LCG Fast: Will It Actually "...clean us up and scrub us out, spiritually..."

Rod Meredith has a letter out, Cry Out and Seek God, that attempts to justify his church-wide fast for the end of this month.  After citing numerous Old Testament men who claim they fasted in order to get right with their God, Meredith has this to say.

Brethren, I have now been full time in the Work of the ministry since my graduation from Ambassador College back on June 4, 1952. After all those decades of experience and “seeing” how God has worked and is working, I tell you urgently: we now are at a time when we need to seek God just as those servants of God did in the past. We are stricken with a kind of a “malaise” that makes us lukewarm and has no doubt kept God from pouring out His Spirit upon us with a power to heal the sick, discern spirits and cast out demons which we ought to have! We need to fully realize this!

Each of us needs to beg God—on our knees—to collectively clean us up and scrub us out, spiritually, so that we may be worthy of the gifts of His Spirit just as the early New Testament Church was. Brethren, we are not asking for something “unusual.” For it is exactly what God did do with the early Church to show His power and help the world understand where He was working, so they would respond and more people would be added to the Church. He worked with them in a powerful way so His Work could grow in power at that time.

Once more it is all the membership's fault.  Meredith and no one at the Charlotte HQ is taking any responsibility for the sorry state of the LCG right now.  Meredith cannot take any responsibility because he is the most loyal man the Church has ever had in it's midst since he graduated. For 64 years now Meredith has been the most sinless leader that God has ever used.  If God has been using him for sooooooo long, and he is sooooooo sinless, then why is the church in suuuuuuuuuuch a mess now?  Why did he run off at the mouth and is now getting sued for it?

Meredith lays the blame at the membership's feet and attempts to guilt them into fasting.  If they do NOT, then the LCG ministry will NEVER witness to the world, bring in new members who will give more money for a final push. That is what it boils down to.

LCG members are physically backed up, reminiscent of HWA blaming members for Loma Armstrong's blocked colon, and need to scrub themselves clean because THEY are dirty.  Not the leadership mind you; for they are righteously clean. They are after all, Levites.

If the membership clean themselves out, scrub themselves up, and get out of their "spiritual malaise" then Rod and crew can go around healing the sick and casting out demons.  It's the members fault they cannot do that now.  You can be guaranteed that no member will be allowed to go around healing the sick and casting out demons.  If they can't even gather together for Bible Study in their own homes how will they be allowed to heal the sick and cast our demons?

Also, as many of us ought to carefully read and meditate on, even before the Spirit-led New Testament Church actually began, Jesus appointed “seventy others also” to go out across Israel and preach the Gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons. Nothing indicates these were converted men—since the Holy Spirit was not even given until the Day of Pentecost. Obviously, they were not the twelve apostles, as they were called “seventy others,” and no mention is given of the apostles. Jesus commanded these men to go out and preach the Truth, “And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’” (Luke 10:9). Later, we find, “Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.’ And He said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven’” (vv. 17–20). So they were also able to “cast out demons” in the name of Jesus Christ.

Then Meredith warns LCG members to not doubt or ridicule him or the church, because if they do, they could be struck down just like Ananias and Sepphira.  Meredith just cannot stand rebellion, just as long it is not he himself who is doing it, then its ok.

As the original Church of God—under the apostles’ faithful leadership—began to do the Work, notice how God reacted after He was forced to strike down Ananias and Sapphira for their obvious cynicism and rebellion against His leadership: “So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly.And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women” (Acts 5:11–14). Notice that it was after God began to intervene with “signs and wonders” that great numbers were added to the body of Christ, “multitudes of both men and women.”

Like Dave Pack, Meredith assumes "multitudes of men and women" will soon be added to his church.  He should learn from Dave Pack's epic failure.  It WON'T happen!

Meredith's world has been falling apart at the seams for decades.  Now it is on the verge of utter collapse and its time for him to cry out.  Of course that cant be done because the members are not doing enough or giving enough for that to happen.  They have no yielded themselves

Do you begin to realize the “signs of the times” in which we are living? Will you then join me in crying out to God so that we in this Work may be given the power of God’s Spirit as never before?

Brethren, I hope that all of you will. For, to the extent that you yield yourself to God and beseech God to send Jesus to live His life within you (Galatians 2:20), you will be part of the body that is going to do a powerful Work before the end of this age and you will be rewarded forever—as we all know—because you have been willing to “turn to God” at a critical time in human history.

How can Meredith and the LCG invite Jesus to "live his life within them" when they ignore him?  Giving him lip service on Passover and a few times a year is not letting Jesus live within them. 

It's interesting that Meredith next quotes Galatians 2:20, but very conveniently leaves out Galatians 2:19, 21.

Galatians 2:20-21The Message (MSG)

19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. 

Law keeping and peer pleasing religions is all that Armstrongism has been over the decades.  The church abandoned grace and is now paying the price.

The LCG fast will NOT accomplish a single thing other than making a large group of people hungry.

The Splits, Splinters and Slivers Business Model...

Nine Traits of Mean Churches

Thom S. Rainer

Growing Healthy Churches Together

“My church is a mean church!”

