Thursday, July 4, 2013

Living Church of God Hates Independence - Except When It Benefits Them




Roger Meyer from the Living Church of God does not like that people seek independence.

He writes:

July 4 is the day the United States celebrates its independence. Many nations throughout history have fought for their independence, and have set aside days to mark its attainment. Is independence and self-rule the real answer to mankind’s search for peace and happiness?
The desire to be independent—“on our own” and free from “other people telling us what to do”—is in all of us. The toddler cries, “I want to do it myself!” The teenager cannot wait to be on his own, free from parental authority.
Rod Meredith "wanted to do it by himself" when he formed the Global Church of God and then when he got smacked down for his self righteous attitude he sought Independence by jumping ship to Living Church of God.

A friend once told me that he had shared these independent sentiments as a teen. “So,” he said with a wry grin, “I joined the army!”  He found that there is nothing like a U.S. Army sergeant to let you know that he considers it his business to tell you what to do and when to do it. He will also tell you—again and again—that your status is less than that of a lowly fly larva!
That is the state of affairs that true followers of Armstrongism look to inflict upon the "unconverted" masses in their world tomorrow.  They will rule with rods of iron and fists of fury over the lowly fly larva underneath them.

Throughout history, mankind has declared its independence, time and again. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve made the mistake of believing the serpent’s lie that they could be wise, make their own decisions and chart their own course—that they did not need God to tell them what to do.
Rod Meredith declared his independence from HWA when he went into rebellious melt down that caused him to be exiled to Hawaii for a year.  Then he went into rebellion in Tuscon when he lied about Leona McNair on stage in front of close to 800 ministers. He then got sued for it and LOST while letting the WCG pay his attorney fees.  Then after the case was settled and all monies paid out he sought independence and jumped to form Global Church of God.

The ancient Israelites, having grown into a nation, were at first governed by human judges guided by God. But they decided to declare their independence, and told Samuel, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:4-5). God told Samuel to give the people what they wanted, for they had rejected Him from reigning over them (v. 7).

God gave the people of Global and Living Church of God the leader they clamored for.  They preferred Spanky over Jesus and grace.

Jesus’ well-known parable of the minas (or pounds) illustrates mankind’s stubborn streak of independence. A nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom. Before his departure, he gave his ten servants each a mina. “But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us’” (Luke 19:14). The rejected man refers to Jesus Christ, who will return as the conquering King of kings to rule over all nations of the earth.
LCG's god is a god of war, wrath and damnation.  It wants to see this god come and destroy 2/3rds of humanity.  They can't stand the God who stoops down to pick up the beaten down, the lowly, the outcasts, the disenfranchised.  LCG prefers their god to leave these scum in the mud because whatever caused them to be there in the first place was their fault.
One might expect that when Christ returns to the earth and reveals Himself to mankind, that He would be welcomed with open arms and cries of “Hallelujah!” Sadly, that will not be the case. In fact, mankind will battle Christ with all of the power it can muster. “And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His Army” (Revelation 19). And in Psalm 2:2-3: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.’” 
Independent mankind does not want anybody—including Almighty God—telling it what to do. Thankfully, as both of these accounts reveal, all the puny human efforts to fight Christ will be dashed to pieces. Every knee will bow to Christ as the King of the earth. All of mankind will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11).
Roger Meyer and Rod Meredith both refused to let anyone tell them what to do.  They left WCG to form their own splinter cult called Global Church of God.  Then when they did not get their way threw a temper tantrum, financially bled dry Global, in another rebellious action of independence to the Living Church of God - organized and partially funded by a child molester from Pasadena.

Finally, under the rule of the Kingdom of God, human beings will finally learn to trust in, rely on and depend upon Jesus Christ and God the Father. Mankind will humbly submit to God’s rule and finally, at long last, find the true happiness it has been seeking—but has never been able to find.

It's all about submission in Armstrongism.  You must submit to their god, to Rod, to the ministry, and to Herbert's memory.

Is it any wonder that LCG hates independence so much when they are losing members along with the rest of the COG's to independent thinkers!


10 comments:

Byker Bob said...

Matt 11:28-29. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

What I'd like to know is, what leader or teacher in Armstrongism actually aspires to and seeks to practice this level of spiritual development? You know, Jesus Christ living His life through them, because they are crucified with Christ? Of course all of them will attempt to do a George Orwell on this to show that they're the only ones who are truly in conformity, but, that, as the Brits would say, is rubbish.

BB

Head Usher said...

You are so so right on the money with this post!!!

HWA wanted to rebel from those seventh day people and be the big prophet head honcho el presidente big cheese alpha male himself. He didn't want to submit to them, he wanted to find other people to submit to him. He wanted his own independence, but didn't want his followers to want the same thing, so he told them it was "evil" to do what he himself had made a lifelong habit of doing, in this case I speak of exercising self-determination, not masturbation or incest. Remarkably, HWA was able to find a lot of power-hungry men who were willing to play beta to Herb's alpha.

