You Aren’t Ezekiel, and We Aren’t Israel!

 

You Aren’t Ezekiel, and We Aren’t Israel!

Unfortunately, most of the Armstrong Churches of God are operating under the delusion that they have been commissioned by Almighty God to preach a message of warning to the English-speaking peoples of the world. They claim that they are the only TRUE Christians extant on this planet (some will allow that a few other Sabbath-keeping Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ), but they completely ignore or reject the commission which Christ gave to his disciples! How did this happen? Why aren’t they doing the work which Christ gave his disciples to do?

It all began many years ago with a man named Herbert Armstrong. Unfortunately, Herbert was a man with very little background, formal education or experience in the study and practice of religion and history. That, however, didn’t prevent him from becoming obsessed with those subjects or eventually proclaiming himself to be an authority in both. In short, Armstrong was struck by what he saw as the Bible’s preoccupation with the people of Israel. “This book is all about Israel,” he reasoned. This awareness led him to wonder why such a book would be of so much interest and concern to the English-speaking peoples of the world.

Herbert immediately began searching for an explanation for this enigmatic phenomenon and quickly stumbled upon a theory that had gained some traction in Nineteenth-Century England as an explanation for the success of English-speaking peoples on the world stage. Based largely on myths, legends, questionable etymologies, and notions of British superiority, some folks had decided that the Anglo-Saxon people of Britain must be one of the long-lost tribes of ancient Israel! They reasoned: Hadn’t God promised that Jacob’s descendants would one day possess great wealth, power, territory, and the “gates of their enemies?” Ancient Israel had never received those blessings, but Great Britain certainly had – the people of the United States had received those blessings! Hence, the English-speaking peoples of the earth MUST be Israel! Never mind, that history, archaeology, linguistics, and genetics made such a notion absurd – it explained so much!

From there, it wasn’t a big leap to start imagining that all of those Old Testament prophecies must also apply to modern Israel, the English-speaking peoples of the earth. As Armstrong studied those prophets, it dawned on him that they were always warning Israel of God’s impending wrath for their many sins and general wickedness. Well, he reasoned, there certainly was a lot of sin and wickedness extant among the English-speaking peoples of the world. Could it be that God was raising him up to warn these modern Israelites of their impending doom?

Armstrong stumbled across the thirty-third chapter of the book of Ezekiel, and he read there: 

“So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” (Ezekiel 33:7-9)

Armstrong turned to the book of Isaiah and read: 

“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” (Isaiah 58:1)  

“God must intend for me to warn modern Israel of his impending doom!” Armstrong reasoned. The logic appeared so compelling to him. Hadn’t his conclusions been reached by carefully building on each new revelation that had been given to him? Armstrong had constructed this edifice by building line upon line, scripture upon scripture; and it explained so much! This all had to be from God – how else could he have figured all of this stuff out? And, if others couldn’t see it, it must be because God hadn’t revealed it to them!

Nevertheless, although Herbert now believed that he had his commission from God, he still wondered about how this could be reconciled with the traditional message of the Christian Church. Wasn’t the Church commissioned by Christ to preach the gospel? And wasn’t the gospel about Christ and salvation through him?

After his resurrection and just prior to his ascension to heaven, Christ had told his followers: 

“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:18-20) 

 

How was Herbert to get around what had always been characterized by Christians as the “Great Commission?”

“They are ignorant of the TRUTH of the Sabbath and Holy Days (and they observe pagan days), and they don’t even know who they are (Israel),” he reasoned. From there, it wasn’t hard to imagine that they hadn’t been preaching the correct gospel! Armstrong read that Christ had preached “the gospel of the kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14-15), and he was off to the races! After all, wasn’t the kingdom all about the government that God would set up on this earth to displace all of humankind’s Satan-inspired kingdoms? “Traditional Christians must have had it wrong all along!” he thought. They had been preaching a message about the messenger and had ignored his message!

