Prophet? Please. Bob Thiel’s Massive Rebuttal Is Peak Narcissistic Cope — HWA Quotes, Whispered Endorsements, and a Whole Tube of Butthurt

On June 18, 2024, I had the audacity to point out the blindingly obvious: 

Herbert W. Armstrong’s own words make absolute mincemeat of Bob Thiel’s desperate claim to prophetic superstar status. 

 

(See article here along with a video from a COG related group who says there is NO NEED for prophets today in the church)

Two years later, Bwana Bob is still nursing his hemorrhoids with his gigantic tube of Butthurt Cream, causing him to lash out today in a hilarious 10,966 word "rebuttal."

Is it a concise, Spirit-led reply? Oh no. It was a bloated, self-congratulatory biblical doorstopper — a rambling, name-dropping, quote-vomiting manifesto clocking in at well over 10,900 words of pure defensive cope.

If sheer word count proved divine inspiration, War and Peace would be holy writ and Crackpot Bob would outrank Moses, Elijah, and the Apostle Paul combined. Sadly for our verbose visionary, God doesn’t anoint prophets based on how many times they can repeat “I have never posted a false prediction” while patting themselves on the back. He just writes another 10,000 words because his narcissism can’t tolerate a blog post calling out the obvious.

Bwana Bob devotes massive chunks of his literary tantrum to cherry-picking Herbert Armstrong quotes on prophets, the two witnesses, future “prophesying again,” and Joel 2/Acts 2 duality. He then plants his flag and declares triumphantly: “See? HWA totally backs me!”

Cute. HWA also wrote, loudly and repeatedly, that he was emphatically NOT a prophet, that there was no such human prophet living in 1972, and that there was no doctrinal need for them at the time. Thiel’s brilliant rebuttal? “Well, HWA was just annoyed by random cranks, and he didn’t really mean it forever!” He even trots out a private chat with Aaron Dean as supposed smoking-gun proof.

Here’s the hilarious part: even granting Crackpot Bob's spin on Aaron Dean (which we only have on Thiel’s say-so), it still doesn’t magically transform Crackpot Bob into the end-time super-prophet. It just reminds us that HWA was a fallible man whose contradictory statements helped spawn dozens of feuding splinters after he died. Quoting long-dead Armstrong-era ministers as your airtight prophetic credentials is like using a dusty 1975 Plain Truth to “prove” modern doctrine. It’s cute nostalgia for the true believers, but it carries all the authority of a participation trophy.

The glittering diamond in Thiel’s crown of credentials? Roderick C. Meredith supposedly told him — multiple times, in private phone calls no one else witnessed — “God may consider you to be a prophet.” Thiel rounds up the usual suspects (Dibar Apartian, Douglas Winnail, Richard Ames) for alleged agreement.

Let that marinate. Rod Meredith — the guy with his own track record of prophetic speculation, administrative drama, and helping build yet another fracturing COG empire — allegedly dropped these prophetic sweet nothings in private chats. Thiel then took those vague, cautious, or possibly polite remarks, mixed in a 2011 private anointing prayer from Gaylyn Bonjour (where Bonjour was asked to pray for wisdom and supposedly got “moved by the Spirit” to toss in a “double portion” line), and declared himself the official Elisha mantle-bearer.

Then, when Thiel dramatically exited LCG at the end of 2012 to launch his own shop, Meredith wrote an accusatory letter essentially calling out Thiel’s self-importance. So either Meredith was temporarily deceived (as seems likely in his later years), or Thiel inflated casual phone comments into a full divine coronation that never actually existed in public. Classic.

This is peak narcissistic playbook: private conversations become sacred oracles, critics become “accusers of the brethren” and “grumblers like in Jude,” and any absence of public endorsement is blamed on everyone else’s Laodicean blindness. If that’s how God appoints prophets these days, it’s a wonder the Bible isn’t full of guys demanding “Didn’t so-and-so once say I might be special?”

Crackpot Bob adores Jesus’ “by their fruits you will know them” test. He boasts about CCOG growth (heavy on Africa), “restored truths,” and his unblemished record of zero false predictions.

Real fruits look like clarity, humility, unity, and protecting the flock. What we keep seeing are the same tired Armstrongist greatest hits — now starring Crackpot Bob: serious scandals in African congregations (allegations of adultery, witchcraft, arrests, and the usual defensive cover-up vibes), the endless “everyone else is compromised, only we have it right” superiority complex, and the same old legalistic fear machine.

