A Problem with Prophecy

By Dennis Diehl

One of the hallmark traits of most Fundamentalist Christians is their obsession with Bible Prophecy. Prophecy has a rather mystical draw to it and implies that the future is not so unknowable after all. Most humans spend their waking time either in the past feeling angry or in speculation of the future feeling anxious. It goes with not having the ability to live the real day one is currently experience. Many Christians have raised knowing the future to an art form and have learned that it is also quit profitable for the church in keeping members in line with fear, anxiety and a perverse kind of hope.


Bible prophecy and making it the center of one's life, reading the newspaper as one would the Bible, is a slippery slope and a very negative way to live one's life.


With enough study, one can learn that there are other explanations for that which many hold so near and dear as predictions of things that will happen "shortly" in the future. No one seems to think that "shortly" for whoever really wrote Revelation has now been over Two Thousand Years! I hate to think what "I'll be back later" would mean!


We have learned to develop the bad habit of reading Paul's predications of "time is short" with the same generous deference to the fact that short for Paul never really quite worked out for him either. We all know the cycle Paul went through of telling the Church to be ready, act as if you had no family and support the Church, to his final realization that "oh well, I fought a good fight, it was fun while it lasted, I was wrong... I still win... see ya."


On the other hand, we have areas of scripture that have always been used as prophecy which, to me, are simply not and never were intended to be by the original authors.


Isaiah 7 is an example of such a use of OT scripture by NT authors. This virgin birth prophecy ranks as one of the most questionable uses of scripture Matthew used to tell his story of Jesus birth. Matthew had a habit of mining the OT for anything that seemed like it fit the story he wanted to tell about Jesus. When one examines the OT context, we have to conclude that, that at least in it's original meaning, it was never meant to have the meaning Matthew assigned it. In fact, in its original context, it has absolutely nothing to do with prophecy but is merely a historical account of events going on at the time. It was never viewed as a prophecy of the birth circumstances of either the Jewish Messiah or Jesus until Matthew mined it for it's story telling value to his perspective. Matthew took the parts that fit his story but left out parts of that same story in Isaiah that obviously made no sense to his perspective on Jesus. If you simply look at Matthew's accounts of Jesus birth story, it is easy to see he cobbled it together in the style of the day from OT scriptures and not real events that he knew of. It is not my point to explain all this here, and I have touched on it in past columns.


Another aspect of "prophecy" we miss is that much of what the COGs use to promote their urgency upon the membership is probably prophecy written after the fact, which makes it really non-prophecy.


Either the book of Daniel was written during the time of the events recorded, 585 BC, or as many scholars now feel, it was written much later in the 160's BC to encourage the Maccabeans in their revolt against Rome. It was written AFTER all the events prophesied took place, which is why Daniel 11 is so specific. Daniel 12 then becomes rather generic because after the rise of Rome, the authors didn't really know the rest of the story much after the specifics of the 160's ended.


The point is that we all know that OUR lives were lived, and many still live their lives out, linking Daniel to Matthew 24, which also was written to address issues now long past from our times.

Again it is not my purpose to prove that to you, but I have accepted that much of what we call history prophesied is really "prophecy" historicized, or the conforming of later writings to fit events as they had already occurred. If the detail of Daniel 11 is the kind of thing that is able to be locked in stone for future fulfillment, then we as humans have no choice in the part we have to play in the game as it is already decided for us evidently down to the details. It's a philosophical problem to me about choices and free will.


Other problem with prophecy is that they simply didn't come true. We all were groomed with the fantastic story of the fall of Tyre and how it would be scraped bare never to be inhabited etc. The problem is it wasn't and the city of Tyre existed in NT times and does to this day. The Tyranians rebuffed Nebuchadnezzar and only succumbed to Alexander the Great, yet still exists. It's a cop out to point out ancient ruins in the water as proof of prophecy fulfilled when the city called Tyre is just over your shoulder. These facts are easily found in a simple search on the topic.


Ezekiel's Failed Prophecies on Tyre and Egypt


Ezekiel made a prophecy that, at the time he wrote, seems most likely to be fulfilled. The prophet was writing, in 587BC, at the time when Nebuchadnezzar was laying siege on Tyre. With such a powerful army like Nebuchadnezzar's, it was not surprising that Ezekiel prophesied the fall of Tyre to the Babylonian king.
Ezekiel 26:7-14: For thus says the Lord: "Behold I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a hosts of many soldiers. He will slay with the sword your daughters on the mainland; he will set up a siege wall against you. He will direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers...With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people with the sword and your mighty pillar will fall to the ground...they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses... I will make you a bare rock...you shall never be rebuilt, for I have spoken," says the Lord God.


The whole passage clearly prophesied the sack and complete destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. However, the vivid description of the sack and fall of Tyre never happened. After a siege of thirteen years, until 573BC, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his siege on Tyre and had to arrive at a compromised agreement. Thus Nebuchadnezzar did not destroy Tyre. Tyre was destroyed by Alexander the Great, 240 years later. And furthermore, despite the prophet, the city of Tyre was eventually rebuilt.


When Nebuchadnezzar broke the gates down he found the city almost empty. The majority of the people had moved by ship to an island about one half mile off the coast and fortified the city there. The mainland city was destroyed in 573, but the city of Tyre on the island remained a powerful city for several hundred years.
The implication of this paragraph is clear: that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed a major portion of Tyre. Tyre's main city was always on the island. The part of the city on the mainland is nothing more than a suburb. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar could achieve no more than take over a relatively minor part of the city. Furthermore it is obvious from the passage in Ezekiel that the complete destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar was prophesized. Ezekiel himself admitted that this prophecy was a mistake!


Ezekiel 29:17-20: ...the Lord God came to me: "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against it... (Website: Rejection of Pascal's Wager)


The prophecies of both Isaiah and Ezekiel against Egypt also fell far short of reality in their "fulfillment."
"The prophet Isaiah, for instance, foretold the drying up of all the waters of the Egypt, and the destruction of all land used for plantation due to this drying up of the River Nile.


Isaiah 19:5-7: And the waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry; and its canal will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.


