Witless Witness Knows How The Dinosaurs Died

Isn't it great to have so many intellectuals in the Church of God who know nothing about science, anthropology, theology, archeology, etc., and yet think they are instantly authorities upon everything? The church is sooooooooooooooooo blessed to have sooooooooooooooooo many amazing men as its leaders!

Ronnie Weinland, CURRENTLY the only COG leader to be a convicted felon, imagines himself a highly intelligent minister of old covenant theology and thus capable of weighing in on the destruction of the dinosaurs and plant life.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the multitude in them. On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it [set apart for holy use and purpose], because that on it He rested from all His work which He created and had done” (Genesis 2:1-3). 

 

Although it is explained in much greater detail in the literature from God’s Church, many people think that this account of creation being spoken of in Genesis 1 and 2 is about the time when God created the earth and universe itself. That is simply not true. The earth was created at least hundreds of thousands of years, and perhaps even millions of years earlier. That should be easy to understand by scientific evidence itself. 

 

Living creatures and plant life existed on the earth after it was first created, and there is an exceedingly vast amount of fossil evidence to this truth that exists all over this earth. However, people have not known that Satan at one time destroyed all life on earth after he had rebelled against God. The devastation he brought happened in an instant as he tried to destroy the earth itself. 

 

Satan possessed the power to rip apart vast regions of the earth, shaking it off its normal orbit and rotation, as well as completely darkening the atmosphere itself. As a result of what happened so quickly within the atmosphere of the earth, temperatures dropped so low that plant life and animal life froze completely within an instant.

 

 

How Dave Pack Calculates His Sermons

 

LCG: As it Watches and Waits...

 

Once more Doug Winnail repeats himself and claims that LCG is some kind of watchman. How can that be when Bob Thiel and Dave Pack claim to be the watchman? So do Gerald Flurry and Ronnie Weinland.

Why is it that so many COG's consider themselves to be the "Watchman"? They've been "watching" and predicting for close to 80 years now and nothing they have proclaimed has come to pass. What we do get to watch is the rapid demise of the Church of God movement as it splinters and splinters into hundreds and hundreds of personality cults built around vain narcissistic men who lie through their teeth and cause immense spiritual and physical harm to their members.

Winnail quotes Hosea 8:7, 14 and immediately bitch claps the entire COG movement: 

For they sow the wind,

    and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads,

    it shall yield no meal;

Israel has forgotten his Maker,

    and built palaces;

They sow a disjointed message ignoring Christ. Their messages have yielded no harvest. While building their campuses and headquarters they continue to ignore Christ while bowing down to the altar of Moses. Winnail cannot even mention that Christians rest in the assurance of Jesus no matter what may happen in the world around them. They don't live in fear or need to look at Old Testament prophets and sages as saving them from anything. They cannot and never will. 

The church does not need another Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elisha, pastor general, chief overseer, apostle, or prophet in their midst. All of the ones who have claimed these names and continue to call themselves these names have been and still are liars who cannot and will not preach Christ resurrected. 

The Church as a Watchman: Down through history God has used His servants to warn His people and the world of coming events—for their own good. Moses warned the Israelites that if they disobeyed God and despised His laws and statutes, they would be punished (Leviticus 26:15). Isaiah was told to “Cry aloud” and tell God’s people that their sins will bring serious consequences (Isaiah 58:1). Jeremiah warned the Israelites, “you have forsaken the LORD your God” and “your own wickedness will correct you” (Jeremiah 2:17–19). Hosea’s message was, “They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind... Israel has forgotten his Maker” (Hosea 8:7, 14). Ezekiel was given a prophetic commission to be watchman to the house of Israel and that he would be held accountable for delivering that warning. In Ezekiel’s day, the house of Israel had already gone into captivity—which means that same message must be delivered to modern Israelite nations today. Let’s pray that God will open doors to make that possible and that we will stay focused on the mission to be a watchman to modern Israelites and the world.
Have a profitable Sabbath, Douglas S. Winnail

LCG Thinks Israel Needs To Hear Their Message

Greetings from Charlotte: 

 

When it seems as though things cannot get worse, they will. There will be ups and downs, but our world is heading into the time of Jacob’s trouble. We may not be there yet, but that is where the events taking place right now are heading. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, whether justified or not, sets in motion paths for the future that can move us closer to the fulfillment of end-time prophecies. The disastrous manner in which the United States pulled out of Afghanistan is part of the big picture, but even more so is our headlong plunge into sinful behaviors and divisions within. 

