Church of God Powder Kegs

Silenced has a great post up about the current state of affirs in COGland and it is NOT pretty!

The State of the COG 2014  It lists the Dead COG's, the Dying COG's and the Powder Kegs. IN addition, there is a great picture of COG Bingo

Part of the post includes this:

Powder Kegs

Philadelphia Church of God: Cult leader Gerald R. Flurry has long suffered ill health and recently collapsed onstage. When he dies, PCG will likely limp onward revering the memory of two “Apostles” — Herbert W. Armstrong and Flurry. What happens after that should be interesting to watch.

Living Church of God: Roderick C. Meredith is not in good health and UCG has already measured LCG’s drapes. LCG only exists to gather around Meredith, the whole reason 80 percent of Global left with him. The loyalty is to him, not to his lieutenants. When he dies, LCG will likely break and scatter and there are already grumblings and defections. We can’t predict when that break will be, since tyranny and longevity seem to commonly be associated. But LCG as an organization is unlikely to have long.

Restored Church of God: David C. Pack experienced a major embarrassment over the false prophecy that the whole COG would rally around him by the end of August 2013. It was so damaging to his image — imagine that for a moment — that he felt the need to give his version of an apology and fall silent. But aside from a failed prophecy, RCG is suffering all of the same symptoms that COGIC did before its recent explosion: malcontent members, ministerial abuses, rumors of members leavings, pastors being fired for challenging Pack, tons of money being spent on ineffective media projects and boondoggles like the cult’s Wadsworth office. What’s more, Pack is actually crazier than Hulme. RCG is not a healthy organization. We’ll give it two years or less before it experiences a major crisis that shreds it.

House of Yahweh: Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins has weathered a lot of self-inflicted storms: a child labor conviction, one of his elders being sentenced for child molestation, bad press and a slew of failed apocalyptic prophecies. But he’s not in prison and continues to run his little Abilene bunker community. HOY continues to be extremely dangerous, and the mixture of crazy, dangerous and a lengthy lull in any news is a recipe for impending disaster. The cult has been increasing efforts in its front group, Peaceful Solution Character Education Incorporated, which is likely to be a recruitment tool. Watching HOY in the coming months might prove wise.

United Church of God: Bottom line: UCG is too big not to fail. It will split again. In fact, “it will split again” should be on UCG camp t-shirts. There are too many variables at play within the largest COG cult, and tensions are set to rise as their third president in five years also fails to spur growth within the church. Like COGIC, it’s pouring money into media projects and seeing nothing out of it, a problem exacerbated by its loss of members, money and congregations when COGWA split. UCG is throwing money into a black hole, even as it somehow attracts a million unique web views a month and no new members. This kind of failure won’t sit well for long before more internal strife breaks out.

Christian Churches of God: The lawsuit-happy Wade Cox hates being mentioned online, it seems. He gets to be in charge of CCG through 2019, and if he does not relinquish power by then, it could lead to major tensions. CCG is also making some disturbing gains in Africa, according to reports. This is a deceptive and vile cult that manages to do a lot of damage despite its meager size.

A Congregation of the Church of God: This tiny little bunker-dwelling cult hides in the deserts of Arizona. Almost nothing else is known about them. That’s kind of scary for anyone in their thrall. It also makes it very tough to gauge their status.

End Time Assembly: Everything we hear about David Nix’s tiny little cult — recently re-dubbed the Church of Covenant Blessings — makes our skin crawl. He micromanages his followers’ lives worse than any current COG leader we’ve heard of. He is spinning some pretty strange doctrines and keeps his handful of congregations extremely small and enclosed. This sect is set to have bad things happen.

Church of God, a Family Community: The newest COG cult was created by the vast chunk of Hulme’s COGIC he jettisoned for defying him. At the moment, its collective of newly-unemployed ministers seem content to focus on greater transparency, less corruption and abuse and more sanity. We’ll see if they will actually practice what they preach — a rare thing in the COG — or prove once again that absolute power corrupts absolutely. It may not be too long until we find out if COGFC — or whatever name it ultimately settles on — keeps making noise.

