tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post7391043728150007414..comments2024-03-28T16:55:57.201-04:00Comments on AS BEREANS DID: Crazy About Christmas Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12438486498450616814noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-52042618279318779792019-12-05T16:21:29.801-05:002019-12-05T16:21:29.801-05:00Just considered that Hannakuh shares at least some...Just considered that Hannakuh shares at least some dates with Saturnalia while Christmas doesn't. What were the dates of Hannakuh in Matt. 6? That would be interesting to know. ekklesianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-79450907408035924032016-12-23T18:31:24.259-05:002016-12-23T18:31:24.259-05:00Ah, I see. That's ok! I'll keep trying to ...Ah, I see. That's ok! I'll keep trying to post 'em, and if it doesn't work I'll know it's Blogger, and not me being totally inept ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-18234374484122705402016-12-22T08:32:49.589-05:002016-12-22T08:32:49.589-05:00Baihleyg,
Blogger has been very odd lately with t...Baihleyg,<br /><br />Blogger has been very odd lately with the comments. Well, with a lot of things. They were/are doing changes to the system behind the scenes. Might have something to do with it. I can tell you that I don't see a comment from you at all, whether waiting for approval or accidentally caught in spam. Sorry about the difficulty!xHWAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01061716053302210598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-77138190034695226402016-12-22T08:24:16.397-05:002016-12-22T08:24:16.397-05:00hey Martha,
Gah, I'm having trouble posting c...hey Martha,<br /><br />Gah, I'm having trouble posting comments it seems! I'd replied to this a few days ago, but it doesn't seem to have gone through. I'll email you :) Thank you so much for your kind words. God bless you!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-4127883697005904462016-12-14T16:47:54.170-05:002016-12-14T16:47:54.170-05:00Baihleyg,
Thank you so much for your kind words!...Baihleyg, <br /><br />Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm so glad this site has been a help to you; it was a blessing for me, too, back when I was in your shoes. <br /><br />I'm excited for you but I understand your anxiety. Keep reminding yourself that feelings are temporary. And give yourself permission to feel them. Enjoy yourself, but don't feel like there's something wrong with you if there are times when you're not having fun. Or can't relate to everyone else's warm feelings and nostalgia. Don't feel foolish if you don't understand someone's traditions. There are some silly traditions, and that's ok! But it's ok to giggle at them, too, even if it's silently. <br /><br />Since you're about to be engaged (and congratulations in advance!), consider trying to create a new tradition that's totally your own with your fiance. It can be silly and totally unrelated to gifts or trees or anything. It could be a special snack, or a midnight walk, or a silly string fight, a board game contest, anything! Those are the kind of things you will remember best years from now. <br /><br />A wise man I know whose initials are xHWA 😉 told me that it takes about five years to totally leave behind the anxiety. I think that's about right - this is my fourth Christmas and it is probably the first I have really looked forward to it. I'm sad that I can't share it with my extended family, and that things get awkward with us this time of year, but that's about the only negative thing I feel anymore. You will get there, too. I'll be praying for you over the coming weeks. Merry Christmas and God bless you! Marthahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12438486498450616814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-29487571077363042752016-12-13T10:46:47.928-05:002016-12-13T10:46:47.928-05:00Hey Martha,
Thank you for this; for your honesty ...Hey Martha,<br /><br />Thank you for this; for your honesty especially. I grew up not celebrating Christmas because it was "not biblical, and pagan" and my parents and siblings still feel this way. But in the last year I've been researching more and more (your site has been very helpful!) and as I warm more and more to the idea of celebrating it (with my soon-to-be fiancé and his family) it still is an anxiety-ridden emotional experience. It helps to know that it's not abnormal to feel this way--that it's not an indication necessarily that the guilt and fear stem from "it's because I know deep-down that it's wrong," like you said.Baihleyghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05993856590932729711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-62491022996040572562014-01-05T23:01:17.754-05:002014-01-05T23:01:17.754-05:00Hello