This part of Isaiah, widely accepted by scholars to be written around the eighth century BC, is about 2750 years old. And in all this period of two and three quarters millennia, this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled! Moreover it is clear from the context that Isaiah prophecy was meant for the Egypt of his time. For it was with that Egypt that Isaiah and his people had a grievance against, and the prophecy was a warning to them. Obviously this is a clear example of an unfulfilled prophecy." (Website: Rejection of Pascal's Wager)


I only point these out because so many would NEVER entertain the idea that any prophecy of the Bible didn't come true and will launch any number and kind of apologetic to defend what was said would be from what really occurred in history. Some of you are doing that right now.. :)


The last Pope would be the last Pope and now this Pope will be the last Pope and I expect the next Pope will also be the last Pope.


And now we again live in a time where "prophecy" can manipulate real lives. There are any number of those who just know how it will all be. The kings of all directions are doing this and that..."just read my article and see for yourself." Every world news event , like in the 60's or 70's or 80's, is worthy of note. The last Pope would be the last Pope and now this Pope will be the last Pope and I expect the next Pope will also be the last Pope. Meanwhile we get older but not the wiser for the experience. What we'll end up with is drawing every imagined prophetic event to ourselves in reality as some government leaders even seem to base policy on "what the Bible says." It is very possible to cause things to happen because one expects them to happen. The problem is you end up with all the damage and none of the salvation. In short, an end of the world scenario can be acted out based on false subconscious beliefs and yet still you end up with no Second Coming, World Tomorrow or Kingdom of God. You end up screwed up.


So why might it be better not to LIVE your actual life around the alleged reality and truth of prophecy and the "imminent" return of Jesus which has been imminent now for a couple thousand years?


I've been there, I've done this. I've lived my real life ahead of my actual life while it quietly slipped by. I've made life decisions in the past based on a preoccupation with the future. I've also let a lot of precious life time go by thinking about things that proved to be untrue and teaching things that weren't. I thought they were, but when one realizes they aren't, it would be hoped one would stop that. I did.


I've been there, I've done this. I've lived my real life ahead of my actual life while it quietly slipped by. I've made life decisions in the past based on a preoccupation with the future. I've also let a lot of precious life time go by thinking about things that proved to be untrue and teaching things that weren't.


Basing a life on what may or may not happen in the future, and Bible types did it all the time and were wrong too, is to miss the present. And whether one admits it or not , the present is all we ever actually really have to work with. Your kids really are their ages they are NOW and one does not postpone making memories with them now because the future is a more serious consideration. They will NEVER again be kids, and you and I will never again be any younger. For Paul, to live might be loss and to die gain, but that theological rhetoric and let's face it, Paul never, from what we can note, ever had to enjoy his children, mate or life in the now. He was in the imminent future right up until it bit him in the bum. He may have had the power to have a wife, great word there, "power", but I bet he was basically not one the women would flock to to begin with.


If you are still in a COG, does your Sabbath experience, weekends that your kids also have to call their free time, only consist for them of coming, sitting and going? How often we forget that the parents generally got to make their life decisions but then deny them to their children. I know, "raise up your child in the way he should go.." Problem I have is with the "should go."


I'm amazed after all these decades the COG still can't figure out whether to eat out on the Sabbath! Do you really believe some Deity cares! Do you really think there are angels taking names!


I used to take my kids to the local zoo on Sabbaths after church. This was in the 1970's. I have never regretted spending MANY a Friday night with them when little swimming at the YMCA and stopping at Dunkin Donuts on the way home. That ritual of the "now" is far more remembered than any sermon I may have given that day. But for some, depending on their prophecy laden pastor, life is just one big "around the corner", "just a little longer" and never ending "gun lap." I had kidded for years that we have been in the gun lap so often, we run the risk of running out of bullets. Little did I know that was a prophecy that would come true!


Prophecy means little to me at this point in my life. It may mean a lot to some of you depending on who is feeding the need to know what I don't think we can know in this world. We can hid behind the idea that we know God is doing this or that, but that's pretty iffy knowing.


Whatever your position, at least know that even the Bible got it wrong at times, not matter what your pastor says or how your church motivates you with prophecy to live on the edge of your chair, just a bit ahead of the now, in somewhat a fearful or at least anxious, "what's going to happen" state. Isaiah was wrong, Ezekiel was wrong, Paul was wrong and yes, even Jesus was mistaken in his own perceptions of his own experience. That's another story.


If we can be wise enough to see that even Bible prophecies indeed have failed, that some prophecies are not really prophecies , and that reading the newspaper as if it were the Bible come to life is not wise, we might actually have a life in the now we can say was a real life. A life lived in anticipation of some alleged future is not a real life. It's disillusionment in the making.


I'm going to go out on my own limb of prophecy here. I predict that all the leaders of any COG who promote prophecy first and have not really ever given a sermon using the ideas in this article, will live out their lives and come to the same conclusions Paul did. They kept a Faith and now it's time to pass on.


I predict that Churches like PCG and RCG will pass from the scene when their me only leadership does. One can only get so much mileage out of playing the sermons on world events by those who died years ago. Yet I guess we do that when repeating Paul's admonitions of the shortness of time forgetting it is long since past when he felt it would end. We do it when we say "Behold I come quickly" when that quickly was over 2000 years ago.


I predict that WCG (soon to be GIF it seems we can predict) will become a meaningless footnote to the Christian experience. I mean why belong to something in California that is everywhere you live? What holds scattered groups together is being special and having special insights into "The Middle East, What Next." And "Will You Be in the Place of Safety." Don't get me started!


I predict more people will avail themselves of the Internet to do their own studies and come to their own conclusions. I always had to ask a pastor because somehow I thought he must know. After all, he was an "expert" on the Bible. Now you can ask lots of pastors and scholars and even those who used to be and no longer can abide it. I predict the era of Guru's will end for those who learn to think and search a matter out from many and not just one source. I would hope that people in congregations dominated by one grand idea spoken by one grand human being will finally wake up and not care if asking a question or questioning a sermon or concept gets them kicked out. Being kicked out, terminated, fired, marginalized or blocked at the door can be the greatest freedom you'll ever experience if you ever choose to reclaim your own brain and perspectives. Remember...ANY TIME you are listening to another human being tell you how it is, and your get that little "uh oh" in the tummy....listen to it! It's the truth trying to have a chat with you.