In the actual New Covenant, believers don’t need a special class of dream-interpreting, mantle-claiming prophets issuing new restorations. Hebrews 1:1-2 drops the mic: God spoke through prophets in the past, but in these last days He has spoken by His Son. The Spirit was poured out on all flesh. The foundation was laid. The canon is closed. The priesthood of believers means you don’t need Bwana Bob as your personal end-times decoder ring.

Every COG splinter plays this game. Flurry has his no-contact tyranny and apostle cosplay. Pack had his endless date-setting circus in Wadsworth. Weinland had his prison sentence and legal troubles. Thiel sneers at them as false while doing the exact same dance with a slightly different agenda and longer blog posts. Pot, meet kettle — and both are calling each other Laodicean.

The most damning evidence is the article’s absurd length itself. A man secure in a genuine calling from God doesn’t need to birth a novella defending against one blog post. He doesn’t need to rehash his anointing story for the umpteenth time, list every private conversation like it’s Exhibit A in the Court of Divine Validation, attack his critic’s character, and pat himself on the back for “never posting a false prediction” while critics keep documenting the pattern.

That’s not bold prophetic witness. That’s a fragile ego in full meltdown mode, wrapped in Bible verses and delivered with the smug certainty of a man who just knows he’s the only one who gets it. Real biblical prophets were often reluctant, flawed, and opposed — but they didn’t crank out 10,966-word manifestos explaining why I was wrong and he is God’s special boy.

Crackpot Bob can quote HWA until the Tribulation starts. He can cling to Rod Meredith’s alleged phone blessings and his private “double portion” prayer like a security blanket. None of it makes him a prophet under any sane biblical standard — especially not in the New Covenant where Christ is sufficient.

Bob, if you were genuinely called as a prophet of the living God, you wouldn’t need a 10,966-word wall of text, tortured proof-texting, and a metaphorical (or literal) tube of Maximum Strength Butthurt Cream to soothe the sting of basic accountability. Your epic rebuttal doesn’t prove your calling. It proves the critics were right all along.

Apply liberally. The cream, that is. Your ego appears to need it in industrial quantities.

The real mincemeat here isn’t Armstrong’s quotes. It’s the towering pile of self-justification, selective memory, and unchecked ego Bwana Bob had to construct just to cope with basic criticism from a watchdog blog.

If this wall of words is the “greatest work” in the final phase, maybe the real deception isn’t the critics.

Maybe the emperor has been strutting around naked for years, and the only one still pretending otherwise is the guy holding the longest, most self-important fig leaf in COG history.

Readers, test everything. Especially the guys who need 10,000 words to prove they’re special.

Earthquakes Happened Yesterday and Crackpot Bob is Shaking in Grover Beach Over How Accurate He Thinks He Is - As Usual

Did Crackpot Bob really pop his prophetic cork this week or what?

Fresh off the Venezuela twin quakes (you know, the real tragedy that killed over 160 people and left thousands suffering in an already wrecked country), Crackpot Bob fired up the ol’ THE BOB THIEL PROPHECY RADIO (now apparently rebranded in his head as “Crackpot Bob’s Prophecy Radio”) and declared it was all straight out of Mark 13:8.

And there will be earthquakes in various places... These are the beginnings of sorrows. 

 

Translation according to Crackpot Bob: “See?! I was right again! Also, Europe is hot, so repent or something!”
Never mind that the USGS has been politely explaining for years that the only thing increasing is the number of seismometers and the speed at which we hear about disasters. Actual big earthquakes? Still averaging around 16 major ones a year, just like they have for over a century. Some years more, some years less. Normal fluctuation. Boring science stuff.
But why let facts get in the way of a good sermon when you’ve got a banner with a glowing globe and a microphone?
Crackpot Bob could have had an even bigger nothing burger announcement if he had added in the Japan, Papua New Guinea, and California quakes that also happened yesterday. Nope. Those weren't as dramatic as melting down over the European heat wave, so in one glorious burst of confirmation bias, he declared the whole planet was sending him personal messages from the Book of Amos. God is apparently using weather and plate tectonics to tell everyone to join the Continuing Church of God before it’s too late.

Because nothing says “divine warning” like a 7.5 quake hitting a country already in political and economic freefall. Totally about Crackpot Bob’s theology and not, you know, actual geology and bad governance.

Meanwhile, over at USGS headquarters, the scientists are probably face-palming so hard their monitors are cracking:

The ComCat catalog shows more small quakes because we have better instruments now. Major quakes? Still right around the long-term average. Stop making everything about your newsletter.

