Note: Please read Dixon Cartwright's comment below in the comments section about the original article. While it was apparently satire, Armstrongism is filled with people who actually believe and say this kind of silliness as fact. It is no wonder so many took it at face value because of our history, which truly speaks volumes about the state of mind of many in the church.
This issue has a story by Bernie Mansalvo, from the Church of God Big Sandy. He believes he has traveled back in time to be the faithful scribe to Ezekiel.
He writes:
Is time travel possible? Can events in the future be perceived by mere mortals? Conversely, can the the past be relived?
I believe it is not only possible but has happened. I have vividly imagined a conversation of thousands of years ago with one of my mentors in the ways of the Lord.
At the time there was no English language, only Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Babylonian, and yet we were able to communicate.
Ezekiel ben Buzi ben Adam did indeed time-travel, and I think I did too by picking up his first impressions. I was at the time Barnabas ben Monsalvo, Ezekiel’s faithful amanuensis.
Are there other events in the future waiting to be witnessed in our time? Can the past be probed?
Please, dear reader, you decide
He then goes on to describe floating in a chariot through the sky of the land of the Chaldean's until he arrived at the valley of the dry bones. There, his chariot flew the distance of the valley, 30-40 miles, at about 15 feet above the bones. The entire valley, through that entire distance, was all bones.
Then the "Lord" decides to speak to Bernie and calls him "The Son of Man." This "Lord" asks Bernie, The Son of Man, "can these bones live?" Bernie thought it was particularly cool that the "Lord" would speak so endearingly as to call him the Son of Man.
Bernie is then instructed to prophesy to the dried up bones:
“Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.”
Bernie, by being the Son of Man, was able to bring the bones back to life. The only problem was that they were Zombies. I kid you not!
Zombies for only a moment
The bones, now whole skeletons, began growing sinews and flesh. Skeletons became hideous zombie like creatures.
Then the zombies, in a twinkling of an eye, morphed into healthy, rosy human bodies.
They looked healthy, except that there seemed to be no breath in them. They were lying everywhere, even in piles. They seemed to be asleep, dormant, dead to the world
Then, the zombies started gaining muscle and skin. While no longer zombies they were still naked.
Then, all of a sudden, clothing started appearing on them. Bernie's "Lord" said to breathe the breathe of life into them:
I blinked and notice that the bodies were beginning to seemingly magically acquire clothing. They had been naked. Now they were wearing attire: utilitarian, nothing fancy.
Then the LORD said to me: “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’
Bernie then realized that the people coming alive before him were relatives from the village he supposedly grew up in, some of them maybe even great-great grandparents that had been able to cross through the Red Sea when the waters were divided.
I was surprised to find that I recognized some of the people, some who had been my teachers. Others were elders and instructors in my village. I wondered if I might meet my own great great-grandparents and hear firsthand what it was like to cross the Red Sea with Moses.
Bernie then began to speak on a thunderous voice to the multitude of revived zombies. The "Lord" instructed him to take two sticks and write on them and then divide them into tribes. Bernie then gets out his fountain pen and ink out and starts writing on the branches.
“As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.”
Looking around at the trees, I found a couple of good-sized sticks. I peeled the bark and a neat white surface lay beneath. I found my pen and ink and wrote on each stick as I was told.
Then, these really, really cool revived people suddenly took upon themselves to appoint leaders who eagerly stared at Bernie waiting to see what he was writing on the sticks:
Some of the people who had recently come alive had organized themselves and selected elderly spokesmen. The masses and their spokesmen watched me intently.
Bernie then told these fascinated leaders that God was reuniting them as a people so they could live just as they did 2,000 years ago. Imagine being resurrected back to life and then being told you had to go back 2,000 years in time to live in dirt and mud houses in the heat of the desert. What a bitch!
I reminded the elders about God’s promise to reunite the 12 tribes so they could live as they lived when they first entered the Promised Land.Then, in a typical Church of God fashion, Bernie exclaims what a privileged it will be to live UNDER the authority of King David. No Jesus in this equation, but plenty of Hebrew heroes.
We will be one kingdom again, never to be defiled again by idols. God will gather His people from everywhere to restore them spiritually. He will fulfill His purpose for us: to be our God forever.
