Dad's view on Church (Written by him in 1989 I think)
Were my Dad a religious man, I would have no doubt been a Lutheran, but
since he wasn’t and my Grandparents on my Mother’s side and my Mother
were Reorganized Latter Day Saints, it seemed logical that this first
born would receive instruction in that brand of Judeo-Christianity.
As you could tell by reading chapter one, I spent very little time
thinking seriously about religion, right? Wrong!
In spite of all of the foolishness I did think a lot about religious
stuff from the age of 14 on....but one must remember, that a good RLDS
will have her child dunked in the waters of baptism by the age of 8,....
so I was!
All I can remember about it was how darned cold the water was down there
in the tank in the basement of the Moorhead RLDS church back there on the
12th day of June 1949.
I didn’t know anything, didn’t believe in anything, didn’t even know what
was going on other than it was one of the few times I ever saw my Dad in
church!
We went to church regularly and I got a good dose of memorizing quotes
from the Doctrine & Covenants about how “the fields were white and ready
to harvest”, but like I said in chapter one, it wasn’t until I was
confronted by this 13 year old girl that I realized that I didn’t know
anything about Christianity, just Mormonism!
I only remember going to one church camp and a few Zion’s League parties,
but I would say that I probably received more religious training from
Garner Ted Armstrong on the radio late at night as I was driving home
from a date than any where else!
I presume it was a combination of that, and Mormonism as to why it was so
easy to get involved in the Identity Movement, but I am getting way ahead
of my story.
I remember getting into discussions in school history class about the
various ways the Indians got to the Western Hemisphere. Of course I was
taught that RLDS kids know, but the teachers don’t! In fact, from day one
you are taught that you belong to the only true church on the face of the
earth and all the others are an abomination to God! What a load for a 8
year old to take with him to school!
After I got out of Barber College in 1960, because I was around my RLDS
Grandfather, I decided to read the book of Mormon in my spare time
between customers. I was well versed in how the RLDS church says that the
book came about, but had never read it.
My experience was one of surprise to me because I hated to read. In fact
during my four years in High School, I only had to give two book reports
and I managed to give them on the same book, because one time it was in
9th grade and the next time it was in 11th and I had different English
teachers those two years so they didn’t know what I was doing.
I couldn’t put that book down. I had a terrible time cutting hair for
about a week because I stayed up all night reading. It would make me
disgusted when a
customer would come in for a haircut because I would have to put the book
down. I was impressed and believed it totally. n fact, I believed it so
much I organized some of my friends and once a week instead of tearing
around and such we would meet and study the book. That is until I ran
into my first situation with Mormon hierarchy.
I was called on the carpet by the Priesthood and informed that since I
wasn’t in the Priesthood that I couldn’t do what I was doing. This was a
real shock to me and a let down because, being obedient to my spiritual
leaders, I turned it over to them and they didn’t follow through and the
classes dissolved.
Later on I was summoned to the District President’s office and informed
that several had informed him and he admitted himself that he had
evidence, that I was to be called to the Priesthood, but he had checked
and found that I wasn’t paying my tithing and something about me having a
dance band and not being in control was going to cause him to hold up on
the call until I got my act together and then he said, “If you ever tell
of this conversation I will deny it.”
I learned early on the importance of having a tape recorder on oneself.
My view [back in those days] was that if the B of M was true and if I
could get 10-15 kids to study it and if others had evidence as well as my
own testimony about the call then maybe God knew what He was doing and
these hypocrites who were more interested in checking your bank balance
might have been out of line with God’s will.
Now days, I see it was all a joke!
This early on caused me to think that these ’Callings’ were a fake. I did
believe back at that time that some were really called,....I don’t think
so anymore.
I didn’t enter into any real detailed studying at that time. No crash
program. Just gradual learning more and more. Asking a lot of questions
and getting darn few answers that satisfied me. My studies included
Doctrine & Covenants, Book of Mormon, Church History and hardly no Bible
other than the Bible verses that seemed to point towards Mormonism.
Business wasn’t too great and I thought that next to moving to
Independence, Mo. where the Garden of Eden was and where Christ was going
to land when he returned the next best place would Lamoni Iowa. We were
there only two months, I think. Nearly starved to death and discovered
that the RLDS second largest stronghold wasn’t anything to get very
excited about spiritually.
