It's an interesting contrast. Saturday March 28 is a day of hope as millions of humans across the planet take the symbolic step of turning off the lights for one hour - Earth Hour - beginning at 8.30 PM wherever they are, a project developed with the World Wildlife Fund. It won't solve our ecological problems, but it isn't designed to do that. It will raise our consciousness about an important issue, and maybe inspire us to work harder to conserve this precious planet on which we live.But those who've bought into the apocalyptic package are unlikely to "get it." Why bother? Things are prophesied to get worse. Why waste the energy - or in this case, why not waste the energy... The one thing that puts a smirk of superiority on any sect member's face is a contempt for activism. Bah, humbug! Let the world go to hell in a handcart, I'll keep my nose clean and focus on the really important stuff, like, er, not eating ham and turning up for services on the Sabbath.
Saturday March 28 is also, apparently, a designated fast for members of the Living Church of God. Exactly why isn't immediately apparent. Guru Rod Meredith calls these things with little reason, other than perhaps whether he's feeling a bit depressed. Rod is on the wane, mind and body are letting him down - alas, the fate of all who are fortunate and blessed enough to live a life to their three-score and ten and beyond. What to do? Let's call on the brethren to share the misery! That'll show God that we're good people and deserve a break!
The whole concept is infantile. What's more, it's introverted. It does nothing for anybody outside the ghetto. I suppose it does help shore up the sense of identity, specialness and separateness from the wicked world - and those in deviant Laodicean pseudo-COGs. But then, is that a good thing?
Earth Hour, on the other hand, is an act of solidarity with all people who want to leave their ghetto for a while - regardless of nationality, culture or even religion - and work toward a greater good. Contrast that with the apocalyptic mind set which throws up its hands in horror and sulks and mumbles in a corner, hoping for "a strong hand from someplace" to reach down so the real work of building a better, sustainable world can be avoided. It's the equivalent of a petulant nine year old (a subject on which I have some experience.) If you want a little kid to learn to care about the world they'll inherit, I suspect that getting them enthused about getting some candles out and turning off the lights during Earth Hour wouldn't be a bad place to start.
It's not enough to cry "thy kingdom come" while burying the proverbial talent in the back yard. What kind of logic is it to decry the observance of Lent (because it isn't biblical) and then observe a twenty-four hour fast at Rod's behest (which also isn't biblical)?
In any event, Earth Hour has now passed over New Zealand, and in this household the lights were turned out only after the preparation of a little snack.
53 comments:
Rather than being righteous by obeying God, some people want to imagine that they are doing the good and right thing by turning out their lights. So, actually, they love darkness because their deeds that really count are evil.
I don't remember for sure what I was doing at the time, but I probably left the lights on.
I think you just proved my point.
In his sermon aired March 27, RCM said that the end will be within five or ten years, but then quickly expanded it up to within fifteen years "just to be safe."
After seventy years of "within three to five years" the end just seems to keep getting farther away.
I really wonder how church leaders can simply make up wrong guesses like that all the time. Why do they have to do such things? Isn't it wrong to tell lies in God's name?
Anon 12:22 - "Rather than"
So obeying God and doing something to at least draw attention to the environment are mutually exclusive?
I remember some proselyting Mormon elders said they chose to fast once a week (or month, I don't remember) and give the money they would have spent on the food to the poor. I don't know if they consider their fasting is an alternative to concern for the environment.
Thanks for the heads up. I'll be sure to turn every light in the house on, and the outside lights too.
I wouldn't want anyone to think I was participating in their sillyness.
I am gladly fasting with my brethen in LCG. I feel very much in solidarity with them but I see no wrong with turning the lights out not for solidrity with the world but because of how much energy will be saved then.
As I was reading Gavin's post, I knew with certainty that some mutant Sabbatard would make the exact statement that anon 12:22 did. Ever so predictable.
