Spanky wants your Xmas cash

The Lordly Presiding Evangelist speaketh:

...I would like to ask all of you [LCG ministers] to announce to the brethren that... the income for the Work has fallen off precipitously in the last few days! We don’t know if this is a continuing trend, but it is possible since the genuine financial crisis is affecting so many people. We do ask, however, that—according to each one’s ability—all of our brethren try to respond to this need. In a period like this, God’s Work must go on! We must keep on growing and having an impact on the world to prepare for the end of this age, as the warning message we have been preaching has been surely coming to pass as never before.

So I ask all of you to urge the brethren to give as generously as they are able, and ask everyone to pray fervently with me and all of us here at Headquarters that God will truly bless and deliver the Work at this time. I will be praying that God will help you, bless you and inspire you as you continue in His service and guide the brethren to do likewise. Thank you, dear brethren, from the heart.

Can't be long before Rod calls another fast. Dig deep dear brethren!

Holy Father!

Now here's a nifty idea. Yes, it's the best way for good Catholics to search the Web. Not sure about bad Catholics or the "cafeteria" variety, but I can see Jared making excellent use of this new site.

CatholicGoogle is a custom search engine powered by Google, just for Catholics. We strive to provide an easy to use resource to anyone wanting to learn more about Catholicism and provide a safer way for good Catholics to surf the web.

This site is powered by Google using "safe search" technology, it produces results from all over the internet with more weighting to given to Catholic websites and eliminates the vast majority of unsavoury content, such as pornography. The site is not associated or affiliated with Google.com, we work closely with Google to help ensure that the adverts are not objectionable in nature, however, some of the results and adverts that are displayed may not be in line with Catholic doctrine and we do not endorse of any of the results or adverts displayed on Catholic Google.

Now, what we need is COG Google. Hmm... maybe that's too broad... UCG and LCG would fight over top listings, and could we in good conscience include Weinland or Dankenbring? Somehow I suspect AW would appear way down those listings. Anyway, the idea has merit, right? The Information Superhighway personalized for your denominational preference. But what next? Atheist Google, Taliban Google? Branch Davidian Google?

Death of Sabbath scholar

Dr Samuele Bacchiocchi, a Seventh-day Adventist scholar well known in Church of God circles, has died after a long battle with cancer. Bacchiocchi, a prolific writer, was author of From Sabbath to Sunday, and two books on the Holy Days which are often found on church members' book shelves. His website is biblicalperspectives.com. Of Italian descent, he was the first non-Catholic to be accepted for study at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Abrahamic Faith: Intro to Series

Over recent days I've had a fascinating exchange of emails with Dr James Tabor, author of The Jesus Dynasty, and leading figure in the new Jesus Project (not to be confused with the earlier Jesus Seminar) and a respected scholar who teaches at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr Tabor's graciousness and patience in dealing with an obnoxious and opinionated undergraduate theology student has been remarkable. It is surely a measure of the man that he relates to both ends of the theological spectrum with a generosity of spirit uncharacteristic of many of his peers.

Initially I intended to upload a review of his book Restoring Abrahamic Faith, either here or on AW's sister blog, Otagosh. That's now on hold, partly because of its length, and partly because it's still very much a work in progress. In its place will be a series of loosely related postings. The first - touching on the so-called "Lost Tribes" - is due to appear on AW tomorrow.

Comments on these postings are welcome, but will appear in one place (rather than under each individual item) and will be subject to a stricter standard of moderation than other threads.

For those interested in securing a copy of Restoring Abrahamic Faith, information is available at genesis2000.org.

Update: These postings are now also on hold. Perhaps in the new year...

Survey update

British researcher David V Barrett reports a lot of interest in his online questionnaire into the Worldwide Church of God offshoot churches. He advises: "If you haven't filled out the questionnaire there are only a couple of weeks left to do so -- up to the end of the year and perhaps three or four days into the new year. Don't worry if not all the questions are applicable to you; just answer those that are. Even if you only answer half the questions this will still be helpful. And a huge thank you to all those of you who have already completed the questionnaire."

The questionnaire is at www.quest.thenewbelievers.com (the password is six letters immediately followed by four numbers: the town where HWA first began his radio ministry, and the year this occurred). More information about David Barrett's study can be found here, and some further background in the sidebar.

Comments on Abrahamic Faith Postings

Comments are invited on a series of postings to be loosely based around James Tabor's privately published book, Restoring Abrahamic Faith. These comments will be will be more strictly moderated than other threads, and should be on topic, and issues-focused. The objective on this thread is a thoughtful, non-polemic discussion minus cheap shots. Comments will be published here, rather than under the individual entries. The introductory piece in the series will be online tomorrow.

Excuse me Ronnie - the Pope's a better prophet than thou

The Great Tribulation has (to borrow someone else's one-liner) re-begun. The End is Nigh. Re-pant (and you know if that applies to you), or at the very least repent, and believe in God's messenger! No, not Jesus, what's he got to do with it? No, I mean Ronnie Weinland.

Ronnie, ably assisted by newly ordained wife Laura (when did women's ordination become standard practice in the splinters?), is the Eternal's number one bloke: Numero Uno of the Two Witnesses. 2008 is the year of doom... and the calendar is running out of available dates.

Ronnie is, of course, a true Christian. We know this because he "keeps" the Sabbath, pays tithes (to himself?) and won't eat bacon and egg pie. On the other hand, we know that Papa Ratzinger is a false Christian because he's Catholic, prays the Lord's Prayer, wears funny clothes and has set up a Christmas Tree in St Peter's Square.