 

In the meantime, we continue doing the Work of God. Each week between 2,500 and 3,500 brand-new subscribers are added to Tomorrow’s World magazine. While some subscribers do not renew their subscriptions, the mailing list continues to grow as we reach larger numbers of new people. We will be starting a new congregation in Savannah, Georgia, and last week we started airing the telecast in Israel. Please pray that God will use this opportunity to preach the Gospel in Israel to accomplish His purpose.—Gerald Weston

LCG Doubles Down On Jesus…Says His Name Twice!

 

I guess the boys in Charlotte are getting tired of being mocked because Jesus is not discussed much in their writings, so they did something about it this week. They said his name twice!!!!!!!!!! Though, it is only about him coming at some point in the future. God forbide if they actually discussed this dude in 2022.

An LCG source sent me this:

"They doubled the mentions of Jesus in this one, twice compared to once last time. But it's only future Jesus of course."

While many are discovering that some of their children’s teachers are doing more indoctrinating than educating, there are still many good teachers out there. They are often underappreciated and taken for granted. Many face challenges from every direction, from disrespect in classrooms to threats on their lives. Some schools in the USA pay a “combat pay” bonus to teachers in dangerous schools. The Bible warned of a time when disrespectful children would become oppressors (Isaiah 3:4; 2 Timothy 3:1–4). However, prophecies also tell of a time after Jesus Christ’s return, when teachers will once again show students the right way to live (Isaiah 30:20–21). At that time, parents will take a much more prominent role in teaching their own children (Deuteronomy 4:9–10; 6:6–7). To learn more about this important topic, read “Misguided Education and the Decline of Western Civilization.”

Europe Needs a Leader: With Angela Merkel gone, Europe has a power vacuum. French president Emmanuel Macron, whose nation is currently serving a six-month term as presidency of the Council of the EU, is ambitious and driven but is often seen as working solely for France. Many of his European peers also distrust him (Carnegie Europe, February 10, 2022). One analyst noted Macron is the de facto leader of Europe: “While some EU member states are skeptical of Paris, the alternatives to French leadership are few.”

Merkel’s successor, Olaf Scholz, has been a disappointment, even to many Germans. Chancellor Scholz has been slow to act on major issues, including Russia and the Ukraine. Politico reported that “after two months at the helm of a three- party coalition, the Social Democrat is under fire on multiple fronts, accused of failing to show leadership, sending muddled messages and taking too soft a line with Moscow in its showdown with Ukraine and the West” (February 7, 2022). Global headlines regarding his lack of leadership have been unflattering. Will Chancellor Scholz turn it around and lead Europe as his predecessor did for many years, or will he leave this opportunity to a successor?

The lack of strong and respected leadership generates national uncertainty and disrespect on the world stage. Historically, the rule of weak leaders is often followed by a backlash and a demand for a strong one. Bible prophecy indicates that a strong leader will emerge in Europe just before the end of the age. This individual, referred to as a “beast” in prophecy, will have strong ties to a worldwide false religion, direct a powerful political entity described as a mixture of “iron and clay,” and be supported by ten leaders just before the return of Jesus Christ (Daniel 2:40–45; Revelation 13 and 17). Students of Bible prophecy should watch for such a leader to appear in Europe. For more information, watch “The Beast of Revelation.”—Scott Winnail and Francine Prater

Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God

 

The Church of God has a horrible track record of not helping those in need outside the church when tragedy or sickness hits. The excuse the church has always used is that preaching about some "soon coming" kingdom that is going to correct all of the wrongs is far more important than feeding the poor, providing shelter to the homeless and the sick, and providing assistance during natural disasters. The biggest factor in why the COG has never helped these people are that it would take money away from the church mission or cause a money drain on financing personal jets' providing personal homes for the ministry, and funding extravagant headquarter campuses.

One of the Bible verses the church loved to use as a reason to NOT help others outside the chosen frozen was Luke 9:59–60:

59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus7 said to him, “Leave tthe dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

So people of the world are dead to Christ. They do not see His beauty, nor do they hear His voice or desire to follow Him. Only His “sheep” will do those things (John 10:27). The people of the world are those whom the Savior describes here as the (spiritually) dead who should bury the (physically) dead. Let people, He says, who are not interested in My work, and who are “dead in sin” (Ephesians 2:1), take care of the dead. Your duty is now to follow Me.

The problem in using this scripture to bolster their argument is that most of them have hardly anything to do with Jesus Christ. They worship Moses and the law while ignoring Jesus unless they have to reluctantly drag him out once a year at the local Masonic Hall or high school gym to crucify him all over again, and then leave him there for another year. 

Granted, there are some in the church, like Kubik's LifeNets who do help people but very few others ever lift a hand to do anything.

Contrast the lack of concern in the church to those around us in the "world" who see a need and step up to the plate and accomplish great things.

A reader here noted this article the other day and sent it in as a sharp contrast against the lack of COG concern compared to those in the world.

