Sunday, June 24, 2007

Intelligent quote of the day


The WCG really botched the changes, in such a way that it leads me to believe that they had absolutely no interest in the welfare of their members. If they had done it right, they would have enlisted the help of outside therapists and had them waiting in the wings for anyone who wanted them, the power structure would have been dissolved, the organization would have been dissolved, the money would be distributed to programs to help the "displaced members". Not only that, but they would have issued a full apology.Instead, they just sprung it on the members and told them "this is how it is, deal with it".While the WCG did the right things for the wrong reason in implementing the changes, they completely botched them.


---Russell Miller on J's blog Shadows of WCG discussing whether one's years in Worldwide was really a waste of time

Labels:

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Boy this guy needs a theological seminary lesson!




Isn't heaven in the narrowest sense being in the presence of God personally??? What about that verse in Hebrews 12:23 talking about "the spirits of just men made perfect."??? It's not talking about the saints turning into spirit beings. They ARE spirits in heaven, eternally in fellowship with the love of God. I showed this verse to a prominent evangelical Adventist minister who supported the doctrine of soul sleep but was circular (but polite) in his response. Yes, I don't have to believe any tradition nor what anybody says (and this includes the commentator from the United Church of God's Beyond Today program)---but voila, plain scripture has took root again. In saying this---I do not attack people who believe in soul sleep and conditional immortality. Edward Fudge, best noted for his book The Fire That Consumes (I have his other book called Two Views of Hell) is a geniune Christian and firmly believes in the essentials of historic Christian faith. I have e-mailed him various times and is very cordial and supportive in his approach. In my post-WCG theology, I am leaning to the fact that when we die, the spirit in man IS conscious unlike what Armstrongism and the Jehovah's Witness teach that it is just a "memory bank" for our ressurection. When believer's bodies die, their spirits live being eternally in the care and presence of God. What can be better than heaven? For those who argue that if you believe in the immortal soul (or spirit)---you don't believe in the ressurection, I say that is pure emotional nonsense. For starters, Armstrongism never did and never will believe in the physical ressurection: note they deny the physical ressurection of Christ (they say that Christ was a spirit creature manifesting himself in a physical body to the Apostles)---whereas orthodox Christianity has acknowledged that it was the same body that died on the cross that was ressurected but it assumed new and incredible amazing powers. Armstrongism believes that the saints will turn into "spirit beings" without ever noticing that human beings are also spirital beings too! The saints at their ressurection will return in their bodies (a physical body) but it will no longer be subject to disease, sin and death. Yes, they will reign with God forever and forever and no, they will not be playing harps all day. Actually, I don't know of any single Christian who believes in the immortality of the soul who actually believes in that nonsense. Again this another of Armstrongism's manipulative red herrings to deflect from real substiantial issues. While you're at it, you can do some homework. Go to this website at http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/num10.htm and this website at http://www.freeminds.org/doctrine/hellcomp.htm and even the Greek Orthodox view of the afterlife(which I am beginning to mostly subscribe to this view but by no means the complete entirty of it) at http://aggreen.net/beliefs/heaven_hell.html . Also I would recommend a Robert Morey's book Death and the Afterlife which can purchased on amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Death-Afterlife-Robert-Morey/dp/076422686X/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1069291-1671147?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182649006&sr=8-1 . Enjoy some real study instead of getting information from a pre-packaged marketing from a program that pretends to know everything but really demonstrates it's complete ignorance!

Labels: , , , , ,

Friday, June 22, 2007

Guess whose coming to Mother Church for dinner???





Good news for Jared Olar, Professor Beckwith and Darren Carrey. Thanks to Daily Dish's Andrew Sullivan for the link to the Guardian. Here it is at http://politics.guardian.co.uk/tonyblair/story/0,,2108858,00.html .

Labels: ,

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Quite a character!!!






I present to you a full episode of The Best of The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Steve interview's TV's The Naked Archeologist Simcha Jacobovi (which is seen here in Canada on Vision TV) and his controversy on the tomb of Jesus and a panel discussion on Christian doctrine. Click here June 12: Simcha Jacobovici Faith, Flexibility and Christian Doctrine. For those who are not familiar with Simcha, who is a very humourous and interesting character to say the least, a brief bio at wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simcha_Jacobovici should do the trick! Enjoy!

