The COG related Yahoo groups are always an interesting place to visit. They are filled with Pharisaical law keepers, people pretending to be Christian while pretending to be Jews, British Israelite mythology pushers, and major HWA worship. All of this ties into prophecy since we are in the last days of humanity.
Today its about the the new €5 Euro note that is out that pictures Europa riding on the back of a white bull as a hologram. In Armstrongite mythology this is a sure sign that the Beast is arising in Europe and will soon align with a demon possessed Pope who will then rage war on the Untied States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Of course this nasty Pope will be particularly pissed at the COG and will persecute it. Only for a little while though...what remains of the U.S Government will put all COG members on planes with cracked wings and ship them off to Jordon where the Muslim hoards will welcome with open arms a bunch a rabid conservative Christians who are fighting among themselves. The Muslims will be so eager to get these lunatics off their hands that they will ship them to Petra where the Marriott and Hilton will have prepared for their arrival a feast of manna, milk and honey. Then WWIV will take place as Pack, Flurry, Thiel, Meredith and others all start fighting over who is in charge.
Meanwhile the invading German/Chinese/Muslim (depends on which COG leader you follow) armies will have set up their HQ's in Wadsworth, Charlotte and Edmond because they will be so awe struck by the opulence that they will not want to destroy the campuses. Then the Laodicean COG members who rejected their calling will wake up and help the two Witless Witnesses, Ron and Laura Wienland finish the work. Then Jesus returns and loyal COG members will be made rulers of cities, nations and planets where they will rule with rod's of iron. Satan will then be thrown into the pits of hell that have open up in Arroyo Grande.
The series' central figure is Europa, a Phoenician princess abducted and then raped by Zeus disguised as a white bull. The story inspired the ancient Greeks to use ‘Europe’ to name the continent.
The princess is often depicted sitting on the bull but the note carries only her profile in a watermark and in a hologram.
The portrait was taken from a 2,000 year-old jug of wine found in southern Italy that is on display at the Louvre in Paris.
Many times the Great Whore is pictured holding a chalice. In the chalice of the Great Whore will be Sauce Tomat. This is the new mark of the Beast meant to deceive the elect from their calling. The reason is, in a lot of restaurants tomato sauce is made with salt pork. Horrors! There is pork juice in that lasagna, soup or tomato sauce. Horrors! HWA ate it, why can't you?
Although most of the sauce recipes that I've been giving for the Mother Sauces yield 1 quart (1 liter), this recipe will yield 2 quarts since you can almost never have enough tomato sauce, and it is always better the next day anyway. For Escoffier's recipe you will need:
- 2-3 oz (56-84 g) Salt Pork. Salt pork comes from the belly portion of the pig, just like bacon. However, unlike bacon, salt pork is never smoked, and the fattier (more white), the better.
- 3 oz (84 g) Carrots, peeled and medium diced
- 3 oz (84 g) White or Yellow onion, medium diced
- 2 oz (56 g) whole butter
- 2-3 oz (56-84 g) Flour, All Purpose
- 5 lbs (2.25 Kilos) Raw, Good quality tomatoes, quartered
- 1 qt (1 lt) White Veal Stock
- 1 clove freshly crushed garlic
- Salt and Pepper To taste
- Pinch of Sugar
Can you believe COG members have the where-with-all to mock people for telling the story of Santa Claus when this kind of idiocy reigns supreme in their minds? St. Nick pales in comparison with some of the stupidity that circulates in Armstrongism.
8 comments:
Well, even in the book The Idea of Europe, when discussing the Myth of the Rape of Europa, he mentions that the symbolism used in the Bible is unmistakable and not coincidental. He, being an agnostic seemed to be making a point that Europe was meant by Daniel and Revelation. However, I do not know the date of the Europa story. Would be interesting if Daniel were written after the Myth, which, if I remember correctly, was encouraged by the Greeks due to the growing influence of Persia. The effort about the myth being that the Europeans needed to unite to fight against the massive enemy coming from the east.
Only time will tell if the fetish the COGs have with the future of Europe comes to pass. The COGs may be right on this one but I wouldn't bank on it given their track record. Even if they are right, given they are so wrong on so many other fronts I wouldn't listen to them even then. Even a broken clock is right twice a day but who would be so foolish enough to use one?
That's a pretty good averaged assessment of what die-hard Armstrongists imagine their future holds NO2. If you went into the reasoning behind why they believe those things, none of it would be any less ridiculous. It would all be stuff about how since out of all mankind we're the only people who are totally faithful and obedient to god, satan hates us and targets us most of all, yada yada yada.
