A Springtime Read: Going Beyond "Ask For Our Free Booklet"

     

Father Raymond Brown (1928-1998) was perhaps the greatest biblical scholar (certainly the greatest among Catholics) of the 20th century. As he did in his masterful book on the infancy narratives (The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library)), in this book (which received both the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur), he turns his keen analytical reasoning to the gospel accounts of Jesus' passion.

Brown describes the primary aim of this book as "to explain in detail what the evangelists intended and conveyed to their audiences by their narratives of the passion and death of Jesus," adding, "I do not think of the evangelists themselves as eyewitnesses of the passion; nor do I think that eyewitness memories of Jesus came down to the evangelists without considerable reshaping and development. Yet as we move back from the gospel narratives to Jesus himself, ultimately there were eyewitnesses and eyewitnesses who were in a position to know the broad lines of Jesus' passion." He candidly admits that "I can scarcely reconstruct how a book of mine published twenty years ago was composed. Therefore, I, for one, cannot hope to reconstruct with great exactitude the interrelationships of the Synoptic Gospels."

"Too often, however, the truth has led people to assume that everything related in the NT about Jesus has to be historical. The problem is compounded when it is assumed that the Gospels, the NT writings centered on his life, are historical biographies."

Raymond Brown 
The Death of the Messiah
Introduction

"In particular, E.L .Martin assumes Matthean historicity and harmonizes Matt with Luke, which he assumes to be equally historical... It is regrettable that Martin mars his thesis with such extravagantly precise hypotheses reflecting overhistorizing."

Raymond Brown
The Birth of the Messiah
On WCG's Ernest Martins taking the story of Jesus birth too literally
Pg 608

Father Brown also always intended to stay in the good graces of "The Magisterium" of the Church and could pull a good punch leaving it up to the reader to draw their own conclusions without danger to his status in the Church

Biblical “Truth” In The Wrong Hands Is Dangerous

While I don't agree with some of the things written below, much of it is spot on.  What say ye?  Who has the right to claim the exclusive "truth?"

From a reader here:

Biblical truth is a very dangerous thing. The Devil hates it, and sends his false prophets and other rebels to pervert it.

Vernon Howell changed his name to David Koresh and set himself up as a prophet leading his cult called the Branch Davidians. He wanted everyone else's wives and daughters for himself. He never had anything to do with the WCG. He was just another immoral disaster, and fire hazard, out in the world of false religions.

Gerald Flurry started his PCG cult supposedly to hold on to what HWA had taught in the WCG that the apostate Tkaches were destroying, but then claimed that he, rather than Jesus, was “That Prophet” of Deuteronomy 18:18-19 that everyone had to listen to or else God would be mad at them. Flurry “flooded” his followers with much “new revelation” about how great he was. He caused great division among the COG people and wrecked their families while having his local goons promote sexual immorality.

David Pack started his RCG cult supposedly to restore HWA's teachings from January 1986, but then later started to change things in dramatic ways, such as by stealing everything in sight. Pack's changes were even more cruel and thorough than the changes made by the apostate Tkaches in their Great Apostasy of January 1995. Pack left everyone so totally betrayed and destitute this time that they might be unable to carry on any longer.

Bob Thiel started his Nigerian CCG cult because he wanted to be a prophet and make up his own stuff. It was not enough for RCM to gently humor Thiel that he might be considered a prophet by someone. Thiel had to be a real false prophet. So, right away he looked to the demon-inspired prophecies of pagan Mayans, Kenyans, and Catholics. Thinking that demons would helpfully share little tidbits about the future with anyone was so pathetic, but a mentally-challenged, self-appointed Seer could not see that.

James Malm rebelliously left the WCG in 1985 while HWA was still alive to try to think for himself. Malm and those associated with him got into things that proved they cannot think anything but rebellion and nonsense, such as sacred names nonsense, divorce, calendar confusion, a garbled gospel, and flat earth errors. Some other rebels think they can learn the “odd” thing from him. In a sense, they are right. It certainly will be “odd.”

David Ben Ariel, as someone renamed himself, wanted to be a prophet. He once proposed dividing up the world with Gerald Flurry. One could be the prophet of the east and the other the prophet of the west. Flurry rejected the idea, and David ben Ariel ended up being just another homosexual who died of AIDS.

Norman Edwards left the GCG with a stolen mailing list to try to start his own newsletter. He pretended to be very open-minded and reasonable by saying that he was willing to consider just about anything and everything under the sun about church government, and encouraged people to make up stuff to send to him. He said that the only thing that he would not publish in his newsletter, and would not even consider, and did not even want to receive, was anything in support of what HWA had taught about hierarchical government. Edwards sort of became the leader of the leaderless independents. Of course, the sheep ignored his voice, and his stray cats also left him to go off in all sorts of different directions.

Passover 2018 Humbleness Not Required

Some Church of God leaders today...

Here we are in the year 2018 and hundreds and hundreds of splinter groups exist in the Church of God.

On what is considered the most sacred night of the Armstrong/Millerite COG tradition is the Passover service that practices footwashing and the commemoration of Christ's death with matzos and wine.

Even that sacredness is not sacred to so many of the leaders of the COG's.

They remain divided from one another to this very day.

Passover this year is being kept on various nights between March 29th - April 1st.  Talk about a theological mess!

Most of the leaders have set themselves up as people to be served instead of acting as servant leaders that serve the members.

While many members will have sincere thoughts and understanding about this night, most of the leadership do not. It is all about control and being seen.

Just look at how these men present themselves to the church today.  It is easy to fill in how they represent themselves towards their followers and the COG as a whole:

Gerald Weston

Rod McNair

Jonathan McNair

David C Pack

Gerald Flurry

Stephen Flurry

Cal Culpepper

John McDonald

Bob Thiel

James Malm