Wednesday, December 20, 2017

COGWA on determining what is a counterfeit church



A rational person would think that Church of God groups would be really cautious about writing articles on how to determine what is a counterfeit church, especially considering how fractured the Church of God movement is, with every single one of the groups preaching a different message.  But no, they have not learned to keep their mouths shut.  Every single one of them, in their self-righteous glory, think they have the inside track and everyone else is wrong, even other COG's.

The latest entry in the "one true church" schtick is Church of God a Worldwide Association (COGWA).  Clyde Kilough has an article in the latest Discern magazine, How to Spot a Counterfeit Church.
What would you do, how would you feel, if you discovered your religion was counterfeit? Most of us have been “given” our religion by our parents, or maybe we “shopped” for one we liked. Is it possible that, in all innocence, we possess a fake belief?
According to Jesus, it is!
When asked about signs of His coming and “the end of the age,” the first thing He said was, “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:3-5).
Watch out, He warned—there are a lot of religious scammers!
Actually, it was already happening in His day, and several times He took religious leaders to task for leading people astray. How did it happen? By substituting fraudulent traditions for the truth of God!
Matthew 15:6-9 records Jesus’ hot words for them: “Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
The Pharisees’ tactics are still common practice—because they still work!
We see this at work today in the likes of James Malm and his Wiccan sidekick Constance who envisions herself as a discerner of the Word, in Dave Pack, Bob Thiel, Gerald Flurry, and most of the other church leaders in the Church of God today.  Pharisaical laws, damaging legalism and outright lies make these leaders the epitome of the Pharisaical tactics mentioned above.
The apostle Paul stood amazed at how fast it happened. “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7).
How serious was this? He twice repeated this in verses 8-9: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”
Paul further cautioned, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
And in perhaps the strongest words possible, Paul warned, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
For well over 80 years now, the Church of God has been filled with deceitful workers and hundreds of false apostles and prophets.  Every single one of them liars and deceivers of the brethren.  The sad part is that they all put on the air of righteousness and members fall for their vile schtick and get wrapped up in their lies.  Look at the followers of Thiel, Malm, Pack, Flurry and the others.  Given the track record of upstart false prophets in the  COG, these men should never have a single follower, but they do.  They try to transform themselves into workers of righteousness, yet they are agents of darkness.   This includes Clyde Kilough and his fellow workers of darkness. He and his team of men threw a tantrum and split off from United Church of God, preaching their own version of what they claim is the truth. They imagined themselves as teachers and holders of the keys to the kingdom, so much so that they formed their own group and yet they preach a different message than any of the other COG's.

Kilough then writes this:
Look at the thousands of denominations in the world today representing differing interpretations of what Christ did and said. Isn’t that a problem? Why doesn’t that raise red flags and make people question the authenticity of their beliefs?
Look at the hundreds and hundreds of Churches of God in the world today, representing differing interpretations of what Christ did and said when they decide to mention him. Yet, the majority of COG members do not see this as a problem.  Somehow they all see themselves as unified by some illogical thread. They never stop to examine the authenticity of what they claim to believe.
Some say all roads lead to heaven, and we’ll end up in the same place. True or false? This was the same Jesus who promised, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). If you believe that, it raises some hard questions:
  • If He promised it would never die, then wouldn’t the Church Jesus built be out there somewhere today? Is there a true Church?
Most Church of God leaders and members have never really studied church history.  The only version of it they know is what their respective church leader has spoon feed them as the "authentic" version. Any real student of church history knows the fascinating story of the growth of Christianity and the church through the centuries.  It has never died out nor did it need to be restored after being lost by an impotent god for 1,900 years.
  • He didn’t say, “I will build My churches” (plural). Would Christ claim that they are all His, when the Bible says, “For God is not the author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33)?
If Kilough and other church members truly believe that "God is not the author of confusion" then why are there 500-700 different splinter Churches of God?  Why did they contribute to the mess by starting yet another group? Is that not confusion?

