Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
Perhaps not, but the Biblical God certainly is not interested in '"fertility symbols" mixed together in some form or another to use in religious practice towards him.
No matter one way or the other. In any case, we've still got Hannukah and Kwanzaa. Jesus celebrated Hannukah, and since He was God and created all the races, He was the first multiculturalist.
Since having a family to even go to winter family weekend involves fertility, what's wrong with a few symbols?
Read Jeremiah 10:5. Have you ever met someone who expected his Christmas tree to walk and talk? No! Jeremiah 10 is condemning the practice of carving idols of false gods, which are so pathetic that human beings must carry them and speak for them.
Read that chapter, and then consider how Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Vic Kubik, Gerald Weston, Clyde Kilough and other ACOG leaders take it upon themselves to speak for God. Idolatry may be closer to your ACOG than it is to the ignorant "fake Christian" with his Christmas tree. Just as the idol-maker fastens gold and silver to a tree trunk and asks you to worship his craftwork, so do the ACOG leaders fasten rules and burdens to the trunk of their tree, trying to divert your attention from the freedom and simplicity that is in Jesus Christ.
SATURNALIA >>> CHRISTMAS >>> WINTER FAMILY WEEKEND
The pagans had things like Saturnalia.
The Roman Catholic Church seemed to think that Saturnalia was somehow wrong, so it renamed it Christmas. The Roman Catholic Church thought that renaming it and doing some things differently made everything okay. With “Christ” now in the name, who could criticize it?
Herbert W. Armstrong thought that Saturnalia and Christmas were both still somehow wrong, so he shunned both of them and instead observed the annual Holy Days given by God in the Bible.
After Herbert W. Armstrong's death in 1986, the LCG, UCG, and COGWA splinter groups all brought back Saturnalia/Christmas and renamed it the Winter Family Weekend. They thought that renaming it and doing some things differently made everything okay. With “Family” now in the name, who could criticize it?
For sure, the LCG, UCG, and COGWA could probably come up with smooth and clever arguments for their questionable behavior, but maybe it is really just because this is the Laodicea era of the church. All their attempts to change what Herbert W. Armstrong had taught and put their own stamp on things look more like regression than like progress.
COGWA should have used its split from the UCG in 2010 as an opportunity to leave behind the Winter Family Christmas Weekend custom, just like the Protestants should have used their split from the Roman Catholic Church as an opportunity to leave behind Sunday-keeping and take up Sabbath-keeping. Unfortunately, COGWA seems to be all about such worldly things as Christmas and “movie nights.” COGWA brags that its Winter Family Weekend is now its second largest convention after the Feast of Tabernacles, but why should the world be interested in COGWA's watered down version of what it is already doing?
Anonymous, November 28, 2019 at 11:44 PM, asked: "...Why single out COGWA when UCG and LCG do exactly the same thing?"
Perhaps COGWA (including the Living group) was singled out b/c the Family Weekend celebration includes the 25 December Christmas date. United completes its celebration on 24 Dec and does not include the 25 December date for 2019.
All of these xcogs and their leaders, perhaps through ignorance, have established their own ideas of how righteous they are, or think they are, if/when they compare themselves to one another:
"For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." Romans 10:3
What will these xcog hirelings do in 2020 and 2021 when that 25 December Christmas date falls on a Friday, Saturday, respectively?
Let me start by saying that I am not an Armstrongist nor do I have any sympathies for their distinctive beliefs. I do believe their references to scriptures in the OT that seem to describe a Christmas Tree do have some validity but not with the scope they claim. In brief, the principle expressed in the scriptures can be used to condemn the Christmas Tree with qualifications. The scriptures condemn idolatrous practices and to some extent Christmas Trees fit that category. But some views of the Armstrongists go beyond the scope of this simple use preceding principle. The issues are:
1. The OT scriptures are not a direct historical reference to a Christmas Tree - the passages themselves make this clear without requiring that we resort to concocted "history." Armstrongists frequently invoke a pseudo-relevancy in interpretation. I think this is an attempt to make scripture exciting and "up to the minute." An example is interpreting the locusts in the book of revelation to be helicopters by ignoring context and looking only at similarities in physical structure - like seeing figures in the clouds.
