30:00

61: During my sophomore year at Ambassador College – 1968 and 1969 – I produced an extra credit summary paper on all the books written by prophets. Now, lemme just tell you, I almost died during finals week of my freshman year of college and I eventually collapsed and I lost thirty two pounds in eighty four hours while taking all my finals. And I was very close to death; I had my fourth staph infection that took me into the hospital, my parents weren't in the church and took me into the hospital; I collapsed off the plane. And basically I didn't fail all my tests, but I had a ferocious fever; could barely see, and went through finals week. None of my professors ever came and said to me – this leads to something – ever said, "Can we do anything for you?" The whole church knew that I was no longer training for the Olympics; faculty all understood I'd almost died, they sent me up to camp in Minnesota in the summer of '68, so we'll have him teach swimming at camp; I just looked like somebody who'd escaped Buchenwald. And I recovered, but I decided, well, nobody's offered to help me on my grades; none of my professors gave me another shot; I said I'm not gonna cry-baby about it, I'm gonna do something about it. So I didn't go in and ask any of them, but I had to dig out of a terrific hole; Cs, Ds and even an F in one class. So I decided I'm going to get up at five o'clock every single day for a year and research all of the prophets, type them up and type this long special report to help me recover my grades, because of having almost died during finals week of my freshman year.

"All I can say is the 'Nancy Nurse' in me came through. He was complaining of this severe pain, and he was literally begging me to do the massage."

Suerae, dressed in a purple jogging suit, shifted her gaze to the floor. "I am a classic co-dependent," she said blankly, shrugging her shoulders. "Royce has always told me I could get bit by a dog, the dog could run across the street and get hit by a car, and I'd run across the street with a bloody leg to save the dog."

As Armstrong's massage sessions with Suerae continued throughout June 1995, he grew ever bolder, according to court documents. "Armstrong would begin to fondle his genitals and try to place plaintiff's hands on his genitals while he would 'minister' to the plaintiff," the lawsuit says. "His tattoos, including that of a naked woman on his body, would greatly frighten her."

Suerae said she would abruptly end the sessions when Armstrong got aggressive. But, her lawsuit states, "Armstrong would be extremely apologetic, make reference to his similarity to King David" (with whom Suerae says Armstrong compared himself frequently, saying that his work on earth was so important that God would overlook any transgressions he might commit), and beg Suerae to continue. The massages would then conclude without further incident, and she continued booking his appointments.

By early summer, Suerae recalled, she was beginning to understand who Armstrong was. He preached and "counseled" her about her separation from Royce. He urged her to join Church of God International. She said he discussed his ministry and television show, and outlined the tenets of his sect, including a commandment that members pay a tithe of 30 percent of their income. The tithe, he told her, is required to attain salvation.

Despite his clearly sexual behavior, Suerae never stood up to Armstrong, never barred him from her business. He returned again and again.

By the beginning of May some major expenses are coming up; not the least of which is the renewal costs of our web hosting dedicated server.  At the same time the income for the past months has been well below our basic needs and our debts are piling up.

As events are being fulfilled we are facing a financial wall.  

I want to explain that the books are not being published to make money and I expect a royalty cheque in the neighborhood of only around  $100 sometime in May.  Most of the price is taken up with production costs, and the numbers sold are very low at this time.  Everything in the books; has been, is, or will be, published at the sites.  The purpose of publishing the books is:

1.   To make available as comprehensive a resource as possible on any subject, to save people from having to search through many different posts for information on the same subject.  

2.   To provide a personal written copy for easy immediate access. 

Please visit the Books page for links to CreateSpace.  And as these books are solid biblical sound doctrine or prophecy, it is absolutely appropriate to use tithe money to purchase them.  

3.   To make the material available to the general public who are suspicious of “free” offers.  

The books are now available on Kindle.  This is intended for the general public as I would like the brethren to have a personal printed copy. 

These books have cost countless hours of hard work and like this blog, are not a money making enterprise. 

Right now as events are unfolding towards a Mideast peace push beginning after the UN General Assembly meetings in late September; the high probability of a peace and safety deal triggering the tribulation is fast approaching, 2 Thess 5:3. 
Make no mistake; Almighty God will complete his warnings before he acts! 

Right now we all have an opportunity to show God how dedicated and supportive we are.

While thousands of brethren regularly visit us and are receiving a solid warning; only a very small number actually provide any support, and many of them have suffered to help:  May Almighty God bless them greatly and crown them with glory in the world to come!

Please support this work of warning with your payers; and remember that your generous financial help is urgently needed.

