From Double Blessing to Double Delusion: Why Independents Are All Wrong

One of the biggest hypocrites leading a Church of God splinter today is Crackpot Bob Thiel. His little group has been focused entirely upon himself. Every single thing he posts points directly back to himself and none of them toward Jesus. 

In 2012, when he split off from the Living Church of God in a fit of rage over Rod Meredith and the church ignoring his admonitions and veiled threats to change their teachings, the focus has been entirely on himself. From using the imbecilic so-called “double blessing” that Gaylyn Bonjour supposedly gave him, he took it as a sign that God was now on his side and that the entire church needed to recognize just how important he was. He broke off as yet another independent COG group. The problem he faced was that the folks in LCG ignored him, as did 99.8% of the broader COG community. Only around a hundred fringe outliers bothered to join him.

Friday, the self-serving and self-appointed prophet sent out his weekly update from the mind-boggling world headquarters in Grover Beach, where he admonished his followers (and anyone unlucky enough to read his sophomoric-level theology) that it is a SIN to be an independent Church of God—or even a member following God at home.

Because of this “sinful nature,” you will NOT know when it is time to flee to Petra, where you will be held prisoner for 3½ years listening to Crackpot Bob elaborate on just how he thinks the world should be as civilization collapses around Petra.

Oh, and he tells you to seek humility—because he has never had a humble bone in his body. Taking on the names of numerous Old Testament prophets does not make Crackpot Bob a prophet. Heck, even his own adult son says the reason he is not part of his dad’s church is that he does not believe he is a prophet. And neither should you!

Here’s the latest installment of Bob’s greatest hits, straight from the man who never met a Bible verse he couldn’t twist into a recruitment ad for himself:

The prophecy Zephaniah was inspired to write: 

 

Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together,

O undesirable nation,

2 Before the decree is issued,

Or the day passes like chaff,

Before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you,

Before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you!

3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth,

Who have upheld His justice.

Seek righteousness, seek humility.

It may be that you will be hidden

In the day of the Lord’s anger. (Zephaniah 2:1-3) 

 

Brethren, this is a prophetic warning to end time Christians that we are not to be independent at this time. It is telling us that those non-Philadelphians who think that they will be protected/hidden at the last minute from “the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10) are deceiving themselves. 

 

Support this end time Philadelphian work, uphold God’s justice, seek righteousness, and seek humility, then it “may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.”

Sincerely,
Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer

Notice the classic move: quote a verse about seeking the Lord, righteousness, and humility… then immediately pivot to “Support this end time Philadelphian work” (translation: send your tithes and loyalty to Bob in Grover Beach). The entire “warning” is just another commercial for the Bob Thiel Protection Plan™. Stay independent? You’re doomed. Stay home and follow God? Doomed. Fail to recognize Bob as the exclusive Philadelphia franchise holder? Doomed. Only by gathering under the one true prophet (spoiler: it’s Bob) might you—just might—get hidden. How convenient.

This is more of the same old lies. The “double blessing” was never a divine endorsement of a new denomination; it was one minister’s prayer that Bob twisted into a personal coronation. The claim that independents are automatically “non-Philadelphian” and therefore unprotected is pure invention designed to keep the tiny flock from wandering off. And the Petra fantasy? Bob has been selling tickets to the Jordanian rock city for years as the exclusive safe house run by… wait for it… Bob. You’ll get 3½ years of lectures on how right he was while the world burns. What a deal.

New Covenant Christians have zero reason to worry about this kind of slop. Under the New Covenant, Jesus is the Mediator, the High Priest, the Head of the Church, and the only One whose protection actually matters (Hebrews 8–10; Colossians 1:18). We are not saved or protected by aligning with the correct 21st-century American splinter group or by fleeing to a tourist site in Jordan under the supervision of a self-appointed overseer who still can’t get his own son to buy the prophet act. The “hour of trial” is handled by the One who already overcame the world (John 16:33; Revelation 3:21), not by a guy in a suit quoting Zephaniah while building a personality cult. True humility looks like following Christ, not demanding everyone gather under your personal brand. Bob’s entire message places the focus entirely upon himself and his cult, as usual. The rest of us can safely file it under “entertainment for people who enjoy watching someone argue with their own reflection.” 

Please, God, Just One Little Mushroom Cloud Over Washington So I Can Finally Be Right!