There was a double murder and suicide right on the church campus and
about as much anti-Mormonism as pro was being taught and I just wanted to
get out so we went back to Moorhead, Iowa.
What studies I did, caused me to see more and more discrepancies and
since ‘God is not the author of confusion’, Saul of Tarsus tells us, then
what was going on? Just the fact that the differences between the RLDS
and Utah churches were taught and it seemed like the differences in most
part stemmed from statements of Joseph Smith in the latter part of his
life. So it was quite easy for an RLDS to just write off what was done
from 1840 on and chalk it up to the idea that Joseph had fallen from
grace and the last few years these ‘revelations’ were of man, instead of
God.
When one starts working himself backward in history you wonder where it
is going to stop. I have known several people who have embarked on the
same trip as I, and shortly after getting their feet wet, could see where
they were going and jumped back on shore. I was so indoctrinated with
the idea that there was a ‘One and Only True Church’ that if the RLDS
wasn’t it, then I wanted to know where it was and join it.
Suddenly, a shock...my Grandfather died! It was April 18, 1966. Little
did I know right then, that something that had taken place back in 1925,
would have such an impact on my life.
One day my Grandmother asked me if I would like to have Grandpa’s shoe
box full of church papers. Of course I said yes, and as I lay upon my bed
and read through the material I came to a little blue pamphlet written a
Daniel McGreggor and autographed by him. I discovered later that he had
been RLDS and had discovered very disturbing information and had printed
it in this booklet and traveled around giving them out to RLDS folks. My
Grandfather never left the RLDS church, but he always kept this little
booklet which now was in my hands. It was a simple message. It just
proved without a shadow of a doubt that man had changed the original
revelations and changed them in such a way as to give power to men that
the God of the Bible or Book of Mormon didn’t allow or even hint at. I
wasn’t thinking clearly at the time and it made me so angry that I
remember throwing this booklet clear across the room and yelling after
it, “How dare you say that about Joseph!”
The booklet lay there in the corner for two weeks and then I picked it up
to shove it into a drawer and I noticed something else in it and I got
angry again. Well, after one or two such sessions, I read it all the way
through and couldn’t refute it so I contacted the Church Historian in
Independence, Mo. and asked if it was possible if these things were true
and he not only assured me that they were but got out a bunch of books
for me, to prove it to myself.
The changing of the revelations took place between 1833 and 1835 and the
only church I knew of that taught this theory was the “Church of Christ
(Temple Lot)”
So we contacted them and this began a series of many months of visits and
very detailed letter to us and from us. Doctrines were discussed and to
my satisfaction [at that time] questions were answered. Something that
happened at one of their meetings confirmed to me that they had something
that the RLDS didn’t have. They had a guest speaker (one of their
Apostles from Canada) who at the closing of the service while the
congregation was still singing the closing hymn stepped over to whisper
something into the ear of the Pastor. A confused look came over the
Pastor’s face and the services came to the closing prayer and we were
dismissed. After dinner, I was told that their Apostle had it made known
to him that I was to be called the office of Elder and what had caused
the concern was that I didn’t belong to the Temple Lot church. I was
still RLDS at this time. Apparently they too, couldn’t figure out that
God could choose who He wanted with out them fitting you into a certain
pigeonhole that they had created.
As study went on and it came time to make a decision, a I indicated that
I wanted to switch churches something strange took place. All of a sudden
we had to do an ‘Authority Search’. The very nature of the Restoration
Movement teaches that all other churches are wrong and that no one has
authority to minister for God unless they receive the ‘restored’
authority as it was passed from John Baptist, Peter, James & John to
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, Since that authority had been absent
from the earth for 1,200 years. Now the problem was to make sure that the
one who baptized me into the RLDS church was baptized, himself, by
someone who received his authority from one of the early church people.
Well, what started out to be similar to a title search mixed with a
genealogy microfiche man hunt, ended up with them saying that they just
couldn’t be sure and thought it would be a good idea if I was re-
baptized. All I wanted to do was switch, not fight, so I consented!
That took place on January 1, 1967, in Independence, Mo.
I thought it interesting that when I notified the RLDS church that I
wanted to drop my membership that I had all sorts of big-shots coming to
visit me and try to make me change my mind, but three months later when
my wife, after extensive study on her own came to the same conclusion and
requested her name removed as well, there was no problem!
