The Old Testament Perspective of Matthew 5:19-20 And a Critique of the Armstrongist Interpretation

 

The Mount of Beatitudes Where Jesus May Have Preached the Sermon on the Mount

The Old Testament Perspective of Matthew 5:19-20

And a Critique of the Armstrongist Interpretation 

By Scout

 

Jesus in that sermon (Sermon on the Mount) said He did not come to destroy the Law or the prophets. He came only to fulfill. And I've shown you that according to the New Testament in James that we are commanded to fulfill the Law following in His steps — He set us an example that we should follow His steps and we too must fulfill the Law or else we are sinners and love is the fulfilling of the Law. And He said that not the dotting of an "i" or the crossing of a "t" would be removed from the Law until everyone is really fulfilling it.  ― Herbert W. Armstrong, “Spirit of the Law”, Sermon, 1979  

 

What if Israel really wanted to continue observing the Law? Well, it is simply impossible. There is no longer a priesthood, no temple, and no sacrificial system—all of which comprise the heart and essence of the Law. We cannot separate the Sinai covenant from the Law. The laws are merely an outgrowth of the covenant … Those who want to can only pick out a few laws to keep that are not related to the temple, the priesthood, or the sacrificial system.” ― Dr. Eitan Bar, “Reading Moses, Seeing Jesus: How the Torah Fulfills its Goal in Yeshua,” 2017.

Jesus spoke to Jews ― Jews of the Second Temple period.  I am a bit Jewish so I can sympathize.  I am descended from certain Sephardic Jews and history indicates that these Jews were from the Southern Tribes and fled Palestine in 70 AD.   So, it is likely that my Jewish heritage is a mix of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi.  While it is interesting to be genetically connected to these tribes, I have to solemnly consider that I am descended from people who may have heard Jesus and rejected him. I recognize that Jesus spoke to a very specific and demanding audience.  But Jesus, I am certain, had no trouble with this audience.  Because Jesus was an expert at “reading the room.”  After all, he could read people’s minds.  Jesus read the room with perfect precision and said exactly what was needed.  So, it is important not to overlook the audience-related nuances in what his words tell us.  As I examine two verses in Matthew 5, it will become obvious why this is important.   

The Redemption Model in Matthew 5:19-20

Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount to his disciples and to a Jewish crowd purportedly on the Mount of Beatitudes near Lake Tiberias. Matthew 5 begins with, “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.”  Some have asserted that Jesus was not speaking to the crowd of Jews but only to the disciples. This is likely meant to support the idea that the Sermon on the Mount, with its references to Torah, was a thoroughgoing New Testament statement without Old Testament influence.  But it is clear that Jews were a part of the audience because Matthew 7 ends with, “Now when Jesus had finished saying these words, the crowds were astounded at his teaching.”  They must have all been close together to be able to hear the voice of Jesus.

I think the Jewish audience had an inkling of what was going to happen by the time Jesus reached verse 17 of Matthew 5.  He had already talked about who would enter the Kingdom of Heaven in the Beatitudes and he did not mention once keeping the Torah.  So, by this time the crowd was probably thinking, “This guy, this miracle worker, doesn’t believe in following the Torah.”  He answered this unvoiced objection by stating pre-emptively that he would not abolish the Law and the Prophets (the Tanakh) but would himself fulfill its demands perfectly – every last word not just a selection.  All the commandments, statutes, judgements, ordinances, rituals and ceremonies.   In this, Jesus took a shot at the Pharisees.  He would later accuse them of preaching but not doing what they preached (Matthew 23:3).  He, further, explained that one had to not only teach but do the Law in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Pharisees were teaching but not doing.  

In the course of this, in Matthew 5:19-20, Jesus touched on the model of redemption that was relevant to this audience.  He said, 

“Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

There is a reason why I refer to this passage as a redemption model and not a salvation model.  If you are familiar with Christian soteriology, by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), then Matthew 5:19-20 is informative. It tells you that Jesus is not speaking of salvation (“entering into the Kingdom of Heaven”) as we know it from Pauline theology. In the Pauline model of salvation, one does not enter the kingdom of heaven by achieving a certain level of righteousness.  In this case, a level that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees – both groups ardent Torah keepers.  That would be salvation by works.  Jesus did not speak of New Testament salvation by grace through faith in this sermon.  He spoke the Torahic concept of keeping the Law in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven as Jews understood the Kingdom idea. This was the idea that keeping the Torah would bring blessings in this temporal, earthly life (Leviticus 18:5, Deuteronomy 30:15-16).  In Second Temple Judaism to “take upon oneself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven” meant consciously keeping the Torah, and submitting to God in this lifetime.  Within the boundaries of this system, if you were good then you had a good life on earth but in the end everyone went to Sheol where they lived a diminished existence in a dim, subterranean shadow-world.