"Why bother? Things are prophesied to get worse. "
Indeed! And this attitude isn't the sole domain of the COG's- it festers in the hearts of ALL christians to some degree or other. Why bother trying to fix something that only Jebus can fix?
Curing diseases like cancer? Waste of time and money. Only Jebus can fix that.
Ending war? Pu-leeese....only Jebus can fix that, and even he will have to ride on a magic horse and have help from his Jebus Battalion to fix that one.
Ending poverty and hunger? Don't even think about it! We will always have the poor and the hungry. It's in the Bible. As Tolkein might say, those people just need to tighten their belts. And feast on the "spiritual food" offered by the Bible. One day, Jebus will fix them so they won't ever be hungry again!
And it goes on and on. I won't deny that some Christian groups may try to help (soup kitchens and shelters) but they see no point in tackling the whole issue on a humanity-wide scale- that's Jebus's job.
The Apostate Paul
understanding!
The local rock stations are giving this Earth Day lights out project some wings. A well known DJ in our area announced during afternoon drive time that Yoko Ono was requesting our participation in this. I thought it was a kind of a cool thing.
It's mostly the mind-locked culties who will sneer at such things. They won't support any type of group remedy which doesn't reflect their own eclectic or myopic world view. Otoh, it would not be unusual to find typical evangelical Protestant types attempting to do all they can to be what they call "good stewards" of planet earth.
There are certain buzz words in cultic communities, such as "obey God rather than man". What is so pathetic is that these buzz words often contradict the word of God. Some "diligently" fasting ACOG member, on the way out of his rent-a-church beer hall in a bad section of town, will totally forget the parable of the good Samaritan, and will scold a homeless person who asks for some food money, as opposed to helping him. Why? His church has taught him that reacting in that way is what the God who reserved the corners of Israelite fields for gleaners would have him do.
I believe in praying for spiritual revitalization of our nations, but I also believe that since we cannot know when the "end" might happen, we should be doing everything we can to be good stewards of a planet which God especially loves, and to be good to all of God's children.
BB
Anonymous, do you have any idea how smugly self-righteous you sound?
Anonymous said...
Rather than being righteous by obeying God, some people want to imagine that they are doing the good and right thing by turning out their lights. So, actually, they love darkness because their deeds that really count are evil.
Since I don't know your name, I'll just call you "Jim Bob", is that okay, Jim Bob?
It's evil to turn out the lights?
Do you sleep with the lights on Jim Bob? Or, is it okay to turn the lights off when you are having sex with the bed partner? (Not knowing if you are Mrs. Jim Bob or Mr. Jim Bob).
You know, Mr/Mrs Jim Bob, I have found that if I turn off the lights, and a few other appliances once in a while, I save a little money on my electric bill.
You will please excuse me if I don't mail my savings on my electric bill in to headquarters, won't you, Mr./Mrs. Jim Bob? Why, thank you. I appreciate that.
Friends, try not to be like the hungry Jim Bob, do try to help the earth a little, k? Good.
There really are good and right things to do, Jim Bob, it's sad you don't know that.
The whole concept is infantile. What's more, it's introverted.
Isn't fasting a picture of the conversion process? Or in a more secular phrasing, "If it is to be, it must begin with me"?
Humble yourself to serve God (if you're fasting in a proper way), and then you can humbly serve others.
BTW, in a different COG congregation "Earth Hour" came early today. It's a stormy day there, and the power went out in the hall near the end of the sermonette. Because a DVD sermon was planned, the service was cut short.
Reading LCG's updates I was under the impression that the main purpose of this fast was to call for God to bestow gifts of healing upon LCG.
I have no issue with saving money, but to follow orders from the church of environmental friendliness is unconscionable. My light's will ALL be on at 8:30 as to protest sick Barack's rhetoric lies.
Wish we could show solidarity but we have company coming over tonight.
On the bright side, I did read where they found a huge pocket of oil in the Rockies that dwarfs what we get from the Middle East.
