Harry Potter: Christian Values or Satanic?

 

Leave it to the Church of God to get angry over something AFTER the fact, many years in fact. The Kitchens have now placed their focus on Harry Potter. This gives them the excuse to drag out Herbert to rant and rage over "Spiritism Fraud... or Fact?" By Herbert W Armstrong, Good News Magazine, August 1984.

There a literature being read by many, are we one of them? Do we have these books of Magic, dragons, and occult flavor in it? Are we interested in such things? Beware, It's a door The Devil has a key to. What did the first century Christian do concerning the books of Magic and sorcery and such?

He then goes on to say this about frivolous literature:

Acts 19:18-20

18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.

19 Many of them also which used curious arts(strongs G4020) brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

Strong's Dictionary

G4021

Original: περίεργος

Transliteration: periergos

Phonetic: per-ee'-er-gos

Thayer Definition:

busy about trifles and neglectful of important matters

especially busy about other folks' affairs, a busybody

of things: impertinent and superfluous

of magic arts

(Interestingly, this includes frivolous literature that does not build up Right Character, nor educates you. But most importantly, it includes literature of magic, dragons, and witches, wizards, sorcery etc etc. are we indulging in witchcraft? If we are letting that in our minds and homes, Satan has a key to your home! A key inside to your family. And once we give it to Satan the Devil, is it God's? Repent, and turn from your ways. )

Seriously dude! Do you really want to talk about frivolous literature? Look at a lot of the stuff Armstrong and the church promoted. Endless articles and books on prophecy when ended up being fantastical lies. Even our church history is a myth based upon proof-texting by so-called church historians to fit the model they were looking for.

How do Armstrongites deal with Lord of the Rings and the Narnia stories, the ultimate stories of good and evil with wizards and demonic forces? Those must fry their delicate minds! The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe? Heresy!

What does Rowling, a Christian have to say?

J.K. Rowling responded to religious criticism of her Harry Potter books this way in a 1999 interview with Book Links: 

 

"If this subject offends people, that isn't what I want to do, but I don't believe in censorship for any age group, and this is what I wanted to write about. The book is really about the power of the imagination. What Harry is learning to do is to develop his full potential. Wizardry is just the analogy I use. If anyone expects it to be a book that seriously advocates learning magic, they will be disappointed. Not least because the author does not believe in magic in that way."

 

Fantasy stories, whether from the bible or modern literature are meant to stir the imaginations of the reader and make them think and ponder.

Kitchen continues with these final words from Herbert:

"Above all, taking the shield of FAITH with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one" — absolute trust in God for deliverance despite all obstacles–"and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the WORD of God"–use the Bible to know what to do and what to resist. The Word of God is the only sword that can vanquish evil spirits, and that can help you overcome sin and produce self-mastery!

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints"–don't slack off in praying, don't become negligent.

PRAY with perseverance, not only for yourself, but for all those whom God has called (Ephesians 6:15-18).

We are all in this battle together! It is a titanic struggle.

Our eternal life depends upon whether we overcome the temptations of the devil and submit to the rule, the AUTHORITY, of God over our lives. It is high time we recognized the evil powers that manifest themselves through spiritism!

That last paragraph shows how little Armstrong understood Christology. Christ's salvational work that was accomplished and the battle that was finished was never understood by Armstrong. That is why he and the church lived/live in a constant state of fear. Evil is lurking around every corner ready to devour them. Yet there is a rest that far exceeds the fear of Armstrong and his minions.

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As a side note, here is a great video about "supposal" vs allegory in storytelling. 

The Church is Being Persecuted, So We Are Heading Over To Jerusalem!

 

Why is it that so many in the church of God desire persecution and martyrdom? Millions of Christians have died in the faith through the centuries who were never part of the so-called Church of God movement. Armstrongists make a point of devaluing their faith as illegitimate or deceived. The only true faith is an Armstrongist church which will soon be persecuted for holding on to the truth. Never has as a church been picked on as much as those with Armstrongist ties. In their eyes, it will only get worse.

Samuel Kitchen has taken this belief to the extreme. He has no followers, other than a 3 or 4 who pay some lip service now and again. Yet, he and his Worldwide Church of God will soon be persecuted so much that he will need to head off to Jerusalem where he will back up the two witless witnesses, Bob Thiel and Ron Weinland. If Bob misses the plane because he had interpreted scripture wrong then it will be Ron and his looney wife Laura. 

Satan is going to be ANGRY!

Those of us who have been called and are part of the body of Christ, must obey God, and suffer wrong, suffer persecution and even martyrdom for Christ’s namesake.

