Reinventing the Reinvented

In a previous post, "A Child Shall Lead Them", I talked about mid-life (crisis) analysis we all go through after our first 20+ years of adult life. Apparently, organizations, even churches of God, go through such periods in their existence.

In the latest UCG "Update From the President", Victor Kubik reminds us all that UCG is coming up on their 25th anniversary. Titling this update, "Reinventing Ourselves", he opens with this:

"The United Church of God is nearing its 25th anniversary. This time is proving to be one of critical reflection. In recent months, this milestone has led many at the home office, on the Council of Elders and elsewhere to ponder and consider: Where have we been? Where are we now? And perhaps most importantly, where are we going?"

 "Reflecting these questions in a general way, Donald Ward, the chairman of the Council of Elders, recently made some insightful and remarkable comments. He openly emphasized in his recent summary comments to the Council of Elders that the United Church of God needs to consider “reinventing ourselves.” This comment fit squarely with the many discussions that have recently been taking place around our upcoming 25th anniversary."

I find it interesting that the response to analyzing their first 25 years is one of "reinventing." What does that mean?

1. Reinvent can mean to change the appearance of something old so much that it looks like something new.

2. Reinvent can mean to change a person or organizations, goals, purpose, functionality or persona.

3. Reinvent can mean to duplicate something old in a wasted effort...an exercise in futility.

In order to successfully reinvent ones self, one must begin by humbling the self and openly addressing flaws and mistakes. Then, start the learning process again.

"When we talk about “reinventing ourselves,” we are not talking about what we believe. For certain, the biblical truth of God is eternal and unchangeable . The magnificent truths of the Sabbath, of the Holy Days that we are about to observe, the true understanding of the role of Jesus Christ, the knowledge of the insightful Royal Law that daily guides our behavior, and the plan of God for humanity all represent precious hard-won truths that make up the core of who we are. We must never part with these."

OK...maybe the churches of God can continue to skip self examination, addressing the past and revisiting doctrines derived from Armstrong eisegesis. So...I'm thinking they are leaning toward the third definition to "reinvent" mentioned above.

He goes on to show that what he really means is that the church needs to change its gospel message in a way that will have an impact on a generation that is increasingly more hostile toward the Bible. This increased hostility is  a threat to our young people as they transition from high school to college.

"Society today increasingly tramples on and rejects biblical authority, putting our young people to hard tests. Dr. Ward noted that with the incredible experience of the Church’s youth camps, young people in the Church “may be so excited through their teen years” about biblical truth, but then comes a challenging “transitional period between high school and college and the first year of college” that often proves to be a difficult time to stay grounded and committed to the truth of God. It is during this critical transition time that young people can be in danger of slipping away. The Church, he emphasized, needs to reinvent itself to address these critical societal changes and provide highly relevant spiritual tools for young people to survive and thrive. This includes opportunities for them to be together, like at Ambassador Bible College and church-sponsored young adult gatherings."

A few years ago, I watched a friend struggle with his teenagers. In the end, he could not answer satisfactorily, their questions and they both left the church and Christianity altogether. I can tell you this: They did not leave because of societal pressures to accept transgender lifestyles and marijuana. It was not because there was not enough church social events to keep their carnal needs satisfied or in check. They did not lack spiritual tools only Ambassador College alumni could provide...in the next 25 years, of course.

His free-thinking adult children researched the church and its history on the internet and asked why all the splinter churches refuse to address the sins of the past and the hypocrisy that continues. They asked how the churches think they can continue to hide all of the documented errors and never have to answer to the next generation. They asked why the churches feel no need to re-examine any of their doctrines or practices when some of them are easily challenged by the latest science and  technology or "mainstream" Christian  scholars. They asked why the leadership demands we all "speak the same thing" and inundate our time reading church literature and sermons instead of the Bible. In the end, their father looked to be a cruel hypocrite imaged after the organization itself at worse or a mindless kool-aid drinker to be felt sorry for at best.

"These Thursday conferences, as Dr. Ward mentioned to the Council, are open and honest discussions, even to the point of admitting that sometimes the weekly church presentations in our congregations are “stale.” To build more energy and excitement into our weekly church meetings, Dr. Ward noted that “some of those things we could do—shorter sermons and more focused sermons and improving our messages—we really need to focus on…we really need more excitement and energy in the local churches.”

