kw: books, religion, false prophets
A friend loaned me a book asking for my opinion: Mary K. Baxter's A Divine Revelation of Hell, originally published in 1993; this was a recent paperback edition.
I read the book through very quickly. There was no need to peruse it in detail. This is not a review, but an assessment: The book is false. Period. The author is a false prophet. She has ten titles in print, most beginning with A Divine Revelation… All are products of an overactive imagination.
The book about hell owes more to Dante Alighieri and John Milton than to the Bible. A majority of those individuals that the author "interviewed" (actually, what she recorded are imagined dialogs between various lost souls and Jesus), are backslidden Christians of various kinds. Nobody depicted in the book seems to come from a non-Christian tradition or religion.
There is a simple matter of faith being attacked here: whether a genuine child of God could perish. Jesus declared not so, "Nobody can take them out of My hands." A disobedient child is still a child. Nobody who has been born again can become "unborn". God has a way to deal with disobedient children, and it is not Hell. Warning passages about God's discipline of His children are frequently mis-applied; none of them actually refers to Hell. Hell is for Satan and his angels; any human souls who wind up there chose to follow sin and Satan and reject God.
A book like this works against those who teach an accurate understanding of Hell. There really is a Satan, and there really is a Hell, but neither the devil, nor demons, nor Hell are anything like the gross distortions found in this book. The best course of action for God's people is still the old formula: teach what the Bible teaches, and where the Bible is silent, be silent.
Showing posts with label false prophets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label false prophets. Show all posts
Monday, June 11, 2012
Saturday, May 21, 2011
The longsuffering of God
kw: false prophets, prophecies, mercy
If he were living in the Israelite theocracy, Harold Camping would be in big trouble. Here is what is recorded in Deuteronomy 18:20-22 (NIV):
As most everyone is now aware, the judgement day has not yet arrived. Though God, we read, has appointed a day, it is still in the future. We know very little of it, but we do know that it will take everyone by surprise. No genuine prophet will ever predict its day. But there is one other thing we can learn from history, which is riddled with such false predictions. Many of Camping's followers will rally around him, and he will make some kind of announcement that certain calculations were done incorrectly. No biblical prophet relied on calculations, but no matter. People will believe what they want to believe. I feel deep sadness for these deluded believers.
If he were living in the Israelite theocracy, Harold Camping would be in big trouble. Here is what is recorded in Deuteronomy 18:20-22 (NIV):
20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.” 21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.It is quite clear that Mr. Camping is a false prophet. False prophets were to be put to death. But this is not ancient Israel. The present situation is better described by First Timothy 2:3b-4, which speaks of "God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." Peter likens this age to that of Noah, in which God waited patiently while the ark was being built (First Peter 3:20).
As most everyone is now aware, the judgement day has not yet arrived. Though God, we read, has appointed a day, it is still in the future. We know very little of it, but we do know that it will take everyone by surprise. No genuine prophet will ever predict its day. But there is one other thing we can learn from history, which is riddled with such false predictions. Many of Camping's followers will rally around him, and he will make some kind of announcement that certain calculations were done incorrectly. No biblical prophet relied on calculations, but no matter. People will believe what they want to believe. I feel deep sadness for these deluded believers.
Monday, April 25, 2011
The last month?
kw: eschatology, biblical interpretation, false prophets
Has Family Radio gone off the deep end? Is the exhortation and interpretation presented by eBibleFellowship in any way accurate? While I believe it is not accurate, I is possible for God to bring about a change of the age at any time. Why not in 26 more days? The prediction is not that the whole world will end this May 21. Rather, that date they expect the rapture, followed by a five-month period of great torment for any left behind. The real end is to be in October.
I have maintained for decades that whenever someone makes a prediction of "the date" for the end of the age, it is guaranteed to be wrong. I still think so. But the conclusion of the exhortation is worth heeding: Pray together with your family members. Read the Bible. Forgive others. Be reconciled to the estranged ones. Whether this age ends this month or not, these are good ideas any time.
