COGWA: The Young Persons Guide In Tracking Down Jesus...Oops!...Leavening

It is business as usual in the Church of God a Worldwide Association at this time of year.  The focus is still upon the physical with an emphasis upon the law.  So in that vein, COGWA has an article up for young people on how to track down leavening this time of year.

The article is geared towards 'young people" in COGWA and is written by Karen Meeker.

Have you ever wondered exactly what is wrong with leavening? Why can we eat it all year long but not during the Days of Unleavened Bread?

Here’s the reason: Sometimes God uses normal, everyday things to remind us of things that are important to Him. If you read 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 you will see that leavening is used to picture negative characteristics like wickedness (doing bad things) and malice (wanting to hurt someone). During these seven days in the spring, leaven pictures breaking God’s laws—or sin. When we hunt for leavening and throw it out before the Days of Unleavened Bread, we picture our willingness and desire to search out and remove sin from our lives. 

Tracking down leavening

To put sin out, we first have to know what it is and how to look for it. The same is true of leavening. This calls for expert detective work, and labels hold the key.

The main words to look for are: 

• Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate.

• Baking powder.

• Yeast.

These ingredients can be sneaky, hiding in things like biscuits, bread, cake, cookies, cereals, candy bars, ice cream cones, cornbread, crackers, breading on chicken nuggets, donuts, muffins, pretzels, some tortillas, pancakes and waffles. The more labels you check, the more leavening you will discover. It seems to be everywhere—just like sin. 

Even more elusive to COGWA members and the ACOG as whole, is Jesus. He is just sooooo inconvenient at times!

Round it up, eat it up or throw it out

Before the Days of Unleavened Bread begin, your family will probably try to eat up all the food containing leavening. But don’t be surprised if you’re sent out on a last-minute search party to look in spots around the house for leavening.

A good leavening tracker is always on the lookout.

The youth and adults of COGWA are spending its time looking for leavening in their lives and totally missing the One they should be following.  It is much more shocking to find a cookie in a pocket or under a car seat during Unleavened Bread time than it is to be at rest, with the assurance of forgiven sins, in the very One the church claims to follow.    

A good Christian is already safe and sound in the assurance of Jesus, not in the practice of removing leavening.

COGWA on Leavening: Brethren, We Know You Are Too Stupid To Understand Things, So Let Us Mansplain It For You Once Again

The Armstrong version of the Churches of God has been going on close to 85 years since Herbert Armstrong started his splinter group of the Church of God 7th Day. For 85 years now the ministry of the church has been lecturing the members on all kinds of topics. For 85 years those topics have  never wavered into new territory leading members to think for themselves. For 85 years now AOCG ministers still believe they need to tell members how to do things.

That continues on today with Church of God a Worldwide Association, in their latest article by Cecil Maranville telling members what is leavened and what is not. COGWA members are NOT to rely upon Jewish understandings or of those of other COG groups or members.  Only the COGWA way is the right way.

In preparing for the Days of Unleavened Bread, people often ask what constitutes the “leaven” that they need to remove from their property. God commands, “You shall remove leaven from your houses” (Exodus 12:15), but Scripture does not define “leaven.”

Rather than produce a list of items that “must go” or “can stay,” the Church has taught the scriptural instruction along with the principles contained therein, so that individuals would be able to exercise good judgment. We advise people to be cautious about accepting the wide variety of opinions, whether from Jewish traditions or even from within the Church of God community.

He continues on, telling members they don't need to throw out their toothpaste, bottled water, pet food and litter, medicines, etc.  Whew!  Good to know.

We look to history to learn what leaven was used in the past, and we look at modern baking practices for guidance. According to Smith’s Bible Dictionary, “Various substances were known to have fermenting qualities; but the ordinary leaven consisted of a lump of old dough in a high state of fermentation, which was mixed into the mass of dough prepared for baking.” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines leaven as follows: “1a: a substance (as yeast) used to produce fermentation in dough or a liquid; especially: SOURDOUGH b: a material (as baking powder) used to produce a gas that lightens dough or batter.”

However, some of these chemicals can have other uses besides leavening. Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), for instance, can be used to control pH balance and for other medical issues. In such items as medicines, salt and antacids, it is commonly used as a binder, not as an agent to “puff up,” as is the case when it’s used for making bread or other baked products. Bottled water may have sodium bicarbonate added to enhance the taste and add minerals. When used in these ways, sodium bicarbonate and other such chemicals are clearly not acting as leavening agents. When chemicals that could be leavening agents—if they were used in conjunction with food—are used in other ways, they are not what God intended His people to put out to remember their affliction in Egypt.

