Only in Armstrongism (and World Net Daily) can such stupidity abound:
Bob Thiel writes;
I would suggest that if this particular storm “Jonas” was a punishment for a recent action, it was more likely a punishment for US Vice President Biden’s promotion of the LGBT agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday ss opposed to the lifting of sanctions related to the Iranian deal.
Why?
Because the Bible does ties aspects of the LGBT agenda in with weather punishments (cf. Amos 4:7-12). Plus the Bible teaches that God will remove “the protection from Judah” (the nation currently called Israel) and perhaps allow the Iranians to damage it (cf. Isaiah 22:6-8).
Bitter Bob's bumbling proof?
Scripture is clear that God controls the weather and sometimes provides extreme weather for correction. And that includes snowy weather. Notice the following:
5 God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. 6 For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’;… 9 From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, And cold from the scattering winds of the north. 10 By the breath of God ice is given, And the broad waters are frozen. 11 Also with moisture He saturates the thick clouds; He scatters His bright clouds. 12 And they swirl about, being turned by His guidance, That they may do whatever He commands them On the face of the whole earth. 13 He causes it to come, Whether for correction, Or for His land, Or for mercy. (Job 37:5-6, 9-13)22 “Have you entered the treasury of snow, Or have you seen the treasury of hail, 23 Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, For the day of battle and war? (Job 38:22-23)
26 comments:
Well, lets try this on for size!
Prophet Thiel: "Mr. Biden: If you insist on going to Switzerland to promote the LGBT agenda, God has revealed to me, his end times prophet, that He will bring the worst blizzard in history on the East coast of modern Israel, the USA!"
It makes the news, it is fulfilled, and Bob Thiel is thereafter recognized as a true prophet. Except, oops! It isn't known or prophesied in advance. Dr. Bobby picks between two alternatives and guesses cause after the fact. Bummer, Dude! No validation! You flunk! Not a prophet, just a guesser.
BB
"Bob! Don't speak for me. I did not send any snow to punish anyone for what anyone else said. It's WINTER and it was a low pressure system. Weather works like that. People don't feel punished on the East Coast when it snows like that. They get days off, school is cancelled, they make cookies and hot chocolate and help their neighbors if their power goes off. Kids make extra money shoveling snow and, while it might keep some workaholics nuts thinking they are losing money, everyone knows you will get days off work in WINTER on the East Coast. You are so stupid. Depart from me , you who can't understand weather in the 21st Century. Sadly and of course the doubt portion you got was a double portion of ignorant. I never knew you and don't want to start now."
God
"Doh...you frustrate me so badly even I made a God goof!. "double portion" not "doubt portion" though I do doubt you got it and you certainly did not get it from me. And another thing. Even I can't use the "where were you Job?" lines anymore. Any 5th grader knows where the treasuries of the snow are and how it forms, along with rain, wind, hail and fire. I could get away with that in the Bronze Age but darn it if knowledge didn't increase me...."
God
Or Bob.....
"All through human history, the weather has puzzled humans. Lightning was the result of some activity of the gods. Zeus threw it around at his enemies and his voice was the thunder. Baal was the rain god to whom allegiance must be pledged or there would be drought. ...it is this superstitious use of natural cycles and phenomenon of weather that is still being used to beat and drive people fear- ridden into the arms of waiting churches and pastors who will motivate their loyalty with the same tirades of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who we know were mistaken not a few times
Listen very carefully. Weather is weather. One more time - Weather is weather. It's normal and natural. It is NOT a Deity doing its BEST to get in touch. That idea is simply leftover from a time when men did not understand the forces that governed their world and assigned them meaning that worked at that time, but is NOT the way to motivate sincere humans who have enough on their plate learning to coexist with what is......
The assigning of a wrong theological meaning to a natural event for the way the planet works, is a serious mistake in our fundamentalist society. It misleads and frightens people into behaviors that are not helpful and beliefs that are not true."
http://ezinearticles.com/?Weather-is-Not-Gods-Judgment---Its-Weather&id=90653
http://ezinearticles.com/?Weather-is-Not-Gods-Judgment---Its-Weather&id=90653
I saw a news item about a snow plow truck overturning in PA. Thankfully the driver was not hurt, although rumor has it he was heard screaming, "CURSE YOU JOE BIDEN!"
Good grief! Why do these wackadoodle Christians get so obsessed with blessings and cursings? Could it be that by identifying with a "blessin' and cursin' gawd", it gives them a sense of power (compensating for a a hurtful powerlessness that acutely stung at an earlier time in their lives)?
While I don't put much belief on Bob about the reason for the bad weather, I do believe that Yahweh controls the weather. When one house stands while hundreds of others do not, is to me, not by chance.
I know others will call me down because of my remarks, but I don't give a damn what others have to say when they mouth off against the Most High.
