We Are Finally Done With the Churches of God!
We are finally done with the COG's! It has been a long difficult road. We both started in the WCG decades ago, but we have finally learned our lesson and are convinced that the Churches of God are nothing but greedy, self-serving cults run by power and money hungry men. They are all the same thing in a slightly different package. The last straw for us was the latest group we attended, the Faithful Church of God in Laodicea.1 Their constant talk about "God's one man" was just too much to take. After all, how many men are out there claiming to be "God's one man"? Yet, none of them offer ANY proof! In addition, they just flatly refuse to acknowledge the truth if that means they will come out looking bad or it will affect their perceived right to call themselves "God's one man" and collect the members' tithes and use them as they please. For instance, in the FCGL we repeatedly pointed out several of Herbert Armstrong's errors and his abuses/misuses of the people and the money, but they refused to acknowledge it. They did change some things that HWA taught but instead of calling it what is was--correction of errors--they call it "deeper understanding." We believe that they do this because to acknowledge all of HWA's errors would lead people to wonder about who/what HWA really was and perhaps start to doubt that he was "God's man." After all, if HWA wasn't who he said he was, what does that make the leader of the FCGL [Frank Borg] and all the other groups? Nobody! They certainly are not "God's man" like they all think they are! If members were to catch onto that, these leaders' and ministers' incomes and egos would all dry up!
We also pointed out the error of tithing in this day and age as well as the past abuse of the tithes by Herbert Armstrong, Gerald Flurry, etc. Naturally, we heard a million excuses and reasons why this was/is appropriate, but none of them Biblical. A lot of answers to our questions were, "the church has always done this," "Mr. Armstrong always said that," etc. We told him those were not acceptable answers. We wanted answers from the Bible. That tends to stump these people! All they really know is all the Church of God teachings. What the Bible actually says seems to be irrelevant.
We finally realized how much all this "God's one man" talk affects a person. It puts your focus on the man and not on God and Christ where it belongs. We have now removed those men from between us and God--where they had no right to put themselves since Christ is our only Mediator--and are now focusing on getting closer to God and Christ. We are extremely grateful that our eyes are finally opened and we can see what the Bible actually says. Of course, the FCGL thinks that we are firmly in the grips of Satan. Well, someone is, but it isn't us!
Thank you for this site. It has greatly helped us in our journey and struggle and we pray it will help others to see the truth--that we need no man to teach us (that is the job of the Holy Spirit) and we need no man besides Jesus Christ between us and God. We all need to pick up our Bibles and read what it really says rather than listen to the vain, deceiving, rambling lies of men. Stop looking for a man to lead you. Christ wants to lead you. That is His job. Allow Him to do it!
By Don and Marcy Lapinksy (ex members of WCG, PCG, Church of God's Faithful, and Faithful Church of God in Laodicea)
July 17, 2010
Footnote by ESN:
1 Faithful Church of God in Laodicea (FCGL) is headed by Frank Borg. Borg left Philadelphia Church of God and joined Church of God's Faithful. Then he left CGF and founded FCGL in 2009. Read: Frank Borg Establishes Faithful Church of God in Laodicea (letter to ESN)