Of course, such miracles could only occur in Church of God land. Anyone outside the "true church" were agents of Satan and were not able to be protected. That's the simplistic logic and magical god that permeated Armstrongism and still does to this day.
This mentality is not unique to Armstrongism, it is also found in other Sabbatarian sects. Take a look at this story in the latest Seventh Day Adventist, Adventist World for a similar story of miraculous protection.
Note that this story has only women in it, no men or children were spared. Unbelieving husbands who refused to believe were killed.
While I have no doubt 'miraculous' things have occurred around the world that are unexplainable, there is something not quit right about this story. If this is true then it should scare all Armstrongites into leaving their respective splinter cults and head over to the nearest SDA church ASAP!
When the first atomic bomb in history was dropped on Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945, it destroyed everything within a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) radius: the temperature of the ground reached an unimaginable 6,000° C (10,832° F). Everyone within a four-kilometer (2.5 mile) radius was burned to death. A tremendous wind, at the speed of 4.4 kilometers (2.7 miles) per second, was generated, causing even cement buildings to collapse and broken glass to fly up to 16 kilometers (9.94 miles) away. The radiation from the bomb was unbelievably strong, causing those exposed to it to lose all bodily functions and their cells to undergo apoptosis, a kind of cellular suicide. Between the blast itself, the resulting fires throughout the city, and the radiation burns, some estimate that 200,000 citizens of Hiroshima lost their lives.
Not One Adventist Harmed
In the midst of all this devastation, was it really possible that not one church member, even the one living within 1 kilometer (.62 miles) of where the bomb hit, was killed, or even hurt?
During her investigation the journalist heard the testimony of church member Mrs. Hiroko Kainou, who, surprised by the sudden fierce wind, fell to her knees and prayed. Though every piece of glass in the house blew out, she came away without a single scratch. All of the other 20 Adventist church members in Hiroshima were also kept alive and safe. Though six of them have since passed away from old age, Mr. and Mrs. Morita, the Yoshimuras, the Sumis, the Matsutanis, and others are still active.
Iwa Kuwamoto, who is still doing evangelism from her home by telephone and letter at age 83, was within one kilometer (.62 miles) of the bomb site when the bomb fell. When she crawled out from under the fallen buildings, she witnessed the giant mushroom cloud that was obscuring the sun and shrouding the land in darkness. She tried desperately to help her husband, an unbeliever at the time, to get out from under the fallout, but the raging fires were threatening to close in on them. Taking her husband’s hand and crying, (Iwa) said, “The fire will be here soon. I can’t do anything more, so let’s die here together. God knows everything. Please believe in Jesus Christ. I cannot save you!” But her husband said, “No. I will die here, but you must escape for our children’s sake. You must somehow get to safety and find the children. Do it for the children!”
9 comments:
well I have buried a lot of children and church members who died badly and young. One even was staring funny at me when I left church on Sabbath and said, "Goodbye Mr. Diehl" in somewhat of a haze. Next morning I was viewing him in a hospital morgue. It was creepy to say the least.
I once told a minister at a FOT ministerial luncheon between services that his sermon that morning had something in it he should never do in a crowd that big. He built his sermon around a miracle save of a child in a car accident where the angels..blah blah blah. I told him that I personally knew three families in the audience that probably were falling apart wondering why God had not saved theirs that year. He needed to be more considerate. He just loooked at me and said.."really?" dork
Only if you don't attend services in Milwaukee
I was just going to say that DD
M.T.Chambers
Pacific Northwest: There was a fire in the family home, three of the younger children died in the fire.
The father, still in the Armstrongist CoGs, died at work as a middle age man from a heart attack standing on a ladder.
For that matter, the Regional Pastor anointed an elder's wife and she was dead less than 12 hours later.
We can hearken back back through the past decades: Miracles, if there were any, were a really mixed bag in the Armstrongist churches.
Worse, 7 of 9 children left the church during their early majority. It's not a good record.
Believers should not blame God, for, given the behavior of the leadership, it seems evident that they... um... well... have some problems. Learning and cognitive disabilities, mostly.
Life does what it does. It rains on the just and the unjust. Shit and Sunshine happens to everyone. It's the nature of being alive on a fairly dangerous planet.
I have never found, "their angels do watch over them," to be particularly true.
This whole subject of miracles becomes very deep and seemingly complicated. They appear so random, but would they be special or remarkable if they were not? Often, miracles seem to be limited to personal value, while in other cases, they seem geared to accomplishing some work God wants to be done. It is very easy to confuse the two. To make matters worse, people sometimes fake, or exaggerate miracles in order to gain control over others, or to further their own work or agenda.
Several years back, a man, a believer, lost a child. Another man, a non-believer at the time, received his child back from the walking dead. During the time that such events are fresh news, I don't know that you can explain them fully in human terms. You almost need to allow the events to process themselves over a period of years, and look into the lives of the people who were participants in the events. What often seems like a bad or negative thing, ends up having spawned good results.
Even as a Christian, I have to be a bit skeptical about these Seventh Day Adventists in Hiroshima. It's not that I don't trust God, because it is documented in scripture that Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego received protection from possible incineration in somewhat similar circumstances. Knowing their history, I don't trust the SDA church to give accurate testimony. Seems like all of the possibly independent non-SDA Hiroshima witnesses were destroyed. Now, if a few Jews had been mixed in amongst the survivors, it would change everything about the message value.
BB
Being 'Hedged about' is a personal/familial thing, not a corporate thing.
Its based on personally following the Messiah, not following a man....
I believe that people assign supernatural God-forces/blessings to happenings if such explanations support an already-active viewpoint.
It's interesting, though, that for happenings that don't support the "supernatural God-forces/blessings" viewpoint, such as the death of a child, the True Believers still say such happenings are totally groovy and say it will simply take time to tell just how groovy such happenings are.
Cop-out, brainwashing, or seeing with blinders? I suppose it depends on the person and personal circumstances.
There are Christians who search for "nuggets of Jesus-Truth" on hoakey "Christian TV", and submit without proof there have been people raised from the dead in modern times.
Their willingness to believe without proof is telling.
Of course, the response is that "Anyone with an opposing viewpoint has a life that WILL TOTALLY SUCK!"
Nice.
Very special!
To Norm:
Your 'comments' were timely.
I have lost an Alzheimers mother whom I nursed for six years and a murdered 23-yr-old autistic step-son in the past few months, but I have no doubt that "all things happen for good to those who LOVE" the Creator.
Now the TREMENDOUS burden that we carried for years is over: YAH knows best, although we miss our loved ones. Its FACTUAL, not DELUSIONAL. And its not 'groovy' as you suggest.
Its shallow to think that anyone who believes in the Creator and His Word is delusional and is just 'tacking God' onto whatever happens to them.
What is most glaring are those who literally can't show a modicum of respect to those who DO follow the Messiah, rather lumping in SERIOUS BELIEVERS with other "Christians who search for "nuggets of Jesus-Truth" on hoakey "Christian TV"".
Actually, there is not a shred of proof to atheism, just a lot of bitterness, open hatred, and wacky non-Creator solutions, but not an ounce of real science; otherwise, they could muzzle their open contempt for believers.
Our "willingness to believe without proof IS telling." Its called FAITH. The proof I have is spiritual, something to be scoffed at by others.
It is an honor to be called delusional, weak, mentally-ill, &c., for my faith, because I am sharing the sufferings of the Messiah's persecution. I am qualifying for His kingdom.
See you there.
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