Oh, you know, I don't pay much attention to the DSM these days, but isn't this some sort of manifestation of schizophrenia?
You mental health professionals out there -- some help please!
Sweetblood,
What about the Jesus statue in Ohio that was struck by lightning-in spectacular Old Testament Yahweh form- and burned down, while everything around it was unharmed including the porn store next door?
Was that a sign from Yahweh giving us a pro-porn message?
Think about it.
Luv,
Dead Ted
Rumor has it that "Frosty the Snowman" himself is actually gay!
Young Bob Thiel:
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/11/23
Sadly the last remark from dad rings true to this day.
Theil is SO wrong!
It's actually punishment from God for harboring false prophets!
Snow for Bidens comment, Bob Thiel, your god's a d__k. Punish the innocent for a leaders actions, very King David like though...
Sweetblood says, "I know others will call me down because of my remarks, but I don't give a damn what others have to say when they mouth off against the Most High."
Oh, man. If you had overheard a conversation I participated in among a group of my former colleagues, all secular academics who read the Bible (and everything else) with a critical eye, at a retirement party, you would have had some heavy-duty ignoring to do.
It was probably HWA's recognition of the dangers posed by the kind of critical thinking done by people with a broad base of knowledge that led to the anti-intellectualism that pervaded the Ambassador Colleges where his ministers were trained.
Often new church members found out the hard way that if you questioned any church teaching, the minister would verbally bash you, and sometimes verbally tear you down. To me, some of the rebuttals here, are becoming minister like.
The anti intellectualism is present in all the churches since the attitudes are that the big people have all rights, and the little people have no rights. The little people do not even have a right to life, since the core of Gods way is supposedly the 'give way.' Since this double standard cannot be defended, the churches revert to a anti thinking stance. Oh, not forgetting, only the big people have a right to think.
If religion promoted critical thinking there would be no religion
People in California are being punished for homosexuality. How you ask? The water reservoirs are up 30 inches from a couple of months ago.
Thor, author of thunder, who in his might conquered the Ice Giants, has obviously loosed them for a little season, as punishment for our failure of this nation to worship him.
All hail the Most High Thor! I pity the poor fool who mouths off against him by crediting the weather to that false Jewish god yahweh! May a puffy cloud from an Ice Giant send down beautiful tiny crystals of ice gently upon your head as punishment for your spiritual whoredoms! Repent of your futile worship or prepare to face Ragnarök! I know others will call me down because of my remarks, but I don't give a damn what others have to say when they mouth off against the Most High.
The angry petty god of the CoG's .
But why didn't he just punish Joe? Why New York with a half assed snow storm?
It is hardly snowmageddon.
"..that led to the anti-intellectualism that pervaded the Ambassador Colleges.." How can a college be anti-intellectual? Isn't college by definition about knowledge, ideas and critical thinking? Then what went on in this college? How did students learn 'how to live'? I would love a reply from people who attended AC.
We really need some LGBT activity where I live! I'd like to get some skiing in!!
Dr Bob,
You have spoken falsely in My Name- you are hearby condemned to an office with irreparably crooked bookcases...
Signed Mayor McCheese
Ronco
Anon at 5:40 pm,
You asked how a college (AC) could be anti-intellectual. The short answer is that AC was not a real college. It was an indoctrination center where students were taught to learn and regurgitate what HWA wanted. HWA ridiculed intellectuals and the so-called wise of the world and did not tolerate real intellectual inquiry or questioning. He wanted graduates he could trust to send out to the local churches and kept the people in line and the tithes flowing to HQ. Some of the non-theology classes had some value (e.g. Spanish, or Speech) but most of it was just an exercise in brain washing. I was a student in Pasadena from 1967-1970 and an employee through 1978.
If you have never read it, I recommend that you read the Gerringer Letter, which is available on the Painful Truth site.
"We really need some LGBT activity where I live! I'd like to get some skiing in!!"
California's drought is measured in Sierra Nevada snowpack. Apparently SF isn't gay enough yet. California apparently needs a LOT more LGBT activity to provide for it's water needs.
"How can a college be anti-intellectual? Isn't college by definition about knowledge, ideas and critical thinking? Then what went on in this college? How did students learn 'how to live'? I would love a reply from people who attended AC."
I was a naive, caretaking and fix everything and everyone child. I grew up in a Calvinistic seriously Biblical Church and when it came time for a career, what better than ministry where the BIBLE was the ultimate source of truth. I found WCG at 14.
At AC I forgot all about science and the other wonderful topics that fascinated me. Archaeology, geology, paleontology. The Bible and "the Work" had taken hold and I got bit hard.
Went into the ministry and it took 25 years of self study, thinking, realizing, comparing, critically thinking and observing how the Bible changed few and enriched some to lose faith in faith. Facts trump faith every time.