Bob Thiel: I Am An Ordained Prophet of God and Am Ignored Just Like John the Baptist Was!

Bob Thiel has a long post up today where he quotes an article that Norm Edwards had in the Shepherd's Voice magazine put out by Chicagoland Church of God.

Edward's writes about the history of prophets in the church and in Armstrongism, including the lack of real prophets today.  Need Prophets More Than Prophecy

Armstrongism has always been obsessed with prophecy more than being prophetic.  Prophets are always visionaries who foresee the world ahead.  I do have to hand it to Norm Edwards, because he actually is putting his belief in a kingdom of God into present day existence, where he sees people made whole.  Lives have certainly been touched, enriched and strengthen by Edward's ministry.

PABC currently has 14 guests, though a family of 3 and a family of 4 have told us they may need to come within a few days. It is difficult for homeless families to remain together as the Veterans shelter in Akron does not accept women or children, and the other shelters in Huron, Sanilac and Tuscola Counties do not accept men. Just last week, a man and his son who had been with us for five months found a stable place to go.

PABC has been in operation for 3½ years now. In that time we have housed 242 persons, 96 men, 86 women and 60 children. We have provided 19,124 bed-nights, 9,517 for men, 5,440 for women and 4,167 for children. (the total number of nights that all of the people stayed). We have talked to 125 additional people (more than the 242), whom we either offered to help or for whom we found a better solution. Many times, the fact that a person has a definite place to go for the night allows them to concentrate on less sure, but more long-term solutions.

Now lets get to Bob Thiel's take on prophets.  He claims he is THE prophet.  One that has been specifically ordained by God to be prophet.  Thiel writes:

Norman Edwards once was on the board of directors of the Global Church of God.  He runs the Port Austin Bible Campus and is editor for Shepherd’s Voice magazine.  He is not part of the Continuing Church of God, where, I function its human leader (and am an ordained prophet).

While Norman Edwards and I have long disagreed about aspects of church governance and various matters of doctrine (and I would have suggested a different title, etc. for his article), we both agree that many who are in or claim to be in the Church of God (COG) wrongly do not accept that God has any prophets today.  We also agree that most have severe difficulty to identify one who really is a prophet because of various unscriptural biases and improper criteria that they have.

As Norman Edward’s article points out, it is scriptural to now have prophets according to the New Testament.  But many who truly believe that they live by the word of God have discounted or overlooked what the Bible actually teaches and/or have been influenced by others who have done the same or worse.  The COG has at least one demonstrably true prophet today, yet most in the greater COG world seem to be able to ignore the truth about that, like most ignored John the Baptist and others in their day.

Why Thiel continues to LIE about being ordained is beyond me.  No one in ANY Church of God laid hands upon Thiel and specifically ordained his as a minister or prophet.  Thiel took the prayer of Gaylyn Bonjour who asked for double blessing of God's spirit upon Thiel as if it was an ordination that set him apart from the rest of the apostate COG leaders.  Rod Meredith quickly nailed Thiel for ...his "...self-important, pushy, "know-it-all" attitude."

So shame on you COG members who do NOT see Thiel as a prophet of God!  You have been warned that the church has ONE prophet alive today, and you know who he is, yet you do not believe him!  Shame, shame, shame!

COGTV - The Creepiest Splinter Group Yet!

There is a "new" splinter cult out there in COGland called COG Ministry or COGTV.  It is lead by Steven Gilbreath, a former perpetual bachelor from Pasadena.  That name alone will ring alarms for a lot of people and may even lead to PTSD, so be forewarned if you watch his video's.

Gilbreath is another wanna-be "minister" who claims to follow in the footsteps of Herbert Armstrong.  He idolizes HWA's so much that HWA is present in almost all of his videos at the opening of his broadcasts, as if HWA was sitting in the chair behind the lectern.  Gilbreath also does cartoons for the one or two youth that might have parents stupid enough to watch this every week.

