Still a cult

 

A neutral look at the Jehovah´s Witnesses and their peculiar blend of mutant Adventism, pseudo-rationalism and nasty cultishness. The only interesting thing is that the JW´s are slowly groping towards a kind of quasi-universalism (similar to Russell´s original teachings), since people who were unaware of the gospel will be resurrected and instructed in it during the Millennium. Conversely, even faithful JW´s may be destroyed if they fail "the final test" at the end of the Millennium, when Satan is released again. 

Overall, however, I don´t think the JW "new light" goes far enough. They still practice disfellowshipping and shunning, reject blood transfusion, et cetera. The karma or egregore of these guys must be dark, very dark...

Koreshanity

 

Credit: MATTYMOO101

So there *is* a connection between David Koresh and Cyrus Reed Teed? I always kind of wondered about that one... 

Dude!

Teal is blue

 

"Paranoid Protestants" is a three-hour long video about the Seventh Day Adventists (SDA) from a skeptical (probably atheist) perspective. It´s interesting, to be sure, and it´s obvious that the narrator (who sometimes doubles as himself!) has done some heavy reading on the history and theology of this particular denomination. I actually learned some new stuff about both Adventists and others from this documentary.

However, there are also some rather obvious problems with this production. For instance, the Branch Davidians headed by David Koresh are prominently featured. But what on earth is the *real* connection between the cult at Waco and the SDA Church? Not that much, really. It´s like making a docu about atheism and throw in Jim Jones and the People´s Temple (who were "Marxists" and sometimes sounded like atheists). 

The content-creator also believes that apocalyptic Protestantism (including the SDA) is the main cause of so many Americans believing in conspiracy theories. But a more likely explanation is that both apocalypticism and conspiracism have a common cause independent of both, or that they are parallell phenomena influencing each other. 

With that, have at it!

True heterodoxy

 

Redeemed Zoomer strikes again. This is a sequel to his two previous videos on strange and (perhaps) wonderful Christian denominations. A *bit* boring, though! I expected more colorful cults. I mean, what about the 57 versions of Mormonism, bruh? 

Jehova har landat

 

Judge Rutherford 

Visste inte att Jehova kunde sjunga? Allvarligt talat, är inte detta *lite* överdrivet? Nyhetstorka? 

Jehovas körsång väcker ilska på Arlanda

Cursing the Moon

 Styxhexenhammer´s rant attacking all religions of the world (including - wait for it - atheism). It´s a *bit* entertaining. Some major factual errors, though. For instance, Brigham Young didn´t stop Mormon polygamy, rather he was the guy expanding it and even making it public! Still, kinda funny. 

Invisible aliens?

 

This guy (the Urantia Book rocker) is still just as optimistic about UFO disclosure. He believes that there is a special kind of aliens already living on Earth, known as "Midway Creatures". They seem to be similar to guardian angels or spirit-beings in other religious systems. Maybe they are real, who knows, but the idea that the US government (or any government) knowing anything important about the situation is far fetched. And even Jay sometimes concedes this, but still hopes that Trump or somebody else will tell us about it.   

144,000 Quartodecimanians

 

Credit: Qrdz

Good grief! Christians can´t even agree on when to commemorate / celebrate Easter. Here are links to two Wikipedia entries on the Memorial and Quatrodecimanism. 

Memorial (Jehovah´s Witnesses)

Quartodecimanism

The abomination of desolation?

 

Me and another blogger have a kind of love-hate relation to this Adventist YouTube channel, called Scriptures Illustrator. Their anti-Jesuit conspiracist video is actually quite interesting (although I haven´t double-checked all its claims - at least not yet). 

The Jesuit state in Paraguay seems to have been "progressive" since it protected the Natives from slave raiders, but according to the video, the Society of Jesus gladly participated in the slave trade elsewhere, including Japan.

Since the video was produced by an Adventist, the background theme is that the (Catholic) Jesuits were part of a kind of Anti-Christ system which works itself out, slowly but steadfastly, over the course of human history. Until Judgement Day, perhaps?

Make of this content whatever you wish.   

Counterfeit

 

Hard to believe award? The Adventist channel Scriptures Illustrator claims that there is a Satanic Trinity made of Lucifer, Lilith and Asmodeus. The video (which gets tedious after a while) is about a young Christian man in Brazil who sold his soul to this legion of demons, et cetera. Even if taken at face value, very little in this story can´t be given a purely naturalist (psychological) explanation. And that´s that. 

