This was sent to me today by a reader here. It seems that the diehard Armstrongites are worried right now about a story that Glenn Beck did on British Israelism. What these people fail to understand is that BI is NOT unique to Armstrongism and is believed by the Mormons and other church groups around the world.
Being ready to give an answer on a theory that has been proven to be irrelevant is nothing to get worried over. If these Armstrongites truly believed in a "new" covenant, then they would know that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male or female....you are..heirs according to my promise. Instead, their provincial world exists only in Hebrew scriptures and constructs of the law.
I regularly watch Glenn Beck's TV program...some shows are good some aren't. He has a huge audience and his number of paid subscribers to his website is larger than the number of people who watch CNN in primetime. Well my jaw dropped the other night when he did a segment on why the fate of Jerusalem is more important to America than many imagine. He mentioned that Israel was divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. He then went on to explain that the northern kingdom of Israel migrated into Europe and then spent quite some time showing how symbols of Israel are spread all though out our flags and symbols.
Now I'm not sure where he is going to go with this and how far he is going to take it BUT....IF it takes hold in the mind of his viewers and they start to investigate this forgotten fact of history further it could very well start focusing attention on God's Church and It's teachings and doctrines.
Now there is a real possibility that nothing will come of this BUT, since it could impact each and every one of you I felt it was worth mentioning. Be prepared to answer questions. Personally I feel that one of our most serious responsibilities is to be able to properly answer questions correctly and in a way that is easy to understand to the one asking the question.
ContextSons Through Faith in Christ
…27For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.Cross ReferencesJoel 2:29
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
John 17:11
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
Romans 3:22
This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
Romans 3:29
Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,
Romans 8:1
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
For once I can agree with u people, although the title was somewhat misleading.
ReplyDeleteDNA Refutes British Israelism".
ReplyDeleteAnd if that's not enough for you, you can read selected excerpts from Showdown at Big Sandy: Youthful Creativity Confronts Bureaucratic Inertia at an Unconventional Bible College in East Texas.
Anyone preaching British Israelism deserves persecution, but, of course, we wouldn't want it to be undo.
Somebody send links to Glenn Beck, not that he'll pay any attention (I know, I've tried it once).
Where do people get these crazy ideas?
No wait: I'm writing a book about it -- never mind.
A reader he just sent a comment in for this thread about how members would believe anything. I accidentally deleted it. Can you repost it?
ReplyDeleteThis is a gem, isn't it. Or maybe it's a "charm-shaped marshmallow" to fit with my analogy explained in the next earlier post. Especially the highlighted part where the phrase "forgotten fact of history" is used. OMG. Such a low threshold for factworthiness. Man, with people like this looking for people to give their money away, it's only a wonder that there are so few scammers like HWA harvesting the fertile fields of human credulity.
ReplyDeleteOkay, this is definitely an aside, and not the most important thing, and I'm not usually a grammar nazi, but when you guys keep writing "undo" instead of "undue" for some strange reason, that is up there among the most annoying spelling mistakes I've ever seen. Definitely up there with confusing "our" with "are".
Yes, true we are Israel! These impostors will pay.
ReplyDeleteJer 11:10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
Jer 31:27 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
Jer 3:18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.
Undo
ReplyDeletetransitive verb
1: to open or loose by releasing a fastening
2: to make of no effect or as if not done : make null : reverse
3 a : to ruin the worldly means, reputation, or hopes of a politician undone by scandal
b : to disturb the composure of : upset she's come undone
c : seduce
3 intransitive verb: to come open or apart
— un·do·er noun
Undue
: not due : not yet payable
2
: exceeding or violating propriety or fitness : excessive undue force
Anyone preaching British Israelism deserves persecution, but, of course, we wouldn't want it to be undo.
ReplyDeleteWe also wouldn't want it to be undue, whatever that might mean.
Given the damage done by these Yahoos, there is a lot that should come due to them and we would not want the karma to be unduly undone.
Anyone want to contact Glenn Beck and tell him that British Israelism has been proved wrong and he should not give it undue attention but should undo what he has done?
Just what we need. Someone with a huge audience giving extra shelf life to this error. There are probably some people who will believe it just because Beck repeats it. I caught his show on radio once or twice and was not impressed.
ReplyDeleteBB
I used to love Glenn Beck. When I was an armstrongist. As i was leqving the cult and ever since I've noticed the similarities between mormonism and armstrongism. Definitely annoys me more each time I listen.
ReplyDelete"Just what we need. Someone with a huge audience giving extra shelf life to this error."
ReplyDeleteBoth extra shelf space and extra shelf life.
As I've moved away from my armstrongist roots, I've become more of centrist, as Jonathan Haidt has also done upon some not entirely dissimilar self-examination. While I began my journey from the right, and he began his journey from the left, we've arrived at similar places.
Right-wingers like Glenn Beck have some valid points. Left-wingers have some equally valid points which I previously was unable to acknowledge, such as right-wingers not having any business making policies inside other people's panties. But British-Israelism does not belong in political discussions at all. It belongs in a dusty old volume of an encyclopedia documenting defunct mythologies.
There was a brief time in 2009, about a month, when I loved Glenn Beck and I took him at face value. It was exhilarating. It was exciting. You felt like anything could happen. But, for various reasons, I drifted away from him and stopped paying attention to him.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies if I offend anyone here but I just cannot take him seriously at face value. He loves making you feel like America is a knife's edge away from complete collapse. Tell that to Gaddafi.
I just cannot see that happening. So I ignore him. Which is a lot easier now that he is not on Fox News anymore.
One of the Armstrong loyalist Yahoo groups that Gary occasionally quotes here had some interesting commentary probably about a year ago. A lady commented to the effect that mainstream Christianity seemed to have appropriated "Mr." Armstrong's entire message, and she wondered as to what meaning to attach to it all.
ReplyDeleteActually, there are some evangelists on TBN (Perry Stone) who preach that there are blessings for keeping the Old Covenant holy days, there are other evangelists (Dr. David Jeremiah) who teach that the beast power will consist of the modern nations whose predecessors had been part of the Roman Empire, just about everybody and their mother and their dog has latched on to tithing, and Joel Osteen has apparently been teaching the avoidance of eating unclean meats. Some dude was even expounding on the so-called church eras. So, I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone really dove into the surreal and latched on to British Israelism.
If I were an ACOG member, and if I still believed in Armstrongism, I believe I might be concerned that God was raising up stones to preach the gospel. These people who are teaching elements of the Armstrong gospel are far more prominent than any of the new batch of televangelists from the splinters. And, it would indeed appear that the splinters have been unceremoniously spewed from the mouth of God. In a way it's like an Armstrong version of "Left Behind."
BB