"You tell your husband I have no empathy for him."

This interesting exchange took place on MySpace.  Pay attention to the comments in green.

UCG/WCG/Tkach Jr.

Rainbow Poetess:
thank you for sharing so much

if they do not believe in a trinity, then how is it that they believe Jesus is eternal?

what changes in doctrine happened after Armstrong's death?

From their web site, they state the following:

First of all I believe it is important to state what the United Church of God teaches regarding this subject.
The
United Church of God teaches that God is a family. At the present time
there are two eternally living beings in that God family - the One we
call the Father, and the One we call Jesus Christ. Both are separate and
individual ever living Beings and from them everything exists and is
sustained.

On the surface that seems to be an accurate account of what the church teaches.  There is a pamphlet that the church offers called "Jesus Christ: The Real Story" that you can read at:  http://ucg.org.au/?library/booklets/jesus-christ-the-real-story.  It goes into greater detail of what it teaches.

 The moto when I was a member was "We are family".  This had deep meaning.  When Mr. Armstrong was alive it actually meant something.  We helped the world wide family members in any way that we could.   ~ But then... well it was during the doctrinal changes Joseph W. Tkach Sr started making that my husband was found to be terminal with liver failure and needed a liver transplant. 

I contacted "Headquarters"  to ask if a small prayer request could be put in the  world wide newsletter of the church.  The local minister contacted me via phone and absolutely tore me apart for making that request.  He told me that we did not deserve any help whatsoever, and that we sure didn't qualify for 3rd tithe assistance.  The strange thing was that I did not ask for third tithe assistance.  His phone call ate and ate on me for a number of reasons.  One) Why did this local minister think he had the right to speak to me in such a hurtful way?  Two) What happened to the "We Are Family" way of living?  It hurt me so deeply ~ to be treated so callously during a time of great hardship. 

And so ~ after 6 months of pondering I made a call to Headquarters... I needed some answers.  First I talked to a person that held no clout but really was a greeter.  I was a hand full (apparently) and was put on hold.. for 45 minutes I was on hold but had my jaw set and was not going to hang up until I got some answers.  Finally a man said "This is Joseph Tkach Junior.. you have some questions".   We talked for over an hour and a half and what he said blew me away... and not in a good way.  That one phone call ripped me away from the church.  The illusion was destroyed with no doubt left.

He said... there are a lot of people who need help world wide.  There is a baby that needs brain surgery or it will die and many other people that need prayer requests and we cannot help them ~ why should we put your prayer request in the newsletter?    I said... aren't we all a part of a world wide family of God and isn't that what family does.. help each other and pray for each other?  He then told me that I have no right to say what the church should or should not do. Oh... I thought. 

Yet that same church wanted me to continue to send in my tithes.. 1/3rd of my monthly income (that year) was to go for widows and people in need of help.  In total I was sending the church over $1,000.00 a month.  This quit immediately.  I used that money to pay for medical bills.    And so this was one of the changes that occurred after Mr. Armstrong died.  The very "heart" of the church had changed.  In total it took two and a half years for me to totally leave the church.  It was after I (we as a family) left the church that my husbands liver transplant happened... only two weeks after we made that decision.

Doctrinally some of  the changes were as follows.  I quote from a web site so that I am totally accurate:

...the church's three-tithe system was abolished, and it was suggested that
tithes could be calculated on net, rather than gross, income.

On January 16, 1986, Herbert Armstrong died in Pasadena, California. Shortly before his death, Armstrong named Joseph W. Tkach Sr. to succeed him as leader of the church.

As early as 1988, Joseph W. Tkach Sr. began to make doctrinal
changes. Doctrinal revisions were made quietly and slowly at first, but
then openly and radically in January 1995. They were presented as "new
understandings" of Christmas and Easter,^[12] Babylon and the harlot,^[13] Anglo-Israelism,^[14] Saturday Sabbath,^[15] and other doctrines.

In general, Tkach Sr. directed the church theology towards mainstream evangelical
Christian belief. This caused much disillusionment among the membership
and another rise of splinter groups. During the tenure of Joseph Tkach
Sr., the church's membership declined by about 50 percent. His son,
Joseph Tkach Jr., succeeded him after his death in 1995.

