The latest Journal is out dated July 31, and it's a scorcher. Some really good features, which will be highlighted in the second of two postings here.But to deal with the worst first, so we can all move on...
In the main news section:
Brian Harris with The new pope: Is he the one? Quote: "Prophecies relate to the arrival of an influential pope who, in an old quest, will give a new European leader his support, uniting the Catholic world against the mainly Protestant nations of the United States and Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the nations of Western and northwestern Europe, which are the descendant nations of ancient Israel migrated from their original homeland."
Sad, not to mention stupid.
Ray Daly with The wonderful earth tomorrow: What will it be like? Quote: "How about the several islands off of the Straits of Gibraltar? Think land masses. And, while thinking on these things, think Atlantis.
"These land masses in some circles, are called Pan. Atlantis was part of Pan. But Pan existed only until the earthquakes during the time of the reign of King Uzziah (840-790 B.C.).
"It was at that time that Pan sank beneath the seas and the mountain ranges rose to their present size. It was such a calamity that the earth tilted 10 degrees on its axis."
Ray should have stuck to J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.
In the Connections ad section:
The Obedient Church of God is back displaying its not inconsiderable ignorance and creative grammar. Quote: "I CHALLENGE all offshoot WCG sinisters 1 Kings 18:19 and dare you offshoot WCG sinisters to SPEAK UP and defend your lies of WHY you do not obey God’s 4th Commandment in 1/2 the World! So STOP HIDING from this SIN: While YOU “quietly” MOVE God’s SABBATH to FRIDAY using man’s phony 1883 IDL (International Date Line), just like the Poop moves God’s Sabbath to SUNDAY."
Talk about poop!
Art Mokarow announces "(TheBiblicalReporter.com) is a new website to take vital world news and compare it to Biblical Prophecy. It will compare today’s news with what was documented thousands of years ago in the Bible."
Oh how very original. C'mon Art, you've got to be well past retirement age. Time to sit back with a nice cup of tea and read some Dostoyevsky, learn some basic Dutch, or watch the complete seven seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Frankly dude, with this prophecy stuff you're just embarrassing yourself. One William Dankenbring is more than enough.
Now I know this sounds a tad unappreciative. But having isolated the more egregious guff in a strong Bullgeschichte containment field, next time we can go back and discover some material that is much more stimulating. If you can't wait (and why should you?) the PDF is available here.
"These land masses in some circles, are called Pan. Atlantis was part of Pan. But Pan existed only until the earthquakes during the time of the reign of King Uzziah (840-790 B.C.)."
ReplyDeleteThat is not only not right, it is not even wrong
I even know a thing or two about popular Atlantis beliefs, and I've never heard this. By "Pan", does Daly mean the supercontinent of Pangaea that existed 175 million years ago?
I'm beginning to suspect that Ray has been channelling Tinkerbell in his quest to establish the reality of Neverland.
ReplyDeleteHerbert Armstrong never knew: His answer was that the 'W' in his name stood for nothing.
ReplyDeleteBased on Scripture, we have concluded the 'W' did stand for something (related to false prophets): Herbert Wolf Armstrong.
What's your real name, Neotherm? How come you are afraid to identify yourself? --Dixon Cartwright
ReplyDeleteDCJ: In my now deleted statement, I did not intend an assessment of your veracity or sincerity. My comments were directed towards the harshness of the journalism business. All newspapers must accept advertising to stay afloat. Sometimes the advertising can be difficult to evaluate for its worthiness. I deleted the comment because if you misinterpreted it, it might be misconstrued by others.
DeleteI was at AC Big Sandy when you were there. As I recall, we talked only once.
-- Neotherm
Thanks for your friendly reply, Neotherm. --DC
DeleteGary Fakhoury's article strikes me as a cleverly devised piece of propaganda. He shows up with his 95 theses and bowls everyone over. Somehow that does not ring true. The questions he asked are easily answered and have been discussed ad infinitum for centuries. And here in this article it is like the curtain rises revealing a stage never before seen. I do not believe that nobody could give him an answer on these questions. Maybe they gave him answers that he did not care to hear and write down. I know the answers to most of these question myself. There is an extant literature about these issues.
ReplyDeleteWhat does Fakhoury believe in if he doesn't believe in the Trinity. My guess is that he believes in polytheism - something found among pagans. He believes in the existence of two separate gods even though the OT, much cherished by Armstrongites, states "the lord our god is one god.". He believes that god has a body in the form of a man because Armstrongism is not advanced enough to recognize anthropomorphism.
No doubt this article strongly appeals to the Armstrongite base. But it is a good example of our information must be carefully managed in order to achieve that goal.
-- Neotherm
Regarding what Gary believed, he eventually came to believe in the "one God" in the sense taught by Anthony Buzzard and Ken Westby (although Ken has recently modified his opinions on that hot topic). When he wrote the article we printed in our current issue, I think Gary was still what he would have called a binitarian: which could mean the Family or could mean a more blatant polytheism. The reason I liked the article and published it was not because of specific doctrines. The older I get the less I am concerned about doctrine. I was interested in Gary's analysis of WCG leaders' methods that were strikingly similar to HWA's when it came to imposing their opinions on other people. --Dixon Cartwright
DeleteThat's just one more example of the Bible contradicting itself. The OT says the lord is one god. The NT says Jesus is also god. It also introduces the "Holy Spirit", which some say is also god. To try to "square the circle" Christianity invents the idea that god is both three and one, or three-in-one, or a Trinity, which is an absurd concept.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess they had to come up with SOME explanation. Anyhow, it worked. Which again proves that Christians will accept just about any explanation imaginable.
I agree with Neo that the rather dim HQ staff put up a poor defense of the Trinity (given all the off-the-shelf apologetics on that available) (which they were probably not up to speed on in '96 considering their poor academic backgrounds).
ReplyDeleteEven by around the 5th century, large areas of Christendom were Unitarian, like the JWs and others today. It's a debate that will never go away because, as Skeptic says, the source material is contradictory - not to mention unreliable.