That song pretty much sums up GTA's life and the life of most all of the splinter group leaders. In 2018 they are still doing it their way.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Blast from the past: GTA Sings "My Way"
That song pretty much sums up GTA's life and the life of most all of the splinter group leaders. In 2018 they are still doing it their way.
Dave Pack: "I am a clay pot that God is using to accomplish the impossible"
Dave starts Chapter 1 of his biography off with this deceptive myth that Dave likes to foster off as if Herbert had Dave constantly by his side in order to exclusively train him. That is an absolute impossibility that anyone in Pasadena could verify as never happening in the last 15 years of HWA's life and particularly the last 6 years or so.
David C. Pack was personally trained by Mr. Armstrong during the last 15 years of his life. (This was in addition to four years of Ambassador College.) In part because of this unusual training, Mr. Pack was in a position that God could use him to restore everything that had been lost. Today his ministry is a continuation of the same Work.It took ever so humble Dave 2 1/2 years of intense humbleness and examination of his godly soul to determine that his story needed to be told.
The idea of a biography of Mr. Pack’s life first arose in late 2003 or early 2004. It took Mr. Pack a long time—about two and a half years—to come to grips with the fact that the book needed to be written.Dave is God's chosen human and imperfect vessel.
Many fail to comprehend that God works through flesh. While all people are imperfect and all people make mistakes, it is vital to recognize that God has always chosen to work through human beings—flawed “clay pots.” But when a man determines to yield himself to Christ—when he dedicates his life to following the will of God no matter what—God can use that man to accomplish the impossible (Matt. 19:26; Phil. 4:13).Dave has been tested by his god to be chosen for his extraordinary and difficult assignment.
As you read this biography, you will see that God tries, tests and proves His servants time and time again—over and over and over—and He has to do this, not only because trials both reveal character and build it, but He must know and understand the heart and mind of the human instrument through whom He is working.
How much more and greater become these trials and tests if the man at their center has been chosen for extraordinary and difficult responsibility?God's direct intervention in Dave's life is even more extraordinary than Herbert Armstrong's. Dave says that HWA heard God's call at the age of 34, but Dave was even more special, God spoke to him when he was 17! Dave says he has received an even more comprehensive and intensive training than Herbert did for the same position.
...God called Mr. Armstrong when he was already 34 years old and married for 10 years with two children. He first opened Mr. Pack’s eyes to the truth when he was half as old—a teenager of just 17. Then, Mr. Armstrong had very little time to prepare for the role of leading the Church, while Mr. Pack was blessed with many years of comprehensive—and intensive!—preparation before coming to the same position.Dave ends Chapter 1 with this:
Finally, Mr. Armstrong was Mr. Pack’s teacher, not the other way around. Mr. Pack attended Ambassador College, while Mr. Armstrong started and led it.
However, there are similarities seen throughout the two men’s biographies, with the most notable being that both men led lives of submission to God’s will, coupled with a unique determination not to compromise any of His truth, no matter how seemingly “small” or “minor” the point.Humility. Apparently, it is a commodity that neither man had!
Dave Pack: "I have often thought that my entire life has been one most privileged."
The quotes below are from the introduction to Dave Pack's "Authorized Autobiography." Can there ever have been a greater human being to walk this green earth and to lead a Church of God? Not even Bob Thiel is this superfantastic! The narcissism runs deep!
I have often thought that my entire life has been one most privileged. Of course, living in a modern Western nation is enough in itself to make this true. Just the list of extraordinary physical blessings enjoyed is nearly without end. I had wonderful parents, an unusually productive first marriage of over 36 years, with God blessing us with three children—and many grandchildren. There has now been the very happy, and quite unexpected, blessing of a second wife, also completely committed to God’s Way. I have traveled theworld, and met many remarkable people along the way.
Obviously, the greatest blessing in my life has been God’s calling into His Church, Work and truth now well over 40 years ago. Nothing could compare to the gift of learning and understanding the marvelous doctrines of God. My calling almost immediately involved a decision that altered the course of my life more than any other: the opportunity to attend Ambassador College. This in turn led to being placed into the ministry of Jesus Christ now approaching 40 years ago. Such a life-altering additional calling meant a host of diverse assignments, always in interesting cities and regions of the country, and working with and assisting many thousands of people, including leaders, in a ministerial setting.
