John Allen: About To Lay Bare All The Deep Dark Secrets Of The Ages

John Allen, the crazy COG member in Costa Rica has recovered from his bout with gangrene and is back receiving messages from God.  According to Allen, all great prophets throughout the ages were taught secretly by God and others in special schools for prophets.  Obviously God did not let Meredith, Pack, Furry and Weinland into that school because they have all been miserable failures.  But never fear!  God had a better plan.  God is training up John Allen to reveal secret hidden knowledge to the COG's.

Let me ask you a quick question. Do you think Moses just "came out of
nowhere?" Of course he didn't. He had the same training any future
Pharoah would have, which was much like the training for a high priest.
Do you think that Elijah and the prophets just "came out of nowhere" too?
Well, maybe God called some of them specially, but do you realize that
Elijah had a "school of the prophets?" One day we will discuss this, but
it is true.

And what about the Essenes who made and preserved The Dead Sea Scrolls?
All of these passed down a special oral tradition and training that was
not available to the common people. This was highly specialized "secret
knowledge" known only to the very few.

But in this end time, God has begun to reveal these secrets to my mind and
I'm going to pass on a lot of it to you.

The last known school of knowledge that real prophets got to use was the Library at Alexandria.  But those damned Catholics burned it!  Say what?  The Catholic Church burned down the library????? 

The Catholic Church burned the library of Alexandria because it contained
a lot of this ancient knowledge that they didn't want the people to have.
Because, if they did have it, they wouldn't believe their lies and
deceptions anymore.

I hate to break it to John, but his god must have jiggled the spoon when he was putting John's brains in that empty head.  This is what Wikipedia says about the Library at Alexandria

In the 2nd century AD, the Roman historian Aulus Gellius wrote in his book Attic Nights that the Royal Alexandrian Library was burned by mistake when some of Caesar’s soldiers started a fire. Furthermore, in the 4th century, both the pagan historian Ammianus^[19] and the Christian historian Orosius wrote that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina had been destroyed by Caesar's fire.

Therefore, the Royal Alexandrian Library may have been burned after Strabo's visit to the city (25 BC) but before the beginning of the 2nd century AD when Plutarch wrote. Otherwise Plutarch and later historians would not have mentioned the incident and mistakenly attributed it to Julius Caesar. It is also most probable that the library was destroyed by someone other than Caesar, although the later generations linked the fire that took place in Alexandria during Caesar's time to the burning of the Bibliotheca.^[26] Some believe that the most likely scenario was the destruction that accompanied the wars between Zenobia of Palmyra and the Roman Emperor Aurelian, in the second half of the 3rd century (see below).

Because of all that lost knowledge the world has been in the dark about so many things.  But now a most glorious event is happening.  God has reveled such terrifying hidden knowledge that the world will hate John Allen even more than they hated Herbert Armstrong!

God's time has now come to RESTORE ALL KNOWLEDGE to His Church. And if the world hated Herbert Armstrong for the little bit of truth he knew, you can imagine their reaction when, literally, ALL THE DEEP DARK SECRETS OF THE AGES ARE LAID BARE FOR ALL TO SEE.

The elite of the world, the educated, and the scholars will soon be going into "apoplectic fits" over the secret knowledge John is about to reveal!

This world's elites will be in apoplectic fits of rage because of what we
will openly reveal to you, but God's time has come to lift the veil that
has obscured history and knowledge until now. The early church knew these
things, and were fed to the lions for revealing this to common people.

The early church was not fed to the lions because of secret hidden knowledge.  He needs to get his facts straight about that too.

If you want to hear this secret knowledge that will send the educated into screaming fits of rage then click on his link below.  Better yet, don't waste you time because it is as silly as you are already thinking it will be.

But, now God's time has come to reveal this to you. Are you ready?

This is part one in a new series that will answer all of the basic
questions mankind has -- and don't imagine that even you old timers have
all of the answers. This first part deals with the origin of Satan and his
demons, but don't make the mistake of thinking you know it all here
either. We must begin to understand these things in order or us to grow.
Next time we will begin to answer the question of what is man, but in
order to understand that you need to get this first.

