In this video, host Dawn Blue & co-host Marc Cebrian interview ๐๐๐ง๐ง๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐๐ก๐ฅ who was a former minister of ๐ป๐๐ ๐พ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ช๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ .
Dennis served as a minister for 26 years & served over several congregations throughout the US. He also attended the Ambassador College with ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ ๐ช. ๐ท๐๐๐, the head of ๐ป๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ช๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ in Wadsworth, OH.
Marc Cebrian is a former member and employee of The Restored Church of God.
As a former member of the Living Church of God/Armstrongism splinter group, I always wanted to hear Dennis' story, and I really appreciate him sharing his experiences. I also deeply appreciate his advice to people who want to leave the COGs & Armstrongism but are too scared to leave, and his advice to those who left but are overwhelmed with the emotion of everything they went through to talk about it.
However, I think it's unfortunate that he has "lost faith in faith" based on his experience within the Worldwide Church of God, Armstrongism, and other personal experiences; and that he now describes himself as an Agnostic Athiest. Additionally, there were some things mentioned in this interview with Dennis that I agree with, and things I disagree with.
As a seminary student, I agree only to a certain degree with Dennis' statement about how denominational colleges teach their students a denominational spin regarding the Bible. I disagree that they all don't teach you where the Bible comes from, what the Bible is all about, who wrote it, who didn't write it, or what the politics of it is. Where is his evidence for that truth claim? He didn't provide any.
I agree with Dennis when he said, "that there are many people that are very piously convicted, they really believe what they believe and it's based on marginal information. It's emotional." He goes on to say that he doesn't do emotional and that he wants to know what really happened and what the facts are. I'm right there with him, as I too want to know what really happened and what the facts are.
However, I totally disagree with the interpretation he gave for Hebrews 11:1. Dennis said, "this verse is really saying that faith is made up of that which we hope is true based on no evidence that it is true. That's what faith is. It's believing in that which isn't provable."
First of all, Hebrews 11:1 and the Biblical Christian concept of โfaithโ is often either misunderstood or deliberately misrepresented by skeptics and critics, like Dennis, of the Holy Bible and of Christianity.
Secondly, faith is sometimes described as believing in things that cannot be seen or that faith as an act of believing in things that have no evidential basis. But this is not the Biblical definition of faith.
Lastly, this verse isn't talking about having faith in something we hope is true based on no evidence that it is true, or believing in something that isn't provable. In fact, it is saying just the opposite.
We have to look at the context of Hebrews 10, in order to understand what the author was referring to concerning "faith" in Hebrews 11:1. When we do that, it becomes abundantly clear that what the author of Hebrews is encouraging his readers to do is to continue to trust in the promises of God, in spite of the fact they havenโt yet been fulfilled (and might not even be fulfilled in their lifetimes). That trust or "faith" is based on those things that can be seen (and have been seen), and on those things that have already been fulfilled.
To conclude, I'm glad that Dawn Blue has brought attention to the RCG and Armstrongism, and I pray and hope the best for Dennis and Marc.
Commenti