These became the foundation for many of the events experienced and lessons learned related throughout these volumes.Dave's life is so supferfantaulous that his writers cannot even figure out where to start chronicling his life. Imagine living a transcendent life like Dave!
Since an unusually wide range of experiences has enriched my life, a certain problem was created for the writers: which stories and encounters should be included in the biography. Of course, there were certain ones that had to be incorporated because of their transcending influence or impact on my life. The biography would fail in purpose if it did not contain them, coupled with an explanation of why they were important. This alone meant a lot of material needed to be included.For some reason, Dave fails to mention the trail of destruction and ruined lives he left behind in EVERY church area he served at. Someone else had to come in and clean up his messes every single time.
Dave claims his god had a hand in his life just as god supposedly had a hand in Herbert Armstrong's life.
When the overall picture is seen, it becomes evident that God had His hand on me as a young man, and, as with Herbert W. Armstrong, there were times His guidance was very clear in my life. This was most obvious when looking back, rather than around from the middle of an ongoing experience or trial. Taken together, the stories and accounts chosen either carried significant lessons or in some fashion helped define me.As the holy child of God, Dave's mother recognized his magnificence early on:
When one lives a life so superfantabulous, the critics come out and deliberately lie about such magnificent men as Dave. Dave therefore had to set the record straight:As a young boy, my mother characterized me as “a child with great capacity for enjoyment.” This personality trait probably most summarizes my approach to everything and still describes me today. I have always seen life in brilliant colors. This had an automatic effect on how wonderfully blessed I have felt myself to be during the over six decades of my life. To this day, those closest to me marvel at the enthusiasm with which I seem to embrace almost everything before me.
Over the years, much, in fact most, of what has been written and spoken about me is either completely false or badly distorted. Through the Internet, these stories have proliferated and multiplied. That much of this information has been negative comes as no surprise. It is human nature to pass along gossip, true or false. But it is human nature to suppose that most of the stories are true, if only because this is easy. I had to eventually accept that this may be partly because there is no factual alternative to which to turn. I also had to recognize that some in the splinters of the Worldwide Church of God could miss out on participation in the true Work and Church of God if we did not do this.As if ANYONE in ANY of the splinter groups is "missing out" on the awesomeness of Dave's life. They know enough about his crap to not join up with him over the past three years, as he predicted they would be.
Only Jesus has been tested more than Dave's personal life. He is such an amazing dude!
My entire life has been a series of tests of faith. There have been numerous health trials, and more than the average person. There have been almost nonstop slander and persecution, coupled with demotion and unexpected transfers. Then there has been the challenge of having been drafted into the military after God had called me, the trials and blessings of paying third tithe, in addition to tests in the workplace for one year associated with taking time off to observe God’s Holy Days. And there are the many—and often severe—financial trials that God always saw me through. I also worked directly under several ministers who did not have God’s Holy Spirit, and almost seemed to set out to prove it—their later decisions before or during the apostasy plainly evidenced this. There was of course also the long, protracted illness in 2006 and 2007, culminating in death, of my first wife.
Some will say the stories and relationships described are embellished and/or exaggerated. They are not. They come from real events. They happened! (In fact, many punches had to be pulled just to keep certain names out.) The accounts of those I met and associated with involved real people inside and outside the Church.Dave is so confident in his awesomeness that he has geared his story towards 6 different groups of people:
Finally, the biography has been written so that it speaks to as many as six separate audiences. First would be members of The Restored Church of God. Second are those who were once in the Worldwide Church of God. These may be in or out of the splinters today, but are trying to find where God’s Church, Work, Truth and Government continue.
The third group consists of those God is calling now who may have the same interest in my background as I and so many others did in Mr. Armstrong’s preparation and training. Fourth would be the public press. These should at least have an opportunity to read an alternative to what God’s enemies state about His Church and its leaders.
Fifth would be young people in the Church who might benefit in the same way that Mr. Armstrong felt his early life experiences benefited young people of decades ago. Many will recall he excerpted into a small booklet his “Early Years” solely for this purpose.
Sixth are all true ministers of God today. The experiences recorded here become a guide of helpful counseling tools, organizational tips, methods used and painful lessons learned involving mistakes to be avoided that hopefully can be useful for the remainder of these last days. We live in a complicated age, and any additional assistance and voice of experience that can be offered can only help.No one in the Church of God has ever lived a life that was as extraordinary as Dave's! Read it and weep Bob Thiel and Gerald Weston! You apostates! Dave's life will soon be included in scripture as a worthy life to emulate.
