UCG: Do Not Show Love On Valentines Day!

Forbidden in UCG on February 14 

Just when we thought Armstrongism couldn't get any crazier...

Feastgoer said...

UCG indicated in some articles several years ago that ANY act of love on February 14 = keeping valentine's Day, and thus is wrong. 

 

From Good News Jan-Feb 2014: "What about showing love on Valentine's Day if I'm not doing it for pagan reasons? Isn't that okay? No, because the expression of that kind of 'love' is still rooted in a former pagan holiday." 

 

In other words, don't love God on Feb. 14. Don't love His Law that day. 

 

Loving evil.... well, it appears that's wrong, too. It's still love, right? 

 

So what's a human to do?

 

Power and Malignant Narcissism In Today's COG Leadership

 

An LCG source sent me a link to an article on Frank Viola's Beyond Evangelical blog, The Danger of God's Power.

Where Power Is Safe 

 

God never gives His power to you or me to wield as individuals. He gives His power to the bride of Christ, the ekklesia. 

 

Whenever I see men wielding God’s power as isolated individuals, I immediately see imminent destruction. The power of God on an individual will destroy him. It’s safe only when that person remains properly connected to other members of the body. 

 

In every case I can think of when an individual abused God’s power, that person was disconnected from the body of Christ. Yes, they may have attended church services. In fact, they may have even regularly preached in them. 

 

But that’s not the same as having a living experience of the body of Christ, where close-knit relationships are forged and members temper one another. 

 

I’m also impressed that Jesus didn’t try to gain fame through His signs and wonders. Have you ever noticed that the Lord never made a production out of healing the sick? 

 

When Jesus performed a healing, He virtually always told that person not to tell anyone.[iii] We see a certain modesty in Christ whenever He exercised His power. 

 

God’s power is available to accomplish His will, but it’s so easy to corrupt, pervert, and make cheap and common. 

 

But wait, it gets even worse. 

 

Malignant Narcissism 

 

Spiritual power causes some people, perhaps many, to believe they can handle everything on their own. These befuddled souls are marked by titanic arrogance mixed with paranoia. They are erratic narcissists and serial liars who have an unwarranted confidence in their own sagacity. 

 

They are rude, crude, insensitive, judgmental, and as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. 

 

They are also prone to violate Proverbs 27:2, regularly lathering themselves up with praise.
In some twisted way, they believe they have a right to such self-indulgence because they carry God’s anointing. 

 

The same thing happens when individuals acquire political power. Many of them turn into insufferable human beings. Privilege has a toxic influence on most humans. 

 

How ironic that those gifted with God’s power slip into the same temptations. Unfortunately, malignant narcissism abounds in both the political and religious worlds. 

 

But a major fall awaits such people. They will move from a powerful place to a place of deep weakness. This is God’s generous grace, because power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), and only the weak and poor in spirit can heal the broken and needy. 

 

It was said of Jesus that He would not break a bruised reed nor snuff out a smoldering wick (Matthew 12:20). In the ancient world, smoldering wicks signaled that they should be extinguished and replaced with new ones. 

 

Bruised reeds couldn’t measure accurately, so they too had to be discarded and replaced.
Strikingly, Jesus didn’t discard or replace the damaged, the weak, and the broken. 

 

He healed them. 

 

As the One gentle and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29), our Lord consistently helped the least, the lost, and the lowest. 

 

By contrast, those who take God’s power for granted not only discard the broken; they run over them. 

 

With weakness comes the power to heal the weak. Without weakness, God’s power becomes a dangerous thing. So be careful.

Read the complete article here: The Danger of God’s Power by Frank Viola

Hunt and Peck. Cobble and Prooftext: Bob Thiel Warns the World on the Dangers of Valentine's Day...badly

 

Bob seems oblivious to the obnoxious and this absolutely horribly produced and presented screed on the horrors of observing Valentine's Day. Of course, we would expect this just as we would expect "God Hates Football" that will precede the Super Bowl.  Would it ever cross his mind to review it and conclude, "No, that sucks. Let me try again"

God forbid, well evidently He does, expressing love, appreciation, and emotions towards those one actually loves. He loves to be worshipped, praised, prayed to, obeyed, and paid, but a day He didn't think up expressing love towards those loved, and not Himself, not so much.

Pagan religion is more real, fondly memorable, and very much more fun

Bob's God needs to lighten up...

And too...someone needs to explain to Bob the Babylonian, Sumerian, Assyrian and Canaanite origins of the Hebrew spun Old Testament practices and beliefs he carries over into his version of Jewish Christianity. Judaism and the God of the Old Testament did not spring from the vacuum of itself no matter how the tales are told.