How Truth Wins Out
All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
—
Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788 – 1860)
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its
opponents
and making them see the light,
but rather because its opponents
eventually die"
Max Planck
++++++++++++++
"Thou Shalt Not
Kill"
Truly the Most Meaningless Commandment
Ever Written
One of the shortest and most simple of the Ten Commandments is "You shall not
kill." Pretty simple. "You shall not kill." Any questions?Well of course there are questions. Even Dirty Harry said "some people need killin'." Killing is what the religions of "the Book" do best when push comes to shove. Both say "You shall not kill," and yet both kill, often and with great enthusiasm at times. Actually all religions that have exclusive ownership of the Deity's truth are killers when they run out of ideas of just how to logically explain the Good News and spread it. What "You shall not kill," tends to mean is "each other," but that also proves, in fact, to be a joke.
The entire Old Testament is filled with the exploits of a god that demands that these special people "do not kill," and yet do nothing but kill all those that get in the way of them and their God. If your last name ended in "kites or ites," you were pretty much going to get annihilated sooner or later by the people of the God who said, "You shall not kill." If you were the wives, daughters, sons and babies of the same, you also had had it...oh and your animals too.
I know Christians, I guess that's what they call themselves, who say that we just need to kill all Islamics and turn Iraq and Iran into a smoking parking lot, for Jesus. These people really do have shit for brains when it comes to discerning the spirituality of their religious heroes. They sing Onward Christian soldiers far too often and with way too much enthusiasm. I hate that hymn. I do love the verse that says "Like a mighty army moves the church of God; Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod. We are not divided, all one body we, One in hope and doctrine, one in charity." The fact is that "the Church" is far from not divided and they are about as one in hope and doctrine as the Taliban and Hari Krishnas. I'd say than the Baptists and the Taliban, but they are way too much alike in hope and doctrine. Maybe that's why they can't seem to get a grip on this "You shall not kill" thing.
When Moses went up onto Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:20), he left the Israelites for forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24:18). The Israelites feared that he would not return, and asked Aaron to make gods for them (Exodus 32:1). The Bible does not note Aaron's opinion of this request, merely that he complied, and gathered up the Israelites' golden earrings. (The reason they had so much gold was because "Thou Shalt Not Steal" was still a few weeks away.) He melted them and constructed the golden calf. The calf came to mind and was worshiped because this was the time in history when Taurus the Bull was the sign of the zodiac that dominated the Spring Equinox. Religions tend to worship the animal that occupied this sign in terms of astro-theology. This would be around 2000 BC when Taurus was passing out of this position due to the procession of the equinoxes and Aries the Lamb was taking it's place. At any rate, Aaron makes an altar and they all have a party. Bad move.
God decides to kill the people, even though He just wrote "You shall not kill" with his own finger. Moses begged him to rethink this position. (Exodus 32:11); the Lord relented. Moses went down from the mountain, but upon seeing the calf, he too became angry. He threw down the tablets upon which God's law had been written, and broke them. Moses then burnt the golden calf in the fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. After a bit of an interview with Aaron, Moses had "every man slay his neighbor and in that day about 3000 perished." He then picked up the Ten Commandments I suppose and told them "You shall not kill." Go figure.
Great stuff! Moses is standing there with the words "You shall not kill," in his arms and what happens? He goes ballistic, puts the tablets down and no doubt thinks, "we'll discuss this later," and orders the slaughter of 3000 or so people who were afraid after over a month, the man had gotten lost, died or went back to Egypt and forgot to mention it. To make it more personal, "every man was to slay his neighbor." Sure, easy enough.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist, as they say, to see why Fundamentalist Christians, Zionist Devotees and governments that swear they trust in God, get their ideas about what exactly "You shall not kill" means in practical fact. Here are several examples of how "You shall not kill" works.
Kill all who do not listen to their priests. Great idea! Even if they are wrong, no one is going to mention it.
"Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel." (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)
Kill Witches, which today means environmentalists, Wiccans and those who go
to church by sitting on rocks in rivers and in the mountains to think quietly
about what life means to them.
"You should not let a sorceress live." (Exodus 22:17 NAB)
Of course, Kill Homosexuals.
"If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives." (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)
Kill the nice lady who is a Fortuneteller. That's the job of the Priests and
male Prophets.
"A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death." (Leviticus 20:27 NAB)
Kill the kids who get a bit too angry with issues unresolved. Abraham taking
Isaac up to sacrifice him without discussing it comes to mind.
"Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB)
Kill the kids who don't hit the folks, but verbally respond inappropriately.
The lamp going out thing is not mom and dad sayin' "night, night" as we might
think.
"If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness." (Proverbs 20:20 NAB)
Death for Adultery. Please keep in mind here, the issue is taking a man's
property, not romance.
"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)
And for hormone flushed teens and single people, Death for Fornication.
Prominent teens are a great example to others.
"A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death." (Leviticus 21:9 NAB)
Death to Followers of Other Religions, which would be most of the planet.
Notice, there are other gods in this context, but the jealous god won't tolerate
it.
"Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed." (Exodus 22:19 NAB)
Kill Nonbelievers, which again would be most humans.
"They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman." (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)
Kill False Prophets, which would have included Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel
if you asked the right questions.
"If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord." When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through." (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)
Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God
"...you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God." Deuteronomy 13:13-19.
Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night. Oi, How do they figure
out who is and who isn't and who collects this information?
"But if this charge is true, and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death... (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB)
Kill Followers of Other Religions especially if they are you beloved partner
or intimate friend.
"If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods...kill him... (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)
Kill Anyone, but Levites, who Approaches the Tabernacle
"...Whenever the Tabernacle is moved, the Levites will take it down and set it up again. Anyone else who goes too near the Tabernacle will be executed.' (Numbers 1:48-51 NLT)
Kill People for Working on the Sabbath. No wonder attendance is down.
"...Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.' (Exodus 31:12-15 NLT)
Don't even thing of being curious or wonder if what you are told is true.
(How long does it take 50,000 ment to look into the ark?
"And he smote of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of Jehovah, he smote of the people seventy men, `and' fifty thousand men... (1Samuel 6:19-20 ASV)
Kill Sons of Sinners. Seems a bit unfair to me, but what do I know. This
could make certain government types nervous.
"Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their fathers; Lest they rise and posses the earth, and fill the breadth of the world with tyrants. (Isaiah 14:21 NAB)
Kill Men, Women, and Children, which is an oft repeated command.
"Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, "Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all - old and young, girls and women and little children." (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)
Generally mean killing. Be sure to kill the kids so the parents can die
seeing it happen.
"Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off. The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT)
Makes you wonder about those folks that demand the Ten Commandments be
displayed in the State House doesn't it?
Why is it that Judaism and Christianity in particular trumpet their great laws and rules for good living, such as we think we find in the Ten Commandments, and are the worst killers on the planet at times? Why are there a hundred exceptions to the simple truth of "You shall not kill," to where it is a meaningless law? Why has the Christian church murdered and slaughtered it's way into the hearts of good Christians everywhere and somehow it's ok both historically and to this very day? I'd say it has a lot to do with thinking that somehow all of the above examples are still the way to go and how God still wishes things to be. Frankly it's what you get when you mix the new wine in the old wineskin, but they don't seem to find that a reason to stop dong it. Killing others is a pure power ploy on the part of the perverted, it seems to me.
In many ways, the Ten Commandments are not as deeply spiritual truths as some would make them out to be. The reason one is not allowed to worship other gods is because this God is apparently a jealous one and won't tolerate the worship of other gods. Notice it doesn't say there aren't any, it just says worship of them is not tolerated by this jealous God. Jealousy implies competition.
Rules about killing seemed to mean "each other," as noted. Rules about coveting seemed to include women as the property of another man you should not covet and the reason you don't commit adultery. It's not about love. The other woman was property, like the ox and ass. You don't take your neighbors property, well your Israelite neighbor's at least.
Rules about stealing went unheeded wholesale in plundering defeated nations and often it was the young virgins "that had never known a man," that were part of the booty, however the heck you figure that out, don't ask. Israelite men, who no doubt grew weary of killing the good looking women, finally had the laws of killing amended such that if they found a virgin they liked and wanted to play with, they could spare her and enjoy after a thirty day mourning period for her parents that, no doubt, were killed before her eyes. So see, rules can change too. Well we see that in our own government that makes one set of rules for the masses and then exceptions for themselves.
But back to this killing thing. Why does it not mean what it says to the two major spiritualities, so called, that claim ownership of the rules?
For the most part it seems that killing is ok when it is defensive killing. The problem is that in the eye of the killers, all killing is defensive. Killing seems to be ok when a person or a country feels "threatened." Actually there are no "attackers" on the entire planet earth, only "defenders," as noted by Neil Donald Walsh. Everyone who attacks someone is merely defending something and that makes it ok. Whatever "you shall not kill" was supposed to mean, it has no meaning in practical fact or practice.
Why is it that Judaism and Christianity in particular trumpet their great laws and rules for good living, such as we think we find in the Ten Commandments, and are the worst killers on the planet at times? Why are there a hundred exceptions to the simple truth of "You shall not kill," to where it is a meaningless law? Why has the Christian church murdered and slaughtered it's way into the hearts of good Christians everywhere and somehow it's ok both historically and to this very day? I'd say it has a lot to do with thinking that somehow all of the above examples are still the way to go and how God still wishes things to be. Frankly it's what you get when you mix the new wine in the old wineskin, but they don't seem to find that a reason to stop dong it. Killing others is a pure power ploy on the part of the perverted, it seems to me.
In many ways, the Ten Commandments are not as deeply spiritual truths as some would make them out to be. The reason one is not allowed to worship other gods is because this God is apparently a jealous one and won't tolerate the worship of other gods. Notice it doesn't say there aren't any, it just says worship of them is not tolerated by this jealous God. Jealousy implies competition.
Rules about killing seemed to mean "each other," as noted. Rules about coveting seemed to include women as the property of another man you should not covet and the reason you don't commit adultery. It's not about love. The other woman was property, like the ox and ass. You don't take your neighbors property, well your Israelite neighbor's at least.
Rules about stealing went unheeded wholesale in plundering defeated nations and often it was the young virgins "that had never known a man," that were part of the booty, however the heck you figure that out, don't ask. Israelite men, who no doubt grew weary of killing the good looking women, finally had the laws of killing amended such that if they found a virgin they liked and wanted to play with, they could spare her and enjoy after a thirty day mourning period for her parents that, no doubt, were killed before her eyes. So see, rules can change too. Well we see that in our own government that makes one set of rules for the masses and then exceptions for themselves.
But back to this killing thing. Why does it not mean what it says to the two major spiritualities, so called, that claim ownership of the rules?
For the most part it seems that killing is ok when it is defensive killing. The problem is that in the eye of the killers, all killing is defensive. Killing seems to be ok when a person or a country feels "threatened." Actually there are no "attackers" on the entire planet earth, only "defenders," as noted by Neil Donald Walsh. Everyone who attacks someone is merely defending something and that makes it ok. Whatever "you shall not kill" was supposed to mean, it has no meaning in practical fact or practice.
Personally, much of the injunctions to kill "men, women, children and all
their cattle" seems to issue forth mostly from the prophets, who seem to me to
have symptoms similar to schizophrenia and rank narcissism for the Lord. I have
written elsewhere on the topic of asking whether much of what passes for
religious belief and devotion on the part of those that want to extend the Old
Testament ways of governing to other, might in fact be mental illness disguised
under the garb of devote religion. Actually I believe it often is, including
some of the most kill oriented leaders, under "God", in the Bible, both Old and
New Testaments. Maybe it's time to declare modern religion to be
"Non-Prophet."
Palestinians kill because they are being pushed out. Israelis kill because they are being pushed at. Iraqis kill because they are being over run and taken advantage of, and Americans kill because they are told it is to protect our freedoms and keep them from coming "over here." Some Christian types kill because you or I won't believe their tall tales about how close they are in touch with the true Church or ways of the true Deity and how out of whack our particular ideas are to theirs.
Close down all religious reactions and motives for a month and see how peaceful the front page reads and how much less anguish, crying and shock over the deaths of loved ones occurs. Just a thought. God save me from your followers, as they say. Makes me nervous to think we have those in government who think there is a bridge between the Bible and religion and secular government instead of a wall. It's SEPARATION of Church and State and Freedom of ALL religion, not just the chosen ones.
Whatever "You shall not kill" means to Christians and those of the "the Book," it really means nothing discernible in the real world of religion. Something is really sick about how devotees interpret their spirituality. Perhaps it's only about power and control of others after all. "He who kills the first one, has obviously run out of sane ideas."
"You shall not kill." Perhaps we need to either practice it and not just recite it, or get a new text with a bit fewer repulsive examples of how it is to be administered.
The Commandment has NO meaning in the real world of politics or religion in fact.
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We're All a Little Haunted...Or Alot!
Whether one likes or agrees with the term or
concept, we all have that little ghost in the machine that comes out
when the addiction to keeping up with this or other blogs having to do
with the experience of the Wild World Church of God needs to feed or
process itself. Eckhart Tolle calls it the "Pain Body" and that term
works fine for me. I certainly see it in myself and know when it wants
to feed.
It's the pain body in us all the gets cheeky,
critical, sarcastic, tell it to me one more time or yells, "shut the
hell up!" It's the pain body that challenges and tells the stories of
the past with more anger and more bitterness in them than ever. Its the
pain body that wants to feed on every topic that comes up like an
addiction. If you don't believe me, drop commenting here on this blog
about anything that comes up. See if you can. Or if you merely lurk
here and have you're own "this is my story and this is MY belief" blog
and can feed the pain body there, try dropping the need to do that.
Mostly it won't work.
I dropped Face Book a few weeks back. So far
so good. I realized that most of the friends there were merely
electronic ones and I'd never really interact with them in any real
life. Did I want to know or need to know when they got up, or what they
had for dessert? Did I really feel that posting this or that would
help anyone much? No, it didn't. The only comments I got on FB was
when I showed a pic of Chewy the Shih Tzu or told a story about how
hilarious she is. Politics? Religion? Great You-tube video on the
universe or some positive way to think or be...not much. There were
people keeping track of me for their own sense of something, but those
people never actually talked to me or communicated, and so I put an end
to it. Everything in me wants to go back! Part of me needs to feed on
it! At least I managed to avoid getting suckered by and time
wasted playing Farmville!!! I did have to laugh when a friend got
really pissed at everyone because they no one would help her "build a
barn." The barn did not exist in space and time. The anger towards
friends falsely so called was real as were the angry comments directed
towards them for not helping. It was rather sad. I wrote her and
mentioned that she's really angry at real friends over a really
imaginary barn. She got mad at me for bringing that up.
Farmville was where her painbody played.
Banned HWA is where my painbody plays. I
also am grateful for when I can keep that ghost under control as Banned
HWA also allows me to process the experience and share a bigger view of
the Bible and the story that I have allowed myself to study since.
However, I have also seen that sharing a bigger view of Bible Origins,
errancy issues, astro-theological realities of the book, the politics of
the New Testament and how Peter, James , John and Paul all got along
(not) are not topics pain bodies care much about.
I will always have an interest in theology no
matter my personal view or practice of it. I want to know what I did
not know about it all.
So here for your consideration and perhaps for
a little introspection is the best definition of the Pain Body I can
find. I do appreciate the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. Others I know do
not and that's ok. Tolle emphasises living in the now which is really
the only moment we really have. The past is where our anger and
depression lie and the future provides us with plenty of anxiety. We
might notice that the COGs live more in the future with everything
"soon," "just around the corner," "3-5," and "we are living in the
last days," I figure at my age, I'm living in the last days no matter
if we all are or not. My last days..." Perhaps we hurt ourselves as
much by foaming about the past and about "my story," as they do by
living in some eternal anticipation that may just disappoint and find
them going to the grave like the billions before them. I'm just
sayin...
For your consideration. This just seems right to me...
"There is such a thing as old emotional pain living inside you. It is an accumulation of painful life experience that was not fully faced and accepted in the moment it arose. It leaves behind an energy form of emotional pain. It comes together with other energy forms from other instances, and so after some years you have a "painbody," an energy entity consisting of old emotion.It lives in human beings, and it is the emotional aspect of egoic consciousness. When the ego is amplified by the emotion of the painbody, the ego has enormous strength still -- particularly at those times. It requires very great presence so that you can be there as the space also for your painbody, when it arises.
That is everybody's job here -- to be there, to recognize the painbody when it shifts from dormant to active, when something triggers a very strong emotional reaction. At that moment, when it does take over your mind, the internal dialogue, which is dysfunctional at the best of times, now becomes the voice of the painbody talking to you internally. Everything it says is deeply colored by the old, painful emotion of the painbody. Every interpretation, everything it says, every judgment about your life, about other people, about a situation you are in, will be totally distorted by the old emotional pain.
If you are not there as the space for it, you are identified with the painbody and you believe every negative thought that it is telling you. If you are alone, the painbody will feed on every negative thought that arises, and get more energy. That's why it's become active -- after it does that for a while, you can't stop thinking, at night, or whenever it is. The painbody is feeding, and after a few hours, it's had enough. You feel a little depleted. And then it happens again a few weeks later, or few days later.
The painbody would feel even better if it could feed on somebody else's reaction. Your partner would be a favorite person. And it will, if there is somebody around, or family situations. Our pain bodies love families. And it will just provoke this person, your partner or whoever it is. The painbody knows exactly what the thing is that will trigger a negative response. Then it says the thing that is going to really hurt you. And of course, if you are not absolutely present in that moment, then immediately you will react. And the painbody loves it! Give me more drama, please!
Both painbodies are now awake, and feeding on each other. Then, a few hours later, or the next day, the painbodies no longer need it. They are full, they have replenished themselves. And you can look at each other and say, "What was that all about?" In some cases, you may not even remember how it all started. This huge drama started somewhere, and then one thing led to another. Wasn't it the same two weeks ago?Can we be present and see if next time we can catch it at its early stage, so that we don't get drawn in totally?Can we both endeavor to be present for each other, and for ourselves?
See if we can see the first signs of the painbody -- either in ourselves, or in the other. Immediately realize it, be the space for it, and if possible -- even voice it to your partner and say "My painbody got triggered when you said that."Often, little situations trigger enormous reactions. Be there, present for it. Your partner will find it easier to see it in you, and you will find it easier to see it in them. Whether or not you can tell your partner that his or her painbody has become activated depends on the degree to which your partner has already been taken over by it. If you catch it at a very early stage, then some remnant of Consciousness will still be there in your partner and that remnant will be hearing you when you say, "Could that be your painbody?" It has to be phrased very carefully. You may want to add, "Do you remember our agreement?"
If there is still a remnant of Consciousness then that will be listening to you, and your partner will be able to be there as the space for his or her painbody. If there is no remnant of Consciousness in your partner, you will be talking to the painbody, and the painbody does not like to hear about the painbody. Of course, it will deny any such thing. "My painbody? Look at yours!"
So, what do you do? Can I be the space for that? While the partner is there, be the space for that. When you are the space for something, it does not necessarily mean that you have to stay there. You can be the space, and then remove yourself. Self observation - this is why being in the body is an important part of this. Feel the inner body as often as you can. When an old emotion arises, it will be easier to be present as it arises.
If you are present, the painbody cannot feed anymore on your thoughts, or on other people's reactions. You can simply observe it, and be the witness, be the space for it. Then gradually, its energy will decrease. "Living in Presence : An Evening With Eckhart Tolle
Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
++++++++++++++
One Hell of a Way Christians Treat Their
Children
The only thing
wrong with Halloween is the way Fundamentalist Christians use it around here in
the Bible Belt to show, in gruesome detail, their concept of what happens to bad
little girls and boys, who don't love and obey Jesus.
In any other context, Hell Houses would be
considered child abuse and the experience probably is the cause of more
childhood based adult hangups than anything a simple Trick or Treat night out
would produce. Fundys have a way of screwing up the human mind with their
lies about hell, the Devil and the love of Jesus which borders on that of a
psychopath.
These Hell House experiences are common
here in the South, as is live crucifixions acted out at Easter on the main roads
through town. What a world. If there is any harm done to children
for enjoying Halloween, it is done by Fundamentalist, literalist loons that
pretend to know who and what God, Jesus and the real way to be are. They
are god-haunted 24/7 and 365 days a year. They cause more harm than good
and, while sincere, produce more screwed up kids than any balanced, let's have
some fun, what do you want to dress up as, parent could ever cause on
Halloween.
Here is a bit about what Hell House is all
about. It is common here in the South and have never seen it done in more
progressive areas of the country. They would not allow it and Social Services
might do well to pay attention.
Hell Houses:
A Hell House consists of a group of horrific scenes within a type of
haunted house. The customer walks through a sequence of tableaus designed to
create terror and revulsion. The last scene is different; it is typically a
portrayal of heaven. The visitors are then asked to accept salvation by repenting
of their sins and trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Hell Houses are a relatively new evangelistic technique used by
many hundreds of fundamentalist and other evangelical churches in North America.
One intent is to proselytize the unsaved public. Another is to promote certain
conservative Christian beliefs, such as:
 |
That abortions kill
human persons; |
|
That sexual
orientation is a matter of choice, is changeable, and that God hates
same-sex behavior; |
|
That everyone who is not saved will go to
Hell when they
die. They will then be eternally tortured without any hope of mercy or release; |
|
That underground Satanic cults engage in widespread sacrifice of
humans. |
Some hell houses are disguised to resemble conventional secular
haunted houses. The customer only realizes that they have a religious theme
after they have bought their ticket and gone part of the way through the
scenes.
Typical scenes are:
|
A phoney reenactment of the murder of
Cassie Bernall, a teenager victim at the Columbine High School in
1999-APR. She was allegedly asked whether she believed in God, answered
yes, and was murdered on the spot. The incident
never happened. But the story has taken on a life of its own. She is
frequently referred to in conservative Christian magazines, books, and
radio programs as a Christian martyr. | ||
|
A person being sacrificed
during a Satanic ritual. The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) web
site warned of Wiccan rituals and stated "... evidence persists that some
Satanists and voodoo groups offer sacrifices -- usual animals, but,
possibly, human babies" at this time. Satanic Ritual Abuse was a
widespread hoax that was commonly believed during the 1980s and early
1990s. 1 | ||
|
Women undergoing very bloody late-term abortions,
complete with screaming, lots of blood, and particularly insensitive,
uncaring health providers. Some of these scenes have been partly abandoned
in recent years in favor of a portrayal of guilt and depression arising
from Post Abortion
Syndrome. | ||
|
Gays and lesbians
being tortured in hell for all eternity because of their same-sex behavior while they were alive on earth. | ||
|
The dangers of "dabbling" in the occult and
becoming demon
possessed. | ||
|
Personal tragedies arising from pre-marital
sex. | ||
|
Disastrous tragedies and loss of life
resulting from drunk driving. | ||
|
A man having an argument with his wife and is
later seduced by his secretary. | ||
|
Witches
pressuring a depressed teen to murder his fellow students. | ||
|
A 9/11 ground zero scene. |
History of Hell Houses:
The earliest hell house may have been created by Trinity Assembly of
God in Dallas TX. It was popularized by Rev. Jerry Falwell in the late
1970's. The concept was picked up in 1992 by Keenan Roberts. His first Hell
House was in Roswell, NM. Since then, he has become a pastor of the Abundant
Life Church in Arvada, CO. He sells "Hell House Outreach" kits to
other churches. Included is a 263 page manual which covers "everything from
media publicity to casting and costume." 2 A few excerpts
from the The 1997 Hell House Outreach Manual are:
|
"Pieces of meat placed in a glass bowl to look
like pieces of a baby... purchase a meat product that closely resembles
pieces of a baby." | ||
|
"Theatrical Blood. Because a large amount of
blood is used in this scene and in others, someone should be responsible
for mixing a vat of it each evening..." | ||
|
"Chrissy [the woman having an abortion] starts
crying. She is extremely distraught...the medical staff is cold, uncaring,
abrupt, and completely insensitive..." |
Included in the kit is a video of the previous year's Arvida Hell
House and a special effects CD.
3 According to Roberts'
literature, the CD includes "the voice of suicide, the voice of God, and the
bone-chilling demon declaration of 'HELL HOUSE' in the opening
scene..."
The 1999 price of the kit was $199 U.S. It later went up to $208.80. He commented to National Public Radio: "We're not doing this to win a popularity contest. We're saying look, sin is hurting our nation and Jesus Christ is the answer to what you're going through."
The 1999 price of the kit was $199 U.S. It later went up to $208.80. He commented to National Public Radio: "We're not doing this to win a popularity contest. We're saying look, sin is hurting our nation and Jesus Christ is the answer to what you're going through."
Roberts has received international attention through an appearance
on the Phil Donahue Show, and reports in the London Times, MS Magazine, New York
Times, Newsweek, etc. He told the Denver Post that the exhibit was
designed to "show young people that they can go to hell for abortion,
adultery, homosexuality, drinking and other things unless they repent and end
the behavior." 4
In his first three years of business, Roberts sold 300 kits, and
had 20,000 guests. His own Hell House reports about 7,000 or 35% Christian
conversions (instances of personal salvation). Admission is $7.00 U.S. or $6.00
if you have brought canned goods for the needy. Bill Geerhart has recorded a
somewhat unsympathetic blow-by-blow account of his passage through the Arvada
Hell House. 5
Roberts will not have a display in 2004. He told the Associated
Press: "It's not gone away; we're just taking a year off." He said that
his Hell House idea is now used by more than 500 churches in 14 countries.
6
The American Atheists website stated in 1998:
"Another example of a 'Hell House' extravaganza is in Kingsport, Tennessee where the Higher Ground Baptist Church estimates it will attract nearly 9,000 visitors to its gallery of horrors. Dubbed 'Judgment House,' the tour includes nine scenes and a cast of 200 actors. The themes mimic previous shows which stretch back to 1993 -- drunk driving, suicide and teen rebellion. This year, one exhibit will attempt to portray a teenage girls who dies after having an abortion. The minister in charge of the 'Judgment House' presentation told reporters, 'We have all kinds coming... Devil worshippers, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, everyone'." 1
Criticisms of the Hell House concept:
|
The Colorado Council of Churches,
criticized the scare tactics used in the Arvada Hell House. They were also
critical of the literal demonization of homosexuals and abortion
providers. |
|
Rev. J.T. Tucker, director of youth ministries
at Northway Christian Church in Dallas, TX suggests that any shock value wears off quickly in a society saturated with violent images. He commented: "I detest those things...Trying to scare people into a decision [for Jesus] is very wrong...If you consider all the money, along with ministry hours...if they would refocus those areas on missions in urban Dallas, I think they would have a lot bigger return..." |
|
The Human Rights Campaign is a group
which promotes equal rights for gays and lesbians. They note that
homosexuals are frequently demonized in Hell Houses. The reality of sexual
orientation is also distorted. A Florida house features a "demon"
who dances around the coffin of an AIDS victim, overjoyed that the dead
man is now suffering in hell. He declares "I tricked him into believing
he was born gay! Have you ever heard something so silly?"
HRC spokesperson Wayne Besen calls such displays "pornography for the
soul...It's poising the minds of people...It's especially hurting gay and
lesbian youth who are already under pressure." |
|
The Rev. Ballard's "Hell House" in
Warren County OH was criticized by Doreen Cudnik, executive director of
Stonewall Cincinnati. She said that the display "is out of touch with
AIDS in the year 2000. To say gay equals AIDS equals burning in hell has
the dangerous potential to lead to hate crimes against the gay
community." |
|
The Merced, CA Sun-Star newspaper criticized
the New Beginning Christian Center for what the paper called an
"unnecessarily brutal and insensitive" event. The church's pastor,
Mike Duckworth, said: "We're going to scare the hell out of people and,
at the end, show them there's a way out--Jesus Christ. We're bringing
controversial issues to the forefront and then giving an
antidote." 6 |
|
A Christian radio station in Fairfield, OH
terminated ads which promoted Kings Point Church of God's Hell
House because the ads invited listeners to "come see the funeral of a
homosexual AIDS patient." The Cincinnati Enquirer said that the ads
were "blatant gay bashing."
6 |
Author's note:
Hell Houses appear to spread misinformation and disinformation
about a variety of topics:
|
The nature of abortion: 90% of all abortions
are performed in the first trimester. The percentage of third-trimester
abortions -- as portrayed in the play -- is less than 1%) and are often
performed because of a major genetic abnormality in the
fetus. |
|
The motivation and demeanor of abortion
providers. |
|
The appearance, beliefs and activities of Witches and
other Neopagans. |
|
The Satanic ritual abuse
hoax. |
|
The nature of sexual
orientation. |
References:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.- "At the cusp of Halloween, a nod to religious origins," American Atheists, 1998-OCT-29, at: http://www.atheists.org/
- "Hell House," Abundant Life Christian Center, at: http://www.alccdenver.com/
- Conrad Goeringer, "Church groups operating Halloween hell hoaxes," AANEWS, American Atheists, 1999-OCT-24. To subscribe, send a blank message to aanews-on@atheists.org
-
Bill Berkowitz, "Christian Right plans holy havoc for Halloween," AlterNet.com, 2000-OCT-16, at: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9937
-
Bill Geerhart "Halloween Hangover," at: http://www.postfun.com/pfp/features/98/nov/hellhouse.html
-
Andy Butcher, "Halloween 'Hell Houses' Come Under Fire. Christian 'shock evangelism' program criticized for insensitivity," Charisma News Service, at: http://beliefnet.com/.
++++++++++++++
Hearing the Voice of
God
Reading the Voice of
God
Questioning the Voice of
God
The Evolution of the Religious
Mind
It is easy to recoil at the amazingly cold and cruel
stories we find in the Bible of the behaviors of men in the name of their
God. We see that most of it was done because these men were told to by
"God." They never saw God, or if they did it was from behind, or in a
cloud or burning bush...but they did hear the voice in their head.
As a kid, I wondered what kind of father was this
character called Abraham, who when told by the voice in his head to go offer his
son up to the god in a human sacrifice, simply said, "oh, Ok." There
is no emotion expressed by this man. He has the mind of a
zombie.
The Old Testament is like that. Many of the players,
especially the people under the leadership figures in the Bible, simply do what
they are told without any introspection or personal thinking. As a result,
we have men who sacrifice their daughters because they said whatever comes thru
the door goes to the god. We have armies hacking and wacking their way to
glory hearing the voices in their head of the leaders urging them on by the
voices in their heads too. We have a Moses who gets pissed off when gone
on a mission to pick up the Big Ten, one of which forbids murder, and then
orders "each man to kill his neighbor. And in that day about 3000 died," no
biggy. No one seems to tell Moses, "what are you nuts?" They just do
it.
The prophets, both major and minor are god haunted by
the voices of the god in their heads. They conduct their entire lives
obeying what others cannot hear and do not experience. Their quirkiness,
rather than seen as a mental illness or malfunction, is seen as a special
calling and people fear them. And while often wrong in their prophecies, we
forgive them and project it ahead a few more years to another time to cover up
their errors.
This is a huge topic but one I always wondered about.
Why is the OT so violent and the stories full of examples of people doing things
that would never be tolerated today? What's going on
here?
Julian Jaynes, author of The Origin of
Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, may have an
answer.
"At one time human nature was split in two, and
executive part called a god, and a follower called a man. Neither part was
conscious."
And what changed this man who heard the voice, much
like a schizophrenic would, in his head telling him what to do either by the
King or by the god?
Writing.
Writing came to humans about 3000 years ago. At first
they were pictures such as hieroglyphs as in Egypt but in time letter were
formed and books were written. This allowed humans to save their thoughts
and examine them. This broke the cycle of the Bicameral mind and people,
slowly began to wake up and hear their own thoughts and question others over
them. They also started to hear the voice of the gods less and less, which
was a very disturbing turn for the worse.
Jaynes shows that the Illiad, written about 1260 BC is
almost devoid of human emotion and introspective characters. They just do
what the voices or the gods dictate. However, in the Odyssey, written in the
900's BC, we see much more introspection and awakening of the individual.
This was a transitional time for human thought. This is story time and
when the Old Testament story comes on the scene.
To me it explains most of the seeming inhuman
characteristics of many OT characters.
For example, we have the little boy Samuel, hearing
his name called by God, but only in his head. He goes on to be a rather weirdly
respected prophet who makes a career out of hearing the voices in his head. Saul
on the other hand, is vilified in the OT for his independent thinking and
"disobedience" to God and the men who hear the voices. Actually, Saul was
more awake in his personal consciousness. He introspected where Samuel did
not. Samuel was god haunted. Saul was not and it confused him.
Saul was told to do things by Samuel he did not understand. He was derided for
things that today we would say, "well, I'd wonder about that too." When
Samuel doesn't show up, as he said he would and at the time he said he would,
Saul takes charge, makes decisions and of course, gets nailed by Samuel and the
voices in Samuel's head for doing so. One man was unconscious and one was
more conscious, and it wasn't the prophet of God.
This theory of human consciousness also explains why
we see God fading from the picture in the OT. We start out with God
practically being everyone's best friend, accessible (in the mind) and ever
present. As the story unfolds, God has to be seen in symbols such as
snakes and idols, clouds and pillars of fire. He's still there and most
can still hear the voice in their heads telling them what to do or how to be,
but fading.
Soon God drops out of the picture and now needs other
humans like kings and priests to tell everyone what the voice of God in their
heads says to do. Most obey and hear the voice of the Kings and Priests as
they once heard the voice of God.
In time, around 1000 BC we have even the Kings and
Priests losing touch with the voice. The Psalms are full of "why art thou
so far off?" "Why have you forsaken us?" and "Why do you not speak with us
anymore?" Over the next 3000 years humans seek a hundred different ways to
recontact God. Necromancy, idols, lots, oracles, smoke and prayers.
Whatever the Urim and Thummin was, it was a way to figure out what the silent
God in the head wanted Israel to do. Today we have oija boards, crystal
ball gazers, ministers and priests to tell us what God wants from us as we
question it all having become more conscious and scientific of thought.
Ministers and Priests today don't hear the voices
either, well most don't, but they have the book and supposed records of those
that still did.
From this period of time, those who still hear the
voice become the prophets and conclude it must be "Sin" that has separated them
from the voice and so the concept of sin was born, both national and
personal. And so all the stops are pulled to get back on track, to no
avail. Those who are not as conscious go to war with those that are more
conscious. Religion is born big time and people end up on one side or the other
and the rest is history as most humans now have awakened in their introspection,
question asking and individuality.
While I suggest a long read of Jaynes view, the short of it is that the human brain is two brains. The right hemisphere can see and think but cannot speak. However, to this day, hallucinations and voices come from the right brain. The left hemisphere can both see and speak because of the Broca and Wernike's areas of speech. Whatever the right side sees, it must connect to the left to speak it.
For example. The right brain and eye sees things
on the left. The left brain and eye sees things on the right.
Together they see it all. When the bridge between the two is cut or
damaged we have a fascinating reality. When shown slides the right sees
the left one and the left sees the right one. When the left slide injects
a bit of Porn to the right eye, the person sees it but can't talk about
it. Talking is left brain and the bridge is cut. The left eye see
right slides with no porn so has no reaction. The person starts to
giggle or get red because the right eye sees the porn the left eye cannot. When
asked why are you giggling. The left side which can speak says, "I
have no idea!"
In the past, the right brain heard to voice of the
gods, king or priests in their heads on the right side as do modern
schizophrenics. The left side talks about it.
This may explain why Egypt could build such a
civilization. Pyramids weren't built by slaves. They were built by
unconscious zombies of sorts who did not think for themselves. A nation
would need to be at peace for the most part to build such things and the vast
number of humans would need to be easily told what needed to be done and
why. They said, "Ok" just as Abraham did.
All this change in human consciousness because writing
allowed humans to think more introspectively and as they did, the voice of the
gods, prophets and Kings could be challenged and the rest is
history.
Religion is the remnant of the unconscious bicameral
mind struggling to reconnect itself and all who can be affected by it back to
the voice and will of the gods. It is why we have the division today
between science well done and religion badly explained. It is why we have
critical thinking today and ten thousand denominations. We both want to
keep and let go of religion and the voice in our heads has now been replaced by
the old old old written word about the time when the voice was heard. We
now are expect, "by faith," to hear the old voice and obey it because most
don't hear it and don't trust those who say they do. "God says," is the
now the same as "The Bible says." Of course it is not. We are
smarter than that now because most have woken up and are more conscious than in
"Bible Times."
Those who will not see the flaws, mistakes, errors,
contradictions and so on in the Bible may be less conscious, not by intent, but
by the meme that we buy into that the book is the old voice of God, now not
heard, written down so we can still hear it. However when you write
something down, you are now able to examine the whole thing and see the
mistakes, errors, contradictions and such in the text. The only choice
then is to either find and apologetic for them or realize that perhaps it is not
what we were always told.
It explains why most can see the contradiction but the
loudly rabid cannot and won't.
It explains all the craziness of religion and those in
the COGs who still lead by declaring them more in touch with the voice, through
the book, than others.
It explains the Hagees, Parsleys, Swaggerts, Hinns,
Weinlands, Flurrys, Packs and you pick literalists of this present world.
It explains the sincere who also don't hear the voice
but are willing to trust the Book and those men who say they still hear it and
should be followed.
Big story. Fascinating. This can get too
long.
The Origin of Consciousness and the Break Down
of the Bicameral Mind
Julian Jaynes.
It is not rebellion on our part. It is not
scoffing. It is awakening from the old unconsciousness of the Old
Testament views and behaviors, laws and control to individual thinking and
decision making.
While individual waking up and consciousness causes
its own problem at times, staying asleep and unconscious is not its cure.
Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
+++++++++++++++
A Final Realization About Forgiveness
If it is one concept that religious people are familiar with, either by choice or by force, it is FORGIVENESS.
Here is what I wrote about the topic the
last time I faced this demon believing I had reached the final stage in
dealing with my own perspectives, consequences and losses in pastoring
in the World Wide Church of God.
++++++++++++++++
There are more and more Christians around the world that question a
God that is of such violence in the Old Testament vs the God of the New
Testament that dwells more in grace and love. They question how they can
reconcile the God of violence with the God of grace and love hey
promote to the world around them. When they are called on the carpet
for that, they do not have good answers.
Sure there is
the standard response, but the people of the world do not care for
"standard responses" but want a reason in light of the troubles in the
world today as to how it relates to their lives in the 21st century.
Armstrognism
has always been attracted to the god of violence over the God of grace.
It seems like the church has always attracted to a god that metes of
violence and punishment for all that disagree with them. The want to see
"pagan" Christians tortured and killed, they want to see their enemies
punished severely. Just look at Malm's tirades against "love."
What
Dennis has written is something to think about and perhaps kick start
your thinking about what kind of God you believe in - if you do.
Schizo-God?
The
Jesus of the New Testament loves little children and reminds the adults
in his crowds that unless they become like little children, they shall
never see the Kingdom of God. In the New Testament, Jesus blesses little
children and chides the adults who try to run interference between him
and them. Jesus even raises children from the dead in compassion for
them and their grieving parents.
In Church I learned to sing, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world."
I
also learned to sing that "Jesus loves me, this I know. For the
Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is
strong."
I also learned, over the years, that we were
only talking about the Jesus of the New Testament, minus the Book of
Revelation and a few other rather threatening comments by Apostles in
the name of Jesus, towards humans contained in various books of the New
Testament. Since most Christian churches teach that Jesus is God and
"the God of the Old Testament," we do have wonder what brought about
Jesus' own repentance over the hideous things that He, as God in the Old
Testament, is recorded to have done.
The New Testament
clearly teaches that Jesus, somehow, is considered to have been God in
eternal reality before he was Jesus in the flesh.
John 8:
56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he
saw it and was glad."
57 "You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you
have seen Abraham!"
58 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I
am!"
1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things
came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom all things came and through whom we live.
Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being
made in human likeness.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation.
16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were
created by him and for him.
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
These
are among a few of the New Testament scriptures that equate the man
Jesus of the New Testament with being God of the Old, Creator
and Sustainer of all things from the beginning. So by default, this
would be both the Jesus who first killed with abandon "all the
little children of the world" who got in Israel's way, including the
women, unborn babies and animals on most occasions, and the Jesus of the
New Testament who simply loved all the little children of the world,
red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in his sight." Truly a
God in the flesh that had changed a lot.
The
Jesus of the Book of Revelation goes back to his people killing
ways. The Jesus of Revelation wipes out whole swaths of humanity who get
in his way and the in the way of his chosen ones. He drips in blood and
loves to have it so. Run children run!!! A familiar Old Testament
theme. Why does God or Jesus never hold seminars on their existence and plan for humans that we can all attend without all the drama and slaughter to get us all to obey? Oh well, I'm not God, that's for sure. There is a way that seems right to me, but my ways don't count.
Some
would argue that Jesus was God the Son, the second part of a three God
Trinity, that is really only one God and that God the Father God was
responsible for this slaughter. It is one God in three aspects, which is
hooey but the New Testament Jesus would never have understood it
either. If Jesus was the Lord of the Old Testament, he certainly
has morphed into a nice guy since then. The God of the Old Testament
was one cruel man, woman, child, suckling and animal killing freak.
The Sabbath School song of the God of the Old Testament would have
been, "Jesus hates the little children, all the children of the world.
If they ain't from Israel, He will send them all to hell. Hacking-whacking all the children of the world," instead of the Sunday School one we know so well evidently.
Let's take a look at how Jesus , as God the Son perhaps, treated all the children of the world back in the Old Testament
Jericho is destroyed by Jesus as God:
Let's take a look at how Jesus , as God the Son perhaps, treated all the children of the world back in the Old Testament
Jericho is destroyed by Jesus as God:
Joshua 6:20,21
Way to go! Jericho was a real estate need that the Israelites had and young men and maidens, old men and children, and let's throw in the animals too, had to go. Butchered all. Jesus loves the little children! Let's keep looking.20 "So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the
people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a great shout,
and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city,
every man straight before him, and they took the city.
21 Then they utterly destroyed ALL in the city, both men and women,
young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses"
The Kingdom of Sihon destroyed by Jesus as God.
So here we have Jesus as God killing all the humans but now allowing the sparing of the cattle for booty. This topic of booty is going to get even better as Israelite men become discouraged over killing everything in site, including the babes. It seems the rules of engagement changed as the women got better looking, but the children always got the axe.Deuteronomy 2: 33-3533 "And the LORD our God gave him over to us; and we defeated him and
his sons and all his people.
34 And we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed
every city, men, women, and children; we left none remaining;
35 only the cattle we took as spoil for ourselves, with the booty of
the cities which we captured."
Now it gets better.
Deuteronomy 20: 10-17Here's a deal that Jesus God of the Old Testament offers during war. Surrender and you can be our slaves and do forced hard labor for us forever. If you don't surrender, then all the men get the axe, but new rules for women and children. Now the children go into forced labor, no doubt and the women get kept to enjoy! Shake your booty!! The rules are a changin!
10 "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of
peace to it.
11 And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the
people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall
serve you.
12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then
you shall besiege it.
13 And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand you shall put all
its males to the sword,
14 but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else
in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and
you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has
given you."
Numbers 31:14-1814 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains
over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of
Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and
there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every
woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with
him, keep alive for yourselves.
We
have to assume here that Moses is speaking for Jesus and passing on the
ways of God to the men of Israel. He's a bit ticked that he's caught
the men not killing all the women as instructed and so Moses says, with
Jesus, Lover of little children's permission, to kill all the "little
ones," and the non-virgin women. How one figures this out I guess we
don't even want to know. At any rate, good news! The guys can keep the
virgins for themselves as sex partners! Yeah Jesus, lover of all the
children of the world! With grateful hearts, no doubt, they can now kill
and have great sex with the booty. We have to assume the term "women
children" means little virgin girls. Ewwww... Oh well, these are Jesus
God of the Old Testament's rules of how we "suffer the little the
children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of heaven," at this
time in history, so NO arguing.
It seems that the God of the Old Testament, Jesus before his incarnation was not so much against abortion as long as the fetus had actually been born first and started life as someone's dear child. There are scriptures of commands to kill women with child, but I spare you. I don't think there was any discussion in these times as to when life began. It was all about when and how to end it if it got in the way of the progress of God's chosen people.
Even in the New Testament, where Mary, mother of baby Jesus is told to flee before Herod kills all the children under two years old, she just leaves town with Jesus saying nothing! Do these people not know how to warn their neighbors! Did Mary saunter out of town with baby Jesus singing, "I know something you don't know..Have a nice last Sabbath." I guess only your own Bible babies are important and others can just go fish.
Not very pleasant stuff. Somewhere along the line, Jesus changed from a killer without conscience to a lover of little children, commanding his disciples to " forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Perhaps the story of Jesus coming to John the Baptist for baptism unto repentance has meaning after all.
Christians puzzle over this as the perfect Jesus of the New Testament would never need to repent of anything to be baptized of John. So as the texts evolve, we see that it finally ends up that Jesus was not really baptised for his sins unto repentance but merely did it for our example of what WE should do. I never killed thousands however. From Mark to John, one can see the evolution of the text and how this embarrassment of anyone thinking that Jesus had to repent of anything and be baptised for his sins was dealt with.
But maybe Jesus knew (I don't personally believe he thought he was God in the Flesh) something about his own past? Perhaps being the merciless infant, child and woman killer as God of the Old Testament, got to him after all. Of course, I am being a bit theologically off here and a bit tongue in cheek, but maybe Jesus as God did feel a need to repent so as to be able to explain the change in his past behaviors. There is no record of anyone in the early church asking him or the Apostles about this change from killer God to Jesus loves all the children of the
world God. Perhaps he said, "ask me that again and I'll kill ya." End of discussion.
This Jesus God of the Old Testament might explain a few things that seem pretty common in our modern era. Killing old men, women and children has not changed much in the land of the Israelites. I think the armies that once got to keep the booty still get to feel women and children are fair game when it comes to killing what gets in the way of their progress and real estate needs. In the same way, Christians with certain leanings seem to forget the Jesus of the New Testament Gospels and revert to the Jesus of the Old or at best the Jesus of the Book of Revelation to conquer in his name, those pagans who get in their "Go ye therefore into all the world" way. So there is a God for every taste and need it seems yet today.
Actually it's pretty darn difficult to explain why the Bible is the "best book ever written," when in fact it is one of the most violent, repulsive, clannish, cultish and bloody books ever written. The rules of engagement never favored the innocent and certainly not the non-Israelite, and we would have to admit that if indeed the Jesus of the New Testament was the "God of the Old Testament" before he came on the human scene, he has changed a lot in the text and in his behaviors. Perhaps endless war and killing does that to a God.
