”) the Greek word ekklesia with the English word “church.” So, if Jesus had meant “church” then he would have used the Greek word kuriakos.

Democratic ecclesia didn't mean lack of leadership as would be the accusation to this by the aristocracy in the COGs, and it’s why teaching discernment to the followers of Jesus is so important. The Greek ecclesia had heralds whose job it was to make sure everyone who wanted to speak had an opportunity. This freedom to speak presented the risk of an ecclesia getting out of control, thus,

  This freedom to speak was not absolute or without regulation. Aeschines tells us, for example, that in the early democracy (before the 5th century) citizens over 50 years of age could speak first, and only after those had their say could younger men speak. Other formal restrictions could apply, such as decrees limiting discussion of certain topics to certain meetings of the Assembly (C. Blackwell).

COG Prophet That Is So Despised By COG Members That He Cannot Attract More Than 99 Members In The Entire United States.

Our favorite self-appointed Messiah to the nation of Africa had a meltdown the other day when we picked on his attendance figures. Nothing gets Bobiniah Thiel's goat more than being mocked by this bog. He expects COG members to roll over and lap his theological vomit up like pigs at the slop trough, but we will not. We are all supposed to be impressed by him. 

Never has a COG leader been dreamed about more, been doubly blessed, come out as Joshua, Nehemiah, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Ezekiel, and eventually will be the end time witless witness where he will be killed and resurrected in the streets of Jerusalem. 

We should all be standing in awe of him and joining his one true Philadelphian Church of God! Yet in spite of all the double blessings, fantastical self-appointments, and direct revelations from the god of this world, he has only been able to influence 99 American followers, out of  382 million Americans, into joining up with him.

Imagine being the most amazing Church of God in the 21st century with a leader that is doubly blessed, and yet, it can only gather 99 members in the entirety of the United States, 10 members in the entire nation of Canada, 2 members on the entire European continent, and 6 on the Asian continent. Imagine being such a weak and impotent Church of God as this. Herbert Armstrong would be so embarrassed!  This has to be the most pathetic thing I have ever seen.

According to Bob Thiel, the Continuing Church of God now has 5,275 people, over 5,000 of whom are in Africa: 

Australia 6, 

Austria 1, 

Canada 10, 

Colombia 2, 

Ethiopia 88, 

Ghana 400, 

Haiti 20, 

India 80, 

Ireland 1, 

Kenya 3280, 

Malawi 804, 

Mozambique 281, 

Netherlands 1, 

New Zealand 6, 

Philippines 12, 

Serbia 6, 

South Sudan 50, 

Tanzania 65, 

Trinidad & Tobago 1, 

Uganda 8, 

UK 4, 

USA & Puerto Rico 99, 

Zambia 50, 

TOTAL 5275.

COGNews

Living Church of God: Sexual harassment victims at HQ told to "let these things go, and move on, to save the church from trouble and hurting the work of God."

 

If there was a "Me Too" movement in the current batch of Churches of God there would be a house cleaning like no other. It would make the 1995 Worldwide Church of God implosion meaningless and trite. There have always been sexual harassment issues in the church due to its stance on the place of women in the hierarchy of the church, marriages, and the family. 

Pre-implosion, Pasadena, Big Sandy, Bricket Wood, and international church office sites had serious issues with this problem, yet it was always swept under the rug so that the church would never be publicly embarrassed. The church has had a long legacy of sexual abuse, harassment, pedophilia, and other issues by leaders and members. Few were ever dealt with but some did make the headlines and brought damning publicity against the church.

The church has always had a sick mentality to let things go quietly so as to not damage church credibility or to bring trouble to the church. God forbid if the institution were to be damaged! Who cares about the people, but the institution MUST be protected at all costs.

At all boils down to fear. Fear of COG leadership, of counteracting church norms, of bringing embarrassment to the church, and of losing one's salvation keeps members blind, deaf, and dumb. This has always been the ideal COG member that the leadership looks to keep under control.

