Thiel: New Zealand Ignoring LCG's Warnings About Gays

For some reason the Living Church of God's two public spokesmen, Rod Meredith and Bob Thiel are both preoccupied with sex.  Fornicating tweetering  teens, slap happy masturbators and nicely dressed gays have a powerful hold over the Living Church of God.  Exploding headlines about sex predominates many of it's articles and news postings.

In the previous post I quoted Living Church of God blaming hurricane Sandy on gays.  Bob Thiel also is speaking out about gays too.  He is particularly incensed that New Zealand is IGNORING LCG's message by not sitting around in sack cloth and ashes wailing and knashing their teeth in national repentance.

But New Zealand does not seem inclined to truly listen to those who are strongly advocating changes in the moral direction of the land. Nor do those in Australia or the other Anglo-dominated lands.

So what really has Bob getting his knickers in a wad?  The Living Church of God published an article decrying New Zealand's stance on gay marriage.  Agree with it or not, one has to wonder why LCG feels it necessary to stick their hands in the pants of New Zealand when the sexual escapades of some in the ministry and leadership of LCG leave a whole lot to be desired.

Bob quotes LCG with this:

The “Marriage Equality” bill that seeks to redefine marriage to include unions between two members of the same sex, overwhelmingly passed its first Parliamentary reading. NZ Prime Minister, John Key, one of the bill’s supporters, described the result as exciting and told media sources that it was “a strong endorsement for the equality of rights” (New Zealand News, August 30, 2012). However, Mr. Key admitted that the debate will grow louder and “quite ferocious” as the bill progresses. Nonetheless, since a strong majority of Parliamentarians supports the bill, it will almost certainly get safely through its remaining stages and become law (ibid.).While many have labeled this bill as a positive initiative that leads to “equal rights,” God does not mince words regarding what He thinks about homosexuality. He calls it “vile” and unnatural (Romans 1:26-27) and an “abomination” (Leviticus 18:22) because it totally corrupts what marriage pictures–the union between Jesus Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:22-32). Many do not understand the gravity of what they are promoting.

Jesus Christ is going to return, and with the saints will restore the knowledge of God’s true way of life (see Isaiah 30:19-22; Acts 3:19-21). Read our booklet, The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like? to glimpse just how different the soon-coming World Ahead will be.

Yes, read LCG's booklet and salvation is assured!  Lolipops and cotton candy by the rivers of Babylon will be your blessed assurance.

Rod Meredith: Gays Caused "Sandy" Hurricane

Bob Thiel is on a roll today touting Rod Merdith's letter earlier this year that American is getting spanked for being such worthless vile sinners.  In this letter it's the gays that are going to cause bad weather. It's always the "other" that is the problem instead of the vile sinners in one's own house, starting with the top leadership.  LCG is NOT a sinless, guileless group, in spite of the fact Rod claims to never have committed a "major" sin after baptism.  Apparently lying is not a sin.

Rod writes:

Thousands of years ago, God warned of the sobering consequences of rejecting Him and His commandments. “I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce…” (Leviticus 26:19-20). “Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field…” (Hosea 4:3). God wants to bless those He created in His image, but disobedience forces Him to remove His blessings and protection (verses 1-7). God does control the weather and yearns for His people to return to Him so that He can once again bless them with “rain in due season” (Leviticus 26:1-4, KJV). For more information on extreme weather conditions, review our insightful booklet, Who Controls the Weather?Will the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia truly repent and turn to the God of the Bible before more devastating droughts, floods, earthquakes and other natural catastrophes strike? Will we repent of what God Almighty calls the “vile passions” of homosexuality, when “men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:26-28)?

Bob then adds his two cents to the mixture:

National repentance is the only hope now for the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.  And as far as the storm goes, prayer and physical preparations can and should be done (see also Superstorm Expected: What Can You Do?).