Has Family Radio gone off the deep end? Is the exhortation and interpretation presented by eBibleFellowship in any way accurate? While I believe it is not accurate, I is possible for God to bring about a change of the age at any time. Why not in 26 more days? The prediction is not that the whole world will end this May 21. Rather, that date they expect the rapture, followed by a five-month period of great torment for any left behind. The real end is to be in October.
I have maintained for decades that whenever someone makes a prediction of "the date" for the end of the age, it is guaranteed to be wrong. I still think so. But the conclusion of the exhortation is worth heeding: Pray together with your family members. Read the Bible. Forgive others. Be reconciled to the estranged ones. Whether this age ends this month or not, these are good ideas any time.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The preacher is at fault
kw: christian faith, faith healing, false prophets
I purposely avoid most matters of politics and faith in this blog. The Schaible case must be an exception.
The facts of the case are simple. Herbert and Catherine Schaible of Philadelphia had seven children. When the two-year-old caught a cold, they prayed. When the cold got worse, they had church leaders come pray with them. They had been taught, at the First Century Gospel Church, that obtaining medical help is a sin; that they must rely on God alone. I suppose they have since been told, "God answered, 'No.'," because the child died of pneumonia. They were found guilty of manslaughter and have been sentenced to about ten years in prison.
This unfortunate couple is innocent of the criminal charge. They are only guilty of following a false prophet. Most Christians regard medical treatments as gifts of God. I am sure glad a surgeon was available to cure me of my cancer ten years ago. Luke was a physician. Paul advised Timothy to settle an upset stomach with "a little wine", rather than with prayer alone. If you break a bone, it makes sense to set it with a splint. Then pray for faster healing, but prayer alone won't make you able to walk on an unsplinted broken leg.
I serve a small congregation as one of the elders. A family came several years ago, and as it happened, the man had been a surgeon, but gave it up when he came to have the opinion that medicine is sinful. We let him know that we would not allow such teaching in our church. Naturally, they went elsewhere.
The one who is most at fault is the false teacher who misinformed the Schaibles.
I purposely avoid most matters of politics and faith in this blog. The Schaible case must be an exception.
The facts of the case are simple. Herbert and Catherine Schaible of Philadelphia had seven children. When the two-year-old caught a cold, they prayed. When the cold got worse, they had church leaders come pray with them. They had been taught, at the First Century Gospel Church, that obtaining medical help is a sin; that they must rely on God alone. I suppose they have since been told, "God answered, 'No.'," because the child died of pneumonia. They were found guilty of manslaughter and have been sentenced to about ten years in prison.
This unfortunate couple is innocent of the criminal charge. They are only guilty of following a false prophet. Most Christians regard medical treatments as gifts of God. I am sure glad a surgeon was available to cure me of my cancer ten years ago. Luke was a physician. Paul advised Timothy to settle an upset stomach with "a little wine", rather than with prayer alone. If you break a bone, it makes sense to set it with a splint. Then pray for faster healing, but prayer alone won't make you able to walk on an unsplinted broken leg.
I serve a small congregation as one of the elders. A family came several years ago, and as it happened, the man had been a surgeon, but gave it up when he came to have the opinion that medicine is sinful. We let him know that we would not allow such teaching in our church. Naturally, they went elsewhere.
The one who is most at fault is the false teacher who misinformed the Schaibles.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
2012, here we come!
kw: book reviews, nonfiction, false prophets, debunking, mesoamerica
At least once per generation, since there have been Europeans in North America, members of one group or other have donned special clothing (white robes are popular), gone to a special place such as a hilltop, perhaps given away many of their possessions, and waited for a savior, or a spaceship, or the end of the world. Apocalyptic, millennial beliefs undergird American life.
While these oddities are usually carried on by small groups, sometimes apocalyptic fervor grips the entire nation, infiltrating all of popular culture. Not so long ago, the "big fear" was an asteroid hit, and two 1998 films, Deep Impact and Armageddon, made millions of dollars as millions of our fellow citizens flocked to the theaters to see them. Just a few years earlier, over about a decade, the Left Behind book series raged through like a twelve-stroke battering ram.
Now, we are told, in just over two years, we all face extinction or extermination or at least the loss of our pensions, when the Maya calendar runs out on December 21, 2012 (or maybe two days later…). The popular movie 2012 has again made millions for a crafty few. Now a professor of History, a Mayanist, has published a book with a different view. Disclaimer: The author is a relative of mine.