Shorter sermons would certainly be a step in the right direction but if that is your solution to achieve energy and excitement, then this shows the comprehension level of a mouth-breather with no self awareness. Your organization is stale because all the splinters of Armstrong refuse to relinquish power to the brethren. They all quench the working of the Holy Spirit in the body. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are completely absent because a top down hierarchical cult structure is the exact opposite of what Jesus Himself told the disciples how His church was to function in Matthew 20:20-28

Jesus juxtaposes two opposing ideas against one another to make his point very clear and He does so by doing it twice. He compares exercising lordship to being a servant and exercising authority to being a slave. These opposing concepts cannot exist as one in the same. A lord cannot be a servant and an authoritarian cannot be a slave. Jesus is saying if you want to be a lord, your only option in the body is to be a servant and if you want be first in rank, the only opportunity that exists in its’ stead is to actually have no rank at all as a slave. What Jesus is showing is that there is no place to be a lord in the body and there is no position of chief in the body. If you want to be those things, the only position that can be given you is a servant and a slave with no rank at all. What you seek in the body as it appears in carnal human governance simply does not exist in the governance of the church.

His final statement makes it even more plain by comparing it to His own role in the flesh among them. He truly did not come to be served. He was not there as King of kings and Lord of lords. That will be at His second coming. He was there among them in the flesh as a teacher. Jesus Christ literally takes the gentile concept of top-down government and turns it on its head! It is imperative that He do that for His body, the church, because He is the head and there is no other head. The body is knit together by the workings of the Holy Spirit.You have to go back to the beginning of the exchange. It all started when two among them were seeking high rank in the Kingdom of God. Jesus answer to them in a nutshell was if you want to rank high in the Kingdom of God, (which is possible!) you must first practice being servants with no rank and no elevation in the church body.

“And whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  -Matthew 23:12

If you exalt yourself within the models used in this world by oppressors, you will have no place in the Kingdom. If you become a servant and slave among the brethren in the body with no exaltation or rank in the church today, you will be exalted in the Kingdom.

The only way any of the churches of God will be able to inspire real excitement and energy in the local churches is to be honest about their history, admit to sins, re-examine doctrine and practices, and reject Roman suppression and replace it with congregationalism. This will produce a firestorm of excitement and energy among brethren and we will see the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit unleashed in ways never seen before among the churches of God.

If you really want to reinvent yourselves, then I suggest you start by patterning yourself after the New Testament church. But all I hear you saying is you want to reinvent the reinvented in the worse kind of way.

V

The Modern Essenes

"The Essenes were the 'hippies' of their day." I heard this snide remark from Gerald Weston and Jonathan McNair in sermons. What are they talking about? Is this something they learned at AC? How were the Essenes like the hippies in 1960's America?

After reading up on who and what the Essenes were about, I was hard pressed to see any connection between the dope smokin, std riddled peacemakers who encouraged everyone to make love, not war and  the separatist, heterodox (and some say) celibate Jews of the late Intertestamental period.

In fact, let me just share a few things that have been said about the Essenes and I will let you decide what modern group they sound like.

The Essene movement began at the time of a very explosive event in Jewish history. Judah Maccabee led a Jewish army utilizing guerrilla tactics to overthrow Seleucid control of Judea and usher in a period of quasi-Judean independence. The temple in Jerusalem was ritually cleansed and the expectation of a Jewish world-conquering king was 3-5 years away for the next 230 years.

It wasn't long before the revolt produced an insider movement of revolt. A new religious movement or sect, we now call the Essenes, rejected Maccabeen authority as corrupt and illegitimate. They would proceed to claim they were the "real heirs" of the Yadokite priestly line and refused to have anything to do with a cleansed temple. They went on to establish their own isolated community outside of Jerusalem.

This reminds me of another movement that caught fire when Allenby marched into Jerusalem in 1917 and culminated in Jewish statehood by 1948. A fast-talkin, nasally blowhard would grow a new religious movement by claiming a conquering Christ would be returning in  3-5 years for the next 45 years. He went on to establish a school to produce minions that would never stray from his control and then established rented venues around the world for adherents to meet in secret and separate from their communities,

The Essenes would go on to isolate themselves from the rest of Israel, both geographically and theologically. They rejected all things pagan and many things Jewish.

Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

“philosophy” is PHILOSOPHIA: “not philosophy in general but the teaching of a syncretistic religious group that claims special insight into God, Christ, astral powers, creation, that imposes a set of rules on its members and that bases the authority of its message on its age or esoteric (secret) nature.” –p.1272, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

I believe Paul had (at least in part if not completely) the Essenes in mind when he wrote this. I will show how the Essenes fit this description in the remainder of this post and will let you decide how that compares to who modern Essenes would most likely be today under the umbrella of Christiandom.

1. The Essenes believed they were the heir of Scriptures and that all promises made in those scriptures were to them. Any Jew, no matter how devout, not in their sect was a dangerous deceiver. They believed they were in a time when God was pouring out His Holy Spirit on them alone. While physical Israelites were God's chosen people, the Essenes viewed themselves as the new elect purposed by a new covenant. They were living in the midst of the "restoration of all things" and they were the advanced guard; the spearhead of Divine purpose for the world.

