Posted on 04/11/2013 11:16:18 PM PDT by DouglasKC
Sure it is.
Willfully denying what Jesus Christ has said to do and accepting instead what society and culture says to do is violation of the 1st command and possibly the second...especially with regards to idols such as the trapping of Christmas and Easter.
And that's not even considering the 4th commandment!
Now, other than for the UCG and maybe a couple of other sects, it’s not a sin at all. It’s not even considered in the subject of repenting, therefore.
Hellllooo! THAT'S the problem!!
Eze 22:26 Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them
That's traditional Christianity in a nutshell my friend....
You’ve bought into a secret decoder ring version of St. Paul, the Apostles, the Church.
It’s contrary to the plain reading, contrary to what Christians believed and taught from the Council of Jerusalem to the present day. It has no rational or factual basis; it relies on folks’ willingness to set aside the plain truth in favor of grand hidden conspiracies.
The same sort do this in other areas such as government, health, economics...
And you've attempted to invalidate a known scriptural truth by dismissing it as a conspiracy theory...
Rev 12:9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Mat 24:3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"
Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you.
Mat 24:5 For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.
Mat 24:11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Mat 24:12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Lawlessness, against God's laws, is rampant in Christianity. Look at the vitriolic reaction I get for keeping the holy days of the Lord as a Christian. You would think I'm axe murdering puppies! That is a Satanic reaction, a reaction of lawlessness my friend.
The same ‘deceivers’ attack can be put back on the UCG.
But I don’t think you’re like puppy axe murderer. Not at all, not the tiniest bit.
I think you’re like other former-WCG members I’ve known. Very moral, sincere, religious, trustworthy, self-reliant; but also very prone to believe conspiracy and other bizarre theories and stories concerning religion, history and quite often medicine and economics.
I never belonged, attended, or was a member of Worldwide Church of God. And I'm glad I wasn't based on some of the stories I've heard...
A lot of the same basic theology of course. The folks I know blame the leadership change, say it was good then very bad. This was in the days of Ambassador College, before it went belly-up.
Do you ever sleep?? :-)
As far as WWCG the consensus I usually hear is that pride, power and arrogance entered the ministry and filtered into the congregations. Like in any organization there were those who had aspirations of power and authority and strived toward those roles. There weren't a lot of checks and balances against this in WWCG. It got worse and worse as people jockeyed for power and position as Herbert Armstrong got older and older.
Theologically the biggest mistake was letting speculation turn into defacto doctrine. Because of the authoritarian system many people seemed to equate every utterance of a minister as divine truth. You can imagine how THAT would turn out.
But that being said theology was built upon a solid biblical foundation. Herbert Armstrong was a tenacious researcher and great communicator. I think God used him to dig out and popularize many truths that had previously only been in the background...the truths that didn't make it into the doctrines of the traditional church. None of it was new, but a lot of it wasn't known.
This kind of stuff requires a charismatic leader to get more than a tiny following.
WWCG lost theirs.
Rock and a hard place. Once you go Wizard of Oz, where do you stop? It takes a strong leader with both charisma and authority to maintain the doctrine within the walls of acceptable conspiracy theory and not fracture and spill out into all manner of bizarreness.
Without this... Splitsville and more Splitsville.
Christianity itself is a relatively lonely road numbers wise:
Mat 7:13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Mat 7:14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
As a general rule if we look around a find a lot of people doing and believing as we do then it might be wise to plot a new course... :-)
Christianity is about a billion worldwide. UCG I’m guessing is in the thousands at most.
Certainly the gate is narrow, but I wouldn’t put credence in the argument that the fewer adherents the more true the interpretation and doctrine.
Our of curiosity, and forgive me if I've asked this and forgotten, but what is your denomination/church affiliation?
No problem… Catholic.
Bump...
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