Why Are We Not All Together?

I hear it all the time from our viewers and readers: “Why are you not together with this or that organization which is also a part of the Church of God, since we are all believing the same thing?” If that were true, then we should all be together, but in reality, this perception is simply not accurate. In fact, we differ greatly in doctrine, administration, approach and purpose.

The founding documents of the Church of the Eternal God state the following in our Statements of Beliefs, under “Doctrinal Foundation”:

“The major doctrines of the Church are those, which were taught by Herbert W. Armstrong, derived from the Biblical teachings as followed by God’s faithful servants, and originally established by Jesus Christ through the founding of His Church in the time of His chosen early apostles. Since we are to increase in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, we are committed to review and alter any of our teachings, if and when proven to be wrong by from the Bible.”

Unlike other Church organizations which declared from the beginning of their existence that “everything is on the table” and that all doctrines and teachings of the Church must be reviewed and reconsidered, we have been taking the opposite approach. For us, nothing is on the table, unless a doctrine, teaching or administrative practice is proven to be wrong, based on Scripture. This means, even if we cannot fully prove a particular established teaching from the Bible, we will not change it, if we cannot prove it to be in violation of God’s written Word.

At the same time, we will change if a doctrine or administrative practice is shown to be in contradiction with the Bible. However, there are groups which say that nothing can be changed after Herbert W. Armstrong’s death in 1986… and some even go so far as to say that none of the Church’s changes can be accepted which occurred subsequent to 1974 and 1975, including major changes pertaining to the correct day of Pentecost and our teaching on divorce and remarriage. This concept that nothing can be changed today is clearly unbiblical and must be rejected.

Our approach, as described herein, is the ONLY safe approach which ALL Church organizations in the Body of Christ should take, because only then true unity in doctrine and administration can be achieved.To just give one example, it is simply not acceptable that one organization disfellowships a person for Scriptural reasons (compare Matthew 18:17-18; Romans 16:17), and another organization, claiming to be in the same spiritual Body of Christ, embraces him or her with open arms, without even inquiring into the cause of the excommunication. Another unacceptable policy prevails in many Church organizations which sanction and officiate over the re-marriage of divorced persons in their fellowship who are still married in the eyes of God, since God had bound their marriage (Matthew 19:4-9; 1 Corinthians 7:10-15) and no subsequent biblical grounds existed for divorce and re-marriage. Such conduct gives some of the many reasons as to why there is no unity amongst many Church groups. Unity can only come through the working of the Holy Spirit, based on the teachings of God. How CAN two walk together, unless they are agreed (Amos 3:3)?

Narcissist NCIS Jimmy Jr

Jim Meredith has graciously and selflessly "assigned" himself to be the coordinator of the Hawaiian LCG Feast site once again this year. Ministers in the Living Church of God grumble behind his back over how unfair it is that he always takes the creme de la crème of available Feast sites for himself.

Other ministers would love an opportunity to serve at the best Feast sites but narcissist Jim feels he is entitled to the best of everything as the prince and heir to the Meredith throne. After all it's his family's money and he can spend it however he sees fit.

Other ministers would love to have all expense paid trips to Hawaii and Israel; including multiple trips before the Feast to set things up and, of course, there's the post-Feast extension (because he works so hard during that he needs a vacation from his vacation, all at the tithe payers expense).

Prince Jim can't stay in affordable housing like the rest of the church brethren. The crowned prince stays at the luxurious Marriott Kauai for the low, low price of $329 per night. But hey, they have great views and $30 breakfasts and NCIS Jim deserves nothing less.

Jim Meredith is a true example of a COG "servant leader". Such a giver.

After bankrupting his California company and having Daddy Dictator save his ass by giving him a big corner office and a coveted title at LCG headquarters he continues to whine about how much he has sacrifice to move to Charlotte. All of this while living in a 4100 square foot McMansion (see attached) and traveling the world in search of where "God has placed His name" for each year's Feast sites. Just like Jesus

The healing finally started--after what felt like eternity--when I at last found the courage to start asking hard questions, questions I would never have dared to ask while within the organization. They were questions that would sometimes come up in the past but were always brushed aside. Questions like: How can they demand I go against my conscience or be put out of the "church"? Isn't my first loyalty supposed to be towards God? And eventually I dared to ask, by what authority do those men really have the right to stand up and teach me God's truth? Who appointed them? And actually, who appointed Herbert Armstrong? Lots of religious leaders believe that they alone speak for God. Why did I really believe he was the only one used by God? Is it just because that is what we were told, or is there a better reason? Because I thought it all "made sense"?

