COGWA Kicks Out Elder Who Said Church Was Too Lax On Sabbath Requirements

I have been sent this by three different people concerning a COGWA minister who was recently disfellowshipped and  decredentialled from COGWA because he thought the church was too lax on it's Sabbath requirements.  As usually in these letters it's all one big "love" fest.  Everything is  done out of love, love , love.

It's also interesting that in just over a year after it formed the most perfect reincarnation of the True Church it is already having dissension in it's ranks.

How dare those members eat in a restaurant or buy things on Saturdays!

 I will begin by saying that I am the elder that was kicked out of COGWA and the purpose of this post is to just clarify a couple of things. First off I want to reiterate what James has said already, and that is that I have never shared with him any of this information that he has posted on this blog. When I came back from the Feast I was given the opportunity to “change” my mind about my convictions and if I had, I am told I would have been allowed to stay. I did not change my mind. When I spoke with Dave Register I asked him where this left us and he informed me that I would be receiving the letter of decredentialing sometime in the near future and that I was not permitted to attend any longer.

To this point the letter of decredentialling has not arrived and I assume since I am not allowed to fellowship I have therefore been disfellowshipped as well, though I have not yet received a letter stating that yet either.

After my conversation with Dave I decided at that time that I needed to put a letter out to our local congregation stating why they would not be seeing me there as I had not been allowed back (except to attend the Feast) since three weeks before the Feast. Many people were not even aware of what was going on as I had not shared any of these beliefs in my messages nor with the congregation in general. As I said, I sent this letter out to our local congregation and also to four or five other close friends. I also included the offer, if they wanted, that I would send them the paper that I had submitted to Dave Register and the doctrinal committee on my current beliefs.

It was never my intention for this to become what it has become, but I understand how some of these things can take on a life of their own. I want to make it VERY clear that I hold no ill will toward the men that have been mentioned on this site or toward COGWA in general. I did not do this for attention; on the contrary I simply wanted to be able to remain while being able to hold to my personal convictions, but when not allowed to I felt it important to at least get a portion of my side of the story to the local congregation which I consider friends and family.

I apologize for any hurt that this has caused, especially within out local congregation. I also appreciate that Mr. Franks allowed me to have an open line of communication with him through this as he did when COGWA started and I am confident that I could pick up the phone and he would be glad to speak to me about whatever was on my mind. Again, I hold nothing against him personally in all of this, but of course am saddened by their decision in not allowing me to stay in attendance even as a decredentialed elder, but that is their decision. I love all in the congregation that I was forced out of, and still consider them all as my brothers and sisters, just as I consider others in many other groups as my brothers and sisters, and I hope to remain friends with them all.

I look forward to the time when our merciful Father in heaven will bring His children together, and I am confident that that will be accomplished by bringing His children to Him FIRST AND FOREMOST. We of course must be willing to do our part in allowing God to do that, and what I am learning, is that requires an awful lot of humility and I have a long ways to go, as we all do. Thank you all for your prayers and concern but in the big scheme of things this is small potatoes. Again, I hold no ill will and do not desire that anybody get all bent out of shape over this and hold any bitterness against anyone – that never does anybody any good. There are so many in God’s church going through such incredible trials around the globe that this really doesn’t even compare. And compared to what is to come… well this is nothing and I am nobody. Again, I apologize to my brothers and sisters who I may have offended and to those who feel as if I have betrayed them and COGWA, for holding to these beliefs. I meant to cause no pain, but I do not apologize for my convictions or for standing up for them. I do not judge any of you who do not agree with me and I ask for the same in return. God is the ONE TRUE JUDGE and I am so glad that He is the one in charge and will sort this all out in His time. Again, I love you all!!!

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“Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am sure there is much going around as to why I have not been attending services since before the Feast and I just wanted to address that quickly here.  First off, I have truly loved and enjoyed the time we have spent getting to know each other over the past couple of years, and I will always cherish the friendships that we have made.

As Mr. Register made everyone aware of several weeks before the Feast I have come to the understanding that the Church has not been keeping the Holy Days according to the Biblical calendar.  I will not say more than that as this letter is not to try to convince you of my beliefs just as I never tried to do so at services in conversation or through my messages.

