Last Sermon of Ron Weinland

Ron Weinland preached his last sermon before the end of the world today.  You would have thought Ron would have instructed his loyal followers on how to deal with the horrendous events to soon unfold.  You would have thought how he would have given them comforting words when they know their relatives and friends will all be killed in the fires of Armageddon.  You would have thought there would be comforting words on how God was going to protect them as members, and to persevere because "...we all know how it works out in the end."

So what do you think Ron was talking about today in his sermon?  Litterbugs!  Litterbugs tick him off!  WTH?

Doesn't he realize the blazing fires of nuclear holocaust and Armageddon will burn up all that litter?  The end of the world is happening in a little over 7 days and Weinerdude is worried about litter.

ht:  Dennis

When Church of God Prophecy Fails

Here is a great article detailing what went on in the minds of Harold Camping's followers when the end times did not happen according to Camping's predictions.  The ironic thing about this article is that Bob Thiel posted excerpts on his blog about this.  Thiel obviously does not have the brains to see that this article is talking about himself and how he defends the false prophecies of Rod Meredith and Herbert Armstrong.  Hundreds and hundreds of false prophecies, predictions, and baseless speculations have been uttered over the years by these men and yet there are lemmings that refuse to look at all the errors and defend these men as "men of God."

Ron Weinland's cult will be the next to experience this.  Then it will be Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, David Hulme, and  myriad of others who open their mouths and make statements that never come to pass.

A Year After the Non-Apocalypse: Where Are They Now? A reporter tracks down the remnants of Harold Camping’s apocalyptic movement and finds out you don’t have to be crazy to believe something nuts.

“God’s Not Going to Let Us Down”
Some believers stayed up all night. They watched TV or sat in front of their computers, hitting refresh on their browsers, confident that reports of a massive earthquake originating near New Zealand would soon appear. Other believers went to sleep, assuming that they would awaken in the presence of the almighty.

When the sun rose on May 21, they were taken aback. Maybe it would happen at noon. When noon passed, they settled on 6 p.m. When that came and went, some thought it might happen at midnight. Or perhaps it wouldn’t happen until May 21 was over everywhere on the planet. “It will still be May 21st in American Samoa (last time zone before the International Date Line),” someone posted on Latter Rain, an online forum for believers.

By Sunday morning, new theories were floated. “It was God’s plan to warn people. It was His purpose to hide the true meaning behind May 21. It’s about us suffering what He went through,” a believer commented. One hypothesis had it that three days would elapse before the actual rapture, just like the three days between Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Someone else wondered if it might be seven days considering that seven is a holy number, or forty, the same amount of time Noah was forced to sail around with a boatload of animals.
When those deadlines passed, another narrative took shape. What happened was a test. God knew that believers would be mocked when He failed to return on the assigned date. Would believers hold firm or would they allow the jeers of the world to weaken their resolve? The Lord was separating the wheat from the chaff, they liked to say, paraphrasing Matthew 3:12. It helped that Camping, before he vanished from the airwaves, had seemed to endorse this view.

When a prophecy fails, it’s crucial that a group’s leaders provide an alternate explanation of what happened, or what didn’t happen, according to Lorne Dawson, a professor of sociology at the University of Waterloo, who has studied apocalyptic sects. “The followers of the group are so heavily invested that they have tremendous incentive to accept these rationalizations,” he said. But the revised story needs to be issued rapidly—wait too long and your followers will fall away.

United Church of God: What's Wrong With This List?

Look at the list of names below and see what you can see out of the ordinary.  These are the men making the decisions in UCG.

• Doctrine Committee: Scott Ashley, Bill Bradford, John Elliott, Darris McNeely, Don Ward and Bob Berendt as chairman.
• Ethics Committee: Carmelo Anastasi, Gary Antion, Mark Mickelson, Robin Webber and Mario Seiglie as chairman.
• Education Committee: Scott Ashley, Gary Antion, John Elliott and Don Ward as chairman.
• Media Committee:  Carmelo Anastasi, Scott Ashley, Bill Bradford, Mario Seiglie and Darris McNeely as chairman.
• Strategic Planning Committee: Bill Bradford, Mark Mickelson and Robin Webber as chairman.
• Roles and Rules: Carmelo Anastasi, Bob Berendt, John Elliott, Mark Mickelson and Gary Antion as chairman.

What's that? You see nothing out of the ordinary? You are correct.

It is 2012, well over 15 years since all of these men were WCG employees kicking people out of the Church for not following Tkach's new teaching.

Fifteen years later and these very same men are STILL in charge. No new blood has entered the picture.

The same corrupt power structure is still running UCG.

