Then beware of Wretched Urgency, the high-pressure manipulation to Save More Souls, Save More Souls, Save More Souls, etc.

I used to be mixed up in a group that taught the only thing Christ will judge us on (once we’re saved) is How Many Souls Did You Win? And I saw the fruits of it, the constant high pressure and despair IMonk calls “Wretched Urgency”, the sheep-rustling (”Rededications”), the cutthroat one-upmanship of “Who Saved the most Souls? ME, not Thee!” (Leaving aside the fact that the Christian afterlife is supposed to be Resurrection of the Body, not Fluffy Cloud Heaven; just a “soul” is incomplete.)

And everything else was neglected or brushed aside in the Wretched Urgency to Save Souls. What were they being Saved for? To Save Souls, of course. Christ as Amway Upline in a cosmic pyramid scheme.

Yep. Get him a copy of Baptist Successionism by James Edward McGoldrick. McGoldrick is a Baptist historian. McGoldrick pretty much proves that Baptists came out of the English Seperatist movement and date back to about 1600.

McGoldrick is antidotal for ToB poisoning.

So he went and joined the other SBC church closer to the university, which would accept any baptism (although perhaps not the in absentia one that the LDS church does), and then transferred his membership. He’s now an elder in the SBC. The power of that one passage!

Ah, the memories! Thanks for bringing back a flood of ridiculously good times!

I was introduced to the Trail of Blood several months ago by my Father-in-Law: “I’ve got this great book I want you to see!” He wanted to see if I could find it online and order some more copies for him. It didn’t take me long to realize that I wasn’t really interested in purchasing copies of this book.

My FIL really enjoys reading, but I’m afraid he too often ends up reading stuff like “ToB”. Can someone suggest another book that might guide him a better direction? I’ve thought about something along the lines of “The Reformation for Armchair Theologians.” Any other suggestions?

The “False Church” timeline on the top hits ALL the Standard Anti-Catholic shticks and urban legends; Standard Anti-Catholic Rant, Type 75-B, without the outboard motor.

Second thing I noticed:

The Chart’s view of Church history is identical with that of the Mormons, Moonies, JWs, Adventists, IFBs, and a lot of Hyper-Fundie “splinter churches”:
1) Christ founded a True Church that was Just Like Us.
2) Within a generation or two after The Apostles, everything went Apostate (usually into Romish Popery). And this Churchianity/Mystery Whore of Babylon became the only game in town.
3) Then Our Founder (of Our Denomination/splinter fellowship/cult) was Anointed by God to Return to the True New Testament Church.
4) WE Are The Only True Church; all others are apostates and heretics and are all going to Hell.

Note that this has a gap between Christ and The Apostles (who live in a sort of “holy history” indistinguishable from mythology) and When Our Clique Was Founded. Everyone in-between Got It Wrong.

Of course, there are those who will rush in with the argument that Jesus said: ” . . . thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”. The fact is that, in translation, this part of our scripture has been distorted. Jesus did not use the word “church” — the word He used was “ecclesia” (Greek) which means “gathering” or “following”.

There are various verses in the Bible to establish that Jesus stood firmly by his birth-right as a Jew, the most pronounced being his instructions to the disciples, who were told to “go nowhere near the Gentiles” — but to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and tell them that the kingdom of God was near at hand.

Jesus did not want a new religion. This fact is established in John (10:16) where he says: “I have other sheep (non-Jews) who do not belong to this fold (Jews)” And He goes on to express the desire to convert the non-Jews to Judaism so that “there will be one flock and one shepherd” !!

So all this talk and arguments of the “true” church etc and etc boils down to a lot of hogwash. Jesus did not start a new religion, nor did he even mention the word “church”. People with vested interests did that — people with agendas of their own. As a metter of fact, they are still doing it !!

The Trail of Blood has been updated and repackaged.

In a stellar marketing move, B&H is reissuing it under the title The Path of Plasma.