A thousand years ago and more, the pagan Anglo-Saxons in Britain would have certain rituals to pay homage to their pantheon of gods and offer gifts to appease them. But in a random universe, these don't always work. Sometimes the rain still does not come or whatever, and sometimes things would get really bad whether it was crop failure, disease, flooding, etc. At these times of stress, there was only one thing left to do, and that was to make the ultimate sacrifice -- human sacrifice. This was the ultimate proof of just how devoted and loyal to the gods your tribal community really was. Scientifically it can be proved that there isn't any cause-and-effect link between religious rituals and the weather or the frequency of any type of event. Nevertheless, all the way back into the shrouds of pre-history, people everywhere imagined that this type of supernaturalism was what made the world go round. It was how they maintained a sense of control in spite of being at the mercy of totally random and uncontrollable forces. You could talk to the boss, and the boss could fix anything.
I have a hard time not seeing modern fundamentalism as the direct descendant of this ancient paganism. Polytheism has declined in favor of monotheism, but whether fundamentalism takes the guise of Islam, Judaism, Christianity, or some other template, the central organizing principle is identical to the older paganism. It explains every event as being directly caused by a deity. In this framework there is a single universal answer to every problem: appease the deity. It doesn't matter if you're sick, having financial problems, marital problems, a car accident, or whatever. The RIGHT answer is always to step up your efforts to appease the deity, whether that be additional hours spent in prayer and bible study, additional days of fasting, giving larger sums of money to the church, being more fastidious about sabbath and holy day observances, or whatever. You can only expect to reap from the deity what you have sown, measure for measure, eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. If you give god a black eye by, say, dining out on the sabbath, then you only have yourself to blame when god blackens your eye with a car accident, cancer, or whatever. HWA and all his many clones, including James Malm were/are appeasement specialists. What the cultic organization offers you is a specific focal point, a place to pay homage and offer your gifts of appeasement. In return, it allows the fundamentalist to feel a sense of control over the randomness of life's events, both now and into eternity. You can talk to the boss, and the boss can fix anything...but only if you haven't been naughty this year. (What's the difference between god and Santa? Not much, really.) In order to continue to explain the randomness we all experience, when the deity becomes less capricious, he necessarily must become harder to please.
Armstrongism can argue that it doesn't teach that you have to earn your salvation, but it's just as easy to argue that it does. After all, no matter how you slice it, salvation is all about how well you've appeased the deity. Thankfully, modern religious rituals don't usually require animal or human sacrifice, but as the human population increases, it isn't hard to see human life becoming devalued in the future, and fundamentalism of all sorts returning to its pagan sacrificial roots.
"salvation is all about how well you've appeased the deity"
I would argue this.
This may be true in Armstrongism, and other certain fringe religions, but in Christianity, the teaching is it is impossible to appease "the deity" ourselves. The only one who could was God's Only Son, Jesus Christ - through his own death and resurrection. Humanity could not appease God, which is why under the Old Testament the law could not bring righteousness, but only condemnation. Those who "revert" and "return" to pagan sacrificial roots - or even the "Law" as Armstrongism has done - miss the point that it is impossible of ourselves to "appease the deity" because of the fallen nature of sin in mankind. Only through Christ can one be adopted into Jesus through the imputing of righteousness through Christ through faith. That's the difference between Christianity and those religions that think that the deity can be appeased through their own efforts. That's a very condensed and abridged viewpoint...
But you still have to do something to get jesus to "impute his righteousness" to you. You still have to do something to appease the deity, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Accept Jesus in your heart as your personal lord and saviour? 10 Hail Marys and 10 rosaries? If this were not so, then there would not be any difference between a christian and a non-christian; Jesus would have to "adopt" everyone who ever lived, regardless of religious affiliation, sexual orientation, criminal record, or what have you.
Hmm interesting. Of course it begs the question what if the "mark of the beast" has absolutely nothing to do with Sunday or any day at all as EGW first proposed and HWA repeated, but rather the currency that some speculate will replace the "Almighty" dollar ie the euro? Isn't it supposed to involve buying and selling ie the economy? And didn't Christ say that the "image" on Caesar's creation ie money was his own (Mt 22:19-21) and ultimately you cannot serve God and mammon ie money (Mt 6:24)? I guess time will tell.
BTW Anon 3:48 it's not a subject that ACOGs alone understand since Christians in general have taught similar interpretations too before, during and long after HWA was ever around.
Any word on whether the bull actually represents the establishment of the daily sacrifices in Jerusalem?
That recipe sounds tasty, but for my personal taste, I'd add more garlic.
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