You can listen to it right now in our Sermon, Services, and Bible study page:


Plain Bible Truth

Have a great Sabbath!

John

Apostle Malm: When UCG Preaches "Grace" They Are Preaching Doctrines of Demons

Apostle Malm is so hung up on keeping the law that he goes into fits at the mention of "grace."  He gets particularly incensed about grace when it comes to United Church of God.  He feels UCG is embracing "love" over the law.  How dare they teach grace above keeping all 613 laws!  Evil gracites!

I am talking about the great apostasy already accomplished in creating an  attitude willing to reject parts of the scriptures  or twist them, to justify personal organizational traditions.  I am talking about the open apostasy of UCG from Law is love;  into the false teaching of demons that Grace diminishes the practical observation of the law.

These are all doctrines of demons and part of teh great falling away from zeal fpor God and his commandments; from any kind of zeal for internalizing the nature of God and becoming like God.

Apostle Malm: Internet May Not Be Usable By End of Year

Apostle Malm is getting crazier by the day.  Though that really is not much of a surprise.  He has been doing some house cleaning on his web sites and has spent the day eliminating old comments that were a year old or older in order to free up more space for comments by current readers.

But never fear, he has to get his prophetic mouth engaged in even this.  He writes:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:   To reduce the weight of the site comments two years old and older comments  have been deleted.  This will provide for as much comments space as is needed through the end of this year.

By that time, either the North American Internet will no longer be usable; or I will be going to a dedicated server.  

If his prophetic utterances are true the great whore will have arisen in Europe, the Beast and Germany will be bombing the hell out of the United States. With all of those bombs flying around the internet will be down and no longer useful in spreading his gospel message.  Unless of course he just moves to a new server.  Which really means his prophetic utterances were an epic failure and he has been given more time to warn the church.  Its like broken record.

Gerald Flurry-Philadelphia Church of God News Source Is A Purveyor of Porn

For some reason Armstrongism has always had a great interest in porn.  So it is no shock to find that Gerald Flurry is using a porn purveyor as his source for vital prophetic news.  Only in Armstrongism!

Gerald has an article up on his site dated July 2012.  In his article, A Deadly Secret Plot Has Been Uncovered, he starts hyperventilating about those nasty Germans who are secretly plotting to bring into power a new world dictator who will be really, really fierce.  I am assuming that when Gerald talks bout "fierce" he is not referring to it's current definition:

a term used in fashion for cool, sexy, awesome, or any other positive remark about something. it is most famously used by christian sirianos, project runway winner, and tyra banks.

Damn that dress is so fierce! I love it!

Look at that model and her feirce little strut!  Urban Dictionary

 

I digress, on to the earth shattering news that is ruffling Gerald's skirt:

“A covert group of EU foreign ministers has drawn up plans for merging the jobs currently done by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.

“The new bureaucrat, who would not be directly elected by voters, is set to get sweeping control over the entire EU and force member countries into ever-greater political and economic union. Tellingly, the UK has been excluded from the confidential discussions within the shady ‘Berlin Group’ of Europhile politicians, spearheaded by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle” (emphasis mine throughout). 

This “new bureaucrat” is going to get control of the EU by flatteries—not by being voted into office. That means that he and a few cohorts will hijack the powerful EU. It will be led by Germany, the only powerful economy in the Western world. 

There may be a few small twists and turns, but this secret plot is going to usher in a fierce dictator! Bible prophecy makes that powerfully clear.

He then breathlessly continues:

The Express secret-plot article continued: “Opponents fear the plan could create a modern-day equivalent of the European emperor envisaged by Napoleon Bonaparte or a return to the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne that dominated Europe in the Dark Ages. …

For about 70 years we have been prophesying of the Holy Roman Empire and emperor soon to appear on the scene. It will be the seventh and last head of that superpower.

He then believes that a new German-Italian alliance will form, just as it did with Hitler and Mussolini.