When I informed Mr. Register, I believe about two months before Trumpets, he immediately took me off of the speaking schedule and asked me to write a paper outlining my beliefs.  I did just that and submitted it to him and he passed it along to Mr. Horchak and Mr. Franks.   After they read the letter I was asked to give it some more consideration and Mr. Franks asked me to let Mr. Register know my final decision on whether I would change my position before Trumpets and I said I would.  A couple weeks before Trumpets I told him that I had not changed my position but that I still wanted to attend services and be a member of COGWA.  I told them that I understood that I would be decredentialed and that I had no problem with that because my personal convictions and conscience is more important than any title or something written on a piece of paper.  I told them that I was fine sitting quietly in the back and not making an issue out of anything.  I figured once everyone knew why I wasn’t speaking any longer then no big deal.


In the announcement of my suspension before the Feast Mr. Register mentioned that we asked to be able to attend the Feast.  What I actually asked was for us to be able to continue to attend services.  He told me not to come until after the Feast and then depending on the health of the congregation he would make a determination as to whether we would be able to attend.  I asked him what he meant by “health of the congregation” and he said that if even a couple people had a problem with us attending we would not be able to.


It has been a couple of weeks since the Feast and we have not been back even once since I was suspended.   Mr. Register called me this past Thursday to inform me that unless I change my belief I will be decredentialed and am not allowed to come back.  I informed him that I have not changed my beliefs and will not go against my conscience.  Because of this and the fact that at least a couple people would feel it divisive to even be there (even though we have not even had an opportunity to come back to see how the congregation responds) I am to be decredentialed and am not allowed to attend.  I guess since I am not allowed to fellowship that means I have been disfellowshipped as well.  I am expecting to get the paper sometime this week or the next.  I have the right to appeal this but truly do not know what the point in that would be except to just make a messy situation (that didn’t need to be) an even messier one. 

When COGWA formed I told Mr. Register and others that I hate politics.  I hate it in the world and I hate it even more in the Church of God and I am truly baffled by how this has been handled.

I love you all and will continue to count you all as my brother and sisters and I hope you still view me and my family as part of your extended spiritual family.  Believe me we would be with you if we could.  You will all continue to be in our prayers and I ask for you all to keep us in your prayers as well.

Thank you all for your friendship, your care and concern.   For those of you who are interested I would be glad to send you the paper that I gave to Mr. Register.  I would not send this to try to convince any of you but so that you can at least have some basic idea of why we believe what we believe.   I hope this letter has not offended any of you but I felt I needed to send something out, to at the very least, address just some of what has taken place and has been going on.   I hope that you will not judge me harshly for holding to my convictions.

Take care.
In Brotherly Love,
Ed Oliver”

Van Robison Asks "Are Splinter Group Heads---Your Mama?"

WCG splinter group heads treat adult church members as if they are the BIG MAMA.   You will get your behind spanked if you do not follow orders from big mama.   The organized church system is really a very childish system, where adult human beings are treated as if they are mere children and they must obey their big mama.   All churches are in that same category, because the head honcho pretends to be big mama and you better watch out.

Spooks might get you if you step out of line and pick up a few sticks on the Sabbath, hand out some Halloween candy to very innocent little children, or forget to tithe your 10%, plus generous offerings (suggested offering is at least another 10% or more).

Your "mama" carries a big switch and will threaten you with a curse if you fail to comply to all the silly rules, customs and traditions of the self-appointed head of your group.   Of course what "big mama" never tells the adult children is that her purse is wide open and she expects $cash, by the bucket loads.   Pay up or go to hell.   Obey or be cursed.   Live by the false rules of big mama or lose your salvation.   Live in fear for the rest of your life or you will be chained to the devil for all eternity.

Silly, silly, silly and that is the stuff of ALL cult church groups of the WCG and all others outside of the WCG splinter groups.   The world is an ocean of false religions and fake churches, who pretend to speak for Jesus Christ, all the while their real motive is $money, $money, $money.

