Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders

Saturday, February 5, 2022

CGI: Bill Watson Exhibits The Typical COG Leadership's Condescending Attitude Towards Anyone That Dares To Question Them

 



There is one thing that Church of God leaders and ministers dislike and that is to be questioned about their utterances. Nothing infuriates lofty leaders more than having one of the lowly sheeple find what they say to be wrong. Seriously!  How dare they not think like the leader! They are God's mouthpiece here on earth and you must obey them even when they are a shill for NewsMax.

We have watched over the last couple of years the interaction between Bill Watson and Lonnie Hendrix's (and others) and almost every time it is a knee-jerk reaction from Watson getting all pissy. Gone are the days when Ian Boyne participated here. Of any COG leader, he was the only one with real integrity and saw through the crap that occupies the minds of so many of the American CGI leadership. Boyne thankfully led the Jamaican church away from the legalist crap of the American side of the church and had the largest CGI congregation anywhere that were active and RESPECTED in the community, took care of each other, and actually enjoyed worship services with lively music and singing. 

Here is Watson's knee-jerk reaction to Hendrix's latest questioning. The condescension drips. 

COG "christianity" at its finest!


Lonnie, 
 
I'm really sorry you have fallen prey to the Devil's work of "accusing the brethren" because this is exactly what you're doing (Rev. 12:10). Your dissonance is nauseous already and sadly, should be recognizable to you. But, your (sic) blinded by your own "projections" that you continue to "spin" to justify your meaningless accomplishments and to appease your own insecurities--so sad! You're only embarrassing yourself by these misappropriated ramblings and rants, for years now. It's unfortunate you don't see yourself because what you're doing is such a waste of time and so self-destructive. 
 
Frankly, with all the education you have, you'd think you would be more productive in your life, but you continue to mindlessly, ridicule and criticize a work of God. Let me suggest you go back to working at a fast food restaurant and at least do something more worthwhile. Because you obviously have too much time on your hands. Watching you waste your life in this self-deprecating behavior is pathetic––you really are showing serious signs of obsessive mental and emotional trauma. Perhaps, you should get some therapy? It may be you're suffering from some PTS syndrome and don't realize it. But, your "obsession" with dogging us (CGI) and me in particular, choosing to "rag" on anything and everything is really sick and unstable. Get some professional help Lonnie. 
 
So, please stop sending me these accusation and false narratives––you're just wasting your time because from here on out I won't be responding, lest I stoop to your level. I'll follow my Lord's advice and not waste my time (Matt. 7:6). And all the reason since an individual of your mind-set is not ready to receive truth about yourself. You are very confused Lonnie––such a wandering spirit (Jude :12-13). 
 
I'll continue to pray you will see the accusers of the brethren (which you are participating in) is from the devil and you need, for your own sake and peace of mind, let it go––whatever "it " is that is triggering you to act with such offensive hostility––you really are filled with a lot of animosity. It "oozes" out in your writing, like pus from a spiritually infected spirit. As a matter of fact, you are hurting your health and this tension you carry, over the long run, can hurt you physically.

Stop the "wandering" Lonnie and focus on something more positive and be a force for God that you can be, "if" you will forgive and let your past go!

I pray God will recover you from the hostility you harbor (2 Tim 2:24-26).

In Christ's Service,

...Bill

Saving for the Feast - Canadian Dan McIntyre Talks About Being A Survivor of Armstrongism

 

A humble upbringing is an understatement for Dan McIntrye. Canada born and bred, Dan’s cult journey took him from guitar god, to free desserts to cult escape, only to land him right in the arms of… another one?  

A double survivor. A triple thriver. And one extremely nice guy. Damn, Canadians, you really are as kind as they say.



Hosted by Tyler Measom and Liz Iacuzzi, Was I In A Cult? is a documentary-style podcast showcasing individuals who have been in, and most importantly, successfully left a cult. Told first-hand by the experiencer themself, these are raw, riveting and inspirational tales of what it means to be a survivor. Using levity and info-tainment, the show humanizes the cultic experience and may leave some of our listeners asking themselves…“Wait…Was I In A Cult?”
If you or someone you know has been in a cult and want to share your story, contact us at CULTS@iHeartMedia.com. We'd love to hear from you.