2. The Christmas related meaning of these OT scriptures that Armstrongists proclaim to be obvious is, in fact, imparted. What we have in substance and in essence is a decorated tree - nothing more. One may impart a pagan meaning to the tree or one may impart, say, an acceptable Christian meaning to the tree. The meaning is contingent and not necessary. Paul covers this in detail concerning food sacrificed to idols. To illustrate the principle of imparted meaning, Armstrongists condemn the Christmas Tree but not "After Christmas Sales." Yet After Christmas Sales, which will be attended energetically by Armstrongist wives, have the same imparted logical and historical connections in the Armstrongist context to paganism as Christmas itself. My guess is that Armstrongists will never condemn After Christmas Sales for political not theological reasons.
What we have in substance and in essence is a decorated tree - nothing more.
Yes, something more. The passage makes it clear that the workmen have crafted something that might be expected to walk and talk. That's an idol, not a decorated tree.
Anonymous on November 28, 2019 at 11:44 PM said...“Why single out COGWA when UCG and LCG do exactly the same thing ?”
The Living Church of Rod is full of shameful so-called “doctrinal upgrades” from RCM's attempts to put his own stamp on the church and to compete against HWA.
The disUnited Church of Godlessness is full of truly shameful and wicked behavior from the Tkach people who now attend there and rule it.
COGWA was the newest group of the three. It had a chance to do things right, but is more interested in paychecks and comfortable living than anything else.
Your observation about the idol described in the OT passage is based on the imparted meaning. The decorated tree is a just a physical object. Like your wedding ring. The imparted meaning is what humans do inside their minds to recognize the physical object as an idol. There is nothing inherently evil about a decorated tree. Please think about this.
I was in a WCG Congregation some years back where a faction within the membership did not wear wedding rings because they were deemed pagan. It was pagan to them, in their minds, so they were doing what their consciences directed. To my knowledge, they did not try to persuade others follow the wedding ring belief.
Paul wrote about some Christians attributing special meaning to food sacrificed to idols. Alas, it was just food. Avoiding such food seemed to be a matter of individual choice. It did not result in anyone being cast out of the church. But Paul did say that people who were avoiders on these grounds were weak Christians.
The problem with implementing this principle of pagan attribution is that it is virtually impossible to be pure and comprehensive in its application. It would be nearly impossible to eliminate everything from your life that had pagan connections. Armstrongists are merely selective in their application of this principle. If you are not going to go all the way (like Paul said), why bother?
I should mention that Armstrongists are not the only people with this misunderstanding. My grandmother was a staunch member of the Church of Christ and rejected the idea of a Christmas Tree for years. This was a denominational position. Later in her life she permitted a tree.
Anonymous on November 29, 2019 at 4:10 AM said...“9:22 'movie night'??!! Worldly??!! Seriously??!! Sheesh!!”
Yes, seriously!!!
Many people in the so-called COGs are actually the same as people in the world when it comes to the movies they watch.
The fact is that movies are typically full of some combination of bad things, such as violence, murder, sexual immorality, LGBTQ ideas being promoted, nudity, profanity, pagan-based customs, witchcraft, fake superheroes, perverseness, and other evils.
People these days are so accustomed to sin that they do not even notice it anymore. They love to watch sin and think that it is okay to watch it, and to imagine and pretend that they are somehow better than other people who enjoy watching the same smut. They often get easily fooled by the advertising for the movie which might claim that it is “wickedly funny” (when it is really just plain wicked), or about how it is a “great classic” (when it is really just old sin), or about how numerous other perverts from Hollywood have nominated it for one of their worthless awards (because it was more depraved than previous movies). A lot of people think that all the sin that is inevitably and deliberately slipped into movies does not matter and must be watched but overlooked because the movies are supposedly so great and wonderful according to those who are peddling them for the money.
People lived for thousands of years without television, but nowadays many people think that they must have their eyes glued to the television screen, like a moth fixated on a light bulb, for hours a day, watching the godless perverts who have become their heroes and who teach them their wrong ways.
