Thanks for visiting my blog, I hope you can find helpful information here if you are searching for Biblical understanding like me. I welcome your comments.
Today I visited the TheShiningLight Blog to gather some ideas for my blog article. There is always a wealth of biblical error waiting to be corrected so it only took a couple minutes of reading to find a topic.
James Malm is the writer and a strong proponent of Armstrongism which rejects the true doctrines of Jesus Christ and the New Covenant (which they would disagree with). Armstrongism, as I refer to it, is a technically flawed theology created by the late Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) which blended Old and New Covenant Biblical practices while labeling it Christian.
In a James Malm Bible study published on the 2nd of August, 2012 titled "The Building of the Temple, Zecheriah Part 4 - I found one of his usual biblical contradictions. This is very typical of those trained by Armstrong and his followers, which James is one. The theology they practice is actually what I term "versology." A cut and paste form of religion that takes many different verses cut out of context from both old and new testament writings and weaves them into a patchwork of contradiction and confusion. The Churches of God (COG's) as I will call them here for continuity sprang from the 1995 split in the Worldwide Church of God. The founder HWA died in 1986 and the new leaders began to change many original teachings at a rapid pace. These numerous splinter COG's groups that left in 1995 for the most part retained the original teachings while the main group dropped most of the Old Covenant teachings.
The numerous but tiny COG's that clung to Armstrongism teach that God commands the keeping of the old covenant festivals listed in Leviticus 23. I grew up in Armstrongism and as a member was obligated to keep these holy days or feasts as they were called. The teachings on this within the COG's are duplicitous. While they teach Christians that these days must be kept they in no wise actually observe them other than the supposed dates. In fact these groups ignore Jesus Christ's own teachings and reject His Sacrifice by rejecting the New Covenant in His shed blood. The new Covenant is rejected so therefore they are in all actuality Anti-Christ churches.
James Malm falls prey to this same flawed theology advocating the teachings adamantly. In his blindness, he can quote the scriptures that plainly prophecy the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of a New Covenant but gloss over it as if it was not there - utterly blind.
As example, here is his own explination of Zechariah's prophecy of "Beauty" which James' claims is the Messiah;
"Beauty a prophecy of Christ
Jesus Christ bring called Beauty; and his death breaking the Mosaic Covenant between him and Israel. Only the humble understood this and follow4e into the New Covenant. (SP- "4e" should be me)
11:7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.11:8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
11:9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.
11:10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people."
The highlighted text above is James' own explanation of the ending of the Old Covenant and the Beginning of a New Covenant at the death of the Messiah but completely glosses over that and continues promoting the observance of the Feasts of Leviticus 23 in his blog articles.
James ignores Jesus and the new covenant. Jesus Christ stated clearly in John 4 that there would be no more Temple Worship but spiritual worship instead.
John 4:19-26;
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.
20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
That made observance of the Feasts of Lev 23 an impossibility since they were required to be observed at the Temple. At least three could be observed nowhere other than at Mt. Ebal in Samaria (Joshua 8:30-33) and no other place on earth
( Deuteronomy 12:14). Later King David moved the Altar to Jerusalem.
But this error is not a new one. The Apostle Paul battled the same type of false teachings and false teachers that came from Jerusalem to Asia where Paul was baptizing many Gentiles and raising up many Christian churches. Many Jewish convert taught that the new Christians among the Gentile churches must be circumcised and obey the Laws of Moses known as the Torah like the Jews did. This was untrue as the new covenant did not require these things for salvation through Christ. Paul called these false teachers and warned,
"You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." Read the entire passage here: Galatians 5:5-12
I can only hope and pray that those who teach these lies and lead the sheep astray would repent or do as Paul suggested,
" As for those agitators, I wish
they would go the whole way
and emasculate themselves!"
It is obvious that the Apostle Paul took this heresy very seriously - so do I and pray false teachers like James Malm will repent before it is too late for them and their followers. This is the reason I left to begin my own biblical research - I finally came to admit, I too had been deceived...
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