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The mark of the beast cannot be Sunday observance because the whole world will receive this mark including Buddhists, Muslims and vast multitudes of others who will not observe Sunday.
The mark of the beast is to follow men in rebellion against God and God’s commandments, and that includes Sabbath and High Day polluting, as is common place in the COG Groups today.
That mark, the mark of Satan has been on the earth since Eve disobeyed her Creator; and believe it or not: The vast majority of people in the COG Groups who accept their organization or leaders teachings above the commandments of God: have the mark of the beast today.
As we learned in our studies through the teachings of Christ and the Epistles: To have the mark of God we must keep all of the commandments of God!
Those who compromise and tolerate sin, those who idolize men and organizations: ALL have the mark of the beast!
16 comments:
It blows my mind at how Armstrongites are oblivious to the fact that most of humanity simply doesn't care about who goes to church on Saturday.
NO ONE CARES whether Joe Blow, in his cheap suit, heads to the local VFW hall only on Saturdays to sit in an uncomfortable folding metal chair to watch a taped sermon given by a guy in a much nicer suit. The majority of Christians, much less the rest of the human race, are completely unaware that there exists a tiny minority of believers who only worship on Saturday.
This is an example of the incredible egotism of Armstrongism; making it seem as if going to a particular place on a certain day of the week is like the most important thing in the Universe. An act of selfless bravado! Defying a host of evil supernatural beings! Defying the world! This is comparable to a mentally ill person believing that smearing honey on his chest gains him the favor of his Galactic Alien Overlords, and that this defiant act will one day result in being hated and persecuted by the rest of humanity.
I for one love being able to spend my Saturdays doing other things besides sitting in a cold, ass-wrenching metal chair, watching GTA drone on and on about The End of the World. Vishnu created Saturdays for gardening and reading novels.
Paul R
Anonymous said...
"NO ONE CARES whether Joe Blow, in his cheap suit, heads to the local VFW hall only on Saturdays to sit in an uncomfortable folding metal chair to watch a taped sermon given by a guy in a much nicer suit."
MY COMMENT: And, in a much nicer chair. :-)
"Vishnu created Saturdays for gardening and reading novels."
I love it!
Okay, I got the "mark" part, but what about the "beast" part? How could Eve have the mark of the beast if the first world ruling empire (beast power) wouldn't come around for almost 3,500 years? It's not the mark. It's the mark OF THE BEAST,right? So, is it me, or is Malm just pulling more crap out his ass again?
ummmm...if the mark of the beast is disobedience since Eve (poor Eve gets blamed so much) then wouldn't that include the Muslims, Buddhist, et al?
I have come to believe that the Mark of the Beast is that smudge you get on your right hand (and after you rub your forehead with the smudged hand) from the computer printout receipts from Armstrongist churches of God.
I just can't imagine any other scenario.
Paul R said, "for one love being able to spend my Saturdays doing other things besides sitting in a cold, ass-wrenching metal chair, watching GTA drone on and on about The End of the World."
MY COMMENT: I think the "Mark of the Beast" is really Mark Armstrong rolling dead Ted out every week on cable TV.
Richard
Can you imagine the problems the beastmark inspectors are going to have determining who gets to buy and sell if they have to ask 613 questions to determine who might be in compliance, and therefore be denied the privilege of buying or selling? Malm's theory is something near and dear to his ownheart, but impossible to enforce. The inspectors would have to intimately know the Armstrong gospel to distinguish who had it and who didn't.
Malm should brush up on his Babylonian exile to see what emperors used as criteria in the past. The mark would be that you consent to worship or give your allegiance to the beast. Anyone who doesn't gets to be a non-person throughout the trib. Some kind of physical chip or tat would only be an outward indicator of a person's allegiance. What it might look like is completely beside the point.
BB
"Those who compromise and tolerate sin, those who idolize men and organizations: ALL have the mark of the beast!"
What about those who appoint themselves as prophets, take for themselves soap boxes from which they condemn everyone else, while hypocritically claiming that they are above all reproach, sticking their head in the sand and refusing to answer awkward questions about their own obvious patterns of "lawbreaking." Do they get branded with this mark too?
Malm brings up many many topics that are so relevant for herbivores today.
Thank you, Malm!!!
I have a few questions for Malm.
(Somehow, when I think of asking Malm a question, I get the image of an island with the natives dancing and holding torches, and a giant carved rock head that the natives bow down to.
Of course, Malm is crouching behind the giant carved mouth, wearing diapers, and yelling answers to anyone who dares ask a question.)
Anyhoo, here are my questions for the Giant Island Malmhead-
1) Does Marky Mark have the Mark of the Beast?
2) If so, does his group, The Funky Bunch have it, too?
3) Why is the beasty mark only mentioned once in the Bible- and, barely voted into it by a kooky bunch of people, to barely squeak it into the Canon?
4) Someone mentioned Eve, earlier, and it made me want to ask you why YHVH/and/or Jesus are such raging assholes that they'd punish all future generations of their creations for something Mommy Eve did?(Can't they just admit the product they made was faulty, instead of blaming everyone but Themselves?)
