What Happens When A Person Decides To Leave A Church of God?

One of the biggest challenges Church of God members have when they start making the decision to exit from whichever group they are in are the ramifications of what those actions will cause, to them personally and those they have been surrounded by for many years.

Stories abound on the internet of people who have bravely stepped forwarded and freed themselves from Armstrongism. They made the decision knowing that it would rip family ties and church ties apart.

For those in Flurryism, those church ties will immediately be broken because the church directly tells members to break all ties with family or friends who no longer attend PCG. Grandparents will turn their backs on grandchildren, parents will turn their backs on their own children. It is not the traditional "marking" that Herbert Armstrong created, but something even more devious as it is used as a method of extreme control.

Others who have left may also have been employees of various COG's who have seen the inner workings of their employers.  Some have even been ordained and held high positions.

Regardless of one's position in the various groups, the decision to leave is one fraught with loads of costs and promises. The good thing is that the promises override the costs.  Freedom is a powerful motivator and it has nothing to do with a person turning their back on God as some love to label those who have left as doing.

Below is an excerpt from Kevin Denne's blog where he has a post describing he and his wife's (David C Pack's daughter) decision to "jump off the cliff into the abyss" as they left the Restored Church of God. The joy of freedom trumps!

June 17, 2016. 

D-Day in the life of Jennifer and Kevin Denee. It was a turning point, the biggest single moment in our lives. A day where we were saying goodbye to our jobs, but also our careers, to our friends, but also our family, to our community and even our church. Really, we were departing from everything we had ever known. We jumped off the cliff into the abyss, and hoped for the best.

Though we had our nerves, June 17 was not as difficult as we had expected. By that point, all the machinery was moving, the snowball was rolling down the hill and gaining speed. We walked out that door, walked off the compound and never looked back.

How did we do it? What gave us the strength to make such a dramatic change in our lives?

See the full story here on Kevin's public blog:  Storm the Beach

HWA Had No IDEA What the Future Would Bring

Ambassador College Correpsondance Course Lesson 10, 1956

submitted by SHT

God Is Watching You And How You Dress

Philadelphia Church of God will do anything they can to take any focus people might have off of Jesus and place that focus upon works in order to gain salvation. Salvation has always been conditional in Armstrongism as members were constantly being told they had to be doing something in order to appease that wrathful god just waiting to wipe them out.  Who could have ever imagined a god so pissy that it gets angry over a suit and tie or a dress down to the ankles?

Of course, this all boils down to one important topic in Armstrongism, government.  In reality, this actually has nothing to do with anything godly but perverted control tactics of corrupt men. Never forget that god is watching and will be intensely looking at your thoughts and motives behind what you wear!

In the 1970s, God’s Church began adopting the standards of society. Today, standards in society have dramatically fallen—especially since Mr. Armstrong died and God cast down Satan (Revelation 12:9, 12). This means we must emphasize even more what we wear, as well as when and why. Our clothing standards reflect our submission to God and His government (Hebrews 13:17). 

Different attire is needed for the Sabbath, formal events, casual visiting, manual labor and active pursuits; all have their proper place and time (Ecclesiastes 3:1). God is watching us. He knows our thoughts and motives (Psalm 33:13-15; Hebrews 4:12). 

Do we really want to be in God’s Kingdom? We all answer “Yes,” but as Mr. Armstrong pointed to in his article, THE WAY WE DRESS COULD KEEP US OUT OF GOD’S FAMILY (Matthew 22:11-14). The Laodiceans face this dreadful fate (Obadiah 3-16; 2 Peter 2:20-22; Hebrews 10:26). 

God requires us to raise our standards to match His regal Philadelphia standard. Mr. Flurry writes, “You and I, of all people, must uphold the standard of God’s throne, spiritually! If we are baptized members in God’s Church, we have the Holy Spirit, and we must show the world, as much as we possibly can, how things will soon be around God’s throne on Earth!” (The New Throne of David). 

The charge God has set before us is not impossible, for with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). 

Looking at this subject spiritually will inspire and motivate us to raise our personal standards in pursuit of God and His regal example.

Taking a Break From the Mere 85 Years Of Wild World of God Antics and Mistaken Views

If there is any topic the Churches of God never understood and still either don't or refuse to acknowledge, it is the concept of Deep Time.  It is beyond ludicrous to believe that humans are the center of all things.  Sure, the Bible starts with a wiz bang creation of seven days which never actually happened and by chapter four,the first humans have screwed up and the four of them, Adam, Eve, Seth and Cain are left to go out and be fruitful and all that.  By the end of the Chapter 9, all flesh but a few worth souls have been eradicated by the flood and by Chapter 11 the crazy humans are at it again and have to be confused of language and sent on their ways. Critcal Scholarship considers the first 11 Chapters of Genesis to be pure mythology.  By Chapter 12 Abraham shows up and the rest is Bible "history".   All this takes place over a  few thousand years and then we get a couple thousand years of very confusing and suspect Church History to this day.

Laying aside the fairy tale of the time between "In the Beginning" and the Earth becoming tohu and bohu-ish, that pretty much sums it up.  Scientifically humans have been around .ooo4 % of all the time our one lone sun and solar system have existed. Biblically, humans have been around almost 100% of Bible Time Creation.  This of course is insane.

Now I realize that few if any here will even bother to consider the concept of Deep Time, which is reality and the folly of Bible Time as it relates to the entire human experience.  Some will scream "What does this have to do with anything!" or "Why do you bother bringing this up at all.  Or as a few have begged, "Please go start your own Blog and leave us alone." I can also hear, "I thought you gave up contributing?"   To that I simply say I change my mind from time to time. Portland Winters are cold, rainy and since I go to work in the dark, work in the dark and come home in the dark, my mind is not right  :)

And too....Understand that anything I contribute along the way is not meant to convince or change minds.  It is merely to let those who have stepped out of Church of God boxes to know they are not alone and there be few, I suppose, who actually fit into this category.  

