Herbert Armstrong was too embarrassed to talk about Jesus when he met with world leaders so he talked about a "strong hand from someplace".
Compare Herb to Alice Cooper and what he believes.
Then compare him to the crap of Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, and Gerald Flurry say. All of these guys are embarrassed by the dude they claim to follow and rarely talk about him.
Alice Copper knows otherwise.
As Bob Thiel and various Churches of God get their holy knickers in a knot over New Years Eve it so refreshing to live a life not tied down the legalistic baloney these buffoons dish out on a regular basis.
My favorite complainers are the same COG groups who come to Pasadena every New Years for the Rose Parade and work the grandstands as ushers, sell programs and raise money for their church funds.
Money always trumps COG teachings.
Money rocks!
Don't let the grumpies make your lives miserable for another year!
So…
Inquiring minds want to know: If the members are required to do this, why isn't the ministry? Come on boys and girls, make an effort!
Plan to Grow: The Scriptures reveal we are to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), and to receive rewards in the Kingdom, we must all be overcomers (Revelation 2 and 3). But growing and overcoming requires a plan and persistence. In Matthew 5, 6, and 7, Jesus lists qualities He desires in His disciples: humility, compassion, mercy, a desire to learn God’s way, and the ability to be a peacemaker. Paul lists the spiritual fruits that God wants to see in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22–25). Peter lists courage, knowledge, perseverance, godliness, kindness and love—unselfish outgoing concern (2 Peter 1:5–7). Write out this list and then begin to focus on a single item each week so you can develop these important qualities. Plan to grow and make the effort to be a real overcomer!
Have a profitable Sabbath, Douglas S. Winnail
What an amazing feat! 15 years of doing a television program that has gained LCG hardly any new members. Even with 30,701 guests attending their presentations over 16 years, of which probably 1/2 - 3/4 are LCG members attending these meetings to make them look full to impress the newbies, LCG has nothing to show for this great expense. The only members LCG gets any more are children of current members getting baptized or gaining new members by professional church hoppers from other COG's.
Fifteen Years of Tomorrow’s World Presentations
The Living Church of God has put a considerable investment in Tomorrow’s World Presentations over the last 15 years. Since 2006, 1,179,050 invitations have been mailed, inviting subscribers to 1,248 TWPs in 425 cities around the world. These messages have involved 121 ordained LCG ministers speaking to 30,701 guests. Hundreds of these guests have begun to attend Sabbath Services during that time.
Of those "hundreds", how many actually returned week after week, six months down the line?
As we start another year of Tomorrow’s World Presentations, please continue to pray for God’s blessing on this important aspect of the Work, in bringing live, in-person messages to prospective members who desperately need the hope that the Truth provides!
Those fun boys in Cincinnati are wanting their members to talk about their faith with others and not be ashamed of its ties to Armstrongism. They want their members to be able to practice Christian apologetics.
Christian beliefs, lifestyles and values contradict many prominent voices of the modern world. That being so, it’s easy to become defensive or insecure when we hear comments we don’t agree with or that simply mock God or our beliefs.
However, having respectful conversations about our faith with others is an important way we can live out our faith, and it is a discipline we should all try to master. So, if you are new to the apologetics world—or have never even heard of the word—let me introduce you to what it is and how it can look in everyday life!
Apologetics
The word apologetics doesn’t mean to make an apology for your faith when someone doesn’t agree with what you have to say or what you believe. Apologetics means to give a well-reasoned and graceful defense—an answer to something controversial in your conversations with someone else—in a way that makes sense to them and is relevant to their experiences. As Solomon said in the book of Proverbs, “To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!” (Proverbs 15:23, English Standard Version).
Their first step is to have members discern how "Christian" or how deep are the beliefs of the person they are talking to.
In order to practice Christian apologetics in conversations with friends, acquaintances or strangers, it’s important that we first understand the depth of another person’s beliefs before we make any kind of defense of our own. We can all do this by asking a question as simple as, “What do you mean when you say . . . ?” Of course, it might be a good time to ask a quick, silent prayer in your head for guidance as well!
In Armstrongite speak, it makes no difference really on how deep of a belief that a non-UCG person has because no matter how deep it is it is all wrong and rooted in paganism. Only enlightened UC G members carry the truth and no matter who well they guard their words, they still think themselves superior to the nonUCG person.
How many UCG members or even COG members ever seek to understand the beliefs of the Christians living around them? Those beliefs are barriers that limit them from seeing the true church that is UCG. They are part of the false church and need to move in to the light of UCG.
This question, or any question that seeks to understand someone else before we expect them to understand us, is the key to finding out what kind of barriers someone truly has towards God and Christianity. It’s the backbone of effective and meaningful conversations because for some, there are intellectual barriers to God, while others have personal barriers based on their experiences with Christianity, and that’s just not something we can assume on the surface.
The article ends with this:
The example before us
When we look at examples of apologetics in the Bible, we see writers who each understood their audiences’ cultural roots and addressed the barriers in their ideologies. For example, when writing his gospel account, Matthew used genealogy to defend the bloodline of Jesus Christ to the Jews. By contrast, Mark did not include a genealogical introduction to his gospel account in his appeal to a gentile audience.
Likewise, Luke’s writings gave an historical and orderly account of Jesus, which he backed with other eyewitness accounts, just as the Greeks did. But John wrote his gospel account and letters from a theological perspective to address Jesus’ testimonies and ideas that were circulating through his Palestinian-Jewish audience at that time.
Paul preached to citizens of Athens at the Areopagus of their “Unknown God” as the foundation of his witness testimony of Jesus Christ (Acts 17). And Jesus showed Thomas the marks on His hands from the crucifixion when Thomas could not believe based on the reports of others alone (John 20:24-29).
No matter what perspective the audience came from, we see that the ones who preached the gospel before us reached their audience where they were and made a defense for Jesus from there.
Though much of the Western worldview shares its roots in Christianity, our schools, workplaces and institutions are now predominantly secular—or non-believing by nature. So, in our spiritual conversations with others, remember to ask questions and search out the answers to people’s barriers—what it is that holds them back from believing what the Bible says is true. Turn those controversial conversations into meaningful ones.
By doing so, we can demonstrate respect towards their doubts and show love by reaching the hearts and minds of each individual, and effectively use apologetics to make a defense for our faith.
Armstrongism has never used its beliefs as a defense of its faith. It has always used its beliefs as a weapon to destroy and mock those who are outside the bounds of the church or who are atheists.
