Leave it to Rod Meredith to set more conditions in what he thinks his god does. He sincerely believes that unless you return to the "faith once delivered" you will get sick and weak.
Just what is the "faith once delivered?" Its the entire storehouse of beliefs that Herbert Armstrong came up with. It was is interpretations of what thought those beliefs should be. Herbert was the restorer of truth. Sadly, the god of Herbert Armstrong was a weak and impotent god because it had somehow had its message suppressed for 1,900 years.
According to the thinking of Meredith, unless you return to the "truths of HWA you will become sick, weak and eventually die.
The entire focus of faith in regard to healing was gradually obliterated in the minds of thousands of brethren! We all need to realize this and do everything we can to return to the faith “once for all delivered”—even in regard to divine healing! So please remember, brethren, as you approach the Passover, that Christ paid a terrible penalty so that you could be healed. If you come to the Passover without this understanding and this faith, many of you—like the Corinthians—may become weak or sick and may “sleep”! For Paul continued in the above passage, “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (vv. 31–32). Editorial: Our Passover AttitudeIs there more to Meredith's current health issues that is more to the story than he is letting on? Is he sick and suffering strokes because he turned his back on his god? Is his god displeased with the current turmoil going on in the church with the lawsuits and corruption in Charlotte?
It is a marvel (a marvel that makes one want to puke) that men like Ram-Rod put forth with the SAME, SAME, SAME garbage -- same message, same words, same syntax, yet each time consider it something profoundly new. They hear it as a vital, attention-grabbing, important pronouncement . . . . YAWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNN!
ReplyDeleteWhat obnoxiously sentimental pop song, played over and over and over until we're sick of hearing, could we compare this to? (Apologies to the songwriters.)
Ideas, anyone? Maybe "Feelings"?
I will still go back and blame the Book itself for being the source of such beliefs. RCM is specifically speaking of being healed, which has always been one of his focal issues. Of course forget the fact he had his retinas reattached years ago rather than trust impending blindness to God because it was "repair surgery." I imagine most surgery is repair. That's the nature of surgery.
ReplyDeleteI Corinthians 11
28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world."
Granted, this "teaching" is vague in the sense that "without discerning the body of Christ" is not defined or expanded upon in just exactly what that means. But the penalty for doing so is clear. You get weaker physically, get sick and can die. Paul probably dropped this perspective when he himself got physically weaker, sick and died himself.
Perhaps it means not understanding Jesus death in some or all it's supposed ways and benefits. Perhaps it means something about the church itself as "the body of Christ" but that's pretty advanced for even Paul. It even has something to do with understanding yourself but again not clearly explained as what that means.
The point is that the Bible teaches this many will get "weak, sick and some die" concept for not "getting it" whatever it is and here it is poorly explained and defined. Especially for the cost of not getting it being so high.
The Bible promises if you do simplistic things, "ask and it shall be given", "whatever you ask in my name I will give it," "Any sick among you...and the sick will be made well." And here , if you don't get the meaning something, you will get weak, sick and might die.
Sincere folk who lack critical thinking skills will simply do what it says and then wonder why it doesn't actually work or play out as advertised. Rather than find fault with the text and the concept, they beat themselves up for "you have not because you ask amiss" and blame their own or others lack of faith.
It's all quite annoying and costly mentally, emotionally and physically to believe many of the Bible's "pithy sayings" and admonitions to just do or think this or that and all will be well. Tithing does not open the windows of heaven nor does it return good measure, pressed down and flowing over. It just is not true and all the blame the member or the believer is not going to make it true with stipulations .
In the same way, all the "Jesus will return soon" is a simply wrong headed fairytale and look how many millions waste precious life time missing their real lives now in lieu of thinking about the future in ways as if they knew. They and we don't.
Anyway, I know what RCM means in his head and have heard it for decades so he is running on automatic pilot scripturally and while he may mean it in a bigger sense of coming back to his idea of what The True Church is, he gets his ammo from the impractical, unreal and untrue simplistic first century ideas of zealots who just knew their Christ/Messiah was coming "soon" "without delay" "in a day you think not", "as a thief in the night", and were living in the last days, "far spent" , "the hour now is" and in a time when things must "shortly come to pass" and "behold I come quickly." All of which was wrong and still is.
Sorry...it is the last days after all. I'm "scoffing" again... In my carnal mind I believe I am noticing, but I know it's "scoffing." My bad.
ReplyDeleteEvery human who ever walked this earth has or will get sick and eventually die. This fact is simply a part of being human. RCM is putting a guilt trip on his flock of sheep. Using simple logic his statement is easy to refute. However simple logic is not something his followers are programed to use.
ReplyDeleteDennis, as they say with investing 'past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Just because in the past 'the days are past spent,' 'soon,' 'without delay,' etc, does not mean that the future will be the same.
ReplyDeleteThe future might be very different.
Everybody gets sick and then eventually dies. Living in fear of the inevitable will only prevent you from fully experiencing the time you have left. So spend your time wisely by creating experiences worth sharing. As babies, we came into this world insanely curious but helpless. I would like to check out just as curious but a just a tad more helpful to those I have left behind. :)
ReplyDeleteDBP
I inoculated our children against such fear-mongering prophecy with similar warnings about everyday behavior, spoken ironically. I would often say things like, "Finish your peas and carrots. Kids who don't eat their vegetables eventually die."
ReplyDeleteMy daughter, at age two-and-a half, had been present at her grandfather's death, and we had explained that death is normal; everybody does it eventually. When our son came along later, he got the same explanation without the reminder of an actual death and funeral. They knew they didn't really have to clean their plates and understood that the threat of eventual death if they didn't was an empty one.
