PTSD In The Churches of God?

A reader here sent this in last night.  It is from the Ambassador Report 33

***Just as Vietnam veterans may become "action junkies," former members of the WCG often become "movement junkies" - obsessed with obscure religious movements or other kinds of groups, continuing their quest for "The Truth" and/or for the satisfaction of considering themselves "in the know" within another self-described "select" group.

 "Such individuals view the mainstream social and religious institutions with continuing distrust, scorning the very real strength and benefit that might be found in a careful and rational acceptance of those institutions, however flawed. One former member writes: "Psychologists themselves (all I ever knew), and ministers (ha!) - those guys? Who wants those devil's advice? They're the ones who need it."

"Another writes, "We welcomed the 'comfort' of Jehovah's Witnesses. At the time we would never have withstood the 'transition' without them. We were like members until last year when we realized the danger of a repetition of the WCG. Fortunately, we never took that fated step of baptism. Now I thank God we realized just in time.... Now I can say, 'That's it. No more churches.' We pray and read the Bible every day. We accept Dr. Martin's literature still and are Christians. But we don't need churches."

"Other former members of the WCG have established their own churches, literature, and tract ministries, etc. Many of these are virtually unknown and show every indication of remaining so. Others have achieved varying degrees of notoriety, mostly among former WCG members, but have a tendency to dissension and schism. Their participants part company and continue to pursue "The Truth" that has eluded them once again, or the sense of cosmic purpose which they originally felt during their time in the WCG.

"Some former members, such as D., experience a series of failed relationships. Others suffer from depression and thoughts of suicide. One man I know was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital after his exit from WCG. It may be impossible to know how many successful suicides have been brought about by stress disorder directly related to the victims' time in the Worldwide church.

"Former members of WCG may find it difficult to return to interests and projects that had been important to them before involvement in Worldwide. Old religious affiliations are often difficult to resume.

"Several former members have experienced flashbacks to their WCG days. More than two years after my exiting WCG, I was listening to a representative from a small seminary describe his campus, the graduate program there, and the students. Although he didn't realize the effect he was having on me, I became more and more agitated as he described his seminary in words and phrases almost identical to those used to describe Ambassador College. After some minutes of this, I burst into wracking sobs, totally embarrassing myself and totally surprising the representative. Before this incident, I had thought myself quite "cured" of the effects of my time in the WCG and AC. In talking with other former members, I find that such experiences are not uncommon.

"If the effects of an experience like Worldwide on adults can be severe, the effects on children may be much more profound. A., whose story appeared above, attributes two of her sons' legal difficulties to the years that the family spent in WCG. Children have not only one authority imposing itself upon them (as the WCG is the sole authority over adult members), but they also have the authority of their parents, whose attitudes toward and treatment of children may be greatly affected by doctrines and directives from the WCG. Thus, children may doubly be victims of the damaging aspects of involvement in the WCG."

 Article in AR 33 by Brenda Denzler

James Malm and His Incredibly BORING Feast Sermons

First we had Bob Thiel with his extremely pathetic "Behind the Work" video that scrapped the bottom  of the barrel for entertainment and news worthiness.  Now we have James Malm speaking at his cult feast site. 

You will only be able to listen to 5 minutes or so, if you can even make it that far!

 I cannot imagine sitting in his services for 8 days listen to this  garbage!  The worst part is shortly after the beginning where he catches himself before he belches.

http://www.buzzsprout.com/12417/116903-tabernacles-day-2-mat-5

Dennis Muses: Without Revelation, who can we be?

Revelation Unveiled At Last!

...for the last time

 

Growing up Presbyterian, we never heard of the Book of Revelation and I recall no sermon ever given about it.  It was certainly not considered a book for our times and it was not used to make world events "unfold", "become clear," or "revealed."   It was just a strange book that had no place in the Presbyterian view. 

 

 

On the other hand, it's an attention grabber and without the Book of Revelation, all fundamentalist churches and Churches of God would cease to exist.  Revelation is the book that motivates and can certainly be made to mean whatever the need calls for.  It truly is a book for all times.  Whenever you lived you could make it mean whatever you needed it to mean.  You could make your King the Beast and your clergy the False Prophet.  You can find a couple of Witnesses if need be and use the words "soon" and "shortly" to keep the pews filled and the funds flowing for thousands of years. 