"Årsdagen av Jesus död"

 

Fick just en "inbjudan" i brevlådan till "Årsdagen av Jesus död" (de menar väl *Jesu* död?). Och av datumet att döma är det långfredagen som avses. Så vem i all sin dar kallar den så? Jo, Jehovas Vittnen. Den nya "snällare" versionen har tydligen en liten PR-kampanj i grannskapet. Och nej, jag planerar inte att delta. Dessutom är det relativt sent på kvällen. Men tack ändå för inbjudan, antar jag...

The birds shall prophecy

The Seventh Day Adventist-related channel Scriptures Illustrator really goes out on a limb here, relating a strange miracle story about an Inuit prophet in Alaska during the 19th century, a certain Maniilaq, who became a "Christian" after a divine prophecy given to him by a bird?! 

The Adventists seem interested in him since he supposedly kept the Saturday Sabbath. According to ChatGPT, Maniilaq was a real person - probably a syncretistic visionary and healer. Even the Adventist video linked above describe practices which sound magical or shamanistic. ChatGPT also claims that the Sabbatarian claims are very late (20th century).

The idea that various Native tribes heard about the Bible or Jesus already before the arrival of Christian missionaries does exist among some...Christian missionaries themselves. Which is actually pretty strange. This is evidently another example.   

Is the Inuit prophet Maniilaq a real person? Supposedly a Inuit 200 years ago who knew about Christianity and predicted the future without knowing the Bible, etc.

Yes — Maniilaq is regarded as a real historical person in Iñupiat (Inuit) oral tradition.

However, the more dramatic claims about him (detailed Christian-style prophecy, specific predictions of modern technology, etc.) are debated and often come from later retellings rather than early documentation.

Here’s a careful breakdown.

---

1. Was Maniilaq a real person?

Most scholars and Alaska Native historians accept that:

• Maniilaq was an Iñupiat spiritual figure.

• He likely lived in the early–mid 19th century (often dated roughly 1800–1850).

• He was known as a healer and prophet among the Iñupiat of northwest Alaska.

He appears in missionary-era reports and Indigenous oral histories.

So: Yes, probably historical.

---

2. The Christianity Question

The more controversial claim is that:

• He predicted the arrival of Christianity before missionaries arrived.

• He knew about a single creator God.

• He anticipated moral teachings similar to the Bible.

However:

• Russian Orthodox missionaries were active in Alaska from the late 1700s onward.

• Trade networks spread ideas long before permanent missionary presence.

• Cultural contact may have preceded written records.

So it is entirely possible he had indirect exposure to Christian ideas, even if no missionary was stationed directly in his village.

There is no strong historical evidence that he developed detailed Christian theology independently and in isolation.

---

3. The Prophecy Claims

Modern retellings sometimes claim that Maniilaq predicted:

• The coming of white people.

• The coming of Christianity.

• The collapse of traditional ways.

• Modern technologies.

• A final moral reckoning.

However, these claims mostly come from:

• Later oral traditions recorded in the 20th century.

• Christian missionary interpretations.

• Modern Indigenous reinterpretations.

We do not have contemporary 19th-century written records documenting detailed prophecies in real time.

---

4. The “Prophet Without the Bible” Narrative

The idea that he:

• Predicted Christianity without ever encountering it,

• Or anticipated biblical teachings in detail,

is usually framed in apologetic or spiritual narratives rather than academic historical work.

From a scholarly perspective:

• It’s more plausible that he integrated new religious ideas into existing spiritual frameworks.

• Indigenous prophets frequently reinterpret outside influences in culturally meaningful ways.

That pattern is common globally.

---

5. Indigenous Prophetic Movements

Similar prophetic figures emerged in many Indigenous societies under colonial pressure.

They often:

• Combined traditional spirituality with incoming religious elements.

• Foretold social upheaval.

• Called for moral reform.

Maniilaq fits that broader anthropological pattern.

---

6. Scholarly Position

Most historians would say:

• He was likely a real spiritual leader.

• The details of his prophecies are difficult to verify.

• Some elements may have been shaped by later Christian influence.

• Oral traditions evolve over time.

This does not mean the tradition is false — only that it cannot be verified in the way modern historiography requires.

---

7. Bottom Line

Is Maniilaq real?
→ Probably yes.