I predict many will keep on believing the unbelievable because that's what humans do to keep fear and uncertainty at bay. I do it, you do it.


I predict that very few people give a rats... bum... about what I think!


Don't live in anticipation of possible future. We can't know and no one has ever gotten it right. All prophecies about the Second Coming of Jesus have failed to date 100% ! Don't miss your NOW for that idea that just around the corner, me and mine will be justified in forgetting to enjoy the one life we know we NOW have on this planet. It's a dangerous world to be sure, this does not mean it is the result of prophets who themselves missed their own marks way back.


A life based on Prophecy as interpreted by someone who thinks they know and enforced upon one as fact , just wait and see, is going to be a stressed one at best. You are also going to have to give up a few bucks hard earned to keep the mythology and the grand poopa in prediction mode. Remember there is Addiction to Predictions. Don't allow yourself to wake up decades older with grown kids having regrets you didn't go to the zoo or stop at Dunkin Donuts in their jammies on the way home....even on the Sabbath.


Dennis Diehl
SCMassageTherapy@aol.com

Dennis Diehl is a former Pastor and currently has a successful Therapeutic Massage practice in Greenville, SC.

The Pope, Thiel, Malm, Elijah, COGaWA and LCG

 

Reading the Shining Light blog today is like reading one huge conspiracy theory after another.  Of course Armstrongism is filled with conspiracy theories up the wazoo and has always thrived on the nuttiness.  The crazier the theory is the more people believe it.

When I came to Pasadena a group of church members followed a deranged idiot who had proclaimed the egret sculpture was going to come alive. An egret was going to get on each corner of the Auditorium and the fifth would lead as they picked up the Auditorium and flew it to Petra.  Since this was God's House he was going to protect it from the invading German armies.

Also in the  late 70's early 80's Gary North books were spreading around the campus.  Old town Pasadena was filled with newsstands that contained his free books. Monetary and religious themes permeated his writings.  Because he was so conservative (North was a Dominionist) he fit into the mindset of the uber-conservatives struggling to gain control of WCG HQ in Pasadena.

Another book that made the rounds on the Pasadena campus was The Protocols of the Elders  Zion,  that is supposed to be about the the Jewish take over of Christianity and society.  The whacked out Armstrongites that believed this nonsense were the ones behind the anti-Stan Rader movement.  Rader was a Jew who 'converted' to Christianity.  While he was hobnobbing around the world with HWA he was secretly attending Synagogue and supposedly would be at synagogue every Friday night when he was back in LA. Rader was supposed to be the one behind the government take over of the church.

Then we had the Jim Jones tragedy.  Many of the uber-conservatives said this was a work of Satan to deliberately stop the WCG from fleeing to Petra.  There were secret groups in Pasadena supposedly planning our escape to the wonders of Petra.  By this tragedy happening the news media and society started eyeing cults and weird groups like WCG. Therefore, no trip to Petra could be planned.  Boo hoo.

The Ambassador Auditorium was constructed as a Masonic symbol.  The square black cube that the Auditorium is shaped as has Masonic symbolism and also points back to the square cube that is the Kaaba in Mecca.  The number of pillars, the colors, the location of various rooms inside up in the ceiling area all supposedly have Masonic ties.  Church members faced East toward the rising sun when they worshiped their 'god'. In essence the Auditorium is filled with pagan symbolism.

These listed above are the 'normal' ones that do not even compare to the religious themed ones WCG was filled with.

Due to Armstrongism's fascination with numerology and Esotericism we made counting numbers and divination a byproduct of Armstrongism that carries on to this day.  The Oracle of Delphi pales in comparison to the myriads of 'prophet's Armstrongism has produced.

Malm on the Shining Light has turned himself into one of those prophets.  Of course he trips and stumbles around claiming he is not, but in fact he is.

Today it is all about Bob Thiel and his book 2012 And The Rise of the Secret Sect, that was written with the cooperation of the LCG higher ups. He presents an exact time line of future world events in the next few years.  There will be soon coming peace for 3 1/2 years for the Jews followed by 3 1/2 years of pure hell.

There is the supposed COGaWA conspiracy of Kilough and Franks to secretly planning to join up with Rod Meredith and proclaim an 'Elijah' Message.

While it would not surprise me at all that Kilough and Franks have ulterior motives I think many in the new COGaWA will balk at joining up with Meredith due to the fact they had refused to join his cult in the previous incarnations.  

There are theories about the present pope dying within the next two years.  The rise of the final and last Pope of Catholicism who is going to bring a reign of false peace and terror to the world.  

There will be a huge war against the Muslims where they will be whipped into submission.

Malm goes on to utter other trigger words that Armstrognites will quickly understand.  But just like HWA, Malm covers his tracks with this disclaimer:

Do NOT believe me!  Do keep this in mind and do keep eyes wide open!  The only real proof will be in watching these things being fulfilled before your eyes!  Then when the two are empowered you will recognize them and be ready for them.  Do NOT fall for this strong deception of 3 1/2 years of peace when God’s word says, that when Peace and safety is declared; sudden [immediate] destruction will come, 1 Thes 5:3.!
WATCH!!!

Reading all these silly conspiracy theories is like watching the idiot Jesse Ventrua:

Thank God I am free!  Free at last from this kind of stupidity!

Plan Ahead For Your Feast, Winter Festival/Christmas Presents

Instead of the old stand by of the Talent Game or the Ten Commandments Game, 

you can buy your child this cool toy! 

Be the first in your Church of God to have the new Jesus doll!  

Think how much fun your child will have as he act's out the Passover service!  

This is NO long hair effeminate, Nancy-boy fake 'jesus', but a real Man's Man! 

  

This Jesus has a real converted man's hair cut! This Jesus is strong, buff and MASCULINE!

This KTell production is endorsed by Spanky Meredith.  

If you order before Passover 2011 

we will include a pair of Golden Gloves 

that your child can use as he knocks over the sellers tables in the Temple!