It seems that the God of the Old Testament, Jesus before his incarnation was not so much against abortion as long as the fetus had actually been born first and started life as someone's dear child. There are scriptures of commands to kill women with child, but I spare you. I don't think there was any discussion in these times as to when life began. It was all about when and how to end it if it got in the way of the progress of God's chosen people.
Even in the New Testament, where Mary, mother of baby Jesus is told to flee before Herod kills all the children under two years old, she just leaves town with Jesus saying nothing! Do these people not know how to warn their neighbors! Did Mary saunter out of town with baby Jesus singing, "I know something you don't know..Have a nice last Sabbath." I guess only your own Bible babies are important and others can just go fish.
Not very pleasant stuff. Somewhere along the line, Jesus changed from a killer without conscience to a lover of little children, commanding his disciples to " forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Perhaps the story of Jesus coming to John the Baptist for baptism unto repentance has meaning after all.
Christians puzzle over this as the perfect Jesus of the New Testament would never need to repent of anything to be baptized of John. So as the texts evolve, we see that it finally ends up that Jesus was not really baptised for his sins unto repentance but merely did it for our example of what WE should do. I never killed thousands however. From Mark to John, one can see the evolution of the text and how this embarrassment of anyone thinking that Jesus had to repent of anything and be baptised for his sins was dealt with.
But maybe Jesus knew (I don't personally believe he thought he was God in the Flesh) something about his own past? Perhaps being the merciless infant, child and woman killer as God of the Old Testament, got to him after all. Of course, I am being a bit theologically off here and a bit tongue in cheek, but maybe Jesus as God did feel a need to repent so as to be able to explain the change in his past behaviors. There is no record of anyone in the early church asking him or the Apostles about this change from killer God to Jesus loves all the children of the
world God. Perhaps he said, "ask me that again and I'll kill ya." End of discussion.
This Jesus God of the Old Testament might explain a few things that seem pretty common in our modern era. Killing old men, women and children has not changed much in the land of the Israelites. I think the armies that once got to keep the booty still get to feel women and children are fair game when it comes to killing what gets in the way of their progress and real estate needs. In the same way, Christians with certain leanings seem to forget the Jesus of the New Testament Gospels and revert to the Jesus of the Old or at best the Jesus of the Book of Revelation to conquer in his name, those pagans who get in their "Go ye therefore into all the world" way. So there is a God for every taste and need it seems yet today.
Actually it's pretty darn difficult to explain why the Bible is the "best book ever written," when in fact it is one of the most violent, repulsive, clannish, cultish and bloody books ever written. The rules of engagement never favored the innocent and certainly not the non-Israelite, and we would have to admit that if indeed the Jesus of the New Testament was the "God of the Old Testament" before he came on the human scene, he has changed a lot in the text and in his behaviors. Perhaps endless war and killing does that to a God.
Be nice if it did this to humans.
++++++++++++++++
Dennis Talks About The Feast of Tabernacles
OK, OK...I still miss it.
What is it about the Fall Festival season that still finds a very
conscious or at least subconscious place in our former WCG minds? I
always have looked forward to Fall in any place I lived and for half my life at
least Fall meant Feast of Tabernacles. I always like the Feast of
Trumpets because plainly it could be, whether should be, linked to the Second
Coming of Jesus just any time at the last trump. Atonement, not so much
except it was not uncommon to leave that night or at the latest, the next day
for the Feast of Tabernacles somewhere.
I still have relatives who physically linger around the edges of the COG
and the Festivals even though they never attend church during the year and
really don't believe much in it. Yet it is not uncommon for them to get
that old "Feast Fever" and head off to, not just some local site, but
some foreign country of the Islands, to "keep the Feast."
I know some who go to festival sites yet don't go to church at that that site
at all! How nuts is that. Well, really not nuts if you have to
endure the worn out old routine of 3 songs, opening prayer, sermonette, announcements,
special music, nuther song, sermon that is over long before the guy gets
finished and nuther song with hurry up and pray ending.
But Fall feels like the Feast to me and I can tell you without looking
which full moon is it!
Even the new and improved WCG which repudiates the crazy thing still
finds Fall time to Cruise for Jesus. You can't tell me that is not a
leftover need to get out of Dodge in the Fall. Old habits die hard.
I think I miss the crowd with the common hope. It was a great hope
you know. The world is indeed nuts and a clean up is in order. I
loved seeing all the friends, new and old from churches long since transferred
from. Friends in WCG seemed to be true friends indeed to me and I
can't say i don't miss them. If I don't miss someone, it's the guys i
went to college with who went on to be pastors and still are either in some
splinter or sliver or simply off on their own repeating the same old story over
and over still without the training or credentials to know whereof they
speak. Oh well, it's a living.
I have to say, I miss teaching and giving those sermons to thousands. I
can only speak for myself, but I had fun. Tried to pick practical topics and
always found a way to get around speaking about the assigned topic that was
given each towards the latter years from "HQ." I guess they
were afraid of who would really say what so they told them what to say.
My last real sermon, "The Politics of the New Testament" at Myrtle
Beach, was my last really great time for me in teaching. I ended up saying a
bit too much and shortly after labeled as knowing a lot about Jesus, but not
knowing Jesus. Oh well, screw it. To me, knowing a lot about Jesus and
knowing Jesus are one in the same unless one goes into some kind of silly
evangelical fourth dimension. However remind me to clean up my
explanation of how Matthew came up with his Virgin Birth 'prophecy.' And
never, never say, "come on folks, where DO babies come from" to
a COG audience or administration :(
It was still fun and I'm still right.
I did hear one minister, still a minister THREE TIMES in THREE FEASTS
give the same sermon!!! As soon as he said, "I'm going to show you
something you have never seen before and will never see again." He
then opened a peanut and ate it. The third time I got up and took a walk
on the beach. Much nicer.
I still have friends from the past however I rarely hear from them.
When I call on occasion, we remember the good old days and realize how old we
have gotten. After all, with Jesus coming shortly, soon and 3-5, 10 at
the most, no more than 15 and 20 tops....we weren't supposed to start falling
apart. Some have weathered aging well and others, not so
much..ha. But like the tractor pull at the fair that has the
sliding weight that bogs you down eventually and says, "you know I'm going
to get you," nothing lasts.
But what is the pull of it all. I was not as much a fan of the
Spring Holydays. Passover and UB was taught from on high in such a
negative manner. Somber, sober and Stiffling. Every year someone
somewhere had to argue over what day really was the Passover and what really
was and was not leavening. I had to conduct the funeral service we called
the Passover and read an hours worth of script that Jesus may or many not have
said since only one gospel reports any of it. Hoping one did not get
memberstinkyfeet for the footwashing was always a hoot!
No, I miss the Feast. The reasons seem deeply set and it's not
because I know I should be there and am rebellious. I know it is not
necessary and it's origins are nothing what the COG's think. I seriously
doubt they really point to all the glorious things we thought they did.
If they do, "time is short," has a meaning different from what
"time is short" means to me.
And of course, Second tithe was really play money and only turned back
into real money when we left after the first service on the Last Great Day
because we wanted to get home and had to get back to work. Only the
really loyal stayed until 4:30 PM and left that evening.
Anyway, it's a lonely time of year for me personally. I expect it
is for others too and even those who rail against their church
experience.
I get a little depressed this time of year. What were all those years
about anyway? Was it all one big waste of time and energy? Yes and
no? I didn't ever see or even hear about "drunken ministers" or
"drunken members." I don't say it wasn't so. I just
didn't hang with that crowd. It was a challenge at times keeping track of
my teen sons but they still speak fondly of their WCG Festival experiences, one
even returning to Jekyll a couple years ago just to feel the feelings.
At any rate. Nothing wrong with feeling a bit nostalgic. It
is amazing to me however the lengths some who do not attend and do not believe in
the festivals will go to, to attend one or at least find a reason to take that
great Fall vacation to some amazing place they never would have gone to for any
other reason.
Jesus, if you are listening...Soon would really be a good time to return
and shut us all up.
Dennis C. Diehl
+++++++++++++++++
Getting Sodom
Straight...
The Biblical story of Sodom is not the story of a town that happened to be
100% gay, men and boys, for this is a ludicrous assumption. This would have to
be the conclusion if God, vowing to save it for ten righteous men, did not. It
would also mean that "righteous" meant heterosexual, while unrighteous meant
homosexual and, well, I doubt that alone qualifies men to be righteous.The story that unfolds in Genesis 19 is a hospitality story and not a story based on homosexuality. Sodom's problems as remembered by Ezekiel were that the people were prideful, had too much food, too much time, neglected the poor, were haughty and committed abominations (Ez. 16:49-50). Not ANY mention of mass homosexuality. Abominations can be just about anything not in tune with the law and in this case was a reference to idol worship. Another common Israelite trait all through their history. Why would papa Lot offer his virgin daughter's to a crowd of homosexuals, in place of his guests? What interest would homosexuals have in virgin women? ZERO, unless the girls were being offered as an appeasing virgin sacrifice ("for they have not known a man.") This would qualify as an abomination to be sure, and also idolatry. Human sacrifice was still an option it appears with Abram and Lot.
Another factor is that in that culture the protection of guests under one's roof to a male host was a matter of honor. This is why Lot scrambled to come up with a solution to the problem. In Lot's mind, it was about Lot's reputation and honor. Not an uncommon modern theme in Middle Eastern men to this day. Strangers were not taken kindly to in small clannish towns. They could be spies and were always suspect.
The way to put a stranger in his place was to humiliate them sexually, and send the warning that they had best have no ill intentions in the town. In that culture, the most horrific way to humiliate a stranger and have power over him was to mistreat him as one might mistreat a woman. Symbolic or literal rape. The rape would not be a homosexual act, it would be a warning and a putting of strange man in his place as a warning. "In our town, you are just like any other woman, property to be used as needed and disposed of if necessary" It may only have been a threat to humiliate and control as the original request was for them to come out "that we might know them".
There are two schools of thought on "know them". One is sexual and one is to simply interrogate and get to know. Few ever question Lot's evil counteroffer. But it does show that Lot was a product of his culture and personal ego protection. Eastern hospitality issues were at stake here and not homosexuality. EVERY sermon I ever heard on the topic stops short of explaining Lot's egregious behavior as a father. I doubt this ever really literally happened, but if it did, Lot would be no hero of mine. I seriously doubt he had much of a relationship with the girls after this stunt, not to mention Mrs. Lot! Perhaps she did not so much look back to Sodom as refused to look ahead at him leaving town!
I have always found it amusing to inform fundamentalist males who literally believe that "women come from men and not men from women" as Paul ignorantly noted, that the human fetus starts out female. While the genetics to be male or female is there, the initial stages of conception put the fetus clearly in the female camp. Torture the Taliban with this fact! It is only after the fetus is bathed in the chemistry of testosterone after the fourth to sixth week does it literally start it trip toward maleness. Without that chemical miracle and it can be interrupted by many factors, including stress in the mother at the time, and the male born can be highly feminized in both thinking and body. We all know men who act very feminine who in fact are not homosexual but are oft accused of it. This would reflect such a deficiency in the womb. It's a big topic medically, environmentally and socially and I do not mean to address them in any detail. The information is out there.
I know many gay men and women (I am not gay), and there is not one that I
could see being anything but who they are. I have asked each one when they knew
their leanings sexually were toward their own sex and it is ALWAYS between 8 and
12 years old. They then, (I live in Fundamentalist Land), spend the next twenty
years having it prayed out, Bibled out, preached out and counseled out with
massive doses of fear, shame and guilt. At about age 30, they tend to finally
give up and admit, "I seem to be what I am." And accept themselves even if
others don't. One gay friend and their partner of 20 years recently met a
pregnant teen who was going to abort her child and long story short, they paid
for the birth, attended it and adopted the little girl as their own. At the
infant baptism ceremony she was taken to by the one of the partners, a member
"outed" them to the new Pastor (the old one was more don't ask don't tell), and
the next day the Pastor gave them a video to reform them. They were not not
interested in reform. To a gay person becoming heterosexual on command would be
the same as a heterosexual becoming gay on command. The next day they were
disfellowshipped from a life long church affiliation by the new pastor. So, you
be the judge. A gay couple saves a nearly aborted child, raises her like a
princess and gets bounced from their church after 30 years. WWJD?
I have always chuckled at Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Lord's Supper. Everyone "knows" what they are looking at. 12 Men and One Jesus in the middle. Ah... but look again. Sitting on the right hand of Jesus is a woman, looking like a woman and in fact, probably being Mary, "the prostitute". Leonardo had his own opinions about WWJD and who He might honor in a society that would not agree. Perhaps we should be just as kind and respectful and not let the misuse of scripture taint our view of real human beings.
Dennis C. Diehl
++++++++++++++++++
You Might Be a Preecher
if...
In my own experience and in hindsight, sermonizing and preaching really accomplishes little in the lives of intelligent people. My own "style" was to leave people having learned something they may not have known before. I enjoyed the comment, "I never knew that," or "No one ever explained that to me and I have always wondered about that." Perhaps I was, at times a "we must, we should, we have to" sermonizer, but I repent! :)
For the most part, I never found preaching all that inspiring. How often I, as others sat through the sermons of others feeling somehow trapped in my seat and thinking, "yea, yeah...how long did it take you to think this up?" How often did we "let's turn here and let's turn there," ourselves through an hour and half sermon. It did not help me or inspire me much.
The worst sermon I ever heard was given at a "Refresher," which were often exhausting but an evangelist who wanted to teach us all about marriage. It was a 4 hour session. He took the Nave's Topical Bible and read EVERY scripture on marriage with a running commentary on each from Genesis to revelation. One one occasion, when I learned who was giving and what was being talked about in a session, I quietly got up and went to the Long Beach Rock and Mineral Show leaving my cohorts to suffer together.
At any rate, now I live in Jesus Land and hear even worse preaching from sincere men who have even less background and education. Here is how you can spot a minister of the Gospel all too often.
There is nothing more both hilarious and pathetic at times than to watch ministers inflict themselves upon the sheep and public. These men, and they are mostly men, aren't pastors, but rather are Preeeeechers. These men are usually self appointed and thus accountable to no one or are approved of by those who also have something to gain by being in their magnificent shadow.
They have little or no real theological training having only attended a fundamentalist school where they learned not theology, but conformity to some already established guru. It is there job merely to let others drill a hole in their head, insert the funnel and pour predetermined, never changing, never updated information into their heads. After a few years, they are "ordained" to go and repeat everything they were taught by the denomination, or risk getting fired.
They are the kind of men, and I know not just a few, who will say "I know you are right, but if I try to teach that, I'll lose my job." That's the pathetic part. On the other hand, many Preechers also will quickly tell you how off base you are since he disagrees with you, and you are going to hell with that attitude or perspective. Judging the human heart is an art form with Preechers, and getting defensive when questioned is what they do best.
Preechers, as opposed to Pastors, are easy to spot, as are their specially selected Elders and Deacons. Here are the sure fire things you will find when you have indeed run across a Preecher instead of a Pastor or a man or woman with a heart for ministry, caretaking and healing.
1. When they enter the room, they just look like a preecher. They wear suits when everyone else is casual. They look serious, when everyone else is happy and glance around often to see if everyone notices "they" are here. When they speak, it's loud and draws attention to their having entered the room.
2. They have great hair. Preechers don't have brush cuts. They have meticulously combed hair. If it is shorter, it is reminiscent of the 5o's and if long, it is swept back on the sides and top, perfect and almost helmet like.
3. They always carry a really big Bible under the arm or grasped tightly in one hand like you'd hold a gun. The pocket editions never seems to occur to them.
4. No matter the occasion, someone's wedding, funeral or party, they want the attention. They can't just be there, they HAVE to speak.
5. Preechers get upset when there is no ministerial parking at the hospital. They have busy fifteen hour weeks and can't just park with the masses. In such cases, simply ask them where would Jesus park, and the problem usually resolves itself.
6. They drive really spiffy cars. No used chariots here. It has to be a preecher car. Usually a large car which he "needs" for all the visiting he says he does. The car is usually dark to give the appropriate serious feeling as in "Mom, the preecher's here." A hip preecher might opt for yellow or red, but he'd have to be preeeeching at a yuppie break away church that prides itself in authenticity of spirit. You know the kind of place where no one dresses up and come as you as is the rule.
7. They talk loud when normal will do. A preecher goes nuts in the pulpit speaking. His voice changes, he bounces in a funny way on his heels and adopts a cadence that only the preeecher could come up with. He's usually angry and uses scriptures to let you have it. You can spot a preecher by the one fact that he speaks from the pulpit in a way that would get him fired in the real world of work or sent to a mental hospital or the circus. A preecher can also give opinions and say things behind the pulpit, as long as he sounds religious or proof texts his way through the harangue, in ways that would get you sued, fired, or scored. He can also come up with some of the most amazing foolishness right out of the Bible for you to try to apply in your real life.
8. A Preecher usually just can't stand you not knowing who he is. When he calls a store or professional office, he usually will say, "This is Pastor Bobby Bouncy, of the Grace International Baptist Church in Pumpkintown..." They can't stand either on the phone or in public for you not to know how important they are and how much you need to pay attention to what they are about to say or ask for.
9. Every third sermon is on tithing and if you want to have really successful Christian finances, you will give more as God loves a cheerful giver, good measure, pressed down and overflowing. If you don't tithe...
10. The Preeeeecher won't let you have your dad's funeral in the church or your niece's wedding if he has no record of your tithing. He might show up at the funeral home or someone else's hall to do a ceremony, but he will want to be paid.
11. The Preecher's wife looks absolutely beat down. You sense that there used to be a really nice woman in there somewhere, but she has long since died in service to the family,church and of course...the Preecher. If she is a hottie, then you know he married her to enhance his status as Preecher with the guys. It may also be if she is frumpy and outdated, the Preecher has read her every idea the unmarried, no kids Apostle Paul could dream up with regard to marriage, sex and child rearing. She lost her true self long ago. The Preecher's wife misses a lot of church and is sick a lot.
12. The Preecher's kids are "beautiful" no matter what. A real preecher will humiliate them with stories from the pulpit of how HE had to discipline them and what they will and won't be doing or believing. Their chance at being an authentic human being is slim unless they break away and resist being groomed for the same school mom and dad went to. This would be the only true school where Jesus attended and taught and where the only true God made weekly appearances. The Preecher just knows all other schools are where Satan goes.
13. A Preecher will mind your own business for you.
14. People will say "did you see Preecher Bobby was even cutting wood with us", or "The Preecher was right in there helping the rest of us (peasants)." A preecher gets extra credit for doing what most people normally do and for helping out where most would help out without being noticed. This is because, in fact, the Preecher is special and when a special person does mundane things, it's...well special.
15. A true Preecher has special places where he sits at public functions. He usually surrounds himself with the elders and deacons he personally ordained, as they think the most like himself and know how to provide his narcissistic supply.
16. Preechers just give the impression they ain't like us. Some over came some human foible in the past and just know that's why they are supposed to preach. Being a Preecher is still one the few remaining lucrative jobs a man can get with little education, few credentials and no common sense. As long as the man can read, tell stories and keep his personality in tact, he qualifies in Preecher land. He only needs to know what the Bible says. The grasp of the history, background, intent and meaning of scripture is not a necessary trait. He's a master at quoting what benefits him from the Old Testament and skipping the embarrassing or obviously outdated and irrelevant parts. A Preecher hates a smart ass kid asking sound theological questions of him that he can't answer.17. A real Preecher expects "professional courtesy" to be extended to him and his family. You know, discounts from local merchants, though now more a thing of the past in most places, and free help to put a new room or roof on his home because he is "The Preecher." His catatonic wife will supply the "free" lunch to the workers, who can't believe that the Preecher's wife actually made lunch for THEM. Wow!
18. When a member needs a free roof put on their home, the Preecher will check the tithing records before dispatching the work party. He might show up the first hour, but then has to go about the Lord's business.
19. A Preecher makes work for himself by offending half the congregation every week and keeping the political pot well stirred so he has sermon topics and reasons for visits. He makes up projects that don't need doing and has meetings on topics he wants the Sheep bullied into. If you don't participate in his make work projects, you'll never be a deacon or elder.
20. A true Preecher has no tolerance for anyone missing church or a Bible study, and numbers are VERY important to him. If your dad, who was not a member of his Church, dies, you feel a bit guilty for missing Preecher Bobby's sermon and of course, 'ol Bobby won't be doing the funeral.
21. Finally, You can tell you have a Preecher, as opposed to an authentic, nicely educated and compassionate Pastor, when the man can never look you or a congregation in the eye and say "I'm sorry, I was wrong." A Preecher is NEVER wrong.
Oh wait, wait!
22. You know you're in trouble when the Preecher decides that he is not JUST a Preecher. He convinces you he is an Evangelist, Apostle, The Apostle or maybe even one of the Two Witnesses, if not both.
23. Lastly you can tell if a man is a preecher if, when he dies unexpectedly or messes up morally, the whole church tanks as he has made no plans for the future beyond his own future, which is now in the past. He has held it together by force of personality, and when he is gone, it's all gone.
Addendum:
How can you spot a Preecher's deacon's and elders?
1. The deacon's ordained by the Preecher now want their friends to call them Mr. and stop the serving they were doing previous to ordination and order you to do it.There are many dedicated, loving and compassionate Pastors in Christianity, it is not of these men and women I speak.
2. The Elder ordained by the Preecher can't remember your name and makes you feel funny asking him over anymore, sensing he is now some sort of Jesus Land Security employee.
Dennis C. Diehl
++++++++++++++++++
So...How Did You Come Into the
TRUTH?
...and is it possible you may have
missed some?
I grew up in the Presbyterian Church and I don't believe I ever heard anyone
use the words "the truth" when speaking of their beliefs. It was just beliefs.
You know, the ones passed on from generation to generation and being
Presbyterian, no one in the local church ever would think to question any of it.
It didn't matter. Behind the scenes, one could believe what they wanted and it
was all so generic and nice that I can honestly say I never remember one issue
coming up that maybe needed to be looked at, or anyone uttering the words, "new
truth." Old truth was just fine and who cared.When I discovered, as a teen, the really true Church of God, that seemed to me to be concerned with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, that's all we heard about. People were asking each new member "So how or when did you come into the truth?" It was a nice way to say ask how long they had been in the church and from what error had they arrived. The word "truth" was thrown around a lot by that church. Everything had to do with "the truth." We kept the true sabbath, the true holydays, understood the truth about being born again and the truth about unclean meats and how to have a happy marriage. There were the true seven ways to be happy or be a leader or study your bible. You could be called into the truth and you could be dismembered for falling away from the truth. There was the truth about tithing and the truth about not tithing. There was the truth about who God has chosen and who He had not chosen and who He now loved and who he was pissed off with. There was the truth about the end times, which of course, we were living in and Jesus second coming simply has to be in the very near future. In my lifetime in fact! We even knew the Plain Truth about everything from trade wars to crime and queer men. Never heard much about the truth of queer women though.
If you wanted to know the truth, just ask the Church, preferably on the local level by way of the minister, who knew all the truth there was. We knew the truth about evolution and the truth about the flood. Often we knew the "plain truth" which is the truth stripped down to the really core truth of the truth and was so simple to understand. However, simple as the truth might be to understand, God still had to open your mind to the truth, or you were never going to understand or know the truth. But it was simple after that. I later found out that "God has to open your mind," meant that one who came to the same conclusions as the Church and leadership had indeed had their mind opened by God. Those who disagreed or only saw some of it were still in the grip of Satan or at best had a bad attitude.
Gosh, we knew the truth about life and death. No one knew how consciousness or quantum physics worked, but all things God, just ask! We knew where you went and where you didn't went. We knew when you went to where you were going and how to get there and who wasn't going along with you because they had yet to discover the truth. We knew when they would discover the truth and, while not as good as when I discovered the truth, it was not bad at all. What's a thousand year difference compared to eternity? Nuttin! We knew who was in the right Church, which would be us, and who would be in the wrong Church, which would be all not us.
We knew the truth about the God of the Old Testament and why he was so freaking mean and loved killing both animals and humans. We knew the truth about the New Testament and how the Son of the Old Testament God was the nicer of the two and canceled all the stuff His Dad liked. We knew that the truth was that this bachelor son lived alone with His Father, after everyone that loved him the week before killed him. We knew they lived somewhere and the Father never had a wife or female to keep him company. But that was just the truth. God was a He and if you were a she, then you still had to be a "son of God" just the same, because that was the truth. Of course, I was uncomfy with me, a male, being the Bride of Christ, ewwww, but that was the truth too, so I had to rejoice in it.
Wow, we knew it all. Just ask! But once in a great while we discovered "New Truth." I can't tell you how amazing new truth is to discover. Now I may have been hoping that we would have discovered the new truth about the actual origins of man and the evolution of life over millions of years as opposed to the truth of everything being around 6000 years old, the story of Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel, but that was not up for discussion. I thought maybe there was some new truth on why so many of the stories in the Old and New Testament are either scientifically incredible or historically impossible and unprovable, but no luck there either. I thought maybe some new truth might have to do with how the Gospels aren't harmonious eyewitness accounts of Jesus life, nor written by the men whose names appear on the books. But no banana there either. I thought maybe we'd get some new truth about why Paul never mentions Jesus' life, teachings, miracles, life events, birth or stuff like that, including why he never quotes him, but no, wrong again.
What really would have been nice would have been some new truth on how the local minister was just a guy too and didn't know everything and that was ok, but nope, nothing like that either. And it really would have been nice if, as a minister, I could suspect there was such a thing as "new truth" out there that maybe those in charge had missed to, but whoa baby, don't even think about it! New truth had to come from the top down and only agreement came from the bottom up. That's the way all churches area really. Top down, not bottom up. Bottom uppers are an endangered species in any church.
Recently a friend of mine told me the guy at the top of her church made a really good point in her church. Seems the minister fired the music director of 25 years without permission from the people. He said he was the guy at the top and it was his call. One guy at the bottom asked to speak and was given permission to do so. He reminded the minister that that is now how things are done and that he was wrong to do this firing on his own. Then the really good part comes up. The son of the minister walks up the isle and decks the guy opposing his father's actions. Police are called and it's all good! The bottom uppers won because decking the good guy never pays. I love the truth!
Once in a great while New Truth did come to the Church of "all Truth all the Time." But alas, it was always something like, "The New Truth About Make-up" or "The New Truth About Divorce and Remarriage." I learned these truths came from God when leadership was being given a hard time about make-up by God's leading wives or some of God's leading wives left their leading husbands and the leading husband wanted a new leading wife. We did have the New Truth about Healing as well as leaders aged, needed care that they didn't need when younger and rethought the idea of only trusting God for healing etc. I'm glad that was old truth to me but I managed to keep that to myself and members in my care who asked.
But over all, New Truth just doesn't make it's way into Churches very often. They don't love to tell the old old story for nothing! As Mark Smith says in "Damn the Truth."
"Christians, unlike scientists, hate any and all evidence that goes against their theories. Theologians have a very hostile and oft times irrational attitude towards any evidence that would even suggest their theories need to be changed to fit the facts. To a Christian, a faulty theory is like an old member of the family whose mind has seen better days- something to warmly embrace and shield from all criticism. Christians, rather than being disinterested seekers of truth as they oft times pretend to be, are thus shown instead to be preachers of established dogma, opinions firmly set in concrete, with their minds already made up for them two thousand years ago by a Jewish rabbi. To a fundy Christian, there is no "new truth" to seek out or be discovered. So rather than seeking out new truth, they instead only seek out new ways to defend their old "truths". This is the reason you'll never see a "Research and Development" department within a school of theology. It is also the reason why, in defense of Christianity, no argument is too circular, no appeal to emotion avoided, and no straw men are left unconstructed."
He goes on to ask if a genuine new Gospel of Jesus were ever found, would it be added to the current New Testament? The answer is, of course, "NO" because all the truth there is, is already in the Bible. Besides, they have already found really great new Gospel writings, but one says the Disciples got miffed at Jesus for kissing Mary too often on the lips. When they asked Jesus why he loved her more than them, he came back with, "why does she love me more than you?" Great answer!!! Lousy Gospel. You'll never hear it in church.
One of the other problems out there when it comes to "The Truth" is that it gets suppressed a lot when someone who knows finds it. After all, it did take the Catholic Church 450 years to apologize to Galileo for noting that the sun was the center of the solar system and the earth revolved around it, not it around the earth. I personally think that 450 years between learning the truth and applying the truth is too long and certainly too long between apologies. Now the Catholic Church is not so sure about unsaved babies going to Limbo and may, in fact, get to go to heaven like baptized babies. Cool huh? Like they know, but isn't that amazing how something that was so much "the truth" for millions in the past, is now probably not after all...oh well.? This is great news for babies, if retroactive which I suppose it is or at least we can hope. Now those who thought one thing can think something else more comforting. Gosh, I hope this new truth does not only apply after a certain date. Bummer! All kidding aside, that kind of truth is just opinion because of questions raised about the state of certain categories of humans that die in certain states of being according to the Church. Don't mistake any of that for truth. We must not forget that Church Father's of the past were not above adjusting the truth to fit a real need. As Gibbon noted,
"The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has SUPPRESSED all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion...(he has thus) so openly VIOLATED one of the fundamental laws of history." (On Christianity, Edward Gibbon, Prometheus, Buffalo, New York, 1991 pp. 131, 132)
Even Paul made a big deal about being duplistic. He would be a Jew to a Jew, a Gentile to a Gentile etc. which always left me wondering just what and who Paul really was. He said so often in the New Testament that he wasn't lying, I wonder why he felt he had to say that so often? Sounds like lots of folk thought he was.
So ask yourself, when was the last time my church found out there were more truths to understand than the ones they have in all their booklets and tracts? And I don't mean the Plain Truth About Eating Out After Church! I bet you'll have to say never. Church's don't really deal in truth as much as tradition and control of how those traditions are defended and apologized for. Church apologetics really are that you know. They are apologies for the fact that there are those times when we can see that something about the Bible or a "truth" as explained by a Church just does not fit the facts as we know them in this day and age, and yet we will not examine them. Sorry, the old truth is THE truth and we simply are not admitting any new ones at this time. Churches don't do new truth, but are good at doing new ways to defend old truths, which might not really be true.
This attitude of all churches and religions really should be your first hint that something is very wrong with it all and perhaps it really is all about tradition, not making waves, money, control and keeping the old old, yet inaccurate story alive so we all feel better. Most are afraid they or others will be disillusioned if "New Truth" rears it's ugly head, but when it comes right down to it, do you wish to live your life based on illusions? Actually many do which is why they never question anything.
Dennis C. Diehl
+++++++++++++++
When Was the Last Time Your Old Church Found Some New Truth?
Saturday, May 21, 2011
I grew up in the Presbyterian Church and I don't believe I ever heard anyone use the words "the truth" when speaking of their beliefs. It was just beliefs. You know, the ones passed on from generation to generation and being Presbyterian, no one in the local church ever would think to question any of it. It didn't matter. Behind the scenes, one could believe what they wanted and it was all so generic and nice that I can honestly say I never remember one issue coming up that maybe needed to be looked at, or anyone uttering the words, "new truth." Old truth was just fine and who cared.
When I discovered, as a teen, the really true Church of God, that seemed to me to be concerned with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, that's all we heard about. People were asking each new member "So how or when did you come into the truth?" It was a nice way to say ask how long they had been in the church and from what error had they arrived. The word "truth" was thrown around a lot by that church. Everything had to do with "the truth." We kept the true sabbath, the true holydays, understood the truth about being born again and the truth about unclean meats and how to have a happy marriage. There were the true seven ways to be happy or be a leader or study your bible. You could be called into the truth and you could be dismembered for falling away from the truth. There was the truth about tithing and the truth about not tithing. There was the truth about who God has chosen and who He had not chosen and who He now loved and who he was pissed off with. There was the truth about the end times, which of course, we were living in and Jesus second coming simply has to be in the very near future. In my lifetime in fact! We even knew the Plain Truth about everything from trade wars to crime and queer men. Never heard much about the truth of queer women though.
If you wanted to know the truth, just ask the Church, preferably on the local level by way of the minister, who knew all the truth there was. We knew the truth about evolution and the truth about the flood. Often we knew the "plain truth" which is the truth stripped down to the really core truth of the truth and was so simple to understand. However, simple as the truth might be to understand, God still had to open your mind to the truth, or you were never going to understand or know the truth. But it was simple after that. I later found out that "God has to open your mind," meant that one who came to the same conclusions as the Church and leadership had indeed had their mind opened by God. Those who disagreed or only saw some of it were still in the grip of Satan or at best had a bad attitude.
Gosh, we knew the truth about life and death. No one knew how consciousness or quantum physics worked, but all things God, just ask! We knew where you went and where you didn't went. We knew when you went to where you were going and how to get there and who wasn't going along with you because they had yet to discover the truth. We knew when they would discover the truth and, while not as good as when I discovered the truth, it was not bad at all. What's a thousand year difference compared to eternity? Nuttin! We knew who was in the right Church, which would be us, and who would be in the wrong Church, which would be all not us.
We knew the truth about the God of the Old Testament and why he was so freaking mean and loved killing both animals and humans. We knew the truth about the New Testament and how the Son of the Old Testament God was the nicer of the two and canceled all the stuff His Dad liked. We knew that the truth was that this bachelor son lived alone with His Father, after everyone that loved him the week before killed him. We knew they lived somewhere and the Father never had a wife or female to keep him company. But that was just the truth. God was a He and if you were a she, then you still had to be a "son of God" just the same, because that was the truth. Of course, I was uncomfy with me, a male, being the Bride of Christ, ewwww, but that was the truth too, so I had to rejoice in it.
Wow, we knew it all. Just ask! But once in a great while we discovered "New Truth." I can't tell you how amazing new truth is to discover. Now I may have been hoping that we would have discovered the new truth about the actual origins of man and the evolution of life over millions of years as opposed to the truth of everything being around 6000 years old, the story of Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel, but that was not up for discussion. I thought maybe there was some new truth on why so many of the stories in the Old and New Testament are either scientifically incredible or historically impossible and unprovable, but no luck there either. I thought maybe some new truth might have to do with how the Gospels aren't harmonious eyewitness accounts of Jesus life, nor written by the men whose names appear on the books. But no banana there either. I thought maybe we'd get some new truth about why Paul never mentions Jesus' life, teachings, miracles, life events, birth or stuff like that, including why he never quotes him, but no, wrong again.
What really would have been nice would have been some new truth on how the local minister was just a guy too and didn't know everything and that was ok, but nope, nothing like that either. And it really would have been nice if, as a minister, I could suspect there was such a thing as "new truth" out there that maybe those in charge had missed to, but whoa baby, don't even think about it! New truth had to come from the top down and only agreement came from the bottom up. That's the way all churches area really. Top down, not bottom up. Bottom uppers are an endangered species in any church.
Recently a friend of mine told me the guy at the top of her church made a really good point in her church. Seems the minister fired the music director of 25 years without permission from the people. He said he was the guy at the top and it was his call. One guy at the bottom asked to speak and was given permission to do so. He reminded the minister that that is now how things are done and that he was wrong to do this firing on his own. Then the really good part comes up. The son of the minister walks up the isle and decks the guy opposing his father's actions. Police are called and it's all good! The bottom uppers won because decking the good guy never pays. I love the truth!
Once in a great while New Truth did come to the Church of "all Truth all the Time." But alas, it was always something like, "The New Truth About Make-up" or "The New Truth About Divorce and Remarriage." I learned these truths came from God when leadership was being being given a hard time about make-up by God's leading wives or some of God's leading wives left their leading husbands and the leading husband wanted a new leading wife. We did have the New Truth about Healing as well as leaders aged, needed care that they didn't need when younger and rethought the idea of only trusting God for healing etc. I'm glad that was old truth to me but I managed to keep that to myself and members in my care who asked.
But over all, New Truth just doesn't make it's way into Churches very often. They don't love to tell the old old story for nothing! As Mark Smith says in "Damn the Truth."
"Christians, unlike scientists, hate any and all evidence that goes against their theories. Theologians have a very hostile and oft times irrational attitude towards any evidence that would even suggest their theories need to be changed to fit the facts. To a Christian, a faulty theory is like an old member of the family whose mind has seen better days- something to warmly embrace and shield from all criticism. Christians, rather than being disinterested seekers of truth as they oft times pretend to be, are thus shown instead to be preachers of established dogma, opinions firmly set in concrete, with their minds already made up for them two thousand years ago by a Jewish rabbi. To a fundy Christian, there is no "new truth" to seek out or be discovered. So rather than seeking out new truth, they instead only seek out new ways to defend their old "truths". This is the reason you'll never see a "Research and Development" department within a school of theology. It is also the reason why, in defense of Christianity, no argument is too circular, no appeal to emotion avoided, and no straw men are left unconstructed."
He goes on to ask if a genuine new Gospel of Jesus were ever found, would it be added to the current New Testament? The answer is, of course, "NO" because all the truth there is, is already in the Bible. Besides, they have already found really great new Gospel writings, but one says the Disciples got miffed at Jesus for kissing Mary too often on the lips. When they asked Jesus why he loved her more than them, he came back with, "why does she love me more than you?" Great answer!!! Lousy Gospel. You'll never hear it in church.
One of the other problems out there when it comes to "The Truth" is that it gets suppressed a lot when someone who knows finds it. After all, it did take the Catholic Church 450 years to apologize to Galileo for noting that the sun was the center of the solar system and the earth revolved around it, not it around the earth. I personally think that 450 years between learning the truth and applying the truth is too long and certainly too long between apologies. Now the Catholic Church is not so sure about unsaved babies going to Limbo and may, in fact, get to go to heaven like baptized babies. Cool huh? Like they know, but isn't that amazing how something that was so much "the truth" for millions in the past, is now probably not after all...oh well.? This is great news for babies, if retroactive which I suppose it is or at least we can hope. Now those who thought one thing can think something else more comforting. Gosh, I hope this new truth does not only apply after a certain date. Bummer! All kidding aside, that kind of truth is just opinion because of questions raised about the state of certain categories of humans that die in certain states of being according to the Church. Don't mistake any of that for truth. We must not forget that Church Father's of the past were not above adjusting the truth to fit a real need. As Gibbon noted,
"The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has SUPPRESSED all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion...(he has thus) so openly VIOLATED one of the fundamental laws of history." (On Christianity, Edward Gibbon, Prometheus, Buffalo, New York, 1991 pp. 131, 132)
Even Paul made a big deal about being duplistic. He would be a Jew to a Jew, a Gentile to a Gentile etc. which always left me wondering just what and who Paul really was. He said so often in the New Testament that he wasn't lying, I wonder why he felt he had to say that so often? Sounds like lots of folk thought he was.
So ask yourself, when was the last time my church found out there were more truths to understand than the ones they have in all their booklets and tracts? And I don't mean the Plain Truth About Eating Out After Church! I bet you'll have to say never. Church's don't really deal in truth as much as tradition and control of how those traditions are defended and apologized for. Church apologetics really are that you know. They are apologies for the fact that there are those times when we can see that something about the Bible or a "truth" as explained by a Church just does not fit the facts as we know them in this day and age, and yet we will not examine them. Sorry, the old truth is THE truth and we simply are not admitting any new ones at this time. Churches don't do new truth, but are good at doing new ways to defend old truths, which might not really be true.
This attitude of all churches and religions really should be your first hint that something is very wrong with it all and perhaps it really is all about tradition, not making waves, money, control and keeping the old old, yet inaccurate story alive so we all feel better. Most are afraid they or others will be disillusioned if "New Truth" rears it's ugly head, but when it comes right down to it, do you wish to live your life based on illusions? Actually many do which is why they never question anything...
Dennis C. Diehl
"Do You Have a Tendency To Want to Have a Voice...???"
Since we have been talking about the Internet here on 'Banned byHWA,' I thought we'd remind ourselves of how one Apostle has attempted in the past to control the flow of information amongst his own flock. Following is an open letter written when David Pack, through his staff, sent the message loud and clear that blogging and websites were a no no for the people of God.I realize an open letter to anyone for any reason usually does not reach the intended audience. But an open letter is an attempt to draw attention to something that is so profoundly wrong that attention still needs to be drawn to the topic.
This is an open letter to the teens, AND adults who are affiliated with the Restored Church of God under the leadership of David C Pack in Wadsworth, Ohio. I am writing in response to the following article and associated commands to teens AND adults in RCG to refrain from blogging on the internet or having a personal website, unless strictly for business, as now being forbidden by RCG, according to this article. The intro to the article is as follows. This is from the Ambassador Youth Magazine, as written by Kevin D. Denee on behalf of the leadership of the Restored Church of God.
"Blogs and God's Youth
The "blogosphere" enables people to share daily journals, photographs and audio--instantly. But should teenagers and others in the Church "express themselves" to the world through blogs?"
Obviously, from the intro kids, the answer is going to be "NO, you should not be blogging." It's going to take some time to get there, with typical warnings about pedophiles and giving up personal information to the web, which is wise, but this is just the intro to the real point. That point is summed up nicely near the end of the article and is the whole point of all that preceded it, which I will also comment on for your own sakes.
Here is the conclusion of the matter for teens, AND adults, so lets be clear, the article was not written just for teens after all and is a warning to ADULT church members to also avoid blogging and websites that are not approved by "the Church."
"To teens and others," is code for "everyone had better be listening to me." Let's go right to the conclusion first. I'll let the author of the article speak for himself...
"The Conclusion--and Solution
So what have we learned? Recall that a blog provider stated, with blogs "there are no rules." This is obviously not true with God. He does have rules and guidelines, but not everything is spelled out in the Bible. We must take principles and consider the overall big picture.
Should teenagers and others in the Church express themselves to the world through blogs? Because of the obvious dangers; the clear biblical principles that apply; the fact that it gives one a voice; that it is almost always idle words; that teens often do not think before they do; that it is acting out of boredom; and it is filled with appearances of evil--blogging is simply not to be done in the Church. It should be clear that it is unnecessary and in fact dangerous on many levels.
Let me emphasize that no one--including adults--should have a blog or personal website (unless it is for legitimate business purposes).
When this policy, now being instituted, was discussed with Mr. Pack and other Headquarters ministers, there was not a shadow of doubt in anyone's mind that blogs are something youth should not be doing in any way.
As has been said before, Jesus Christ and His Church have standards.Those who desire fewer standards should go to the splinters or to the world.
When trying to justify something, teenagers will often narrow in to specific areas, and say, "Well this particular thing isn't wrong!" They will then use this as proof that the larger thing is okay. Do not allow yourself to think this way. Consider all the elements we have discussed.
Blogging has become a socially accepted practice--just as are dating seriously too young, underage drinking and general misbehaving. But just because someone else "jumps off the cliff" does not mean you should do the same.
Some questions naturally arise: "Can I have a photo gallery?" For example, maybe you visited an exotic country and want to share your photos with close friends. This can be done, but certain guidelines apply. Of course, there should never be any inappropriate pictures (again, be careful of the appearance of evil); it should be private and password protected, and only shown to family and closest friends.
Is this article saying that every blog in the world is wrong? No, of course not! (Our Savior and High Priest David C Pack has one so it can't be all wrong....ok, i added this.) Again, there are some professionals and specialists who use blogs to serve a proper purpose."
Kevin D. Denee. Restored Church of God.
Most of you have read the entire article or should. In the run up to the final decree that you are not to have blogs, or read blogs of others, or even have a website, as well as YOUR PARENTS, unless they are in a professional business, you were reminded that you are really out of line to even want a voice to begin with and that you having a personal voice is vanity. Your pastor has a personal voice all the time and subjects you to two and four hour sermons telling you that his voice is more important than your voice. Let's look at the article
again.
"But what does this have to do with blogs?
The Internet--and more specifically blogs--has enabled everyone to have a voice on any matter. Now everyone's thoughts are "published" for all to see. Whether or not it is effective, as soon as something is posted the person has a larger voice. It often makes the blogger feel good or makes him feel as if his opinion counts--when it is mostly mindless blather!...
Ask yourself, "Do I have a tendency to want to have a voice?"
...The level of shallowness and emotional immaturity this represents is astonishing! In the grand scheme of things, why would the world at large care?
People naturally want to make a mark in this world; they want to make a difference, and many believe blogs will allow them to do this. However, most blogs, especially by teenagers, serve as nothing more than public diaries. (Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with a personal diary, as long as it is kept private.) Although certain professional weblogs can make a positive difference within some elements of society, teen blogging does not."
So there you have it. You're voice is invalid, unimportant, shallow, makes no difference, one that no one wants to hear anyway and ultimately just blather. Ask your Pastor if he had a voice when he was a teen and would he be willing to extend to you the same rights he did have as he sought out what seemed to be truth for himself as a TEEN. The answer to the question, "Do I have a tendency to want to have a voice?" is not the same as asking you, though it is framed in such a way, as "Do you have a tendency to lie, cheat and steal?" The question is asked in such a way as to make you feel badly for saying "yes" even though yes is the only answer there is for most normal people. When your church or government get your voice, you have lost your freedom
and your mind.
You are being told that to have a personal voice, which means personal views, opinions and the ability to observe what is going on around you with a critical eye and thinking, is vanity. The article goes on to
say...
"There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up" (Prov. 30:12-13).
If you post mundane details of your life, you are in effect saying that your life is important and that people should read about it. Also, whether or not you admit it, having a blog with your name, your picture and your opinions strokes the human ego--it lifts you up. It essentially advertises the self! Many teenagers say, "Listen to me, world, and what I have to say," when they should be focused on changing and cleaning up their lives.
If you blog, are you sure you do not partially enjoy it because your carnal nature is inclined toward vanity?"
The author is making it sound like you say you are researching porn but, in fact, he thinks you like it. Please understand, that your church's website,you know, the most stupendous, largest and bestest on the whole planet, according to your Pastor, is a glorified blog of Mr. Pack's name, picture, opinions, ideas, interpretations and views too. No one man embodies truth, no matter what you have been led to believe. If you doubt it, go see how many sermons he allows others to post on the site or how many of the explanations of all the doctrines, beliefs and rules are left for others to write and define. So to blog is to be vain for teens. That is a lie.
You are told that your words are idle, you only blog because you are bored and that you aren't smart enough to avoid the appearance of evil.
Continuing...
"Young people should spend time doing things that are productive. Our goal in life is to become a more effective person--to get baptized into the Church and build holy, righteous godly character for the rest of one's life. But what does blogging ultimately achieve? Nothing!