Eventually all of Herbert Armstrong's writings were withdrawn from
print by the Worldwide Church of God. In the 2004 video production Called To Be Free, Greg Albrecht, former dean of WCG's Ambassador College, declared Herbert Armstrong to be both a false prophet (though Armstrong himself did not claim to be a prophet) and a heretic.[16]

Eventually a great rift occurred.  Multiple splinter groups were formed.  I have not returned to any of them... nor any church for that matter.  One absolute fact is...  power absolutely corrupts ~ when left in the hands of man-kind.  I am one ~ not so unique who left the church never to return to any kind of organized religion.

-------------------------------

Rainbow Poetess:

i cannot imagine the hurt and confusion caused by such terrible circumstances

but i can so totally sympathise with the feeling of dejection as the realisation of what the church and family that you loved was starting to become - the antithesis of all it had been

i am also "churchless" as such

i have a clear view of my own doctrine [most of it] and a clear view of how i should be living etc, but i have no "home" [churchwise] 

i was starting to look at various, as you may tell by my new threads, before the flood happened, but these floods have taken my attention away from my own spiritual journey and i am feeling that maybe i was being too "obsessed" by trying to find "a spiritual family" and that i just need to get on with living and being a good example for my children

It was hard Rainbow.  The church had been my family for over 20 years.  The last day I attended I just looked around at everyone who had been close to me and wondered how I had gone wrong.  One man walked up to me and told me in front of everyone... You tell your husband I have no empathy for him.  You tell him he pisses me off.  Not one person came up and defended me.  The thing was my husband was so very ill.  He had lost 165 pounds and was literally at deaths door.  This man knew this and still he said what he did. 