Add to that the fact that, not only is Prudhoe Bay not tapped out years after it was predicted to be, but there is still all that natural gas we have not even begun to pull out of the ground.
I'm not an LCG member, so I have no idea as to why they're fasting, but the "turn out the lights for an hour" idea doesn't impress me much either.
Perhaps it's because the whole green movement has a cultic smell to it as well, and has given birth to a whole new set of wacky ideas over the past few years.
Just this week there was a report that to have the UK "sustainable" in the future, the population should be halved. How will they do that? Line everyone up and shoot every other person? Hope they don't organize the line by boy/girl boy/girl.
Bathrooms seem big in green cultic thought. There's the call to use only ONE square of toilet paper, and the call to limit flushes of the WC to when it's been used for a "No. 2".
Building solar power plants is held as a great idea, but building transmission lines to get the power to where people actually live is a bad thing.
Most disturbingly, you find people that profiteer off the green movement. Neither Al Gore nor T. Boone Pickens are involved in a disinterested manner, no matter how lofty their proclaimed goals are. Speaker Pelosi is an investor with Pickens, and I can only hope she will recuse herself from any vote that will enrich herself. But I will not hold my breath.
Much like religion, greenies are quick to tell other people how to live, and eager to coerce people to live as they think they should. Both use the threat of disaster - natural or God sent - to manipulate people, because WE MUST ACT NOW TO SAVE THE WORLD!!!
I'm not against energy efficiency, and finding alternates to fossil fuels. But I am against giving these green fascists any hope that I support them. My lights will stay on.
VonHowitzer
I must take umbridge with the above given for lack of a better name coming to your mind "Jim Bob" because he is my favorite character on The Waltons. How about just sticking to good old "John Doe" next time, ok? C'mon, Jim Bob was the one who built a car from scrap metal and it ran! How's that for recycling?!
P.S. I am a former WCG/former LCG/current UCG who also reads & studies CGG & the Bible itself, AND reads all "anti-COG" blogs & websites, and I believe God truly does love all of us very much & that we all should remember what Jesus said in Luke 13:1-5. In other words, we're all in the same boat.
Irresponsibility towards the environment and towards ones fellow man was an attribute of Armsrongism. But it extends beyond Armstrongism and into Evangelicalism. I was apalled to learn that George W. Bush's evangelical advisors told him to he could abuse the environment as much as he wanted because Christ would return and fix everything.
This is breathtaking in its wrongness. But it makes sense when you realize that until recently, evangelicals were not in the forefront of the environmental movement.
-- Neo
All politics and religion aside, I would hope that one hour of no lights in a city would allow people to see a sky white with stars. This is something most city dwellers don't get to see.
I live in a remote cabin in the woods and I can see the stars when I look up at night, along with the extra special privilege of never hearing the sound of a highway or car engine.
I think everyone should see the stars once in their lifetime. As for the saving electricity or environment or whatever this earth hour is about, it doesn't really affect me cause I get free unlimited electricity from the sun. Solar panels and batteries power EVERYTHING in the cabin.
Hey Gavin, was your snack a BLT?
Gavin, it could be said that anyone participating in something as pointless as Earth Hour has bought into a group mentality sold to them by the secular "prophets of doom". It could be said that they are sheep for so following. It could also be said that it shows how willing people are to follow a supposed voice of authority and be persuaded that following such-and-such course of action shows how "enlightened" they are. It could also cause them to make sarky comments about those who just don't "get it" and who don't obediently follow where the prophets of doom lead.
Given the shonky science that accompanies the doctrine of manmade global warming, this green stuff could almost be a religion.....
Adherens of the great green god know better than this scoffer of course. After all, they have the "truth" !! :-)
Byker Bob said...
The local rock stations are giving this Earth Day lights out project some wings. A well known DJ in our area announced during afternoon drive time that Yoko Ono was requesting our participation in this.