This basic principle answers the host of questions about products that are not human food or bread/bread products: toothpaste, pet food, medicines, cat litter, salt, water, laundry detergents, antacids and fire extinguishers! None of these have to be put out. 

I remember years ago in Pasadena when some little self-righteous turd got all pissy over the fact that we had close to a 500 pounds of baking soda stored at the gym to use in the large swimming pool. He went screeching to the ministry to force us to throw it out. We had laughed at him when he originally approached us and that set him off on his one man crusade against baking soda. The big boys basically told him where he could stick it and he was NOT happy. We would park our electric service cart with a 50 lb bag of baking soda next to his car just to rub it in.

But, even now in 2019, members are still asking about beer, kefir, egg whites and brewers yeast. And, once again the ministry has to tell members what is ok and what is not. Common sense never prevails. Can you ever imagine a ACOG prohibiting beer during this time of year?  Alcohol and the ACOG go hand in hand!

Live yeast is used in making beer. Therefore, it is sometimes called “brewer’s yeast.” However, the “brewer’s yeast” that appears on a food or health product label is “dead” (inactive, unable to leaven dough). This type of brewer’s yeast offers various health benefits, and it is often used as a dietary supplement. It is sometimes added to soups and other foods as a flavoring agent. Either it was harvested from the brewing process (from which it got its name, “brewer’s yeast”) and deactivated by heat or it was cultivated as inactive yeast for commercial use. The brewer’s yeast that is a food additive or a health supplement is not leaven.

Kefir is a fermented milk drink, but it is not leavened. The whey from kefir could be used as a leavening agent—just as the active leaven in unpasteurized beer could be used to make bread. Obviously, a believer should not use either to make bread during the Days of Unleavened Bread. However, the Church has not taught believers to avoid drinking these beverages during the Days of Unleavened Bread or to put them out before the festival merely because they could be used to leaven dough. Kefir and beer are beverages, not bread.

Some people question whether using egg whites to fluff up or lighten a baking batter “breaks the spirit of the law” and whether it is a type of leaven. There are other ways of mechanically adding air to dough. Historically, the Church of God has counseled that this is not leavening. We should remember that one characteristic of yeast and other leavening agents is that they spread their puffing-up quality until they change the nature of the entire batch of dough. That is not true of air added to dough by whipping. Active leaven makes an excellent symbol for sin, which spreads through human thoughts. Paul compared active leaven to sin with the phrase “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6).

No brethren!  You do NOT have to throw out your toasters!

About toasters or toaster ovens, the Church does not teach members to throw these away every year but to do the best they can to clean them. Some members clean such appliances by carefully spraying them with water—after unplugging them, of course! They find that by the time the festival is over, the toaster has dried thoroughly and is safe to plug in again. Another method of cleaning is simply to use the hand tools many vacuum cleaners have.

They conclude the article with this, and it is sure to piss off the likes of uber-Pharisee James Malm and our self-appointed Elijah, Bwana Thiel, who demand that brethren adhere to strict forms of legalism,  How dare different people have different views on what they consider leaven and unleavend!

We should also consider the matter of personal conscience. Different believers can have different personal convictions about what constitutes leaven. We respect those convictions, even on matters about which the Church teaches differently; we do not tell people to act against their conscience. The Bible tells us that whatever we do that is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23).

In conclusion, a Christian should look to the simplicity of Scripture: Put out leaven; do not eat leaven. As described, leaven means active yeast and chemical leavening agents, as well as human food products that were made with leaven. Keep it simple—and keep the Feast.

The sad part is that COGWA is still adhering to old covenant days while ignoring the new covenant and everything Jesus exemplified.  It is more import to kill Jesus once again in some gymnasium or Masonic Lodge, where they will leave him bruised and battered till next year when they begrudgingly have to drag him out and mention his name again. 

Sermons So Incredible That They Must Be Destroyed In A Microwave!

I remember decades ago when the church got all antsy about members recording sermons.  They were afraid that those tapes would fall into the wrong hands.  Fast forward to today and that idiocy is still prevalent.  COG groups are STILL totally embarrassed by what they teach, so much so that they command members to destroy sermons from HQ. Forget about speaking the truth, lets instead hide it!  Jesus was never afraid to speak truth, but COG leaders sure are.

This is the Philadelphia Church of God:

We drove over an hour to attend a small house group to listen to recorded garbage a few times. They had CDs for sermons which they put in the microwave after it was played. I asked why and they told me that it was to destroy them so they wouldn’t fall into the “wrong” hands.