I always say that if you take all the $money away and there is NO $money in the church world, the pastors would ALL disappear into the woodwork and never be seen from or heard of again.   That is proof that in fact $money is the REAL PURPOSE for pastors and churches.


Van Robison

Hellbound? Lake of Fire Bound?

Michael Camp, author of Confessions of a Bible Thumper, has an entry on his Deep Thought Pub blog about an upcoming movie that has been made about the concept of hell.  For COGers that would be the "Lake of Fire."  The COG has loved to throw that phrase at anyone who disagrees with it, it's doctrines or it's ministers.  Disagree with HWA and you are damned to the lake of fire for being in rebellion.  Buy a hamburger on Saturday and you will fry in the lake.  Keep Christmas or Easter and you will be assured to go there.

In Armstrongism the threat of damnation has always been a weapon.  It holds great power over members who are live in constant fear of being separated from their God for even the slightest mistake.  Parents have used this against their children when they do something really stupid.  Flurry uses it against his present members if they dare have contact with lapsed family members who have left the Church.  On and on it goes.

The concept of hell has always been used as weapon.  The difference now, in the 21st century that it is also a marketing tool used to sell books, bibles and other things promoted to help save one's life.

Camp writes:

Miller and co-producers David Rempel and Brad Jersak just didn't lay out a case for rethinking hell but forced viewers to face the conventional dogma of eternal damnation head on. We heard straight from the mouths of conservative pastors and evangelists (from the whole spectrum--right-wing wackos from the infamous Phelps church to hip but hyper-conservative Mark Driscoll to moderate-sounding theologian Kevin DeYoung), without interuption, where the notion of hell leads. They let the doctrine speak for itself, in other words. That's when the emotional disconnect between everlasting punishment for one half to 99.99 percent of the human race (depending on who was defending it) and an unconditionally loving God hit viewers like a ton of bricks, kiln-fired to 2000-degrees Farenheit. Huh?, was the unspoken response, just as Rob Bell had asked.

But Miller and company don't leave you there. Just when you were thinking, there must be a better way, through theologians, scholars, and studied authors,* they piled on the preponderance of evidence that hell is a modern misinterpretation of religious narratives anchored in an ancient history we know little about. Gehenna, erroneously translated as "hell" in the New Testament, is a metaphor for judgment in this life, God's justice is restorative, not retributive, the term "everlasting" is mistranslated, and much of the early church embraced the idea of universal reconciliation. The overall impression the film leaves is inspiring and redemptive. Cries of heresy by convervatives are misplaced as should be a sense of superiority by Universalists. So much of this stuff is a mystery. The question boils down to, what kind of God do we think we serve?

Run, don't walk, to see this film. It's an important commentary on our religious divide. It fairly lays out a continuum of positions. It opens up a vision for the nonviolent paradigm Jesus espoused.

Why Does The COG HATE Doing Good For Others?

James, on the Painful Truth blog, has a letter up from a reader discussing Mother Teresa accompanied by a great picture which is above.  I have always  been fascinated by Armstrongism's hatred of this woman.  That hatred ran deeper than the fact that she was a Catholic.  I think the problem really was is that the ministry was horrendously embarrassed that here was a little poor woman doing a great work while they, rich and increased with goods were doing nothing for anyone.  I can see why they were embarrassed!

...I was the recipient of a long discourse relating to mother Teresa (MT), where he expounded how FALSE the faith of MT actually was - - Now, this is NOT original, since I remember discussions in world-wide about how MT’s faith would NOT be accepted by God, since she was a daughter of the Babylon Whore, the Catholic church. So, apparently giving up your life for the service of the poor is somehow “not acceptable to God”, even though the bible says “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Read the letter here.

Living in Fear With the Living Church of God

Living Church of God has an article up by Charles Knowlton that I assume was meant to be encouraging to LCG members, but instead just blatantly exposes the fear based belief system that it is.

It's about Knowlton's family during the great depression and how they were despised by neighbors in the community.  Knowlton says those same times are soon to be upon us. In other words, prepared to live in fear.

