On one of my Facebook groups I subscribe to there was this comment the other day:
Too many times have I heard in Armstrongism that every thing we need an answer to can be found in the Bible. All matters concerning daily living, morals, and spirituality are to be found within those pages. But is it ALL there?
For some it might be, but for the vast majority of people it is not. What the Bible has become is a weapon to destroy those of unlike minds or beliefs. When it is used like that it naturally turns people off. That is part of the reason that fundamentalist Christianity is looked upon so unfavorably by so many. Scripture seems to always be quoted to silence people, disenfranchise people, or condemn people. Where is there hope in that? What kind of example is that to people that might genuinely profit from some of it's teachings?
No, the Bible is not always needed to find the definative answer to how we ought to live. It is a Cultic concoction of the opinions of very few men who we can only know as hear say. We have no earthly way to actualy know who said what that far into the past. We take it on faith, but the story is muddled for those who are willing to see that.
ReplyDelete"When i keenly examine the life of a guy like Paul, i don't see him quoting old-testament prophets or even Jesus himself every-time he desired to make a point; he just spoke from the heart (like there was a fountain of wisdom within him). "
The alternative to this is that Paul didn't quote Jesus because he never knew of an earthly Gospel Jesus. The Gospel Jesus brought down to earth was written about long after Paul had lived, taught and died.
For example.
Paul says:
Romans 8:26,27. We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." (NKJV).
This is one of those moments Paul would have been better served to remind the audience how Jesus taught..."When you pray say..'Our Father...."
However, Paul never heard this teaching of Gospel Jesus, so it did not come to his mind and instead he gave this hocus pocus answer, which even as a minister, never made much sense to me.
I believe God created us not necessarily to be programmed, but to be able to exercise our minds, to develop them. Too many people get the wrong idea and tend to believe we're intended to become robots, yellow pencils, or worse yet, Zombies.
ReplyDeleteThere are often multiple solutions or approaches to life's problems. The important thing to learn is not to be driven by our appetites or in the wrong ways by our emotions.
BB
"Too many times have I heard in Armstrongism that every thing we need an answer to can be found in the Bible."
ReplyDeleteWaaay too many times. And this is absolutely NOT true.
One time a minister read the part about Jesus cooking a fish, and the bible says he cooked it over the coals. See? The bible even teaches you how to cook! You don't cook over an open flame, you cook over the coals. We're all so stupid we couldn't figure this out from experience? We needed god to put this oblique reference into the bible to show us how to cook?
Byker Bob,
ReplyDeleteI feel that religion is full of people who enjoy believing that there are NOT multiple solutions to life's problems, but only one single god-ordained "right" solution to every problem. You're just deceived by Satan if you can't pick out which of several equally workable solutions is the "righteous" one. To these people, we should all be yellow pencil robot zombies. If we have differences, those differences must be sins!
I think religion may just be an expression of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
I know it's difficult and we get used to 'truths' we all were fed as children, but in reality, no God wrote or inspired the Bible or the priests or apostle types who are found in it's pages.
ReplyDeleteLike all books, it is man written and full of mythologies, theophanies and politics. Prophets don't really see the future accurately and books we were told are prophectic are written in hindsight and after the facts which is why they can seem so accurate.
The reason the life of Gospel Jesus matches what was foretold of him is that the annonymous authors of the Gospels simply mined the OT for ideas about who and what they imagined Jesus to be, where he came from and the circumstances of his death. No OT passages are really speaking of some future Jesus.
And Ron Weinland is about to find out that the Book of Revelation is not talking about him or the WCG crack up. All nicely caused by men and fools too stupid to know how to handle change and the delicate belief systems of others....
M.T.Prophets
BB wrote: "Too many people get the wrong idea and tend to believe we're intended to become robots, yellow pencils, or worse yet, Zombies."
ReplyDeleteThat is what Ambassador and WCG tried to do. They tried to make yellow pencils out of people. It was the purpose of the college and church to provide all the answers that were not to be questioned. Whenever someone really started to question things, it upset the cart and heads began to roll. Just look at all the upheavals in the church over the decades. Those that tried to use their brains were accused of causing division and soon found themselves outside redemption - or at least that is where the church wanted them to be.
The church and college tried to handle all problems and life situations with it's black and white way of thinking. They never looked at multiple solutions to the life situations of people. Look at what that kind of thinking has done to people like James Malm and Bob Thiel. They are perceived as religious kooks today.
I think that is part of the reason all the various splinter cults are such utter failures. None are accomplishing anything worthwhile that impacts the world. They all seem to be still stuck in that 1950/60's way of thinking and cannot adapt to the 21st century. 56 Lesson Correspondence Courses detailing strict matters on how and what to believe are irrelevant to society today. Add to that the moral failures of all the splinter group leaders and there is nothing left to follow.
The HWA story is instructive.
ReplyDeleteEssentially ignorant theologically -- he set out to prove the Bible said "thou shalt keep Sunday," remember -- he became intrigued with Sabbath keeping.
Once he bought into that idea, he seemed to honestly believe that things were being revealed to him in a special manner.
The "spiritual Israel" notion soon followed, with its British Israelism premise.
In fact, all that was happening was that he was learning, for the first time, what others already knew, and had known for decades, even centuries.
But, in order to make it special, he had to proof-text, and fit it all into proprietary scenarios.
The miracle of it all, according to HWA, was that he did it simply by reading the Bible, pretty much for the first time in his life.
The logical conclusion, for HWA and his eventual followers? All the answers you need are found in the pages of the Bible. After all, if it was good enough for him....
It doesn't really work that way, but try telling his true believers that. The same scenario is repeated over and over in all such organizations that require strict adherence and total acceptance of organizational doctrines and decrees.
The answers provided by others are generally not the real answers to life. Even Jesus said, "the Kingdom of God is within you," and while apologists try so hard to make it say, "the Kingdom of God is among, (or in the midst of you)" meaning himself, it means what it says.
ReplyDeleteSpirituality and meaning is an inside job. Religion is following the spiritual views of others making your own invalid and setting one up for a fall back into their own inner meanings.
Compliance to the views of others is merely being religious
Giving your resources , as if any real God needed it to do his work, is merely religion
Sitting silent trying with all your might to believe what the one guy tells you is how it all is, is just religion
When your head says, "I must follow" and you're stomach says, "this is bullshit," your stomach is telling you the truth. You're stuck in religion
When one rotation day around the sun is more important than another day rotation around the sun , you're stuck in religion
When the muscle fiber of one animal is more holy than that of another, you're eating at a religious table.
When you are made to obey rules by believing fairytales, you're practicing religion.
When you are forced to yield to the Bible as the ultimate source of truth, you're living in the Middle Bronze age or at best, during Roman times where every third male thought he was the Messiah and the time really was short.
PS If you drive hundreds of miles each week to hear what others think about it all, and are quickly proving themselves deluded, you're hemoraging common sense.
ReplyDeleteI sold a used lawnmower a few years ago, and when the purchaser came to see it, he told me he'd been praying and consulting the Bible about the purchase.
ReplyDeleteI didn't tell him there was a "666" contained within the mower's model number, or it may have killed the sale.
On the other hand, I thought about it afterward and realized that if someone is stupid enough to consult a Bible about buying a lawnmower, then he may not be capable of operating the mower safely.
Norm