Did he independently predict Christianity without exposure?
→ Historically uncertain and unlikely in the strong form sometimes claimed.

Are the dramatic prophecy narratives historically documented from his own time?
→ No, they appear in later accounts.

---

If you’d like, I can also compare Maniilaq to other Indigenous prophetic movements (like the Ghost Dance or cargo cults) to show the broader pattern.

Out of the silent planet

 

I didn´t know Seventh Day Adventism was a "science fiction" religion? OK, I actually suspected it, but this is a confirmation of sorts. According to the video above, intelligent physical-biological aliens do exist on other planets but they are unfallen (!) and therefore have no contact with Earth. 

The Bible never mentions what *we* would call "space aliens", so the exegesis is more strained than usual. Especially so since the video explicitly makes a distinction between real aliens and spiritual beings (angels or demons). Note that the AI narrator misquotes the parable of the lost sheep!

What prompted the video above is (of course) the strange claim by Trump that he will direct the federal government to disclose all secret UFO files. The Adventists who made the video suspect a mass deception and strongly imply that the last days may soon be upon us. Mass deception there will indeed be (one way or another), but hardly the literal apocalypse described in the Book of Revelation and elsewhere.

But you knew that already. So let´s move on. I actually toyed with the idea of "unfallen worlds" myself, but from a slightly different angle. Since we live in a gigantic "cosmic void", maybe that´s why no alien civilization ever comes visiting us? The distances are enormously large even by space standards, so why bother? Hopefully the strange and wonderful alien worlds in distant galaxies are indeed unfallen...

Breaking bread

 

ChatGPT explains why Seventh Day Adventism is, with outmost certainty, wrong.  

What´s the Biblical evidence for Christians celebrating mass on Sunday rather than Saturday?

This is a very precise and historically important question — because it goes to the heart of how Christianity became something other than Judaism.

The short answer is:
Christians did not switch to Sunday because of a single command.
They did it because the Resurrection happened on Sunday, and everything was re-organized around that.

Here is the evidence.

---

1. Jesus rose on “the first day of the week”

All four Gospels explicitly say this.

Matthew 28:1
Mark 16:2
Luke 24:1
John 20:1

They all agree:

Jesus rose on the first day of the week (Sunday).

This made Sunday:

the day of the new creation

Just as Genesis begins on the first day, the Resurrection inaugurates a new cosmic order.

---

2. The risen Jesus appears on Sunday — twice

John 20:19:

“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the disciples were gathered…”

Jesus appears and gives them peace.

John 20:26:

Eight days later (i.e., the next Sunday) Jesus appears again.

This creates a weekly rhythm:

Christ reveals himself on Sunday gatherings.

---

3. The Eucharist is instituted in resurrection gatherings

Luke 24 (the Emmaus story):

Jesus:

• walks with disciples

• explains scripture

• breaks bread

• vanishes

This is the first post-Resurrection Mass — and it happens on Sunday.

---

4. Christians are already meeting on Sunday in the New Testament

Acts 20:7:

“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul spoke…”

“Breaking bread” is Eucharistic language.

This is a Sunday Mass in the year ~55 AD.

---

5. Sunday replaces Sabbath because the covenant changed

Paul explains the theology:

Colossians 2:16–17:

“Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

Romans 14:

One person esteems one day; another esteems all days alike.

Christians are no longer bound to the Mosaic calendar.

---

6. Revelation calls Sunday “the Lord’s Day”

Revelation 1:10:

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.”

By the end of the 1st century, Sunday already has a special Christian name.

---

The big theological reason

Saturday (Sabbath) commemorates:

Creation

Sunday commemorates:

New Creation

The Resurrection is seen as:

God restarting the universe.

So Christians worship on the day:

death was defeated.

---

The conclusion

Christians celebrate Mass on Sunday because:

• Jesus rose on Sunday

• He appeared to the Church on Sundays

• The Eucharist was celebrated on Sundays

• The New Covenant is not bound to the Jewish Sabbath

It was not imposed by Rome.
It arose organically from the Resurrection itself.

If you’d like, I can also show how the earliest non-biblical Christian writings confirm this practice within decades of the apostles.

Yes, please.

Here is the decisive historical evidence — from the generation immediately after the apostles — that Christians were already worshipping on Sunday (the Lord’s Day) long before Constantine, the papacy, or later church law.

These texts are independent, early, and geographically spread across the Roman world.