Herman Hoeh: The Closet Buddhist

I love reading the comments on other COGlet bb's and seeing the comments people make.  So many of them seem to be such angry, bitter, grumpy people, who never utter the name of Jesus but can quote every single law of the OT.   They have the perfect answers to everything and crow about it.  UCG is wrong, COGaWA is wrong, WCG is wrong, LCG is wrong, PCG is wrong but they aren't.  It's all about end time prophecy, the 70 weeks and other irrelevant nonsense. 

In the midst of this silliness was this comment about Herman Hoeh:

I did not know Herman personally, I did have a very close mutual friend who talked to him at length just about weekly. Herman was a closet Buddhist who talked HWA into giving tens of thousands of God’s money to Buddhist Monasteries; which is why the Buddhist presence at HWAs funeral. Herman would be told by HWA to prove something was true and he would come up with some “proof”. HH was a great politician and yes man, who had simple tastes and knew how to flatter. His idea of tithing was to buy books for himself and at the end of the year donate some of them to the college. He was just one of many tares/weeds that surrounded HWA and held influence through flatteries. I would never rely on HH for either doctrine or prophecy, but he was a good source of info on what was going on in Pasadena. We are warned about tares; remember that their also outright weeds, thorns and thistles in a field. Be careful not to tolerate the outright weeds, because of instructions on dealing with tares. The key is not whether they are nice guys [that is just flatterers and politicking], the key io how zealous they are for God and his law. James

I remember sitting in the Temple above called Wat Thai here in Los Angeles.  It is the largest Thai Temple in the West.  We were sitting in front of this very same altar overflowing with offerings and flowers for Queen Sirikit when she was  a guest of HWA.  Buddhist priest were chanting and offering up prayers for the Queen.  Several of the Ambassador College students present were freaked out and thought they were prostrating themselves at the feet of dagon.  Hoeh explained everything that was going on.  By the time he was through it made sense.  But then, I have always been a heretic when it came to trying things outside the box.  It did not bother me at all to be sitting in the front of this Buddha:

Herman Hoeh did not care what WCG members thought of him in his relationship with the Thai Temple.  He spent countless hours there.

Malm is right that the Buddhist priest came out for HWA's funeral.  They were there for Tkach's and for Hoeh's funeral. They knew Hoeh as man of compassion and truthfulness, despite his 'Christian' stance.

The die hard legalists in the Church were shitting bricks over Hoeh.  Meredith and others legaltard's thought he was bringing in abominations to the church.

Hoeh was a wise, quirky man.  You never quit knew what he was thinking.  If you asked him a question you came away thinking he had answered when in actuality he had not. He instead had asked you questions and you ended up answering him.

He always wore second hand suits, drove a car that was at least 25 years old, dug through campus trash cans to collect cans and bottles, yet would give you the shirt off your back if you were in need.  No other COG minister would do that, especially Meredith and the other high and mighty Evangelists.

Unfortunately, Hoeh was the one who came up with HWA's apostle status and other quirkiness associated with the church.  His Compendium of World History  was one of the most poorly research doctrinal thesis the College had ever reproduced.  Even Hoeh said it was not accurate, but the various splinter cults use a lot of it to this day to support their racist British Israelism doctrines to this very day.

Ask Your Pastor: Did Size Matter Back Then Too?

UCG, LCG, PCG and the myriad of other COG's all claim to keep the entire word of God and God's laws.  Perhaps you can ask your pastor on why he is a liar when they do not keep these laws.  COG ministers are especially good at ignoring this verse because of their own sweet daughters indiscretions:  Deut 22:20-21
I could name at lease 15 daughters of ministers, evangelists and leaders of various splinter groups that got pregnant before they were married.

From: Jesus Needs New PR

Consider the following verses…

Deuteronomy 23:1 ESV
No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

This seems mean. And it seems to be something that Jesus wouldn’t like. Of course, I still have my testicles…

Deuteronomy 25:11-12 NASB
If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity.

Wait. Is she mistreating the genitals? I mean, is she just grabbing them? Lovingly? Still, even if she was trying to hurt the genitals, should we really cut off her hand? What about youth pastors who give kids wedgies? Cut off a finger or two?

Genesis 38:8-10 NASB
Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother’s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD; so He took his life also.

Okay… so we know the story of Onan… he’s rather famous! So he spills his semen on the ground rather than putting it in the wife of his dead brother. Apparently, God gets angry at things like this… so God killed Onan…

Ezekiel 23:19-20 NET
Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their genitals as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions.

Size mattered back then, too…

Deuteronomy 22:20-21
If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, ²¹ she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.

Interesting… we ignore the above verse, but we don’t mind using that one “anti-anal sex” verse in Deuteronomy to promote “God’s/our” views on homosexuality…

1 Samuel 18:25-27 ESV

Then Saul said, “Thus shall you say to David, ‘The king desires no bride-price except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, that he may be avenged of the king’s enemies.’” Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. Before the time had expired, David arose and went, along with his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife.

Can you regift foreskins?

Exodus 4:24-25 NASB

Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.”

Can you imagine being that poor kid? Wow.

Judges 3:19-25 ESVAnd Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out.

So lots of biblical things came back to balls, foreskin, and poop….
What do you think about these verses?
Are they inspired?
And if you’re a man, are you still eligible for communing in God’s assembly?

COGaWA Brownshirt's Ready To Interview Members To See If They Are Worthy

It did not take long before the jackbooted brown-shirt's in COGaWA's hierarchy to start laying down stupid rules for its potential members.  The new Overlord's will be visiting the new potential members to determine whether they are in agreement with all of CGaWA's  1,662+ laws.  They are adding to the already impossible list of laws that CANNOT be kept from the Old Testament with a myriad of other laws to imprison members and control them.

Why do these people who left to join COGaWA  continue to allow themselves to be controlled? Many of these men and women suffered abuse under HWA, Meredith, Flurry, Kilough and others, yet they are just like dog's coming back to eat their vomit.  They think they are martyrs for the truth and that they are required to submit.

Malm has this comment on his blog:

I have been informed that the new COGAWA brethren have been forbidden to study the Bible together and that the new ministry will be visiting them to make sure that they know and agree to the new party line [if not they will be shown the exit].  I do not know if this is in only a few areas due to certain local elders enthusiasm, or whether it is an overall policy.

WeinerDude Weinland - 1/2 of the Witless Witnesses

Poor Ronnie.  He just cannot get any respect!

