While on Facebook recently I clicked on something that looked interesting. It was called "restoringtheoriginalbible.com" and since the Bible is one of my top interests, I had to check it out.
The Web site offered what was claimed to be "the Bible in the original order that it was written in." The volume has over 280 pages of commentaries and appendices and claims to have restore the books of the Bible to their orginal order. Immediately, I smelled a rat. How would anyone know (unless they've been alive for 3,400 years) the exact order of the writings of the Bible, especially the New Testament. Even our best Biblical scholars are not sure.
So, my "investigative reporter" mode kicked into high gear. Doing a "whois" search on G E E K T O O L S.com I found the domain "restoringtheoriginalbible.com" was registered to the Christian Biblical Church of God of Hollister, California about 80 miles southeast of San Francisco. It wasn't long before I was on the church's Web page, checking out their beliefs.
I soon discovered the following: First, the CBCOG teaches a doctrine called "Baptismal Regeneration." This simply means that no matter how hard you believe in Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you have no justification whatsoever until you submit to their baptism. What you have in your heart for Christ is worth nothing until you crawl in the tank and get dunked.
This is not a unique doctrine with the CBCOG. There are many groups that believe this, including the Roman Catholics, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Christ and many more. I once had a Church of Christ preacher tell me that if someone suffered a fatal heart attack on the way to the baptismal font, they would go to Hell because they were not baptized. Sorry for you, buddy. Tough Luck!
Regardless of how many believe Baptismal Regeneration, the Bible does not teach it. Nowhere in the Bible will you find the phrase "he who is not baptized will be damned." Those words nor such a concept just do not exist. Our salvation is by the grace of God and is connected to NOTHING that we can do (Eph. 2: 8,9; Tit. 3:5).
Secondly, the CBCOG doesn't even know who God IS!!! Their believe statement says that God is a "family" which currently includes two members, the Father and Jesus. What about the Holy Spirit? Oh, they say that's just an "force" of God and not a person. This is identical to Russellian (Jehovah's Witnesses) theology. Funny, though, Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as "He," "Him" or "His" over and over again. Eight times in John 16 alone. Peter said in Acts 5 that the Holy Spirit could be lied to. You can only lie to a person. You can't lie to a table, a tree, a kangaroo or any other impersonal thing. The Bible clearly teaches the Holy Spirit is a person, and is God. Sorry about the CBCOG.
There are many other points of doctrine where the CBCOG deviates strongly from true Biblical theology, but time doesn't permit an exhaustive study. Perhaps I'll hit some more of these point later...as the (personal) Holy Spirit leads me.
The point is, however, just because a religious group packages a nice looking leather bound "bible" (at the ridiculously low price of a mere $119.50 plus $9.00 shipping and handling), it doesn't mean they have any orthodoxy in their doctrine. STAY AWAY FROM THEM!!! Jesus warned us in Matthew 7: 15 that these false prophets come to us in sheep's clothing, but inside they are ravening wolves!!
Caio for now,
Dave
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Welcome (back) to Dave Mitchell's Blog...
Welcome (back) to Dave Mitchell's Blog. The reason I put the word "back" in parentheses is because my loving wife made me take my last blog site down a couple of years ago when I was a radio "personality" in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. I guess she thought that since I was in the public eye (sorta), I might get sued for exercising my first amendment rights. Well, in today's world, I guess it's possible. Lots of folks are "litigation-happy."
But now, even though I'm still in the radio biz, I'm not on the air regularly (however, I do a lot of voice-over work for two of the Salem Communications stations here in South Florida). That makes me a "common" person and I guess she believes there's no thrill in suing a common person -- and I suppose that's probably right.
So...
Here I am blogging again. Since I have a very large array of interests -- and I have an opinion on just about everything -- just about any subject could come up on this blog site. And one blog will most likely not relate to the next one, and so on. Call it cyber stream-of-conscienceness.
I am realist enough to know that actually nobody really cares what I think about anything, and since I'm not in much of a position to change the world (being a Member of Congress might help), I'm basically using this sight to vent. It is, of course possible that someone out there might like to add his or her two cents to the discussion, so feel free to comment, agree, disagree or simply "take me to the woodshed."
