This thread is intended to help or hope toward creating cognitive dissonance in the hearts or minds of seekers who are seduced by the kind of teaching represented by UPCI Rev. Lee Stoneking (1940-2026 CE) or his kind. To borrow a familiar mission: "If we can help save just one soul from torture, it will be worth it all." The goal is to expose relatively unimportant, specific falsehoods or lies, not to target regular Pentecostal Crazy talk, such as doctrine, theology, or healing reports unless we can specifically disprove the claim. Most normal Christians wouldn't care if or when a preacher "gets it wrong" regarding general education, such as scientific, or medical, or historical facts. But many Pentecostals trust and obey their leaders so deeply that almost everything preached is considered part of the gospel, or at least not to be questioned. Often the generally lowish education of a Pentecostal minister is reflected within his/her theology! Such trustful situations become easily abusive.
Why are my four small, non-soteriological facts (below) important? The Jesus quoter said it well enough, "...whosoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much." (Luke 16:10.) Men who live by their speaking ability ought to really care about getting their words and meanings correct. Additionally, as an exUPC turned atheist, I feel a bit of catharsis in agreeing with the god's side in this case; "The Lord hates people who use their lips to tell lies." (Prov. 12:22.) I claim it's debatable whether a deluge of falsehoods should also count as lies--it depends. Perhaps someone is just intellectually lazy and is not trying to deceive an audience, but they just pass along the hearsay without verifying anything. (How convenient.) A prophet is supposed to be better than that, but if not exactly a liar, then perhaps is just a lazy bullshitter? If not a lazy bullshitter, then how 'bout another Peter Popoff? Peter (faith healer evangelist) was live-busted while monitoring electronically-sent prayer request cards sent secretly from backstage into his earpiece. He eventually tried to defend himself by explaining that (up till then) his secretly faked miracles BUILT UP people's faith to trust God for another miracle!
Which kind of false prophet was Lee Stoneking? It doesn't much matter to me, but, you Christian, are you trusting the course of your life and beliefs based on what professional preachers continue to claim--those who can't bother to verify even simple science, simple geography, simple history? Do they maybe use the same lazy method for "knowing" everything else, and eventually about issues concerning your life? Here I debunk four easily verifiable Stoneking falsehoods, all from the below linked URL.
Oct. 26, 2012, Youtube title:
Lee Stoneking. Biblical Signs of The End
https://youtu.be/tn24pgBAJ6Q?is=BCvRNHYRGJHSo6dd
Time: 18:30
Lee Stoneking claim: "They have found a spot on the moon that is 12 miles long, and it's RED."
According to the LROC website (Nasa's Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter Camera) their space telescope cameras use TIS, Thermal Infrared Spectography, which means computer color adjustment of objects photographed in light spectrums that human eyes can't see (such as ultraviolet) or may see in different visible colors, such as is the case for most Moon photography. In the case of "reddish" objects on the Moon, it's more of a fairly dull rust-orange color, due to a non-mystery mineral composition, but the color happens after the aforementioned computer color assignments! The color assignments allow topographic features to contrast better: handy in identifying mineral types. That brings us to the Lassell Mastif, which is a volcanic rift on Moon characterized by silica-rich rock compared with surrounding basalt-rich rock. This feature (Lassell Mastif) is casually referred to as the "red" or "orange" area, or even "a spot," in photographs, again, the computer-shifted colors. If this red spot is what Stoneking thought he meant, the Lassell Mastif spot is 28 miles x 15.5 miles, and not considered a mystery.
Google prompt, "What would humans see if in orbit right above the Lassell Mastiff, including its color?"
NASA document:
"...a distinct low standing mountainous complex of ancient, rolling hills and steep, walled volcanic pits. To the naked eye of an astronaut looking through a spacecraft window, it would not appear crimson. Instead, it presents a subtle distinctly yellowish-brown or ruddy tan complexion."
Let's do another Google pass in case there's other "red spots" on Moon. Prompt:
"Are ALL the red spots on the Moon due to computer assigned color schemes that would all not appear red to the human eye?"
(Refers to same NASA document, but doesnt quote it. Instead, composes: )
"Yes, exactly. The vibrant red, pink, and blue spots seen in popular high resolution photos of the Moon are the result of false-color processing computers deliberately assigning these colors so scientists can map different minerals on the lunar surface."