But Crackpot Bob has never met a disaster he couldn’t turn into “I told you so.” Remember his big 2012 book where odd weather and natural disasters were about to usher in the end times? Yeah. We’re still here. The only thing that ended was his credibility with anyone who can read a graph.

Now he’s got the full Prophecy Radio setup — dramatic banner, globe, microphone, hands waving like he’s conducting the apocalypse orchestra — and he’s out here telling suffering Venezuelans that their pain is just the “beginning of sorrows” on his prophetic timetable.
Real classy, Bob.
The heatwave in Europe? Also God’s judgment, apparently. Never mind El Niño, climate data, or the fact that heat records get broken every few years now. Nope. It’s definitely because people aren’t listening to Crackpot Bob’s YouTube channel.

Here’s the thing about vague biblical “earthquakes in various places” prophecies: they’ve been “fulfilled” every single year for two thousand years. Every time the ground shakes somewhere, some self-appointed prophet dusts off Mark 13 and declares victory. It’s the theological equivalent of pointing at clouds and yelling “See?! I predicted weather!”
Crackpot Bob isn’t special. He’s just the latest in a very long line of guys with banners, microphones, and an allergy to the phrase “normal geological activity.”

So while actual experts at the USGS keep calmly explaining that nothing unusual is happening with earthquake frequency, Crackpot Bob will keep spinning every headline into another episode of The Bob Thiel Prophecy Radio.
Because nothing says “end times” like a guy in a suit dramatically flouncing and bouncing in front of a curtain while the rest of the world just tries to survive actual disasters.

Stay tuned, folks. Next week, Crackpot Bob will probably find prophetic significance in a bad traffic jam in Los Angeles. Or, even better, if by chance the US soccer team loses their match, it will be turned into a sign that God his humilating the country and breaking its pride. Self-appointed Church of God crackpots are all the same. So predictable. 

 

"Sin is the transgression of the law" or How Herbert, Rod, Bob and Samuel Keep You Chained to Shadows While Claiming It Is Freedom

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: 

for sin is the transgression of the law. (1 John 3:4, KJV)

(Expanding on what was previously posted)

In the hands of Armstrongist leaders, this verse isn’t a gentle pastoral definition — it’s a sledgehammer. Herbert W. Armstrong, Rod Meredith, Bob Thiel (“Bwana Bob”), and the latest self-appointed contender Samuel Kitchen have all swung it like a club to convince people that the only way to avoid being “wicked” is to keep the full Old Covenant package: weekly Sabbath, annual holy days, clean/unclean meats, and especially tithing as God’s unbreakable “law.”

The problem? That’s not what the Apostle John was saying. And the damage this misuse has caused — and continues to cause — is measurable in broken families, emptied bank accounts, anxious consciences, and people who finally walk away only to discover that the “one true church” they were warned about leaving was never the New Covenant to begin with.

John uses the word *anomia* — lawlessness. It means living in rebellion against God’s righteous character, not “violating one of the 613 statutes of the Mosaic covenant.” 

Right in the same chapter he says Jesus was manifested "to take away our sins" and to "destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:5, 8). He says those born of God "do not practice sin" because God’s seed remains in them. Then he immediately defines the real commandment: "believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another" (v. 23). 

Later in the letter he adds that God’s commandments “are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). That doesn’t sound like the heavy yoke of Old Covenant regulations that even the apostles in Acts 15 refused to lay on Gentile believers.

The New Testament is crystal clear elsewhere:

• You are **not under law but under grace**” (Romans 6:14).
• Christ is **the end of the law for righteousness** to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4).
• The Old Covenant is “**obsolete** and ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13).
• The shadows of Sabbaths and holy days find their substance in Christ (Colossians 2:16-17).

John isn’t contradicting any of that. He’s warning against **practicing lawlessness** — living like the devil — while pointing people to the One who sets us free from it.

Herbert W. Armstrong made this verse foundational. He repeatedly taught that “sin is the transgression of the law” and tied it directly to God’s character and the entire Old Covenant system. In his materials, he framed obedience to Sabbaths, holy days, and tithing as essential markers of true Christianity. The whole edifice of British Israelism, end-time prophecy, and institutional authority rested on this definition of sin.

Rod Meredith, the great law-keeping enforcer, carried it forward. Tomorrow’s World has used the exact KJV wording and declared: “To love God perfectly is to obey Him perfectly. Where there is disobedience against the law, there is sin, and sin brings punishment.” It warns against the “no law” approach of “most professing Christians today” and links godly fear to keeping the commandments. The tone is classic Meredith: surrender or face consequences.