We will not be deceived again by false shepherds. We will have David again as our king: King David, the man after God’s own heart, the man forgiven of his trespasses and hideous sins before God.
Bernie then begrudgingly has to mention his "Lord." Apparently it is Jesus, though he cannot say the name:
The elders were just beginning to understand what God was saying: that they would be given a new life, a new life under David and his princes, a new life under One Shepherd.
David will organize their nation while the LORD, our Shepherd, will guide us.
Bernie then adds:
In my whole experience today, the LORD told me several times that these people will know who their God is.
They will know Him as the God of miracles, a God who gives life, a God who conquers death, a God who as a loving Father provides an abundant table for His people.
Bernie then ends his amazingly awesome message with this:
Was this a vision, a dream, a glimpse into the future?That is a question for another time.
As a priest, I knew I had to comfort my fellow Jews in captivity with this story. I resolved to sit down just now and write it all up.
God is real
I wouldn’t try to distinguish what was real and what was not. To me, everything was real.
The Eternal God is real to me. My relationship with Him is real.
The magnificent picture of millions of people from all nations coming back to life is real.
I’ll let my people know they have so much to look forward to.
May God speed that day when our people will have David as their king and the Lord GOD as the True Shepherd of Israel!
Got to get busy
I have no idea how everything I’ve witnessed, felt and rejoiced over will be delivered to the intended audience: the rest of the scattered children of Israel.
I must get busy writing it all up while I do my best to be faithful to the words of the LORDAll the Churches of God claim to be followers of Jesus, but he always gets put on the short bus around the Kingdom. David, HWA, Flurry, Pack and others always get more credit and favor in God's sight than anything Jesus ever did on that lonely hill of Calvary.
Lest you believe that what I wrote above is all made up, you can read the entire story here. Read it and be amazed or appalled.
52 comments:
"Please, dear reader, you decide."
Done!
They get nuttier and nuttier, don't they?
Just when I think Armstrongism can't get any stupider I read this. What the hell is wrong with these people?????
Bernie! Dang, boy! You ain't supposed to use them mushrooms with the little purple ring around them in your salad or spaghetti! It just ain't right! They ain't got no seeds, so they're even unclean!
Seriously, as the drug culture swept on to the California campuses back in the '70's, there were some strange hallucinations which resulted for some people as they attempted to come down from the HWAcaca by medicating themselves with street pharmaceuticals. I was always under the impression that that stuff stopped in the early '80's, but apparently not! Armstrongism----the gift that just keeps on giving.
BB
Monsalvo? I don't believe that to be a Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Babylonian or any other name in the Fertile Crescent.
That said... I once heard about a congregation in WCG who, shortly after 1994, were big on "visions". One person would stand up in the middle of services and begin yabbering on that God just gave him this vision about the church need to do this, that, etc. And magically it seemed everyone else in the congregation was having visions in due course. It seemed a very fine example of "not wanting to be left out", but hey, what do I know.
GREAT SCOTT!!!
3.2 GIGAWATTS!!!! WHERES THE DELOREAN!!!!
Now I have read a lot of stupid stuff in my time... But for crying out loud this takes the cake this year! I suppose I need to set the Flux Capacitor to figure out the time for this one!!!!
WCG was always on the fringes, but The Journal is one place where the fringe of the fringe hangs out. This Bernie Monsalvo is like a fine scotch: twice distilled and aged in an enclosed environment for decades.
The Journal, pronounced The Urinal by some people, wants to include just about everything out there--and I do mean "out there." Giving a forum to 666 different demoniacs might not be as helpful a service to true Christians as the editor of that paper might like to believe.
Are you beginning to see why it is so easy, natural, and even logical to assume quickly that so many people are demon inspired when they disagree with the standard HWA teachings and come up with other strange ideas?
"Read it and be amazed or appalled."
I am not only both amazed and appalled by it, but also left in shock and awe.
"Please, dear reader, you decide."
The atheists will attribute his ramblings to chemical imbalances in the brain. The more spiritual types will recognize the demonic influence behind it.
Don't demon possessed people take drugs?
This lunatic is yet another of a thousand reasons why I wish no association between my name and Armstrongism.