Weinland and the Jehovah's Witnesses




Another great video of the Witless Witness is this one where he makes death threats against all mockers. I say come and get me big boy! I have already had Neville Stevens COG splinter cult members pronounce a death sentence on me over 10 years ago. I would never live to see a Passover again. I would  struck down on the Night to be Much Observed.

A Warning to Mockers




Why has Armstrongism produced such mind numbingly STUPID idiots like this?

The Apostle's Everyday Home Furnishings

While various COGlet's splinter personality cults are idolizing HWA on this the 25th anniversary of his death, I thought I would give you a peek into the apostles lifestyle.

While the membership toiled and struggled in the 60's and 70's HWA was on a spending spree in Europe.  Millions of dollars were dumped over the years to furnish the home of the  end time prophet.  This was all during the time the pleading letters were sent to the members to send in as much money as they could because the work was 'in crisis.'

Of course we had morons that justified these artifacts as necessary for the entrainment of  world leaders and dignitaries coming to hear about a "Strong Hand From Someplace".  Others claimed all these goodies would be used to take care of the brethren as they were struggling in Petra.  These items would buy us food and drink and shelter by the Muslims.

One other idiot in Pasadena claimed that the Pasadena campus would never be destroyed during the tribulation.  The invading armies of Germany would use the Pasadena campus as their military headquarters.  They would be so in awe and taken back by it's beauty that they would not destroy it.  Because of that the Pasadena campus would be the new earthly HQ of God's people when the Kingdom was established.  Never mind that the city is supposed to be Jerusalem, but heck, this is typical WCG mythology and it sounded cool!  Never mind that these armies would be torturing and killing fellow citizen's while they dinned and enjoyed music in the Auditorium.

Click on all pictures to enlarge them.

This was to keep HWA's roast beef warm.  Estimated value $5,000-$8,000

A Victorian Parcel-Gilt Silver Plated Table for your guests to place their calling cards on. $4,000-$6,000

Set of late 1800's silver centerpiece with glorious naked women on it.  $10,000-$15,000

late 1800's Gold Desert dishes $4,000-$6,000

German Silver Knight   $3,000-$5,000

Pair of German Silver Figures, Sir Lancelot and Lady Guinevere  $10,000-$15,000

Elizabeth II Equestrians  $6,000-$9,000 each

Elizabeth II 14 kt Gold Table Service (This was used for formal dinners) $50,000-$80,000

Sterling Silver Everyday service $10,00-$15,000

Silver Goblet's to drink your Harvey's Bristol Cream In $8,000-$12,000

Set of 22 Silver Dinner Plates $8,000-$12,000

George V Sterling Silver Umbrella Stands $10,000-$15,000

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate

By Dennis Diehl

I remember being 18 and sitting through Rod Meredith's 'Harmony of the Gospels' class and venturing to ask a question about an apparent contradiction in the accounts.  (Harmony in the Gospels is hardly an accurate course description).  It was a sincere question.  RCM asked someone in the class to explain it to Dennis, implying I was not listening or something.  Very embarrassing to me but it is where I learned not to ask him questions again.

No one else answered it either.  Around lunch time I headed to the dining hall and RCM was running around the track and saw me going in.  He called me over.  "He's going to apologize for embarrassing me," I rather naively thought to myself.  What he did was ask me if I had repented yet... Um....of what?  He never really said and I went to lunch.  I guess I've been out to lunch ever since.

Between GTA's calling me in to ask why I hated him (I didn't) and this, I should have just gone home and saved myself the next 30 years of the same. 

As the years in ministry went by, I realized that asking questions was a dangerous thing.  I learned not to ask questions about Biblical contradictions in science, history and origins.  I learned not to ask questions about whatever was going on in the drama filled WCG that I was supposed to represent.  Once I asked about the "rumor" HWA was divorcing.  The return call was JWT yelling into the phone to "squelch it!"   What  a nutso church.  Personally I learned that 100% of any question I had was answered in ways that turned out to be, in truth, the opposite of what I was told.  No wonder, when the end came, the minister could not win getting stuck between believing what they were told by those over me and congregants who knew more than I did because of their contacts.  WCG could make a fool out of a local pastor in a minute and did.

I have thought a lot about why in all that time, I never heard anyone ask any good questions about the many and very obvious contradictions in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  No minister ever asked me, "Have you ever wondered about....?" or "Doesn't this seem troublesome?"  Even Friday night studies where GTA or someone would answer Bible questions, were rather lame.  One always knew the question was a bit too troubling because the more troubling the question the more sarcastic the "explanation."  

I wish I had known enough back then to have asked HWA after years of the never ending "story of the two trees," if he understood the Trees in the Garden of Eden were off limits because their fruit was god food?  The Knowledge of Good and Evil was a God topic and not for man.  Why not I never knew because if Adam and Eve weren't allowed to take of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, how could they be blamed for any sin?  They didn't know good from evil or weren't supposed to.  We see the consternation this caused the "gods" El and his council of the gods (Let US make man in Our Image etc...) reflected in one of the council members telling El that man must be driven out of the Garden, "lest he eat of the tree of eternal life (also a god tree and not for man) and live forever.  

Of course this is pure rewrite with a Hebrew twist,  of an Ancient Sumerian creation story that better explains the pagan origins of even the Hebrew Sabbath.  The original story was explaining how the god's needed rest from man's persistent complaining as worker bees for the gods.  The gods ate food then and man's purpose was to till the ground and make it happen.  In the original tale it was El (originally a Canaanite god adopted by the Hebrews) and his council that wanted rest from man.   It's why, "from now on, with the sweat of your brow shall you till the earth..".  It used to be easier for the human slaves to the gods in the original "Edin."  Basically it was the loving El telling humans, "if you think you have it bad now, just hear this punishment."  Rather like Egyptians expecting quality brick by limiting the straw needed to make it so. 

Whoa.....how fun a question would that have been to ask or explain instead of having to endure, "there were two trees in the garden....."?  Not to worry.  There never was a real garden nor a real Adam and Eve really sinning and condemning us all to the need for a blood sacrifice.  It's mythology.  If you wish to know where real humans first came from and how, get a good up to date book on recent findings.  Or even do as I did and have your DNA traced back 100,000 years to Africa.  (http://ezinearticles.com/?Biblical--Adam-and-Eve-Laid-to-Rest-by-National-Genome-Project&id=94643). 

