Index
Seeking A Response Sabbath Observance & Congregations Baptism Topics
SEEKING A REPONSE
Due to an ever-increasing number of people who desire a response from the Church of God – PKG, we are now handling all requests in the following manner. Any who want to debate beliefs or who are seeking to express their own ideas will not receive a response. Such e-mail will simply be deleted.Those who can receive more direct contact with God's Church are those who are genuinely seeking help and desire a closer relationship with the Church. If you are one of these people, then you must be patient and closely follow the instruction given in the steps below.
You must be willing to search out answers through your own efforts. For nearly all questions, you can receive answers if you will do more searching and digging on your own with the resources we have made available to you, and as you do this you will be led to more direct contact with us.
You have before you all that is needed in order to properly respond to God's calling, if you are genuine about your desire to repent and change your life, so that you might have the opportunity to live into the new age that is now coming to this earth. If you follow the steps outlined below, you will have all that is needed, at this time, to properly equip yourself for the coming of Jesus Christ.
I The most important thing you must do is to repent of your false beliefs and practices, your wrong ways of living, and to fully turn to God in obedience to His ways of life. The first step is to keep the Sabbath day holy. If you are not willing to set aside the Sabbath day as God commands, then there is no sense of you reading any farther because God will not work with you, nor receive you, unless you are willing to obey Him in this matter (Isaiah 57, 58 & 59). The Church website (www.cog-pkg.org) has a FAQ tab at the top of the page that you can click onto and read about proper Sabbath Observance. This will direct you to what you need to do if you are going to obey God's Sabbath day, observed from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.
II If you have not thoroughly read both books written by Ronald Weinland, then you need to do so. After a short time, you need to go back and read them again. The reason for this is because there is no way that a person can fully understand all they have read from only doing so once or even twice. You will grow in greater understanding the more you come to grasp God's great purpose that is being worked out for mankind.
III As the Sabbath Observance FAQ instructs you to go to the Church website in order to listen to the Sabbath sermon, you will find a large number of other sermons here as well. You need to use wisely the time you have remaining and listen to as many of these as you can. If you are deeply serious and genuine before God, you will be eager to listen to other sermons on the Sabbath, in addition to the live webcast. If you live in areas such as Australia or Europe where the Sabbath is over by the time you can listen to the live webcast given in the U.S., then you can go to the bottom of the sermon's page and click onto the “greenish gray” bar that goes across the bottom. The unedited sermon from the previous Sabbath will pop up and you can listen to this one instead.
IV In addition to the two books and sermons posted on the Church website, there are publications listed that will answer many more questions for you, and although you would like to get a speedy answer, you will simply have to be patient and willing to search out the riches of truth that God has made available to you. The Topics FAQ has a large listing of answers to many topics, and the “Publications” section of the website contains hand-picked literature of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. There is more information given here than you have time to truly digest and learn. Focus on what you have been given!
V Another area for information that would be good to check from time-to-time is the website www.ronaldweinland.com that has been set up to give timely information. Ron Weinland's travels and other pertinent information will be posted (especially in the future) to keep people informed quickly when important events occur that concern this end-time.
VI Through this building process of learning the truths of God, it is good to remember that you are to do so with the attitude of a student (the meaning of a disciple). Many have a difficult time doing this because they try to hold onto old false teachings from traditional Christianity or hold onto their “own understanding” that they “think” they have come to see through their own reading and studying, but these are only obstacles in receiving what God is offering you. God is not concerned with what anyone “thinks” is true, but He is concerned that those whom He is calling are willing to humbly and meekly receive what He is offering them. That which God gives is a matter of spiritual revelation and not a matter of one's own intellect, knowledge, and human understanding.
Those who are part of the scattering from the WCG will have to come to acknowledge that they have been spiritually asleep, if they desire to return to a true relationship with God's Church. All such people will have to acknowledge that the entire Church had been spewed out of God's mouth and separated from Him until He awakened them and brought them back to His Church.
VII Finally, all must come to understand that there is only one true baptism in life whereby one can be forgiven of all sins. There is one true baptism into God's one true Church, just as there is only one true Almighty Eternal God. Those who want to be baptized and desire to be begotten of God's spirit must read and follow the instruction given in the Baptism FAQ section of the website.
The Church of God – PKG is focused on helping those who are genuine in their desire to follow and obey God. If a person is not following these steps, then he/she will simply be redirected to the instruction in this FAQ, or their e-mail will simply be deleted. We seek to give help to those who are sincerely seeking God.