I believe that what the reader will encounter captures the extraordinary life I have lived, and it offers an opportunity for others to learn from my experiences. I certainly did.
The Plight of the Follower and Group Think
"The moment you follow someone, you cease to follow Truth,"
Jiddu Krishnamurti
“We are not supposed to all be the same, feel the same, think the same, and believe the same.
The key to continued expansion of our Universe lies in diversity,
not in conformity and coercion.
Conventionality is the death of creation.”
“The larger the group, the more toxic, the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought. And when you suspend your individual beauty you also give up a lot of your humanity. You will do things in the name of a group that you would never do on your own. Injuring, hurting, killing, drinking are all part of it, because you've lost your identity, because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that's bigger than you are and that controls you.”
"But the kingdom is within you, and it is outside of you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will know that you are the sons of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty, and you are poverty. "
Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas
(No wonder it didn't make the cut)
“It was a well-known fact that humans became more addled than usual when running in herds.”
― Jim Butcher, The Aeronaut's Windlass
“There is no need for us all to be alike and think the same way, neither do we need a common enemy to force us to come together and reach out to each other. If we allow ourselves and everyone else the freedom to fully individuate as spiritual beings in human form, there will be no need for us to be forced by worldly circumstances to take hands and stand together. Our souls will automatically want to flock together, like moths to the flame of our shared Divinity, yet each with wings covered in the glimmering colors and unique patterns of our individual human expression.”
― Anthon St. Maarten
“Group Thinking” or lack of courage to ask the tough and strategic questions
is the chief weakness on Boards today.”
― Pearl Zhu,
is the chief weakness on Boards today.”
― Pearl Zhu,
Friday, May 11, 2018
LCG: The Joyless Church of God
Sermon summaries are from an LCG source:
Gerald Weston has deep issues with LCG members who talk to COG members in other groups and who might even attend one of their Feast sites for a day or two in order to be with friends. Weston even has a derogatory label for those who do this, they are travellers on the "Highway Church of God."
One of the reasons for this sermon by Weston is that COGWA is starting a congregation in the Charlotte area n June. Many LCG members will be visiting it. LCG members are already visiting COGWA and UCG Feast sites if they are close by LCG sites. Weston is loosing control and he is not happy. Thus, he has to lecture LCG members on tithing, government and baptism. To be real baptized LCG member one must SUBMIT to everything that the leadership says and requires, which is far above anything Jesus ever required.
00:21:46
There were seven churches in Asia Minor. Can you imagine Philadelphia and Laodicea, which were at the opposite ends of the valley, that Paul is saying that, ‘Boy, if you’re on one end and you are mostly (because it wasn’t everybody in the congregation, but this was the attitude in one congregation), you can’t fellowship with those people over there,’ how foolish; they’re all the Church of God.
Now, we do need to understand that there are differences out here and we’re not all the same. But to say that one should never, uh, you know, sit down with somebody and have a meal with somebody because they’re of a different group - I don’t think we should just be going back and forth, and this church and that church, and be a, uh, oh this one fellow described it, he was in the, what, the “Highway Church of God” or the uh, something like that. Uh, one week he’d go one place, one week he’d go another place. That’s confusion, and it certainly doesn’t help brand new people who don’t understand all the history and so forth. But we’re just talking about the fact that you can’t even be civil to someone who might be of a different group. I think we need to know why we’re here and be strong in why we’re here, and not go back and forth and to different festival sites and that sort of thing - I think that that shows a lack of understanding.