What did the Maya of eight centuries ago expect to happen when calendar date 13.0.0.0.0 rolled around? In 2012: Science & Prophecy of the Ancient Maya by Mark Van Stone, we find that the simple answer is, not much, depending on how good a party you throw to mark the occasion. If we notated time the way the Maya did, our last "great occasion" would have been shown as 20.0.0.1.1, but instead we showed it as 2000/1/1 or January 1, 2000. Then we quibbled for months over whether the real beginning of the 21st Century was 2001/1/1. There was a real threat of apocalyptic troubles with the "Y2k problem" in computer systems, but computer programmers worldwide met that threat and the new Century began with hardly a ripple.
The book is composed of 34 essays, many of them interlinked in series, and eight Appendices, including a very informative FAQ that summarizes the author's points. This means you can read the book in any order, and it makes a good reference work. While the main message of the book is the debunking of apocalyptic speculation, it contains a wealth of information about what the Maya were really interested in, which was (is this any surprise?) appeasing the gods so they could all have a better life. The unique feature of Maya religious practice was that the shedding of blood was frequently performed by the religious and political leaders upon themselves! You'll have to read the book to find out where they'd stick the knife, but, gentlemen, be prepared to be squeamish. Anyway, despite depictions of the Maya as bloodthirsty purveyors of human sacrifice, that title goes to the later Aztecs, who did indeed sacrifice a few ten thousands of victims yearly. Maya sacrifices seldom resulted in death.
I find it more fascinating to learn what the Maya believed and practiced; what was really important to them. The precession of the equinoxes was not important to them, so although they measured it, they didn't account for it, and kept a 365-day year. They didn't even bother with a Julian-type "leap year" correction. They were much more interested in the 260-day period between apparitions of Venus, and how it related to a 360-day near-year with an 18:13 ratio. The special dates upon which they liked to perform coronations and special religious observances were chosen by a complex system of numerology with these factors plus small prime numbers (if you consider 273 a "small prime"). Appendix 5 contains a two-page list of "important" time periods ranging from two days to 9,504,000 days (composed of 6×11×20×20×360). This last period is more than 26,000 years, and is a pretty good match to the "grand round" of the precession of the equinoxes. This partly explains why the text depicting the date of an event in an inscription can take up more space than the recounting of the event itself.
But not all their symbols were numerical. In common with many cultures, they revered a "world tree", which was shown in many ways, such as the two shown here, along with the caption from the book (p. 99; click for a more readable image):
On the left, the tree is a fruiting cactus, rooted in a woman's skeleton and serving as a perch for a great eagle with flint-tipped feathers. On the right a pregnant tree (a very common image) is giving birth, while its root is a woman's head, as two gods assist (it is a caesarian birth). Mayan religious symbolism was much more variable than what we are familiar with, though a perusal of the stained-glass windows of three or four cathedrals reveals plenty of variation, and that is in just one Christian sect. Sometimes the eagle holds a snake in its beak, which led, via the Aztecs, to the modern seal of Mexico, seen on its flag:
The eagle grips a snake with beak and talon, standing on a fruiting cactus that grows from a bone-like pedestal standing in water. This is a clear creation-legend image. The oak and laurel leaf clusters are a symbol of sovereignty added in modern times. This image also adorns the back of Mexican coins.
If we anointed astronomers and geologists for priests, we, too might find our national consciousness grasping time periods ranging into thousands and millions of years. Instead, we get antsy waiting 60 seconds for the microwave to heat up a sandwich, and the second-most common traffic offense is running a red light, often by someone who already sat there for one whole minute while traffic cleared, and can't stand to wait another half minute for the light to "get around to changing" (the most common offense is speeding).
So how ought we prepare ourselves for Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0? Be nice to people. Forgive you brother for what he said last year. Live like the world really could end, but don't liquidate your long-term investments!
At least once per generation, since there have been Europeans in North America, members of one group or other have donned special clothing (white robes are popular), gone to a special place such as a hilltop, perhaps given away many of their possessions, and waited for a savior, or a spaceship, or the end of the world. Apocalyptic, millennial beliefs undergird American life.