Sabbath Observance & Congregations
We are receiving numerous requests concerning the location of nearby congregations where people can attend Sabbath services. This letter is directed toward helping you learn how you can move forward, in a true manner, in your desire to obey God by observing His seventh-day Sabbath (from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset).The entire purpose of why God gives us the Sabbath day is so that we can meet before Him (in a holy convocation) and learn what He wants us to receive. God inspires His ministers, through the power of His spirit, to preach those things that are timely and necessary for our edification, training, spiritual growth, guidance, and profitable correction.
If you have read the first book written by Ronald Weinland, The Prophesied End-Time, then you know that God's true Church has gone through a period of great spiritual tribulation that was prophesied for this end-time. As a result, the Church was scattered and over 500 smaller groups have emerged (ranging in size from less than a dozen to nearly 20,000), but only one has continued as God's true Church. As Paul said in Ephesians 4, there is only one God and Father of all, and one Lord, one faith (one truth to believe and live by), and one body (one spiritual body known as the Church - the Body of Christ).
As God has always led, guided, and worked in one organized body (His Church), it is not sufficient that people simply attend (join together in fellowship) with a congregation that meets on the 7th day Sabbath, since hundreds of different organizations meet on the 7th day. Those who practice Judaism observe the 7th day Sabbath, however, they cannot be God's Church and His people since they do not believe Jesus is the Christ/Messiah. One of the largest organizations who say they do believe that Jesus is the Christ is the Seventh Day Adventist Church, but as Ronald Weinland's second book, 2008–God's Final Witness, explains, they believe in the false Catholic doctrine of the Trinity and many of them believe in the false observances of Christmas and Easter.
The point of all this is that there can only be one body that God works through, and it will have unity of doctrine and teaching. If an organization and its ministry do not have God living in and through them, by inspiring what is preached on the Sabbath day, then what is the purpose of meeting on the Sabbath with such a congregation where God is not working?
Having said all this, it is expedient that each person be convicted of where God is leading them and where God is working. God's Church today is organized as the Church of God – PKG (Preparing for the Kingdom of God). We are the prophesied remnant (that which remains from the scattering of the Church in the mid 1990's) that God is leading at this end-time. God has humbled His Church, and He has diminished its size. Hundreds of years ago, God prophesied the percentage that will be drawn back together as His final remnant in this end-time. From those who were originally scattered and spewed from God's mouth (that which has happened to the final era–the Laodicean era of Revelation 3:14), only a tithe of a third will be drawn back into fellowship with Him. In addition, even now God is drawing new people into fellowship who are being added to His Church (above the number of the remnant to be called back), and will continue to be added right up to the day Jesus Christ returns.
Whether you are new or you are one of those who was scattered, if you desire to have a genuine relationship with God, then you must indeed seek (work) to learn all you can, so that you can be brought up-to-date quickly concerning the times in which we are living. You must also quickly seek to know what you must be doing spiritually in order to best equip yourself for what will be happening in this world throughout the final three and one-half years of great physical tribulation that is now upon us.
The best way for you to equip yourself is to read and reread both books that Ronald Weinland has written. In doing so you will reinforce the truth of your conviction and build upon what you missed in any earlier reading. In addition, all should download and read the two booklets Time Is Running Out and Time Has Run Out, which were originally written to help those who were scattered from the apostasy of the Worldwide Church of God. While Herbert W. Armstrong was alive (he died in January of 1986), he remained a faithful apostle to God's Church, which was known as the organization of the Worldwide Church of God. In 1994, that organization fully abandoned the truths of God and returned to teachings that originated in the Catholic Church.
Each person must also listen to sermons (as long as they are able) that are posted on the Church website (www.cog-pkg.org). These are powerful tools that God has given to inspire and motivate you on the right path that you are to follow. In addition, the primary way you are to observe each Sabbath in a true convening (holy convocation) before God is to come before Him to hear what He inspires through His ministry in what is given in Sabbath sermons.
Not everyone is able to meet with others in a local congregation. This is due to the scattering and the small size of what remains today of those through whom God is working. But everyone can listen to what God gives Sabbath by Sabbath as they convene before God (even, if necessary, in one's own home), in spirit and truth. If you are in unity of spirit concerning those things you have been reading (obedient to the truth of God), and if you are in agreement (unity) with what you have been listening to in sermons, then you are ready to enter into fellowship with the Church.
Such unity being spoken of means you are obeying the Sabbath as outlined in this FAQ (and already listening to sermons on the Sabbath), and you have become obedient to the law of tithing. Obedience to the Sabbath and tithing test the genuine attitude of those truly seeking God. The subject of tithing is addressed in the FAQ on BAPTISM.