Bwana Bob and his Continuing Church of God don’t even try to be subtle. In official CCOG Bible study materials, he writes:

Since the Bible reveals that ‘sin is the transgression of the law’ (I John 3:4, KJV), those who conduct themselves as though His law is done away, are, in Bible terminology, called ‘the wicked.’

He then ties true wisdom to fearing God and doing His commandments. Anyone who suggests the Old Covenant administration has been fulfilled and replaced is labeled wicked and unable to understand end-time truth. This from the same leader whose group has faced its own well-documented controversies while he attacks ex-members and critics.

Samuel Kitchen is the current self-appointed flavor. Associated sites in the remnant “Worldwide Church of God” orbit explicitly state that members “obey God’s tithing law today.” There have even been formal letters of authorization for him to collect tithes under the old framework. He combines this with grand claims of special missions and authority — the same old pattern dressed up as the latest “Elijah” or restorer. Same verse, same enforcement, same tithing envelopes.

In every case the verse is ripped from its New Covenant context and turned into a loyalty test: Keep the law (our version of it) or you’re in rebellion against God.

This isn’t just bad theology. It has wrecked lives for generations.

Members have been taught that failing to tithe (first tithe, second tithe, sometimes building funds on top) is robbing God and risking curses. On modest incomes, this creates real financial hardship while leaders enjoy the “blessings” of authority and resources. Failed prophetic dates (1975 and many since) didn’t lead to humility — they often led to doubled-down legalism and more pressure to “prove” loyalty by stricter observance.

Disfellowshipping has been used as a weapon to silence questions, enforce conformity, and punish families. Children have grown up terrified of “the world,” of losing salvation, of bringing shame on the church. Scandals and cover-ups in various groups (including serious issues in some African congregations under Thiel’s oversight) have been minimized or hidden while the same leaders thunder about “sin is the transgression of the law.”

The psychological toll is heavy: chronic anxiety, scrupulosity, inability to rest in grace, and a works-based relationship with God that never quite feels secure. Many who finally leave carry years of shame and fear even after discovering the New Covenant. Marriages and family relationships have been shattered over “doctrinal purity” that turned out to be shadows.

And all of it is justified with a verse that, properly read, points straight to Jesus taking away sins and giving us a new heart.

The tragedy is that 1 John 3:4 was never meant to be a club. John was writing to believers already in Christ, urging them not to drift back into the devil’s territory of lawlessness. He points them to the Savior who appeared for this very purpose — to destroy sin’s power, not to re-impose the old administration that could never perfect anyone.

Armstrongism turned the verse into a loyalty oath to an obsolete covenant. It replaced the Spirit-written law of love with external regulations, fear of disfellowshipping, and financial extraction dressed up as obedience. The leaders named above — from the founder to the current self-appointed voices — have all played their part in keeping people looking backward to Sinai instead of forward to the cross and the empty tomb.

But here’s the good news that keeps breaking through anyway: "The New Covenant is better." It is not a slightly improved version of the old one. It is new. It rests on better promises. It is empowered by the indwelling Spirit. It produces genuine love, joy, and rest instead of anxious rule-keeping. Many thousands who once sat under these teachings have discovered that freedom — and they are not going back.

If this verse has been used to keep you afraid, guilty, or financially burdened, hear this clearly: That is not the voice of your Good Shepherd. Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. The same John who wrote “sin is lawlessness” also wrote that perfect love casts out fear. The solution to lawlessness is not more law — it is abiding in the One who fulfilled the law perfectly on our behalf.

So read the whole letter of 1 John. Read Galatians. Read Hebrews. Read Romans 6–8. Then read 1 John 3:4 again. You’ll see it points to freedom, not bondage. To Christ, not to shadows. To grace that actually transforms, not fear that only controls.

The clubs and gavels can stay on the platform with the self-appointed enforcers. The rest of us are free to walk in the light — because the Son has set us free indeed.

Silent Pilgrim

UCG Council of Elders’ Greatest Self-Own: ‘Our Biggest Barriers Are Tired Pastors, Distrust, and Resistance to Change’ — Must Be Those Pesky New Covenant Freedoms We Keep Rejecting

 

From the United Church of God Council of Elders Strategic Plan Report:

UCG Positioning Statement:

Respect for One Another

Recognizing Jesus’ command to always treat each other in a godly manner, we believe we have sometimes not treated each other in a godly manner. Therefore, we will dedicate ourselves to:

• Respect each other.
• Recognize our different personalities and strive to understand one another.
• Reconcile and restore/rebuild relationships in the love that God the Father and Jesus Christ have shown us.