Some claim blogging is therapeutic. If that is the case then here is a classic example of someone "therapeutically" expressing himself: "Im feeling sad again...so many things I can't tell anyone and so many
feelings I need to cope with...don't even try to ask me why, and start telling me it will help if I let it out. I know it won't help. Trust me, telling will make me more troubled than I already am. but just ur listening/reading my [expletive] posts is enough to make me feel better. thanks..."
Talking is therapeutic. It helps one clarify one's thoughts when no one else will listen. I did not speak up often enough in WCG because I did not want to let the people down by getting fired. I am sorry I did not speak up more. I also believed what I was being told, which proved to be a lie as well. I deeply regret this lack and fear on my own part. If I had the Internet as a teen, I would never have wasted my life energy on the WCG and ministering that which I now know to be simply magical thinking.
The reason we don't talk to real people in real time is because we perceive that they are not listening or will give us a very impractical an unhelpful answer to real problems. Phone calls are therapeutic. Letters are therapeutic. Talking face to face is therapeutic, and blogging can also be therapeutic. And yes, you have be wise about who you share with, but that's not the issue here. Most humans aren't as stupid as this article makes them out to be. Finding out that others feel and think as you do and that you are not "nuts" or "weird" or "off base" all the time, is very therapeutic. It is a wiseman in this day and age that has close friends and good counselors. It's the people who will not listen to any voices but the ones in their own heads that you
have to be careful about.
Just so you understand, your Church and Pastor now forbid you and your adult parents from blogging on the internet, having a blog of your own or having a personal website unless associated with a business. You need to understand that there are reasons behind these reasons such an obscene rule is being instituted. While blogging, like phone calling or letter writing or smokes signals can have a downside, there is more to this than meets the eye in your particular church. It is a way to control the flow of information, criticism and presenting views that are counter to those accepted by the Restored Church of God and it's leaders. The internet is the bane of those that abuse or seek to control and that includes our own government in this day and age.
Soon you will hear something from the pulpit as ridulous as "We regret to inform the congregation and we do so with deep sadness, but Mr. and Mrs. so and so, and Johnny Teen has been disfellowshipped from the True Church for blogging and maintaining an unapproved website for their own selfish, egotistical and treading on thin ice reasons, against Church policy. We pray that God will cause them to repent of this electronic sin and for thinking that they can have a voice in this Church of God or the world in general or that they could say anything that would be or any remote interest to anyone." Banning you from blogging is no different from burning your books.
Your church equates blogging with dating too young, underage drinking and pre-,marital sex. They tell you that just because others jump off a cliff, does not mean you should. How's that for good reasoning. If your friends shoot themselves, I am sure they would also advise you not to do the same. Good thing as they give this advice or, sure enough, you would all up and jump like lemmings into the sea. This "just because others..." thing has been a tool of parents forever and will be yours too someday! It's what we say when can't think of how to say it well. The bottom line is that you belong to a church that needs to control your intake of good information as well as what might be thought of as "bad" information. They also don't care what you think and don't want you expressing it to others. They don't want you discussing theology, Bible inerrancy, history, other points of view or truths that are more true than the ones you get fed every week in church. The sure don't want you discussing the points made in a previous sermon, even though that sermon has commands for you to follow that effect your life big time. Frankly, all churches fear the internet because information is scary to those that would have you believe you are getting all you need from just one true source. You are not.
NO ONE on this planet has the right to tell you what you can read, who you can talk to, what topics you can share personally if you choose or how you choose to give or get that information. Our government is also trying like mad to keep the average American from questioning a lot of things that have gone on in the last five years, and before. Your motives for doing so are not as evil as this article makes them out to be and you are not as stupid as this article portrays the average teen these days. Everything you do needs to be done with wisdom, caution and discretion, but you will not learn how to do this if you are forbidden from taking the class.
Religion and government has been trying to control the free flow of information since time began. It's how control, delusion and illusion is maintained. The people who make the rules about such things very often refuse to abide by the same rules for themselves. You will learn this as you grow up.
No article in the history of RCG has ever been written...yet, that is so chilling as this one. I urge you to think long and hard about its implications to your learning and growing in the real truths that, believe it or not, are not the exclusive property of the one small church and Pastor you have just happened to find yourself in association with. I also want you to suspect other reasons for this being dictated to the teens, while adults were also thrown into the mix in a mere one line as well. Nothing in any Church, Government or Organization is as one is led to believe on the surface...NOTHING.
To blog or not to blog is YOUR choice. To have or not to have a website for any reason, is YOUR choice and the choice of your ADULT parents. No church or man has the right to control your access to the free flow of friends, information, opinions or even bullshit. You'll never develop a BS Meter is you aren't exposed to it. I personally think you are more than you think. Even the proverbs say that it is no great thing to have a totally clean barn, with no cow pies on the floor, as it might indicate you have no animals to oversee on your great farm. Remember, fish can't live in pure water. It destroys their immune systems and is an unreal environment in which to thrive as a fish. Are you not better than a fish...oh ye of little faith?
Much knowledge might bring much suffering but no knowledge brings unnecessary fear, guilt, shame and pure misery. Stand up for yourself. Tell your church to mind its own business and not yours.
PS How'd the author know a teen girl in "a splinter group" used to work at Hooters? :)
Amen...
Dennis C. Diehl
Do You Tend to Want to Have a Voice...??? Part Two-The Waffel
David C. Pack, self proclaimed Apostle of the Restored Church of God in Wadsworth, Ohio has been forced to edit an article in his Ambassador Youth Magazine about whether teens should or should not blog or have personal websites. The article went GLOBAL after bloggers got wind of it on WhatReallyHappened in an article entitled "An Open Letter to the Teens in the Restored Church of God."Now the offending article forbidding teen AND adult blogging and websites in the RCG, contains the following introduction in response to the nearly totally negative reaction expressed over the original article. It states...
"Welcome to AMBASSADOR YOUTH!
This magazine (www.thercg.org/youth/), along with realtruth.org and thercg.org, is part of the world's largest biblical websites, which receive millions of visits and downloads each year.
The article you are about to read has received a tremendous response, ranging from those who agreed, those who liked parts of it, and others who took issue with the topic. As you read the article, please keep in mind that it was written specifically to the youth of The Restored Church of God, with the purpose of setting an internal policy.
While many religious organizations routinely set unbiblical internal policies for its membership (such as "dancing is prohibited" or "drinking is a sin"), The Restored Church of God sets policies founded on basic biblical principles as taught by Jesus Christ. In this case, our intent is to explain the widespread misuse of blogs.
Please feel free to browse our web pages and read the vast library of books, booklets, articles, magazines, reports, lessons and audio material we provide free of charge."
May as well make lemonade out of lemons, I can hear them say. I remember one rather narcissistic lawyer telling me once that he didn't care what anyone said about him, as long as they spelled his name right. He had been on 60 Minutes and came to this conclusion. In a similar way, the Apostle now is using the bad press the best one can in such cases by offering a look at even more of what he has to say on his vast blo..., I mean website, which of course is a truly legitimate use of the web. We're talking truth here folks. No, we are talking the only Biblical opinion as given by the only true Church under the leadership of the one true end-time Apostle. While one is no longer told they can go to the world or the splinters (other fractured parts of what once used to be the Worldwide Church of God), you still can if you don't like the edict, which still stands.
We see here that there is some offense over what was meant to be an "internal policy" becoming so public. One only need to point out that the reason it did was is that it was placed in the text of a publicly available youth magazine that the Apostle hopes everyone will want to read. Mr. Pack claims to have the largest Biblical blo..., I mean website, in the world, which of course is a prime example of what he means by "a legitimate business," on the internet. Mr. Pack also notes that while many churches set unbiblical internal guidelines on such things as dancin' and drankin', this edict is clearly based on sound Biblical principles. They actually are many of the same "clear" Biblical principles the anti dancin' and drankin' crowd use. Just read the blogs, er writings, of such notables as Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, King David of the Psalms, James, Peter, John or Paul for the backing you need to justify anything you wish to do or wish not for others to do.
The original article said,
"Let me emphasize that no one--including adults--should have a blog or personal website (unless it is for legitimate business purposes). When this policy, now being instituted, was discussed with Mr. Pack and other Headquarters ministers, there was not a shadow of doubt in anyone's mind that blogs are something youth should not be doing in any way.As has been said before, Jesus Christ and His Church have standards. Those who desire fewer standards should go to the splinters or to the world."
Replacing this edict which has a bit too much detail as to where it originates, how it was decided and seems to sneak in the idea of "including adults," is...
"Although useful for certain business and professional purposes, this article makes the point that RCG youth, and even adults, should not personally blog or maintain the type of personal websites described above."
We have gone from "including adults," which was never the context of the real article to "even adults" which still forbids adults from disobeying this "internal policy," but somehow seems less harmless and more designed to make adults more willingly compliant.
It never seems to dawn on the Apostle or the original author of the article that the conclusion of the matter is offensive, intrusive and controlling. Read these reasons why teens and adults can't be trusted to blog or have personal websites again!
"Should teenagers and others in The Restored Church of God express themselves to the world through blogs? Because of the obvious dangers; the clear biblical principles that apply; the fact that it gives one a voice; that it is almost always idle words; that teens often do not think before they do; that it is acting out of boredom; and it is filled with appearances of evil--personal blogging should not be done in the Church. It is clear that it is unnecessary and, in fact, dangerous on many levels."
Why control is important in such organizations might be something to be considered at another time. "Sorry about how it was said, but it still stands," is still the bottom line.
Since all blogging and websites can't be wrong, or the Apostle could not be doing such a WORLDWIDE work, we read, "Is this article saying that every blog in the world is wrong? No, of course not! Again, there are professionals and specialists who use blogs to serve a proper and beneficial purpose. " This, while true of many sites, clearly allows room for himself as a professional Apostle who is a specialist of some sort in all things Biblical, as long as one does not garner information from the web or blogs that contradict the conclusions drawn by the Apostle about just what exactly is truth.
Why is this an important topic? It's important because it is an example of yet another way that those who fear information, explanations and ideas that do not fit with their own way of being, agendas or thinking, use to control the flow of information. There is nothing wrong with suggesting guidelines for teens to think about when blogging or having websites, but that falls more into something that should be between the teen and the parent, NOT the teen and the Pastor. Had I had the internet when I was a younger man thinking that I needed to find the "truth" of this or that topic, I would not have come to the conclusions I did based on what I now see was very limited information.
Our government is frantic to control the internet as it does give people a real voice along with some pretty keen eyes to keep watch on those that abuse and seek control over others. The internet wars over just who and how are just heating up. This one small victory by bloggers, who noticed a small, rather insignificant church attempt to keep teens and member adults from taking advantage of the internet is just a type of what can be done by those that notice. If one choses to be a one man show, then one has to realize that as that one man show offends, declares, tries to control, intimidates and gets to have the final say in everything, others may notice and take exception.
The question was asked in the Restored Church of God article, "Do you tend to want to have a voice?" and it was asked to point out that humans wanting voices are vain and generally spewing useless blather. But yes, actually, I do wish to have a voice. A voice along with eyes and ears protect myself from bashing into things and being run over by things and people I otherwise would not have seen or heard coming. Have you found your voice yet?
Dennis C. Diehl
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There is a Seat for Every Butt
Humans tend to select the religious beliefs that suit their needs, not their beliefs. Beliefs are maintained to keep feeling that whatever need they have for that belief is fulfilled. Beliefs and practice are more often a function of personality than many would like to admit. We might think of God as being able to call, work with and maintain a group of "Chosen Personalities" easier than generically "Chosen People." Cats tend to hang with cats, dogs with dogs and fish with fish. Organizations divide up in much the same way based on needs that lead to beliefs to maintain and fulfill that need. Have a need that is unfulfilled, and you will find a belief to meet the need. It's what the brain looks for when the mind is not happy, insecure or confused.Some people need a thinking man's religion. Episcopal, Unitarians, Methodist and perhaps Lutheran (I'm being illustrative here based on my own experiences so keep this in mind), might fall into this category for people like that. The people, or at least their ministers, are highly educated in theology and, while often not able to share everything they know about the Bible, its origins, transmission, contradictions and problems, are open to the fact that human beings wrote it in some way inspired by God but maybe not perfectly or as we might have wished. These types tend to go with the flow and as long as church feels good, is informative and inclusive, their need is for that is fulfilled. Unitarians would allow for the most free thought, in my experience, and usually attract those that need to express and validate what their own personal studies about the errancy of scripture, the many ways God can be and a very large inclusiveness of all. Unitarians tend to meet people where they actually are in life and it is ok. They don't throw you out for understanding that Christmas is the birthday of lots of Godmen like Jesus, throughout history. Similarly,
Unity Churches (different from Unitarians) are a step above and you can understand that much of the theological cycle of belief can be understood in the study of astro-theology or the journey of the sun thru the 12 signs of the zodiac. They also don't mind much if one is gay and any other ideas you have may also be welcomed, or tolerated. Love is the answer. We're all hear to learn. People who come to these types of churches tend to have suffered under the more fundamentalist denominations and beliefs, stepped outside the box of what they grew up with and simply refuse to be restricted in the beliefs that work for them personally any longer. They need to not be controlled or come under the "guidance" of personalities or denominations that demand respect as being specially called of God to annoy them. Of course, many are born into these churches too.
Some people and personalities need emotional experiences to feel good and loved. They seek people, churches and organizations that fill that need and arrange their beliefs to keep the flow going. Many Evangelicals fall into this need. Hand waving, lots of emotion charging music, group hugging and "fellowship" are high on their list of needs that fuel their beliefs about the truth their church has to offer. They love a good Passion Play or Christmas program with lots of human actors to play out the story of Jesus visually. They can't understand why those who do not need that kind of emotional reenactment aren't crying along with them and wanting to go out and tell the world about Jesus. They loved Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" and took it very very personally.
Their ministers tend towards the emotional type sermons, wipe their brows often in sweaty performances for Christ and walk around a lot on the podium. They like people, (not themselves) carrying big crosses down the isles and stages draped in purple. Some of their ministers have a cadence in their speech that would only work in church and a presentation that would make you chuckle, if it wasn't the minister under God's inspiration. The more gawdy, (no pun intended) the furniture, the better they like it because they think it resembles what God might use Himself in heaven. They like the color of gold as well and in fact, love the gold itself. Their followers give the gold too as if they were really giving it to God, who in fact, doesn't really need it personally. There is little accountability over the spending of the gold because God has informed the Pastor just how this should be done and that's pretty much the end of it. These folks tend to enjoy a good Gospel show and will support any visiting star of the Christian stage that comes to town, in addition to their local church.
Emotion, inclusiveness and specialness is what this group needed, along with accepting the ridiculous, and that worked just fine. Accepting the ridiculous in both religion and government is often the price one pays for wanting to feel safe, special and cared for. Not one person got up and said, "this is nuts and I am out of here." That's the power of need.
Some groups attract people who need to feel special and experience the direct and the perceived power of God. This would be Pentecostals who, while they tell the new person that speaking in tongues is not required, make them feel less than spiritual if in time they cannot perform this feat of emotion. Let's face it, if you can speak in a heavenly language that no one understands in fact, YOU ARE SPECIAL. The fact that speaking in Christian tongues sounds the same as speaking in voodoo tongues is beside the point. Add throwing yourself down on the floor and flopping around like a fish out of water, and your degree of godliness and specialness soars through the roof. This type of emotional need also brings Pentecostalism and Pentecostals the distinct honor of being the denomination that has the most sexual "sins" among it's membership and ministry over all. Emotionally motivated people need all emotions, not just the flopping around on the floor ones.
The best drinkers in the country are the Baptists who aren't allowed to drink by the church. The denominations that prohibit it suffer from the most alcohol abuse and alcoholism. The counties that ban it and go "dry" are the wettest counties in America behind the scenes. As they say, a Good Baptist can't remember you're name if they see you at the liquor store, or Hooter's. In these cases, "Thou shalt not..." provokes "Oh yeah, just watch this." The Baptists also have a very high turnover rate, perhaps the highest of men in the ministry for falling into the sins that they deride the congregations over week after week. "Me thinks thou does protest too much," applies quite a bit of the time when a man can't stop referring to specific sins or lifestyles, in my observation and experience. We tend to berate the things that fascinate us.
Some people need to feel secure and safe in a world that they perceive as ruled by satanic forces opposing the now just around the corner, (still) Second Coming of Jesus. Their churches and ministers tend toward reading the Bible like a newspaper and every world event is leading towards "the crisis at the close." It's all about prophecy, the true church vs. the false, the called vs. the uncalled and the saved vs. the unsaved. There is an immediacy in every sermon and you can't outgive God financially to do this end time work, but they ask you to try. God may love a cheerful giver, but being a cheerful tither is pretty much expected if you are sincere about knocking Satan off his throne for Jesus sake. You don't need to fix your teeth, your home or prepare for your children's education, because "by then" you'll be a spirit being born into the family of God, so give us your money.
Finally, there are those that need one grand religious know-it-all to tell them everything about God, Christ, Jesus, the Gospels and how it all fits together from Genesis to Revelation. These are the Religions of the Grand Poopas. The one minister that those who need the one man show follow is "amazing," "charismatic," "smart," "truly lead by God," "Knows the mind of God," (in all things by the way), and Apostolic in his ordination. To not come to services in groups like these is to be checked up on and ask why not. To miss an church sponsored event is to be thought of as "non-supportive," or even in danger of falling away from the church. The followers tend to sit back and just listen, needing the comfort of his words and perspectives while their own are dismissed as limited in scope. No one tells the Pastor he is out of line, as he is never out of line and no one has any authority over the man. While not often spoken, the feeling the man gives is that "when I need to be corrected, God will correct me." Of course, this is a rare even, often unrecognized by the man even it were to happen, which it doesn't, but no member can ever inform the Pastor of his mistakes or in some cases, mental problems.
I have often felt a minister or self appointed leader can better hide out in a church than in a corporate environment. IBM would fire by noon a man who declared himself to be the "One True CEO or Manager."
Ministers with mental problems or with narcissistic tendencies appear to be "spiritual" or more obedient to God, because they always quote scriptures to make it sound like they are doing what an Isaiah, Jeremiah or Jesus would do. Aside: Did you you know Jesus wears a bracelet that says, "Why Did I Do that?" Some say it really asks, "What Would I Do?" Some church members who come under the authority, because for some reason they need to, of one man need to wear a bracelet that says "remember not to leave my brains at the door of this church every week." Oh well. Mental illness disguised as righteousness or obedience is what gets some churches, ministers and their members into the headlines. Quirkiness in the ministry can be harmless or harmful depending on the need to tolerate such things the congregation has. The level of toleration that some audiences have for the words spoken by the one man show can sometimes leave one's head spinning as to why. But only those that don't need that type of religion, who often in the past were victims of it, tend to be able to spot it when they see it.
People who need this type of church are easily lead and controlled, which is their need. "You tell me why the world is this way, and make me feel safe and special, and I'll support you." These people need to feel God's daily protection from harm, specialness and that "a thousand shall fall at thy right hand and ten thousand at thy left, but it shall not come nigh unto thy dwelling." Adventists, many Evangelicals and Christian Zionists fall into this category of need. Some take the need for personal security to great lengths with stored food reserves and a home arsenal that would make a Marine blush. Some will kill you and let God sort you out, if you get in their face or space, or try to inform them that the Bible may not be informing them quit as accurately about the times that THEY just happen to be living in as they think.
Whatever our need is that informs our beliefs, it might be safer to also understand these observations about not giving up your self, your brain, your money, your time or your need to let other people, organizations or governments do all your thinking for you. Don't let your needs take you into something that you'll end up sorry you got for your efforts.
"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all."
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."Oscar Wilde
"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."Howard Thurman
"If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all." Billy Holiday
"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers" Voltaire
"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something." Plato
"There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout: This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me... or leave me. Accept me - or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision. When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad - you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you." Stacey Charter
We all have needs. We need to be loved, listened to, appreciated, helpful, believing, trusting and to feel secure in an insecure world. Those needs end up informing our beliefs. There are many things that one can believe about many things. There are many organizations, belief systems, Churches, Temples, men, women, gurus, apostles, priests and kings who are more than willing to manipulate your needs, either deliberately or in their own ignorance of doing so, for advantage. Next time you sit in a crowd, congregation, group meeting, or audience, ask yourself "what is my need that I am here, listening to this?" Sometimes when we answer that question we end up defining our real needs better by getting up and voting with our feet on whether one really needed that.
Remember, if your head says yes, but your tummy says no...your tummy is telling you the truth and your head is lying through it's follicles. When the mind makes your stomach hurt, it's trying to tell you some truth. We don't need to come up with any more beliefs based on artificial needs, created by others for us to fall into at this particular time in history.
Dennis C. Diehl
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Choose your Beliefs or Someone Else Will Choose Them For You
"Be sure to choose what you believe and know why you believe it, because if you don't choose your beliefs, you may be certain that some belief, and probably not a very creditable one, will choose you." Robertson Davies,'The Deptford Trilogy ' (p477).
Early in life, people believe what they have been told and taught to believe by those who have been also so taught before them. For better or worse, most humans on the planet still believe what others have taught them from the beginning as if, by chance, they just happened to luck out and end up being born into a family that absolutely had the final truth on most topics already understood. Of course we know this is not really likely.But humans are mostly content not to look out and wonder if what they have been told is really true. Most humans, it seems, are not so much interested in truths as they are with comfortable beliefs. Comfortable beliefs don't really have to be true, but they are satisfying as long as one does not think too deeply about them or question the facts or their presentation.
Truth on the other hand can be very uncomfortable and yet while true, pushes the person away from that set of beliefs they were given at birth and expected to abide by. This causes no end of drama, as those who are content with beliefs, do all they can to punish and coerce those who opt for truth over belief.
They may over talk to them about how wrong they are, or not speak to them again to punish them for straying outside the tribal beliefs. In some pathetic cultures, they simply kill you and solve the problem of you're influencing others to rethink their own beliefs, given by the tribe. It is not nice to fool Mother Nature, but it is even worse to buck the tribal beliefs and wonder if maybe you have not been told everything.
Today we see that discomfort over beliefs vs. truths in the rancorous debates over evolution vs. creationism. While the facts of evolution are generally true, details to follow, creationism is falling quickly out of favor as the explanation of how life and mostly humans came to be on this planet. The people who defend creationism do so to defend their belief on how God did or didn't do something. Their belief is based on an ancient text. It is also based on the absolute need to defend the inerrancy of the text and reality of God as we have been taught "him" to be in Sunday School.
Science defends evolution based on evidence that there might be more to life than what is contained in ancient texts. They don't claim to understand it, but are willing to step outside a box that creationists aren't, because there is so much evidence that contradicts the Biblical account.
Now creationists are endeavoring to defend the text as being good science, but it simply can't be done anymore. Showing animals in Old Testament stories spotted and stripped poles before birthing so that they produce spotted or stripped offspring is something even they will have to admit is not how it works. That's really bad science on the part of the Bible, but made perfect sense to them three thousand years ago. Modern genetics really is the answer to really bad biblical "science."
Other beliefs, based on biblical texts are falling out of favor due to overwhelming evidence that contradicts them. Most honest pastors and theologians know that the birth stories of Jesus are not literally true. Most know, the story of Jesus is not all that unique in human history and the archetype of a dying God/man, persecuted, crucified, dead three days and risen again is not a once told story of Jesus.
Most recognize that the Old Testament did not spring out of vacuum, but rather out of the pagan cultures and Egyptian influences that preceded it. Most who take the time, realize the concept of God evolves even in the Old Testament right on through the New. The simple Christian, "loving father God" of today is not how it all began. Today we have a difficult time thinking an all knowing, all caring, all forgiving, all everything God would define himself as a "jealous God" who punishes generations of people for the sins of their great great grandfathers. Although literalist christians are very comfortable with that because, "God says, I believe it, that settles it for me." Whatever is not comfortable to even a literalist is dismissed as your not really understanding the text, or that God, while jealous, is all the other good stuff too. I think if I hear, "for the wisdom of man is foolishness with God", "My ways are not your ways", or "God does not see as a man sees", one more time as a way to bale the literalist out of a pinch, I shall scream :)
With just a bit of time today researching a favorite topic on the internet, one can find that there is much much more to the story, the facts and the implications of a topic than what they simply had passed on to them from mom and dad who got it from their mom and dad, who got it from ....
Many today are coming to realize that the entire drama played out in the New Testament as the literalized story of Jesus was first played out in the heavens and still is today as the earth rotates around it's axis and around the sun. The rising and setting of the Sun of God in the heavens, which is literally the "light of the world" and literally as the sun, delivers us from darkness, and "in which is no variableness nor shadow of turning" is a type that literalists christians will someday have to come to terms with. It is no coincidence that when Jesus is said to have been born of a virgin on December 25th, at the end of the three darkest days of the year, Virgo, the Virgin precedes the sun rise and thus literally "the Virgin brings forth the Sun."
It is no coincidence that the Lamb is crossified in April when the Sun is in Aries,the Lamb, at the junction of the celestial equator and the sun's path across the heavens at the spring equinox (equal night). Humans have seen this story acted out for thousands of years. The entire circle of the zodiac, and the path the Sun/Son takes through it, tells the identical story of the life and death of Jesus and every other God/man in all cultures. The names have been changed to protect the innocent when it comes right down to it.
It has only been since the corporate and literalist church and church fathers demanded the allegory be believed as literal history upon pain of death that all the conflict and heartache of religion began. Taking an allegory and making it literally true is why the Bible seems to have so many problems and is not the harmonious piece of work that the Church would have one to believe. Many of them know it is not, but won't tell you because it does not keep the system alive if people think for themselves.
It is not to a literalist church's advantage for you to realize that a real God does not require you to go through anyone and certainly does not need you to show up at a specific building at a specific time where you learn specific and contradictory truths from the one true minister, and lose about ten percent of your annual income to boot. That's religion.
True spirituality is an inside job. What we see today in literalized Christianity is crowd control and a demand that people stay put in the box and reject any contrary facts in the name of Faith. Faith is what is demanded when the facts start to scare the powers that be. In truth, Paganism = truth when one understands Christian origins. The Christians met the pagans, and inspite of appearances, the pagans won.
So, back to original point.
Most of us had our truths preselected for us and we simply were expected to carry on the traditions. But we live in a world where information is much more available to show that most likely we have not all been told the truth of many things. Frankly, most won't even bother to look outside their given truths. I know that. Some will look and in horror at being wrong, will retreat back to where it is safe and comfy. Some will be intimidated for a time to not look, though they want to.
Some ministers today are forced to warn their parishioners NOT to go on the internet and research the real background of their church, religion or sacred story. Whatever you do, don't use the search words "jesus mythology", or "pagan Christian origins", or "Astrotheology", "Errancy", "contradictions Bible" or a host of other words combined in such a way as to open your mind and infuriate everyone else who does not want you to learn one bit more than the guy, and it's mostly guys, who is the provider of his truth to you.
"Be sure to choose what you believe and know why you believe it, because if you don't choose your beliefs, you may be certain that some belief, and probably not a very creditable one, will choose you."
Dennis C. Diehl
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Dennis On: What Would It Take...
...to give up ruminating about one's perception of their WCG experience? What would it take for me to do so? How does not doing so serve us?I used to tell the Buddhist story of the local tribesmen types who needed water to survive in their harsh environment, but only a little monkey indigenous to the area seemed to know the location of underground. They had a great trick to find the water for themselves. Seems the little monkey had one bad habit they could exploit. They trapped the monkey by digging a hole in a sand hill and putting honey deep inside.. about arms length. Once the monkey grabbed the honeycomb, it had the bad habit of not being able to let go when the men approached to trap the monkey. The clenched fist held the monkey firmly trapped in the hole until they could tether it. Of course, all it had to do was let go of the honey and escape, but that never seemed to cross its mind. Once tethered, they kept the little guy away from water for a few days until very very thirsty. They kept the tethered monkey on a long leash when released and it went right to the water source the tribe needed to survive. Tricky. All based on the inability of the monkey to let go, even when it was to its advantage to do so.
I'm a lot like that monkey. Are you? How does it serve me to hang on to this stuff? I find less and less reason every day it seems but it is still not easy. It's almost as if I forget about it, others will "get away" with something including taking advantage of my youthful idealism and caring personality. Oh yes, and the compliant thing too because I thought it had something to do with God, Jesus and truth that was somehow going to pay off in the world to come and was the right thing to do on this planet.
I used to be a church pastor, as you well know.. I was for a very long time during my most youthful and productive years. No longer a pastor and no longer tied into the story so tightly as I was of the literal truth of the Bible, I still find that "pastor" is still lingering as part of how I define and identify myself. Actually, I find that "I used to be a pastor" is the phrase that still pops up when talking in the present, so I must still identify with the experience for sure. Recently someone told me I was still stuck in my past job description as part of my present identity, and I had to agree. It is less and less each year, but nevertheless, she was right. It's easy to get stuck in who or what one used to be and let it color the present. When it comes right down to it, it matters little what one used to be or do and is not a valid way to define one's present. We all change. Life both provides for and forces change whether we like it or not and it is acceptance of that reality that is more in keeping with a genuine self identity.
But whether as pastor, or a policeman, or an accountant, mom, friend or parent, what we used to be is not who we are. It might have been what we did, or a role that we had in life, but it never was who we are. Try this...without saying anything good or bad about yourself, who are you? Most will slip and say what they do for a living, or some educational credentials or even something negative about how they perceive themselves to be, but that breaks the rules. The implication of that kind of answer is that when one ceases to be the doctor, lawyer or Indian Chief, once ceases to be, which is ridiculous. Ultimately, the only answer there is turns out to be "myself". I am who I am. You know, the Popeye Mantra.
I don't like change, but on this planet, life is nothing but change it seems. We make kids promise at their wedding, upon pain of eternal death and damnation, never to change from this moment forward, yet forget to tell them that outside of them, everything and everyone else will change! Seems a bit unfair to me. Life is entrances and exits, careers chosen and lost, ideas that work and then don't, people who show up and then disappear. Life is change. There is a lot to say for endeavoring to keep things stable, it is just that we often learn that if we want to stay balanced and sane, we often have to give up the idea of being masters of the universe.
So how can we stop identifying with who or what we thought ourselves to be, and bring our personal identity more into the present. The most profoundly right answers to this question are often the most simple to state.
1. Live in the present because NOW is all one really has. The past and future are all states of mind that are neither real nor productive places to rummage around in. The past is the source of our anger and if repressed, our depression and the unknowable future is the source of our anxiety, trying to figure out how things will be, when we can't know. Just stop it. NOW is all we have and every past moment was a NOW we had back then and we remember and every future event is a NOW not yet here. But when it "get's here," it will be another NOW.
2. You are not defined by what you do or who you think you are. When you no longer are or do that, you are still here. You are YOU. The sum total of genetics you had no say in, personality you are hard wired with, and circumstances that you may or may not have some control over. Life is choices. Make the ones you can. Accept with a "nothing is for nothing" attitude those you can't and drink cool water. Just do it.
3. Recognize that true human spirituality and happiness is an inside job. It all comes from within you. True spirituality doesn't need you to be anywhere to support some group endeavor and have your sincerity judged by your attendance. True spirituality doesn't motivate you with fear, guilt, shame and fear. And true spirituality certainly doesn't require ten percent of your income for "God" so he can bless you more than you can possibly imagine, with more stuff.
I guess that's all I have to say about that...
Dennis C. Diehl
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Time is Short--The Eternal Carrot
All fundamentalist and literalist Christians have grown up with the following scriptures burned into their minds...
I Thessalonians 4:15-17 "...For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout...Then WE which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air..."
I Corinthians 15:51,52 "...WE shall not all sleep, but WE shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump...and WE shall be changed."
Romans 13:11-12 "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for NOW is OUR salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand..."
James 5:8 "Be YE also patient; establish YOUR hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."
I John 2:18 "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby WE know that it is the last time."
I Peter 4:7 "But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."
Revelation 22:20 "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly..."
Millions in Fundamentalist and Evangelical Churches have grown up with the idea that the return of Jesus, a return which will fix everything that is wrong with everything and reward the true saints, is always imminent. We read the above scriptures as if they were written for us, as it is we who are finally the ones "upon whom the end of the age has come." Unlike everyone before us, we really really are the ones who will see it and be changed, avoiding the reality of physical death.
There never has been, is not now and never will be a shortage of preachers and pastors who just know we are living in the final, absolutely last days. The signs are everywhere and every world event is assigned biblical import and meaning.
In Fundamentalist movements, the tradition goes on and becomes more pronounced as , earthquakes, floods, fire, volcanoes and "unusual" events, or wars and rumors of wars, especially in the middle east rear their ugly heads. If someone blew up the Dome of the Rock, well... there... see, now tell us that Jesus is not a few minutes away from returning.
The fact that most wars are waged by either the Christians, Israelis or the Islamic nations, among and between themselves, which are the religions whose teachings are supposed to save us and make our lives better, doesn't seem to strike us as odd. In fact, at some deep level deeply religious fundamentalists, seem to believe that millions must die violently, so that "all these things can come to pass" and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit can be visited upon the Christian survivors... or Islamic or Israeli depending on who wins. Well of course, the Christians win. Each knows who that it will be themselves that overcomes the other. It's in the book, all of them.
The most popular New Testament "proof texts" for this thinking among Christian Fundamentalists and Evangelicals, comes from Mark 13 and the parallel passages found in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. These written in answer to the disciples question... "WHEN shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of your coming?"
It's all about WHEN. The "when" is unknowable even if one believes with all their heart it has to be soon. The faithful forget that speculation on the future is always just that. It is not fact. It is not how it will be and all speculation over the past 2000 years as to "when", to date has been 100% wrong.
Far too many Pastor types base their entire ministry on the imminent return of Jesus. One would be hard pressed to find the actual word "Jesus" in any other context in their sermons, articles and pronouncements.
It's all about the second coming and it's all about SOON for the most rabid and judgmental COG splinters. Those who question the wisdom of this mistaken approach to life become the scoffers who nip at the heels of the saints.
"...there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,"
But running that risk, and with all due respect to the sincere seeker of Biblical truth, I predict that Jesus will not be returning any time soon.
Why not? Because in the very predictions of Jesus lie the fact that he was himself wrong about them. Jesus put a time limit in the context of his own predictions that has long since passed no matter how apologists endeavor to resurrect his prophecies for a yet future time.
"Verily I say unto you", This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew 24:34).
We simply have to admit, at face value, Jesus was wrong and not only DID that generation pass away, but so have countless others that followed. Jesus has not been misunderstood in this statement. He was wrong. Sincere not doubt and it simply will not go into the bible-reader mind that this might be the simple truth of the matter. There has to be another explanation that makes Jesus right in this perspective not 2000 years past.
"This generation" was not the one Jesus was talking TO, but rather the generation that "these things" would begin to happen IN. Whew! It's in the far future and means a future society when all these signs accelerate and come to a crashing finale ending with the Second Coming.
We now have wiggle room to account for the fact that Jesus has not returned yet. Jesus wasn't mistaken about his own times, he was referring to another time.
Gleason Archer, who offers this solutions to the "Jesus didn't mean it would be in his time," notes accurately what we all know 2000 years later.
"Obviously these apocalyptic scenes and earth-shaking events did not take place within the generation of those who heard Christ's Olivet discourse. Therefore Jesus could not have been referring to his immediate audience when He made this prediction..." (Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pg 338).
Archer has to say this as he cannot possibly entertain the idea that Jesus was himself wrong in his perceptions of the times in which he lived and his role in those times. Later in the Gospels, authors would lower the expectations of the early Church, who thought Jesus meant them by reminding them late in the game when it was obvious Jesus wasn't coming any time soon that "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years. Sorry, we forgot to tell you that in the beginning." As long as one is incapable of thinking Jesus was himself wrong the Kingdom of God being just around the corner if he did his part, the doctrine of disappointments would have to be addressed as time went on.
And so we simply need to ask a very simple question. To whom was Jesus speaking? From the opening NT texts, it is obvious that the disciples, apostles and members of the church thought it meant THEM and did not get any hint of Jesus meaning anything other than THEM in THEIR time, which was short. The idea that Jesus would "build my Church" came decades after Jesus death when most were dead or dying of old age and yet the end did not come. Jesus never envisioned a Church that would follow decades and millennia after his death. Jesus life would always be lived and lost in the context of Judaism and the Synagogue.
But back to the original question. To whom was Jesus speaking when he said the words and to whom did he mean for it to apply? The answer is within the context, plain and simple.
"Take heed that no man deceive YOU." (Matt 24:4)
"...YOU shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars..." (Matt 24:6)
"Then shall they deliver YOU up to be afflicted..." (Matt 24:9)
"When YOU therefore shall see the the abomination of desolation..." (Matt 24:15)
"But pray YOU that your flight be not in the winter..." (Matt 24:20)
"Behold, I have told YOU before." (Matt 24:25)
The context in which Jesus spoke was his own. The "you" that he was addressing was the group he was addressing then and the group to which all these things would happen for, and soon. Jesus was telling those disciples that these things would happen in their time. Jesus made a mistake in his perceptions.
In our time, Christians read the same words and see the "ye" and "you" as "me" and "us" just as the original disciples would have. The only difference is that the disciples actually were disappointed and this generation has yet to realize their own disappointment to come.
The proof that Jesus himself meant the people he was talking to is found in the fact that the "this generation" comment is actually the tale end of a much larger, often overlooked quote taken in it's entirety.
"So likewise YE when YE shall SEE ALL these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto YOU, THIS generation shall not pass, till ALL these things be fulfilled." (Matt 24:33-24 emphasis mine)
There is no reason to twist the words of Jesus to mean more than they were ever intended to mean. A scripture can never mean what it never meant. The early disciples and infant Church, knew it meant them and we see the gradual deterioration of their personal confidence in the immediacy of the Second Coming promise throughout the NT.
I Thessalonians 4:15-17 "...For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout...Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air..." Meaning...some would die, but not us who tell you this. Jesus still means us.
I Corinthians 15:51,52 "...We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump..." Meaning...you will die, but we won't but it all works out...Jesus still meant us.
Romans 13:11-12 "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand..." Meaning...we had some doubts, but now we know it's almost here. Jesus still meant us.
James 5:8 "Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Meaning...impatience was growing, hang in there. Jesus still meant us.
I John 2:18 "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time." Meaning...Jesus still meant us.
I Peter 4:7 "But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."
Revelation 22:20 "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly...."Meaning...ok, it's been about 60 years, but Jesus still means us.
Obviously, everyone of these quoted hopes and statements were wrong. Jesus did not return for them and to date has not returned for anyone. Paul and the early church who wrote in his name was just as wrong as the many COG prophetic types are wrong in this time. And it is based on the fact that Jesus himself was wrong which I know most Christians can never come to admit. For Paul it becomes....
" I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." Meaning...Ok, I give up, Jesus didn't mean us, or at least not me. I was wrong. 2 Timothy 4:8-9
...and at best, this will also become the reality for those alive today seeing the imminent return of Jesus in every newspaper and on every turn of the dial in this dangerous and contentious world of ours.
I'm not scoffing. Being accused of scoffing was a label for those in the early Church. The disciples expected Jesus return within days of his death and when they met him in Galilee, even doubted that. Its what you say to those that are becoming disillusioned but the others know that the return is still in their lifetime for sure. Scoffers were undermining the confidence of the early followers and disciples of Jesus. An observation is not scoffing.
Observations are based on the passage of millennia. It's a 2000 year old observation. To motivate with fear, false prophetic fulfillment's of non- prophecies, and imagined prophetic accuracy on topics anyone could speculate somewhat accurately about, is simply foolishness and makes the Church, in any form look stupid and ignorant. Jesus said his generation would not pass until the Son of Man be come. He was wrong.
So bent on not allowing the member to even remotely entertain the idea that Jesus was wrong, Paul was wrong and the Church is wrong , it was prudent to shift the blame for doubt to the member and thinker and away from the clergy, and thus we have...
2 Peter 3:3 "Knowing this first, (meaning---we forgot to add this apologetic) that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of....."
Obviously, the Church took Jesus words literally for them and not for some future generation. But still Jesus doesn't return to them. This shifts the problem to the scoffers, doubters and those that misunderstood Jesus and not the Church who needs to keep the hope of imminent return going like a carrot before the horse. The Church never entertained until they had to, the idea that Jesus didn't mean what he said about soon. It also implies that this doubt is deliberate and calculated. It can never just be doubt based on evidence and time just going on without any evidence of Jesus return. Even with the temple gone and the Romans more in power than ever, He didn't return. It must have felt for them then as one might say today. "If Jesus didn't return for the Holocaust, what will it take."
The "scoffers will come" scripture was added when it was obvious to the Church that people could and were scoffing. And what some consider scoffing is merely noting that the thing spoken is not so. It's not evil, it's just stating the obvious and putting, in this case, the church on the spot to explain its continued use of imminent return going long. It also lends credibility to Jesus mournful cry at the end of his life..."my God, my God...why have you forsaken me." I expect Jesus really meant that. It was a real shock not to have had things work out as one had supposed. Jesus had done his part. He had pushed the Romans right up to the edge and himself, right up to execution...and still, God did not intervene, sweep the Romans from the earth and set up the Kingdom. Only after Jesus actually died did the followers of Jesus have to rethink it all.
I know... and expect it to be said, "you'll think differently when Jesus returns, or you find yourself in hell with lots of time to rethink your position." I speak in the hope that the average Christian church member won't be motivated and won't tolerate pastors who use the fear of living on this planet to promote their own misguided agendas and speculations. One does not have to see the world only through the eyes of those that speculate on how things are or will be because frankly they don't and can't know.
Dennis C. Diehl
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Let's Put This Story to Rest Once and For All!
If I ever heard an Old Testament story once, I have heard this one told ten thousand times. It comes from Isaiah 14.12 "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;"
This story was THE proof that Satan used to be one of God's good guys and then all of a sudden, one day decided to be take over everything and knock God off His throne. Local boy goes bad I guess. Well Satan, which term is never mentioned here, former Light Bringer which is what Lucifer means, is now the Prince of Darkness and the rest is history.
What's really going on with this story. Did you know that you see this drama literally take place multiple mornings and evenings of the year. Did you know that even to this day, this Lucifer is mistaken for UFOs or landing lights! Jesus said he saw Satan fall as lightening from heaven as did millions then and billions today if you know where to look. It's a very old story based on a very real observation by humans who made up a story about what they did not understand at the time.
First of all, let's understand that Isaiah 14 is really not about a Satan the Devil as he has evolved into over the history of the Church. A scripture can never mean what it never meant, and this principle applies to Isaiah 14 for sure. In the original Hebrew text, the 14th chapter of Isaiah is not about a fallen angel, but about a fallen Babylonian king, who had persecuted the children of Israel. Later in the context we see he was a man, who died. Now we often hear that this was a "type" but that's slippery ground mostly. Metaphor maybe, but not a type, where we can change a man into a Lucifer and then Lucifer into Satan, never mentioned, and then the whole thing into how Satan came to be the God of this world so send in your tithes and be safe with us. "In the Hebrew text the expression used to describe the Babylonian king before his death is "Helal, son of Shahar", which can best be translated as "Day star, son of the Dawn." The name evokes the golden glitter of a proud king's dress and court (much as his personal splendor earned for King Louis XIV of France the appellation, "The Sun King").
{Craig Lyons-Bet Emet Ministries.} The King here was a man, plain and simple, and for his cocky attitude, he got to die like everyone else.
Lucifer means "Light Bringer" and is a term used by Roman astronomers to describe the planet Venus. Venus has always been the light bringer as it always precedes the early morning sun. It is very bright and very noticeable, such that it has been confused, as noted, for the landing lights of non-existent airplanes. It is bright, but not as bright as the sun of course. In mythology, humans noted this 'god" that preceeded the sun and seemed to be racing to the zenith, which in astrotheology is called the place of the "Most High" or plainly put for us today, NOON! Noon is God's throne in astrotheological terms. In Isaiah, this "Lightbringer" went before God, the Most High-The SUN. The highest point in the sky where the sun or anything that shines outside the planet can rise, from our perspective. When mythology and even the Bible speaks of God as "the most High", one can see the deeper meaning that hints at sun worship. The Bible promotes a similar yet different form of Sun/Son worship but that has been lost on most Christians today.
The planet Venus proved to be an enigma for mankind. It's job seemed to be to go before the morning sun and announce, if you would, it's coming forth. But then, bright as it was and still is, it falls from the sky and descends into the ground, or in mythology, seems to be thrown down. Strange! Not knowing that Venus was an inner planet and all inner planets that rotate with the earth around the sun can never pass over us, east to west as do the outer planets and stars, they had to explain it. Thus we have the the "fact" that this lightbringer, this Lucifer soon be called Satan, MUST have become discontend with just announcing the Sun God, so MUST have said in his heart, "I will become the MOST HIGH." Well that was it for him! The Most High, not willing to give up his throne to this usurper, simply threw him back down to the earth, or apparently so at least as we look on the horizon. After that rather unsuccessful endeavor the dethrone God Most High, we get stuck with him as Satan compliments of the Church, who embellished the story and ta ta!...The mess the world in is explained and it isn't the fault of mankind for the most part. Forever more, we can say, "Satan made me do it." You know, the bright and morning star that tried to become God but lost.
It was mostly the Catholic St. Jerome in the fourth century who mistranslated the Hebraic metaphor, "Day star, son of the Dawn," as "Lucifer," and over the centuries an evolution of ideas took place. Lucifer the morning star became a disobedient angel, cast out of heaven to rule eternally in hell mostly waiting for all Non-Catholics, but later all Non-Protestants too. Now the Church had it's Prince of the Power of the Air, the Prince of Darkness, the God of this world, The Roaring Lion, the Fallen Angel, the former Day star (because if you know where to look, Venus can even be seen in the daytime)...gone bad.
Interesting enough, even Jesus, well the Jesus of Revelation who bears no likeness to the Jesus of the Gospels, identifies himself as the morning star, a term used as a central theme in many Christian sermons. Jesus refers to himself as the morning star in Revelation 22:16: "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."
So here we have it. Humans could never quite explain why this bright "star" we know as the planet Venus, preceeded the morning Sun as if to announce it's arrival, but then crashed back to earth. Very strange! Let's make up a story! This bright light, an Angel, the Lightbringer and minor deity compared to the SUN, really went bad and decided to knock the SUN GOD, and later the SON of GOD, off the throne, which is where the SUN rises to when it becomes the MOST HIGH at NOON. God, not putting up with that, simply threw Lucifer, now Satan or the Destroyer, back down to earth where he belongs and humans can get stuck with him until the SON of the SUN God comes back to destroy the works of the Light Bringer now gone dark. Great story! In Isaiah 14, this haughty king was acting just like that in thinking he could knock Israel out of the picture, he lost, was thrown down and died, just like that planet Venus every morning. So don't mess with God's chosen ones!19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
In the real story of the real human king of Isaiah 14, we see he dies like all mortal men and is not well thought of for thinking he could challenge Israel. In verse 19 we read, "But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet. 20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned." Graves, carcasses, pits, burials and oblivion are all features of what happens to humans, not Angels or mini-gods.