In talking to a close friend still involved in the Churches of God, I am assured that any number of members have joined the Earth is really flat believers.  That's about as pathetic as it gets but I am also assured that conspiracy theories and Republican Politics have infected many of the Churches and Donald Trump can do no wrong. The man is to politics and the fascinating reality of personality disorders as Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Bob Thiel  and Ron Weinland are to Religion.   Moving right along....  I thank myself everyday to be out of that mess and actually enjoying what I do now.

Three personal favorites.  14.5 Billion Year old Chondrite (Stoney) meteorites that spent most of their time orbiting in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter but now are MINE!  lol.  They are the oldest thing a human being can touch and existed before or as the earth formed and before Thea crashed obliquely into the Earth giving us our tilt and whose debris coalesced into our moon. These existed before any life arouse on the planet.  The one in the middle was a $20 find in a rock shop where the owner had taken it in from an estate sale not actually knowing what it was. When I spotted it, I invested the $20 and took it to be Certified.  It now has a history of being another 14.5 Billion Year Old Meteorite from a NW Africa Fall and revalued at $800.  So, yes, I have actually found a meteorite...on a kiddies rock shelf in Portland.

A small  piece of a much larger Iron/Nickel Meteorite , also one of my babies, from the core of a shattered asteroid. The polishing of both pieces was a mental health week project. Also a remnant of Deep time at 4.5 Billion.  Of course the Universe we inhabit comes in at 14.5 Billion but that's even deeper time. 

Anyway, Deep Time should give us pause and humble even the most twice blessed, "And yes brethren, I am an Apostle" or "Presiding Evangelists" who posture their shallow understanding  about everything in the Splits, Schisms, Splinters and Slivers still around from the Wildworld of God days. 

I'll save the 15 Million year old  5" Megaladon  Teeth for another annoying reminder of geological and paleontological realities as compared to Biblical  mythologies  taken way literally to be the actual explanation of Origins and Deep Time.

Those views belonged to the Dark and Middle Ages.

Ambassador College Correspondence Course: "This Is God Speakiing..." Was this Truthful?

Today, Continuing with writings on the Ambassador College Correspondence Course, I want to talk about lesson 8. It is titled, not so subliminally, "This Is God Speaking". 

The following are untruths - read - things attributed to God that did not happen - in this writing which is being attributed directly to God. These statements were said in the 1963 edition. 

1. I come to announce the imminent arrival. (This was 55 years ago. Nothing was imminent.) 

2. It is at your very door! (It was not.) 

3. Quick and determined action MUST BE TAKEN if you are to ESCAPE! (There was nothing to escape.) 

4. At the peril of losing your life, listen attentively. (No Armageddon would occur in 55 years.) 

5. My great final intervention is poised and beginning to occur.  (It has not happened.) 

6. I am giving you personally every warning...so that you may escape (Personally, none of this applied to the 1963 adult.) 

7. I give YOU NOW a CLEAR WARNING PICTURE of the TERRIBLE DISRUPTION JUST AHEAD (It wasn't.)

This was doomsday apocalyptic cult religion. This was fear religion. 

Instead of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ - and His power, accomplishments, and what is available for Christians today - the message of hope, life and truth was replaced completely by this fear-inducing series of lies.

Let's be frank about what was really going on here:

1. Fact: These were sayings attributed to God that God would say according to the Church. Truth: Herbert said these things, not God. This was presumptuous and false teaching. Challenge: Disprove this. 

2. Fact: What was said to occur was not at their very door. Truth: 55 years and counting after this date, no Armageddon. Challenge: Disprove this. 

3. Fact: Listening attentively had no bearing on anyone's life being lost whatsoever. Truth: This was a fear statement which had no bearing whatsoever on reality outside of Armstrong. Challenge: Disprove this. 

4. Fact: The Biblical "beginnings" of a great intervention have not "begun". Truth: There have been times on this planet far worse - FAR worse - than the 20th Century and today. History is the truth on this. Research. Challenge: Disprove this. 

5. Fact: No person needed any "personal" warning from Herbert Armstrong. Truth: 55 Years later, those who were warned have either lived out their lives to an old age or have died. Herbert's Warning to that generation was a lie and a false warning. Challenge: Disprove this. 

6. Fact: The Terrible Worldwide "Disruption" was not "Just ahead". Truth: The warning was not "clear". It was a lie. Challenge: Disprove this. 

The General Population was who was spoken to here in majority. Those who joined up with Herbert to his Church would be the ones who would experience tribulation in their lives, upheavals, "trials", loss of friends, loss of income, ministerial abuse, dictatorial control by overbearing ministers, loss of relationships with spouses, relatives, friends, depression, anxiety, and fear in many cases. They would be in constant fear of Petra, famine, Germans, Armageddon, they would believe that Satan had so much power and was ready to attack them in a heartbeat at the slightest let-down of zeal, and they would experience the massive upheavals of GTA, the Receivership, and The Changes of 1995.Those who did not join continued in life as if Herbert Armstrong and his propaganda never existed. 

Was the foundation Jesus Christ? Or was the foundation doomsday fear mongering religion with selfish, money-loving, greed-oriented, power-focused lies and deception? Without a doubt in the world - it was ALL LIES. This was a SCAM. This was spiritual extortion. This was deception. This was NOT the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and this was NOT truth. History proves this without a shadow of a doubt with hard, cold, factual, indisputable evidence. I'm not out to change minds. I am presenting evidence. What anyone does with it? That's on them. 

submitted by SHT