Byker Bob,
What would REALLY help to improve the environment instantly and greatly would be for all the "rock stations" on earth to stop broadcasting their perverse noise for an hour or ten.
Anonymous said...
I must take umbridge with the above given for lack of a better name coming to your mind "Jim Bob" because he is my favorite character on The Waltons.
What ever "umbridge" means, it isn't in the dictionary. However, my apologies to John Boy and to you too, Bubba Jean.
You might eventually find out that the so-called "green movement" really is for those who are "green" (that is, naive).
Everyone will just end up paying more money in the form of "carbon taxes" and to buy "carbon tax credits." What a complete, total, money-sucking SCAM.
Just because you don't like God's ways, does that mean that you have to fall for the latest fad like this disastrous "global warming" idea? Oh, I guess it does.
All Gorey should be run out of town for trying to rob and wreck America while pretending to have the moral high ground. If they are really so concerned about the air quality, maybe those unAmerican Democrats should put away their cigars (back in their boxes, not in their young female interns).
They turned off some of the city lights in Sydney, like the Opera House. As Sydney was the most expensive place I've ever lived, I hope the city council passes on the money they saved in electricity. Oh, that's right, the council sends the electricity bill... and they're probably in a deficit budget, too.
In my world, Earth Hour was mandatory. At exactly 8:27 the lights in my humble abode went out. I wanted at first to blame Earth Hour’s stressing of the grid, but it probably had more to do with the freak sleet storm we were having or perhaps an errant cable seeking back ho.
It was somewhat bothersome, inasmuch as I was getting ready for work. I had to find my shoes and cigarettes using nothing more than the light of my cell phone. As I understand it, Earth Hour in Chicago saved enough power to plant 64 acres of trees. I’m not sure exactly how that conversion works or what the real equivalent is, but that’s what the radio said.
Indeed it did make me think, as did your posting. I think both greenies and COGers are essentially Luddites, and not all that far apart in worldview. Both would like to live in an impossible fantasy wherein the world, stripped of all those worldly things, keeps going under a new mythos and methodology. Neither in the end will get their way, at least I hope.
My entire block was wiped out by the shortage. I drove through dark, wet and winding streets as the numb nuts on the radio extolled the virtues of seeing the stars for a change. His guest was a member of the Black Skies movement who, other than also chiming in about actually seeing stars in the sky, would not exactly explain the advantages of plunging us into darkness come nightfall. As for me, I almost drove off the road.
I say a pox on Luddites of all stripes. While you fast and stare at stars, I will be in my back yard with my bug zapper ablaze and my cigarettes all a smoking, cursing the darkness and you all.
Mark Lax
as with everything the liberal/leftists do, this "lights out" fiasco will do just the opposite if what they intend, but then, they are never judged on results, only intentions.
the electric utilities have big problems with this sort of thing.
electricity must be generated as it's used, so when an entire city goes dark, the load at the generating station drops off, so generators are shed.
then guess what? all the lights come on again in short order and generating capacity must be quickly increased, trying to avoid brown-outs.
but hey, no matter, the tree huggers feel so good and righteous because their intentions were good.
Mark, I'm not a Luddite, but I lead a low-energy, but not low-tech, lifestyle.
Anon 6:19, I'm not into name calling, but you sound like Mark Armstrong.
I'm about to eat a re-heated dish of tofu cubes, so I hope the carbon tax collector isn't around.
"All politics and religion aside, I would hope that one hour of no lights in a city would allow people to see a sky white with stars."
First thing I thought of, too.
Anon 3:58:
I wish I could take you to church with me this morning, so you could hear the awesome rock n roll praise music played to get us all in the proper mood of worship just prior to the pastor's message!
Beats the Purple Joy Killer any day of the week!
BB
Note to Larry:
Good suggestion, but I don't think the program has that ability; I'll check it out.
Note to Tom Mahon:
Go away!