  • Many have said, “All these churches can’t be wrong!” But can they all be right?
Surely all of the Churches of God cannot be wrong?  Which one is right?  Every single one of them picks and chooses which teachings they want to keep and thus setting them apart from the next COG.
  • If there are counterfeit churches, ministers and teachings, how can one know which is genuine?
Which COG leader is right? Thiel?  Malm? Pack? Kubik? FLurry?  Are they genuine or are they liars and deceivers of the brethren?
A search for truth leads us directly to another key issue of discerning counterfeit doctrines.
Toward the end of the first century the apostle John was waging a battle for the truth against forces that were intent on changing the doctrines and practices of the Church. Enemies were not trying to create a new religion. They were trying to change the Church Christ had built into something else.
Every time a Church of God splits off this is exactly what has happened.They pick and choose which doctrines they want to keep and reshape the church into what they want it to be.
John clearly identified one of their main targets—the commandments. “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4). In verse 6 he continued, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”
No Church of God leader or member has ever kept the 10 Commandments or any other other commandments.  It is an impossibility.  To say they do is to deliberately lie.  They cannot be humanly all kept.  The Jesus they all claim to follow has said over and over that they cannot do it and won't do it.
How did He walk? He kept the 10 Commandments, which have been in effect since the creation of man! John was confirming Christ’s teaching, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love. … You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:10, 14).
Kilough, Malm, Thiel and all the others have never kept the commandments.  When they deny the one they claim to follow and place the law above that ever so inconvenient dude they are not "abiding in My love."
People can say they “abide in Christ,” but do they keep the commandments? That’s the test, isn’t it? If you are looking for the Church Jesus built, start looking for those who are striving to walk as He walked. Sad to say, “commandment-keeping” immediately crosses a huge number off the list.
Seriously? Are we to look at the hundreds and hundreds of self-appointed prophets and leaders as followers of a "Jesus" they know nothing about?  The 10 commandments are no more a "test" than the Sabbath is. Because these men all deny the Christ they claim to follow, they are immediately crossed off the list.
What is the truth? Are the many nonbiblical doctrines and practices we see today—indisputably and easily proven to have been brought into Christianity long after Christ established it—a sign of genuine or counterfeit Christianity?
What is the truth in the COG? Every group has hundreds and hundreds of nonbiblical doctrines and practices. The Philadelphia Church of God is different than United Church of God, which is different than the Restored Church of God, which is different than Church of God International, which is different than Intercontential Church of God, which is different than COGWA, which is different than "continuing" Church of God.

Where does truth reside now? The Churches of God love to mock the different divisions in Christianity and even call them "so-called" Christians, yet their own church is so fractured now that it is irrelevant with none of them doing any worthwhile work that is changing lives.

Where are the fruits of the spirit?  Where are the good works? Where is Jesus?

Ron Weinland Struggling to Keep His Rapidly Dwindling Flock Submissive



Ever since Ron Weinland's epic 2008 prophetic failure, he has been unable to keep his flock together.  Then while Weinland spent 3 1/2 years in prison it imploded even faster with his loony wife and daughter masquerading as evangelists.  Members refused to submit to the bumbling duo. Now, in 2017 after being released from prison, the failed prophet is having to deal with even more widespread issues in his little group.

