UCG & LCG

Laodicea is Composed of Many Ineffective Structures

Ambassador Watch posted the following comments from UCG’s Paul Kieffer:

Paul Kieffer (Bonn, Germany)

This message may be shared.

I appreciated the positive comments made re: the Living Church of God’s media efforts. My father-in-law John Burquist is an elder in LCG. On several occasions my wife Monica and I have attended LCG services as guests, accompanying Mr. Burquist. Other than one time when brief mention was made in the sermon on LCG’s understanding of New Testament governance, everything I heard was pretty much identical to what UCG teaches. The atmosphere at services was — well, like at UCG services. 🙂

“Chicago Bill” Bradford mentioned the potential synergy effect between our two organizations…

Personally I prefer the proactive approach, rather than inertia. I take comments seriously relayed to me from a fellow elder about what some young people say who fellowship across organizational boundaries. “Wait till the older generation dies off, then we’ll get this impasse resolved,” is what some of those young people think.

The recently revised guidelines for accepting an invitation to speak outside UCG have no effect on the policy re: required approval for non-UCG speakers being invited to speak at UCG.

I don’t know how it could be worded, but I think a revision of that policy to exempt or to “soften” the required highest level approval for an LCG elder to speak at UCG would be a very positive signal toward LCG (without UCG expecting any reciprocal action being taken by LCG in return).

Is UCG “big” enough to take this first small step for CoG mankind? 🙂

I think we are.

Paul Kieffer and I have different opinions of the differences between UCG and LCG. While he seems to believe (correctly) that UCG members would generally not be offended by LCG doctrines other than governance, he does not realize that LCG members are offended by various doctrinal changes and compromises that have occurred within UCG. UCG’s leadership is aware that governance was an important doctrine according to the Bible and the late Herbert W. Armstrong that UCG has forsaken.

Having visited UCG services a number of times (mostly when traveling in areas that there were no LCG congregations), I simply find that the average UCG member has more of a social connection with UCG, as opposed to being part of UCG for its work. That is in stark contrast to the fact that the average LCG member is more likely to be part of LCG because of LCG’s priority of doing what we feel is the Philadelphia work that God would have us do.

There are also a lot of differences in the emphasis of the message as well as the stronger emphasis (in my opinion) that LCG places on getting its members to change to more fully develop godly character than UCG seems to actually expect of its members. I also believe that LCG members, as a whole (excepting the Laodiceans who are in our midst), have done a much better job of heeding Jesus’ message to the Philadelphians to “Hold fast what you have” (Revelation 3:11) than those in UCG have normally demonstrated.

No matter what God’s plan ultimately may be for the leadership of the Living Church of God, the Philadelphians in LCG are not (in mass) ever going to be part of UCG unless UCG would undergo dramatic changes (and that would likely result in massive losses within UCG).

As we get closer to the end, the most likely situation is that two groups will become more and more distant from each other as the differences in their emphasis and understanding of prophetic matters (as one example) has been becoming clearer. At some point in time, I suspect that UCG will decide to publicly distance itself from LCG (even to a greater degree than it did with the Brookfield incident) when certain parts of LCG’s message get greater media attention in the future.

We in LCG have no intention to accept the type of compromises that would be necessary to be part of UCG. However, some in UCG as we get closer to the end, are likely to wake up and decide to support LCG. If you are in UCG and consider that you may be Philadelphian, why wait (cf. Zephaniah 2:1-3)?

There are, of course, many other doctrinal and other differences between the two groups. Those interested in learning more should carefully read and prayerfully study the following articles:

Differences between the Living Church of God and United Church of God This article provides quotes information from the two largest groups which had their origins in WCG as well as commentary.
Should the Church Still Try to Place its Top Priority on Proclaiming the Gospel or Did Herbert W. Armstrong Change that Priority for the Work? Some say the Church should mainly feed the flock now as that is what Herbert W. Armstrong reportedly said. Is that what he said? Is that what the Bible says? What did Paul and Herbert W. Armstrong expect from evangelists?
Polycarp, Herbert W. Armstrong, and Roderick C. Meredith on Church Government What form of governance did the early church have? Was it hierarchical? Which form of governance would one expect to have in the Philadelphia remnant? The people decide and/or committee forms, odd dictatorships, or the same type that the Philadelphia era itself had?The Philadelphia Church Era was predominant circa 1933 A.D. to 1986 A.D. The old Radio Church of God and old Worldwide Church of God, now basically the Living Church of God.
The Laodicean Church Era has been predominant circa 1986 A.D. to present. These are non-Philadelphians who mainly descended from the old WCG.
There are Many COGs: Why Support the Living Church of God? This is an article for those who wish to more easily sort out the different COGs. It really should be a MUST READ for current and former WCG/GCI members or any interested in supporting the faithful church. It also explains a lot of what the COGs are all about.