It's no wonder the UCG is losing members and not growing.

Is anyone on that list under the age of 50? Where is the new blood coming up through the ranks with new ideas and new focus?

UCG is aging out, like all the other 700 some harlot daughters of Armstrongism.

Larry McElroy's Magical "god" Only Heals In Restored Church of God

Larry McElroy, apparently back from his reeducation camp stay, has written another article about the mighty and magnificent Restored Church of God.  Healings—Why Only in The Restored Church of God     Yet again, he has opened his mouth and made a royal fool of himself.

Dave has been telling all the various COG's that his little group is the most important, most magnificent, most technologically advanced, prints better magazines, and has more money than any other COG out there.  God oblivious is dwelling in Wadsworth, Ohio.  Because god is only working through Dave in Wadsworth, it is only natural that healing can only occur under Dave.

God’s “benefit package” includes healing of diseases that befall brethren, especially in the end time. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from destruction; Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies” (Psa. 103:2-4). How many of God’s people have forgotten His promises? Forgotten His benefits? When you consider all of God’s benefits, He truly is the ultimate “Health Maintenance Provider” all should look to in times of physical distress due to poor health and the need for healing.

While scores of millions need healing, how many are ever healed? How many look to God for healing? How many of His people today seek Him for healing? Those in the Restored Church of God DO look to God. Many dramatic healings take place in the Body of Christ, which is teaching the full truth of the Bible. The remainder of this posting will explain why God is healing individuals in His Church and almost no one in any of the splinters. (emphaisis mine)

McElroy writes about several "healing" that have supposedly occurred in his cult.

These dramatic miracles occur for a reason. Mr. Pack writes in the “Fruits” letter, “Healings are only one of many kinds of miracles we see in God’s Church on a regular basis, miracles that God’s enemies cannot gainsay.” But again why are there healings and other miracles in The Restored Church of God?

Then he states something that all RCG members had better take note of.  If Dave says it, you had better believe it and NOT qwquestion it.  Otherwise you will NEVER be healed!

God’s Church teaches the full truth of the Bible. It is the “pillar and ground” of the truth (I Tim. 3:15). God’s people are required to OBEY ALL TRUTH without compromise. Obedience includes commandments, doctrines, sayings of Christ and traditions set in the Church by apostles. These purify us: “Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth…” (I Pet. 1:22).

So what happens when you get sick?:  You are sick because you are a grievous sinner!  You have sinned some great sin that causes you to be sick. Healthy people apparently are sin free.  How depressing is that!

Also, fewer and fewer ministers taught the doctrine of healing—taught that God is our healer! Most of these men did not tell people that sickness was caused by physical sin—violating God’s principles of health. Many of these negligent ministers now lead the splinters and it should come as no surprise that they are SILENT on God being our Healer and “health maintenance provider.”

The deviate teachings continue with a subtle wranning that if you disobey God you will get sick!  It's your fault!

So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” God’s Church teaches the gospel and the doctrine of healing—and God’s promises in this regard. It also teaches how to acquire faith. Brethren must hear the FULL truth to develop faith sufficient to trust God for healing. Individuals who are doing their part to obey the gospel and trust God in faith can EXPECT God to intervene for them! Healings take place where God’s ministry is teaching His Word regarding faith and healing, and the brethren take heed and implement that teaching.

If you dare to question or ignore the holey writ from Dave and crew then you are damning yourself to a life of sickness and disease.

Did you know that the  government of the Church is the healer.  That's a new concept for me. God only heals through the proper chain of command.  God is apparently to stupid and weak to just pop down and heal a person out of the blue that has never kept a legalistic law in his life.  Instead, Dave's god has to heal through a governmental power structure.

All of you COGgers in the various splinter group had better beware! You cannot and never will be healed because you are following heretical idiots who do not preach government.

Splinter groups do not have God’s government in their organizations—none of them! Properly ordained elders and ministers who have the authority of Jesus Christ are NECESSARY to administer the healing doctrine:

Understanding the LEGITIMATE government of God is critical to understanding why healings take place within the Body of Christ.

“Government is everything,” as Mr. Herbert Armstrong stated. Healing is, in essence, a government function within the Church..

Dave also is the sole heir of the apostolic chruch tradition.  God only is working through Dave because Dave was ordained under HWA.

During the 20th century, a unique individual trained by Christ came to lead the Philadelphian era of God’s Church—Herbert W. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong was an apostle, as well as the end-time Elijah that came to restore all things to the Church (Matt. 17:11). The fruit of his 52-year ministry involved MANY healings and mighty deeds, including the largest Work of God ever seen on Earth.

