As I began to compose this essay, I almost felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of factual information I have compiled, over the past several years, illustrative of the heinous Apostasy that has finally destroyed that once-honorable institution. Add to that already long and still growing list of grievances, the so-called "New Oil" phenomenon....
The above image is a photo of a bible in a plastic container. But that's not all. The container is half filled with oil; meaning, of course, that the bible is submerged in a bucket of oil.
But why would anyone want to do such a thing to a bible? According to Steve Brown, pastor of the West Metro COG (near Atlanta, Georgia), the oil actually came from that bible itself! Brown claims that the phenomenon of 'continuously flowing oil' first started in January, 2017, and that by March of 2018, that same bible had by then produced more than 90 gallons of oil! A more recent claim estimates that that bible is now producing "between 6 to 8 gallons per week".
What is the West Metro COG doing with all of that oil? While they have evidently been careful to point out that the oil is not for sale, nevertheless, they have given out scores of thousands of small vials of oil drawn from the buckets which the magic bible continues to fill. However, one must either come to service at the West Metro church or, alternatively, attend one of the scheduled "Flowing Oil Events" (source), in order to receive a vial of the magical oil.
Not surprisingly, reports of supernatural healings and other miracles have been associated with the use of that special oil. After all, it is stated on the West Metro COG's own YouTube channel: "This 'New Oil' is believed to be the actual presence of God" (source) (quotation appears in the video's description).
Think about what they're saying; not that God is symbolized by the oil, or even that He is somehow IN the oil but, rather, that the oil IS GOD!
How is that any different than the claim made by the Roman Catholic Church, with respect to the wafer given out at Mass? ~ which the Catholics believe the wafer to be the actual presence of Christ.
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Now, I've drawn this whole sordid story out longer than I would have cared to; but only to emphasize a most important point, namely: Is it at all likely that such blasphemous, deceitful practices have been going on, throughout the past two years and more, and just over one hundred miles from the Church of God's world headquarters in Cleveland, TN ~ without anyone at the COG's headquarters knowing about it? No reasonable person would think so.
I have extensively researched and written about such things as: the COG's abominable and wildly lucrative "Winterfest" events; the COG's wholesale endorsement of the public schools in America; the COG's treacherous betrayal of Christ, involving tax exemption; the COG's call for churches to embrace forms of "worship" that include creating a nightclub-like "atmosphere" and employing Occult rituals (labyrinths, etc.). And, now, this: A bible in a bucket of oil, being carried about from place to place and peddled as "the actual presence of God"!
How fitting a symbol of the West Metro COG ~ indeed, of the entire Church of God denomination: the Word of God BURIED in a vat of slimy liquid, and no longer capable of being skillfully handled by them. God's Word is only useful to them as a talisman (lucky charm), a cheap prop wherewith to deceive and defraud the people. In the several YouTube videos I watched, of various "Flowing Oil Events" conducted by "evangelist" Johnny Taylor, I never once saw Taylor actually read from Scripture. His ad lib "sermons" were all constructed around his 'bible-in-a-bucket' ~ which was always prominently displayed on stage.
Let's go even further ~ as we ought to. If I have been able to discover so much information pertaining to the gross apostasy of the Church of God denomination, then, what must the PASTORS of those churches know about those and other such evil things that are going on within that denomination? How can any true man or woman of God continue to have any part with such a perverse organization? The whole thing, from the head to the foot ~ that is to say, from the COG's (postmodern) Pentecostal Theological Seminary, to its local churches ~ is sick!
Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more:
the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it;
but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores:
they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire:
your land, strangers devour it in your presence,
and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard,
as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city....
Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom;
give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
When ye come to appear before me,
who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me;
the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with;
it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth:
they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you:
yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear:
your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:5-15)
Come out of her, my people,Twenty years or so ago, one might have been excused for not being fully aware of the actual nature of things (too numerous to list, here) having to do with the End-time Apostasy. Access to a practically unlimited volume of information was not then (20+ years ago) nearly as easy and convenient as it now is. Moreover, until about a decade or so ago, many who have since been exposed as being enemies to Christ, were then more careful to conceal their true intentions; whereas, today, the enemies of Christ ~ within the churches! ~ are far more brazen in their efforts to subvert souls.
that ye be not partakers of her sins,
and that ye receive not of her plagues.
For her sins have reached unto heaven,
and God hath remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18:4-5)
But times have changed: information is readily available to everyone; and, the Apostasy is now in 'full bloom and openly bearing its hideous fruit'. It is no longer acceptable, in my opinion, to excuse the ignorance of those who, by now, should know better than to blindly, carelessly, uncritically follow the crowd to destruction.
They should not be acknowledged as being Christian churches, which belong to ANY of the so-called Protestant denominational churches ~ including but not limited to the Church of God organization that I wrote about, above.
A FALSE Revival mood is being fomented amongst the followers of the mainstream "Christian" churches, by means of a tsunami of "signs and wonders," together with a bloodbath of false doctrine; precisely as forewarned in Scripture:
Even him [Antichrist], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
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