The Word Church is a Fraudulent Word

In opening this discourse, I hesitate to use the word "franchise." Some moderators, besieged with various tomes, do NOT recognize the POWER of using the similes of "Franchise," "Empire," and the production of "salvation-burgers" to represent "CHURCHES" in the course of discussions of "ekklesia-franchise" problems. But...here goes:

Dr. Bacchiocchi has addressed some points to the management of the Worldwide Church of God Empire. He evaluated THE EFFECT of the Worldwide Church of God's changes of the condiments IN their salvation-burgers. SALVATION was NEVER an issue to the Worldwide Church of God, so the problem was merely one of abruptly changing the appearance of a PRODUCT. He evaluated THE EFFECT of the change in the APPEARANCE of their wrapper.

He addressed his treatise to "why denominations QUIT growing." I assert that this is a BUSINESS approach and a BUSINESS concern. The same question arises in the corporate Occident, and is oft responded to with such words as "right-sizing," "down-sizing," etc. In FACT, the Worldwide Church of God empire just released a tome where layoffs of personnel were referred to as "right-sizing." Thus my assertion that this whole matter is an ongoing, never-ending business discussion.

So I conclude that the discussion (thread, if you will) is taking its appropriate place in a chain of nearly INFINITE proof-text loaded treatises of whose "ekklesia" is the BEST, most profitable, or, most "saving." BUT...I must say something:

Dr. Bacchiocchi was concerned that his organization NOT make the same mistakes as the Worldwide Church of God. He wanted to point out that the management techniques of the Worldwide Church of God Empire were NOT successful.

The point I wish to make is that THIS discussion, like MOST of those going on in the Christian discussion groups, is one about WHOSE Empire makes the best salvation-burgers. The discussion is about whose EMPIRE is the best EMPIRE. The discussion is about WHOSE empire is the BEST at interpreting the cook book. Rarely is any mention given to the FACT that the WHOLE New Testament-Covenant EVENT was orchestrated to show people.....

That they COULD throw their OWN meat on their OWN "barby" and cook their OWN salvation-burgers....!!!!

Dr. Bacchiocchi NOWHERE addressed the NEEDS of the people!!! This debate with the management of the Worldwide Church of God was about FORM, and the BOTTOM LINE!!! After making MY point about "ekklesia" and its perverted meaning, I will conclude with needs, and outcome.

The reason this debate never ends? SIMPLE! The worldwide Christian belief that "If the King James Version was good enough for CHRIST and the DISCIPLES...it is GOOD enough for ME...so DON'T bother me with YOUR exegesis stuff, MINE is correct, YOU are WRONG...because YOU can't correctly read the English..., or the Greek, or the miniscules, or the______________"

The WHOLE Occidental Empire-Franchise thing was put in motion in the first centuries via sustained illiteracy, and validated by "scholars" in the 16th Century through translation!!!

The Catholic Church KNEW there would soon be a translation of the Greek/Latin scriptures. The dark ages were ending and people were bound and determined to learn to read.

The question was HOW to translate the texts in such a way as to PRESERVE the 1600 year old concept of government and "CHURCH" .........and, of course, keep the tithes coming IN.

ALL of this is about TITHES...and OFFERINGS...and SIN...and BLAME!!! The BLAME guarantees a "bottom line" for the Empire.

Piece of CAKE!! The MAGIC word was Ekklesia. It meant "called out ^^^^^^^^ ones," but why NOT just translate it:

The word C H U R C H was already in use....having come out of very natural Old English words that could be traced back to OTHER words that referred to "the LORD'S house."

The word ekklesia was built of "ek," a common Greek prefix for a number of words including "coming out of," "from," "out from," etc. ...and "kaleo," referring to being "called," "invited", or "SUMMONED," including summoned by NAME. (I tried to insert Greek symbols for these words, but it made the computer system very nervous, so I've used English letters as close as possible to the actual Greek alphabetic characters).

So, the LETTERS by Paul were addressed to C A L L E D out ones!!!! NOT a "church." Why is it amazing that Paul himself mentions there was NO organization in Rome?

NOWHERE is there any reference to an ORGANIZED group of people. Paul addressed people who were SUMMONED out of somewhere. Other letters were written to individuals. But, where "ekklesia" occured, the KJV translators inserted the word CHURCH!!! How convenient. Through the POWER of intellectual blackmail, make the scriptures refer to an EMPIRE rather than A PEOPLE!!!