There​ is​ plenty of​ proof, for​ starters how​ about​ one​ of​ the​ female victims at​ lcg hq who told me face to face, while crying, that she was sexually assaulted while working at lcg hq? How about several LU female students who told numerous people that I know well, that they were sexually harassed by the same son of RCM? How about that same RCM son who walked around lcg hq half drunk and smelling like booze? Believe me, there's more, but I think you get the point. There is also my own witness, since I worked there for many years and heard and saw plenty of filthy and evil behavior. One of the women sexually assaulted worked under me, I was her supervisor. Why didn't anybody do anything? Because people working at lcg hq feared RCM and didn't want to be fired and disfellowshipped. The woman who told me personally about being sexually assaulted there, begged me not to do anything about it, she and her husband were both employed at lcg hq for many years, and didn't want to make waves and deal with the situation. There are plenty of people at lcg hq who know exactly what I'm talking about here. A prominent lcg minister there told me that it was best to "let these things go, and move on, to save the church from trouble and hurting the work of God." So basically the usual filth that happens in corporate America, happens at lcg hq just the same. I did my best while working there to protect the women working under me, as their supervisor, from the sexual assaults and harassment. Believe me, I know of plenty more skeletons in lcg's closet, and so do many others. I spent time in many private meetings over the years, with RCM and other top leaders there, and witnessed things that most people in lcg wouldn't believe, or want to believe, as the truth often hurts. There are so many sins and evil behaviours at lcg hq that have been covered up, that it's sickening. I also know that these type of things are not only happening at lcg hq, but also happening at other COG headquarters' as well... been told about it personally by employees and former employees. There's nothing new under the sun!

Dave Pack: God Gave Me A Prophecy That I Could Not Speak For 9 Weeks So He Gave Me COVID To Silence Me

The insanity continues at Restored Church of God. It boggles my mind that his followers can sit there and listen to this crap and eat it up like pigs at a slop trough. Too many of them know it is a load of crap and that includes some of his high-up ministers and his special counsel of ministers that supposedly back up every one of his prophecies. They know it is a lie and they sit there and do nothing.

One of the tidbits just relayed to me was that the reason Dave Pack has been missing for 9 weeks is that he had COVID. Should we have expected less since he held Feast of Tabernacles on his cult compound in Wadsworth that became a superspreader event?

After Dave announces he has not spoken in 9 weeks, he says at the 38:30 mark - 

There's actually a prophecy. Why I would not speak for a while...I got COVID I just never told anybody about it....Finally I realized there was a prophecy where I wasn't supposed to speak.

Dave also brags about how insanely long this sermon series is. This is sermon 273 in the series.

Dave says:

2:08:00 - 5 Years is a Long time. Let me illustrate...if every sermon I gave was a standard 75 minutes, like I used to give. It would have taken me nine full years without a Sabbath off to deliver to 33,500 minutes.

 

UCG Members Love This Blog! Woo Hoo!

The truth that current COG leaders resent. This is why so many of them speak out against this blog. All of them take themselves too seriously.

I just downloaded and had a look at their current Beyond Today magazine. It's the same bland material from 40-50 years ago, with a few cosmetic changes thrown in. 

The same material presented over and over amounts to spiritual milk and a dumbing down of their members. Which is one reason that Banned is so popular with church members. There's more interesting material on this site than in their own churches.

December 12, 2020 at 7:35 PM

The Favorite Bible Verse Of The COG Ezekiels In Our Midst

 

Since sex is the number one priority in the Church of God leadership today where most of them pretend to be prophets, it should be no surprise that modern-day Ezeikiels in the church love this Bible verse. 

We are eagerly awaiting the new sermon by Bobiniah Zephniah Zechariah Ezekiel Thiel when he preaches on this subject! Maybe Davey Pack can expound on this further. Imagine how much fun that would be hearing him do that!

Church of God kids be like....

UCG Claims They Have Brought In Over $20 Million Dollars This Year

Those fun boys in Cincinnati are on a roll.  Money is flowing in as over 12 BILLION hits are happening on Google and elsewhere.  But what do they really have to show for it? UCG is still an unknown commodity in almost every community in the United States, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere around the world. Only extremely small pockets of people know anything about them. There is no global identification of UCG like Herbert Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God Ambassador Foundation had.

