Thursday, September 30, 2010

A Church of God Unlike Any You Have Ever Seen

I found this web site tonight about a Church of God that is fascinating.

I found myself looking at many of the pictures and checking out some of their music and watched the video on their home page.

They seem to be a mixture of Mennonite/Amish and look a whole lot like the FLDS.  You can see some of the women wearing white bonnets.  They all dress conservatively.

One thing that did strike me was how 'happy' they all seem in the pictures. laughing and having a good time.  They seem to have gatherings all over the world, one recently here in CA.

Music seems to be a big thing for them.  It kid of reminds me of shape-note singing. They also do not have an issue of raising their hands and praising   God.


They certainly are web savy, do not have an issue with cars and buses and other modern things.

They also do not seem to have a problem with women preaching. When you look through their pictures you will see them preaching.  Yet, in many of the pictures the women are separate from the men.  Strange.

They kind of look like what I would picture the Church of God folk in Stansbury at the turn of the century.




Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Against Armstrongism: Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp in their own words


Against Armstrongism: Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp in their own words
Scott C. Blue
Blurb.com
2010


This is an interesting book.  Scott Blue has taken the writings of the Early Church Father’s (Ignatius, Polycarp and Chrysostom) and used their words to demolish Armstrongism.  Unfortunately for Blue, most Armstrongites will never read his book.  He has several strikes going against him.  The book is too intellectual, it quotes writings from Roman Catholics and also Blue has converted to Roman Catholicism after leaving Armstrongism.

Armstrongites have always been taught (and still are today) by HWA and his ministers that Catholicism is the Great Whore of Babylon, the Harlot Church, the false religions and the persecutor of the brethren.  The mere fact that he quotes Catholics and has become a Catholic his opinions are irrelevant and heretical in their sight.

Because he quotes Ignatius, Polycarp and John Chrysostom he is delving into intellectualism in the minds of many Armstrongites.  The only relevant word of God today comes from HWA’s writings or the pen’s of various splinter cult leaders.

Other than the Author’s Note and Preface, Blue has added no written commentary to the writings.  It is the Early Church Father’s speaking for themselves.  As you read it you will quickly see though how these men’s words rip Armstrongism to the core.

I find the book interesting because of my interest in early church history.  Many will not, unfortunately.

He has also written a book about De-mystifying the Mysteries” a debunking of Mystery of the Ages.  I will order it soon to add to my collection.

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From the book:

Author’s Note

In 2006 shortly after our wedding, my wife Lauren and I were starting a family and began looking into going to church.  Neither of us knew where to begin, primarily due to our completely different, however similarly negative experiences with religion as children.

My wife had attended a loosely based Pentecostal congregation as a child whose pastor’s wife sat in the front pew while his mistress sat beside him on the “stage”; obviously not leaving a great taste in her mouth concerning organized religion.

I, on the other hand, was raised in The Worldwide Church of God, a sabbatarian (7th day) non-denominational group who saw its monumental rise in the mid to late part of the 20th century.  It all but imploded on itself in the mid 1980’s when it’s Pastor General, Herbert A Armstrong, died and the new leadership took a more “orthodox” approach to their doctrines.

Neither Lauren nor I had been to church in over a decade, and really had no established foundation on which to make decisions of faith and morals.

We knew we wanted our children to grow up with a faith based set of morals, however due to our own experiences as children we were skeptical about religion in general.

We started to read everything “Christian” we could get out hands on, which conflicted with one another a lot of the time on a theological level.  We decided at that point to start from the beginning and take a historical approach to our decision.

This research led us to Polycarp, Ignatius, Clement of Roan, Justin Martyr, and Eusebius to name a few; what I now know to be the Apostolic Fathers and Sub Apostolic Fathers of the Church – something I discovered both Catholic and prominent Protestant scholars agreed on.

Our next step was to find a Church who matched what these early Fathers wrote. In a nutshell, our first steps towards falling in love with and embracing the Roman Catholic Church.

Our biggest grievance through our learning process, especially before going through the Right of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), was a lack of books we could get on the early Fathers without interpretation.

Worldwide Church of God embraced many of the Hebrew holy days, kept the Jewish Sabbath, Passover, The Day of Atonement, as well as a few others and condemned Orthodoxy’s celebration of Easter, Christmas, the existence of souls and Saints, including the original Apostles souls.

Having such a conflicting background with what I was reading only increased my need to see the whole document.  I needed to read the entire Epistle, not just a quoted excerpt taken from script in order to re-enforce a point.  Much like the Apostle Thomas, I needed to see it with my own eyes before I believed it.

I quickly learned that many of the writings were online or in large, expensive leather bound books, the latter was not something that was affordable at the time.