For most Christians, however, Herbert Armstrong had gone down a heretical rabbit hole that was impossible to reconcile with that clear language at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. Christ had commissioned his disciples to go out and make new disciples and to baptize them – NOT to berate Israel for their sins and warn them about their impending doom! Most Christians also realized that it was impossible to reconcile Armstrong’s “Warning to Israel” and promise of “The World Tomorrow” with the message that Christ’s apostles had preached.

The first sermon that Peter delivered on the day of Pentecost was ALL ABOUT CHRIST (see Acts 2:14-36). Paul preached to the Romans about Jesus Christ (see Romans 1:1-5). Likewise, he wrote to the Corinthians about the one who had made them Holy, Jesus Christ (see I Corinthians 1:2 and 23). Paul wrote to the saints of Galatia: 

“May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen. I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.” (Galatians 1:3-7) 

He also wrote to the saints at Ephesus that 

“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So, we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.” (see Ephesians 1:5-7) 

Indeed, all of Paul’s messaging was about this salvation that we receive through Jesus Christ!

Now, in hindsight, it is easy to see how Herbert Armstrong went astray – how he came to believe that he was doing God’s work. This should serve as a parable to all Christians of how Satan can lead us astray and divert our energy and attention away from the work which God has given us to do. We must never forget that Christ commissioned us to preach the good news about salvation through him. He said NOTHING about warning Israel about the consequences of their sins! That was a commission which God gave to his prophets of old – it has NOTHING to do with the work currently before the Church of God!

 Lonnie Hendrix

Ron Weinland (That OTHER Crackpot Prophet and Second Witless Witness) Says His Group Is At The End Of Its Training Completing The 144,000

 

Ron Weinland isn't known in the COG movement as the brightest bulb in the box and apparently more and more of his followers are waking up to that fact and abandoning him and his looney Witless Witness wife Laura.

Weinland has less than 1,500 people left in his cult and those numbers drop by the day. It's amazing they have lasted this long since his 2008 prophecy failed with a massive public mocking and his imprisonment for 3 1/2 years.

Like Bob Thiel, Windland raves about his massive outreach on the internet thanks to technology. It's kind of the same empty boasting that Theil does. Never has the church seen such a great and awesome work proceeding from the mouth of the holy anointed one. God has been constructing a mighty work in Ronnie's basement so that Laura can buy more diamonds and wear them as they travel. Laura wears those diamonds as they travel in case they have to flee immediately to Jerusalem where they can cash them in so that she and Ronnie can witless witness in the streets of Jerusalem. 

Why we’re not 5,000 people. If we were 5,000 people we would not be nearly as unified and at one as we are. If we were 2,000 people we would not have the ability to be nearly as unified as we are. This is the end of a process of training, of molding and fashioning, of completing 144,000. Doesn’t take a lot to accomplish it. And it’s being done in an environment of greater unity and oneness in a sense, in the Church has ever had in a long, long, long, long...

It really hasn’t had what we have ever to this degree because of technology. Because I can speak here, and it goes around the world. Incredible. People watching it already this morning, early this morning in Australia, New Zealand, some staying up late to watch it in the UK, in The Netherlands because they can’t wait until next week! Which is great! And then they listen to it again and build upon what they heard last week (or this week). Incredible. Awesome.

But to understand God has given us this at the end to finish something, to complete a process of construction because of what He’s constructing, it’s an awesome thing that we’re all a part of. And it’s hard for us to grasp how great this really is sometimes and our part in it. 

 

So, God’s word is not confined. God’s going to do what He’s going to accomplish. It’s going to get done. And we have the blessing of being part of it, with it, or not. But every year people choose the “or not.” It’s hard. It’s hard to watch that. Rips it apart inside here sometimes. It really does. It rips apart. It’s difficult to watch those choices being made. To walk to God’s house side by side, counsel blended sweet. Some who were with us for so, so long and then stab you in the back. It’s human beings, human nature.

No One Respects Me!

 

I checked out the polls on the blog the other day 

and guess who out of all the current COG leaders is at the bottom of the cesspool?

It's pretty bad when even Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry are considered not as bad as he is.

PCG Claims 10,000 Members Will Be Ready To Meet Christ When He Returns

 

Scripture twisting at its finest. But, this is the Philadelphia Church of God, after all.

