GCI Building New Ministry Training Center

 

Grace Communion International (former Worldwide Church of God) has been building a new building near Oklahoma City that will serve as the local church and as a Ministry Training Center.

Through God’s provision during Covid, we have also been able to start construction on a new facility! The church and Ministry Training Center near Oklahoma City is nearly complete (see attached photos). This exciting $3. 95 million joint construction effort between the Home Office, Central Region, and the local church in Oklahoma City (Surrey Hills) is nearly complete, and it will be a blessing to the local church and GCI well into the future. Members have been serving the neighborhood for years in preparation and have developed deep relationships with those they serve. Local leaders have focused their efforts on sharing the gospel through the love, hope and faith avenues, even while face-to-face meetings have not been possible. I look forward to the completion of this facility near the end of the year and seeing its impact for Christ in the years ahead.

GCI is also purchasing a building in Eugene, Oregon.

The Board also recently approved the purchase of a church facility in Eugene, Oregon, where GCI started in the early 1900s. Much has changed since that time, but this purchase will provide a secure foundation for an already thriving congregation to better reach their neighborhood and community. We hope to finish the acquisition and start some improvements before year end. 

The Home Office Operating Budget for 2022 projects income and expenses near 2021 levels at approximately $4.6 million. This does not include income and expenses processed at the Home Office for local congregations of approximately $3 million.

 

PCG: Men Are To Attend Feast While Families Stay Home If They Do Not Have Enough 2nd Tithe

 

Due to many issues during these covid years with job loss and reductions in hours, some Philadelphia Church of God families do not have enough 2nd tithe to attend the Feast. PCG expects these families to send the men while everyone else stays home. While the Flurry clan flies around in their private jet and the elite of PCG travel anywhere they want with Feast allowances, those families struggling are told to stay home while sending their men to the Feast. If they are already having financial difficulties why in hell would they take off work to attend a fake festival that is not required of them? Can the COG get any more disgusting?

Another valid reason for not attending the Feast is financial hardship. God has instituted second tithe as the way to provide the financial means to attend the Feast (Deuteronomy 14:22-23). But due to our weakened national economies, some members have found themselves with little or no work for a long period of time. If you have been out of work, and have not been able to save sufficient second tithe, then there is the possibility that you may not be able to attend the Feast this year. You may request second tithe assistance, but realize that funds are limited and not everyone who requests assistance will receive it.

Festival assistance has been a joke in the COG for decades. They either did not help at all or would give such ridiculous small amounts that people would be lucky to cover a couple meals or groceries for the week.  On top of that, they were expected to tithe on it or add it to the offerings.

Some men undergoing financial hardship have asked if they should attend the Feast without their families. There is a biblical principle to follow with regard to this issue. “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty” (Deuteronomy 16:16). If you do not have sufficient second tithe for you and your family to attend the Feast, but there are enough funds for you as the head of household, then you should plan to be at the Feast. It is not easy leaving our families behind to attend the Feast. We must look at this issue God’s way. All males are to appear before God at the Feast. If for some reason you are not planning to be at the Feast, please counsel with a minister.

The Great "I Alone. Not You"

Religion and Politics are like a swimming pool. 

All the noise is at the shallow end

Like all of the Churches of God HWA, being the True one is a given. Leaders are the true middlemen for the Deity and all the members are the chosen ones as opposed to the vast majority of humanity being the unchosen. At least until they stumble upon Bob Thiel or rather are directed to Bob by God.  

Bob Thiel is infected with the "I alone virus as well and like a Dave Pack or Gerald Flurry truly believes that "Over 99%" of humanity base their lives on false beliefs, as opposed to himself of course. 

Bob also implies that it is he alone that has studied "early Christianity and the Bible honestly."

 This is all classic Little Big Man arrogance and ego-centric tale weaving.  Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry also believe the same things about their own versions of their imagined truths. Dave and Gerald lower the NT bar of "he that is greatest among you, let him be your servant" and qualify as abusive Religionists. Dr. Thiel just seems mistaken about his "I only" views and needs to be seen as one who can see ahead prophetically what others can also and merely perceive by reading the news for themselves.  Somehow being one with special and otherworldly insights is important to Bob. 

