Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Bob Thiel: COG Members May Have To Wander To Different Countries Before Being Allowed Into Petra


I had to laugh tonight when I checked Bob Theil's blog.  The non-ordained self-appointed leader of the Continuing ED Church of God has an entry up tonight about how COG members might have to wander from country to country before Jordan feels sorry for them and allows them into Petra.

Dennis and I were laughing about this last Sunday in a phone conversation.  I told him how we had been told over and over that when everyone is supposed to be safely in Petra that God was going to place a cloud cover over it so that the enemy bombers could not find the location and bomb the COG members.  Given the modern technology that can see through cloud cover,  this is an absurd belief.  Plus, can you imagine an Arab nation allow a bunch of crazy "Christian's into their midst for protection? Of course, Armstrongism has swallowed a lot of completely stupid teachings about Petra and the Place of Safety.

Gerald Waterhouse, Rod Meredith, Dean Blackwell, and others were some of those who came up with some of these incredibly stupid ideas.

Thiel writes:

Jesus taught, “And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20) which is consistent with Revelation 12:14 which clearly states that it is a place to go to, it is in the wilderness, and it is away from the presence of the serpent. The word translated as wilderness, is translated as desert in the NIV. This word is eremos, which Strong’s defines as lonesome, waste, desert, desolate, solitary, wilderness. Thus, it is not protection in our own houses (as some have erroneously suggested), nor is it protection in a large city. It is somewhere in the wilderness.
Let’s fully quote Isaiah 16:1-4,
1 Send the lamb to the ruler of the land,
From Sela to the wilderness,
To the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 For it shall be as a wandering bird thrown out of the nest;
So shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.
3 “Take counsel, execute judgment;
Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day;
Hide the outcasts,
Do not betray him who escapes.
4 Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Moab;
Be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler.
For the extortioner is at an end,
Devastation ceases,
The oppressors are consumed out of the land..
From these verses, we learn that Moab hides the outcasts, those who escape and then wander–this could be God’s people as Jesus told them “pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape” (Luke 21:36). The fact that they are called wanderers suggests that perhaps they do not start in Petra. It could refer to the fact that they are from many lands and/or that they have wandered to different places before coming to ‘Moab.’

We have seen that this place has something to do with Moab, Sela, and the wilderness. We know that some of the area that once was Moab is modern Jordan (while there also used to be Edomites there, we in the COGs tend to feel they moved much further north). We also know that Sela means rock. It is called Petra in Greek, which also means rock. There is a deserted town in Jordan named Petra, which is the place called Sela in Isaiah. Petra is not a city itself, and is in a lonesome, rocky, desert wilderness that contains caves. It is possible that some other place on Earth also meets these criteria, but thus far Petra appears to be the leading candidate.

9 comments:

Byker Bob said...

The rapture works soooo much better than all of this nonsense! It puts (gasp!!!) God in the role of gatekeeper rather than a church group or its fake apostle or prophet.

If these people would spend half the time concentrating on Christian living that they spend on all of this inane, wild, speculation they might actually become a blessing to everyone around them.

Anyone want to tithe to Bob? I've got a suggestion. Go to Walmart and convert your tithes into Reynolds Wrap, and UPS it up to Arroyo Grande.

BB

Redfox712 said...

I once watched a Tomorrow's World program where Meredith implied that some of the Philadelphian Christians in the Place of Safety would fall away and be captured by the Beast power.

He did not say this directly. He used a passage in Ezekiel to say even some of those who do get to the place of safety will be captured by the Beast power. Even if you are in Petra (or wherever the place(s) of safety is) you could still fall away and lose God's protection.

LCG tends to de-emphasize that the Place of Safety will be Petra, but rather God is our protection. But still sometimes they imply it is Petra. I well recall Richard Ames mentioning Daniel 11:40-5 to say that some people in Jordan would escape the Beast power. It was many years later I realized he was obliquely referring to the idea of Petra being the place of safety. So they are still somewhat attached to that idea.

Unknown said...

Cool, I didnt realize that going to Petra was going to allow us to travel and tour!

Mrs. Moeller and I would like it to include Southern France, Italy, Greece, Egypt and Israel. First class accommodations please, (we have enough miles on our credit card for the upgrade).

Joe Moeller
Cody, WY

Anonymous said...

Now that we are out looking in, we see the folly and how silly those thoughts of going to Petra were. But it is worth making a movie though. Those Armageddon and 666 types of movies made much killing in the box office, and this is the time to show the armstrong version. I just wonder who would agree to produce the movie. There are just too many script writers like meredith, furry flurry, pack, and a host of other mental or semi-mental cases. From royalties of the movie alone, the script writer need not force his congregation members to sell their house and lot to come up with their version of Ambassador College. Or maybe the would-be scriptwriter cum false apostle would still do knowing how greedy they are when it comes to money, to the point that they use the name of God to live in perfect luxury.

Anonymous said...

From: "Zacchaeus was a Tiny Little Man"

http://www.worshiphousekids.com/song-tracks/29908/Zacchaeus-Was-A-Wee-Little-Man



Bob Thiel is a Weeny Little Man
And a Weenie Little Man is he...
He climbed up in the Church of God Tree..
For the Prophet he wanted to be.

And when the Savior passed him by
He looked up in the tree
and he said..
Bob Thiel, you come down...
For you're nothing but a doof to me
For your're nothing but a doof to me...

M.T.Pews

Anonymous said...

Here's Thiel's "Official End Times Song"-

(Not to be confused with the theme song for the Good Times TV show.)


The Happy Wanderer

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.

Chorus:
Val-deri,Val-dera,
Val-deri,
Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-deri,Val-dera.
My knapsack on my back.

I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun,
So joyously it calls to me,
"Come! Join my happy song!"

I wave my hat to all I meet,
And they wave back to me,
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev'ry green wood tree.

High overhead, the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home
But just like me, they love to sing,
As o'er the world we roam.

Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die!
Oh, may I always laugh and sing,
Beneath God's clear blue sky!

Corky said...

Because, as we all know, an omnipotent "GOD" is not able to protect you just any old where, especially at home. Just ask the Jews who lived in Europe in the 30s and 40s...

Byker Bob said...

In an ACOG mindset, wandering is automatically associated with the Israelites. Like Moses. And, I guess this was used as partial "proof" that the wandering Germanic tribes that eventually settled Western Europe was the supposedly "lost" (they never were) ten tribes. Of course, HWA counted the Germans wandering with them as Assyrians instead of Israelites.

And, then there is the Jewish diaspora. So, in Armstrongish romanticism, God's people always wander. Thiel never misses an opportunity to apply this sort of thing to his own benefit, and here we have yet another example.

BB

Anonymous said...

Is the Bob Thiel trying to get Rick Steves interested in his church?