 

The Book of Revelation has been nothing but a theological pain in the ass since it was written.  While the Church of God claim to unveil or reveal it, they actually don't and know precious little about it's origins or original intent.  I will plainly say that the Book is NOT for our time and was NOT written for our times.  It is a failed first century prophecy or really a book meant to encourage Jews and Christians alike around the chaotic time of the sacking and destruction of Jerusalem , by the Romans, in 70 AD.



Revelation was written by a man, not THE man who called himself John.  It may have been written either just before the Fall of 70AD  or just after to encourage the Jews and also, with adaptations, Jewish Christians in the siege or surviving the aftermath  to hang in there.  It promised that the Romans would be gone in three and half years max and the Messiah would come and rout the Romans.  Revelation has a lot of wowisms in it.   With hyperbole and hubris, the author was using the Book of Daniel as the template for his visions of Revelation.  It was not uncommon to go back into the Old Testament to find scriptures that helped explain the new times one found themselves living in.  Daniel was a book written in the 160's BCE (not in the 500'sBCE) by priests trying to encourage the Jews in their struggles back then with the Romans.  The author of Revelation, John (not any  disciple or Apostle John) reasoned that if Daniel was meant to encourage Jews against Romans back then, it could be used to encourage Jewish Christians against Romans in his time.  The author himself may have been greatly traumatized by the fall of Jerusalem or what he saw coming. 


Revelation is a Jewish Christian document.  The book harbors precious little toleration for Gentile Christianity under the "Apostle" Paul.   It is very likely that the Beast was, to the author, Vespasian who had laid siege to Jerusalem and was not going away.  Even more fascinating and in my view as well, the False Prophet of THAT day was our dear Gentile Christian Apostle Paul. 

 

We are all very familiar with the Letter to the Ephesian Church in Revelation .


To the Church in Ephesus

Revelation 2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

 

 

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary."

 

 

Coupled with and understanding the NT disdain James, Peter and John had for Paul and him for them...

 

 

I Timothy I :15

 

"You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes."

 

 

That's an amazing and stunning statement.  Paul admits that ALL in Asia, where Ephesus is, had forsaken him.  That can be a very nice way for Paul to not admit they kicked him out and did not consider his gentile views of Jewish Christianity to be right.  Paul caused near riots among the Jewish Christians (not the Jews) wherever he went.  He was accused of teaching against the law , which he did, and told to disprove this in Acts 21: 19-36.  Of course, this story is not Paul's story.  It is Luke's story about Paul meant to show the charges were not true.  But they were. 

 

 

¹⁹ Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry

²⁰ When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. ²¹ They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. ²² What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, ²³ so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. ²⁴ Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. ²⁵ As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”
 

²⁶ The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them."

 

 

We should all know that in reality, the Apostle Paul did not believe in the Mosaic Law any longer if he ever did.  He did teach Gentiles to shun them and Paul even reneged on his promise in Acts 15 to abide by the Noahide rules which answered the question of how could Gentile Christians become Jewish Christians.  The Noahide rules were originally used to answer the question about how could a gentile become a Jews so it was much like using Daniel to write Revelation.  Same problem, different circumstances.  I Corinthians 8-10 make it very clear that Paul did not teach to abstain from meats sacrificed to idols and it was probably this issue that Peter called Paul out for at dinner in Galatians.  However, Paul wrote Galatians so Peter was confronted by Paul, not Paul by Peter. 

 

 

All this to say that  "Revelation was the swansong of Militant Jewish Christianity.  When Jerusalem was destroyed, when Rome waxed greater and more powerful, when the False Prophet gained more and more followers, when the book itself was proved totally false within two years, when it became evident the Jewish Messiah/Christ would not come, the Hebrew Christians lost their virility and their cult faded under the combined assault of Orthodox Judaism and of Gentile Christianity."   (The Religion of the Occident, pg 479).

 

 

The False Prophet, as labeled by Jewish Christians, along with the Beast Vespasian, did not get cast into the Lake of Fire.  They actually won.  The Messiah did not come for anyone, Jew or Christian and all resurrections were off. 

 

 

What's the point?  Simply that without the Book of Revelation being "Unveiled at Last" by the Churches of God, they'd probably not survive as long as they have.  I'd say the Adventists would also not survive if Revelation was understood as it actually happened and not as some current events explainer. 

