Several of the Churches of God over the last 15 years or so have tried their best to rope members into spending money on "Weekends" tied into various holy days. These fun weekends are supposed to unite the true body of believers. The next one coming up is Pentecost, which for normal Christians falls on May 20th. But, the Church of God has to be different, so it has to have it on another day or two. The Church of God can't figure out which one is actually right. And, this does not even include the crazy dates James Malm and Bob Thiel claim is right!
This is just indicative of the sad state of affairs that the COG is now in. For a church that claims to be restored first century Christianity and that it is the one and only TRUE church, it demonstrates that it is anything but.
The Pentecost Festival Weekend in 2018 will be held over 3 different weekends (owing to calendar differences): May 19-20, May 26-27, June 23-24.
On the weekend of May 18-20:
The Church of God International in Ontario, Canada, would like to welcome you to its first ever Pentecost Super Sabbath Weekend.
Everyone is invited to attend Pentecost Weekend with the Intercontinental Church of God at its usual site: Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park, Land Between the Lakes.
The United Church of God has a new venue for 2018: “the beautiful Potawatomi Inn Resort in Pokagon State Park on Lake James, which is right off of I-69 in northeast Indiana. This resort is larger than the state park facilities in Brown County and McCormick’s Creek, with a full restaurant and a café and community gathering rooms for fellowship.” Church of God News
Instead of making a mockery, just go there and chat it up with them, and set them straight on a few things. Hand them copies of "My Awakening".
ReplyDeleteAre these Pentecost getaway weekends conducted as some mainstream Christian churches conduct retreats? It would seem that the day commemorating the coming of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit would lend itself to a very serious and deep retreat.
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Some comments made were: "...COG's Now Turning Pentecost Into Weekend Fun Times, But Still Cannot Figure Out What Day To Keep It On...The Church of God can't figure out which one is actually right. And, this does not even include the crazy dates James Malm and Bob Thiel claim is right!...This is just indicative of the sad state of affairs that the COG is now in. For a church that claims to be restored first century Christianity and that it is the one and only TRUE church, it demonstrates that it is anything but..."
ReplyDeleteAnd time and life continues on! BTW, I like the spinning globe icon on this website...everything just keeps going around and around, on and on.
The xCOGs are so confused, so different, one might think they have an author of confusion assisting them.
So many of them believe in some Mickey Mouse Millennium (MMM) where Jesus Christ very soon is to appear on earth to reign for a thousand years, while scriptures say He will be at His Father's right hand for some time to come. Keep looking....in vain, as time will tell!
Think of the Feast of Tabernacles. God specified that only the first day was to be a holy convocation, unless a weekly Sabbath also occurred during that 7-day period, but the confusing xcogs want to treat all 7 days as if they were holy convocations. Talk about confusion!
So, with Pentecost, it's no wonder they can't figure out exactly how to count 50! Pentecost when is it? Is it count 50 from after some Sabbath, or is it that count 50, and then +/- a day, +/- 2 days, +/- a week, + a month? Talk about confusion? Who is authoring all of this?
Perhaps Jeremiah was not so confused, for he wrote: "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23
Or, for that matter, it is not in man to count either!??????
With all of the confusion, maybe even the Apostle Paul was correct to write the following: "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." Romans 3:11
Time will tell...
John
Pentecost in the COGs always was translated "Count 50ish" or "count 49 thru 51"
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting curiosity that the major COGS give credence to the authority of the Hebrew Hillel Calendar which includes postponements and the like. The quote is "we have no other authority to go by" or in effect, that the Jews have "provenance" and history in providing us the calendar.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Pentecost is that amongst the Jews, it is celebrated on a floating day , SIVAN 6, which can occur on any day of the week.
Although I agree with the COGS recognition of a Sunday Pentecost, it OVERRIDES the authority of the Sanhedrin. So the COGS must therefore admit to the idea that "we honor the authority of the Jews in regards to the calendar, UNLESS we happen to disagree with it!"
That being the case, it opens up a whole can of worms in regards to "who is the authority" , which always breaks down into sects, divisions , politics and power. The calendar issue has been one that many have used to create their own little sects.
I respect everyone who is trying their best in this debate, and honor them with the idea that they are attempting to decipher a Gordian Knott with many unclear and unresolvable issues, and Im sure God views it the same way too.
In life, it is not the WHAT that matters, but the WHY. Reasonable men and women should be able to reasonably disagree in questionable and debatable areas without having to classify the other as "Laodicean" , deceived or unconverted.
John
ReplyDeleteYour 5.48 AM comment amounts to belittling humans, a minister favorite. As far as I'm concerned, that's murder. "None that seeketh after God?" If you read Acts, many did. The gospels mentions blameless people, people with a good heart, and Christ's "well done, good and faithful servant." By contrast, you love the cars, planes, entertainment, internet, medical advances (longer lifespan) that your putrid humans have invented.
Without a Sanhedrin, their absolute legalism is just not possible.
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Here's a Pentecost treat for you, another of the various Bible contradictions or errors:
ReplyDeleteActs 2:5. "And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven."
Notice that your Bible makes it plain. These Jews came from every nation under heaven. Not from "every nation known to the Bible writers." Not from "every nation in Eurasia." The Bible is unambiguous: people came to Jerusalem for Pentecost from every nation under heaven.
