"There Had Better Be a Heaven If We Are Going to Waste Our Time Like This"

I have to admit, I miss teaching and really enjoyed, in the last five years of my ministry in WCG, giving sermons at the Feast. Admittedly, towards the end, I pushed the envelope of WCG thinking.  My last sermon was to 6000 or so in Myrtle Beach on "The Politics of the New Testament" where I endeavored to burst the bubble that all the Apostles loved each other and believed and taught the same thing. The point was that nothing has changed today in that realm and within a few more months it was over personally.

 I gave one  on "The Wonderful World Tomorrow" as expected to do and perhaps even assigned to do in those years.  I chose to quote much of "Touch the Earth" which was based on Native American observations about what was wrong with White Culture and how we tore up the planet and had lost touch with nature and the Earth itself accept to exploit it. We have lost ourselves in doing and forgotten what just being means to our good mental health. I expressed the hope that the Wonderful World Tomorrow was more in the Touch the Earth mode than subdue, which original meaning or not seems to mean "plunder" it and exercise "dominion" over every creature  as was the original Biblical injunction.

 After that sermon a Native American Cherokee family came up to me with tears in their eyes to thank me for addressing Native Cultural perspectives. It was a sermon they had never heard in WCG and always felt marginalized as we all might expect.  The next day they presented me with five beautiful arrowheads and a turquois tie pin with a silver feather attached.  I will never forget that.

The two red points were gifts from Cherokee WCG Members .

They are Florida Points that made their way up the Coast to Georgia. They date from the Middle Archaic Period of 8000 to 5000 years ago.

If I had a chance to give one more, it would be this one. 

In hindsight, living in the Present Moment in one's actual life, without always looking ahead 3-5, 10 max with 25 for sure before the Kingdom comes, ate up way too much real life time and for nothing. Lesson learned. 

Living Church of God: Children should be seen, not heard

It is almost Feast of Tabernacles time in COGland and Living Church of God has laid the law down on excited children at Feast sites:

Children and the Feast

Horseplay and Running: Parents, please remember that children are not permitted to run or engage in horseplay before, during, or after services, including at the Feast. A fall can be life-threatening for the elderly. Children should also not be allowed to play on the stage or near speakers, microphones, and other expensive equipment. 

You Are Responsible for Your Child: Parents should also be aware the Church does not take responsibility for the care of children at Church meetings or events, including at the Feast. Please ensure that the conduct of your children and young people is adequately supervised throughout their attendance, and that your children are fully under your control. 

Sitting with Parents: It is also the policy of the Church to have children and teens sit with their parents during services. An exception may be where an individual child or teen may sit with a friend’s parents and family. Obviously, a teen attending whose parents are not also in attendance would be exempt. 

And they wonder why so many of their youth hate the church.

Armstrongism and the Neanderthal Key

Because the vital key that unlocks prophecy to our understanding had been lost. That KEY is the IDENTITY of the United States and the British peoples in Biblical prophecy. That KEY has been found!

Herbert W. Armstrong,
The United States and Britain in Prophecy

******** 

There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Lewis Carroll,
Through the Looking Glass

It would be unexpected to anyone that the discovery of bones in Germany in 1856 would lead to the identification of a prehistoric hominid species, the Neanderthals, and this discovery could have a profound effect on Armstrongism over a century later. Neanderthals have been the subject of intensive research and the body of scientific literature on them is large. They will not be described further in this writing but it is important to mention that the entire Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010 and evidence of admixture with the ancestors of modern humans were identified. A foundational belief in Armstrongism is British-Israelism. The Neanderthal component in the modern human genome makes a highly significant statement about British-Israelism.

Genetics, Neanderthals and the Armstrongist Story of Israel

HWA maintained that a collection of modern nations comprise the people known in the Bible to be descended from Jacob (Israel). This includes the people of the British Isles, Jews, and various Northwest European peoples. The assertion that these people are all descended from Jacob is genetically impossible. Relying on the Biblical account, we know that Jacob was haplogroup J (“haplogroup” means y-chromosome haplogroup throughout the text) by noting that he is a descendant of Abraham. The Jews and the Adnani Arabs both claim descent from Abraham and both are haplogroup J (see work of Dr. Spencer Wells). This means that Abraham’s male descendants, including Jacob, will be haplogroup J. Y –chromosome haplogroups are inherited in the masculine line only. The peoples of the British Isles and the peoples of Northwest Europe are principally haplogroup R1b. The Jews are haplogroup J. Israel could not have been the father of Judah, Levi, and Simeon (haplogroup J) and also the father the other brothers (haplogroup R). This can only happen if there was what genealogists call a “non-parental event.” Non-parental events would include adoption or illegitimacy. 