Corky,
Anonymous, better known as Tom Mahon, doesn't know how to spell. that is why you couldn't find umbridge. The correct spelling is umbrage and here is the definition:
3. The feeling of being overshadowed; jealousy of another, as
standing in one's light or way; hence, suspicion of injury
or wrong; offense; resentment.
[1913 Webster]
Now that you know what Anon was talking about, doesn't that sound like something TM would say? :-)
I'm convinced that we're created beings. That's a big pill to swallow -- but if the Creator is to be trusted as a guide, then we have to be free to make our own choices. He makes His own decisions based on wisdom, and if we're to be in His image, we must learn to do the same.
If we choose to let others push us around "in God's name," we're running a serious risk of rejecting the Creator's intent. The force of everyday life should prove that God intends to stay in the background, at least for now, being absolutely committed to His own prime directive. We must be free to choose because that freedom is necessary to this stage of creation.
When men of misguided intent create their own authoritarian paradigms in God's name, and created beings accept the ruse, then they have abandoned their responsibility to use Creation as a resource for plotting their own courses. This kind of thing happens in both Christian and Jewish authoritarian cults, perhaps others too, and might be seriously detrimental to the development of our autonomy. It happened in the Garden of Eden too. How can a child of God grow when another created being is making his or her choices, or carefully persuading his followers away from wisdom?
Doesn't abandoning personal responsibility frustrate the Creator's intent? The whole of Torah exists to guide, strengthen and protect individuals under God. Israel's kings, priests and judges existed for the same reasons. When they got bigger than their britches, the whole nation foundered.
Statements like "three to five years, and maybe even fifteen," have been RCM's swan song for at least the past 50 years. But at this point they are true, not because Meredith is a prophet, but because his effective life-expectancy more than likely falls within his projection. He's been wrong about "the end" in the past, but that won't go on forever. Like all of us, his days are numbered.
Perhaps it is necessary for some to experience the usurpation of God's place by holy rogues, in order to learn that individuals in God's image must learn to accept more responsibility themselves.
Neo said "Irresponsibility towards the environment and towards ones fellow man was an attribute of Armsrongism. But it extends beyond Armstrongism and into Evangelicalism. I was apalled to learn that George W. Bush's evangelical advisors told him to he could abuse the environment as much as he wanted because Christ would return and fix everything.
"
Neo, your comments above although accurate seem to leave out that much of the third world who are other than evanjellyheads are someo of the worst polluters and least held accountable in the world.
"Earth Hour in Chicago saved enough power to plant 64 acres of trees. I’m not sure exactly how that conversion works or what the real equivalent is, but that’s what the radio said."
So why not just plant 4 acres of trees with the money saved for one hour?
I wonder if crime increased during this lights out event. Crime usually does when we have the occassional blackout or brownout in the major US cities. But really, who on the left really cares about that anyway?
"I'm about to eat a re-heated dish of tofu cubes, so I hope the carbon tax collector isn't around."
I knew there was tofu involved!
I love tofu. *Sigh*
As it should turn out, there was no crime wave in Chicago or anywhere as a result of the Earth Hour. I attribute this to two factors:
1. Criminals do not read. They don't read newspapers. They don't read the internet. They do not visit coffee houses where or any other place (bookstores) where Earth Hour posters could be found. Moreover...
2. If they did chance to invade the home of someone out celebrating Earth Day, chances are all they would have found is Tofu.
Mark Lax
Anonymous said...
I wonder if crime increased during this lights out event. Crime usually does when we have the occassional blackout or brownout in the major US cities. But really, who on the left really cares about that anyway?
I thought you said the criminals were the left. There are no criminals on the right . . . right?
What a strange and comical thing to say Jim Bob, or John Dale or whoever you are. Maybe we should call you Tommy Dale?
Anyway, Tommy Dale, don't you get it? the lights out thing is only symbolic of persons who actually "care" about the Earth, which is nothing for you to worry about.