60 Years of the Place of Safety: One of the Most Dangerous Beliefs Ever Perpetuated by the Worldwide Church of God and Her Daughters

Continuing Church of God Arrives at Petra


As a WCG pastor, sad I know, there were a few topics I never gave a sermon on, ever. British Israelism, Divine Healing only and The Place of Safety. 

The first made no difference to me, even if proven and it is debunked, because it does not reflect the teachings or message of the New Testament which always seemed the focal point of Christianity. (That was meant to be somewhat sarcastic :)  

The second, Divine Healing Only was just ignorant and dangerous to one's health. I also strongly felt and reminded fold that adult parents really had no right to exhibit "faith" for a sick child. That's both unfair and dangerous. If the adult wanted to trust for divine healing only without medical help, fine. But you cannot make that decision for your children. Be responsible. 

And the third, The Place of Safety seemed concocted and the cause of more fear and questions in the congregations I cared to address, but should have, and downright stupid. "Hide me in the grave until thy wrath be passed" seemed more desirable to me and I was not about to tell any congregation that HWA or whoever said, "It's time to flee!"

Dr Bob," I'll Tell You When to Flee", is a big fan of the dangerous and insane concept of the Church around the world, all 200 of them, fleeing to the Place of Safety, whether to Petra or the back room of Bob's office. 

Here Bob repeats Dr. Hermann Hoeh's long ago views, which I am sure, were he alive, he would disavow.

Of course, typical of the WCG schtick on such topics, it was "never before understood" until now, or then. It actually should read, "Never Before as Misunderstood Until Now". I would remind Bob that when he was in WCG, Gerald Waterhouse, or "Watermelon" as my kids called him, was the Church spokesman for the who, what, where when and why of the insanity of the Place of Safety. I would remind us that nothing of what he wasted the time of tens of thousands over came to pass or could come to pass.  He is now hidden in the grave.  

Sorry, too many people in the first crowd fleeing picture.  These are probably more accurate





"Back in April 1962, the old Radio Church of God published the following from the late Dr. Herman Hoeh:"

"Let’s open our Bibles to see why Petra has puzzled scholars and Bible students for centuries.

The true Church of God is pictured in Revelation 12. It is symbolized by a woman-the bride of Christ. But it is a persecuted woman-a Church hated by the world. According to verse 6 the Church fled the first time from her persecutors for 1260 years – during the Middle Ages. But verse 14 unveils another flight of the Church-in the very last days. This time the duration is only 3 1/2 years! “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle”-supernatural deliverance-“that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time”–3 1/2 years.

This prophecy has never been understood by the world because the world cannot understand to whom this prophecy refers."
=========================================================================
Read the Late Hermann Hoeh's views 60 years ago if you wish, but, of course, it is Bob's spin and additional "proof" of this insanity that fascinates and is worth repeating. 

Bob goes on to note and is not a little haunted by his obsessions with Catholic prophecy
=========================================================================

"Furthermore, it is my opinion that the demons themselves know about this place (recall that even Satan quoted scripture to Christ, see Matthew 4).

Notice that the power behind the “secret society” is expected to be hidden in a cave:

Anne Catherine Emmerich (October 1820): I saw the secret society undermining the great church and near them a horrible beast … concealing itself in a cave (Emmerich AC. The Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich, Volume 2, p.290).

I also believe that somehow demons influenced a mystic Catholic saint and prophetess named Hildegard to warn that those in a place with caves worked for the devil and were an advanced group that support the Antichrist. "
=======================================================================
(NOTE: GOTTA HAVE PERSECUTION OF COURSE)
======================================================================= 

"Notice what she wrote in the 12th century:

And fly from those who linger in caves and are cloistered supporters of the Devil. Woe to them, woe to them who remain thus! They are the Devil’s very viscera, and the advance guard of the son of perdition.

Therefore, O you My beloved children, avoid them with all devotion and with all the strength of your souls and bodies. For the ancient serpent feeds and clothes, them by his arts, and they worship him as God and trust in his false deceptions…Because they are afraid of My people, they do not openly resist these institutions of Mine, but in their hearts and their deeds they hold them as nothing. By devilish illusion, they pretend to have sanctity; but they are deceived by the Devil, for if he were to show himself to them openly, they would understand him and flee him. By his arts he shows them things he pretends are good and holy, and thus deludes them. O woe to those who persevere in this death!