Further, Jesus states in verse 20 that someone can break laws, even the least of them, and teach others to follow this evil example and still be in the Kingdom of Heaven.  The downside for that person is only that the person will be one of the least in rank.  This does not sound like the dire consequences that Paul spoke of in reaction to the activities of the Circumcision Party when he said in Galatians 5:4, “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

This drives the conclusion that Jesus is not speaking about the Christian model of eternal salvation but the Jewish model of earthly blessing.  The deeper picture is this: Jesus, who was under the Law, was speaking to Jews who were under the Law.  Jesus had not been crucified and the grace he was to bring was not known yet.  When Jesus mentioned the Kingdom of Heaven, the Jewish audience was not seeing the shining, mystical scenarios from the Book of Revelation because John of Patmos would not write until years later. There was no golden vision of the Parousia because Jesus was standing right in front of them and nobody could foresee his death and return, not even his own disciples.   There is no discussion here of the Crucifixion, grace, faith, the Ekklesia and theosis.  Instead, what was in view, was the earthly Judaic Kingdom of Heaven that meant for the future the coming of the Messiah militant and the exaltation of the nation of Israel and the casting down of Israel’s enemies.  Even Jesus’ own disciples held this view (Acts 1:6, Luke 24:21).  But some may see Matthew 5:19-20 not as instruction to a mixed audience of Jews under the Law and the disciples of Jesus but instruction solely to Christians under grace.  That brings us to Armstrongism and the Circumcision Party. 

The Armstrongist Interpretation and Its Similarity to Circumcision Party Belief

In the wake of the church planting work of Paul and bar-Nabus, a collection of Pharisees who had a different view on what Christ said, began to aggressively push a different message.  They asserted that one had to be circumcised in order to be saved.  They also asserted that one must keep the Law of Moses to receive salvation.  This group of Pharisees is known to modern critics as the Circumcision Party.  But they could just as accurately be referred to as the Torah Party. 

The view of the Circumcision/Torah Party on salvation has a modern parallel among Armstrongists.  The Circumcision/Torah Party and Armstrongists came to the same conclusion about the Torah’s relationship to salvation.  The citation from a sermon by Herbert W. Armstrong at the beginning of this opinion piece underscores this.  Armstrong drew the same conclusion that the Circumcision/Torah party drew – that the Torah is still a requirement for salvation.  The difference is that the Circumcision/Torah Party, influenced by the Pharisees, promoted the Law of Moses with fidelity to the Tanakh.  Whereas, Armstrongism promotes a streamlined, mini-Torah.

See Rod Meredith’s article, “Is Obedience to God Required for Salvation?” for how the argument supporting this Armstrongist doctrine is developed.  We do not have, as far as I know, a record of how the Circumcision/Torah Party developed this conclusion.  They may have simply misinterpreted statements like Matthew 5:19-20. In the statement of Herbert W. Armstrong’s position in 1979 cited at the beginning of this opinion piece, it is clear that Armstrongists are required to fulfill the Torah in the same way that Jesus fulfilled the Torah down to the jot and tittle level (though in 1956 Meredith, in his article previously cited, excluded the sacrifices and imposition of the death penalty).  If Herbert W. Armstrong’s view were really true, we would all be capable of human earthly perfection in this life (this is a belief found among some Millerites called Spiritualizers) and the imputed righteousness of Christ would be rendered superfluous.  So, the Armstrongist view leaves us with some unresolved issues. 

Conclusion

The Sermon on the Mount is a significant part of what Christians view as the Law of Christ. But it was not delivered to Christians but to Jews of the Second Temple period, Jews who were under the Torah.  While the Sermon on the Mount is bedrock Christian doctrine, it must be recognized that it was delivered in Jewish terms to a Jewish audience.  Jesus read the room and spoke to his audience.  During the course of the sermon, Jesus even mentioned taking a gift (Greek, doron, which is typically an animal sacrifice) to the alter, a sacrificial practice required under the Law but not in Christianity.  We must recognize the coloration of Second Temple Judaism in the Sermon on the Mount and permit the words spoken by Jesus later through the Apostle Paul and the author of Hebrews to temper these Judaic views.

Jesus Sure Has A Hard Time Finding A Place To Live On The Old Ambassador Campus

Remember the glory days of old when the Worldwide Church of God used to proclaim that God lived in the Auditorium and that God and Jesus were present in the everyday activities of the church?

Well, that all came to a screeching halt when the Great Apostasy happened and the church splintered into the winds with some of the wildest and most idiotic men ever produced by the COG movement.

Jesus and God soon found themselves standing on St John Ave wondering what in Gehenna fire happened! Never fear though. The Holy Spirit was quietly working in the background and Jesus and God soon found a home once again when Maranatha High School and Harvest Rock Church bought the lower campus in 2004. 

The Auditorium (that glittering “Carnegie Hall of the West” Herbert Armstrong built as a literal house for God) was soon rocking to praise and worship under Che Ahn’s charismatic crew. Herbert had his second coronary at this point.

