Sunday, November 22, 2015

Masonic Lodge


Living Church of God: Our Government Keeps The Membership "Unified" and "the Wolves Away"



The Living Church of God is apparently the ONLY COG out there that is 100% unified.  It can only be unified because the people at the TOP are the only ones capable of solving problems thus keeping the ravenous wolves out.

I'll digress a little bit, but I know that some, uh, churches in the past have tried to take this example – some of those who split off from Mr. Armstrong – that they don't need any government; they've tried to say that back here in Acts chapter 6, where they appointed these, uh, deacons, that that was voting; that was one example they've tried to use when they first started out, I don't know if they still do it or not, but they use that many, many times. It talks about in Acts chapter 6 – there was murmuring about which people were getting the service – and so, "The twelve (disciples), summoned the multitude…                      


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saying, 'It is not good for us to leave the word of God and serve tables." Who took the lead, who started this, did it start from the bottom? No, the NEED came from the bottom, but the ones who solved the problem were the APOSTLES, the leaders said, "Here's what we want done, you choose out from among you…" they had hundreds of brethren, and maybe actually thousands in the Jerusalem area by that time; it grew very rapidly. So they asked the other leader – leading men and women, no doubt – "Who among you…" they got input, they got counsel. Proverbs 11:14, "Without counsel the people are disappointed," things don't work out right, get counsel. "In multitude of counsel there's safety." That's another part of right government – counsel. They were getting input. "Choose out from among you seven men (or "seek out") seven men of good reputation…" you see, you're to recommend them to us; they must've discussed it. Maybe they were given a list of ten or fifteen and then by discussing it with these people that knew about them and among themselves they chose seven of that multitude that were given to them, no doubt. "Full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may…" "we?" who is "we?" Not the church as a whole, but the APOSTLES, "Whom we may appoint." He didn't say, "You elect these men," "We're taking the lead, you give us input as to who fits these qualifications, and then we will choose these men, and we will appoint seven of them over this business of serving tables, of doing this physical job as deacons." That is not VOTING! That's hypocrisy to try to call that voting; that's ridiculous. Don’t let people fool you with that kind of reasoning. I'll just tell you brethren, from one end of the Bible you'll never find that at all – never, never, ever, that's not in there. So God never had that as part of his, his Bible; part of this book, which is the mind of God, he always had it by appointment from those in charge based on the fruits of the individuals, and undoubtedly many times with input, and counsel, and prayer and so forth; prayer and fasting they did before they ordained people. So God's government can be a great blessing in serving the church and keeping the people together, creating unity, and in keeping the wolves away

Unity?   Really?