Thursday, March 7, 2013

Requirements to be a Flurryite Minister



The Philadelphia Church of God likes to represents its self as God's greatest ministry on the earth today.  The public face they present is one of idolatry towards all things Herbert Armstrong.  When you really looking to PCG and its beliefs and method of operation it is clear who is the priority and it is NOT God or Jesus.  Jesus particularly gets relegated to the boonies as Herbert Armstrong is elevated to deity status.  There seems to be nothing the man ever did that was wrong.

To drive that point him here is a partial scan from the ministerial resume form for ministers in India.  There is nothing to tick off where you believe in God or Jesus but plenty of places to pay homnage to Gerald Flurry and Herbert Armstrong..  You can see more ministerial resumes at the COG splinter cult Gentile Assembly.




Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Dennis Diehl Writes: The Grain of Sand Speaks...Reflect on this Dr. Thiel





The Grain of Sand Speaks...
Reflect on this Dr. Thiel


"Maybe those in LCG should realize that God may not be giving that group as much favor anymore? LCG no longer truly leads God's work. Hopefully, possibly because of its fast today, some will be better able to reflect on that."
Dr. Robert Thiel,
Non Prophet Continuing Church Of God


Dennis Diehl - EzineArticles Expert AuthorPerspective is not something most human beings are really good at. The Churches of God certainly aren't into perspective about themselves as far as I can tell.    We give lip service to "Dear Lord, please bless us in your infinite wisdom for you are so very very large and we so very very small,"  but we usually end up forgetting that and the big head sets in again.

ex·ag·ger·ate
(g-zj-rt)

v. ex·ag·ger·at·ed, ex·ag·ger·at·ing, ex·ag·ger·ates

1. To represent as greater than is actually the case; overstate: exaggerate the size of the enemy force; exaggerated his own role in the episode.
2. To enlarge or increase to an abnormal degree: thick lenses that exaggerated the size of her eyes. To make overstatements.


It is understandable that many leaders in the COG exaggerate just about everything they come in contact with is but is not unique to them.  The Bible actually has played its part in teaching many to exaggerate with its own exaggerations. 

Genesis 22:17
I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 



Our mere 6 billion are already too many and straining the system.  A mere smudge of humanity is actually descended from Abraham, if he ever existed. Israelites and Palestinians are virtually indistinguishable from each other genetically.  Hebrews were merely the outcast Canaanite clan.  Modern Israelis have very little actually DNA connection to original Hebrews in "the Holy Land." 

Hundreds of billions of stars in one galaxy with hundreds of billions of galaxies in what may prove to be one grape of a universe  on one cluster, on one vine, in one row in one vineyard probably is not what the Creator meant. We now are pretty sure Abraham's descendents won't actually be as the stars of heaven or the sand in the sea, but we'll get to that sand thing in a moment. 

Whether it is the awesome number of booklets one of the Churches produce, the amazing response they had to a TV program,  or the dozens of people that sit before them in church, perspective eludes them.  They can and have "gone them therefore into all the world" in such amazing ways and for many years now that  99+ percent of the planet has never so much as heard of them, much less agreed with them.  Go to any beach, scoop up a bucket of sand from one of them and that's about the amount of influence they have had on this planet with the one truth that must be spread or no flesh would saved alive. 

Now...either they are missing something in all this, or God is way to small for the job himself and not doing so well with it either.  Personally I wish that The Deity has cut out all the middle men long ago.  How much further ahead would we actually be if we didn't have to go through priests, be heckled by prophets or try and figure out who the true and who the false apostles were?  I say the Deity should have, from the start, offered seminars, personally conducted by itself with open question and answer sessions as desired.  A buffet of what the Deity actually approves of as food fit to eat would be awesome!   I'd like to see Gospel Jesus get to know Revelation Jesus and actually hear what the disciples , now apostles, have to say about Paul, but that can be for another time. 

Back to self absorbed and ego centric wanna be's. 