Norm
I'm interested in seeing if modern day COG'ers like Balm, er Malm, have the courage and conviction to die for their faith. I don't know about Malm and other hardcore nutjobs, but I can't see the majority of COG'ers, especially the crisp suit wearing Ministers, dying for their ideology.
I don't think they would because their particular belief system isn't built upon a more compassionate, emotive sense of self-sacrifice, but one of fearful, rote obedience and arrogance.
I don't think I will ever get to find out, for the world at large is pretty much unaware of the existence of the COG's.
Paul R.
bottom line:
The bible is bullshit
M.T. Ideas
"The bible is bullshit"
Amen, ditto, whatever other positive interjection applies.
Bottom line -- looking for a "Beast" is folly. A "mark" of that beast is likewise folly. It was all a nightmare or hallucinatory interlude in some dudes life.
There has never been a dearth of fruitcakes and weirdos. The author of that ridiculous book is just one of the loonier examples. Malm is right in there with them.
I guess it all depends on what the mark of the beast looks like. If it's like a skull and crossbones, that's cool, but if it looks like Hello Kitty, then forget it.
Byker Bob wrote: "Malm should brush up on his Babylonian exile to see what emperors used as criteria in the past. The mark would be that you consent to worship or give your allegiance to the beast..."
I'm inclined to agree with you BB. There are several likely possibilities that have been proposed that it would be unwise to discount them all, especially in the field of eschatology where you need to keep your mind open, even to the "impossibilities." The ordeal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in refusing to bow down and worship the golden image is indeed perhaps a type of the future scenario. I, too, have for so long thought like others within the Armstrongist or Adventist camps that believed Sunday or the first-day Sabbath was the "mark of the beast" as a counterfeit of Saturday or the seventh-day Sabbath. Although I don't discount the possibility that it might have some truth to it, upon further research I've learned a few things that indicate it might have a technical aspect to it: 1) It's a symbolic mark that's to do with one's thoughts (forehead) and deeds (hand); 2) The word "mark" is Greek #5480 charagma and literally means "stamp" or "graven work"; 3) It'll have to do with the economy as Rev. 13 says it'll be imposed upon "...all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond..." (v. 16) and "...no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark..." (v. 17); 4) It'll be a symbol of slavery, unlike the Passover through which the Israelites were delivered from Egyptian bondage in the OT, and which is described in similar terms in Ex. 13:9: "And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD'S law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt" and hence is a symbol of their freedom; 5) It's possible that the "mark" will be a literal imprint on the wrist just like the Jews in the Holocaust were stamped on their wrists, which is equivalent to the hand (as in Roman times the wrist was part of the hand); 6) Its technical aspect comes into play in Acts 17:9: "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven [charagma] by art [techne] and man's device." Note that the same word charagma is used in connection with techne meaning "craft" or "trade" and from which we get the word "technology." Anyway we won't know what it really is until it's here I guess.
I never cease to be amazed at how people cling to these ridiculous myths and fairy tales no matter how much that biblical nonsense is shown up and disproven and the whole book itself is shown to be a total travesty.
The machinations of the human mind are beyond fathoming. When people desperately want to believe, they will believe, no matter how many facts are laid out or how plainly. Sometimes I wonder why I bother commenting on these sites.
It's just like a comment a lady made at a yard sale this morning after my wife detailed how her daughter was saved from a serious heart condition due to doctors happening on the right tests to show up her heart valve problem. She now has two metal valves in her heart put there by one of the two surgeons in Arizona qualified to perform that operation, and she is feeling and doing great.
She commented that "the lord" put our daughter in the right circumstances. I had to walk away to keep from exploding about "the lord" and the holocaust, Bosnia, rampant sex traficing slavery of innocent young girls, deformed and retarded babies, inherited genetic weaknesses and deformities, natural disasters "the lord" is supposedly in control of, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum. Where is "the lord" in those situations and circumstances?
If something good comes along, "the lord" gets the credit, not advanced medical science dedicated humans brought about, the well-trained and analytical doctors, etc.
The bad? I guess "the lord" was busy with situations like our daughter's and didn't have time, or something. She must be one of his favorites, but she's an unbeliever like us. Go figure.
The goddist will have some explanation to hide his or her eyes from the stark reality that we exist in an uncaring universe and have ourselves to rely on -- totally! As long as we have dedicated scientists and medical experts, the progress and the medical and scientific and technological "miracles" are amazing.
If enough people come to that realization, maybe the human race can begin to reason and cooperate enough to save us from the tragedy of the extermination that seems so likely under present circumstances and attitudes -- attitudes mainly shaped by religions.
The religions of our hand-crafted gods are destoying us! Why is that so hard to see and understand? Why must we still cling to idiocies Constantine and those dumbass "church fathers" at Nicacea saddled us with? They invented that Bible and all the nonsense, like beasts and marks of beasts, it contains.
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