Forever anonymous,
Random Lurker
Did you guys see the article by the cat who is proclaiming that the reason dna appears to be invalidating British Israelism is that the Germanic tribes were mostly single men who ended up marrying European women, thus wiping out the Israelite mitochondrial dna from their ancestry?
BB
As armstrongism deteriorates it seems that mental illness accelerates.
Just had a great clairvoyant dream. I found my long lost son no one has heard from in nearly seven years living in an apartment and doing quite well. Now, I can rest peacefully, since I can be sure he's OK because my wishful-thinking dream just has to be communication from on high. Not sure exactly where I traveled to, but it was the USA and everybody spoke english there to. Amazing!
Well, you can thank Dixon Cartwright for being the ultimate "enabler".
Sure, Bernie is nuts, but Dixon Cartwright gave him a voice.
Cartwright knows better and deserves whatever punishment (or Karma) may be coming his way.
Hey, you know, if Armstrong ever finally falls in our generation, Dixon Cartwright could start The Scientology Tattler to keep everybody up on all the latest social events in Scientology.
He's an insult to intelligence.
The guy is nuts
Anonymous said...
Just when I think Armstrongism can't get any stupider I read this. What the hell is wrong with these people?????
Well, it's like this: They are somewhere between extremely delusional and plain ol' batshit crazy.
Byker Bob said...
Did you guys see the article by the cat who is proclaiming that the reason dna appears to be invalidating British Israelism is that the Germanic tribes were mostly single men who ended up marrying European women, thus wiping out the Israelite mitochondrial dna from their ancestry?
Which just shows ta go ya that people can make up stories to explain all kinds of stupid stuff away... And, as per usual, the explanation is even stupider than the original stupid.
Oh, for the love of Mike.
I attended a church this morning where the sermon was about forgiveness. Very inspiring. Better than anything I ever heard at a COG.
So glad I sprung myself from the asylum.
I JUST KNEW IT WAS TRUE!...
I knew and always maintained my faith that Mr. Peabody and Sherman were actual real people, and that they had a real device called "THE WAYBACK MACHINE".
I am so glad that Bernie has joined them in their exciting and entertaining time travel adventures!
Joe Moeller
Cody, WY
Corky, what I was thinking early this afternoon, is that we are seeing so much hyper-weirdness come out of the ACOGs these days, and the last couple of weeks we've actually seen posters bring it here. Don't get me wrong, I hope they continue to do this, because how else are they supposed to get their healing? But, sometimes, it just gets to be a bit much for one's normal diet.
Although we often disagree amongst ourselves along partisan lines, I believe we've done a good overall job of setting a tone for normalcy, whether that might encompass normal or typical for an atheist, or normal for a mainstream Christian, and perhaps various states in between.
As the different splinters deal with the fact that the events on which they have based their lives, personal choices, and behavior just are not happening at all, we're going to be confronted with more and more insanity, and not just from the news which Gary goes to great lengths to obtain for us. More and more, I expect people who actually lived the weirdness to bring the very ideas we find so incredible, still actually believing them to the extent that they attempt to teach them to us with the expectation that we will see wisdom in them. And, of course if we, whose open-mindedness helped us escape
the cult, don't want to study what they present, we are going to be the ones accused of being closed minded or opinionated.
Sometimes, even if one feels he's got it all resolved and has obtained healing, it takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to keep subjecting oneself to the continually worsening stuff that caused the need for the healing in the first place.
BB
Well, you can thank Dixon Cartwright for being the ultimate "enabler".
Sure, Bernie is nuts, but Dixon Cartwright gave him a voice.
---------------------------
Does that mean we should hold Gary responsible for the crazy things people like UCG Joe and PCG Usher say and pretend to believe on here?
By the way, you can be pretty sure Cartwright is doing it to show how stupid it is. He is no Armstrongist, and some Armstrongists are ticked at him for giving voice to dissidents.
Usher, how many people are atheists? Man, you are really the one out on the fringe. Why do you keep condemning others for being on the fringe? I don't think you believe the things you say. In this day and age, nobody could be that uninformed. Are you just trolling? Nothing better to do? Get a life man.