As we have seen, if we apply principles of genetics to the Biblical genealogies, all the descendants of Israel are haplogroup J. (Note that all peoples have absorbed outsiders over time. The modern-day Jews also harbor other haplogroups besides J but J is the principal modern and ancient Jewish haplogroup.) This decisively excludes the British and other Northwest Europeans from the House of Israel. Among believers in British-Israelism, much is made of the fact that the Jews are not Israel. But this is a trivial point of nomenclature and has no genetic bearing. And it is not possible that the British and Northwest Europeans mutated from haplogroup J to haplogroup R in the generations after Jacob. The genetic distance between R and J is too great for that to be a possibility and rates of mutation are not remotely that rapid. Also, a hard biological constraint is that human haplogroups in the genome are related to each other in a hierarchical structure and this supposition would violate that structure. In addition, there is a well-defined archaeology connecting the Western Europeans to the ancient Steppe Pastoralists who came out of the north Russian steppes (see Dr. David Reich’s book “Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past,” 2019)

Though we know from genetics that British-Israelism is a myth, as discussed above, the validity of this conclusion is corroborated by Neanderthal ancestry among the people of Europe and the Middle East. Asians have more Neanderthal ancestry than other races. Next, are Europeans. The people with the least Neanderthal ancestry are sub-Saharan Africans. Some tribes in the sub-Sahara have no Neanderthal ancestry. This is because modern humans originated in African and did not encounter Neanderthals until they migrated to Europe and Asia where Neanderthals lived. The haplogroup J people of the Middle East have less Neanderthal ancestry than Asians and Europeans but more than sub-Saharan Africans. The spectrum difference in the relative proportion of Neanderthal ancestry points out that Europeans, including the British and Northwest Europeans, derive from a different source than the haplogroup J people of the Middle East. These two groups, the Jews in this case and Northwest Europeans, have different long-duration migrational and genetic histories vis-à-vis Neanderthals. This leads to the inescapable conclusion that the British and other Northwest Europeans are not descended from Israel. 

The Missing Dimension in Armstrongist British-Israelism

Herbert W. Armstrong and Herman Hoeh did not have the benefit of the science of genetics at the time they developed the Armstrongist canon on race.  Perhaps, if there could have been a primer on genetics in the library in Des Moines, British-Israelism would never have been incorporated into Armstrongism.  But it was adopted and this was an influential factor in setting the direction of the development of Armstrongism in belief and practice.  British-Israelism has unfortunately attracted a significant number of people to Armstrongist congregations who want or who have grown to be comfortable with a racialized belief system, who want to believe they are special to god above others not because of their faith but because of their racial status.  Perhaps, in time the Armstrongist churches will evaluate the scientific evidence and eject from their beliefs this odd blend of mythology, racism and conspiracy theory that is British-Israelism.    One key that supports that ejection is the Neanderthal heritage in the modern human genome. 

NEO

Adult Sabbath School" Does "Jesus is Coming Soon" Do More Harm Than Good?

Is it healthy or even wise for the focus of any church to be the Second Coming of Jesus?  After 2000 years the concept of "soon", "shortly" and "quickly" have long since faded in reality.  The First Century Apostles were clearly mistaken about Jesus returning soon, although that is the constant theme of all of the New Testament Gospels, Epistles and Letters.  

The Apostle Paul made the point to the Church back in his times that "we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed" (I Cor. 15:51).  Of course he was mistaken and he died as well just as all others who just knew Jesus would return for them died over the past two millenia. Lives back then were put on hold in anticipation of the soon coming event. The Church, for a short time as it was intended to be, held all things in common because "time was short."  That practice was never intended as a long term approach to church practice. It faded when two things happened.  Jesus did not return and more wealthy educated Greeks came into the church and weren't about to give their wealth to the church in such a practice. 

It is and was not just the Worldwide Church of God that heavily emphasised the soon and imminent coming of Jesus. The Adventists, for decades, have made prophecy of Jesus coming again a focal point in their evangelizing.  The Book of Revelation, as still today in the splits and splinters, is THE go to proof that we are in the end times still and again.  It, however, never really seems to be true and one generation after the next has been left disappointed if not dis-illusioned over the issue.

So obvious was the non-return of Jesus and the coming of an earthly Kingdom of God to overcome

all human governments that Church doctrine began to evolve to reflect this reality.  In time, Christians were going to simply die and go to Heaven.  (Or Hell) and it didn't matter if Jesus came literally to earth or not anymore.  Some teach that humans hang out ever dead in the grave until the Second coming and then it all works out just fine for most. As a kid I always wondered just how the sea could give up it's dead when there is nothing left to give up no doubt. I supposed their spirits just hung out on the bottom awaiting their time to return.  