NEO, do you seriously think that the only difference between a carved idol and a decorated tree is the "imparted meaning"? You cannot possibly be that stupid.
Yes, anybody could put ornaments on an idol or sacrifice virgins to a decorated tree. However, nobody expects a decorated tree to speak or walk, and nobody presumes to speak or walk on behalf of the decorated tree. This has nothing to do with what you call "pagan attribution." The man who carves the idol would think you were quite stupid if he saw you trying to worship the decorated tree. Why do you keep forcing the idea of the "Christmas tree" into the passage? Jeremiah 10 has everything to do with idols, and nothing to do with Christmas trees.
My bête noire pipes up. Can you possibly believe there is no difference between an artifact's substance and the way it is viewed? And as Forrest said: Stupid is as stupid does.
Can you possibly believe there is no difference between an artifact's substance and the way it is viewed?
Of course there can be such a difference. However, that has NOTHING to do with Jeremiah 10, which unambiguously describes the creation of lifeless idols, and has NOTHING to do with Christmas trees unless you expect your Christmas trees to walk and speak. To claim otherwise is to claim a radical subjectivity in which 2 + 2 = 6 simply because you view 2 and 6 in that way.
I had a buddy, years ago, who like myself, worked with machinery. Through a careless misshap, a machine inhaled his wedding ring, and they had to cut it off in order to free and save his finger. He was, like, really married, and took his ring very seriously. Cutting it was tantamount to cutting his marriage, in his mind. But, he healed just fine, and he and his wife bought a pair of diamond stud earrings, and each wore one of them rather than a wedding ring.
I seriously doubt that Armstrongites would embrace such an alternative to a supposedly pagan artifact.
It has been claimed Jeremiah 10:2-4 describes a Christmas tree and, therefore, such are forbidden by God. However, if one continues reading verses 5-10 the subject is made clear that the prophet is not describing a tree at all, but a wooden statue! Even the prophet Isaiah makes the same argument in 44:14-19.
If a Christian who believes Christmas trees are described in Jeremiah 10 and, therefore, are condemned by God, even though no one decorates a Christmas tree as an object of worship and bows down to it, then surely they must be consistent in condemning snowmen as forbidden too—and snowmen actually do have the same features as an idol, more so than a Christmas tree! So, if we were to see a Christian family playing in the snow and making a large snowman I think most would agree there's no idolatry involved. It's not an object of worship. Thus, there's no reason to suppose a Christmas tree is any different. If at some other time and place people actually worshipped trees, this is not the case of a Christian family that chooses to decorate with a Christmas tree today.
I doubt most "movie nights" would center on a film "full of some combination of bad things, such as violence, murder, sexual immorality, LGBTQ ideas being promoted, nudity, profanity, pagan-based customs, witchcraft, fake superheroes, perverseness, and other evils." Although it can be quite a challenge to find a film or TV show that both entertains and inspires it doesn't mean that they don't exist.
There are quite a few classics one can choose from that can still be edifying for young and old alike. There's Biblical movies like Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" and "The Jesus Film," films based on true stories like Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," Mel Gibson's "Hacksaw Ridge," or the Jackie Robinson story "42," films based on novels like "The Shawshank Redemption" or The Green Mile," Tom Hanks films like "Cast Away" or the forthcoming "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," films based on family and relationships like "The Family Man," "La La Land" or "The Notebook" even TV shows like "The Crown" and "Downton Abbey." Then there are documentaries too be it on controversial history like "Secret Mysteries of America's Beginnings" or on famous American people like "American Dynasties: The Kennedys." Not all films or TV shows are as you generalized.
The majority of movies and TV programs deliberately expose the conditions of today, and many of the problems of today. They are what is commonly known as "morality plays". There are things that most of us never experience in our personal lives, but of which we should be aware so that we won't be naive and potentially victims. As these plays unfold, we get to watch problem-solvers go to work, we observe as karma unfolds, and we are able to vicariously experience in advance circumstances which could actually occur at some point in our lives. It part of an ongoing educational process.