I suppose this is what blogging is all about anyway.
Most of my blogs will proceed from my personal interests which include: The Bible and theology (especially in the areas of religions that are in opposition to mainstream Christianity), radio broadcasting (my 44-year (so far) career), baseball (my actual religion -- Christianity is merely my lifestyle), Ham radio (my callsign is AJ5F), Science Fiction (especially Star Trek and time travel movies). My musical tastes include Top 40 hits from 1955-1979 (mostly) and Country music pre-1985. Movie tastes include older stuff (well, not REAL old). I'm very selective about what movies I see and lately, there hasn't been (IMHO) much worth seeing -- although the 90s were a great decade for film.
I'm also a history buff (which may explain the interest in time-travel). Politically, I'm all over the board -- ultra right wing conservative on some issues and flaming liberal on others, and everything in between. As I add new posts to this blog, you'll probably get a good idea of where I'm going with much of what I believe. And, to tell you the truth (have I been lying up to now?), I'm not so dogmatic as to think my mind can't be changed on a political argument if I get some new information or can re-think the issue. The only time you can be dogmatic is when you know you're right (there's a joke in there somewhere).
Most posts won't be nearly as long as this one, but this time I wanted to get some background established before I move on.
Many people, expecially bloggers, believe that what they say is so darned important that everyone will automatically be interested. What egos blogging has inflated! I hope this isn't the case with me. Most of what I blog will probably bring the response, "who cares?" And my reaction to that is "who cares?"
When I hit a subject that's really important to me, I'll drop a link in my Facebook status. Until then,
May the farce be with you...
Dave
But now, even though I'm still in the radio biz, I'm not on the air regularly (however, I do a lot of voice-over work for two of the Salem Communications stations here in South Florida). That makes me a "common" person and I guess she believes there's no thrill in suing a common person -- and I suppose that's probably right.
So...
Here I am blogging again. Since I have a very large array of interests -- and I have an opinion on just about everything -- just about any subject could come up on this blog site. And one blog will most likely not relate to the next one, and so on. Call it cyber stream-of-conscienceness.
I am realist enough to know that actually nobody really cares what I think about anything, and since I'm not in much of a position to change the world (being a Member of Congress might help), I'm basically using this sight to vent. It is, of course possible that someone out there might like to add his or her two cents to the discussion, so feel free to comment, agree, disagree or simply "take me to the woodshed."
I suppose this is what blogging is all about anyway.
Most of my blogs will proceed from my personal interests which include: The Bible and theology (especially in the areas of religions that are in opposition to mainstream Christianity), radio broadcasting (my 44-year (so far) career), baseball (my actual religion -- Christianity is merely my lifestyle), Ham radio (my callsign is AJ5F), Science Fiction (especially Star Trek and time travel movies). My musical tastes include Top 40 hits from 1955-1979 (mostly) and Country music pre-1985. Movie tastes include older stuff (well, not REAL old). I'm very selective about what movies I see and lately, there hasn't been (IMHO) much worth seeing -- although the 90s were a great decade for film.
I'm also a history buff (which may explain the interest in time-travel). Politically, I'm all over the board -- ultra right wing conservative on some issues and flaming liberal on others, and everything in between. As I add new posts to this blog, you'll probably get a good idea of where I'm going with much of what I believe. And, to tell you the truth (have I been lying up to now?), I'm not so dogmatic as to think my mind can't be changed on a political argument if I get some new information or can re-think the issue. The only time you can be dogmatic is when you know you're right (there's a joke in there somewhere).
Most posts won't be nearly as long as this one, but this time I wanted to get some background established before I move on.
Many people, expecially bloggers, believe that what they say is so darned important that everyone will automatically be interested. What egos blogging has inflated! I hope this isn't the case with me. Most of what I blog will probably bring the response, "who cares?" And my reaction to that is "who cares?"
When I hit a subject that's really important to me, I'll drop a link in my Facebook status. Until then,
May the farce be with you...
Dave
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