The Audited Report is the official representation of the Church’s financial condition that is provided to and relied upon by vendors, bankers, donors, members, and others. As such, it is important for the Council to take some time to review the statements and the notes included therein. Mr. Shabi then took the Council through a cursory review of the Report.

He pointed out that the auditors again cited no deficiencies in internal controls and needed to post no adjustments to the Church’s internal financial statements. It was noted that the Church’s financial condition continues to remain strong, with income for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 exceeding $20 million and total assets increasing by over $1 million, continuing a trend we have seen over the last few years. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, which curtailed travel and other related expenses during the last three months of the fiscal year, expenses came in under budget for the fiscal year, resulting in the net increase in assets.

The complete audit report will be printed in the next issue of the United News.

Next, current year (fiscal year 2021) financial statements, including a Revenue Statement for November and the fiscal year-to-date, a recap of fall Holy Day offerings and attendance, the November balance sheet, departmental expense statements, a “COVID-19” period income statement, and operating statistics were presented and discussed.

It was noted that income for the first five months of the fiscal year, especially in General Contributions and Holy Day offerings, is well above budget. This is a blessing from God as we did not know what to expect during this pandemic time. At the same time that revenue has been strong, operating expenses have been well under budget during this pandemic, which was unforeseen when the budget was prepared, presented and adopted by the Council last February.

Mr. Shabi shared a “COVID-19 income statement” that covered the period of March – Oct. 2020, noting revenue increases and citing those expense areas, such as travel, meetings and conferences, and local church subsidies that are significantly under budget. He commented that the Church will not expend all the funds approved in the current budget due to these unique and unprecedented times and that, at Council and Administration discretion, some of those unused funds may be allocated to other areas of operation during the remainder of the fiscal year as needed.

Mr. Shabi concluded the financial report by discussing upcoming budget planning for the Church and acknowledging God’s blessing on His Church which has been so evident during this time.

Where did this $20 million go to, besides the pockets of the upper elite?

Current statistics include:

• 397 elders in the United Church of God (UCGIA)
  • 109 outside the U.S.
  • 288 in the U.S.
    • 79 church pastors
    • 10 associate or assistant pastors
• 1 ministerial trainee
• 192 churches and Bible study groups in the U.S.
• 35 U.S. baptisms since the August meetings (93 baptisms so far in 2020)

Peter Eddington went through some of the following statistics as of November 30 this year:

• United News circulation is currently at 17,941, which is an all-time high and 1.1% more than this time last year.
• Our coworker count is now at 7,599, our highest ever (and 16.5% higher than the same time last year).
• Our donor list now includes 9,392 people—28% higher than this time last year (Our all-time high was 9,564 in June of 2016).
• Donors combined with our coworkers is now 16,991 (22.5% more than same time last year).
• Total Beyond Today magazine circulation worldwide is at 310,945 for the Jan.-Feb. 2021 issue—which is 5.4% more than the same time last year.
• U.S. magazine subscribers are at 258,460 for the Jan.-Feb. 2021 issue. This is 7.2% more than the same time last year.
• Those people on our U.S. file associated with the Church (teens, members, associated) as of October 31 is 12,111.
• The Church’s Beyond Today YouTube channel at youtube.com/user/BeyondTodayTV has had 13.25 million video views since November 2006 (a 12.5% increase since last December), has 60,100 subscribers (a 12.5% increase since last December), and hosts 2,323 videos (an 11% increase since last December). This is an average of 2,600 videos being watched every day (an increase of 4.7% since last December).
• The number of Google, Yahoo and Bing advertising impressions since 2004 stands at 12.4 billion.

• UCG reports these things as if they are the greatest COG ministry ever to hit the scene in decades. This in spite of the fact Bobaniah Thiel, Dave Pack, and Gerald Flurry all claim they are the fastest-growing COGs in the 21st century. All groups where their leaders lie to them that tithing is a requirement of the New Covenant.