Christ was WHITE. Adam "looked" like Christ. So Adam was WHITE!

Guess which illustrious Church of God leader said the following:

Christ was WHITE. Adam "looked" like Christ. So Adam was WHITE!

The Oriental race is a mutation from Adam's stock...the same is true of the Negro...MAN perverts God's Laws by interbreeding and producing a mongrel or hybrid...

Noah was the ONLY man on earth who was not guilty of this SIN of intermarriage!...

All other human beings were destroyed-PUNISHED for this sin of interracial marriage...

God is the author of SEGREGATION! But man is the author of INTEGRATION!

This was a belief that was firmly entrenched in the Church of God for many decades.   Its not some off the cuff comment by an idiot splinter group leader today. I heard it preached in the Dayton Ohio church and read it in our literature. Do you really believe that God had to wait 1,900 years to reveal this "truth" to Herbert Armstrong?

"Just" War

I was checking out the Plain Truth site today to see what they had up.  Since the PT is no longer a COG publication it has lots of different writers and articles by nationally syndicated writers.

There was an article in the Sumner 2012 issue on "Just War or Just Peace?"  Just wars were talked about a lot in Armstrongism, and still is to this day.  It is also not an exclusive Armstrongite phrase either. Evangelicals and others love to throw it around too.  Just wars are the attempt to justify war ethically...

Just War Theory is an idea and tradition developed by philosophers (e.g. Aristotle and
Cicero) and theologians (e.g. Augustine and Hugo Grotius) in an effort to establish a
platform of ethics for war and peace. Just War Theory seeks to define ethical parameters
of justice in the context of war—the justice of resorting to war (jus ad bellum), just
conduct during war (jus in bellum), and justice in the peace agreements which terminate a
war (jus post bellum).

Armstrongism and a lot of Christianity use just war to gloss over the killing on tribes and nations in the Bible stories.  If God can do it, why can't we! It is used by nations today to justify the invasion of other countries and more.

The article goes into detail about what the American military did to Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In March 1945, Tokyo, Japan, a city roughly the size of New York, is firebombed by American bombers. Fifty-one percent of the city is destroyed and 100,000 civilians are killed in a single night, burned to death. Fifty square miles of the city is burned to the ground.

Fifty to ninety percent of the people are killed by incendiary bombs in 67 cities before Hiroshima and Nagasaki are finally eradicated by nuclear bombs. Nothing about this resembles the proportionality that just war theorists require. Civilian deaths were not collateral to the bombing of military targets, but directly the object of the attacks. By the Geneva Conventions, it is a crime against humanity to bomb unarmed civilians.

General Curtis Lamay, who ordered the firebombing of civilian targets and ultimately the nuclear attack, said, “If we’d lost the war, we’d have been prosecuted as war criminals.”

Robert MacNamara, America’s Secretary of Defence under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, served under LaMay during the war against Japan. He confessed, “We were behaving as war criminals.

What makes it immoral if you lose and moral if you win?”

The author of the article uses a chart that shows the Japanese City fire bombed and its equivalent in size American city and the percentage of people killed.

2. If just war ethics have indeed been set aside, then wars in the name of any God and draped in any flag are a sham. By what blasphemy can the facts of this chart be attributed in any way to biblical justice or the Christian God? How can any nation simultaneously create and implement nuclear missiles, cluster bombs, or chemical weapons and claim to have the blessing of either Christ, Yahweh, or Allah? Across the board, such pursuits should be identified with no one but the Beast and his false prophets (those who lay hands of blessing on acts of destruction).

3. Modern warfare is neither “just” nor “holy,” even by the formal definitions of our theorists. Our bizarre justifications are only matched by our ability to see evil in “the other” and excuse ourselves
of the same evils by using different labels. Let those without WOMDs or a history of using them on civilians cast the first stone. As I said, the firebombing of Japan was a true holocaust…a sacrifice by fire
of victims who we knew were the bad guys. War makes bad guys of us all.

Read the article and then tell us what you think.