In the 21st century, Mr. David Pack leads God’s Work. The fruit of that Work includes many dramatic healings and miracles—and the gospel being taken powerfully to all nations. Apostolic authority is in place in God’s true Church—“mighty deeds” and signs such as miraculous healings will continue to occur in The Restored Church of God.

But never fear, God may just slip up and heal you outside the RCG, but only on the condition that you immediately join the one and only true chruch, the Restored Church of God.

 Here is another great reason for healings occurring in The Restored Church of God and nowhere else: The Bible lists healing as a gift given within the Body of Christ. Notice this: “Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that…gifts of healings…” (I Cor. 12:27-31). While God may on rare occasion choose to heal someone outside the Body of Christ, for the purpose of getting their attention and bringing them back to the Body, healings as a whole occur ONLY WHERE JESUS CHRIST IS HEAD!

Dennis on: "Oh God! No!"

"Oh God!  No!"

He had fallen into the now abandoned and half full of rainwater family swimming pool unnoticed.  The pool had not been used for some time due to financial reverses in the family company which saw them lose many of the material acquisitions of better days now gone by.  When he went missing and a search was made for the boy, they missed him in the first check of the now muddied swimming pool.  Having run out of places to look, they looked again and found him drowned in the murky pool. 

When they weren't looking other relatives washed the muddy hand prints all around the water line off before the parents could see them....  That image has always stayed with me. It also made me wonder what kind of a God could sit idly by and watch, if one does watch, this horror unfold.

It was another of many "Oh God! No!" moments in my ministry.  Those phone calls are tough and the initial minutes arriving at the home is usually chaos.  I have made any number of such return trips to a church family home in the immediate hours after such unthinkable personal family losses.  I have had to restrain the arms of a parent attempting to beat on me while they screamed "Why!!!  Why us?"   I learned to just hold on and the aggression would soon turn into a total collapse into my arms of weeping at a deep deep level most never want to discover in themselves.  It is almost primitive.  Next would follow a listing of sins or faults such as knowing they did not pray as much as they should or attend church as often as they must.  All in the name of finding a reason for two things.  1. What bad things have I done to deserve this?  2. Why did God not protect my son or daughter, as clearly written he would,  in such a time as this?

On one other such horrific occasion, I had just left the home visiting before the twin teenage girls loved by all got off from school.  The Twins were the center of moms world and even though they had a son, it was the Twins, both beautiful and precious that seemed to get all the attention.  On that visit the thought crossed my mind, "I hope she never has to lose one of these girls for it would be too much to bear."  I drove home and arrived for the phone call from the mom.  The one Twin had been hit by a car crossing the road to get to her Burger King job.  I said I'd meet her at the hospital.  When I walked in I was greeted by a Zombie who took my hand and said she'd take me to see her.  As we walked thru the basement I realized what I had not been told.  We were going to the morgue.  We walked in an there she lay in her Burger King outfit.  Beautiful and not a mark on her.  She was gone.  She was dead.  Those minutes seemed like hours as we just stood there and then the typical hell broke lose in that morgue and the screams were,  "Oh God!  No!"  Where were you!"

I had no answer and didn't try.  I held her when she collapsed and eventually buried her daughter in the Prom dress she had bought for the YOU prom that weekend. It was odd to see her living exact twin standing next to her casket.  The picture kinda sticks with you...  I believe the family left the church in a short time and became Mormons. 

It was VERY COMMON for the bereaved family to LEAVE the Church to seek solace elsewhere.  VERY COMMON...almost expected.  In one case that happened under my watch but I was transferred out of the area at the same time, the minister following finally told the family "It's been six months now.  It's time to get over it."  I remember being absolutely enraged at that fool.  The family left the Church to seek actual and not non-encouraging encouragement in short order.   Can you blame them?

I have a number more such events that all contain that element of "Oh God!  No!"  With many of those behind me as pastoring went on I always thought how ridiculous it was when someone told me how God healed them from a cold or the flu or helped them pass a gall or kidney stone.  "Luck of the draw.." I tended to tell myself.

"Mystic and writer Amos Komensky, who lived during the 17th century, wrote that God assigns guardian angels to help protect children “against all dangers and snares, pits, ambushes, traps, and temptations.” But adults get the benefit of guardian angels’ protection, too, says the Book of Enoch, which is included in the holy scriptures of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. 1 Enoch 100:5 declares that God will “set a guard of holy angels over all the righteous.” The Quran says in Al Ra'd 13:11: "For each [person], there are angels in front of him and behind him, who guard him by Allah's command."    (Whitney Hopler)

Scriptures to skip during the funeral...