But because the Devil knows he has only a short time for his error, he is not hastening to perfect infidelity in his members; you, you evil deceivers, who labor to subvert the Catholic faith. (Hildegard of Bingen. Scivias. Paulist Press, Mahwah (NJ), pp. 301-302).

Since I believe that the mystic was demonically influenced, she is actually warning against supporting the true Christians who will be protected who she is claiming are the “supporters of the Devil” (probably because they will oppose the Catholic Church). Since she calls them the advanced guard “of the son of perdition,” she seems to be referring to a group of people who will be protected in caves just before Christ returns (I stated that because certain Catholic prophecies seem to refer to the returning Christ as the “antichrist”, who is also sometimes referred to as “the son of perdition.

Hence, I believe that the above demonically inspired vision will be used to try to persuade people to be against those that are in caves (Jeremiah 48:28), who seem religious (Revelation 14:12), and are apparently miraculously fed (Isaiah 33:15-16). Those being protected will be teaching that Jesus is about to return (who certain Catholic prophecies call Antichrist)–this would be expected to result in persecution of those with similar beliefs. Yet notice that the above vision does indicate that even the demons have known about a place of protection where some people will be miraculously fed, for quite some time."

You go Demons! 
Flee at your own risk...

The unexpected arrival of the Philidelphia Church of God, The Restored Church of God and Whatever Ron Weinland calls himself at The Place of Safety






 

Friday, February 4, 2022

Gerald Weston Wants You To Know Why He Doesn't Talk About Jesus Much...

 


For some reason, COG groups are really adept at finding any reason they can as to not talk much about Jesus. When they do, like Weston below, it is to point out all the thing they think is work with people who are Christ-followers in Christianity. Instead of talking about Jesus in they spend their energy talking about characters from Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus is too much trouble to discuss.


Mr. Christo Botha sent an encouraging report from South Africa, where President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country will move to Adjusted Alert Level 1, which permits all gatherings and no limits on the number of attendees meeting indoors. Mr. Stuart Wachowicz recorded a four-part series of telecasts examining the historical impact of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph on modern society. This series was recorded in our new Canadian studio and is set to begin airing February 10 in Canada. Mr. Richard Ames gave a Tomorrow’s World presentation in Mebane, North Carolina, last weekend to 12 guests and 19 members who braved freezing temperatures and bad weather. Follow-up studies in several other locations reached an additional 25 guests. Presentations are scheduled this weekend for Jackson and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, California, and follow-up presentations are scheduled for Big Sandy and Tyler, Texas. I recorded a new telecast titled “Exposing Five Myths About Jesus.”— Gerald Weston

PCG Turns Off Tracking On Flurry Family's Private Jet But Still Can't Stop People From Tracking Them


 

From a reader:



Flurry's jet at one time could be tracked using various flight trackers, but unfortunately, they have the option to turn off the tracker system being a private aircraft. 
 
However, there are "airport watchers" who as a hobby , note the tail numbers of the various planes landing at sites around the world. Some people have the hobby of trying to find far away radio station call letters, others, register train locomotive numbers. A sort of "collect the set" kind of thing. These folks like to watch airplanes and keep journals of tail numbers.

Flurry's PCG Jet has the tail number of N127RR . Not all flights get recognized, but a few are made note of by airport watchers. Here is the list on the public site...

Screenshot off Twitter

Showing landings near London.

I hope this gets posted, just so that the Flurry crowd knows that they have "eyes on them" and that turning off tracking, didnt totally assure anonymity.

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Doug Winnail: The world is falling apart around us and Satan is promoting rebellion. Will LCG ever recover?


Doug's words of wisdom this week. The world is falling apart around us and big old meanie Satan is stirring up rebellion. The record keeps skipping at this point.


