Would You Trust A Crackpot COG Prophet Helping You To Stop Smoking?

 

Our favorite self-appointed savior to Africa and 305 Caucasians has always imagined himself as an authority on all kinds of subjects, and as the dumb sheep he expects us all to be, we are supposed to believe that he has the way to stop smoking, drinking, and other indulgences that cause the body harm.

The Great Bwana writes:

Should Christians smoke? 

 

Does smoking show love to self or neighbor? 

 

No.

Smoking is bad. 

 

Moses said, “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). 

 

You do not “get away with” smoking.

Smoking is dangerous and hurts the smoker and those around the smoker. 

 

Notice some of what the New Testament teaches:

19. WHAT! Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have within you from God, and you are not your own? 20. For you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, AFV)

37…”‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NKJV)  

 

Consider that smoking does not glorify God in your body–it harms your body. Consider that smoking also does not show love towards one’s neighbor–it harms your neighbor. Smoking is a sin against the body, and sometimes more than that. 

 

Don’t deceive yourself that smoking is not a sin...

Can or should smokers quit? 

 

Yes. 

 

As hard as it seems to be, smokers can change. Notice that the Apostle Paul taught:

13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13) 

 

Jesus can help the smoker.

While that statement may well be true for many Christians who actually follow Christ, the problem arises when an Armstrongite minister utters this phrase, it comes with a lot of baggage. 

Because Armstrongism and the Church of God is NOT centered upon Christ but upon the law, members have no real relationship with the one who could help them. They have been raised and weaned on the law. Under the backbreaking weight of the law, members can NEVER measure up to the high standards it demands and will NEVER meet those expectations in this lifetime.

Church members have had it beaten into their minds that every time they sin they are automatically abandoned by God and left at the side of the road till they repent, COG style. Church members have been taught over and over that they are rooted in sin and are continuously attracted to sin and thus will always be just outside the boundaries of God's love. Add to that the constant threat of the lake of fire for every imaginable indiscretion and members are in a constant state of helplessness, ripe for addiction.

Christians can ask God for assistance in stopping smoking. Christians need to have faith in God (see also the free pdf booklet Faith for Those God has Called and Chosen). 

 

But what if you make mistakes and stumble? 

 

If you stumble get up!

James was including himself in that. The New Testament says we ALL stumble in one thing or the other. 

 

If you stumble, you need to get up. 

 

Endure. 

 

Be careful that you are not trying to get along with the smoking crowd. 

 

Physical ways to “bear it” would include changing what you are doing when you are tempted to smoke. Do something else! Like go to another room. Start reading the Bible. For some, perhaps taking a walk or doing more vigorous exercise. Et cetera.

Buying some of the fake prophets holistic pills will also help solve the problem:

Nicotine seems to have some temporary effects on the body, like the necessary thyroid hormone triiodothyronine. Nicotine is highly addictive and comes along with a range of negative chemicals in tobacco products that are harmful to human health. Nutritional support for the thyroid can help some break their addiction to nicotine. 

 

Consider the analogy of getting air out of a glass. On our own, without equipment, we can’t make it a vacuum. But if we change the glass by pouring water in, the air leaves.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit:

18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18)

If you do not want to stumble and wish to be better filled with the Holy Spirit

Not that it is easy, but the Bible says that if you endure, humble yourself, resist Satan, and draw near to God you can get to the point you would not stumble in your efforts to stop smoking. 

 

You may have tried to stop smoking many times. You may have prayed about it. 

 

You should not give up. In the Old Testament we read of God telling the children of Israel to punish the Benjamites in Judges 20:12-20, and those who tried to do so failed and suffered loss (Judges 20:21). Then, God told them to do it again (Judges 20:23), and they suffered loss again (Judges 20:25). The children of Israel wanted to give up (Judges 20:26-28), but God said to try again (Judges 20:28), and that time they succeeded Judges 20:29-46). What happened to the children of Israel was more difficult than not lighting up a cigarette.

Endure and overcome! The promised benefits are better than the “passing pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25)–which in the case of smoking also has serious health consequences. 

 

Smoking is wrong and it kills people. God wants people to change/repent (Acts 17:30)–which means that, despite its difficulties it can be done (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13). 

 

The sooner one starts the better off one will be. Christians should strive to not smoke and should strive to be healthy. 

 

With God’s help, yes, you can quit smoking or overcome other sins in your life.

No one and I repeat NO ONE should ever go to a COG minister to deal with an addiction, whether it is smoking, alcohol, or any other addiction. None of them have any real training in therapeutic counseling with people in the first place and especially on these topics. The only ministers who can deal with alcoholism as those that have actually joined AA and practiced its priciples. Those I would trust, not some self-appointed know-it-all prophet who has spent a lifetime being deceptive and lying about their placement as a COG leader. When they lie about this they are deceptive in other areas of their lives and can not be trusted.

