What the Current Churches of God Are Really Like

from the Naked Pastor blog

Rod Meredith and Ron Weinland Are Exactly Alike When It Comes To Treating Members Like Dirt

Ron Weinland has written another missive from his prison cell, dictated to his Second Witness wife, Laura.

In that letter Weinland talks about how his god has been "cleansing" his church from the filthy apostate members that seem to be part of it.  Scores of members have left Weinland's cult since he went to prison leading Laura and Audra take control.  People can only take so much abuse from these morons till they finally wake up and leave.  Of course the mentally deranged Weinland's claim this is all the doing of their god. 

Rod Meredith does the exact same thing.  He too thinks his group is the ONLY true repository of truth active in this age.  His god is also cleansing the Living Church of God of all its filthy apostate members.  Weinland calls his apostates "harmful, profane and polluting." Meredith also calls his apostates harmful, divisive and profane.

Ever since the Church of God was formed under Herbert Armstrong, the membership have been looked upon with scorn.  Never have they been able to do anything right.  God is always pissed at them for something.  Whenever things spiral out of control and members start voicing concerns, its leaders, Armstrong, Meredith, Weinland and others immediately lash out at members blaming THEM for all the problems.  Of course it is Satan that is causing them to be such "harmful, profane, and polluting" elements in the church.

For about the past three years now, the Church has been living through a very specific prophesied time of the sixth period of 1,260 days in the count to Christ’s return following the Apostasy upon the Church. This period is about the “measuring of the temple” covered in the beginning of Revelation 11.

Like Weinland, Meredith too claims that there are "feigning" members in his group's midst.  That's when the weapon of "Laodicean" is hurled at them.  There can never be any stronger epithet in Armstrongism than to use this against someone. It scares people to death, causing them to think they have lost their salvation and will never make it to Petra.

For some reason the various COG leaders seem to think their personalty cults are "temples."  They assume they are "temples" of God, but their track record proves they are anything but!

This time for the “measuring of the temple” is about a final great cleansing of that temple, as harmful, profaning, and polluting elements are being removed from it. Some of what began to be removed early on and is still taking place to a much smaller degree is the removal from the environs of the Church of those who feign (pretend – falsely live) that they have been part of the temple. This time is also about many within the Church who have been yielding themselves to more fully measure up to their placement in the temple of God. These begotten individuals are cleansing themselves as they work to more fully “dress and keep” what God has placed before them.

Armstrongism, along with Meredithism, Flurryism, Packism, Kubikism have continually claimed the church is in its final year/s.  Strong pushes have to be made to get their message out to the world.  Of course with most of these guys Satan is an mighty advisory who grows stronger as the world comes to a crashing end.  However, that is not true with the cult of Weinland.  They think that the bogey-man they call Satan is being made weak and impotent.  As Weinland grows more powerful as he reaches his release date, his satan is growing weaker and weaker.

Within this time of measuring the temple, and now in this final Year of Dedication, month by month the Church is being made stronger and Satan weaker. In this time of the Church being made stronger and of being prepared for what lies ahead in the next few years, as well as being prepared for Christ’s coming, Satan’s head is beginning to be bruised. Not only is God increasingly diminishing Satan’s power, but also He is preparing to have him completely removed from the presence of mankind for the next 1,100 years. When that time has passed Satan will then be released for a short time in order to meet his destruction – the final bruising of his head.

This adversarial spirit being knows that his time is short and he is striking out at God’s Church in whatever ways he can, but due to the Church being so strengthened spiritually, he is simply eating more and more dust. Yet this knowledge should sober all of us to focus even more so on putting God first in our lives and working earnestly to more fully dedicate our lives to Him and His way of life. God and Jesus Christ have granted us this most awesome opportunity to excel in that quest in the remaining time of this important and exceedingly blessed and special Year of Dedication.

If a Church of God member were really a follower of the Jesus they claim to follow they would know that their battle has been fought for them and that they can rest from that wearisome struggle.  They need not live in the constant state of fear that the Church of God imposes upon them.