So I marvel there are still people out there cheating in tithing, cheating God, lying to God, who don't send in holy day offerings. It's not about the money coming in; it's about the fact that we don't obey God. I hope we have the picture! Slowly but surely all those are being brought to the surface, saying sayonara, auf wiedersehen, dos vedanya, because you do not belong here. If you can lie to God like that you do not belong here. Then how many other things are hidden, that people think are hidden that are not really hidden? God knows and sees everything in our lives and either we are repenting of sin and fighting every day of our lives and placing things where they need to be in the sense of value and appreciation of what God is offering us or we're not. 
Apparently, his god is striking down his members who don't tithe, cheat his god, lie to his god and don't send in their holy day offerings.  The magical god of Armstrongism strikes again!
And God knows. God will bring every, every single one of those things to the surface. No one will get by. Even if it just means death. See, I may not know and learn all of them, but God will take care of it, of those that aren't brought to the surface and aren't dealt with. You just die, not live into the Millennium. It's as simple as that.
Weinerdude also has to deal with his member's bickering and grumbling at each other and at the ministry.
You know, I'm amazed at why people can't get along in God's Church! And this goes on and on and on from area to area to area – it just pops up too often. What excuse do we have that we can't swallow our pride and call it what it is and just shut our mouths if we have to and don't worry about how we think we're treated by someone else? Just swallow the pride and get along! That's the most important thing. We don't have to have things our way! Because that's where conflict comes from. It's when we want things to be our way. "And when it's not my way I get my feelings hurt! Boo hoo hoo, someone isn't treating me fair!" I'm sorry, but I'm sick of this stuff in God's Church. I am sick, sick, sick of it! Because that isn't in God's Church! That isn't the mind of God that He's given to us. That's not the spirit of God that reacts to people in that way. 
I'll just tell you, almost every area of the Church of God right now that we travel to there's friction. Sometimes under the surface a little bit here and there, but there's still friction where people are struggling to get along. And I think, why? Who is it I can't get along with? Who is it that can't get along with me? I'm a nice guy. I'm kidding! Well, I try to be. I try to be just. I try to be right before God. I try to treat people fairly and when correction is needed I give the correction, too, with the hope and desire that people will change. It’s shepherding, loving God's people. Why can't we love God's people? Who of God's people do we not really love? Because if we're not treating them right we don't love them. Do we get the picture? If we're not treating somebody right in God's Church we don't love them, if we want them to do certain things a certain way to make us happier. 
People have been leaving his cult in droves and a lot of it was over his ordaining his loony wife and money laundering daughter to the rank of evangelist and for promoting his wife to a "two witnesses" status.  Can you imagine these two crackpots preaching in the streets of Jerusalem?
They think it's because of women being ordained. I think of one that just comes to mind because some got upset. I think of some in Cincinnati, some leadership at the Church even at that particular time became jealous of specific individuals that were ordained, and those who were being worked with more and more. Jealousy because they didn't love them like they should have in the first place that began to bring something to the surface. It wasn't that they could say, "Oh, I don't think women should be ordained" and be righteous, and they're going to leave God's Church now because “such and such” shouldn't have been ordained and women shouldn't be ordained and whatever it might be. Something will come along to try people. That's the way it's always been in God's Church. Amazing! 

"We Shall Not All Die" , But So Far We All Have and Most Likely Will.

It's very difficult for humans to say the words "He/she/they died." What a marvelous number of euphemisms for death we have. We pass on, croak, kick the bucket, go home, expire, succumb, leave, meet our maker, go to our reward, get wasted, check out, eternally rest, are a goner, end, bite the dust, get liquidated, terminated and annihilated. We give up the ghost, make the change, transition, get mertilized, go to to the other side, fall asleep, get taken, rubbed and snuffed out. We depart, transcend and buy the farm. We are feeling no pain, lose the race, cash in, cross Jordan and go with the angels. We get done in, translate into glory, return to the dust, wither away, give up, take the long sleep and a dirt bath. It can be curtains, a dropped body, six feet under and out of our misery. We find everlasting peace, new lives the great beyond, ride into the sunset and that's all we wrote. But in plain fact, we are dead.

I was told when I got glasses "you are deteriorating at the appropriate rate Dennis."  Great....

All of religion is predicated on the fact that we have to go somewhere after death. "We" being everything from our spirit and energy to our mind and ethereal body. We like it better if there is a good place for the nice ones of us and a bad one for the jerks. Although the idea of reincarnation lends itself to allowing everyone their spot after having learned lessons along the way many times over.