I just silently and calmly collected my things, took my two daughters hands and walked out, never to return.  I could not feel God among those people anymore.  So that was the day I walked away from the church and organized religion and walked calmly toward God Almighty.  It was a huge step out in faith for me. 
~~~~~~~

I was horrified when I sat down and watched the news last night.. and really got a eye opening look at what is happening with the flooding in your country.  The 12 years old boy that gave his life to save his little brothers.  I wept and wept.  I am so saddened by the massive suffering that is happening all around you. 

Now is the time for you to widen your heart and let your God given love flow to all those you can Rainbow.  I have learned that God's Church does not dwell within a man-made building... the sky is the roof and we are always in God's Church no matter where our feet are and no matter what we are doing. 

We ~ letting our light shine ~ especially all the brighter when hard times come is of the greatest importance.  It helps those who are afraid and in the dark to find their way, to absorb comfort and feel the God given love be  a balm that heals.

Be strong and endure.  Let your light shine and warm those around you.

Last Two True COG's In Pissing Contest To Take Members From UCG/COGaWA

You knew it had to happen sooner or later.  Meredith started the ball rolling by declaring a Church wide fast to pray for the brethren of UCG and those being hurt by the split.  Bob Thiel jumped on the band wagon and urged UCG and COGaWA members to leave their respective churches and join the only Philadelphian church doing the work of God today.


Meredith sent this out today:

“First of all, we need to pray fervently for everyone involved! Pray that God will guide them and keep them in His will. Pray that they may continue to believe the Truth and want to do the Work. Pray that God will bring with us those who should come and would loyally and cooperatively help us “do the Work.” For we certainly need more dedicated members and ministers, and I pray that all of us will wholeheartedly welcome them with open arms if they sincerely and lovingly want to come with us. Right now, as many of you know, hundreds of members are in the process of leaving the United Church of God. Many could go into little factions and end up doing nothing as far as reaching the entire world with the Gospel of the Kingdom. So we do need to cry out to God with all our hearts that some of them would come with us and that He would grant us favor in their sight and help them to realize that we do have a depth of love and unity that many of them have not been told about.

Fellow ministers, I urge all of you to stir yourselves to reach out to these people and these ministers, to visit them as soon as you are able, to work with your Elders and members to make them feel welcome and to help them in every way to become part of the group that is really “doing the Work” at this time. We do not want to pressure or “proselytize” anyone in a wrong way. But it is certainly not wrong to reach out to them and let them know that we love them and would love to have them with us to help us do the Work and get the message out to a very confused world.”

Income is down in LCG so this is a great money making tool to have members come in with  their tithes.  Flurry's cult is low on income too since they just built a monstrosity in Edmond that is for the purpose of worshiping HWA.

Then the Second True End time Church jumped into the fire.  Gerald Flurry and Lil' Junior started a series of articles on their websites telling UCG/COGaWA to join up with PCG.  

Our church is better than your church. Who would have thought that in  1,980 years PCG was the only remnant church doing what God requires because only THEY have God's TRUE form of government.


Flurry Junior writes about Meredith:

When Rod Meredith left the Worldwide Church of God to start a new church in 1993, he clearly called into question the way Herbert W. Armstrong had governed the Worldwide Church of God. He wrote in Church Government and Church Unity that the subject of church government had been seriously misunderstood during the days of Mr. Armstrong’s leadership.

Furthermore, Meredith said, God’s Church had rarely ever been governed by one administration, with one man in charge—and Mr. Armstrong knew it.

In actual fact, Mr. Armstrong’s writings flatly reject this revisionist reading of Church history. He wrote in April 1981 that God always works through one man at a time. “He worked through Abraham. He worked through Moses, through Joshua, through one ‘judge’ at a time, through Samuel, through David, through Solomon. He worked through Peter and when Peter had left the Middle East, through Paul. These men had, in greater or lesser number, staff assistants under them, but God’s work was through the one man at a time!” Mr. Armstrong wrote (emphasis mine throughout).

Without a doubt, it was a deceitful and confusing web Mr. Meredith tried to spin after Mr. Armstrong’s death. On the one hand, Mr. Armstrong supposedly knew God didn’t work through one man. And yet, Mr. Armstrong’s own administration was obviously hierarchical, with one man at the top.

 -------

According to Meredith, this collegial “New Testament” approach is what they failed to grasp during the days of Mr. Armstrong. This is why, Meredith said at a ministerial conference in July 1993, he didn’t understand the right approach to government during the 1960s and ’70s.

Today, however, he does understand. “I’ve learned the right approach in servant leadership,” Meredith told his ministers in 1993. Later, he added, “Let’s try to do it right this time, as shepherds with a loving approach.”

It is well worth noting that this is the same deplorable tactic the Tkaches used to destroy Mr. Armstrong’s legacy. We’ve made so many mistakes in our past, they often said. And unfortunately, Mr. Armstrong didn’t live long enough to correct these many errors. But now, God has led us to make the necessary changes!

How convenient that argument was for them. And how pitiful and ignorant it made Mr. Armstrong look.

In Mr. Meredith’s case, he implies, If only Mr. Armstrong would have lived long enough to learn the right approach to servant leadership. If only he would have been able to administer government the right way, with a loving approach.

------

Now please—consider this carefully. The reason this history is so critically important is because there are many thousands of brethren—people who once devoted their lives to upholding the teachings of Herbert Armstrong—who now are laboring under the delusion that there are many different branches of God’s Church doing God’s work today. This is why, even if ministers in United and Living choose to ignore us, many of their members do not.

They may not believe the Philadelphia Church of God is the one true Church. But they do believe the pcg is one of many different branches God is using to do His work. In their minds, we may be the branch God uses to preserve Mr. Armstrong’s literature or to proclaim a prophetic warning to this world.

That kind of thinking is a deadly delusion. And as Mr. Armstrong wrote in the article quoted above, it started during the liberal rebellion against God’s government in the 1970s. And six months before he died, he felt compelled to remind the brethren about this history.