It's interesting, Venus also rises evenings wonderfully bright after the sun sets, and then falls back to earth too. Perhaps Satan just coming out from the underworld of darkness for a peak and to let us know he still rules it before going back an hour or so later after "Sun Set" where even the Most High Sun goes every night, in Eqyptian history to challenge "SET" God of the Underworld. Makes you wonder about stories about Sons of the Sun preaching to spirits in "prison." But that's another story.
So when you see Venus early in the morning when you drive to work and think either a train if low enough or a plane looking for place to land is coming right at YOU, know that's only the Light Bringer, Lucifer, later your arch nemesis Satan, announcing "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall" Malachi 4:2. Notice it doesn't say "Son". Think of wings more like rays and you'll get the picture. That planet Vensus, so beautiful is explaining a phenomenon that we take for granted to human beings long ago who feared such things and simply had to come up with a theology to explain it. Now you can say you saw Satan fall as lightening from heaven too...how cool is that!
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
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Fearing to Question Faith
If you wish to see the good, the bad and the ugly side of people of faith, just question the faith. I was a pastor soaking in Christianity and the Bible for three decades. I heard, read and studied all the plain and simple truth in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I can tell you the truth is neither plain nor simple and rather liked Paul's description of it all as being "the present truth." At least calling truth something that is currently understood gives some wiggle room for those times which shall come to grow a bit in the grace and knowledge that most Christians think they are open minded enough to really do. Most I know grow neither in grace, unless they attach a few dozen laws that you must keep to be one of the good people, nor knowledge which seems to scare the bejesus out of them when they really run up against it.I fully understand the anxiety caused when faith fails and why questioning it causes no end to grief and strong reaction. As humans, we are aware of our awareness. We know we will die. That is troubling and we spend large parts of our life in denial of that. Faith, any Faith that assures us that we will go on after death, even faith in quantum physics and the non-religious possibilities are all held on to so that our anxiety is kept at bay. It is why people argue and fight over religion. If you are able to plant doubt in my mind about my faith, Mr. Anxiety returns and I will do almost anything to keep that from happening. Religion calms our anxious souls from the meaning of impending death and dissolution of the body. We get rather fond of living and know we are fond of living.
I had little satisfaction as a student asking questions of the WCG teachers and "theologians." A question well put and not in line with current or rather cemented truth could get you put on the pastor's terrorist watch list. The best answer I ever heard to a question was when HWA was asked, "who are the Two Witnesses?" He said, "Joe Blow and Harry Smith!" I have met many Joe Blows along the way since then. As a pastor, and in hindsite, I realize when I was asked questions, I either answered as expected (and believed true) and felt a bit threatened if the question was outside the box of what I understood at the time. However, most members were not good question askers. You have to know what questions to ask to ask a good one. Some asked, especially publically, to show off how much they had studied and were merely kiss up to the pastor. Those were easy to spot.
By far, the writings I have done that have proven to be the most popular for the open minded and enraging for those who enjoy that frame of mind a bit less, have been on Questions Your Pastor Will Hate. Many appreciate the questions and admit that they too have had the same questions as they sincerely study the text of the Bible stories and accounts of varied topics. These are the people who see the politics behind the texts. They admit that James and Paul really did bash heads and Peter was bashed by Luke and John as one who was totally unworthy of any authority in the church. Judas had betrayed Jesus and Peter had denied him, so that's pretty much the end of them in the eyes of John, Luke and Paul.
The story of Annias and Sapphira in Acts 5 is not a story about Peter killing two church members for not coughing up all the money they had "pledged" to the church. It is a spoof that the readers of Luke and Paul's community would understand of the buffoon Peter who, like the two church members who said they would give something to the church and didn't, said he'd never leave Jesus and fled. Peter who said he'd do one thing and did another is now punishing a couple who said they'd do one thing and did another. It was hilarious and a poke at Peter the Pathetic according to Luke and Paul.
John mentions Peter three times in his Gospel and each time sandwiches Peter stories between two comments about Judas. The point is not missed on the original audience as is the story of Peter being forgiven three times by Jesus tacked on to the end of John's Gospel to show Peter is just as able to be forgiven as anyone else. (Side note: A really fascinating possibility is that the 21st chapter of John is the Missing ending of the pro-Peter Gospel of Mark. Mark is known to have no good ending to the Jesus story. It's ending has been added to make up for the bummer ending at Mark 16:8. John, on the other hand, has two obvious endings in chapter 20, the real ending and chapter 21, the forgive Peter ending.)
At any rate, to question the story is to run great risk of abuse at the hands of the faithful who need the stories to be literally true as they learned in Sunday School and that all the characters of the New Testament Church loved each other in Jesus and got along famously in the faith. That is very far from reality, but don't question it.
I can't tell you how many, while not near as many as those who appreciate the inquiry, take the time to write and remind me I will change my mind when I am frying in the fires of Hell in the judgment. No one has bothered to answer one question posed, but they just know I should go to hell for asking it. Some who write are subtle in their warnings to me. Some sound like a human form of God who will warn me to "gird up my loins" (my loins are just fine) and get ready to answer, but that's where it ends. I guess they feel God himself is about to break out upon me for asking questions about the faith. So far so good. Some talk to me like I imagine Moses talked to the Children of Israel when he was really angry at them in God's name. Some are not so subtle as one reminded me that "Dennis, words can get you killed." Well the history of religion that does not appreciate questions proves that!
Is it wrong to notice the inconsistencies, errors, goofs, bad science, poor examples, contradictions, animosities, politic and real history of the Bible? Depends who you ask. Those who believe that none of those things exist in the Holy Book would shout "yes!" In my view, the answer is "no it is not." Why is it OK and even something one should demand of their honest selves? Because ideas have consequences. Because the stories and ideas expressed in the texts are used to control people in various life circumstances. Because some use the mythologies of the Bible to make up literally real laws that effect women and children, and generally not in a good way. Because many are kept in fear, guilt and life long shame being reminded way too often that they, as a human, are worthless without divine intervention. Being born right the first time, as I have said in the past, is a truth that is kept far from their consciousness.
It is always right to ask questions about that which seems like it deserves to have a question asked. If you can't imagine Joshua raising his hands and stopping the earth from rotating without planet wide consequences...just ask your Pastor how can that be. Of course be ready to hear, "with God all things are possible," which is not what you asked. If you can't picture penguins and polar bears ambling down to the middle east to get on the Ark, just ask your Pastor about that. If you wonder where dinosaurs or Homo Erectus fit in, just ask your Pastor. The answer might be ill informed, but it's ok to ask.
If you notice that Paul never quotes Jesus, yet gets to write most of the NT heavy meaning of Jesus, just ask. If you notice that Paul thinks Peter, James and John, the disciples of Jesus don't seem to have anything Paul needs to learn from them and he learns nothing from them, and think that's kinda strange...just ask. When Paul says he learned nothing from Peter, James and John and the Jerusalem types, I have to admit, it took me back a bit. Paul seems somewhat of a loon to me now.
If you notice the Birth or Resurrection of stories as written in the Gospels don't match very well and seem contradictory, just ask. If you say "they seem to be contradictory," be prepared to have the word "seem" jumped upon, but you still have the right to ask. I'm not saying you'll get a good or correct answer. You might, but probably not. But you have the right to ask. And you certainly have the right to notice the many problems in the Bible if you know the Bible well enough to notice in the first place.
If you wonder why the five women in Jesus family line are all fallen women, just ask. It is fascinating.
If it ever crossed you mind that Jesus death was not the worst in history. Thousands were crucified in far more terrible ways than Jesus.
If you wonder why, if Jesus knew he was coming back in three days and God knew he would get him back better than ever in three days, that was such a great sacrifice for God or Jesus, just ask. If the thought "weekend inconvenience at best," or "shouldn't a real sacrifice stay dead," or " Every type of sacrifice in the Bible that is said to point to Jesus stayed dead, why not this one?" just ask. I am not being disrespectful. These are questions I was asked and I had to think them through long and hard.
What do you tell a teen who asks "If Mary was not married to anyone when she got pregnant and God, who didn't marry her either, got her pregnant, did God commit fornication?" Go ahead, give it your best shot. How about, "If God impregnated Mary but she was pregnant "by the Holy Spirit, the Third Person according to some ...what's that all about?"
One thing is for sure. If you are a genuine seeker and you truly notice that the Bible has some real problems with what we truly know today about many topics and even within itself in the form of many contradictions and editing done by one to correct the problems of the other, it's ok to ask. A real seeker cannot not notice what they notice. You can't go back to the lame apologetics that many offer to explain away the problem as if there is no problem. You can't unsee what you do see. You can't unring a bell. Oh..you also have the right to expect not to be penalized for asking in the first place. Just don't count on it.
Dennis C. Diehl
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The God Named Lettuce
I recall, oh say a thousand times, sitting in Bible Studies in the Ambassador Gymnasium and HWA beginning his study with, “Elohim is a uniplural word. I could feel my chest sink, my posture slouch and in my head I was begging the Deity to “please, not again!” Next, we would hear, again, “And God said, “Let US make man in OUR image, after our likeness….” And thus, in my rather passive aggressive mind, the study was going to be on the Uniplural God, Elohim, whom I had nick named “Lettuce” from my disdain of hearing the words “Let us….” over and over and over and over and over….
Christians are brought up to believe that the Old Testament is such an amazing document because it is the first to portray the true monotheism of reality in the spiritual world. It does not. What we have is the fact that Israelites believed in more than one god but that YHVH was the high God who deserved their worship.
When, in the Ten Commandments, God is quoted as saying “You shall have no other gods before me….for I the Lord THY God am a jealous God,” we are being given the rules of engagement in a world of many gods. A better translation might be, “You shall not bring any other gods into my presence.” Reason? “For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.” There are other gods in Israel and they all knew it. All they needed to do was not bring into the presence of YHVH and all would be good.
Clearly the Old Testament teaches the existence of many gods.
“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods (Elohim). Who is like you…” Exodus 15:11“For the Lord is a great God (El, singular) and a great King above all the gods. (Elohim)“Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will.” Ps 103:21“Praise him, all his angels. Praise him all his host!” Ps 148:2
These “hosts” and “angels” are all members of the Divine Council of the Gods with El being the chief god. BTW…The original “El” was Canaanite in origins.
And so let us speak of the great God “Lettuce.”
“Let us make man in our image.” The speaker here is YHVH El, the Chief God over the divine council of whom “the Satan,” whom we see fully accepted as a council member more in the book of Job, familiar to most of us. El is speaking to the Council of the lesser gods and telling them that humans will be made after the image of these gods and in their likeness. And so it was.
An interesting and surprisingly blunt admission of this multiplicity of gods is found in Deut. 32:8-9
“When the Most High (Elyon) apportioned the nations, when he divided human kind, he fixed the boundaries of his peoples according TO THE NUMBER OF THE GODS. (Elohim). The Lord’s (YHVH a lesser god than Elyon) own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.”
Here we have a rare and somewhat embarrassing admission that there was a god even higher than YHVH. The Most High was Elyon who had the authority to divvy up the nations between the other lesser gods. In this account YHVH is a lesser god who was placed over the limited geographical area inhabited by Jacob. This is why it was always well understood that the power of the god diminished the further away from its allotted land. If they strayed too far, they qualified as “foreign gods,” which we all know were powerless in the new areas and definitely false. You know, “My God is the true god, and …well…your’s is the Satan, or lesser and pow erless god around here. “
So we learn that YHVH and YHVH Elohim may have several implications. This can mean that YHVH is the god over a band of lesser gods or that YHVH is a god that comes from a class of gods known as Elohim.
And now let us speak of the God “Lettuce.” Back to those Bible studies by HWA that began with the chilling and “oh please not again!” words, “There were Two Trees in the Garden of Eden.” Towards the end of his life, it seemed to me that HWA could only conduct studies that were the ones he could give on auto pilot.
I felt the same way about Gerald Waterhouse who simply seemed to flip a switch, sometimes probably not knowing exactly what church area he was now in due to his extensive travels around and around to all the churches. In all my time in WCG, I never heard Gerald Waterhouse give any other sermon topic besides the one he was considered “an expert” in. I don’t question his sincerity but I did question his sanity at times. The man simply spent years on auto pilot to where even the “conviction” seemed contrived or at least way too habitual. Frankly and in hindsite, he was the the Goebbels of the WC G. He was the propagandist that kept us all “inspired.” I hated those visits. I told the elderly and those with small children not to feel guilty if they could not come midweek for a four hour harangue and speculation on things that probably would not happen the way he felt they would. It was unfair and unkind to the elderly and really to all to sit for so long and gain so little from it. Of course there were Gerald Waterhouse groupies but I stayed away from them as much as possible with my very bad attitude about the value of his visit. I often had to go multiple times in a row due to pastoring multiple churches. It was a real groaner for me. Towards the end I finally got up the courage, with a kick in th e shins delivered under the table, to tell him that his visits caused me more problems and need to deal with member fears and concerns than the inspired. He just looked at me. I then got really brave, what the heck, I was cooked now…and asked him what he was going to do or think when HWA died? His answer made me realize my ministry was coming to an end in time. He said, “I’ll believe it after three days and three nights.” All I could do was sigh and get ready to endure yet another four hour trial.
At any rate, back to the God Lettuce and the concerns about the now accomplished fall and sin of those created by the “Us” of the Council in “Our image, after Our likeness.”
“And the Lord God said, ‘The man (hey I thought it was the woman who sinned?) has now become like one of US, knowing good and evil. “ Right here I have to say I always wondered what was so wrong about humans knowing right from wrong? And if the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong came only from eating from a forbidden tree, how can humans be blamed for sin since before eating it, they did not know right from wrong or good from evil? Kids, not clouded by the filters accumulated by adults over the years think like that. No problem, it gets shamed out of them for even asking.
Back to the story. ‘ He MUST not be allowed to reach out his hand (hey what about her?!) and take also from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever!’ So the Lord God banished him (Hey, what about them!) from the Garden of Eden (BTW, the Sumerian version calls it the Garden of Edin), to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man (Can Eve come with me?) out, he placed on the East side of the Garden of Eden Cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of Life.” Genesis 3: 22-24
Now once again, as a kid, I wondered how you kept people out of an area by only guarding the East side of the compound? Could they, if they wished, not sneak back in from the North, South or West? I would almost bet that this Cherub in the story was the Constellation of Orion who rises in the East, huge obvious with an upraised sword twinkling with starlight, but I spare you. Astrol-theology at its best. Literally the story makes no sense, but in the sky…very nice touch.
The Plain Truth is that both trees, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and The Tree of Life were God-Food Trees. Only the gods were allowed such esoteric knowledge and only the gods were allowed to live forever. El and his Elohim , or Council of the Gods, could simply not abide the idea that worker drones in the original Sumerian myth could attain godhood and know such things. And so they were driven out to work even harder on the planet to survive.
An additional funny comes later when Cain gets booted from his space for killing his only brother and son of the only other two humans on the planet, Adam and Eve. (Seth is called the third). His fear is that “whoever finds me shall kill me…” Ummmm Cain! There are no other humans “out there.” You killed your only other brother and caused there to only be you, mom and dad on the planet for now. THERE IS NO ONE ELSE OUT THERE TO KILL YOU! However, El/YHVH failed to clarify this and told Cain not to w orry about that and that if someone did, they would really be sorry but the mark God puts on him would prevent that. I guess El also forgot there were no other folks out there to cause Cain a problem.
Myths brought to earth can get corny out of their original context.
So there you have it. El was NOT talking to anyone who would eventually become Jesus. That’s all made up a few thousand years later to explain how a Jesus could have been around forever and a godman. In context, gods forbid, it was about the polytheistic beliefs of, first of all the Sumerians, and then the Hebrews who tweeked the original story for to give themselves their own special origins. Insignificant types often contrive huge stories to give themselves amazing pedigrees no matter how phoney.
The Hebrew Sabbath origins also sprung from the original Sumerian creation myth where it was the gods and El who were wanting peace and quiet on the Seventh Day but could get none due to the complaining of the worker drones who tended the god-food trees in the Garden of Edin. When they finally drove the humans out, they rested on the Seventh Day…finally. The Hebrews tweeked the story to mean that both gods and man would rest on the Sabbath.
And so now we can, for the first time and as never understood and now revealed by me, understand a God called Lettuce.
( I guess I could add, "And Brethren, I don't believe I have ever given a sermon quite like this before. Maybe something like it back on Feb 17th, 1989 but really that was nothing like this. I'm sure you have never heard anything like this before...ala Dave Pack, but I won't :)
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The Most Difficult Forgiveness of All
Forgiveness is such a difficult topic to deal with and has so many complicated dynamics. Either it is almost an impossibility for people to grasp, or maybe it is so simple, we simply don't get it. It's probably both.Religion is all about being forgiven. God forgives humans through Jesus. Jesus forgives us if we ask. And of course, without the shedding of blood, there is NO forgiveness of sin, however why nor has always personally escaped me. What's so difficult about the Deity saying, "I forgive you." Enough with the blood already...
Most of the time we focus on either being forgiven by others, which has it's own dynamics, or trying to figure out how to forgive those that hurt or offended us. Everyone has both kinds forgiveness going on and so it can get complicated at times. We often are motivated by the idea of "well, I guess I have to forgive them because they said they forgave me...how dare them, damn it." Even the Bible encourages Christians to forgive simply because they were forgiven by God,through Jesus. It even says that God forgave us, not for our sake, but for Jesus sake, which seems a bit like missing the intended mark. I want to be forgiven for my sake for Jesus sake!
Frankly, most don't really forgive but rather let it go to a point of trying not to think about it and yet it simmers on the stove, always available to continue in some form of drama or painful memories to throw back and forth like lawn darts trying to hit the ring right in the middle and claim points over.
I have people in my life who I hope in time would forgive me and I have issues with some for which I need to keep growing toward a more complete and genuine forgiveness. I am at a stage where I am able to look back and see that sometimes what seems such an insult is really an opportunity to grow past something where things can work out better than it ever could have without the push. It is not always this way, of course, but can be if we look for the good in the "bad," which often lurks there grinning at us.
I'd like to talk a bit about the one kind of forgiveness that seems the most difficult of all. That would be forgiving YOURSELF. Forgiving yourself is something that is the final issue to be resolved when offenses have occurred for which forgiving or being forgiven has run it's course. We either can forgive others, and we do it over time and in degrees, or we can't. We are either forgiven, again over time and to various degrees, or we are not. We can control the pace of the one, forgiving others, but not when, if or how others forgive us. That is their issue, not ours, even though we wish it could be given in such a ways as to feel genuine and perhaps open some new doors to reconciliation in any way.
But forgiving yourself feels almost impossible. Why? First of all, there is that funky part of our nature that feels our forgiving ourself is contingent on being forgiven FIRST by others for our offenses. Once they do that, then MAYBE, one can think of forgiving themselves. The problem is you might wait until hell freezes over before you are given permission of this kind to forgive yourself. If you forgive yourself without being forgiven by others, there tends to be a voice in your head that says, "How dare you forgive yourself. We have not forgiven you yet. What are you thinking!" It is followed by, "when we get around to forgiving you, we will let you know and then you can play at forgiving yourself, you jerk."
You see , forgiving oneself seems to others a some form of denial or that you don't take what has happened very seriously. To forgive yourself is to send a message that you are rather shallow or oblivious to the pain caused, when in fact, only you know that it is the depth of the pain that makes you want to be able to forgive yourself and move on. NO ONE can be harder on me than me. That is my own experience. I am the monkey on my own back when I cause pain to others. Perhaps others don't know this, believe this or even want to think this as it might take away some of the sting they can inflict if they choose to, but it is true. Most sensitive people, who even care about this topic are way ahead of their accusers in self condemnation and knowing the pain they have caused that they seek forgiveness for. There are flippant types who hurt others and seem oblivious to it. I do not speak of this type of person, nor is that who I am.
Secondly, as mentioned, we feel that if we forgive ourselves, even if there is no forgiveness extended to us, we are not taking the drama seriously enough. I felt and can feel guilty if not careful for even enjoying life as that might prove I don't take things seriously enough on this topic of forgiveness. "No I won't forgive you. You don't seem miserable enough yet." So often, being forgiven includes requirements and proof you are really sorry for the offense and prove it day and night, over and over by being miserable, practically forever...amen.
Sometimes the requirements that one must meet to be forgiven are just impossible to comply with. Sometimes there is a temptation to comply just to feel forgiven, but it won't last as the two really can't be connected.
Forgiveness is a clean experience that allows everyone to be who they really are and think as they really think, no apologies. Anything less is mere compliance for a time and then of course, on go the masks until the next time they fall off. Messy forgiveness is the obligatory kind usually enforced by a fear that if we don't, then Jesus or God or some Deity might just not forgive us of our picky little sins, that we really have very few of.
So in order to forgive ones self, one has to not connect the forgiveness with performance as proof. I can only speak for myself, and I am sure this would be a point of contention, but when I cause the need to be forgiven, I was doing the best I could at the time of the perceived problem. We always do our best at any particular moment which is different from doing better as others might wish us to do to come up to standards they feel are more correct, in their view. But doing better is a future thing. Doing our best is what we always do at any moment we do what we do, or we would do better!
Finally, it is hard to forgive ourselves because we tie being able to do that with fixing that which we are needing to be forgiven for. I am a fixer and caretaker by nature. That is how I am wired. ENFP according to Meyers and Briggs. That is Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling and Perceptive. People like me become ministers, counselors, negotiators and of all things, massage therapists. So I have not strayed far from how I was wired at birth. We are negotiators because we tend to see both sides of all stories and the points that both sides make for their views. But the downside to this is that we can get stuck in views and not make decisions. If we can't fix it, we can't move on. If we can't fix it, then we don't mean it. If we can't fix it, then we are shallow and gutless. The fact is that some things just don't fix. That is painful but true. All things broken cannot be fixed and if forgiveness of the self is based on first fixing that which is broken, or different, or changed or one sided, then you can't forgive yourself and never will. And so you spin. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Stuck between rocks and hard places, heaven and earth, the devil and the deep blue sea.
But, fixing is not a criteria for forgiving yourself. It can't be because we can't always fix that which is broken but we must forgive ourselves as a part of real living.
So examine how things came to be.
Know that you probably were doing the best you could under the circumstances at that time and that is not the same as doing better, but these are two different things.
Don't base your need to forgive yourself on whether anyone else on the planet forgives you for what you have done, not done or said you wished you could do.
Realize that, of course, you have taken this all very seriously. This might be proven by, oh say, the tears, the anxiety, the doubt, the head banging against the wall, the depression, which is anger turned inwards. It might be the shame you feel which is a perception that you have not lived up to tribal or religious expectations, as if most do, or the guilt over breaking the taboos of the group. Only you need to know how seriously you take that which happens in life and do not let your forgiving yourself depend on whether others give you permission to do so.
And finally, some things don't fix. Just getting back into some box that doesn't work is not a fix. Patching is not fixing and trying to be what others expect as the only way to fix is patching and masking. Often things don't fix because one is not accepted for what they are, how they think or what they believe. This is why many with marital problems separate for six months, return, separate for three months, return and then separate for one week , return for their socks and can't fix it.
Forgiveness is not something to take for granted, but a healthy life includes the ability to see through this topic in practical ways and forgive YOURSELF as well, and maybe even first of all.
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Born Right the First Time?
The purpose of most religion is to make us "better" than we currently are. The Biblical premise is that all human beings are fatally flawed, not good enough and in need of vast improvements and control of their "human nature." Without this ongoing overcoming of the evil self, growing towards a better kind of person and change, one runs the risk of being so not good enough that they will spend eternity, for their inability to change over a rather short lifetime, in a punishing hell. Scripture goes out of its way to remind us all that our fundamental human qualities are deceit, wickedness, jealousy, anger, lust and greed. I find that personally to be one of the most unhelpful and controlling lies ever foisted upon human beings by religion. Of course that is how we can act, but that is not who we are by any real means when given the freedom to be authentic and feel safe in being so.We are called "worms" and less than nothing in this great book of encouragement. Even the early leaders, prophets and apostle types knew that they had to degrade themselves as less than human in order to show they understood they were not worth anything as an unregenerate human being. Only when one realized they were a piece of poop, could they lead the people who were really poopy people. If you could not utter the words, "I am not worthy," you would never be a Bible CEO. The Apostle Paul noted that he was "the least of the Apostles" and that "the things that I don't want to do, I do and the things I should, I don't." He made his problems everyone's. He concluded he was simply a wretched human being, and so should everyone else. He reminded others that they were blind, miserable, poor and naked of heart and spirit. He even said he had to beat himself into submission, lest after preaching to others, he should flub up himself and be a castaway. Seems he didn't have the confidence "in the blood," to make up the differences in what he was and what he felt he needed to be.
Jesus is also said to have said that humans are to become "perfect, even (in the same way) as your Father in heaven is perfect." No challenge there to be better than one is at any one moment! Of course this is not possible and it is not possible or plausible in any "now I'm converted and full of the Holy Spirit" way. You have never met any Christian who has reached this goal in life. I have met some who act like they have and I have met some who agonize of not being able, but I have never met one that did in fact, whatever that means. Actually they would be one freaky human being I would think.
How did we get this way? Well, of course it was due to the "fall" where Adam and Eve, our really true and actual first human parents, created by God out of mud and ribs, flubbed up and ate the forbidden fruit. We have all been blamed for this event and must spend our lives coming under a blood sacrifice of a more perfect human/god being and then continuing the struggle to be "better" until we die. Its then we find out we understood being bad enough to be good enough to live forever. Redemption of humans by blood sacrifice and execution have always been the preferred solution to the depravity of man. Membership in the club usually cost ten or more percent of your material income and membership in the one true of many churches. I am not being disrespectful to the life and teachings of Jesus but few understand how that has been woven into a tale that Jesus himself would have cringed at.
I remember as a teen when it was "time you were baptised" being told I was all these miserable things and in need of deep and heartfelt repentance and, of course, a savior. The minister took me through all the Ten Commandments and asked me if I understood that I had broken EVERY ONE of them all my short life and thus, was condemned to death. I was a mere 18 year old, nice kid, good home, pretty compliant, a bit guilt and shame ridden by upbringing, but not a really big nasty sinner on drugs with three illegitimate kids. And yet, here I sat being convinced I worshiped other gods, (money, success, human hopes and dreams), somehow always took God's name in vain, (mom and dad would have washed my mouth out with soap...I only learned to cuss and such after being in the ministry) and worshiped on the wrong day of the week along with having to repent of keeping the wrong Holy Days all my short life.
I was in some deep evil way a killer, adulterer, thief, liar and coveter of all men's goods and women. When I said I hadn't really killed anyone, I was told that I hated and that's the same thing. I admitted I had not had sex with anyone to that point, but my lust covered that one too. I wanted to say, "well no, I really hadn't done that either", but that would have been ill advised if I ever wanted to get baptized and have a future with the group. He told me to come back another day and more deeply repent of my nasty, evil and wicked 18 year old self. Of course I did in time and joined the "you still aren't good enough" club for the next three decades as a pastor who then passed the good news of human depravity on to thousands and reminding them that while they might think they are nice people, they are under the eternal death penalty those stinkers Adam and Eve brought upon us all no matter. However, I did a bit of growing myself and concluded the story of my guilt by association to Adam and Eve wasn't literally true. Human beings have evolved for the most part as good science has noted. I've had my own genome mapped back 60,000 years to all our African origins. I don't believe that it would be a very fair thing for humans to pay a literal and eternal death penalty based on a mythical and not literally true story.
Have you ever considered the fact that you and I may have been born right the first time? What if the most simple and spiritual goal a human being has is to become your own genuine, authentic and self? What if our purpose in life is neither to jump through the hoops set out by others, who think they know, nor to struggle and strive to improve yourself dramatically over what you are? People don't change much over a life time no matter what their religious affiliations, and while it's an improvement to stop killing one's self with sugar, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine along with other assorted body killing habits, it's ok to just be yourself.
Is it easy to be yourself? No, not in our culture and certainly not in many others where not being a mere cog in the tribal wheel can get you killed in really bad ways. One of life's simple truths that most humans have long since forgotten or never knew is that all of us are one and the same and all smaller parts of the one single thing. I don't pretend to know what that is, but let's just say we are all one in the same conscious awareness stuck in a limited five sensed carbon based wet suit for now. As Mike Adams said in a recent article on The discovery of DNA variability, holographic blueprints and the symphony of life...
"We are, in fact, an expression of the very phenomena we are attempting to understand, and if we read the poetry of DNA correctly, we will realize that life itself is not about the accumulation of wealth, or stuff, or power over others, but rather the discovery of self. And "self" does not exist in isolation. We are, in every way imaginable, intertwined. We are all made of the same stuff, wrought from the same patterns of nature, and in fact, formulated from the same musical notes played out in five billion unique but compatible tunes. With this discovery, Western science has concluded we are all more different from each other than previously thought, but I believe it is evidence that we are all just unique verses of the same universal poem."
That's a far cry from humans being merely wretched, miserable, poor blind and naked worms that need major rehab at the hands of prophets, priests and pastors. Saying we are born right the first time and not in need of being born again or reborn goes against the meme, which is the mind virus we all got taught as kids. Our parents had it taught to them and their parents before that. It is the idea that we are all flawed a birth by a non-event in the lives of our first not literally so parents Adam and Eve. It's the idea that even if you are a pretty ok person, you are filled with vanity, jealousy, lust and greed that unless paid for by a perfect blood sacrifice, demands you spend eternity in hell burning forever, cut off from God, or permanently dead. It's also not true and is not what a genuine human being, in reality needs to become the monkey on their back over.
What liberation it is to simply recognize that we are all one and the same smaller parts of the one big thing. It is every bit as difficult to live an authentic life as it is to live a life of false compliance to the will of others. It is easy or not easy depending on the need to please everyone or appear to agree when you don't, to be true to your self and by self, I do not mean ego. I mean true to the conscious awareness that abides in the container we all too often mistake for the self. You are not your body. That is merely transportation and a container for a short time. You are not your brain. That is a receiver of information and memories that may, in fact, arise from outside of a bigger you and I than we can imagine. You are not your mind, which is that thinking brain that spins in the angry past or projects itself into the anxiety filled future when it has nothing better to do in the present. A spinning mind can be a terrible thing...waste it!
How much misery and struggle to be all that one can never really be religion has heaped upon the faithful. Not many will leave the warmth and comfort of the boxes they were born in by happenstance and explore ideas that are not acceptable to the tribe or the church. But some will. They might be labeled "heretics" or perhaps more benevolently, "ahead of their times." In the past, those ahead of their times tended to be burned at the stake. Leaving the box of religious dogma is difficult and often one leaves it alone and on their own. Those in the last box don't often follow. You can be your authentic self as it comes to you and risk a lot but gain a lot, or you can put on your mask and be more comfortable but scarfing down antidepressants the rest of your life. That seems to be the way the road to the fact that being oneself is the most simple spiritual truth there is for a genuine human being.
Politics, fear, guilt and shame are some of the reasons human beings behave badly. Feeling unsafe can do a lot of damage. All of Iraq is coming unglued because of fear and self preservation, not some inherent evil that is the true, ongoing and daily nature of man. When people feel safe, appreciated, respected and listened to, you'd be surprised how much good can be accomplished. If Chicago was Baghdad, these same fears and survival skills would rear their ugly heads in the neighborhood.
What is the most simple spiritual truth a human can come to recognize? While there may be many, the simple recognition that being your authentic self in thought, word and deed is ok, is near the top. If my even saying that to you makes you uncomfortable, then you can know that it is not far from a truth you, as a conscious being, needs to consider in the time you have left to live in your limited five sensed, carbon based wet suit.
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Good Night WCG-Gracie/A Few Final Thoughts
To begin with, this letter is for me and perhaps part of my own life experience and healing after a 26 year run as a Pastor in the Worldwide Church of God. I came to the Church philosophically at the age of 16, having grown up Presbyterian in a very stable and loving family. The teachings of the WCG appealed to me and made more sense if one was to read and take the Bible as a fundamentally true document in all the areas that it claimed to express it's truth. The world of the 60's was chaotic. Presidents were assassinated, politicians were gunned down and civil rights protesters and leaders were being beaten, hung, drawn and shot. The Middle East was on fire as were many American cities. The Bible seemed to say that the end of something was near. I was also young and naive, but with wonderful intentions.
I went to Ambassador College against the wishes of my parents, who simply allowed me to make my own decisions. What a wonderful concept, allowing your kids to make their own religious decisions, even though I recently told my dad, now near 90 and a former elder in WCG, that I wish he had slapped me silly for even thinking of going. Of course, at that time, that would have only proved to me that it was the right thing to do since I was being opposed and at the time, I just knew I had to be there. I had to study and wanted to see the world through the eyes of the Church. It just seemed right to me and any ego loves believing that God himself was doing the calling. I was not drawn by the Armstrong personalities at first. There were many times at college where they annoyed me and I knew that what was spoken so brilliantly and with charisma, was in fact, not actually true, or simply speculation about the times in which were living. The information is what caught my attention. I was a very serious thinker at a very young age. There are reasons for that that I now understand completely, but I spare you.
And so I went to Ambassador. I wanted to be a pastor and even though I heard that God had to call you and, of course, the administration had to choose you, I studied as if it was all up to me. I had a 3.96 grade average. I enjoyed studying the Bible. I simply wanted to know "the truth". I got corrected for hair too long and not enough attendance at basketball games. I didn't care about basketball, but to make me show up, they made me be a flag something-or-other in a white coat and I felt like an idiot. I should have said no, but complied. I complied a lot over the next 26 years over more serious topics, though teaching and encouraging the congregation was more important to me than enforcing silly or reckless rules about various topics.
After graduation I went into "the field". Five states, 14 congregations and 26 years later, in a five minute phone call at 9:30 in the evening, I was terminated. Strangely enough, it was the anniversary of my baptism at 19 years old.
Now is the moment I have to be honest about me if I am to continue. I currently am a skeptic as to the origins and history of the Christian Church. That is my business and the result of my own study and perspectives. The WCG experience caused me to really look deeply into origins and I personally found I was not told near the truth about the matter. They didn't know near as much as they pretended to know. I was coming to some of these conclusions during the last few years as a pastor. I can hear some of this skepticism in some of my last Festival sermons. I felt that if a whole church administration can publicly flip an entire organization's belief system and expect compliance, I can certainly entertain the doubts and contradictions I have seen in the Bible quietly by myself. I could have easily walked off with most of the local congregation if I wanted to have years of local politics and doing what Christian Churches do best... argue, judge and fight, but I was done. I will never lose my interest in theology. I still want to know the truth even if it is not the one I set out to understand. I simply will not join another church again. From my perspective the Old and the New WCG was and is ill informed as is all literalist, evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity. That may not be true for you, but it is true for me. My favorite observation is that most Christians are piously convicted but marginally informed. That is true to me.
Most pastoring years were personally rewarding. I did not have to work in large cities playing games with other pastors who had empires to rule and egos to feed. I simply did my job, love those I met, laughed with them, cried with them, married and buried spouses, children and relatives, along with growing churches. I drove approximately one million miles (really) visiting, being a friend and believing I was doing the right thing.
There were lots of guys and families like mine. It's the narcissists that got all the bad press and still do. Towards the end, when every visit turned into a slug fest over what the Tkach's were doing in the Church, any capacity was a burden and not a joy. It was a miserable experience. Your friend one day became your lost friend the next. On top of that, I was in the American Southeast where being judgmental and critical of others not like you has been raised to an art form. Around here, every third male thinks that if he can read and tell a few stories, he is a Pastor. It's one of the few professions where one with no education or meaningful credentials can claim ultimate authority from God, and be someone.
By analogy, I came to a hockey game and at half time, someone came out, melted the ice, put up hoops and demanded I not only play, but coach Basketball, which if you remember...I don't like. Suffering a personal depression and a lot of regret over having given my youth and energy to the ever-changing truth, I made some mistakes that would be considered unacceptable as a pastor. Outside of the ministry and its neurotic demand to "become perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect," it would just be what it was and a common, oft told tale and theme of what I would help many a member with and through. But as a pastor, I could be criticized and I accept that. No one can live the life, feel the feelings or have the thoughts of another. Not in a real world.
At any rate, I stayed to encourage the local congregation. It did not work. The assault on what we must now think and do was relentless and those who did not participate simply had to go. If you were a minister, you simply lost everything and had to reinvent your life after being "uncalled" if being "recalled" and retrofitted did not make you a good little evangelical, hand waving, "cross" eyed, freak. YOU, not I managed to reduce my local congregation from just under 400 very sincere and faithful people to around 25 now meeting in some hokey storefront giving out Halloween candy with scriptures on the wrappers! Oh barf (it was a printable story on spreading the Gospel in the WN) ...winning converts with Scriptural Halloween candy!! It is simply pathetic to see a congregation and a MINISTER reduced to that nonsense. YOU, not I managed to reduce all my previous congregations by 90%+ Nice work.
Anyway...It simply came down to that five minute call one evening out of the blue informing me that I was done in the ministry and that I could call personnel for the details of the severance package. It was six months pay to get a new life and signing off on any future retirement, unless WCG, which means Bernie Schnippert, deems you loyal enough to support. Of course, I was not so that's quite a savings right there.... Perhaps one can imagine the position that puts one in when in my youth, the church had all ministers sign off on Social Security with the promise that "we will take care of you". Well actually you have taken care of me... but good.
My dad worked for Eastman Kodak, has been retired for years and you know, he once bought Fuji film, and Kodak still gives him retirement. Retirement is not based on loyalty. It is based on years of service.
You can't ask people to be loyal to something that was pushed upon them and with which they had little agreement. Most of the people in WCG came FROM where you wanted to go. You can't ask people to change their minds, hopes and faith just because YOU think they should agree with you. Life, much less the human mind does not work that way. Frankly, those of you who "administer" the church, should have left long ago and asked Benny Hinn, TBN , and the Harvest Crock Church to take you in as spiritual refugees. I realize you could not continue to grant yourselves lifetime income and security by doing this, but it is what YOU should have done and left the Church, whose perspective you scorned, alone. If it was wrong for YOU, then leave it, don't destroy it and drive most to despair, skepticism and in some few cases literal suicide. Instead, you made everyone else leave. Now that's power...stupid, self-serving and egocentric power. Benny Hinn has a rule that he does not want people looking him in the eyes. He makes it a rule wherever he goes. He does it as part of his holy farce, fake and failed prophecies ministry because he believes he is more special than others. Perhaps a similar rule would save you all from seeing the pain, hurt and spiritual confusion in the eyes of countless good people, including former ministers who gave just as much and more in some areas a congregant could not appreciate.
You need to remember that the monies you realized in the sale of the campus which you will now "invest" into an almost non existent "worldwide church" and give yourselves and as few others as possible a lifetime income, is labor from the 1950's, 60's 70's 80's and 90's. I'd say you should calculate how much real giving YOU inspired. Real giving, from the heart during your Sheepling of the Sheep and not the efforts of others, whether you agreed with them or not. And you can't count the guilt or habitual giving types. You can only count the purely evangelical fundamentalist "New and Improved Church of God" giving. That's your money to work with. That's the fruit of your labor in "Him" as some say. I'd also like to ask that when you go to eat out, or take a cruise in the fall to not keep an archaic, and Jesus embarrassing non-festival. Or when you pay a mortgage or get a new car or have your health needs taken care of, and do whatever your good Christian Evangelical heart wan ts, you might remember what others might be struggling with just to keep up. I know my own father was able to survive because Kodak had a plan,
I am not so sure about myself at this moment in my life. By others, I include former members also, but mean former pastors with whom I also have had great experience. Please remember when you are tempted to judge or put people in categories of worthy or not worthy, that you're coming to "know" Jesus and reinventing the wheel of truth, and discovering the "old old story", which is older than you can possibly imagine, has cost others a lot. It cost some who were unable to distinguish between the emotional death of their hope and faith and literal death, their lives. That is not a judgment. That is just the way it has been for some.
Being a hard wired sensitive human being (ENFP-let him who reads understand); I understand that feeling and shock. The depression I have wrestled with is really internalized anger, and the sarcasm I am capable of is simply that anger turned sideways. Neither you nor the previous administration were particularly easy people to reason with or explain things to. You are always right it seems, and to date, a rather emotionally cold and calculated group outside your circle and towards those that have reacted to your administration. I have always said when the common folk simply have had enough and say "NO" to childish posturing and the phony authority ministerial administrative types put on, all of a sudden, God inspires a new and better understanding. But in fact, it is simply realizing one can't dismiss the common sense perspectives of educated people and survive.
We get depressed because people don't listen and we lose our bearings with little or no genuine support. You all need to understand that. Personally, I am still amazed that since that one fateful personal call that my career was over, no one ever contacted me again...ever. This is what I mean by cold. I encouraged the local church in my last sermon to continue to support you. I have since regretted the content and misplaced loyalty of my last sermon. I believe that was back when I had just been assured that "we will not be changing" this or that, and it all changed that month.
The emotions that people direct towards the collective "you" for reckless change and indifference to the spiritual and physical sacrifices made by thousands and which now result in your having more money than you need to "do the work", is quite normal. I suspect, as do others, you knew what your losses would be, but did not care, and still don't. Maybe even you don't know why you do and did what you did. Perhaps that would take a professional to sort out.
I don't know the games you played with your Evangelical supporters behind the scenes but I do know that "the Bible Answer Man" and others you have embraced also show a pattern of financial gain through religious manipulation and theological ignorance. Hank Hanegraaf's perspective on evolution and literal human origins is simply ignorant. He is not qualified to write on such topics as if he knew. His mistake as well as that of the Fundamentalist and Evangelical mind-set is to take the text as literally and historically true from the start without question, but that is another whole topic. I can't tell you how many Evangelical type ministers I have met in my other life now that have said, "I know you are right, but I can't teach that, I'd lose my job." Grab a copy of Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, by John Spong and then try to say the Bible is all harmonious and literally true. It's a very simple read and with your backgrounds, you should be very capable of grasping it's message. The same is to be said of many of the theological articles you now write. Pious conviction with marginal information.
Finally, and I know I will always be able to think of more to say, I wanted to comment on your "Ministry of Reconciliation." While I am all for Black/White reconciliation, it is majoring in the minors at this point. I know how difficult it is to communicate with those you have offended. Or maybe I am only seeing this topic through my own eyes and for you it is not difficult at all. I don't know. I do know that reconciling with races is not your main problem. It is the inability to reconcile with people that has been your undoing.
It may take a few more years, but this lack will leave WCG dead and buried in just about any form. Only a small group of people will have a lot of money. I imagine you can afford to dabble in just about any Evangelical fantasy you choose. You can associate with whoever is the most emotionally satisfying regardless of how anyone left in WCG feels about it and whether it represents their hopes and dreams. I also feel that the new owners of the property are another religious scandal waiting to happen. Men with that much emotion, power, influence and ridiculous religious showmanship wear many masks and cannot maintain all of them all the time. Truly spiritual people don't need others to define them, but Sheeple remember, need Shepherds. I will say that if I hear or see any of you standing with Benny Hinn in the Rededication of the Ambassador Auditorium, to a new and improved God from the last time it was dedicated, I will vomit. It will however prove that the unchangeable God changes often depending on who gets to write the script. It would be a great symbol of everything that is wrong with all those various denominations that know the one true mind of God. God is so often in the image of the men who speak for Him. At any rate, put some thought into who you really might need to reconcile with and see what you come up with. I won't hold my breath.
I thank any and all for listening to me open up and express these things. I realize I can be sarcastic. I realize that I still have anger I don't wish to have and regrets about not speaking up in times past I can only remedy by speaking up now. I also realize I have nothing to loose, which even Janis Joplin defined as true freedom.
I wanted to be a pastor from a very young age. The reasons were probably rather hokey, but they were sincere. The WCG seemed right at the time. I had to be there. I accept responsibility for being there and also for being here now. I simply ask you to reconsider your perspectives and responsibilities. You might be able to dismiss it because " we weren't responsible for the past." I will simply say. I am not talking about the past. That is over and done with. If you can't take some responsibility for the past, then you can't control the money you have now gotten from the sale of the past. It's that simple. I don't expect you take responsibility for the past adminstration' sway of being and doing. But your way of being and doing in the recent past is more than enough for you to take responsibility for and do whatever you really think your new Jesus would do.
Warm regards and thanks for listening,
And so I went to Ambassador. I wanted to be a pastor and even though I heard that God had to call you and, of course, the administration had to choose you, I studied as if it was all up to me. I had a 3.96 grade average. I enjoyed studying the Bible. I simply wanted to know "the truth". I got corrected for hair too long and not enough attendance at basketball games. I didn't care about basketball, but to make me show up, they made me be a flag something-or-other in a white coat and I felt like an idiot. I should have said no, but complied. I complied a lot over the next 26 years over more serious topics, though teaching and encouraging the congregation was more important to me than enforcing silly or reckless rules about various topics.
After graduation I went into "the field". Five states, 14 congregations and 26 years later, in a five minute phone call at 9:30 in the evening, I was terminated. Strangely enough, it was the anniversary of my baptism at 19 years old.
Now is the moment I have to be honest about me if I am to continue. I currently am a skeptic as to the origins and history of the Christian Church. That is my business and the result of my own study and perspectives. The WCG experience caused me to really look deeply into origins and I personally found I was not told near the truth about the matter. They didn't know near as much as they pretended to know. I was coming to some of these conclusions during the last few years as a pastor. I can hear some of this skepticism in some of my last Festival sermons. I felt that if a whole church administration can publicly flip an entire organization's belief system and expect compliance, I can certainly entertain the doubts and contradictions I have seen in the Bible quietly by myself. I could have easily walked off with most of the local congregation if I wanted to have years of local politics and doing what Christian Churches do best... argue, judge and fight, but I was done. I will never lose my interest in theology. I still want to know the truth even if it is not the one I set out to understand. I simply will not join another church again. From my perspective the Old and the New WCG was and is ill informed as is all literalist, evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity. That may not be true for you, but it is true for me. My favorite observation is that most Christians are piously convicted but marginally informed. That is true to me.