The peaceful town we lived in had become a place of fear. The reason: we were the subject of jealously and hatred was because my father had one of the few jobs in town. People were suspicious of each other and there was some violence. The situation called for self-preservation. This was the beginning of the Great Depression, which was to last for nearly a decade and would dramatically change our country. During the ensuing years the U.S. was to take a giant step backward when it came to personal behavior, family unity and an honest interest in self-preservation. The interesting thing is, that piece of history is going to be repeated in many of our lifetimes by troubles on the horizon, described by the Bible as the Great Tribulation and the great Day of the Lord.

In typical COG fashion it is all about wars, famine, pestilence and earthquakes and how they are increasing with rapid pace in this end times. Then it's about our neighbors turning us over to the authorities because we are sabbath keepers. True Christians (i.e. LCG members only) will be despised and hated because of their beliefs.  Because this is going to happen to LCG members, it will also happen to the rest of the world. 

The Bible reveals this in Matthew 24, in what is called the Olivet Prophecy. Christ gave this prophecy to His disciples, and explained it to them in detail. He talked about the events of the end time—wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes. These will happen over time and become very intense. Jesus states, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake” (v. 9). He goes on to explain the effect this will have on human relationships: “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of may will grow cold” (v. 12). Now if this is going to happen to future disciples of Christ, it is going to happen to everyone. The Bible has many references to the coming tribulation and what it will be like—and why.

Then it's food shortages, war and the end of the world.  So uplifting!  So grace filled.  It warms my heart! 

In Daniel 12:1 we see one of these references: “At that time shall Michael stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered.” There are other references in the Old and New Testaments about a time when everyone is going to experience the hardships of a world in trouble: food shortage, war and ultimately the end of civilization.

Never fear!  Jesus is coming back to spank the world into submission.  Nothing about a loving shepherd coming back for his lost sheep.  Nothing about redemption and unconditional grace. Nope!  Jesus is just some lackey that is a small part of the puzzle that LCGers and COGers have to put up with in order to make their god love them more than others.

However, the Bible also promises a Deliverer (Romans 11:26-27). Jesus Christ will return and not only redeem the remnants of Israel’s descendants (including the English speaking peoples) but will straighten the whole world out (Revelation 19:14-16; Revelation 21:3-5). Jesus Christ and His disciples referred to this time as “the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33; Mark 1:14; Luke 4:43; John 3:5; Acts 14:22).

Be assured though, if you are good COGer and "living in the world though not part of the world," you will be able to see the problems coming upon the world and you will prepare yourself.  You will be doing all kinds of things in order for God to save your sorry ass.

If a person is alert and not too deeply engaged in this present evil society, they might see that distress and upheaval are coming. Many live in denial, and choose not to acknowledge that hard times will become worse times, but one thing is certain from the Bible: it is going to require more to survive than protecting your money and carrying a shotgun (Matthew 24:22).

Next,  Knowlton eagerly reminds you on how 2/3rds of humanity will be destroyed for their unfaithfulness.  A small remnant will be left after suffering horribly for three and half years from famine, disease, plagues, concentration camps.

In Ezekiel chapter 5, the prophet describes how one third of the modern descendants of ancient Israel will die of the troubles, one third will be affected by war, and one third will be scattered—and that God would bring these calamities as part of His wrath on their disobedience. The Great Depression never came close, but it left us with a glimpse of things to come.

Another Church of God article that discusses nothing about Jesus.  Nothing about what he is supposed to have accomplished.  Nothing about finding ones "rest" in him and not having to live in fear anymore.  Nothing about unconditional out-flowing grace. Nothing about living water. Nope.  Jesus is only used in this article as an inconvenient prop.

Is that the kind of god that appeals to you?  Do you even want to know it?  I've seen it first hand and it left me empty.  Armstrongism's god is a god of fear.

So, until they find Jesus, they want you to know that they and they alone have the only answer you need. Don't worry about that Jesus dude, he is inconsequential to the bigger picture. Salvation is only through the Living Church of God and it alone knows the way.  Order it's books and save your life.

If you would like to know more about how to truly prepare, order our free booklet Armageddon and Beyond and Revelation: the Mystery Unveiled! Do not delay—your future depends on understanding God’s plan for the times just ahead.