These secret plotters saw the end of the Franco-German axis coming in the lead-up to the May 6 French presidential election. These two nations had led the EU from its inception. The plotters then moved to help form a German-Italian axis. 

Germany and Italy are the first two nations of the 10 nations or groups of nations to form the Holy Roman Empire. The other eight are already a part of the EU and probably eager to join Germany and Italy.

Germany and Italy have been at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire throughout the ages. When Hitler and Mussolini became allies in World War ii, it was the sixth head of the Holy Roman Empire. Mussolini even called their union the Holy Roman Empire. 

This new German-Italian axis—including the worldwide power of the Vatican—is a major shift in Europe’s direction. These two leading nations are going to shock the world as they demonstrate their worldwide ambitions—which they have done in the past.

Everything in Armstrongism has to have a conspiracy behind it. Satan is that big meanie who is influencing the Europeans to dump France and England in order to prepare for world domination.

So now that the secret plot has been exposed for all the world to see by the great Gerald Flurry, where does the porn connection come into play?

His source of news is The Express out of England. The Express has been kicked out of journalism associations and censured by advertising watchdog groups.  Here is what Wikipedia UK edition says in the "Desmond Era" section:

In 2000, Express Newspapers was bought by Richard Desmond, publisher of a range of titles including the celebrity magazine OK!. Controversy surrounded the acquisition because, at the time, Desmond also owned a number of pornographic magazines such as Big Ones and Asian Babes.. He is still the owner of the most popular pornographic television channel in the UK, Television X. Desmond's purchase of the paper led to the departure of many staff including the then editor, Rosie Boycott, and columnist Peter Hitchens moved to The Mail on Sunday, stating that he could not morally work for a newspaper owned by a pornographer. 

 The Express group lost an unusually large number of high-profile libel cases in 2008–2009; it was forced to pay damages to people involved in the Madeleine McCann case (see below), a member of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, the footballer Marco Materazzi and the sports agent Willie McKay. The string of losses led the media commentator Roy Greenslade to conclude that Express Newspapers (which also publishes the Star titles) paid out more in libel damages over that period than any other newspaper group; although most of the individual amounts paid were not disclosed, the total damages were disclosed at £1,570,000.^[9] Greenslade characterised Desmond as a "rogue proprietor".^[9]

Is Gerald Flurry so desperate to find news that fits his absurd prophetic brain farts that he has to turn to a porn producer to gather his information?  Apparently Flurry's news/editorial department did not have the sense to do a little fact checking before allowing this to go to print.  Flurry comes off looking like a fool.  Oh, no shocker there!

Hat tip to Tom who had this to say as a perfect conclusion:

Which of Desmond's publications is he going to cite next?  "Big Ones?"  "Asian Babes?"  Or maybe his porn network, "Television X?"

"It's a shocking demonstration of how infantile his thinking is, and of how his entire organization is built on sand. What a complete joke."

Apostle Malm: A Vain Jangler On Law Keeping?

The apostle wrote today:

We are to stand on God’s word and not on the words of the heathen, pagan fables or endless genealogies about whether we are distantly related to some king and that make us something;  we are not to indulge in such nonsense which cause doubting of the truth and confuse people away from the word of God.

Well, that pretty much writes off a lot of Hebrew Scriptures since many deem genealogy as vital information.  Even Jesus' genealogy is high up there.

The apostle the writes a perfect description of himself:

Vain jangling; meaning a sound that signifies nothing.  many false teachers have now arisen and thinking of themselves as some great teachers are spouting vain nonsense not understanding what they are trying to teach.

Apostle Malm's has arisen in Armstrongism with what he perceives as a vital message that is sheer nonsense.
 
He then writes about an impossible scenario that neither he nor any of his acolytes are capable of doing:

People who keep all the commandments of God can do so because God’s spirit is in them and leading them to behave in a certain manner and to avoid certain wicked things, they keep the law by the very nature of God dwelling within them, because they have a new nature imparted to them through the indwelling of God’s spirit.