Paul Farmer Public-Health Pioneer Dies of Cardiac Event at 62: Partners in Health co-founder who called healthcare a human right brought modern medicine and treatment to Haiti, Rwanda, West Africa

"Paul Farmer, a Harvard University physician, anthropologist and global public-health leader, spent decades bringing first-rate medical care to people in the poorest corners of the world.

Dr. Farmer, who was 62, died on Monday of a sudden cardiac event while sleeping in his apartment on the campus of a university he had helped to establish in rural Butaro, Rwanda, said Sheila Davis, chief executive officer of the Partners in Health nonprofit he co-founded.

He had been in Rwanda for about a month, teaching Rwandan medical students at the University of Global Health Equity and caring for patients on rounds at a nearby Rwandan government hospital that Boston-based Partners in Health built, Dr. Davis said.

Training a new generation of medical professionals in countries with poor healthcare resources was the epitome of Dr. Farmer’s dream of bringing high-quality medicine to the world’s neediest, Dr. Davis said, a pursuit he started four decades ago in Haiti. The University of Global Health Equity was recently cited by Unesco as a model for global health education." 

 

"He worked directly with the governments and people he aimed to help, living for years with his family in Haiti and then Rwanda. He gave lifesaving AIDS drugs to HIV patients in Haiti in the 1990s, helping make the case for global programs like the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief that later spent billions of dollars on drugs for patients in African and other developing countries. He cured drug-resistant tuberculosis patients who others in the field said would be too difficult to treat." 

 

"In earthquake-battered Haiti, Partners in Health built a 300-bed solar-powered public teaching hospital at the request of the government in 2013, and it now trains medical residents. In Rwanda, scarred by genocide in the 1990s, Partners in Health constructed a hospital with a cancer-care center in Butaro in 2012 and founded the global health university in 2015."

Imagine what this world would be like if the Church of God actually believed so much in that kingdom that is constantly horizon, so close yet constantly moving in the other direction. Imagine if they believed it with such fervor and moved them so much that they wanted to give a foretaste of that kingdom to the world around them. Talk about a boom in membership for the church! People would see real Christianity in action and not some pipe dream of a maniacal COG leader who preaches endlessly about damnation, death, and destruction, which sadly is the focus of the COG instead of sharing a grace-filled world.

 

Trouble At A Texas College

 

Screengrab from Collin College Youtube video

From a reader:

I don’t know if you have seen this, but a former COG member and Ambassador University faculty member, Neil Matkin, is in the news. My niece is at this college and this isn’t the first time Matkin has been in the news at this college.

 

At a Texas Community College, the Attack on Free Speech Is Coming From the Right
BY BRANKO MARCETIC 

Community college professor Michael Phillips spent the past year speaking out against a right-wing “purge” of progressive faculty at his college. Then he was fired.

For the past year, history professor Michael Phillips has been warning about a right-wing “purge” taking place at Collin College, led by administrators angling to remove progressive voices from the Texas school. Then he himself was purged.

 

Further down the article, there is this about Matkin:

Phillips had been clashing with administrators for some time before he was fired. Phillips immediately butted heads with now president H. Neil Matkin when he was a finalist for the position in 2015. Concerned that Matkin had received degrees from an unaccredited college run by the Worldwide Church of God (now known as Grace Communion International) — described by one former adherent as a “white supremacist doomsday cult” that taught that God approved of slavery and wanted white people to rule the world — he recalls confronting Matkin privately, asking him about his attitudes to matters like interracial dating and evolution. 

 

According to Phillips, Matkin got upset. For Matkin’s part, he’d later complain that Phillips had “come to the conclusion the church was racist and that therefore I was racist.” 

 

In 2021, Kera News of North Texas said this concerning issues at Collins College over students begin sent back to class for face to face class in the midst of the pandemic: 

Amid controversies over COVID-19 and fired professors, some blame Collin College's president
Over the past year, several controversies have been swirling around the college system in Collin County, north of Dallas.

Some faculty say morale is low because of continued concerns regarding COVID-19 safety protocols. For a long time, the college didn’t post COVID case counts online. Matkin once wrote that the pandemic’s effects “have been blown utterly out of proportion.” Meanwhile, over the summer, the college’s dean of nursing died from COVID-19 complications.

National organizations have berated the school, blaming Matkin for speech and academic freedom violations. Professors who’ve been fired have sued the college.

Further down this article: 

Tensions began to bubble more than a year ago, after some faculty, like longtime professor Audra Heaslip, wanted the college to consider online-only classes during COVID-19.

“The board of trustees made the decision for the college to go back face-to-face during the pandemic. I did not merely accept that but I questioned it,” Heaslip said. “They told me that I put outside pressure on the college to go completely online, which is not accurate.”