Self consumed and self absorbed, their impression of their importance, understanding and place in the universe becomes laughable even when compared to other churches, denominations, sects and cults...much less splinters and slivers.   In the above quote and view, Dr. Thiel is tsk tsking the Living Church of God for perhaps not being able to be used by the God of the Universe to "do the work"  as in the past.    To Bob, this is no mere coincidence.  Plainly, since his falling out with LCG and their apparent rejection of his awesome self and in sights has occurred, God is packing up too and going with Bob.  Where Bob goes can God and Jesus be far behind?  Ummmm....sure!

What Bob means is that God takes his cues from what Bob does or thinks.  If Bob had stayed, and he may wish he had in time, then we'd know God would stay with them as well.  But if Bob gets offended and leaves, well then, the God of the Universe also gets offended and begins to withdraw his blessing from those that rejected His chosen servant and prophet.  Bob is not the first person I have encountered in my life who thinks this way, but I spare you some pretty pathetic stories of special people I have met through ministry.

Bob hopes their now past fast will help them to see this easily discernable truth.  Actually, I'm just kidding.  This arrogance wrapped in a fake and false humility is beyond offensive and insulting to those who have half the brain it would take to see this.  Those with less than half may not be able to comprehend what they are seeing however and evidently won't or don't. 

So, let's get back to that one grain of sand on the beach thing for true perspective. 

If you were to take one grain of actual sand, stick it on the end of your index finger, extend your arm out and hold the grain of sand up to the heavens , this is what you will find in the space that one grain of sand covers up in the night sky.





The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) combines Hubble observations taken over the past decade of a small patch of sky in the constellation of Fornax. With a total of over two million seconds of exposure time, it is the deepest image of the Universe ever made. Credit: credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team
EVERY speck of light and spiral in this photo is one of 5500 galaxies each containing hundreds of billions of stars.  This is what you can hide behind one grain of sand at arms length.  And there is much more behind this but our technology is not there yet.  We're seeing here what these galaxies looked like 13.2 billion years ago.  They could still be there or not by this time. 

One of these...




x 5500 behind one grain of sand on the end of your fingertip held up to the night sky. 

Are we feeling important yet?  Do we actually think the Universe knows about us or is impressed by the COG Self Appointed types or the Pope for that matter?

I going to go with no.  All flesh is as grass is being generous.  Very generous. 

Need more to think about ?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgg2tpUVbXQ

I believe the Universe must be teeming with life and much of it way beyond what we are humans can conceive of.  I'm also going to bet that none of it or they have ever heard of the awesome and amazing, over arching and incredible Churches of God or their ego centric and self absorb one man shows of leadership. 

Personal humility and men getting out of their own heads long enough to keep themselves in perspective is not one of the COG leadership qualities that shine through the darkness.  Probably because minds like Dr. Thiel's and others simply cannot imagine a world without their input and "understanding."  It is quite a joke actually.

I think in time, for those with eyes to see and minds to think it through, one can come to see the Bible and it's cultic God that inhabited an obscure mountain in an obscure land barking obscure orders to an obscure people on an obscure planet in a rather average solar system and galaxy is simply too small a god, should it actually exist. 

Instead of sermons and Bible studies, I suggest the COGs, and I mean all of them from Grace Community formerly known as WCG to the most obscure of men trying to be and think more highly than they ought give apologies instead.  Apologies for the big head, ego centric and self absorbed fairly theologically uneducated selves they have inflicted on many other well meaning and sincere humans who simply wish to know what it's really all about.  I doubt you guys have a clue.  I don't, but if I thought I did, I doubt I'd be comfortable presenting myself to the world of sand grains in the arrogant and puffed up manner you guys have mastered

Last week I picked up my mom's cremains.  Ten pounds of stardust.  Ten pounds of sand.  One grain of that sand can block out a billion worlds and none of them ever heard of you who think more highly of yourselves than you ought...