Come to realize that without a literal Adam and especially Eve as presented, we can't demote women to the status of obedient servants nor can the Doctrine of Original sin hold any sway over us, but I spare you.  It's mythology guys and to think otherwise in this day and age with so much good information and science available to us is pure ignorance.  

If Elijah had known to dig down 30 feet in the cave he hid in and saw God's rear end, he would have found some of the best Neanderthal skeletons in the world in that cave on Carmel.  Did "Jesus" know about Neanderthals, Homo Ergaster and Homo Habilis?  No he did not and also would not have been able or willing to explain them.  And no, they weren't the "and there were giants in the earth in those days, either.

So from 1968-1996 I personally asked few good questions of my peers or of the Bible itself.  That came to a end when I read and resonated with John Shelby Spong's,  Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism.  Finally a good answer to my question to RCM long ago in class.  I wrote JSP and thanked him and that I was using his insights in my sermons and studies.  He wrote me and said,  "Thank you Dennis, you won't survive."   Alas the nature of asking too many questions to those who the power but no clue as to the answer.  

So, with that in mind, I present to my former minister friends the series I wrote to challenge them to think and realize an even more Present Truth than ever inaccurate  Plain Truth. 

The series is called, "Questions Your Pastor Will Hate."  Some is written a bit cheeky and sarcasm,  which reflected my sideways turned anger at the time, and a simple request to consider the Book was not written by God, unless God was drinking during inspiring much of its content.  

And yes, I am well aware of apologetics which is an apt name for the art of denial when being confronted with the real contradictions and nonsense found in the pages of the "holy, inerrant word of God."

Here are the links to the articles.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Questions-Your-Pastor-Will-Hate---The-Book---Part-One&id=173949

http://ezinearticles.com/?Questions-Your-Pastor-Will-Hate---Part-Two&id=173963

http://ezinearticles.com/?Questions-Your-Pastor-Will-Hate---Part-Three&id=174392

http://ezinearticles.com/?Questions-Your-Pastor-Will-Hate---Part-Four&id=177565

http://ezinearticles.com/?Questions-Your-Pastor-Will-Hate-Part-Five&id=178280

So while we all get to watch, yet again, the birth of the Actually Now and Really Really True, Strife Without End True Church of God  replicate itself, what ever would happen if they came to understand how they even got the texts to argue over in the first place?  If they could just face the mythology of Genesis 1-11 is not literally true or historical, they  would learn the meaning of personal crisis at the gut level. 

It's no fun learning you were wrong about something so important for one to be the truth.  I had to get counseling just to cope with the angst my changing paradigm brought me.  Here is my counselor and my first session exchange.  It is word for word as I memorized it to get through the angst.

Counselor:  "Wow Dennis.....you got fired by God!"

Dennis:         "Any other time I think that would be funny but please not now."

Counselor:   "Just kidding you. I used to be a church pastor like you."

Dennis:          "Well just understand that if you counsel me with Bible advice, I will find another counselor."

Counselor:     "No, no.  Just kidding.  In reality this is what you are about to experience.   Dennis, you outgrow your boxes quickly. We all come in a box and most never examine the box they come in.  You have only two choices.  You can go back into the box you just came from and everyone will be so happy and you will feel much more secure and safe.  However, you will be on anti-depressants the rest of your life because of your repressed anger.  OR, you can keep going and see what's in this box, but you will go ALONE."  (This is where I tear up thinking about the truth of how what he noted has worked out.) 

 Anyway, John Shelby Spong, author of Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, also told me he was pleased I learn much from his books but that "Dennis, you won't survive,"  Only true prophet I ever met.

And so enjoy these questions that you as a minister also have a right to ask before you tell people what they should or must be, do , think, act like or become.  Whether we like it or not and no matter the angst it may cause to surface, there is precious little harmony of not only the Gospels but in every book of the book beginning to end.  This can be a hard thing to face which is why we don't and go on to believe as I was told during my debate in Texas with Art Mokarrow, "There is a good answer for everyone of those questions."   Oh really?  Do tell.....

DennisCDiehl@aol.com

Dennis Diehl is a former church pastor and currently has a therapeutic massage practice in Greenville, SC.

The Place of Safety vs The Rapture

Armstrongism has always loved to mock the 'Rapture' belief of some Christians. But, when you look at the sheer stupidity that Armstrongism prompts as 'fleeing to Petra/Place of Safety' our beliefs are just as crazy.

Of course our version will have our God gather our members up on tired, worn out airplanes after our governments expel us from our respective countries. We will fly these worn out planes (held aloft by angels) to some God forsaken desert in Jordan where Muslims will greet us with open arms. Then the tired and homeless brethren will file in through the narrow gate into the glories of Petra while the leadership will be housed in the Marriott and Crown Plaza located outside the entrance to Petra.

Those lucky to make it inside will not have food, water, toilet's, blanket's etc. The Muslims will be giving that all to us because we are the True Christians.

A cloud of God will hover over Petra so that NATO bombers and the Anti-Christ's armies cannot kill us all.

We will spend three and half years having sing-a-long's in the amphitheater.

We will get to hear Meredith and Flurry preach to us day in and day out.

Health issues will disappear, cavities will be filled, contacts and eye glasses will not be needed because God is either going to cure us or we will be so glad to be 'saved' from the tribulation that we will not care.

Here's where the Church leaders will stay:

And here is where you will be staying:

So who's crazier?

Here Is A COG That Is Just As Crazy As Armstrong's COG's

I guess having the name Church of God in your church name does not make you one of the true churches! Here is a COG that has no affiliation to the 700 some splinter COGlets of Armstrongism, but reading their story it sounds just like our version.  Abusive ministers, families broken up, legalism, whining about hymns, hair and clothing regulations, money, sex and child abuse, Christmas, and countless splinter groups.

Church of God Restoration

One of many bulletin boards detailing abuse
The topic's these people are dealing with are just the same as COG Armstrong

Organizational splits and schism's


It should be quit obvious to any person who sees a church with the word's Church of God in it to run as fast as you can the other direction!

