Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Peter M. Leschak: Getting back to fundamentalism


Peter Leschak is a graduate of Ambassador College Big Sandy is a long-time firefighter and respected author of numerous books on firefighting with many of them including snippets of his life in Armsgrongism.

Getting back to fundamentalism

Peter Leschak   


“Twenty-nine years ago, as the Voyager 1 probe neared the edge of our solar system bound for interstellar space, NASA directed it to photograph the Earth from 4 billion miles away. The picture is known as “the pale blue dot.” Our planet was barely detectable, about a single pixel in an image that astronomer Carl Sagan described as “a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

From the lush surface of our world, its vulnerability is not apparent. By outer space standards, even the South Pole is extravagantly hospitable, but the “pale blue dot” expressed how infinitesimal we are in the cosmos. That Voyager scarcely picked out the earth from relatively nearby offers insight into how toilsome it is to find planets orbiting other stars. Despite the technological advances of the 20th century, the first “exoplanet” was not discovered until 1992.

It was a significant scientific achievement, but no surprise. As an astronomy enthusiast in the 1960s, I gazed at the stars and assumed our galaxy must be teeming with planets. Our sun had nine, and surely it couldn’t be the only one among the staggering multibillions of stars. That wasn’t a scientific deduction, but also no great conceptual leap for a child of the Space Age who had proof that the stars were other suns.

How wildly different for Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) the Renaissance philosopher and monk, who without observational evidence deduced that the stars were suns and they must have planets. He also said they were inhabited. One of his books, “On the Infinite Universe and Worlds,” contained the sentence, “There is in the universe neither center nor circumference,” thus anticipating by over three centuries the work of luminaries such as Albert Einstein. For that and other heresies, he was burned at the stake by the Inquisition.

Is it more remarkable that Bruno conjured such keen insights or that he terrified the Inquisitors? “Remarkable” in the literal sense, “worthy of mention.” After all, Bruno was acutely religious, tending to mysticism; his pronouncement could’ve been magical thinking — a wild lucky guess — no more scientific than my childhood assumption of “it must be” or an imaginative plot device by a sci-fi novelist. Why should people feel threatened? They were, and that is remarkable.

In my adolescence I belonged to a fundamentalist Christian sect, subject to a strict code of behavior regulating every facet of life. Outsiders aware of our rules and doctrines considered them strange and oppressive. Why live under a totalitarian regime that dictated menus, hairstyles, sexual practices and reading lists, not to mention thoughts and ideas? For most insiders, however, including myself, the system was congenial. For a while.

I attended one of the sect’s colleges, a bucolic campus in the East Texas woods, an alternate reality fashioned to reflect what the entire world was supposed to be when our god’s plan waxed triumphant. Yes, we sometimes chafed under the strictures, but what kept us more or less happily in the fold (and happiness was mandatory) was a potent sense of belonging, a heady glow of earned righteousness, and a conviction of personal and collective exceptionalism. Everything was certain and we were the chosen. I had yet to discern, as Judge Learned Hand noted: “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.”

Ironically, or perhaps inevitably, it was in that restricted, rigorously enforced dreamland where many members comprehended the power of ideas: They could indeed threaten. If you value seamless fraternity, undoubted rectitude and special consideration from the divine, then everyone must stay on the same page. Doubt is contagious and toxic, the “new” is shocking, dissenting opinions are destabilizing and it all sums up to heresy. Heresy is to an authoritarian community as a suicide bomber is to a crowded cafĂ©.

Being locked in the bosom of the sect was congenial because it was mentally safe and comfortable — so long as it remained isolated from change. But human society, the biosphere, and the universe itself do not long tolerate isolation and stability. Questions arise. Opinions develop. Attitudes evolve. Perspectives budge. Minds expand. Winds shift. Orbits stutter. Heresy happens, and the establishment implicitly understands that criticism must be expunged. But Bruno at the stake only expunged Bruno, not his ideas.

All attempts to preserve a closed society are eventually doomed. The universe will not abide it, no matter what society espouses. The Inquisition is gone and a bronze statue honoring Bruno stands in the Roman square where he was burned.

I once wrote a respectful but mildly dissenting letter to a member of the college faculty, a doctor of education. It was handwritten in black ink. His reply was in blue ink, and he wrote over my letter on the same page, thus literally blotting out my words with his own. Unfolding the sheet was chilling. The medium was certainly the message: your thoughts, it shouted, are not even worthy of a civil reply; they are contemptible. My letter was mutilated. Could my body be far behind? It’s not too far-fetched to imagine that only the consequences inherent in the secular legal system prevented it. In a small way, I had an inkling of Bruno’s plight.

The doctor’s reply was juvenile, and I was struck by a sentence in professor H.A. Overstreet’s book “The Mature Mind,” which was widely read at the time: “A person remains immature, whatever his age, as long as he thinks of himself as an exception to the human race.”