Satan will use any of us, if we are OFF THE TRACK and in some other condition.

By looking back at what was taught and remembering, and relearning, we can work together to become Philadelphian in condition, and qualify. By setting this example we are giving a witness. The Worldwide Church of God and our work, is under attack. Our work may end by the beast power ordering us to shut down, but we will immediately move to Jerusalem and the two witnesses will have our support.

People are too busy looking at these groups, when we are to be coming out of them and setting the right example. That is our work in support of the gospel being preached through the archived works of Herbert W Armstrong and the ministry that was there with him.

If you are off track… REPENT and let’s refocusing our energies and direction to become more like Jesus Christ, more Philadelphian, and more like the Worldwide Church of God.

In Christ’s name,

Samuel W Kitchen

Will Jesus Join The Improperly Named Continuing Church of God When He Returns?

 

One thing that has always fascinated me is why COG members have to ask other members and other splinter group leaders on which church they should belong to. I guess part of that illogical thinking is that the church never empowered members to think, either theologically or personally. The minister had the answer to everything.

In the Dayton area Bible Study night people could send up questions for the minister to answer. I remember my mother asking the question if it was ok for us as kids to drink water after recess on Atonement eve. His answer was, no. In our church area, no one was to eat after 12:00 noon on the eve of Atonement so that your stomach would already be empty and you would already be hungry by the time the fast started. This was to make you more humble.  Even elementary and high school kids were to do this. Others asked about proper car colors or the proper color a man's tie should be with his suit. One man asked what kind of vegetables were ok to paint in his garden. Seriously dude, grow a pair and plant what you want and enjoy!

As a result of the ministers making every decision for them, this led to a lot of members during the great upheaval of 1996 and later being unable to think for themselves as to which COG splinter they should join. People lived in fear of joining the wrong group endangering their chance of salvation. Such utter stupidity!

This brings us to today when our most highly favored crackpot prophet has another repeat of a letter he "claims" was sent to him by a COG member asking about which COG he should join. You can tell it was a man writing it because it is in all caps and asserts the authority this man believes he has.

The Great Bwana writes:

A while back, I received an email from a former Worldwide Church of God member that included the following:

I AM CONCERNED ABOUT SOME ISSUES OF MR. …. BELIEF AND APPARENTLY YOU DON’T AGREE WITH. I DON’T THINK THAT ANY OF THESE CHURCHES AGREE WITH OTHER SO WHO DO YOU GO WITH? …

The Crackpot then said this:

Anyway, here is what I responded to the former WCG member with:

Dear …:
As I have repeatedly written at COGwriter, I doubt that David Pack or Gerald Flurry are converted.
I consider that the only COG that is Philadelphian is the CCOG–though not all in CCOG are Philadelphian and there are Philadelphians not in CCOG–but no other COG represents the continuation of Philadelphia. 

 

You should use God’s criteria, and none other to decide. 

 

Here are two links you should read and pray about if you are truly serious: 

 

How does the Continuing Church of God differ from other Sabbatarian COG groups?

Does the CCOG have the confirmed signs of Acts 2:17-18? 

 

But most refuse to believe and use their own standards.
Best regards,
Bob Thiel

Our Crackpot prophet bases his entire hermeneutic on prophecy. Jesus be damned, it's prophecy or nothing! 

My response to the above was to tell him that the COG he attends as well as a group that came out of it do not teach much about prophecy. They also have a lot of prophetic errors.

Given the unadulterated FACT that not one single Church of God leader, wanna-be leader, church scholar, evangelist, pastor, elder, deacon, or self-appointed prophet has EVER been right about any prophecy proves them all to be wrong and NO ONE should join up with these agents of darkensss and give them their hard-earned money.

The answer that Jesus would give is, "DO NOT join any of them, but follow me and stop worrying about the silliness your minister has been telling you. Rest in me and enjoy your life!"

Indiana Bob and His Little Cult May Be The Ones To Find The Ark of the Covenant!

Every day in COGland you wake up imagining that they cannot get any crazier and then one of them opens their mouth and says something more ludicrous than the last time. 

This time it involves the Ark of the Covenant.

First, we had Stan Rader and Robert Kuhn claiming they wrote the original storyline that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg supposedly stole to make Raiders of the Lost Ark. SUIT ON 'ARK' CHARGES STEALING FROM A NOVEL

Then, several years ago the great prophet of Edmond, Gerald Flurry, went off to Ireland traipsing the green hills looking for the location of the Ark of the Covenant. He thought it was buried in Hill Tara centuries ago by Jeremiah and his daughters. This is also why he bought property in England to give him quick access when it came time to dig up the hill before Christ comes to sit upon Herbert's prayer rock to be crowned King of Kings as he lifts the original stone 10 Commandments out of the Ark and makes them the law once again.