While these oddities are usually carried on by small groups, sometimes apocalyptic fervor grips the entire nation, infiltrating all of popular culture. Not so long ago, the "big fear" was an asteroid hit, and two 1998 films, Deep Impact and Armageddon, made millions of dollars as millions of our fellow citizens flocked to the theaters to see them. Just a few years earlier, over about a decade, the Left Behind book series raged through like a twelve-stroke battering ram.
Now, we are told, in just over two years, we all face extinction or extermination or at least the loss of our pensions, when the Maya calendar runs out on December 21, 2012 (or maybe two days later…). The popular movie 2012 has again made millions for a crafty few. Now a professor of History, a Mayanist, has published a book with a different view. Disclaimer: The author is a relative of mine.
What did the Maya of eight centuries ago expect to happen when calendar date 13.0.0.0.0 rolled around? In 2012: Science & Prophecy of the Ancient Maya by Mark Van Stone, we find that the simple answer is, not much, depending on how good a party you throw to mark the occasion. If we notated time the way the Maya did, our last "great occasion" would have been shown as 20.0.0.1.1, but instead we showed it as 2000/1/1 or January 1, 2000. Then we quibbled for months over whether the real beginning of the 21st Century was 2001/1/1. There was a real threat of apocalyptic troubles with the "Y2k problem" in computer systems, but computer programmers worldwide met that threat and the new Century began with hardly a ripple.
The book is composed of 34 essays, many of them interlinked in series, and eight Appendices, including a very informative FAQ that summarizes the author's points. This means you can read the book in any order, and it makes a good reference work. While the main message of the book is the debunking of apocalyptic speculation, it contains a wealth of information about what the Maya were really interested in, which was (is this any surprise?) appeasing the gods so they could all have a better life. The unique feature of Maya religious practice was that the shedding of blood was frequently performed by the religious and political leaders upon themselves! You'll have to read the book to find out where they'd stick the knife, but, gentlemen, be prepared to be squeamish. Anyway, despite depictions of the Maya as bloodthirsty purveyors of human sacrifice, that title goes to the later Aztecs, who did indeed sacrifice a few ten thousands of victims yearly. Maya sacrifices seldom resulted in death.
I find it more fascinating to learn what the Maya believed and practiced; what was really important to them. The precession of the equinoxes was not important to them, so although they measured it, they didn't account for it, and kept a 365-day year. They didn't even bother with a Julian-type "leap year" correction. They were much more interested in the 260-day period between apparitions of Venus, and how it related to a 360-day near-year with an 18:13 ratio. The special dates upon which they liked to perform coronations and special religious observances were chosen by a complex system of numerology with these factors plus small prime numbers (if you consider 273 a "small prime"). Appendix 5 contains a two-page list of "important" time periods ranging from two days to 9,504,000 days (composed of 6×11×20×20×360). This last period is more than 26,000 years, and is a pretty good match to the "grand round" of the precession of the equinoxes. This partly explains why the text depicting the date of an event in an inscription can take up more space than the recounting of the event itself.
But not all their symbols were numerical. In common with many cultures, they revered a "world tree", which was shown in many ways, such as the two shown here, along with the caption from the book (p. 99; click for a more readable image):
On the left, the tree is a fruiting cactus, rooted in a woman's skeleton and serving as a perch for a great eagle with flint-tipped feathers. On the right a pregnant tree (a very common image) is giving birth, while its root is a woman's head, as two gods assist (it is a caesarian birth). Mayan religious symbolism was much more variable than what we are familiar with, though a perusal of the stained-glass windows of three or four cathedrals reveals plenty of variation, and that is in just one Christian sect. Sometimes the eagle holds a snake in its beak, which led, via the Aztecs, to the modern seal of Mexico, seen on its flag:
The eagle grips a snake with beak and talon, standing on a fruiting cactus that grows from a bone-like pedestal standing in water. This is a clear creation-legend image. The oak and laurel leaf clusters are a symbol of sovereignty added in modern times. This image also adorns the back of Mexican coins.If we anointed astronomers and geologists for priests, we, too might find our national consciousness grasping time periods ranging into thousands and millions of years. Instead, we get antsy waiting 60 seconds for the microwave to heat up a sandwich, and the second-most common traffic offense is running a red light, often by someone who already sat there for one whole minute while traffic cleared, and can't stand to wait another half minute for the light to "get around to changing" (the most common offense is speeding).