Ideas, of course, are intangible, but the fear they engender is rooted in the potential for action. If people act in response to an idea, conditions change. Witness the recent tipping point regarding same-sex marriage in the United States. We are resistant to change because during humanity’s tenure on this planet, change has often been deadly: volcanic eruptions, drought, plague, etc., could and did wipe out entire communities. The invention and propitiation of deities was one defense, but if the existence or efficacy of a deity (also intangible) was called into question, the anxiety of ideological conflict ensued. One more damn thing. Who needed it?

I despise the Inquisition, but can understand it was easier to honor Bruno with a statue in 1889 than it was to openly discuss his ideas in 1600. As a society we are now more tolerant, perhaps because we feel more secure. But is that sense of security slipping? If so, will that breed a resurgence of intolerance? Has it done so already?

Four centuries after Bruno’s execution, the roles of science and religion have reversed, at least in the West. The insights of science have steadily undermined religious faith, affording ever fewer knowledge “gaps” in which to fit the supernatural. No one has “all the answers,” but a literal interpretation of the Judeo-Christian Bible now demands an almost herculean capacity for denial. Millions of Americans manage to do it.

One of the forces that ushered President Donald Trump into power was the “evangelical vote.” The slogan “make America great again” is vague enough to encompass anything, but it seems that to many voters it means re-imposing the primacy of religion over science — breaching the wall of separation between church and state. Recall, the framers of the U.S. Constitution were no friends of theocracy; many were not even professing Christians. “If there were no priests,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, “there would be no infidels.”

Contemporary evangelical fundamentalists view separation as an obstacle to their political aims, the bedrock of which is a theocracy, either de facto or de jure. The theocratic movement encourages the denigration of science — for example, the denial of climate disruption as a hoax, the demonization of the principles of evolution. For those who are puzzled by the devotion of Trump’s base, know that many of them believe he is a chosen instrument of God. Evangelical leader Mike Evans is typical when he compares Trump to the “Biblical Cyrus,” a heathen “used as an instrument of God for deliverance … using him in an incredible, amazing way to fulfill his plans and purposes.”

Theocrats regard science as a modern religion, opposed to more traditional faiths and therefore on equal footing before the law. Not so. Scientific claims are falsifiable — can be rigorously tested — doctrinal claims are not. In any free society, the secular and the religious must be legally distinct. If not, brace for the Inquisition. That is a lesson of history the Framers understood. All are free to express their religious ideals, but no one is free to impose them on others via government.

There is a giant instrument being designed — the High Definition Space Telescope — that could very well detect evidence of life on exoplanets. If so, Bruno wouldn’t be surprised to hear it, nor would he likely be shocked to know that religious fundamentalists are still at war with science.”

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Books by Peter M. Leschak


Tuesday, December 3, 2019

The Blurred Lines of Vic Kubik/LifeNets and His Office As President of United Church of God Are Causing Issues With People Today Due To His Fundraising Activities On Facebook




November 1999 we begin our 21st year as a charity.
LifeNets last annual report is posted on line at www.lifenets.org. SOON we will be finishing year 2019 and with that we are entering our 21st year as a charity. Our mission is to help those in need with college scholarships, fresh water, cattle and many other projects. Our mission is to promote self-sufficiency. Please help us celebrate and take advantage of this opportunity to DOUBLE YOUR DONATION at the same time.
Please donate $10, $20 or MORE for TWENTY years as a charity. Help us celebrate our goal of helping others. Beginning 8 AM Eastern standard time and 5 AM Pacific time, WHATEVER you donate on that day, December 3rd will be matched by FACEBOOK.  
CLARIFICATION ON GIVING TUESDAY FACEBOOK MATCHES:
The matching funds from Facebook only apply to donations given on Tuesday, December 3, 2019 after 8 am Eastern Standard Time. .Please donate early as the match will close when Facebook has reached its $7-million-dollar mark.
Thank you for making LifeNets your charity of choice.
Beverly Kubik
President LifeNets

The convoluted messy boundaries of the leader of the United Church of God and his personal charity, LifeNets, are causing a lot of questions on Facebook and elsewhere.

In July of 2016 we had an article about this blurring of the lines between UCG and Kubik's charity, especially when he is the president fo the organization.



