Dennis Muses...I'm just sayin....

 

How NOT to Study The Bible
(Or at least which scriptures not to use explaining how)

 

 

Isa 28:10 (KJV) For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.
 

Isa 28:13 (KJV) ...precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little...

 

 

The above scriptures, very familiar to all COG ministers and members alike, have been misquoted , misused and misunderstood for decades.  Ministers of every denomination quote them when asked "just how should we study the Bible?"   It is taken to mean that one studies the Bible line by line, topic by topic, skipping over here and then over there to find similar ideas and phrases that one can simply stitch together and come up with God's eternal truths on all things.  The modern term might be called "Proof Texting".  I sat through most of an intolerable "Refresher" once where the evangelist type took his Nave's Topical Bible and starting in Genesis and taking us on an agonizing trip through the Bible to Revelation on the topic of marriage, simply drove all in attendance to near mental illness.  That is not how to study the Bible which is, in fact, one of the most over studied and over analyzed books on the planet.

 

In our common COG experience we have the Dave Packs, Gerald Flurrys, Ron Weinland types along with the bit players in the form of James Malm, E.W.King and Bob Thiel who employ this tip toeing through the Bible , "here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept " and coming up with pure trash and self righteous drivel instructing good men everywhere how they must live and how they must think on these amazingly studied topics.


 Dave Pack can wander all over the Bible, Old Testament and New and come up with his weird and strange ideas about himself as spoken of by the Prophet Haggai, like anyone ever heard of Haggai, and get members gyrating in their seats.  E.W.King and James Malm can just make shit up as they go and find picky answers to ridiculous questions with the hunt and peck method of study.  Bob Thiel can spend all day making Bronze Age weather explanations the modern day ones and tell us it is how God "tries" to get our attention.  They all do by looking here a little and there a little, putting line upon line together and coming up with weird and strange explanations galore.


...and they are wrong.

Let's set the record straight.
 

 

To begin with, Isaiah is written to the drunken priests of Ephraim.  I know "context" is not a word most COG ministers are familiar with, but context is important.   In verse 7 we see the priests and prophets are being chided, to say the least, for being drunk with beer and wine, befuddled and stumbling while they are seeing visions and making rather important decisions.  Not exactly the way to go but with the Assyrians beating on the door, understandable. 



 

 

⁷ And these also stagger from wine
    and reel from beer:
Priests and prophets stagger from beer
    and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
    they stagger when seeing visions,
    they stumble when rendering decisions.
⁸ All the tables are covered with vomit
    and there is not a spot without filth.



 

 

Not a very pleasant sight but I suppose we can credit the Priests and Prophets of Isaiah with the discovery of "Reel Beer."
 

 

In reality, it is Isaiah mocking these fools with the following which has been taken as "here a little, there a little, line up line, precept upon precept" and how to study the Bible.  Unbelievable ignorance really...
 

 

⁹ “Who is it he is trying to teach?
    To whom is he explaining his message?    to those just taken from the breast?
To children weaned from their milk,
¹⁰ For it is:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that^[a];
    a little here, a little there.”



 

Cross references:

1. Isaiah 28:7 : S Isa 3:12
2. Isaiah 28:7 : S Lev 10:9; S Isa 22:13; S Eph 5:18
3. Isaiah 28:7 : S Ps 107:27
4. Isaiah 28:7 : Isa 24:2
5. Isaiah 28:7 : S Isa 9:15
6. Isaiah 28:7 : S Isa 1:1; 29:11
7. Isaiah 28:8 : Jer 48:26

 Translation:


Who are you talking to?  Children?  You sound like children.
blah, blah, blah,  nah nah-nah nah nah,  do this, do that, rules here, rules there.  Hunt and peck all over the place for your rules.
Who do you think you are?  James Malm?  Dave Pack,  E. W. King, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland???
(OK, I added that part)


In  the original Hebrew the phrase in Isaiah 28 verses 10 and 13 is: "sav lasav sav lasav, kav lakav kav lakav"   It is pure gibberish and akin to our "la la la la" and "blah blah blah."  It is a mocking tone immitating the drunken gibberish of the priests and prophets of Ephraim and Judah as Assyria knocks at the door to scrape them off the earth.  It is NOT a scripture one should use to teach how to study the Bible that's for SURE!


¹³ So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
    they will be injured and snared and captured.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
    who rule this people in Jerusalem.

 

 

Translation: 

 

 

 So then mister priest and prophet, if that's the way you want to teach then that's the way the Lord will teach you.  Blah...blah...blah...nah nah nah nah nah...do this, do that. You like rules?  I got rules!  You will be over run by your enemies, you who rule Jerusalem.  Assyria and the Babylonians are going to kick your ass if you aren't careful.  But it all works out eventually so have at it.  