Yet to THIS day, through all our hypnotic stupor, we acknowledge this one on one calling (kaleo) with phrases like "the Altar Call," "Have you been CALLED by the LORD?" "He's heard the Call."

I thought it poignant that Dr. Bacchiocchi addressed his letter to fellow Christians. Either he was only talking to those who purchase their salvation at the SDA counters, or he was referring to all Christians as equals. What IS it? Similarly, he quotes Kelly saying that Methodists are the WRONG example of business growth, and Kelly is a Methodist. Are we talking about only ONE Empire has the TRUE faith, which the Worldwide Church of God taught for decades (themselves, of course) or are we playing WORD games.

OK - before you go BALLISTIC about my comments, and FLOOD me with etherial-ASCII, don't BOTHER. I am NOT going to support my assertion with "proof texting." I am going to highlight some principles I have found, knowing that MANY will try to flood me with proof texts of their continued loyalty to this or that Salvation-burger Empire. MANY scriptures tell us we are on our OWN, and we are to TRUST Christ for guidance. Among those expressing this principle:

"Work out your OWN salvation with fear and trembling..... for it is God that works in you....

This does NOT say, go to the ______ Church of ________ to get your salvation!!!!!!! This says COOK it yourSELF!

Do we DENY that God works IN US? We sure doubt it if we have to have a FRANCHISE make our salvation-burgers...prepare our food for us, if you will.

Dr. Bacchiocchi included a comment by Kelly that is the EPITOME of spiritual abuse, and denying the POWER of God. Kelly said that reducing salvation to love and faith in Jesus Christ is "too easy." He also was quoted as saying it is "too self indulgent." I say that Kelly doubts Jesus Christ and doesn't believe CHRIST's message ONE IOTA (jot-*grin*).

Kelly plays on doubt. AND, I find the USE of Kelly's position as head of a NATIONAL organization of Christians the DIRECT use of intellectual blackmail.

In fact, I will go one step further...see you and raise you ten: MOST "theologians" use the time honored method of the Scribes and Pharisees.....INTELLECTUAL BLACKMAIL. Whether it is for self aggrandizement, or, as in Dr. Bacchiocchi's message, the "bottom line of the business."

ALL MAJOR SALVATION EMPIRES HAVE THEIR DOCTOR(s) __________ {And some don't even have a Doctorate}

Isn't it interesting that they said of Christ...How knoweth this man LETTERS, having NEVER learned....INTELLECTUAL BLACKMAIL as prevalent then as it is NOW.....they even castigated him for having an ACCENT...."HICK"....in modern parlance.

Dr. Bacchiocchi's approach is typical of our system. If he were Bacchiocchi, he'd be just like the rest of us. But he is DOCTOR Bacchiocchi, so his input is taken as "gospel" by HIS empire, and many other independent researchers. Why? Because he is a "doctor." Thus he is automatically a stupendous researcher.

Our civilization, being grid-locked in education-caste layers, automatically assumes that the person with the letters after his or her name is God's inspired authority on all matters. How MANY times have YOU seen "in WHICH seminary did YOU get YOUR education?" as a response to intellectually sound questions of doubtful exegetical conclusions? In those instances I say, as Churchill said of Lady Astor, "there, but for the GRACE of God....goes GOD!!!

To prove your point about church government, you will quote me "ONE BODY, ONE CHURCH..." by the translators who were TRYING to preserve a GOING franchise....

I would respond with one of the possible translations: ONE BODY, ONE GROUP OF SUMMONED OUT ONES...." which I will follow with a quote of Peter, (WHO has been FALSELY accused of HEADING a very OLD, famous, salvation-burger EMPIRE)...

"To the STRANGERS....scattered in Pontius....E L E C T (chosen!!!)...through SANCTIFICATION (saints, by the way...but that is another subject, for ALL YOU SAINTS who read this)....of the Spirit into O B E D I E N C E....

of franchises...and Peter told him (look at the GREEK if you don't believe he said this)....

TO H E L L with YOU and YOUR MONEY.....to think that you THOUGHT you could buy the Gift of GOD with money...

So, Simon "Magus" was an early MBA who saw an IMMENSE marketing opportunity for selling the gift of God. SALVATION-Burgers by MAGUS-INC. Maybe he would call it MCG....?

I ask you ....do you believe David when he said "LEAD me"???? Or God, when He told Elijah there were thousands of other people beside Elijah?