 

On August 6, 2026, Crackpot Bob of the improperly named "continuing" Church of God—that tiny, self-anointed remnant from the rebellious Armstrongist universe—published yet another article marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. One might expect a moment of sober historical reflection. Instead, we get the theological equivalent of a man jumping up and down on a street corner waving a “The End Is Nigh” sandwich board while secretly hoping the end hurries up so he can stop looking like a complete fraud.

Crackpot Bob does not merely note the tragedy. He practically salivates over the possibility that the same kind of devastation is finally, finally coming for the United States, Britain, and Canada. Why? Because according to the sacred cow of Armstrongism—British Israelism—those nations are the modern “lost tribes” of Israel (Ephraim and Manasseh, naturally), and therefore every Old Testament curse of desolation, captivity, and city-wasting must apply to them. Nuclear weapons are just the convenient modern delivery system for the prophecy that has been stubbornly refusing to show up for decades. 

The argument is pure recycled Armstrongism. Leviticus 26:33 about cities becoming waste “wasn’t fully fulfilled anciently,” so it must be waiting for thermonuclear fireballs over London, New York, and Toronto. Herbert W. Armstrong’s 1948 and 1979 predictions of European “Beast” forces vaporizing Anglo cities overnight are lovingly quoted as if they hadn’t already expired more thoroughly than milk left in the sun for eighty years. Thiel even throws in Isaiah’s “land is burned up” language and Daniel 11:39, then plugs his own videos about German bombers and the “conquering” of the Five Eyes nations. The only thing missing is a pop-up ad for “Buy My Book Before the Fallout Hits.”

This entire performance rests on British Israelism—the thoroughly debunked doctrine that the British and Americans are the literal descendants of the ten “lost” tribes of Israel. Armstrong called it the “master key.” In reality it is the master excuse: a 19th-century piece of imperial fan-fiction that lets you take every curse aimed at ancient Israel and aim it like a heat-seeking missile at the English-speaking West. No evidence required. Genetics? Indo-European languages? Continuous European archaeological records? The fact that the tribes weren’t even fully “lost” in the Bible itself? All irrelevant when you have a good story and a desperate need to feel special. Without this teaching in the church it would have no reason to exist. None at all!

Armstrong predicted the nuclear fireworks for the 1930s, the 1940s, 1972, 1975… and then just kept moving the goalposts while the cities stubbornly refused to glow in the dark. After his death the main church finally admitted the whole prophetic house of cards had collapsed under the weight of more than a hundred failed predictions. But the splinter groups, bless their little residual hearts, simply declared themselves the true remnant and kept the same broken record spinning. 

Enter Crackpot Bob, who left the Living Church of God in a fit of rebellion and malice, declaring himself the recipient of a “double portion” of the Spirit (via a conveniently worded prayer that no one witnessed), started collecting dreams like trading cards, and now runs the improperly named "continuing" Church of God as the sole group that supposedly understands just how thoroughly America and Britain are about to get glassed. There are long lists of his own missed or massively stretched predictions. Thiel’s defense is the classic prophetic soft-shoe: “I never actually set a date,” “partial fulfillments,” and “I correctly said the tribulation wouldn’t start in those years.” Impressive. Most of us can also correctly predict that the sun will rise tomorrow.

Why keep doing this? Because the destruction of the United States, England, and Canada is not just a prediction—it is a requirement. If the Anglo-nations are not obliterated on schedule, the entire British-Israel identity scheme, the exclusive Philadelphian remnant claim, and Thiel’s own prophetic résumé collapse into the same radioactive dust he keeps promising everyone else. So every August 6 he dusts off Hiroshima, reminds the faithful that the real fireworks are still coming, and hopes no one notices that the fuse has been lit for the better part of a century without ever reaching the powder.

His article is not analysis. It is liturgical fear-mongering: a yearly ritual in which the prophet gets to feel important by contemplating the fiery end of nations that have the temerity to keep existing. Hiroshima becomes not a warning about the horror of nuclear war, but a teaser trailer for the bigger, better, God-approved version that will finally prove Crackpot Bob right.

Eighty-one years after the first bomb fell, the cities still stand. The “lost tribes” remain as lost as ever—because they were never lost in the first place. And Crackpot Bob is still in his study, gesturing earnestly at the camera, waiting for the mushroom clouds that will validate a lifetime of prophetic over-promising. One can only assume the disappointment is becoming radioactive by now.