If you have other doctrinal beliefs and you are not in the process of being convicted of what you are learning, then you are not ready for such fellowship. The Church of God is a fellowship of unity of spirit, doctrine, and belief. Also, fellowship with the Church of God is not one for curiosity seekers, but solely a matter of conviction of God's truth.
If you have a desire to be in fellowship with the Church and you are in agreement with what you have read in this FAQ, then it is your responsibility to send us a full request concerning your current status and the reasons for your desire to join in fellowship. You will need to give us information that includes your name, city, state/province, and county in which you live. This is necessary to speed up the response we can give you from representatives who live in your region.
Either your status is one who has been part of the scattering, or it is as a person who is newly learning about the truth of God and has been changing his/her life accordingly. You need to inform us if you are new or if you were part of the scattering from the WCG.
If you were part of the scattering, you will need to verify that you are in agreement with the doctrine covered in Chapter 7 of 2008-God's Final Witness. You will also need to acknowledge that you were asleep spiritually and cut-off from God until He awakened you and has now brought you back to His Church. Those who have not proven these things to themselves do not grow spiritually (See section below: “Additional information on the Church that was scattered:”).
After sending us all of this information, we will get back to you in as timely manner as possible. After we have received your information, we will let you know if you are near a congregation that you may attend, or whether you will be one of those who will need to seek God by whatever means is available to you, even if that means doing so on your own at this time. Since we have now moved into the final three and one-half years of tribulation, the opportunity for people to come together as a congregation will become less and less.
Although you may not be near a congregation, there may be other opportunities to fellowship with some in God's Church. When and where possible, some cities will have special Sabbath meetings set up for the purpose of baptizing new members in that region. These meetings will have a minister/elder of God's Church present. It is on such occasions where some, who cannot meet regularly together on the weekly Sabbath, can come together at this time. Schedules of such meetings are posted (www.ronaldweinland.com) and are announced in the announcement portion of Sabbath services.
We are fast approaching the time when every city will have the opportunity to have local congregations, after Jesus Christ has returned as King of kings. But until this time, it is the duty of every person, who is serious about a true relationship with God, to seek Him with the means that God has made available during this short time that remains. The time of great physical tribulation is upon us, and soon most people will not have the freedom to pursue that relationship with God by listening to sermons from Sabbath to Sabbath. Therefore, use wisely these times of freedom you have to seek God because such opportunities will become few.
For those who do not have computer access to the Internet, we can provide you with sermons on CD's (mp3 format). This is not as timely a manner for receiving sermons that are given each Sabbath, but it is the next best thing at this time for those who have no other means of being taught on the Sabbath.
Additional information on the Church that was scattered:
As it was stated, there are over 500 splinter groups that have emerged from the scattering that took place during and after the apostasy of the organization of the Worldwide Church of God. Each organization claims to be doing the work of God. Doctrinally, this is impossible!
No individual has the time, resources, or intellectual ability to examine every organization to try to discern who, if any, is doing God's work at this time. In the first place, this is not a matter of intellect and human skill. It is a matter of the spirit of God. No individual can know what is of God unless God gives it. Each person is dependant upon God and His mercy for what he or she is able to see (spiritually). Only God can give and sustain a person in the truth.
If a person sins (without repentance) or falls asleep spiritually by becoming lukewarm in their pursuit of God, then a person will begin losing the truth because God's spirit has been withdrawn from their life (cut-off from God). The Laodicean Church was cut-off from God's spirit when it was spewed out of His mouth. The scattered organizations have fallen asleep spiritually and only God can awaken one from a spiritual sleep. Some have a difficult time admitting they have been asleep spiritually, and until they can do so they cannot grow spiritually.
By humbling ourselves to acknowledge the truth of what happened to the Church and acknowledging the responsibility each of us had as participants to the sin that led to being spewed out of God's mouth, then and only then can God begin to truly strengthen us in all that is true. Today, most want to hold to some belief that they are still part of the Philadelphia Era or that they are Philadelphians living in the Loadicea Era. It is difficult for individuals to humble themselves, as God commands everyone who is living in the era of Laodicea to do, and to admit we are all Laodiceans.
But we are to be Laodiceans who have listened to God and followed the instruction Jesus Christ gave us to be zealous and to repent. We must all do both! We must be zealous to God and we must repent of being lukewarm in spirit. God cannot use such a spirit because it is a spirit of spiritual sleep and stagnation. God's spirit must produce fruit in a person's life and that requires we repent when God corrects us and that we be zealous in drawing closer to Him.
When one era ends, another begins. We are in the final stages of the last era of the Church. If you are one who was scattered, will you repent and become part of the remnant that God has declared will only be a tithe of a third that was scattered?
