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The full-page color ad in a popular magazine sounded familiar, but I
couldn't place it because no religious group identified itself. It
offered a free booklet called Revelation: The Mystery Unveiled!
It didn't take much work on Google to track them down. Of course it
sounded familiar--a Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God
redux.
Armstrong, who died in 1986, opened the way for Roderick Meredith to
fill the vacuum he left. Meredith, whose doctrines follow the
teachings of Armstrong, is now the leader of the Living Church of
God, a cult with a crazy mixture of theology taken from the
Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, Adventism, and Church of God 7th
Day.
An informative website on this dangerous cult can be found at
http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/artcls/meredith.htm * In
addition to information on the cult, the site has published letters
about the Living Church of God shooting spree that occurred during
Sabbath services in Brookfield, Wisconsin on March 12, 2005. The
website also offers two other informative articles: "Identifying
Marks of an Exploitive, Abusive Group" and "Lifton's Eight Criteria
of Mind Control," which includes how it is used by Armstrong's
disciples.
New believers are in danger of being snared by this cult by what
appears to be a belief in Christ as the way of salvation. In their
booklet, Is This the ONLY Day of SALVATION?, Scripture is widely
quoted pointing to Christ as the way of salvation. And yet,
grace-faith salvation is, in reality, denied by Meredith who teaches
that you must keep certain Old Testament laws and rituals in order
to obey God and to be born again. And that, according to Meredith,
doesn't occur until the resurrection!
The exhortation by the Apostle Peter is timely in view of this. He
says, "Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on
your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of
lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be
glory both now and forever! Amen" (2 Pet. 3:17-18).
In other words, watch out; they're back!
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* Exit Support Network This website is offered for information only and does not represent a blanket endorsement of it.