Melvin Rhodes: Why He And COG Ministers Have Proven They Prefer Following Men Than The God They Claim To Serve

Melvin Rhodes has an interesting post about life in the fractured Churches of God (The Eclipse of the Church.)  One of his friends died recently whom he had been close to when they were both part of United Church of God (and WCG).  When the United Church of God imploded and thousands of members and 3/4 of its ministry left to form Church of God a Worldwide Association, his friendship was fractured.

Rhodes is experiencing what almost all COG members have experienced because he and the rest of the cabal plotted and schemed for over 6 months in Pasadena while still on WCG payroll.  The actions of this group of men was designed to ensure a steady income because they were soon to be terminated from the WCG.  Thousands joined up with the cabal and formed United Church of God.  They ripped families and friendships apart and it did not care.  Following the new leader, the new human organization was more important!

Rhodes writes:

I lost a good friend this week. [Todd Carey]

We worked together a long time ago.   For many years we’ve been hundreds of miles apart, but we were always able to see each other, with our wives, at our annual church conference.

That is, until the latest split took place.   He and his wife went one way and we went the other.   So, for the last few years of his life, we did not get together.

Church splits can be devastating on relationships.   Even marriages have fallen apart when partners don’t see eye to eye on church affiliation.   More than one church I know of teaches that its followers should have nothing to do with people in other church organizations, even when they are family.

It’s ironic when you consider that Jesus Christ said:  “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another” (John 13:35).

Then Rhodes has this to say:

Unfortunately, churches are not immune from selfish ambition, differences over administration or doctrinal disagreement, three of the primary causes of splits.

The selfish ambitions of the upper echelon UCG leaders are what caused the disruption of thousands of lives, ripping families apart, destroying marriages, and caused numerous suicides.

True Christians will always strive to fulfill the words of Jesus Christ; even as others in their midst will deliberately cause division, believing that God is on their side.

True Christian would  NEVER have lorded themselves over the members, enforcing man-made rules and laws that Jesus never expected or required.

One of the root causes of division is that people have a tendency to follow men.   The Apostle Paul wrote about this in I Corinthians where some were following Apollos, some Peter and some Paul.   As Paul said elsewhere, we should only follow one man and that man is Jesus Christ.   That means we should all live in accordance with His words.   What a novel idea!!!

Just WHEN has the ministry of the Church of God EVER followed Jesus Christ?  They don't even acknowledge him other than continue to break his body each Passover, where they leave him broken and bloody on some school gym floor or Masonic Lodge till the following year.

The law always trumps everything about Jesus.  It trumps everything he said.  It trumps everything he every implied.  It allows spiritual abusing idiots like Bob Thiel, James Malm, Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Vic Kubik, Jim Franks, Gerald Weston, and many more, to make the daily lives of church members as miserable as possible.  The church ultimately lacks joy.  It lacks freedom.  It lacks grace. Above all, it lacks mercy.

Dingy Wade Cox Falls For Another Fake News Story

Pictures of FEMA Camps

The minds of so many entrenched in Armstrongism have always gravitated towards conspiracy theories.  The more idiotic it is, the more some church members seemed to believe it.

The church has spent decades claiming that it would soon be punished for preaching the "truth once restored" because the governments of many countries would hate them for it.  Add to that, the absolute rubbish out of Meredith, Malm, Thiel, Flurry and Pack's mouths about invading armies of Germans, Chinese or Muslims, and it just compounds the problem further.

Wade Cox, who claims to have converted half of the African Continent to his LITTLE group works himself up into a lather almost daily over some perceived "evil" in the world.

This time it FEMA concentration camps.  For several years we had whack doodle on many COG related groups who was adamant that FEMA had a concentration camp built into the hillside of Glendale CA, just above Brand Park and the library.  The woman was too much of an idiot to know there was nothing there.  I have hiked those hills and know for a fact there is nothing there other than scrub brush.  This, however, never deters other idiots to jump on board and keep promoting the lie.

Foolish Wade apparently is too dumb to understand that the site he got this off of is a SATIRICAL web site.  Satire apparently is too deep for some COG ministers to understand.  Of course these are the same people that believed much of the malarkey of Herbert Armstrong as truth.

Rod Meredith Funeral Information

  

The preliminary schedule is for viewing at Forest Lawn Funeral Home from 9 am to 11 am on Sunday. The funeral home is located at 3700 Forest Lawn Drive, Matthews, NC.  

The funeral will be at Weddington High School at 1 pm on Sunday with a reception immediately following the funeral. Mr. Ames will be conducting the service.

Services on the Sabbath (May 27th) will be at 2 pm at Weddington High School: 4901 Monroe-Weddington Road, Matthews, NC, with Mr. Weston giving the sermon. 

20th Anniversary of The Painful Truth

The Painful Truth

It is hard to believe it has been 20 some years since Ed Mentell, Sr. started The Painful Truth website to document the abuses in the Church of God.  The PT is the "granddaddy" of all of the sites critical of Armstrongism and the Church of God.  From the days of the WCG upheavals in 1996 to the present day upheavals that STILL occupy the church, the PT has been there holding leaders accountable.

Of the many subjects the site covers, one of the more popular has been, You might have grown up in the Worldwide Church of God if...

The PT also has the complete series of Ambassador Reports which were published in Pasadena and covered the shenanigans of church and Ambassador College leaders for many years.

You can still read Herbert Armstrong's letter to Rod Meredith here.

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG 
Tucson, March 14, 1980
President and Pastor 

Dear Rod: 

Your letters of February 1 and March 7 show, I am sorry to say, that either you still cannot understand WHY the living Head of God's Church, Jesus Christ, had you sent to Hawaii, or you are unwilling to see or admit--and I prefer to believe the former. There is no point in telling you this letter is written in LOVE for YOU -- for you ought to know that without my saying it. But out of love for you, and DESIRE to see you back as PART OF GOD'S TEAM, working in full co-operation and right attitude with the rest of us; I shall take time and space to make it clear once for all this time. I have tried to hold the mirror up for you to see yourself as others see you. But still you don't see in that mirror the same YOU that others see--or are unwilling--I hope not the latter. But now I must be SURE!

I shall speak plainly, candidly. If this letter hurts, I quote from a letter the Apostle Paul sent to brethren at Corinth: ''For though I made you angry with a letter, I do not repent ... for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance, for ye were made sorry after a godly, manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorry worketh repentance to salvation ... but the sorrow of the world worketh death.'' (11 Cor. 7:8-10)....

John Kiesz (Church of God 7 Day) wrote a letter about his early days with Herbert Armstrong.  You can read that here,  John Kiesz Recalls Herbert W Armstrong’s Early Ministry.

The Painful Truth also has kept the HWA incest story at the forefront of the Church of God movement.  Various COG cult leaders, like Bob Thiel, have tried to disprove the story and have always failed.

There is also The Painful Truth Blog which carries more up to date events and allows readers to comment.

Stop by and check out the checkered history of the Church of God movement.  It is not a pretty story which is at times disturbing, appalling and unbelievable, yet it is a story we have all experienced and of which much more are still trapped in.

Long may it continue to disturb the sensibilities of the Church of God!