The following question was asked on a Facebook page the other day. It stirred up a stink on a pro-sabbath group and found wisdom on another group that was filled with exCOG members.
With James Malm, Dave Pack and other spitting and snarling about sabbath breaking it is quit obvious which side of the fence they sit on. Grace and wisdom be damned, the law must stand!
Who is the biggest sinner - the man who molests his daughter/the woman who gossips about every person she knows but they cross the t's and dot the i's when it comes to sabbath keeping, or the man/woman who has to work Saturday because their children are starving and wearing rags and they are about to lose the roof over their heads?
Over the years I have been appalled by the attitude of cog'ers who think that Herbie screwing his own daughter was no big deal.
ReplyDeleteGoes to show you that many of these people are morally bankrupt.
Hmm, that's an interesting question, particularly if you consider Lunar Sabbaths.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible that no one can keep the Sabbath on the 'right' day.
What a mess that would be.
But you know, given that many of the books of the Bible are spurious forgeries, maybe the Armstrongists should consider going back to basics and proving God exists (good luck on that one, since the only real 'proof' is faith) and proving the Bible is God's Word (thus giving it a measure of authority with which they can use to beat everybody over the head with in typical Armstrongist abusive fashion, while they commit sins against humanity).
You ask - "Who is the biggest sinner.." and I ask,is size important? As far as I can recall, scripture simply says in "1Jn 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."
ReplyDeleteThe ACOGs have a good shot at converting anyone who would write the following:
ReplyDeleteI am interested in majoring in the minors. I would like to learn how to keep the sabbath, deleaven my home, and tithe on my mint, anise, and cumin like a chassidic christian, but also learn how to treat my fellow man like dirt and molest my daughter and get away with it. This sounds like a lifestyle that would appeal to me. Can anyone send information to begin the process of joining your organization?
LOL
Welcome to the ACOGs, where teachers falsely call things what they are not, then make obsessive-compulsive observance mandatory, and use this as criteria for judging, and punishments. Keep picked and chosen elements of the law, but forget the royal law of love behind the law. Imitate the Pharisees, but convince yourself that it is the real Jesus you are imitating.
ReplyDeleteBB
We must be very careful about following what the Bible says concerning matters such as the Sabbath. We cannot know what to do just by reading the Bible, so the apostles and prophets are sent to us so they can tell us what we are supposed to do. If it is left up to us to read the Bible and make our own decisions, all sorts of bad things will happen. Apostles/prophets will be disrespected, churches could take in less money, building projects could be delayed or cancelled, etc., etc. So, please, don't do something or not do something just because of what the Bible says. After all, who are you going trust: God's self-appointed apostle/prophet or your own lyin' eyes?
ReplyDelete"You ask - 'Who is the biggest sinner..' and I ask, is size important? As far as I can recall, scripture simply says in 1Jn 3:4 'Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.'"
ReplyDeleteI would say it does matter. It matters because there are real human costs involved. Does it matter if a serial killer murders 9 people or 10? If you're the 10th victim, I'd say it would matter to you!
Jean Rostand is quoted as:
"Kill one man and you are a murderer.
Kill millions and you are a conqueror.
Kill them all and you are a God."
I would say that similar logic could apply to other things too:
Con one person and you're a crook.
Con millions and you're a tycoon.
Con them all and you're their fearless and heroic leader (a god, once again).
or
Lie to one person and you're a liar.
Lie to millions and you're an apostle.
Lie to them all and you're Jesus Christ (a god, once again).
Sin can be viewed from several perspectives. If you only see it from a death penalty, save your ass mentality, then certainly all sin is the same in that any one of them incurs the death penalty for "self".
ReplyDeleteHowever, many sins have horrific effects on one's fellow human beings, and some sins, like being a false prophet, actually interfere with God's work.
If you want to see how even Pharisaic people regard sin, let's take, as an example, a "prophet" who regards it as "sin" to watch an NFL football game. Let's set up a hypothetical "Macabbean" situation, in which an Antiocchus type inquisitor has threatened to brutally and painfully kill the "prophet's" family and congregation, unless the prophet chooses and commits one sin from the following list. The choices are:
1) Blaspheme.
2) Break the sabbath.
3) Eat pork chops
4) Buy new furniture with your second tithe
5) Join the Army
6) Get blown by a homosexual
7) Watch the Superbowl.
When the rubber meets the road, I suspect that it would be absolutely blinding, the speed with which the remote control comes out! That's when value judgments would be getting made about the implications of each sin, like eating pork chops one time might not cause permanent health problems, or breaking the sabbath just once may not bring too bad of a curse, or, if I spend second tithe on furniture, then I wouldn't be able to go to the feast, joining the army enslaves me to all manner of future sin, etc.
Thinking simplistically is what causes well-intentioned Christians to be fooled into making false choices!
I also seem to recall this scripture:-
ReplyDelete"Joh 8:11 ......., Neither do I condemn thee: GO, AND SIN NO MORE."
This one isn't on here, but I'd say it's all the FALSE PROPHETS causing people to "stumble at the law".
ReplyDeleteWell, if you survey prison populations of murderers, counterfeiters, rapists, extortioners, thieves and so forth, there are two sins which they universally condemn and often take action to rectify:
ReplyDelete1) Pedophiles;
2) Those who commit incest.
I'm pretty sure that false prophets who commit incest with their daughter wouldn't last very long....
Any abstract discussion about sin and the death penalty is non sequitur.
The Sabbath issue became clear for me when I stopped "studying" the Bible with COG material. When I stopped reading scriptures with the mental footnote, "...but Garner Ted/Ron Dart/Rod Meredith said this scripture doesn't actually mean what it says..." and etc. When I began to read the Bible and take it at face value, the whole law issue became a non-issue.
ReplyDeletePaul Ray
The sabbath issue became clear to me when I stopped being a christian.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a god who gives a damn whether I keep this or that day "holy" to him, then he bears some responsibility for the fact I don't because he decided his hide his very existence from me. Whenever this or that god might decide to quit hiding, then we can go from there. Till then every single god in hiding can kiss my ass.