We had studied the RLDS inside and out. The early church had no
President, nor First Presidency. Neither did the church in 1830, but
after the revelations were changed, the there was authority to create
something that wasn’t in the Bible or Book of Mormon church. Men being
High Priest in the New Testament church of the Bible or Book of Mormon
was not in the revelations. Three heavens, Three Nephites, Three Gods,
Three Jerusalem’s,.....it was all getting too confusing!
One of the things that I found that I couldn’t believe in the RLDS church
was the Crystal Ball mentality or the Astrological type forecast of the
patriarchal blessing. Talk about something ruling your lives.
I think that one of the main characteristics of a cult is the belief that
they are the only church that is right and all the others are wrong. Out
of all the various beliefs of the many churches I have attended in my
life I think this ‘Only True Church’ is the most dangerous.
Even after I finally got out of it entirely, (and I am getting ahead of
my story again), I still had it in my head that there was a ‘True Church’
out there somewhere and I desperately wanted to find and join it. That
concept eventually got so saturated into me that I began to think that I
was the only one who knew the truth and that everyone else was wrong. It
was nothing but a direct seed planted in the mind of a young by an RLDS
church tract that had grown to it’s maturity.
I have come to the conclusion that there is no true church, in fact, I
believe it is a concept that is all a farce. But belonging to a church
that realizes it’s limitations may be, to a certain extant, necessary
because it fills a need in those of us who are not strong enough to
handle life without a crutch.
Enough for digressing. Let’s get back to the Temple Lot church. I had my
little card and my little list of how to conduct funerals and marriages
and my little arsenal of books that proved that the RLDS and UTAH church
were wrong and I was set.
I was invited to accompany an Apostle on a missionary trip to Tennessee.
It was my first time out and I wanted to make a good impression, so I
studied very hard and delivered a sermon on the subject,” Our body was
the temple of the Holy Spirit”. After my talk, all hell broke loose with
the Apostle because he apparently had used verses that I had quoted to
prove the need for a Literal Temple of stone and brick. We finally got it
patched up because what I said and what he said I said were two different
things, and this time I had a tape recorder on me. When I played it back,
it was end of discussion time!
The Temple Lot church was so obsessed with a temple building and the fact
that they owned the land for it that they missed some very main points I
felt. Nevertheless, as time went on at a conference in Independence, Mo.
I was called by revelation to the office of ‘Seventy’. I was asked what I
felt about the call and even though it is a prestigious office and
desired by some I said, “How can it be of God since there is no such
office?” That upset the troops, but it’s true!
We were all a prayer and fasting bunch. One time my wife and I had a
mutual experience that to this day I can’t explain. We were all to gather
and spend the whole forenoon in prayer and fasting prior to the business
meeting in the afternoon.
While knelt in prayer with my eyes closed, all of a sudden a bright light
like someone had been standing right behind me with a strobe light. It
was so bright that even with my eyes closed I still saw the light. I
remember turning around and looked right into the face of a man who was
knelt behind me praying with his eyes closed who wasn’t even aware that
anything had happened. I turned back and closed my eyes again and then
had what seemed to be a dream, but I was awake! I saw the Temple Lot as
from a distance and the clouds getting darker and darker until you
couldn’t hardly make it out. Then from the sky came that same burst of
bright light and it came down like slow motion lightning and just before
it hit the Temple Lot Church, it ;flared out as if there was an invisible
dome over the church and the light as hard as it tried could not get in
side. Now I don’t remember a voice, but was made to understand in my mind
that God was trying to get through but something dark and wrong inside
the church was preventing it. I was so amazed by this that I suggested to
my wife that we get out of there for a while. This we did and after we
had got out to the car and drove a ways she said that something strange
had happened in the service and that she had seen a bright light. Well,
then I told her what had happened to me and we went back to the service.
By the time we got back in there they had switched to a Testimony service
and I stood to reveal to them what had happened. Then the second most
puzzling thing happened. As I stood there with tears flowing down my
cheeks in pleading with these people, all of a sudden, it was like I had
stepped back a couple of feet and could see myself and I had a clear
glass cylinder around me and no one could hear me. Needless, to say, I
thought someone was trying to tell me something and after several visits
and letters of correspondence trying to make sense out of all of this, we
left the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), first as a priesthood member and
then as a general member!
