There is also an article about the New Church Lady Conference that was sponsored by Church of God International, Christian Educational Ministers and Dynamic Christian Ministries. This conference sounds much more refreshing than the tired old Proverbs 31 woman routine that the church used to foster off on women in the glory days of the church gone by, as they tried to keep women tied down to the 1950/60's kitchen/saran-wrap culture of the church. Since it is 2017, it is refreshing to see them stepping outside the box.
There is a great letter by Reg Killingsley about Victor Kubik's recent tirade on The Shack (book and movie). Kubik wants people to burn the book. How dare they find "truth's" in a book of fiction, when they have so many fantastical stories from the Bible that he knows to be 100% actual events. Since Kubik has never had a real theological education outside a COG environment, he is unable to discern how Bible stories using allegory and myths can convey eternal truths, even though the events were not actual events, but this idea fries the brains of too many COG leaders.
A time to refrain from burning
[The Shack, by William Young, has been a best-selling book since its publication in 2007, and in 2017 a movie was made based on its story.
[Recently United Church of God president Victor Kubik reviewed The Shack (see tinyurl.com/kubik999) and found it wanting.
[In this letter a reader of THE JOURNAL reviews Mr. Kubik’s review.]
Can you be a bibliophile and burn books? In his review of The Shack, Vic Kubik appeared to be preaching to the choir; he probably won’t persuade many Trinitarians.
And therein lies the problem: Is The Shack a novel and film based on a novel or is it a theological exposition?
If it’s a novel, shouldn’t we just take it on the author’s terms?
In a review we might choose to say that any relationship between biblical teaching and the novel is, in our view, purely coincidental.
But to burn it down? Say you didn’t mean that, Vic!
Book-burning has a long and ignoble history. Book-banning has like- wise been the bane of churches and cultures.
So it comes as a surprise that seekers after truth should seek to suppress a work just because they believe it reflects heretical views.
After all, don’t Bible students realize that one man’s heresy is another man’s orthodoxy?
Pan all you want, but don’t ban. Or burn.
It’s like junk food. Just let people know there are other, healthier options. Encourage them to make good choices. But then let them choose.
Douse the flames. Don’t fan them.
Reginald Killingley Big Sandy, Texas
Like any book of fiction, no one takes the story literally, but as a journey with the divine to find comfort with eternal Christian truths.
James Malm will be sure to be incensed at an article claiming that Jesus will NOT be marrying the church. Ouch!
There is even a short update by our own Ian Boyne on the Church of God International in Jamaica, which seems to be growing while other COG loose members. Maybe he is on to something... :-)
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3 comments:
Well history has been made. The Painful Truth's web address hwarmstrong.com was finally mentioned in the Journal. After 20 years on the Internet, the granddaddy of the anti-armstrong websites finally get noticed. Hats off to Dixon for the acknowledgment.
On the front page article , about the AC reunion , happy to see Al Carrozzo getting credit for fighting corruption in the old WCG .
He ended up getting his head handed to him , and cast out, but he had backbone and fortitude and stayed faithful to God regardless.
A little more nostalgia, some revisionism, news of vastly scaled down "works" by various splinters, a couple more obits, and some amusing ads. Then again, the Rolling Stones are still doing concerts, they are all in their 70s, and they still do convincing renditions of their songs. Who'd have thought that either would have lasted this long?
BB
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