The 'opinions' that Tom holds did not occur in a vaccum, or as he would have you percieve, the result of unbiased research.
I know 'Tom' very well. After he was exposed by some brethren a few years ago on some unrelated issues, as opposed to repenting and moving on, he sold the business that these brethren had built for themselves right out from under them...their bread and butter was taken (stolen) from them. He also placed me in the precarious position of choosing between him and them. As YHWH is my witness, I believed him to be in the wrong and sided to get him to repent and reconcile with these brothers and their families who were dependent on the business they had built together. As a result of my choice, and his decision to percieve it as a threat to HIS ministry, he fired me from the positions that I held, including that of administrator of his forums which I had held for some time.
It seems that it was also at this time that he decided to take the position regarding 'time' issues that he currently holds. It was no secret while I was there that I had been researching these issues of 'time' while there. In fact, I became a practicing 'lunar sabbath' observer while there.
After becoming estranged by the other brethren and myself as a result of his choices, it seems he also took up the banner to come against the research I had been doing. He banned me from his chat room and from his regular forums and moved all threads pertaining to issues of 'time', particularly as regards lunar sabbaths, to a 'private', hidden forum which was heavily censored and which he would allow me to post. I couldn't handle the censorship and left all together.
Nothing has been more clear to me than the fact that Tom has NOT been unbiased. It cannot be more plain to me, as a result of the personal attacks, manipulation, and censorship which I have endured at his hands for the past 5 years, that he is NOT unbiased (a perception he cunningly grooms).
With that said, let me quote the book of Jude:
'These dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings...(they) speak abusively against whatever they do not understand, and even what they do understand, by instinct. Like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.
These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves...they are wandering stars (planets for whom the satanic week is reckoned) for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
ObedYah Shocked
Wow. I can't speak toward the other issues, but I will say that his actions on this matter of the lunar Sabbath and the forum are certainly compatible with your statement here.
I go round and round with Chuck, but I believe Chuck has given the subject at least some due consideration. Actually, I believe he knows it's true, however, he is reluctant to make the switch for some unknown reason. But I digress;
The point is, to make an "arbitrary" decision to stand against something without giving it due consideration is unintelligent and lacks honest scholarship. That is irritating in so many ways IMO.
There are some even on this forum who "scratch and claw" against the doctrine without ever having taken the time to really understand it. I have little patience with such a one.
I would much rather discuss the issue with someone who, although they disagree, will be open to siding with the truth, whatever it may be.