What we all got stuck with was hundreds and hundreds of books, booklets, pamphlets, and letters from the Personal Correspondance Department that sought to answer every single question imaginable. Instead of relying upon church members to engage their brains and develop a personal theology for themselves, the church treated them like toddlers and spoon-fed them bad baby pablum.
Look at Bob Thiel today with the thousands of topics he thinks he has an answer for and of which hardly any of his 3,000 African members and his 299 Caucasians could care less about. Yet, he thinks his followers are too stupid to think for themselves so he provides his own take on things, not God's, but his.
Gerald Flurry and Dave Pack do the exact same thing. They feed their members putrid baby pablum that is so far off base and so far removed from the Gospel message that their members now are just as brain dead as they are.
Followers of The Way were meant to live in the mystery so that they would always be in awe, so much so that they yearned for more.
21 comments:
This article quite misses it. Early in its existence, some forms of Christianity were indeed a "mystery religion" but those mysteries were secrets, not unknowns, and the initiates were taught the mysteries and their explanations.
Lets just start with the 10 commandments, and treating people like the way we wanted to be treated.
This should take about a lifetime or two to put into practice!
"those mysteries were secrets, not unknowns, and the initiates were taught the mysteries and their explanations."
You are totally off base here. I understand exactly what was being portrayed here. You have swallowed the Armstrongite version of church history and the "mystery religions" of Babylon, Ninevah, and elseswhere. That has nothing to do with the mystery being referred to here. This is how the COG conned its members into swallowing the belief that they were called out and special. They had the insider knowledge that covered any mystery with assumed revelations to their heretical leaders.
Anon 2:33PM is locked in his ACOG goggles. Original Christianity wasn't what Armstrong said. It existed in multiple variations before Constantine, some of which had more in common with Mithraism than with Judaism.
The cause of wonder is human curiosity, god or no god.
This subjective silliness will never end because humans have poor skills in logic. The sense of wonder is a mix of emotion (sentiment), and curiosity. God need not have anything to do with it. Cats have it too.
An excellent book on this topic is Dangerous Wonder by Michae Yaconelli. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/341999.Dangerous_Wonder
Armstrongism has robbed its followers of having a childlike faith that is full of wonder. Why would COG members be filled with wonder when its god is pictured as such a nasty jerk all the itme?
When I was in the COG I did not think God was a nasty jerk. Perhaps it was the nasty jerks that did not want to live a clean life.
Awe! Wonder! Mystery!
Yes, that's the Christian life!
This is my answer to all the COGlodytes demanding obedience to God!
I love being obedient to God - as I read the Bible, or think about God, I'm always amazed by what I'm instructed I should do to be obedient to God.
It's not as rote as the codified law; it's insight that grows from awe for what God has done for me!
What’s up with all the generalizations in the responses to responses? Doesn’t anyone know enough scriptures to biblically quote verses to support their stance? I thought so. No one, so far has any authority that substantiates their authority. Neither believer nor atheist. It all appears to be plain old “I believe it, thus it is so.”
NO IT AIN’T!
The Messiah stopped the critics with, “By what authority……?” And, they couldn’t answer. Neither are there any here, it’s just a shouting match. Isn’t anybody here capable of a real honest presentation, with authoritative proof, instead of “you are stupid” comments followed by generalities that would never stand up in court.
How disappointing if one is looking for the plain truth.
Bias, rumor, here say, opinion, inference, sob stories, consensus, maybe, should be, must be, etc, ad infinitum, is not proof.
By what authority do you speak?
Why did NO2HWA be such a obeying drome? Did you put all the chairs out each Sabbath? Spy for the local Pastor? No job too much? And look how it all ended up. Talking yo the real you not the fake persona.
Bob
Many, if not most of your comments are a mix of crazy-making and gas lighting. So I'm not going to waste my time responding to you.
Gimme an easy question and I'll give ya an easy answer.
"The Messiah stopped the critics ..."
Which is why they are still here today. Like Richard Carrier, Bart Ehrman, Robert M. Price, and I could name many more authorities that bible believers have probably never listened to.
Speaking of court, the bible could never stand up in court.
Short answer: Bart Ehrman is right, Bob Petry is wrong, and Jesus never had a leg to stand on.
Nah, its just that no one feels the need to virtue-signal in a lengthy self-stroking diatribe like you.