Gerald Flurry: Spiritual Degenerate Extraordinaire, Destroyer of Families, Pretender to the Throne of God

 

There has been a lot of speculation over the last several weeks about the remote possibility that Stephen Flurry might finally scrap the grotesque “no-contact” ruling his spiritual-degenerate father, Gerald Flurry—that self-appointed “That Prophet” and king-of-Britain wannabe pretending to lead a church while playing God with people’s lives—introduced to forbid members from associating with family members, relatives, and friends who had the audacity to leave the Philadelphia Church of God. Many are desperately hoping this is the case. So many are longing to reconnect with loved ones after years of enforced isolation. But on the other hand, what a bitter pill to swallow: after Flurry’s cultish decree has utterly wrecked their lives, survivors now get to sit and watch the whole mess potentially swept under the rug as if it never happened. The irreparable damage has already been done. But this is how Armstrongism has always operated—doctrines and rulings flipped at the flick of a limp -important wrist, with never so much as a mumbled apology in sight.

For nearly two decades this archaic “cutting-off” policy, rooted in Flurry’s own sermon “Exposing Satan,” has demanded total severance from anyone branded “Laodicean.” No phone calls, no letters, no photos, no advocacy—just cold, total exile, even for unbaptized children who dare reject the party line. It has torn families apart with surgical cruelty, enabling abusers, bankrupting parents through unpaid support for kids they are forbidden to see, and leaving behind complex PTSD, parental alienation, and multiple suicides that the organization prefers to paper over as “short illnesses.” One woman wrote to the Exit and Support Network detailing exactly how it gutted her family: parents lost (one already dead), minister brothers turned against her, three teenage sons manipulated into hatred, over $40,000 in child support paid for children whose faces she is not even allowed to glimpse. “Time has been stolen,” she said. Years of growth she will never witness. 

That is merely one horror story among dozens. Consider Dan De Gennaro, whose daughter Janet was forced into isolation under the policy, forbidden from contacting her own parents and brother; after three years of enforced silence and mounting despair, she took her life—and only then did Flurry’s regime “relax” the rule long enough to ship her body home in a metal container. Or the father who lost his son Nathan and daughter Elise to the cult’s blackout, never meeting his grandchildren, only to watch another son spiral into suicide after years of grieving the siblings the “no-contact” edict had stolen from him. In the Philippines, the same murderous policy has been linked to multiple suicides—young people like Errol Concepcion hanged after years of mandatory shunning by their own blood relatives under ministerial orders. Grandparents barred from seeing grandchildren, elderly members abandoned when they need help most, teenagers kicked out of homes, marriages strained or dissolved on command: this is the body count of Flurry’s “spiritual purity.” 

And let’s not pretend this is some unique Flurry invention. It is pure Armstrongism in action—the same cult environment Herbert W. Armstrong perfected, where “God’s government” always trumps flesh-and-blood family, isolation is sold as holiness, and questioning the hierarchy gets you marked and cut off. HWA himself wrote that when it comes to a disfellowshipped relative, the church family comes first; avoid them completely. Even the more “moderate” Church of God splinter groups—those that publicly soft-pedal the extremes—privately nod along with the same authoritarian instincts. Disfellowshipping policies still lurk in their handbooks, social ostracism of “dissenters” or “Laodiceans” happens quietly, and the underlying mindset remains: loyalty to the organization over love for your own children or parents. It’s the same high-control playbook—secrecy, absolute submission, financial exploitation, and the deliberate destruction of outside relationships to keep the flock trapped. 

In the end, this entire archaic ruling stands as a glaring repudiation of the New Covenant. Jesus Christ did not model permanent family exile; He ate with tax collectors and sinners, restored the broken, and taught a process of confrontation aimed at reconciliation, not lifelong blacklisting (Matthew 18). The apostle Paul spoke of a ministry of reconciliation, not a ministry of cutting people off forever (2 Corinthians 5). The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—not the cold narcissism of forcing parents to treat their own children as spiritual lepers under threat of the lake of fire. Armstrongism’s legalistic hierarchy, its elevation of human “government” over grace, and its willingness to sacrifice families on the altar of control are the very opposite of the freedom and mercy Christ purchased. No amount of prophetic posturing by a spiritual degenerate like Gerald Flurry can turn this fruit of destruction into anything but what it is: a cultic abuse that has no place in the New Covenant.

 The Exit and Support Network  letter sharing how Flurry has damaged her family.

