Rod Meredith Disgusted By Traditional Christian Hymns

Songs of Praise at the Royal Albert Hall. 

Living Armstrongism has posted an entry about a sermon that Rod Meredith preached in 1953.  Meredith was fresh out of the "college" headquartered in Pasadena at that time. The sermon shows that Meredith's arrogant dismissive disdain for anything outside of the Church of God was formed at an early age and is retained to this day.

Many of the traditional Christian hymns that have been passed down over the last several centuries are magnificent pieces of music praising God in ways that hymns in the Purple Hymnal never did.  Armstrongism prefers hymns that sing about a vengeful god ready to squash and kill all those who are outside the Church of God.  Armstrongism sings it hymns to a god who is a god of war, violence, pestilence, and death. These hymns are usually the ones that are sung the most and with gusto.  Anything that smacks of grace or love from God towards creation or humanity are rarely sung.  If a hymn that is in the LCG hymnal is "protestant" based you can be guarantee many words have been changed to fit Meredith's theology.

Below is summary notes take by the blog owner on the things Meredith said in his sermon.

Condemning Non-Armstrongite Hymns

Now Meredith begins to discuss hymns. Meredith talks about how disgusted he is by the hymns of the other churches because they contain ideas that contradict what HWA has said, (or as he puts it in Armstrongite jargon "lies".) 

You (the Radio COG lay members) were finishing "Praise Him" which he approved of. Must "not let paganism come into this church". Thankful and congratulates Dwight Armstrong for writing the Bible Hymnal. (13-14 minutes.)

The more he listens to other hymns the more thankful he is that Dwight Armstrong has made the hymns in question. Other hymns have been edited.

Onward Christian Soldiers speaks of a cross. This has been changed to a sword. Nothing loving about the cross. Despicable cross. Not to be "worshiped" in any form.

Singing Hymn 33. Have to watch it regarding what is sung. Meaningless poetic language. Draw me to the cross. Offended that it talks about Christ bleeding. Not the Christ preached in the Bible. (17 minutes.)

Talks of how Protestants believe in "Little Lord Jesus", in mocking tone.

Christ did not have long hair. Protestants have pagan pictures -- idols -- of Jesus. With effeminate features. Portrayed as "sickly individual." He was a "he man". Not a sissy. Not a sissy. (He uses that phrase twice very quickly.)

HWA is preaching the word of God. Soundly. Sober.

Not just telling about the person of Christ.

LCG Lied About 2013 Income Claiming It Was Up 5% When It Was Really Down 9.1%

From the current issue of Living Church News:

Estates and Accounting

In the last couple of years, God’s Work has been particularly blessed by the estate donations it has received.  Those who can make such donations are indeed leaving a lasting legacy that can do great good for those whom God calls and to whom He wants to send a message of witness.  So we are very grateful for these donations as they come. Of course, this brings some accounting challenges, as those of you familiar with generally accepted accounting principles will recognize. For instance, our auditors last year required that some estate donations that were made in 2013, but not yet received in full until 2014 or even 2015, would be booked as “income” for 2013, because they were considered to be “receivables.” As a result (as you may remember from the article accompanying the 2013 audit, published in the September-October 2014 Living Church News, p. 20), this had the effect of “overstating’’ our 2013 income. Also, some estate receipts in 2013 were held over so the funds could be spread out for additional TV stations in 2014 and 2015. This had the effect of increasing our stated 2014 expenses and creating an operating deficit for that year.  So, even though we were blessed in 2014 with about a 5 percent real increase in regular income over 2013, the auditors’ statement for 2014 will show a paper decrease in income of about 9.1 percent in total income, largely because of these generous estate donations. The good news is that the reported income decrease and operating deficit will be due largely to established accounting rules.

Update and "Thank You" from the Business Office

LCG Business Office

 A reader here writes:

Ok, wait, I'm confused. So you lied about how much tithe money you brought in in 2013 to make the numbers look good and to profess your all so important "growth" thereby "proving" that LCG is being blessed as God's one and only true church so the deficit that you are running in for 2014 isn't really as bad as it looks because 2013 wasn't really as great as you said it was? And then you "held receipts" so you could spread out TV stations in 2014 and 2015? And the takeaway is supposed to be the income is down 9.1 percent  on paper but it's really up 5 percent?! Sounds like deception to me but what do I know.

As usual, it's likely that a large number of sleeping sheep won't even question this insanity because if headquarters says it, it must be real.