Deep Time: The 6000 Year Plan for Man or "We're Going To Need a Bigger Boat" Which?

The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation 

A relic of the Singularity 300,000 years after Inflation.

From my youth and certainly throughout our time in WCG, the world of us was created 6000 years ago beginning with a man created from the dust of the earth and a woman from a spare rib which the man would not miss.  It is significant, to assure that women understood their place in the Biblical scheme of things not originating  from any part of a man that would be missed or inhibit superiority. Fortunately for us all, we live near the end of those 6000 years of human experience and the 1000 year rest is soon, shortly and involve a coming quickly.

None of this is literally true.  The concept of Deep Time and Geologic time escape the average Church of and Fundamentalist/literalist mind.  It is not just that they don't know it but very much that they won't know it because it interferes with the story line they hold so dear.

We can't blame our parents for believing, as taught, that the Universe was just our Galaxy. It took Edwin Hubbell and others in the 1920's and on to reveal that we are just one of billions and now trillions of Galaxies in the Universe each teeming with billions and in some cases, a trillion, stars such as in our closest galactic neighbor Andromeda, visible to the naked eye 12.5 billion light years away if you know where to look tonight.

But if we now know better, we have only ourselves to blame for our ignor-ance, which is that which one ignores.

Like it or not. Understand it or not. Gorillas, Bonobos, Chimps and Orangs are truly our cousins sharing a common ancestor 6-7 million years back in Deep Time. The evidence is in our mutual DNA. While creation and human origin stories in scripture have meaning, they are not literally true. This concept is enough to rankle, terrify and anger  any Church of God minister, member or Bible literalist to the core.  And yet it is so.

Geologic Time and Deep Time

Personally speaking...

9000 year old flint knife from the bottom of a dry pond near Cornell University in Ithaca, NY

40,000 - 50,000 year old vaporized earth rock and meteorite from Meteor Crater, AZ

2 -16  million year old tooth of Megalodon  from South Carolina. Megs could be up to 60 feet long and weigh up to 150,000 lbs.  South Carolina seems to have been a haven for them back in the day.

450 Million year old Trilobites from Morrocco

2.5 Billion year old Banded Iron which shows the mix of oxygen creating bacteria with the free iron it rusted out of the early oceans creating our atmosphere

3.5 Billion year old Stamatolites, the earliest of bacteria that ate carbon dioxide from the early atmosphere and gave off oxygen as a waste product creating the previous Banded Iron

Ten lbs of Iron/Nickel 4.5 Billion year old meteorite from the core of an exploded star and/or impacted asteroid  that spend most of it's time orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.  I cut this with a water jet to expose the iron through the burn crust and polished it. It saw the formation of our planet and moon out of the dust and debris cloud of an earlier sun that exploded and our newly born Sun. 

It is the oldest thing a human being can touch 

Truth Matters

“The only thing that scares me more than space aliens is the idea that there aren't any space aliens. We can't be the best that creation has to offer. I pray we're not all there is. If so, we're in big trouble.”

― Ellen DeGeneres

UCG Claims The Best 25 Years Are In Front Of Them As They Reinvent Themselves

Those fun boys in Cincinnati are getting all twitterpated about the endless opportunities laying at their feet as they march forward into their next 25 years. If the past is any indication, they are are in for a hard struggle ahead of them. They have been an utter train wreck this past 25 years.

It is kind of comical reading their expectations and also rather sad. They have had minimal impact in their "witness" for 25 years now and as they face another 25 years spent ignoring that inconvenient dude they claim to follow, they will continue to have minimal impact.

What Millennial, GenX or GenZ out there truly cares about what they have to say? I guess Jelly is the road to the hearts of the new generation. It sure isn't Jesus.

There has been much discussion about the next 25 years in recent months here at the home office. In a September letter, Victor Kubik said he believes “the best years of the United Church of God still lie ahead.” He asked three major questions: “Where have we been? Where are we now? And perhaps most importantly, where are we going?” 

Additionally, at the August Council meetings, Chairman Donald Ward commented on the importance of the Church “reinventing itself to address . . . critical societal changes and provide highly relevant spiritual tools for young people to survive and thrive.”