The size of an organization does not prove God's presence, yet that seems to give many a false sense of security. Many believe that God must be working in the largest or one of the larger ones, but this is not true! Neither is the proof of God's presence contained in charismatic personalities, nor in those who may have been well known in the past.
Candidly, the largest scattered group, which is the United Church of God, is one that Ronald Weinland joined from its beginning and continued for nearly two years. But after exposing the misappropriation of $4.5 million by its leadership, the political practices of much of the leadership, and doctrinal laxity, he chose to resign. It was through this stand on true principles of Godly leadership that God led him to begin this present work. Besides these matters, the United Church of God is guilty of tolerating large numbers in its ministry who hold to the false doctrine of a 14th/15th Passover, which is covered in the first book. Such matters reflect whether or not the spirit of God is working in those who claim to be faithful stewards of God's word.
Going through the motions of doing a work that has resemblance to God's past true work (the Worldwide Church of God before the apostasy), does not identify God's true Church. Going through the motions of having services on the weekly 7th day Sabbath and annual Holy Days, as well as other things that should reflect a true Christian, does not mean the existence of God's spirit being at work. All must serve God in spirit and in truth, for without such no one can please (serve) God.
The Living Church of God, under the leadership of Roderick Meredith, is also asleep spiritually. Roderick C. Meredith is guilty in his failure to acknowledge Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong as the prophesied Elijah to come, who would restore all things to God's true Church. In a sermon series where Roderick Meredith's own words are quoted from taped recordings, Ronald Weinland has exposed the leadership of the Living Church of God for refusing God's true witness of what God accomplished through His end-time apostle (See “Sermon Archives” for 2001, beginning in a four part series on Oct. 27, 2001). In doing this, Roderick Meredith has denied God Himself. There are many other matters where the Living Church of God has become stagnate spiritually and is stuck in time, in days long gone by.
The Philadelphia Church of God, under the leadership of Gerald Flurry, has never been God's Church. God has never worked through Gerald Flurry during or after the apostasy of the Worldwide Church of God. Gerald Flurry has gone so far off base, in the height of spiritual arrogance, as to claim a title for himself that is given only to Jesus Christ as “that prophet” spoken of by Moses in scripture. The
list would be tiresome to continue, but organizations like the Restored Church of God, the International Church of God, the Church of the Great God, the Church of God an International Community, and organization after organization have all fallen asleep spiritually. God is not pleased with the failure of repentance of so very many from the Church that was scattered, especially in the ministry. It is for this reason that one of the Thunders, mentioned in 2008–God's Final Witness, deals in great correction upon the leadership of so many of these organizations that have not been faithful stewards.
So if you are one who was scattered, you can only be awakened from spiritual sleep if God grants it and only if He opens your eyes. It is only in this manner that you can truly know the voice of Jesus Christ and thereby have the ability to follow Him where-ever He leads His Church. It is fully a spiritual matter and God's spirit is the only thing that can reveal this truth! Each person must seek God through repentance and zealousness for God to grant him/her the ability to know where His Church is working today. No one can figure it out (discern it) on their own. If you want to keep the Sabbath as God commands, then you must convene before Him in spirit and in truth, and that means you must be listening to the ministry through whom God is working. Otherwise, there is no value in observing the Sabbath and certainly no real keeping of the Sabbath as God commands.
Baptism
The Church is receiving requests from such a large number of people seeking baptism that this FAQ is written to answer some of the most common questions concerning this subject.Everyone seeking baptism should read the article of Herbert W. Armstrong, God's last apostle in the Church. This article can be found by going to the Church website (www.cog-pkg.org) and clicking onto “Publications.” Next, click onto the section, “Biblical Truth Website,” which consists of the writings of Herbert W. Armstrong. Once on this site, click onto the “Articles” section and there you will find the article entitled, “All About Water Baptism.”
First, it is best that everyone understands that the true Church of God is not something that a person joins. Most people are accustomed to past experiences of joining a church, which is nothing more than joining a physical organization calling itself by some church name. People do not join the Church of God–PKG (Preparing for the Kingdom of God), which is a physical organization that enables the Church to carry out the work that God gives it.
The Church of God is a spiritual body that is made up of those who are baptized and have had the laying on of hands, which is the time of receiving the impregnation of God's spirit into one's life. This is the time one is begotten of God's spirit. Mr. Herbert Armstrong gave an excellent analogy to help people understand this process. He explained that once we are begotten of God's spirit, we are like an embryo in the Family of God, and we will be born into that Family once we are resurrected, changed from mortal to immortal–finally born again with spirit life.
