kekel said,"Many years ago when our son was small, we took him to Frontier Park in Graham, WA. We noticed a dog show going on nearby, so we wandered over to watch. After a few minutes of witnessing the interaction of the people with their pets, it became clear to me that it was time to leave. I was uncomfortable and troubled in my spirit by the atmosphere.
Another time a few years ago we went to an annual event in Tacoma called Wintergrass; basically one hour acoustic music lessons/workshops taught by professionals. Iʼve played guitar since 1966 and Iʼm always trying to improve, so it was an absolute treat for me to listen to these pros play and teach. Later in the evening when things started jumping, and started to get crazy, we looked at each other and said something like, “letʼs get out of here!” These are just 2 examples of many kinds of situations that we as Christians may find ourselves in and no one can hit the brakes but us! Here’s another scenario; Restaurants that serve alcohol. If you refuse to eat at such places, youʼre left with McDonalds and the BK; but the environment is quite different on Tuesday afternoon than it is on Friday or Saturday evening when the crowd is rockinʼ and prowlinʼ. So then, is it the PRESENCE of alcohol, or the activities INVOLVING it that is wrong? For that matter, alcohol is present at the supermarket, but walking near it should not be a temptation for a Christian. If there is no lust (desire) for it in your heart, there should be no temptation (James 1:14-15)- “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Even if you WERE tempted by it, you still have a brake pedal beneath your foot. Use it! If a certain place put you in a position to be tempted, then you should avoid even going there."
Don and Ange say,
This clearly illustrates the warped thinking of mike kekel and the cultish teachings of the ntcc. Come on, the leisurely walk through the park and stumbling into a wicked dog show? A dog show is such a terrible atmosphere to have to endure? I bet it really vexed your spirit. Maybe it was the fact that the dogs were not wearing modest apparel? Or one of them committed an indecent act in public? I know what it was. It must have been the dog owners dripping with pride? Or maybe the dogs were proud?
When I read this, I almost fell out of my chair laughing. It brought back so many ntcc memories. I thought of disclaimers that we used to use at ntcc.
"I was walking through the barracks and stumbled across a tv; and there just happened to be some sinful event on there; and I felt convicted for even watching 30 seconds of it."
kekel said, "we noticed a dog show and wandered over to watch".
If kekel got convicted I would imagine that the conviction he was experiencing had something to do with the double standards that ntcc has been preaching for years and years. Maybe he realized what a hypocrite he is for going to a Bluegrass Music Festival after years of teaching that all such music is "worldly".
Maybe he just got done telling the bible school students that if their toenails where hanging over the threshold of their doorstep at 10:00:01pm they would be breaking curfew and would forfeit their semester; and ntcc would keep all the proceeds so that the kekel kid could purchase a new football uniform for his extracurricular sporting event that nobody else in the history of ntcc ever got to participate in without getting raked over the coals for wearing lascivious tight clothes and playing sports that could take them away from the work of the borg, oops, lawd.
That might bring a little conviction; but I bet he stayed there a few more minutes and pondered over all the members that were told they couldn't have dogs or that cats were of the devil. That must have brought a lot of conviction. But I bet he lingered a little longer. It wasn't until he reflected back on the time that his father-in law davis had a certain preacher, elliot f. gesang, execute certain German Shepherds named Wendy and Lion by taking them out in the woods and shooting them; since davis and kekel were not being responsible pet owners and didn't want to build fences big enough to properly contain their dogs.
Or maybe kekel remembered that time his father-in-law had a certain preacher take an axe and chop off the heads of a litter of puppies (read more>>). I also would be convicted if I were at a dog show and belonged to an organization like ntcc that has no respect for the sanctity of the life of a defenseless dog.
If you are cruel to animals, you also will be cruel to people. It's a statistical fact that a lot of murderers start out by hacking up dogs and cats and other animals "to see what it feels like to kill something". They learn to develop a lust for blood. I'm not saying that kekel or davis have murdered people, at least not physically (that we know of), but what about spiritually?
When they wrongfully accuse those whose souls they have been entrusted to watch over, and instead gang-up on them when they should be the ones that demonstrate love, is there any culpability or accountability to restore those souls as brothers or sisters? I've seen people trampled on and cast out of churches for disagreeing with the highly esteemed so-called pastors of the ntcc over issues that the ntcc taught as gospel but were not backed up by scripture; what happened next was that this innocent questioning or disagreement was used to spiritually separate young tender church members from the only source of reality in God that they ever knew.
I remember one time I bought a boat and restored it and parked it by the servicemen's home. I didn't feel any conviction until a certain overseer was scheduled to come by. I just knew that my fields were going to get plowed. Being a member of ntcc and having a boat is just asking for hot coals to be heaped on your back and searing flames licking at your heels. After all, how can you be a Christian and have time for a boat? Was I convicted by the Holy Ghost for having this boat? Or perhaps was there a certain precedent that had been set at the ntcc about doing things that are fun? Whatever the case may be, when the overseer came by I made it a point to explain that I had purchased the boat to fix it up and make money by selling it so that I wouldn't get plowed. Here I was, making up lies, which is a sin, to cover up doing something that is not a sin. No wonder I was so "convicted". Perhaps if I were a member of a normal church, I would never of felt guilty for having a boat and would have never made up a lie about it.
Next we find kekel telling us about his trip to Winterfest. This time we have no disclaimer before he told us that he went because there must have been no conviction to go in the first place. But the psychological disclaimer came afterwards as another defense mechanism, "Iʼve played guitar since 1966 and Iʼm always trying to improve, so it was an absolute treat for me to listen to these pros play and teach." He doesn't even realize that he is making excuses for his behavior.
Now here we have the CEO of ntcc feeling convicted by being at a dog show within a few minutes of being there; but he can sit at a bluegrass festival for an entire hour before being convicted?? I personally don't think that either activity is a sin in itself, unless, like kekel, you preach double standards. However, if you look at the teachings of ntcc, and if you compare a bluegrass festival to a dog show, I would have to think that a bluegrass festival would be more of a sin than a dog show.
I do think that if it were common knowledge that a bible school student were participating in events like that, there would be unreasonable spiritual retribution toward that individual. They might not come out and say that it was a sin to attend an event like that, although they have in the past; but what they would more than likely say is that souls are dying and going to hell and here you are wasting time at a worldly music festival. Same exact thing. Same effect. Same judgmental double standards. It's okay for the elitists in the ntcc to basically do whatever they want; but when it comes to the least of God's children, it's a sinful event.
Why are we so hard on the ntcc? Because the leadership should set a good example of what they expect others to do. But instead the ntcc leaders break the rules they have created and do the exact opposite of what they expect otherss to do. They say and do not. Hypocrites.
Mathew 23:4 "They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; and they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers".
If you are preaching strict adherence to a set of values to the least of the brethren, then you better live by it yourself; or you are a HYPOCRITE. Don't you borg 'leaders' feel the least bit guilty about the double standards and hypocrisy that is rampant throughout the ntcc? You should. kekel, you don't need to learn how to use the brake pedal in your spiritual car, you need to learn how to use the steering wheel. If you would have turned your steering wheel in your sin-mobile a little to the left or to the right, you wouldn't have created so much fodder for us to write about. You should step down from your lofty position and turn it over to someone who lives what they preach, loves God and does not ADD TO or TAKE AWAY FROM the Word of God. Until next time, we are the X-ers and we stand united.