These are the critical success and barriers UCG say they face: 

 

Successes: 

Good messages, fellowship, encouraging and

uplifting.

• Good meeting facility.

• Being allowed to serve/opportunities to serve.

• Good sermons on doctrine.

• Setting a culture of love and intentional care by

leadership.

Barriers

• Poorly skilled speakers.

• Not passing the baton/lack of trust.

• Lack of focus on doctrine.

• Tired, stressed over pastors.

Distinctions/time management, lack of

willingness to commit.

• Lack of speaking and preparation skills.

• Regional pastors/mentors not having time to mentor.

• Not knowing where resources are (disorganized list).

• Older men not conversant with technology.

• Unresolved issues from the past.

• Lack of communicating improvements to stakeholders.

• Resistance to change internally.

• Reticence to collaborate.

• Ineffective internal processes.

• Misconceptions about Church finances. 

 

UCG’s Council of Elders starts with a positioning statement about respect. They quote Jesus, talk about treating each other in a “godly manner,” and promise to reconcile relationships in the love of the Father and Son. It’s all very New Covenant-sounding on paper. Their track record says otherwise. UCG had no respect when they plotted and schemed their breakaway from the Mother church. They had no respect when their actions led to the huge breakaway group COGWA losing a lot of their ministers and members.

Then they list their “barriers.”And suddenly the mask slips. What they’ve actually admitted is a church struggling with trust, skills, exhaustion, resistance to change, unresolved grudges, tech illiteracy among leaders, disorganized everything, and financial suspicions. These aren’t random glitches. They’re the predictable fruit of trying to run a New Testament church while still operating under Old Covenant assumptions.

Let’s look at the list.

The Trust and Leadership Crisis“Not passing the baton / lack of trust.”

“Tired, stressed over pastors.”

“Regional pastors/mentors not having time to mentor.”

“Older men not conversant with technology.”

This is what happens when you build a top-down hierarchy modeled more on Levitical gatekeepers than on the New Covenant reality that every believer is a priest (1 Peter 2:9) and the Spirit distributes gifts to the whole body. When power is treated as something a small group of approved men must tightly control, of course you don’t “pass the baton.” Of course the few official pastors burn out. Of course nobody else gets properly trained or trusted. It’s not a bug. It’s the system working as designed. In the New Covenant, the Spirit equips the saints for the work of ministry. In the UCG model, ministry is largely reserved for the ordained class. The results speak for themselves.

Skills, Preparation, and “Doctrine”

“Poorly skilled speakers.”

“Lack of speaking and preparation skills.”

“Lack of focus on doctrine.”

They simultaneously brag about “good sermons on doctrine” as a success and list “lack of focus on doctrine” as a barrier. Make it make sense.

When your primary preaching emphasis is proving that certain Old Covenant shadows (Sabbath, Holy Days, dietary laws, etc.) are still binding requirements rather than fulfilled in Christ, you tend to produce speakers who are very good at proof-texting and not necessarily good at actual Spirit-empowered communication. Training people to preach the freedom of the gospel takes a back seat to training them to defend the system. The New Covenant doesn’t need an endless supply of lawyers arguing about which parts of the law still apply. It needs witnesses who know the power of grace.

Resistance, Grudges, and Organizational Paralysis

“Unresolved issues from the past.”

“Resistance to change internally.”

“Reticence to collaborate.”

“Ineffective internal processes.”

“Lack of communicating improvements to stakeholders.”

This is the greatest hits album of what legalism produces. When your identity is wrapped up in “we have the truth” and that truth includes a heavy dose of Old Covenant observances and a particular view of church government, change feels like betrayal. Collaboration with outsiders feels dangerous. Past splits and hurts (and this group has plenty of both) never get truly resolved because grace and genuine reconciliation threaten the narrative.

You end up with a church that can’t adapt, can’t communicate clearly, and can’t let go of old offenses. That’s not a failure of implementation. That’s what happens when you prefer the ministry of condemnation to the ministry of the Spirit.

The practical stuff nobody wants to admit:

 

"Ministers not knowing where resources are (disorganized list).”

“Distinctions/time management, lack of willingness to commit.”

“Misconceptions about Church finances.”

“Older men not conversant with technology.”

An aging leadership base that struggles with basic technology while younger people quietly check out? Classic symptom of a movement more focused on preserving a 20th-century restorationist system than on being a living, Spirit-led body in the 21st century. Disorganized resources and finance confusion? That’s what you get when transparency takes a back seat to centralized control. People sense the opacity and fill in the blanks with suspicion. “Misconceptions” usually means “people are asking questions we don’t want to answer clearly.”

