Dennis On "Churches Need the Skeptic Like the Oceans Need the Sand"

 

Churches Need the Skeptic 

Like the Oceans Need the Sand

 

I have always had a very skeptical side to my perspectives and in what others tell me is so.  I have been this way since I was a kid and do not credit with WCG with "making me this way."   I'm Dutch.  I have to be skeptical!   

But  all during my tenure as a WCG pastor, I had topics that easily aroused my skepticism.  One, and one I never gave a sermon on, was the speculation about the Place of Safety.  All crazy proof-texting aside, I knew in my soul that I would never deliver the message to "flee" to any congregation I was pastoring.  I simply did not believe it and the risks far outweighed the benefits.  "Hide me in the grave," was ok with me on this one.  I simply did not trust any human to get this one right.  Gerald Waterhouse kept my skepticism at an all time high and on red alert with his serious yet nutty speculations that he made sound like the way it all is.  I can honestly say, I took Gerald Waterhouse with more than a grain of salt when he came to town.  It ended for me finally telling him that his visits caused me more problems than they were worth, and that from now on, any fears or questions the membership had about what he said would be directed to him personally to answer.  I was not standing in for him.  

Dates when this or that Biblical event would come to pass always left me terribly skeptical simply because , to date, everyone had been 100% wrong 100% of the time.  The odds were on my side. 

I was skeptical about whether it made any difference if a woman wore makeup or parents had their kids immunized.  I had mine immunized in 1974 which was my second year into the ministry. I was skeptical of the Divorce and Remarriage question and never kept a current couple apart if that was their decision regardless of their past marriages.  I just didn't feel i was smart enough to decide such things and had no clue what the Bible formula for such things was anyway.  On many topics my skepticism just manifested in telling the member to do as they saw fit and as they understood it.  I have never regretted that. 

Perhaps it is more common sense that I am speaking of.  It seemed in so many to be in such short supply. but a healthy skepticism can protect one from a lifetime of believing the unbelievable and following the wrong guy with the wrong ideas down the wrong road.

If I were you in RCG/PKG/PCG/ and whatever other combo of alphabet soup you can come up with, I'd listen up.   Your first clue would be that ONE man at the top who knows it all, decides it all and declares it all.  A bit of skepticism expressed can save you a lifetime of regrets. 

With this in mind, let's expand a bit on the topic of being skeptical.  Is it possible that when a minister stands every week giving a sermon on a given topic or quoting the various "And God said..."  or "And Isaiah said..."  he might simply be passing on hearsay?   We sooooooooooooo easily assume that what everyone said, did, did not do or told everyone else how it all is, is true and was truly said.  

Can we sometimes see the Bible, especially the parts where people can be motivated to do terrible things or believe harmful stuff, may just be hearsay, inaccurate and not intended for today?  Do you have enough of a skeptic in you to protect you from the wild ideas of ministers gone nuts?  Let's ask ourselves a few questions on this topic of skepticism and the Bible itself.  

First, a definition of hearsay.

Evidence that is offered by a witness of which they do not have direct knowledge but, rather, their testimony is based on what others have said to them.

 

And herein lies the rub.  Everything written in the Bible about everything from Genesis to Revelation is mere hearsay.  I was not there.  No God said anything unto me.  I never knew Adam or Eve, Cain or Abel.  I only know what someone said they said, or did or why they should not have done it.  

I never knew a Noah or his family or got to actually see how righteous he was or how bad the rest of mankind had become.  I only have some one else's word for it and they got it from someone who got it from someone who got it from who knows who.  

There is not one story, event, conversation, declaration , idea, truth, practice, misbehavior, sin, righteous behavior or quote that I ever actually was there to see or hear for myself.  I have no idea what was really said, by whom and for what reason.  They say the winners write the story anyway?  Winners of what?