This really popped the cork for the Great Bwana to Africa and the occasional 100 Caucasians. The Great Bwana has had to play second fiddle to every COG splinter group leader out there today and this was just one more insult added to the already growing list. The Great Bwana deserves to find this!

So...

Our most highly esteemed and God-appointed before the foundations of the world were ever whirled into existence, is back regaling us with more ludicrous comments about prophecy and the significance of the improperly named "continuing" Church of "god" in world and church history. He wants us to know that one of his crazy church members dreamed about this so it HAS to be true.

While Solomon wanted it to be in the temple he built to house the ark forever, God had David write Zion was the chosen location. If the ark of the covenant is found and now is below the Church of God on Jerusalem’s Western Hill, known as Mt. Zion or perhaps another area called Zion, that would have ramifications for the world as well as the Continuing Church of God.

Fesilafai Fiso Leaana of New Zealand had a dream after going to bed on December 8, 2012. Here is a report that Fesilafai Fiso Leaana wrote about her dream:

A few months before my dream, my husband and I noticed a contradiction in practice, regarding the sabbath commandment in LCG, from there we started to pray continuously for God to lead us to where the truth is. It seems God has answered our prayers through the dream.

The dream began with myself and approximately 70 New Zealand Living Church of God brethren, then suddenly LCG vanished (I was wondering where is LCG?) and I was left standing with approximately 10 people excluding myself, on a very high building. We were standing on the very top of the building, where I couldn’t see the bottom, there were no other buildings, just this building. I could not see the bottom of the building but just clouds below the building and clouds surrounding the building which led to a beautiful white mountain – a mountain that had no ends on either side. The building was pretty close to the mountain, I could see the top of the mountain. The mountain was all white and so beautiful. I remember that I began to be filled with joy and peace. But also wondering how we got up on this building and confused why there were no other buildings but the clouds seemed like it was hiding the building and I felt protected or it felt like a safe place. I looked around there were still only about ten people there, the only person I could clearly recognize was Shirley constantly working, the approximate ten others were just sitting and standing around. So I walked around the building looking for the large crowd from LCG, but all I kept returning to was that Shirley was working and doing different types of work alone while the others were still sitting and standing around the building with me. I wondered why she was working a lot. I could not find LCG.

Then suddenly a message came to my mind: “There is a secret in the mountain”. And I was so happy to know that, I was still feeling elated and could still see the beautiful white mountain and wondered about the secret. Then I asked: “What is the secret?” Then the message said, nobody knows the secret in the mountain but only you have received this message that there is a secret in the mountain. Then I asked ‘what is the secret in the mountain?’ I received a message to my mind that told me that “the secret in the mountain is the Ark of the Covenant”. Then the dream abruptly ended because I woke up. And immediately, I woke up my husband and recounted the dream to him, and I told my husband that it reminded me of when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on the mountain and that the mountain was also covered with clouds.

Within several weeks of the dream, ten people in New Zealand, including Shirley Gestro (the Shirley above) began to attend the newly formed Continuing Church of God.

Biblically, mountains can symbolize government (Psalm 30:7; Isaiah 11:9; Daniel 2:35; Zechariah 4:7) and white purity or cleanness (Isaiah 1:18; Revelation 7:14, 19:14). Clouds around a mountain (or at least the top of it) could show a separation—maybe a separation that keeps many from seeing all of the truth (cf. Job 22:14; Lamentations 3:44) or recognizing top leadership?

The dream seemed to be a signal to confirm that the Philadelphia mantle was not with the Living Church of God, but instead was associated with someone that had something to do with the ark of the covenant.

In the Spring and Fall of 2013 (which is before I learned of Fesilafai Fiso Leaana’s dream), a couple of different people emailed me and asked if the Continuing Church of God might possibly be involved in actually finding the Ark–and those two people knew nothing about the dream that Fesilafai Fiso Leaana of New Zealand had related to the Continuing Church of God when they originally asked me about it as it was not reported publicly until November 2013. We may have future involvement on this ark matter.

Anyway, it remains my view that there is a chance that we will see the Ark or we will see a strong claim that someone has located the Ark within the next decade or so.

The last time the Germans tried this...

Besides, TRUE Christians know that the real Ark is in Mar-a-Lago.