Picking and Choosing The "Correct" Biblical Hero

Rembrandt, The Baptism of the Eunuch, 1626

 

A comment was made on here today that mentioned the Ethiopian eunuch mentioned in Acts 8 and how we see no one in Armstrongism ever emulated this guy. COG leaders tend to look with giggily adoration on those they see as hyper-masculine men of the old covenant stories. This was when men were men. Manly men of God. 

"The Ethiopian Eunuch was an exemplary character, but who would pick a eunuch as their super hero?"

For those who forgot, the Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch story:

Here we have a man so dedicated to his job of faithfully serving that queen that he is castrated so that no "improprieties" could happen between him and Queen Candice. While he might have been castrated after being taken prisoner at a young age to serve the royal court or willingly did so later on is not mentioned. What is mentioned is how dedicated he is to all that he does.

That dedication is what led him to travel over 1,600 miles to Jerusalem, in a chariot no less, to worship at the temple, knowing full well that as eunuch he would be rejected from entering the temple grounds. Yet, he still went. 

He was not some poor Ethiopian out for a weekend jaunt to Jerusalem but was in a position of power and privilege that gave him access to the Queen and other influential people associated with the Queen/government. Being trusted with the Queen's money means he was not some poor little bookkeeper in the back room somewhere. It took money and dedication to travel that long of a distance through some of the most dangerous places.

He was also a person of such influence and education that he had access to a scroll or papyrus of the Book of Isaiah that he was traveling with and reading. Both scrolls and papyrus were painstakingly detailed books written and painted, not something the regular public had access to.

Here is a man so dedicated that he traveled over 1,600 miles to Jerusalem, knowing he would be rejected, yet went anyway. This is the kind of dedicated man that COG leaders should be emulating, but you never hear them doing such a thing.

Anyway, back to the story. Philip sees him reading the scroll and asks him if he understands what he is reading. He says no he doesn't and asks for Philip to explain it to him. Here is a man of such lofty status yet humble enough to admit he did not understand and asked for help. Imagine a COG leader asking for help understanding the scriptures they claim to know all about. What a sight that would be!

Philip took the Old Covenant scriptures he was reading and applied them to Jesus, so effectively that the eunuch desired to be baptized.

Much like the thief on the cross story at Jesus' crucifixion, nowhere is there any mention of the eunuch repenting of any sins he had committed. He understood the story that Philip told him about Jesus so well that he desired to be part of the "Jesus movement" that was sweeping the land at that time. He had faith and believed.

One would think that COG leaders like Gerald Flurry who has dumped millions of dollars into stage plays emulating Old Covenant prophets would see this as an amazing story about the salvational work of Jesus and the faithfulness of a "less than" man. But, that would involve Jesus, and that dude is not exactly welcome in most COGs today because beating people over their heads with the law or dancing some jig is more important.

Besides, the COG today is led by such mighty masculine men who supposedly still possess their testicles that to emulate a eunuch opens the door to women having a position of say in things. Since women also do not possess testicles and have menstrual periods that make them "supposedly" unclean, this is used against them. I remember one minister from Pasadena (now in UCG) making the statement that because women had menstrual periods and that scripture considered them unclean when that was happening, that was the reason they were unfit to preach or teach. Could you trust their words being spoken if they were having their unclean period?"

There are many men and women of faith in the Scriptures that the "men" leading COG's today could set up on pedestals as examples of faithfulness, but you never see these "men" do so. It is always more about them than anything else.

To be like the eunuch is to have humility and be teachable. This is what has led men and women of faith for centuries. People who are filled with wonder and desire for something bigger and greater than what they see around them instead of the crap spoonfed to them each week in canned sermons. 

The Church of God needs more faithful Ethiopian eunuchs in its midst than the current crop of emasculated leaders we currently have in too many of the more vocal COG's today. Today church leaders are faith killers. They have stripped wonder and inquisitiveness from people's lives by force-feeding them their answers to everything. Good people of faith need to leave these emasculated impotent men behind and step out in freedom. It's pretty cool out here!