This my friends is the face of the amazing Philadelphia Church of God.
Isn't the work of God great!
from the:
from the:
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Would You Want COG Kings and Priests To Be Your Teacher In The Millennium?
Can you imagine anything more dismal than what Richard Ames describes below? Given the track record of the leadership of LCG and most Church of God's today, who in their right mind would want to be "trained" by these people"? Never has there been such a sour, grumpy, mean spirited group of self-appointed men in COG history as what we have today. They kill any desire people have for a millennial kingdom to come given how they treat people.
Just how many Churches of God's do we need proclaiming they are teaching "true knowledge"? Every single one of them has their own unique interpretation of how things should be. They are not unified as a church and most certainly are not unified on doctrines and understanding of God's word or on Jesus. Who can anyone trust any more? Will all of these different COG's have their own "colleges" in the world tomorrow where they teach their own specific doctrines? If so, what a hellish millennium is instore for humanity!
True Wisdom and Knowledge
Though the world around us wants to confuse and deceive us with false knowledge, we must maintain a teachable heart. Why? We are learning in this life the lessons that will help us serve as kings and priests in the Millennium. In that day, we will be teaching the whole world true knowledge. “For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers” (Isaiah 30:19–20).
Yes, all of God’s people who are faithful will be teachers in tomorrow’s world. We’ll be those kings and priests. During the Millennium, today’s firstfruits will play an active role in helping people stay on the right path of true knowledge. “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (v. 21). The responsibility of a priest is to intercede for someone else, but also to teach. And we’re learning that way of life so we can teach it to others. We learn painful lessons so that we can help those who are also experiencing painful lessons.
But what about religious knowledge? So many religions of this world are not even convincing counterfeits of God’s true religion. In them, we find violence, deception, and the acceptance of evil as if it were good. Most of the world’s religion today is under the sway of the “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4)—Satan the devil. Yet the presence of a lie does not mean there is no truth. True religion gives us the missing dimension in knowledge. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). What do we do with that truth? “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed’” (v. 31). We must abide in the truth! What is that truth? “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). We must not become contaminated by the world’s values, and we must practice outflowing concern for others.
If we have received true knowledge, we will be found acting on it, not just knowing it. Christianity is a way of life. In fact, that’s what Christianity was called before it was called Christianity: “But when Felix heard these things, having more accurate knowledge of the Way, he adjourned the proceedings” (Acts 24:22). The Apostle Paul wrote, “But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets” (Acts 24:14). That phrase, “the Way,” occurs three other times in Acts (9:2; 19:9, 23).
Friday, May 22, 2020
Church of God International: Covid-19 Ain’t That Bad!
CGI: Covid-19 Ain’t That Bad!
The Church of God International’s follow-up to Pastor Bill Watson’s Coronavirus Report is out. The International News (Summer 2020 edition) features an article on its front page by Mike James entitled “No Need to Panic Over This Pandemic.” In fairness to Mr. James, this offering is better sourced and more thoughtful than his colleague’s presentation on the subject. Unfortunately, his attempt to provide some historical perspective on humankind’s experiences with pandemics ends up trying to minimize the seriousness of our current predicament.
In the article, Mr. James provides a brief summary of several historical pandemics and provides estimates of the mortality rates associated with them. However, the information he presents about them seems to contradict his own conclusion that “this present virus is not as significant” as the events he references in the piece.
James begins with the Peloponnesian War and estimates that between 75-100,000 Athenians lost their lives in that pandemic. He tells us that approximately five million souls perished during the 115-year period of the Antonine Plague. James also references the horrific death tolls experienced during successive episodes of bubonic plague, possibly numbering 100-200 million people. He also references the number of Native American deaths attributed to smallpox and measles over the five-hundred-year history of European settlement in the Americas. James informs us that one or two million souls perished over one-hundred years of successive cholera pandemics. He talks about as many as 150,000 folks dying as a consequence of yellow fever in the waning years of the 19th Century. After referencing another 15 million deaths due to bubonic plague in the 19th and 20th Centuries, he proceeds to discuss several flu pandemics. Mr. James informs us that about 360,000 died because of the Russian flu, 50-100 million because of the Spanish flu, one million attributed to Asian flu and 200,000 worldwide deaths because of swine flu. Finally, Mr. James reminds us that as many as 35 million souls have perished over the last fifty years because of AIDS.
Historical perspective is good. We must not ever forget what a horrible toll these diseases have exacted upon humanity in times past. Looking back reminds us of the terrible cost of these pandemics and the fact that we must be ever vigilant about the threats which they pose to our existence as a species. These past sorrows, however, should NEVER be used to minimize the threat that we are facing in the present.
Over the last seven months, we have lost over 330,000 souls to this pandemic worldwide (as of 5/22/2020) and over 95,000 in the United States. How do those numbers compare with the statistics that Mr. James cites in his article? The facts speak for themselves and do not require any further commentary from me (or anyone else).
Miller Jones
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Is Jesus Currently Living In Oregon and Ready To Curse This Blog?