Obviously, there can also be totally unmitigated garbage, with absolutely zero social value, but for the most part, those who make the movies and TV shows try to make them commercial, so that they strike a common chord with as much of a cross section of humanity as possible, and generate wealth for the various studios and venture capitalists involved.
I take quite a different attitude towards art from that taught to us by our former brainwashers, who only wanted us to listen to themselves. I believe that God speaks to us through various of life's experiences, and that some of our valuable resources can be radio, TV, movies, literary works of fiction, all of which augment our own personal experiences which we live from day to day. It's an extra blessing that most people from mankind's history could not access. If you still view your life as some sort of "qualifying", it broadens your experience, and is actually part of becoming wise as serpents. You think it's all garbage from the "liberals"? Well, you need to learn how the liberals think. You need to know about the LGBTQ+ community if you are raising children. You also need to know about what's going on "in the 'hood" because that comes into play at some level in both public and private schools. You should be aware of how our government and the court systems work. Armstrongism always taught us to go Amish. "They" wanted us to single source themselves as our only resource for information. That sort of tunnel vision does not make you a better human being. It just makes you cultic, myopic, and weird.
Televisions are not necessarily wrong. It is not necessarily wrong to watch a television. It is the wrong use of television to watch the wrong things that is wrong.
28 comments:
So says you BannedbyHWA-pagan and so so christian-atheist.
Perhaps not, but the Biblical God certainly is not interested in '"fertility symbols" mixed together in some form or another to use in religious practice towards him.
All hail Nimrod! But neither he nor any other god exists, so let's enjoy the holidays not in fear of mythical beings.
No matter one way or the other. In any case, we've still got Hannukah and Kwanzaa. Jesus celebrated Hannukah, and since He was God and created all the races, He was the first multiculturalist.
Since having a family to even go to winter family weekend involves fertility, what's wrong with a few symbols?
BB
Read Jeremiah 10:5. Have you ever met someone who expected his Christmas tree to walk and talk? No! Jeremiah 10 is condemning the practice of carving idols of false gods, which are so pathetic that human beings must carry them and speak for them.
Read that chapter, and then consider how Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Vic Kubik, Gerald Weston, Clyde Kilough and other ACOG leaders take it upon themselves to speak for God. Idolatry may be closer to your ACOG than it is to the ignorant "fake Christian" with his Christmas tree. Just as the idol-maker fastens gold and silver to a tree trunk and asks you to worship his craftwork, so do the ACOG leaders fasten rules and burdens to the trunk of their tree, trying to divert your attention from the freedom and simplicity that is in Jesus Christ.
The biblical god does not care because he does not exist. Enjoy the holidays without fear of a mythical vengeful god.
Yo ho ho. Merry Xmas to all my readers.
SATURNALIA >>> CHRISTMAS >>> WINTER FAMILY WEEKEND
The pagans had things like Saturnalia.
The Roman Catholic Church seemed to think that Saturnalia was somehow wrong, so it renamed it Christmas. The Roman Catholic Church thought that renaming it and doing some things differently made everything okay. With “Christ” now in the name, who could criticize it?
Herbert W. Armstrong thought that Saturnalia and Christmas were both still somehow wrong, so he shunned both of them and instead observed the annual Holy Days given by God in the Bible.
After Herbert W. Armstrong's death in 1986, the LCG, UCG, and COGWA splinter groups all brought back Saturnalia/Christmas and renamed it the Winter Family Weekend. They thought that renaming it and doing some things differently made everything okay. With “Family” now in the name, who could criticize it?
For sure, the LCG, UCG, and COGWA could probably come up with smooth and clever arguments for their questionable behavior, but maybe it is really just because this is the Laodicea era of the church. All their attempts to change what Herbert W. Armstrong had taught and put their own stamp on things look more like regression than like progress.