I received two emails this week from church members who made that very statement. The members are from two different churches in two different states. One of the churches belongs to a denomination; the other is non-denominational. In both cases the church members made the decision to drop out of local church life altogether.

Yes, I tried to reason with the two members. I told them that no church is perfect. If they had any doubt, I wrote, look at the two letters the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. I failed in convincing them to stay in their churches. I pray they will become active in other churches later.

I love local churches. But I have to admit, I am hearing more from long-term members who are quitting church life completely. One member wrote me, “The non-Christians I associate with are much nicer people than the members of my church.”

Ouch. That really hurt.

So, after receiving the second email, I began to assimilate all the information I could find where church members had written me about their “mean” churches. They may not have used the word “mean” specifically, but the intent was the same. I then collected characteristics of these churches, and I found nine that were common. I call these the “nine traits of mean churches.”

1. Too many decisions are made in the cloak of darkness. Only a select few members really know what’s going on. The attitude of those elitists is that the typical member doesn’t really need to know.
2. The pastor and/or staff are treated poorly. Decisions are made about them without a fair process. Complaints are often numerous and veiled. Many of these churches are known for firing pastors and/or staff with little apparent cause.
3. Power groups tenaciously hold on to their power. The power group may be a formal group such as a committee, elders, or deacons. But the group can also be informal—no official role but great informal authority. Power groups avoid and detest accountability, which leads to the next point.
4. There is lack of clear accountability for major decisions and/or expenditures. The church has no clear system in place to make certain that a few outlier members cannot accumulate great power and authority.
5. Leaders of the power groups have an acrimonious spirit. Though they may make first impressions of kindness and gentleness, the mean streak emerges if you try to cross them.
6. A number of the members see those outside of the church as “them” or “those people.” Thus the church is at odds with many in the community instead of embracing them with the love of Christ.
7. Many members have an inward focus; they view the church as a place to get their own preferences and wants fulfilled. They are the opposite of the description of church members in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul describes them as functioning members for the greater good of the body of Christ.
8. Many people in the community view these churches negatively. Those on the outside often refer to these churches as “fighting and firing churches.” The community members detect no love for them from these churches.
9. Most of the members are silent when power plays and bad decisions take place.They don’t want to stand up to the power group. They are afraid to ask questions. Their silence allows the power abuses to continue.

Are mean churches really increasing in number? My anecdotal information would indicate they are.

The Problem With James Malm

James Malm loves to picture himself as the most enlightened converted man to ever grace the Church of God.  Bob Thiel is a theological simpleton compared to Malm. He knows more than Herbert Armstrong, Rod Meredith, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry and Vic Kubik combined.  His interpretations of the Bible and prophecy is the only correct version that is possible.

James Malm is a professional Judaizer who bastardizes the law to fit his own perverted interpretations.  Like Meredith, Pack and Flurry, Malm spits upon everything Jesus taught or did. The law always trumps.

It just irritates the hell of Malm that so many people understand they are no longer bound to a bunch of rules that we set up specifically for a tribe of people centuries ago in order to separate them from the nations around them.  It irritates the hell out of Malm that those who understand the new covenant are free from the law.  Its more important to him to be found doing something than to understand that it has already been done.

Its more important for him to promote a pissed off angry god that is just itching to fry 2/3's of humanity than it is to show love.  Love has no place in the law of Malm.  The law does not produce love, nor does it produce faith.

Paul says, “If by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6). Praise the Lord, “Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

From the comments:

James Malm is just another rebel who did not pay attention in the WCG. James left the WCG in 1985 while HWA was still alive to try to think for himself. His wife got into that sacred names nonsense and divorced him for not going along with it too. James got into calendar confusion. Garbling the gospel probably brought yet another curse on him. James wants to mangle everything that HWA had taught, and then think that he himself must be someone great for messing up everything. 

Some other goofy little rebels who like to defend James Malm and his heresies do not necessarily want to go and actually submit to him in his group. They just like to do their little part to promote rebellion and heresy by claiming that one can learn the odd thing from James (emphasis on odd), but no way will they really trust him enough to actually go with the troublemaker. It seems like they want to do their own little part to help James cause confusion, division, and trouble without actually letting him cause too much trouble for themselves personally.

The most disconcerting thing with Malm is how ability to brainwash his acolytes into believing every single piece of filth that the teaches.  Just like vile Gerald Flurry and Dave Pack, Malm is brainwashing his followers to cut off all contact with family members.  How sick is that?

"Constance" (or whatever she is calling herself these days) is my mother. This along with provocations by Malm to head to Petra to prove that one is a true believer are so disconcerting. These cults are dangerous--not only for the potential Jim Jones ending or the destruction they create in families and personal finances. They create mental illness through emotional dis-regulation. After a number of years, it's like a shell of a person that repeats indoctrination a with no one home. This makes me sad and hopeless feeling. 

Malm is just as big a fraud as Bob Thiel is.  Both of these men have self-appointed themselves to the "positions" they think they have.  Both Malm and Thiel believe they are one of the two witnesses, are apostles, and are the end-time revealers of essential knowledge that God is revealing through them.

Both are liars that have never learned anything from all the previous liars they follow in the Church of God.

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