Ron Weinland's New Prison Digs?

Mike over at Don't Drink the Flavor Aid Served By False Prophets has an entry up today about Ron Weinland's new prison cell he will be moving into on Friday, February 2.

Mike had this to say:

During Saturday’s sermon, False Prophet Ronald Weinland described the imprisonment facility he reports to in less than 55 hours as having a maximum and medium security units but that he would be in the minimum security satellite facility.  Looking over the list of facilities operated by the Bureau of Prisons, it is likely that Ron will be at the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex which operates units with those three different levels of security.

Terre Haute is a 203-mile drive for Laura on the allowed days for visitors of Friday, Saturday, or Sunday plus federal holidays.  She can leave her expensive panties at home because conjugal visits are not allowed in federal prison.  The only visitors are immediate family and up to 10 individuals Ron can list (if not disapproved for some reason).  Ron is allowed 7 visits each month and no more than 5 visitors at each visit.  Visitors are not allowed to wear lime green clothes because that will be the color for Ron’s sackcloth of humility during his stay at Terre Haute FCC.

Check out Mike's blog at the link above for more pictures and more info about what is in store for Weinerdude, God's greatest living prophet!

Let's hope this is only the beginning for other COG leaders to start serving time for their criminal actions!

Dennis on "A Short Sermon on the Amount"

ht: Otogosh

A Short Sermon on the Amount

Let's face it; every church wants your hard earned money and resources.  "Send it in..." is the mantra with proof texts to follow.  How much do you have to give to your Church when it comes right down to it? 

The first answer is "absolutely nothing."  

2 Corinthians 9:7

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

That's all you need to know.  No more proof texts about what exactly that means.  No twisting it around for two hours until you forget it is in your Bible.  No being told erroneously that we can only discern this by going "here a little and there a little."  The real meaning of that scripture is hilarious and has nothing to do with how to study your Bible but we'll skip that for now.

 Now if you want to stress yourself or rather be stressed by "You have robbed God," and "Prove me now herewith," knock yourself out.  But give as you are able trumps that every time. 

If you really think an actual God needs your money or can be robbed of it to the point of throwing a hissy fit and wreaking utter destruction and curses on the earth for not paying up, then I can't help you.  I'm going to go with human priests thought that one up and it has guilted and frightened millions for millennia into giving, not as they are able, but as they are afraid not to give.  Humans feel robbed and humans get miffed about not collecting their religious taxes, not any real God.

Do I have to tithe?

Of course not.  You don't have to do anything.  See above. 

Do I have to actually give a pledge I pledged when I felt I was guilted into pledging what I did not actually have to pledge?  In other words, do I have to give what I have not got?

Of course not.  Now here's the trick you have to understand.  In Acts, Peter, well the Holy Spirit who you can never quite pin down, struck two nasty young church members down for holding back on a pledge they made of THEIR land and THEIR money.  Somehow Peter says there as a moment when it was actually theirs, but once they said...”I pledge..."   all bets were off and you were going to die if you didn't pony up.  Great story and great fear, which is the effect you want, came on the whole church when they saw them buried in the alley outside the building...uh huh.  Do you really think Romans would not wonder why people dropped dead at your services or some kid or family member didn't wonder why mom/dad, aunt/uncle or my kids didn't come home from your church this week...where are they? 

Listen to me once and for all and get this story used as threat reveals its true sense for you.  This story, written by Luke, cohort of Paul who both thought Peter, who denied Jesus was NO better than a Judas who betrayed him, is meant as a joke on Peter. It is meant to send a not so subtle message to Paul's followers to reject Peter.  Because see...here we have two fine church folk who said they would do one thing, give it all, but then held back being killed off by the grand and glorious Apostle Peter, who also said he would do one thing...never deny leave or forsake Jesus and denied him!   Get it?  It's a slam against Peter and not a pay up or else story for you.  There are lots of subtle and not so subtle slams the apostles throw at each other in the New Testament if you know where to look but I spare you.   This one is not about scaring you into sending anything in when you realize the reality of your situation cannot actually match the generosity of your spirit the day your were badgered into giving what you actually did not have for something you may not actually agreed with in the first place. 