Satan’s Divided World: This week millions have watched a massive convoy of Canadian truckers converge on the nation’s capital of Ottawa to protest the government’s restrictive COVID policies. America and Europe have seen similar protests by angry citizens against coercive government regulations. We see political parties bitterly opposing each other and angry leaders in science and academics denouncing each other and denigrating opposing ideas. The winds of war are blowing again in Europe, and Asian nations are launching supersonic ballistic missiles to threaten other nations. Few today realize that Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), that he is a rebel who promotes rebellion (Isaiah 14:12– 15; Revelation 12:4), and the author of anger, hatred, and lies (Galatians 5:19–21) that lead to chaos and confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). Brethren, we, as God’s people need to recognize and resist the negative and divisive influence of Satan’s world (1 Peter 5:6–9) by building and maintaining a closer relationship with God.
Have a profitable Sabbath, Douglas S. Winnail

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Evil Laodicean Delilah's With Smart Phones Are Seducing PCG Members To Sin While Entertaining Them!

 


More craziness from the Philadelphia Church of God:


“Be very careful about becoming unequally yoked with this world.” He kept trying to put fear in the members and singles as he said, “Don’t underestimate the power of the Devil to bring you into his team.” [Note from ESN: He is making the Devil out to be more powerful than God and contradicts the verse, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” –I John 4:4] 
 
Brad Macdonald mentioned “Delilahs” in our life as maybe being: “a relationship with someone in the world, a relationship with a Laodicean family member, a sin we’ve become comfortable with; a speculation; your version of a church doctrine; an attitude of bitterness or resentment towards a minister or another members; maybe it’s your smartphone, or maybe it’s entertainment.” 
 
“Ask God for the will and power to smash the yoke that is binding you to that thing.” Exit and Support Network 

PCG: "Yoke yourself to church literature, yoke yourself to the sermons coming from GF and God’s ministers

 


More craziness from Brad Macdonald of the Philadelphia Church of God cult. He wants all of PCG members to "yoke" themselves to Gerald Flurry, church literature, the ministers, and of course the law. 

It is interesting that whenever a yoke is invoked in the New Covenant or with Jesus it is always considered a burden. A heavy weight from keeping the law that brings no redemption or salvation that constantly makes the lives of people miserable.  Yet, Jesus says his yoke is easy and the burden is light. There is peace in being yoked to Jesus. but not to Gerald Flurry or any of he crap literature he writes and particularly with the PCG ministry.

From Exit and Support Network:

Told how HWA was was “yoked to God’s law” [Note from ESN: God’s Law translates to the Law given by Moses. See Nehemiah 10:29] and he was absolutely vigilant about it. If we begin to compromise, we will let Satan get a foot in the door. There was no place for compromise in HWA’s life.[Note from ESN: To see whether or not HWA ever compromised, see our section on Herbert W. Armstrong

Macdonald doubles down on smartphones again because this gives people access to information that lifts the burden of PCG from their shoulders. Macdonald comments about church members not speculating on the return of Christ is hypocritical since Gerald Flurry does it every time he opens his mouth. I get it though, church members are not to speculate, but Flurry can.  

He also doubles down on PCG members treating their own family members like dirt because they no longer are part of the PCG cult.

This is the approach that we need to take with Laodicean families, with smartphones; speculations about Jesus Christ’s return.” [Note from ESN: Who is it that has been speculating about Christ’s return? Hasn’t it been PCG ministers, especially GF?] 
 
He said some individuals in PCG have done a lot of research and he told them to “stop doing it.” GF in his Bible Study said God wants His people to be thinking and asking questions, but we can’t yoke ourselves to them, “because one day you will be called out on it and if you are yoked too closely to it, it will be very, very difficult to change.” 
 
He wanted everyone to be alike and said, “We want to be yoke fellows, all of the same mind, all of the same view. [Note from ESN: There is to be no individualism allowed in cults.] 
 
He equated eternal life to PCG doctrines. “Either we hang on to what we’ve learned, or we lose our eternal life.” [Note from ESN: We cannot lose our eternal life once we have it. Read: “Can we ever lose our salvation?” (Q&A)] 
 
“Yoke yourself to church literature, yoke yourself to the sermons coming from GF and God’s ministers.”

Talk about yoking ones self to a life of misery!

