LCG leader again continues to attempt to discredit

Worldwide Internet Users in 2012. (Jeff Ogden)

A reader sent me an email last week which mentioned that Wallace Smith of the Living Church of God had posted statements attempting to discredit the internet reach of COGwriter and the Continuing Church of God. After responding to the reader, I decided to post a response on the News of Those Once Affiliated with GCG page.

Here is what I posted:

12/14/13 p.m. In another thinly veiled and improper attack against me, Wallace Smith of the Living Church of God posted the following:

This particular fellow likes Alexa, and for good reason. It is the only “measuring” instrument that I know of that makes his internet efforts look so decent. I explained why that is in my post. However, this time he has trotted out a quote from a source that seems supportive: a website called “seomastering.com.”

Before looking at what the website actually says, it’s worth noting two things. One is that I’ve read that many “SEO” folks like Alexa because it is so easily manipulated to make websites seem better than they are…

“Alexa ranking is deeply tilted towards web sites which have many webmaster viewers. This is because web masters are much more likely to have Alexa toolbar installed.” (page: http://www.seomastering.com/seo-articales/alexa-ranking.php)

Note: The last comment is under the section of their page titled “Troubles with the Alexa Rank.”

Ha! Convenient, huh? Maybe our Alexa fan should check out his sources better. Could have been too busy patting himself on the back. Admittedly, it’s hard to do type on your blog and pat yourself on the back at the same time. (I know. I’m currently having the same difficulty. )

Actually, the hits keep on coming.

That last webpage talks about how to increase your Alexa rankings. If your Alexa ranking was a good read of your site’s actual popularity, then the way to increase your ranking should be “improve your popularity.” (Duh.) However, check out the list: It is full of all sorts of “cheats” and “shortcuts” that, with one exception, have absolutely nothing to do with having a truly popular website. Rather, they are exactly the sort of things that I explained in my post would impact a website that has a perverse appeal to COGers, who are known to have a disproportionate number of Alexa toolbars installed…

In the case of our Alexa fan, the users with an unusually high are COGers…

Again: If someone is aware of these things and he continues to use Alexa as evidence of the “greatness” of his personal work, he is either being dishonest or he is self-deluded.

Thus, in addition to passing on insults, Wallace Smith is flatly accusing me of being dishonest or self-deluded. He also later in his post claims my use of (verifiable) numbers is deceitful.

The facts prove that neither of those accusations against me are true.

Wallace Smith also posted:

And as for the “flag draping” Alexa fan I mentioned parenthetically up there who keeps beating the same drum–no matter how tattered and torn that drum gets–forgive me as I mix my metaphors by recommending a prescription: (1) Read Proverbs 20:10 & 23, (2) consider what you’ve claimed of others concerning having (ahem) a “love of the truth”, and (3) prayerfully study Matthew 7:3-5.

My apologies for those who find all of this minutia boring. Frankly, I do too. But when minutia is used to deceive (even self-deceive) and accuse, it’s helpful to get some honest perspective. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to be convincing anyone, as I have heard of literally zero people who find such figures convincing. But in the event that anyone ever does get confused by such nonsense and “horn tooting”, hopefully this can be a resource for them.

Wallace Smith’s “perspective” on this is not, in my view, honest. I am also not ‘flag draping.’ Yet, if he is saying that most of the people he knows prefer to believe a lie than the facts, that is sad, though probably true. LCG simply does not have the Philadelphia mantle anymore, so it is little surprise that most there will accept these improper attacks against me as valid and will choose not to believe the truths I try to report. And the truths about CCOG’s and LCG’s Alexa rankings are so easy to demonstrate.

Notice that Wallace Smith did not deny the truth that LCG’s Alexa popularity is less than COGwriter and CCOG. Instead, he resorts to attacks, false claims, and improper insinuations. If you are in LCG, you might want to ask yourself what LCG is so afraid of related to me that it again has to resort to making improper assertions and hoping that people will not believe the facts? If I were Wallace Smith, I would be ashamed to report that those I and apparently got along with would not be moved by the truth–but that is what he has done.

Furthermore, it was only because someone else associated with LCG seemed to believe what Wallace Smith posted and mentioned that post in an email yesterday, which is where I learned of them (I long ago learned not to trust Wallace Smith’s judgment on many matters, hence do not tend to frequent his website–back when I was in LCG, I attempted to follow Matthew 18 and on various occasions had others try to dispel his misinformation from him about matters, include me and my writings–so apparently now is the time to “tell it to the church”), that I decided to respond to Wallace Smith’s post with the facts.

What are the facts?

We in the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) do not have an Alexa tool bar attached to anything. Not COGwriter.com, not CCOG.org, not anything.

We do not use Alexa cheats, etc. as until I read the post from Wallace Smith today, I was unaware that any existed (nor have I yet looked into any of them) as I only quoted a paragraph from a particular article and had not read it in its entirety (and, yes, Wallace Smith might again criticize me for that).

The vast majority of people (over 90-95%) who visit COGwriter.com do not have a Church of God (COG) background.