Then, God’s House went up for sale! Oh noes! Never fear, though—Samuel Kitchen stepped up to the plate to buy it. We are still waiting on that one. (In the meantime the $45 million listing from 2024 got quietly yanked off the market by Harvest Rock in May 2025. Divine timing, no doubt.)

It wasn’t long until earlier this year that Jesus had a home once again on campus—in Mayfair! Steadfast Church sprang up using the old mansion (the historic 1902–03 Tudor Revival Sprague/Mayfair house on Orange Grove) as their worship space. They were part of a church-planting group that starts in people’s homes and small offices or rented rooms from other churches.They were able to meet in Mayfair for several months until their pastor made the decision in June of this year to shut it all down. 

Jesus got evicted again! Is the property cursed, or what?

COGWA Claims Your Itching Ears Have Led You Away From The "Truth"

The piece be;ow from COGWA is classic Armstrongist rhetorical machinery dressed up as pastoral concern. It takes Paul’s warning in 2 Timothy 4:3 about people who will “not tolerate wholesome teaching” and “collect teachers who will pander to their own desires,” then quietly redefines “wholesome teaching” as whatever the current COGWA leadership happens to be preaching. The implied syllogism is simple and ironclad:

1. We (the ministers) teach the truth. 
2. Anyone who questions us, our doctrines, or our authority is therefore itching for something else. 
3. Therefore that person is already on the road out of “the Church.”

Convenient, isn’t it? The same verse that was meant to guard against false teachers is repurposed as a loyalty test that protects the institutional hierarchy. Question the continued binding force of the seventh-day Sabbath under the New Covenant? Itching ears. Wonder why the New Testament never commands tithing the way the old WCG/COGWA still does? Itching ears. Notice that Hebrews 8 and Jeremiah 31 describe a covenant in which the law is written on the heart rather than enforced by a ministerial caste? Better stop before you wander off after “man-made fictions.”  The article’s three “keys” only tighten the leash. 

• Cultivate humility is code for “never trust your own reading of Scripture more than the ministry’s.” Jeremiah 17:9 and 1 Corinthians 10:12 are weaponized to produce permanent self-doubt. The Laodicean rebuke is wheeled out on cue: if you think you can stand without us, you are already “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” In other words, independent thought equals spiritual blindness. The New Covenant reality—that every believer has the Spirit and is a priest (1 Peter 2:9; Hebrews 8:10–11)—is nowhere in view. 
• Surround yourself with the right teachers means “stay inside the approved circle.” Hebrews 13:17 is quoted as if it were a blank check for unquestioned obedience rather than a call to accountable shepherds who will one day give an account. The article never contemplates the possibility that the “right teachers” might themselves be the ones who have drifted. Armstrongism has a long history of treating every successive splinter’s leadership as the sole remaining guardians of “the truth once delivered,” while every previous leadership is retroactively declared apostate. The pattern is self-sealing. 
• Remember what the truth has done for you is the nostalgia play. The “miracle” of calling is described in pure Armstrongist categories: the gospel of the Kingdom as God “reproducing Himself,” the ongoing obligation of Exodus 20, the physical resurrection of the body into spirit life, etc. None of this is allowed to be re-examined in light of the New Covenant’s explicit statements that the old covenant is obsolete (Hebrews 8:13), that dietary laws and holy days were shadows (Colossians 2:16–17), or that justification is by faith apart from works of the law (Galatians 2–3; Romans 3–4). The moment you notice the dissonance, you are told you are failing to “value the truth.”

The net effect is a climate of fear that keeps people spiritually trapped. The “itching ears” label functions as a preemptive strike against any Berean impulse (Acts 17:11). It turns the priesthood of all believers into a dangerous heresy and replaces the freedom of the New Covenant with a perpetual dependence on the ministerial class for “guidance.”  Paul’s actual concern in 2 Timothy was people who would abandon the apostolic gospel for myths that scratched their religious itch. Armstrongism inverted the warning: the itch is now defined as any desire to test the organization’s distinctive package against the finished work of Christ and the explicit terms of the New Covenant. The result is a closed system in which the only safe posture is grateful, uncritical submission.  That is not spiritual maturity. That is institutional self-preservation with a thin veneer of Scripture.

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Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy about something that would happen to some of the disciples of Jesus Christ: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4, emphasis added throughout).

Sound doctrine is another way of saying “truth,” and the danger isn’t that something happens to truth. People just stop wanting it. Not because it loses its power or becomes less life-changing, but because a different itch starts to take over:

An itch shaped by personal desires.

This was a prophecy about the Church: members abandoning the gospel message for things that sounded better or felt nicer.

What they would land on instead were, of course, shams. Lies dressed up in something shiny, packaged in all the right ways, but empty in the end.

Trading truth for something else

What makes a group of Christians give up everything and walk away from the truth that once set them free?