“The most accurately informed historian in the world”

 


Just when you think you have heard it all in Armstrongism along comes another dingy minister saying something stupid. But, this is the Philadelphia Church of God and we have come to accept that they will do things like this.

This is by Brad Macdonald in a sermon to singles in the PCG cult:

Talked about Herman Hoeh being really yoked to God in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and that meant “being yoked to Mr. Armstrong (HWA). Being “tightly bound” to HWA made Hoeh “incredibly successful and incredibly effective at doing God’s Work.” Kept talking about Hoeh and said he was “the most accurately informed historian in the world.” I couldn’t find anything like this when I searched on the internet. Told how Hoeh in the 70’s began to unyoke himself from HWA and yoked himself to intellectualism and by the 1970’s was yoked to the synagogue of Satan. Exit and Support Network

Even Herman Hoeh himself said that his Compendium of World History was riddled with errors. Nothing pissed off many of these splinter cult leaders when Hoeh refused to follow them when they started new churches in acts of rebellion.


Satan Tries To Wreck Havoc In The Last Remaining True Church

It's another day in COGland and Satan, that big bad old meanie, is getting blamed for persecuting the one and only remaining true Church of God. The last remaining church that is spoken of in scripture and preordained at the creation of the world to carry out an end-time work is being persecuted, just as scripture says. Even worse, its self-appointed prophet, divinely set apart at creation, and doubly blessed leader is suffering intense persecution that no COG has ever experienced in 2,000 years! Oh, the horrors!

Satan is such a devious little squirt that he inspired the web hosting company that the Great Bwana to Africa and the only doubly-blessed prophet to ever lead a Church of God uses to blacklist him!

The Great Bwana starts off by mentioning the show "Blacklist" and how it deals with a "blacklist" of criminals that the FBI tracks down and usually eliminates. Satan is soooooooooooooooooo angry at the amazing work that Bwana Bob is doing that he is seeking to find any means he can to stop Bwana Bob from fulfilling his self-appointed mission. The Great Bwana now claims his web hosting company placed his videos and sermons on a blacklist, all thanks to Satan!

Of course, our resident crackpot prophet claims that this action is mentioned in scripture, specifically about his end-time "work" being inhibited from preaching some kind of a "gospel".

Being on a computerized “blacklist” can eliminate access to information, including biblical truth. Opposers of Jesus used the Satanic tactic of ‘guilt by association,’ which Jesus denounced and added something:

34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 But wisdom is justified by all her children. (Luke 7:34-35) 
 
Being put on a real ‘blacklist’ or even being lumped in with those who are disreputable highly impacts those who do not possess godly wisdom.

How dare Satan lump him in with other disreputable people and churches!  How dare he!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not only that, someone out in cyberspace accused Bwana Bob of spamming people! 


Why mention that here? 
 
Because of an incident this week. 
 
Let’s begin with some background. 
 
In July 2020, the Continuing Church of God announced that we had another URL and website: https://cg7.org 

Because Bwana Bob has no legitimate reason to exist and because his church is not known by anyone in the world, he sought to align himself as close as he could with the Church of God 7th Day. People looking for the real site will also be forwarded on to the personality cult of Bwama Bob and assume they were being led to the truth.

The purpose of the site was to have free information that keepers of the seventh-day Sabbath might be interested in. 
 
Until a couple of days ago, all seemed fine. 
 
Yet, on Sunday, January 30, 2022, we received an urgent email from the legal department from our web hosting company that a web monitoring site placed that URL on its “blacklist” and we had to agree to make various ‘corrections.’ We were told that if those were not made to the web monitoring site’s satisfaction, the cg7.org site would be removed from our hosting company. But, the hosting company stated that instead of immediately removing the cg7.org website, since we had been reliable long-term customers they could give us 72 hours to try to get off the blacklist. 
 
So, I prayed about it and then contacted the web monitoring site to try to find out what was happening and to ask for details. 
 
The web monitoring site responded by stating there was an allegation about something to do with spamming. Yet, it was a false allegation as that was not anything that we ever did.

So where do you think this led the mind of the Great Bwana to wander off to? Satan! Big old meanie!

We had done nothing wrong, but were facing removal because of falsehoods. The fact that the web monitoring company representative stated he was “mystified” this matter got this far suggested Satanic involvement. 
 