Western Churches spend your lifetime convincing you that their understanding is THE only understanding of what happens when we die and usually provide you with a program whereby you can leave your worldly goods, you know the ones they told you in sermons not to store up on, to them. I have seen many a family outside the particular denomination of the one who "went home" have to face the fact that all the goodies went to their church and not their family.

Let's make a rule that if a person gives a church their stuff after they die, and sons or daughters protest, the Church has to give it back to the family. This will help the church to practice what they preach and give that which actually belongs to a family to the family it actually belongs to. Beware of Churches who have a program for you to "honor God with your death," or "Your will, a way for you to continue giving after you die," program. The money given to the Church will be mis-spent and it would be more satisfying to have your kids mis-spend it than your church. Amen

It's funny how if you ask someone about quantum physics or how life works, it's such an unknowable mystery in the final analysis, at least for now. But ask a religious person about what happens after death, and pfffft...that's easy. We go to heaven, they go to hell, we get reincarnated often, we are deader than dead, we wait in the grave until Jesus returns, we rise in a physical body, we rise in a spiritual "body", we this and that as if they knew and the truth is that they don't. Westerners would never question the Bible as knowing what happens after death even though one can find all of the above mentioned in one form or another in the pages of the Bible.

Quantum physics now speculates we all simply live in a simulation for only supreme programmer knows why.

Like Humans, the Biblical understanding of death evolved into what we see in the Evangelical Christian Church today.

The Catholic Church has gotten good at adding new places the dead go, such as unsaved babies, or the unborn or the not quite saved types, but it's all a crap shoot. Because we can come up with questions like "well what kind of God would throw an innocent child in hell for not knowing.....", we have to figure out new holding pens for such categories of people. They are not real mind you, but they help us cope.

Missionaries rush to save the lost before they die while admitting, in some circles that if they left them ignorant, a loving God would automatically translate them into heaven upon death. I mean, they can't help it they were born in New Guinea or the Great Plains.

 Geronimo was asked by the General who hunted him down and imprisoned him in Florida if he wanted to go to heaven when he died? Geronimo asked if the General was also going to be there? "Why of course," came the response met by as simple "Then no" by Geronimo. Hell would indeed be for many having to spend eternity with those that drove them nuts in this life!

I mean, do you really want to spend eternity closer than ever to all the people in your church, including the same pastor day and night forever! I think not! Heaven just might seem like one big endless potluck of boring people who are still pretending to be what they never were back on earth. It would be an eternal obligatory Thanksgiving or Christmas with the relatives that most never wanted to attend anyway!

Nope, if I get to go to heaven, please God, let there be quiet places where no one can find me and those I want to be around. You know, kinda like we can do down here if we choose.

I saw a lot of death as a minister. Sometimes it was after the fact long enough to just bury somone in a nice funeral service in a nice setting. Sometimes I found myself standing at the edge of a river while they searched for a lost one or taken to a morgue to roll the dead body of a child or friend out of a drawer for a private family look. I Even dug a grave once on a farm while we waited for family to arrive for a quick same day funeral and burial. I've picked up the cemains, ugh what a word, of people I had just talked to a few days earlier, now reduced to about 10 lbs. of gray sand. I have transported the neatly wrapped body of a newborn to another city in the backseat of my car, as the couple could not afford for the funeral home to do it.

Once I had visited a mother, just socially, who spent much of the visit recounting the talents, skills, and beauty of daughter, which is normal when a parent is well pleased. I specifically remember thinking on the way home "how would she cope if she lost that daughter, who was the center of all the mom lived for? When I got home, the phone was ringing and I was returning to the hospital where this young woman had just been brought fatally run down at 18 miscrossing a street. Tough stuff. I lost a nephew to a train that could not get his attention while he was wearing his walkman. I lost my two brother in laws suddenly in life.