The same tug that pulls humanity as a whole away from truth: we want our ears scratched by things we like. Things more comfortable—things that don’t require a big change in how we think.

That’s a struggle for us, because as Christians our job is to live by every word of God (Matthew 4:4), and the Bible wasn’t written to indulge us. It was written to challenge us. It cuts like a double-edged sword, laying naked the thoughts and intentions of our hearts (Hebrews 4:12). It holds up a mirror and shows us personal flaws and the sins we have not yet overcome (James 1:23-25).

It doesn’t always tell us what’s comfortable to hear. And if our minds aren’t conditioned to be corrected and satisfied by what the Bible says, we may start feeling the itch to turn to something else.

“For the time is coming when men will not tolerate wholesome teaching. They will want something to tickle their own fancies, and they will collect teachers who will pander to their own desires. They will no longer listen to the truth, but will wander off after man- made fictions” (2 Timothy 4:3, J.B. Phillips New Testament).

How to combat itching ears

The big question is, How can we avoid becoming the kind of people who set aside the truth for something else? How can we avoid being deceived by our own desires? It can happen—and it will happen to some—but in the end, the ball is in our court.

God doesn’t leave us powerless in how we respond to the truth He gives us. There are real, practical steps we can take to train our minds spiritually. If we want to value truth more than anything else, we must practice the following three keys.

Cultivate humility

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” This is what we’re up against. This is man’s default state. Buried in each of our hearts is a measure of self-deception that tugs on our better judgment, encouraging us to exchange reality in favor of lies.

We’re fallible.

But God doesn’t tell us that because He wants us to throw up our hands and avoid trying. The goal is for us to move away from a reckless “I can’t be tricked” attitude and learn to rely on God for spiritual strength.

Paul put it to the Corinthians very simply, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

The problem with some members in Corinth was that they were too sure of themselves— certain they would not “fall.” It was pride.

Another group had the same issue: the Laodiceans.

Jesus gave them a stinging rebuke: “You say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).

In both cases, the problem was self-reliance. And sooner or later, self-reliance will drive a wedge between us and truth.

Jesus Christ is the only One who has ever successfully cut through every form of deception that tried to take root in His mind (1 Peter 2:22). And it’s His power—His desire for truth—that works in us through the Holy Spirit. If our confidence isn’t in Him, then we’re headed for a fall.

Humility is key to pursuing truth.

Surround yourself with the right teachers

The people in Jeremiah’s day had something in common with the people Paul was warning Timothy about.

“An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so” (Jeremiah 5:30-31).

The descendants of Judah loved the teachers of their day and made a habit of listening to them. But they were liars. They led the people astray and turned them against right teachers—men like Jeremiah, who preached the unadulterated Word of God.

God still has servants today who speak the truth—ministers who handle Scripture correctly and teach wholesome things.

We don’t have to entertain the teachings of impostors; we can choose to surround ourselves with godly leaders who look after our spiritual welfare (Hebrews 13:17).

Remember what the truth has done and continues to do for you

God made it possible for those He has called to understand His truth through a miracle. We

had no part in starting that. God reached down and shone His light in our minds.

Because of that, followers of Christ have a clear picture of the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

We know what God is doing. He’s reproducing Himself—bringing humanity into His eternal family (Hebrews 2:10). We know that plan turns on one hinge: His Son, who gave His life to achieve forgiveness and reconciliation (1 Peter 1:18-19).

We also know the way of life God calls us to live (Exodus 20:1-17). And we know where that way leads: “For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die” (1 Corinthians 15:53, New Living Translation).

This truth is special. And it’s precious.

But there have always been—and will always be—things that try to compete with it. Not long after the Church began, variants of the “faith once delivered” started spreading (Jude 1:3). Paul warned about the disciples accepting “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4) and turning to a “different gospel” (Galatians 1:6). The truth was being challenged by impostors who were looking to gain a following.

And they succeeded in some cases, because certain disciples failed to recognize the value of the truth they had been handed.

Never let the truth go

Satan has launched a war of deception on humanity, and he would love nothing more than to sweep us up in it.

He knows exactly what pulls people away from the truth. He used the precise levers necessary in order to convince Eve to trade the truth for a lie. But we don’t have to give him a foothold in our minds. Through God’s Spirit, we can curb every desire that might cause us to walk away from the truth.

Hebrews urges us, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23).

Let’s cling to God’s truth with everything we’ve got, refusing to scratch any itch that asks us to let the truth go. D

LifeHopeandTruth.comLi f e H o pea n d T r u t h. co m - Open link http://lifehopeandtruth.com

Armstrongism's Cosmic Real-Estate Scheme: Ronald Weinland’s Latest Sales Pitch for Becoming Gods and Landscaping the Universe

Herbert W. Armstrong’s theology never settled for mere eternal life or a quiet spot in heaven. No, Armstrongism promised something far more extravagant: God is a Family of two (for now), and faithful humans who jump through the right hoops will be “born” as literal spirit gods of the same divine species. These newly minted deities will then inherit the universe itself—ruling it, beautifying it, and busily terraforming barren planets for all eternity. The Promised Land given to ancient Israel? A quaint little prototype for the real prize: galaxies upon galaxies of cosmic development projects.

