Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Pasadena!

Our New Year's wish for you is that even more of you leave 

the legalistic and abusive Churches of God.  

That Dave Pack opens his mouth again and makes a bigger idiot of himself than he already is.

That the Living Church of God and Philadelphia Church of God 

continue their downward spiral and implosion.

That Armstrongism truly DIE!

That peace and grace truly free you!

COG Heads Explode Over New Book Out Claiming Jesus' Birth Actually Being On December 25th.

There is a new book out debunking many of the pet theories of the various Armstrongite splinter groups that they use to defend their stance on not keeping Christmas. 

The book is entitled:  The Eternal City: Rome & and Origins of Catholic Christianity. by Taylor Marshall

Sadly, because this book is written from a Catholic point of view those steeped in the cult of Armstrongism will NEVER entertain a divergent view than what they were brought up with.  Never mind the fact that Marshall has more theological training than ANY of the COG leaders do.

Some of the points he discusses on his blog are:

Objection 1: December 25 was chosen in order to replace the pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia. Saturnalia was a popular winter festival and so the Catholic Church prudently substituted Christmas in its place.

Objection 2: December 25 was chosen to replace the pagan Roman holiday Natalis Solis Invicti which means “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.” 

Objection 3: Christ could not have been born in December since Saint Luke describes shepherds herding in the neighboring fields of Bethlehem. Shepherds do not herd during the winter. Thus, Christ was not born in winter. 

UCG's Scott Ashley's War On Christmas

Here is an excerpt of a post from an exCOG member and her take on Christmas.  This is from her blog:  It's a Mis-fit.  Her post is in response to UCG's Scott Ashley and his  asinine 10 points on why he doesn't keep Christmas.

Which brings me to the opposite end of the war on Christmas spectrum. As I mentioned in my last entry, I didn’t grow up keeping Christmas, so seeing the following article this afternoon brought up the memories of hearing these reasons to avoid the season at all cost. I get point #1 on that list. The commercialism of Christmas is ridiculous, but there are billions of Christmas celebrants who don’t go batshit insane over commercialism. Its mostly a USA phenomenon. So that point really doesn’t fly.

The second point tries to hammer home the fact that Christmas wasn’t mentioned in the Bible. Well neither was Thanksgiving, Mother’s day, or Memorial day, all three US holidays. Then they try to make the date of Jesus’ birth an issue. It’s common knowledge that no one knows the date, that’s not the point of honoring the event of his birth. One of their proofs, as if we can call the absolute ridiculousness of it proof, was that shepherds would not have had flocks in the field in December. 
There’s this assumption that Judean winters are hellish and too cold for any livestock with heavy wool coats to survive. I just looked up the weather for Tel Aviv. As I am typing this, its 3am there. The temperature is a frigid 54 degrees. Its actually colder in SC.

For those of you who are quite certain that Christmas is the epitome of evil, that those who celebrate the holiday with all its pagan debauchery and frivolous frolicing, and that God is going to make sure that we are punished for our wicked ways,  I wish you a happy and joyous Thursday. Let me also assure you that you have nothing to fear from a celebration season, nor are your neighbors, your family members doing so a danger from God whatsoever.

For all of us, whichever you fit on the Christmas spectrum, as well as those of you celebrating the Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Eid, Kwanzaa, and any celebration I missed, I wish you Happy Holidays and/or a restful rest of the week