The Jews were never able to do this and cannot to this day. Christians cannot and never have done this and most specifically the Malmites are incapable of doing this.

The apostle then writes the main point of his preaching, its all about control!

The law exists to control the wicked nature of the natural man.

Grace frees and is entirely free.  No amount of slobbering over the law will earn you grace.  Freedom trumps law any day. Malmites and most Armstrongites cannot grasp the  concept of freedom from law.  They need control.  They need structure.  They need some outside source telling them what to do.

He then writes:

The law condemns wickedness. The law does not condemn the righteous. The law is there to keep people from wicked or evil behavior. It is there to keep people from sinning.

Apostle Malm fails to see that the law condemns the righteous along with the "wicked."  The law absolutely condemns the righteous because not a single human on earth has ever been able to keep the law.

Ron Weinland and Steve Dalrymple On Church Expenses

Mike has another great post on his blog about Ron Weinland and the trial.  Juror 251 is back with more information.  He points out how Ron's right hand man came out looking like a fool.

And then Steve Dalrymple took the stand…


The prosecution asked him what kinds of things he would consider to be church expenses.  Then they asked him what kinds of things he would consider to NOT be church expenses.  They asked him if he traveled or dined out with Mr Weinland, and he confirmed that he did attend an Elder’s meeting at one time in Las Vegas.  When asked why the meeting was in Las Vegas, since there was no church, or logical reason other than personal entertainment to go there for a meeting, he testified that it was Mr Weinland who chose their meeting locations. {I am aware of elders conferences in Las Vegas in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011.  The last two established as being in the 5-diamond Venetian Resort Hotel Casino}.

It was at this time that the prosecution asked the judge for “leeway” with the witness, and this was granted.  It began to get very interesting…

The attorney began showing Mr Dalrymple receipts for various “expenses” of Ron Weinland.  He showed him receipts from a spa.  Mr Dalrymple did not know what “deep-tissue” was that was listed on the receipt, and had to be told that deep-tissue was a kind of massage.  Apparently a very expensive massage.  Would that be an appropriate church expense?  He stumbled and mumbled, and said that if Mr Weinland had a bad back, then it could possibly be a church expense.  He did not have an explanation for the next receipt, which was another deep-tissue massage, this time for Laura.

The prosecution showed receipts for shopping, from the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas, and a couple receipts from Nordstroms.  Were those church expenses?  He began to visibly shrink within himself, as there appeared to be no way for him to continue to defend his Prophet.  No, those did not look like church expenses.





The prosecution showed receipts from the Union Pet Clinic, listing many expensive bills for veterinary care for the Weinland’s dog.  Did Mr Dalrymple think that medical care for the dog fell under the umbrella of church expenses?  No, those did not look like church expenses either.


Steve Dalrymple took the stand with the air of someone who was going to do everything in his power to defend Mr Weinland’s actions, even though he was a witness for the prosecution.  He left the stand looking like someone who had been crushed by the knowledge that their hero was in fact a human being, and a very flawed and dishonest one.

There is much more to the post here Porch-Mouthed Ron

Apostle Malm: I Do NOT Set Dates! Well, Maybe Just A Little

Apostle Malm claims he has NOT set dates for any prophecy to be fulfilled.  He does a Clintonesque dance around his many specific dates he has set over the years. "I did NOT sleep with that woman!" "I did NOT set dates!"

Today he writes:

Since 2008 I have calculated the 1,335 days back from the moment the day of Pentecost begins and have said that IF IF IF this was to be the year then the abomination would be set up around that date.  I NEVER said that anything would happen on that date, I only said that IF that would be the year, then that was the date that the abomination MIGHT POSSBLY be set up.

I have done this annually:  To try and get people to understand the count and to cover all POSSIBILITIES.
Of course a certain cogwriter each year posted that I had set another wrong date, and when I wrote to explain my postings and asked him for a correction or retraction I was ignored.

In fact there IS a prophecy which reveals the year of the setting up of God’s kingdom!  I had published that also in 2008 at the main site, but it appears that Bob has not done his homework before condemning me each year.