 

 

I asked a non COG minister once what he thought of the Book of Revelation.  He said that it originally was hotly contested as to its worth in the official canon and whoever wrote it had good drugs.  He also understood it was not to be used to explain our day or our circumstances on this planet today.  The author was writing about his trauma and about his experience with his people.  Revelation is a failed prophecy that, like a cat, has multiple lives depending on how one wants to play with it.  Whole religions can be built on it. 

 

 

The Book of Revelation is full of astrology and astrotheolgy.  You can almost date the writing of the book by reading how the woman was clothed in the sun with the moon under her feet.  On September 29, 75 AD, this is exactly what you would see with the sun in Virgo the Virgin and the full moon under her feet at night.  The Sun is in Virgo, or "Clothes" Virgo in September so it may have been around September the Book of Revelation was written, or began.   In addition, when the author of Revelation says in chapter 4..

 

¹ After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

 

² And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

 

 

Looking North, where God's throne is said to be in scripture, you see the "W" of Cassiopeia, "the throne."  It circles the North Star Polaris and never sets as neither does the Big Dipper.

 

 

³ And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

⁴ And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

 

 

There are 24 Elders because there are 24 hours in the day

 

 

⁵ And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

 

The Throne in the Sea of Glass with the Seven Spirits of God in front of .

Cassiopeia/Milky Way/Big Dipper

 

 

These are the seven stars in the Big Dipper which is opposite or "in front" of Cassiopeia the Throne

 

⁶ And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

 

 

The Sea of Glass is the Milky Way that goes through and in front of Cassiopeia, the Throne in the sky.  The Four Beasts are the four stars Cassiopeia and full of eyes are the background stars. On a summer night, it is spectacular and looks like a sea of glass.  John was looking up to the north in the sky for his descriptions of God's throne. 

 

 

The Sea of Glass Like Crystal

⁷ And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

 

 

 

Summer/Leo the Lion-Spring/Taurus the Bull-Winter/Aquarius the Waterman and Fall/Aquila the Eagle.   Descriptions of beasts and Cherubs comes from the signs of the Zodiac , the Mazzaroth as the Bible calls it, through which the Sun passes in one year.  These four signs are exactly 3 months apart and are the signs of the seasons.   (4x3=12) That's how you make a Bible Beast.  Ezekiel did the same thing

 

⁸ And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

 

 

Full full of eyes is full of stars.  Six wings times Four Beasts = 24 hours

 

 

⁹ And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,"

 

 

So why explain the Book of Revelation this way, both historically and astro-theologically? BECAUSE IT MATTERS!   The Book of Revelation has been used to inflict untold misery, speculation, behaviors, loyalties along with financial, moral and psychological tyranny on the ignorant but well meaning folk who want to explain their own world.  Prophets, Priests and even Kings have used it to forward their own agendas.  It is being used today to make the Middle East and all the players seem to fit into Prophecy Comes Alive scenarios.  Materialists use it to keep people coming back and to rope in new members.  The Churches of God would crumble if they had to face the true origins, intent and meaning or not meaning of the Book of Revelation.  The Philadelphia/Restored and Living Churches of God would shake in their boots to realize they must not read the Book of Revelation like a newspaper or a website.  Bob Thiel would have to give up being a prophet as would Ron Weinland and of course the illustrious Mr. Pack.   You can bet the brethren have been soaking in the Book of Revelation over the Fall Holy days.

 

Remove the Book of Revelation as a book for our times, which it was not, and you might have to actually read the New Testament for it's real message.  You'd get more from the Gospels and would understand more fully that the New Testament Players, such as Peter, James, John and Paul did not get along, did not agree with each other, did not believe the same things and probably did not even like each other.  Someone threw Paul out of Ephesus, where John lived and preached and declared him a false prophet and not the friend of Jewish Christianity. 

 

Then someone, traumatized by the fall of Jerusalem and the failed predictions of the Apostle Paul wrote a book that was for that time. It failed to deliver as promised as well. It almost didn't make it into the New Testament.  It has haunted and plagued humankind ever since

 

The Book of Revelation is not a book for our times.  It was not a book ahead of its own time.  It was a book of  THAT time and is not for THIS time.  This is something the Churches of God will never look into or consider.  Too much rides on it being available to explain the unknowable future as if they knew. 

 



 

 How many failed prophecies does it take to screw in a light bulb.  Lots.....  And while I don't actually expect many lights to actually go on, I thought you should know I have hope.