25 years ago these boys had the opportunity to reinvent themselves and truly start fresh. They did not. The old boys club continued to reign and continued the abuse of members that they carried on while in the Worldwide Church of God. Not one thing new happened with them.

Mr. Kubik has also recorded several podcasts with Darris McNeely about looking forward to the next 25 years. These can be accessed online at ucg.org/ inside-united-podcast. They have discussed the current leadership transition of this organization, passing true doctrine on to the next generations, reinvigorated preaching, the development of the pastoral ministry and preaching the gospel in a way that reaches people where they are without compromising the truth.

Passing "true" doctrine on? Seriously?

Reinvigorating its preaching? Seriously? UCG members on COG Facebook pages beg to differ. How many times can these boys preach the same sermon they have preached over and over for 25 years?

The UCG ministry is now "pastoral"? Double seriously?? These are the same guys who disfellowshipped people left and right while in WCG as they defended the changes. Then, once money was set up for them to transfer paychecks, they did. The old WCG values stayed with them and they continued abusing members. Look at how "pastoral" they were when they kicked people out during the COGWA explosion.

Mr. McNeely noted in one pod- cast, “The Bible is full of transitions. You see the transition from Moses to Joshua . . . from Elijah to Elisha . . . decisions that are made today impact the years ahead of us and the next generation.” You may have noticed more pastoral development programs being held all over the U.S. and abroad in recent years. These events rep- resent the intentional effort to train future spiritual leaders.

Reflecting on the next 25 years of the Church, Mr. McNeely also talked about the importance of meaningful relationships to preserve unity and to develop the empathy to “address relevant issues that are impacting the world today—from the foundation of the Word of God.”

Empathy? WHEN has the Church of God EVER had empathy? Since the 6 months Herbert sat in a public library while neglecting his family? Not much empathy there and certainly NO example for anyone to follow.

You can read this rather sad article and discover this new direction starts with a green masthead for their newspaper! Whoopie! I can just see the new members flocking in as UCG members hit the pavement showing off their new masthead as they convert new members on the sidewalks of their towns. Oh, and they moved the page numbers to the top! Hallelujah! Isn't the gospel message great!

How could this publication help contribute to the development of a church going forward—full of Christians who are pursuing their calling, pursuing baptism and gospel in genuine ways whenever they can and making meaningful relationships?

The decision to migrate to a green masthead and color scheme aims for consistency with the members website...

We found it was time to holistically look at every design element in the UN and assess its value to the reader.

With this new layout, we strove for a cleaner feel that puts more focus on content, and visually harmonizes UN with our website and other media. We moved the page numbers to the top, we reduced the size of the masthead, and we redesigned low-contrast graphics elements so they are now easier to read.”

Jesus must be so excited! Heck, he may even stop in Cincinnati on his way to Wadsworth. What a glorious time to be alive!

 

United News January/February 2020

Abusive Power In The Church

Check out The Keys of Power over on the Painful Truth blog.  It is an excellent overview of the abuse of power in the Church of God.

The one most important item for any ‘top on down dictator’ is money, for it is the source of their power.

Without resources, the power structure collapses.

To keep the coalition loyal, they are the ones who must be payed first. Only then can the leader in power take his share. Within any top on down dictatorship, the ruler controls the money and pays off those who can coerce and control the populous. These administrators in return pay the enforcers. 

Dictators unleash costly actions against others in order to secure their regime. They have a distorted view of themselves, and think the enemy as weaker than they.

Gerald Flurry saw himself as virtuous, and pure as he went against his diabolical enemy, Joseph Tkach. After all, he had God on his side. Or so he thought. What Flurry sought to accomplish was legitimacy as the self proclaimed inheritor of Herbert Armstrong’s legacy.

In the end, Flurry declared himself the winner of the lawsuit against the WCG, even though he lost. If he wanted to keep on printing MOA, he would have to pay.

With his legitimacy established, in his followers eyes, Gerald Flurry would go on to declare himself a messianic figure (that prophet) that was bringing a warning message to those who were in the other splits, and to those who wandered off onto other paths. Gerald was seeking to expand his cult membership, and a consistent source of money would secure his position as ruling dictator long into the future.

What Gerald failed to do was to control his sheriffsministers who’s narcissism or deviance has led to PCG’s long and painful decline.