Sunday, July 29, 2007

What is WRONG with mega-churches??? "J Source" Explains!



One thing I cannot stand in Christian MEGA-Churches today is how cool and businesslike they are.I attended a large mega church for about a year and a half. The Mega-Church had a Sunday morning attendance of over 2,500 people. And I made the following observations:

1. Approaching the Senior Pastor is next to impossible.

2. The Senior Pastor usually cannot be bothered and is cool and impersonable.

3. There are so many types of ministers you need a guide to know which one to go to for what.

4. Tithing is preached about more often in a mega church then one would expect, even for a mega church.

5. There are practically innumerable committees, sub committees, and other things.

6. They have no problems selling merchandise on their Sabbath.

7. Java and Latte and Capuccino in the lobby for sale is common in mega Churches.

8. Red tape, red tape, red tape on starting or doing anything service oriented.Is it just me, or when a church becomes a mega church, isn't it just a large business with religious overtones?


Editor's note: RIGHT ON BROTHER!!!

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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

To the XCG's: Here is REAL persecution!


If you are member of the XCG splinters and if you think you are going under persecution because a few bloggers and theologians think your religion is a very cruel one and should begone from the face of the earth, well GET A GRIP!!! Christian believers in Iraq have paid with their own blood. Thanks to WCG Alumni's Hannah she picked an article from WorldNet Daily Report:
Christians in Iraq, including converts from Islam and people involved in mixed-faith marriages, are being crucified by Muslim terrorists, according to a Dutch member of Parliament studying the war-torn country.
Several Iraqi Christians "are nailed to a cross and their arms are tied up with ropes. The ropes are put on fire,"
Joel Voordewind told BosNewsLife, an online news agency focusing on Christians and Jews in difficult circumstances.
According to the site, Voordewind described how a person, who "survived" a crucifixion, "even showed holes in his hands," apparently from nails.
Voordewind said victims of the crucifixions are "in most cases Christian converts who abandoned Islam or people who, religiously speaking, are involved in mixed marriages."
He did not specify how many Christians have been crucified in recent weeks and months, as an official report is expected soon. Voordewind is slated to present his findings to Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen within the next few days.
The report comes as thousands of Christians are said to be fleeing Iraq due to ongoing threats and violence against them. Just yesterday, over 80 people were killed in bomb blasts in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Most of the casualties resulted from a suicide truck bomb which detonated near the offices of the Kurdish political party led by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani.
BosNewsLife says Voordewind was part of a Dutch delegation visiting several countries in the Mideast, including Syria, where several lawmakers held talks with the terrorist group Hamas.

See the original article at http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56726


I couldn't resist again...

I have been always trying to find Amy Grant's '90's remake of '70's group 10CC, "The Things We do For Love". Again, I am soo grateful for Youtube.com that I found that wonderful version of that song again!


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Special treat for my 200th post...some old school CCM!


Yes, this is a milestone on my 2 year blog and thought it would be nice to have some good ole fashioned Christian Contemporaray Music by none other than The Master, Amy Grant. She too, faced a lot of legalism and unnecessary controversy in the evangelical community. They criticized her sharply for her marriage troubles and her subsequent marriage to fellow musician Vince Gill and in the video below "Wise Up" some even criticized her outfit which include a "leopard jacket and tight stirrup pants" (when will this misogynist and stupid hatred of the female body in some fanatical ultra conservative factions in Christianity begone and die?!). More importantly, she does have a large place in Christian Contemporary Music and secular popular music history, which she can take great pride in. Enjoy these videos, courtesy of Youtube.com, "Wise Up" an '80's video and her 1993 crossover hit, "Baby,Baby".




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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

A waaay far better alternative to universalism, I think.