For the first time in my life I timidly began to study church history--objectively study it--not with the "assistance" of a tiny WCG-printed booklet that would gloss over centuries in a few paragraphs.Coming to Herbert Armstrong's place in it, I had to honestly admit that his claims were largely unfounded. How could we dare dismiss the thousands who throughout history have shed their blood for their (Christian) faith as being "deceived," thinking ourselves to be so much more faithful and understanding? And how could we really accept that when Christ so clearly commanded His disciples to "go into all the world" 2000 years ago, that that command wasn't fulfilled, and the church just basically fell off a cliff, only to unexpectedly resurface in the 1900s after endless disputes between men who thought they were called by God?

While Alton Billingsly was driving north on Coast Highway 101 in California at about 1:15 p.m. on July 23, 1958, Richard had his briefcase open, checking his list of people to visit and planning their next few stops. The four-lane, divided highway had merged into a two-way highway. Somehow neither of them noticed it. A half block or so to their left was another paved road running parallel to theirs; Mr. Billingsly supposed that to be the other two lanes of the highway. They moved over into the left lane—the lane of oncoming traffic—to pass, believing it still to be a divided highway. Just before they passed the car on their right, a Cadillac came over a slight hilltop. Mr. Billingsly swerved left, but the cars were moving toward each other too quickly. The oncoming car hit them head-on, just to the right—shearing off much of the right side of the car. Had Richard not dived toward the driver just before impact, he would have been killed instantly.

Although Mr. Billingsly was not seriously injured, Richard was taken to San Luis Obispo Hospital and placed in critical condition. His pelvis and right elbow were badly broken; his jaw was broken in several places with several teeth knocked out; his stomach and intestines were knocked up through the diaphragm against the left lung, collapsing the lung and shoving his heart over on his right side.

A week later, Richard’s kidneys were failing. They would have to move him to Los Angeles where they could hook him up to artificial kidneys. Because he was in traction, moving him could have killed him. So they carried him in a special bed that kept him in traction, slowly driving to Los Angeles in the middle of the night.

martyr

nounmar·tyr\ˈmär-tər\

Rod is completely obsessed with ALL types of sex, not just homosexual. Despite the fact that there are many young children and impressionable teenagers in his audience he often goes into disgusting detail of various sex acts. Things I would never say to a child. On one occasion he told the entire Charlotte congregation that his wife had shown him all kinds of "disgusting sex acts on the internet including women with women, men with men and beastiality and every other unimaginable abominable thing". The audience is thinking, what in the world! Why are you looking at the stuff in the first place and then why are you openly admitting to it in public? Meredith is a grade A pervert. 

Sharing a Nightline Special on sexual abuse coverup from Jehovah Witness leadership. She won a landmark court case! How familiar is this video?

This hits close to home, as I was 13 at SEP, first time away from home so far and so long, and me and two other girls were molested and I was almost raped by an 18 year old guy in our brother dorm. He got no real punishment, but me and the two other girls had to tell our stories, emotionally falling apart but with no support or guidance, in front of Dr. Kermit Nelson (director of SEP), Mr. Dennis VanDeVanter (who baptized my parents and was our minister for a while, but by this time had been transferred to the upper ranks in Pasadena), and Mr. Burnett (our dorm minister and the women's BB coach at Pasadena AC). Our phone and mail privileges were revoked as they didn't want the word of this "to get out and spread through the congregations, then parents will be reluctant to send their children to SEP which could save them spiritually." (as SEP was fun at times, but it was indoctrination-based) 

When they said we couldn't call/write our parents anymore or anything else, it felt like *we* were the ones getting punished because we came forward, they said, "If this gets out, it will spread like wild fire through the congregations worldwide. Do you really want the eternal lives of who knows how many young people on your head?"Guilt squashed our need to contact anyone or seek emotional healing. They even made me dance with him at the end of camp to show there were "no hard feelings" - and he managed to do even more damage during and after that dance. 

 No cops were called. No parents. 

My parents got worried when my every-other-day phone calls stopped abruptly. 

They called the camp. Dr. Nelson and Mr. VanDeVanter both lied to them initially and said they didn't know of anything going on, and that we were just probably caught up with the fun of camp.

Finally, my parents got the truth out of them when they demanded to speak to me. My parents were furious, but still didn't occur to them to call the cops, and at this point there had not only been the molestation, but neglect and coverup by the church. 

I was told that this matter went all the way up to Mr. Tkatch from Dr. Nelson when they were deciding how to handle this. 