The point seems to live in the moment, staying both out of the past of our lives, where we tend to store our anger and hurt, and also the future, where we store our anxiety and all that is unknowable. No one knows what happens at death. Just to say that is to stir the pot of religious surety. I know, no one but YOU knows  because you read it somewhere.

There are some great stories of past lives recalled by some with uncanny detail. Hmmm, could be.

Even the Bible gives the account of the blind man who caused the disciples to ask if the man's blindness was the fault of his parents or HIS own sin, "that he was BORN blind." We at least have to admit there is room there to question that if one is born blind due to sin, the sin must have taken place in a previous life. No other explanation is possible. Some in the early church believed in reincarnation. General George Patton was famous for his knowing where he had fought as a Roman Soldier in a previous life, while fighting again during WWII in Europe. He wasn't kidding and no one made fun of him either.

There are stories of those who have left their bodies in near death experiences only to return and recount the experience in detail that only a, well "Ghost" could give. They got recalled to finish their lives evidently and everyone who experiences such a thing never again fears death. Well worth the experience if only for that little peace of mind, I'd say.

Stories abound of those who were given organ transplants donated by those who have died, only to mysteriously acquire the deceased's taste in foods, books or familiarity with topics never studied in their own lives. This would give credence to the idea tha cellular memory can be passed on. Whoa..pretty inspiring stuff and not just a little bit spooky.

Crass religions make big bucks off the masses who need to purchase their places in the Kingdom of God. I remember once shoveling a drive buried in feet of snow for a woman who then paid me in Catholic indulgences. They gave me a full 90 days less in Purgatory. I told her I was Presbyterian. She smiled and closed the door. I almost shoved the snow back into the drive.

I'm glad that so many can be so sure they know what happens at death. Some just know because they read it in the Bible never thinking that even that book is just another attempt by humans to figure this out. Some just know it's true because it's "true for me." Some feel that it just has to be true or what's the point. One cannot just die for nothing after learning all this stuff in life and having all these experiences.

When one of "our own" i.e. Church related person, dies, devil or demon, we hardly know what to say. We tend to say nice things about those we somewhat agree with or at least did not hurt us or others along the way, such as Mr. Ian Boyne recently. We always know what to say when those we revile for their narcissism and pain inflicted pass.  Mostly we say nothing and let others handle that publically. But quietly, we mostly just wonder what will it be like when we get to that time or how that person might have felt in their final realizations that it was over.

It is the search that is interesting in life, not the finding.  Those who think they have found it all , neatly packaged and easy to understand if they are "called" or "chosen" are cruising on pious convictions with marginal information at best.  Nothing is as easy as or clear as Church of God types make it seem....






Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Grumpy COG False Prophet Upset Over Philadelphia PA's Mummers Parade



Bobby Downer is back with his prophetic bloomers all in a twist today over the New Years Day Mummers Parade in Philadelphia PA. Bitter Bob Thiel says all of the men. women and children who dress in costumes to have fun on a cold winter day are all worshippers of Saturnalia.  I'm pretty sure Almost-ordained Bob imagines them sacrificing those children on fires afterwards.
Of course, those who have looked into the whole ‘Christmas/New Years’ season realize that Jesus was not born on December 25th and that the dates and many observances were modifications from pagan practices. Mummers parades seem to be an offshoot of that. 
Those who have looked into the Bible realize that neither Saturnalia, Mummers, Mithras, or Christmas observances are biblical. Because of their connections to paganism and distortions to God’s plan as revealed in His Holy Days, they should not be kept by Christians. 
Early Christians did not even celebrate birthdays of any type, and certainly none to honor sun-gods or other pagan deities.
Almost-arrested Bob also had this to say about Christmas the Church of God Feast of Tabernacles:
In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.
I have seen more raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking and gift giving at the Feast of Tabernacles than I have ever seen people in my neighborhood or at church do.  Having worked ministerial dining rooms in Pasadena and other Feast sites I can testify that the COG ministry LOVES its alcohol! 