COGWA should have used its split from the UCG in 2010 as an opportunity to leave behind the Winter Family Christmas Weekend custom, just like the Protestants should have used their split from the Roman Catholic Church as an opportunity to leave behind Sunday-keeping and take up Sabbath-keeping. Unfortunately, COGWA seems to be all about such worldly things as Christmas and “movie nights.” COGWA brags that its Winter Family Weekend is now its second largest convention after the Feast of Tabernacles, but why should the world be interested in COGWA's watered down version of what it is already doing?
Why single out COGWA when UCG and LCG do exactly the same thing ?
9:22 “movie nights”??!! Worldly??!! Seriously??!! Sheesh!!
Anonymous, November 28, 2019 at 11:44 PM, asked: "...Why single out COGWA when UCG and LCG do exactly the same thing?"
Perhaps COGWA (including the Living group) was singled out b/c the Family Weekend celebration includes the 25 December Christmas date. United completes its celebration on 24 Dec and does not include the 25 December date for 2019.
All of these xcogs and their leaders, perhaps through ignorance, have established their own ideas of how righteous they are, or think they are, if/when they compare themselves to one another:
"For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." Romans 10:3
What will these xcog hirelings do in 2020 and 2021 when that 25 December Christmas date falls on a Friday, Saturday, respectively?
Time will tell...
John
The thread regarding "Facebook-Pharisees and Cyber-Sanhedrin" with comment saying
"JEREMIAH 10:2-4 IS NOT TALKING ABOUT CHRISTMAS TREES"
is just as accurate/true as saying:
"Ezekiel 31:3-18 IS NOT TALKING ABOUT CEDAR TREES".
How important might that all be? Time will tell...
John
Let me start by saying that I am not an Armstrongist nor do I have any sympathies for their distinctive beliefs. I do believe their references to scriptures in the OT that seem to describe a Christmas Tree do have some validity but not with the scope they claim. In brief, the principle expressed in the scriptures can be used to condemn the Christmas Tree with qualifications. The scriptures condemn idolatrous practices and to some extent Christmas Trees fit that category. But some views of the Armstrongists go beyond the scope of this simple use preceding principle. The issues are:
1. The OT scriptures are not a direct historical reference to a Christmas Tree - the passages themselves make this clear without requiring that we resort to concocted "history." Armstrongists frequently invoke a pseudo-relevancy in interpretation. I think this is an attempt to make scripture exciting and "up to the minute." An example is interpreting the locusts in the book of revelation to be helicopters by ignoring context and looking only at similarities in physical structure - like seeing figures in the clouds.
2. The Christmas related meaning of these OT scriptures that Armstrongists proclaim to be obvious is, in fact, imparted. What we have in substance and in essence is a decorated tree - nothing more. One may impart a pagan meaning to the tree or one may impart, say, an acceptable Christian meaning to the tree. The meaning is contingent and not necessary. Paul covers this in detail concerning food sacrificed to idols. To illustrate the principle of imparted meaning, Armstrongists condemn the Christmas Tree but not "After Christmas Sales." Yet After Christmas Sales, which will be attended energetically by Armstrongist wives, have the same imparted logical and historical connections in the Armstrongist context to paganism as Christmas itself. My guess is that Armstrongists will never condemn After Christmas Sales for political not theological reasons.
Well, its that time of the year when NIMROD'S TESTICLES become a hot topic again.
NEO wrote:
What we have in substance and in essence is a decorated tree - nothing more.
Yes, something more. The passage makes it clear that the workmen have crafted something that might be expected to walk and talk. That's an idol, not a decorated tree.
Anonymous on November 28, 2019 at 11:44 PM said...“Why single out COGWA when UCG and LCG do exactly the same thing ?”
The Living Church of Rod is full of shameful so-called “doctrinal upgrades” from RCM's attempts to put his own stamp on the church and to compete against HWA.
The disUnited Church of Godlessness is full of truly shameful and wicked behavior from the Tkach people who now attend there and rule it.
COGWA was the newest group of the three. It had a chance to do things right, but is more interested in paychecks and comfortable living than anything else.
Anonymous 7:50
Your observation about the idol described in the OT passage is based on the imparted meaning. The decorated tree is a just a physical object. Like your wedding ring. The imparted meaning is what humans do inside their minds to recognize the physical object as an idol. There is nothing inherently evil about a decorated tree. Please think about this.