I relate with so much of this girl says in the Nightline story. Hopefully this will open the door for more lawsuits won against cults and their slimy legal/PR tactics. And hopefully people will see that the JW's and Mormons and other cults aren't just "nice people that believe things a little different" but their secrecy and closed door policies when it comes to these issues. 

I want to make a statement about me now. If I became deceived, I will never tell you what I’m going to tell you now. I am telling you, if I go off into strange ideas, misconduct, rebellion, you name it, don’t follow me. I want to tell you that now, because if I start doing that, I’m gonna try to get you to follow me! I’m gonna come to you and tell you it doesn’t apply, it doesn’t mean me. No, no, no, no, no, no, it’s ok to follow me, because ABCD and XY and Z. Do you understand what I’m saying? Listen to me now, when I tell you, don’t follow me if I go off into weird ideas, or if I get off into other things that are total absolutely unscriptural conduct, because if I do, I’m gonna paint it with a different face and try to get you to follow me. Do you understand what I’m saying, brethren? Please remember that, because I promise you that, if I become deceived, I’ll forget it, and I’ll want you to forget it. And I hope you’ll remember it well enough to quote it right back to me. (1998)

March 17, 2015

I’d like to tell you just how controlling and obsessed the ministry of the PCG really is.

A couple years after my wife died I decided to take my boys on a little vacation. The South East region of the PCG was having a 4th of July family camp out. I decided to attend with my boys. I signed up and got an email from the event coordinator. The email told me what I should bring and reminded me to bring a few dozen cookies. Well, I had just lost a lot of weight and had health problems so I suggested that perhaps all those cookies would not be the healthiest thing for me to bring. A few days later I got a call from my minister Aaron Eagle. He got onto me for saying what I did about cookies and told me not to bring it up again. I was shocked!

This is what struck me about this. If the man I made the comment to did not like what I said he should have said something to me but what did he do? He called his local minister who called Craig Winters the Southeastern director who called Cal Culpepper the Northeastern director, who called Aaron Eagle my local minister, who then called me. Two ministers and two regional directors had to get involved over a cookie comment.

I am so grateful that I am free from all the obsessed, controlling ministers of the PCG.

Thank you for your website. --Dan Moffett, KY

Did Easter start in Nimrod’s day?

No. That is an outright lie built on terrible etymology and pseudo-history, and passed off as fact due to repetition. There is nothing remotely in the realm of reliable historical evidence to demonstrate this. All of these sorts of Nimrod, Ishtar, Tammuz, etc claims find their beginning with Alexander Hislop. He’s the one who made it all up in the late 1840’s. Maybe you didn’t know that Hislop is completely unreliable. I can hardly blame you for not knowing this. Among the people who promote his writings are Herbert Armstrong and thus the leaders of every one of the COG splinter churches, Dave Hunt, Chuck Missler, Richard Rives, the Christadelphians, the Jehovah’s Witnesses – the list goes on and on. But if you really want the truth about Hislop, then please send away for Mr. Ralph Woodrow’s book “The Babylon Connection”. It will give you the information that you need to know about Alexander Hislop.

See our posts “The Babylon Connection” and “The Two Babylons” for more.

Think about it… Some people, following Alexander Hislop, say Easter is an ancient Babylonian holiday that was kept continuously by the Catholic Church since Nimrod’s day. But if it was alwaysbeing kept then it cannot be the result of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. It cannot be both.

If it was the product of the Council of Nicaea then it cannot be the result of the Catholic Church which only sent two representatives to the Council. It cannot be both.

The first mention of Eostre is in the eighth century, not the first century, nor the fourth century, and certainly not 2,000+ BC. They can’t all be right.

The early church called it Pascha and only several centuries later came the name Easter. If Pascha is centuries older tha Easter then Easter cannot be the source of Pascha. It cannot be both.

What kind of coincidence could possibly cause the holiday to be called Easter by the Babylonians, then Pascha by the Greeks and Latins, then Ostern by the Germans, then Easter once again by the English?

These contradictions cannot all be true. Who will you believe? Don’t make up your mind yet. There’s more.