I had the opportunity to meet Jon Buck in the late '90's at one of which was probably my last Feast of Tabernacles of WCG. I will say with my meeting with him, he's quite a character and that is a good thing. He was supportive of the changes in the WCG without the evangelical schmaltz that Joe Jr. and friends sought to aggressivel impose on the WCG membership. C'mon, Jon is a Brit and Brit's have no time for sentimentality (especially the American kind) or being "over the top." I do hope there will be an opportunity to talk with Jon Buck again at some pont (hey, if you are reading this blog, feel free to comment here anytime!). He currently pastors a WCG church in Barrie, Ontario. I have replied to Douglas Becker in the comments section of the post on Bishop Carlton Pearson's view on universalism that the evangelical WCG still preaches a righteous provision on the unevangelized dead. Jon Buck explains this in the Sepember/October 2005 edition of The Northern Light (a Canadian based WCG publication) in the Pastor's Corner section titled Exclusive or Inclusive? What Are We? Mind you, there are those Protestants especially of Calvinist persuasion wished WCG that they would accept a more restrictivist view (in addition with the belief of the Western Church's view of hell, eternal torment in The Lake of Fire). Because of the new evangelical WCG's refusal to do so, those of Calvinist persuasion still believe that the WCG is a still a cult. Where do I stand? Those who have known what I have said that I believe that theological the WCG is orthodox in it's theology but cultic in it's orthopraxy (the practice of those beliefs) . The root cause I believe, is the hierarchial government that is still instituted (but this is another subject for another time). I see nothing cultic in believing in the divine perseverence of God. A 19th century Scottish fiction writer and Congregationalist preacher George MacDonald believed in it to and had no use for the restrictivist view of Calvin (which the theory of predestination actually reduced him to tears). Well here is the link to Jon Buck's article at http://www.wcg.ca/northernlight/2005_sep_oct/pastors_corner.htm . I hope many will enjoy it or be inspired by it!

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Sunday, July 15, 2007

Carlton Pearson and the problem of hell



I remember seeing Carlton Pearson (and many other preachers) when I used to have UHF on my old black and white TV to tune in on Trinity Broadcasting Network on channel 49 (now on channel 26) on Buffalo, New York's WNYB in the early to mid 1990's. As my theological perspectives have changed over the years, so has Bishop Pearson's. While I have embraced much of the theological orthodoxy of essential Christian faith, Bishop Pearson has accepted a more heterodox view. Some will argue that he has accepted a heretical view or is a heretic, plain and simple. It is over the touchy issue of hell. It is a very emotional and argumentive issue over many Christian theologians whether they believe in the conditionalist or traditionalist view of hell. Bishop Pearson believes in a form of universalism, that nobody goes to hell. Instead we go through hell (with the trials and suffering on earth) as opposed of being consigned to hell. Bishop Pearson also says, ""The bitter torment of the idea of an angry, visceral, distant, stoic, harsh, unrelenting, unforgiving, intolerant God is hell. It's pagan, it's superstitious, and if you trace its history, it goes way back to where men feared the gods because something happened in life that caused frustration that they couldn't explain." Bishop Pearson has a paid a price for his newfound teachings. Besides the heretic label, he lost his associate ministers who resigned and a congregation that dwindled from 6000 to 300!


Where do I stand in the midst of this? I can sympathize with Bishop Pearson's sentiments but I cannot agree with his conclusions. I believe his conclusions do not in anyway solve the problem of fighting evil. What happens with people like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh---or Charles Manson---how about the fanatical con-men of certain XCG splinters ---or the child molester, the pedophile, the sexual promiscous stripper who uses and manipulates men sexually and financially, the greedy and narcissistic corporate executive---or the abusive boss at work---all get a free pass to heaven? Their lives on earth was of no consequence? What they did on earth was okay? God said in the book of Nahum that he will in no way acquit the wicked. Will God just change their natures to good? If that is the case, God was joking about free-will and prefers robots. To me, that god is just as immoral as the "harsh, angry and vindictive" god. Therefore, a hell must exist to restrain or eliminate evil on a permanent basis. I believe that hell is the choice of man, I have stridently opposed the Augustinian-Calvinistic view that there are those who are predestined to hell and I have took the scripture from II Peter 3:9 that, "God is not willing anyone to perish but for all come to repentence" very seriously and at take it at face value. At the same time Hebrews 10:26 warns of unimaginable eternal consequences for those who want to live a life of sin and want to be an a "spirit of independence" from God after receiving the knowledge of the truth. Therefore, there must be a hell as a demonstration of God's ulimate love for the righteous and his ultimate fight against the wicked. As C.S. Lewis described that in the final judgement, the righteous say, "Your will be done!" and God says to the wicked, "Your will be done!"