The 2,300 day Prophecy reveals that the Kingdom will be set up in 2016 and counting back the 1335 day means that the abomination will be set up around Sep 16 in 2012.

Of course both the Sep 16 and the 2016 dates are dependent on the veracity of the facts and the accuracy of the counts.  This is why I have NOT even set a date for 2012!

Note, he does not set dates, even though he set a date and then unset it again.  His acolytes actually swallow this drivel!

Are Christians Intellectually Stupid?

One thing about this blog is that it attracts readers from both sides of the aisle in regards to Christianity and Christian belief..  Many now despise Christianity while others find deep richness in it for their lives.  Others are devout believers that also believe in  evolution and do not take the Bible as being literal.  These folk are disconcerting to both camps. In spite of that, most here have at least found the freedom to use their brain instead of letting others tell them what to believe and how to believe it.  I think we all had enough of that!

Someone forwarded me a link tonight to a recent article by Joe Tkach Jr about this very issue.  I am curious as to your take on this:

On a flight to Dallas last week, my seatmate was James – a nice fellow in his late twenties. James was somewhat full of his intellectual capacity and thought the world was full of stupid people. Christians, he explained, were exceptionally stupid, because they seemed to be oblivious to the discoveries of science. In his estimation, they were like people who believed the earth was flat. James was obviously proud to consider himself an atheist.

I enjoyed the look on his face when I told him that I was one of those so-called ignorant Christians. I mentioned that he might not have heard of surveys showing that 40% of scientists are agnostics and 40% are Christian. I told him that I knew personally several believing scientists who work on the cutting edge of scientific discovery. I reminded him that Francis Collins, who was the director of the Human Genome Project, is a devout Christian. James seemed interested to hear more.

I told him that I am amused by TV characters like Dr. Sheldon Cooper and his “Bible belt” mother in the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory; and by Alice, the assistant to the vicar in the British sitcom Vicar of Dibley. I also admitted to him that some Christians would benefit from more education. But I told him that I’m annoyed that it is now acceptable to portray Christians as simpletons. These TV characters are definitely not typical of most Christians.

I explained to James that many of the concepts we grow up believing are myths. For example, there is the commonly held idea that even educated people in historic times believed that the earth was flat. However, the historical record does not support this idea. As noted by Jeffrey Russell (professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara) in Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians, the flat-earth theory is a fable used to denigrate pre-modern European civilizations.

The historic fact is that as far back as 330 BC, Aristotle pointed out that the shadow of the earth on the moon is always circular. In 240 BC, Eratosthenes calculated the earth’s spherical circumference. The Venerable Bede, who lived over 700 years before Columbus, explained the varying duration of daylight in terms of the roundness of earth, reasoning from the Bible that spoke of the “circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22).

Some of the most notable scientists through history were Christians. In the sixth century, philosopher and theologian John Philoponus anticipated the modern physics of light and atomic structure based on the doctrines of the Trinity and creation. Galileo was reading Philoponus as he calculated the movement of the stars, laying a foundation for our modern understanding of the cosmos.
Unaware of all this, James was intrigued. I hope I left him less sure that Christianity is only for dummies. I’d like to think I helped him shift in his thinking from being an atheist to an agnostic.

Of course, many assume that atheism and agnosticism are synonymous. They are not. There is a significant difference in the two. It is fashionable today to say you are an atheist. Writers like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchins have made names for themselves by ridiculing religion in general and Christianity in particular. They have suggested that if Christians cannot convincingly demolish the atheist argument and prove God exists, the only sensible default position for an educated person is atheism. But hold on a minute. Atheists claim that God does not exist, so it is up to them to prove their point. They can’t, of course – philosophically you cannot prove a negative. When cornered, most atheists have to admit to really being agnostic. Agnostics say they do not know whether God exists. This is a reasonable position for people who have insufficient evidence (and/or interest!) to make a decision.

Guess Which COG Group Had It's "College" Accredited?