More Split's, Merger's in the COGaWA Future?

Malm has been making some very bold comments that through his sources there may be an coming split/merger between COGaWA and LCG.  It seems many of the die hard legalistic ministers in COGaWA are in line with Spanky's legalism. He also is predicting that when COGaWA has another break-up that some will go with LCG and some will go back to UCG.  He says many of the men who left UCG left without thinking things through and did it on emotion or peer pressure.  These men will go back to UCG while the rest coexist with Spanky. Of course this also includes more silly predictions that the end times is close at hand with the tribulation looming in 3 1/2 years.

I have speculated on a merger between the COGAWA and the LCG sometime in the future. We are still in the very early days yet and the COGAWA does not even have any permanent governance structure set up, however certain major pieces of the puzzle are coming in and such a merger may well take the form of a kind of cooperative effort; with the two groups maintaining their own leadership and identities as a means of resolving the important issue of who gets to be the leader; while at the same time engaging in very close cooperation in their activities.  More will be coming in the next few days.

The COGAWA is likely to split further and some will go to LCG others will go back to UCG or scatter. The leaders of the COGAWA are very strong for a dictatorship, which will offend some others. The two sides believe that there will be a seven year peace treaty with 3 1/2 years of peace and after that the tribulation. They also believe that the first 3 1/2 years is to start very soon. I can’t let everything out now, that’s a teaser for the next few posts. James

Any merger with LCG and the Rod of Iron will certainly NOT be including Larry Salyer who has participated in two blow-up's involving Rod Meredith already.  Spanky certainly is not going to be welcoming Salyer back into anything.  UCG will not want him back either.

The remaining UCG are opposed to much in LCG. Those who have formed the COGAWA are divided into those who have masterminded this and have much in agreement with the LCG; and those who have been swept along by emotion and argument [who do not necessarily want anything to do with LCG]. This is still a big mix. A portion of the new COGAWA may possibly connect with the LCG because they both believe that an “Elijah work” is essential and imminant. Because of certain things there may yet be more splits in the COGAWA. The UCG is a different situation. The other major groups will be shaken up as well but that may still take a few more months. This will all come out with more info over these next few posts. James

A reader of Malm writes:

The congregation I attended always talked about the UCG and how they hoped their friends in the UCG would see that God is working through the LCG and hoped they would “see the light” before the tribulation. This means to join the LCG.
I believe the LCG is looking for qualified laborers to finish the end time work,(no organization will have any part in the end time work as the two witnesses will have a part to play in that)as they believe this is part of God’s plan to provide these laborers.This is now the second fast for the UCG and its members as the last one occurred approximately 6 months ago.
I would be surprised if they would allow outsiders to be in leadership roles as the LCG is their baby and they treasure the LCG because they believe it is God’s church. If Rod and Richard can physically hold up it is hard for me to see them giving up power.
However, they are shorthanded and desperately need laborers so it will be very interesting how these negotiations turn out. I would not totally rule anything out.

Necro-Evangelism-When Dead Men Do Tell Tales

By Dennis Diehl

There is a phenomenon in evangelism that is quite strange to me. I call it Necro-Evangelism and it is where local or even national radio evangelical and fundamentalist churches continue to play the sermons of long dead founders to convert the masses. There are at least three major churches in my area and one I know of nationally that practices Necro-Evangelism and I'd like to explore the pitfalls of this if I might.

I find it funny in a macabre way to hear, usually the surviving son of the now dead evangelist, inviting the audience to stay tuned for a message from my now long dead father and pastor so and so. Some of these evangelistic types have been dead for just a few years, and so we might attribute his ongoing ministry as shock that the man died on the part of the family who has no clue on how to keep the business going. Others have been dead for decades and I suspect that as long as the tapes play and can be recopied, they will continue to preach right up until the Second Coming and maybe beyond! Usually there is a college or "work" that the family of the now deceased evangelist has inheirited to be maintained and, while the current family members might be up to the task, it's just good to hear the founder as if he was alive and well on the air. Others, to me, seem like the type that would never themselves be able to do what dad did with evangelism, but can't give up on the programming dad put in their heads nor the bucks it still can generate. That is an observation about method, not sincerity.

People hate change and this delays reality for many who have grown up on the words of the evangelist, now dead. One local college where I live continues to play the sermons of the long dead founder even though two or three generations have taken over the family business of evangelizing since his death. I don't believe I have heard a sermon on the air by any of the sons, all identically named after the founder save for the II,III or IV behind the name. Some Christian evangelists might be happy to return to glory, but you'd never know it as family desperately tries to keep things the same same as always the same as before he became a Necro-Evangelist. Why do we do this and what is the message it sends? You don't see Necro-Evangelists on TV, just radio. TV would be a bit much to take and obviously in poor taste.

First of all, it matters not if it is a right or wrong thing to do. I am sure the argument is "well if we had Jesus or Paul on tape, would we not play it?" Well yes it would, even though that isn't going to happen. We have them in books and we're not sure there if they really said and wrote what some say they did. All we need is a bunch of fake Jesus tapes floating around and here we go again! A whole industry would break out verifying or repudiating "the Jesus tapes." So while I understand the point, these men are not Jesus or Paul, and besides if you really know theology, you might suspect that the real Jesus would not have really appreciated the real Paul anyway, so now we have tape conflict. Then we'd have to deal with James tapes and what a mess! There would be a whole market in underground tapes and pseudotaperapha and we'd not be much further ahead than we are today with our understanding.

So while Necro-Evangelism might keep the family church, college or business going a few more generations, is it the thing to do really and what message does it send? One advantage is that, indeed, it does buy the unskilled or founder beaten children time to regroup and figure out what to do now that dad is gone. All their life they had preached that the Second Coming was going to for sure be in their lifetime but now what? Usually the first generation founds something, the second maintains it, and the third loses it all. Necro-Evangelism can postpone the Necro-evangelist sinking into a "who?" a generation later than this perhaps. But back to the message it sends that might be not good.