Vic Kubik's LifeNets Church of God 
Many in UCG have always felt large discomfort with the blurring of the lines of UCG with LifeNets, the pet "ministry" of Vic Kubik.  Many question the man running two organizations that are suppose to be separate, but are they really?  LifeNets presents itself as a "humanitarian organization" to woo in the public while failing to disclose it is a Church of God related tool to encourage people to come over to the dark side.  Is Kubik and UCG too embarrassed to to say UCG is behind it and that it is a recruitment tool for  its "god", much like HWA started Ambassador Foundation because he was too embarrassed to say he represented the Worldwide Church of God?  While it has undeniably done some good, its motives are questionable.  
The article contained this: 
Those in Australia need to know (as do those in South Africa and most international locations) that their ‘church’ is not really an extension of the UCG in the USA — instead they are what Cincinnati calls the “LifeNets” churches –they are not funded by UCG any longer, have to be self-sufficient, and Kubik travels to them on LifeNets funds, not UCG money. This is why the moment the “airy” sermon is over, Kubik launches into a 45-minute LifeNets presentation to the congregation. Legally he has to do this because he is on LifeNets money which is being audited. The members are not in a Church, they are just laborers in a commercial LifeNets exercise, even thought they don’t know it. Council members who did not want Kubik as president (took the most re-balloting ever ) finally acquiesced over the information that it would save UCG money since Kubik was the only only one who could travel internationally on another budget (namely his private Corporation Sole LifeNets, which has made him the wealthiest Council member, and which he built in competition with the Good Works program, since that one wasn’t going to earn him anything personally).  
And yes, we are all supposed to give up our various ‘cultural backgrounds’ to put on the culture of Christ, but this man Kubik still can’t disconnect himself from a Ukrainian village he has never really lived in, now bending the truth to accommodate a small Pentecostal and trinitarian group there that clearly for over 20 years has shown no interest in joining with UCG. But,like the populism of Brexit and Trump, it’s beginning to all blow up: we have what we call the “parking lot church” in our congregation — it’s about what is said when everyone goes to their cars so the minister can’t hear them, and it’s about 50% of the congregation now that meets this way — outside. The moment someone stands up with some integrity and calls UCG out on all of this, the following is in place and ready to move.

Independent COG Members: Are You Willing To Place Your Salvation In The Hands Of This Man?

One group of people in the Church of God that has endlessly frustrated various self-appointed modern-day splinter group leaders are those people who declare their selves as "independent" COG members.  They hold fast to what they have learned over the years as the truth they have come to believe and this frustrates the various upstarts to no end.  

These people have not joined any of the top splinter groups and choose to instead stay at home, meet in small groups in various places, listen to tapes, or visit various COG's any time they want to do it.  Sadly, it is a vast group of people that all of these splinter leaders see as potential money streams, and nothing more.  

That brings us today to our favorite buddy of this blog, who is none too happy that these independent thinkers have not joined up with his a little group.  They deliberately stay away from him and this concerns him.  Because they refuse to join him they will not know when to flee to Petra!  Only by joining up with him will they be told the correct time to flee.  By joining up with him they will then become the TRUE Philaldphian church and will no longer be independent Laodiceans.
Do not allow yourself to accept the deception that you should be an independent Christian or one not truly truly part of the Philadelphian remnant.
Only by joining up with the Great Bwana will you become a Philadelphia Christian! Utter tripe! 

The Great self-appointed Bwana writes:
Who does God want to gather together? 
As stated before, the end of the age Christians. Notice what Jesus stated and something the Apostle Peter wrote:
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:19, NKJV)
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10, KJV) 
This is a peculiar people. These are people who the world does not desire. These are Philadelphian Christians. 
How do we know that Zephaniah 2:1-3 is related to Christians? Because the decree is for the end time and because of what else God inspired Zephaniah to write:
3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. (Zephaniah 2:3a) 
The above is a reference to Christians as they are to be the “meek of the earth” (Matthew 5:5) and to Philadelphians who “have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility.” These are Philadelphian Christians who understand that church leaders need to have integrity and be willing to be humble enough to accept the authority of a church led by a low-level prophet in the absence of a clear apostle (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11-15). They are humble enough to not think that they should remain ‘independent,’ as many who once were part of the old Worldwide Church of God, during this Laodicean time, have done.
Excuse me while I clean up the coffee I just spit out..........

Humble Church of God leaders???????  Where??????  Who???????  Well, hold on to your Mystery of the Ages folks, it is none other than our self-appointed prophet of Arroyo Grande,  Great Bwana to Africa, Bob Thiel!  Woo Hoo! He is the most humble self-appointed church leader the church has ever seen!  How can he not be humble when he is doubly blessed?  How can he not be humble when people dream dreams about his greatness?

Independent COG members and Laodicean church members should be able to look at this humble man and see God at work in him.  People should be so amazed that they immediately join up and send in their checks.