But here's the thing: Papa R seems to know something Ronnie doesn't. Yes folks, we've got a real prophecy smackdown here! My money is on the old guy with the German accent.

Thanks to fellow Kiwi blogger, the mysterious Que, for pointing this out.

Through Much Tribulation

The 14th of December has fully come, at least here in New Zealand, where the midnight hour has already struck, and fear not (or perhaps fear greatly), it will be arriving elsewhere in due course.

This is the beginning of the Second Weinland Tribulation.

Ron, a former WCG and UCG minister who founded his own breakaway sect, got it awfully wrong first time around: the Trib was confidently announced for April 17 this year. Oops! But give the guy a break, anyone can make a mistake, right? Today it finally all comes crashing down around us, though Ron says this is in a prophetic sense rather than a literal one, and the faithful followers shouldn't be too perturbed if nothing dramatic actually occurs today. In fact he says nothing may happen for up to a year. In that case, what's the point of the three and a half year period?

This distinction between a prophetic sense and a literal one is a ham-fisted attempt at a stroke of genius. Exactly what he means is a bit cloudy as Ron is a pretty literal-minded kind of fellow, but it should at least buy Ron a few days of grace - or a few months from his denser admirers - before the disturbing and difficult questions start popping up. Questions like: what on earth was Ron really doing with that Swiss bank account he now admits to having?

We know how Ron said he'd handle disconfirmation the first time round: he said he'd admit to being a false prophet and get out of the Bible-bashing business. Of course God was merciful, and faithful Ron was given new insight (the 50th Truth!) - complete with a spiffy new countdown to wow the credulous sheep with - so thankfully the poor man didn't have to back down and keep his word, or, perish the thought - apologize.

But what happens if - heaven forbid! - Ron gets it wrong this time too? I haven't been following the great man's words too closely, but it seems he's not loudly repeating the "get out of Dodge" line from before.

And hey, Ron could be right. All that Xmas shopping and office partying poses a good deal of tribulation after all, not to mention the inevitable arrival of the Visa and MasterCard accounts in January. From such catastrophes Ron and his Santa-free flock will no doubt be divinely protected. Whether the little band of true believers, who have been hanging on Ron's every gracious word for months now, will continue to take the Witless One seriously when no German soldiers appear to goose-step down the main street in Puyallup, Washington... well, only time will tell.

The Gospel from Godsden and a Doudna debunk

AW correspondent Paco unearths a new COG website:

Today I came across a home-made looking booklet titled "The PLAIN TRUTH about Christmas." Clearly produced on a copy machine, the booklet's contents are straight out of Armstrongism, circa 1960. The only clue as to who produced it is found on the last page, which simply lists the web address www.RevelationsOfTheBible.com.

Be sure to put on your sunglasses (or perhaps a welder's mask) before going to the site. "Garish" does not begin to describe the use of colors, print, fonts and layout. The site's owner identifies himself as "James Anthony Roach" (Jim Roach?) of "Godsden, Alabama." The entire site is a rehash of the most speculative elements and hardcore doctrines of Armstrongism. He has a countdown clock to August 31, 2010. Sample at your own risk.

A quick look indicates that UCG needn't worry too much about having their GN magazine site toppled from first place in the COG web rankings.

The election of Barack Obama brought a range of nutty conspiracy-type theories out for an airing. Greg Doudna, author of Showdown at Big Sandy and an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, takes time out to pop a few of those balloons with an article called "A Full and Complete Transcription of a Phone Call between Ron McRae and Sarah Onyango Obama of Kenya on Oct. 16, 2008, which has been wrongly alleged to contain a statement by Barack Obama Jr.'s grandmother that Barack Obama Jr. was born in Kenya." Not content with that, Greg, tongue in cheek I suspect, has even given it an alternate title: The Tale of The Secret Kenyan Birth: A Strange Story of a Transatlantic Telephone Call, a Fateful Confusion Over the Meaning of the Word "Present", and a Brief Excursion into the Wonderful World of Conspiracy Theory in American Politics.

This guy has a sense of humor! You can preview a few pages for free, but it'll only cost less than the equivalent of a chai latte or mocha ($3) to download the complete article. Be sure to email the highlights to Dankenbring, Coulter, Billingsley and other "fair and balanced" COG pontificators.

James Tabor - A Personal Manifesto

Dr James Tabor, a high profile scholar at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has released an expanded version of his book Restoring Abrahamic Faith. He describes this third edition as a personal manifesto. Tabor's earlier bestseller, The Jesus Dynasty, proved controversial in 2006.

Restoring has a narrower marketing focus. The 170 page quality paperback has been published under Dr Tabor's imprint Genesis 2000. A fairly substantial review is planned for January.

Some readers will be surprised that Tabor, who once taught at Ambassador College, expresses continuing regard for historical reconstructions that mesh with British-Israelism:

... history shows that the bulk of these tribes migrated northwest into Europe, and did finally fulfill the promises that were made to the two sons of Joseph - Ephraim and Manasseh, about unprecedented national greatness (Genesis 48:4-20.)

This is, however, only a small part of the book's argument, which includes a call to refocus biblical faith on "core" passages in the Hebrew Bible, and embrace a thoroughly human understanding of Jesus. This seems to be, essentially, a Noahide perspective, a movement Dr Tabor has identified with. More detail will be available in the review, but for those who don't want to wait, information about Restoring Abrahamic Faith, including how to order a copy, is available at the Genesis 2000 website.