How many wars did the Catholics and Protestants start? A lot more than HWA. As bad as he was, he destroyed fewer lives. Yet some people return to the paganized Jesus. Makes no sense to me. And the followers of the paganized Jesus are still killing people today, but today they align with Israel and the bankers to go kill Muslims. The religious wars are still going on but they renamed it to a war on terror.
Just for the record, I used to attend with WCG, and after '95 I attended with UCG, but I never did attend PCG. Or RCG for that matter, thankfully. I no longer attend any COG. All the regulars here know I'm agnostic now.
Just one more inaccurate idea, like all the rest of the bogus ideas you've decided to become an evangelist for, god knows why.
Which COG do you still attend?
I attended a church this morning where the sermon was about forgiveness. Very inspiring. Better than anything I ever heard at a COG.
I rarely got anything out of sermons in the Catholic churches I used to go to before the WCG. It was always just a bunch of vague generalities. Anyway, forgiving the wicked often constitutes enabling evil.
If you Google "suppressed astronomy", nothing but conspiracy websites and religious "creation science" sites come up. Aparently, the planet Niburu is hot with this subset of humanity just now. There is also some so-called information about the Haliburton "internment" camps.
But, hey. We're just so opinionated and closed minded. No worries. Have seen it all before. People in the past have expected me to take David Icke seriously.
This anonymous troublemaker is a real piece of work! When you start branding regulars whom we have known long term as being PCG members, it just goes to show that trolls will sink to any level to cause disruption and get attention.
Bad Troll! Bad, bad, bad! Go crawl under Herbie's prayer rock!
and on a lighter note, apparently CGI no longer views homosexuality as sin.
one of their ministers has a long article on sex, and he says that homosexuality is not a sin, and that anyone that says otherwise is actually twisting the scriptures.
I knew Bernie & family three decades ago. I am so sorry to read what has happened to him. If you stay with Armstrongism and its offshoots long enough, your brain and thought patterns inevitably becomes distorted.
I never got anything out of the sermons I heard in Catholic church, either.
As for forgiveness enabling evil, that only happens if you let it. I'm not talking about the ridiculous pacifistic idea that the Christian thing to do is to stand by and do nothing to stop the bad guys. I won't attend a church that teaches that. Evil should be stopped whenever possible. Anything less is cowardice, not forgiveness.
Anon 8:47, that is some thought provoking perspective regarding forgiveness. And, in a sense you are right about the enabling. I try to take into consideration some of the unintended consequences of my activities these days, but to mostly dwell on the positives. Back when I enjoyed administering paybacks, a school teacher whom I was dating pointed out to me that if you have an opportunity to be a buffer, it is preferable to break a bad cycle rather than exacerbating it with a payback. I guess this is something she tried to impart to the children in her class at an early age.
I've also learned that forgiveness primarily benefits ourselves, because it frees us up from negative energy.
Obviously, if you have a clear shot at preventing someone from doing evil, you'd probably want to take advantage of that opportunity, and exert your effort towards good, but life often is not that simple.
As to the Catholic church, I found their services to be somewhat on the simplistic side myself, but being close at one point to a Catholic family, I learned that it's the extra weekly programs and classes where the depth is found. I never met a Catholic who was into deep personal Bible study, though. They seem to leave that up to the priests.
BB
"By the way, you can be pretty sure Cartwright is doing it to show how stupid it is. "
Actually, I'm pretty sure he's more interested in the $$
Religion can be counted on to act like a drug- one which often has negative side effects.
Sometimes the side effect is only mild delusion, and sometimes it's more severe, like the madness of this person.
It's interesting to see such delusion in action. Depending on their level of belief, people who have converted to a religion will ascribe the good things that happen to them as proofs that their religion's deity is answering their prayers or blessing them.
Conversely, when bad things happen to them, they're ascribed to things such as not following their deity's teachings closely enough, or even their deity giving them the "gift" of a trial.
Actually, I'm pretty sure he's more interested in the $$
I doubt the Journal is a money making proposition. He has a small audience. I thought he used to give it away free.