Most pastoring years were personally rewarding. I did not have to work in large cities playing games with other pastors who had empires to rule and egos to feed. I simply did my job, love those I met, laughed with them, cried with them, married and buried spouses, children and relatives, along with growing churches. I drove approximately one million miles (really) visiting, being a friend and believing I was doing the right thing.
There were lots of guys and families like mine. It's the narcissists that got all the bad press and still do. Towards the end, when every visit turned into a slug fest over what the Tkach's were doing in the Church, any capacity was a burden and not a joy. It was a miserable experience. Your friend one day became your lost friend the next. On top of that, I was in the American Southeast where being judgmental and critical of others not like you has been raised to an art form. Around here, every third male thinks that if he can read and tell a few stories, he is a Pastor. It's one of the few professions where one with no education or meaningful credentials can claim ultimate authority from God, and be someone.
By analogy, I came to a hockey game and at half time, someone came out, melted the ice, put up hoops and demanded I not only play, but coach Basketball, which if you remember...I don't like. Suffering a personal depression and a lot of regret over having given my youth and energy to the ever-changing truth, I made some mistakes that would be considered unacceptable as a pastor. Outside of the ministry and its neurotic demand to "become perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect," it would just be what it was and a common, oft told tale and theme of what I would help many a member with and through. But as a pastor, I could be criticized and I accept that. No one can live the life, feel the feelings or have the thoughts of another. Not in a real world.
At any rate, I stayed to encourage the local congregation. It did not work. The assault on what we must now think and do was relentless and those who did not participate simply had to go. If you were a minister, you simply lost everything and had to reinvent your life after being "uncalled" if being "recalled" and retrofitted did not make you a good little evangelical, hand waving, "cross" eyed, freak. YOU, not I managed to reduce my local congregation from just under 400 very sincere and faithful people to around 25 now meeting in some hokey storefront giving out Halloween candy with scriptures on the wrappers! Oh barf (it was a printable story on spreading the Gospel in the WN) ...winning converts with Scriptural Halloween candy!! It is simply pathetic to see a congregation and a MINISTER reduced to that nonsense. YOU, not I managed to reduce all my previous congregations by 90%+ Nice work.
Anyway...It simply came down to that five minute call one evening out of the blue informing me that I was done in the ministry and that I could call personnel for the details of the severance package. It was six months pay to get a new life and signing off on any future retirement, unless WCG, which means Bernie Schnippert, deems you loyal enough to support. Of course, I was not so that's quite a savings right there.... Perhaps one can imagine the position that puts one in when in my youth, the church had all ministers sign off on Social Security with the promise that "we will take care of you". Well actually you have taken care of me... but good.
My dad worked for Eastman Kodak, has been retired for years and you know, he once bought Fuji film, and Kodak still gives him retirement. Retirement is not based on loyalty. It is based on years of service.
You can't ask people to be loyal to something that was pushed upon them and with which they had little agreement. Most of the people in WCG came FROM where you wanted to go. You can't ask people to change their minds, hopes and faith just because YOU think they should agree with you. Life, much less the human mind does not work that way. Frankly, those of you who "administer" the church, should have left long ago and asked Benny Hinn, TBN , and the Harvest Crock Church to take you in as spiritual refugees. I realize you could not continue to grant yourselves lifetime income and security by doing this, but it is what YOU should have done and left the Church, whose perspective you scorned, alone. If it was wrong for YOU, then leave it, don't destroy it and drive most to despair, skepticism and in some few cases literal suicide. Instead, you made everyone else leave. Now that's power...stupid, self-serving and egocentric power. Benny Hinn has a rule that he does not want people looking him in the eyes. He makes it a rule wherever he goes. He does it as part of his holy farce, fake and failed prophecies ministry because he believes he is more special than others. Perhaps a similar rule would save you all from seeing the pain, hurt and spiritual confusion in the eyes of countless good people, including former ministers who gave just as much and more in some areas a congregant could not appreciate.
You need to remember that the monies you realized in the sale of the campus which you will now "invest" into an almost non existent "worldwide church" and give yourselves and as few others as possible a lifetime income, is labor from the 1950's, 60's 70's 80's and 90's. I'd say you should calculate how much real giving YOU inspired. Real giving, from the heart during your Sheepling of the Sheep and not the efforts of others, whether you agreed with them or not. And you can't count the guilt or habitual giving types. You can only count the purely evangelical fundamentalist "New and Improved Church of God" giving. That's your money to work with. That's the fruit of your labor in "Him" as some say. I'd also like to ask that when you go to eat out, or take a cruise in the fall to not keep an archaic, and Jesus embarrassing non-festival. Or when you pay a mortgage or get a new car or have your health needs taken care of, and do whatever your good Christian Evangelical heart wan ts, you might remember what others might be struggling with just to keep up. I know my own father was able to survive because Kodak had a plan,
I am not so sure about myself at this moment in my life. By others, I include former members also, but mean former pastors with whom I also have had great experience. Please remember when you are tempted to judge or put people in categories of worthy or not worthy, that you're coming to "know" Jesus and reinventing the wheel of truth, and discovering the "old old story", which is older than you can possibly imagine, has cost others a lot. It cost some who were unable to distinguish between the emotional death of their hope and faith and literal death, their lives. That is not a judgment. That is just the way it has been for some.
Being a hard wired sensitive human being (ENFP-let him who reads understand); I understand that feeling and shock. The depression I have wrestled with is really internalized anger, and the sarcasm I am capable of is simply that anger turned sideways. Neither you nor the previous administration were particularly easy people to reason with or explain things to. You are always right it seems, and to date, a rather emotionally cold and calculated group outside your circle and towards those that have reacted to your administration. I have always said when the common folk simply have had enough and say "NO" to childish posturing and the phony authority ministerial administrative types put on, all of a sudden, God inspires a new and better understanding. But in fact, it is simply realizing one can't dismiss the common sense perspectives of educated people and survive.
We get depressed because people don't listen and we lose our bearings with little or no genuine support. You all need to understand that. Personally, I am still amazed that since that one fateful personal call that my career was over, no one ever contacted me again...ever. This is what I mean by cold. I encouraged the local church in my last sermon to continue to support you. I have since regretted the content and misplaced loyalty of my last sermon. I believe that was back when I had just been assured that "we will not be changing" this or that, and it all changed that month.
The emotions that people direct towards the collective "you" for reckless change and indifference to the spiritual and physical sacrifices made by thousands and which now result in your having more money than you need to "do the work", is quite normal. I suspect, as do others, you knew what your losses would be, but did not care, and still don't. Maybe even you don't know why you do and did what you did. Perhaps that would take a professional to sort out.
I don't know the games you played with your Evangelical supporters behind the scenes but I do know that "the Bible Answer Man" and others you have embraced also show a pattern of financial gain through religious manipulation and theological ignorance. Hank Hanegraaf's perspective on evolution and literal human origins is simply ignorant. He is not qualified to write on such topics as if he knew. His mistake as well as that of the Fundamentalist and Evangelical mind-set is to take the text as literally and historically true from the start without question, but that is another whole topic. I can't tell you how many Evangelical type ministers I have met in my other life now that have said, "I know you are right, but I can't teach that, I'd lose my job." Grab a copy of Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, by John Spong and then try to say the Bible is all harmonious and literally true. It's a very simple read and with your backgrounds, you should be very capable of grasping it's message. The same is to be said of many of the theological articles you now write. Pious conviction with marginal information.
Finally, and I know I will always be able to think of more to say, I wanted to comment on your "Ministry of Reconciliation." While I am all for Black/White reconciliation, it is majoring in the minors at this point. I know how difficult it is to communicate with those you have offended. Or maybe I am only seeing this topic through my own eyes and for you it is not difficult at all. I don't know. I do know that reconciling with races is not your main problem. It is the inability to reconcile with people that has been your undoing.
It may take a few more years, but this lack will leave WCG dead and buried in just about any form. Only a small group of people will have a lot of money. I imagine you can afford to dabble in just about any Evangelical fantasy you choose. You can associate with whoever is the most emotionally satisfying regardless of how anyone left in WCG feels about it and whether it represents their hopes and dreams. I also feel that the new owners of the property are another religious scandal waiting to happen. Men with that much emotion, power, influence and ridiculous religious showmanship wear many masks and cannot maintain all of them all the time. Truly spiritual people don't need others to define them, but Sheeple remember, need Shepherds. I will say that if I hear or see any of you standing with Benny Hinn in the Rededication of the Ambassador Auditorium, to a new and improved God from the last time it was dedicated, I will vomit. It will however prove that the unchangeable God changes often depending on who gets to write the script. It would be a great symbol of everything that is wrong with all those various denominations that know the one true mind of God. God is so often in the image of the men who speak for Him. At any rate, put some thought into who you really might need to reconcile with and see what you come up with. I won't hold my breath.
I thank any and all for listening to me open up and express these things. I realize I can be sarcastic. I realize that I still have anger I don't wish to have and regrets about not speaking up in times past I can only remedy by speaking up now. I also realize I have nothing to loose, which even Janis Joplin defined as true freedom.
I wanted to be a pastor from a very young age. The reasons were probably rather hokey, but they were sincere. The WCG seemed right at the time. I had to be there. I accept responsibility for being there and also for being here now. I simply ask you to reconsider your perspectives and responsibilities. You might be able to dismiss it because " we weren't responsible for the past." I will simply say. I am not talking about the past. That is over and done with. If you can't take some responsibility for the past, then you can't control the money you have now gotten from the sale of the past. It's that simple. I don't expect you take responsibility for the past adminstration' sway of being and doing. But your way of being and doing in the recent past is more than enough for you to take responsibility for and do whatever you really think your new Jesus would do.
Warm regards and thanks for listening,
Dennis C. Diehl
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"Just what do you believe?" Good Question!
First of all let me say that I know it really doesn't matter what I personally believe. Also, what I believe is no less important to me than what other's find important to them. That's the nature of "I believe." No one sets out to believe the wrong things and I have said many times, no one wants to attend the false Church or admits to being part of one. Every Church one goes to in the course of their life is the true church during the time they spent going to it.
But beliefs are also not truths. For example, many believe Genesis 1-3 is the real story of how all life including humans really really came to be. I don't believe that is the meaning that was meant to be assigned to those stories. They have meaning, but just not the ones creationists assign to them. However, they believe it does tell the true scientific truth of creation and so it is to them.
So I think we could all agree that we could go one forever shooting our beliefs back and forth at each other hoping to change a mind or point of view towards our thinking and perspectives. It rarely happens.
It was fairly asked me, "since I don't believe .....just what do you believe? I thought I'd take a short time to ask myself that question and keep it positive. Since the majority of us were in WCG and either still are in some form or have moved on to other beliefs, we obviously all believe different things based on the journey we each have taken through this ordeal.
So this is my "Present Truth" as opposed to "The Plain Truth." I have at least learned the truth is rarely plain nor always the truth. The New Testament uses the term "Present Truth" and that is a more realistic view in my opinion.
How about to all of us who will post on this topic, also just do a "I believe...." as a response. We don't have to waste time informing each other how lame each others beliefs are compared to the truth. And yet I know how difficult it is for some few to resist. I haven't been labeled "High Priest of Marduk" for nothing you know! :) Actually I haven't had a title in over a decade so I appreciate the new one. Makes me feel almost human again!
So here goes...
I believe that we are all small conscious parts of the one same big benevolent thing experiencing reality in a very limited way with a mere five senses housed in a carbon based wetsuit. At least I'd like to believe this.
I believe humans are born right the first time and really don't need to be feared, guilted or shamed into atonement by execution. The NT says without the shedding of blood there is NO forgiveness of sins. Why not? Why can't we or the Deity just say, "Ok, I believe you and I forgive you."
I believe we're all here to learn and there is not enough time in one life to learn it all. Thus, if our spirit goes on, then I hope reincarnation is true. I like the analogy of one candle passing it's flame on to the next and the next and the next until all is light.
I believe that nothing in this life is for nothing and that there are no accidents. Somehow, every experience we have is one we agreed to have for our growth. The choice is to grow through or wither under it seems.
I believe every human being is equal to every other human being. There are no chosen people because to believe that some are chosen is to believe the rest are unchosen and thus inferior. This false view of the chosen people is the source of much suffering and carnage.
I believe the Bible has value and insights just as many other books of culture and human experience do. I don't believe any Deity wrote or even inspired the Bible and it is not the best book ever written. These are memes we learn growing up and are very hard to come up against if one wishes to get a bigger picture of what the Bible is.
I believe we are all on different parts of the same path to something amazing. We all learn in different ways and through different experiences, but the path and the Journey is the same for all of us.
I believe this moment and the present is the only real thing we have. The past, which is the source of our internalized anger and depression is not real and exists only in our heads. The future, wherein we find the fuel for our anxiety, is unknowable and when it arrives will merely be another present moment to live in.
I believe the reality we see, touch, taste hear and smell is not the only reality there is.
I believe we are probably one universe on a cluster of universes in one vineyard of universes among many more vineyards.
I believe our universe is teeming with life and would have developed in its own way based on its own circumstances and conditions.
I believe i'm a conscious hairless ape that developed over millions of years having many amazing ancestors who were very successful for much longer than we probably ever can hope to be. The more conscious and intelligent we become, the shorter our span of survival becomes as history seems to show us.
I believe human consciousness developed as we see it today about 3000 years ago when writing came into being. This explains the cold, robotic and non introspective thinking we see in people in the early pages of the Bible. The OT is a great example of humans spanning the gap between the unconscious mind of man and the one waking up. Great topic for another time. As God disappears from view in the Bible, we find humans developing religion to answer the question of "where did he go?" and "What do we have to do to regain His favor and attention?"
I believe I am responsible for every decision, event, disaster, choice and result that has occurred in my personal life. That which I view as someone else's fault is also my fault. I am not a victim of others in the bigger picture.
I believe our children should be shown and encouraged to examine many ways of being and then make their own choices even if it is not our choice. What's the chance you and I just happened to end up born into the very true truth in the universe. Let them pick their own.
I believe if all of us here commenting, no matter our beliefs, could probably have a great time over dinner and come to appreciate more than deprecate each other.
I believe it doesn't really matter what I believe, but to me it is comforting just as I know yours is to you.
I believe I'll wrap it up now knowing there are always other things I believe that I will think of after I finish this...
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When Despair Comes Calling
"The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers."
I Samuel 31:3
I always read this scripture and elaborated on its implications when doing the funeral of a Church Member who had taken their own lives.
This business of the "battle going hard" is one worth discussing. Sometimes that's just how life feels and rarely, but on occasion, some of those disillusioned by their experience with the Bible, the Church and all the failed promises or misguided perspectives humans allow themselves to adopt can take a final toll.
4 Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.”
But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. 5 When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. 6 So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day.
Suicide is a very difficult topic to address when it involves those who had such hope gone badly with regards to religion. It truly is a permanent solution to temporary problem, but it sure does not seem that way at the time.
As a former pastor, I knew the real truth of some of the deaths in the congregations around me. I've known of both minister and member who outwardly died suddenly of this or that thing, but really ended their own lives. It is unspeakable and very difficult to face for those who survive. If the one who ended their life could see what carnage they leave behind with family and friends, they might rethink it. However, thinking is not one's strong point when despair overtakes them.
The battle just got overwhelming and despair set down its roots leaving the person with nothing.
Suicide is always seen as a quick thing. It happens in seconds and minutes. I have known good men, who in the despair of ongoing church drama and endless scandal drank themselves to death. That takes a bit longer. In our culture one is allowed to kill themselves slowly by confusing sugar, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine as the four food groups. It's ok to kill yourself slowly. But it is not ok to take your life quickly. You can abuse yourself willingly years and die knowing life styles and addictions are taking their toll, but you can't turn on a lethal drip of something to choose the time of your death.
We might wonder if Jesus, in the story, did not commit suicide. Overturning tables in the Temple with the Romans already waiting to crush any trouble around the Temple during Passover might be considered suicidal. It worked for Jesus. Stephen seems to have committed suicide by flapping his mouth against those that could hurt him. His deaconship was rather short lived. He may have done better had he explained his position or discussed it. But just ramming it down their throats was definitely suicide.
In the Bible, some seem to see proof that "God" hates abortion and those that end the life of a child in the womb are murderers. However, if you have any sense of the Bible stories, it is not difficult to conclude that all bets are off once the child is actually born.
"God" is real big in the OT on scraping the children of the enemy off the face of the earth, and in ways that would leave most of us with life long nightmares if we saw how it was done. Go watch the stoning of a woman on Youtube. It still happens. Actually don't. You'll be sorry that clip now plays in your head. Strange and horrific rules and laws from the mind of the God who became Love.
But let's talk about the fast form and the form that arises when despair in the heart of the person has reached it's maximum. I realize this is an almost unspeakable topic. Let's talk about it.
Recently I noticed that in my town all the radio preachers were talking about suicide. It seemed odd. All of them were warning against it or equating it to letting Satan get in and work his magic etc. I found out that in the month just before and after Xmas, several local pastors had ended their lives. Now the programs made sense, but the act of a minister killing himself did not of course and they felt they all had to talk about it. I only recall them addressing it as a no no for the yet living congregants and Satan getting all the credit, but one never found out what the despair in the heart of the victim really was.
Why do deeply religious people sometimes end their lives? The killer is despair. Why despair? Because in religion one is supposed to find the answers and the hope and the meaning of it all. In our experience with WCG, the Wonderful World Tomorrow became the Horrible World Today again with a heavy dose of anger, skepticism and despair over "what it's all about." Idealists and those who can't suffer drama well are perhaps the most vulnerable.
Our religious beliefs are supposed to relieve the drama, anxiety and fear we experience in life. It's why when others attack your faith or beliefs we fight back. If you take away my truth or if you show me wrong in a way that leaves nothing encouraging, one loses courage and the trinity of drama, anxiety and fear return putting us back where we first began when we thought we had the truth that held it at bay. We're all afraid of death. Religion is what humans adopt to reduce that fear and the anxiety that sits just below the surface whispering "it's all for nothing." The last sermon I ever gave was entitled, "Nothing is for Nothing." It was the only topic I could come up with to wrap up the previous 30 years. I still believe it so we'll see.
According to Psychology Today...
- They're depressed. This is without question the most common reason people commit suicide. Severe depression is always accompanied by a pervasive sense of suffering as well as the belief that escape from it is hopeless. The pain of existence often becomes too much for severely depressed people to bear. The state of depression warps their thinking, allowing ideas like "Everyone would all be better off without me" to make rational sense. They shouldn't be blamed for falling prey to such distorted thoughts any more than a heart patient should be blamed for experiencing chest pain: it's simply the nature of their disease. Because depression, as we all know, is almost always treatable, we should all seek to recognize its presence in our close friends and loved ones. Often people suffer with it silently, planning suicide without anyone ever knowing. Despite making both parties uncomfortable, inquiring directly about suicidal thoughts in my experience almost always yields an honest response.
- They're psychotic. Malevolent inner voices often command self-destruction for unintelligible reasons. Psychosis is much harder to mask than depression-and arguably even more tragic. The worldwide incidence of schizophrenia is 1% and often strikes otherwise healthy, high-performing individuals, whose lives, though manageable with medication, never fulfill their original promise.
- They're impulsive. Often related to drugs and alcohol, some people become maudlin and impulsively attempt to end their own lives. Once sobered and calmed, these people usually feel emphatically ashamed. The remorse is usually genuine, and whether or not they'll ever attempt suicide again is unpredictable. They may try it again the very next time they become drunk or high, or never again in their lifetime.
- They're crying out for help, and don't know how else to get it. These people don't usually want to die but do want to alert those around them that something is seriously wrong. They often don't believe they will die, frequently choosing methods they don't think can kill them in order to strike out at someone who's hurt them-but are sometimes tragically misinformed.
- They have a philosophical desire to die. The decision to commit suicide for some is based on a reasoned decision often motivated by the presence of a painful terminal illness from which little to no hope of reprieve exists. These people aren't depressed, psychotic, maudlin, or crying out for help. They're trying to take control of their destiny and alleviate their own suffering, which usually can only be done in death.
- They've made a mistake. This is a recent, tragic phenomenon in which typically young people flirt with oxygen deprivation for the high it brings and simply go too far. The only defense against this, it seems to me, is education.
Everyone I have ever asked, "Have you ever considered suicide," said..."yes of course. We all have those times when the thought crosses one's mind." And then they forget about it.
Sometimes those who find no reason to go on, and more commonly today than ever, feel the need to take others with them. Our collective experience with Milwaukee and the WCG is a case in point. I always felt that somewhere, sometime this event would come to WCG or at least one of the splinters. I felt it would happen a bit higher up the chain but the Saturday morning when I heard that there was a Saturday morning rampage in a church in a hotel setting, I said to myself, "It has happened." And it had. That's what despair can do.
What to look for.
WARNING SIGNS
Conditions associated with increased risk of suicide
- Death or terminal illness of relative or friend.
- Divorce, separation, broken relationship, stress on family.
- Loss of health (real or imaginary).
- Loss of job, home, money, status, self-esteem, personal security.
- Alcohol or drug abuse.
- Depression. In the young depression may be masked by hyperactivity or acting out behavior. In the elderly it may be incorrectly attributed to the natural effects of aging. Depression that seems to quickly disappear for no apparent reason is cause for concern. The early stages of recovery from depression can be a high risk period. Recent studies have associated anxiety disorders with increased risk for attempted suicide.
Emotional and behavioral changes associated with suicide
- Overwhelming Pain: pain that threatens to exceed the person's pain coping capacities. Suicidal feelings are often the result of longstanding problems that have been exacerbated by recent precipitating events. The precipitating factors may be new pain or the loss of pain coping resources.
- Hopelessness: the feeling that the pain will continue or get worse; things will never get better.
- Powerlessness: the feeling that one's resources for reducing pain are exhausted.
- Feelings of worthlessness, shame, guilt, self-hatred, no one cares. Fears of losing control, harming self or others.
- Personality becomes sad, withdrawn, tired, apathetic, anxious, irritable, or prone to angry outbursts.
- Declining performance in school, work, or other activities. (Occasionally the reverse: someone who volunteers for extra duties because they need to fill up their time.)
- Social isolation; or association with a group that has different moral standards than those of the family.
- Declining interest in sex, friends, or activities previously enjoyed.
- Neglect of personal welfare, deteriorating physical appearance.
- Alterations in either direction in sleeping or eating habits.
- (Particularly in the elderly) Self-starvation, dietary mismanagement, disobeying medical instructions.
- Difficult times: holidays, anniversaries, and the first week after discharge from a hospital; just before and after diagnosis of a major illness; just before and during disciplinary proceedings. Undocumented status adds to the stress of a crisis.
Suicidal Behavior
- Previous suicide attempts, mini-attempts.
- Explicit statements of suicidal ideation or feelings.
- Development of suicidal plan, acquiring the means, rehearsal behavior, setting a time for the attempt.
- Self-inflicted injuries, such as cuts, burns, or head banging.
- Reckless behavior. (Besides suicide, other leading causes of death among young people in New York City are homicide, accidents, drug overdose, and AIDS.) Unexplained accidents among children and the elderly.
- Making out a will or giving away favorite possessions.
- Inappropriately saying goodbye.
- Verbal behavior that is ambiguous or indirect: I'm going away on a real long trip., You won't have to worry about me anymore., I want to go to sleep and never wake up., I'm so depressed, I just can't go on., Does God punish suicides?, Voices are telling me to do bad things., requests for euthanasia information, inappropriate joking, stories or essays on morbid themes.
How to Help
- Take it seriously.
- Remember: suicidal behavior is a cry for help.
- Be willing to give and get help sooner rather than later.
- Listen.
- ASK: Are you having thoughts of suicide?
- If the person is acutely suicidal, do not leave him alone.
- Urge professional help.
- No secrets.
- From crisis to recovery.
Myth: The people who talk about it don't do it. Studies have found that more than 75% of all completed suicides did things in the few weeks or months prior to their deaths to indicate to others that they were in deep despair. Anyone expressing suicidal feelings needs immediate attention.
Myth: Anyone who tries to kill himself has got to be crazy. Perhaps 10% of all suicidal people are psychotic or have delusional beliefs about reality. Most suicidal people suffer from the recognized mental illness of depression; but many depressed people adequately manage their daily affairs. The absence of craziness does not mean the absence of suicide risk.
Those problems weren't enough to commit suicide over, is often said by people who knew a completed suicide. You cannot assume that because you feel something is not worth being suicidal about, that the person you are with feels the same way. It is not how bad the problem is, but how badly it's hurting the person who has it.
Myth: If a someone is going to kill himself, nothing can stop him. The fact that a person is still alive is sufficient proof that part of him wants to remain alive. The suicidal person is ambivalent -- part of him wants to live and part of him wants not so much death as he wants the pain to end. It is the part that wants to live that tells another I feel suicidal. If a suicidal person turns to you it is likely that he believes that you are more caring, more informed about coping with misfortune, and more willing to protect his confidentiality. No matter how negative the manner and content of his talk, he is doing a positive thing and has a positive view of you.
Suicide prevention is not a last minute activity. All textbooks on depression say it should be reached as soon as possible. Unfortunately, suicidal people are afraid that trying to get help may bring them more pain: being told they are stupid, foolish, sinful, or manipulative; rejection; punishment; suspension from school or job; written records of their condition; or involuntary commitment. You need to do everything you can to reduce pain, rather than increase or prolong it. Constructively involving yourself on the side of life as early as possible will reduce the risk of suicide.
Give the person every opportunity to unburden his troubles and ventilate his feelings. You don't need to say much and there are no magic words. If you are concerned, your voice and manner will show it. Give him relief from being alone with his pain; let him know you are glad he turned to you. Patience, sympathy, acceptance. Avoid arguments and advice giving.
Myth: Talking about it may give someone the idea. People already have the idea; suicide is constantly in the news media. If you ask a despairing person this question you are doing a good thing for them: you are showing him that you care about him, that you take him seriously, and that you are willing to let him share his pain with you. You are giving him further opportunity to discharge pent up and painful feelings. If the person is having thoughts of suicide, find out how far along his ideation has progressed.
If the means are present, try to get rid of them. Detoxify the home.
Persistence and patience may be needed to seek, engage and continue with as many options as possible. In any referral situation, let the person know you care and want to maintain contact.
It is the part of the person that is afraid of more pain that says Don't tell anyone. It is the part that wants to stay alive that tells you about it. Respond to that part of the person and persistently seek out a mature and compassionate person with whom you can review the situation. (You can get outside help and still protect the person from pain causing breaches of privacy.) Do not try to go it alone. Get help for the person and for yourself. Distributing the anxieties and responsibilities of suicide prevention makes it easier and much more effective.
Most people have suicidal thoughts or feelings at some point in their lives; yet less than 2% of all deaths are suicides. Nearly all suicidal people suffer from conditions that will pass with time or with the assistance of a recovery program. There are hundreds of modest steps we can take to improve our response to the suicidal and to make it easier for them to seek help. Taking these modest steps can save many lives and reduce a great deal of human suffering.
"How do you know you are supposed to having the experience in life you are having? Because you are having it."
Eckhart Tolle
"Experience is not only the best teacher, it is the only one. Everything else is merely hearsay."
Me
I hope this is a helpful and balanced view. Those you never hear about in the saga and drama of the WCG are those we need to remember and encourage. Tens of thousands associated with WCG have simply faded away to wonder what that was all about. Most will keep searching for their truth and continue their journey. Some will give up or be tempted to give in to the despair that theological upheaval inflicted on the many by the few can cause. Those who have hijacked the hopes of others, perpetuate their own views and do very very well at it will be fine. They are empty clouds but doing well.
And finally in answer to the thought that went through your minds while reading this...the answer is no. I am fine. I have been here as have many. But I am fine.
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The SUN/SON Has Risen...and Most People Missed It!
Yesterday, March 20th, someone said to me, "Hey, today is the first day of spring." I said yep, sure is and asked if he knew why today was the chosen day. He did not know but rather thought that someone just picked this date as the official start of the season. "No," I said. "Actually yesterday at 7:21 PM The Sun was crossified by finally landing smack at the intersection of the Celestial Equator as projected from our earthly equator into space, and the Ecliptic, which is the line in the sky that the sun appears to follow in it's one year journery through the signs of the Zodiac." He just looked at me and said, "Oh."
Yesterday was a very important day in the sky, which is a place very few humans ever take time to look up into at night, much less understand how it works. But in fact, yesterday, The Sun of God was Crucified on the beams of those two lines in space that yesterday gave us the equinox, which means "equal night."
Yesterday the day and night was just about 12 hours long each. Now the sun heads more north from it's cold beginning on Christmas to it's highest point of summer on June 22nd where the day is the longest and the night the shortest. After that, the Sun heads south to Autumn where once again at the Vernal Equinox, we have equal day and night and then on to December and the winter solstice where the Sun dies, spends three days in the grave and is is born, of a virgin/virgo on December 25th. That was a small taste of astro-theology and a story that the vast majority of literalist Christians will never understand because they will never want to undertsand it.
For example, when John the Baptist, who is born six months before Jesus says, "I must decrease, while he must increase," in astro-theological terms he was saying that from June (six months before December) John was now diminishing as the one who prepared the way for the Sun/Son of God, but now Jesus, the Son or the literal sun, will increase, that is from December 25th to the Summer Solstice, the Sun will grow stronger.
It is interesting that Matthew places Jesus in summer at the top of Mt. Tabor transfiguring into the literal sun or at least as one who shines brighter than the sun. I have been to Mt. Tabor. More of a mound actually. You'd think someone may have noticed that from afar, but seems only those present saw this "bright as the sun" look. Jesus at the Summer Solstice, The SUN of God, is at his peak and in his best form. After the Summer Solstice, the ministry of the SUN/SON will head back down to death in the dark of winter, betrayal, imprisonment and death, to be born all over again.
But let's not stray from the wonder of the Spring Equinox, which passed mostly unnoticed yesterday. It is from this celestial event that the Christian church takes it cue for determining Easter. No the Spring Equinox IS the true EASTER. Yesterday the SUN of God rose due East for the first time and set due West last night. That's why the day and night were of equal length, yesterday.
Most pagan god/men are born on December 25th on the beginning day of the Sun's journey back to dominance in the summer sky. Most were considered crossified on the Equinox in March on the intersections of the celestial equator and the ecliptic. I have the Starry Night computer program where I can program in all the dates and just watch this wonderful reality unfold on my laptop. Very cool stuff. Punch in any December 25th and one will see at sunrise the SUN of God being brought forth by Virgo the Virgin. Hmmmm, wonder where that concept shows up again! Seems the Virgin does conceive and bring for the SUN, at least every December 25th. Just a coincidence no doubt :P
Another concept we can glean from the astro-theology of Springtime is that the SUN Passes Over and delivers the people from their darkness and sin. This is the theme, of course of the Exodus and the Passover, which is also celebrated in the Spring. Yesterday was not Passover for the Jewish People; that will come on the 14th of Nisan as they mark time, but that is very soon and close or not close to our Easter, depending. In any case, it also celebrates the deliverance of Israelites from Egypt, which is the same as being delivered from the darkness of sin in Egypt into "HIS" glorious light. Christians have christianised the Passover as well and made Jesus it's star meaning. "For Christ is our Passover..." The Son is our Passover. The Sun has Passed Over and been crossified for us on the celestial and eliptic cross. It's all the same. And these events are always spring events, which should not be lost on those that understand the heavenly origins of the literal stories.
Now somewhere along the line Christians and Jews did not want to celebrate their deliverance on the Spring Equinox as that would be too blatantly obvious as to its origins. It would be a sky event, not an earth event. So each has their own way to avoid it. Christians have the best way to find their Easter, which is now, not really Easter as that happened on the Equinox, which they avoid.
Christians have this great formula for Easter:
Take the Spring Equinox, which was yesterday and step ahead to the first full moon, which can be a few days or weeks after Equinox. Once you get to that full moon, which can be any day of any week, take the SUN day following it and call that the Christian Easter. Cool huh. If you thought Jesus rose on any real Easter, you are wrong. It's a concocted Easter date. If you want to get closer to the actual time Jesus was crucified, if he was, but that's another story, one would have to observe the Passover with the Jewish contingent as Jesus, even by New Testament definition, is our Passover, not our Easter Bunny. But then you run into unsolvable contradictions in the story as to who did it and when was it done, not to mention the Sun going dark for three hours which was never recorded anywhere else in history save in the Bible. Christians have spent lifetimes arguing over if Jesus died on the real Passover day, or the day before and if when resurrected met the disciples in Jerusalem or told them to go on to Galilee where he would meet them. The Gospels give us both options but both could not be literally true.
Wisemen, at the time of Jesus birth are said to have "seen his star in the east." These Astrologers from the East, seeing his star to the east, followed it west to Jerusalem, then south to Bethlehem where it stood over a specific home. Uh huh. One does not literally face east , see a star in the east and then follow it west where it makes turns and points out houses. But in the sky one can, but this too is another story.
Christians are sun worshippers to this day and ministers are Sun-Priests no matter how much into De-Nile they go. :) On top of this, someone made it a custom to eat pig and ham on the Christian Easter as an affront to the Jewish Passover which can come close to Easter depending. Sad huh? Nothing is going to separate a Jewish Holy Day, hijacked by the Christians as pointing to them, better than by eating pigs in celebration of the Messiah...go figure.
Well, just thought you needed to know that Easter was yesterday, March 20th at 1;26 PM. The SUN of God was indeed crossified at that precise moment on the beams of the Celestial Equator and the Ecliptic. Run your local meridian thru it and it is even more impressive. The SUN of God has risen from the temptation of the dark months of December thru March to not be the SUN of God. The SUN has been tempted by De-Evil One, the lord of Darkness to just say with him and worship him, but the SUN has Risen and defeated Dark-Evil or D-evil. Now the SUN will begin by chosing two fishermen just like the two fish in Pices, the March Constellation and go to April and be Aires the Lamb. 2000 years ago the Equinox of March was in Aires the Lamb and why Jesus was the Lamb, crucified etc. Nuther story.
Now it's in the Age of Pices, the Fish which has been the symbol of the Church for the past 2000 years. And so the cycle repeats in the heavens over our heads every night. The Sun is born, the Sun overcomes the darkness and dies in the spring for the darkness of the world and it's sins. The Sun rises into Summer and walks on the water of the Milkyway as it rises in June and then goes on to enter the twins of Castor and Pollux where Jesus is said to have put demons out of two men after He was said to walk on water. Bet their names were Castor and Pollux! Then comes the Crab where two stars in that constellation are known as the Northern Ass and the Southern Ass and Jesus, the Son, is said to ride into Jerusalem riding on "THEM BOTH," in his triumphant entry just before his death. This is also true of the story of the Sun as it unfolds during the latter part of any year heading on into death at winter. On earth this would be dumb, but the SUN riding the two asses in the constellation of the Crab in July is totally possible and occurs every summer.
Soon we go on to fall and harvests and feedings of thousands and then betrayal of the Sun/SON by the Scorpion Judas who was a follower, but like a scorpion, can go backwards and give the kiss or sting of death. Jesus is arrested in late fall by Pilate when the SUN enters Saggitarius the Archer and pierced at his darkest moment to lie three days in the grave of December to then be born again on the 25th and it starts all over again. Then Jesus, the SUN/SON enters the first 30 degrees of the next Constellation (for Jesus was about 30 years old when he began to preach) and meets Aquarius, the Water Bearer, or in this story, John the Baptist, the first event in Jesus ministry before going into the wilderness to be tempted of the Darkness not to continue as the SON/SUN of God and the rest is "history."
Either this short view of the 12 month ministry of the SUN of God through the signs of the zodiac and the 12 month journey of the Son of God with his 12 followers is a mere coincidence of history, or the SON/SUN Priests of modern Christianity have been either deliberately or naively ignorant of the deeper origins of the story of the SUN/SON of God, and keeping it under wraps.
So, Happy Easter, it was yesterday and I think most of us missed it. The Sun was crucified at the intersection of the Celestial Equator and the Ecliptic, and if you saw the beams of light spewing from the SUN, you could even imagine them as a crown of thorns. The Sun is now Risen Today and beginning that fascinating ministry across the sky and through the signs of the Zodiac that so match the events Matthew portrays in his book, but that's another story. It ends in death and birth again and the characters on the stage are right over our heads, every clear night of the year. Happy East-er. The Sun has indeed risen in the East. It's all good, and most everyone missed it!
Stay tuned. Coming soon. Isaiah 14-Satan-And a Planet Called Venus.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/165115
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vs
YHVH/Jesus/Bright n Morning Star
Old Testament Psychopath-Gospel Caretaker-Conan of Revelation
Which?
The Jesus of the New Testament loves little children and reminds the adults in his crowds that unless they become like little children, they shall never see the Kingdom of God. In the New Testament, Jesus blesses little children and chides the adults who try to run interference between him and them. Jesus even raises children from the dead in compassion for them and their grieving parents.
In Church I learned to sing, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world."
I also learned to sing that "Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong."
I also learned, over the years, that we were only talking about the Jesus of the New Testament, minus the Book of Revelation and a few other rather threatening comments by Apostles in the name of Jesus, towards humans contained in various books of the New Testament. Since most Christian churches teach that Jesus is God and "the God of the Old Testament," we do have wonder what brought about Jesus' own repentance over the hideous things that He, as God in the Old Testament, is recorded to have done.
The New Testament clearly teaches that Jesus, somehow, is considered to have been God in eternal reality before he was Jesus in the flesh.
John 8:
56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."
57 "You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"
58 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"
1 Corinthians 8:
6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
Philippians 2:
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Colossians 1:
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
These are among a few of the New Testament scriptures that equate the man Jesus of the New Testament with being God of the Old, Creator and Sustainer of all things from the beginning. So by default, this would be both the Jesus who first killed with abandon "all the little children of the world" who got in Israel's way, including the women and animals on most occasions, and the Jesus of the New Testament who simply loved all the little children of the world, red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in his sight." Truly a God in the flesh that had changed a lot. The Jesus of the Book of Revelation goes back to his people killing ways, but that's another story. Why does God or Jesus never hold seminars on their existence and plan for humans that we can all attend without all the drama and slaughter to get us all to obey? Oh well, I'm not God, that's for sure.
Some would argue that Jesus was God the Son, the second part of a three God Trinity, that is really only one God and that God the Father God was responsible for this slaughter. It is one God in three aspects, which is hooey but the New Testament Jesus would never have understood it either. If Jesus was the Lord of the Old Testament, he certainly has morphed into a nice guy since then. The God of the Old Testament was one cruel man, woman, child, suckling and animal killing freak. The Sabbath School song of the God of the Old Testament would have been, "Jesus hates the little children, all the children of the world. If they ain't from Israel, He will send them all to hell. Hacking-whacking all the children of the world," instead of the Sunday School one we know so well evidently.
Let's take a look at how Jesus , as God the Son perhaps, treated all the children of the world back in the Old Testament
Jerico is destroyed by Jesus as God Joshua 6:20,21
20 "So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
21 Then they utterly destroyed ALL in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses"
Way to go! Jerico was a real estate need that the Israelites had and young men and maidens, old men and children, and let's throw in the animals too, had to go. Butchered all. Jesus loves the little children! Let's keep looking.
The Kingdom of Sihon destroyed by Jesus as God. Deuteronomy 2: 33-35
33 "And the LORD our God gave him over to us; and we defeated him and his sons and all his people.
34 And we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed every city, men, women, and children; we left none remaining;
35 only the cattle we took as spoil for ourselves, with the booty of the cities which we captured."
So here we have Jesus as God killing all the humans but now allowing the sparing of the cattle for booty. This topic of booty is going to get even better as Israelite men become discouraged over killing everything in site, including the babes. It seems the rules of engagement changed as the women got better looking, but the children always got the axe.
Now it gets better.
Deuteronomy 20: 10-17
10 "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.
11 And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.
12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
13 And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword,
14 but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you."
Here's a deal that Jesus God of the Old Testament offers during war. Surrender and you can be our slaves and do forced hard labor for us forever. If you don't surrender, then all the men get the axe, but new rules for women and children. Now the children go into forced labor, no doubt and the women get kept to enjoy! Shake your booty!! The rules are a changin!
Numbers 31:14-18
14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
We have to assume here that Moses is speaking for Jesus and passing on the ways of God to the men of Israel. He's a bit ticked that he's caught the men not killing all the women as instructed and so Moses says, with Jesus, Lover of little children's permission, to kill all the "little ones," and the non-virgin women. How one figures this out I guess we don't even want to know. At any rate, good news!
The guys can keep the virgins for themselves as sex partners! Yeah Jesus, lover of all the children of the world! With grateful hearts, no doubt, they can now kill and have great sex with the booty. We have to assume the term "women children" means little virgin girls. Ewwww... Oh well, these are Jesus God of the Old Testament's rules of how we "suffer the little the children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of heaven," at this time in history, so NO arguing.
It seems that the God of the Old Testament, Jesus before his incarnation was not so much against abortion as long as the fetus had actually been born first and started life as someone's dear child. There are scriptures of commands to kill women with child, but I spare you. I don't think there was any discussion in these times as to when life began. It was all about when and how to end it if it got in the way of the progress of God's chosen people.
Even in the New Testament, where Mary, mother of baby Jesus is told to flee before Herod kills all the children under two years old, she just leaves town with Jesus saying nothing! Do these people not know how to warn their neighbors! Did Mary saunter out of town with baby Jesus singing, "I know something you don't know..Have a nice last Sabbath." I guess only your own Bible babies are important and others can just go fish.
Not very pleasant stuff. Somewhere along the line, Jesus changed from a killer without conscience to a lover of little children, commanding his disciples to " forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Perhaps the story of Jesus coming to John the Baptist for baptism unto repentance has meaning after all.
Christians puzzle over this as the perfect Jesus of the New Testament would never need to repent of anything to be baptized of John. So as the texts evolve, we see that it finally ends up that Jesus was not really baptized for his sins unto repentance but merely did it for our example of what WE should do. I never killed thousands however. From Mark to John, one can see the evolution of the text and how this embarrassment of anyone thinking that Jesus had to repent of anything and be baptized for his sins was dealt with.
But maybe Jesus knew (I don't personally believe he thought he was God in the Flesh) something about his own past? Perhaps being the merciless infant, child and woman killer as God of the Old Testament, got to him after all. Of course, I am being a bit theologically off here and a bit tongue in cheek, but maybe Jesus as God did feel a need to repent so as to be able to explain the change in his past behaviors. There is no record of anyone in the early church asking him or the Apostles about this change from killer God to Jesus loves all the children of the world God. Perhaps he said, "ask me that again and I'll kill ya." End of discussion.
This Jesus God of the Old Testament might explain a few things that seem pretty common in our modern era. Killing old men, women and children has not changed much in the land of the Israelites. I think the armies that once got to keep the booty still get to feel women and children are fair game when it comes to killing what gets in the way of their progress and real estate needs. In the same way, Christians with certain leanings seem to forget the Jesus of the New Testament Gospels and revert to the Jesus of the Old or at best the Jesus of the Book of Revelation to conquer in his name, those pagans who get in their "Go ye therefore into all the world" way. So there is a God for every taste and need it seems yet today.
I suppose one reason for the Book of Revelation may be Jesus, as OT God, can say..."I'm baaaaaaaaack!"
Actually it's pretty darn difficult to explain why the Bible is the "best book ever written," when in fact it is one of the most violent, repulsive, clannish, cultish and bloody books ever written. The rules of engagement never favored the innocent and certainly not the non-Israelite, and we would have to admit that if indeed the Jesus of the New Testament was the "God of the Old Testament" before he came on the human scene, he has changed a lot in the text and in his behaviors. Perhaps endless war and killing does that to a God. Be nice if it did this to humans.
"Blah, Blah, Blah"
Enlightenment is not like a sudden realization of something mysterious. Enlightenment is nothing but awakening from illusions and returning to the reality of life.
--Uchiyama
--Uchiyama
Enlightenment is the ultimate and final disappointment. Treading the spiritual path is painful. It is a constant unmasking, peeling off layer after layer of masks.
It involves insult after insult.
--Chogyam Trungpa
It involves insult after insult.
--Chogyam Trungpa
Waking up is a continuing process. No one wakes up once and for all. There is no limit to wakefulness, just as there is no limit to aliveness....The surprise within the surprise of every new discovery is that there is ever more to be discovered.
--Brother David Steindl-Rast
--Brother David Steindl-Rast
So what is it about some who have had our common WCG/COG experience, either as minister or member that allowing others to have their own experience is an invitation for derision? Some who continue to stay, pray, obey and pay seem incapable of allowing those who won't stay, can't pray, obey?-no way, can't pay and won't stay their own experience. As well, some who can't stay abuse those who have and we can't seem to rest until they utter the words, "you're right, I agree and quit too...thank you."
I'm not speaking of our normal human tendency to want to explain our perspectives newly acquired or held on to firmly as ever, but rather the ratcheting up of what I call "snark" or just simple insults and derision towards those having a different journey or experience. No two people process the same experience the same way or for the same reasons. As I tell my massage students, "you can have 100 people go to the same school, sit through the same classes, meet the same people who have the same way of thinking and you will still get 100 different ways of doing massage, and it is ok."
There are certainly many characters in the movie of waking life who experience or manifest more or less stormy weather – more or less anger, more or less depression, more or less compulsive behavior, more or less upset. Such differences may have little to do with enlightenment and everything to do with genetics, neurochemistry, brain function, hormone levels, and conditioning. Some bodyminds have stormier weather just as some cities have stormier weather. It's not personal.
Joan Tolifsen
I doubt anyone can be insulted back into the perspectives of another. Humans just don't work that way. I doubt name calling or even the glittering generalities we try to apply to very complicated situations change the minds of many on whatever the topic might be. EVERYONE PROCESSES EXPERIENCES DIFFERENTLY and that also is OK.
I had always wished The Plain Truth of the WCG had been called The Present Truth as even the Apostle Paul, who I have issues with, called it. Plain Truth is seldom plain or permanently true. Truth is dicey at times if not at most times as it gets filtered through the minds of men. My mistake was allowing others to filter my own desire to "know" through their perspectives. Not uncommon. The whole Bible is an effort on the part of many divergent types to coerce the beliefs of others through their real or imagined experiences which they personally view as "The Truth."
We do have to be careful with "God says," "We know...," "Jesus actually said...," As the Apostle Paul said...," and so on. Most can't get their minds around the idea that maybe it is others doing the saying and giving credit to people who never really said that. Nuther story I suppose. If we are not careful...
"When we speak to God, it is called prayer.
When God speaks to us, it is called schizophrenia."
