As I write today I am listening to the singing of hymns of praise to Jesus Christ and God the Father taking place in the Reliant Stadium in Houston Texas at the Response prayer and fasting assembly organized by Texas Governor, Rick Perry, and many other concerned governmental and religious leaders. This event is one of the most inspiring Christian gatherings I have ever witnessed.
Quite different than the church I grew up in. My former church was an inwardly focused cult. The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) where most of the prayers were for the church members and "the work of the church" which was the preaching of the gospel. What was woefully lacking was outward prayer for the sins and transgressions of the nation. The concentration was on a warning to the nations, mostly Brittan and America, for their sins and the impending punishment that God was going to send upon them. We warned and preached of wars, pestilence, famine, droughts, captivity by foreign nations. We were not encouraged to pray for forgiveness of the nation just waiting for God to smite those evil "pagans." How wrong that was, what sick thinking. I no longer embrace that way of thinking about others. Grace has been extended to me in turn I extend the same toward others.
The Worldwide Church of God was not that at all, not the church of God. Jesus Christ was essentially left out and the New Covenant blasphemed. The teaching of the founder, Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), was the WCG was the only true Church of God on earth and was directly descendant from the original church of Jerusalem founded on Pentecost 31 A.D. Which was patently false on so many levels.
An assembly like the Response would have been disparaged by HWA as "pagan" or "unconverted" people gathering deceived by Satan, the god of this world that has blinded all men except those in the WCG.
The only time I can ever remember a prayer meeting during my 45 years in the WCG was when the founder and pastor general Armstrong's wife Loma Armstrong was seriously ill. One Sabbath, during services, all of the congregations around the world got on their knees in front of their chairs while the local Pastor led the congregation in prayer for Loma's healing by HWA's directive. She died a couple days later. No other prayer meetings have ever been called since then that I am aware of. There have been days for personal fasting and prayer called but not as an assembly of church members where all participated in public prayers.
Is there any precedent in the Bible for such an occasion for the Response where all of Judeo-Christian belief came together in prayer? Absolutely! The Prayer of Jesus Christ, an intercessory prayer for those who would believe in Him in coming generations found in John 17. Christ prayed for those who God had given Him and He had sent into the world as God had sent Him. Christ prayed thus, "..I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word." That includes Christians everywhere today.
In the Old Testament book of Joel, one of the minor prophets, in chapter two God gives us the solution to all of our problems. One of the themes of the Response is fasting. Joel two verse twelve has been referenced by several speakers today. 12 "Now therefore," says the Lord, Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." 13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. 14 Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him - A grain offering For the Lord your God. 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast..."
How much more effective could the WCG or splinter groups have been if we followed the example of Rick Perry, and Dr. James and Shirley Dobson, and the many other organizers and endorsers of this even. Instead the WCG spend multiple millions of dollars observing obsolete Old Testament Feasts doing nothing spiritually for the church, the community or the nation as a whole.
As I looked through the list of Honorary Co-Chairs and Endorsers of the Response I found no participants from the Worldwide Church of God, the United Church of God, the Living Church of God, the Church of God, AWA the Reformed Church of God, or any of the hundreds of WCG splinters who claim they are the "true church of God." I guess it is the Sabbath for most of them and they were busy, too busy to join in and pray an intercessory or two for their fellow citizens. I may be proven wrong later if there were some Church of God groups I listed actually linked to the streaming video and participating in that way...but for some reason, I doubt it, and I hope I am wrong!
Good job Governor Perry! I admire your standing up in spite of your detractors and persecutors and recognizing the need for a return to Christ as our savior. A special time of prayer and fasting for the nations sins and transgressions and for God's mercy is long overdue.
It is just too bad that the President of the United States or the Congress of the United States that opens their sessions each day with a prayer to God could not have seen this was the only answer in light of so many unsolvable problems our nation is facing. With all of the greed, confusion, ineptitude, and corruption in Washington, only God can change men's hearts. To hear Him and to reinstate the Ten Commandments as the foundation of American society is the only solution...
...to love your neighbor as yourself.
Not to worry.
ReplyDeleteI'd be surprised if Jesus Christ pays the Armstrongist Churches of God much heed -- sort of like the parable of the Pharisee and Publican praying, you know.
And it's interesting that after Herbert Armstrong's anointing, sort of like Malachi 2:2 "I will curse your blessings" judgment against the priests, that Loma died promptly two days later. I've seen that happen to renowned "Evangelists" in the WCG / UCG.
On second thought, are you certain you'd want Armstrongists to pray for the Country? Wouldn't THAT be the fastest way to take it down?
