When my sister first started attending a “new church” (she hadn’t yet told me what it was, just that it was a Church of God) and she shared with me some of the Bible studies she had been learning, I often thought there was something interesting about them, an interesting way they fit the Scriptures together, but it also occasionally seemed that something was not quite right, though, as I said before, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It was several months before she dropped the bomb, so to speak, and shared a study about “mother god” and how we were once angels. I’ve asked myself, why did it take until then for the alarms to blare out to me? It was because there had been enough truth and Scripture quoting so far to make me put aside any unsettled feeling I had and wait to see what would come next.
2 Corinthians 11:14 says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. 1 Peter 5:8 warns us to be self-controlled and alert because our enemy the devil prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour. And Ephesians 6:11 and 2 Corinthians 2:11 say that the devil “schemes”—he doesn’t just wait around for someone to approach him, but plans carefully ways to get at us. Matthew 24:24 says that false Christs and false prophets will come to deceive even the elect.
What does that all mean? We ALL should be on guard for the enemy’s schemes against us. Satan will try anything to conquer God’s people, even pretending to be something good. (I often tell my kids to be aware—“bad guys” often look just like “good guys” on the outside.) What I see with the WMSCOG is that there is just enough truth mixed in with the false doctrine to make it easier to swallow and harder to detect, especially in the beginning when they are trying to draw you in.
So what are some things the WMSCOG has right? Here are a few (and if you have something to add, go for it)....
1. God does love you dearly, as a father loves his child (a perfect father, not like some of the fathers we see nowadays in society). The WMSCOG talks a lot of Mother Jerusalem’s and Father Ahnsahnghong’s love for their children. While they are wrong about Mother Jerusalem and Ahnsahnghong being gods, the true God of the Bible does really love you so much that He willingly endured suffering so that He could have a relationship with you personally.
2. The Bible does have an amazing record of fulfilled prophecy, such as with the Book of Daniel. But the WMSCOG themselves did not discover or put together this record of fulfilled prophecy—it is general knowledge among Biblical scholars. In fact it’s so astonishing to look at fulfilled prophecy in the Bible, that some skeptics have ventured to say that it’s all contrived, but not so. And this is one of the things that support the reliability of the Bible as God’s word.
3. God does want us to obey Him and follow His commands. Exactly which commands can sometimes be a matter of debate, but yes, He does want us to live a holy life. BUT He saves us through Jesus’ work on the cross, not through our work of living a righteous life. When the WMSCOG talks about being saved by faith, it’s more that they mean that they have faith that God has told them all the commands they must follow to be saved, and that if they follow those commands, He will save them. They believe they MUST follow every command and regulation, no matter how small, IN ORDER TO BE saved. But on the contrary, the Bible repeated says that we are not saved because of what we do. We seek to obey God and live a holy life BECAUSE He has ALREADY saved us.
4. God is mysterious in many ways. There are things we don’t fully know or understand about Him. If we really knew EVERYTHING about God, well then, He wouldn’t be a very big God would He. But everything He wants us to know about Him He has revealed to us in the Bible. If anyone wants to “unlock secret knowledge” for you from the Bible with some new revelation from God, be skeptical! God warns us in Revelation chapter 2 about tolerating a false prophet who reveals “so-called deep secrets”. If God reveals something to you, it WILL NOT contradict what He has already revealed through the Bible. If “god” tells you a new meaning to a verse of Scripture (such as the idea of “mother god”), but it contradicts what’s in the rest of the Bible, you can be sure it was NOT God who spoke to you.
5. You can use one passage of the Scripture to help you understand or interpret another passage of Scripture, and it is quite remarkable how different verses in the Bible can fit together like a puzzle to show a bigger picture. For example, seeing how a particular Greek word is used in Matthew can give you a more complete understanding of a verse where the same Greek word is used in Revelation, even though the English translation comes out slightly different. But, you must do this carefully, taking into account the full counsel of the Bible. If you match up the wrong verses (such as the WMSCOG has done to make “clouds” equal “flesh”), you will end up with a wrong understanding and contradict what God has revealed in the rest of the Bible.
I once read an author who explained it this way…
Satan may tell you things that are true, but they don’t equal to the truth.
For example, Satan may tell a discouraged wife, “Your husband doesn’t pay enough attention to you.” (true) “He doesn’t help with the kids or housework.” (true) “He works late every night and then goes out, like he doesn’t want to be around you.” (true) “You don’t feel any love for him anymore, and that guy at work has been flirting with you.” (true) “Conclusion: It’s all right for you to have an affair/get a divorce. God will understand.” (false)
Now try this, “Galatians 4 says that the Jerusalem that is above is our mother.” (true, those are the words) “Elohim is a Hebrew word used for God that has an ending used for plural words.” (true) “God made men and women.” (true) “An earthly family has a mother, father, and children, and we are called children of God, and God is called Father.” (true) “Conclusion: There are two Gods, we have a heavenly father and mother, and father god just hasn’t revealed mother god until now.” (false)
1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they
are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Genny, you are doing a great job! May God truly bless you.
ReplyDeleteThank u so much Genny
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