Samuel Martin: The Nativity and the Weather

 

The Nativity and the Weather

by

Samuel Martin

Before my late father began a career as a pastor and then a religious scholar, he was trained as a weather forecaster.

He learned this discipline at first in university, but later in the United States Air Force.

As a scientist training in the observation of the weather, he always took this matter into consideration when it came to his research studies dealing with the Bible.

A number of books that he wrote which he has been recognized for from an academic point of view dealing with the birth of Jesus Christ come to my mind at this time of year.

What is interesting though as far as I can remember, the only point that he mentioned concerning the matter of the weather and its relevance concerning the time Jesus was born is the following quotation from his book "The Star of Bethlehem: The Star that Astonished the World."

"Luke said that Jesus was born at a time when his parents went to Bethlehem in response to Caesar's command for a census. Ramsay showed that considerable confidence can be placed in the belief that the general time of the year for the start of a census was from August to October. The September period for Jesus' birth we are suggesting fits this well.

A late Summer or early Autumn date for Jesus' birth has also been suggested because Luke said the shepherds were tending their flocks at night at his nativity (Luke 2:8). Many have believed this precludes a wintertime birth (either early Winter on December 25th or a late Winter in early March) because it would have been too cold for the flocks to be out in the open at that time.

But this evidence is very problematic. In exceptionally cold Winters this may have been the case, but in mild Winters sheep are often out of doors in Palestine all night. Since no one knows what kind of weather there was in Palestine the year of Jesus birth (either severe or mild), this factor can be of no chronological value." (Martin, pg. 183-4)

The thing is though, in one way we do know what kind of weather there would have been in the land of Israel during this time especially if we say that Jesus was born in late December. Baly shows us the basic seasonal pattern that has existed in the Holy Land for 1,000s of years. It is important because it shows the environment that people who lived in the land would have known about very well. Because of this, the idea that Joseph and Mary would have set out on a trip to Bethlehem in December makes no sense at all in a practical sense.

“The Palestinian year is divided into two major seasons, the dry summer from mid-June to mid-September and the rainy season in the cooler half of the year. The summer drought, during which no rain falls at all, is actually somewhat longer than the true ‘summer’ and extends into the transitional seasons which dive the summer from the winter at either end. Thus, even on the coast of Cis-Jordan (Israel), the drought is usually complete for five continuous months from the middle of May to the second fortnight in October. It is better to avoid using the word “winter” for the rainy season, for winter inevitably suggests to an English-speaking person a cold season, but in Palestine, the cold weather is normally confined to the three months after Christmas, that is to the second half of the rainy season. In modern Arabic, the word “summer” is so emphatically suggestive of the long dry period (cf. Ps. 32:4, ‘My strength was dried up as the heat of summer”) that winter means more than anything else that blessed period when the rain comes. The Arabic word shittah is in fact used impartially for both “winter” and “rain” and there seems to be something of the same thought in Song of Solomon 2:11, “ For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.” (Baly, The Geography of the Bible, pg. 43)

This description by Baly is 100% correct as anyone who lives here in the land knows. Anytime after October 15, the rainy season starts and in the beginning of that season, the rains start in a sporadic way, but get into December and there is a regular occurrence of rainstorms that come systematically and after January those storms will get more intense.

As Professor Ramsay mentions, the idea the Romans would undertake a census during the rainy season moving to the middle of winter makes zero sense at all.

September though would have been a very suitable time for such a journey to take place and be completed before the beginning of the olive harvest, which was a very important annual agricultural event in ancient times as it still is today.

During September, the days are long and warm and the nights are mild and not cold at all.

Knowing the weather and the seasons of the Bible lands in a practical sense helps us better understand the stories of the Bible especially those ones we hold so dear to our hearts and minds.

Update: Restored Cult of Dave -"In fact, the Picture Appears Even More Solid Than We Previously Thought"

Context: The Wadsworth Christ was scheduled to return, and the math was correct, Christmas Eve. 

 Alas...

"Correct math, clear paths, solid pictures, more time that can't be and right tracks are wearing me out!  I swear, I'm gotta ask "Where is the promise of His coming?" and I know you're gonna call me a scoffer and stupid me never understood that God doesn't do time like we do time. You should have mentioned that at Sermon 001!"

 "Greetings brethren!

We trust all of you had a profitable Sabbath.  A brief update is in order, coming off of the close of Part 340.

There was always the possibility that we would wait and watch day-to-day, as Mr. Pack concluded in the last sermon. This has not changed! There is no reason to believe our wait is very long at all.

Mr. Pack met with the Headquarters ministry, and everyone is in agreement there is still a clear path forward. In fact, the picture appears even more solid than we previously thought. Much has been learned since the last message. If there were time for a 341—and there is not!—you would understand why things got significantly better and that we are still on the right track.

If we do have more time, we will continue to keep you updated. God speed the arrival of His Kingdom!"

=======================================================

Your Delusional Friend

Mr. Pack for Mr Pack

(Ok...I added this part:)