Only 88 countries dimmed non essential lights.
Big deal.
I do that all the time.
So all you out there who participated full by turning all were in the dark.
Gavin,
The Pope bans the use of condoms but he has overlooked one natural method of contraception.
Psa 75:5 (first part),is, I believe,the relevant reference.
Cheers,
Jorgheinz
Mark, as a fellow connoiseur of the curd, you probably understood the carbon tax reference.
For the uninitiated, a byproduct of the digestion of tofu is a popular greenhouse gas. Amongst the in-depth analyses that pepper the online Trumpet was a story about a proposed belch tax for burping sheep.
Environmentalist radicals are:
1. Deceptive. The Greens present one face in public which states that the Green agenda would not effect the prosperity of the country and the world. In their small true believer journals the Greens speak differently. There the green agenda means great changes in the society and reduced living standards.
2. Against all energy production. The Greens are not only opposed to the use of hydrocarbon fuels because of the global warming hoax. The Greens also fight nuclear power and hydroelectric dams. And the Greens often times oppose renewable energy. Thus the Greens are against energy production, the engine of prosperity and well being.
3. Anti-Science. The Greens work to ignore and silence scientific facts that refute their arguments. They consistently try to label opposing scientists as energy company stooges whose arguments should be ignored. Moreover the Greens often propound false science such as th hockey stick graph of the temperture of the earth.
4. Rerpressive. The Greens want to reduce the mobility and living standards of Americans. Moreover many Greens oppose political freedom and try to replace freedom of speech with censurship.
5. Hypocritical. The Greens often preach consumer frugality. However Green leaders such as Al Gore live in luxury and try to make millions of dollars from carbon rationing schemes.
6. Lust for power. Greens want to control the life of everyone in America and on the planet.
7. Work for a state religion. Greens want to make their misanthropic earth worship (sometimes called Gaia worship) the official religion of the state. They propound their dementoid faith in public schools and other public places. Thus Greens violate the separation between church and state.
Global warming is:
JunkScience.com
"Global warming is:
JunkScience.com"
Hmmm...the respectable libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute, when really looking into Steve Milloy and the junkscience website, removed the junkscience.com link from their website, and stopped any association with junkscience.com. I'm just saying...
Mr. Lax,
I think the Incredible Hulk would prefer the tofu and bofu, colored green for Saint Patty's Day(or even purple for Saint Teddy's day), over seitan.
I ate some turkey-shaped seitan one Thanksgiving day, and I'd have rather had tofu, no matter the color.
~Mr. Mel
Gavin,
We are not allowed to raise our horn on high of which El Papa cannot conceive.
Instead,brazen strumpets peddle their wares a-broad.
Cheers,
Jorgheinz
In the Northwest we were told the spotted owl was becoming extinct and we had to set aside a lot of forest (never mind during this time of controversy they found a young female spotted owl thriving in downtown Everett...they had to capture the delusional bird and transport her to her "real" habitat.) I still have the newspaper clipping. This of course put many loggers and other forest workers out of work and devastated many rural communities. Then years later in a small article in the back of the newspaper I happened to catch the real reason for the declining spotted owl population...the barn owl was taking over the spotted owls habitat and displacing the spotted owl.
Then we were warned about the Chinook salmon and how our dams were destroying the salmon population. Never mind the native Indians could virtually block the rivers with nets...they had their rights!! The home builders came up with a video from an Elk hunter showing Fish and Game biologist (dedicated environmentalist) clubbing the salmon before they could spawn. The environmentalist and so called "scientist" almost had the government convinced to tear out many of the dams but an unfortunate thing happened...they had the biggest run of Chinook salmon in 50 years. The following year they experienced the 2nd biggest run of Chinook salmon in the 50 year time frame. No apologies, no explanations, no "sorry we lied" to you again!! Just deafening silence from the environmentalist and "scientist." Never mind the hardship these "elites" imposed on hard working citizens. These "scientist and elites" mostly have government jobs...paid for by the very people they tried to devastate with their propaganda. Even some died because of their fanaticism. In the late 90's three fire fighters died in a forest fire because the tanker planes could not get water from a near by source without permission, which came to late. The reason? it might harm the bull trout population. This was reported initially then suddenly it was buried and not mentioned again. Apparently some did not want this "inconvenient truth" to get out.