---

1. Didache (c. 50–90 AD)

This is the earliest church manual we possess — older than many New Testament books.

It says:

“On the Lord’s Day, gather together, break bread, and give thanks.”

This is a direct instruction for Sunday Eucharist within living memory of the apostles.

---

2. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107 AD)

A disciple of the apostle John.

He writes:

“Those who have come to the new hope no longer observe the Sabbath, but live according to the Lord’s Day, on which our life rose through Him.”

This explicitly contrasts:

• Jewish Sabbath

• Christian Sunday

and connects Sunday to the Resurrection.

---

3. Justin Martyr (c. 155 AD)

Writing to the Roman Emperor, he explains Christian worship:

“On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together… because it is the first day on which God created the world, and Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.”

This is:

• public

• official

• universal

Christian practice — a century before Constantine.

---

4. Epistle of Barnabas (c. 90–120 AD)

“We keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose from the dead.”

“Eighth day” = Sunday = New Creation Day.

---

5. What this proves

By 100–150 AD:

Christians in:

• Syria

• Asia Minor

• Rome

• North Africa

are all:

• celebrating the Eucharist on Sunday

• calling it “the Lord’s Day”

• explicitly not keeping the Jewish Sabbath

This is universal apostolic Christianity.

---

The deep reason

Sunday worship is not arbitrary.

It is the liturgical expression of the belief that:

Christ’s Resurrection restarted time itself.

Saturday belongs to the old creation.
Sunday belongs to the new.

---

If you’d like, I can also explain how this connects to the Book of Revelation, the Eucharist, and the cosmic meaning of “the eighth day.”

How do we know that "breaking bread" is Eucharistic language?

We know that “breaking bread” is Eucharistic language because:

1. it is used that way by Jesus himself,

2. it is used that way by Luke,

3. it is used that way by Paul, and

4. it is used that way by the earliest post-apostolic Church.

All four lines converge.

---

1. Jesus defined “breaking bread” at the Last Supper

At the Last Supper:

“He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said:
‘This is my body.’”

That four-fold pattern
(took → blessed → broke → gave)
becomes technical Eucharistic language.

Every time Luke uses “breaking bread,” he is echoing this formula.

---

2. Luke uses “breaking bread” in a sacramental way

Luke wrote Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles.
He deliberately uses the same phrase in all three places:

Text	Context
Luke 22	Last Supper
Luke 24 (Emmaus)	Jesus is recognized when he breaks bread
Acts 2 & 20	Church worship

The Emmaus story is decisive:

They did not recognize Jesus
until he broke the bread

This is not ordinary dinner — it is Eucharistic revelation.

---

3. Paul uses “breaking bread” for the sacrament

Paul writes:

“The cup of blessing which we bless, and the bread which we break — is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”
— 1 Corinthians 10

Paul is explicit:

the broken bread = the body of Christ

So when Acts says:

“They met to break bread”

it is referring to that same sacrament.

---

4. The early Church confirms it

The Didache (1st century) says:

“On the Lord’s Day, gather and break bread and give thanks…”

It then gives Eucharistic prayers — proving that “breaking bread” is the Mass.

---

Why this matters for Sunday worship

So when Acts 20:7 says:

“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered to break bread…”

This is not casual eating.

It is:

the earliest recorded Sunday Eucharist.

---

In short

“Breaking bread” is Eucharistic language because:

• Jesus defined it that way

• Luke used it that way

• Paul taught it that way

• the early Church preserved it that way

It is one of the clearest bridges between the Gospels and the liturgical life of the early Church.

The pope is laughing

 

Not sure if this really means that much, but it´s fun listening to. Especially if you´re a nerd. It´s also a good summary of the bewildering diversity of Christian Churches and denominations. In practice, of course, even Churches that are in some sense "close" might hate each other - witness the rather rocky historical relations between Catholics and Orthodox. To mention just one example...

Crypto-Jews: Seed of the Serpent?

 

Khazarian crypto-Jew? 

LOL. So I continued to look into WLC and it turns out that they are really raving anti-Semites. I won´t link to their BS, but it seems to be all the usual stuff. The Jews are really "crypto-Jews", "Khazars" and (huzzah) the "Seed of the Serpent"?! Apparently, WLC´s videos on the topic have been blocked in some nations for hate speech. Well!  

The Great Rejection

 

So I´ve been looking through the website of World´s Last Chance (WLC), the dissident Adventist ministry which recently created a splash by putting up billboards across the US with the provocative message "Jesus Is Not God". 