That said and evidently, all those outside of the Continuing Church of God are merely, like synthetic vitamins, cheap knock offs and their Christian faith is both fake and of no nutritional value. In fact, they will probably get spiritual cancer from it all unless they switch to his Natural and Continuing Church of God and himself as the only middleman in all of Christianity approved by the Deity. 

Fake vitamins, false religion, many swallow both

I Alone, Not You, says....

"Synthetic vitamins are a lot like false religion. False religion DOES NOT BRING salvation, despite what people like Pope Francis have indicated.

Because of tradition, family influence, and/or social pressures, most people (over 99%) have a faith (religious, atheistic, or agnostic) that is based upon false belief.

Ignoring eastern faiths which do not even claim Jesus, let’s simply state that those who have studied early Christianity and the Bible honestly realize that what is practiced by the Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox is in massive contradiction to the “faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). The same can also be said of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Messianic Jews, Seventh-day Adventists, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).

The reality is those in those religions tend to have a false understanding of salvation and do not understand God’s plan. The truth about the early Christian church and what happened to it can be known (see Continuing History of the Church of God). Where the most faithful Christian church is can also be determined (see Where is the True Christian Church Today?).

,,,Most WILL NOT WORSHIP GOD IN TRUTH, but instead cling to falsehoods and false traditions. Many use Jesus’ name, but He says He will say to many that He does not know them.

Like those who swallow synthetic vitamins, nearly all take false beliefs into their hearts and minds all the time. They hope, despite the truth, that salvation will come from faiths built upon falsehood.

Consuming large amounts of synthetic vitamins can increase the risk of cancer and other diseases. Being a consumer of false religion does not lead to salvation in this age."

Making the Feast Go Viral in 2021

 

It is Feast of Tabernacles time in COGland right now and people are heading out in all directions to celebrate the best Feast ever! In COG speak, this is a foretaste of a millennial kingdom where everyone will dwell together in peace and harmony. But, this is the Church of God after all, and  in 2021 the church does not dwell together in peace and harmony.

The church today is splint into so many irrelevant factions that they make the splits of Protestantism look halfway sane. Those fine folk at Church of God Network are trying to make the Feast a unified event. In the minds of some COG members this is perfectly fine to them. They will most likely be in a Feast location area that has several groups meeting in various sites. These people happily jump from group to group as they meet up with old friends and pick the speakers they want to listen to.

There are many COG leaders who despise the Feast hopping that goes on and they forbid their members from doing this. Those that are meeting in the same resort and might even be in neighboring rooms are told to not speak to or associate with those poor deceived Laodiceans. 

Dwelling together as one happy family and being unified in spirit in the Church of God is a pipe dream that will never happen when men like Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, and Gerald Flurry are wrecking havoc as they bastardize the word of God to fit their deluded endeavors.

The only time the Church of God will ever be viral is if another tragedy happens and then it will fade into the nothingness it currently dwells when a different news story takes up the screen. In its present alliteration it will NEVER be viral.

Commercial Break: A Possible Problem With the 6000 Year Plan of God?

Fudge Bob Square Pants notes:

"...the creation of Adam or his departure from Eden was around 3983 BC."

...therefore might I suggest...

3983 BCE + 2021 CE = 6004

This would suggest the 6000 year plan of God for man is  possibly over now and prophetically "Are we possibly 4 years into the Millennium and didn't know it?"

A possible problem with the 6000 year plan of God in North America.

How old are the Clovis sites in North America?

While Clovis sites are found throughout North America, the technology only lasted for a brief period of time. The dates of Clovis vary from region to region. In the American west, Clovis sites range in age from 13,400-12,800 calendar years ago BP , and in the east, from 12,800-12,500 BP.

East Wenatchee, Washington Clovis points in situ

 Closer to Biblical home base...

JERICHO ISRAEL

Jericho Israel challenges the commonly held belief among scholars and historians that the oldest civilizations in the world belong to Egypt and Mesopotamia. Excavations over the last 100 years have produced evidence of habitation off and on since the Mesolithic Age. Archaeologists date excavated remains anywhere from 9,000 B.C. to 7,500 B.C., making Jericho Israel the oldest city in the world, and, arguably, the world's oldest civilization.

May I suggest I'm just sayin'?