If you're mind says "That's a stupid reason to send my money in," goes off before, "Oh...I better do this," go with the first thought.  It's rather like if your head tells you one thing and your stomach another, your stomach is telling you the truth.

You cannot give what you have not got nor should you.  You put your family and children first.  You don't short yourself to enrich your church. You don't put off personal needs to meet the needs of others if you feel inside that you can't but outside that you should.  You don't need to obey any man in these matters and while dozens of scriptures can be thrown at you to make you feel like a Bronze Age Church member, YOU don't have to give what you do not have or do not wish to give.

And actually I hope you never do again no matter how sincere you are and convinced of the truth taught by your church.  I never met anyone who fessed up to belonging to the wrong, false or deceived Church so I expect none of you feel that way either. But don't let anyone falsely guilt you into giving or using the specter of a God or Big Bad Apostle visit to get you to meet your "obligations."

You have no obligations in these matters if you stop running all over the Bible from Genesis to Revelation trying to figure it out.  Giving is an inside job from YOU to THEM and not an expectation of you from THEM TO YOU.

And a real God doesn’t need your money incase that comes up again...  But men do...

2 Corinthians 9:7

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

And that's today's Sermon on the Amount...

DennisCDiehl@aol.com

Prophet Thiel "Marked" By RCG Pastor Who Was 'Marked" By LCG

It's the battle of the "marks!"  LCG "marks" a Church of God minister for causing division who then "marks" a COG member of another group for causing division.  Only in COGdumb can this kind of stupidity happen!

The Journal is reporting that a minister from Dave Pack's financially struggling personality cult has "marked" false prophet Robert Thiel.  Apparently Sydney Hull from South Africa got ticked off that prophet Thiel has been telling people to not jump ship into Dave Packs Restored Church of God. That seems to have been in response to Syd Hull's apostasy from Living Church of God which in turn earned him being "marked" by LCG. 

A member of one Church of God has "marked" a member of another Church of God.

The unusual action, which in most COG groups amounts to a step more drastic than the act of "disfellowshipping" an errant member, came after a split from the Living Church of God, based in Charlotte, N.C.

Seventy-six-year-old Sydney J. Hull of Johannesburg South Africa, marked Robert Thiel of Arroyo Grande, Calif., because, said Mr. Hull, "my sheep have been affected by this man's efforts."

Mr. Hull, a pastor and evangelist-ranked elder who says he was ordained as a member of the Worldwide Church of God 35 years ago, recently left the Living Church of God, presided over by Roderick C. Meredith, and joined the Restored Church of God, pastored by David Pack of Wadsworth, Ohio.

In a "letter to brethren" dated Sept. 27, Mr. Hull said he left the LCG over differences of "doctrine."
He summarized the doctrinal differences as "altering the scriptural structure of government, setting dates for Christ's return, permitting marriage outside the church, use of cosmetics, inappropriate dress, Sabbath wear and hair too long for men and too short for women, denying Mr. [Herbert] Armstrong's role as the prophesied Elijah, and so much more, as seen in the list of 60 changes found on RCG's [the Restored Church of God's] website."

Before marking Dr. Thiel, Mr. Hull stated that the lay member of the LCG from Southern California errs by having his own private Web site dedicated to Church of God matters.

"Among other attacks, this site lists a host of invented reasons why one should not go with RCG," Mr. Hull said. "The shallow reader will be taken in, but those with common sense will see the utter falsehood of this man's misinformed confusion." Evangelist leaves one Church of God, then marks a member of another Church of God

 The article has this concerning LCG and Syd Hull:

The LCG has, in turned, disfellowshipped and marked Mr. Hull.
"Regrettably, the Hulls had to be disfellowshipped and marked because they have been attempting to pull people out of LCG," announced Doug Winnail of the Charlotte area, the Living Church of God's director of church administration.