One of the interesting things about blog comments is how often remarks have little or nothing to do with the posting. How rare it is for someone to say, "Interesting, but this is how I view that topic." It just rarely happens. How often there is no really intelligent discussion about the topic, but rather charge and counter charge. Snark and counter snark.
I recall on particular responder from Britain who simply could not function without damning everyone not on his team to hell. He never met me and we certainly never had lunch together but my insincere and "hireling" self was just worthy of his truly God inspired revelations, which of course, did not go in my favor.. I believe he was a one man church of truth and claimed only his wife and kids as members as they did not go to any real church. However, that's his journey. That type of person demands others validate it and get more and more strange the more and more they don't.
A couple days ago my counselor, a man who really did make a difference in my own journey out of literalism and into reality popped up behind me at the grocery store. He was the one who told me years ago,
"Dennis, you outgrow your boxes quickly. We are all born in the box our parents came in and yet few even explore the one they came in. YOU HAVE TWO CHOICES. Stay in the box you are hanging out of at the moment and everyone will reward you. They will be happy. They will love you and life can go on for them. YOU, however, will be on anti-depressants the rest of your life. Or...you can keep going and explore the bigger box you are now actually in. However...you will go alone."
And that's how it went and goes. I reminded him of what he said and he lit up. Something had happened to him since I last saw him. He looked rather bad. He did not have the spark that I remembered. I didn't ask, but it was obvious he was also on his own continued journey and perhaps it had gotten difficult. I did not, however, press him or tell him he looked like hell. It was just interesting to see his own humanity poking through his well educated and able to inspire others self. I told him I have quoted him to thousands and that seemed to encourage him.
Sooooooo, just some thoughts. More "blah, blah" I suppose. I don't personally have a need to be right. I don't care if anything I might observe in my own journey helps or is even agreed with. I do need to be free to seek and look. I will never again allow others to tell me how it all is. Coming to some interesting conclusions, true or false is my right, and yours. This is my journey. Others have theirs. Some do, however, seem unable to share anything deeper than their scorn or snark. And I suppose that also is their journey.
I don't expect much to change in blogging or postings on topics that may cause some to think and others to simply react. But something to think about perhaps that will bring the quality of the opportunity to exchange experiences and even pain up a few notches for the benefit of others who really may need a positive way to process the experiences, all different, we have had with the same religious experience.
PS Not bothering to check speling, punktuation or tiepoz. Whyle important...its the thawt that cowntz :)
I can't do it here because the computer spell checks most words, but I understand that as long as we spell things with the correct first and last letter of a word, the mind recognizes the word and we can read it just fine. So at least God programmed us to still get the point no matter the mistakes along the way in print or in life.
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
How often do we say, "What is, is." While we might say that, we so often don't really believe it and then, with hard work and determination, set out to change what is to what we need it to be, rather than what is. And yet, What is....still is.
"If you understand...then things are as they are.
If you don't understand, then things still as they are."
There is freedom in deeply understanding that what is...is, and let it be so. When someone close to our personal consciousness or family suffers or dies, we learn, or don't what it means to accept "what is...is." Inspite of what you have heard, no one in the real world of people that you ever really knew, came back from really being dead. Life ends for everyone and everything and in that we learn or fight "what is..is." If you are lucky, you get old and die now that you are here. We, as humans, can spend weeks, or months or years railing against the "what is-ness" of any particular situation but that is our problem and doesn't change a thing. We can progress quickly, with acceptance or kicking and screaming all the way, through the four, five, six or seven steps of grief. We can spend six months in shock, four in denial, two in bargaining with the deity to reverse what is, a few in anger and then over years, accept what is and was from the day "what is" paid us a visit.
My dad has a habit of noting, "well that's the way it is and I'm not going to worry about it." It seems to have served him well into his 91st year. This is a man who tells me he once took my brother and himself for a ride in the car and thought of ending the "is-ness" of his handicaps and mental disabilities due to birth a premature birth and subsequent medical disasters, but running into a tree. Whew...my brother is older than me so I appreciate that dad was able to put some space between the thought and the event. My "is-ness" would never even have made it to a "was-ness" if he had done that. History would have been different and of course, produced more "is-ness" for others.
The mind is a terrible thing at times...it needs to be wasted on some ways of being. There is magic in facing what is. Somehow, it disarms the beast and puts some space in there where we can start to accept how things are rather than rail against how they are and can't be and we won't accept it. A simple way of being in such times is to have the ability, ok fake it until you make it, of simply noting "Is that so?" when confronted in life with what is. "Is that so?" Such a simple thought form and yet so disarming to the emotions and sudden change "is-ness" can inflict upon us if we are lucky enough to spend substantial time on the planet. Reality for some and those that love them, is that they don't get to spend much time here, or leave too quickly and the skills of accepting what is are learned, or not, early in the cycle.
Whenever I suffer the panic or anxiety I feel at times that my mind and subsequent chemistry can provide me with on various topics, it is due to resistance to what is. All negativity is some form of resistance as Eckhart Tolle notes in The Power of Now.
Just ask yourself when you are angry, or bitching, or nervous, or anxious or in a panic..."am I resisting something? Is there something I am not accepting?". We are resisting what is. The plain and simple, what is, of many topics and circumstances.
A middle age nurse, friend of my sister, tells everyone how excited she is to get her new motorcycle. She's that kinda woman, and now she is dead leaving four children behind. That is what is. My nephew, wearing his headset and walking along the railroad tracks can't hear the train and he was killed. I didn't want to write the word "killed" rather opting to say it in a more gentle way, but I'm practicing here noting what is. A brother-in-law, who all his life was very careful about what he ate, never smoked, drank only good red wine and prayed every day, died relatively young of cancer, go figure. What is...is. These "is-nesses" can be magnified and multiplied tens of millions of times, no billions and the degree to our mental and spiritual health thrives is the degree to acceptance of what is.
I'm not speaking of complacency to what is and needs to change. I am speaking of those life things that simply cannot change no matter how long it takes us to admit it.
When a pastor (I no longer am as that is what is,) I am sure I noted how amazing it must have been for Methusaleh, in Genesis, to live to be 969 years old. It never happened, but I have since thought it is not so much amazing as a human disaster. That's a lot of psychological baggage over that much time! How many loved ones do you accept died this way or that? How many children? Would one be married to the same person for 700 years or how about 900? (Of course in that culture, as long as you could afford them, multiple wives were the norm). How about 900 years of multiple wives! How many funerals and how many stressful weddings and stonings? Only a human with a highly developed sense of accepting what is could possibly survive the psycho-baggage of a life that went on and on like that. One would truly have to get help by joining ON and ON Anonymous...:)
Some simple awareness skills can help. When life does what it does and is what it is and everything in us screams NO, learn to think and audibly say YES. "Yes, it is so " goes a long way in the mind giving you space to accept what is. Learn to say things to yourself such as "I am divorced now." "I am no longer this or that." "My father, mother, sister, brother, child, has died." "That career is over." "I have changed." Say it and disarm it. This is when we most want to say NO but the magic of acceptance comes from facing the beast and disarming it with knowing that it is so. We do it over and over and each time we give the mind space to process the events and give us some personal growth in it's place.
A word about health challenges. We have a lot of say over the state of our health. Genetic factors also do over which we have no control at our level for the moment. In health, what is can change if we change. Most people think Sugar, Caffeine, Alcohol and Nicotine (SCAN) are the four main food groups and one should have lots of each every day. I see what is in those people all the time. They won't say NO when they should. But whatever...when illness comes, or the predictable problems of old age, are we not better to accept it, doing what we can, but knowing the nature of life is to have it end and change forms? A skill we adopt or a maybe better said, a way of being we can be when ill is to not identify who we are with the illness. One might have cancer, or diabetes, or a disease, but that one is not that cancer or illness. "I am being challenged in my health by cancer, but the I that is me is doing just fine." That's a step towards not too closely identifying the problem with being who we really are and it can be an easy, just do it thing, or a struggle to get out of the head and into the "is-ness" of whatever it is we are challenged with in life.
"What is...is." A mantra for living in the real world of drama, events, tragedy and what is. A mantra that can disarm the beast and open up space for us to be.
If you understand...then things are as they are.
If you don't understand...then things are as they are.
++++++++++++++
What is.......is.
How often do we say, "What is, is." While we might say that, we so often don't really believe it and then, with hard work and determination, set out to change what is to what we need it to be, rather than what is. And yet, What is....still is."If you understand...then things are as they are.
If you don't understand, then things still as they are."
There is freedom in deeply understanding that what is...is, and let it be so. When someone close to our personal consciousness or family suffers or dies, we learn, or don't what it means to accept "what is...is." Inspite of what you have heard, no one in the real world of people that you ever really knew, came back from really being dead. Life ends for everyone and everything and in that we learn or fight "what is..is." If you are lucky, you get old and die now that you are here. We, as humans, can spend weeks, or months or years railing against the "what is-ness" of any particular situation but that is our problem and doesn't change a thing. We can progress quickly, with acceptance or kicking and screaming all the way, through the four, five, six or seven steps of grief. We can spend six months in shock, four in denial, two in bargaining with the deity to reverse what is, a few in anger and then over years, accept what is and was from the day "what is" paid us a visit.
My dad has a habit of noting, "well that's the way it is and I'm not going to worry about it." It seems to have served him well into his 91st year. This is a man who tells me he once took my brother and himself for a ride in the car and thought of ending the "is-ness" of his handicaps and mental disabilities due to birth a premature birth and subsequent medical disasters, but running into a tree. Whew...my brother is older than me so I appreciate that dad was able to put some space between the thought and the event. My "is-ness" would never even have made it to a "was-ness" if he had done that. History would have been different and of course, produced more "is-ness" for others.
The mind is a terrible thing at times...it needs to be wasted on some ways of being. There is magic in facing what is. Somehow, it disarms the beast and puts some space in there where we can start to accept how things are rather than rail against how they are and can't be and we won't accept it. A simple way of being in such times is to have the ability, ok fake it until you make it, of simply noting "Is that so?" when confronted in life with what is. "Is that so?" Such a simple thought form and yet so disarming to the emotions and sudden change "is-ness" can inflict upon us if we are lucky enough to spend substantial time on the planet. Reality for some and those that love them, is that they don't get to spend much time here, or leave too quickly and the skills of accepting what is are learned, or not, early in the cycle.
Whenever I suffer the panic or anxiety I feel at times that my mind and subsequent chemistry can provide me with on various topics, it is due to resistance to what is. All negativity is some form of resistance as Eckhart Tolle notes in The Power of Now.
Just ask yourself when you are angry, or bitching, or nervous, or anxious or in a panic..."am I resisting something? Is there something I am not accepting?". We are resisting what is. The plain and simple, what is, of many topics and circumstances.
A middle age nurse, friend of my sister, tells everyone how excited she is to get her new motorcycle. She's that kinda woman, and now she is dead leaving four children behind. That is what is. My nephew, wearing his headset and walking along the railroad tracks can't hear the train and he was killed. I didn't want to write the word "killed" rather opting to say it in a more gentle way, but I'm practicing here noting what is. A brother-in-law, who all his life was very careful about what he ate, never smoked, drank only good red wine and prayed every day, died relatively young of cancer, go figure. What is...is. These "is-nesses" can be magnified and multiplied tens of millions of times, no billions and the degree to our mental and spiritual health thrives is the degree to acceptance of what is.
I'm not speaking of complacency to what is and needs to change. I am speaking of those life things that simply cannot change no matter how long it takes us to admit it.
When a pastor (I no longer am as that is what is,) I am sure I noted how amazing it must have been for Methusaleh, in Genesis, to live to be 969 years old. It never happened, but I have since thought it is not so much amazing as a human disaster. That's a lot of psychological baggage over that much time! How many loved ones do you accept died this way or that? How many children? Would one be married to the same person for 700 years or how about 900? (Of course in that culture, as long as you could afford them, multiple wives were the norm). How about 900 years of multiple wives! How many funerals and how many stressful weddings and stonings? Only a human with a highly developed sense of accepting what is could possibly survive the psycho-baggage of a life that went on and on like that. One would truly have to get help by joining ON and ON Anonymous...:)
Some simple awareness skills can help. When life does what it does and is what it is and everything in us screams NO, learn to think and audibly say YES. "Yes, it is so " goes a long way in the mind giving you space to accept what is. Learn to say things to yourself such as "I am divorced now." "I am no longer this or that." "My father, mother, sister, brother, child, has died." "That career is over." "I have changed." Say it and disarm it. This is when we most want to say NO but the magic of acceptance comes from facing the beast and disarming it with knowing that it is so. We do it over and over and each time we give the mind space to process the events and give us some personal growth in it's place.
A word about health challenges. We have a lot of say over the state of our health. Genetic factors also do over which we have no control at our level for the moment. In health, what is can change if we change. Most people think Sugar, Caffeine, Alcohol and Nicotine (SCAN) are the four main food groups and one should have lots of each every day. I see what is in those people all the time. They won't say NO when they should. But whatever...when illness comes, or the predictable problems of old age, are we not better to accept it, doing what we can, but knowing the nature of life is to have it end and change forms? A skill we adopt or a maybe better said, a way of being we can be when ill is to not identify who we are with the illness. One might have cancer, or diabetes, or a disease, but that one is not that cancer or illness. "I am being challenged in my health by cancer, but the I that is me is doing just fine." That's a step towards not too closely identifying the problem with being who we really are and it can be an easy, just do it thing, or a struggle to get out of the head and into the "is-ness" of whatever it is we are challenged with in life.
"What is...is." A mantra for living in the real world of drama, events, tragedy and what is. A mantra that can disarm the beast and open up space for us to be.
If you understand...then things are as they are.
If you don't understand...then things are as they are.
+++++++++++++++
Click to enlarge
H/T James McGrath
Don't Confuse Me With the Faith..I Mean Facts..No, Faith...Awww I Forget
You can't unring a bell. You can't unsee what you do see. How do you keep them home on the farm, once they have seen Paree? There's no turning back. Did I say you can't unring a bell?Recently I wandered through the topics being offered for a large ministerial conference of my former peers. While typically the first topic of concern was, as expected, "The Offering as Worship, the other topics were not all that informative on the topic of the actual Bible. When a ministry is made up of Bible readers, you can generally skip the seminar on "A Scripture can never mean what it never meant."
There was one workshop where one might ask questions on theology to the one man provided to answer them for you, but I suspect the questions were rather light and foofy unless the group wanted to probe the depths of the nature of the Trinity or just what plan B may have been for God with Adam and Eve, mostly Eve, mucking up the works. Other than that, I am fairly sure a good hard question about the Bible that was not on the official list of acceptable topics for public disclosure was off limits. One certainly would not wish to become labeled as "he who asks too many hard questions." That would endanger your career. I would be reminded of the Wizard of ID being questioned by a commoner and being told, "well with ideas like that, you're really going to go up in this Kingdom." The next scene you see the commoner standing at the bottom step of the gallows with he hangman saying, "Up you go there buddy."
Long story, but I have managed to outgrow my church and I was the pastor. Not the one of my youth, which was Presbyterian, but the one I moved on to in my youth thinking it was more real and then gave almost three decades of my life to it. In time, nuther long story, they reinvented the wheel and insisted I return to my rather Presbyterian roots taking me full circle. I realized my love affair with organized religion and true churches was over. Nuther long story.
The tribe does not have much use for stray dogs. They either domesticate them for their convenience or they eat them.
In my personal journey through a very sincere belief that I was correct in my Biblical perspectives as a pastor, I have gone from believing in the "God breathed" inerrancy of the Book, to an eyes wide open understanding that the Bible is neither all that Holy, "the greatest Book ever written and full of errors, bad science, implausible accounts and many contradictions. I find my self marveling at the hours spent by sincere pastors straining to understand how the sins of Adam and Eve impact our lives today and place us all under the cloud of Original Sin and the need for blood atonement to make it all good again. The simple answer for me is now that the evolution of humans is good science and that the idea that any literal first humans called Adam and Eve is ludicrous. I"m almost ashamed of myself for taking so long to figure this out with the love of science I have always had but strained for decades to place it all in the context of Bible literalism, which can't really be done well...Ok, at all.
Since there was no literal Adam and Eve (and no, the creation of humans is not a mere 6000 years ago either), there was no literal sin for which everyone forever more after has to be cleansed from by the blood of a dying God/Man. The fact that there has been a score or more dying God/men in history, all of whom were born on December 25th, were tempted to fail, rose to the occasion, were betrayed, pierced and lay in the grave for three days and three nights only to be born again is pretty darn common. While some may love to "Tell the old old story of unseen things above...", they are not aware of just how old the story is or how it really did originate above in the stars.
The fact that this story of the Son of God and his 12 disciples is the same story as the SUN of God moving with it's 12 zodiacal signs over one year is something one never wants to notice or bring up. The fact is that SUN worship is THE origin of SON worship and all religion as we know it. The fact that the word "Galilee" means "circuit" is no coincidence. Jesus of the Galilee the Circuit is not much different than the trip taken by the Sun traveling around the circuit of the 12 signs of the Zodiac. They are both round trips from December 25th and back again with all of the same experiences in their ministry occurring right on cue. Great stuff, but let's move on.
Along with this, realizing that the miraculous events of the OT were mostly borrowed from older non Israelite mythologies, Prophets and Priests wove the tales far later than the stories imply and the real history of how the Bible came to be and "Houston...we've got a problem." At least I have a problem with using the not literally true texts to tell sincere humans how to literally be, think and do after coming to see what I can't unsee. Remember, you can't unring a bell nor return to the farm.
But where does one fit when the tribe has no use for you and stepping outside the box is going to have it's consequences? I'm amazed, yet should not be, of the phenomenal loss of "friends" one experiences when bells ring and lights go on. It's the price one pays for being unable to stay stuck in something you learn along the way is not as one has been told. Few go with you. some talk about you and all ignore you forever more.
The best I can come up with is that you become more of your authentic self...something organized religion is loathe to have you do in the first place. Churches and Priesthoods generally want followers, compliers and sheep. Ministers may seem to pride themselves in allowing for questions, but they are easy questions to answer because when all is said and done, one can claim that "God says it, I believe it. That does it for me" and put the ball back in the court of the reprobate questioner. If all else fails, the one who questions can be told "there is a way that seems right to a man, but the way thereof ends in death," or "God sees not as a man sees," or "The wisdom of God is foolishness with man," and thus all his questions can be dismissed. Of course, these putdowns don't answer the original questions, but they send the message that one is not even smart enough to ask the right ones. The cure for being "one who questions" may be everything from prayer and fasting to get the attitude straightened out to "how 'bout we sit out of church a few weeks and think about our relationship to Jesus." Either way, "he who questions loses." The Church and God always win in such cases.
So after you outgrow your church, organized religion or the literalism of one's childhood Sunday School lessons, what is the purpose of one's life? Since Churches tell us that salvation through the blood of a dying God/man is the purpose of life, but now one has no confidence in that, what's the point? While I now can stay home from church and save a whopping ten percent, I'd still like to find meaning in life beyond being a food tube that eventually dies.
One of the many meme's of organized religion is that human beings are evil, nasty and worms in God's site. Their hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked to the point of total mistrust. We are sin personified in nasty flesh and worthy of nothing but death, at best. Let's get right to the truth of the matter.
You and I are just fine. We are who we are and it's your goal in life to get to know yourself and who YOU are. We are all unique parts of the same one thing. It's not our goal or to our advantage to believe that we are to become someone else or follow the life, perspectives or world view of someone else. That ruse has restrained and constrained human-becomings for way too long on the planet. The "you're not good enough," meme is a set up for allowing others to control you with fear, guilt and shame to their advantage every time.
The goal in life is to get to know your own unique self. It's a troublesome process as there are more than enough others who feel you need to get to know and be like others who are less defective and wormlike than yourself. Don't fall for it. Nursing homes are full of people who would give anything to have another shot at being themselves. But that goes back in another way to not being able to unring a bell.
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Plates Shift, Fire Flows, Waters Surge.....And Its Not God
In the COG's, as with all Christian Fundamentalism, whenever there are major hurricanes, volcanoes, a day of tornadoes, earthquakes, storms, hail, drought, fire and frogs upon the land....it is God trying (does God have to try?) to tell us all something. We don't think that the God that can verbalize.... "I blasted you with blight and mildew [from too much rain]. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me,' says the Lord" (Amos 4:9) could also say:"Hello, I am God, I'm here in person because it's really important we have a talk. I want you to be happier than this so let's have a chat and I'd be happy to answer any and all questions you might have about why and how and when anytime. Now if you are a fundamentalist I will ask you let others who don't know all the answers be allowed to ask their questions first..."
But alas, God only threatens humans, and always does it through the minds, voices in the heads of, and observations of mortal humans who think they know. All that a Bible literalist can say is that God "could" do it that way, but he chooses not to. I say that something that important deserves clear and concise communication with humans and to definitely not leave us with so much doubt and confusion.
The same God who "spanked" nations and empires in centuries past is still very much in charge. He says, "For I am the Lord, I do not change" (Malachi 3:6) And as we will see, God is punishing us through various natural disasters. Even as our personal and national sins are increasing, so are floods, tornadoes, severe snowstorms and earthquakes. Thus, many of today's so-called "acts of God" are, in fact, just that-the active intervention of Almighty God. And it is just beginning. Natural calamities are going to get much worse unless we as a nation repent and turn to the true God in heartfelt obedience. Roderick Meredith-Who Controls the Weather.
On the other hand...
Because hurricanes form over warm ocean water, it is easy to assume that the recent rise in their number and ferocity is because of global warming.
But that is not the case, scientists say. Instead, the severity of hurricane seasons changes with cycles of temperatures of several decades in the Atlantic Ocean. The recent onslaught "is very much natural," said William M. Gray, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University who issues forecasts for the hurricane season.
Weather, especially as observed by the superstitious and uneducated, either by choice or circumstances has always been the tool of the angry God of history who is "trying" to get mankind's attention before He simply has to destroy him once and for all. So much for the idea that after man's creation, "behold it was very good." The Deity needs to make up his mind about us or rethink His original design. It's not our fault! Perhaps we are the one proof of Unintelligent Design....
All through human history, the weather has puzzled humans. Lightning was the result of some activity of the gods. Zeus threw it around at his enemies and his voice was the thunder. Baal was the rain god to whom allegiance must be pledged or there would be drought. ...it is this superstitious use of natural cycles and phenomenon of weather that is still being used to beat and drive people fear- ridden into the arms of waiting churches and pastors who will motivate their loyalty with the same tirades of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who we know were mistaken not a few times.
Listen very carefully. Weather is weather. One more time - Weather is weather. It's normal and natural. It is NOT a Deity doing its BEST to get in touch. That idea is simply leftover from a time when men did not understand the forces that governed their world and assigned them meaning that worked at that time, but is NOT the way to motivate sincere humans who have enough on their plate learning to coexist with what is.
Hurricanes always happen where they are prone to happen based on natural cycles and conditions generated by the planet. The SE United States has a coastal profile that shows how many millions of years this erosion has been going on - quite naturally and I dare say before humans ever spent a night in the SE United States. Back then, I suppose Cat. 5 Hurricanes were not tools the gods had thought of using to get the wildlife to come to their senses.
The SE United States has a coastal profile that shows how many millions of years this erosion has been going on - quite naturally and I dare say before humans ever spent a night in the SE United States. Back then, I suppose Cat. 5 Hurricanes were not tools the gods had thought of using to get the wildlife to come to their senses.
Volcanoes are very natural and are not tools of the gods. They just are the natural result of plate tectonics as are earthquakes. Unfortunately, when humans live on their slopes, or where plates shift, or where tornadoes form, or droughts are wont to occur, we have to find a reason other than the simple fact that we are living in harms way that for the most part does not visit us. I feel deeply for the suffering that all must be going through in New Orleans after this recent hurricane Katrina. But we also have to know that EVERYONE knew that if this ever happened... then this would happen!
When a city or house sits on the sand or in a bowl 20 feet below sea level, next to the sea, someday it will find itself in deep trouble as the normal forces on this planet play out their dance.
The citizens of Herculaneum at the foot of Vesuvius learned this the hard way as well. Today one can see the casts left of where humans died, in detail, covered by the ash that so quickly ended their lives. It's nice to live on the coast with beautiful beaches. It's nice to live at the foot of cone shaped mountains with incredibly fertile soil. It's nice to live in the Midwest United States and grow corn. It's nice to live in Southern California....ok, it used to be nice, or Hawaii, or in the Ring of Fire. But when the earth, which has it's own maintenance system does what it does, there is a chance humans might somewhere find themselves in harms way. It is just that simple. Reaching out to explain natural phenomenon, humans have always imagined the motives of the gods for bringing such things upon them and taking natural processes way too personally. We do this because humans have consciousness they have to work with. Consciousness makes us ask "why us?" Animals don't tend to wonder about such things at their level of consciousness.
We know this and I suspect you know this too, but our superstitious natures combined with believing the Bible speakers must be really really speaking for a real God who does such things, gets in the way of our common sense and vastly improved understanding of such things. We still can't let the facts of what humans know in 2005 AD override the sacred texts of thousands of years gone by. In our heads we know that science has shown us a better way to view things, but in our hearts we just can't let go of the Act of God attitude.
Volcanoes were the homes of the gods for most of human history. Volcanoes are impressive. And we are so very small in relation to them. Earthquakes were the shaking of the earth by the gods. Hail was the throwing of rocks at mankind by the gods. Droughts, quite normal on the planet in their cycles, come and go, but in most of human thinking were the gods way of getting even or pounding humanity into obedient submission. I suspect the priesthood has something to do with the interpretation of events even then.
The assigning of a wrong theological meaning to a natural event for the way the planet works, is a serious mistake in our fundamentalist society. It misleads and frightens people into behaviors that are not helpful and beliefs that are not true.
I'm reminded of some of the biting humor of Sam Kineston who noted that people in the Sudan, starving and standing in nothing but blowing sand did not need food and water...they needed luggage....they needed to mooooooooooooove! as he would yell.
I would also be more impressed with the "Ten Plagues" of the Exodus story were they not common phenomenon to the region. If you have ever been to the Middle East, plagues of flies, frogs, lice, cattle diseases and such are part of normal daily life at times. Water to blood, not so much, but that's another story. And of course killing firstborn was a way of life in one sacrificial form or another in that day and time. Nothing really all that special.
Now if one is to be really impressive let them be:
1. The plague of Polar Bears
2. The plague of Eastern Diamondback Rattle Snakes
3. The plague of angry Kangaroos and Dingoes
4. The plague of LA Smog
5. The plague of biting Chimps
6. The plague of South American Capybara
7. The plague of South Carolina Humidity
8. The plague of being forced to listen to a sermon in LCG, PCG, RCG, okay even WCG, but I suspect that sermon would be very nicey nicey!
9. The plague of a Buffalo, NY Blizzard
10. The plague of ..... ummmm, well you make one up...
Making religious plagues out of common local phenomenon is not very plaguey. It's just more dramatic every day stuff and the things the locals are aware of in their small world.
Through the pages of the Bible we are told that God will bless those who obey Him, with rain in due season and abundant harvests and peace in the land (Lev. 26:3-6, Deut. 28:12). In fact, we're told that because of obedience to God, our blessings will actually "overtake" us (Deut. 28:1-2). Conversely, we are told that if we disobey God, he will negatively affect the weather; withholding rain (Zech. 14:16-17) and even His "tender mercies" - which can include his protection (Ps. 40:11). God promises to punish the world and the wicked for their evil -- even shaking the heavens (Isa. 13:13). From the writings of King David, we understand that God will chasten or correct those that He loves. David requested that God "remove" His plague (or punishment) from him (Ps. 39:10). Ibid
Yes, this is true, the Bible does say these things. But they are not really true just because the bible says so and this is where the fighting starts in the minds of most. We simply have a terrible time getting past the idea that ideas about why things are as they are, or have occurred as they have occurred as seen through the eyes of people from past ages, uneducated in how things really work on the planet and long dead, are wrong.
We forget that the same book calls a bat a bird (Lev. 11:13-19, and yes, I know the apologetics) and tells us the sun functions from "it's rising in the East until it's setting in the West," is simply wrong. (Ever notice how all "unclean" animals are middle eastern animals or simply those known to the locals? They left a lot of things off the list I might not choose to eat on other parts of the planet, had they known there were other people and parts of the planet.)
Of course these things appear to be so, but the authors had no clue that a bat was a mammal and not a bird and I guess he never looked. I suspect had they ever seen one, a flying squirrel, or snakes that glide from tree to tree, might also have made the bird list. And, of course, they had no clue the earth rotated, or the planet was not the center of the solar system. This little scientific correction would cost some their lives.
So here we have the "God loves us so much he has to spank us when we go astray" mind virus. It is a mantra we simply say when we aren't thinking. A repeat of a meme that has been pumped into our being when bad things happen to people.
So from the Bible we learn weather is ....
A. Not natural but attention getters from the Deity.
B. Inflicted upon mankind because God loves us so much yet can't take the time to personally chat with us without all the drama. God has few counseling tools at his disposal so simply throws tantrums to get our attention.
C. You ain't seen nothing yet, so stay tuned to our literature and presiding evangelist.
D. Proof positive that, once again, Jesus is almost ready to return in YOUR lifetime.
E. Don't try to explain it and don't ask questions about "why does the Deity treat us this way" because He's in world of think all his own and you are never going to get a straight answer in your lifetime. This is simply a human conclusion when, as conscious human beings, we tend to need to find reasons beyond "you were just in the wrong place when natural phenomenon occurred." It is not, in fact, the truth of how life works. It's difficult to say..."I guess I should not have built my house upon the sand."
F. But don't worry. It's all part of a big plan and it's all going to work out just fine and we'll all live happily ever after once we get with the program, which I just happen to have for you, come join our happy throng and bring a 10% down payment - to bless our work.
You'll learn that it's mostly God, but sometimes Satan who controls the weather though the little stuff is just weather. Oh no, how do we tell the difference? I also have wondered if a Cat. 3 storm is from God to teach us a lesson, or does He only speak through Cat 4 and 5? Or if a volcano erupts in a remote area, is that just for fun, or is it considered a near miss? How many have to die in a natural cycle drought before it's not just a drought but a warning. When it rains again and life goes on as before, is it because the Deity gave up on trying to change their evil ways and said "oh heck, let it rain, I've go to go bash some Europeans into obedience because I love them."?
Ok, what's the point? I fully understand those who adopt the idea that "God said it, I believe it, that does it for me." That is how we have been so deeply programmed. We shudder to even think that anything in the Bible might simply not be accurate or true or relevant. We can't wrap our minds around the idea that Ezekiel or the prophets were just humans, perhaps fairly normal, perhaps traumatized by the collapse of their temple worship cult, perhaps a bit daft or clinically unbalanced or not really inspired by some Deity of the day. It feels blasphemous to even consider the idea that prophecy is not really prophecy and or that what might be has no relevance to us today. I fully understand the reaction to taking a different view and challenging the mind virus that is such a part of our theological mindset. I simply believe that humans, who struggle to give meaning to every event in life on this planet, often assign it the wrong meaning and do as much harm to the human spirit and mind as natural phenomenon can do to us when we get in the way.
I also have grown to take exception with those who fill their coffers, pad their nests and boast their own egos with fear tactics that they have long since stopped realizing they are doing. It becomes such a habit to motivate the faithful with the "signs of the times" that one gets locked into doing it every time bad things happen to basically good people. Within HOURS of a natural disaster, meaning from the gods is assigned to the event and the conclusions are sent out post haste to motivate the faithful. After all, timing is everything in religious motivation techniques.
So... Who Controls the Weather? I guess it depends on what one needs to believe to better bring order to their world. That has always been the case in all of human history. No rain=God is mad at us. Rain=God is happy with us. Sunshine and cool breezes=God is happy with us. Cat 4 or better hurricane=Uh oh, God is mad at us and this is a spanking, you ain't seen nothing yet, Jesus is coming soon, write for our free booklets, join our church, now your are protected and see it all works out nicely.
There is a Buddhist proverb that seems to sum up nicely what one tends to learn in the course of a normal life.
When I was young, mountains were just mountains, rivers were just rivers and trees were just trees.
But then I was told that mountains are not JUST mountains, and rivers are not JUST rivers, and trees are not JUST trees.
But now that I am older, I know, that mountains are just mountains, rivers are just rivers and trees are just trees...
And I know it bites at our core sometimes with all the background we have had in Bible prophecy, the tribulation, vials, plagues, trumpets and the scenarios of the Second Coming, but in fact, and whether or not we understand it...weather is just weather. We live on a planet with natural meteorological and geological process that sometimes put our puny selves in harms way.
May we all find a way to extend comfort and help to those who need it and are in pain and afraid for their own futures. And may those so inclined to assign meaningless meanings to motivate the faithful, please stop and think for a change. Whether you understand or whether you do not - understand Weather or the planet we call home...it just happens.
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Relationships
This is a toughy. I loved the relationships I had in WCG. In all the churches I ever pastored, I found my best friends. Of course, what joined us was the common hope that lay within us.
WCG provided me friends and relationships I never would had in any other context. The people I met at AC were very sincere and just good folks. They came from everywhere in the country and in fact, the world. I never would have known them were it not for the church.
I did date some of the same girls Garner Ted did. ( :( ) Naive and very fine human beings with a desire to do and believe the right things. They were not insincere. They were not looking for power or recognition. They simply wanted to be a part of the right thing. They wanted to do the right thing and see the Bible in the correct way. The best friends I ever had were members of the WCG.
One of my best friends was a guy I met in Ohio when I was transferred there. He always spoke his mind and while , at first, it made me nuts and distrustful, I now realize he simply knew how to express what he was observing and it made me, as a young minister, uncomfy. The problem was with me, not him. We moved to Ohio and rented a house next to the railroad tracks , which to us was a palace. Ok, we had to put up with the train going past, but it was steady and predicatable and I loved the sound of it. It relaxed me at night. We lived so close to the tracks that any accident would have taken us immediately into the Kingdom of God.
I remember well this fellow, who helped us move in, saying..."I just wanted to see what my tithe money was doing." Ugh....give me a break. I have to live somewhere. But he was honest and it was that honesty that bound us rather closely over the years. He eventually got booted as a deacon from the church for being too honest and observant. I returned for a reunion of ministers in this Ohio congregation. The present minister was "honoring" the deacons for their work in the church and, of course, he was left out. He was sitting in front of me and while listening to the minister tell of the other men's service, I took out a piece of paper and wrote:
" In honor of Gary________, For years of dedicated service and care in the Worldwide Church of God."
I reached around him and put it in his hands. He looked back at me with a look time can never erase. "Thank you," he said somewhat stunned. We have been closer friends ever since.
I made and lost some of the best friends I ever had in the bonds made in the WCG.
This past weekend I went to celebrate the 3rd birthday of my grandson. He is the only boy of three other goddesses I call my grandchildren. Sheridan, Maggie, Lily and Nicholas. My ex wife was there and it was difficult.
Nothing that has transpired is her "fault." Everything just fell apart. When you life church, church, church 24/7 and it goes as WCG went, it just all falls apart. She came from a long time WCG family. We had our good years raising two great boys. We went to the Toledo Zoo after church services on the holy Sabbath and took some heat but mostly made people think perhaps life was not to be such a church burden. This was in the 70's. Every Friday night in the winter we went to the YMCA to swim with the kids and have "family time." No one gave us a hard time for that and I told them that's what we did. We ended the Friday night swim with a trip to Dunkin Donuts with the boys in their "jammies" and life was good.
Once my youngest climbed into a locker at the YMCA and locked himself in. I told him to keep talking and Dad would find him. It was hilarious. I finally found the appropriate locker and liberated this small, naked and goofy kid from his prison. We laughed our butts off.
Another time, I took my oldest, then 5 , to a funeral in Kentucky. On the coffin there was a spay of flowers and a red toy telephone with a sign that said, "Jesus called." He asked me what the toy phone was all about and I explained the concept to him. Then I got called to give the sermon. He grabbed me almost in a panic and I said, "Let go, I have to speak." He said in a panic not since heard, "Dad...if that phone rings, please don't answer it!" Another great memory. All through the service the coffin between me and him sitting on the front row, he glared at me as if to say "Dad...don't answer it." Now he'd probably say, "Dad, go ahead and answer it." But that is another story :)
Anyway, driving home from the weekend alone and having seen everyone in my past life was a bit difficult. I can't unring the bell. I can't fix all that is broken. I never would have predicted the route my marriage and life would have taken, and yes, I did make my decisions along the way that have cost much.
I have had a couple relationships since then. Mistakes were made and the price has been paid. It's me, the Shih Tzu and the Lionhead Goldfish at the moment and it's not been easy. I have endeavored to meet new people through the various web based sites, but somehow I am the most comfortable with those that know my past and understand. Loneliness is a concept I never knew until the last couple years. I am sure somewhere along the line there were singles who expressed this concept to me and I said some really dumb shit stuff as how they needed to solve it. Boy, has the Karma Fairy flown over and taught me a lot about shallow advice not based in reality.
I don't find people all that honest about what makes them tick. As I have written in the past, everyone wears masks. Masks tend to grow into the skin and are ever so hard to take off. However, dropping them is liberating. I imagine the cost of being oneself, by most, is considered too high and so they fake it.
At any rate, the best friends I ever had were the members who drove me nuts when I was their pastor. They were right. They had nothing to lose being right, well except their membership in the group think.
I find that lost relationships is a very big issue in the demise of the WCG. We all had absolutely nothing in common and at the same time, everything in common.
I miss those relationships and am sorry they ended as they did.
I do not miss my relationship with "Headquarters." What a mess that always was. Were you telling me the truth or were you shitting me? In hindsite, you were shitting me. You were my friends but then you became my worse enemy. You lied and made excuses for the obvious and proved to be shallow friends at best. "We will take care of you," came to mean, "by screwing you." We "wish you well and will pray for you," meant "We dont give a rats ass about you and probably won't pray for you either." Those in high places were relationships that taught me well what "be warmed and be filled" really meant.
Life is relationships. Some people come into our lives forever, for a time, for a season and then either stay or leave. There is much to learn from each, but it can be very painful.
My thanks to those who have hung with me through the years. For those who have come and gone, I thank you as well and wish it may have been better or different.
I never came into the WCG for anything less than doing and believing the right thing. I have learned much from the experience but the price has been high.
They say that experience is the BEST teacher, BUT the tuition is high. I have learned that experience is the ONLY teacher and all else is mere hearsay.
That doesn't mean it's easy or how one wish it had gone...
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All Else Aside...I had to Be There
All Else Aside...I had to Be There
I'll make this short but straightforward. I speak ONLY for myself and yes, I have many regrets.
However....
...in my heart of hearts, I know that I had to be there.
I was 14 years old when I heard my first sermon. It was in Idaho and it was about the universe and "God." I had been reading the booklets all week having just been introduced to the Church my older sister and brother-in-law had become convinced was close to whatever the Bible was trying to tell us. I was hooked. No one EVER gave a sermon on the Universe in our Presbyterian background. I can't remember one sermon from my youth in the Presbyterian Church. But this one I never forgot.
I devoured the Plain Truth Magazine and all the booklets I could get my hands on. It was the 60's. Hell, the whole world was going to hell in a handbasket. JFK had just been killed. MLK and Bobby were next. There were about to be Two major Middle Eastern wars endeavoring to wipe Israel off the map. (Update 2011...Go ahead, be my guest now. Wipe it off the face of the earth). I simply had to be where this church was.
For the next four years through High School, I read all I could. I talked to my girl friend who I was sure I'd marry someday. Hmmm, not going over so well there. Oh well, perhaps God was not calling her. (Update 2011...Lucky girl) I applied to two seminaries after High School. One was Roberts Weslyan which was Methodist and the other was Ambassador College. (Update 2011...I honestly thought it was a seminary according to what I saw in the perspectus). I chose...well you know.
Loved AC. Too stupid to know I was not getting the whole story. I used to go down to Fuller Seminary in Pasadena to study. They had a much better library. Never crossed my mind to transfer there because, well...they just weren't called like I was. Made lots of friends at AC. Most are now players in "Days of our Lives...The Wildworld Church of God and It's Many Faces." (Update 2011...Thank you God for not letting me keep following your true Church all over creation the last 20 years.)
But...I had to be there right up until the moment I realized I no longer could.
I made my choices over the years of turmoil and scandal. Ok, people are weak but so was David and of course....DAVID WAS A MAN AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART, so see, it all works out. While embarrassing and that niggly little voice was telling me get out during the receivership era, well...Satan really hated God's Church so of course stuff like this is going to happen. Besides, it is cleansing and we will be better than ever. I called once a week to hear recordings by "God's leading evangelist updates on the situation, and we were winning!!! (Update 2011...you know, like Charlie Sheen is "winning...duh! )
So I had to be there and NOTHING you could have done would have talked me out of it, until I talked myself out of it and even then, had to be pushed. I hated letting the local church down but when push came to shove, they all disappeared like I had the plague anyway. Big wake up there!
Somewhere along the way, I'd say around '94 or '95, I started to crack. I read outside the WCG box and devoured John Shelby Spong's book, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism.
Hmmmm....this guy just answered almost every question I had about what never made sense about the Gospels. I loved his books and his honesty. I wrote JSS and told him how much I appreciate his perspectives and how helpful they were to me and in answering questions I had wondered about over the years that my Church never addressed. Actually they didn't know there were questions to ask. JSS wrote back personally...
"Thank you very much Dennis for your kind words and I am pleased I have been able to help. I'm glad you appreciate my work...however......you won't survive.Warm regards
John Shelby Spong"
Wow...the man was not only a Bishop, but also a Prophet. I continued on reading JSS's works on the Birth and Death stories of Jesus. Craaaacccck.....I wove wonderful things in to my sermons for a time. I read all of Raymond Brown's books on the Birth and Death of the Messiah. Big books, long books, deeply thought out books....and I wove them into my sermons for a time. I was asked to teach at the local Catholic Church Bible studies on the topic of Jesus Birth Narratives. Raymond Brown was a great RCC scholar and well respected. The Priest and I had become friends having met at the Annual AIDS something or other and it was there I actually was able to make a contact for my local WCG to meet that was much nicer. It was an actual church building and very nice. Of course, I was teaching in the RCC study what I dare not ever teach to my own congregation. They even paid me!!!
The Priest and I got along so well with our biblical interests that he asked me to do the marriages the RCC would not do. I was kinda like a bastard well hidden priest doing for the congregation what the real Priest could not do for them. Ccccrrrrraaaackkkk. I was learning there was so much more in the world of theology than what I had been told. Of course, I prayed my own congregation did not ask me much about it although a few did come and loved the studies on the Birth Narratives of Jesus.
I still had to be there. I think WCG was falling apart out in Pasadena, but my denial was keeping me in and hoping the church would just grow up. Maybe I could help it do so.
But it got bad. In 1996 I did win that's years essay contest in Biblical Archaeology Magazine on "we have the money to send you to any dig in Israel...why should we send you?" Long story short, out of all the people in the world that year, I won. I spent over three weeks at BAR's expense digging in Har Megiddo (The Valley of Megiddo) I was in ho..., cow heaven. I came home and shortly after that I was terminated.
I wonder at what point I would have made my own decision to leave. Everything was coming unglued. Transitions are messy and I was no exception to that truth. Everything suffers. New perspectives replace old ones and those who used to inspire no longer can or do.
But up to that point. I had to be there until I didn't. No one made me stay and once the damn broke in my mind, then and only then could I leave.
My last Festival Sermon was on "The Politics of the New Testament." You know, the who was the Apostle Paul really? Why does he call Peter James and John "reputed pillars" and then add, "I learned nothing from them..." etc. What was going on? Who was on whose side and did they all really speak the same thing? I loved giving that sermon. I had a ball. We laughed (passive aggressive humor is my style and yes I was serious even if it was funny) and when it was all said and done, 8000 kind folk applauded on and on when it was FORBIDDEN :) It was worse than running with scissors.
That Spring, it was over. Lots of things were over.
But I had to be there, until I no longer could be. I made my choices. No one made me stay too long. I had a wonderful mix of denial and hope for a time and denial bit me in the ass finally. Denial still does that to me at times even now.
But for all that time, I had to be there until I no longer could be. I accept responsibility for my choices, staying longer than some or even most and not wanting to "take our local church Dennis and let's just be our own selves." Uh..no. I told those guys that they'd have me for lunch within six months and I had a life to get back in order. Still working on that...
But I had to be there until I no longer could and I accept responsibility for all my choices that have brought me to where I am today.
Where am I? :) I have no idea, but I am NOT stuck in the never ending story of WCG/UCG/PCG/RCG/ and all the other COG's and men who have never yet read Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism and to this day, have no idea they do not yet understand the Book well enough to teach the truth about it.
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When depression leads pastors to suicide
One out of four pastors is depressed
"What kind of personal pain would cause a 42-year-old pastor to abandon his family, his calling and even life itself? Members of a Baptist church in Hickory, North Carolina, are asking that question after their pastor committed suicide in his parked car in September.Those who counsel pastors say Christian culture, especially southern evangelicalism, creates the perfect environment for depression. Pastors suffer in silence, unwilling or unable to seek help or even talk about it. Sometimes they leave the ministry. Occasionally the result is the unthinkable.
Experts say clergy suicide is a rare outcome to a common problem. But Baptists in the Carolinas are soul searching after a spate of suicides and suicide attempts by pastors. In addition to the recent suicide of David Treadway, two pastors in North Carolina attempted suicide and three in South Carolina died by suicide, all in the past four years". THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY
What would cause a Christian Minister, Pastor or Cleric to take their lives? On the basic level, the reasons would be the same as for anyone who makes the conscious (or unconscious) decision to end their lives. Despair seems to be the bottom line and is simply a condition a human being arrives at after they have spent years perhaps in denial over their reality, choices or personal failures or circumstances in life.
Let's get this out of the way. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Easy to say and certainly those who "would never think of such a thing..." can see the truth in that. However, when lost in the fog of despair, it seems like THE solution to a permanent problem. And in answer to the impolite question most would ask me is...yes I have. I find that almost everyone I have asked about this topic say "yes" at one time in life or another. So the thought is common among humans evidently.
I know several COG ministers who have committed suicide over the years of WCG drama, scandal and disappointments. They are not listed on the sites that note such things. More have ended their lives than those whose lives ended by suicide are noted. The men I knew put on a good front. Intelligent guys with hearts for ministry and their congregations. Men, who as young men or even kids found hope in the teachings of the WCG. It took years to realize that the more you looked at the details of the "Big Picture," the more disheartened you could become. These men drank themselves to death. I believe they meant to and of course the fog of drink to delay the pain felt makes getting out of the hole of despair almost impossible.