Remember, I still had this idea that there had to be a ‘true’ church
somewhere, and I was convinced because of the Book of Mormon, that it had
to be in Mormonism somewhere. There are several smaller groups in
Mormonism and we investigated them all and ended up without any church,
but held onto the Book of Mormon, fully convinced that it was true and
that bringing it forth was Joseph Smith’s ONLY job or calling and that
everything he did from that time that the manuscript went to the printer
was man made!
About this time, I was introduced to tapes of a Pentecostal preacher from
North Carolina. This in turn, led us to a church group in Illinois.
Later, we became involved in a Pentecostal church in Marshalltown, Iowa
and that preacher convinced me that the Book of Mormon was false, and
thus the last of Mormonism was gone. What I had traded it for proved to
be worse. I thought things in Mormonism were illogical, but looking back
on it now, Pentecostalism was strictly a ‘take it on faith’ sort of deal,
because not only was it not scriptural, but it didn’t even make sense.
I have to admit that they we friendlier people than I had ever
experienced in Mormonism. When you leave Mormonism, not only do you lose
your belief, but you leave most of your friends, because just the nature
of Mormonism causes you to have very few friends outside of the cult. So,
when you forsake it, you find yourself friendless. In our case even the
majority of the relatives were Mormon, so not only friends but relatives
turned their back on us. Do you see, even though the teachings of
Pentecostalism were off base to me, it was so good to have a friend or
two that I tolerated it for a while. When it came to the point that they
felt that there was something wrong with me because I couldn’t ‘talk in
tongues’ and they were trying to force feed me that Henry Kissinger was
the Anti-Christ, I just had to get out.
Now, where do we go? I had an opportunity to buy a business in
Northwood, Iowa and did it. I made up my mind that the whole religious
thing was a joke and I was through with it. I packed up my books and the
next four years concentrated on my business. My wife got involved with
the Lutheran Choir, but I stayed clear of the whole darned mess.
I was interested in only one thing pertaining to religion and that was a
minister who sounded a lot like the good old days of listening to Garner
Ted Armstrong. His name was Sheldon Emry.
Beings that he reminded me of Armstrong, I attended one of the Armstrong
churches in Albert Lea, Minn. but it didn’t fill the need. I had to find
out more about this radio minister, Sheldon Emry.
At this period in time, I moved to Southwest Iowa, just to get out of the
cold Iowa winters. Much to my surprise, my wife had moved too many times
and been involved in too many religious adventures and when the time came
for her and the kids to move down, she said “NO”! and sent instead,
divorce papers!
In this new town, all alone, the only person who showed any interest in
being my friend was a Pentecostal Preacher. (Here we go again) I finally
convinced my wife to come back to me and move down and we got ;back into
;church things with this Pentecostal Church.
All of the time I was involved in the Pentecostal church, I was listening
to the Sheldon Emry tapes and it was just a matter of time when the two
doctrines could clash!
I discovered that this Sheldon Emry’s radio church in Phoenix, AZ. had a
branch in Omaha, NE., so we started going there. Then I attended one of
the Emry conferences and from that got invited to another conference. I
took my video camera to that conference and after the meetings, so many
wanted copies of his talks, I decided that this might be a way of
ministering by sharing the messages, so we went into the video taping the
conferences business.
To my surprise, what I thought was a religious group, I discovered
speakers on all sorts of subjects were showing up at these conferences.
Some of the speakers were very controversial and when these tapes started
showing up all over the country, with my name on it, I started to get
‘set-up’ by people of the press. Out takes from videos were shown on TV
and I was presented as being responsible for what they said, whether in
or out of context and thanks to the press, I finally was harassed out of
business. This was the last straw.
I tried to sell the house and move to Arizona. We had checked with
Chambers of Commerce all over the country looking for a place to move
that would be good for my wife’s arthritis and once we found it I am here
and she and the kids are back in Iowa because she has had it and wants
nothing to do with me anymore. (I can’t blame her for that).
Some more needs to be said about the Identity days (that is what the
press refereed to the Emry sermons), because I don’t know what you kids
were told about it.
The Identity movement is very Anti-Black and Jew have Blacks and Jews
for customers. I don’t believe in racial mixing in marriage because of
the possibility of genetic problems, such as diseases that are common to
one race affecting the children of the mixed union. I don’t want anything
to do with the Jewish religion, because I have studied it. Enough said!
This doesn’t make me to want to go out and kill Blacks and Jews! However,
I saw a lot of people in the Identity Movement that felt that way. The
strange thing was that at about the same time that I was seeing that it
was wrong and I was thinking of getting out of it is when I was attacked.