I am told someone named Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. But there is evidence that this is not so. It is more likely they were written by the captive priesthood during the 5-600 BCEs while in Babylon to give their obscure people a dazzling pedigree. But I can't know. I wasn't there. I didn't see who wrote what and how it got put in the mouth of some one named Moses.  

I am told hundred of thousands to a couple million Israelites left Egypt "that same day."  Really?  How do you do that.  I can see how long it takes to get a marathon of hundred or a few thousand going.  How do millions do that in a day?  How do you tell them to stop before those in front are pushed into the sea or a sand dune and suffocated?  Why is there absolutely no evidence of this event in archaeology or secular history?  It's all hearsay as far as I can tell. 

Whoever wrote it and told the story had some great details about who was related to who, but then could not once name a Pharaoh in the whole story.  Why would you not mention the name of the presiding Pharoah. It would help place the story. Or maybe no one really knew of one specifically and besides the story was more important that who the stars were.  Yet, it's all hearsay.  I simply have to trust the storyteller knew the facts. But how can I do that?  Where did he get them? 

I am told that Adam named ALL the animals on earth.  Really?  How did he do that and why can't you write down what he called them then.  Or are we just led to believe that this is why a hippopotomas is not called a hippopossum?  Who named the Polar Bear and the Walloby?  Where did the platypus and the kangaroo get their names?  Who wrote them down and passed them along.  Could Adam write?  The story is merely hearsay.  None of us were there and we couldn't prove it if you put a gun to our heads.

Hundred of times we are told, "And the Lord God said...", or "And God said..." Really?  I didn't hear it and yet so much seems to ride on my absolutely believing that someone told someone who told someone who told someone what some voice said to someone at sometime over something important that God wanted us all to know.  How can I believe that is how a God communicates such important things?  

A woman once told me that while I was not aware of it, I was , in fact an angel.  She meant that I was a real Angel in disquise on this earth and that even I did not know it.  Trust me, I did not believe her.  So if I would dismiss something like this I heard yesterday from the source who said, "God told me...", why on earth could I reach back and trust something supposedly said 2000 or 3000 years ago and not even to me!  I can't. 

Churches base entire prophetic musings on what they READ the Lord God said to an Isaiah, Jeremiah or and Ezekiel who then turns around and tells us that God said for them to tell the people this or that.  How can we know that.  What if Isaiah was schizophrenic and no one understood that then?  What if Jeremiah was on egg short of a dozen and nuts needing counseling or medication and not followers?  What if Ezekiel was paranoid or Amos a bit daft for spending so much time in the hills tending sheep?  How can I trust that.  The very people who were told such things rarely believed them.  Why 2500 years later would I take their written words, (are they really their words?) seriously?  I was not there and evidently even if I was , I may have laughed them to scorn as we are want to do of our own Prophets, Priests and Apostles in the COG quackery.  

On top of that, all I actually have is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy , copies without end of what someone was originally told before anyone even wrote stuff down.  Really?  

The biggest mistake the compilers of the New Testament made was to include four Gospels.  At least now we can see how hear say works.  None of the four agree and are far from harmonious no matter how sweetly one inserts, "we believe the entire New Testament to be the inerrant Word of God."  Really?  Have you read it. What we end up with are four different accounts of hearsay.  Someone later called Mark for convenience told us his view of "And then Jesus said..."    Someone, later called Matthew for convenience gave us his rendition of "And Jesus..." amending a few of Mark's more embarrassing memories of Jesus or why John baptised Jesus, since it was for the remission of sins, which of course, Jesus had none of. 

You should know by now the Birth Narratives of Jesus must be hearsay.  Mark knew of none. Matthew had his version very different from Luke, while John said Jesus was born from the foundation of the world.  Nice touch?  Was he there?  No. He just heard it from someone who heard it...you get the point.  We have no idea what Jesus said himself as Jesus either could not write himself or chose not to.  Big mistake.  Letting others get it right decades if not a couple hundred years later is not very dependable.  I can't remember or quote my dad from 1963 much less my Great Great Great Grandfather from who knows when. 