I remember saying several times to my wife as I poured hour after hour over the writings online on Catholic Encyclopedia, “Someone should compile these letters into a book.”

A year later, my wife and I came into the Catholic Church. As we talked to people in passing about our conversion, Protestants as well as cradle Catholics, we always had to refer people to the internet to mixed reviews; some people just want to sit in a comfortable chair and read.  Again, I found myself saying, “Someone should compile these letters into a book.”

The following RICA year, my wife and I were asked to be on the team. I found myself once again referring people to the Catholic Encyclopedia website and saying, “If there was a book that had all the letters together, that would be a great supplemental teaching tool.”  Then it hit me. Stop wishing for someone to do it, and do it.

The following Epistles are the words of Sts. Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp as available on the Catholic Encyclopedia online (www.newadvent.corg).  The translation of these Epistles are public domain.

I know a lot of people that are hurting because they feel lost and confused, specifically people who were members of the Worldwide Church of God or the children of its members. Some of them know what they don’t believe, but not what to believe at this point.  The Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp are an important link between the teachings of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church, especially when one considers that an official cannon of Christian Scripture was not first agreed upon until the end of the 4th century; some three hundred years later than the Synod of Hippo (393).

Many of the doctrines of he Worldwide Church of God are similar and in some cases identical to other denominations such as the 7th Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormon Church.  I feel these Epistles can also open up the light of truth to these groups while providing a historical backdrop of the early Christian Church.

These Epistles are historical documents as well as Sacred Tradition.  They stand on their own.  They don’t need us near as much as we need them. As far as interpretation goes, especially verses WCG doctrine, they speak for themselves in tone, tempo and doctrine.  Very little is left to the imagination.

In addition, I have included a homily on Ignatius of Antioch by St. John Chrysostom (A.D. 350-407), Bishop and Doctor of the Church and what many scholars argue is the greatest speaker ever heard from a Christian pulpit.

These letters provide faith, hope and love.  Hopefully this will open the doors of ones heart and mind to let the Light in.

Scott C. Blue

Check out "The Good Old Days" - Al Aksa Mosque

AnAthiest.net has the following posting up today about the burning of the Al Aksa Mosque by Armstrognite Denis Rohan in 1969.  When Rohan was arrested he was found with a rolled up Plain Truth in his pocket

The Good Old Days


Tuesday, September 28, 2010

33 Years and Counting

Left to right, Harrison Ford (Han Solo), David Prowse (Darth Vader), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) 
and, in foreground, Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) 
and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker).

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It's hard to believe that 33 years ago the first Star Wars came out.  A large group of us from Ambassador College in Pasadena headed off to Hollywood to see it.  Every single seat in the theater was taken.  Yet, at this same time various ministers in Pasadena were trying to discourage students from seeing the movie.  It was fiction, it was dangerous, it had demons in it.  

Kind of like the ranting that Dave Albert did from the Auditorium stage when ET came out.  He went on and on about how the movie was really about demons manifesting themselves on earth as agents of light to gullible children.  If we went to see the movie we would be allowing demons to enter our mind. Thankfully 95% of the students ignored him as they had ignored the Star Wars silliness.

The other strange thing they told us that never came true was that they said we would never be able to see the  sequels in the Star Wars series when they came out. The reason being we would be in Petra.  The world would be coming to and end by that time the sequels would be coming out.

The other movie that stirred up a stink in Pasadena was Crocodile Dundee.  They planned to show the movie in the Auditorium.  It was common knowledge that God lived in the Auditorium so swear words and sexy scenes could not be shown on the screen.   Some moron from the student government stood next to the projector and held a piece of cardboard over the lens so the picture could not be projected on stage.  There were howls of protest.  People got up and walked out.  

Armstrongism has always been afraid of the silliest things.  

Herb hated country music.  He thought it was for the uncouth and uneducated.  We always thought he hated it because GTA liked it.  

Armstrongism did not like its members being actors.  The reason being was that they were taking on fake personalities and would have to live through those characters.  It was another avenue for opening the mind up to demons.  

You could not be a policeman because you carried a gun. (Even though GTA's bodyguard carried gun with him at all times.).  

They discouraged members from being EMT's.  You were performing medical procedures that took away the persons ability to use divine healing.

A Failed Okie in Oklahoma Trying To Impress

Six Pack Flurry recently opened his new mini-Me auditorium at his cult compound in Oklahoma.  Like HWA, he spared no expense.  Onyx, marble, swarovski crustal, imported carpets, bird fountains, etc.

I wonder to this day if Six Pack ever has an original idea running around that 'brain' of his.

Happily he is nothing more than the Okie version of HWA and it is just nor working.  At least Herb had some class and good taste, while Six Pack is bankrupt in all those departments.