But at the same time, the point is that it’s talking about the world here in chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians, that we’re to forsake… well we’re, we’re… we’re not to go out of the… of, stop fellowshipping with anybody in the world, in other words, your neighbors. You can be friends with them even if they have a few problems, but as far as the Church goes, if someone is going to be sexually immoral, or an idolater, or covetous, or whatever, then he says those individual, if it’s, you know, a real extreme case there, you put ‘em out. The point I’m trying to make here is that we have to decide where our loyalties are. And Christ says you must put him first above all else.Anyone who has loyalties to
1:03:58
Another part of the whole counsel of God is that there are ranks in the ministry. Ephesians 4:11, first apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc. Do we have every one of those at all times? We don’t think so. Mr. Armstrong certainly didn’t think we had prophets at that time. Will there ever be a prophet in the future? Sure, probably. The two witnesses I’d say would be probably prophets. But, right now we understand that there are ranks in the ministry, but because people are so adverse (sic) to GOVERNMENT, they want everybody to be equal. And as, uh, somebody told me one time that was a part of a group that split off from us back in the Kansas City area that first year - another church started, so some people went that direction, and then they split - um, as he said, they have two forms of government. [said with smirking expression] The minister is in charge of the congregation, but on the ministerial level they were all equals because no one wanted to answer to anybody else. You know, this is part of the whole counsel of God. You can’t read Ephesians 4:11 and really do away with the fact that there are different levels within the ministry. And they say, “Well, those are just (what, uh) functions.” Well, you have to decide that, you have to look at it objectively.Weston then seeks to chastise LCG members who do not tithe in amounts he thinks is required. Even though it has been proven over and over that tithing is NOT a new covenant command, the current iteration of COG groups DEMAND that their followers tithe in order to keep the hierarchy in its privileged lifestyles. Apparently, some LCG members are waking up to the fact that the new covenant does not require tithing. Good for them!
Tithing, as a law, not just a nice principle. I remember going out on the internet - the CompuServe forum, that shows how far back it was. I haven’t been back on any of these forums ever since that time, but for a period of time I was on that and I realized I couldn’t sleep at night because I (always) checked it just before I went to bed, and I’d be so angry that I couldn’t sleep, so I finally had to get rid of it and ditch it. But it was amazing how many people, how many ministers were out there saying that tithing is a nice principle, a good principle, “And oh, I tithe, by the way,” you know, is the way they’d put it, “but it’s not a law of God.” We need to prove these things for ourselves. You need to know WHY you are where you are. And I think that most of us in this room KNOW why we are where we are. That’s why we’re here, that’s why we’re not someplace else. But we need to know those things. These three pillars - knowing that God exists and knowing that the Bible is the Word of God and knowing where the Church is will serve you well through trials, disruptions, and times of confusion. And I’ll be the first to tell you I’ve had to go through those pillars time and again. You can’t be in the Church of God for 50 years or more and not, at times, have to go back through it. And I’m not afraid of going back through it because I know the answer’s going to be the same. But at some times I have to remind myself, and maybe you’ll have to remind yourself someday.
So why should you be baptized? [proceeds to discuss repenting of “wrong religion”]
Adult Sabbath School: Spitting Out Truth
It's in our spit
Awhile back I participated in the National Geographic Genome Project. I did a simple cheek swab for DNA and sent it to the project. My Y chromosome results identify me as a member of halo group R1b, a lineage defined by a genetic marker called M343. This halo group is the final destination of a genetic journey that began some 60,000 years ago with the ancient y chromosome marker called 168 originating in Eastern Africa. Women can be traced back further, up to 200,000 years via their mitochorial DNA.
It seems my personal DNA, the stuff that makes me who and what I am today managed to cross the southern Red Sea about 60,000 years ago in the area of Yemen. This was a tad easier than today as an ice age was locking up much of the water on the planet and the crossing was much easier than today. Spreading north, as Marker 89 through the Arabian Peninsula, "I" migrated across Iran and Iraq into Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and on into the area of Pamir Knot, a four mountain confluence on the Eastern Himalaya. dragging Marker 9 along with me.
It was here someone said go south into India but my ancestors said, "no we shall go north" into the Asian Steppes about 40,000 years ago. After another 5000 years, my DNA had to make a choice. Someone said on the steppes said "we're heading east," and became the Siberians who crossed the Bering Straits and became the first Americans. The Navajo are the direct descendents of these ice savvy Siberians. That was my one chance to become one of the True People.