Our children grew up to have a healthy suspicion of charlatans. Furthermore, they are good conversationalists with a fine sense of irony.
Ironically, it seems like Rod is inadvertently leading by example here.
ReplyDeleteWhy shouldn't humans take advantage in the latest technology in matters of health? Simple minded people misapplied examples of witch doctors or shamans of the Bible, who were actually the purveyors of pagan rituals as part of their "healing" acfivities to modern doctors whose activities are rooted in secular science. Many hospitals were actually founded by Christians, but they were Sunday-keeping Christians, so Armstrong theology does not accept them as such. One would think that as in the case of Kosher foods, Jewish hospitals would be acceptable as free from pagan elements, but somehow this was never even considered.
It is of course well documented that HWA saw doctors, and used medications, but try telling this to ministers who forbid old ladies from taking taking glaucoma medicine under penalty of not taking Passover.
BB
Dennis said:
ReplyDelete"first century ideas of zealots who just knew their Christ/Messiah was coming "soon" "without delay" "in a day you think not", "as a thief in the night", and were living in the last days, "far spent" , "the hour now is" and in a time when things must "shortly come to pass" and "behold I come quickly."
For the first 20 or 30 years after John's Rev, maybe "Behold I'm coming quickly" might have applied by some stretch of the imagination. By 40, 50 yrs you'd be justified in saying "You call that quickly?". After 100, 200, 300 yrs? Something's clearly seriously wrong with that phrase "I come quickly".
But holy crap, 2000 frickin' years!? Behold I'm obviously not coming, you guys.
"2000 yrs cannot be considered a mere delay in formalities..."
Problem is, the "promise" got written down, and each person in each age reads the scribed/printed words as if they apply to them personally at that time. So they read "Behold I come quickly" as being several years from whenever they're reading it. So they don't get how strange it is. How wrong it all is.
"Behold I come quickly" is very true when one kicks the bucket.
ReplyDelete"Behold I come quickly"
ReplyDeleteWithin an hour? Day and year not yet specified.
see:-
"Rev_18:10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Rev_18:17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
Rev_18:19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate."
Who really knows?
cheers
ralph.f
Ralph notes: Behold I come quickly"
ReplyDeleteWithin an hour? Day and year not yet specified."
One should not use the word "quickly" or "soon" or any such combination indicating a short time in the lives of the people to whom it is written to if it doesn't really mean anything near that. "Who Knows." No one, but the NT authors acted as if they did know and did cause couples to not marry or monies to be given along with property to share because the time is short. Once some realized "quickly" and "short" was not true, they married and the "all things in common" idea fell apart . Those are sort term lifestyles and never meant to be for the long haul of living.
The scripture in Peter about "where is the promise of his coming" and "scoffers" was the direct result of people tired of all the soons and quicklys and realizing that it was not going to happen. Rather than be supportive, the author of Peter, not Peter in reality, but a later mature and disillusioned church type trying to explain all the delays comes up with blaming the people for scoffing and then adds the apologetic that God does not see or think of time as they did. A day is as a thousand years. This was never explained early in the soons and shortlys because they had no reason to make it up yet. This is the equivalent of the OT apologetic of "God sees not as a man sees" or "The wisdom of man is foolishness with God." etc.
God is never wrong. The church is never wrong. The members are never right. They become scoffers if they ask too many questions and notice things aren't quite what they were taught to be.
Rod Meredith, like Doug Winnail, strives to remind their apparently "dead-headed" followers above love (luv, luv, luv...?) and faith; however, neither one of them really, and rarely, explains how those fruits of God (not SELF) are delivered by God to a human being.
ReplyDeleteWell, Rod commented with: "...We all need to realize this and do everything we can to return to the faith “once for all delivered”—even in regard to divine healing! So please remember, brethren, as you approach the Passover, that Christ paid a terrible penalty so that you could be healed. If you come to the Passover without this understanding and this faith, many of you—like the Corinthians—may become weak or sick and may “sleep”!..."
How? How does one "return" to that faith? The Bible actually uses the word "contend," which is not the same as "return," but why pay too much attention to what the Bible says?
And Passover and healing? I thought Passover was important so that when one becomes weak, sickly and finally dies...one does NOT remain in the dust of the earth! Perhaps Rod Meredith is striving to tell all of us that he lacks the very faith he mentions, and that is the reason he is weak, sickly.....and will soon sleep. Well, join the club! It's been appointed for all of us once to die from something.
Well, Rod, who like Doug Winnail, left his ministerial credentials behind in Pasadena, formed his own man-made, faithless (certainly had no faith to see how a Joe Tkach Senior might have anything to do with the existence of scattered Laodiceans), organization of Global (now deceased) and then "Living" group and is still awaiting the appearance of some 10 kings/heads/nations to form on earth (that won't happen until Satan comes out of the pit) and some Mickey Mouse Millennium (MMM) whereby Jesus Christ must return to reign on earth for 1,000 years and war no longer is learned (No mention of the deception and war caused AFTER Satan is loosed from that same pit AFTER their MMM). What dreamers, who cannot tell us the truth about such things.
One does not just GET, or RETURN to, faith. Faith comes from God, not SELF, and it comes by measure:
"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to EVERY MAN the measure of faith."
God gives faith and, before all is said and done, God intends to give it to EVERY MAN by measure (:6 proportion), or God is a liar.
So, Rod, there is no worry necessary about anyone returning, actually contending, for the faith once delivered to others.
PS. If God does not give that faith, or love for that matter, then what is there to return to...or contend for? God is faithful.
John