For Wallace Smith to suggest that people who have an Alexa toolbar and who are part of a COG is somehow perverse is wrong.

LCG has a large staff and budget, yet according to the independent assessment from Alexa, its websites are nowhere near as popular as the COGwriter.com website. All of the official LCG websites combined do not have as much popularity as COGwriter.com and the official CCOG websites do. These are facts anyone can look up, yet apparently Wallace Smith and some others do not want this to be believed.

Alexa ranking IS NOT the only measure that makes the internet efforts of the Continuing Church of God “look decent.” According to other sources, such as AWStats, we have reached people in over 220 countries and territories. According to YouTube, our videos have been viewed by people in over 200 countries and territories. According to AWStats multiple millions of our articles are being accessed. We have reached people in multiple languages (we have many websites) and we currently may also be reaching more people in lands such as China than any COG ever has in the same time period.

Instead of accepting reality, LCG is having minions like Wallace Smith attempt to discredit the results that the Continuing Church of God has attained.

Anyone can check out the Alexa rankings by simply going to Alexa.com and entering a website URL. Sadly, others seem to want to dissuade people from accepting the facts. Do you wish to believe the truth or are you more comfortable accepting thinly veiled accusations?

Of course, that is a problem with many in LCG. For additional examples, please see my Response to a Letter from Dr. Roderick C. Meredith Dated December 28, 2012 (note: the information is now also available in the Spanish language, see Respuesta a una carta del Dr. Roderick C. Meredith fechada el 28 de diciembre, 2012). Those who believe many of the things that people in LCG have said about me and/or the Alexa results of the Continuing Church of God have sadly chosen to believe a lie.

Philadelphians are to love their brother as well as love the truth. Those who believe these type of attacks against me and CCOG have sadly chosen to believe a lie.

Sadly, most in the COGs have become complacent in many areas and will not recognize their Laodicean condition (cf. Revelation 3:14-22).

I was not going to post about it at this Church of God News page as I hoped that the GCG post would suffice, yet Wallace Smith again (apparently for at least the third time) decided to improperly attack and malign me with a post dated 12/16/13. So, I decided that perhaps this may be a subject of wider interest that I should address.

While there is little point in addressing all of his direct and indirect accusations against me, I will state that it is not Philadelphian to do what he and others in LCG have done related to me (see Response to a Letter from Dr. Roderick C. Meredith Dated December 28, 2012), Matthew 18 (see What About the Living Church of God? Are there Doctrinal Differences with the Continuing Church of God?), falling away (see The Falling Away: The Bible and WCG Teachings), man of sin (see Who is the Man of Sin of 2 Thessalonians 2?), etc.

As far as a technical point that he raised, he asked why I do not use, for example, ranking sites such as Quantcast?

That is easy.

Quantcast data for COGwriter is statistically-flawed and easy to prove wrong. Its estimated measure of USA audience reach is many times too low–and I again verified that this morning. I have, on several occasions, compared our results from AWStats to it and concluded that Quantcast data is completely wrong.

Why would someone intentionally choose to use a measurement which is always wrong?

Well, since it is normally completely wrong for at least it is for COGwriter.com, I do not use it.

Furthermore as Wikipedia reports, “Quantcast is a digital advertising company, specializing in audience measurement and real-time advertising.” Quantcast’s focus is on the USA market and consumer advertising, whereas the focus of COGwriter and the Continuing Church of God is on reaching the world with the witness of Christ’s gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 24:14; 28:19-20).

Anyway, after Wallace Smith mentioned places like Quantcast and stated that using inaccurate internet measures is deceptive (so, why he mentioned Quantcast is odd as its results, for COGwriter.com at least, are deceptive), he posted:

In other-but-related news, the same fellow says that I am writing what he construes as “thinly veiled attacks” at times. It is, indeed, true that I sometimes write things on this blog with certain individuals or groups in mind, and I have tried to say as much from time to time (like I am doing now).

Furthermore in his post, he makes more attacks, and much less thinly veiled, such as:

I heartily invite anyone interested to do their own research on all of this instead of listening to either self-appointed prophets or sleepy-minded, math-loving bloggers…So, in the end, yes, there are times I will comment on deception and self-deception, on the use of “dishonest weights” like Alexa, on the falsehood-of-the-day from blathering, peyote-using, rumormongers, on the wax fruit of prophet-wannabes, and on the hypocrisy of claiming to carry the banner of truth while simultaneously demonstrating in ones actions that the banner is a lie.

I am NOT a self-appointed prophet. It always amazes me how people who once had a WCG background can so easily dismiss the New Testament criteria for a prophet, as well as what the old Radio and Worldwide Church of God used to teach on the topic. Those interested in that should carefully and prayfully study the article How To Determine If Someone is a True Prophet of God.

Anyway, those who do read what Wallace Smith writes should pay attention to the attitude he is conveying–it reminds me a lot of how David Pack of the Restored Church of God comes across. Severely disappointing and not certainly not Philadelphian.