Heaslip was fired. She wasn’t the only one. 

 

There’s history professor Lora Burnett, whose contract wasn’t renewed after she sent a negative tweet about then-Vice President Mike Pence. 

 

Burnett's Twitter post led to complaints from State Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, who tweeted that Burnett should go. He also sent a text message to Matkin asking if Burnett was paid with taxpayer dollars. Matkin responded, saying he would "deal with it."

Burnett said her free speech rights were violated. The school denied the accusation and said it doesn’t talk about personnel issues. 

 

In October, Burnett sued the college. 

 

The school fired another professor, Suzanne Jones, who taught at Collin College for 20 years. She told KERA it was because she questioned the college’s COVID health protocols. Jones, too, has sued the college. 

Matkin then got into trouble for mocking a Jewish member of the faculty by putting a bowl on his own head when talking about the faculty member mocking the yamalka he wore: 

The high-profile firings grabbed the attention of investigative reporter Michael Vasquez. In preparing a story for the Chronicle of Higher Education, he sought out former Collin College employees, and ran into problems. He learned many had signed nondisclosure agreements or NDAs. They’re rare for universities, but not Collin College, Vasquez said. 

 

“There were a number of former employees who I talked to who mentioned, 'You know, sorry, I wish I could talk to you, wish I could dish dirt or whatever, but I signed an NDA and I can’t,'” Vasquez said. “So I don’t have a firm grasp of how many, but I can tell you it’s not three, it’s not five, not seven. It seems like it’s considerably more.” 

 

Vasquez confirmed a story about the time Matkin put a bowl on his head, as if he were wearing a yarmulke. He was impersonating the college’s previous president, who’s Jewish. 

 

Matkin told Vasquez he was "going for a couple of laughs." 

Collin College history professor and writer Michael Phillips was shocked.
“I wonder how comfortable Jewish people feel at this institution where they think a symbol of their faith is a punchline?” Phillips said. 

 

Matkin, who’s not Jewish, told Vasquez he made a mistake, and would never do that again.

 

D - Lets Make Even Better had this to say about Matkin in March of 2021:

At Collin College, a Collision Over Free Speech

Matkin says he was caught off guard by the opposition to aspects of the reopening. “What I underestimated was that there are people who are scared beyond anything that I could imagine,” he says. “And they weren’t wanting to hear somebody talk to them about operating in the new normal. What they wanted to hear was the college is closing. And I didn’t say that. If I had to go back and do it over again, I wouldn’t try to bring logic to an emotional argument as I did.”

At the time, Matkin told faculty members in an email that the effects of the pandemic were “overblown,” and that Texans were “one hundred times more likely” to die in a car crash than from COVID-19. His math was wrong, Matkin now admits, but he stands behind his point that it was possible to mitigate the risks of the virus.

“I think early on it was hard to get good information. I do not believe [the effects of the pandemic] were overblown. In fact, it’s proven to be a worldwide tragedy,” he says now. “There were things that I did say early on that—would I say them today knowing where this thing was headed and what was going on? No. What I was trying to do was calm fears and trying to help, but I wasn’t terribly helpful at that point.”

News reports citing members of her family say that Iris Meda, the Collin College nursing instructor who died in November after contracting COVID-19, first thought she would be teaching online. Matkin disputes this.

“Iris Meda was planning to teach face-to-face nursing classes from the day that she was hired, and she knew that and had been excited about it, according to folks that knew her,” he says.

Matkin says that Meda and others in her classroom were wearing masks, and administrators do not know for certain whether she contracted the virus at Collin College. One of her students did test positive for the virus shortly before she began experiencing symptoms.

“Her death is tragic,” Matkin says. “It’s unfortunately become a symbol for some [faculty members]. My response to them just recently was, ‘Friends, we have a lot of faculty members that pass away for a lot of reasons.’” (In response to calls that the college memorialize Meda, Matkin has suggestedhonoring “all of our fallen colleagues.”)

Matkin attributes his seemingly callous announcement of Meda’s death—deep in an email about other college updates and news around Thanksgiving—to something of a clerical snafu. He intended that another email with more information on Meda, including details on funeral services, would be sent out first. But it was held up while he waited for word from her family, he says. (The Thanksgiving email did not include Meda’s name.)

One of the most damaging articles about Matkin came from The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

‘That Man Makes Me Crazy’ How one president shattered norms, played down Covid-19, and sent his critics packing.

There is a lot more out there about Matkin, almost none of it flattering.

Academic Association Opens Investigation into Collin College over Fired Professors

After four months of stonewalling, Collin College reveals the ‘contacts from legislators’ over Pence critic

Collin College doesn’t renew contract of noted historian, author who was critical of school

Collin College Settles With History Professor Fired Over Tweets