Anon 11:22, I see a disturbing pattern emerging. It's beginning to look like soon people will be choosing their splinter because of sex! Sex is at a minimum at PCG because Flurry will boot you if you have an accidental child. Plenty of sex at RCG as well as there should be, because Pack owns your income and retirement, and what else is left. But CGI? Seems like there's the ticket for those who have been repressing their innate urges. In fact, I sense a slogan coming on! "CGI, where BI means something completely different from what it means in all the other splinters!"
Catholic sermons are simplistic but their scholarship can be quite sophisticated (not that I agree with it or anything).
S.H.
What a lot of people don't understand is that to get the whole story you need to listen to both sides. I don't like Alex Jones but I listen to him once in a while because he points out things that you can sometimes prove independently that the media are covering up. It's not that I always believe him, it's that he says stuff the others hide that you can verify for yourself once you are aware of it.
Regarding the Journal, I believe that Dixon (whom I have never met), is just reflecting the diversity currently experienced within the remains of the Armstrong movement. Often, the same types of stories published in the Journal are posted here. The difference is that the Journal is presented from the ACOG member's perspective, while Banned is from the ex-member perspective. If Dixon were not a sincere member, I don't believe you would see him regularly leading and participating in the special music at Big Sandy.
Unless you are refuting British Israelism, or observing narcissism within the ministry, it appears that the Journal attempts to be rather liberally inclusive in their editorial policy.
BB
For what it's worth, Bernie Monsalvo does not believe in reincarnation or that he's had a past life. He was writing what could be thought of as a parable, with some of his musings meant to be humorous, not to be taken literally. Now that I see how he's being beat up on this forum, I wish I had edited his lead to make his humor a little less subtle for some of you guys. Maybe I could have added several pairs of apology quote marks here and there throughout the article. --Dixon Cartwright (at The Journal)
Dixon, I think you outclassed every one of us here! And thanks for the clarification.
SH.
If you Google "suppressed astronomy", nothing but conspiracy websites and religious "creation science" sites come up...
--------------------
Learn to use Google better. I guess you missed my post linking to the letter in New Scientist. Did you get the list of all the names of respected scientists that don't worship the Big Bang dogma. I guess not. Spoke too soon didn't you?
Now that I see how he's being beat up on this forum, I wish I had edited his lead to make his humor a little less subtle for some of you guys.
---------------
No Dixon, I'm glad you did it the way you did. We all have egg on our faces. It serves us right! On this blog we are prone to shooting our mouths off before checking anything out for ourselves.
My take on the article that Dixon's revealed as humor-
Given that there's so many "way-way-out" contributions and ads in the Journal, it would be helpful if something like this were placed in a "Funny Bone" or similarly named section, in order to help distinguish it from the kooky stuff that's not written tongue-in-cheek and meant to be taken seriously.
JMO.
-Norm
Between Pack, Flurry, Weinland, Malm, King, Thiel and little Thiel, it would be quite normal for us here to assume there was a nutcase like Bernie running around the COGs.
lol
...it would be quite normal for us here to assume there was a nutcase like Bernie running around the COGs.
I think we all know what ASS-U-ME means. It might be normal, but that's the problem. The normal way people "think" is highly inadequate. It's hasty, opinionated, judgmental, irresponsible, and often downright destructive.
Most of these comments about recent articles in The Journal reveal either the inability of the commentators to read with comprehension or their unwillingness to do so. They misrepresent the character of the originals and then others jump on the negativity bandwagon. Make sure you first understand the original correctly before you rush, self-righteously, to criticize.
Don't forget John Allen, our resident nutcase in Costa Rica!
Given these nutcases, it would be normal for us to assume there were AT LEAST one more (and possibly quite a few more) nutcases we weren't previously aware of.
"For what it's worth, Bernie Monsalvo does not believe in reincarnation or that he's had a past life. He was writing what could be thought of as a parable, with some of his musings meant to be humorous, not to be taken literally. Now that I see how he's being beat up on this forum, I wish I had edited his lead to make his humor a little less subtle for some of you guys. Maybe I could have added several pairs of apology quote marks here and there throughout the article." --Dixon Cartwright (at The Journal)
Dixon should have edited Bernie's article right out of existence to make the entire sick joke go away.
The Journal newspaper should carry a regular, prominent disclaimer informing its readers that much of its content is fiction and nonsense written by fools, rebels, and demoniacs with agendas, and should not be taken too seriously. The contents of that newspaper could then be passed off as just "entertainment" for COG people who are bored by the Bible and sound doctrine.