As far as Alexa rankings go between CCOG and LCG, here are two of its rankings today:

113,824 COGwriter.com (CCOG)
335,751 Tomorrowsworld.org (LCG)

The lower the ranking, the better the worldwide popularity and reach.

The truth is that Wallace Smith and various other ones associated with the Living Church of God have repeatedly apparently felt it was necessary to cast aspersions on me and the work of the Continuing Church of God. It was the lack of character of the leadership of that organization that forced me to conclude that it could not hold the Philadelphia mantle and that the Continuing Church of God had to be formed on 12-28-12.

As I have mentioned before, although the leadership in some COG groups prefer to believe their internet impact is higher than it is, I like to use a source such as Alexa to give a relative impact on how websites compare to the multiple millions of sites out there (one page suggested that there are about 500,000,000 websites).

Recall that Jesus taught:

14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

Notice that the gospel of the kingdom will reach the world as a witness, then the end will come. And I believe that the internet will be a major factor in this.

Proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God to the world as a witness over the internet (as well as through printed literature, radio, personal contact, etc.) is something that we in the Continuing Church of God are serious about. There is a difference between the groups that once had connections to WCG. Only one can lead The Final Phase of the Work.

If those in the Living Church of God truly have the love of the truth, they too will realize that several of their leaders have put forth improper information against me. Of course, Laodiceans are chastised by Jesus for not even realizing what their problems are (Revelation 3:14-22). Most will ignore the truth and prefer ‘smooth things’ (Isaiah 30:10), so they will not need to repent or change.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear! (Revelation 3:22)

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

The Final Phase of the Work What is the final phase of the work? Who will lead it? Do you have the courage to support it? Here is a related YouTube video titled The Final Phase of the Work.
Leading the Final Phase of the Work Matthew 24:14 will be fulfilled. Who is leading the final phase of the work? What did Herbert Armstrong and the old WCG teach about that and about prophets? Does Bob Thiel meet the criteria that the Bible and the old WCG set? What is the proof? What has the Continuing Church of God been doing? This is a sermonette length video.
The Falling Away: The Bible and WCG Teachings Who is 2 Thessalonians 2:3 referring to? Are there multiple falling aways? Here is a related link in Spanish/español: La Apostasía: Enseñanzas de la Biblia y de la WCG. There are also two YouTube videos on the subject that you can watch The Falling Away Part 1: From the Bible and Church History and The Falling Away Part 2: Positions Presented by Others.
Who is the Man of Sin of 2 Thessalonians 2? Is this the King of the North, the ten-horned beast of Revelation 13:1-11, or the two-horned Beast of Revelation 13:12-16? Some rely on traditions, but what does the Bible teach? Here is a related link in Spanish/español: ¿Quién es el Hombre de Pecado de 2 Tesalonicenses 2? Here is a version in Mandarin: 主编：谁是’大罪人’？Here is a link to a related YouTube video, in English, titled Who is the Man of Sin?
Why Be Concerned About False and Heretical Leaders? There have been many false leaders–here is some of why you should be concerned about them. Here is a related article in the Spanish language ¿Por qué estar preocupado acerca de falsos y heréticos líderes?.
How To Determine If Someone is a True Prophet of God There are many false prophets. How can Christians determine who is a true prophet? There is also a sermon-length video titled How to determine if someone is a true prophet of God. Here is a related link in Spanish/español: ¿Cómo determinar si alguien es un verdadero profeta de Dios?
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 lower level leaders?
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God was the Emphasis of Jesus and the Early Church Did you know that? Do you even know what the gospel of the kingdom is all about? You can also see a YouTube video sermon The Gospel of the Kingdom.
Response to a Letter from Dr. Roderick C. Meredith Dated December 28, 2012 In violation of Matthew 18, Dr. Meredith publicly sent out a letter that forced Dr. Thiel to conclude that the Continuing Church of God must be formed. Here is that letter and some of Bob Thiel’s comments about it. Here is a version in the Spanish language Respuesta a una carta del Dr. Roderick C. Meredith fechada el 28 de diciembre, 2012.
What About the Living Church of God? Are there Doctrinal Differences with the Continuing Church of God? This article explains some information and doctrines of the Living Church of God as led by Roderick C. Meredith and some concerns about them. (En el idioma español: ¿Qué hay acerca de la Iglesia de Dios Viviente? ¿Hay diferencias doctrinales con la Continuación de la Iglesia de Dios?)
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 most faithful in the Church of God, like the beliefs held of the Continuing Church of God.
Why Bob Thiel Left the Living Church of God Several have speculated reasons, but here is the truth. (En el idioma español: ¿Por qué Bob Thiel dejó la Iglesia del Dios Viviente?)
Journal Report on Continuing Church of God Leader Bob Thiel Bob Thiel was interviewed by The Journal News of the Churches of God related to him being a prophet, the proclamation goals of the Continuing Church of God, and why he left LCG.
The Laodicean Church Era has been predominant circa 1986 A.D. to present. These are non-Philadelphians who mainly descended from the old WCG.
Continuing Church of God The group striving to be most faithful amongst all real Christian groups to the word of God.