Oh the irony; Roderick "Spanky" Meredith quoting the "highly regarded modern philosopher Søren Kierkegaard."Kierkegaard died in 1855. You can be sure however, if he were alive today, he'd take a rather dim view of Spanky.
Yes folks, the first 2015 edition of Tomorrow's World - flagship magazine of the Living Church of God - is now available for your edification and entertainment. And if it wasn't for the slick layout and graphics you could be reading a 1955 copy of The Plain Truth.
As for Kierkegaard, Spanky found a nice wee quote somewhere, then proceeded to incorporate it in his editorial - he's rewritten it many times before - this time with a title worthy of The Watchtower: "Study to Avoid Deception!"
Too bad he doesn't take his own advice.
"[W]e would be remiss if we did not remind you, occasionally, of God’s direct instruction on tithing and the blessings you will receive if you are willing to obey your Creator and “seek first” the Kingdom of God above all else—even in financial ways!"And
"God has certain basic commandments and statutes that last forever for human beings. Tithing is certainly one of these."Richard Ames is also up to the bat with an article that alerts us to "Prophetic Trends for 2015."
"Dear readers, we are living in the exciting prophesied “end-times.” End-time prophecies that have been in place for thousands of years are “speeding up” toward fulfillment as never before. We look forward to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, who will soon return to establish the Kingdom of God on planet Earth. So we must be prepared. Even if Christ does not return for a few more years, we cannot let our guard down individually, as any one of us might die tonight. We must draw close to God in 2015, and we must stay close to Him. As we do, we can be informed and encouraged by the fulfillment of prophesied events as we obey Christ’s command to “watch” in 2015 and beyond!"Talk about mixed messages. Speeding up as never before brethren, living here in the end-times, but don't hold your breath.
John Meakin has the real oil on what's happening in Her Britannic Majesty's domains: "What Does Scotland's 'No!' Mean for the United Kingdom and Bible Prophecy?"
(Nothing John, absolutely nothing.)
Dougie Winnail beats the same old drum with "Prophecy Comes Alive: The Demise of the West."
Yup, we've read it all before. It gets no better with the passing of time.
I honestlly believe that Rod cruises the "dissident" sites, possibly in an exercise of mental gymnastics through which he presumes that he will become better equipped to outreason and return the lost sheep to Armstrongism. We have alluded to and mentioned Kierkegaard from time to time in our discussions, yet this was a name seemingly unknown and unmentioned at Ambassador College, at least back in the 1960s. Also, about ten years ago, Meredith had lifted a quote almost directly from Orlin Grabbe's old website, about the onset of a deflationary depression. He has also used our pejorative term "Armstrongism" when describing a man who left LCG to start a splinter. My guess would be that some of the leaders of the Armstrong movement freely read for themselves what they forbid to others. Someone reported recently that Dave Pack's team gives him printouts of the blog entries mentioning his name.
ReplyDeleteBB
According to Søren Kierkegaard, the idea of congregations keeps individuals as children since Christians are disinclined from taking the initiative to take responsibility for their own relation to God. He stressed that "Christianity is the individual, here, the single individual." The Living Church of God takes the opposite view from Kierkegaard, which is rather an insult, considering that Roderick Meredith quotes him to promote the LCG position which Kierkegaard certainly would not support.
ReplyDeleteThe Living Church of God is a cult. Quoting people out of context to support the view of the cult is what cults do. There is not one shred of integrity because cults regard anyone who does not share their opinion with great contempt. Heck, they regard their own members with great contempt.
A false prophet of at least 50 years standing, Roderick Meredith is an unnecessary human being who should be relegated to permanent obscurity. Just about everything the he and his hireling henchmen promote is pure rubbish. "Prophetic Trends for 2015"?
As I pointed out before earlier, the only trend for 2015 for the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia is stagnation and even that's generous.
The crap keeps flowing and Meredith is quite confident none of us can do one thing about it. I'm convinced though that nature will take its course and what "Tomorrow's World" should have prognosticated is the inevitable death of Roderick Meredith and the ensuing chaos it will bring to the LCG.
Søren Kierkegaard did have an incredible impact. For one thing, the things that he proposed resulted in changes to the Danish National Church, for example: On 5 April 1855 the Church enacted new policies: "every member of a congregation is free to attend the ministry of any clergyman, and is not, as formerly, bound to the one whose parishioner he is". In March 1857, compulsory infant baptism was abolished.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, he had quite the impact on Karl Barth.
Still, in some areas he was a bit too abstract for my tastes, but then if he helped progress along, no one can complain.
Except people who hate progress.
Concerning tithing: Orthodox Jews don't tithe today.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, tithing was not always a part of Orthodox Christianity. It is thought that tithes were not adopted by the Western church for over seven centuries. Although rejected, they were mentioned in councils at Tours in 567 and at Mâcon in 585. They were formally recognized under Pope Adrian I in 787.
It seems odd that the Living Church of God would insist on something which is rejected by the Jews today but supported by the Roman Catholic Church.
Maybe it's the money.
Because as an incentive, God isn't going to bless you because you tithe to a ravening wolf in sheep's clothing promoting false prophecies, especially since tithing isn't among the basic commandments and statutes that last forever for human beings. And anyway, even if tithing were in force today, there aren't that many people earning their living in the agrarian sector and, as we all know, wages you earn by your efforts are yours to keep and there's no prior claim like, for instance, tithing on the produce of the land God gave you. It's nothing like that at all these days: It would be closer to say, tithing on the wages your corporate overlords assigned to you as being a wage slave.
And tithing on Social Security? Don't get me started....