I made a statement at the same time that I thought our nation was in
danger and great stress if we made a ;National Holiday for Martin Luther
King. At that, the people in Red Oak, nearly went crazy and started
writing letters to the editor against me, my children were harassed in
school not only by ignorant children, but by the teachers as well. I
received obscene phone calls, and orders to get out of town, threats of
physical violence to me and even death threats.
Also, at that time, I had an impostor come to my door claiming to be from
the IRS and flashed a badge of some sort, accused me of being a tax
protester and informed me that my name had come out on their computer
print-out. I checked with a Mr. Sam Davis with the IRS in Atlantic, Iowa
and he told me he didn’t even know me and assured me that He didn’t know
of any agent in our part of the state. It looked to me that someone was
going to get hurt and I sure didn’t want my kids involved in this, so
this is when we got you kids out of the public school system. I contacted
the local police, the county sheriff, the local representative of the
highway patrol who lived just up the street and was a customer of mine
and I contacted the Omaha office of the FBI. Now the purpose of all of
this was to invite them to view any or all of my video tapes, of which
the media said was so bad. Not only that, but the law had made some
mistakes in the recent past months in killing of a person in Nebraska who
was accused of some of the very same things these people in Red Oak were
accusing me of!
I sure didn’t want some trigger happy cop tearing into my family with M-
16’s.
The local people who were most likely to have been involved in this never
even responded to my letter, but three different FBI agents came to our
house once and asked what this was all about and if they could help!
After a long and friendly visit, they invited me to their office if we
had anymore trouble and I invited them to drop in if they were in the
area. I honestly believe that I was instrumental in calming down some
people by my visits with these agents and I, if anything was working with
them in trying to eliminate a blood bath at my house! I felt as long as
he still had some sort of freedom of speech that I could have an opinion
without having to have my family and my life threatened.
One time a Lauri Jewit, from KWWL TV in Waterloo, Iowa got some of my
video tapes under false pretense and harassed me personally on her TV
show. A Tom Ginsberg, wrote a slanderous attack against me in an A.P.
release which cause me great trouble. He even called me and told me he
was going to do it and informed me that the press could make or break
anyone they wanted to. What this smart ass did next was to call the
Department of Revenue and suggest to them that I wasn’t paying sales
tax,....which of course was a lie but it got me in trouble with those
people for a day or so until they checked in their computer.
But, as big a creep as he was, his timing wasn’t the greatest because
when he called me and threatened me, I had the phone call recorded and
have it to this day, and guess who just happened to be sitting there
visiting with me and picked up the extension phone and listened to him?
Two agents from the FBI. Ain’t it great?
I don’t know if the agency made some phone calls or what, but right after
that, things calmed down but the damage had been done and in their weird
way in Red Oak, these very patriotic people decided to starve us out by
boycotting my Barber Shop. It worked, and after a few months of having my
business drop by 75% we decided to get the heck away from those
despicable people. Why your mother wants to continue to live there only
can be guessed at. I think that she has such a hatred for me that she
feels comfortable in a town that hates me as well. She is in friendly
territory, so to speak. I just think it is the most unfair thing to pull
on the two girls, to be forced to go to school in a town where they are
harassed and where their father is ill spoken of all the time!
I want to close chapter two out with a few observations. I think Doctrine
is one of the most dangerous things you may ever come in contact with
because it causes strife. Doctrine is quite often mistaken for religion.
I think that the Bible is a compilation of allegories, mythology, wishful
thinking, folklore, Jewish philosophy,....some of it is good advise and
some of it is destructive.
I think if you feel you must read it, it could be read and studied as one
would the Koran. I don’t think it can be trusted as the infallible word
of God. Even if it started out as that, it has been tampered with too
much by man.
When I consider what designing men under the view of the press and the
skeptical eye of relatives and non-member neighbors, did to the Book of
Commandments and early revelations of the Mormon Church, think what could
have been done behind wall of a synagogue or monastery to what many call
the “HOLY” Bible!
It appears to be a book written about the Jews, for the Jews and by the
Jews. Which creates a history for them, as well as a threat to the rest
of the world’s people to leave them alone or their God will get then and
punish them, because they after all are ‘God’s Chosen Race.”
