Wednesday, January 31, 2018

The Church of God Flat Earth Society



Trouble has been brewing in some of the extreme sacred name groups as the wander further outside the bounds of reality and into sheer craziness.  It seems there is a growing number who actually believe the earth is a flat disk.  While these former people and the former Armstrongites who joined with them should know better, they have allowed themselves to be swayed by more nutty leaders.

The Church of God's Chief Pharisee, James Malm, is having to deal with this issue in a big way as his sidekick, Constance, has now jumped over to the flat earth society. Constance has a deeply troubled past with Armstrongism and Wicca. According to family members, she was deeply involved in Wicca for quite some time and then suddenly saw the "light" and jumped into James Malm's personality cult where she immediately became a prophetess, writing articles for Pharisee Malm.  Like most entrenched in the dark side of Armstrongism and its worship of the law, Constance destroyed her relationship with her family, egged on by Malm and others.  When family members tried to intervene, Malm lashed out recently, claiming that Satan was attacking them because they teach "the truth."

Constance was a writer for Malm's website of deception, The Shining Light, for quite some time.  While he devoted himself to twisting scripture to fit his fanatical devotion to the law, as he waded through the books of the Bible interpreting every scripture, Constance was writing letters and articles as filler for his site.  She got so good at it that Pharisee Malm let many of her articles be posted without editing.  She was his Pharisaical soul mate.

Recently Pharisee Malm said he had to go in and edit some of Constance's articles. Then the great apostasy happened, she became a flat-earther.

The Chief Pharisee was so shocked by her actions that he had to make a public statement essentially publicly marking her and disfellowshipping her from the True Church of the Law.

31 Jan:   It is my very sad duty to inform the brethren that my very dear friend Constance Lynn Belanger has been seduced and has left the faith.  At the beginning of 2017 Constance retired from writing for this site and during the course of that year departed from the faith under the influence of a certain person. 
Later in the year Constance wrote me with some links and asked me for my opinion on a flat earth.  I thought that this was an honest question and dutifully looked this up and then sent her my opinion.
She got all upset at my answer and wrote accusing me of treating her like a child and of attacking her.  It was obvious that she had swallowed this and had been trying to get me to accept it as well.  Then when I did not do so, she justified her refusing to look at the evidence and rejecting me, by accusing me of something that had never entered my mind. I had always considered her a beloved friend and I found this quite a shock.
This kind of cop out is so common in today’s COG’s: when people cannot refute something they do not want to accept; they just accuse the messenger of attacking them and tune out, cleaving to their error.
Constance had fully swallowed the Flat Earth error [hence my recent post on the subject].  She then chose to disassociate herself from me because I did not agree, taking the view that nothing I say can be believed because I do not accept the “truth” that the earth is flat.
Then she wrote insisting that I remove “her” articles.
I responded by reminding her that:
  • She had given me her very rough drafts and told me to do whatever I wanted with them and I had spent endless hours working on them to bring them up to a minimum level for use.  In fact the articles now bear very little resemblance to the first drafts she gave me,
  • Further I had actually paid her several thousand dollars for the articles
I am not about to trash several thousand dollars paid to her and several hundreds of hours of my own work on something that actually belongs to me,  just to satisfy her fit of pique.
Constance is now coming out against the “gap theory” of creation week and other issues. 
The understanding of a gap between the initial creation of the universe and the creation week on the earth did not originate with Herbert Armstrong and has been around for a very long time in the church of God and also in Protestantism.  
I had wanted to avoid making this public, but the need to inform the brethren of the facts has now become a priority.  Please be aware that Constance is no longer associated with me, that she is a flat earth believer and that she is now teaching contrary to sound doctrine.
Are there truly any normal people in Armstrongism? Why are people attracted such nuttiness? They spend their lives jumping from one nutty leader to the next, letting themselves get wrapped up in the latest conspiracy theory or outrageous claim.