Scripture indicates that the membership of God’s end-time work, at Christ’s return, will be around 10,000 strong (Deuteronomy 33:2; Jude 14-15; see our booklet No Freedom Without Law for further explanation). That is 10,000 out of a world population of close to 8 billion. This means each member will have been chosen now over 800,000 others. Would God choose someone at such vast odds and not make them a critical part of His work force?

UPDATE: COG Groups Waking Up To Bob Thiel's Deceptive CG7.org Website Which Is Meant To Deceive Members

 

UPDATE:  See bottom page

COGNews has a rundown on Bob Thiel's new website that is using deceptive tacts to deceive COG7 folk and other Sabbatarian groups that his site is for all Sabbath-keepers. What he does with every single link on his site is send people directly to his crap. Bob gets really ticked off that no one in the Sabbatarian groups follows or recognizes him as a legitimate leader, this is why:

In July 2020 we reported that Bob Thiel had launched a new website: cg7.org – Church of God 7th Day Sabbath Observing Christians, which is very similar to cog7.org – Church of God 7th Day, based in Denver, which is the largest ‘Church of God 7th Day Sabbath Observing Christian’ group. 

 

The new website stated that it “… is intended to help people who wonder about the seventh-day Sabbath as well as those interested in learning about the different groups that claim Christ, but who also keep the seventh-day Sabbath.” 

 

The Bible Sabbath Association, established 77 years ago, does exactly that, believing in “promoting fellowship and co-operation between Sabbath-keeping people of various groups; on a non-denominational basis; to restore respect and honor for the Ten Commandments as a whole (with emphasis on the Fourth).” 

 

The purpose of the new website, however, appeared to be to draw to it people searching the internet for the words and phrases in its website title, or mistyping cog7.org – then explaining the supposed doctrinal errors of other groups, and promoting the CCOG. 

 

On the 2nd of February 2022 CCOG’s founder, Bob Thiel, wrote that he “had began to embark on a potentially large expansion for the website.” So now that there is much more information on the new website, is it non-denominational, or a CCOG website in disguise? 

 

The home page on the menu bar has the title, Sabbath Keeping, Prophetic, and Church of God Resources, which suggests that the website is non-denominational, but all of the links on this page go to cogwriter.com, which is Bob Thiel’s personal website that he has run since the time he was in the Living Church of God. His beliefs are those of the LCG, plus some additions where he says the LCG is wrong. 

 

Clicking on History on the menu bar takes you to the Continuing Church of God website. 

 

Clicking on Books provides a list of Books all written by Bob Thiel. 

 

Clicking on 7th Day Churches provides a list of various Sabbath groups, but the links all go either to cogwriter.com or his Youtube channel. 

 

Clicking on Sermons provides a list of Sermons all given by Bob Thiel.

Bob has never been able to do anything on his own other than hanging on to the shirttails of others for information and legitimacy. As crazy as they are, both Flurry and Pack have at least come up with original things to entice their followers, Bob has been unable to do so and so he has to find ways to deceive other Sabbath-keepers into believing he is right. Even in this though, he is an abject failure.

Update:

To see first hand how deceptive Bob is in using the CG7 name he has advised a couple of his so-called "evangelists" in Africa that they do not need to stop using the CG7 Day moniker in their church affiliations.

Last week we mentioned some new Youth Bible Lessons and CCOG/CG7 Pastor Samuel Ofosu contacted me from Ghana and we have ordered a couple of sets of each of the six lessons we now have completed (that group is with CCOG, but since they were called CG7 before, when they asked to be part of CCOG, we did not require them to change their name, file legal registrations, etc.).

Gerald Weston: Even though kids got sick at summer camp it was worth it!

 

Dear Brethren, 

 

The last two years have been challenging. Some of you have lost friends and loved ones, and many of us have experienced varying levels of sickness. Our hearts and prayers go out to all who have suffered losses. Thankfully, most of us have survived and stayed out of the hospital. 

