Change "seminary" above to "Ambassador" and you have a typical Church of God
Religious Control Freaks
Are you captive to a religious control freak who stands in a pulpit, pretending that God functions and operates through his or her ministry? If so, you have a great deal of company, because the world is an ocean of religious control freaks. Such control freaks always proclaim "authority." Fear is their arrow and they drive fear into the hearts and minds of anyone willing to submit to their false authority. Another pretense is that they "need" your financial support (as in false tithes and the sowing of false "seed" money to reap a harvest), in order to preach the Gospel to the world. Does it seem strange that $money is ALWAYS a key factor in the world of churches? And yet Jesus Christ costs no money, salvation cannot be bought with $money, eternal life does not depend upon a spiritual credit card, and the building of church buildings and church colleges were NEVER spoken of in the teachings of Jesus Christ
What is it that so mesmerizes non-thinkers to submit their lives to such people? Does the salvation or eternal life of even one single human being really hinge upon "going to church", keeping the Saturday Sabbath, observing "Holy" days, Bible study or bowing to preachers? If so, then those who think and believe such things have never read the teachings of Jesus Christ. Where in the four Gospels did Jesus ever say that salvation depended upon going to church, submission to "elders" or "pastors", or becoming prisoners to pied pipers in the pulpits, or even endless "Bible" study? What percentage of church going is really based upon false assumptions?
During the age of Herbert W. Armstrong there was a teaching that if anyone was previously married and their ex-spouse was still living, then the second or third marriage to another was "adultery" and salvation was at stake. For those in such circumstance, they were "required" to separate, which of course destroyed their families and the lives of their children, even if happily married in a second or third marriage. This is the type of religious fanaticism that destroys lives. When did Jesus Christ ever appear to anyone today and make such a proclamation? It may never have been the will of God that marriages end in divorce, but in the Old Testament even God DIVORCED ancient Israel. Was there a valid reason? Yes of course and there are valid reasons for divorce. What woman would not divorce a man who sexually abuses their children? Sure you can read that women are to "submit" to their husbands, but that verse is woefully misconstrued and many have been abused because of it. Some men are brutes and jerks. Some women are also spouse abusers and controlling.
Using the Bible as an excuse to abuse anyone is nothing short of religious control, based upon private interpretation of INK on PAPER. Pied pipers in the pulpits are professional, spiritual abusers and they think nothing of demanding compliance, because their pocketbooks depend upon FEAR of non-compliance to their fake authority. As long as NON-THINKING church goers, live in FEAR of pied pipers in the pulpits, they will forever be controlled, and those who stand in pulpits will gloat over their bank accounts and their prestige and their fake authority. Only when common people STOP being FEARFUL of people who are public speakers, will they ever be free to live life from fear.
Van Robison