What Killers Of COG Members Will Be Wearing

"...the time will come when those that wear crosses 
will persecute those that do not."

For decades the Worldwide Church of God had many different scenarios wildly disseminated in its ranks by various false prophets like Gerald Waterhouse, Rod Meredith, and Dean Blackwell.  The men invented so many end-time scenarios that none of them could ever keep track of just how things were supposed to be happening.  From the 3-4 hour sermons of mindless drivel by Gerald Waterhouse, the red-faced-vein-popping sermons by of Rod Meredith, and the flailing hands and Bible-waving of Almost-arrested, but not-arrested Bob Thiel, it is a steady diet of end-time persecution scenarios.

The church loved to trot out Foxe's Book of Martyrs and Hislop's Two Babylons as proof of how things would be.  COG members would be persecuted just like the Waldenses and the people portrayed in the two books above.  From being boiled alive in vats of hot oil to having hooks rip members bodies apart, it was all delicious material to keep the gullible sheep in line.

Today, we got another dose of fake news from Almost-arrested, but not-arrested Bob Thiel and the intense persecution he is experiencing and will soon experience.

The bitter self-appointed prophet is all twitterpated over German and Spanish surveillance laws.


"Germany’s Constitutional Court is reviewing the legality of the government’s surveillance capabilities, after several journalists and rights activists lodged a complaint arguing that the law allows for the “virtually unrestricted” monitoring of foreign reporters. …"
"Spain’s government has gotten into the business of regulating speech with predictably awful results. An early adopter of Blues Lives Matter-esque policies, Spain went full police state, passing a law making it a crime to show “disrespect” to law enforcement officers."
So just how does this tie into our Bitter self-appointed prophet?
"...let me add here that the infamous Spanish Inquisition blocked legitimate speech and involved torture to get sources of information. Now they have laws using legal threats, like fines, in Germany."
The Spanish Inquisition! Who knew!  And guess who this is all aimed towards....
Although you might think that if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear from surveillance or speech restrictions, consider that many in the governments of the West consider that those not supporting homosexual marriages, etc. are extremist. I also saw someone once on a documentary that stated that people who believed in the millennium could not be trusted and should be considered as potential terrorists. The fact that we in the Continuing Church of Godwould be considered pacifists, does not change the fact that, since we hold to millennial and other biblical views, we can be improperly classified as extremist by government employees with various agendas. Having biblical views are becoming more problematic in the world (see ZH: Germany has killed freedom of speech and expects the rest of the EU to do the same). Canada does not want certain biblical verses to even be quoted (watch Canadian censoring of the Bible).
Elijah Thiel then says this:
Furthermore, perhaps I should add that certain Catholic writings support that the time will come when those that wear crosses will persecute those that do not. Actually, that is one of the items covered in our latest video:



The biggest persecutors of the improperly named "continuing" Church of God will be everyone who wears a cross or god forbid who owns a folk art Guatemalan cross. Granny down the street and the young housewife next door will soon be rampaging in the Quad-Cities of California, seeking to attack Almost arrested, but not arrested Thiel

SaveSave

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Going Political In Church of God International


I received an email today and a link to Bill Watson's latest sermon on the Church of God International site.  CGI likes to pride its self in how different it is from Mark Armstrong's Intercontinental Church of God.

It is like it is ripped right out of the WND news rag and Breitbart.  For some reason, several of the COG's think everything that is on the WND site is 100% accurate.  It is not much different that Almost arrested, but not arrested Bob Thiel's rantings.  The world is going to hell and its only hope is following the COGI.

Many are wondering just what is going on with all the political drama. It seems the mainstream media (MSM) isn’t reporting hardly any of it unless it contains some kind of sexual misconduct or salacious event that often does nothing but distract from the real issues of interest and concern.
Also, one can’t help but wonder why the FBI continues to investigate Russian collusion with the present administration for over a year now with no actual or substantive proof, yet Uranium One, an unverified dossier paid for by the opposition party with Russian connections, and a pay-for-play money trail leading to the Clinton Foundation, goes unreported by the MSM and is not investigated by the law enforcement agencies. What’s wrong with this picture? What are we missing?