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, June 17, 2007

More UCG stupidity




Richard Burkard, a United Church of God member is waaay more long suffering than Alice Kramden of the Honeymooners (Gen Yers, I am talking about the '50's TV series---not the 2000's movie!) , I think it's time that Richard not feel guilty about losing his patience with the continual stupidity that still exists in the UCG. What I am I talking about? I will let Richard speak for himself:






You'll be pleased to know the United Church of God declares itself NOT guilty of "legalism." And to prove it, here's a partial list of all the things I've heard my UCG Pastor oppose in recent years:
1. eHarmony.com -- "God doesn't work that way."
2. Roller coasters. They're dangerous, and might tempt God.
3. Poems in sermons/sermonettes. This one was declared out of order just last weekend.
4. Pirate Master, the CBS summer reality series. Its promos promoted lying and stealing so much, it was condemned even before its premiere.
5. Bank of America. The Pastor said a boycott would be in order, after it announced plans to allow immigrants to get bank services without Social Security numbers.
6. Politicians in Armani outfits. He seemed to condemn Nancy Pelosi for wearing Armani on TV, after the November 2006 national election.
7. The city of Atlanta. Because it has not repented of its sins, the Southeast is in a major drought in 2007.
This same Pastor opposed the following things during his years in WCG, and to this point I have not heard them revoked in UCG:
1. The Simpsons. It tears down the family.
2. Children appearing in TV commercials -- for violating the "fires of Molech" principle.
That's all I can think of for the moment -- but I'll add to the list as things come to mind. Here's hoping you heed all these warnings, and walk humbly before God.




Editors note (in two words): Yeah right! UCG minister: GROW THE HECK UP!!!! (actually 8 words but whooose counting!)




source Mark Tabladillo's Jesus Love Fellowship message board

Labels: , , , ,

Friday, June 15, 2007

Intelligent quote of the day


The Daleks and Cybermen of Dr. Who and the Borg of Star Trek the Next Generation and its spinoffs give us an effective aphorism of religion -- and this applies beyond the confines of the church of gods. The root of the problem is the seeking of perfection without bounds and limits. Nothing but perfection matters: Not humanity, not individuality, not love or empathy and sometimes, not even money and greed. What matters is that damned perfection -- as defined by the collective.Anything different than the collective is to be absorbed. The perfection is to be acquired, all else is discarded.At the core of seeking perfection is evil. The end justifies the means. The collective is protected. Worse than that, it is unassailable because, after all, isn't seeking perfection the perfect goal? Methods don't matter. The individual doesn't matter. The higher concept of perfection is what matters. If you have to murder, maim, dismember, destroy in the name of perfection, it is but a small price to pay. The seeking of perfection becomes the perfect justification to insulate from any accountability.Thus we see the seeking of perfection of many groups that "suck", such as the Scientologists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Radical Moslems, the churches of God all together representing the ideal perfection and the seeking of perfection. The religions are self-righteous and their goals look to be unassailable, but the fruit of their doing is a lifestyle and lifetime of misery for the individual sucked into their eschatological black hole.In the end, they are all evil to one degree or another. It isn't that power corrupts, it is the flawed view of what perfection is and more importantly how to attain it.And in such a venue of the Church Corporate which has adopted the worst of the Corporate Model and implemented it badly, the seeking of perfection will destroy us all if it is not checked.Fortunately, the church of gods has embedded in it a self-destruct mechanism. The focused power has been dispersed through entropy, beginning with those who began to see that the collective was nowhere near the perfection it claimed to have. Affiliations won't help much when the entire collective is so flawed that it cannot survive intact.



---Douglas Becker discussing the unhealthy perfectionist attitudes in the XCGs and other cults


source Gavin Rumney's Ambassador Watch blog

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

More Dawkins

Here is more stuff for you fans and critics of Richard Dawkins alike. For American viewers (and even Canadian viewers who live outside the province of Ontario) Richard Dawkins appears on a current affairs show called The Agenda with Steve Paikin on network called TV Ontario (TVO)---which the equivalent to PBS. Steve Paikin reviews Richard Dawkins' book the God Delusion. Thanks again Youtube.com!







Labels: , , , ,

Sunday, June 03, 2007

This sounds like the god of Armstrongism and his ministers to me!!!


Richard, are you sure it is the God of the Old Testament? Or is it Armstrongism's twisted interpretation of God in both testaments? I really think you speak very true of the latter rather than the former.

Labels: , , , ,

Links