Wednesday, October 3, 2012

God's Super Secret Message Only Understood By Select Few in COG




The Gnostic's made a point in their teachings to claim that they possessed secret knowledge that was hidden by God and revealed only to them. It was a knowledge gained by progression in one's understanding.  The more you studied, the higher your progressed. Possessing this secret knowledge allowed adherents a special place in it's "god's" presence.

The quote below is from the Preaching the Gospel Blog, a Church of God related blog.  This silly belief is not limited to this group.  All the COGlets think they posses secret hidden knowledge that was discovered by Herb after his impotent god lost it for 1,900 years.  Who knew that the hidden knowledge was secretly hidden in a public library in the Pacific Northwest!  It sounds like a Dan Brown novel.

Apparently God's "great plan" isn't so great since God apparently lost it for 1,900 years.  All those dumb Waldensian's and Sabbatarian Rhode Islanders were not REAL COG members like the present COGlet members are today.  Only the enlightened COG members today are the REAL converted followers of God.  Only they posses that secret knowledge.
As we observe Trumpets, Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, we hear sermons on the meaning of those days and thus learn, or are reminded of, God's great plan of salvation for mankind. We thus know the future. We know what God has done, is doing, and will do, and we know WHY! But for us to understand these things requires that God opens the mind of each and every one of us to accept the truth.

These things are hidden from almost everyone on earth. They can study the Holy Days all their lives and never figure it out or even believe it when we explain it to them. God has allowed Satan to blind them. Not one of the uncalled people of this world is stronger than Satan and able to resist his deceptions.

Yet God has revealed these secrets to us, not just as a group, but to each one of us individually (1 Corinthians 2:7-16). If you understand God's plan as illustrated by the Holy Days and Feast, it is only because God has opened your mind to understand.

What a gift!

It is an act and an expression of love towards us when God shares His secret knowledge with us.
 --------------
When you sit in services at the Feast of Tabernacles, or any of the holy days, and you understand the messages from the Bible, that understanding is a precious gift from God that shows He loves you. It is as if God goes to you personally and says, "Do you want to know a secret? I don't reveal this to most people, but I am revealing it to you because you are my friend" (James 2:23).

How they got the above quote from the following I have no idea. There is nothing secret or hidden.

James 2:23

New International Version (NIV)
23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[a] and he was called God’s friend.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The Pastor's Ass



The Pastor’s Ass

The Pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won.
The Pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again and it won again.
The local paper read:
PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT.

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the Pastor
 not to enter the donkey in another race.
The next day the local paper headline read:
BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR’S ASS.

This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Pastor to get rid of the donkey.
The Pastor decided to give it to a Nun in a nearby convent.
The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day:
NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The Bishop fainted.

He informed the Nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey 
so she sold it to a farmer for $10.
The next day the paper read:
NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.

This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Nun to buy back
the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.
The next day the headlines read:
NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.

The Bishop was buried the next day.

The moral of the story is . . . being concerned about public opinion
can bring you much grief and misery . . even shorten your life.
So be yourself and enjoy life.

Rod Meredith on Whether You Should Vote For A Mormon Or A REAL Christian (LCG of Course)



Leave it to the Living Church of God to stick it's nose once more into the political arena.

Rod Meredith condescendingly starts out with this slam against all non-LCG Christians:

True Christians are those who follow Christ’s example. How would Jesus Himself approach the upcoming election?
Let's face it, there are no real Christians anywhere on the face of the earth except for Living Church of God members in good standing.

The Christian mission down the street feeding the homeless are nothing more than a bunch of pagan asses. The Christian men and women who provide free medical care for starving African peoples are really just doctors of death who are only temporarily keeping these poor Gentile people alive for a few more months thwarting God's plan.

Yet those of us in the LCG, who stick our noses in the air around the homeless people, the drunks, the gays, the prostitutes, the waitress serving our food on Saturdays during the Feast, the unwed mothers, the Mexican immigrants, etc., are the REAL Christians practicing First Century Christianity.

Meredith continues:

A true Christian must learn to live as Jesus Christ actually lived—not as many people incorrectly imagine He might have lived. Jesus Himself told us: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4). The genuine answer as to how we ought to live and function in a democratic nation can be found in the Bible—the inspired word of God. For we are to have the “mind of Christ” (Philippians 2:5). And the Bible is the revelation of God’s mind—telling us how the Father and Jesus Christ really think about the fundamental issues of life.
If LCG members and ministers really "lived as Jesus did" then why do they ignore the homeless?  Why do they not dine with the prostitutes and the homosexuals?   Why do they ignore the outcast and the down trodden of society in favor of tithe paying members?  Why do they spend millions on feast sites when that money could have made a greater impact in the local communities feeding and housing the poor?

All through this past summer, Americans have been deluged with messages urging voters to support one candidate or another. Looking at the men who would be President, we ask ourselves: “Does he really believe he is fit to lead the world’s only superpower? Does he think that any human being is fit for the task?”
In Meredith and LCG's eyes, Obama, Romney, Mormons, Catholics, and all non-LCG people are incapable of the task.  Only TRUE Christians in the Living Church of God will make good rulers.

Rod writes:

Probably within this very generation, the biblical Jesus Christ will return to sit on a real throne in the city of Jerusalem. His government will be established throughout the entire earth—a literal government empowered by Almighty God, ruled by the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:15–16). And what will Jesus’ followers—the true saints of God—be doing? “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:2–3). In the next few verses, Paul went on to expound how the Christians in Corinth were supposed to learn to practice God’s government in the Church by correctly “judging” problems among themselves. From Genesis to Revelation, a position in God’s government has always been filled by appointment—not by politicking or otherwise making deceptive promises to people, hoping to buy their votes. It was in this context that Paul could ask: “[Why] do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?” (v. 4).

Christians are in training, now, to be kings and priests in the soon-coming Kingdom of God.
Living in a world populated by LCGers or COGers ruling with rods of iron over humanity would be a real hell on earth.  No one in their right mind would submit to that! There would be millennial rebellion on countless worlds!

Rod Meredith and any other COG ministers that mock voting make their rantings irrelevant because their criticism is invalid and worthless.