So I ask..

Is it wise, seeing that Jesus has not returned soon, quickly or really shown anyone the things which must shortly come to pass, now 2000 years ago, to keep holding it out as the carrot on the stick to get people interested in church?   The night was not really far spent as noted in the New Testament nor "the hour now is" that wasn't.   

I know we're all very familiar with...

"Verily I say unto you", This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew 24:34).

We simply have to admit, at face value, Jesus was wrong and not only DID that generation pass away, but so have countless others that followed. Jesus has not been misunderstood in this statement. He was wrong. Sincere not doubt and it simply will not go into the bible-reader mind that this might be the simple truth of the matter. There has to be another explanation that makes Jesus right in this perspective not 2000 years past.

And there is! We have read it wrong. Jesus did not mean what he said and we can relax. Jesus wasn't talking to those people at that juncture in history.

"This generation" was not the one Jesus was talking TO, but rather the generation that "these things" would begin to happen IN. Whew! It's in the far future and means a future society when all these signs accelerate and come to a crashing finale ending with the Second Coming.

We now have wiggle room to account for the fact that Jesus has not returned yet. Jesus wasn't mistaken about his own times, he was referring to another time.

Gleason Archer, who offers this solutions to the "Jesus didn't mean it would be in his time," notes accurately what we all know 2000 years later.

"Obviously these apocalyptic scenes and earth-shaking events did not take place within the generation of those who heard Christ's Olivet discourse. Therefore Jesus could not have been referring to his immediate audience when He made this prediction..." (Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pg 338).

Archer has to say this as he cannot possibly entertain the idea that Jesus was himself wrong in his perceptions of the times in which he lived and his role in those times. Later in the Gospels, authors would lower the expectations of the early Church, who thought Jesus meant them by reminding them late in the game when it was obvious Jesus wasn't coming any time soon that "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years. Sorry, we forgot to tell you that in the beginning." As long as one is incapable of thinking Jesus was himself wrong the Kingdom of God being just around the corner if he did his part, the doctrine of disappointments would have to be addressed as time went on.

And so we simply need to ask a very simple question. To whom was Jesus speaking? From the opening NT texts, it is obvious that the disciples, apostles and members of the church thought it meant THEM and did not get any hint of Jesus meaning anything other than THEM in THEIR time, which was short. The idea that Jesus would "build my Church" came decades after Jesus death when most were dead or dying of old age and yet the end did not come. Jesus never envisioned a Church that would follow decades and millennia after his death. Jesus life would always be lived and lost in the context of Judaism and the Synagogue.

But back to the original question. To whom was Jesus speaking when he said the words and to whom did he mean for it to apply? The answer is within the context, plain and simple.

"Take heed that no man deceive you." (Matt 24:4)
"...ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars..." (Matt 24:6)
"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted..." (Matt 24:9)
"When ye therefore shall see the the abomination of desolation..." (Matt 24:15)
"But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter..." (Matt 24:20)
"Behold, I have told you before." (Matt 24:25)

The context in which Jesus spoke was his own. The "you" that he was addressing was the group he was addressing then and the group to which all these things would happen for, and soon. Jesus was telling those disciples that these things would happen in their time. Jesus made a mistake in his perceptions.

In our time, Christians read the same words and see the "ye" and "you" as "me" and "us" just as the original disciples would have. The only difference is that the disciples actually were disappointed and this generation has yet to realize their own disappointment to come.

The proof that Jesus himself meant the people he was talking to is found in the fact that the "this generation" comment is actually the tale end of a much larger, often overlooked quote taken in it's entirety.

"So likewise YE when YE shall SEE ALL these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto YOU, THIS generation shall not pass, till ALL these things be fulfilled." (Matt 24:33-24 emphasis mine)

There is no reason to twist the words of Jesus to mean more than they were ever intended to mean. A scripture can never mean what it never meant. The early disciples and infant Church, knew it meant them and we see the gradual deterioration of their personal confidence in the immediacy of the Second Coming promise throughout the NT.

I Thessalonians 4:15-17 "...For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout...Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air..." Meaning...some would die, but not us who tell you this. Jesus still means us.

I Corinthians 15:51,52 "...We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump..." Meaning...you will die, but we won't but it all works out...Jesus still meant us.

Romans 13:11-12 "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand..." Meaning...we had some doubts, but now we know it's almost here. Jesus still meant us.

James 5:8 "Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Meaning...impatience was growing, hang in there. Jesus still meant us.

