The little Fellowship I’ve
been attending for nearly a year now, is having a week of special speakers – I have
been included in that lineup, and was happy to share with others. But I was
noticing that some people showing up … and at least two speakers had some
pretty strange ideas about Christianity: and the pastor wasn’t stopping the
nonsense. And since I was in a leadership role (I turned down joining The
Board request), that concerns me. I don’t like my name being connected with
nonsense.
So, I arrived at fellowship
around noon, and spoke with the pastor for about two hours trying to pin him
down on what exactly what he believed according to The Gospels: I never
did get a straight answer. I heard a lot of this stuff from him for
about 10 months, now: ‘we have to be careful we don’t offend people’; I
said, “the Gospel is offensive to those who walk in the flesh” (1
Corinthians 1:18-31; 1 Peter 2:8); he also said, ‘I don’t want to be
dogmatic on issues’; I said, “you have to know what you believe and why you
believe it, otherwise your Faith foundation is built on shaky ground" (Matthew
7:24-27) – this morning, I flat out asked, "what do you believe?”
I could never get an actual hard-and-fast answer.
I knew tonight’s speaker was
a friend of the pastor’s: I had met him about a month or so, ago, and knew he
leaned heavily towards seventh day adventist nonsense.
When tonight’s Speaker started
his spiel, he was pushing traditional Jewish Festivals, and the pastor jumped
on that – and said, “I’d really like to start having Saturday services." I was
thinking, “No; I do not want to start observing seventh day adventist mandates:
NO.”
I do, personally, observe the
Sabbath … but it’s not a hard-and-fast mandate with me. I follow
Gospel guidelines, according to salvation in Yeshua: Colossians 2:16
– ‘Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink; or in respect to a holy
day, or the new moon, or the Sabbath days’. I brought this up, and was told
that we are to observe the Sabbath. I said, that we are to privately
acknowledge that Elohim sanctified the 7th Day as a Day of Rest, but
not as an obligatory religious pomp and practice ritual – it’s a day to simply
rest our bodies and minds; not to be carried as a religious burden: Mark
2:27 – Yeshua said, ‘the Sabbath was made for man; man was not made for
the Sabbath.’
Neither the speaker, nor the pastor, would hear that: they were focused on focusing on unimportant things – things that seriously distracted from the pure and simple message of the Gospel of Salvation.
Then the speaker read a
stupid essay he had written concerning the birth and life of Christ that was a
very sharp turn from the Gospel accounts: he was actually discounting
and rewriting the story of Christ to suit his twisted mindset!
I interjected an
objection, and said, “Excuse
me, why are you doing your level best to destroy Christianity? Do you
realize that you are standing in a building filled with Christians?
Salvation hinges on nothing but belief in and acceptance of Yeshua – the Son of
God – born in the flesh to give Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God for the
sins of mankind: world history, religious commentaries, rabbinical essays, and
personal opinions are worthless; and mean absolutely nothing, when it comes to
salvation. Salvation is in Christ only: not in Christ+”
The speaker kept bringing up
extra books that are not recognized by legit Christians. He kept referring to
the ‘lost tribes of Israel’, ‘lost books’ of the Torah – and pointedly pointed
towards his intellect, over the Gospels!
When the speaker actually referred
to the Gospels as “a Christian fairy-tale … and questioned the Holy Spirit’s wisdom
to guide a Christian life with the knowledge of Elohim”, I stood up and said
loudly and firmly – “NO! You will stop right there!” And then I turned
to the pastor, and said, “I’m not okay with this! And you shouldn’t be
either! Because we are friends, you actually thought I’d be “okay”
with this? You don’t know me very well.”
Then I walked past him,
saying, “I’m not okay with this: I’m done.” And out the door I went, with him
saying, ‘You don’t have to leave Val’ … and I slammed through the exit door,
saying, “Yes. Yes, I do. I can’t stay where wickedness (tomfoolery, malice,
sin) is welcomed, and Yeshua is cast aside to make room for fleshly ridiculousness.”
Matthew 12:32 – Yeshua said, ‘Whoever speaks against the Son of Man (Yeshua,
Himself), it shall be forgiven them … but whoever speaks against the Ruach HaKo’desh
(Holy Spirit), it shall not be forgiven them – in this world, or the next.’
So, if I didn’t know where
the pastor stood when I arrived – I definitely knew where he stood when I
stormed out >:-P
I was still steaming when I
rolled into Longview.
And smelled wildfire smoke in the air;
very strongly. A heavy, smelly haze was hovering over the area.
But I didn’t want
to go home just yet – I needed to burn off a lot of steam: home is where I want to be relaxed.
So, I topped off the gas
tank … and drove out Willow Grove, before parking at home; where I relaxed by
eating Supper and watching a movie about the headless horseman – the first
movie I ever saw Jeff Goldblum in, and I was hooked on his movies ever since (even
though this one is kinda cheesy) 😉
