Eastern Lightning
Now this is scary stuff. I was looking through some websites like Christian Solidarity Worldwide and there's a page that caught my attention:
Report on a dangerous new cult in China which is on the 'China' page of that website. Well, it turns out there's an abberant cult group going around in China, known as 'Eastern Lightning' (aka 'Real God'). Of course this cult is a threat to the Chinese government and so they're doing something about it. But based on what I've read so far, there's not much that's been done...maybe I just don't know about it.
Anyway, this cult is yet another 'doomsday' related cult. They believe that Jesus's second coming happened, and some woman named 'lightning' is that Messiah. Sounds no different from Moonies' claim as the Messiah of the Second coming of Christ. But then again....when was Jesus a woman? Or Chinese? Or Korean for that matter!?!?!? LOL Yet, Moon's organization has well over 1 million followers...maybe closer to 2-3 million. And this is what really disturbs me: These groups WOULDN'T exist had it not been for eschatology.
In other words, if the Catholic Church were to embrace preterism from the very beginning, then none of these groups would ever exist: They can't claim to be living in the end times if the Church clearly defined the fact that Christ's coming was to happen in the first century! Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Moonies, Heaven's Gate, and all the other doomsday related religious groups simply wouldn't exist if lay people realized that Christ's coming was a thing of the past, to bring salvation (Heb 9:28, Titus 3:7, Titus 1:2, 1 Pet 1:5, 1 Tim 6:19, Jude 1:21, Rom 2:7, 1 John 2:25), not for some funky end of the world!!
So there's yet another reason why I want the Church to have another council: To prevent (or at least help prevent) all sorts of bizarre teachings from destroying the lives of those who simply want the truth. And preterism would likely do away with the skeptic attack on the integrity of Christ and the apostles.
Report on a dangerous new cult in China which is on the 'China' page of that website. Well, it turns out there's an abberant cult group going around in China, known as 'Eastern Lightning' (aka 'Real God'). Of course this cult is a threat to the Chinese government and so they're doing something about it. But based on what I've read so far, there's not much that's been done...maybe I just don't know about it.
Anyway, this cult is yet another 'doomsday' related cult. They believe that Jesus's second coming happened, and some woman named 'lightning' is that Messiah. Sounds no different from Moonies' claim as the Messiah of the Second coming of Christ. But then again....when was Jesus a woman? Or Chinese? Or Korean for that matter!?!?!? LOL Yet, Moon's organization has well over 1 million followers...maybe closer to 2-3 million. And this is what really disturbs me: These groups WOULDN'T exist had it not been for eschatology.
In other words, if the Catholic Church were to embrace preterism from the very beginning, then none of these groups would ever exist: They can't claim to be living in the end times if the Church clearly defined the fact that Christ's coming was to happen in the first century! Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Moonies, Heaven's Gate, and all the other doomsday related religious groups simply wouldn't exist if lay people realized that Christ's coming was a thing of the past, to bring salvation (Heb 9:28, Titus 3:7, Titus 1:2, 1 Pet 1:5, 1 Tim 6:19, Jude 1:21, Rom 2:7, 1 John 2:25), not for some funky end of the world!!
So there's yet another reason why I want the Church to have another council: To prevent (or at least help prevent) all sorts of bizarre teachings from destroying the lives of those who simply want the truth. And preterism would likely do away with the skeptic attack on the integrity of Christ and the apostles.