Why, then, do we have absolutely no record of Jews coming to Jerusalem from the Mayan or Mound Builder civilizations in the Americas, contemporary with the first Pentecost? Why do we have no record of Jews coming to that first Pentecost from Japan? Why do we have no record of Jews coming to that first Pentecost from China?
If the writers got it wrong on such a basic detail as "every nation" shouldn't we be prepared to accept that they exaggerated in all sorts of other details as well?
I know this is way off topic. Sorry. But I have a link to a website that maintains the old Armstrongist view of Native Americans. I don't know who this guy is but he has many of the points of argument that I have heard in the past - very knowledgeable. I did not read all of the article. A little sickening. Here it is:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hope-of-israel.org/algonqun.htm
The writer's name is Keyser. I have never heard of him but he seems to not only have read the Compendium of World History by Herman Hoeh but has absorbed a lot of the oral tradition that used to float around WCG congregations. This is an interesting historical document because it verifies what late-comers to Armstrongism deny - our own "holocaust deniers."
Notice that he does not state explicitly that Native Americans should be exterminated. Instead he makes his case implicitly. Keyer draws a precise parallel between the Canaanites and the Native Americans. This parallel makes it possible to transfer the to "modern Israel" the lesson to ancient Israel that they should have exterminated the Canaanites when they had the chance. Hence, he provides an implicit encouragement to genocide. Not that he or his congregation would lift a hand to enact what is in their hearts - because they do not believe in bearing arms - but they would like to see, say, the U.S. Army do the righteous job.
Is this one of the guys who used to advertise in Cartwright's paper?
NEO, before the white man got here, Indians were killing each other off faster than the white man did. They were also enslaving and cannibalizing each other. So, the original "holocaust" on this continent was Indians killing Indians, not whites killing Indians. Oh yeah, the Africans were just as bad. Thank God all those primitive stone-age not-so-noble illiterate savages were civilized and learned to read and write and cover their butts with clothing. Thanks to the agriculture and medicine of the white man, their numbers are currently exploding.
ReplyDeleteThere are two ways to count Pentecost, which are determined by the day after which "Sabbath" you count from: the First Day of ULB or the weekly Sabbath. HWA picked the weekly Sabbath, but until 1974 his idea of "counting from" added a day to the Hebrew understanding of the count. Since 1974, COG Pentecost has always been on Sunday. Using the First Day of ULB as the starting point, Pentecost may be on different days of the week, but this year the Sabbaths coincide, so either method puts Pentecost on Sunday, May 20. The Sadducees used the same method as HWA (weekly Sabbath) and the Pharisees used the First Day of ULB, which is done be Orthodox Jews today.
ReplyDeleteChurches that celebrate Easter and Pentecost will use Constantine's method of determining Easter, in which the spring equinox determines the first month, not the Biblical buds of barley. Pentecost is then seven weeks after Easter. Since Eastern Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar, sometimes the first month, and Easter, are a month later. For some reason, Easter (and then Pentecost) can also be a week later than one would expect.
Anonymous 12:14 said
ReplyDeleteActs 2:5. "And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven."
The Bible is unambiguous: people came to Jerusalem for Pentecost from every nation under heaven.
Maybe I don't fully understand your point. You seem to indicate Jews were traveling to Jerusalem from all nation under heaven. The verse reads; "And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews." The word dwelling means a inhabitant a permanent resident. These Jews had moved there years before. "from every nation under heaven."; is a general expression. The countries they moved from can be found in verses 9-11.
5:00 - - -I will try to reach you in language you can understand. U not very tallergint.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 8:29
ReplyDeleteThanks. It would be greatly appreciated. Not many wise men are called.
Hoss writes:
ReplyDeleteThere are two ways to count Pentecost, which are determined by the day after which "Sabbath" you count from: the First Day of ULB or the weekly Sabbath.
Lev 23:15 the morrow after the sabbath (Heb. shabbat)
The First Day of ULB is not a “shabbat.” Except for the Day of Purgation, where “shabbat” is used in construct chains, no holy day is a “shabbat”.
John Wheeler (LCG) in his article “The Biblical Basis of the Sacred Calendar” writes:
“Thus, while all Holy Days are "sabbaths" (compare John 19:31), not every Holy Day is called shabbaton, let alone shabbat shabbaton”.
He mistakenly (thanks Bob) argues that Holy Days are “sabbaths” with reference to John 19:31. He cannot do so from the OT unless he uses a translation that translates both “shabbat” and “shabbaton” as “sabbath”.
Lev 23:3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath (Heb. Shabbat/Gk. Sabbaton) of rest (Heb. Shabbaton/Gk. Anapausis), an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein:
Lev 23:39 on the first day shall be a sabbath (Heb. shabbaton/Gk anapausis), and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath (Heb. shabbaton/Gk anapausis).
The Greek LXX maintains this distinction between the seventh day of the week and the non-Day of Purgation holy days. (Cp. the Greek Sabbaton and Anapausis).
Ex 12:16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
Lev 23:7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
Mk 15:42 And now when the [first] even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath (Gk. Sabbaton),
Food preparation is allowed on a holy day but not on a shabbat/sabbaton. The year in which Christ died the First Day of ULB fell on a Sabbat, according to the calendar used by John, but not the calendar used by the Synoptics.