I was somewhat surprised to learn that many of WLC´s "heresies" have existed before in Adventist history. Thus, the flat earth was a teaching associated with SDA preacher Alexander Gleason, who published a book about it in 1890. Note the similarity between the Gleason Map and the much later speculations of the Flat Earth Society! 

The WLC further claims that Grace Amadon (regarded by the SDA Chuch as an important researcher into ancient Jewish prophecy and time-keeping) came to the conclusion that the Sabbath didn´t always fall on Saturdays but followed the Moon. The first Sabbath in each lunar month fell on the seventh day after New Moon (and thus doesn´t have to be a Saturday).

While flat earthism and the lunar Sabbath are extreme or excentric doctrines, on other points the WLC are more mainstream than the SDA Church. The third piece below defends a standard Protestant view of justification by faith and the atonement. 

Good luck with this material. I might return to this topic in the near future.  

Rejection of divine light by the SDA Church (part 1)

Rejection of divine light by the SDA Church (part 2)

Rejection of divine light by the SDA Church (part 3)

Jesus billboard

 

There is a lot of material at the website of World´s Last Chance (WLC). The links below go to relatively short pieces. Since I haven´t (yet) read the longer ones! 

I have to say that their polemic against Seventh Day Adventism sounds original. The WLC claims that the SDA Church is practicing hypnosis and the spiritual exercises of the Jesuits, supports the Emergent Church, and denies that the feet of Jesus will touch the ground on his return?! Oookay... 

>>>By the use of neurolinguistic programming, Ericksonian hypnosis in church services and supporting the spiritual exercises of Jesuit founder, Ignatious Loyola, via "Spiritual Formation" the SDA church is reaching its hand across the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritism. Roman Catholic mysticism is widely promoted in the SDA Church via participation in the emergent church movement. While some SDAs are protesting this apostasy, the Church itself officially supports it. SDAs teach that Yahushua’s feet will not touch the earth upon his return. Scripture, however, teaches that his feet will touch down upon the Mount of Olives at his return. (Zech. 14:4).>>>

The second link defends the apostolicity of Paul and the canonicity of his writings, but why would such a polemic be necessary at all? I assume the WLC is active in milieux where strongly Judaizing Christians actually do question Paul.

I might return to this in the near future. Or I might not.  

Seventh Day Adventist

Paul: False prophet or true apostle?

Jesus Is Not God

 

Recently, yuge and amazing billboards have scandalized evangelical(?) Christians all over Murica and some have even been vandalized. Yes, the billboards proclaim that Jesus isn´t God and doesn´t pre-exist in heaven. I admit that I don´t really care (I mean, this is just another Tuesday in the You-Ess-Ov-A), but just for the hell of it (pun intended), I looked into the situation. 

The billboards are c/o World´s Last Chance (WLC), an anti-Trinitarian Christian group I never previously heard about. The WLC is headed by a former Adventist from Egypt, Galal P Doss, who owns several succesful companies and brands, which presumably explains where the money come from. The group is *very* unpopular among Coptic Christians in Egypt, who claim that Doss tries to evangelize his workforce (including Copts). 

I haven´t looked that deeply into WLC´s doctrines, but they seem quite extreme. Flat Earthism is one of them. Another is the claim that the Anti-Christ will impersonate a dead pope, perhaps John Paul II? Or will Francis land in a UFO manned by demons posing as benign aliens? Another important point is a "lunisolar" calendar which supposedly pinpoints when the true Sabbath should be commemorated.

I might return with some more infotainment on this outfit...     

Egyptian biscuit baron scrapes prophecy barrel

Flat Earth program on world´s most powerful radio station

Demons will impersonate aliens

World´s Last Chance?

 

This seems to be a breakaway faction from the Seventh Day Adventists, called World´s Last Chance (WLC). They recently scandalized other Christians by large billboards all over America, stating "Jesus Is Not God". The clip above shows an evangelical Christian calling on people to vandalize the billboards! Evandalism? Ahem, whatever happened to the First Amendment, brother?

The link below is a critical (probably also evangelical) summary of WLC´s belief system, but they missed their flat earthism. Which seems to be a central doctrine alongside the lunar calendar and calling Jesus "Yahushua". The second link goes to WLC´s own website. Good luck with *that* material. 

What is World´s Last Chance?

World´s Last Chance