Ronald Weinland, leader of the minuscule Church of God Preparing for the Kingdom of God, struck out on his own in 1998, later announcing himself a prophet, apostle, and (with his wife) one of the two witless witnesses of Revelation. His prophetic résumé from the Bob Thiel School of Prophecy is a masterclass in missed appointments: the end was supposed to arrive around 2008, then May 2012, then May 2013, then June 2019. In between failed forecasts, a federal jury in 2012 convicted him on five counts of tax evasion for underreporting income, diverting church funds to personal use, and hiding a Swiss bank account. He served 42 months and has been free since roughly 2016. Undeterred, he keeps writing. 

In July 2026, Weinland dropped Chapter 11 of his latest series—“PHASE THREE: GOD’S FAMILY IN AN ERA OF INFINITY”—complete with a companion piece titled “The Inheritance Awaiting God’s Family.” The text is pure Armstrongist greatest hits. The physical universe, we are told, was never an end in itself. Those billions of galaxies and trillions of solar systems have sat largely barren for “billions upon trillions of years” for one very good reason: the spirit beings destined to fill them, build within them, and beautify them had not yet arrived. Earth’s six-day makeover and the garden-tending assignment given to Adam and Eve were only a “very meager beginning.” Once the Family is complete, the real work begins—solar system by solar system, galaxy by galaxy—creating, improving, and enjoying perfect relationships for infinite time. Everlasting life is nice, but the true inheritance is the entire cosmos as a personal renovation project. It sounds majestic until one does the arithmetic.

Roughly 117 billion human beings have ever lived. The observable universe contains something on the order of 10²⁴ to 10²⁵ planets, with potentially habitable ones stretching into the sextillions. Assign every person who has ever drawn breath to a single world, and you still leave the overwhelming majority of the cosmos empty and unused. Armstrongism’s ready answer is that spirit-composed gods will simply create more life over infinite time and keep expanding outward. How convenient. The universe, it seems, has been politely waiting 13.8 billion years for a relative handful of overcomers to show up with their divine hard hats and landscaping tools. One can almost hear the galaxies muttering, “Finally—someone who knows how to dress and keep a solar system.” 

Then there is the family-logistics problem. If these newly deified humans are to populate planets with their descendants or relatives, where exactly does one draw the line? How many generations back must be included before the entire human race collapses into one gigantic, hopelessly interrelated clan that somehow has to fit on a single rock? At some point the celestial personnel office will have to announce, “Sorry, third cousins twice removed, you’re shipping out to that frozen moon on the edge of the Andromeda galaxy—have fun with the in-laws.” The doctrine’s solution is that earthly kinship dissolves once everyone becomes part of the one God Family. Biological family trees are transcended. Problem solved—by declaration. Scripture, of course, never bothers to describe this administrative miracle, any more than it describes resurrected saints personally seeding life on exoplanets.

These are not nitpicking details. They expose the teaching for what it is: an imaginative speculative fantasy draped over a few biblical phrases about sonship, inheritance, and creation’s longing. Armstrong took legitimate themes and inflated them into a detailed future of cosmic public works for which there is neither textual blueprint nor coherent logistics. Weinland’s latest installment adds nothing new; it simply repackages the old dream in the language of “phases” and “infinity,” delivered by a man whose track record on predicting the future is roughly as reliable as a weather forecast issued by a broken barometer.

The appeal is obvious. Who wouldn’t want to believe that ordinary human life is merely the apprenticeship for eternal godhood and endless creative projects free of selfishness, war, and human drama? The narrative flatters. It also collapses under the weight of scale, kinship, and the stubborn refusal of the Bible to endorse planet-by-planet real-estate development as the destiny of the saints. The universe is vast, ancient, and mostly empty. The claim that it has been holding its breath for a finite number of Church of God graduates to arrive and start the remodeling remains one of the more charmingly absurd promises in the crowded marketplace of religious grandiosity. Weinland and Armstrongism keep selling it. Buyers would be wise to inspect the fine print—and the arithmetic—before signing.

The Irony of “Are You Teachable?”: When Leaders Demand What They Rarely Model

 

Doug Winnail shared a message titled “Are You Teachable?” the other day. It presents teachability as one of the most important qualities God seeks in Christians and future leaders in the Kingdom of God. Using familiar biblical examples: Abraham responding to God’s call (Genesis 12:1–4), Moses described as very humble (Numbers 12:3), David repeatedly asking God to “teach me Your statutes” (Psalm 119), Solomon requesting wisdom (1 Kings 3:9), and Jesus blessing the meek and poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3–5). He then goes on to add—Christians who are called to reign with Christ must cultivate a desire and willingness to listen, learn, and be molded.

