Here we go again. Another so-called “pagan” holiday has barely passed, and the next one is mere hours away—cue our favorite crackpot prophet working himself into a frothy lather. With evil demonic entities supposedly lurking behind every lamppost, this poor soul manages to spot satanic symbolism in absolutely everything around him. Apparently, we’re all being tempted to sin—though, let’s be honest, he seems far more temptable than the rest of us.
This time, he nearly popped a blood vessel when he discovered that—gasp!—certain Muslim clerics also disapprove of New Year’s Eve and Day.
A while back, Turkey’s top religious authority, Mehmet Görmez, publicly condemned both Christmas and New Year’s as pagan:
“Christmas and New Year celebrations are events where both pagan rituals and capitalist drives are intertwined,” the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate said in a statement.“What I will most object to as the religious affairs head is the Christmas consumer economy that causes cultural and identity-related erosion in children,” he added.“I see mass parties and celebrations similar to a form of revenge people take on the time phenomenon,” Görmez continued. “Especially [celebrating] with drinking, gambling and lotteries… it is impossible to approve of such things.”
So, a non-Christian scholar politely suggests that wild New Year’s parties are morally dubious and that Christmas marketing isn’t great for kids. And suddenly this is supposed to matter to Christians? Since when do Bible-thumping fundamentalists give a flying rat’s ass what an Islamic cleric thinks?
Undeterred, our fearless prophet presses on:
“January 1st is not a biblical holiday, and even the Church of Rome has forbidden some of its attributes as demonic.”
Oh noes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He then launches into a lurid description of the drunken debauchery that allegedly erupts in motels, hotels, and office parties on New Year’s Eve—which, funnily enough, sounds remarkably similar to the scandalous stories we’ve heard about certain Feast of Tabernacles gatherings in the old Armstrong movement. Not to mention the “singles mixers” that somehow turned into full-blown sex parties at nearly every feast site. Truly, Armstrongism was every bit as “pagan” as the holidays it loved to condemn.
Real Christians, he insists, should never participate in pagan holidays—especially those involving drunken revelry. And doesn’t the observance of New Year’s Day lead to blasphemy among the Gentiles (or at least some Muslims) because so many who profess Christ keep it? This must never be!
So, naturally, he quotes his handy Muslim preacher yet again to justify his seething hatred of New Year’s. Brilliant strategy.
In honor of the esteemed Bwana Bob, I’ll be blowing an extra-loud toot on my party horn and pouring myself an extra-generous glass of champagne this year. Cheers!
He then launches into a lurid description of the drunken debauchery that allegedly erupts in motels, hotels, and office parties on New Year’s Eve—which, funnily enough, sounds remarkably similar to the scandalous stories we’ve heard about certain Feast of Tabernacles gatherings in the old Armstrong movement. Not to mention the “singles mixers” that somehow turned into full-blown sex parties at nearly every feast site. Truly, Armstrongism was every bit as “pagan” as the holidays it loved to condemn.
Real Christians, he insists, should never participate in pagan holidays—especially those involving drunken revelry. And doesn’t the observance of New Year’s Day lead to blasphemy among the Gentiles (or at least some Muslims) because so many who profess Christ keep it? This must never be!
So, naturally, he quotes his handy Muslim preacher yet again to justify his seething hatred of New Year’s. Brilliant strategy.
In honor of the esteemed Bwana Bob, I’ll be blowing an extra-loud toot on my party horn and pouring myself an extra-generous glass of champagne this year. Cheers!
22 comments:
Radson has taken Bob's admonition to heart, and doesn't wait for some pagan "New Years" celebration to do his cavorting!
Bob's jealous.
Real Christians should never participate in pagan festivals AND SHOULD BE MEMBERS OF MY CHURCH. Well hey Bob, how is your ‘church’ doing?
Growing in vast numbers month by month, year by year I don’t doubt. A campus is undoubtedly on the drawing boards now at a prominent architects office and you most likely are talking with publishers about a monthly magazine to go globally in the new year. Then again maybe not. The games up for Armstrongism Bob, the glory days are long gone and only a rotting corpse remains of this almost dead movement. My goodness you guys are persistent aren’t ya. The last grasps of life are still there aren’t they.
A voice of moderation and wisdom would simply say, "If you are going to be celebrating New Year's Eve this year, do it responsibly!" Which, of course, the vast majority of people who celebrate the New Year do! Where is is written that in order to preach Armstrongism, you need your scrapbook full of strawmen?