RCM was one such man...for a while. By 1980, Herb's health was failing and Rod began challenging Herb's alpha status, so Herb reminded him who was alpha, and RCM was willing to take that from Herb, but whooo-whee-boy, he was not willing to take that from anyone else. The insult of being passed over by Herb to be the new alpha was palpable, I'm sure. From that moment, it was just a matter of time until Rod followed Herb's example of "rebelling" from "authority" and declaring his own independence. Eventually Rod did just that and formed Global because he knew that was the only way he was going to get to be the big prophet head honcho el presidente big cheese alpha male himself. Of course, nobody in Global was supposed to "rebel" from Rod's "authority" and declare their own independence.

When the board that Rod himself had created tried to reign Rod in and get him to stop acting like such a loose-cannon primadonna, they got him to pay lipservice. Rod seemed to agree that he needed to work in concert with his board, and otherwise honor the "rule of law" by respecting the by-laws of his own damn organization, instead of whimsically exercising "rule of personality." But this was just a lie. Rod knew he was the leader of a personality cult, and he was the personality. He was going to be the alpha male, and nobody was going tell him what to do, so he "rebelled" from his own "authority" by leaving his own church, exacting the perfect revenge by leaving all his debts behind with the old corporation, and shamelessly screwing his creditors. Everyone followed the cult figure, RCM, just like he knew they would.

This time Rod set up a new "authority" over those same members and called it "Living." He learned from his past mistakes, however, and this time did not create a board that would remind him of things he had said in the past. How dare they! He showed them, and how. Once again, just as back in the old days, he preached to the members that they should follow him (although not his own "evil" example). He told his followers not to rebel from his "authority." What a hypocrite! But hey, in "Living" nobody was going to challenge Rod's alpha male status, remind him of what he had said in the past, or tell him to act like the "christian" he says everyone else is supposed to act like. Everyone else is going to be his little bitch beta, or they can get the hell out.

His members claim they're learning how to be "christians" by following Rod. The only thing I don't get is how that's supposed to work, since Rod doesn't act anything like a "christian"?

Anonymous said...

While at AC in the early 70's, someone was quoted as saying that Meredith would have made a "good Nazi."

Anonymous said...

the Living Church of God - organized and partially funded by a child molester from Pasadena.

HWA organized and funded LCG? Well, yes, I guess so, figuratively speaking, but then you could equally say that he founded PCG and UCG, so what's the point?

DennisCDiehl said...

Roger Meyer wrong notes; " In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve made the mistake of believing the serpent’s lie that they could be wise, make their own decisions and chart their own course—that they did not need God to tell them what to do."

The mythology is not a story about making themselves wise or charting their own course. It was about gods knowing good from evil and living forever and not humans. Of course planting forbidden anything in the middle of anything where you would be tempted all the time was somewhat lame on the gods part. But it's a myth not history which is something COGs have never figured out.

Gen. 1 : 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Which was a lie actually because they were mortal and would die anyway someday. But in the mythology of the story, the knowledge of good and evil was for God/gods only as was living forever which is why it was put off limits for humans.

Gen 2: 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

Eve repeats the rules but adds not even touching it.

The Serpent now tells the truth of the matter.

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God KNOWS (which He did) that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Both statements by the Serpent are true. God affirms the truth of the Serpent's statments himself.

Gen 3:22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

Now humans know good and evil so the gods, the US, must not let them live forever and be like gods so they are driven out.

All this to say that the serpent, later to be called Satan, did not lie but actually was the one telling the truth of the matter. God shows the Serpent to be telling the truth by casting them away. They did not die that day either and a day is as a thousand years does not count as none one lived that long. amen

DennisCDiehl said...

Another problem with Adam and Eve evidently not having the knowledge of good and evil would not understand why disobeying was such a big deal. They didn't now any better.

what kind of a world would it be if humans were not really to have the knowledge of good and evil?

Now I agree, RCG and PCG are lead by such as have not eaten from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil as they seem to have no concept of it.

They need to be driven out of their gardens lest they take of the tree of life and live forever....no, no, no, no no!

Lucifers Kitten said...

Meredith, when he dies, his grave will stink of urine like HWA's after he died. Count on it Rod, you piece of shit!

Anonymous said...

"Is it any wonder that LCG hates independence so much when they are losing members along with the rest of the COG's to independent thinkers."

Independent thinkers? Right -- comments are moderated to prevent that!!!

Byker Bob said...

The "leaders" of most of the splinters have totally ignored, forgotten, or used their exacto knives to remove I Cor.3 from their Bibles. That entire chapter serves as testimony against personality cults. All one need do is substitute some contemporary names for Paul and Apollos, and there you have what is going on in PCG, RCG, and others. The people who have aggrandized themselves by taking on high Biblical titles have in essence forgotten the word "servants" in verse 5.

A word to the wise: It would be better and more spiritually honest to read oneself into 1 Cor. 3 rather than into Haggai or Malachi.

BB

Corky said...

To HWA and his minions, the best form of government is a monarchy, a kingly dictatorship. None of this democracy crap...because the "Kingdom" of Armstrongism was destined to rule the world.

Thankfully, that's not going to happen. There is not going to be any resurrected, immortal, Armstrongites ruling anything, much less the world.

The JW's and the Christadelphians think the same way...they are going to be resurrected and reign with Christ with a rod of iron for 1,000 years - nope, not going to happen.

The RCC tried that too and were pretty successful at it, as long as they had the power of the sword and backed up by imperial dictatorships.

Those days are long past when the Christians ruled the world - thankfully.