Joe Tkach Jr. has announced a new WCG blog in his personal. He invites you to go to here http://thesurprisinggodblog.wcg.org/ to make a visit to the WCG theology blog.
Even if you do not sign up, you can still submit a question there by sending an email to theologyblog@wcg.org. Don't hold your breath if you expect an answer to your question.
Certainly this is more of a move towards more openness, but I don't expect the impact of Tkach's secret WCG Church Association bylaws on its own theology to be discussed there. His Excellency, the lifetime Pastor General with the hidden six figure royal salary won't even post a public email address for himself, much less blog openly and responsively on theology.
Maybe the first order of the day should be to change the name of the WCG theology blog to something more systematic, as in some Plain Truth About WCG's Theology. Any suggestions or comments?
9 comments:
Stan, can you check the new wcg blog url? I copied and pasted it into the browser but just got an error message.
I haven't as of this morning yet been able to make Tkach's link work within the wcg.org website proper; but thanks to the resourcefulness of Anne H. the link is now working here.
Thanks, Anne. ;-)
Stan
I dropped a short note under "Adam" on the blog, not expecting it to make it through the editor of course. My comment was this in response to the question...
"Can we say that although Adam may have had a choice; he did not stand a chance?"
I just happend to know all the responders in that thread.
Can we say Pinnochio would have grown more quickly and with less pain had it been made of pine rather than oak?
How dramatically would one's theology change if they were to realize the accounts of Adam and Eve are mythological and were never meant to taken literally?
What if the stories of the "Fall" were not about a fall at all?
What if you can never make a story mean what it never meant?
What if the purpose of Genesis 1-3 were all about the political process in OT Israel of moving the people away from goddess worship, polytheism, and matriarchy to patriarchy and a male priesthood?
What if "Original Sin" was never meant to be any part of the meaning of the Adam and Eve story?
What if these accounts were written by Priests and not a Moses?
What if analyzing the thoughts, ideas, failures and inabilities of Adam and Eve as if they really existed in time and space is a wrong way to approach the topic to begin with?
I think most of you know me. 30 years associated with WCG and 26 of them in the full time ministry in 14 congregations, having come previously from a Presbyterian upbringing.
I'll be teaching the astro-theological origins all religions including Christianity so that should be fun. Malachi wasn't kidding when he said "the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings..." ie..rays. :)
I'm just making a point here about openness in the new WCG. I don't actually expect to see this comment posted. As you can see, I have managed to outgrow the literalism.
Perhaps it's a nice thing to have a place where everyone can talk as long as everyone stays in the box, is part of the club and speaks safely with no real challenges to provoke thinking and not apologetics.
At any rate...
Hi to Richard, who I went to school with and Tim. Especially Tim who I knew as a kid in Findlay when pastor there. I was so sorry to hear about the loss of your dad. You're mom called me. I had hoped to make the funeral but just couldn't. I loved you dad and can picture the many hours of laughs we had in the eight years I pastored Findlay and Mansfield. Hope you are well!
Peace
Den
Hi Dennis,
Surely Richard and Tim would welcome and encourage your postings. But of course, it's not left up to them to them to decide one way or the other.
Tkachjr decides who can comment and about what in this WCG sales pitch, with money from website book sales going towards an unaccredited ACCM. About the only thing Tkach doesn't do is write their comments for them beforehand. What a show trial.
Tkach wrote, "When you make a comment, WE encourage you to use your real name, since WE will be moderating the posts."
So who is WE Tkach refers to as moderating (uh, censoring)?
Tkach and Feazell? Who has the time for all that censorship of opinion? Ted Johnston? The postings began back on August 14, but the hidden moderator "we" on Tkach's God Blog has not been announced.
Stan
Hi Stan,
It's an in house blog for sure. The postings on the trinity are all very self assured witht he appropriate flowery praise. There is one posting in response to Trinitarian doublespeak that offers some cheek so there is hope..ha.
Have been there through it all, and seeing it all back to where I was as a kid growing up, I do have to ask myself "what was that all about?" I guess I can take heart in knowing I was there when the wheel was reinvented and put on a broken wagon.
I am teaching the origins of religion class this evening to some interested clients. It will cover the solar origins of the Christ mythology in the countdown to Xmas and a new cycle which is what the word "Galilee means. Jesus of Circuit. (Galilee (Hebrew: הגליל ha-Galil, Arabic: الجليل al-Jaleel), meaning "circuit") The circuit is the one year trip of the SUN around the signs of the 12 Zodiac signs which parallel the ministry of Jesus and the 12. Fascinating stuff.
I wonder how the COG's and prophecy would fair if they knew that the four beasts with the Face of Bull (Taurus-Spring) Lion (Leo-summer) Eagle (Aquila-fall) and a man (Aquarius-winter) were references to the seasons. Either that or these beast faces being exactly three signs apart in the Zodiac is the world's greatest coincidence.
Anyway...Interesting to me and it explains an awful lot to me about the Bible and what one never is taught or could imagine in our times of not knowing much about the sky.
New Blog Name:
How about Wheelology Blog@WCG.argh?(Wheelology Church of God)
Or "TheJesusSuprisedMeblog.wcg.argh"
:)
Hi Dennis,
I know that the solar origins of Christianity has become your thing, but can I ask just how old are some of these traditions, such as the signs of the zodiac. Some of these ancient sources have been discredited, and it's often suggested they originate maybe only about 2000 years ago.
I am off to do my thing now, so won't get back to any replies for a week or so. (The Feast of Tabernacles thing - no doubt you remember).
Best wishes to all
Hi Questeruk,
Hope you had a great trip. Every fall I feel the urge to get out of Dodge!
The astro-theological tale is very interesting to me but not the only interest. The whole inerrancy issue has captured my attention as years of "questions" piled up as I soaked in the Bible as a pastor.
AT was squashed in the 1700's by the rise of fundamentalism back then but an old old tale. It's a huge topic and part of a bigger picture. In many cases, one's perspective is tied to what one wishes to see, myself included. From my perspective, my sources are not antiquated or discredited. Humans have looked at the sky long before they wrote it down. There is a great book called Star Lore, I believe that shows how old the zodiac characters are in all countries. One would think the characters would be different, but they are surprizingly similar and consistent. I guess Taurus always looks like a bull to the human brain.
I am not set in stone on it, just find it likely in places and fascinating. It certainly would be one of the worlds great religious coincidences if not connected to the dying godman story somehow.
Even more telling to me is that the NT is a cobbled tale more based on OT scripture than any historically provable reality. Matthew, for example tells his entire story of Jesus (badly mostly too) by cobbling OT passages together and making them mean what they never meant. Certainly not an eyewitness account of any kind as we all learned to think in Sunday school.
One can read Paul's authentic letters and never get much of a hint he was speaking about a recently died Jesus. His story all was of a cosmic christ and he cared little if at all for any human Jesus. He often misses great chances to explain Jesus by quoting him, by never quoting him. Paul never knew a human Jesus which is hard for many to swallow. Paul is the author of the gentile version of Christianity we have today, not any human Jesus.
Big story for sure. I took beliefnet.com's famous where do you fit in religion test and came up with neo=pagan in first place. That's quite a jump from being near SDA which is 22nd down my list of who I now seem to be spiritually. Go figure and who knew!
I went into WCG as a Presbyterian kid fascinated with the story of the Bible. I still am fascinated with it but from a much different perspective now.
I like the one quote Cher came up with..."My life has not been perfect, at times it's been downright messy. But it's just me, doing the best I can." That's all we can do as we filter our experiences in our own unique ways.
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