The Church of God is described as various members who have been baptized (& begotten of God's spirit) and have become part of the spiritual Body of Christ: “For as the body (physical human body) is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body are many, so also is Christ (spiritual Body of Christ). For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body...” (1 Cor. 12:12-13). Verse 27 of the same chapter speaks to those who are in the Church and says, “Now you are the Body of Christ, and members in particular.”
Therefore, one does not join the Church of God, but as the result of an individual's choice and commitment to turn to God, in obedience, a person will be repenting and seeking to be forgiven of all sin. The result of a growing desire to be forgiven of sin, in order to draw closer to God, will naturally lead to a desire to be baptized. As a person repents of sin and seeks to obey God, they will come to the knowledge that they are limited in strength to obey God and will begin to learn that they need to be begotten of God's spirit so that they can truly grow in spiritual strength. Then, the result of baptism and laying on of hands to receive the impregnation of God's spirit will place a person in the Body of Christ–the Church of God.
Before a person can be baptized, it must be evident to the ministry of God's Church that the person is indeed bringing forth fruit as proof of repentance. No one is owed baptism. It is not like the churches of the world that teach a person can come to God “just as they are.” To come before God, one must be repenting of sin and seeking to be obedient to God. We are not to remain the same as we have always been. God tells those who seek Him, they must do so in spirit and in truth.
The result of seeking to change one's own life means you must be working to get your life right with God. Today, it has become common that people are living together in a relationship, but not married. Such things must be addressed before a person even comes into fellowship with the Church, let alone be baptized. People in such a situation must either marry or separate. Many such obvious sins of a physical nature must be repented of (which means one ceases such sin) before entering fellowship in the Church.
The world of traditional Christianity teaches that anyone is welcome to attend their church. It is an open-door policy to any and all, regardless of the sinful practices of those who attend. This is not so in God's true Church. Once a person is invited to have fellowship in God's Church, they have already come to a point of commitment of seeking to live in righteousness and of obeying God. The next step is baptism.
Before a person can be baptized, God's ministry will look for fruit that reflects a person is indeed serious and genuine in their commitment. There are two areas of repentance/change that prove to be the most telling as to the genuineness of the one seeking baptism. The reason for this is that both can have a direct impact on finances, which often puts a person to the test as to whether or not God is truly being placed first.
God's Sabbaths:
The first area of repentance/change is in that of the Sabbaths of God (both weekly and annual). If a person is confronted with having to cease from working on the Sabbath, then this will require a big change on his or her part in order to be obedient to God. In addition, God's annual Sabbaths fall on different days of the week, and this will require that a person go to his or her employer and request of them, or inform them, that they cannot work on these days. God must be first in one's life.
As we proceed through the seven trumpets of the Seventh Seal, people will increasingly find themselves in a position of not being able to be baptized. Under such circumstances, God will mercifully work with those who are genuine with Him, and for millions who are repenting and turning to Him, He will bring them into that new age that will come when Jesus Christ returns. For those who are so blessed to live on into that new world, they will then be able to be baptized and become part of the Church of God.
But for now, while there is still time for people to request baptism, each person must be in agreement with how they are to observe the Sabbaths of God, as instructed in the FAQ on Sabbath Observance & Congregations.
God's Tithe:
The second area of repentance/change is that which involves a person's obedience to God in giving God His tithe (10 percent) of income. This is a tithe of one's net income (after taxes). The taxes are not in our control, but belong to the government to which we are all subject. We have no power over that portion of our income that is taken as taxes, and Jesus Christ said to give to Caesar what is Caesar's. We are responsible for what is under our control and management.
Tithes are required on one's income/increase from labor (work), investments, etc. One is not required to tithe on government assistance, gifts, insurance benefits, or if one is a full time student in a college, university, or vocational school.
Tithes are not collected locally as with so many churches in traditional Christianity, but are sent to the headquarters of God's Church. It is God's Church that will determine how God is leading the Church and use His tithes according to His work and His will. Many ask where to send God's tithes. All tithes are sent to: Church of God–PKG, P.O. Box 14447, Cincinnati, OH 45250, U.S.A.
For those overseas, only Australia, New Zealand, and Europe collect tithes for the Church in these countries. All other countries should send tithes to the U.S.A. in the form of money orders, cashier's check (cheque), or even personal bank drafts. All funds should be made payable to: Church of God – PKG.
For those of you who have submitted to making the changes in your life that are described in this FAQ, if your desire is to be baptized and receive the impregnation of God's spirit, then you must make that desire clear to the Church. Write or e-mail your request and acknowledge that you have read this “Baptism Letter” and the other material mentioned in it.
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