Our Great Bwana to Africa, and the occasional 100 Caucasians, is hyperventilating in Grover Beach over Chinese New Year and surprisingly admits he jumped to a conclusion. When God was passing out common sense, Satan must have jiggled the spoon when it came to God's greatest gift to humanity.
The Great Bwana Bob starts off with a little history on the Year the Snake and says this:
The Chinese New Year, itself, is based upon a lunar-solar calendar cycle. Like the biblical one, it is supposed to be somewhat related to Spring, though the Chinese one tends to begin earlier.
The Chinese New Year is basically considered to be an observance originally established to worship pagan gods and also has astrological implications (it also can involve ancestor worship). Unlike Western astrology which is supposedly based upon the astrological sign in the sky when one is born (which varies about monthly), Chinese astrology is based on being born in a particular astrological year. The Chinese have 12 astrological signs that rotate in a cycle.
The year that is ending was the year of the dragon. People who are to be born between 29 January and next year are considered to ‘astrologically’ be born under the sign of the Chinese year of the snake.
Then, like any good Armstrongite trying to divert attention towards paganism, he has this to say about how he jumped to a conclusion, pretty much how all of his "theology" is processed.
The fact that Satan is called a serpent has tended to have me connect him with the Chinese snake (as well as all paganism). Here are a couple of scriptures related to the biblical dragon snake, Satan:
9 … the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:9)2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. (Revelation 20:2-3)
Satan was also called the serpent in Genesis and was cursed:
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:“Because you have done this,You are cursed more than all cattle,And more than every beast of the field;On your belly you shall go,And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life. (Genesis 3:14)
So much of the theology of Armstrongism is of men pulling things out of the hat that they think sound good and fit the narrative they think they need to follow.
Since about a fifth to a quarter of humanity is Chinese, I thought it may be important to point out the pagan implications of this holiday, as it is celebrated by scattered Chinese around the world.
13 comments:
Bob is like a one-man comedy show that you would find down some dark alley in the creepy part of town. You have to attend out of some kind of morbid curiosity because you know he is going to say something really, really stupid, and putting your life in jeopardy to be there makes it all worthwhile.
When Bob has a plumbing problem, and there's a clog in his office or household pipes, is he compromising with Satanic paganism when he uses a "snake" to unclog those pipes?
The great Satanic & pagan conspiracy theory has been milked for all its worth, first by the great con artist himself and now by all of the cultish offshoots. Its been a great con because via this means they then introduce a need for Levitical observances and with that of course comes the all important tithing.
And Bob concludes on his Chinese year discourse on his website that the Biblical year begins Nisan 1 - Ex 12:2.
Naw. The Biblical year begins and end at the Feast Of Tabernacles - Ex 12:16; 34:22; Deut 31:10. The meaning of Ex 12:2 is Nisan is the most important month of the year ("chief" month in the YLT), and yes, you can count months starting with Nisan.
The following counts are compatible!!......count months from Nisan; count years from the FOT.
Did Dr. Thiel also connect the Chinese "dragon" to Satan? There's Biblical backing for that, too.
So much for him rooting for the Arizona Diamondbacks...
Well Bob. It must be in embarrassing for you to watch the annual Lord Mayor of London parade held each year in the Uk. Where the large effigies of Gog and Magog are paraded with much prominence and celebration with the Lord Mayors officals through the streets of said city. Celebrating their ancient heathen and pagan roots with relish and devotion. These effigies are the ancient lord protectors of these Islands. And point to the ancient ancestral foundations of the people who inhabit these island lands. Nothing Semitic to be seen here. As the UK abandons its Christian faith ancient long lost practices once more find a ready audience in a spiritually hungry nation. And you think the Chinese new year celebrations may be tainted by pagan associations.
Without having paganism to complain about, or the feeling of jubilation which results from being special because they know about it, these peoples' lives would have no meaning whatsoever! You've all heard about walking like an Egyptian? These folks would be walking like Franz Kafka!
BB
Taking extreme measures rarely works out.
As an aside, in Lev 25:20-22, years 6, 7, 8, and 9 are ‘sacred’ years that begin in the spring. The Sabbatical and Jubilee years are considered holy compared to the sacred years; that is, the sacred years beginning in the spring are common in relation to the Sabbatical and Jubilee years.
What shall we eat in the Seventh and Eighth years?
You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?” I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in (Leviticus 25:20-22, NIV).