[HWA claimed he restored all things back to the body of Christ and that "mainstream Christianity" was deceived. The Holy Spirit was only given to those baptized in WCG. RCM claimed that LCG was the "spearhead of the Work" that would usher in the return of Christ.]

2. The Essenes were pacifists in that they would not participate in armed conflicts, revolts or wars. They stayed away from politics except when and how it related to prophecy.

[WCG and its splinters have long taught against voting in elections, serving on juries or the military and being employed as a police officer or even carrying a gun for personal safety. BUT the churches have never been shy about being aligned, unofficially of course, with the Republican party and their "conservative values" and their political views toward the state of Israel.]

3. Their central message and symbol was prophecy and their personal fulfillment of it in the Divine purpose shortly to pass. One of their writings discovered, called the Damascus Document, speaks of a specific predicted 'Teacher' that would or did lead the community, announcing to be a fulfillment of recent and ancient prophecy.

[HWA's central message was prophecy and he made over 200 false predictions. HWA claimed to be the "Elijah" that restored true doctrine to the body of Christ. HWA claimed he fulfilled what he called his commission in Matthew 24:14.]

4. God's purpose is a mystery revealed by the prophets and are presently made known through the inspired teachers (ministers), the chief revealer being called the "Teacher of Righteousness." In their lifetime, an anointed king and priest will lead the "Sons of Light" in a great war against the "Sons of Darkness" made up of Gentiles and ignorant Jews.

[HWA wrote "Mystery of the Ages" and claimed to be an endtime apostle. He taught two witnesses from his church would precede the return of Christ. The saints will return to fight Gentiles and ignorant Christians.]

5. Essenes used what is called the Pesher Method. This is an arbitrary interpretation of prophetic events and their leading up to the restoration of Israel, into the present.

[HWA was notorious for analyzing current events and wrongly attributing it to Scripture. Often, the exact opposite of what he predicted would happen. Much of HWA's methodology in developing his teachings was through eisegesis.]

6. Studying and writing were primary practices. They put great importance on their own writings. This can be seen in their "Community Rule" and "Damascus Document." They upheld a set of esoteric teachings (or commandments of men) that they regarded as equivalent to and as coming from the Bible. Their commandments of men were not regarded as earning their salvation or membership in the sect but merely expressing it. Piety and purity as defined by the community rules was an outward sign or evidence to a members belonging to the new covenant.

[Richard Ames once referenced church literature and sermons in a single sermon over 20 times. He often attempts to shame brethren for not reading church booklets and articles and listening to sermons in all their spare time when they are not working to provide incomes for the ministry.]

7. Belonging to the Essene movement was not a casual affair. To them, it was not a social club but was a matter of life and death for the members, Israel and the whole world.

[This was true in WCG back in the day. Today, brethren are often shamed by ministers for seeking quality fellowship over "doctrinal purity" among all the ridiculous splinters. The AC alumni know they are all the same and are just vying for retirement security.]

8. Food eaten could only be produced by the community. Council meetings and meal times were solemn and sacred occasions.

[Putting aside clear Biblical references of what is clean and what is not for human consumption, dietary control has always been a mainstay of cults. WCG went beyond Biblical references and made determinations on sugar, white flour and any number of items they deemed "unclean."]

9. Life was governed by strict laws of purity with emphasis on keeping weekly and annual Sabbaths properly and on time. There were penalties for breaking community rules, the greatest being expulsion.

[75% of all sermons produced are  on annual Holy Days. It is a repetitive cycle rehashed every year, year after year. The churches of God know that from a marketing standpoint, it is their only niche, their USP. Take it away (and British racism) and they are left with a very poor product compared to mainstream Christianity. As far as breaking  the commandments of men are concerned, we all know someone who has been temporarily suspended from services, disfellowshipped or even marked for these violations or for having an opinion about Scripture not in line with HQ.]

10. Suffering or persecution was a measuring stick for ones future salvation. Of course, it did not matter if that persecution was real or imagined, externally induced or self-imposed.

[Rod Meredith's crowning moment of persecution was being attacked with a chair in his baptizing tour.]

To show ones self approved of God and on a pathway to salvation, the Essene would be a stickler for the communal rules (commandments of men) and a blind loyalist to the "Teacher." Let's not kid ourselves. The Essenes were a mind control religious cult. These types of religious cults exploit the fear one has in suddenly finding themselves on the outside instead of in the cult during a time of great tribulation. Many Essenes and Armstrongites were truly motivated to save their own hides. I heard Richard Ames and Doug Winnail candidly admit this in sermons. They do this by exploiting the very question of what it means to be Jewish or Jewish enough; Christian or Christian enough. Unfortunately, for people that find themselves embroiled in such mind control religious cults, they are adherents to a doctrine of salvation that falls flat concerning morality and virtue. It is the very thing Paul warned the Corinthians about: do not exalt or idolize a man claiming to be a representative of Jesus Christ. Do not chase after anything beyond what is revealed plainly in Scripture. The veil in the Temple was rent and the Romans destroyed it. You are now the temple. Thank God. We are free in Christ motivated by love.