I John 2:18 "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time." Meaning...Jesus still meant us.

I Peter 4:7 "But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."

Revelation 22:20 "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly...." Meaning...ok, it's been about 60 years, but Jesus still means us.

Obviously, everyone of these quoted hopes and statements were wrong. Jesus did not return for them and to date has not returned for anyone. Paul and the early church who wrote in his name was just as wrong as the many COG prophetic types are wrong in this time. And it is based on the fact that Jesus himself was wrong which I know most Christians can never come to admit.

https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Second-Coming-The-Eternal-Carrot&id=94672

So again I ask, Is it wise of the Splits and Splinters or any Church for that matter to promote the "soon" and "quickly" of Jesus imminent return with now 2000 years of proof that it simply was not so for those to whom the promises were actually made? Is this not obviously something that is simply not true.  Does it not promote more skepticism than hope and doubt than encouragement?   Are fear, guilt and shame along with the "Jesus is coming soon" the only motivators for the faith?

Kieren Underwood: The Exclamation Mark Church of God!

The Exclamation Mark Church of God!

Kieren Underwood

Multiple exclamation marks," he went on, shaking his head, "are a sure sign of a diseased mind." - Terry Pratchett

"Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose." - Elmore Leonard

For a man claiming to be inspired by God, Gerald Flurry's books sure are boring as hell. To paraphrase a quote I can't quite remember exactly, "God tells us he called the weak and base, but do they have to be banal as well?" 

As a child growing up in the PCG, I always had a feeling Flurry was a bad writer. I loved reading. But not his books. I don't agree with other Christian writers like C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, but at least they're interesting.

The years I spent at Herbert W. Armstrong College were probably the tipping point. I'd be sitting in my study chair, 6:00am and still groggy, trying to fit in the compulsory hour of Bible study (also known as: "Flurry's New Booklet" study). Then, bam--"This world will go through the most horrible suffering it has ever known!!"--smack--"The Laodiceans are going to have to face God's wrath!"--boom--"Joseph Tkatch Jr. is literally Satan!"--crack--"I am the new Elisha, bitches!!" Wait... I thought this book was about Daniel?

Not only would you have to sit through book-long rants against people you'd never met and the ever-immanent threat of The Worst Suffering Ever, you'd have to see it repeated in italics, all-caps, and then the most formidable format of all: the double size all-caps italics with multiple exclamation points. 

So I got to thinking the other day: just how many exclamation marks does Flurry really use?

Elmore Leonard, an author whose credibility comes from the fact that people read his books without the threat of the Lake of Fire, tells us to use no more than "two or three per 100,000 words of prose." Since most of Flurry's books are less than 50,000 words, we should be looking at one or two exclamation marks per book. 

I went straight to the first eBook on theTrumpet.com--January 16: God's Miracle Day. A quick search revealed 130 exclamation marks. Oops. At a mere 9072 words, this works out, according to Leonard, as an exclamation mark ratio roughly 716 times too large.  It also makes for an "exclamation mark to sentence" ratio of 0.23--every fourth sentence has one. 

I couldn't help myself, so I did the other books as well. Here are the results:

double click to enlarge

Flurry tops out near a 0.25 "exclamation mark to sentence" ratio. Take out chapter headings and external quotations I'm pretty sure Flurry could hit the 1-in-3 ratio, and then you could be in for a real nice reading rhythm. Calm-Calm-Shout! Calm-Calm-Shout! Just as you're about to fall asleep, you'd be hit with another exclamation mark wake-up call! No sleep for you! 

Some of the books which hit the high end of the ratio aren't ones you'd expect. John's Gospel--The Love of God tops the list with 24.7 percent of sentences ending with exclamation marks. God loves you--but he's really angry about it. The Epistle of James is second, with 23.7 percent, and taking third spot is The New Throne of David, which, of course, was unofficially ghost-written by Joel Hilliker. I wonder if he had to go through and add in extra exclamation marks just to give it an authentic Flurry vibe. 

I also wondered whether Flurry has been getting angrier over the years. So I sorted the books by publication date.

double click to enlarge

With the exception of Jordan and God's Church in Prophecy, Flurry seems to have become slightly angrier. From 1992-2000, Flurry sat at a 13.2 percent exclamation mark rate. Then, from 2001-2019, he took off, averaging 19.0 percent exclamation mark usage. 

On a final note, Brian Davis's The Administration of the Spirit, and Wayne Turgeon's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have exclamation mark rates of 10.0 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively. Armstrong started the tradition, and PCG ministers are continuing it. There you have it--real, definitive proof of Apostolic Succession. Except it's not inspiration, it's just tone of voice.