Matthew 18:10

¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

Hebrews 1:14

¹⁴ Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation

Psalm 91

¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

³ Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹ If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation. ”

 

Concepts and Non-encouraging encouragement NOT to bring up to the family.

 

"God promises not to give you more than you can bear."

 

Answer to this 100% of the time.  "I can't bear this...

"At least you will see them in the Kingdom if you remain faithful"

 

Answer to this 100% of the time. "I want them home tonight for dinner."

"At least God has blessed you with other children"

 

Answer to this 100% of the time.  "Please don't say that...."

"God lost his only Son as well and understands ...."

 

Answer to this 100% of the time.  "No, God knew his Son would die and be back in three short days better than ever.  That was a weekend inconvenience.  My child is DEAD!"   (Usually this can be followed by..."A sacrifice should STAY dead to be a real sacrifice.")

"God does not think as we do in such cases."

 

Answer 100% of the time.  "Then don't tell me He understands what human is!"

"God's ways are not our ways."

 

Answer 100% of the time.  "Then He shouldn't promise to do things the way we understand in only our way or talk in spirit codes"

 

"There is a way that SEEMS right to us, but it ends in death..."

 

Answer 100% of the time.  "Then I don't understand this God, never will and am not sure I want to.

 

Like Job getting back ten brand spanking new children from God after the loss of the original ten, it just seems this God doesn't understand how these things work for humans.  We generally don't want another child replace the lost one.  We want THAT ONE BACK!" 

The apologetics for God are typical in such cases.

" We have looked at God’s sovereignty and how important that truth is. Because if I am not convince that God is sovereign, then His promises will mean nothing to me. In fact I might even observe that God doesn’t keep His promises because my understanding of God is superimposed with my experience with man. Man fails, doesn’t keep promises and really has no power to ensure that any promise is kept. We wrongly transfer those weaknesses of man onto God, but God is not limited as man is. He is perfect love, complete, lacking nothing. The promises of God are identical with His character, to us as temporal beings, they are a revelation of the character of the Most High."

(If God promises to protect us, why doesn't He?-Crave Christian Apologetics)

 

Which being interpreted is...see above for encouragement that is not encouraging..

 

And more...

"We can give thanks to God for his protection by angels.  We never worship angels.  We worship Jesus (God).  God created the angels before Adam and Eve were made.  Some of the angels did not obey God and decided to follow the worst angel of all, Satan.  He is very bad.  He is a real and powerful angel that was so bad God threw him and the bad angels (demons) out of heaven.  You have a good angel that loves and obeys God that is watching over you.  Satan, the bad angel, tries to get us to do bad things.  But since Jesus created him, Jesus is stronger than Satan (the Devil ).  Jesus will protect us and use His angels to protect us from harm because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)(ChildrenSermons.com  Angels Watching Over Me)

 

It simply isn't true or if it is true it is so in way that makes the scriptures on such things meaningless. 

 

I never had a good answer for this.  I had good apologetics where no matter what the Bible actually said, it could be denied, altered or tweeked in such ways as to absolve the author or God from it actually meaning what it said.  The Bible is like that as are humans who , no matter what, can't imagine the advice or promise is really lame and unrealistic in real earthly experience.

 

Perhaps it would be better to just admit that in life, "shit happens." How many have been dis-illusioned when the SHTF in life becasue of what seemed so quaint and nice in scripture actually proved to be of no value in reality? Dis-ILLUSIONED is actually a good thing however painful.  Reality is actually our friend if we can face it instead of ignore it, try and end run around it or turn around and run.

 

I have buried a lot of children and young people. All flower shops smell like funeral homes to me. Well meaning, Bible reading Christians often cause more harm than good with their unrealistic and sometimes smug one liners of encouragement, as if they knew.  Please, please think before you open your mouth in shallow assertions about the why of such events or think that the many Biblical references in such cases meant to be encouraging are actually encouraging.   When push comes to shove, they seldom deliver and drive those caught up in harsh reality further from you. 

 

Most people can only offer sympathy.  Sympathy is imagining what others might be going through but one has no personal experience with what they are actually going through.  Empathy is knowing what people are going through because you have actually gone through the same thing and lived to tell about it.  Don't quote the Bible flippantly thinking it will help.  It doesn't and it won't.  Or if it ever does, that time is years ahead when the person has at least survived long enough for the memory of it all to dull. 

 

Conscious human beings are sensitive to these loses. We are not animals that can discard their dead in the bushes and walk away.  Encouragement should actually be encouraging to one who is discouraged.  Often times in fundamentalism, it is not.  Wise up and hope we choose our words carefully when "Oh God! No!"  comes to call...

Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com