So how ought we prepare ourselves for Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0? Be nice to people. Forgive you brother for what he said last year. Live like the world really could end, but don't liquidate your long-term investments!
Friday, November 11, 2005
The Wrath of Pat
kw: evolutionary debate, false prophets
It's much in the news today that Pat Robertson threatened Dover, PA with God's wrath because they voted out eight school board members who'd been in favor of introducing "intelligent design" into the curriculum.
Just so you know. I am a Christian. I beleve in God's creation. I also believe that my senses and my mind give me somewhat accurate information about the world around. All, and I mean ALL, the physical evidence we have supports the view that living creatures—bacteria, fungi, protozoa, plants, and animals—were produced by evolutionary processes over spans of time measured in billions of years. Concerning what the Bible says, I see that it leaves plenty of room for all that time and process.
Furthermore, a few verses in Isaiah explicitly state that the condition of the earth in Gen 1:2 was not a result of the initial creation, and this prophet calls God "The One who hideth himself." Isaiah, like many of us, would have preferred God to intervene in a more direct way, rather than "one word then another, a line here and another there, here a little, there a little." God left it to Bill Cosby to tell us the essence of it: when his comic Noah tells God, about an extra male hippo, "You change one of 'em!", God replies, "You know I don't work like that." Indeed.
Jesus said, "God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust." And when Jonah got angry when God changed his mind and didn't destroy Nineveh, God chided him for his lack of mercy, and indeed lack of logic.
I sadly charge my brother with two errors. Firstly, he denies that God left room in the universe for evolution to do its work. Secondly, he misunderstands the work of a prophet, who knows what God plans (because God told him) and reports it; Robertson presumes that God cannot glorify himself without bringing cataclysm on a rural town, mostly composed of Christians.
I guess he'd rather have God kill a bunch of Christians who disagree with his narrow (and I claim, incorrect) view of Creation, than show mercy as the God who says, "Let us reason together." None of the ardent "scientific creationists" or advocates of "intelligent design" that I have met is capable of reason.
It's much in the news today that Pat Robertson threatened Dover, PA with God's wrath because they voted out eight school board members who'd been in favor of introducing "intelligent design" into the curriculum.
Just so you know. I am a Christian. I beleve in God's creation. I also believe that my senses and my mind give me somewhat accurate information about the world around. All, and I mean ALL, the physical evidence we have supports the view that living creatures—bacteria, fungi, protozoa, plants, and animals—were produced by evolutionary processes over spans of time measured in billions of years. Concerning what the Bible says, I see that it leaves plenty of room for all that time and process.
Furthermore, a few verses in Isaiah explicitly state that the condition of the earth in Gen 1:2 was not a result of the initial creation, and this prophet calls God "The One who hideth himself." Isaiah, like many of us, would have preferred God to intervene in a more direct way, rather than "one word then another, a line here and another there, here a little, there a little." God left it to Bill Cosby to tell us the essence of it: when his comic Noah tells God, about an extra male hippo, "You change one of 'em!", God replies, "You know I don't work like that." Indeed.
Jesus said, "God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust." And when Jonah got angry when God changed his mind and didn't destroy Nineveh, God chided him for his lack of mercy, and indeed lack of logic.
I sadly charge my brother with two errors. Firstly, he denies that God left room in the universe for evolution to do its work. Secondly, he misunderstands the work of a prophet, who knows what God plans (because God told him) and reports it; Robertson presumes that God cannot glorify himself without bringing cataclysm on a rural town, mostly composed of Christians.
I guess he'd rather have God kill a bunch of Christians who disagree with his narrow (and I claim, incorrect) view of Creation, than show mercy as the God who says, "Let us reason together." None of the ardent "scientific creationists" or advocates of "intelligent design" that I have met is capable of reason.
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