Grace Communion International/Worldwide Church of God's seminary has received accreditation. Something that none of the splinter cult "colleges" and "universities" will ever accomplish. 

Russell Duke writes:

Hallelujah! I am thrilled to announce that Grace Communion Seminary has been accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). Here is the first paragraph from the letter we received from DETC President Michael P. Lambert:

The Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council met June 15, 2012, and it is a pleasure to advise that the Commission granted accreditation to Grace Communion Seminary for a period of three years. We extend warm congratulations to you and your staff on this initial grant of accreditation.

This accredited status is effective immediately, and applies to all courses offered by GCS. The Accrediting Commission of DETC is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a nationally recognized accrediting agency. The Commission is also a recognized member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The DETC report listing Grace Communion Seminary (under “One Institution Gains Accreditation”), can be viewed by clicking here. The DETC report states that GCS was founded in 1947. This is due to the fact that Grace Communion Seminary is a business name of Ambassador College.

Dave Pack's little Ambassador Center, United's  ABC center, Flurry's HWA "college", and Living's Living "university" are unaccredited puppy mills for training new ministers.  All are denomination specific and hand out "degrees" that are worthless pieces of paper.

GCI Taking Magazine Online Because of Money Issues?

Grace Communion International is taking their Christian Odyssey magazine from print version to an online version.  Citing rising printing costs, this move is deemed necesaary. 

As the cost of printing and mailing increases, small circulation magazines and newsletters have to think seriously about abandoning a print edition and going on-line as what is called an e-zine. We knew we would have to do it with Christian Odyssey sooner or later. Well, it’s sooner. The next issue of Christian Odyssey will be the last one we produce as a printed magazine. After that, we will continue with an on-line edition.

We realize there is a risk in making a move like this. Some will welcome it and find the electronic format exciting. Others will not like it at first, but, as I did with my Kindle, they will get used to it. However, I am afraid some will be tempted to throw up their hands and say, “Count me out.”

We really don’t want that to happen. So we are making our next issue a transition issue, in which we will do our best to explain how everyone can have access to Christian Odyssey. Even the most dyed-in-the-wool technophobes may be surprised at how easy it is, once you know how (or have grandchildren, who seem to be born knowing how).

Many are wondering if the continuing drop in income is part of the issue.  There was a period of several years the WCG was losing a congregation a week. Regular church attendance still is in decline as of 2012

As congregations continue to shrink in size many are leaving to local churches that are well established in their local communities. Most don't want to sit around and watch their congregation die a slow painful death.

Since WCG/GCI no longer controls or owns The Plain Truth, they used Christian Odyssey as their vehicle to church members on Christian Living.

Dennis On: "Would It Really Be So Bad?"

 

Would It Really Be So Bad?

 

I have no personal doubt that modern human beings are the current end result of a process millions of years in the making that brought us to where we are today. 

 

 

Most of us grew up innocently enough in the care of parents and institutions that simply could not believe that humans were the highest form of now hairless apes, that somewhere in the fairly recent past became more conscious of themselves than all the previous editions.  I grew up with Adam and Eve just as much as everyone else did and never thought to even question the story as literally true until I was much older.  In fact, soaking the in the profession of theology delayed waking up to the reality of human origins even more than it should have. I have kidded about "next time...University of Pennsylvania-Paleontology", but I am not really kidding.  Problem is, I have no guarantee of getting a next time, so I better us this time well. 

 

Not many critically thinking people believe the stories of the Bible, whether they be that of Adam and Eve , Noah and the Tower of Babel to be literally true.  They are myths and not even myths of original Hebrew origins.  It is easy when one lives in a very small box of limited scientific interests or curiosities  to think that in reality, most do not believe the Book of Genesis to be meant as science.   Oh we have the Creation Institute types.  One can find a Bibleland Park to keep the myths seem real or tour a replica of Noah's Ark, but it is all just good theatre. 

 

Church of God types or good fundamental Baptists simply cannot imagine that the Bible is not all they have been told it to be.  In many ways it is the Greatest Story Ever Sold.  But a story nonetheless. 