On the surface, this is standard Christian exhortation. Humility and openness to correction are indeed biblical virtues. The problem arises when such a message comes from an organization whose culture and leadership style have long been criticized for demanding precisely these traits from ordinary members while higher-ups often appear exempt.

Living Church of God maintains a top-down structure of church government. Members are repeatedly instructed to be submissive, respectful of the ministry, and ready to receive correction. Sermons and articles frequently stress “servant leadership” and warn against self-will or questioning established authority. Yet accounts from former members describe a different reality on the ground: pastors and leaders who come across as entitled or controlling, who isolate members or discourage independent contact with other congregations, and who expect unquestioning loyalty even when their own conduct falls short. One former attendee described a local pastor and his wife as “completely absorbed with themselves, very arrogant and entitled,” with members told they must respect the pastor regardless of behavior because “God will judge him.” Control extended to limiting visits to other LCG congregations and Bible studies. Nepotism and the sense that certain families operate under different rules have also been noted in critiques of the organization.

This creates a one-way street. The sheeple are expected to remain humble and teachable—open to molding by God through the church hierarchy. Leadership, by contrast, frequently positions itself as the channel of that molding rather than subject to the same scrutiny. When members raise concerns about arrogance, inconsistency, or heavy-handedness, the response often frames the issue as the member’s lack of submission or spiritual maturity rather than an opportunity for leaders to model the teachability they preach.

LCG literature does affirm the ideal of Christ-like servant leadership and humility, citing passages such as Matthew 20:25–28 and 2 Timothy 2:24–25. Leaders have publicly rejected “dictatorial or harsh” approaches and called for growth in love and service. Yet the gap between stated ideals and reported experience is a recurring theme among those who have left. In hierarchical systems that claim unique fidelity to “God’s government,” admitting error or receiving correction from below can feel existentially threatening. The safer path becomes reinforcing the expectation that members must stay teachable while leadership remains largely insulated.

The biblical figures Winnail cites were not insulated. Moses faced challenges and correction. David was rebuked by Nathan. Solomon’s later life showed the consequences of failing to remain teachable. Jesus Himself modeled radical humility. When a church organization constantly instructs its people to cultivate these qualities while its own higher ranks are widely perceived as resistant to the same standard, the message lands as hypocritical.

Teachability is valuable. A willingness to listen, learn, and change is essential for any genuine spiritual growth. But it cannot be a virtue demanded only downward. If God is truly looking for leaders who are moldable, the test applies first and most stringently to those already in positions of influence. Otherwise, calls for humility become tools of control rather than invitations to shared discipleship.

Members of any church—LCG included—would do well to examine not only whether they are teachable, but whether the system they support allows its leaders the same freedom to be corrected, to admit shortcomings, and to grow. Without that mutual accountability, the rhetoric of meekness and teachability rings hollow.

Are You Teachable? One of the most important qualities that God is looking for in Christians and future leaders in the Kingdom of God is teachability—the desire and willingness to listen, learn, and be molded by God. Abraham was teachable and responsive to God’s instructions (Genesis 12:1–4). Moses was a very capable leader, yet he was also humble and teachable (Numbers 12:3). David’s attitude is evident in his multiple requests for God to “teach me Your statutes” (Psalm 119:12, 26, 33). Solomon recognized his own human inadequacies when he asked God for the wisdom that he needed to rule God’s people wisely (1 Kings 3:9). When Jesus said the meek and poor in spirit will be blessed, He was referring to their teachability and their willingness to learn and grow in knowledge of God’s ways (Matthew 5:3–5). We have been called to reign with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God—and being teachable is one of the keys to attaining that reward.

Have a profitable Sabbath,

Douglas S. Winnail

Third-Generation Armstrongism: Because Someone Has to Keep the Betamax of Christianity Alive

The first official Sabbath service in the pilfored wanna-be Worldwide Church of God happened on August 1. It was everything you could imagine and more. Herbert is rolling in his grave right now. It was a masterpiece of digital time travel. Nearly two hours of pure, undiluted 1970's energy beamed straight into 2026 like someone found a dusty Betamax cassette in the old Pasadena TV studios as they were tearing it down, blew the cobwebs off, and decided the world still needed to hear it—while the rest of humanity is busy with, you know, actual current events. The Official Worldwide Church of God Channel delivers a live stream so sparsely attended (a heroic 168 views) that the chat probably consists of Kitchen himself refreshing the page and one guy who wandered in looking for actual kitchen tips from that other Samuel Kitchen, the chef.

I know this will give Samuel clicks to view this, but it is such a trainwreck it is fascinating to fast forward through. Over 2 hours of, Um, batshittery! For those of you who have missed Herb pounding the desk with this fist, the sermonette was of Herb in the Philippines when he was sucking up to Fernando Marcos before he was deposed and his mistress moved to Pasadena on South Oakland Ave. Fists pounding, jowls flapping, and spittle flying. 