I have seen the hippy and it is us.

V

A Child Shall Lead Them

Is there a difference between unshakable faith and unshakable arrogance? I was 15 years in the churches of God and had it all figured out in those first 5 years... so this young kid of 19 in Seminary had nothing to offer me as we talked religion. Jed would only be here for the summer so I had a small window of opportunity to "enlighten" him. He asked many great questions and did a lot of listening. Our lunch hours often went longer than the company would have appreciated.

At summer's end, it was time for Jed to move on in finishing his religious training so that he could start a ministry in the worst part of the city with his new bride. I heard later his apartment was broken into 3 times in the first 2 months he lived there. Oh well, I chalked it up as another dumb decision made in zealous youth. (I told him so!) And all that preaching at Jed was all for naught. Not only did he move his beautiful bride into the hood for "Jesus" but responded to all my pontificating with a set of books as a gift to me, written by an Anglican Priest. The nerve! Those 1500 pages of nonsense sat on my bookshelf for 10 years before I ever even cracked one of them.

But there I was at the Feast of Tabernacles last year getting more spiritual meat from one of those books than all the Feast sermons and sermonettes in the last 10 years!

Hitting "mid-life" is erroneously labeled a crisis. For most, it is actually a time of evaluating your first 20+ years as an adult. Then, after evaluating, we begin formulating the direction of our next 20+ years. If we are being honest with ourselves, we even evaluate our sacred cows and allow those to be challenged genuinely for the first time in years. (Maybe this is why this time of life is called a crisis)

For me, it was a humbling awakening. I was so busy working hard, providing for my wife and our growing family, that I didn't have time to question my "unshakable faith." That part of my life was on solid ground so I had no need to revisit it periodically, nor the time. That was settled in my early 20's when I knew everything.

The miracle of children is their ability to ask questions that cut deep through all the bullshit and force us as parents to carefully consider our answers. When it was Jed, it had no effect. I was unshakable. But now it was my own teenage flesh and blood. Dad was being forced to put his religion on the examination table also. The nagging questions about "church" that were suppressed for years were now being forced into the light of reason. Maybe I should thoroughly give this another look for the sake of not being labeled a hypocrite or a religious minion in the eyes of my own babies.

Mid-life showed me (and others may attest to this as well) that we spend much of our lives on "auto-pilot." Striving for the "American Dream" is a real thing and for the most part, a soul stealing endeavor. This time of life is bitter-sweet. We can be deeply saddened by coming into the realization that we really know very little about anything. We can anguish (but hopefully for only a little while) over bad decisions; forks in the road of our lives where we went left instead of right or ducked when we should have jumped.

But on the other end of this examination, we can choose to rejoice in a recovered zeal for the next 20 year journey. We can be excited about lessons learned and make the course corrections now. We can be content in not knowing everything and instead, move forward with our minds more open and teachable than ever before. I suppose this is the hidden lesson God had in store for us when he gave us our own children to raise. Yes, as parents, we owe it to our children to be critical thinkers but we really owe it to ourselves first.

Probably, the most depressing and disappointing article I have ever read in the churches of God to date is Gerald Weston's, "I Was Wrong." The title was nothing but misleading click-bait full of arrogant apologetics for the ministry. Many people in LCG were hopeful that after the death of RCM, the church would begin to listen and grow and change for the first time in 25 years. Instead, GEW has chosen to double down like Rehoboam, making his pinky thicker than the waist of our Golden Glove champion.

NEWSFLASH: You are not going to win the hearts and minds of our children when you dwell on legalized marijuana and our daughter's shorts as being the biggest problems in the churches of God today.

Older people spend a lot of time criticizing and putting down the younger generations that will inevitably replace them. The churches complain that kids today are less this and more that. One thing is sure: whatever the churches are doing to reach the next generation, it's failing. The death to birth rate in the churches of God is 4/1. The teenagers are not sticking around, once they leave home. New people are not flocking (not even trickling!) into the churches of God. Is it because the world and our children are more evil and less receptive to God and His way of life? Or could it be that the organizations are refusing to open themselves up to their own mid-life examinations, admit to bad decisions, make course corrections and save themselves from being what the children see: religious hypocrites and mindless minions betrothed to a gnostic theology developed by a narcissist of below average intelligence almost 100 years ago?

V