Not all COG groups refute acknowledging New years Eve as the end of a calendar year.
There's a funny JW song-video about 1975 that just came out. It has its application to the ACOGs.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mdGbsm30WVc
COGWA ends its fiscal year on Dec. 31. How many members have complained about that in 15 years?
This is simply a secular holiday, much like Independence Day, or Veteran's Day. It has to do with the way in which time is currently reckoned, and if there ever were pagan origins, no normal person recalls or is thinking about them today, except ACOG members and others who are enthusiastic about researching and using alleged pagan origins as a proselytizing tool for their church. It is no longer effective when used in that way, due to the many other repulsive aspects of their religious beliefs, their failed mission vis a vis understanding ancient prophecies, and much of the bad histories and abuses of the totalitarian form of church government which they practiced.
The names of the celestial time keepers, except those recently discovered during the modern scientific era, and the names of the months and days all carry the names given by Israel's captors, and we have new developments such as the International Date Line, and Greenwich Mean Time being used to set modern standards in lieu of Jerusalem Standard Time, the wave sheath, first sighting by priests of the new moon's first crescent, etc.
Much has changed since the global advent of secular systems of government. Armstrongism was predicated on a world view based on nostalgia for the theocratic form of government, in spite of the church's flawed understanding or application of the ancient theocratic model of government presented in the Torah, and a reinterpretation rooted in the flawed understandings of Armstrongite prophets.
Armstrongism was time and date stamped for the much more primitive conditions experienced in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, and expired in 1975 when God failed to validate Herbert W. Armstrong. And then HWA later died. But alas. There are also those who revere the late Haille Selassie, decades after his passing, a somewhat similar phenomenon. From ancient times there have been gurus and zealots claiming and being revered for their self-professed knowledge of the unknowable. They all pass, leaving messed up followers behind, in mental limbo. I don't know if the rest of us even have the capability to help them, which would be the natural tendency of their compassionate fellow human beings, because they still listen to the now dead but seemingly louder voices of their past, actively resonating in their heads. It's so sad.
BB
Please Bob, don't post the date in your letters in the future.
Back in the late 1970s and '80s when there were global plans to standardize measurements under the metric system, fundamentalists in America led the charge against changing over to a profane, pagan system from the supposedly God-given American system of inches, feet, yards, pounds, ounces, cups, quarts, gallons, etc. The change-over failed, although the automotive industry largely changed over to metric hardware, to standardize for international sales. Oddly enough, renowned British motorcyle manufacturer Triumph switched from British Standard Whitworth (aka British Metric) to American Standard hardware. I know for a fact that I still have some British metric hardware in my catch-all Captain Black pipe tobacco can of odds and ends that I've had in my garages for the past 55 years!
BB
Have you noticed Dr. Thiel's website address has changed?
CCOG.org now takes you to a site with a European Union handle!
Who or what is hacking them?
Bob has given control of his websites to the coming Beast Power. Not a good sign!
Baron von Guttenburg has assumed His position as the Beast Power and has started persecuting Bob. He has had several pages not working for days now.
Happy New Year Professor Theil!
HWA use to claim that God's model of government is theocracy. But that's not true. Theocratic is defined as "relating to or denoting a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god. Eg, "a theocratic state."
With Israel in the desert, God was present. It was direct rule by God rather than by priests in the name of God. And God often intervened during Israel's history in the OT. So technically it was not a theocracy.
Herb claiming that his government was a theocracy is him and his power hungry minsters usurping both the members rights and Christ's responsibility of leading his followers.
Would not surprise me if it wasn't this blog using UCG resources.
Bit sad 7:06 to search out when Church groups fiscal year ends!
I'm 2:06 and I meant CGI.
What is this, 1:53? Tell a lie big enough and often enough that people start believing it? Is that what you think?
Don't you even know what's going on in your own house? It was probably your mother. You should really get out of the basement once in a while.
Desperate insults thrown out 5:17 usually means desperate times. Hows the AiCOG Youtube channel going?
10:25.
1:53 was clearly expressing a thought. Are you that wound up with hatred you cannot discern between an expression of thought or an accusation?
The mental illness thread is just above this one, 11:13. In the interests of inclusion, you and 1:53 should probably be expressing your thoghts there!
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