I ask you....do you believe CHRIST when he said, to the apostles, LO, I am with YOU always....even to the end of the age?

There are MANY franchise owners out there that tell the sheep they are IGNORANT...they don't UNDERSTAND.....they have to PAY their tithes to UNDERSTAND...or COME TO CHURCH to understand...

Yet, He said "wherever there are two of you gathered in MY NAME, there I am also"...does that mean you have to have an ordained person there to INTERPRET...to tell you how to make your salvation-burger? That is what MANY Empires teach!!!! It is WRONG!

Do we believe the words "the comforter will teach you all things," or do we NEED someone, because we DON'T understand the mystery?

We hear, from MANY Empires, (for a PRICE)....repent, brother, and PAY YOUR TITHES....that is why you are NOT being blessed....

That person puts GLASS in the salvation-burger the gentle sheep of God is hoping he will be fed. It goes in the FACE of Christ's comment that NO father would give his children a snake in place of a loaf of bread.

Christ said...."HE calls his own sheep BY NAME...and leads them OUT of the sheep fold"! Franchise owners and Empire owners tell the people THEY are the sheep fold, and CHRIST will FORGET their names if they LEAVE....and they will DIE if they leave.

"I am the door: by ME if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall GO I N AND O U T, and find pasture."

The sheep will not NEED a franchise!!!! The sheep will find pasture. Do we need to doubt the 23rd psalm, too....the Lord is my shepherd, except he works through my PASTOR....and I shall not want, if I don't sin, or transgress the law, the venials, or whatever...?

Any that THREATEN the sheep with DAMNATION when GOD takes them from a franchise is DENYING the will and the POWER of GOD.

YOU DENY CHRIST, who said, I AM THE SHEPHERD!!!! You deny Him who said, "I pray not that you take them from the world, but that you deliver them from the evil"....was he HOPING? Was that his prayer, a HOPE?

Of course, Satan broadcasts that very doubt! IT throws various obstacles in the path of the traveller. Some CHOSE to run a marathon laden with hurdles and water traps, others chose to just run a race. Paul addressed that very race, wrestling with principalities....

Now for the needs of the sheep inundated with this avalanche of advertisement gimmicks....

You know what is NEAT about this (all the "smoke and mirrors" that confront us)? Christ still works with ALL the MYRIADS who are locked in franchises of one kind and another....for, as PAUL wrote the Hebrews...Through God, all things are possible, including guiding the sheep who have voluntarily gone into abusive, lock-up, holier-than-thou, C U L T S. And, as the Catholic Church once called itself a CULT, all "churches" are C U L T S!!!

I think it was Paul who was SO familiar with the ongoing CULT mentality that he mentioned being as a JEW to the JEWS, and a Gentile to the Gentiles....LIKE HOW IMPORTANT WAS THE FORM?

WE are ALL righteous. Christ died for US!!!! We just are not perfect yet. That is yet to come....

..you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels..........and to the spirit of JUST (dikaios) -Righteous- men, made perfect.

Some of us are crippled by Empires (CULTS!) that lace our salvation -burger with poison. Others lace with GLASS...some lace with, GOD help them, feces....but we will go on in spiritual wheelchairs... to PERFECTION....

They have us COMPARING ourselves amongst ourselves to see who is the MOST righteous. They have us DOUBTING our salvation as we stumble over the hurdles, IN FACE of the truth that CHRIST is with us...

I speak of the Gahenna (valley of Hinnom) where the trash is burned. To HELL with your salvation-burgers...

My "barby" is going full blast...as CHRIST leads me. His yoke is very light...LIBERTY from the slavery of Franchises.

The needs of the sheep?...come...all you who are in BONDAGE... he said, "my yoke is LIGHT"....

Come out of what? Babylon! The origin of the banking-religious system? The GOD DAMNED banking-religious system, if you WILL!!!!

Otherwise you WILL partake of their SIN, stumble over their GOD DAMNED hurdles placed in the way of the sheep...GOD DAMNED Millstones of OFFENSE of HIS little ones....

If you chose not, he said, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age....and MANY chose NOT. Many take the "easy" way, all the way to the perfection promised them in the blood of Christ on the NEW contract.

As one very influential CULT leader once said...in the midst of his very TYPICAL U.S.-type evangelist power trip....

One of thousands of scattered strangers, all surviving on the STRENGTH of the statement:

Singing, among other tunes.... "When you Walk Through a Storm.... "Keep your Head up High.... ......You'll NEVER Walk alone....

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