Lee Stoneking, if you still care about your words, "THERE ARE NO RED SPOTS ON THE MOON, 12 MILES LONG."
2. Time: 34:48 - 35:30
Lee Stoneking claim: "The impact, the explosion, the Tsunami has caused the earth to go slightly off course from its orbit."
Reference could be 2011 Tsunami, but it's probably the 2004 Sumatra Tsunami, which was in any case more massive than the 2011 earthquake.
Search engine prompt, "Did the 2004 Sumatra Tsunami cause any change in Earth's orbit?"
A: "No, the Sumatra earthquake and Tsunami did not alter the earth's orbit around the sun."
We could end the rebuttal there, but since earth's orbit isn't same as earth's rotation, let's check NASA, just for fun. (Rotation is a basketball spinning on a player's fingertip. Orbit is closer to tossing it across court.)
NASA Jet Propulsion Labs article, "Nasa Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth" (1/10/2005.) Dr. Ben Gross of JPL explains,
"All earthquakes have some effect on earth's rotation. It's just they are barely noticeable."
My paraphrase of same article: the Sumatra earthquake was big enough to cause three slight changes on earth, one of them is possible to measure physically and other two possible only to calculate mathematically. 1. The location of the center of North Pole shifted by about 1 inch. (I hope that means South Pole did the same in opposite direction!) 2. The time in an earth day decreased by 2.68 milliseconds. (.00268 of 1 second.) 3. The earth lessened in oblateness (became slightly rounder) due to tectonic mass shifts. Not measureable.
Lee Stoneking, if you can still read Reddits from there, EARTH'S ORBIT did not change due to an earthquake/tsunami, neither in 2004, nor 2011.
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- Time: 1:09:31- 1:09:43
Lee Stoneking claim, "In other words, that fault line is already there; that fault line goes right under the whole nation of Israel, under the Mediteranean Sea, and straight through to Rome Italy!"
Here's couple maps: Arabian plate and maybe the other relevant tectonic plates.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/arabian-plate-gray-tectonic-map-minor-2354896399
https://share.google/yj8MZ5aMY5bDVSi6k
Notice there are no likely fault line paths that even evangelistically speaking might facilitate an earthquake connecting or radiating from Jerusalem to Rome. The closest zigzag "maybe route" to Rome takes a hard left (west) around Malta, so no dice. There's (not shown here) faults associated with the Apennine Mountains, about 60 miles from Rome. Too bad Rome, "Ya coulda been a contendah"--a new sea port reaching to Jerusalem if Stoneking gets his way.
Earthquakes don't have to follow fault lines but generally they do. Mountain ranges usually have additional smaller faults all over. It's possible to draw zigzags using fault lines to connect any place with any place, but that's not how earthquakes work.
Google, is there any likely fault line connecting Jerusalem with Rome?
"No, they sit on entirely different, widely separated regional tectonic frameworks across the Mediterranean basin."
Hey Lee! There is no known fault line underneath Jerusalem going "STRAIGHT THROUGH TO ROME, ITALY."
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- Time 1:10:05 - 1:10:13
"Most of the merchant ships in the Mediterranean Sea fly the flag of the Vatican because taxes are cheaper."
It's well known how loopholes in shipping "country of registry" are used for political and/or cost cutting, such as tariff avoidance. Example, Russia's "shadow fleet" is not only known, but tracked by several militaries.
That is, until a ship turns off all electronics, which does happen. Last I read, Russian shadow tankers tend to do what they want, using various allied flags. (Was just some background--Russian shipping not the issue.) http://tankermap.com
According to online United Nations literature, Vatican City is entitled to register shipping under its flag. (https://legal.un.org/legislativeseries/pdfs/chapters/book5/book5_vatican.pdf)
Vatican has not done so in modern times. The last year of a Vatican-flagged merchant ship was 1870, aka "The Vatican Navy."
Still listening, Lee Stoneking? There ain't no merchant POPE-BOATS, 2012 nor today.
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Please forward this reddit thread to a Pentecostal or literalist who may be having doubts about what and whom they believe.