 

 

So, there we have it.  Short and simple.  The next time you hear a Church of God Minister, Member or any devotee tell you that you study the Bible, "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little,"  just slap your head and explain it to them.

 

 

 

E. W. King Lies That Israel Was "Surprised" By His COGSR Feast Site

Eric King has up a bizarre entry today on his blog.  He for some reason seems to think that Israel was highly impressed by his "feast site."

King goes on to report about the thousands of Christians gather in Jerusalem every year to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.  What King conveniently ignores is the fact that these groups are NOT Church of God related groups.  They are evangelical Christians and Messianic Christian/Jews.  99.9% of them have no connection whatsoever with a Worldwide Church of God splinter group, include Eric Kings minuscule personalty cult.

Reading Kings entry you get the impression that it was HIS group that Israel Today and other news agencies were reporting on.  It wasn't.  Just one my lie by one more splinter cult leader.

Modern Israel surprised at COGSR Feast Turnout!

Posted on September 25, 2013Every year, thousands of Christians from a round the world ascend to Jerusalem to take part in the biblical Feast of Tabernacles, known in Hebrew as Sukkot. And this year was no different, despite mounting regional instability.

The overwhelming presence of Christians at this time of year is now a common occurrence. But many Israelis are still baffled by the phenomenon, unsure what to make of so many foreigners taking part intheir holiday and expressing such outright love and support for theirnation.

The Times of Israel has a good write-up about how bizarre a spectacle this is for the average Israeli. But, the author also encourages his countrymen to cast aside any suspicions and see this Christian involvement in the Feast for what it is:

“It is much less complicated than many Israelis think. These Christians have come from around the world to bless Israel – ve-zehu (that is all). They believe that God loves the Jewish people and has a plan for their nation, and feel a deep spiritual obligation to show their unconditional love to the Jews.”

During this time, Israel Today spent a day with one of the Christian Feast of Tabernacles groups as it visited the home base of the IDF’s Givati infantry brigade. We asked the young soldiers at the base what they thought of the Christian worship, dancing, and general outpouring of love.

Just in case King pulls a Dave Pack and scrubs his lie off his blog, here is a screen shot of it.

 

Straining A Gnat To Find The Miniscule Moon Rise In 2014

To illustrate how legalistic James Malm is, get a load of what he has to go through in order to determine the PRECISE time his "holy" days will start in 2014.  Malm and his little band of legalists would rather prostitute themselves to legalistic laws than follow Jesus.

Holy Day Dates:   Just before the Feast I was in correspondence with Brian Convery about the timing of Holy Days for the next year.  It was clear to me that with only a .5% illumination the new year was unlikely to begin at sunset March 31.

There is only a very tiny remote chance, maybe 5%,  that the new year will begin at sunset ending 31 March, and if it does not, then it will definitely begin the next evening.

Brian agrees with me; although we will still have observers watching to make absolutely sure.

Brian writes [and I agree]:

Let’s see, March 31^st 2014. I have a probable chance. It being a 109.1 on the algorithm from Bruce [Armstrong]. We have seen it at that, once in the past, but the conditions were perfect with no Mediterranean haze. Bruce actually has April 2^nd  [as the new moon] on the chart. The evening of [sunset ending] April 1^st is a given at 275.6. One could almost see that through a cloud.

September 25 [ending sunset] is the same scenario at 98.58 but with little chance [Virtually NO Chance] of seeing it. Everything would need to be perfect and one would need a very sharp set of eyes. The next night [sunset ENDING Sep 26] is once again a given. When I put up the dates for next year on the site I will probably post April 2^nd and September 27^th with the caveat that there is a slight potential of visibility the preceding evening.

This means that, with a tiny miniscule  possibility of beginning a day earlier; the Holy Days for 2014 will be:

Spring Holy Days:  New year new moon 2 April; Passover  15 April;  ULB  15-22 April; Pentecost  8 June.

Fall High Days:  Feast of Trumpets  27 Sep; Atonement  Oct 6; Feast of Tabernacles 11-17; the Eighth Day Oct 18. 

COG Chief Pharisee Says Abomination of Desolation to be Set Up on September, 25, 2014

James Malm, the Church of God's Chief Pharisee, has declared that the abomination of desolation will be set up in Jerusalem on Thursday, September 25, 2014......IF...... he is correct in his calculations.

In 2018 the sixth day of ULB will be on April seventh.  Counting back by 1,290 days comes to the setting up of the abomination on  Thursday, September 25, 2014:  IF IF IF 2014 should be the year, and if my count is correct.