Over the years as a Pastor, several members committed suicide. One very nice fellow came to see me to talk, drove around the block I lived on, never stopped and drove home to end his life. I did have one man hang himself from his CB tower, rather unsuccessfully. He hung enough to not be able to get out of hanging but did not hang enough to die. When EMS rescued him, he called me to say he wanted me to remarry him and his wife. I guess he had a revelation hanging around on that tower. Probably a common thing but few get to undo what they have done.
I always quoted the Old Testament account of Saul falling on his sword. It simply says "and the battle went hard against him..." That explains it all. That is the definition of despair.
At any rate, I don't intend this to be a study in anything. I would like to express my own thoughts, based on my own experiences on why a minister would commit suicide.
A. First of all, because or she is human first. Those who minister well and sincerely until the despair and disillusionment hit really want to teach and encourage others in the hope that lies within them. That was my goal and no matter how many times I am told "but you were one of them," I know my heart very well. I am not speaking of the nut cases who see themselves in the pages of the Bible, both Old Testament and New. These men are mentally ill and need meds not contributions. But I spare you. The pastoral types I knew were generally and probably healer types all their lives. They tended to put others first and themselves last. They probably had a temperament very close to ENFP (Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceptive) Job descriptions for these types are along the lines of "pastors, social workers, ministers and yes, even massage therapists...I'm not making this up) They have a heart for pastoring no matter the denomination.
The problem can be is that they are idealists and get totally befuddled over the concept of "I wouldn't do that to you, why did you do that to me?" They believe the best until they can't and then when they can't, they go into denial hoping against hope time will heal or change what they see but have a hard time accepting. They are also good followers IF they believe in the leadership. They also tend to be the leaders worst critic when they wake up.
About 20 years ago I ended myself up in a counseling program for depression. One morning my little group of equally depressed types were told to show up at the gym. When there, we could see there was a regular wooden pallet in the middle of the gym floor and we all were simply told to all make a way to get on the pallet and get our feet off the floor for 30 seconds. There were almost too many humans for a bit too little of a pallet. At any rate, feeling like fools, we all did as asked. When finished, we went back to the group session and the leader asked us one question. "Where did you find yourself on the pallet?" It hit me right between the eyes and I got it. Some were smack in the middle assuring their place. You can't fall off the middle. We were all scattered from the center of the pallet to the edges. Guess where I was? Yep...on the very edge, hardly able to stay on, arms around all I could embrace to hold them on with me. I have been doing that all my life. Caretakers when in despair tend to feel life is all or nothing.
B. Ministers take their lives because they have to live a double life. By the way, this is true of every member as well. I have met NOT ONE MINISTER who did not have two ways of being once we got acquainted. There is the way one thinks they are supposed to be and that bangs up against the way one also is. Both are sincere and both exist in everyone actually. When you join a church, you put on the mask and hope to keep the other side at bay. I don't believe we have "an evil side," just the "other side." ....the human side. Every minister I know and knew has topics that he feels strongly about but has to balance that by saying, "but if I teach that, I'll lose my job."
The problem is that while members in a congregation demand forgiveness and understanding when they fall short, that grace is not generally extended to the minister who is just like them. The minister tends to be the sacrificial goat and the member expects him/her to be and do what they generally have no intention of being or doing. Its why we don't think it's such a big deal for the Pope to forgive the guy who tried to kill him. HE"S THE POPE! HE HAS TO FORGIVE HIM! THE POPE IS A PROFESSIONAL FORGIVER!
It's the rejection and despair of having to pray others won't find them out that leads to ending one's life at times. I at least have to credit the Apostle Paul in his writings in Romans with admitting to this duality and pain. Paul was a very guilt and shame ridden human being. Conveniently we aren't told by him what the thorn in the flesh was or what it was that he should have done, but couldn't do but I understand it. You only let out the fact that there is a struggle. But the nature of the struggle or the despair it causes is often just something that most don't trust to share about. Admitting one's struggle to some types can also be a form of suicide. You know..."twas not a foe who did deride for that I could endure....."
C. Ministers take their lives literally because when their faith tanks no matter the reason, there doesn't seem to be anything else. It has been their career, job, calling and inspiration for decades. Finding out or suspecting one has wasted a life teaching the wrong thing, or being with the wrong group, or sacrificing for the wrong cause can bring despair. Or as one of my counselors said once when he first met me...."Wow...you got fired by God!" At the time, it wasn't funny.
D. Ministers take their lives because of their sense of personal failure and also letting others down. I always admired those who really seemed not to give a flying leap about what others think of them, and that is probably better mental health, but most pastor types do care. It goes with the turf and their idealism and healer tendencies. Most genuine ministers, regardless of what denomination of which one Jesus and God really like, are healers by nature. These healer/idealist types are NOT the ones who rise to high position in organizations. They are not the type who declare themselves to be Prophets, Priests, Apostles or Witnesses. Many men who rise to these positions do so on the backs of the healers and idealists. Healers and idealists do not become gurus or dictators. When things fall apart, they generally and quietly slip away unnoticed. Some are overtaken by their idealism gone bad. They may lack the balance to accept certain realities in the world of people. I find the solution to this sometimes misplaced idealism to be curable by abiding by the Four Agreements by Ruiz.
The Four Agreements are:1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
Well, this is not all there is to this topic, but some of the more personal reasons, in my experience and even in my own struggle with all the losses and change that has exploded my own idealism and caretaking tendencies. It's a big topic. We're all in this together even if we can't quite figure out anymore what "this" is.
The Spa beckons and I have to go rub someone the right way for a change..Gotta go....:)
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
Let's Put This Story to Rest Once and For All!
If I ever heard an Old Testament story once, I have heard this one told ten thousand times. It comes from Isaiah 14.12 "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;"
This story was THE proof that Satan used to be one of God's good guys and then all of a sudden, one day decided to be take over everything and knock God off His throne. Local boy goes bad I guess. Well Satan, which term is never mentioned here, former Light Bringer which is what Lucifer means, is now the Prince of Darkness and the rest is history.
What's really going on with this story. Did you know that you see this drama literally take place multiple mornings and evenings of the year. Did you know that even to this day, this Lucifer is mistaken for UFOs or landing lights! Jesus said he saw Satan fall as lightening from heaven as did millions then and billions today if you know where to look. It's a very old story based on a very real observation by humans who made up a story about what they did not understand at the time.
First of all, let's understand that Isaiah 14 is really not about a Satan the Devil as he has evolved into over the history of the Church. A scripture can never mean what it never meant, and this principle applies to Isaiah 14 for sure. In the original Hebrew text, the 14th chapter of Isaiah is not about a fallen angel, but about a fallen Babylonian king, who had persecuted the children of Israel. Later in the context we see he was a man, who died. Now we often hear that this was a "type" but that's slippery ground mostly. Metaphor maybe, but not a type, where we can change a man into a Lucifer and then Lucifer into Satan, never mentioned, and then the whole thing into how Satan came to be the God of this world so send in your tithes and be safe with us. "In the Hebrew text the expression used to describe the Babylonian king before his death is "Helal, son of Shahar", which can best be translated as "Day star, son of the Dawn." The name evokes the golden glitter of a proud king's dress and court (much as his personal splendor earned for King Louis XIV of France the appellation, "The Sun King").
{Craig Lyons-Bet Emet Ministries.} The King here was a man, plain and simple, and for his cocky attitude, he got to die like everyone else.
Lucifer means "Light Bringer" and is a term used by Roman astronomers to describe the planet Venus. Venus has always been the light bringer as it always precedes the early morning sun. It is very bright and very noticeable, such that it has been confused, as noted, for the landing lights of non-existent airplanes. It is bright, but not as bright as the sun of course. In mythology, humans noted this 'god" that preceeded the sun and seemed to be racing to the zenith, which in astrotheology is called the place of the "Most High" or plainly put for us today, NOON! Noon is God's throne in astrotheological terms. In Isaiah, this "Lightbringer" went before God, the Most High-The SUN. The highest point in the sky where the sun or anything that shines outside the planet can rise, from our perspective. When mythology and even the Bible speaks of God as "the most High", one can see the deeper meaning that hints at sun worship. The Bible promotes a similar yet different form of Sun/Son worship but that has been lost on most Christians today.
The planet Venus proved to be an enigma for mankind. It's job seemed to be to go before the morning sun and announce, if you would, it's coming forth. But then, bright as it was and still is, it falls from the sky and descends into the ground, or in mythology, seems to be thrown down. Strange! Not knowing that Venus was an inner planet and all inner planets that rotate with the earth around the sun can never pass over us, east to west as do the outer planets and stars, they had to explain it. Thus we have the the "fact" that this lightbringer, this Lucifer soon be called Satan, MUST have become discontend with just announcing the Sun God, so MUST have said in his heart, "I will become the MOST HIGH." Well that was it for him! The Most High, not willing to give up his throne to this usurper, simply threw him back down to the earth, or apparently so at least as we look on the horizon. After that rather unsuccessful endeavor the dethrone God Most High, we get stuck with him as Satan compliments of the Church, who embellished the story and ta ta!...The mess the world in is explained and it isn't the fault of mankind for the most part. Forever more, we can say, "Satan made me do it." You know, the bright and morning star that tried to become God but lost.
It was mostly the Catholic St. Jerome in the fourth century who mistranslated the Hebraic metaphor, "Day star, son of the Dawn," as "Lucifer," and over the centuries an evolution of ideas took place. Lucifer the morning star became a disobedient angel, cast out of heaven to rule eternally in hell mostly waiting for all Non-Catholics, but later all Non-Protestants too. Now the Church had it's Prince of the Power of the Air, the Prince of Darkness, the God of this world, The Roaring Lion, the Fallen Angel, the former Day star (because if you know where to look, Venus can even be seen in the daytime)...gone bad.
Interesting enough, even Jesus, well the Jesus of Revelation who bears no likeness to the Jesus of the Gospels, identifies himself as the morning star, a term used as a central theme in many Christian sermons. Jesus refers to himself as the morning star in Revelation 22:16: "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."
So here we have it. Humans could never quite explain why this bright "star" we know as the planet Venus, preceeded the morning Sun as if to announce it's arrival, but then crashed back to earth. Very strange! Let's make up a story! This bright light, an Angel, the Lightbringer and minor deity compared to the SUN, really went bad and decided to knock the SUN GOD, and later the SON of GOD, off the throne, which is where the SUN rises to when it becomes the MOST HIGH at NOON. God, not putting up with that, simply threw Lucifer, now Satan or the Destroyer, back down to earth where he belongs and humans can get stuck with him until the SON of the SUN God comes back to destroy the works of the Light Bringer now gone dark. Great story! In Isaiah 14, this haughty king was acting just like that in thinking he could knock Israel out of the picture, he lost, was thrown down and died, just like that planet Venus every morning. So don't mess with God's chosen ones!19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
In the real story of the real human king of Isaiah 14, we see he dies like all mortal men and is not well thought of for thinking he could challenge Israel. In verse 19 we read, "But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet. 20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned." Graves, carcasses, pits, burials and oblivion are all features of what happens to humans, not Angels or mini-gods.
It's interesting, Venus also rises evenings wonderfully bright after the sun sets, and then falls back to earth too. Perhaps Satan just coming out from the underworld of darkness for a peak and to let us know he still rules it before going back an hour or so later after "Sun Set" where even the Most High Sun goes every night, in Eqyptian history to challenge "SET" God of the Underworld. Makes you wonder about stories about Sons of the Sun preaching to spirits in "prison." But that's another story.
So when you see Venus early in the morning when you drive to work and think either a train if low enough or a plane looking for place to land is coming right at YOU, know that's only the Light Bringer, Lucifer, later your arch nemesis Satan, announcing "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall" Malachi 4:2. Notice it doesn't say "Son". Think of wings more like rays and you'll get the picture. That planet Vensus, so beautiful is explaining a phenomenon that we take for granted to human beings long ago who feared such things and simply had to come up with a theology to explain it. Now you can say you saw Satan fall as lightening from heaven too...how cool is that!
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
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Dis-illusioned? Why Would We Want to Perpetuate Illusions?
If you spend enough time on the planet, one of the great experiences we all will have is that of that of being disillusioned with persons, places or things. I personally hate it. It's annoying, takes way too much energy and makes my stomach hurt.
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
If you spend enough time on the planet, one of the great experiences we all will have is that of that of being disillusioned with persons, places or things. I personally hate it. It's annoying, takes way too much energy and makes my stomach hurt.
Of course, we also have to admit from time to time, that we all are a source of disillusionment for others as well, so I suppose this keeps the universe balanced in some way, and the feelings we have about how it feels when we experience it in perspective. If you are like me, I tend to remember well what disillusions me for a very long time, but rather quickly try to dismiss my own part in the disillusionment of others.
I'd like to ask a simple question. Why would we want to have illusions? After all, DIS-illusionment should seem to be exactly what we want to happen. Who wants to live with illusions? Who wants to base their perspectives on that which is not real, true or accurate? We should beg for DIS-illusionment, but in fact we don't. Plainly, disillusionment in any of life's quests is painful and is the reason we tend to defend them, at all costs. Pain is to be avoided at all costs it seems.
I think we all know people who live with well thought out, well defined and deeply entrenched illusions. As a former, very sincere and hopeful pastor type, I was a master teacher of illusions and had darn good proofs that I was right to defend them. The problem was, ultimately, I was wrong. Let me share a few. I realize that some will be quick to point out my flawed thinking, because of their own illusions, and to refute my observations as a simple lack of faith, or trust. Some will say, I was in the wrong church, had a bad attitude or simply misunderstood God. Illusions are easy to defend and difficult to let go of at best. I understand that. But when simple theological promises are made, and then applied with either no results or negative results, that's pretty darn disillusioning. But the goal here is to not have illusions, so it's all good.
So here goes. Let me share a few of the most simple and yet theologically disillusioning concepts that many Christians struggle with. I know I am not alone, nor is it inappropriate to observe just how untrue, in human experience these concepts are in practical fact.
As a minister, I often anointed "the sick" with oil and laid hands on them offering "the prayer of faith." In most cases, it was not serious stuff, but rather, the type of maladies that would pass in time with a little self care and patience. There were many times, however, where it was either be "healed" or die before one's time. I'd like to say that the "prayer of faith" did save the sick, after all that's what it says...
James 5:
14 "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
...but it did not. I watched many die, in time, just as those who did not ask. Doing this hundreds, if not thousands of times did not result in my personally having any real miraculous stories of obvious healing to relate to you. I have a sense even now of not wanting to admit this, knowing the arguments that humans come up with to explain why this is as it is, but I experienced this simple theological promise as I did and wish to face it. I wonder now if it helped or hurt those who were facing final days? Did it encourage them or discourage them since God did not intervene? Did they feel a lack of faith and blame themselves or is this simply one of life's disillusionments to deal with? People get sick and die. Some live long, some die young. None of us are getting out of here alive. Believe me, I have heard every explanation under the sun as to why God did or didn't do what he said so simply in James would happen. The fact is, every explanation is a simple need we have to explain why something so simple, simply didn't work.
I have quoted in sermons the financial promises "God" makes to those who give until it hurts, "good measure, pressed down and overflowing." I have noted that humans have "robbed God" of tithes and to give so that He might open the windows of heaven to the giver, and yet they simply end up with less income and worried about how to pay the bills. Again, the poor giver seems to take the heat for having little faith, patience or the ability to grasp that all of God's blessings aren't monetary. Yeah, that's the answer! "You have air don't you...why if God wanted, he could take the air away...sooooooooo." You know what I mean. When God does not deliver, it's never God's fault, it's our fault and we spend the next six weeks examining ourselves for bad attitudes, poor faith or misunderstanding the text as explained by apologists. I have even given church emergency help to those who gave too much of their income to "God". Does God really need income, or is this a organization thing?
In my denomination, members gave much to help the "poor" and often I ended up giving it back to those who gave it, so I guess they were blessed by the church in a round about way with the occasional return of their own gifts to the church. But, in fact, giving to God or the Church of your choice is often just that, giving, with precious little to show for it in practical and real life returns. Oh I know we are not to give to get, but the promises of scripture plainly say we shall receive and the practical reality of it is disillusioning to say the least.
Try asking your church for financial help, in most cases, no matter how much you have given and see how far you get. "Why Mrs. Jones, if we did that for you, we'd have to do that for everyone, and we just can't. Don't you have some relatives you can call?" I always wondered if we are to give to and serve others so much, who are they supposed to give to and serve? Themselves it seems. If we are to esteem others BETTER than ourselves, what are all the others suppose to do?
Finally, there is the illusion of protection. While the Bible might boast of angels who watch and protect children and the idea that "a thousand shall fall (hey who protects them?) at thy right side and ten thousand at thy left, but it shall not come nigh unto thy dwelling," it is a disillusionment of epic proportions to believe. I have buried too many children whose lives ended because they made one bad mistake at just the wrong time, or were the victim of a moment out of their control. I've gotten too many calls to come quickly, so and so has been killed, and so and so never made it to 18.
Were "their angels" on strike or vacation? Is this the time where once again, God gets off the hook and reminds me that "all things work together for the good to those that love Him." Is this another time where I have to ask about who had faith and who didn't? Is it the fault of the human...again, that things did not work out so well? How come when it happens to a believer, it is Satan, with God's permission, trying to discourage them, and when it happens to a non-believer, it is God, trying to get in touch with them? It's all so disillusioning.
Time would fail, as would space to recite all the promises made to sincere believers by the writers of the Bible for their obedience, loyalty, belief and faith. I believe there is a book entitle "All the Promises of the Bible." After a lifetime of application, I suspect it is a list of disillusionments.
But...GOOD NEWS! DIS-illusionment is a good thing! Who wants illusions! In the long run, they are more painful,harmful and detrimental than reality, which is something we innately seem to wish to avoid at times as humans. I suspect even Jesus, who just knew that if he did his part and pushed the Romans hard enough to ignite the final confrontation at the Temple in Jerusalem, learned a lot in his final moments on the cross. I don't think he was kidding when he is said to have cried out, "My God, my God...why have your forsaken me?" The Kingdom did not come in the nick of time to save him. I think he died honestly disillusioned about his own perceptions, unless the line is simply for dramatic effect. I think the early disciples were pounded with their illusions about how things would be if they followed Jesus. One of the first reactions was to flee and go home to catch fish again, like the whole thing never happened.
The historical church, that grew out of the great dis-illusionment would go on to offer the now familiar apologetic we experience today as "The Church," with the best yet to come, always just around the corner, just ahead, in the near future, any time now for sure.
Life does what it does, not at times, but always. The experience of Disillusionment, while painful is necessary for our growth and when it comes knocking...let it in. It really does work for the good as the book says. :)
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"Jesus had worked a great miracle in the Church and we don't have the money."
At this moment, and perhaps it is a mistake to speak plainly because we all know we all must keep up appearances at all costs in our culture, but what the hell.
A number of years ago, at a ministerial refresher, which were always exhausting, I asked Ron Kelly in class, if the church understood the need to provide retirement for the ministry. I quote the only answer ever given...
"We will take care of you....."
Ron Kelly
Thank you Ron, Yes you did.
Aside from suffering through yet another episode of losses relived, in many areas both public and personal, which has me deeply anxious today and depressed, I'd like to know where the good guy ministers went who simply disappeared when terminated along the way and never started, stole or hijacked a splinter or sliver Church of God to keep it going?
And there were many good guy ministers. Damn any of you who use the word "all" as if you knew them all. They just weren't the narcissists or pushy ones. Or maybe you never met them because they weren't yours. The nut cases have gone on and on and some are frankly mentally ill and doing just fine hiding in the context of religion. Their quirkiness and strange views look downright religious and obedient. I have learned an ill minister can hide well in a religious environment. Somehow they look very "Biblical." Actually some are and that is the scary part too.
Many meant well and got just as confused as I did along the way as I watched WCG go through one side show after another until it became the WishyWashyTrinityBSChurch of God.
So Ron, what do guys like myself do as we get older? Decades of doing what told, inspiring, sincerely at the time, the giving of millions and giving back tens of thousands to our harm as I never made all that much being out of the good ol' boy loop. I made $33,000 max. I bought homes thinking I could stay put and my parents made up differences along the way. Sorry mom...I know we don't tell what people make but this is different.
We signed, and I don't remember either being given an explanation or an option, away social security because a church can take care of it's own and can opt out. Big mistake huh? I was 22 and I had to sign that to get paid my first $164/2 week paycheck in the ministry. I believe HWA had just spent the entire pay of the ministry that week on Steuben Crystal in the name of "please like me and let me have my picture with you...." ministry.
On top of that, US Churches don't have to give retirements to ministers or at least it "depends." Mine depended on staying with WCG as outlined by Bernie Schnippert who claimed such understanding yet washed his hands of me rather quickly.
It was the head of the Church Reconciliation Dept, who has spend decades making a living reconciling with all the wrong people who told me....
"We will pray for you Dennis, and we wish you luck..."
Translation:
"Be warmed and be filled."
The personal dept at the time advised us/me to show the severance papers to a lawyer. I did. She said:
"This is a Church? You're F_ _ _ _ _"
(wanna see them?)
And so it still is today. I told Joe Tkach years ago it was not nice that the Church retirement program for the ministry was at age 65 or so to drive into a tree. He laughed. I bet he is still laughing...I'm not. Life is real. My dad retired from Eastman Kodak 33 years ago. Yes, he is 95. My parents still live in the same home they bought when 22 years old. Yes, mom's 94. I'll never make it. Too many moves. Too many losses. Too many "God will make it up to us." To many lost friends and opportunities being too busy being "God's minister." What Bullshit...
I grew up where we "didn't say that" when anger came up. So from a child, I have learned to pack it in. It leads to depression because either one feels they have no right to speak it, or the price of doing so will be too high. It has been both, in my Church Pastor experience. but what does it matter. I had to take anti-depressants the last ten years in WCG just to get through. I can't afford to do that now as I have no insurance in my current job. Not uncommon for Americans. I also don't believe in covering it all up. Dealing with is the cure. Facing it helps. But in the WCG the nice guys could do neither without being very quiet about it.
My own losses along the way, personal and otherwise have been very difficult. Some of it I understand and some of it will always be a mystery to me. I am sorry to those close to me for hurting you as I kept my rage and fear inside. I still do but you have gone away so it doesn't matter now.
Actually the Tkach's have done very well through it all. I rarely see anything about WCG and they are the ones who started all this religious foolishness. Joe is the Mubarak/Gaddafi of the WCG/GCI
Enjoy your Non-Feast of Tabernacles Cruises for Jesus Ron...you did good adapting your way through the changes in the deep and unchangeable truths. I also remember talking with you about retirement after termination and you said you wished you could but....ready for this.....
"Jesus had worked a great miracle in the Church and we don't have the money."
That crazy trickster Jesus. Call me/Trick me. Which is it? I also believe I reminded you that you had just sold the entire campus for a yet to be disclosed price. I bet it was over $500 wasn't it?
Oh...and you guys still don't have it right. Your miracle theology is hilarious and your new ministry is even less qualified to minister than ever.
Actually the Tkach's have done very well through it all. I rarely see anything about WCG and they are the ones who started all this religious foolishness. Joe is the Mubarak/Gaddafi of the WCG/GCI However he is Pastor General over nothing.
Breathe Dennis...it will pass....
+++++++++++++++++++
The Wonderless World Tomorrow
I'm not so sure I'd enjoy being ruled by the fundamentalist Christians I know. They just know that they, the true true saints, will rule the world under Jesus Christ. This makes me nervous and I'm not so sure it will be source of my never ending joy realized when Jesus returns to rule us all with a "rod of iron." Somehow the use of seminars, luncheons and field trips never seems to dawn on Jesus or God as a way to better teach us poor ignorant slobs. But not to worry, I think the Rod of Iron thing is made up by the men who love to rule with such things. In becoming as little children, you'd think rods of iron would be prohibited as an acceptable way to solve problems and teach truth. I guess my common sense is not the common sense God and Jesus experience according to my fundamentalist friends.First of all, the Clergy I know, don't get along very well among themselves. The screamers among them seem to compete for the recognition and preeminence and the rules they believe they will enforce upon all mankind within their reach are down right depressing and frightening. Worse yet, they don't seem to be able to agree on which rules are rules, which are suggestions and which are done away with. I do know they tend to want to be in charge and not just work for the Lord in lower positions.
In a small way, the rules on "dating" at many fundamentalist colleges leave kids getting married for the wrong reasons and not really knowing each other all that well. The divorce rate among those who, as college kids, were "guided" in how often and who to date when, is high. Mind your own business never seems to occur to such colleges. However, the Apostle Paul gives us great examples for how the religious gurus should go about minding other people's business to their harm.
There will be no dancin' or card playin'. No hair longer than that of the 1950's and no dresses shorter than ankle high. They will be made mostly of boring colors and put you in mind of your grandma. You'll be forced, because it's the rule, to go to Bible studies on Wednesday nights and church EVERY Sunday. You'll agree that Jesus really was born on Christmas and really died on Easter for all the appropriate reasons. You will be baptised by immersion or sprinkled depending. You're repentance will be heartfelt and genuine and you will become perfect like God is, or else of course. In fact you'll agree with what you are told to agree with even if you don't. If you don't, you will keep that very very quiet. However a local pastor says that God knows our thoughts, so that will be a challenge. I just know he's gonna tell!
As far as entertainment is concerned, you will love Andy Griffith and hate American Idol. Chris Sligh, outstanding singer and all around good guy, on American Idol, and Bob Jones University drop out, will be executed unless he rejoins the choir. Bob Jones is very disappointed in Chris for misusing his talents and spending time with the enemy. Any feelings that the kind of religious control he experienced is creepy or confining will be purged from his deceived mind, should he survive. Movies will be strictly monitored and you will learn to love "The Sound of Music"and "Oklahoma" as you never thought you could, or else. Stores will close on the appointed days and times and only sell the appropriate Christian things. I imagine only Christians will be allowed to even own or run a store. Oh yeah, the non-believers will be dead.
Concerning science, well, hold on to your hats. Evolution, which is literally true, will be banned and creationism and the Fall of Man because of woman in the Garden of Eden, which is not literally true, will replace it. You will get your views from the Creationism Museum in Kentucky and deny that it is built over shale showing millions of creatures layered quietly and turned to stone over millions of years. It's a Karma Fairy thing.
Science will be ever so much more easily understood. Phrases like "Quantum physics tells us," or "human consciousness studies inform us that," will be replaced by "God says." In fact, every finding of archaeology, paleontology, astronomy and every other "onomyies"and "tologies" will be replaced with "God says." A degree in science won't take long at all and the answers will become so much easier to come up with on the test.
Clergy will replace politicians and giving to the State will be regulated by Old Testament laws on tithing and many other such things you won't believe how happy they will make you. It will be to one's advantage to become a Priest of the Most High if you ever expect to accumulate any real material wealth. The Ten Commandments will be suspended long enough to steal the unbelievers blind, rape their wives, enslave their children and kill those who can't see the light as it is revealed to them. If you should find yourself in any kind of conflict over why you have to be so compliant and believe the unbelievable, this is why Jesus has his very own rod of iron. He will convince you that you need to adjust your attitude and you will do so nicely and with sincerity. After you learn anatomy by seeing eyes and tongues dissolve in the appropriately "God is Love" way, you'll feel more inclined to obey and be happy.
Now we can all hope the above nightmare scenario in the hands of Christian Fundamentalists will never come to pass. However, we have ample Old Testament predictions that Jewish fundamentalism will prevail in a very similar way. The above mentioned pastors will be forced to give up Sunday for Sabbath, Easter for Passover and Christmas for the Feast of Tabernacles. Boy are they gonna be surprised! I mean, this is what it says in the book they love to use to tell us all just how happy we will be when Jesus returns and restores all things his and God's way. A common phrase to be heard by these Pastors will be "hmmmmmmmm, no one 'splained it to me that way before."
Let's take a quick look at how happy we will be when the Messiah comes from the Jewish perspective, and how deep our joy must be, or else.
Zechariah 14:
(1-2) Jerusalem under siege from the nations.
Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
See, I told ya the Ten Commandments would be suspended for the greater good!
(12-15) Enemies are forever plagued.
And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. It shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, and raise his hand against his neighbor's hand; Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be gathered together: Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance. Such also shall be the plague on the horse and the mule, on the camel and the donkey, and on all the cattle that will be in those camps. So shall this plague be.
See, I told ya you could still have lots of good stuff if you were the chosen ones and you'd learn anatomy in new and interesting ways!
(16-19) All the nations come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
See, I told ya have to give up the pagan Christian holidays and absolutely fall in love with the Jewish Holydays, or else.
(20-21) The common is made holy.
In that day "Holiness to the Lord" shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
See, I told ya Church was going to be a lot different and you better not be one of the not so special ones!
Doesn't being under enforced, for your own good, religious rule sound fun? No! Won't we be ever so much more happy and fulfilled? No! Actually, I sincerely hope this is not what "and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free," really means. Freedom under religious rule and control is truly frightening and depressing.
++++++++++++++++++++
Why Does Questioning the Bible Make People So Nervous and Defensive?
If you wish to see the good, the bad and the ugly side of people of faith, just question the faith. I was a pastor soaking in Christianity and the Bible for three decades. I heard, read and studied all the plain and simple truth in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I can tell you the truth is neither plain nor simple and rather liked Paul's description of it all as being "the present truth." At least calling truth something that is currently understood gives some wiggle room for those times which shall come to grow a bit in the grace and knowledge that most Christians think they are open minded enough to really do. Most I know grow neither in grace, unless they attach a few dozen laws that you must keep to be one of the good people, nor knowledge which seems to scare the bejesus out of them when they really run up against it.
By far, the writings I have done that have proven to be the most popular for the open minded and enraging for those who enjoy that frame of mind a bit less, have been on Questions Your Pastor Will Hate. Many appreciate the questions and admit that they too have had the same questions as they sincerely study the text of the Bible stories and accounts of varied topics. These are the people who see the politics behind the texts. They admit that James and Paul really did bash heads and Peter was bashed by Luke and John as one who was totally unworthy of any authority in the church. Judas had betrayed Jesus and Peter had denied him, so that's pretty much the end of them in the eyes of John, Luke and Paul.
The story of Annias and Sapphira in Acts 5 is not a story about Peter killing two church members for not coughing up all the money they had "pledged" to the church. It is a spoof that the readers of Luke and Paul's community would understand of the buffoon Peter who, like the two church members who said they would give something to the church and didn't, said he'd never leave Jesus and fled. Peter who said he'd do one thing and did another is now punishing a couple who said they'd do one thing and did another. It was hilarious and a poke at Peter the Pathetic according to Luke and Paul. John mentions Peter three times in his Gospel and each time sandwiches Peter stories between two comments about Judas. The point is not missed on the original audience as is the story of Peter being forgiven three times by Jesus tacked on to the end of John's Gospel to show Peter is just as able to be forgiven as anyone else. (Side note: A really fascinating possibility is that the 21st chapter of John is the Missing ending of the pro-Peter Gospel of Mark. Mark is known to have no good ending to the Jesus story. It's ending has been added to make up for the bummer ending at Mark 16:8. John, on the other hand, has two obvious endings in chapter 20, the real ending and chapter 21, the forgive Peter ending.)
At any rate, to question the story is to run great risk of abuse at the hands of the faithful who need the stories to be literally true as they learned in Sunday School and that all the characters of the New Testament Church loved each other in Jesus and got along famously in the faith. That is very far from reality, but don't question it.
I can't tell you how many, while not near as many as those who appreciate the inquiry, take the time to write and remind me I will change my mind when I am frying in the fires of Hell in the judgment. No one has bothered to answer one question posed, but they just know I should go to hell for asking it. Some who write are subtle in their warnings to me. Some sound like a human form of God who will warn me to "gird up my loins" (my loins are just fine) and get ready to answer, but that's where it ends. I guess they feel God himself is about to break out upon me for asking questions about the faith. So far so good. Some talk to me like I imagine Moses talked to the Children of Israel when he was really angry at them in God's name. Some are not so subtle as one reminded me that "Dennis, words can get you killed." Well the history of religion that does not appreciate questions proves that!
Is it wrong to notice the inconsistencies, errors, goofs, bad science, poor examples, contradictions, animosities, politic and real history of the Bible? Depends who you ask. Those who believe that none of those things exist in the Holy Book would shout "yes!" In my view, the answer is "no it is not." Why is it OK and even something one should demand of their honest selves? Because ideas have consequences. Because the stories and ideas expressed in the texts are used to control people in various life circumstances. Because some use the mythologies of the Bible to make up literally real laws that effect women and children, and generally not in a good way. Because many are kept in fear, guilt and life long shame being reminded way too often that they, as a human, are worthless without divine intervention. Being born right the first time, as I have said in the past, is a truth that is kept far from their consciousness.
It is always right to ask questions about that which seems like it deserves to have a question asked. If you can't imagine Joshua raising his hands and stopping the earth from rotating without planet wide consequences...just ask your Pastor how can that be. Of course be ready to hear, "with God all things are possible," which is not what you asked. If you can't picture penguins and polar bears ambling down to the middle east to get on the Ark, just ask your Pastor about that. If you wonder where dinosaurs or Homo Erectus fit in, just ask your Pastor. The answer might be ill informed, but it's ok to ask.
If you notice that Paul never quotes Jesus, yet gets to write most of the NT heavy meaning of Jesus, just ask. If you notice that Paul thinks Peter, James and John, the disciples of Jesus don't seem to have anything Paul needs to learn from them and he learns nothing from them, and think that's kinda strange...just ask. If you notice the Birth or Resurrection of stories as written in the Gospels don't match very well and seem contradictory, just ask. If you say "they seem to be contradictory," be prepared to have the word "seem" jumped upon, but you still have the right to ask. I'm not saying you'll get a good or correct answer. You might, but probably not. But you have the right to ask. And you certainly have the right to notice the many problems in the Bible if you know the Bible well enough to notice in the first place.
One thing is for sure. If you are a genuine seeker and you truly notice that the Bible has some real problems with what we truly know today about many topics and even within itself in the form of many contradictions and editing done by one to correct the problems of the other, it's ok to ask. A real seeker cannot not notice what they notice. You can't go back to the lame apologetics that many offer to explain away the problem as if there is no problem. You can't unsee what you do see. You can't unring a bell. Oh..you also have the right to expect not to be penalized for asking in the first place. Just don't count on it.
+++++++++++++++++++++If you wish to see the good, the bad and the ugly side of people of faith, just question the faith. I was a pastor soaking in Christianity and the Bible for three decades. I heard, read and studied all the plain and simple truth in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I can tell you the truth is neither plain nor simple and rather liked Paul's description of it all as being "the present truth." At least calling truth something that is currently understood gives some wiggle room for those times which shall come to grow a bit in the grace and knowledge that most Christians think they are open minded enough to really do. Most I know grow neither in grace, unless they attach a few dozen laws that you must keep to be one of the good people, nor knowledge which seems to scare the bejesus out of them when they really run up against it.By far, the writings I have done that have proven to be the most popular for the open minded and enraging for those who enjoy that frame of mind a bit less, have been on Questions Your Pastor Will Hate. Many appreciate the questions and admit that they too have had the same questions as they sincerely study the text of the Bible stories and accounts of varied topics. These are the people who see the politics behind the texts. They admit that James and Paul really did bash heads and Peter was bashed by Luke and John as one who was totally unworthy of any authority in the church. Judas had betrayed Jesus and Peter had denied him, so that's pretty much the end of them in the eyes of John, Luke and Paul.
The story of Annias and Sapphira in Acts 5 is not a story about Peter killing two church members for not coughing up all the money they had "pledged" to the church. It is a spoof that the readers of Luke and Paul's community would understand of the buffoon Peter who, like the two church members who said they would give something to the church and didn't, said he'd never leave Jesus and fled. Peter who said he'd do one thing and did another is now punishing a couple who said they'd do one thing and did another. It was hilarious and a poke at Peter the Pathetic according to Luke and Paul. John mentions Peter three times in his Gospel and each time sandwiches Peter stories between two comments about Judas. The point is not missed on the original audience as is the story of Peter being forgiven three times by Jesus tacked on to the end of John's Gospel to show Peter is just as able to be forgiven as anyone else. (Side note: A really fascinating possibility is that the 21st chapter of John is the Missing ending of the pro-Peter Gospel of Mark. Mark is known to have no good ending to the Jesus story. It's ending has been added to make up for the bummer ending at Mark 16:8. John, on the other hand, has two obvious endings in chapter 20, the real ending and chapter 21, the forgive Peter ending.)
At any rate, to question the story is to run great risk of abuse at the hands of the faithful who need the stories to be literally true as they learned in Sunday School and that all the characters of the New Testament Church loved each other in Jesus and got along famously in the faith. That is very far from reality, but don't question it.
I can't tell you how many, while not near as many as those who appreciate the inquiry, take the time to write and remind me I will change my mind when I am frying in the fires of Hell in the judgment. No one has bothered to answer one question posed, but they just know I should go to hell for asking it. Some who write are subtle in their warnings to me. Some sound like a human form of God who will warn me to "gird up my loins" (my loins are just fine) and get ready to answer, but that's where it ends. I guess they feel God himself is about to break out upon me for asking questions about the faith. So far so good. Some talk to me like I imagine Moses talked to the Children of Israel when he was really angry at them in God's name. Some are not so subtle as one reminded me that "Dennis, words can get you killed." Well the history of religion that does not appreciate questions proves that!
Is it wrong to notice the inconsistencies, errors, goofs, bad science, poor examples, contradictions, animosities, politic and real history of the Bible? Depends who you ask. Those who believe that none of those things exist in the Holy Book would shout "yes!" In my view, the answer is "no it is not." Why is it OK and even something one should demand of their honest selves? Because ideas have consequences. Because the stories and ideas expressed in the texts are used to control people in various life circumstances. Because some use the mythologies of the Bible to make up literally real laws that effect women and children, and generally not in a good way. Because many are kept in fear, guilt and life long shame being reminded way too often that they, as a human, are worthless without divine intervention. Being born right the first time, as I have said in the past, is a truth that is kept far from their consciousness.
It is always right to ask questions about that which seems like it deserves to have a question asked. If you can't imagine Joshua raising his hands and stopping the earth from rotating without planet wide consequences...just ask your Pastor how can that be. Of course be ready to hear, "with God all things are possible," which is not what you asked. If you can't picture penguins and polar bears ambling down to the middle east to get on the Ark, just ask your Pastor about that. If you wonder where dinosaurs or Homo Erectus fit in, just ask your Pastor. The answer might be ill informed, but it's ok to ask.
If you notice that Paul never quotes Jesus, yet gets to write most of the NT heavy meaning of Jesus, just ask. If you notice that Paul thinks Peter, James and John, the disciples of Jesus don't seem to have anything Paul needs to learn from them and he learns nothing from them, and think that's kinda strange...just ask. If you notice the Birth or Resurrection of stories as written in the Gospels don't match very well and seem contradictory, just ask. If you say "they seem to be contradictory," be prepared to have the word "seem" jumped upon, but you still have the right to ask. I'm not saying you'll get a good or correct answer. You might, but probably not. But you have the right to ask. And you certainly have the right to notice the many problems in the Bible if you know the Bible well enough to notice in the first place.
One thing is for sure. If you are a genuine seeker and you truly notice that the Bible has some real problems with what we truly know today about many topics and even within itself in the form of many contradictions and editing done by one to correct the problems of the other, it's ok to ask. A real seeker cannot not notice what they notice. You can't go back to the lame apologetics that many offer to explain away the problem as if there is no problem. You can't unsee what you do see. You can't unring a bell. Oh..you also have the right to expect not to be penalized for asking in the first place. Just don't count on it.
I have always been taken back by the seemingly total lack of Biblical questioning by my former ministerial friends in WCG or in the membership over all. It is amazing to me how little study into other ways of perceiving the Bible, it's history, it's construction and origins, its many contradictions real or imagined is done.
In the COG groups, the one man show type can get up and declare the Bible "clearly" shows the goofball to be an Apostle, Priest, King or Witness, AND FEW IF ANY QUESTION THE ROAMING AROUND IN THE BIBLE THAT IT TOOK TO DRAW THAT CONCLUSION.
"Duh, boss. Whatever you say, huya huya...whatever you say."
When Dave Pack goes on and on qualifying for membership in On and On Anonymous, why can't someone tell the man he talks too much and sees way too much of himself in the scripture. Why can't someone say the sermons aren't always as amazing and never before understood as they are being led to believe. When he can't explain anything in less than two to four hours each week, where is the common sense of the audience? When the man says either, "And yes, I am an Apostle," or "Send it in," blah blah blah...who are the people who just do this? Are they defective of mind and common sense?
When Flurridians are told the Guru is "that prophet" or "God wants you to kiss your unconverted family goodbye and please no more talking to them," who are the nutcases that say, "ok, ok, whatever you say?" Have they all been lobotomized?
Evolutionary author Donald Prothero notes...
"Looking over the shoulders of the hundreds of hard working , dedicated, self sacrificing biologists who spend years enduring the harsh conditions in the field to observe evolution in action inspires admiration in us real scientists. This is in sharp contrast with the creationists who sit in their comfortable homes and write drivel about subjects they have never studied and do not understand." (Evolution-what the fossils say and why it matters. Page 113, Prothero)
This is also how ministers "do their hard work." They skip along as good Bible and booklet reader. Or as I have often noted, "piously convicted and marginally informed."
For as intelligent as GTA was, when he wrote about evolution as the authority on it for the Church, and why the Bible was right and science was wrong, he didn't know what he was talking about. When Herbert Armstrong droned on and on about the two trees or the word "Elohim" and what it meant, he didn't know what he was talking about theologically. When he said once in Bible study that dinosaurs were of Satan's world because they, like Satan, can't reproduce, he had no clue as to what he was talking about. The current issue of National Geographic had dino eggs on the cover.
When Gerald Flurry declares this or that is God's way, he doesn't now what he is talking about. When Dave Pack spins his sermons and mocks Plato, Socrates and the like, he doesn't know what he is talking about. When he dismisses Albert Einstein because he had "wild hair," he has really run out of ideas and does not know what he is talking about.
When Ron Weinland declares himself and his wife the Two Witnesses, well you know...it's just bullshit. When you see yourself spoken of in the scriptures by the prophets, it is not time to start a church. It is time to get some help. I ask why Ron never studies what else the Book of Revelation might be, who really wrote it and to whom for whom about whom? Of course, if he did or if any of the COG ministers read the other issues raised by that book, it might require taking a lot of fancy literature off the shelves and throwing them into the shredder.
But back to the original question. Why do COG types and really most Evangelical Christian ministers or members lack the critical thinking skills that would provoke them to ask questions about how we really got the Bible, who really wrote it and why? Those few who do have good critical thinking skills usually end up teaching them but not at church, disfellowshipped, excommunicated, marked and otherwise marginalized. God may love a cheerful giver but He is not much for a clear thinker evidently.
When debating Art Mokarow over the issue of creationism vs evolution, his "Oxford trained" side kick on stage blurted out when I was recommending Evolution--What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, "I have that book!" I was so tempted to reply, "Well I suggest you actually read it." However, I restrained myself. Many have a Bible but few ask much about how it got to be. The non-Sunday School answer can be pretty darn challenging to one's faith. Perhaps that is the total reason right there.
He told me I was too dogmatic about the problems in the Bible and too specific, whatever that meant. I asked him if he was the author of "God's Puzzle Solved?" He said yes of course and i noted the words "Puzzle" and "Solved" are pretty specific and dogmatic. He said that's not what he meant.
Uh huh.
So, let's try this. A couple of years ago I wrote a series of articles entitled,
"Questions Your Pastor Will Hate." They can be found here:
And just for fun and as a bonus....
Now I admit the form was a bit cheeky at times in challenging us to look outside the box or at least how to even notice the Bible has contradictions, but I was processing my own "why was I not taught this?" experience.
Art Mokarow assured me he had asked himself every one of those questions and that he was able to easily answer them to his satisfaction. Good, I'm glad. He had to say that. It's like the Pope forgiving the guy who shot him. He has to forgive him!!!! He's the Pope. He's a professional forgiver! In the same way, if one is going to say the Bible is without mistakes or contradictions, one has to get a bit defensive at times, circle the wagons and ultimately feel sorry for the poor slob who even thinks to ask the questions.
So. Do you even know how to ask questions about the Bible, its purpose, its real authorship, its politics, its errors (real or imagined) its intent? If you know how to ask the question or what the question even is, why don't you? Are you going to let others get away with telling you there are no questions or that questions are suspect around here?
Enjoy the questions. You may or may not like them, but they are oft asked questions, they are not original to me and at least may help one ask enough questions when needed to maybe save them from believing just one too many made up answers that, in fact, are not so.
I think it matters to ask questions when in religion, there can be so much at stake for the questioner.
+++++++++++++++++++++
What Gives Our Lives Meaning?
One of the downsides, or so I am told, about losing faith in faith is that when you allow that to happen, you lose all meaning in your life. It doesn't occur to some that it is not meaningful to base a life on something others say is just around the corner, over the next hill or to shortly come to pass and it isn't. Sincere people who always look to the future for fulfillment and do not live in the present, which is the only real time there is, run the risk of almost having a life, but falling short.
How often in the last 50 years have you and I heard, "Time is short?" Time can't be short of course, but what that meant was that our time is short or that this time in history is short or mostly that the gap between now and second coming has now grown short and soon it will all be ok. Of course, "time is short," and "the things which must shortly come to pass," has been 2000 years in the making. Humans don't see 2000 years as short. Three to Five seems to be what short means to the piously convicted and that "almost here" will occur in their short time span of life.
The Apostle Paul just knew time was short. He told the single to stay single, the married to think as if they weren't, the young women to think about Jesus and the young men to leave the young women alone. The problem turns out to be that Paul was very wrong. Time was not short and once he woke up to that fact, he left the scene bragging how he had kept the faith (the one he made up from his own view of the Cosmic Christ,) and that he had made it big time. I wonder how many lives and relationships his "time is short" phase ruined?
This was after all, a man who thought marriage was so one could avoid fornication. I still say Paul was a repressed gay man, but I spare you.