1. Necro-evangelism tells the audience that the sons do not have the conviction or skills that dad may have had but aren't willing to give it up as something dad did but we don't wish to do. So we play dad's sermons and don't have to come up with our own, "alive" ones. In my town, one such family member certainly does not have the voice quality or sound of conviction of his dad for sure, so I can see why he might wish to have dad keep it all going. He confines himself to introducing "my deceased dad, Dr...." and selling his tapes and even the library books his dad cherished, which obiously he doesn't. But he also has another line of work from what I understand, so does not depend on his Necro-Evangelist dad for his sole income.

2. Necro-Evangelism sends the message the survivors are spiritually lazy, but again, just can't give up on the potential to have a following or keep it all going. The second generation makes forays into the world of evangelism, usually getting caught up in politics more than dad did because down deep they know most of what dad either predicted or said did not really happen that way, and they just aren't convicted the same way dad was. Dad kept them out of "the world", and darn it, they are going to see it before they become Necro-Second-Generation-Evangelists too. Since dad impacted their lives with his own worldview, and often not in a very good way, they just don't have the same need to pass it along with dad the Necro-Evangelist's same fervor. In fact, they can't. So they busy themselves with producing dad's tapes and books and don't have to do much that shows their own creativity. They can run for public office or lecture as they wish, but keeping a ball rolling is much easier than getting it started. Anyone can be made the next president of a Necro-Evangelical College or Pastor of a Necro-Evangelistic Church. Starting the sucker is the hard part. Keeping it going can be a challenge but if we keep dearly departed dad in the picture, it is easier for sure. Somewho we filter out the fact that the Necro-Evangelist is long dead and maybe evangelism is a profession for the convicted living.

3. Necro-Evangelism sends the message that the Necro-Evangelist knew all there was to know about the Bible and all related topics. There is nothing new to learn or even unlearn, since dad made no theological mistakes, which is not true. Since we all like to hear the "old, old story, let dad explain it over and over. This is one thing that is wrong with religion in general. It supposes that all it's spokesmen had it right to begin with. If they could read the bible, tell a few good stories, keep you interested and convince you that the reading was the same yesterday, today and forever, bingo!...why change a winning game? Problem is that for every tape played, there are many that can't be for they are either dated by comments made during the sermon or even the family realizes that how or what dad said that day is not true or not appropriate today and let's just not play that one. So you're really not getting the whole man, you are getting the "Best All Time Hits of the Necro-Evangelist," as selected by the next generation. That's kinda no fair to me!

4. Most of those that had been inspired by the now Necro-Evangelist are now themselves Necro-Christians so they aren't even around to hear dad anymore either. They were all about the same age and have long since moved on to other heavenly realms. The kids of those who loved the now Necro-Evangelist aren't going to be inspired by a dead man. Sorry, they just aren't. They will feel the above three points even if they don't voice it. Kids aren't stupid and will see what generations II and III might be up to and how lame it is. These kids tend to find churches by saying "as for me and my house, we shall serve a living evangelist" and not just the memory of the good ol' days when the parents thought the now Necro-Evangelist could do or say no wrong. I used to pastor a church that on way too many occasions sent out taped sermons from the then living Apostle and occasional Evangelist. It was hard enough when they were alive, don't make me listen when they are dead!

Well I think we get the point. Is it right or wrong to conduct a Necro-Evangelically-Centric ministry? I don't know. It's just lame and nothing but a evangelical dead end.

DenniscDiehl@aol.com

Thiel Is Claiming LCG Is Being Electronically Persecuted

Bob Thiel, COG apologist extraordinaire writes claiming that poor little LCG is being persecuted electronically because their TV broadcast got kicked off God-TV after just one week of air time and off of South Africa Love-World after three weeks.

So what did the media idiots at LCG expect????  When you deliberately fail to tell a church orientated TV network that you are a cult that is listed as outside Christian norms what can you expect when they find the truth out?

They knew going into the process that they could not totally be forthright with God-TV exec's during negotiations, yet they deceitfully went ahead and signed a contract.

Well, God-TV found out that LCG was doctrinally aberrant and kicked them off their network.

Now Bob is claiming electronic persecution!  But have not fear, Bob goes on to say how HWA was electronically persecuted too.  If it was good enough for Herb it was good enough for us too! Martyr's ever.....

But Bob fails to mention that WCG was just as sneaky when they tried to get on religious networks or advertise their magazines in certainly publications.  They went into the process claiming to be Christian.  They knew that if they told the truth they would not be allowed to broadcast or advertise their magazines.  So in typical Armstrongite fashion, when their aberrant teachings are exposed and they are kicked off TV or out of publications, they get to claim persecution and martyrdom.

How can you be persecuted when you lied to begin with?  How can you be persecuted when you don't mention God or Jesus but blabber on about "A Strong Hand From Someplace?".  Real persecuted Christians are dying daily for just being associated with the word 'Christian'.  Yet, Thiel and crew sip their Starbucks as they blog on their expensive computers claiming religious persecution.

Chiropractor Bob writes:

I had learned earlier this week that “God TV” would no longer run the telecast as the doctrines of the Living Church of God differed to much from their positions.  This form of electronic persecution has been a problem for the church dating back to when the late Herbert W. Armstrong began to use radio and television.
Yet, we keep trying to go through those doors that are opened. 

Richard Ames earlier wrote about this horrible persecution:

You may recall that in his December 2010 letter to brethren and co-workers, Dr. Meredith announced that the Tomorrow’s World telecast would start airing on “God TV” in January 2011, potentially reaching 500 million viewers in 175 million TV households. On January 2, God TV aired Dr. Meredith’s powerful program, “How To Overcome Satan,” offering his booklet Satan’s Counterfeit Christianity. Viewers from around the globe contacted our call-center in Kansas City—from as far away as Bangalore, India; Bavaria, Germany; and Vraa, Denmark, for example.

Understandably, not all the response was positive. God TV executives, once they realized that our teachings are at odds with “mainstream Christianity,” pulled us off the air after just one week! So, that “open door” closed very quickly. But we should not be disappointed. We remember that, even though the telecast aired for just three weeks on the “Love World” station in South Africa, that brief airing brought more than 20 new attendees—and three people being baptized into God’s Church! Even though the telecast aired for just one week on God TV, we cannot yet know what impact that airing will have. Of course, Dr. Meredith will now be looking for other open doors to preach the true Gospel.