If you though Bob Thiel was appallingly bad, Gilbreath is even worse!  Apparently Spokesman Club did not do this guy any good!  If you can make it through the first 15 minutes you will be saying, "WTH was that!!!!!"

You can check out more creepy videos here:  Sabbath Service

The work done by this ministry, among other things, regularly provides the following:

1) A nightly news program is produced that features video clips of the day's current world news that relates to the Bible and Prophecy.  The initial host for this program who named the program

''Night-Cast,'' was James Robert Collins -- a fifty-year minister of the Philadelphia-era of the Church of God.  Before he died, Mr. Collins asked his program producer Stephen Lloyd Gilbreath to continue the program and ordained him into the ministry of Jesus Christ on Pentecost 2011.  The video of world news featured on the program is provided under a license from the BBC who is noted for producing the best in worldwide coverage and any liberal reporting that may exist in the video clips is balanced out by the host's Ambassador College training.

2) A Sabbath Service by live video stream on the Internet is provided each week and on all Holy Days for children and scattered brethren of the Philadelphia-era of the Church of God.

An anointed cloth for God's healing is available upon request.

After watching this bullshit I feel like I need to take a shower!

An Open Letter to All COG Churches, Leaders and Ministers

This is a reposting of a letter that was sent to us a long time ago.  It is still as pertinent today considering the current debacle unfolding in the Restored Church of God.

An Open Letter to All COG Churches, Leaders and Ministers

Twenty –two years have passed since 1990 when the first of the splits occurred with with WCG by PCG leaving.   Subsequent splits occurred year after year.   I beg to ask the question, where has this gotten any of us?   In recent letters from a prominent minister who has joined RCG, he stated that when UCG was formed, “The idea was to keep our eyes open --- to watch for fruits of a work that might emerge in or from one of the “Church of God” organizations. It would reflect the Government of God at work, and have fruits similar to the WCG when it was on track and being so obviously blessed by God. THIS would be the signal for all the groups to reunite as one”!    Well then, why even form United under the guise of a voting democratic state if all you wanted to do was look for another organization that was exactly the same as WCG was under Mr. Armstrong?  Why not start United, right off the bat as that organization that was exactly the same as WCG?  If the majority of ministers would have stood up in 1993, you could have ousted Joe Jr. a long time ago and got control of things.   Now you have the “big fish in a little pond” syndrome.    Why didn’t all the ministers go with Flurry when he split, he holds HWA in high esteem.   Or, with Meredith.  They tried to keep things close to HWA too.    There were several opportunities to join forces before further fracturing the church.

But no, split after split occurred dragging brethren and their spiritual lives through the mud of each “leader” thinking that they would restore the “true church” just as Mr. Armstrong had the church on the track.   Who’s to say Mr. Armstrong had everything correct in his day.  There are many examples of failed prophecies, abuse of brethren and sheer avarice on his part.  Does that show a church that Jesus Christ founded?   Did the Lord not criticize a church that was rich and increased with goods?  Did he not criticize people who hoard up earthly treasures unto themselves?   Many members are tired of all this silliness perpetrated by the leadership.   Many are opting to stay home.   Many of them discuss amongst themselves how sick and tired they are that the ministry cannot work together, and think that a churches fruits are how many buildings and riches it has.

As you may remember, HWA taught that the age would end in 1975.   An observation that a few of us have made is why was he building a college and auditorium prior to 1975, if we were just going to flee and leave it?   The Pasadena Campus was built on the blood, sweat and tears of the brethren sacrificing their financial future.   For what?   The present owners are beginning demolition of part of the campus.   If this was God’s campus, wouldn’t He have done something about it?  Hence I cite the Temple in Jerusalem, a place where God’s presence dwelt.  Did He spare that?  He saw that it became a monument to a religious organization and men, not to God.   If we are now in the “last years of the last days” then why is RCG building a new building, new college?   Why can’t he buy a commercial property and refurb it?   Why another monument to nothing paid for again by the sweat and tears of the brethren.   PCG and Gerald Flurry have just built a $5million debacle (in debt and ready to go bankrupt) all in the name of preserving God’s government.   Is God going to dwell in any of these places or are they going to become defunct wrecks of human ambition?  