The entire New Testament, mostly written by Paul was very wrong about it's view of meaning. Meaning in life for the characters in the NT was to make it into the Kingdom. To hang in there. Those who asked, "where is the promise of his coming?" were vilified and. They were the "scoffers" whose end would be very very bad. I guess it never occurred to anyone they were right. The price for noticing that time was not short, Jesus had not returned as advertised by Paul and others and people were getting old enough to die in the faith was being told their god was their belly and their end would be destruction. Only when or if the Apostle declared that time was not short after all could the lucky brethren say it too. But you didn't think it before the guru gave you permission or he did not get the credit for coming up with it.
However, the scoffers were correct in their observations. I can't find any apology from the Apostle Paul to the brethren at the end of his life for misleading them or for telling to be and act in ways that were going to cost them big time later as life ground on and Jesus still had not been given permission by God, who only really knew when, to return.
If only God knows the day and hour, how come so many guys think they do too? Oh I forgot, of the day an hour knows no man, but that does not mean we can't know the month or year. Silly me.
I still am enjoying watching the very Two Witnesses of Revelation, Mr. and Mrs. Ron Weinland (Ron I knew you when you were a kid, what happened to your mind?) come unglued. Ron can't even get his sound systems to work consistently or his appendix to behave. How is he going to come to strike the entire earth with fire, plague and fleas?
How does the COG manage to give birth to so many odd minister types?
I used to swim against Dave Pack. Could never beat the boy so I concentrated on beating my own times in events. What happened to that kid? Was I really sitting in a hot tub in Chicago in the 70's with the future true and only Apostle of God on Earth and didn't know it? Naw..... What happens to people? And who are the people that follow them and insist on hurting themselves with their continued support of said prophets, priests, apostles and kings?
So back to the question. Once you lose faith in the Plain Truth, which really would better to have been called the Present Truth, what meaning can your life possibly have?
The bottom line is that we actually assign our own meanings to life. We even do that when we think we have found the one true way to be and think Biblically. We find that for us and assign that as our meaning. For others, it is meaningless to them.
This is a very big topic, so I won't pretend to address all it's many aspects. But I'd like to give one example of how life can have real meaning to any individual who has lost "the big picture," "the faith" or finds himself "off track" as we always used to hear when the work of the church was put back on another wrong track.
Church of God members have been around on so many final gun laps that most have simply run out of final lap bullets. That's not their fault, nor has it been mine.
I just want to leave you with a story that spoke to me for some reason. Maybe it touched the raw nerve of abandonment or resentment gone crazy. Perhaps it raises the fact for me that I have failed myself in some important areas and let others down in my life. The story made me feel like anything can be fixed if those who want to wish to. It touched my "what is the meaning of all these crazy experiences?" button. It's a Sunday morning. It's very quiet and it's just me and my new dog Chewy sitting here. Well she is sitting her and it is actually me, not her doing the writing :) I have eyes full of tears and a heart that just wants to understand what the hell happened over all those years?
So this story gives me meaning. It must or I would not have reacted to it as I have. Perhaps it will give you some meaning, in the present, as well...
James 2:15-17:
"If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead."
...and please, don't someone say, "it only says if they are a brother or sister in the Church...please don't say that...The last phone call I ever got from WCG when asking about retirement etc, the minister on the other end said, "no, but we will be praying for you and wish you the best..."
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"I was day tripping to Vancouver from Seattle
and stopped in for lunch at a little cafe.
From my window I saw a young teenage girl out in the cold,
squatted down in a closed up business's doorway,
holding a small bundle in her arms.
She was panhandling, people were mostly walking by ignoring her.
She looked just broken.
I finished up my meal and went outside,
went through my wallet and thought I'd give her $5 for some food.
I got up to her and she was sobbing,
she looked like she was 14-15.
And that bundle in her arms was a baby wrapped up.
I felt like I just got punched in the chest.
She looked up putting on a game face and asked for any change,
I asked her if she'd like some lunch.
Right next door was a small quick-Trip type grocery store,
I got a can of formula for the baby (very young, maybe 2-3 months old.),
and took her back to the cafe though I'd just eaten.
She was very thankful, got a burger and just inhaled it.
Got her some pie and ice cream.
She opened up and we talked.
She was 15, got pregnant, parents were angry and she was fighting with them.
She ran away.
She's been gone almost 1 full year.
I asked her if she'd like to go home and she got silent.
I coaxed her, she said her parents wouldn't want her back.
I coaxed further, she admitted she stole $5,000 in cash from her Dad.
Turns out $5,000 doesn't last long at all,
and the streets are tough on a 15 year old.
Very tough.
She did want to go back,
but she was afraid no one wanted her back
after what she did.
We talked more,
I wanted her to use my phone to call home but she wouldn't.
I told her I'd call and see if her folks wanted to talk to her,
she hesitated and gave bad excuses but eventually agreed.
She dialed the number and I took the phone.
Her Mom picked up and I said hello,
awkwardly introduced myself and said her daughter would like to speak to her.
Silence, and I heard crying.
Gave the phone to the girl and she was just quiet listening to her Mom cry,
and then said hello. And she cried.
They talked, she gave the phone back to me,
I talked to her Mom some more.
I drove her down to the bus station and bought her a bus ticket home.
Gave her $100 cash for incidentals,
and some formula, diapers, wipes, snacks for the road.
Got to the bus, and she just cried saying thank you over and over.
I gave her a kiss on the forehead and a hug, kissed her baby,
and she got on the bus.
I get a Christmas card every year from her.
She's 21 now and in college.
Her name is Makayla and her baby was Joe.
Now let me ask you a question - would you feel like your life has meaning if you could do something like that for another human being? This person spent a few hours, and a few dollars, and he changed not one but two lives, and probably the lives of her parents as well.
You might be thinking, "How can I possibly duplicate that?"
It would not be that hard to find someone to help. It would give you a good dose of meaning in life...
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How NOT to Study The Bible.
"Whom will He teach knowledge?
And whom will He make to understand the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just drawn from the breasts?
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little"
(Isaiah 28:9-10).
If you don't know the above scripture, then you can not have been part of the Worldwide Church of God or a current member of its many splinter and sliver groups. This scripture ranks right up there with, "The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it," and "So how did you come into the truth?"
Many fundamentalists misuse this scripture in Isaiah thinking it is the key to understanding just how to unlock the mysteries of doctrine and truth or to solve the puzzle that God has put before us to figure out. If we only study our Bibles taking a little from here and a little from there, properly combining the elements in to the true right and correct picture, we win!!! It implies that truth is found scattered throughout the Bible and one simply needs to prooftext their way through the pages of the Bible properly, and the truth shall set them free.
That's the good news. The bad news is that it has NOTHING to do with how to study your Bible. Lets look at this scripture in context. I know, I know...but give it a try anyway...
What we're seeing here is God mocking the priests and mimicking their drunken rules and laws that they give the people. God is not paying them a compliment but it is rather like God saying they go "blah blah blah," or talk like whining children in their drunken state. It has nothing to do with some profound teaching on the correct way to cobble the scriptures together to come up with truth. They teach the people like they are children and this is not a compliment.7 And these (Prophets and Priests) also stagger from wine
and reel from beer:
Priests and prophets stagger from beer
and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
they stagger when seeing visions,
they stumble when rendering decisions.
8 All the tables are covered with vomit
and there is not a spot without filth.9 “Who is it he is trying to teach?
To whom is he explaining his message?
To children weaned from their milk,
to those just taken from the breast?
10 For it is:
Do this, do that,
a rule for this, a rule for that[a];
a little here, a little there.”11 Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
God will speak to this people,
12 to whom he said,
“This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;
and, “This is the place of repose”—
but they would not listen.
13 So then, the word of the LORD to them will become:
Do this, do that,
a rule for this, a rule for that;
a little here, a little there—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
they will be injured and snared and captured
Isaiah then goes on to say that God can play that game too if they wish, and will tell them to "do this, do that, a bit here, a bit there," and they will fall backwards and be overcome by God. In other words, God can take the childish, "blah blah blah" out of their way of teaching and knock them out some of his own.
Barnes Commentary notes:"For precept must be upon precept - This is probably designed to ridicule the concise and sententious manner of the prophets, and especially the fact that they dwelt much upon the same elementary truths of religion. In teaching children we are obliged to do it by often repeating the same simple lesson. So the profane and scoffing teachers of the people said it had been with the prophets of God. It had been precept upon precept, and line upon line, in the same way as children had been instructed. The meaning is, 'there is a constant repetition of the command, without ornament, imagery, or illustration; without an appeal to our understanding, or respect for our reason; it is simply one mandate after another, just as lessons are inculcated upon children.'Line upon line - This word (קו qav), properly means "a cord, a line;" particularly a measuring cord or line (2 Kings 21:13; Ezekiel 47:13; see the note at Isaiah 18:2). Here it seems to be used in the sense of "a rule," "law," or "precept." Grotius thinks that the idea is taken from schoolmasters who instruct their pupils by making lines or marks for them which they are to trace or imitate. There is a repetition of similar sounds in the Hebrew in this verse which cannot be conveyed in a translation, and which shows their contempt in a much more striking manner than any version could do -"
While perhaps not the most recommended translation, this one has captured, in this case the intent of the scripture.
"They speak utter nonsense. "
So the next time your Pastor says, "We know how we are study God's word. It is line upon line, precept upon precept. Here a little, There a little, and God will reveal his truth to us, his chosen ones," just say "ummmm, no....that's not what that means."
God doesn't have a puzzle to solve and the true people are not defined as those who know how the puzzle all fits together by jumping around the Bible looking for the proof for their all too often human perceptions. You certainly cannot use this scripture in Isaiah to do that as if it was how God reveals truth.
Pretty cool huh? I got more! :)
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A Problem with Prophecy
By Dennis Diehl
One of the hallmark traits of most Fundamentalist Christians is their obsession with Bible Prophecy. Prophecy has a rather mystical draw to it and implies that the future is not so unknowable after all. Most humans spend their waking time either in the past feeling angry or in speculation of the future feeling anxious. It goes with not having the ability to live the real day one is currently experience. Many Christians have raised knowing the future to an art form and have learned that it is also quit profitable for the church in keeping members in line with fear, anxiety and a perverse kind of hope.
Bible prophecy and making it the center of one's life, reading the newspaper as one would the Bible, is a slippery slope and a very negative way to live one's life.
With enough study, one can learn that there are other explanations for that which many hold so near and dear as predictions of things that will happen "shortly" in the future. No one seems to think that "shortly" for whoever really wrote Revelation has now been over Two Thousand Years! I hate to think what "I'll be back later" would mean!
We have learned to develop the bad habit of reading Paul's predications of "time is short" with the same generous deference to the fact that short for Paul never really quite worked out for him either. We all know the cycle Paul went through of telling the Church to be ready, act as if you had no family and support the Church, to his final realization that "oh well, I fought a good fight, it was fun while it lasted, I was wrong... I still win... see ya."
On the other hand, we have areas of scripture that have always been used as prophecy which, to me, are simply not and never were intended to be by the original authors.
Isaiah 7 is an example of such a use of OT scripture by NT authors. This virgin birth prophecy ranks as one of the most questionable uses of scripture Matthew used to tell his story of Jesus birth. Matthew had a habit of mining the OT for anything that seemed like it fit the story he wanted to tell about Jesus. When one examines the OT context, we have to conclude that, that at least in it's original meaning, it was never meant to have the meaning Matthew assigned it. In fact, in its original context, it has absolutely nothing to do with prophecy but is merely a historical account of events going on at the time. It was never viewed as a prophecy of the birth circumstances of either the Jewish Messiah or Jesus until Matthew mined it for it's story telling value to his perspective. Matthew took the parts that fit his story but left out parts of that same story in Isaiah that obviously made no sense to his perspective on Jesus. If you simply look at Matthew's accounts of Jesus birth story, it is easy to see he cobbled it together in the style of the day from OT scriptures and not real events that he knew of. It is not my point to explain all this here, and I have touched on it in past columns.
Another aspect of "prophecy" we miss is that much of what the COGs use to promote their urgency upon the membership is probably prophecy written after the fact, which makes it really non-prophecy.
Either the book of Daniel was written during the time of the events recorded, 585 BC, or as many scholars now feel, it was written much later in the 160's BC to encourage the Maccabeans in their revolt against Rome. It was written AFTER all the events prophesied took place, which is why Daniel 11 is so specific. Daniel 12 then becomes rather generic because after the rise of Rome, the authors didn't really know the rest of the story much after the specifics of the 160's ended.
The point is that we all know that OUR lives were lived, and many still live their lives out, linking Daniel to Matthew 24, which also was written to address issues now long past from our times.
Again it is not my purpose to prove that to you, but I have accepted that much of what we call history prophesied is really "prophecy" historicized, or the conforming of later writings to fit events as they had already occurred. If the detail of Daniel 11 is the kind of thing that is able to be locked in stone for future fulfillment, then we as humans have no choice in the part we have to play in the game as it is already decided for us evidently down to the details. It's a philosophical problem to me about choices and free will.
Other problem with prophecy is that they simply didn't come true. We all were groomed with the fantastic story of the fall of Tyre and how it would be scraped bare never to be inhabited etc. The problem is it wasn't and the city of Tyre existed in NT times and does to this day. The Tyranians rebuffed Nebuchadnezzar and only succumbed to Alexander the Great, yet still exists. It's a cop out to point out ancient ruins in the water as proof of prophecy fulfilled when the city called Tyre is just over your shoulder. These facts are easily found in a simple search on the topic.
Ezekiel's Failed Prophecies on Tyre and Egypt
Ezekiel made a prophecy that, at the time he wrote, seems most likely to be fulfilled. The prophet was writing, in 587BC, at the time when Nebuchadnezzar was laying siege on Tyre. With such a powerful army like Nebuchadnezzar's, it was not surprising that Ezekiel prophesied the fall of Tyre to the Babylonian king.
Ezekiel 26:7-14: For thus says the Lord: "Behold I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a hosts of many soldiers. He will slay with the sword your daughters on the mainland; he will set up a siege wall against you. He will direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers...With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people with the sword and your mighty pillar will fall to the ground...they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses... I will make you a bare rock...you shall never be rebuilt, for I have spoken," says the Lord God.
The whole passage clearly prophesied the sack and complete destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. However, the vivid description of the sack and fall of Tyre never happened. After a siege of thirteen years, until 573BC, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his siege on Tyre and had to arrive at a compromised agreement. Thus Nebuchadnezzar did not destroy Tyre. Tyre was destroyed by Alexander the Great, 240 years later. And furthermore, despite the prophet, the city of Tyre was eventually rebuilt.
When Nebuchadnezzar broke the gates down he found the city almost empty. The majority of the people had moved by ship to an island about one half mile off the coast and fortified the city there. The mainland city was destroyed in 573, but the city of Tyre on the island remained a powerful city for several hundred years.
The implication of this paragraph is clear: that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed a major portion of Tyre. Tyre's main city was always on the island. The part of the city on the mainland is nothing more than a suburb. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar could achieve no more than take over a relatively minor part of the city. Furthermore it is obvious from the passage in Ezekiel that the complete destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar was prophesized. Ezekiel himself admitted that this prophecy was a mistake!
Ezekiel 29:17-20: ...the Lord God came to me: "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against it... (Website: Rejection of Pascal's Wager)
The prophecies of both Isaiah and Ezekiel against Egypt also fell far short of reality in their "fulfillment."
"The prophet Isaiah, for instance, foretold the drying up of all the waters of the Egypt, and the destruction of all land used for plantation due to this drying up of the River Nile.
Isaiah 19:5-7: And the waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry; and its canal will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.
This part of Isaiah, widely accepted by scholars to be written around the eighth century BC, is about 2750 years old. And in all this period of two and three quarters millennia, this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled! Moreover it is clear from the context that Isaiah prophecy was meant for the Egypt of his time. For it was with that Egypt that Isaiah and his people had a grievance against, and the prophecy was a warning to them. Obviously this is a clear example of an unfulfilled prophecy." (Website: Rejection of Pascal's Wager)
I only point these out because so many would NEVER entertain the idea that any prophecy of the Bible didn't come true and will launch any number and kind of apologetic to defend what was said would be from what really occurred in history. Some of you are doing that right now.. :)
The last Pope would be the last Pope and now this Pope will be the last Pope and I expect the next Pope will also be the last Pope.
And now we again live in a time where "prophecy" can manipulate real lives. There are any number of those who just know how it will all be. The kings of all directions are doing this and that..."just read my article and see for yourself." Every world news event , like in the 60's or 70's or 80's, is worthy of note. The last Pope would be the last Pope and now this Pope will be the last Pope and I expect the next Pope will also be the last Pope. Meanwhile we get older but not the wiser for the experience. What we'll end up with is drawing every imagined prophetic event to ourselves in reality as some government leaders even seem to base policy on "what the Bible says." It is very possible to cause things to happen because one expects them to happen. The problem is you end up with all the damage and none of the salvation. In short, an end of the world scenario can be acted out based on false subconscious beliefs and yet still you end up with no Second Coming, World Tomorrow or Kingdom of God. You end up screwed up.
So why might it be better not to LIVE your actual life around the alleged reality and truth of prophecy and the "imminent" return of Jesus which has been imminent now for a couple thousand years?
I've been there, I've done this. I've lived my real life ahead of my actual life while it quietly slipped by. I've made life decisions in the past based on a preoccupation with the future. I've also let a lot of precious life time go by thinking about things that proved to be untrue and teaching things that weren't. I thought they were, but when one realizes they aren't, it would be hoped one would stop that. I did.
I've been there, I've done this. I've lived my real life ahead of my actual life while it quietly slipped by. I've made life decisions in the past based on a preoccupation with the future. I've also let a lot of precious life time go by thinking about things that proved to be untrue and teaching things that weren't.
Basing a life on what may or may not happen in the future, and Bible types did it all the time and were wrong too, is to miss the present. And whether one admits it or not , the present is all we ever actually really have to work with. Your kids really are their ages they are NOW and one does not postpone making memories with them now because the future is a more serious consideration. They will NEVER again be kids, and you and I will never again be any younger. For Paul, to live might be loss and to die gain, but that theological rhetoric and let's face it, Paul never, from what we can note, ever had to enjoy his children, mate or life in the now. He was in the imminent future right up until it bit him in the bum. He may have had the power to have a wife, great word there, "power", but I bet he was basically not one the women would flock to to begin with.
If you are still in a COG, does your Sabbath experience, weekends that your kids also have to call their free time, only consist for them of coming, sitting and going? How often we forget that the parents generally got to make their life decisions but then deny them to their children. I know, "raise up your child in the way he should go.." Problem I have is with the "should go."
I'm amazed after all these decades the COG still can't figure out whether to eat out on the Sabbath! Do you really believe some Deity cares! Do you really think there are angels taking names!
I used to take my kids to the local zoo on Sabbaths after church. This was in the 1970's. I have never regretted spending MANY a Friday night with them when little swimming at the YMCA and stopping at Dunkin Donuts on the way home. That ritual of the "now" is far more remembered than any sermon I may have given that day. But for some, depending on their prophecy laden pastor, life is just one big "around the corner", "just a little longer" and never ending "gun lap." I had kidded for years that we have been in the gun lap so often, we run the risk of running out of bullets. Little did I know that was a prophecy that would come true!
Prophecy means little to me at this point in my life. It may mean a lot to some of you depending on who is feeding the need to know what I don't think we can know in this world. We can hid behind the idea that we know God is doing this or that, but that's pretty iffy knowing.
Whatever your position, at least know that even the Bible got it wrong at times, not matter what your pastor says or how your church motivates you with prophecy to live on the edge of your chair, just a bit ahead of the now, in somewhat a fearful or at least anxious, "what's going to happen" state. Isaiah was wrong, Ezekiel was wrong, Paul was wrong and yes, even Jesus was mistaken in his own perceptions of his own experience. That's another story.
If we can be wise enough to see that even Bible prophecies indeed have failed, that some prophecies are not really prophecies , and that reading the newspaper as if it were the Bible come to life is not wise, we might actually have a life in the now we can say was a real life. A life lived in anticipation of some alleged future is not a real life. It's disillusionment in the making.
I'm going to go out on my own limb of prophecy here. I predict that all the leaders of any COG who promote prophecy first and have not really ever given a sermon using the ideas in this article, will live out their lives and come to the same conclusions Paul did. They kept a Faith and now it's time to pass on.
I predict that Churches like PCG and RCG will pass from the scene when their me only leadership does. One can only get so much mileage out of playing the sermons on world events by those who died years ago. Yet I guess we do that when repeating Paul's admonitions of the shortness of time forgetting it is long since past when he felt it would end. We do it when we say "Behold I come quickly" when that quickly was over 2000 years ago.
I predict that WCG (soon to be GIF it seems we can predict) will become a meaningless footnote to the Christian experience. I mean why belong to something in California that is everywhere you live? What holds scattered groups together is being special and having special insights into "The Middle East, What Next." And "Will You Be in the Place of Safety." Don't get me started!
I predict more people will avail themselves of the Internet to do their own studies and come to their own conclusions. I always had to ask a pastor because somehow I thought he must know. After all, he was an "expert" on the Bible. Now you can ask lots of pastors and scholars and even those who used to be and no longer can abide it. I predict the era of Guru's will end for those who learn to think and search a matter out from many and not just one source. I would hope that people in congregations dominated by one grand idea spoken by one grand human being will finally wake up and not care if asking a question or questioning a sermon or concept gets them kicked out. Being kicked out, terminated, fired, marginalized or blocked at the door can be the greatest freedom you'll ever experience if you ever choose to reclaim your own brain and perspectives. Remember...ANY TIME you are listening to another human being tell you how it is, and your get that little "uh oh" in the tummy....listen to it! It's the truth trying to have a chat with you.
I predict many will keep on believing the unbelievable because that's what humans do to keep fear and uncertainty at bay. I do it, you do it.
I predict that very few people give a rats... bum... about what I think!
Don't live in anticipation of possible future. We can't know and no one has ever gotten it right. All prophecies about the Second Coming of Jesus have failed to date 100% ! Don't miss your NOW for that idea that just around the corner, me and mine will be justified in forgetting to enjoy the one life we know we NOW have on this planet. It's a dangerous world to be sure, this does not mean it is the result of prophets who themselves missed their own marks way back.
A life based on Prophecy as interpreted by someone who thinks they know and enforced upon one as fact , just wait and see, is going to be a stressed one at best. You are also going to have to give up a few bucks hard earned to keep the mythology and the grand poopa in prediction mode. Remember there is Addiction to Predictions. Don't allow yourself to wake up decades older with grown kids having regrets you didn't go to the zoo or stop at Dunkin Donuts in their jammies on the way home....even on the Sabbath.
Dennis Diehl
Dennis Diehl is a former Pastor and currently has a successful Therapeutic Massage practice in Greenville, SC.
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Questions Your Pastor Will Hate
By Dennis Diehl
I remember being 18 and sitting through Rod Meredith's 'Harmony of the Gospels' class and venturing to ask a question about an apparent contradiction in the accounts. (Harmony in the Gospels is hardly an accurate course description). It was a sincere question. RCM asked someone in the class to explain it to Dennis, implying I was not listening or something. Very embarrassing to me but it is where I learned not to ask him questions again. No one else answered it either. Around lunch time I headed to the dining hall and RCM was running around the track and saw me going in. He called me over. "He's going to apologize for embarrassing me," I rather naively thought to myself. What he did was ask me if I had repented yet... Um....of what? He never really said and I went to lunch. I guess I've been out to lunch ever since.
Between GTA's calling me in to ask why I hated him (I didn't) and this, I should have just gone home and saved myself the next 30 years of the same.
As the years in ministry went by, I realized that asking questions was a dangerous thing. I learned not to ask questions about Biblical contradictions in science, history and origins. I learned not to ask questions about whatever was going on in the drama filled WCG that I was supposed to represent. Once I asked about the "rumor" HWA was divorcing. The return call was JWT yelling into the phone to "squelch it!" What a nutso church. Personally I learned that 100% of any question I had was answered in ways that turned out to be, in truth, the opposite of what I was told. No wonder, when the end came, the minister could not win getting stuck between believing what they were told by those over me and congregants who knew more than I did because of their contacts. WCG could make a fool out of a local pastor in a minute and did.
I have thought a lot about why in all that time, I never heard anyone ask any good questions about the many and very obvious contradictions in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. No minister ever asked me, "Have you ever wondered about....?" or "Doesn't this seem troublesome?" Even Friday night studies where GTA or someone would answer Bible questions, were rather lame. One always knew the question was a bit too troubling because the more troubling the question the more sarcastic the "explanation."
I wish I had known enough back then to have asked HWA after years of the never ending "story of the two trees," if he understood the Trees in the Garden of Eden were off limits because their fruit was god food? The Knowledge of Good and Evil was a God topic and not for man. Why not I never knew because if Adam and Eve weren't allowed to take of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, how could they be blamed for any sin? They didn't know good from evil or weren't supposed to. We see the consternation this caused the "gods" El and his council of the gods (Let US make man in Our Image etc...) reflected in one of the council members telling El that man must be driven out of the Garden, "lest he eat of the tree of eternal life (also a god tree and not for man) and live forever.
Of course this is pure rewrite with a Hebrew twist, of an Ancient Sumerian creation story that better explains the pagan origins of even the Hebrew Sabbath. The original story was explaining how the god's needed rest from man's persistent complaining as worker bees for the gods. The gods ate food then and man's purpose was to till the ground and make it happen. In the original tale it was El (originally a Canaanite god adopted by the Hebrews) and his council that wanted rest from man. It's why, "from now on, with the sweat of your brow shall you till the earth..". It used to be easier for the human slaves to the gods in the original "Edin." Basically it was the loving El telling humans, "if you think you have it bad now, just hear this punishment." Rather like Egyptians expecting quality brick by limiting the straw needed to make it so.
Whoa.....how fun a question would that have been to ask or explain instead of having to endure, "there were two trees in the garden....."? Not to worry. There never was a real garden nor a real Adam and Eve really sinning and condemning us all to the need for a blood sacrifice. It's mythology. If you wish to know where real humans first came from and how, get a good up to date book on recent findings. Or even do as I did and have your DNA traced back 100,000 years to Africa.
(http://ezinearticles.com/?Biblical--Adam-and-Eve-Laid-to-Rest-by-National-Genome-Project&id=94643).
(http://ezinearticles.com/?Biblical--Adam-and-Eve-Laid-to-Rest-by-National-Genome-Project&id=94643).
Come to realize that without a literal Adam and especially Eve as presented, we can't demote women to the status of obedient servants nor can the Doctrine of Original sin hold any sway over us, but I spare you. It's mythology guys and to think otherwise in this day and age with so much good information and science available to us is pure ignorance.
If Elijah had known to dig down 30 feet in the cave he hid in and saw God's rear end, he would have found some of the best Neanderthal skeletons in the world in that cave on Carmel. Did "Jesus" know about Neanderthals, Homo Ergaster and Homo Habilis? No he did not and also would not have been able or willing to explain them. And no, they weren't the "and there were giants in the earth in those days, either.
So from 1968-1996 I personally asked few good questions of my peers or of the Bible itself. That came to a end when I read and resonated with John Shelby Spong's, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism. Finally a good answer to my question to RCM long ago in class. I wrote JSP and thanked him and that I was using his insights in my sermons and studies. He wrote me and said, "Thank you Dennis, you won't survive." Alas the nature of asking too many questions to those who the power but no clue as to the answer.
So, with that in mind, I present to my former minister friends the series I wrote to challenge them to think and realize an even more Present Truth than ever inaccurate Plain Truth.
The series is called, "Questions Your Pastor Will Hate." Some is written a bit cheeky and sarcasm, which reflected my sideways turned anger at the time, and a simple request to consider the Book was not written by God, unless God was drinking during inspiring much of its content.
And yes, I am well aware of apologetics which is an apt name for the art of denial when being confronted with the real contradictions and nonsense found in the pages of the "holy, inerrant word of God."
Here are the links to the articles.
So while we all get to watch, yet again, the birth of the Actually Now and Really Really True, Strife Without End True Church of God replicate itself, what ever would happen if they came to understand how they even got the texts to argue over in the first place? If they could just face the mythology of Genesis 1-11 is not literally true or historical, they would learn the meaning of personal crisis at the gut level.
It's no fun learning you were wrong about something so important for one to be the truth. I had to get counseling just to cope with the angst my changing paradigm brought me. Here is my counselor and my first session exchange. It is word for word as I memorized it to get through the angst.
Counselor: "Wow Dennis.....you got fired by God!"
Dennis: "Any other time I think that would be funny but please not now."
Counselor: "Just kidding you. I used to be a church pastor like you."
Dennis: "Well just understand that if you counsel me with Bible advice, I will find another counselor."
Counselor: "No, no. Just kidding. In reality this is what you are about to experience. Dennis, you outgrow your boxes quickly. We all come in a box and most never examine the box they come in. You have only two choices. You can go back into the box you just came from and everyone will be so happy and you will feel much more secure and safe. However, you will be on anti-depressants the rest of your life because of your repressed anger. OR, you can keep going and see what's in this box, but you will go ALONE." (This is where I tear up thinking about the truth of how what he noted has worked out.)
Anyway, John Shelby Spong, author of Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, also told me he was pleased I learn much from his books but that "Dennis, you won't survive," Only true prophet I ever met.
And so enjoy these questions that you as a minister also have a right to ask before you tell people what they should or must be, do , think, act like or become. Whether we like it or not and no matter the angst it may cause to surface, there is precious little harmony of not only the Gospels but in every book of the book beginning to end. This can be a hard thing to face which is why we don't and go on to believe as I was told during my debate in Texas with Art Mokarrow, "There is a good answer for everyone of those questions." Oh really? Do tell.....
Dennis Diehl is a former church pastor and currently has a therapeutic massage practice in Greenville, SC.
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Necro-Evangelism-When Dead Men Do Tell Tales
By Dennis Diehl
There is a phenomenon in evangelism that is quite strange to me. I call it Necro-Evangelism and it is where local or even national radio evangelical and fundamentalist churches continue to play the sermons of long dead founders to convert the masses. There are at least three major churches in my area and one I know of nationally that practices Necro-Evangelism and I'd like to explore the pitfalls of this if I might.
I find it funny in a macabre way to hear, usually the surviving son of the now dead evangelist, inviting the audience to stay tuned for a message from my now long dead father and pastor so and so. Some of these evangelistic types have been dead for just a few years, and so we might attribute his ongoing ministry as shock that the man died on the part of the family who has no clue on how to keep the business going. Others have been dead for decades and I suspect that as long as the tapes play and can be recopied, they will continue to preach right up until the Second Coming and maybe beyond! Usually there is a college or "work" that the family of the now deceased evangelist has inheirited to be maintained and, while the current family members might be up to the task, it's just good to hear the founder as if he was alive and well on the air. Others, to me, seem like the type that would never themselves be able to do what dad did with evangelism, but can't give up on the programming dad put in their heads nor the bucks it still can generate. That is an observation about method, not sincerity.
People hate change and this delays reality for many who have grown up on the words of the evangelist, now dead. One local college where I live continues to play the sermons of the long dead founder even though two or three generations have taken over the family business of evangelizing since his death. I don't believe I have heard a sermon on the air by any of the sons, all identically named after the founder save for the II,III or IV behind the name. Some Christian evangelists might be happy to return to glory, but you'd never know it as family desperately tries to keep things the same same as always the same as before he became a Necro-Evangelist. Why do we do this and what is the message it sends? You don't see Necro-Evangelists on TV, just radio. TV would be a bit much to take and obviously in poor taste.
First of all, it matters not if it is a right or wrong thing to do. I am sure the argument is "well if we had Jesus or Paul on tape, would we not play it?" Well yes it would, even though that isn't going to happen. We have them in books and we're not sure there if they really said and wrote what some say they did. All we need is a bunch of fake Jesus tapes floating around and here we go again! A whole industry would break out verifying or repudiating "the Jesus tapes." So while I understand the point, these men are not Jesus or Paul, and besides if you really know theology, you might suspect that the real Jesus would not have really appreciated the real Paul anyway, so now we have tape conflict. Then we'd have to deal with James tapes and what a mess! There would be a whole market in underground tapes and pseudotaperapha and we'd not be much further ahead than we are today with our understanding.
So while Necro-Evangelism might keep the family church, college or business going a few more generations, is it the thing to do really and what message does it send? One advantage is that, indeed, it does buy the unskilled or founder beaten children time to regroup and figure out what to do now that dad is gone. All their life they had preached that the Second Coming was going to for sure be in their lifetime but now what? Usually the first generation founds something, the second maintains it, and the third loses it all. Necro-Evangelism can postpone the Necro-evangelist sinking into a "who?" a generation later than this perhaps. But back to the message it sends that might be not good.
1. Necro-evangelism tells the audience that the sons do not have the conviction or skills that dad may have had but aren't willing to give it up as something dad did but we don't wish to do. So we play dad's sermons and don't have to come up with our own, "alive" ones. In my town, one such family member certainly does not have the voice quality or sound of conviction of his dad for sure, so I can see why he might wish to have dad keep it all going. He confines himself to introducing "my deceased dad, Dr...." and selling his tapes and even the library books his dad cherished, which obiously he doesn't. But he also has another line of work from what I understand, so does not depend on his Necro-Evangelist dad for his sole income.
2. Necro-Evangelism sends the message the survivors are spiritually lazy, but again, just can't give up on the potential to have a following or keep it all going. The second generation makes forays into the world of evangelism, usually getting caught up in politics more than dad did because down deep they know most of what dad either predicted or said did not really happen that way, and they just aren't convicted the same way dad was. Dad kept them out of "the world", and darn it, they are going to see it before they become Necro-Second-Generation-Evangelists too. Since dad impacted their lives with his own worldview, and often not in a very good way, they just don't have the same need to pass it along with dad the Necro-Evangelist's same fervor. In fact, they can't. So they busy themselves with producing dad's tapes and books and don't have to do much that shows their own creativity. They can run for public office or lecture as they wish, but keeping a ball rolling is much easier than getting it started. Anyone can be made the next president of a Necro-Evangelical College or Pastor of a Necro-Evangelistic Church. Starting the sucker is the hard part. Keeping it going can be a challenge but if we keep dearly departed dad in the picture, it is easier for sure. Somewho we filter out the fact that the Necro-Evangelist is long dead and maybe evangelism is a profession for the convicted living.
3. Necro-Evangelism sends the message that the Necro-Evangelist knew all there was to know about the Bible and all related topics. There is nothing new to learn or even unlearn, since dad made no theological mistakes, which is not true. Since we all like to hear the "old, old story, let dad explain it over and over. This is one thing that is wrong with religion in general. It supposes that all it's spokesmen had it right to begin with. If they could read the bible, tell a few good stories, keep you interested and convince you that the reading was the same yesterday, today and forever, bingo!...why change a winning game? Problem is that for every tape played, there are many that can't be for they are either dated by comments made during the sermon or even the family realizes that how or what dad said that day is not true or not appropriate today and let's just not play that one. So you're really not getting the whole man, you are getting the "Best All Time Hits of the Necro-Evangelist," as selected by the next generation. That's kinda no fair to me!
4. Most of those that had been inspired by the now Necro-Evangelist are now themselves Necro-Christians so they aren't even around to hear dad anymore either. They were all about the same age and have long since moved on to other heavenly realms. The kids of those who loved the now Necro-Evangelist aren't going to be inspired by a dead man. Sorry, they just aren't. They will feel the above three points even if they don't voice it. Kids aren't stupid and will see what generations II and III might be up to and how lame it is. These kids tend to find churches by saying "as for me and my house, we shall serve a living evangelist" and not just the memory of the good ol' days when the parents thought the now Necro-Evangelist could do or say no wrong. I used to pastor a church that on way too many occasions sent out taped sermons from the then living Apostle and occasional Evangelist. It was hard enough when they were alive, don't make me listen when they are dead!
Well I think we get the point. Is it right or wrong to conduct a Necro-Evangelically-Centric ministry? I don't know. It's just lame and nothing but a evangelical dead end.
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Congregant Bill of Rights
Congregant Bill of Rights
The following are basic human, religious and spiritual rights any person has as a member of any and all
religious organizations or church congregations.
religious organizations or church congregations.
You have the right to expect that your membership in any church or congregation is not contingent on how much you give or do not give. You should also expect that jobs, positions, opportunities or offices are not given based on the amount anyone gives to the church.
You have the right to say I can only give this even if it is not a tithe of your income gross or net.
You have the right not to be spiritually judged or have your loyalty or sincerity questioned based on what you are able or unable to give financially to the church.
You have the right to ask a Pastor if he checks tithes and offereings for any of the above reasons before giving to a church.
You have the right to say "I'm tired and won't be there, " to any and all activities, plays, fundraisers, studies, seminars, prayer groups, rehearsals, practices and sermons.
You have the right to say "I don't care about that."
You have the right to question the advice, counsel or sermon of any minister, elder, deacon or any other person in authority.
You have the right to question authority and to still expect to be allowed to attend your church.
You have the right to question a minister who declares himself one or both of the Two Witnesses of Revelation, a Prophet, the Supreme Watcher of Mankind for God, The Only True Apostle in this Age and any other title or position he can come up with to impress you as to why you need to support him.
You have the right to suggest a pastor get spiritual or psychological help should the need arise.
You have the right to tell him that the congregation is noticing a trend here.
You have the right to ask why the church believes what it does when the Bible might say otherwise, or why the Bible says something that the church practices that seems scary, weird, inappropriate for this time, out of date or controlling.
You have the right to notice that ministers often quote scriptures out of context or fail to enforce or address the rest of the story that does not agree with the point they are trying to make.
You have the right to ask all the "how can that be," "how could that happen," "why does it say this here and that there," questions you can come up and expect an intelligent answer. If you are told that you are using human reasoning, ask the pastor what kind of reasoning he uses. If he says "God's," find another church.
You have the right to not want elders, deacons or your friends accompanying the minister on visits to your home to talk to you.
You have the right to discuss or not discuss your life with the minister as you see fit.
You have the right to expect absolute confidentiality and for your story not to show up in the sermon next week, even though "I won't say the name."
You have a right to be called ahead of time when the pastor wants to ask about stopping over.
You have the right , when he calls to say, "I'm tired," "I'm busy," "No, but I appreciate the call," without repercussions.
You have the right to keep a dirty home, grass not mowed perfectly, an older car, red in color and kids that don't say "yes sir, nice to see you sir," in just the right way.
You have the right to watch and read what you wish even if the pastor just got done bashing that particular program, movie or book from the pulpit in his sermon on "Demons in Your Home--Six Ways to Assure Your Eternal Death."
You have the right to ask the pastor not to call on you at work, even if you own the business.
You have the right to say, "I can't afford to take you to lunch." "I can't afford to give you free wood or brick." "I can't afford to fix your house up free," "I can't fix all your teeth," to your pastor should he expect professional courtesies, even if he offers to do your funeral free.
You have a right to expect free use of your church for weddings and funerals.
You have the right to expect these usages are not dependent on you, your parents or children living a sinless life six months prior to the date of the event.
You have the right not to answer questions your pastor may ask you or your children about your sexual practices. If he insists, then insist that you all share together.
You have the right to not let the pastor inform you as to who you can and cannot date or marry.
You have the right to enjoy your sexuality free of church or pastoral approval. Something that is wrong for the pastor is not necessarily wrong for you in how you express yourself to your partner. There is no Bible prohibition against....well you know. And if there were, you'd have the right to disagree with that too.
You have the right to not share which or if you are taking medications of any sort with the pastor.
You have the right to take such medication and not be judged as having a lack of faith or trust in God to heal you.
You have the right to seek professional help without informing your Pastor of the nature of the help and you have the right to not be helped solely by the pastor under threat of repercussions.
You have the right to insist the pastor get professional help should the need arise and the man is causing more harm than good. You have the right to remind him that God does not directly speak to him nor express His will only through the mind of the pastor and that makes you uncomfortable if he thinks that is so.
You have the right to be wrong about a many things.
You have the right to believe you are correct about many things without repercussions.
You have the right not to care about everything that others think you must care about to be a good Christian.
You have the right to tell the pastor he is wrong, mistaken or exaggerating.
You have the right to dress as you wish, wear the jewelry you wish and make up you wish or not wish without being labeled a whore or a goody goody.
You have the right to feel that dressing as if it was still 1957 and only watching Disney Movies or How the West Was Won as proof of your pureness is baloney.
You have the right to not be told that the best times for entertainment, movies and TV was when the Pastor was a boy.
You have the right to like the food he does not like and to not like the foods he does.
You have the right to like the schools he doesn't and not like the ones he does.
You have the right to not to bear your soul to the ministers wife.
You have the right to like or not like, agree or not agree with the ministers wife.
You have the right to not view the world through the pastor's eyes morally or politically.
You have the right to hate the war while he believes the war in Iraq is God's will and thinks it's all in the Bible.
You have the right to expect him to speak clearly where he thinks the Bible speaks for us today and to walk slowly and drink cool water where it doesn't.
You have the right to tell the pastor that that is his opinion and not necessarily the only true opinion on earth.
You have the right for you, your children, your partner and your friends to be themselves.
These are but a few of the rights any member of any Church, congregation or religious organization has.
In short, you have the right to not be required to check your brains, your insights, your perspectives and your free will at the door to be welcome and a member of any church.
DenniscDiehl@aol.com
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Official Wild World Church of God
Pastor/Church Rebellion Guidelines
Please consider the following guidelines should you feel the need to rebel against the authority of God’s true leaders, church or government. Please be concise and ministerial. We will get back to you about the most appropriate format that your rebellion should take so as to inflict the most skepticism, mistrust and eye rolling amongst the sincere seekers in the COG’s. We will do our part to insure the success of your rebellion.
It’s what we do best.
1. What is the nature of your rebellion? We beg you to be original. Answers containing the terms “remnant”, “144,000”, “the faithful”, “God says”, “Eljah”, “Two Witnesses”, “that prophet”, or overuse of “I” or “Me” and other such exclusivism on your part, will be returned for rewrite.
2. Please proof text your reasons why you are right and we are wrong. All scriptures from Genesis to Revelation are valid but we give more weight to your proof texts from the Major and Minor Prophets. Any rebellions not containing the phrase “but there will be a great falling away first”, etc will be rejected out of hand as mere pablum for the brethren and a sign of a boring ministerial career on your part.
3. Please split Old Testament and New Testament proof texting 40/60 It is important to those watching the show we give the impression we are a New Testament/New Covenant Church.
4. We expect curses on us, a pox on our head and fire called down upon us, so please be original. Points will be deducted for clichĂ©’ and plagerizing the prophets out of context or original intent. Know your story!
5. Please try to quote your proof texts in context. While we realize we all have the knack to make a scripture mean what it never meant, we have to appear that we are not , in fact, doing this. Both our causes will be damaged if we violate this rule.
6. Please be specific when accusing the leadership or the brethren. Terms such as “they”, “those fools”, “the administration”, “the people”, “us”, “we” and “them” are too generic. We want names!
7. Please be SURE to quote the appropriate falling away, deceived by Satan, in the bonds of iniquity, hireling and so on, scriptures to add weight and a sense of rightness to your cause. Poorly worded or unsubstantiated or unscriptural outbursts will be a source of lost points as well. We’re looking for emotion and clarity of thought. I know this is expecting way too much. We promise to do our part to match your expectations of our own responses.
8. Please have the appropriate number of clandestine meetings with elders, deacons and members BEFORE you reveal your rebellion. A minimum of 3 clandestine meetings, no less than eight hours long EACH, preferable held at night and during the week are required before we will even consider your rebellion valid. Points will be deducted for short meetings, poorly attended meetings and meetings held on the Sabbath where we are to be singing “We are not divided, all one body we. One in hope and doctrine. One in chariteeeeee” Major points will be deducted for NOT singing the appropriate hymns during the duration of your rebellion.
Also, anyone falling out of the window during your sermons or meetings on the rebellion are points DEDUCTED! It is not proof of your rebellion skills. I shows you don’t have a watch.
9. Please do not bill HQ for all personal calls relating to your rebellion. We can’t afford to underwrite the cost of talk, talk, talk and endless emails and paper explaining your position worldwide or at church. In every war, you have to pay for your own bullets and bombs. We also will not pay for meals out or renting facilities for the rebellion. While we suspect you are lying anyhow and we will be proven correct, please tell the truth on your monthly expense forms. We have now added the appropriate “rebellion expense” category to our expense forms and expect you to use them appropriately. Forms not listing any rebellion expenses during the breakout of an actual rebellion will be return unpaid until you can fess up to the differences between Godly and rebellious expenses.
10. Points will be awarded for the most references to Mr Armstrong. However, we expect that you personally to have known him and were actually present when the quote was given. Co-worker letters, booklets and articles by HWA are second hand sources and we consider them hearsay. Mr Armstrong was always surprised at how many letters and articles he wrote and for good reason. Points will also be deducted for saying “It’s God, Christ, Herbert W Armstrong, (Garner Ted when appropriate) myself and a few leading evangelists that God is working through.” Like you know this? These comments will be thrown out of the discussion. We want names as we said and we expect “a few leading evangelists” to be defined.
11. Rebellions must stay within the “time, times and half a time” principle. Rebellions that go on and on will require the participants be placed in an On and On Anonymous class. We have to carefully schedule our scandals and rebellions so we must ask you adhere to a beginning and end date of your rebellion.
12. Church wide fasts called to fuel the rebellion are illegal. No one can think correctly when tired and hungry. Those who ordain themselves to a higher rank during the actually breakout of the rebellion will be dismembered with cause immediately. Also please note. Any self ordination sermons given in less than four straight hours will not be considered sincere and you’re elevation to the next rank will not be recognized. Please call Dave Pack for details on how this is best done. We also would consider not ordaining yourself with multiple and exclusive titles during the rebellion to be an act of slackness on your part and your form will be returned to you with suggestions on how you can make it more convincing.
Rebellion and division is not a pleasant thing. But it can be done right and with God’s blessing. No matter what happens or your obvious skill or lack of skill in implementing a rebellion in God’s Church, we will pray for you, not wish you ill will and hope for your genuine repentance that will be evident to all in time. One again, proof text, proof text, proof text! Make those puppies scream at us! Extra points can be given for rants on “The Chosen People” and “We are Israel.” We promise to do the same to you.
One final note even though 12 is a sacred number and we are done.
Please know WHY sheep drop little round balls of dung, cows gravitate more to pie shaped dung and horses and elephants have straw in their dung. We cannot take ANYONE seriously who does not know sh….well you know. And then, once again be ashamed for all this baloney we inflict upon each other over nothing in this present evil world.
Happy Trails and warmest regards
Dennis C Diehl/Rebellion and Revolt Dept representing all the Churches of God united in love and hope. Now…let us prey and let the games begin!
Dennis Diehl