All of these barriers flow from the same source: refusing to fully live under the New Covenant.

The New Covenant isn’t just “the Old Covenant with better promises.” It’s fundamentally different. The law written on stone is replaced by the Spirit writing on hearts. The old priesthood is replaced by the priesthood of all believers. Condemnation is replaced by grace. Shadow is replaced by Substance. Control and suspicion are replaced by love, trust, and freedom.

When a church keeps trying to mix the two — insisting the ceremonial and governmental shadows are still binding while claiming to follow Jesus — it produces exactly this kind of dysfunction: exhausted leaders, distrustful members, resistance to change, unresolved conflicts, and practical incompetence dressed up as doctrinal faithfulness.

The UCG’s own barrier list is an unintentional confession. They want the fruit of the New Covenant (respect, love, reconciliation, effective ministry) while refusing to let go of the Old Covenant operating system that makes those things nearly impossible.

It’s almost impressive how consistent the results are across groups that take this approach. The barriers aren’t coming from outside enemies or “the end times.” They’re coming from inside the system they’ve chosen to maintain.

Maybe one day they’ll stop trying to patch the old wineskin and just embrace the new one Christ actually gave us. Until then, the list of barriers will keep growing — and the irony will remain delicious.

“Sin Is the Transgression of the Law” — But Which Law, and for Whom?

 

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40)

Samuel Kitchen has a new article that says,  “Jesus Christ made it VERY CLEAR!” that the two commandments above require the observance of everything in the Old Covenant. This is a textbook example of taking the words Jesus spoke about love and immediately burying them under the very system Christ came to fulfill and replace. He quotes Matthew 22:37-40 (the two greatest commandments) and 1 John 2:3-6, then pivots straight back to “THE TEN COMMANDMENTS,” the Sabbath, “all things pertaining to worship,” and the familiar claim that anyone who doesn’t see it his way is either a liar or demon-prodded.

This is Herbert W. Armstrong’s legalistic version dressed up in New Testament language. Let’s pick it apart with actual New Covenant understanding — the one where grace doesn’t just *help* you keep the old rules better, but fundamentally changes the relationship.

Kitchen is correct that Jesus summed up the Law and the Prophets in love for God and love for neighbor. That’s not in dispute. The dispute is what happens *after* that summation.

In the New Covenant, those two commandments are not a new-and-improved checklist that still requires you to keep the entire Mosaic code (or HWA’s particular interpretation of it) to prove you’re “really” loving God. They are the *fulfillment*. Paul says it plainly: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10). And “the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).

Jesus didn’t say, “On these two hang the Ten, so go back and obsess over the Sabbath and holy days exactly as interpreted by 20th-century American restorationists.” He said on these two hang *all* the Law and the Prophets. Then He went and *fulfilled* them perfectly in our place and inaugurated a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6).

The New Testament repeatedly treats the old covenant law — including its Sabbath regulations — as a shadow that pointed to Christ (Colossians 2:16-17). The real Sabbath rest is entered by faith in His finished work (Hebrews 4:9-10). Christians have liberty regarding days and foods (Romans 14:5-6; Galatians 4:10-11). The early church didn’t fracture over which day was “the right one” to worship; they met when they could and the unity was in Christ, not the calendar.

“Sin Is the Transgression of the Law” — But Which Law, and for Whom?

Kitchen leans on 1 John 3:4. Fine. But context matters. In John’s letters, the “commandments” that define genuine Christianity are repeatedly boiled down to **believing in Jesus Christ and loving one another** (see especially 1 John 3:23: “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us”).

“Walking as He walked” (1 John 2:6) does not mean replicating first-century Jewish Sabbath observance. It means walking in love, truth, and mercy — the very things Jesus demonstrated when the Pharisees accused Him of breaking the Sabbath to heal people. He was Lord of the Sabbath, not its slave.

The rich young ruler passage (Matthew 19) is another favorite proof-text in these circles. Jesus meets the man on his own terms (old covenant), exposes that he hasn’t actually kept the commandments from the heart (covetousness), and then calls him to follow *Him*. The point is not “keep the Ten perfectly and you’re in.” The point is that no one does — that’s why we need a Savior.

Kitchen proclaims: “There Is Only ONE WAY TO WORSHIP GOD!” — Yes, and it’s not what he thinks

Kitchen insists that differing churches and denominations prove people have “gotten away from the law of God” and are worshipping “in their own ways.” The irony is thick: the very movement he represents has produced dozens of competing “one true church” splinters, all claiming the same lock on truth while excommunicating each other over fine points of administration, prophecy, or which leader is the real “Zerubbabel.”