Every year I post this calculation and every year people misunderstand and think I am setting dates.  I am not setting dates, I am only posting possibilities based on the scriptures.  The trib will NOT begin until the biblical signs are fulfilled.  This is only the next biblical possibility.

However it is interesting to note that IF the abomination were to begin to do miracles in mid Sep; the Feast of Tabernacles would come several weeks AFTER the abomination is set up. 

This potential is a beautiful set up for a final intense warning at the Feast of Tabernacles.  

We shall have to wait and see and follow the trends and news in the COG Groups and in the world. 

The Chief Pharisee thinks that his message is soooooooooooooo important that thousands will be flocking to his new Feast site that he will be setting up in Texas next year.  With the abomination in place, people will be scared shitless and will come to him for guidance and comfort.

However with this year’s strong interest, if these trends continue and the abomination is set up and a New Europe is coming together BEFORE the Feast next year; the interest in events and our message will be intense, and it will be a grand opportunity to reach the multitudes in the COG with a strong and final warning as the two prophets are set up. 

In the meantime, regardless of whether the abomination is set up in 2014 or not; we are already working on next year’s Feast! 

In 2014 we hope to have a central location complete with message streaming, reaching out to all the COG Groups and brethren with a powerful message of biblical content.

Should I start packing my bags to attend this earth shattering Feast?

Eric King Has Discovered The Real Name of Jesus So You Can Pronounce It Properly And Be Saved

Some in Armstrongism have flocked to the Sacred Names groups around the country since the Worldwide Church of God started imploding in the 1970's.  Some have found great benefit in their spiritual lives from it and others have been scarred horribly by abusive leaders.

Eric King has now jumped don that band wagon.  King, like most of the other Sacred Name leaders, claims that he and he alone has the truth now.

The god these end time leaders of Armstrongism follows must be one of the most incompetent gods to ever be imagined.  King's god was so weak and incompetent that it had to wait till the early part of the 21st century to reveal the "true: name of Jesus.  Since King declares that only those that called out the true name can be saved, what happens to the rest of humanity for the last 200,000 years?

  I have stated the fact that in the Tetragrammaton, “the four letters” [YhWh] there is a missing letter. We have also come to the Biblical conclusion that Jesus Christ is the God [a member of the God Family] of the Old Testament. So would it make sense that the same God of the New Testament [Jesus] would have the same name in the Old Testament? Indeed it would. There is a letter in the Hebrew known as “shin”. This letter looks kind of like an English “W”.

The name “shin” is also the Hebrew word for “tooth” or “sharp point”. Like a “lions tooth” or a “double edged sword”. It is the beginning of The Almighty (Shaddai). It has been called “The Perpetual Intelligence”. The letter shin is toped off with three “yods”, which represent fire. When this letter, which has the sound of the English “s” is placed between the Yh and the Wh of the four letter [Tetragrammaton ~ the name Yahweh] we have the name pronounced as Yeshua or Jesus.  

Granted, this is not the common spelling of the Hebrew name Yeshua….it is the sacred spelling of the name Jesus ~ Yeshua. Now this knowledge is not known properly by any other group other than the true Worldwide Church of God [COGSR]. You haven’t heard any so called “denomination” teach this special knowledge nor have any of the Theological Seminaries (cemeteries) taught this knowledge. This is very important because it puts Jesus Christ as the focus! The “Watchtower & Tract Society” crumbles to the ground because of this Truth. Those who try and pronounce the Holy Name with all their false understandings are now put to shame and must stand before the most Holy Name there is or ever shall be! That name is JESUS CHRIST!

James Malm Humiliates COG's By Having Best Feast Site EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

James Malm held one of the COG's greatest Feast's ever!  Medford, Oregon will NEVER be the same again.  The citizens of Medford have had a mighty witness at the awesome power of God in doing dramatic things for his CHOSEN remnant.

Forget the UCG, LCG, and even COGWA's Legionnaires disease ridden Feast site, they cannot stand in comparison to Malm's site.  They cower in envy.  They have all been humiliated beyond their imaginations.

Malm announced today that he had 16 people in attendance!  Shocking, I know!

Several persons wanting to attend the Feast in Medford bowed out at the last moment due to the distance and expense.  This resulted in a cozy close knit assembly of sixteen persons, observing a deeply spiritual Feast together.

Even GCI's Feast site in Monrovia garners 4-5 times that amount.

Malm promises even greater things next year, even a a tastefully decorated building!

This Feast was a pioneer shake down, first time event for us;  and much has been learned that will be used to upgrade the meeting site/s at our next Feast.

