Sunday 25 October 2009

To Which Fable Have You Turned?

The Apostle Paul was inspired to write that in the last days some church members shall depart from “the faith,“ be seduced by “doctrines of devils” and living with destroyed consciences(1 Tim.4:1-2). Peter also added that many will turn to fables.

Even a quick examination of the doctrines and practices of the splinter groups that have been formed since the break up of The Worldwide Church of God, will reveal that most no longer understand, if they ever did, or teach “sound doctrine.” Sadly, many now teach that the bible and the theory of evolution are compatible! Even luminaries such as, the depressed Dennis, the deranged Douglas, the gibbering Gavin and many of the mindless cabal of scoffers that coalesce around AW blog have turned to fables.

Dennis is now a promoter of the idiotic ideas of astrology over the divine revelation of the bible. And of course, Douglas is an expert in psychological disorders, and is therefore able to reduce every complex problem to the mental disorder of incompetence. The rest of the cabal hold Mr. Herbert Armstrong personally responsible for every problem in the world, including their return to fables!

To be continued…

Tuesday 13 October 2009

The Delusion of Universal Salvation

During the Feast of Tabernacles, which neither The Worldwide Church of God nor Grace Communion International no longer celebrate, I picked up a booklet by J. Michael Feazell entitled, Predestination – Does God Let You Choose your Own Fate?

Feazell erects a number of “straw men” arguments by quoting selected texts from Calvin and Aristotle and then proceeded to set fire to them, in a vain attempt to disprove the doctrine of predestination. Feazell glosses over Romans chapters 9-11 and Ephesians 1-3, but did not refer to the allegory of Galatians 4:21-31 or attempted to explain why God choose Jacob over Esau, before they were born, even though none had done any good or evil(Romans. 9:11).

Feazell concluded that because Christ died for the sin of the world salvation is available to everyone. All they have to do is believe in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. But even here, Feazell does not emphasise that belief or faith in Christ is demonstrated by obedience to the laws of God, including the fourth commandment, which says, remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.

Of course, to genuine Christians, Feazell’s tendentious but flawed exegesis of Paul’s exposition of the doctrine of predestination is not surprising. For Feazell was one of the pirates who hijacked WCG and shipwrecked it on the rocks of Protestantism.

Nevertheless, the Lord knows those that are his, and none of them will ever be deceived by the subtle ranting of deluded men.

The Second Temple

We know from scripture that God wanted Israel to build a second temple. The order to do so was given by Cyrus, the Persian.   The details ar...