The Apostle Paul wrote:

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12) 
 
When facing the powers of darkness, the Apostle Paul wrote for Christians to do the following:

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 
 
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. (Ephesians 6:13-17)

This was a sure sign of the "famine of the word"!!!!! Ghastly days, times are rough!

The Great Bwana says:

So, I strove to do the above and we won– this time. 
 
The timing of all of this was very interesting as we had began to embark on a potentially large expansion for the https://cg7.org URL, which is our Church of God 7th Day Sabbath Observing Christians website. 

Even this past Friday, I had someone else working with me on that project. Then, Sunday, the cg7.org site was facing elimination–a limited type of “famine of the word’ (cf. Amos 8:11-12).

Someone needs to contact the legal department of the real Church of God 7th Day and let them know a silly little upstart of Armstrongism is appropriating their name in order to divert potential contacts that think they are contacting the real COG7 to end up contacting a crackpot splinter cult of Armsgtrongism! 

This was another censatorial type of persecution we have faced.




 

 

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

The Mispaired Dancers: The Archaeological Challenge to Biblical Literalism

 


The Mispaired Dancers:

The Archaeological Challenge to Biblical Literalism

By NeoTherm

 

Archaeology and Biblical Literalism are an unlikely pairing. This came to mind recently when I read about the founding of the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology. This opinion piece centers on the discord there must be, in some respects, between these two disciplines, one scientific and the other hermeneutical, when they are joined in a single scientific endeavor.  Archaeology discovers and interprets and Biblical Literalism has an interpretative agenda of its own. The idea that, armed with the hermeneutic of Biblical literalism, you can sort through some habitation layers and find nice affirmations of the Old Testament is ingenuous. The ill-conceived notion that artifacts are just lying there waiting to be unearthed and to be placed in evidence, like pre-formed puzzle pieces, supporting the OT's literal veracity is boundlessly optimistic. This is because there is a high interpretative hurdle that must also be jumped in order to obtain the prize of credibility. The meaning of an excavated discovery does not fall solely within the domain of Biblical Literalism but must also be subject to peer review by other archaeologists and other schools of Biblical interpretation. 

There is another overarching problem. The idea that archaeological discoveries in habitation layers around Palestine will resolve the overall issues of Biblical archaeology is untenable.  There are some really profound issues in Biblical archaeology for Biblical literalists. This designation “literalist” includes almost all fundamentalists and atheists. Atheists always choose to be literalists because it is an easy but sophomoric advantage in debates about Biblical accuracy. A few outstanding issues at the uneasy boundary of conflict between archaeology and Biblical Literalism:

1.     There is no evidence of a global flood.

 

An enormously catastrophic flood that would have resulted in the globe being covered by waters that rose to heights that exceed the elevation of Mt. Everest (greater than 29,032 feet) would have had enormous geological consequences.  Scientists have found no such consequences.  And according to literalists it happened only a few thousand years ago.  There is good reason to believe that the flood was a local event (Carol A. Hill, “The Noachian Flood: Universal or Local?” in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, September 2002).  A minister in the WCG once stated to me that the Grand Canyon was carved out by the receding waters of the Noachian Flood. I suggest looking at this article:

 

Flood Geology and the Grand Canyon: What Does the Evidence Really Say?

 

2.     Nobody knows where Mt. Sinai is. 

 

I always thought that Mt. Sinai was a known peak somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula.  After all I had seen the Cecil B. DeMille movie when I was a kid. But, alas, which peak might be the actual Mt. Sinai is still unknown. There are a number of candidates. Each peak has proponents. Each peak has issues. A good summary statement:

 

“It is the most important mountain in Jewish history. It is central to our religion and it is the birthplace of one of the founding documents of world civilization. It is our rock and our salvation - but where is it? … We Jews received the Ten Commandments at the top of Mount Sinai, but where was that mountain? The location of Har Sinai is still unknown.” -- Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg, The Jerusalem Post  

 

3.     Nobody knows how the logistics of the Red Sea crossing would have worked.  

 

First, logistics: 


“They had to get across the Red Sea at night. Now, if they went on a narrow path, double file, the line would be 800 miles long and would require 35 days and nights to get through. So, there had to be a space in the Red Sea, 3 miles wide so that they could walk 5,000 abreast to get over in one night.”   -- Dr. Danny Kellum, Headmaster of Donelson Christian Academy

 

Next, historicity:  


“Modern historians are puzzled that no ancient source, including the Egyptians ones, even hint at an event of this scope… Maybe the Egyptians left no record because they were too embarrassed… And even if Egypt did keep this public embarrassment under wraps, we would have expected nearby nations to have jumped all over it… But nothing.” -- Peter Enns in his book “The Bible Tells Me So … Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It,” pp. 116-117.