My DNA, however, headed West as Marker 173 across modern Russia and slid into Europe as Marker 343 35,000-30,000 years ago as Cro-Magnon heading into what today is Western Europe. It was here my DNA routed the Neanderthals who had been surviving nicely as not quite us in Europe for the previous 200,000 years. They walked out of Africa long before I did in the form of Homo Erectus and adapted in Europe to the harsh Ice Age environment. They had little self consciousness and aren't our direct descendants. All non African Europeans have 2 to 4% Neanderthal DNA in their genome.. In 200,000 years they never changed their stone tools and living seemed to be in the moment without vision, insight or the consciousness we have today. My DNA was smarter in the form of Cro-Magnon, the people responsible for the intriguing cave paintings in Lascaux Cave in southern France. My DNA drove their DNA into southern Spain where they died out in, perhaps, as little as 18,000 years ago
Finally, with Europe warming and glacial ice withdrawing north, my DNA ancestors moved into Britain and Ireland. They evidently hung out there for most of what we know as civilized history, and finally made the jump across the Atlantic at the end of the 19th Century, settled in Rochester, NY. It was here I learned that I had no DNA trail but rather was a direct descendent of the long lost tribe of Zebulon, being one of the truly true people, Dutch. After all, if you ain't Dutch, you ain't much... :)
Naw, just kidding. Yes I am Dutch, but my DNA never took the trip north out of Africa into Israel. When my DNA got to Iraq, it never looked back and went east not west with our dear father Abraham. It seems my DNA insisted on a much more difficult way to get to Europe over a period of 35,000 years completely bypassing Israel. I guess we might conclude if "I" was never there, and I am Dutch, then I am going to have give up the idea I am one of the descendents of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Actually I did long ago.
DNA testing spells the death nell of such nonsense as the Book of Mormon and British Israelism.
In fact, my DNA tells me I am a black African Saudi Iraqi Iranian Eurasian who made a choice to head north from the Himalayas into the steppes of Asia, and then West bypassing the Middle East and sliding into Europe 30,000 years ago after a 30,000 year trek to become me 68years ago.
Ya gotta love science Goodbye bad theology and mythologies taken too literally. . Goodbye exclusivism and false prophecies. Goodbye Adam and Eve of literalism and the idea that Shem, Ham and Japheth brought us the White, Black and Yellow races. Our skin changed color as we moved north where we no longer needed the massive darkening protection of melanin and did need to literally lighten up so we could receive enough sunlight to produce vitamin D for our bones. Someone tell the KLAN they all started as a small, incredibly tough tribe of "black" men and women who needed to move out of Africa on the worlds most amazing journey, over 60,000 years ago. And goodbye to a mere 6000 years since a literal Adam and Eve weren't our literal first parents. The implications are both stunning and troubling for fundamentalists.
We are all one after all and every cell in your body contains the truth of your own origins and journey out of Africa
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/94643
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Prophet Claims He CANNOT Be Scammed
Almost arrested, but not arrested Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Joshua, Bob Thiel continues with this:Overall, the nation’s most prevalent scam remains a fake check con, which involves “overpaying” for a product or service and asking the recipient to refund the difference. By the time the victim realizes that the check used for payment was bogus, the con artist has walked away with the consumer’s money…
The top six scams in order:
1. Fake checks
2. Bad Internet sales – products never delivered or misrepresented
3. Sweepstakes/prize/free gift cons that request payment to get your winnings.
4. Advance fee cons that promise a loan or line of credit, if you pay them first.
5. Phishing scams that attempt to get personal information to get access to your accounts, your tax refund or to open credit cards in your name.
6. Recovery/refund cons that promise past victims a recovery of swindled funds in exchange for a fee. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-6-us-scams/Of course, there are also other scams.
As far as these six go, a while back someone tried the fake check scam for a business I own. I did not fall for it. The only one in the list that someone has not directly tried to involve me in is number 4 (although I may not have read every loan offer enough to see if that was the case). Otherwise, numbers 3, 5, and 6 are very commonly pushed to me. But other than number 2 (I have made some purchases over the internet that were misrepresented, so took action), I have not fallen for any of the scams.
The major scam he has forgotten to add to that list is the "One True Church" scam that he and other church leaders are committing. Oh, and the tithing scam tooSadly, many people are greedy and do not care how they harm others. Scams are based upon lies, theft, and deception. Scammers are, according to what Jesus said, a type of destroyer and murderer:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44)
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. (John 10:10)
This is breaking news on Twitter from PCG
PCG just made this shocking announcement on Twitter.
Seriously?
This is breaking news? Who else would speak at the cult college? Bob Thiel, the other failed false prophet?
It remains to be seen how much longer PCG can support its monument of idolatry to Herbert Armstrong. Income has dramatically dropped and members are leaving. Yet, Flurry is spending money like it has no end as he jets around the world spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in order to pretend to be somebody he is not.
The Truths that the Church of God Taught Us
Another gem from Facebook:
The Truths We Knew In The Church:
Wide-belts: only hippies wore those. People who wear them are advertising themselves for free love, drugs and open sex.