Elijah Amos Thiel needs to get this own house in order before he starts condemning others for perceived imperfections.  Lying that God has set him apart from all other COG's to start a new church that has the only inside track to salvation or Petra, is far worse than some playful fun on New Years Day.


Jamaica Gleaner: The Miracle of Ian Boyne


Ian and his family

"Boyne was excited to share the discovery that ‘Profile’ may possibly have the distinction of being the second longest programme with a single host in the world."
"With ‘Profile’, Boyne emphasises that especially in today’s crazy and chaotic society where selfishness and self serving individuals are almost the norm, people need an outlet where they can see the other side. Where they can witness stories of individuals who are philanthropic; who beat their demons; who rise about their circumstance and are winners in their own right and chosen field of endeavour. This is why after three decades, ‘Profile” still has such immense appeal."




Editorial | The Miracle Of Ian Boyne
Published:Tuesday | December 19, 2017 | 12:02 AM

A week ago, having emerged from an induced coma and appearing to be on the mend from a heart attack, Ian Boyne, a man of deep religious faith, declared himself to be a miracle. It was for the fact that he was alive and looking forward to return to his job as a journalist.
Mr Boyne, 60, died yesterday. Some people might claim that he spoke prematurely. But from the perspective of a secularist, he may, indeed, have been a miracle - in the sense of being a man of deep and varied intellectual interests, with a capacity for sustained and concentrated effort which, for more than 40 years, he shared with Jamaicans through his journalism.
There were two critical elements to Ian Boyne's journalism, especially in the columns he wrote for The Sunday Gleaner and the discussion programmes he hosted on television: he was laden with facts and, generally, was open to debate. He may have been intellectually vain, as some will no doubt argue, but his larger aim was to stimulate discourse, hoping it would redound to the benefit of Jamaica.
Ian Boyne was not partisan, but ideological, in the sense that he brought to his journalism a specific, and, in many respects, a distinct perspective. At one level, he is a product of the times in which he came of age: the ideological period of the 1970s, when the Left and the Right contended for primacy.
Of a fashion, he was of the Left. His pronouncements were empathetic to a state that intervened on behalf of its most vulnerable citizens, and against the notion that the market had all the best answers to the organisation of an economy. So, in recent years, he often inveighed against the Washington Consensus.
But his was an ideology that wasn't the outcome merely of rational, secular empiricism. Mr Boyne, too, was a Christian scholar and pastor who ran a church. His viewpoints were shaped as much by the Bible as by the writings of the philosophers, humanists, ethicists, foreign-policy analysts, and others he so readily imbibed and often quoted in his columns, which often elicited playful ribbing from follow columnist Gordon Robinson, who conferred on his the sobriquet, 'Booklist Boyne'.
Further down in the article this was said:

...he, for 30 years, produced a weekly television programme in which he interviewed Jamaicans who had mostly risen from poverty or other adversity to positions of prominence and power. Critics will perhaps claim that some of these interviews were filled with saccharine sentimentality, but there can be little doubt that they were mostly uplifting and offered hope.
As a theologian whose entry in biblical disquisition started in Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God and the fragmentations therefrom, Ian Boyne was willing to debate the worth and value of Christianity - and other religions - in a secular world and to put these on show in his television, programme, 'Religious Hardtalk'.
Mr Boyne had a passion for Jamaican music of the 1960s and '70s and could hold erudite arguments about the artistes of the day, even as he vehemently decried the nihilism of the lyrics of many of today's dancehall performers, who, he believed, contributed to the coarsening of Jamaican society.
Another side of Ian Boyne is that he was mostly self-taught. He would have been a fine subject of one his 'Profile' interviews, to explore the basis of his catholic interests and from whence the will, or miracle, for their achievement.
It is a rare thing for a follower of a person with ties to Armstrongism to receive such public praise.  No minister or church leader has ever been "willing to debate the worth of and value of Christianity - and other religions..."   I wish I had been able to have more contact with Ian than I did.