The Great One says:
God inspired the Prophet Zephaniah to write the following:
1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation, (Zephaniah 2:1) 
Do you understand what is being taught? 
This is a command for end of the age Christians!
Although it has certain misunderstandings, the Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary realized that the gathering together was intended for a religious group or assembly:
Zephaniah 2:1
Gather yourselves together – to a religious assembly, to avert the judgment by prayers, (Joel 2:16, “Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders,” etc.) (from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
When are they to gather together?
2 Before the decree is issued, Or the day passes like chaff, Before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you, Before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you! (Zephaniah 2:2) 

Nothing excites the Church of God self-appointed false prophets than dire warnings of the end times. Their one hope and desire is to see humanity blotted off the face of the earth in order for them to be proven "right." Who can ever forget Rod Meredith getting all red-faced with veins throbbing as he pounded the podium with dire warnings about Germans coming to hang us all on meat hooks in concentration camps, that our youth would be shipped to Europe to be slaves to the Europeans, and that parents would be eating their children due to starvation from famine. He would be so excited he would be panting. These fake self-appointed false prophets demand that their god do this for them. 

However, there was an escape route and that route was only available to a highly select few that would heed the admonishments of the self-appointed false prophets.  They would be that small remnant, the Philadelphian church.
As stated before, the end of the age Christians. Notice what Jesus stated and something the Apostle Peter wrote:
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:19, NKJV) 9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10, KJV)
This is a peculiar people. These are people who the world does not desire. These are Philadelphian Christians.
In 2019, just who are those Phialdlephian Christians?  Dave Pack says his small group of followers are. Gerald Flurry says his group is.  Ron Weinland says he, his dingy wife Laura, and his minuscule band of followers are. COGWA believes they are.  LCG believes they are the one true remnant. And there is our very own self-appointed and doubly anointed prophet, Bob Thiel.  Woo Hoo!

Bwana Bob he not happy that independent COG members have refused to sign up with his little band of chosen ones.  To the great Bwana, they are sitting on the sidelines and will be ill-informed as to when it will be time to flee to Petra or maybe Pella where he will turn over the reigns of his church, in great humility, to that other true end-time self-appointed prophet, James Malm.

Independent COG members and members in various splinter groups need to be reminded that their salvation is at stake because they will not join up with Bwana Bob.


Do not allow yourself to accept the deception that you should be an independent Christian or one not truly truly part of the Philadelphian remnant.
Why have I written that Zephaniah 2:1-3 has to do with Philadelphian Christians?
Because they are the only ones who will actually ‘gather together’ as they should.
Why?
Because it is they who will lead the final phase of the work and it is only to the Philadelphians that Jesus promises to protect from the coming hour of trial, also referred to as the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord...
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The decree to ‘gather together’ will be repeated in the area of Judah just before the time of great destruction.
Why a decree?
Apparently, to make it easier for people who read what Jesus said to better be able to understand that Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 and Daniel 9:27b and Daniel 11:31 had been fulfilled.
By whom will the decree be made?
The Bible says:
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing,
Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
8 A lion has roared!
Who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken!
Who can but prophesy? (Amos 3:7-8)
The prophet may make the decree personally and/or pass it on to another authority in the church to make.
Which is the only Church of God in the 21st century to teach all of this?
The Continuing Church of God.
If you are not with the group that is leading the final phase of the work will you really be able to flee if you wait until the last moment? While that may be remotely possible for some, remember that God inspired Zephaniah to admonish God’s people to ‘gather together…before the decree is issued.’
Most will discount this and many will scoff. Most COGs do not have any they consider to be a prophet, and those other than the CCOG who claim to, have prophets that have been proven to be false (e.g. PCG, CGPFKG, TPM). 
The Continuing Church of God has the same mission and the same commitment to fulfilling Matthew 24:14 that Herbert Armstrong advocated. Matthew 24:14 is a PROPHETIC MESSAGE and it does tie in with world news and the condition of the world.
NO, IT DOESN"T!  Herbert Armstrong would have bitch-slapped Bwama Bob out of the church so fast he wouldn't know what hit him. No self-appointed vainglorious upstart ever pulled one over on HWA.  They all got spit out incredibly fast.  So for Bwana Bob to claim he is continuing HWA's teachings is a lie.

The ever so humble self-appointed Bwana Bob continues with this:
Since no later than 2007 I have written that Zephaniah had to do with Philadelphians being ‘gathered together’ so that they would be protected from the coming trial that will hit the earth.
We in the Continuing Church of God “have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19, KJV).”
The improperly named "continuing" Church of "god" does NOT have a more sure word of prophecy.  Maybe a certified liar, but not a prophet, and certainly NOT a "sure word." 
 We in the Continuing Church of God boldly teach the need for Philadelphians to be ‘gathering together’ today. Will you heed God’s instructions as the Prophet Zephaniah was inspired to write? Would you possibly like to be protected? If so, will you ‘gather together’?
So, would you place your salvation in the hands of this self-appointed upstart?  

Let the self-appointed prophet know why.