Oh, and for all of you Laodiecean former song leaders, you can watch how song leading should be done! He even tells you to sit down after singing!

It opens with hymns about the church being built on “the vine” and foundations that are so strong they haven’t needed updating since Herbert W. Armstrong was still warm. The prayer thanks God for provisions, the church, and—checks notes—Herbert W. Armstrong as the literal end-time Elijah/apostle. Nothing says “fresh spiritual vitality” like treating a dead radio preacher from the mid-20th century as the indispensable bridge between you and the Almighty. One almost expects the next announcement to be that they’re still waiting for the 1975 prophecy to kick in any day now. Oh, and Samuel forgot to turn his microphone on at the very beginning of this masterpiece on what not to do.

Then the announcements: weekly live services, a shiny new office, membership on the website, and the pièce de résistance—special AI-generated music titled “The Man Was Sent.” Yes, they used artificial intelligence to compose a song glorifying the human messenger. The irony is so thick you could spread it on organic stone-ground whole wheat bread. Nothing captures the cutting edge of divine revelation quite like feeding Armstrong hagiography into a large language model and calling it “special music.”

One thing we can be assured of, these kinds of videos will NOT bring in old members or even attract new members. These will never bring in tithe money. No auditorium will ever be purchased. 

This is less a Sabbath service and more a museum exhibit of a religious movement that peaked decades ago and is now being kept on life support by one very dedicated third-generation holdout in Iowa and an AI music generator. It’s the spiritual equivalent of insisting that Betamax is still the superior format while the rest of the planet streams 4K. Highly recommended if your idea of cutting-edge Christianity is deifying a deceased broadcaster, and watching the view count struggle to climb past three digits. Everyone else can safely skip—your spiritual foundation will somehow survive without it.

Fun times are ahead, brethren!

Antichrist Alert: Free Online Library Forces People to Think for Themselves – Kitchen Clan Outraged!

Rejoice, ye remnant seekers of the one true path! For in these latter days, the faithful no longer require the living God Himself. Why bother with prayer, personal revelation, or that pesky Holy Spirit when a convenient "reservoir of truth" exists online?

Behold the glorious innovation: the Herbert W. Armstrong Library (hwalibrary.com and related archives), a humble, independent, non-affiliated digital warehouse stuffed with free downloads of old Plain Truth magazines, World Tomorrow broadcasts, booklets, sermons, and co-worker letters from the Radio/Worldwide Church of God era under Herbert W. Armstrong (1892–1986). Add a dash of modern A.I., and voilà—mankind can now "work out things" all by themselves! No need for God at all. That is precisely what "they" think, according to the profound insight of Samuel Kitchen.

For context that somehow makes this even more delightfully ridiculous: Herbert W. Armstrong founded the Radio Church of God, which became the Worldwide Church of God, teaching a distinctive blend of Sabbatarianism, British-Israelism, rejection of the Trinity, observance of Old Testament holy days, and the idea that God is a family into which humans can also become God. After Armstrong's death in 1986, the organization under Joseph Tkach dramatically shifted toward mainstream evangelicalism, prompting dozens of splinter groups to claim they alone preserved the "original" truth. Enter the Kitchen family of Iowa—third-generation adherents who insist they are the continuing Worldwide Church of God, complete with websites, AI-assisted hymns, tithe-collection announcements, and expansion dreams into places like the Philippines. Samuel Kitchen positions himself as the vessel of Jesus Christ in these end times, holding fast while everyone else falls away. Never mind the fact that Samuels aspostate father turned his back on the mother church and defected to other eCOG groups before claiming he was the arbitrator of all truth.

And yet, according to Samuel, the HWA Library hates the Kitchen family! It has opposed Jesus Christ in Samuel for so many long, persecuted years!!!! How dare an archive of scanned PDFs and audio files from the very era Kitchen claims to champion provide open access so that ordinary men might "CHOOSE and SEARCH FOR THEMSELVES"? This is pure Antichrist behavior. They rob God (by not funneling everything through the correct Iowa PO box, one assumes). They oppose God. They commit the unpardonable sin of letting people read the old materials without first swearing fealty to the Kitchen household's unique interpretation that they alone embody the restored Philadelphia-era work.

Never mind that the library explicitly states it is not affiliated with any church organization, posts no post-1986 material from ministers who left after the changes, and simply aims to preserve historical documents so interested parties can examine them. Never mind the dozens of other Armstrongist remnants doing their own versions of the same thing. The real crime is clear: by making the "reservoir of truth" freely available and searchable (even with AI assistance these days), these digital librarians encourage independent study. And independent study, as every self-appointed end-time apostle knows, is the fast track to becoming the Man of Sin.