 

For further development of this topic, see the video series beginning with: Pete Ruins Exodus (Part 1)

 

4.     There is no archaeological evidence of the destruction of the Canaanite cities that matches the account in Joshua.

 

“The story of the conquest in Joshua does not accord, either in its general outlook or its specific details, with the archaeological data.  These data suggest that instead of a violent entry into a populated land, the first Israelites settled in a mostly empty part of the region, the central hill country … The story of the conquest and settlement as it now appears in the book of Joshua is a literary, ideological construct, the result of many editions, revisions, and additions, reflecting changing concepts of the fulfillment of the divine promise of the land over a long period of time.” – Jewish Study Bible, 2nd Edition, p. 439.


I would imagine that the typical Armstrongist sitting in Sabbath services does not know that the above issues are without plausible resolution at this time. I would bet that most of them presume they can find Mt. Sinai on a map in Jamieson-Fausset-Brown. I used to be that way. And finding a reference on a pottery shard to "Hezekiah" in a habitation layer in or near Jerusalem contributes only very, very little to the resolution of this larger picture of lacking evidence supporting major Biblical events. I have used only summary statements to support each of the numbered topics above for this brief article. There is an extensive and accessible literature on each topic.  

What I am not saying is that these are reasons to believe that the Bible cannot be trusted and needs to be discarded. That is the impoverished viewpoint of atheism. These findings from archaeology are not an attack on faith but an attack on Biblical Literalism. Faith should never be assaulted by science but this requires a hermeneutic other than Biblical Literalism.  

I believe in a version of each of the numbered topics above. I believe there was a large local flood that affected many Middle Eastern nations. I am not concerned about where Sinai is – the theological content of the Old Testament is not contingent on geology. The exodus of Israelites from Egypt may have been smaller and less complex than scripture suggests. Once again the moral values asserted by the exodus text are undiminished by its literary nature. And as for Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, maybe it wasn’t as violent as the scripture suggests. Maybe the Israelites segued in and the Canaanites segued out. After all, the Canaanites are still a nation near present day Israel. There is a firmly established genetic connection between the Canaanites, the Phoenicians and the modern Lebanese. This was recently reaffirmed by scientists at the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute when they sequenced the entire genomes of four 4,000-year-old Canaanites that were present during the Bronze Age and compared the results to modern populations. And the modern Lebanese are genetically closely related to the Jews.  The conquest of Canaan was more like your unwanted cousins showing up on your doorstep to stay.  Archaeology reveals the actual events to be less dramatic than the literary versions. But miraculousness is not scalable but binary. A thousand people fleeing Egypt may just as much involve the miraculous suspension of the laws of the Cosmos as two million fleeing. Overall, it is as Dr. Peter Enns stated, “God let his children tell the story.”

What I am saying is that archaeology does not support the literalist interpretation of the numbered Biblical events listed above. But this does not diminish the theological content of the Biblical accounts of these events. And it is likely that these accounts were based on some actual historical happenings. But the actual historical events based on archaeology do not agree with the literalist interpretations. The Biblical accounts are then more literary than literal. The accounts emphasize relevancy rather than accuracy or historicity. And that is a workable hermeneutic. The imperative concern is not in finding artifacts that support the literal interpretation of the OT. It is in recognizing that a different approach to Biblical interpretation is required and that the OT has been under human curation for millennia and bears the evidence of it. I believe that in the Old Testament spiritual principle and theology have been conserved but material detail and univocality have suffered. And this is the demanding scientific and historiographic context in which any archaeological organization embracing Biblical literalism must be prepared to function.



 

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