Monday, January 29, 2018

NPR All Things Considered January 29, 2018

For Heaven's Gate Podcast Host, Cult Tragedy Hits Close to Home


Twenty years ago, in 1997, a bizarre story hit the national news: Thirty-nine people had killed themselves by drinking poison in a mansion near San Diego. All 39 were dressed identically and had the same haircuts — and they were all members of the Heaven's Gate cult.
In their videotaped farewell messages, they insisted their suicides were not a final death; they were simply shedding their earthly bodies in order to meet a UFO they believed was trailing the Hale-Bopp comet — a UFO that would transport them to the kingdom of heaven.
Their story had a powerful impact on Glynn Washington, host of WNYC's Snap Judgment. "I couldn't stop watching," he says. "I was staring ... because it, in a lot of ways, it felt like that was something that my group could have done."
When Washington was growing up in Michigan in the 1970s and '80s, his family belonged to a different apocalyptic faith organization called the Worldwide Church of God. Washington recognized a lot of what he saw in that 1997 news story, and now he brings that recognition to Heaven's Gate, his 10-episode podcast about the cult and its members.

.......Continue

And to be continued:





Sunday, January 28, 2018

Gerald Weston Gets Down on Depravity, Moral Degradation and Lampooning




There is one thing that the Church of God has always been good at and that is finding something wrong about everything.  The world is going to hell as depravity takes over. Everything is soooooo evil that the church almost demands that WWIII happened and burn to a crisp all of the evil people outside the church.

Rarely, if ever, do you see any of the splinter groups celebrate the beauty in the world, the goodness and kindness that flow though human beings, and all of the other amazing and delightful things to celebrate.

The eyes of the church have been so focused on vengeance, thanks to adhering only to the law, that they totally miss out on the beauty and delightful things that happen when grace and mercy are given precedence.

That is why every single letter that the Living Church of God sends out is always filled with consistent depressing news or referencing some major trauma or catastrophe.

The need for many people to have a mighty warrior god ready to strike down all adversaries and depraved people is strong in the church.  So many members feel act like they are wounded martyrs for the truth and they want to see those not following the enlightened way get punished. They have had to suffer for the truth and they are not too happy.

The only breath of grace, at times, has been Doug Winnail who seems to find goodness in people.  But if you have been paying attention to LCG's website, Winnail has been conspicuously absent in posting since before the Feast.  Ever since Hermann Goering, Rod McNair was brought back to Charlotte, grace and mercy are seldom found.
I think we all know that our world is in trouble. Stock markets around the world may be up for the time being, people in some countries may have full wallets and purses, but this does not indicate all is well. Precious few people are alive today who remember the “Roaring ’20s” of the last century, but we might do well to remember that those days were followed by the Great Depression and World War II. 
We are living in a world filled with conflicts, moral degradation, and in our Western World, a lack of awareness of God. God is lampooned at every turn, and those who stand up for morality and godly values are equally despised and put down. Where this is leading, is not good! God will not put up with this depravity forever! “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:7-10). 
Dear brethren and co-workers, let us work while it is day, for “the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). Jesus referred to His own Work, but if He is living within us, it must surely be a message for us to take to heart. The Work He refers to is “the works of Him who sent Me….” God calls us to do a Work. It is difficult to see in every detail how events will play out, but free speech is under assault, and there is this sobering prediction: “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord God, ‘That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it’” (Amos 8:11-12). Is this a warning for us? 
Let us work the Work of God while we have time. And thank you for your prayers and generous support. I look forward to that day when we will stand together before the throne of God and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servants!” May that day come quickly! 
Sincerely, in Christ’s service,

Gerald E. Weston