Where do I and Bishop Pearson have common ground? We both do struggle with the restrictivist view that the unevangelized dead count as automatically "unbelievers" and "the wicked" and will automatically go to hell, whether or not they heard the gospel or not. Bishop Pearson had relatives who were "unevangelized" and it cannot not be argued that this can make him (and other people) struggle with the idea of how this can be a "loving God?" Many people have known that I have always believed that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to salvation, I have at the same time believed that it is possible that God (the Father, the Son and the Spirit) CAN make a righteous provision for the unevangelized dead who did not hear nor understand the gospel through no fault of their own but this is where the similiarities end. I cannot believe that everyone goes to heaven. If one has a problem with the conditionalist view of hell (annhilationism) and the Western view of hell (literal eternal torment by fire taught by Protestants and Catholics), I hope that Bishop Pearson may spend some time on what the Eastern Orthodox believe in heaven and hell and I think this is probably the most humane treatment on the topic for those that believe that the spirit in man is conscious after death. I provided the link here before and I will do it again: http://aggreen.net/beliefs/heaven_hell.html . It is my hope that Bishop Pearson does re-read his Bible again (as I had to do many times and I will be doing it many times over for years and maybe perhaps some decades to come) and can reconcile the love of God and his judgement against evil as a single unit. His current theology as it stands will present some very serious problems and dire consequences that he probably never intend to create but nevertheless have been created by faulty theology.


Read about the controversy about Bishop Pearson at ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3362554

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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The One True Church dogma lives on...in the Roman Catholic Church




It should come to no surprise that not only the historic WCG and its splinters believe that they God's only one true church. This is was what the Roman Catholic Church has believed for years. Pope John XXIII in the 1960's at Vatican II at least compromised and recognize that the Protestatnts are "separated brothers". Current pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI had a statement that really may throw the concept of separated brothers out the window. Courtesy from the blogsite CrunchyCon.com, here's what I am talking about:


The Vatican has set itself on a collision course with other Christian faiths, reaffirming the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church in a corrective document designed to clear up recent "erroneous" doctrine.
The document's central claim that the Catholic Church is "the one true Church of Christ" is likely to revive a debate that has dogged the Vatican's dealings with other Christian faiths for decades.
The 16-page document, prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Pope Benedict used to head, describes Christian Orthodox churches as true churches but says they suffer from a "wound" because they do not recognise the primacy of the Pope.
But it says the "wound is still more profound" in the Protestant denominations, a view likely to further complicate relations with Protestants.
"Despite the fact that this teaching has created no little distress... it is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them," it said.


There is no doubt that this will effect relationships with Protestant Churches in a profound manner. We really should not be really suprised about the Pope's statement. Before Benedict was Pope, he did say he wanted a "smaller" and "purer" church. This statement may be one step toward his wish.
Where do I stand with this? I have believed since the mid-1990's that the "Church" is an "invisible body" as opposed to a certain religious organization and I still believe that. I take Jesus Christ's statement "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" as every single human being having the right and responsibility to come to Christ personally as opposed to an organized church taking that responsiblility in place of the Savior. I hope the day that there will be a more progressive-minded Pope that will be bold, believe that I and many others believe and say that the Roman Catholic Church is a "part of the only One True Church". I may have been highly critical of the evangelical WCG but I applaud Joe Jr. for being bold and saying just that.


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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Oh yes!



J, of Shadows of WCG and of recent, Gavin Rumney has introduced this person's new blog. I think it's just as appropriate for me to introduce Stand Gardner's Ambassador Reports and you can look at it here at http://ambassdorreports.blogspot.com/ . I will even put his blogsite in my links section. I wish Stan's blog will also be around for several years to come keeping people like Joe Jr. and others to account!

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Monday, July 09, 2007

More Best of The Agenda's shows: 5 days of faith


I have recently explained to people who are Canadians outside the province of Ontario and many Americans whose borders DO NOT touch the province of Ontario about TVO Ontario which is the roughly the equivalent to the U.S. public educational service PBS. I have explained about TVO's flagship current affairs show called The Agenda hosted by Steve Paikin. I have been remarkably impressed with the show and the most of the episodes that followed. Here is a repeat of earlier this year's week theme of episodes called, "5 days of Faith". You can click here to see each video which is approximately an hour in length which is in total with all five episodes is approximately 5 hours of viewing. Enjoy!


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Sunday, July 08, 2007

This woman GETS IT!