We are already planning for a more central location, a much larger attendance, simple yet tasteful site décor  and streaming web casts next year.

Yes, God is performing a mighty work once again.  Nations will be reached and the little flock will become rulers of the universe.  Rebellious sinners will be whipped into obedience, Saturday restaurant eaters severely punished and mixed fabric wearers stripped naked.  Truly, great things are ahead for the Church of God.

Dennis Muses: Head Usher said it BEST...

 

 

"I'll Take That Under Advisement..."

 

My Currently 97 year old father had a life long habit, when told he HAD to do or HAD to believe something of saying the above to such "shoulds" and "musts."  He'd say it to the doctor when told what he had to do or needed done.  He'd say it to those he worked for who had great ideas for him that he must or should do.  He'd say it to COG ministers who came and went through our home church in Rochester, NY where he was an elder for years before he wrote Joe Tkach Jr to thank him for emptying his church of members and signed it, "M. T. Hall" which I occasionally use in honor of his snark and abilities to set emotional and common sense boundaries.

 

My dad once mentioned to Dave Pack in Spokesman Club , when Dave was chiding all for not memorizing their scripture cards, that  "these men here work all week and have families. They don't always have the time to just memorize scriptures."  Of course this offended Dave who told my dad he would see him during the break.  Dad said, "no you won't," which is another form of "I'll take that under advisement..."   Love ya dad!

 

Whats with the good folk who follow and swallow everything a Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry or Ron Weinland (and many others) dish out as truth complete with all the shoulds and musts of having to believe and act on it all?  What kind of folk actually do "send it in" or close out a 401 K, sell a home, or send in "extra" monies to a Dave Pack to build a physical plant in an age where online learning is a much easier and less expensive way to go?  What kind of common sense does a Dave Pack have who must realize now he can't ask for it all to be sent in more than once?  Pulling big triggers, as he demands, can't happen often.

 

 

 For that matter, what kind of folk put up with, "When we go to the Place of Safety," (as if I had this all correctly understood for you)  or "I am an Apostle" (because I just made myself one),  "I am a prophet" (because I say so),  "I am spoken of by the minor prophet Haggai and I am Joshua," (because I have worn you out with analogies)," or "I am one of the Two Witnesses and my wife is the other one"?

 

I cannot say it or explain it any better than Mr. Head Usher did recently in his response to a recent entry on the ten qualities resilient human beings seem to have. 

 

 

Head Usher Noted:

 

 

"A healthy identity is actually a boundary issue."

"Who has the right to define your identity and tell you who you are? Does god have the right to define you? If you're a xian, it's hard to argue otherwise. Do "god's true representatives on earth" have the right to define you? You can see where this is going – downhill fast."

 

COG folk and all fundamentalists habitually believe that others have this right.  Being authentic as themselves seems to never cross their minds or if it does, they have a perpetual stomach ache keeping it at bay.  Every week they get redefined by others as noted, be it by the God of others who in print said this or that, by the characters in the Bible who are said to have said this or that and by the minister who decides whatever God or the characters who are said to have said this or that really meant in his opinion, which you better take as Gospel.

 

Whatever you get out of the Bible or from the sermon, you are NEVER to get the idea you can take it all under advisement.  Of course you can but that would rob the church and minister of their perceived and often phony authority over your life and views.

 

In reality, one can't help but be themselves, but in the Churches of God, every effort is made to crush that reality either by thinking it is some kind of sin to be oneself or having a more sinister motive of shaping sincere members into mere followers of a clever man and HIS ideas of how it all is.

 

 

 "Xianity doesn't have to make unreasonable demands, but it always has the power to make unreasonable demands seem reasonable"

 

Can anyone argue with this?  Making unreasonable demands seem reasonable...   That is what Gerald Waterhouse made a career out of.  Telling stories and weaving tales that were plainly unreasonable, and while he did MANY KNEW IT BUT SAID NOTHING, and making it SEEM reasonable.  Dave Pack is a weaver of such tales as well along with Flurry and Weinland.  Others qualify but are bit players.

 

For example, did going to Petra in Jordan as a safe place to be during the end of the age seem reasonable?  Does it still?  "Let's flee America where everything near and dear to me exists and go be safe in the Middle East?  What kind of shit for brains thought that one up?  "God will protect us."  Really?  In the last 50 years how much protection has God given beyond that which is just the luck of the draw or life at its worst?  I buried a lot of children in my day "whose Angels do watch over them."