And don't even try to figure out what happened at the crucifixion and resurrection.  Those four books can't even get it straight.  Who wrote down what Jesus said when they were all asleep and he prayed privately to God?  Who wrote down or was told to pass on what Pilate's wife dreamed and said to her hubby about letting Jesus go?  Beats me. But that would have to be hearsay for sure. No one was there.

Was there an earthquake?  Was there not?  A man in white?  An Angel, Two men in white. Two Angels?  Depends who you ask.  Who went to the tomb? Peter and John.  Just the women?  Which women?  Did they believe or not?  Did they tell anyone or not?  Depends on who you ask.  Hearsay.  

And finally...the COG of God Manuel for Church Growth....Revelation.  One man, named John, whom is assumed to be the John of the Gospels but may not be at all, has a vision.  Really?  And I am supposed to throw my heart and soul, money and time, belief and loyalty into this vision of dragons and demons, vials, trumpets, trombones and the occasional saxophone?  Is this not hearsay?  Would you believe anyone today who had such a vision.  We don't believe Dave Packs view of himself or Ron Weinland's view of himself.  We don't really think Gerald Flurry is "that Prophet," do we?  Some very few do, but they do so on hearsay as well as God did not actually speak to the brethren about these great truths.  Ron Weinland just makes it up as he goes as do most but loudly proclaims "God  wants...", God says..." , "God inspires me to say...."  "God needs us to...."   Really?  All hearsay that you choose to believe without proof.  And to your harm I might add.

So here in lies my problem.  God did not speak any of what is contained in the Bible to me.  Oh yes, I know..."That is what faith is all about."  But I am not so willing to give my mind over to that easy out for the Prophet, Priest, king, Apostle or Witness.  Much too much at stake to allow myself to give in so easily to someone else's vision of what God or Jesus is doing, how and when.  I'm sorry. I just can't do it.  It is all hearsay or made up to sound like something official from on high. 

When HWA used to say,  "God says," or "God is doing...",  I sorta believed it and I sorta had the attitude of "well, we'll see i guess."   Nothing HWA said God was doing or saying or inspiring or anything was really true in the long run.  It all was hearsay on HWA's part and then on ours if we bought into it.  None of us, not even the leadership had any direct experience with any of it.  It was mere Bible readers seeing themselves in the scriptures as some still do today and all they have to say is mere hearsay about who and what God is , and what is expected of the congregation.

Ron Weinland declares there not enough time now to bother with marriage or divorce issues  in the church so there will be none, no dating and no marriages.  What a fool.  Even I know the hearsay in the Book says, "In the latter days....some shall depart from the faith,  forbidding to eat meats and to marry," or something like that since that too was hearsay passed on.  And while Ron, or Dave or Gerald or whoever may say it with conviction, eh..so what.  It's all opinion and hearsay and no one has ever yet been right about how it all is. 

So, the next time your guru tells you who said or who did or what God said or Jesus did or did not do, ask yourself, "Really, and you KNOW this?  Or did you just read that somewhere?"  Because there is a 100% chance that they got it from someone who got from someone who got it from someone who wrote it down and made a copy of a copy of a copy for the next 3000 years.  All hearsay and something that would never stand up as evidence in any real ability to prove anything really happened or was said as advertised. 

Faith is what we require of ourselves to keep the story alive. Faith is what we have to bridge the gap between what someone says happened, or is said to have happened, and what really happened or did never happen which we can never know.  We simply weren't there. Faith is all too often what we cruise on until the facts present themselves.  Most of the facts may not present themselves in our lifetime which is annoying to me. 

God created skeptics to keep the clergy honest  and the laity on their toes, though it doesn't work all that well from what I can tell.  

"God said it. I believe it. That does it for me,"  just doesn't work for me and many others who filter such things the same way.  I wasn't there.  It is mere hearsay. 

Maybe it's just me. Amen for now...

Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com