“I want you, brethren, to think about and understand what happened to God’s Church in the 1970s lest history repeat itself! I want you to see the ‘fruits’ of rebelling against God’s way and God’s government,” Mr. Armstrong wrote.

Seven years after he delivered that sobering warning, Rod Meredith left the Worldwide Church of God to, as he claimed, faithfully preach “the truths proclaimed by Herbert W. Armstrong.” And yet, in his very first booklet—the battle cry for his church and the framework for his new government—Mr. Meredith said Jesus Christ almost always uses many different co-existing branches to do His work. And Mr. Armstrong, he added, believed this too!

None of it was true. But many people believed it.

And today, many still do, even if Mr. Meredith is no longer one of them. But leaving aside what he might teach today, it is nevertheless true that the minister most responsible for popularizing the many different branches lie after Mr. Armstrong’s death is Roderick C. Meredith. 

Harold Rhodes Forced Into Retirement Because UCG Had A Dramatic Drop In Income?

Was it really a money issue or they were ticked off at his stance for questioning them?  COG has  knack for wrecking people's lives with they are in their sickbed's!

Dear Brethren,

Thursday evening, December 30, 2010, I resigned from the corporate body of the United Church of God, an International Association.  In no way am I resigning as a minister of Jesus Christ.  I have been a faithful minister of Christ for over 41 years – following and supporting the human leaders of the Church, as they followed Christ’s example; (I Cor. 11:1).

Examples of my conflict with promising unquestioning loyalty to the administration is laid out in the three documents, What Really Happened in Latin America?, What Are The Real Issues? and What Were The Real Efforts to Seek Reconciliation? (available upon request).

As a shepherd, my responsibility first and foremost, is to feed and protect the flock of God.  If I remain silent about tainted food and fouled water being distributed to the sheep of God, in order to promote peace and harmony in God’s congregations that I pastor, I prove myself to be a hireling and only interested in peace among men (Ezek. 34).  Truth sometimes brings conflict.  Despite the uproar caused by Christ when He spoke the truth, true disciples had peace with God.  

I want to share with you an interesting quote by Dr. Roger W. Sapp.  Dr. Sapp was an Army chaplain who taught leadership skills to commissioned and non-commissioned officers.  In one of his writings titled – Honoring the Truth-Teller – he states the following: “… Often in an organization, whether it is a local church, a business, a denomination, or a fellowship of churches, loyalty becomes the overriding value and begins to overcome truthfulness.  This is often revealed in private words, actions and attitudes rather than the official position of the organization.  The leaders of an organization may say that they value truthfulness but reveal in their actions that this is not really so.”

The apostle Paul chose truth over harmony when writing to the Corinthians about immoral behavior.  He incited godly disharmony when he later corrected them for accepting and putting up with a different spirit, those whom he defined as deceitful workers.  A member of the Council and Administration commented to me recently that, “a different spirit has entered the Church”.  I told him I certainly agreed.

Dealing with disharmony and standing up for what is right is a necessary part of growing in the character of Jesus Christ.  In fact, Paul said, there must be divisions among us so that those who are approved are recognized (I Cor. 11:19).

I personally do not claim perfect behavior or excellent wisdom in my every approach.  I ask for your forgiveness for anything I’ve done or said that is not a representation of the mind of Christ.  Like the apostle Paul said, I have not already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has also laid on me (Philippians 3:12-14).  I hope and pray that you will do the same.

On a personal note, as all of you know, I was in three different hospitals flat on my back, for nine months fighting for my life since February 1st of last year.  The first seven weeks were spent in ICU.  But thanks to your prayers, and the prayers of many of the brethren around the world, God has intervened and I’m now finally in a position, although still somewhat incapacitated, to actively serve you, as your pastor, once again.

Several months ago, I received a visit in the hospital by Mr. Victor Kubik, (manager of Ministerial and Member Services), my boss.  He asked me if there was anything he could do for me.  I responded by saying, “Yes, there are two things you can do for me – one, please continue to pray for my recovery, and two, don’t pull the plug on me – with God’s help, I believe I can make a comeback”.  I was told I had his prayers and any change in my status, such as retirement, would be my call.  I was visited by Mr. Kubik and Mr. Aaron Dean on December 16th, 2010.  My wife and I were told that the purpose of their visit was to retire me on December 31st 2010, two weeks later.  I felt it was no need, at that point, to remind them that United’s retirement policy states, that if the Church initiated my retirement they would give me 24-36 months to prepare for it.  I was given two weeks.  They stated the reason was a financial one since the income was down.  I told them I had already received notice from the Church’s insurance company that they would no longer cover me after January 31 of 2011.  Therefore, I was in the process of setting up my Medicare Part B plus an Advantage Program to cover the rest, so I would not be a financial burden to the Church.  This seemed to make no difference.  I was surprised and pointed out that I had not planned to retire and besides, I had already made out the speaking schedule for the local church areas for January and February of 2011, and I was on it.  

Moreover, while I was in the hospital, the Administration offered my job to two different ministers, who turned it down because they knew I was planning to return to active service.  One of them contacted me after I was home and asked was I aware of this.  I said no one had talked to me at all; that’s cold.

As an employee, I can no longer support the current Council or Administration because of their actions, based on God’s standards and scriptural principles.

Loree and I have appreciated the many friendships we have formed over the past 17 years, and have counted it a privilege to serve you, the brethren in this part of the country.  We are both deeply saddened by the events unfolding in the United Church of God.  May God guide you and sustain you in these difficult and challenging times.

We will be here to serve those who wish to be associated with our new organization – the Church of God; a Worldwide Association.  We will let those of you who would like to know, the  locations and times for local church services as soon as we can make those arrangements.

With deep love and respect,

Harold and Loree Rhodes

Latest UCG Resignation January 14, 2011