“20. If you say, etc. Nachmanides understands the text: ‘If you say in the seventh year, “What shall we eat (in the eighth year, since we left our land fallow in the seventh year)’. The answer is in the following verse. God will bless the sixth year with such fruitfulness that you will have enough to eat in the sixth, seventh and eighth years” (S.M. Lehrman, Leviticus, A. Cohen, Editor, The Soncino Chumash, p.767). “The idea of a bumper crop to last three years in the sixth year may strike the Westerner as fanciful. But if the timing is miraculous, the notion of large variations in yield is not. The size of the harvest is determined by the timing and quantity of the rain during the growing season. Both factors can change dramatically from one year to the next in Israel” (Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, NICOT, p.320).
Secular/Sacred Year Overlap
“Since planting was in the fall and harvesting was in the spring, crops planted in the fall of year 8 would be harvested in the spring of year 9. Working backwards and filling in earlier years, we find that in Leviticus 25:20-22 years numbered (“sixth year,” “seventh year,” etc.) from the beginning of the last sabbatical period of a Jubilee cycle must start with the first month in the spring (cf. Ex.12:2). However, because the sabbatical and Jubilee years commence in the seventh month in the fall, according to the agricultural calendar that follows the order of planting (fall) harvesting (spring), they overlap the numbered years: sabbatical = year 6-7 and Jubilee = year 7-8” (Roy Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, NIVAC, pp.434-35).
Put another way, the sabbatical year is the second half of the sixth sacred year and the first half of the seventh sacred year and the Jubilee year is the second half of the seventh sacred year and the first half of the eighth sacred year. Planting then begins in the second half of the eighth sacred year; with harvesting in the first half of the ninth sacred year...
“If the sabbatical year begins in the seventh month, why doesn’t it commence half a year after the beginning of the seventh spring year rather than half a year before, in the sixth year? The sabbatical year fallow follows the protocol for observance of rest on the Day of Purgation, when Jubilee years (and probably also sabbatical years) begin (25:9). Although the Day of Purgation is on the tenth day of the seventh month (16:29; 23:27); Num 29:7), its sabbath of complete cessation runs from the evening before, on the ninth day, to the evening of the tenth day (Lev. 23:32). In Nehemiah 13:19, weekly seventh-day Sabbath rest commences on the evening of the sixth day of the week, just as we find that the seventh-year fallow begins in the sixth year. So it appears that sacred units of time commence before the equivalent units of secular time that they overlap” (Roy Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, NIVAC, p.435).
Everything is pagan except for me
Correction: everything is pagan, including you!
"important to point out the pagan implications of this day"
In Britain the annual Up Helly Aa fire festival is held at this time. Lead by its Guizer Jarls (Leaders) this festival is noted for its huge torch light parades (reminds one of a certain dark time in Germanys recent history). A 'Holy Day" it is, and a celebration of the end of the dark and the beginning of light, as spring and summer approach. The Burning of the Clavie and other events underscore the feast. The British Isles are steeped in the ancient ways and practices and are indicative of her peoples pagan past. Well Bob did you miss this. As noted there is nothing semitic in these peoples origins and practices.
SING ALONG TIME!---
Everything is PAGAN"
(to the tune of "Everything is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens)
Chorus:
Everything is Pagan, in its own way,
Everything is Pagan, night and day.
If you look around, you'll surely see,
That Pagan's all around you and me.
Verse 2:
Pagan, the stars that light up the night,
Pagan, the sun shining so bright.
Pagan, the moon rising high,
And Pagan, the clouds drifting by.
Chorus:
Everything is Pagan, in its own way,
Everything is Pagan, night and day.
If you look around, you'll surely see,
That Pagan's all around you and me.
Bridge:
Now, there’s a man named Bob Thiel,
He says, "This world is more than what we feel."
He teaches that there's more to see,
A deeper truth in the mystery.
Interestingly, the Romans of the early apostolic era considered the Jews, Christians, and all other nations or ethnicities who did not believe in the traditional Roman gods and goddesses to be atheists. Jews and Christians were persecuted side by side by the more malevolent of the Emperors regardless of what day was their day of worship.
How little things change over the millennia! Armstrongites consider all Christians, national groups and ethnicities who do not believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as defined (actually redefined) by Herbert W. Armstrong, to be pagans. Pagan is so overused by Armstrongites that it has actually become one of their chief shibboleths! The minute you see that word in some treatise on the internet, you know that an Armstrongite was the author, unless the writer also makes reference to the Book of Wicca!
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