I struggle too. I am alone as far as being ...Hello<br /><br />I struggle too. I am alone as far as being the only one called and torn. It seems cogwa does not focus on those who are saling silent solo. I am suppose to be excited about fot etc...but am not because I am away from family...not with. But then you are challenged with am I being true and must give up family..just thinking these days. Why only baptized members can celebrate passover? I am fearful more than joyful...which makes me sad in numerable ways as in have I lost the holy spirit.<br /><br />Any insight appreciated.<br /><br />Kid in the corner in classAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-76667923850965104042014-01-02T19:03:24.758-05:002014-01-02T19:03:24.758-05:00Thank you Martha and everyone else, for bringing i...Thank you Martha and everyone else, for bringing into focus the experience of the season for those who have not yet embraced the New Covenant. It was a pivotal moment for me as well when I read with my own eyes that the angels in heaven likewise rejoiced at His birth. As has been said, they dwell in the very sight of God. That moment brought tears to my eyes, knowing how important it was to God.Pennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02686879759672569354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-49699868782845572013-12-28T17:59:37.981-05:002013-12-28T17:59:37.981-05:00Since birthdays are sinful, why did the angels cel...Since birthdays are sinful, why did the angels celebrate the birth of Christ? Why did they rejoice? Since angels know all of Scripture, won't they have boycotted rejoicing at the birth of Christ at the manger? Shouldn't God have said,"Angels, since Tammuz's birth was celebrated every year, we should not celebrate the birth of My Son."Dillonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-83136395666871521432013-12-26T12:27:38.805-05:002013-12-26T12:27:38.805-05:00Great story! I was a second generationer, in for ...Great story! I was a second generationer, in for about 30+ years, out for at least 10. Well, this year, driving around town, I always have my XM radio on, and they always have a classical station that plays only Christmas music. One evening I felt thunderstruck with the realization that almost ALL of these beautiful hymns/songs have one clear message: Hope, love and unbounding joy that we DO have a Savior and He came here for us! After almost 50 years I got it! I got the message of the carols! Ever since, I freely sing all the ones I know the lyrics to, and listen intently to the words of those I don't. Such beautiful music!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-82759307627358288612013-12-25T16:32:23.210-05:002013-12-25T16:32:23.210-05:00Feel free to use the PASSD phrase. It would be goo...Feel free to use the PASSD phrase. It would be good to get it into general usage and understanding by those of us who wrestle with it.<br /><br />And so tragically, perusing Armstrongists who encounter the phrase will so self-righteously and arrogantly think to themselves (well, probably not—they will “share” their spiritual insights with other Armstrongists, saying), “Well, if that guy thinks he’s got Post Armstrongism Spiritual Stress Disorder now, just wait until he has the stress of being tossed into the Lake of Fire, where he so deservedly belongs.”<br /><br />Do you suppose many of the Armstrongists pray daily for our “restoration” and “repentance,” and “recovery,” in the manner of the shepherd and his one lost, found, and recovered sheep?<br /><br />In the hundreds of sermons I endured in the WCG I can never recall a single one instructing us how to connect with and help restore the righteousness and membership of departed members. Instead—as with us—they were all regarded as enemies of the Living God (well, Herbert W. Armstrong) and were to be shunned, avoided, and discarded.<br /><br />There were so many really fine, otherwise innocent people in the WCG congregation I left in 1995. Nary a day passes that I don’t sincerely pray for the spiritual enlightenment of these people, hoping that they, as did I, could come to a Biblical understanding of how one pleases God, and attains eternal life with Christ. <br /><br />I struggle (I think now successfully) with suppressing thoughts of anger and resentment against the ministry that imposed upon me and the congregants the wounding and scaring doctrines of the Worldwide Church of God, the self-serving heresies of Herbert W Armstrong and his colluding compatriots.<br /><br />Time and again, while listening to instructive sermons, I privately came to the conclusion, “Now that can’t be what that scripture really means. How does he see that?” But my eternal life depended on seeing things exactly the way HWA and ministry did. I utterly feared (with consequent tears) being sinfully wrong. I discarded reason and biblical scholarship to save my hide. I deluded myself into trying to believe ever more so the unique doctrines of the church.<br /><br />Post Armstrongism Spiritual Stress Disorder, PASSD is being wrestled with and being conquered. I pray that all who deal with it will come to joyful and thankful salvation.<br /><br />And I continue to pray for those who chronically wrestle with all forms of ASSD, Armstrongism Spiritual Stress Disorder. It’s the psychological (sometimes psychiatric) debilitation confronted chronically by those who still hold the original and derived doctrines of Herbert W Armstrong. <br /><br />For 13 years I had ASSD. It’s now PASSD.<br /><br />–John of OhioAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-34238364578879825312013-12-24T22:14:23.095-05:002013-12-24T22:14:23.095-05:00John,