 

Anyone who does not question their church or addled headed minister on his concept of a place of safety needs to have THEIR head examined.  Whatever happened to "hide me in the grave until thy wrath be past?"  Works for me.  It might be nice if you researched whether the "Exodus" and the children of Israel wandering 40 years in the wilderness where their shoes did not wear out, they had plenty of boring food and some water but the first group was ultimately forbidden to make it and destined to die there, ever actually happened, before you make too big an analogy or adopt of a belief on what "God" will do for you in Petra. 

 

Dave Pack is said to have decided, after seeing how tourist ridden Petra is, the Place of Safety is a few miles away from there.  What a jerk.  The whole idea is a massive boundary of common sense violation and excellent example of the unreasonable sounding reasonable.

 

 

It's a bad COG member mental habit.  Stop it!

 

 

I certainly hope that should the day arise when someone who feels they can habitually violate your boundries and common sense utters the words, "It's time to flee.., " you will take it under advisement.

 

 

" Xianity is a dangerous thing in the wrong hands. In the hands of abusive cult leaders like Armstrongism's ministurds, it will make unhealthy demands on everyone. You've got to have a strong sense of yourself to repel the onslaught."

 

 

Gosh I hate that term "Minis-turds"!  LOL.   Oh well...I was one until I wasn't.  Most COG members who are the wheat sifted out from the chaff , as I am sure they are told, have NO STRONG SENSE OF WHO THEY ARE.  They have a strong sense of who Dave Pack , Gerald Flurry or Ron Weinland says or said they are.  Around here those who follow and attend Bob Jones University are called Jonesers.  Ask a kid who he or she is and they will tell you, "I attend Bob Jones."  They have no clue that is not the answer to the question.  Thus we have the titles "Armstrongists," "Packsters," "Weinlanders," "Flurryites," and ......  "minis-turds."

 

 

However, I have come a long way personally and I am now just me.  I wish all COG "members" the same end results..

 

"People raised in abusive homes don't notice the onslaught."

 

 

This is the absolute truth.  While I was not raised in such a home or environment, I am sure one gets used to drama and the strange and weird (where have I heard those terms before?) get to sounding normal.  Yelling and swearing are "normal."  Anger and control are "normal."  "If you say so," or "Because I said so," seems normal.  None of it is of course. 

 

I suppose in my own growing up , where common sense seemed a daily occurrence, accounts for my own sense of "that's stupid," that for a time I suppressed when young and caught up in the church and all it's drama.  After all, the Bible is full of the same kind of COG drama the Church provided so it must be "normal."  It must be me...

 

"They've already been conditioned to perceive the unreasonable as reasonable, and to accept the unacceptable."

 

 

I can add nothing to this statement. Read it 100 times.

 

 

" Boundary violations are normal for them."

 

See last comment...

 

 

Look at me...Stop it!

 

Those of you who lurk here from the three worst examples of boundary violation in the Churches of God...Pack-Flurry-Weinland  (Larry-Moe-Curly?)  wake up.  It's ok to doubt the fantastic theories and scriptural weavings you hear every week about your ministers role in the universe and your part in funding it all.  It's ok to doubt the false concept of "The Place of Safety" as being safe at all or even what the Bible is saying for any "end time" folk.  Remember, when those words were originally spoken they were not for YOU or US. They were for THEM.  You really don't have to "send it in" and your doubts, cautions or common sense musings are NONE of these fake ministers business.

 

 

 

  Someone like Dave Pack spends months wearing folk down to believe the unbelievable and find the unreasonable to be reasonable and then you ALL end up looking like fools as he readjusts the "truth" so the circus can go on... 

 

 

 

 Ron Weinland still has followers he manipulates from prison.  The man has never once hinted at he may have done something wrong or inappropriate with the monies sent in.  Gerald Flurry thinks he is spoken of in Malachi and Bob Thiel, who has the theological insights,  teaching skills and  charisma of an Ewok, wants you to believe he is both a prophet AND heads the only true church of God on earth.  That is nuts!  He wants you to accept the unreasonable as very reasonable.  If you do, no one can help you.  You simply do not understand the Bible or yourself. 

 

Thank you Head Usher.   Your wisdom was born of an unreasonable childhood no doubt and experience in the Church of God.  However, your reasonable conclusions should cut the lurkers here and those who have still attached themselves to unreasonable men who violate common sense boundaries for a living and making the scriptures mean what they NEVER could mean,  to the bone...

 

 

Seat Gyrating used as a cure for mental illness

 

 

I'd say , as Dave Pack said,  it should make folk   "gyrate in your seats...",  but that is too much information for me to handle without laughing out loud imagining things I should not be imagining.  I can see being glued to my seat (not by Dave Pack's sermons however), but gyrating?   No...

 

...so you should take that gyrating thing under advisement.