 

The people who do the hard work of science and follow it wherever it takes them letting the facts clarify and speak for themselves know that those who sit in their studys reading the Bible are not really qualified to undo the reality of discovery.  Most who refuse to believe in human evolution or evolution in general simply refuse to study the issue choosing rather to just say that they believe the Bible.  I remember debating Art Mokarrow and Ron Mosley in Dallas and mentioning Donald Prother's newest book on Evolution-What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, having Mosley interrupt to announce that he "had that book."  I missed my chance to ask if he had "read that book," but I knew he had not.  I suspect he probably didn't even have it. 

 

It is really very threatening, evidently, for literalists to give up ground on what in years to come will be so undeniable they will look even more foolish than they do now.  Knowledge being increased is not all bad you know.   Beats ignorance being increased and in some places, ignorance is pulling ahead of knowledge out of sheer panic.

 

Personally, I don't mind being the current end result of human evolution.  I like being a hairless ape with intellect and consciousness which is a big step for sure.  

 

It is still hilarious to hear ministers here in the South cry out from their pulpits that "If I came from a monkey, why are there still monkeys around today!!!"  The audience laughs and the man does not know what kind of a fool he just made of himself nor do most of his audience.  Apes, Chimps and Orangs are our cousins and we share a common ancestor about 5 million years ago.  We are not descended from them.

 

I remember being a lecture where the creationist guru laughed that there were no Stegasaurus that had one horn, then two, then three.  I laughed back since the fossil record shows exactly that in stunning detail.  Fish really do into Amphibians as Tiktaalik shows us.  I had the awesome opportunity to hold the skull of this fish  with legs and flippers, gills and lungs, teeth  and the ability to live in shallow water and land in my hands.  Awesome. 

                    

 

Same feeling I got when i saw the original Neanderthal Skulls found on Mt.  Carmel in Israel at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem.  Simply awesome.

 

In the long and short term, it doesn't really matter what we believe as beliefs are ...well...just beliefs.   Faith is what we tend to have before we get the facts and then the facts test faith and usually pull way ahead.  Personally,  I love my cousins..

 

..

 

 

 

NZ Father With Ties to Armstrongism Murders Son

Police seize property of former NZ man accused of murdering son

 

Police investigating a former New Zealand man accused of murdering his six-month-old son have seized the family's laptop, phone, camera and iPads.

David Fisher, 38, has been kept behind bars after a brief court appearance for allegedly killing his son Elijah in a South Brisbane river on Saturday evening.

The child's mother, Fisher's wife, Lauren, wrote on Twitter last night that police had seized electronic equipment.

This afternoon she tweeted that today she had held her "baby boy" in her arms.

"Someone had dressed him in red. And the grey sky over Brisbane weeps with me," Mrs Fisher wrote.

Last night she tweeted: "There's such a beautiful moon smiling down on us tonight - so pretty it breaks my heart and I weep."

The Courier Mail is reporting that detectives have renewed calls for help from the public about the hours leading up to Elijah's death.

Elijah drowned after his father fell from the Logan Bridge with the baby in his arms.
Fisher emerged from the river and walked home, allegedly telling the his wife and Elijah's four older sisters, "Elijah's drowned. Elijah's gone."

He was charged with murder around midnight on Saturday and the baby's body was recovered on Sunday morning when water police found it washed up on a riverbank 1.5km downstream.

Later in the article Armstrongism was brought into the picture.

The Fisher family lived a nomadic lifestyle between Australia and New Zealand. Fisher's parents had ties to a former cult in New Zealand, the Worldwide Church of God.
While the church, established in 1967, now describes itself as "simply an Evangelical church with normal orthodox ideology", Pastor Dennis Richards said it used to be known as a "cult".

 Another article had this to say about the family:

Mr and Mrs Fisher had been together for about 13 years, and followed an alternative lifestyle where they home-schooled their children, kept to a vegan diet and travelled Australia and New Zealand on a truck they lived in for weeks at a time.