I was in a WCG Congregation some years back where a faction within the membership did not wear wedding rings because they were deemed pagan. It was pagan to them, in their minds, so they were doing what their consciences directed. To my knowledge, they did not try to persuade others follow the wedding ring belief.
Paul wrote about some Christians attributing special meaning to food sacrificed to idols. Alas, it was just food. Avoiding such food seemed to be a matter of individual choice. It did not result in anyone being cast out of the church. But Paul did say that people who were avoiders on these grounds were weak Christians.
The problem with implementing this principle of pagan attribution is that it is virtually impossible to be pure and comprehensive in its application. It would be nearly impossible to eliminate everything from your life that had pagan connections. Armstrongists are merely selective in their application of this principle. If you are not going to go all the way (like Paul said), why bother?
I should mention that Armstrongists are not the only people with this misunderstanding. My grandmother was a staunch member of the Church of Christ and rejected the idea of a Christmas Tree for years. This was a denominational position. Later in her life she permitted a tree.
Anonymous on November 29, 2019 at 4:10 AM said...“9:22 'movie night'??!! Worldly??!! Seriously??!! Sheesh!!”
Yes, seriously!!!
Many people in the so-called COGs are actually the same as people in the world when it comes to the movies they watch.
The fact is that movies are typically full of some combination of bad things, such as violence, murder, sexual immorality, LGBTQ ideas being promoted, nudity, profanity, pagan-based customs, witchcraft, fake superheroes, perverseness, and other evils.
People these days are so accustomed to sin that they do not even notice it anymore. They love to watch sin and think that it is okay to watch it, and to imagine and pretend that they are somehow better than other people who enjoy watching the same smut. They often get easily fooled by the advertising for the movie which might claim that it is “wickedly funny” (when it is really just plain wicked), or about how it is a “great classic” (when it is really just old sin), or about how numerous other perverts from Hollywood have nominated it for one of their worthless awards (because it was more depraved than previous movies). A lot of people think that all the sin that is inevitably and deliberately slipped into movies does not matter and must be watched but overlooked because the movies are supposedly so great and wonderful according to those who are peddling them for the money.
People lived for thousands of years without television, but nowadays many people think that they must have their eyes glued to the television screen, like a moth fixated on a light bulb, for hours a day, watching the godless perverts who have become their heroes and who teach them their wrong ways.
NEO, do you seriously think that the only difference between a carved idol and a decorated tree is the "imparted meaning"? You cannot possibly be that stupid.
Yes, anybody could put ornaments on an idol or sacrifice virgins to a decorated tree. However, nobody expects a decorated tree to speak or walk, and nobody presumes to speak or walk on behalf of the decorated tree. This has nothing to do with what you call "pagan attribution." The man who carves the idol would think you were quite stupid if he saw you trying to worship the decorated tree. Why do you keep forcing the idea of the "Christmas tree" into the passage? Jeremiah 10 has everything to do with idols, and nothing to do with Christmas trees.
10:25am Judgementally wrote while watching Game of Thrones.
Anonymous (11:26)
My bête noire pipes up. Can you possibly believe there is no difference between an artifact's substance and the way it is viewed? And as Forrest said: Stupid is as stupid does.
Anonymous on November 29, 2019 at 11:26 AM said... “10:25am Judgementally wrote while watching Game of Thrones.”
Never saw that show. Your judgment is wrong and bad. Stop calling evil good, and good evil.
Can you possibly believe there is no difference between an artifact's substance and the way it is viewed?
Of course there can be such a difference. However, that has NOTHING to do with Jeremiah 10, which unambiguously describes the creation of lifeless idols, and has NOTHING to do with Christmas trees unless you expect your Christmas trees to walk and speak. To claim otherwise is to claim a radical subjectivity in which 2 + 2 = 6 simply because you view 2 and 6 in that way.