Who among any of the leaders and ministers can say that they are fulfilling the roll of an apostle when Jesus Christ Himself said that “whoever of you would be great must be a servant”?   That those who exalt themselves will be abased?    That the greatest will be the least in the Kingdom.   What constitutes the office of Apostle?  One who is sent forth.   Not one who sits in their edifices of glorification to themselves and their organizations.   Or, by merchandising the brethren to pay for trips abroad and not preaching the name of Jesus Christ does not equate with being sent forth.   The apostle John sat in a cave on an island in the middle of nowhere.   The glory he received was the Revelation of the coming of the Lord and also a vision of heaven.   John’s writings are in every Bible that has circled the world.   Are the writings of any of these groups as popular as the Bible?   The example of all the apostles were not that of setting themselves up on pillars, but of poverty, rejection and sometimes dying as martyrs for their faith.    So what constitutes David Pack claiming to be an apostle?     Is he healing people by the hundreds?   Is he performing miracles?    The way he departed from Global was less then honorable.   The membership is not blind, they are aware of what happened when Global split.  The same with Gerald Flurry.   He is not “that Prophet”.    Even Jews know that that title is reserved for the Messiah himself.

I’m not saying that any leader, organization, or person has to be perfect.  But seriously there is one small word that has been forgotten over the years.  Its HUMILITY.   Hey, I’m not claiming to be perfect.  I’m a poor, broke person who is a sinner just like everyone else.     I’m not putting my 2 cents in here because I think I’m better than anyone else.   The reason for this letter is too many people have been hurt for too long in the name of “the Church of God”.    Taking God’s name in vain isn’t just cursing.  It’s usurping God’s name and God’s word to fulfill your own ambitions, no matter how many scriptures you use to support your position.   If you hurt people by lying, cheating, stealing, in God’s name you are breaking the commandment of loving your neighbor.   Taking titles that you don’t deserve is receiving your reward now.  

In conclusion, I just ask any minister or member who reads this to ask themselves what are the fruits God is looking for?   Buildings, magazines, booklets, or are they, love, peace, mercy, kindness, justice?

Reread the New Testament and for once, listen to what it really says.

Sincerely,

A Lowly Nobody

Tom Munson Comments About His Letter To David C Pack

I wrote that letter in September of 2000. I must give Dave Pack some of the credit for the fact that I no longer hold on to what was then sincerely held beliefs. One benefit from my experiences with Pack is that my children have been spared having to be raised in a fear inducing religion. They are happy, intelligent, law abiding, caring individuals who have empathy for others. I am proud of them!

I have never in my life encountered someone as despicable as Pack. Hopefully never will again. He takes sincere people and uses them up, and spits them out, without a shred of concern about how he destroys peoples lives. I feel sorry for those he has convinced to liquidate their savings and pull big triggers and send it all in to him. He is all about money, always has been, always will be. Money appears to be his God.

It is very telling that he demands that his contributors have absolutely no say in how he spends their money. I would bet that it is safe to say that he still uses only a fraction of third tithe he collects from trusting contributors in a manner that they would approve of!

I have since recovered from my interactions with him, and rarely give him much thought. I am sure he thinks of me a hundred times more than I ever think of him. Looking at his web site I see he mentions me without naming me, and tries to defame me through innuendo. He apparently can't help himself. He is too egotistical.

I see how he has declared himself an Apostle, and see the failed prophesy that he made last fall. He can add false Apostle and false prophet to his resume now! I wonder what entertaining wackiness his mind will come up with next?

Thomas Munson