It puts them in pre-eminence above all other races. I was called a White
Supremacist for making these views and opinions, and yet I defy anyone to
read the Bible and not see that it teaches Jewish Supremacy. If believing
that one race is superior to another is wrong then the Bible is wrong in
it’s racist teachings.
The Book of Mormon, I have very little explanation for. It seems that it
is a copy of the Bible. An attempt to parallel the Bible just closely
enough to make it seem legitimate while at the same time laying the
ground work for a new religion. The carry-over of errors in translation
from the King James into the text of the Book of Mormon should be enough
to show anyone it is a fraud!
As far as the Baptist, Pentecostal and ;such, their Babbling, Raptures,
Future Anti-Christs, Kingdom Postponement theories and Spook under every
bed, can the most part be blamed on the Bible. But under investigation,
fall even short of being doctrine taught in the Bible. Man’s twisting and
bending of verses cause these false doctrines, but those who will not
study will fall for them.
In the Identity Movement, the very thing they hate, they promote to the
limit. They have a hatred for the Jews and yet their promoters preach St.
Paul, who was the author of much of the Jewish philosophy that is found
in the Bible. To be Anti-Paul is unthinkable to the Identity people. And
yet the main oppress to their doctrine is that character inn the New
Testament, called Saul of Tarsus!
So what is the end result? The Baptist do nothing about corrupt
government because they think they are going to go in the Rapture and it
is God’s will to let the devil have the world for a while anyway.
The Pentecostals fall into the same category. They have an edge though,
as long as they can talk in tongues then can live an immoral or crooked
life and feel that they still have the Holy Ghost. That is as illogical
as sinning all Friday night and then going to confession on Saturday
morning and having the slate wiped clean by some priest, hiding behind a
sliding window.
Some of these people have stood out on a hillside after selling at 10
cents on the dollar all their belongings in hopes of flying off in the
Rapture that isn’t even in the Bible.
The end result of the Identity Movement if carried to the limit, one will
go out and purchase an M-79 or a mini-14 and go out and kill blacks, Jews
and whites who race mix and who do not believe as they do.
Where do I stand today? What have I learned?
I still have a lot of unanswered questions and maybe it will be
beneficial to mention them here.
Was the man Moses a real person or like the name implies, a Mosaic of
heroic religious leaders, statesmen, etc. mixed with folklore and a bit
of wishful thinking? Did the creators of the Bible want to make a history
and a hero for their race and just concocted this man Moses out of their
minds?
Another of these great leaders is Abraham. Now if he was such a great
obedient man of God, then why would he drag his kid up the hill to Murder
him when he had just been told that he would be the father of many
nations and this was his ONLY heir? Besides that, this perversion of
cutting off part of a baby boy’s penis when this God (who does not
change) said not to cut the flesh. Do you believe this is of God or is
this just a Jewish philosophy book?
Then their is the resurrection! Nearly everyone wants to believe in a
resurrection....they want to believe that they are going to live forever.
I am inclined to believe that what ever it is that makes our hear beat,
whether you want to call it God or Spirit of God, is the same power that
makes a pig’s heart beat.
I don’t believe that there is some invisible man in side my body that
will keep on keepin’ on, after my flesh body goes to the grave. I don’t
believe that this invisible man is going to fly off to heaven (where ever
that is) when I die! I have even debated the subject of heaven,
suggesting that perhaps it is a 4th dimension right here on earth that we
can not see.
Many teach a physical resurrection and yet when you pin them down and
they see that they are talking to someone who is blind or crippled, they
say, “well, I believe we will be resurrected with a perfect body.”
That is somehow supposed to make that poor soul feel better and look
forward to death. Never mind that it was this God of Love that put you on
this earth like that. Mormonism teaches that when you die that this inner
man flies off to any one of several heavens and after thousands of years
(for some) of being totally free of the hindrance of the physical body,
they will be rewarded with another physical body of flesh and bone (no
Blood) and get on with eternity. Sounds like zombie time to me! However
the Bible says that the life is in the blood, so what sort of creature is
religion teaching that you will eventually become if you are a good
little boy & girl?
Then there is their devil. This creature is supposed to have been created
by God. And everything that God created was “very good” the bible
says,...then
what sort of a God are we talking about here? God is supposed to be all
knowing and all powerful and yet it seems to me that this God created a
devil to torture, tempt, starve, mutilate his creatures, at random,
whether they were good or bad. And all we see this God doing is NOTHING!