Maybe God is waiting for the Church of God, including the Living Church of God to repent of their vile sins and set an example for the rest of the country.  Maybe the disgusting behavior of COG leadership, the corruption that is rampant, the alcoholism, the sexual issues, and other  problems, are why this country is suffering.  Maybe God is looking for a few righteous in the COG in order to save the entire British Israelite nations and the world.  Since most COG's take the Bible literally, maybe they had better take heed of Lot and his story.

Remember the other day when Bob said that it was carnality that caused people to want to save themselves?  For some reason when Rod Meredith gives people examples on how to save themselves it is not carnal.

So we must each examine our own situation to determine what action we should take. Are we living in a low-lying coastal area where we may be in danger at a time of increasing hurricanes, tsunamis or similar natural disasters? Do we have at least a week’s supply of emergency food and water, flashlight batteries, a first-aid kit, a battery-powered radio, prescription medications and other essential items? Have we read the instructions from our nation or region about how to prepare for such emergencies as hurricanes, earthquakes or terrorists attacks? (Meredith RC.  Are You Prepared.  Tomorrow’s World, Jan-Feb 2005)

Put aside some food and store some water…Bad times are coming, have some supplies (Meredith RC. Prophecy Overview. Sermon, July 19, 2008).

Get extra food, dried food, and water…When these things happen, maybe God’s people can survive longer…It’s good to be prudent (Meredith RC. Do you actually live by faith? Sermon, April 25, 2009).

Even Bob adds his own recommendations which apparently are not carnal in any way.

And preparation certainly makes a lot of sense.  Increasingly worsening weather and storms have long been expected and seem to be happening.  More will as well.  These difficult times should get people’s attention.

The Church of God has cried "wolf" so many times over the decades that no one pays any attention any more.  That alone should be their wake up call, not some storm that conveniently fits their desire for death and destruction.

Pam Dewey on Propehcy Prognosticators

Pam Dewey has another entry into her series on "Are You Prepared for…the Unthinkable? Part 21: Back to the Future"

With her background in the Church of God she has first hand knowledge of the endless stream of men who trumpeted out one silly prophecy after another.  The same thing they were shouting 60 years ago are the same topics today.  This is not unique to the Church of God.  It is a problem with most conservative, fundamentalist groups.

Yet for the past almost 50 years, religious commentators have endlessly taken whatever the current crisis was … the Viet Nam war, American race riots in the ‘60s, the rise of Chinese power in the world … and insisted that it was cause for “more anxiety than ever in our history.” And reason to believe that the Return of Christ was imminent.

Yes, there are indeed many things that can go wrong in the coming years … and likely will. Maybe we will face conditions in the US as difficult as those of the Dust Bowl years and the depths of the Depression. Maybe we will be embroiled in military actions as horrifying as those faced by our military in Europe and the South Pacific in WW2. But when I look in the faces of the people shopping in the local Walmart right now, I do not see terror or uncontrolled anxiety.  I don’t see them particularly fearful as they cart out to their car the box with the big screen hi-def TV, and fill their carts with goodies for the next tail-gate party.

Are they just ignorant and don’t know they should be daily living their lives filled with anxiety and fear about the possibilities of future calamities? Perhaps. But I am fully aware of all of those possibilities, and I’m not filled with anxiety and fear. I am continuing to live as productive a life as I can, and appreciating the blessings of each day. Would I be better off if I were spending more of my time reading anxious, panicky, speculative prophecy newsletters?

I am convinced the answer to that is NO.

But won’t I miss getting biblical advice on how I can “escape” the bad times coming? Don’t I need the wisdom of prophetic speculators on how to “prepare for the doom-filled future”?

I am convinced that the answer to those questions is NO also.

