Senator Ted Cruz recently stated that anti-Semitism is on the rise in the US. This is so sad. Many blame the nation of Israel for influencing the US to enter into this unpopular war with Iran.
If you believe this military adventure was a mistake, there is plenty of blame to go around. Personally, my focus is not on Israel. Instead, my concern is primarily directed to current Headline Theology Christian leaders. Many (if not most) of American Christian fundamentalists promote Prediction Addiction theology.
Unfortunately, this mental aberration also resides within the Sabbath-keeping Church of God movement.
It all started with William Miller (not a Sabbath keeper) in 1843. After Miller's prophecies failed 183 years ago, several groups rose out of the ashes of what history books call "the Great Disappointment." Two of these groups were the Seventh Day Adventists (SDA) and the Church of God Seventh Day (CG7).
I can't speak to the history of SDA and its current teaching. But I do know that CG7's early days included a lot of silly Headline Theology. Praise God, many (if not most) in CG7 have repented of this error. As a member of CG7, my observation is that most in our group today are more focused on the Sermon on the Mount and Exodus 20 than on Headline Theology.
The bad news is that CG7's main offshoot, the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), embraced this prophetic nonsense fully and completely. (For more information about this, go online and read their booklet, "1975 In Prophecy.") I believe WCG currently rejects this doctrinal aberration, but its offshoots totally embrace it.
I mean, they love it! It is their main tool for proselytizing and resulting income. Sadly, so much of these WCG offshoots' sermon time and evangelical efforts are saturated with this filth. Like their Headline Theology brothers who are Christian fundamentalists, the WCG offshoot groups share a lot of the responsibility for what has happened in Iran.
The current administration knows that these church groups with twisted prophecy are their key supporters. Those in charge of the White House knew that this Iran adventure would have their full support.
And why would a Prediction Addiction Christian embrace a war in the Middle East — a conflict that could lead to WWIII? Because these religions want to bring Armageddon down on the world. They want to see the nuclear bombs fall all over the globe. They want plagues to fall upon the world. All this, while they either get raptured or go to the Place of Safety.
This is sick.
So let's stop blaming Israel for what's going on in Iran and put a big chunk of the blame on the Christians who enthusiastically promoted this war — wetting themselves at the very thought of worldwide human suffering.
Yes, as Christians, we should pray "Thy Kingdom come." But let's not try to rush Jesus' return by encouraging politicians to make questionable and dangerous decisions. Our heavenly Father has a timeline that we cannot affect. Let's put our faith in Him.
5 comments:
Amen! God doesn't need our help, but we definitely need his!
Prediction addiction is real. And whole Christian communities and organisations have embraced it as an evangelical outreach tool. It certainly occupied a large amount of my time within wwcog. And it has a ready market as many seek refuge and for meaning in a seemingly unstable world. But the ‘disease’ of prediction addiction doesn’t start or end with the Christian church. Iran is guided by this apocalyptic system, believing that the return of their 12th and final hidden Inman will be predicated on an apocalypse which they must hasten, by ensuring the conditions for his return are right. Hence this guides their seemingly erratic behaviour. Israel on the Mediterranean coast must be eliminated before the return. But Jesus said to His disciples it is not for you to know the times when the kingdom would be restored…..and He gave them a commission to go proclaim the gospel. The gospel which the Armstrong movement has missed for decades sadly.
The armstrongists version of the gospel is Lev 26 Blessings and Curses with prophecy. That's what LCG is still on. It's laughable at this point. Over a year ago it was the third temple and looking out our third eye for the red heifer. Look, here , look there, watch, Prussia, Saxon, Brexit, DEI, Gibraltar!!
During the peak Armstrong years, surrounding conditions did somewhat resemble the early stages of the prophecies as HWA had interpreted them. And then, following the failure of 1972-75, they began to reverse and Ronald Reagan was elected president.
The Armstrong movement has largely self destructed over the past 50 years. The "Left Behind" hysteria of the Evangelicals, possibly having been influenced by HWA, is also now dated and passe. Nostradamus has also had his followers, and has been proven to be unreliable.
One mainstream preacher I heard years ago once stated that the prophecies of the Bible are not there to warn the world in advance. They are there to be understood in retrospect, to let mankind know that an all powerful God is in control!
It is despicable that someome claiming to be a spiritual guide would misuse prophecy to leverage his followers, to fear-monger them into modifying their behavior to conform to his ideals, and to contol their finances. We have experienced the fact that this man did not know his figurative ass from a figurative hole in the ground! Figuratively, he lied to us about Santa Claus, yet the seekers of his mantle persist!
This proves another thing I've been saying for a ginormous amount of time now! Holy Days, Sabbaths, Culinary laws or choices, and reasonable and Biblically sound financial contributions are not the reason why people rebel and leave Armstrongism! It's the other nefarious passengers that HWA added to those oracles!
See this? Wes is just as happy as an orthodox Jew dancing with the Torah at Temple or Chabad! Most of us really enjoyed the Holy Days, except for Day of Atonement, which you are not supposed to enjoy because you are afflicting your soul.
But, you guys in the ACOGs, this is not your fault! You are just repeating one of the cliches taught to you in Armstrongism! You need to know that the cliche is wrong!
Post a Comment