Ever since Herbert Armstrong and Gerald Waterhouse dreamed up fantastical stories about "the place of safety" or the "place of final training", the church has been filled with endless speculation on how this would happen.
We all know that Herb and crew designated Petra as that final place, while a few raving lunatics found other places, like Pella, Utah, in your own home, in the moutnains. and many more crazy ideas. You can now official scratch the mountains as a place of safety.
Juan Raines of Truth Search, a COG splinter, has the reason the mountains CANNOT be the place of safety. Because the mountains are now infected with survivalists, white supremacists, and forest rangers, it will not be safe to hide in the mountains. Leave it up to Smokey the Bear and the forest rangers to kill a good idea!
Another aspect of the argument is that God will protect us wherever we live, in the mountains, etc. Forget that! The mountains of this country are no haven for anyone. They are full of forest rangers and if people started hiding out in the mountains the FBI, and other federal agents, would be swarming in no time. Furthermore, there is the problem of finding food to eat and water to drink. Moreover, let us face it; most of us could not climb a good size hill without having to call in an ambulance with a cardiac massage team! One might say, “But God will have to produce miracles.” True!
Therefore, why does it have to be in the mountain at the back of our home?
One very scriptural answer on where one can hope to be "protected" I never heard and I guess would ruin all the fun of trusting some fool to know what he was talking about
ReplyDeleteJob 14:13-17
13 O that thou would hide me in the grave, that thou would keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
And now, for Episode 403 of "How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?"...
ReplyDeleteJuan isn’t a real deep thinker. If the USA were to be invaded, the federal government and the monetary system would collapse fairly quickly. So, you could forget about the forest rangers.
ReplyDeleteIf white supremacists were to take over the forests and mountains, they’d probably feel a natural kinship towards British Israel theorists. When the WCG imploded, some church members in Montana and Texas fell in with militia groups.
As for skinheads, they’d probably welcome the Nazis if that ends up being the political philosophy of the Germans.
What kind of “supernatural” protection do these people not understand. The word supernatural implies that whatever the protection is will not make logical human sense. The problem is, you can’t trust the ACOG leaders to be just and compassionate once they don’t have annoyances such as the US Constitution and Bill of Rights to restrain them. They’ll be just as bad as Nazis. Maybe worse.
BB
It seems that very few of the believers in the afterlife are in a great hurry to get there- including HWA
ReplyDeleteDennisCDiehl,May 19, 2019 at 11:36 PM, wrote: "...One very scriptural answer on where one can hope to be "protected" I never heard and I guess would ruin all the fun of trusting some fool to know what he was talking about
ReplyDeleteJob 14:13-17
13 O that thou would hide me in the grave, that thou would keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou would appoint me a set time, and remember me!..."
******
Dennis, for me that post of yours was deja vu! That was a very interesting verse, and although you never heard anyone use it to explain the place of safety as the grave, I had.
My wife and were invited to attend a Friday night Bible Study on 5 June 1998 and the speaker was a Fred Coulter. I don't recall most of what he spoke about, but I do remember him saying that if he did not have any other purpose to fulfill in life he believed it was his responsibility to "tuck" the elderly in their graves, and their deaths would be their "place of safety." At the time, I found it kind of weird thing to think, b/c the Bible does not use that phrase, but speaks of "her place" in some wilderness where one was to be fed and protected somehow from Satan. Dead people don't need to eat and don't need protection!
Now, whether Fred could be considered to be some "fool," well, that is another matter. I don't consider him a fool, but it appears he was like so many in the world...deceived!
And time will tell...
John
Furthermore, there is the problem of finding food to eat and water to drink
ReplyDelete...becuase there is absolutely no animal or plant life in the mountains, nor are there rivers and lakes. The Place of Safety must obviously be near a big supermarket, like the Giant Eagle in Wadsworth.
Oh, how I miss the days when Armstrongism drew a disproportionate share of rural and farm people!
Im "PETRIFIED" of PETRA!
ReplyDeleteThis idea of a place of safety is and was total lunacy. There was a time when people could flee to out of the way areas and be somewhat safe. With drones, satellites, etc., there is no such thing anymore. Applying ancient writings to present day realities is an exercise in futility. It's time to give up on delusions based on far gone situations.
ReplyDeleteExtra! Extra! COG of the future declares the place of safety is virtual and wings of a great eagle actually refer to the speed of the internet allowing them to virtually escape
DeleteSad to say but I clearly remember brethren smugly saying they had their bags all packed &
ReplyDeleteready to go by their front doors so all they had to do was grab & run. New shoes for the trek
from Jerusalem to Petra & so on.
The grave is one place of safety.
ReplyDeleteIsaiah 57:1 "The righteous perish and non take it to heart...the righteous are taken away to be spared."