S. Wily:
I’ve been asked and am happy to respond to your questions on behalf of WBC. (Php 1:18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.) I will break them down one at a time, please.
I have read that a large portion of your congregation is related through either blood or marriage. How many members are not related to Fred Phelps and his family?
Just the perfect number. If you really want to know, come visit in person and see. If you have the heart to believe, the ears to hear and the eyes to see; you can learn some things. Numerology will take a back seat. But, if you insist, bring your calculator. A big, fancy, new one. Hebrews 12: “22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.”
The Greek word for Church is ekklesia, and its operating definition as far as numbers is found in Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Words have meanings and you don’t get to make up new definitions along the way to satisfy your lust and greed.
Mark 3: “32 And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. 33 And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? 34 And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! 35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”
Eph 3:14 “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named”
Ps 3:8 “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.”
John 3:8 “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. “
Mt 16:17 “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
1Co 15:50 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”
Lu 3:8 “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
2Co 6:14 ” Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
Deuteronomy 6: “4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
Eph 6:4 “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
Acts 17:26 “And [God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;”
Competent, scholarly authors have reasoned that in the antediluvian world 14 billion lives were supported by the ecosystem at the time of the flood. Eight (8) souls (all related by blood or marriage) entered into the ark: Genesis 7:13 “In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;”
Genesis 19 teaches that four (4) walked out of a city-state of 5 million people just before it was devoured in a holocaust in a minute. All related by blood or marriage.
Luke 17: “26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
Re 21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Were those that perished in the flood and in the holocaust of Sodom more or less righteous than any generation since?
Thanks for writing.
Your friends at Westboro Baptist Church,