We have Dave Pack claiming Jesus is returning to Wadsworth to work with him to plan Jesus' 3rd coming. We have Gerald Flurry who dug up a dirty old rock in Oregan, deified it, and now proclaims it will be the throne Jesus will return to sit upon. We have Bob Thiel, the self-appointed lapsed Catholic, that has attached so many self appointed titles to his name that no one even knows what or who he is anymore. He was so messed up that even Rod Meredith had to kick him out of the church. There is Ron Weinland, the first COG leader to ever be a convicted felon, proclaiming he and his looney wife are the two witless witnesses. Every day that goes by, there seems to be a new crackpot on the scene.
That brings us to Jon Brisby, the leader of the Church of God The Eternal, based out of Oregon. He took over the reins of COGE when Raymond Cole died. Brisby is young and charismatic and that has delighted some and offended others.
Reading his bio on Amazon is as mythical as Bob Thiel's fantastical imaginations about himself.
About Jon W. Brisby
Jon W. Brisby was raised in the Worldwide Church of God by parents, Don & Pat Brisby, who joined the church in 1959. In 1968, Don was recruited by Herbert Armstrong to work at the Ambassador College Press in Pasadena, CA because of his expertise in commercial color printing. That is how the Brisby family, much like the Beverly Hillbillies, made it to southern California from middle Tennessee. Jon attended the church's private grade school on the Ambassador College campus (Imperial Schools) from 1968-1972. His own experience as a child "at headquarters"--as well as that of his parents during this significant time period for the church--would leave lasting impressions.
After 1972, the family moved first to Denver, CO, then to Houston, TX, and finally made it back to Nashville, TN, where Jon graduated public high school in 1980. He chose to attend one year at Ambassador College in 1980-81 as a freshman, but did not return for a second year due to his personal conviction that things were not right in the church, even though he still held a personal respect for Mr. Herbert Armstrong.
He joined Church of God, The Eternal (a remnant fellowship) in 1981 at age nineteen, was baptized the same year, and finally found a spiritual home through the influence of Mr. Raymond C. Cole. It was Raymond Cole who showed him by example how a minister can both defend divinely-revealed truth and at the same time show loving and patient support to individual members. Without that particular personal example, it is very likely that Jon would have chosen to reject his "parents' religion" as a young adult, even as most of his childhood friends in the WCG had already done.
Jon married at age 24, had two sons, finished his business degree with the University of the State of New York, had a successful career in corporate middle management, and remained a devoted lay-member of the church. It was in 1996 that Raymond Cole pressed Jon to become a minister, a course that he never would have chosen of his own accord. He was ordained by Mr. Cole on the Feast of Trumpets in 1997 but did not jettison his corporate career until late 1999 when the church was in dire need of more full-time helpers. He moved his family to Eugene, Oregon that year and worked as Raymond Cole's ministerial assistant until Mr. Cole's death in 2001. Thereafter, Jon became Pastor and Director of Church of God, The Eternal, a position of service he holds to this day.
Brisby has turned out to be filled with a lot of ideas and some of them are old school Armstrongism. One of them would make Rod Meredith proud:
Church of God, The Eternal (COGE) is a small group. The lead minister is Jon W. Brisby (age 55). He has some wild ideas. A married couple came to the group from LCG a few years ago. They had been married for about 18 years. Brisby soon found out that the man had been married briefly to someone else when he was a really young man. They divorced and his ex married someone else. Anyway, this married couple of 18 plus years were instructed to split up and live separately but not get divorced. Jon Brisby told him that if his ex wife happens to die then and only then can he and his current wife live as a couple again. The couple have remodeled their home and made it into a duplex. They each live in one of the side by side units. They are allowed to go back and forth to each other's apartment for meal times but not allowed to sleep, shower or linger at each other's place. At the Feast of Tabernacles and Pentecost they were not permitted to sit together for services. This couple is in their 50's also.
There is another man, a single man around age 60. This man was also married but years ago his wife left him and married a Seventh Day Adventist. Brisby told him he must never remarry. This man said God would not allow him to marry unless his ex died. Brisby stays in total control of the dating and marriage relationships in the group. He comes off as very intensely and genuinely kind, but if he feels you cross him, then he gets an attitude and can be very arrogant.Jon Brisby sinks to a new lowWhen I posted the above story in a blog post in April of 2018, I had no idea that it is the most commented-on post on this blog. The comments range from being totally disappointed in him to those totally enthralled. Enthralled so much so that some even believe he is now the embodiment of Jesus here on earth.
Many of his devoted followers now are claiming Jesus is present within Jon and speaks through him. Jon is apparently a living walking Savior in our midst.
This has to be a major disappointment to Dave Pack, Bob Thiel, and Gerald Flurry as they and they alone think Jesus will appear to them first.
Sometimes though the comments go off the deep end and are just plain ludicrous and others are deeply entrenched in the teachings of Armstrong.
One thing though, many do not like anyone criticizing their dear leader. And that makes this blog the target for allowing criticism.
This is so much fun!
I love being cursed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)