The New Testament answer to “how do we worship?” is not a return to old covenant forms. It is “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24) — through the finished work of Christ, by the power of the Spirit, with hearts transformed. The “one way” is Jesus Himself (John 14:6), not correct observance of the letter.

The claim that disagreement equals “spiritual attack” inspired by demons is the classic move of high-control groups. It shuts down conversation and protects the system. Many who left the Worldwide Church of God (or its descendants) didn’t do it because they wanted to “get away from God’s commandments.” They did it because they discovered the system had mixed genuine biblical truth with legalism, failed prophecies, authoritarian control, and a gospel that was too small.

“You Knew Better” — The guilt trip that never dies

This line is especially rich: people who were “added to the Worldwide Church of God, and fell away… knew better, or ought to have known better.”

Many of us were there. What we “knew better” included a package deal that contained both truths and serious errors — British Israelism (scientifically and biblically untenable), date-setting that repeatedly failed, heavy tithing demands, and a view of the Christian life that often felt more like qualifying for the kingdom through law-keeping than resting in Christ’s finished work.

Leaving that system was not falling away from grace. For many, it was the first time they actually experienced it.

Kitchen compares warning people to a family intervening when someone spirals into drugs. The analogy would land better if the “drug” in question wasn’t actually the freedom Christ purchased and the “sobriety” being enforced wasn’t a return to the tutor we graduated from (Galatians 3:24-25).

Loving warning is real. But when the warning is “get back under the law or you’re a liar and the truth is not in you,” it stops being love and becomes spiritual manipulation. Jesus warned the Pharisees precisely because they loaded people with heavy burdens while ignoring the weightier matters (Matthew 23:23). The same warning applies today.

Samuel Kitchen’s article quotes the right verses from Jesus and John but arrives at the wrong conclusion because it reads them through Herbert Armstrong’s legalistic restorationism rather than the New Covenant realities those verses were written to support.

The New Covenant is not “the old law plus better attitudes.” It is a fundamentally better arrangement (Hebrews 8:6) in which God writes His law on hearts and minds (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10), the Spirit empowers what the letter could only demand, and there is therefore now **no condemnation** for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

True love for God and neighbor is the fruit of that relationship, not the entrance exam. The Sabbath rest remains — but it is entered by faith in Christ’s finished work, not by which day we mark on a calendar. Worship is no longer tied to specific locations, days, or rituals as covenant requirements. It is in spirit and truth, through the one Mediator.

The many churches and denominations are not primarily proof of rebellion against “the law.” They are evidence that the gospel is for real human beings who see through a glass darkly and still manage to love Jesus and one another imperfectly. Where the Spirit is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17).

To those who were taught the Armstrongist package and later walked away: You are not condemned. Many of you didn’t leave to escape God’s commandments — you left to finally obey the greatest ones without the added weight of a system that turned shadows into substance and grace into a footnote.

God does correct those He loves. Sometimes that correction sounds like: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

That is the New Covenant. That is the love that actually fulfills the law. And that is the truth worth contending for — without needing to call everyone else liars or demon-inspired for refusing to pick up the hammer and start nailing extra stone tablets to the wall.

Crackpot Prophet Asks: Any interest in financial tips?

Why is it that Armstrongism keeps producing ministers and leaders who are convinced they are experts on everything and that normal people should actually want their advice? Back in the day, members apparently couldn’t choose a car color, decide on skirt length, pick an acceptable shirt-and-tie combo, or even let thirsty kids have a sip of water after gym class, past noon, before Atonement, without running to the minister for permission. The level of control-freak insanity was truly special.

Yet here we are in 2026, and our favorite self-appointed, self-endorsed know-it-all has decided the world desperately needs his financial tips. Because after failing spectacularly as a prophet for years, the obvious next career move is clearly “personal finance guru.”

The single best piece of financial advice any COG minister could ever give his followers is this: STOP TITHING. It has financially destroyed far too many people in Armstrongism. And no, it is not a New Covenant command — it is 100% done away with. But don’t expect that little detail from the Great Bwana.

Would you actually go to God’s most highly favored prophet — the one supposedly dreamed into existence before the foundations of the world were even laid — for money advice? Just picture the Holy Trinity sitting around the kitchen table in the seventh heaven, sipping Celestial tea, and trying to figure out how to have the Great Bwana Bob dispense financial tips in these perilous end times. Then they laughed… and laughed… and laughed.