For those outside the Toronto area and Canada, I present to you Marianne Meed Ward who writes columns for the Toronto Sun dealing with issues of faith and religion. I congratulate her for standing up to Bible literalists trying to make scripture into a science book. She is right that the literalists have done more harm than help to the Christian church. In fact, the literalists have ruined the credibility and public trust to the Church all because of their narrow view of what faith should be. Ms.Meed-Ward rightfully objects and says, "First, faith should be stronger than a house of cards that comes crashing down with every breeze of revelation, or alternatively imprisons its followers in an infantile reduction of key religious themes.
I envision faith more like a web, with strands coming and going as the believer gains more knowledge and insight. This is a strong faith, able to incorporate new information, and even abandon downright kooky notions without throwing out the entire faith. " I do look forward to a time in the Christian community, the evangelical in particular, when people will not be looked down for taking a metaphorical view of Genesis chapters 1 & 2 but I think I know that is not going to come anytime soon but I am optimistic that coming decades in this century that will change. If some in the evangelical community were really honest behind all their literalistic shouting,huffing and puffing and other hot air, it's all about defending "original sin", especially it's Calvinistic derivitive of "total depravity" and other misanthropic man-made doctrines (made in the name of God) to make people "hate" themselves and to control the congregating masses. Probably this is high time to believe in "original blessing" as opposed to original sin (but that is truly another topic for another time). The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox for years have had no problem with believing in evolution and faith. It has been perennial problem with American evangelical Christians or as I borrow Gavin Rumney's phrase "fundagelicals". I can only say, it is time for North American evangelical Christians to grow up amongst other issues.

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Friday, July 06, 2007

Sick!!!

FYI Again pointed out that I was rather very passionate and extremely dogmatic in my remarks in my other post that Armstrongism was one of the wickedest religions of mankind. Maybe I was a "little" over the top but I do believe that most of the XCG splinters are EVIL and they need to be resisted and fought vigourously at ALL costs but this video I am about to show you from Fred Phelps' anti-gay (and proud of it) church by the name of Westboro Baptist Church has a new video called, "God Hates The World" truly takes the cake! This guy makes Rod Meredith look like the more "moderate" Billy Graham!!! Somebody show this man John 3:16 but probably it doesn't exists in this man's warped mind. Make sure you see the ending of this video and you will definately say to yourself, "Is this child abuse or what???"
If any "fundagelical" (with apologies to Gavin Rumney) wants to complain about videos on MTV, this is one of the sickest music videos,ever. Sad, it had to be religious.


God Hates the World - Watch more free videos



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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Intelligent quote of the day

The responsibility of a parent is first to the child. Not to anything else. Not to church, not to religion, not to money - to the *child*.Anyone who is completely mentally healthy would walk into the church, see immediately that something is not right, and leave. Once they get to the point where they accept ministerial *counseling* (the sermon should be an immediate tipoff that there's a problem), they have already bought into it a little bit.But even if they don't - the minute that they see that what they are doing will harm the child - that should be it. No amount of religious influence, no amount of ministerial influence, no amount of *anything* should supersede the fact that the child will be harmed if a certain course of action is followed. I don't care if someone is yelling in your face saying you will go to hell, a parent should say "them I am going to hell but MY CHILD WILL NOT BE HARMED."In the case that a parent isn't healthy enough to tell the difference, then they have no business having custody of a child in the first place."But I was hoodwinked" is no excuse - *no excuse*. If you have a child it is your responsibility *not* to be hoodwinked. And if you are, it is *your responsibility*, as you are ultimately responsible for that child. Not the church, not the minister, no one but you.
---Russell Miller, participant on J's Shadows of WCG message board and a bloggist in his own right, discussing the issue of the power of the cult vs. the power of the parents.

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Another good video from J of Shadows of WCG!

Somebody give that man a prize!!!




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Another sad childhood in the historic WCG



Thanks again to PasedenaGuy 10 of WCG Alumni message board, he discovered a bloggist discussing her sad childhood in the historic Worldwide Church of God. The blog site is called Her Scarlet Letters and here is the blog post at:http://herscarletletters.blogspot.com/2007/07/e-is-for-elephant.html . For those who understand what this lady went through, just read it and weep!