Let’s compare this Heavenly Father with an earthly father: If an earthly
father would do only 1% to his own children as what this Heavenly Father
has done, through this devil or directly, he would be put in the electric
chair and the populace would cheer at his death!
What about this God who sat on his spiritual Omnipotent hands and watched
as all these little boy babies were slaughtered so that Moses could
emerge the one and only?
What about this all knowing God who couldn’t plan ahead a way to come
into the world as a baby, without having, who knows how many, boy babies
murdered so that Joseph would take Jesus to Egypt, (so the scriptures
could be fulfilled”)?
What about today? What about this God who allows all of this war and
famine and the starving of little children and the maiming of them and
people fleeing before tanks and flame throwers when he could with a flick
of a finger stop all of this carnage, if he wanted to. It must be quite a
spectator sport from up there in heaven.
Don’t tell me he is a personal God who lives in your heart! I don’t
believe it!
Are all people called to a priesthood, or just some select few, make
mini-gods of themselves?
Look what Hollywood has done to our people. They teach witchcraft,...but
what if there are no such things? They teach devil and demon possession,
but what if there is no devil?
They make movies about dying and going to heaven,...but what if there is
no heaven?
I think what we are seeing on the screen is “BIBLE;THE SEQUEL”. I think
the same people who wrote the Bible are developing credence for it in the
movies.
I am just as inclined to believe in an Easter Bunny and Santa Claus as I
am a Devil.
I think we can say something similar to the Christian Priests of today,
like Elijah asked the Baal Priests of long ago....where is your God? Is
he on a trip? Is he asleep? Why doesn’t he care about the suffering on
HIS planet?
And what about the Biblical view of marriage? Marriage because of our
biblical hang ups and up-bringing has turned into a dream come true for
the lawyers. The very people Christ spoke out against.!
Well, what does one do? In my opinion, I could be just as comfortable
attending church at a Utah LDS church service or RLDS church service, as
an Assembly of God service, if they would stop force feeding their
doctrine. If some how you can let their doctrine fall off of you like
water off a duck’s back then I think it probably wouldn’t be any worse
than watching TV on Sunday Morning.
Now this is speaking from an adult standpoint. As far as whether you want
your children brainwashed by their foolishness is up to you. Be careful,
because it could fall into the category of spiritual child abuse. It was
for me!
It is desperately important to have moral fellowship. The worse the world
gets, it is more and more important that you and your family grow up in
the surroundings of people who have moral standards and an honest concern
for your well being. Knowing that there is some group or even one person
who cares about you and your problems can make the difference between
keeping on and suicide. In a church group, you can usually find someone
who has it tougher than you and that in most cases will help you out of
your problems, by helping someone else. Some churches will fill your
need. My need has changed over the years. I started out ‘needing’ to get
answers. No one could fill that need. Now I desperately need to be loved!
Songs in churches quite often teach doctrine that go contrary to your
thinking, but often times the songs are uplifting and cause no harm that
I can see. Prayers do no harm that I know of, other than passing the buck
onto a fictitious God to do something for you that you (if you had a
little ambition could do yourself.
Prayers may sound illogical, but if they are sincere they reveal to you,
the heart of that person, and that allows you to help them if you are so
inclined.
Most church services are uplifting, if you are down. I would recommend
that you stay away from the Sunday School classes, for these are designed
for indoctrination or debate. Not Healthy!
Some pass the test by their kindness and their concern...other just pass
the plate!
My recommendation (if you feel you must attend church) is to seek out a
church in which you can serve your fellow man, not just be a donator and
as pew warmer. Over look it’s doctrine. If such a situation is not
possible and they insist on shoving their doctrine down your throat or
that of your kids, then run, don’t walk to the service clubs in your town
and work there. Clubs like the Optimist and Lions do more for mankind
with out the religious junk than most of the churches anyway.
If it is nothing but Scouts, or PTAS or softball or bowling. What ever it
takes to do things with your family and other families.
Whether there is a personal God, or a Creator God who set this all in
motion, revealed his laws or nature and then let us work this out or
whether there is no God at all, my suggestion is to live as good a life
as you can and please try to benefit from the mistakes of your father.
Be good and honest. Live a moral life. Raise your chidden in a moral
surrounding. Don’t do anything to hurt your children or to bring shame to
them like I have done. Do everything in your power to hold your marriage
together, because losing your family is like losing your life.
I love you all, very much. Please forgive me!