AC was indoctrination. Many if not all "Church Schools" are. It had no soul, no intellectual curiosity and if HWA and GTA didn't believe it, you weren't supposed to either.
Ultimately I find the Bible itself to be the culprit and believe that no matter what "seminary" I had gone to, I would have come to my same conclusions. I had been accepted to Roberts Wesleyan Univ in NY for theological studies but choose AC. You know, the further you go and the harder it is to get there, the more right it is...not.
I now find the stories of the OT and most in the NT to be mostly made up and untrue. I find the "Salvation" story untrue and unreasonable. The Jesus of the Gospels seems more a literary construct based on OT scriptures and told in the style of Midrash. The Jesus of Paul a cosmic hallucination on the part of one more man, Paul, and I'm not going that way again.
Critical thinking has led me to believe Evolution of everything is true, details always to follow. Critical thinking has led me to believe theology is just what we make up to comfort ourselves knowing we shall die. The Bible is the problem and from the problem arise problematic churches, beliefs, preachers and unnecessary demands which lower the quality of life for sincere, but uncritically thinking, folk.
There are some good thoughts in the Bible, and really bad ones, but I have gotten to the point being unmoved by anyone quoting it to me or appealing to its authority as the final answer to anything.
I'm sorry I ever went to Embarrassing College and would hope kids in the splinter groups would choose real lives and education apart from the fake copies of the original.
You really couldn't get away with exercising your rights to free speech at Ambassador College. If you did, either faculty members, or the various monitors, student body officers, and goody-two-shoes students would make sure that you were counselled for your "attitude problem".
In classroom situations, or in dormitory "bull session" settings, you really could not ask the hard and incisive, intellectually satisfying questions. In other words, students could not open discussions through challenging or presenting an alternative to a concept as it was being taught in class, in church, or in student body forum. The only questions that were considered legitimate were those which would help you and your classmates to embrace and better understand what had been stated. You could also make comments that were supportive of what had been stated by a faculty member or minister, based on outside knowledge or personal experience. Remember, you were studying at the feet of Gamaliel. Therefore, in order to be considered as a student in good standing, basically you had to cultivate and maintain a Pollyannaish outlook and concentrate on developing the universal Ambassador personality. No thinking outside of the box, and no making of unapproved innovations.
Surprisingly, there were students who were able to comply, and to do well in this environment. These students received good labels, such as "converted". Were they? If you know the whole history of the thing, a large number of the students later came to their senses, and left the organization. People got divorces and indulged in shack-ups. Alcohol and illicit stimuli were used. Some whom you would never have expected even ended up on the wrong side of the law, and spent time in jail or prison. And, shockingly, some of these were the various monitors, student body leaders, faculty members, and goody two shoes. It begs the question, "was the AC experience real?" I have no idea what happened to these people. In their student years, did they try to fake what they had thought was the admirable attitude of the day? Was there actually anything to the program in the first place? Did they get caught up in group think? Did they begin thinking and growing as human beings further in their later years? There are probably as many answers as there are questions.
Personally, I was part of the minority of the student body who could not function in such an environment. I ended up simply being me, had lots of fun, and picked up the tab for that on the way out the door after my sophomore year. In a way, I'm glad I had two years at AC, because it was a protected environment, keeping me from making some of the grave mistakes which I might have made at a secular college. That was probably a good thing, because there was no mistaking the fact that I suffered from PTSD as a result of "Child-rearing, God's Way", and the campus environment was a mild improvement over what my home life had been.
Bottom line: Unless you drank the Kool Aid, licked your lips, begged for more, and then became one of the servers of the Kool Aid, AC was useless time-logging, and a real bummer.
BB
DoubleDose almost makes me want to believe in the theory of the bicameral-mind. His delusions are just his struggles with auditory-ambiguities. Because , if he was skilled in the finer things like a positive mental attitude he would learn that it is about making the "best out of" whatever shit hit the fan instead of the obsessive need to find someone to blame. Whether he learns to ease other people's suffering with love and compassion or whether he sees the difference or not, he can keep his shitty whethers. Unless it's sunshine of course.
Walkin 'round the room singing
"stormy Weather"
At 57 Mt. Pleasant Street
Well, it's the same room
but everything's different
You can fight the sleep
but not the dream
Things ain't cookin in my kitchen
strange affliction wash over me
Julius Ceaser and the Roman Empire
couldn't conquer the blue sky
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Well, there's a small boat made of china
It's going nowhere on the mantlepiece
Well, do i lie like a loungeroom lizard
Or do I sing like a bird released
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
The weather(whether) with you
(everywhere you go)
(everywhere you go)
(everywhere you go)
Crowded House "Weather with you"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ZVK6QWp7E
LIVE version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSE1STfzQfU
drive-by-philosopher
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