Typical “preparation” advice from such folks includes one, some, or all of these concepts:

1. Be continually “watching world events”—preferably through the filter of the writings and recordings of the prognosticator
2. Continually take in speculation from conservative commentators on what’s going on “behind the scenes” in government and the world of finance
3. Study the prophetic passages of the Bible with the guidance of the prognosticator’s recordings and writings so you can pinpoint the Time as closely as possible
4. If you don’t believe in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, purchase survival supplies … sometimes, from the over-priced offerings of the prognosticators themselves
5. For the more militant … purchase guns and ammo to hold off the hordes until Jesus gets here
6. For the less militant, just “pray, study, and fast” to “get close to God.”

Now mind you, I don’t have anything against some of those suggestions as being generally applicable to one’s life. For instance, I’m not ignorant about national and world news. But after almost 50 years of having people tell me that every hiccup in news headlines is “fulfilling Bible prophecy,” I’ve become very skeptical that the purpose of staying up with the news has a whole lot more value than just being “culturally aware” so that I can intelligently discuss things with others.

As for those ranting commentators who insist that I need to know the latest hidden activities of the Global Elite or whoever … it isn’t clear to me why I need to spend much time with this. If there really is a shadowy Global Elite running things, I can’t vote them out of office—since they weren’t voted into office. I don’t have super-powers, so I can’t infiltrate their secret meetings in Belgium or wherever and thwart their plans. I don’t have enough money to hire hit-men to assassinate all of them to keep them from carrying out their plans. So it seems to me like my best bet is to just … get on with my life.

Richard Ames Continues The Fear Mongering

You would think that after watching 60+ years of failed prophecy go by while he has been part of the Church of God that Richard Ames would give end time prophecy predictions a rest.

With the hundreds of documented failed prophesies that Herbert Armstrong, Dean Blackwell, Herman Hoeh, Gerald Waterhouse, Rod Meredith, Gerald Flurry, and others have uttered over the years, you would think they would all stop making fools of themselves.

Fear mongering is the only way that the present Church of God leaders can keep a few faithful in their grasp.  The fear of the unknown is a powerful thing for cults to latch on to.

Ames has written a little screed for the the latest Living Church of God Commentary with the fear mongering title: Armageddon Postponed? Fifty Years After the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The only time Ames mentions Jesus is mentioned is when Jesus Christ comes back at the battle of Armageddon. One sentence in the entire screed is all that Jesus got.  Fear, death and destruction are in almost every single paragraph.

Fifty years ago, our world came very close to Armageddon, hardly more than a decade after General Douglas MacArthur had characterized the state of the world in his farewell address to the U.S. Congress: “Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be the way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door” (April 19, 1951).

Since MacArthur’s speech, has the world devised “some greater and more equitable system”? No! Will Armageddon soon “be at our door”? Your Bible reveals a great prophetic climactic battle, popularly referred to as “Armageddon,” described in Revelation 16:14, when “the kings of the earth and of the whole world” will gather for “the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”   This present age will end with a climactic battle between the forces of good and evil, and the returning Jesus Christ—the coming King of kings—will win that battle (Revelation 19:1-21)!

Sadly, Ames gives more credence to the "doomsday clock" baloney than he does to resting in faith in Jesus Christ.

Even those who do not take the Bible seriously admit the danger of nuclear catastrophe. On January 10, 2012, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the minute hand of their symbolic doomsday clock one minute closer to midnight.  They announced, “[F]ailure to act on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by leaders in the United States, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, and North Korea and on a treaty to cut off production of nuclear weapons material continues to leave the world at risk from continued development of nuclear weapons. The world still has approximately 19,500 nuclear weapons, enough power to destroy the earth’s inhabitants several times over.”

The Bulletin announced: “It is five minutes to midnight.”  The scientists concluded their announcement with this sobering warning: “The Clock is ticking.”

Sadly, the Church of God WANTS that clock to be ticking.  Without that fear mongering tool they would have to talk about Jesus Christ more often and we all know that is NOT a good thing to do.  Jesus is too syrupy and effeminate for them. Butch Christ is more manly and makes for a better kick-ass savior at the end of the world.