Rick Van Pelt Fired By Pasadena City College

Pasadena City College has fired Rick Van Pelt this week after after allegations of bribery were leveled against him and his business partner.  Van Pelt was the facilities manager at Pasadena City College.  He was also the former facilities manager for the Ambassador Campus in Pasadena.

Van Pelt was fired because he failed to reveal he had formed the company while on PCC payroll.  Van Pelts termination cannot be contested.

Pasadena City College brass moved to tighten oversight and hiring policies this week after firing Vice President of Administrative Services Richard van Pelt, one of two college administrators facing a bribery probe.

Van Pelt and school facilities supervisor Al Hutchings were operating a company together, Sustainagistics LLC, without the school's knowledge. Using that company, the two may have been doing business with firms they hired to perform work at the college, according to PCC President Mark Rocha. On June 7, investigators with the Public Integrity Division of the Los Angeles County district attorney's office raided the offices and homes of van Pelt and Hutchings.

On Wednesday, college trustees voted to fire van Pelt, who was the school's top financial executive.

---------------

The college will also break up the administrative services department — where van Pelt previously oversaw the school's budget, maintenance and construction of facilities, accounting, purchasing and even the campus bookstore and police — by hiring an independent facilities director reporting directly to Rocha, he said.

Is LCG's "god" Playing a Big Cosmic Joke On Us All?

Rod Meredith sent out a note to all his minsters and elders in May about their "new" understanding on the "marriage supper with the Lamb."  One of the first things you notice in Rod's mssive is how he places himself on the same level of understanding as HWA.  Apparenelty only HWA and Rod are the only inspired Church of God leaders who have ever preached the "truth."

Even more disturbing is the concept that Rod is trying to enforce on his members.  The great apostasy that so many love to equate to WCG's rejection of HWA's theology is miniscule to what is still to come.  99% of the world will fall into apostasy while the remaining 1% of the elite of Armstrongism will be dining with Jesus Christ and God at the marriage supper.  If that's the case, and we are all screwed! What then is the point?  It sounds like Rod is embracing Calvinism.  Are we just all pawns on a cosmic chess table were we have been set up to fail?

Rod wrote:

Please help them think through these “upgrades” in our understanding of the Wedding Supper, of the timeline of final events and also the great apostasy. This is a vital challenge for all of you, and I hope that you can be alert to anyone’s misunderstanding and help them—or help your local elder to work with them to come to understanding on these basic issues and help them realize that these changes are, in fact, simply “updates” of our understanding. As you know, we have always said—at least I have—that “someday” we would get the chance to go to heaven to see our Father even before the end of the Millennium. But we have not nailed it down and given the details of all of this—as Mr. Ames has done in recent months. We have always indicated—at least Mr. Armstrong, and I—that the apostasy would be much broader than just the falling away of a few people in the Worldwide Church. As I indicated at the conference, over 99% of the world never even heard about the Worldwide Church and certainly nothing about that falling away. So the really huge apostasy is still ahead of us—as we have explained—and will affect billions of human beings before it is all over!

COGWA: Setting The Standard For Armstrongism

In between all the legalistic mumbo-jumbo and prophetic nonsense there can be found little tidbits of information on apostle Malm's blog.

Here are some comments about the worlds newest and most perfect Church of God who did everything in the most transparent way it could as it set a sterling Christian example for all the other COG's.  Cough, cough....

Joel DID try to dissaffect the French Board, and he did tour the French areas attacking UCG and encouraging them to split UCG.

COGWA people were caught and stopped at the last minute from transferring many thousands from the Philippean church to their own coffers, and Jeff Caudel is being sued for doing the same thing in NZ.

In Fact the Franks Kilough team had set up secret websites and secretly recruited elders to join their coming split for many months.

This was handled in an entirely ungodly and dishonest fashion.

And of course UCG and the other groups are just as bad in their own way.

The whole COG situation is a disaster and totally ungodly in actions and example.

God is disgusted with us and that is why the corporate groups are being spewed out of the body of Jesus Christ.