So next time you download a 1950s Good News article or ask a chatbot about Armstrong's views on the Feast of Tabernacles, pause and reflect. You are not merely researching history. You are participating in a decades-long plot against Jesus Christ as manifested in one peculiar apostate Iowa family. Truly, the absurdity knows no bounds—and neither, apparently, does the persecution complex. Choose carefully, search diligently... or better yet, just send those tithes to the right address before the archives fully usurp the throne of God.

 See: 
The Two Battling Worldwide Church of God Entities for more on this silliness.

Samuel William Kitchen writes:

We are still in Philadelphia era. You, nor any man can dictate to God the order of things! God created TIME! And Jesus Christ gave the prophecy in Revelation 3:10, and further in Revelation 12:13-17.

This is the challenge!

Is Jesus Christ a liar? Is this Word of God right here just horse dung? Or is it trustworthy, unbroken and SURE TO HAPPEN? You bet your eternal life it is!

Now Jesus Christ is NOT A LIAR. And the Church of God is going to be protected for 3 1/2 years in a place of safety! I believe GOD!

This requires, absolutely requires the Worldwide Church of God to be present and living and continuing!!!!!!!!!!!
The Word of God is saying it!!! You better believe it!!! It’s not men saying it!!!

The Word of God is saying it!!! You better believe it!!! It’s not men saying it!!!

When a man leaves the church, he leaves the spiritual body of Jesus Christ. It does not matter how much “good” he/she has learned from the Worldwide Church of God! Once they leave the Church, they are relying on themselves as the source of knowledge!!!! They are taking from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. Spiritually cut off from the tree of life!

As empty houses, they grab hold of demons, or demons grab hold of them and begin to take up rent in their minds! More and more they deform, twist and pervert the Word of God, until they reject it completely like the Demon spirit now taking up their mind. They have no flow of the golden oil from God anymore! It’s only when they repent and turn to God and believe HIM, is when that flow is repaired and returned unto them!

But now they have a reservoir of truth taught by HWA and The Worldwide Church of God in a website and A.I to help them work out things, and they don’t need GOD! That is what they think! That’s why HWA Library hates the Kitchen family and has opposed Jesus Christ in me for so many years!!!! They are Antichrist, and they rob God, and they oppose God, to try to make men CHOOSE and SEARCH FOR THEMSELVES.

THE worldwide Church of God, is a spiritual organism!!!! And when the ministers left they left Jesus Christ!!! And they have done nothing but what their own human abilities could do, with the “good” they chose to keep from the Worldwide Church of God. God’s law is no respecter of persons. Neither is God! An evil person doing good, will reap blessing. But God will have to deal with their sin! And that can’t be hidden and whitewashed!

If someone is working their own gig, and doing something right, like casting out demons in Jesus’ name, Christ says leave them alone….they answer to HIM, and they won’t be in the Kingdom of God!

Because it doesn’t take works to get into the Kingdom!

An evil man cannot try to unlock heaven with a few good deeds! He must be wholly what Christ expects of Him to be! And that requires full surrender to Jesus Christ and full repentance of all sin!!!!!

Now, you are saying it is the Laodicean era, and using the old roster of ministers of the Worldwide Church of God, and asking why their absence! They either fell away or was sealed with the Holy Spirit!

Those in the world, who have touched the Worldwide Church of God and the gospel message preached by this Church, are lukewarm for not fully committing to Jesus Christ! They don’t want to fully become a member of the Worldwide Church of God, but they want to in the world as much as they can! So they develop a church of their own, acknowledging God so far, but not surrendering.

The Worldwide Church of God is still alive! The Word of God declares it! And I believe it!

Herbert W Armstrong taught it too, and why you won’t repeat what he said about the Laodicean era just shows you do not believe wholly!!!!!

You haven’t surrendered everything yet!!! Now when will be the best for you Thomas? When will your schedule be open to finally consider your ways, and your thoughts, and your speech, to see if GOD REALLY SAID IT!!!!!!!!!!?!?

It comes from your heart, and your heart has been influenced by lies and the demons of this world are all around you laughing because YOU BELIEVE THEM over God!

You better wake up.

Jesus Christ built ONE CHURCH. No other!

And I don’t care if you left the church to be a do-gooder, to choose for yourself!!!! You left! You are no longer INSIDE the Tru Body of Jesus Christ! Not one of these groups are!

You cannot surrender to God YOUR WAY!!!! You cannot create something new and demand God to funnel it through THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS AND MAKE YOUR IDOLS SPEAK WHEN THEY DO NOT!

OH This or that group is formed by men once associated with the Worldwide Church of God, and by the hands of men was it formed!!!! Not by God! not by Jesus Christ!

And that’s the point…

The Worldwide Church of God was created and raised up by JESUS CHRIST!!!! Not by men!

And if you cannot believe that simple foundational truth, stop any association you have with the Worldwide Church of God and Herbert W Armstrong! Because we believe Jesus Christ is fully in control, here!