|
We have finished explaining most of the characteristics of the 4th Watch, including all of its cultic features. While we have explained to you that being unbiblical does not mean cultic, we have also provided a few things here which the 4th Watch teaches that are unbiblical in order to show that the 4th Watch, despite claiming to follow the Bible literally and 100%, do not actually practice what they preach. Keep in mind that as you read these examples, the 4th Watch explicitly teaches that the Bible is completely inerrant and is the exact word of God. This means that there are no mistakes of any kind and it is to be followed exactly. But it is clear that they do go against certain teachings of the Bible or make up their own.
With that said, the Bible is a book of fiction and immorality anyway, so there is very little value in teaching from it. In fact, because the Bible is so full of incorrect information and immorality, being unbiblical is usually a good thing, and we would encourage anybody in most cases to do things that are not according to the Bible. So just because the 4th Watch does something unbiblical, that does not mean that they are doing something wrong. In fact, by being unbiblical, they are probably doing certain things that are right...as difficult as that can be to imagine.
Now, are there some positive things in the Bible? Sure, there are a few things. Not a lot, but if you look long enough and close enough, you can eventually find something that's positive. With anything in life, the best approach to following advice or believing in new information is to think about what you have just been presented, see if it makes sense to you, research it if necessary, and then make a decision whether or not to follow or believe it. You should never follow anything blindly. This means you have to pick and choose what is right. If someone gave you a bunch of advice and information, you shouldn't have the attitude of just accepting all of it or none of it. You should select what is right and reject what isn't.
The 4th Watch, along with other fundamentalists, teach that the Bible should be accepted in its entirety, which is not a wise thing to do. However, if they are going to make this claim, that the Bible is 100% true and moral, then they should practice what they preach and not pick and choose. But of course, even fundamentalists, while they might not admit it, do pick and choose. So again, the reason why we are presenting this piece to you is to show that despite what they say about following the Bible literally, they don't always do so.
So why does Arsenio Ferriol preach fundamentalism? Well remember that he's not looking to actually teach Christianity, he just wants to make money. From this perspective, he's a smart guy. He knows that the Bible has been around for a long time and has been the source of Christian understanding for many years. Persons trust it and are familiar with it. They are certainly more willing to trust the Bible than someone who just calls himself the Apostle and teaches whatever he wants. Therefore, the Bible is a safety tool for the cult leader to use which will help sell the idea of his apostleship. Further more, the Apostle can't just tell his followers that he only agrees with some of the Bible, because then of course, it just makes the Bible seem not as credible, and then his whole religion also doesn't seem as credible. So he has little choice. His cult depends on him teaching a credible Bible, so he teaches that it is the exact word of God, and that it has no errors, is 100% factually correct, is the complete source for morality, and that it is to be followed literally.
Still, in reality, the Apostle, like most fundamentalists, does not actually practice what he preaches and does not follow the Bible exactly this way. He knows damn well that he can't follow every teaching in the Bible. For one, he'd be arrested and jailed. And two, he wouldn't have nearly as many followers as he does today, and thus he wouldn't be rich. So how does he resolve this issue? Simple, he convinces persons that he is the sole authority on the Bible, and then reinterprets the Bible to fit his teachings. The Bible is very difficult to understand. It is very lacking in detail and wide open to various forms of interpretation. You can take the same verse and come up with a hundred possibilities of what it means. In theory, you can take almost the entire Bible and make it mean what you want it to mean. That is what most cults including this one do. The cult leader has decided what it will teach and has come up with a plan as to how he will explain those teachings according to the Bible.
|
|