Douglas,
ReplyDeleteI pose this question to the current members of the COGs. Like myself before leaving Armstrongism I firmly believed the WCG/COGs and Armstrongism owned Biblical truth.
I direct this question also to the ministry who deceive their flocks by teaching confusion and cut their flocks off from grace.
This is also to expose the false teachings in the COGs and get the members to think for themselves and read what the Bible actually says. Above all to listen to the words Jesus Christ spoke as recorded there.
I feel there are many sincere people in those COG splinters that are still seeking and are on a journey, like us, who will eventually see the light and leave. Even more so to the youth that are going to make decisions about baptism that will lock them in.
The youth must know there is complete peace and joy in knowing the truth...that Jesus died for us and it is through grace and our faith IN Him that brings salvation and not deeds of an obsolete law.
Thanks for your comment.
I really wonder how many -- and this is a question I have been pondering for some time -- who come out of Armstrongism have that much peace: It took years before I could see the newpaper headlines and see the TV news without having background noise in my head about the United States and Britain going down because... no, wait! I know British Israelism is dead... but still, it takes a long time to go away (it's gone for me now). I wonder how many still have that noise left in their heads.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, many of the children who grew up in the WCG still have nightmares to this day, decades later about being in the Great Tribulation. This is reprehensible. You are right to want some accountablility from the Armstrongist ministers: They have done such damage, what with their sermons about jackbooted German soldiers invading, people being hung from the ceiling with meathooks through their gut, hydrogen bombs falling, being taken captive, disease epidemics, starvation, concentration camps -- all while quietly playing on the carpet at church between the metal folding chairs or sleeping on their blankets, while the minister thunders on about the destruction of our countries.
Pleasant dreams.
Or they could be, if ever Armstrongism could be escaped by those who were held in helpless bondage to it.
There is much to answer for.
Just don't expect an answer from the ACoG leadership (they are too busy covering up to pay much attention and, besides, they have their salaries and retirement to think of).
Douglas,
ReplyDeleteI realized many years ago that the British Israelism (BI) was no more that a theory or maybe a thesis with very poor data as proof. About 25 years ago while reading through the U.S and Brittan in Prophecy booklet that the Worldwide Church of God under Armstrong (AWCG)distributed I started to research. I looked for any scholars independent of the religious community that had the same conclusions. I found several who had attempted to trace the US and Brittan back to ancient Israel but ran into dead ends.
A Rabbi, wish I could remember his name, did a thorough research in the early 20th century and could find only the Jews as the last remnant of ancient Israel (DNA can prove this much). Some claim there are still some from the tribes of Levy and Benjamin but none that can be identified as descendants of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
So after that I disregarded the BI theory as just more of Herbert W. Armstrong's speculation. It was hardly original anyway, just more of the ideas and writings of others he "borrowed."
I never had any personal confidence in him or this theology even as a young teenager because I was so closely connected to the AC grapevine and heard a lot of dirt that made me very skeptical at that young age.
I also knew that the Bible was clear that all who accept Jesus Christ and are baptized into the name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit became a part of spiritual Israel..so I could never really see why the ACOGs ever mention the BI because it is a moot point other than money. Their reasons are shameless and obvious to the astute. They try to claim that New Covenant Christians are then bound to the Old Covenant if BI is true. Makes for a legalistic system (scam) to collect tithes...money...profit...wealth.
Why did I stay for 45 years...that is the real issue...Fear? Yes. Lack of self confidence? Yes. Lack of critical thinking skills? Yes.
Tied to the Cult and manipulated by sociopath leaders who still manipulate the membership with devilish psychological trickery. I was just like many right now in the ACOGs...that was where I was then.
I had knowledge that would have freed myself and my family many years ago but I just took the easy path, I knew many things were incorrect in respect to HWA's teachings but I was "reared up young" that way and it is the way of life I knew but thank God I did "depart."
The real catalyst was the internet when so much information came to light about the AWCG and what those who left many years ago learned and wrote...it was about the same things I saw but lacked the courage to take action.
Well now it is my turn to do the same for maybe just one other person, or many, only God knows who He will call but I hope, pray, fast, and write as do you and many others.
As far as peace. Knowing what the real gospel of Christ is and what grace really is and how much salvation really is a free gift...if there are trials and tribulations in the future, I am at peace and will trust Jesus Christ to carry me through to the end..I just refuse to worry about things I am not in control of.
Praise the name of Jesus Christ forever!
Here is an interesting Nova/PBS documentary on the Lost tribes of Israel that aired in 2000.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/