I had a buddy, years ago, who like myself, worked with machinery. Through a careless misshap, a machine inhaled his wedding ring, and they had to cut it off in order to free and save his finger. He was, like, really married, and took his ring very seriously. Cutting it was tantamount to cutting his marriage, in his mind. But, he healed just fine, and he and his wife bought a pair of diamond stud earrings, and each wore one of them rather than a wedding ring.
I seriously doubt that Armstrongites would embrace such an alternative to a supposedly pagan artifact.
BB
It has been claimed Jeremiah 10:2-4 describes a Christmas tree and, therefore, such are forbidden by God. However, if one continues reading verses 5-10 the subject is made clear that the prophet is not describing a tree at all, but a wooden statue!
Even the prophet Isaiah makes the same argument in 44:14-19.
If a Christian who believes Christmas trees are described in Jeremiah 10 and, therefore, are condemned by God, even though no one decorates a Christmas tree as an object of worship and bows down to it, then surely they must be consistent in condemning snowmen as forbidden too—and snowmen actually do have the same features as an idol, more so than a Christmas tree! So, if we were to see a Christian family playing in the snow and making a large snowman I think most would agree there's no idolatry involved. It's not an object of worship. Thus, there's no reason to suppose a Christmas tree is any different. If at some other time and place people actually worshipped trees, this is not the case of a Christian family that chooses to decorate with a Christmas tree today.
Anonymous November 29, 2019 at 10:25 AM
I doubt most "movie nights" would center on a film "full of some combination of bad things, such as violence, murder, sexual immorality, LGBTQ ideas being promoted, nudity, profanity, pagan-based customs, witchcraft, fake superheroes, perverseness, and other evils." Although it can be quite a challenge to find a film or TV show that both entertains and inspires it doesn't mean that they don't exist.
There are quite a few classics one can choose from that can still be edifying for young and old alike. There's Biblical movies like Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" and "The Jesus Film," films based on true stories like Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," Mel Gibson's "Hacksaw Ridge," or the Jackie Robinson story "42," films based on novels like "The Shawshank Redemption" or The Green Mile," Tom Hanks films like "Cast Away" or the forthcoming "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," films based on family and relationships like "The Family Man," "La La Land" or "The Notebook" even TV shows like "The Crown" and "Downton Abbey." Then there are documentaries too be it on controversial history like "Secret Mysteries of America's Beginnings" or on famous American people like "American Dynasties: The Kennedys." Not all films or TV shows are as you generalized.
The majority of movies and TV programs deliberately expose the conditions of today, and many of the problems of today. They are what is commonly known as "morality plays". There are things that most of us never experience in our personal lives, but of which we should be aware so that we won't be naive and potentially victims. As these plays unfold, we get to watch problem-solvers go to work, we observe as karma unfolds, and we are able to vicariously experience in advance circumstances which could actually occur at some point in our lives. It part of an ongoing educational process.
Obviously, there can also be totally unmitigated garbage, with absolutely zero social value, but for the most part, those who make the movies and TV shows try to make them commercial, so that they strike a common chord with as much of a cross section of humanity as possible, and generate wealth for the various studios and venture capitalists involved.
I take quite a different attitude towards art from that taught to us by our former brainwashers, who only wanted us to listen to themselves. I believe that God speaks to us through various of life's experiences, and that some of our valuable resources can be radio, TV, movies, literary works of fiction, all of which augment our own personal experiences which we live from day to day. It's an extra blessing that most people from mankind's history could not access. If you still view your life as some sort of "qualifying", it broadens your experience, and is actually part of becoming wise as serpents. You think it's all garbage from the "liberals"? Well, you need to learn how the liberals think. You need to know about the LGBTQ+ community if you are raising children. You also need to know about what's going on "in the 'hood" because that comes into play at some level in both public and private schools. You should be aware of how our government and the court systems work. Armstrongism always taught us to go Amish. "They" wanted us to single source themselves as our only resource for information. That sort of tunnel vision does not make you a better human being. It just makes you cultic, myopic, and weird.
BB
Televisions are not necessarily wrong. It is not necessarily wrong to watch a television. It is the wrong use of television to watch the wrong things that is wrong.
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