Bell-bottoms: designed so people could slip out of their pants faster to engage in sex.
Men’s earrings: men who wear them are feminine trying to imitate women. Also, earrings are for slaves. A man who wears them is indicating he is a submissive male looking for a dominant woman or a kinky gay sex-master relationship. It's OK for women to wear them. God created them to be naturally submissive to men.
Bangs: men who wear bangs are copying women. The bangs indicated they may be sodomite friendly.
Modern clothes and hair fashions: should be avoided at all cost. All modern clothing designers, makeup and hair designers are sodomites and under the influence of Satan. We are not to conform to trendy fashions of the world.
Wound care: pour olive oil and wine into the wound, then bandage.
Mental health issues: no such thing, only the work of demons.
Coloring books: children should not use them. Most all of them contain myths, cartoon characters and lies. This is how Satan first begins to enter into the simple-mind of a child. Just like he told simple-minded Eve lies too.
Walt Disney: has a demon. Most all his movies are about witchcraft, magic, flying cars, myths, talking animals.
Angry women: to calm one down put a mirror in front of them. They are filled with satanic vanity. They will sit for hours in front of a "hint-hint" vanity mirror.
Please feel free to add to the list.
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Bye-Bye Lilies...Finding Sex and Paganism in Everything
The Church of God has always found reasons to find all kinds of things "pagan" in the world around us. One of the most idiotic things the church did was to change the words in some of the hymns we sang, including the Battle Hymn of The Republic.
Bye-Bye Lilies
"The Easter Lily, the flowery symbol of Easter, which turns up at church altars everywhere that day, is actually not a Spring flower. It was a pagan phallic symbol that represented a sexual reproductive organ. It obviously reflected on the fertility aspect of the celebration."
"...pagan symbols of sex and fertility, like little trees decorated with orbs and bulbs); the vernal equinox, called after Ishtar (pronounced "Easter") and accompanied by symbols of sex and fecundity, like rabbits, and eggs, and the lily flower, which the pagans thought looked like a sex symbol."
GTA, gave a blistering attack sermon at the feast. Mainly, focusing on sex symbols and lilies. Near the end of the sermon, he asked everyone to open their hymnals, turn to page 54, and then mark through the word "lilies" replace it with the word "autumn". This got Christ out of the middle of the pagan lilies.
Then the great lily purge started. Our pastor announced at church a few weeks later; "no more lilies were to used in church floral arrangements". My mom threw away some clothing which had lily designs on them.
In the mid-60s we moved to another church area. A woman committed the lily transgression showing up to church services wearing a lily corsage. She was instructed by a DIC to remove it, she complied. My father told me about an attack speech given in Spokesman's Club the member destroyed all the lilies on his property.
In 1970 we moved to Atlanta. Carl McNair was surprisingly a little more liberal. No more than 2 or 3 lilies in the church's floral arrangement were OK. However, the pastor in St. Louis had a floral arrangement removed from the stage due to the detestable flowers being a presence in the church. Citing; "a stench in God's nostrils."
In the mid-80s when I started attending church again I noticed this taboo was no longer enforced and the church had gone whole-hog pagan.
Reposted from Facebook, with permission
Monday, May 7, 2018
The Futility of Keeping Sabbath In the North or South Pole Regions
The Chief Pharisee of the law, James Malm has laid down the decree about Sabbath Keeping for those living in far-flung places of the Northern or Southern pole areas are to start Sabbath at 6:00 pm regardless of whether or not the sun has actually set. Just more legalistic lunacy from the Pharisaical right of the COG.
The Weekly Sabbath begins when the sun sets locally. Persons living north or south of 55 degrees may observe the Sabbath from 18:00 hours [this is the average sunset time at Jerusalem], and all of the brethren in any such location should observe the Sabbath at the same time by common accord. When Christ comes he will decide on this matter.Malm's stance and the SDA church stance is based upon late 1700's and early 1800's information and not on a single thing from the time of the Israelites when they started keeping Sabbath AFTER their captivity. Just another reason the Sabbath command was for those ONLY in the Middle East and not anywhere else in the world.
Contrast Pharisee Malm's comment above with this truth:
CAN YOU KEEP THE SABBATH AT THE NORTH POLE?