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FYI AGAIN's take on the future of Rod and the LCG

LCG is toast

Whether it happens next week, next year, or the year after, it's been obvious to me for some time that LCG is headed for a complete breakdown.Many long time, loyal members have already left, either for one of the other COG groups or dropped out of the COG's altogether. Much of the growth that RCG's David Pack loves to boast about has come at the expense of LCG.And yet LCG's leaders and their proxies on the web continue to act as though all is well and nothing is amiss. To the degree they acknowledge any problem at all, it's always attributed to just a few disgruntled members who are in a "malaise" (another word for "bad attitude").I don't see how Rod Meredith can continue to hold to the delusion that God is somehow working with, even focusing His attention on his pathetic and steadily shrinking "work". By no stretch of the imagination are the fruits of the Spirit evident in anything they are doing - let alone the "gifts of the Spirit" which they've been praying and fasting for over the past few years.There is indeed a malaise in LCG, but it starts at the top and works its way down. Rod Meredith should be taking Jesus advice and look to the beam in his own eye first.
My response:
You hit the nail again FYI Again! Like the rest of us, we eagerly hope it is VERY soon. Even a year or even two years to wait for the LCG's demise is a wee long.
Isn't it amazing that Herbert W. Armstrong found Rod Meredith repellent? Here's a letter written in 1980 discussing this at: http://www.servantsnews.com/PDF/merlet01.pdf

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Monday, July 02, 2007

PasedenaGuy10 speaks out on Spanky's blame on his own organization!


Pasedena Guy10 of WCG Alumni briefly explains:


Good Old Rodders is out blaming the brethren for the problems going on in his cult. It's the members fault that they are confused, it's there fault that members have cancer and other serious diseases. It's their fault because they are not studying Meredith's version of the scriptures.


Quote:


Many of our ministers and leading brethren have sensed a spiritual "malaise" coming over quite a number of our brethren. Since nothing shocking seems to be happening on the surface—though much is happening just underneath the surface in world affairs!—some are letting down spiritually! Fervent prayer and real Bible study are lacking. And no doubt partly because of this, some brethren are losing their spiritual focus and are beginning to feel that God is "far off," that nothing much is happening in world affairs and that it is not really important that we are all truly committed to being part of the Work which Christ is using us to do.They don't realize that we are being used in a unique manner to truly "warn" our peoples of the Great Tribulation and also to genuinely "feed" God's people with the "whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). Many "little groups"—here and there—have part of the Truth and are doing a "little" part of the Work. But where is Christ primarily working and where are His eyes focused today on the Church. He is using to prepare for the coming Kingdom of God? Most of you understand. But some of our people are confused and weak, and some are also discouraged that several of our brethren are becoming seriously ill with various forms of cancer, heart disease, etc.So our Headquarters team unanimously agreed that we should call a Church-wide fast for the Sabbath of August the 4th!


PasedenaGuy 10 brilliantly responds:


Maybe what he really needs to do is tell his ministers and 'leading brethren' to get off their self-serving, self-righteous lazy @sses and go out in the community and work in the soup kitchens, serve the homeless, serve in an AIDS hospice, clean up the trash in a gang infested neighborhood or any other activity that takes their minds off of themselves and puts their so called 'faith' into action to make a REAL difference in the world instead promoting their fake 'gospel' message.


I respond to PG10:


Excellent, brilliant, articulate and intelligent advice! Sadly, XCG ministers have historically have never listened to anybody whether outside or inside the organization. My prayer is that this prayer and fast this coming August 4th of this year will lead to an open door for the thousands of members of the Living Church of God that they will finally for once in their lives to viscerally and violently reject once and for all the most wicked religion known to mankind: Armstrongism. It is my prayer that an open door will be provided that many will have a "real" relationship with God, not this false brand which has always been proven to be a dead end street. For the god of Armstrong is also a wicked but impotent one. The god of Armstrongism is a dumb idol, that knows how to get mad every day but in effect cannot speak. I pray that the people in the LCG in their newfound fight against Armstrongism and Armstrong's god that in their battle they will not waver, not tire,not falter and most of all, which is of supreme paramount importance---NOT FAIL! It is my prayer that rejecting this immoral god and wicked religion that an important discovery for the key of peace and freedom will dynamically prevail! God Almighty (and I'm talking about the true one who does hear and speak) will speed that time ever so closely!

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