Is Easter a pagan holiday coopted by the Catholic Church?
Was Passover replaced by Easter at the Council of Nicaea?
Should we call Easter by the name Passover?
Is the King James Version right in translating Acts 12: 4 as “Easter”?
Is Easter tied to the Spring Equinox because of paganism?
Is the Pope responsible for the change from Passover to Easter?
Is Easter named after a goddess?
What of the goddess Ostara, then?
What of the Austriahenae inscriptions?
Was Ostara’s consort a hare?
Is Eostra/Ostara actually Ishtar?
Did Ishtar hatch from an egg?
Did Ishtar have rabbits and eggs as her symbols?
Where does the tradition of eggs come from if not from paganism?
Where does the tradition of the Easter Bunny come from?
Is the cross just the first letter of the name Tammuz?
Does Lent come from the weeping for Tammuz?
Where did Lent come from if not from paganism?
How can we fit “three days and three nights” into Friday evening to Sunday morning?
Does the Holy Week support a Wednesday or Thursday crucifixion?
Was there a holy day then a weekly Sabbath in the crucifixion week? 
When did the women prepare spices?
Wasn’t Sunday worship itself adopted from paganism?

Hello James,

I see from your comments below and a look at your website—which I haven’t looked at for about 2 1/2 years—that you remain a congenital liar incapable of telling the truth.

As recently as last week your website continues to beat the dead horse that UCG plans to change the Sabbath—even though more than four years have passed since the cogwa split and the United Church of God has made none of the changes you’ve predicted. You seem to fail to grasp that you were used as a useful idiot by those who left UCG to form cogwa, knowing that the only way they could attract a following was to allege that UCG was going to change doctrine—a charge they knew was false. But they couldn’t state the real reasons for the split, which were that they demanded to be in control. They found in you a tool they could use to spread those lies, and you were too stupid to realize that you were being used. I feel sorry for you that you were too blind to see what they were doing, and were able to use you as a tool for deceit and division.

You say “It is widely reported in UCG that you and Gary Petty have said that the paper ‘the Defense of the Biblical Calendar’ has merit.” Really? I find that impossible to believe since the only people who have ever asked me about it or said anything about it to me are the family who gave an earlier version to me and one other elder I passed it on to as a heads-up. I’ve said nothing to anyone about the merits of the paper since I hadn’t read it (and still haven’t). So in your message to me you write two more lies that have no basis in fact.

For the record in the interests of truth, I do not know when or if the paper will be looked at the Doctrine Committee (of which I am a member). If it has been submitted according to the defined process, we have not been notified yet.

Scott Ashley

PS—As for your book, I have no interest in reading it since your track record of predicting the future has been so abysmally wrong over recent years (as in UCG is planning to change the Sabbath, UCG is planning to introduce the Trinity, UCG is planning to change the Holy Days, ad nauseum). You’ve shown by your track record that nothing you write is worth my time reading. I have no time for lying fools whose mission in life is to slander and spread division—which I have no doubt you will try to do with this calendar issue. Take your vomit somewhere else and don’t waste my time.

Revelation 21:8—“. . . and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Romans 16:17—”Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”

Once paying people to work for you [Supposedly converted people] is considered “okay”, it certainly is a slippery slope. Next thing you know it’s “okay” to stop at 7-11 or Starbucks for coffee on the way to church, or it’s okay to fly home from the Feast, or buy some donuts for Sabbath brunch, or to conveniently stop at the grocery store for something to bring for after services, or BBQ a huge dinner for guests, or why not have a reunion picnic with family who don’t keep the Sabbath, or have a workman service your plumbing problem or play some backgammon. Next thing you know it’s just like a Sunday service you go to on Saturday with all these other distractions that aren’t even Sabbath related! I have seen all these things and many more in LCG!! Horrified I even saw someone run to the store on the Sabbath for Club Soda so they could make more mixed drinks for their guests since they ran out! Wow!! The list could go on and on. I certainly think HWA was wrong to put his stamp of approval on “eating out” but he probably would roll over in his grave to see what is considered Sabbath observance today by ELDERS and brethren!!

Last evening the light of the new moon was NOT seen in or anywhere near Jerusalem where God has placed his name.  Remember that Almighty God controls the weather and he could have opened the clouds with a wave of his hand.  This is God’s will. Sunset tonight brings the first new moon day of the first Biblical month.  Welcome the New moon with the shofar.  For details on New Moon observance lease see our Calendar Category articles.

The first day of the first month of the new biblical year will be Monday 23 March, beginning at the sunset ending 22 March.  

Passover will be Sunday 5 April, to be observed after sunset ending the Sabbath of 4 April.  

The first Holy Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread will be on Monday 6 April and the seventh day Holy Day will be Sunday 12 April.  

As previously posted, this will move the Wave Offering and Pentecost forward a week. 

The Wave Offering day will be Sunday 12 April.  The seventh Sabbath after the Wave Offering will be 30 May and Pentecost will be 31 May.