Imagine you are trying to keep the Jewish Sabbath above the Arctic Circle! The Arctic night “Sabbath” eventually arrives. Suddenly you are not allowed to light a fire in your dwelling place because the sun went down but didn’t come back up. Your heater goes out. You honor God’s “law” by not re-lighting it. The next morning you are found frozen to death, and you go down in history as a noble Christian Jewish Sabbath-keeper who would rather die than break the Jewish Sabbath. Perhaps you miraculously survive the Polar Winter “Sabbath without a fire. You can’t work for the oil company that hired you until the sun comes up (making it “Saturday” morning) and goes back down again, creating a Saturday night. Eventually, however, the sun does come back up, stays up for a day, and goes back down. The Arctic stretch of extended non-Sabbath is finally over. You can go to work now. Sabbath-keeping is conventional for a while, but eventually the sun comes up and won’t go down! Now you have to contend with the extended Arctic stretch of non-Sabbath time. Because the sun won’t go down, Sabbath won’t “start” on Friday night. You have to go to work every day because the Sabbath won’t start since there is no sundown on Friday night.
Actually, there are more variations of this Arctic Sabbath nonsense. In the Arctic fall, If the Sun fails to set on a Friday night, you have “endless” work days. If the Sun fails to set on a Saturday night in the Arctic fall, you have an “endless” Sabbath. We will leave it up to your imagination to figure out what happens in the Arctic spring depending on which day the sun rises for the first time of the season. Please review the dual requirements of the Sabbath commandment. Both requirements apply to Jews. Christians who keep the Jewish Sabbath seem to forget the six-day requirement since it works against the ill-contrived idea that Adam and Eve qualified to rest on the 7th day of Creation along with God. God had worked for six days prior, but Adam and Eve had existed only about one day:
Exodus 20:8 (NIV): “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
If you manage to die of over-work during this stretch of non-Sabbath time, you go down in history as the Sabbath-keeping Christian who would rather die than break the Jewish Sabbath. Is it illogical to think that God would impose a moral law on His earthlings that could not be kept anywhere in the solar system. The sins of fornication and adultery can be committed on Planet Earth or in a space ship on its way to Mars, but the Sabbath can’t be kept anywhere but in a climate like Palestine in the Mid-East. The Adventist prophetess, Ellen G. White, “solves” this problem by mandating that people should not live in parts of the Earth where the Sabbath cannot be kept. Try presenting the Gospel to a Polar-living Eskimo while at the same time telling him that he has to move to a different part of the world in order to keep “God’s Law.”
"In the countries where there is no sunset for months and again no sunrise for months the period of time will be calculated by the records kept. But God has a world large enough and proper and right for the human beings He has created to inhabit it without finding homes in those lands so objectionable in very many, many ways" (Ellen G. White, Letter #167, 23 March, 1900).
For the above reference, follow this link: www.gospeloutreach.net/chap09.html
God gave the Sabbath to Israel only. The Nation of Israel is located in a mild climate where the sun does rise and set every 24 hours for the entire year and where the temperatures are moderate enough to get through a cold winter night simply by piling on the blankets.
If you lived in the Arctic Circle as so many people do now, would you be condemned to Hell and receive the Mark of the Beast because you COULD NOT keep the Sabbath right no matter how hard you tried? Would God have to give you a special dispensation to break His law so you wouldn’t end up with the Mark of the Beast?
On top of all this, Sabbath-keepers at the North Pole cannot keep the Sabbath according to a fixed calendar or the lunar calendar. During the Arctic winter, the moon’s position remains very close to the sun after it goes down. Here is what happens according to astronomer, Laura Spitler:
While the Moon does rise during the summer at the North Pole, since the Sun is always up, you generally can't see it, so I'll focus on the movement of the Moon during the winter.
The daily movement from Earth's rotation causes the Moon to circle once around the sky. If you spent the entire day staring at it, you'd have to turn around exactly once. This movement is also the same that the Sun makes during the summer . . .
The second movement caused by the Moon's orbit around the Earth is analogous to the movement of the Sun over the course of a year only it repeats over the course of a lunar month. Near the new Moon phase, the Moon is near the Sun and therefore never rises during the winter. As the Moon approaches full, it will start to pop up above the horizon. Eventually near the full Moon phase it will be high enough in the sky to stay up all day and circle like the Sun. . . The elevation of the circle will rise as the Moon becomes completely full and then start to decrease until it begins to dip below the horizon. Eventually the Moon will stop rising at all as it gets close enough to the new phase. The cycle then repeats.
Follow this link to the above reference: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=777
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