So here we are in 2026 and Crackpot Bwana Bob is happily fulfilling the heavenly hosts’ amusement by offering you his financial “wisdom.”

Any interest in financial tips?

June 22, 2026

COGwriter

2026 has been an unusual financial year for many around the world. There have been oil, fertilizer, and food impacts of the Iran war. There are also trade concerns. Some are warning about stagflation.

The stock markets around the world are jittery. Many around the world are concerned about international matters, including what will happen with the USA because of Donald Trump’s statements and actions.

The USA has the most debt any nation in world history has ever had — and it keeps going up. The per-capita debt of those in the UK is among the highest of all time. The Eurozone has struggles between members, plus its own debt issues.

Those in Asia and South America have seen their economic standards of living generally rise over the past decades, but great apprehension exists. There have been gains and losses in some parts of Africa and the Middle East.

Then guess what the Great Bwana does? He makes the entire post about himself and his “prophetic visions” — visions that apparently no one else on the entire planet has ever thought of or said out loud. This is so profound that no money manager, no news reporter, no newspaper, no blog writer, and no conspiracy theorist ever thought about it! Such ignorant people!“

As I repeated (sic) predicted, gold has hit record prices in US dollar terms—and while gold prices sometimes drop dramatically, ultimately, gold will have value after the US dollar becomes totally worthless.

Who knew? Only the all-seeing Bwana Bob, apparently!

Instead of actually talking about national or international finance, he drags out Herbert W. Armstrong’s 1959 article Ending Your Financial Worries — which is basically one long commercial for tithing.

Bwana Bob continues:

Instead of focusing on national and international finance (which I tend to post about a lot), this post will mainly consist of quotes from the late Herbert W. Armstrong about personal finance from a biblical perspective.

Crackpot Bwana Bob, the world’s foremost financial advisor (in his own imagination), ends his article with this:

I will simply add that God is faithful and that one can live in this age as a tithe payer. No modern currency is going to last over a few decades from now. Do not put your faith in it—particularly the USA dollar.

Yes, financial advice from the man whose prophetic record is a running joke. What could possibly go wrong?

The only rational takeaway is this: no one — and I mean no one — should be taking financial advice, life advice, spiritual advice, or any other kind of advice from a man whose prophetic résumé is a long, unbroken string of spectacular failures. The Great Bwana, who apparently thinks he was the main character in God’s eternal script before the foundations of the world were laid, has once again proven why his “insights” deserve nothing but laughter. If his track record on world events, timelines, and “soon-coming” disasters has been as reliable as a weather forecast written by a Magic 8-Ball, why in the world would any sane person hand him their wallet and ask for money tips?

This was nothing but a recycled (because Bwana Bob doesn't have an original thought in his head) Herbert Armstrong tithing sales pitch dressed up as “biblical financial wisdom” 

Tithing was an Old Covenant command given to ancient Israel to support the Levitical priesthood and the temple system — a system that Jesus Christ fulfilled, ended, and replaced with the New Covenant of grace. There is zero command in the New Testament for Christians to tithe 10% of their income to any modern organization or self-appointed “apostle.” Insisting otherwise isn’t deep spirituality; it’s just old-fashioned legalism wrapped in religious guilt, and it has financially crippled far too many families who were told they’d be cursed if they didn’t pay up.

New Covenant believers are not under the law but under grace. The New Testament repeatedly tells us to give — generously, cheerfully, and freely — as we have been blessed, without compulsion, without percentage quotas, and without some modern minister threatening us with Malachi 3 if we don’t comply. Give to real needs. Give to support genuine ministry. Give with a joyful heart because you want to, not because some failed prophet in a leather chair is trying to keep the lights on in his declining little empire.

Stop giving your money to men who couldn’t predict tomorrow’s weather, let alone the end of the age. Walk away from the tithing treadmill. Give as free people who have been richly blessed by grace — not as frightened slaves still trying to earn God’s favor with an Old Covenant check. The Holy Trinity has apparently been laughing at Bwana Bob’s financial “wisdom” for years. Maybe it’s finally time the rest of us joined them.

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sometimes, multiple times a day. (We see ya, Bob)

Even his African leaders and witchdoctors read Banned!

All it would take to shut down this blog is for COG leaders to act like real Christians. Embrace the New Covenant, stop worshipping Herbert Armstrong, stop forcing members to tithe to support your so-called works and publicly repent in front of your congregations that you have led them astray. 

Oh, and stop saying such incredibly STUPID things!

Then we would have nothing to report!