After all, television shows full of the very worst evils around and designed to pervert people (especially children) who watch them get passed off as "entertainment" for the whole family.
The loud, deafening screams of angry, drug-addled, crazy people on the radio get passed off as music intended for the "entertainment" of people who can't stand silence or real music.
Virtually all bets in all casino games are designed with the probabilities against the gamblers so that the gamblers are guaranteed to be overall net losers in the long term, and this costly scam gets passed off as "entertainment" for the players.
No doubt The Journal newspaper could likewise successfully pass off the writings of all the 666+ different fools, rebels, and demoniacs on the COG scene as just "entertainment" for COG people who find their Bibles to be too dry, dusty, and boring.
Of course, too much of such "entertainment" could leave them perverted, deaf, broke, and spiritually ruined.
Why condemn the Journal? I bet nobody here even read the article on the Journal's site anyway. They just attacked based on what they assumed.
Anon 6:38 AM,
I did read the well-written essay by Bernie Monsalvo; however, there were a couple of things that caught my attention that did not appear to be accurate regarding the man David.
For one thing, Bernie wrote the following: “…I somehow understood that David would have to be resurrected, and evidently he would be resurrected long before the valley of dry bones became the repository of millions of people who had been dead for centuries…”
David will NOT have been resurrected long before the time of the valley of dry bones. David was a servant of God and a prophet of God just like all of the other Old Testament (OT) prophets and they will all be together as part of that valley of dry bones to be resurrected with “all Israel.”
Consider, for example, Isaiah, one of the so-called major prophets of the OT. When did Isaiah expect to be resurrected? Isaiah knew he would come alive when his fellow Israelites were to be resurrected and not any time earlier:
“Thy dead men shall live, TOGETHER WITH my dead body shall they ARISE. AWAKE and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isaiah 26:19
That is the time of the second resurrection. David will be resurrected in that valley of dry bones along with other prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They will all be resurrected together. Isaiah will be part of the valley of dry bones and David will be there with him; however, they will have different responsibilities. Then, God’s servant David will be “…their prince for ever.” Ezekiel 37:25
There is no reason for David to be in a different resurrection than that of Isaiah with all of his fellow Israelites...
John
Anonymous 6:38 AM said...
"Why condemn the Journal? I bet nobody here even read the article on the Journal's site anyway. They just attacked based on what they assumed."
For a second thing, Bernie wrote: “…King David, the man after God’s own heart, the man forgiven of his trespasses and hideous sins before God…”
Of course, David was the man after God’s own heart, when God’s Spirit was guiding and directing his life; however, David during his lifetime was not forgiven by God for all his trespasses/sins.
God’s Spirit came and went with David, as with all of the Old Testament prophets, and did not constantly dwell within him as it would within a begotten Firstfruit sealed by God’s Spirit: as was the case with Jesus Christ (John 6:27 “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.”), the First of the sealed Firstfruits, and with all of those of God’s Church begotten and sealed (2 Cor 1:22 “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”) since Christ down through time over the past approximate 2,000 years.
David was not the man after God’s own heart when he numbered Israel, or when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and neither was he a man after God’s own heart in the matter of Urriah. God says so in I Kings.
I Kings 15:4 “Nevertheless for David’s sake did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:”
:5 “Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”
David was a prophet of God. He was a servant of God, but he was never begotten and sealed by God’s Spirit to become one of the 144,000 Firstfruit s (Rev 14:4): members of God’s Church. David’s obedience to God came by way of God’s Spirit working in his life, but when it was not there working in his life there were problems.
All of David’s sins, with one exception, were forgiven because of the sacrificial system that was in place at the time. There was no sacrifice for premeditated murder. If one killed another accidentally, there were laws (Numbers 35:16 and on) to cover that. Because of that premeditated murder in the matter of Uriah God did not give David, nor his family, a “pass” on that one. David was not forgiven for that sin, that trespass, that hideous sin; however, David died for that sin; didn’t he? David paid the penalty for that particular trespass, that hideous sin.
John
"You people are just too bizarre for me!" signed, Gerald Flurry
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