So now we hear of the devastation we are about to experience with global warming. Remember the 70" when we were told to "prepare for the coming ice age." It is about power and money. Be careful of the cool aid in your glass.
Well said Gavin.
It is amazing that people who have probably never read a peer-reviewed science journal article in their life somehow think they know more than hundreds of climate change scientists who have spent their lifetime studying the subject. And they think that wacky websites like junkscience.com actually have something to do with science.
And the perpetuate myths like the one that science talk a "coming ice age" in the 70s without even bothering to check if there is any truth to this story.
It is also ironic that people who believe in religious apocalypse don't accept human-induced ecological collapse. After all, the prediction of religious apocalypse has a 100% failure rate. However, history is replete with examples of human caused ecological collapse (Easter Island, Mayan Peninsula, Sumerian, North Africa, etc).
"It is amazing that people who have probably never read a peer-reviewed science journal article in their life somehow think they know more than hundreds of climate change scientists who have spent their lifetime studying the subject."
Or the thousands of scientists who study evolution. Well, as people who believe in imaginary beings (and this belief is dependent upon a rejection of reason, logic, and evidence) they really aren't interested in evidence that refutes their viewpoint.
The Apostate Paul
[I missed some typos in my original post. Here is another try]
Well said Gavin.
It is amazing that people who have probably never read a peer-reviewed science journal article in their life somehow think they know more than hundreds of climate change scientists who have spent their lifetime studying the subject. And they think that wacky websites like junkscience.com actually have something to do with science.
And they perpetuate myths like the one that science talked about "coming ice age" in the 70s without even bothering to check if there is any truth to this story.
It is also ironic that people who believe in religious apocalypse don't accept human-induced ecological collapse. After all, the prediction of religious apocalypse has a 100% failure rate. However, history is replete with examples of human caused ecological collapse (Easter Island, Mayan Peninsula, Sumerian, North Africa, etc).
Who could possibly be revulsed by the thought of Jesus returning to earth and straightening everything out? I don't believe that is the predominant problem most ex-COGlodytes have with the apocalypse.
The problem we do have is with the group of people who leveraged us to their horrible agenda using end-time scenarios, and even made it appear as if they were actually the group on earth who controlled it! We honestly believed that Jesus, when He returned, would be implimenting the world view, government, and philosophies of Herbert W. Armstrong! Gag!!!! Imagining such to be true has turned many off towards any possible relationship with God.
Rehabilitation is a long, laborious process. Part of that, for me, has been the realization that the apocalypse has nothing to do with WCG, the splinters, Petra, or whether or not some psycho megalomaniac has disfellowshipped a person. The "end" is something which may or may not happen in our lifetimes, and whenever it happens, it will be the beginning of the restitution of all things. Whether protection comes in the form of a rapture, an other place of safety, or simply our needs being taken care of wherever we happen to be, it's all in the hands of a loving God, and there is no need for anxiety over it.
Man uses anxiety for exploitative purposes. It's not God's will for us to be always on edge with anxious thought, but at the same time there is balance. We are also to be good stewards of the earth and all that is subject to our individual actions. People who love God do not just throw their hands in the air, give up, and leave a bigger mess for God to clean up. That is a fable, created by non-believers, to make our position appear to be illogical and ridiculous.
BB
nothing new under the sun
"Illogical and ridiculous" is what the Christian religion is. It will remain so until some evidence of it's truth is presented and none ever has been.
I heard about a herd of unicorns for sale, any buyers?
why no unicorn!
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