Col 4:3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.
Jesus was a "mystery" to not only the religious leaders of His time, but also to His disciples who followed Him for 3 and half years, despite many Old Testament scriptures, especially Is. 53. Who and what Christ was, was debated for centuries. A mystery to me has been how COG's ignored Christ examples, just a the Pharisees missed the central point of love. But on top of that I point to refreshing sermon given by Bob Dick a few years ago, when he spelled out all the things we don't know. That kind of honesty is rare.
“The Messiah stopped the critics with, “By what authority……?”
What’s the verse on that? I don’t recall Him saying that. Instead, they would question that to Him as far as I remember, not He to them.
Anonymous said...
Short answer: Bart Ehrman is right, Bob Petry is wrong, and Jesus never had a leg to stand on.
If I am so wrong, then one would expect a plethora of solid scriptural responses to show such. However, nothing other than typical atheistic responses have shown up, or just plain silence. Where is all the rebuttal to the scriptures posted that describe accurately the responses so far. You anonomies perfectly express those descriptions given in scripture, and there are still 100’s more that describe you to a t. All proving beyond a doubt that the Bible is right, the Creator exists, and that those descriptions are implanted in you. How could a manmade book written 1,000’s of years ago be so accurate? No man could make those scriptures up, and make them be consistently accurate that many years later. Especially your “bronze age desert wanderers.”
And, by what real authority do you base your fallacious claims on. If what you claim about the Messiah had any real authoritative merit there would be no continuation of debates about Him. Atheists are still the losers since all their so called proof has not, and cannot get rid of Yahshua.
Here is a challenge for you. Read all the verses I posted, about 10% of the 100s, and try not to do what they say about the ungodly/atheists, and do it without effort for 30 days. If you can do that, then the positive attitude here will skyrocket into inspiring growth for everyone. Just think of it! No moe bad language, no more jibs, no more picking on someone like true christian, etc. On the other hand, we would see encouragement to each other, and positive examples from scripture on how to grow personally, and on and on.
No more those people don’t do this stuff, and more we are working to help everyone improve in their own life. For example, we know some cannot dress as they would like, so we at Banned are setting up program to help everyone buy new clothes at wholesale or less. Plus, funds will be made available to help offset what you can’t pay.
In addition to that, we at Banned are going to set up other programs to help everyone who wishes to improve their skills so they can bring in a better income. Etc., etc., etc……….
No more running down others to make ourselves look good. Those who have been “harmed”’ by other groups, will be welcomed here at Banned, to recover, by not running down others, but by helping up lift you, and all others. We at Banned plan to present a real positive uplifting environment not only with our words but our actions. And more.
Now, there is a challenge to strive for, don’t you think?
So, keep making your programmed responses. You can’t do otherwise. As the Bible says, those things are “fixed” in the mind, like a habit. You so prove the point, thank you!
As to Bart Erhman, at least I corresponded with him directly to discuss his position.
Here’s to a world shaking change.
Blogger Ex670 said...
“The Messiah stopped the critics with, “By what authority……?”
What’s the verse on that? I don’t recall Him saying that. Instead, they would question that to Him as far as I remember, not He to them.”
Excellent question. You know as well as I do that the event is in the Evangels. So, how did the Messiah use that? Simple. He waited till His critics tried to trap him and then He shut them down with a simple question they couldn’t answer. He used “I will tell you by what authority IF…” And, Thus embarrassed them by showing they had no authority to even question Him. They couldn’t even answer one simple question, yet they were the “experts” of the day. Just like today, don’t cha’ think?
He turned their question back on them. Brilliant!
10:43 said:
Anonymous said...
"The Messiah stopped the critics ..."
Which is why they are still here today. Like Richard Carrier, Bart Ehrman, Robert M. Price, and I could name many more authorities that bible believers have probably never listened to.
[No, they are still here today because the Scriptures said they would be, in several places. Once again proving the Bible true.]
Speaking of court, the bible could never stand up in court.
[You are wrong again. The Bible is above the court, that’s why it is the authority upon which judges and other government officials place their hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office. It thusly, is acknowledged as the highest authority. And, yes, I know there are rebellious humans that refuse to do so on occasion. Still, even Presidents take their oath of office with hand on the Bible. How many do you know of that refused to do so?]
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