 

While the coronavirus is different from a flu virus, many experts draw some parallels to the 1918– 20 flu pandemic, which came in waves and took the lives of 50 to 100 million people worldwide. Major cities experienced a deadly fourth wave, extending the pandemic into the third year. As for coronavirus in 2022, we have seen a sharp spike in cases here in Charlotte from what appears to be the Omicron variant. While it is unpleasant, members are getting through it, many now have some natural immunity, and cases are dropping. This seems to be the situation elsewhere—a sharp spike followed by an equally quick drop. Individuals will no doubt come down with one variant or another this year and in the years to come. 

 

After discussions here in Charlotte, we have made some decisions. We will continue to respect the laws of the land and local venue regulations regarding masking, but where allowed, the pastor, in consultation with his Regional Pastor or Regional Director, may determine what is the best course of action given local circumstances. This means that in many locations around the world, masks will be optional for part, or all, of our services, and snacks and/or congregational meals may be permitted. We still encourage social distancing for the time being, and it is essential for anyone with symptoms of any sort of potentially contagious illness, or recent exposure to COVID, to stay home. 

 

Those with underlying conditions should feel free to continue wearing masks, but we recommend that they be properly fitting masks of the type (such as the N95) that offer real protection. If someone feels he or she needs to continue wearing a mask for any reason, no explanation is needed. We must not judge one another! 

 

Thank you for your cooperation these last two years. Not all decisions were perfect or popular, but you understood God’s instructions about deciding matters of controversy. Some of you subordinated your will to keep peace within the Body of Christ. I especially want to thank those of you in this category. 

 

As a result, we observed the Feast of Tabernacles for two years—most meeting in person—and as far as I know, while we had a few cases of COVID during or after the Feast, we did not have asingle death from anyone attending one of our sites. Our largest outbreak was at our summer camp in Texas where masking and social distancing were not realistic. Despite having to end earlier than planned, the camp was a welcome break for all our young people who attended.

I believe God has blessed us because He saw our willingness to follow His instructions about solving controversial issues (Deuteronomy 17:8–13) and saw us acting prudently—not tempting Him (Proverbs 22:3; Matthew 4:6–7). And His mercy was upon us despite our shortcomings (Psalm 136). Yes, some of our members have died from this virus and some may still succumb to it, but it appears this current variant carries less risk than previous ones. COVID is not over. Please do not throw all caution to the wind, but let us move forward with faith and courage and let us thank God for His protection and great mercy toward us these past two years.

Sincerely, in Christ’s service, 

Gerald E. Weston

"Dancing With The Stars" Alum and "Selling Sunset" Star Is Ex-Church of God Member

 

Another feel-good story of an ex-member who overcame the odds of a chaotic life and time in Armstrongism.

“Dancing With the Stars” alum Chrishell Stause has a memoir out now in which she writes candidly about her childhood growing up in Kentucky, including that her family was homeless at several points in her life and also that her parents got them involved for a while in what “felt like a cult.” Andrea Reiher

See full story here:  DWTS Alum Was Homeless, In A Cult As A Child

Strause has written a book on growing up against all kinds of odds:

Amazon says this:

In this engaging, witty, and inspirational memoir, Chrishell Stause shares her story of living an unconventional childhood in small-town Kentucky marked by periods of homelessness, family addiction struggles, and dreams of one day being on a daytime soap, all while managing the local Dairy Queen. Through resilience and grit, she overcame obstacles and pushed past every barrier in her path to become one of the most envied luxury realtors in Los Angeles and buzzworthy cast members in reality TV.

She takes us behind the scenes of Selling Sunset, reveals never-before-told stories from her life in soaps, and even pulls back the curtain on her highly publicized love life, offering insight not before shared. With her signature honesty and charm, Stause also gives tangible advice based on the lessons she’s learned over the years and offers unique insight about how to stay resilient and positive no matter how many times life knocks you down. Under Construction is for anyone who wants to remember that no matter what happens or how, you have to get up, dress up, and show up, and walk back into the room stronger than ever before.

Buy the book here:  Under Construction: Because Living My Best Life Took a Little Work