What an encouraging blessing to read your s...John,<br /><br />What an encouraging blessing to read your story tonight! I am so sorry for what you had to endure during those long years. It's wonderful that you came back to grace, but it's a shame that you (and others) are still haunted by the PASSD Armstrong echoes. I pray that you were able to bring praise and glory to God in your services today with a joyful heart absent of false guilt. <br /><br />We just returned from our Christmas Eve service. It was beautiful and surprisingly anticlimactic for me. For several months, and especially the past month, I had built it into something so negative in my mind. I think even my Armstrongist relatives would have had difficulty criticizing it, save the trees on stage and the fact that we were gathered on December 24. <br /><br />I look forward to further exploring the Bethlehem Star site, thank you so much for recommending it! I'm thankful for resources that help us lift the veil of ignorance Armstrongism created in us. This Christmas season has been one of just coping and internalizing the fact that giving thanks for Jesus' birth does not condemn us to the Lake of Fire. I am hoping by next year we will be able to celebrate with more joy. <br /><br />Thank you so much for sharing, and Merry Christmas! Marthahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12438486498450616814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-82630019478926513162013-12-24T08:43:02.222-05:002013-12-24T08:43:02.222-05:00Very touching testimony, John. I relate to your PA...Very touching testimony, John. I relate to your PASSD. (Great phrase, by the way. I hope you don't mind if I use it.)<br /><br />Hearing from you really lifted my spirits. May your progress in the unearned grace of God continue fabulously!<br /><br />Merry Christmas and God bless - to you and yours!xHWAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01061716053302210598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528158760608808912.post-86058688726071579562013-12-23T21:48:41.167-05:002013-12-23T21:48:41.167-05:00For 13 long, arduous, tearful years I strained to ...For 13 long, arduous, tearful years I strained to both keep enough of the Mosaic Law to keep from being tossed alive in the Lake of Fire, and maintain my marriage, to a wife who believed nothing of Armstrongism. <br /><br />Two periods of the year were especially trying, Feast of Tabernacles and Christmas, for all the understood reasons (at least understood by those with “unconverted” spouses).<br /><br />In 1995 I was able to leave Armstrongism and re-affirm my earlier beliefs in salvation by unearned grace. I was able to return to my mainline Protestant denomination, and resume functional roles in that local church.<br /><br />But to this day I suffer from PASSD, Post Armstrongism Spiritual Stress Disorder. It’s extremely difficult to suppress. I no longer believe that my (or anyone else’s) salvation rests upon adequate (whatever that was) adherence to Jewish and Armstrong perceptions of selected portions of Mosaic Law. But as the poster here has touched upon, the celebration of Christmas still has private and personal difficulties.<br /><br />Is it wrong to celebrate Christmas? If angels can celebrate the event, so should real Christians. But the ominous threat of losing one’s salvation by the merest mis-steps or law-keeping inadequacies imposed by the Armstrongs, Hoeh, the ministry, and all the church literature seared themselves on my brain. I’m still wrestling with all of it, in what I’ve designated as the PASSD mentioned above.<br /><br />One extremely helpful experience has been my study of the CD, The Star of Bethlehem. I am a retired biologist, with training in earth science. I know science well, and this CD’s wonderful presentation of star and planetary arrangements at the birth of Christ, as computed by modern astronomy programs, was able to allow me to finally dump the multiple Christmas falsehoods imposed by Armstrongism. I will not review or describe in detail any of the revelations of the CD here; only to mention that they are all substantiated to the most minute detail by the now-known movements and alignments of stars, planets, and constellations in the years surrounding the birth of Christ, as viewed by knowledgeable scholars of the heavens at the time, the magi of the East.<br /><br />The Armstrongs, Hoeh, and all the rest, had virtually everything wrong about the birth of Christ. As it happens, Catholic and Mainline Christianity have it very accurately, in concordance with real history and astronomic alignments of the period.<br /><br />Examine the text info here:<br />http://www.bethlehemstar.com/<br /><br />Once again I’ll be playing my trumpet with the organ for several Christmas carols at both the early and midnight Christmas Eve services of my local Protestant Church. Time and again my scarred Armstrong memories and thoughts will cause me to fearfully question what I’m participating in. But today, I have an authentic Biblical understanding of The Advent. And each year I’m able to more honestly rejoice and be thankful for how God the Father made all of this happen. <br /><br />All of us who continue to battle Post Armstrongism Spiritual Stress Disorder are in my daily prayers. Oh, that we might fully rejoice, casting aside the toxic and contrived Armstrong doctrines that so nearly destroyed the spiritual life of my family and myself.<br /><br />Merry Christmas, Believers.<br /><br />–John of OhioAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com