Worldwide Church of God: The Bad Samaritan

The Worldwide Church of God Samaritan

by Ed Sr.

The Good Samaritan, King James Bible Version:

Luke 10:30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
Luke 10:31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Luke 10:32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
Luke 10:33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
Luke 10:34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Luke 10:35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
Luke 10:36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
Luke 10:37 And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

The Good Samaritan, Worldwide Church of God Version

And Jesus answering said, A certain man was in the Worldwide Church of God, a vicious cult but he didn't know it. This cult stripped him of his money, education, career, family, friends, health, and did the same for his family. They wounded them physically, mentally and spiritually and left them half dead, (some of them actually dead).

And by chance there came down a certain priest. When he saw him he passed by on the other side and said "Just find Jesus, He will help you."

And likewise a Lawyer, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. Since the man was the victim of religion, a legal con-game not an illegal con-game, he couldn't help him.

But a certain New Covenant-Samaritan named Tkach Jr. who had inherited the money that was stolen from the man and the cult that had wounded the man, as he journeyed, came where he was and when he saw him lying broken and bleeding in the road, he told him to just move on and find Jesus.

When the wounded man asked Tkach Jr. to bind up his wounds and stop his bleeding, Jr. said that he had found Jesus and hoped that the wounded man would too. And he said to the man, "I found Jesus and look at all that I have now, money, authority, praise, honor, I have need of nothing. I don't even need to help you, even though my organization is responsible for beating you and wounding you and the money that I have is YOUR money. Isn't Jesus good? Isn't religion wonderful? What a country!"

And on the morrow, when he had departed, he passed by the man still lying in the road and told him that he hoped he would find Jesus and to just move on and forgive all that his "miracle organization" had done to him and quit being BITTER since it would keep him out of Jesus' Kingdom. After all, he said, other churches are just as bad as ours is.

Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

And he said, None of them had mercy on him, and the one who was the owner of the organization that had beaten the man and then wouldn't help the man, he was worse than them all because he could have helped the man with his own money that his organization had stolen from him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do NOT thou likewise. You will know them by their fruits and even I do not want to know them. They come to me saying "Lord, Lord" but do not the things that I say. Do they think they can misuse my little ones and I do not see it? One day they will stand before me in the judgment and give account of the evil they have done in My name. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth but, truly, truly I say unto you, then it will be too late because they know NOW to do good and do it NOT, for the love of money. They have their reward now. You cannot serve God and Mammon.

See also:

Mind Rape,
Worldwide Church of God,
And The Good Samaritan

COMMENTS

I have noticed a common pattern to the answers given by those who become defensive regarding the subject of the responsibility that wcg has to right the wrongs of the past. They all seem to fall into the following categories, although there may also be others:

1. "Other churches have baggage (or dirty little secrets) too." [This is similar to the "David Defense" as applied to Herbert W. Armstrong, only here it is being applied to the Worldwide Church of God as an organization.]

2. "It is not healthy to dwell on the past. A sign of spiritual maturity is moving on to live in the present and look forward to the future."

3. "Worldwide Church of God has apologized. Maybe you were too busy bellyaching to hear their apology (or something along those lines). Why can't you simply rejoice with us as we celebrate Christ and his miracle of healing in our church?"

I would say to the person who uses one or all of these excuses--maybe we could illustrate this whole issue a little more clearly by drawing a personal analogy.

What if....in your past....you were responsible for the death of your neighbor's wife...and that neighbor still lives next door to you, or just a short distance down the road? What if you were also responsible for the fact that their son, now a young adult, is severely handicapped, and will never be normal, and the family will live with the consequences and burden of that for the rest of their lives? What if you had embezzled money from the neighbor's family-owned business, and although your theft was discovered, you felt that, because you were clever enough to embezzle it, you deserved to keep the money, and you did keep it? Because of the loss of his money, the money you took from him, your neighbor has no savings for retirement, and he will be forced to work until the day he dies, to support himself and his family.

What if you had the means to make at least some amends, and to make your neighbors' lives somewhat better? Because of investments you were able to make by using the money you stole from your neighbor, you have some money available, (and you enjoy many personal luxuries because of those investments) but instead of making amends, you say to your neighbor, "the damage I did to you was done before I understood Christ's sacrifice. I regret that damage, but I now understand what Christ did for me, indeed, for all of us, and I ask you to not live in the past, but to look to the future and rejoice with me in the miracle of his love."

How kindly do you think your neighbor would feel toward you? How much sense does this kind of statement to your neighbor make?

I know this is not a perfect analogy, but taking the subject out of the organizational level, and putting it on a personal level, for me, makes those commonly used defenses look pretty ridiculous.

Joyce R.

For those of you that have a lot of guts, I would appreciate it if you would print this page out and give it to your minister and then email me his reaction to it. I REALLY want to know how the Hirelings can rationalize this. I can't imagine any answer than to walk away with their heads hung very low.
Ed

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