DESTRUCTIVE CUTTING OFF POLICY OF PCG

In considering the prospect that the cutting off policy might be relaxed or removed I can’t help feeling quite angry. This policy has been in place for the best part of a couple of decades, and despite any perceived feelings they have of it being “the right thing to do,” it has damaged many, many individuals and families irreparably, including my own family. I’m scared to think how many suicides there have been. I personally know of three; there will no doubt be many more. There will be cover-up stories–“died after a short illness,” etc. I don’t even have words to describe how disgusted this makes me feel and how ice-cold this behavior is. It is narcissistic power and control. 

 

My name is Philippa Labao (was Hercus), from New Zealand, and I’ve been out five years. I’ve lost my parents (Jim and Margaret; dad died last year; my brothers Colin and Steven Hercus; Colin and Jim being ministers. I’ve lost my three children (teenagers) for now. My ex husband Gary Labao was abusive, manipulating, and controlling. He has thoroughly enjoyed the PCG policy and used it to his full advantage. He has lied continuously and everyone appears to believe him. No one checks with me as to the truth. 

 

Aaron Hudson supports and enables him. The children are caught in a web of manipulation–made to feel more righteous for cutting me off, believing every bit of filth their father tells them. It is quite a shock when you realize the stable and apparently loving family you grew up with does not support you. They have not advocated for me, they have not discussed my circumstances with me and tried to help in any way. Why can’t I see my children? I would go as far as to say they have been manipulated into hatred for me. To date I have paid that evil man over $40,000 in child support (alimony). For children I don’t get to see. It’s been over three years. A few months ago I appealed to them all (including top tier ministers) for a change. Not one single reply and not one change! 

 

Aaron Hudson’s own family are not all in the PCG, but they all see each other. MY family refuse to even send me photos of my own children. My point is, they relax this policy now and where does it leave my family? Do they say, “Oh whoops, we can see you now” and expect me to pick up where we left off? Think again. If and when I get to see my dear boys again it will take YEARS to repair the damage. Time has been lost, stolen, in their growth. There are parts of them that I will never see. There are parts of their personality as they grew that I will never experience. Not to mention the long term affects of parental alienation just on them.

I have government funded therapy for my CPTSD, but who is helping them? Where is the accountability for the abuser who sits there raking in money? So they continue to play with people’s minds and lives and really it’s all about money. It’s got nothing to do with God’s love, that is for sure. How absolutely disgusting.

By Philippa Labao

August 3, 2026

The Old Testament Perspective of Matthew 5:19-20 And a Critique of the Armstrongist Interpretation

 

The Mount of Beatitudes Where Jesus May Have Preached the Sermon on the Mount

The Old Testament Perspective of Matthew 5:19-20

And a Critique of the Armstrongist Interpretation 

By Scout

 

Jesus in that sermon (Sermon on the Mount) said He did not come to destroy the Law or the prophets. He came only to fulfill. And I've shown you that according to the New Testament in James that we are commanded to fulfill the Law following in His steps — He set us an example that we should follow His steps and we too must fulfill the Law or else we are sinners and love is the fulfilling of the Law. And He said that not the dotting of an "i" or the crossing of a "t" would be removed from the Law until everyone is really fulfilling it.  ― Herbert W. Armstrong, “Spirit of the Law”, Sermon, 1979  

 

What if Israel really wanted to continue observing the Law? Well, it is simply impossible. There is no longer a priesthood, no temple, and no sacrificial system—all of which comprise the heart and essence of the Law. We cannot separate the Sinai covenant from the Law. The laws are merely an outgrowth of the covenant … Those who want to can only pick out a few laws to keep that are not related to the temple, the priesthood, or the sacrificial system.” ― Dr. Eitan Bar, “Reading Moses, Seeing Jesus: How the Torah Fulfills its Goal in Yeshua,” 2017.

Jesus spoke to Jews ― Jews of the Second Temple period.  I am a bit Jewish so I can sympathize.  I am descended from certain Sephardic Jews and history indicates that these Jews were from the Southern Tribes and fled Palestine in 70 AD.   So, it is likely that my Jewish heritage is a mix of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi.  While it is interesting to be genetically connected to these tribes, I have to solemnly consider that I am descended from people who may have heard Jesus and rejected him. I recognize that Jesus spoke to a very specific and demanding audience.  But Jesus, I am certain, had no trouble with this audience.  Because Jesus was an expert at “reading the room.”  After all, he could read people’s minds.  Jesus read the room with perfect precision and said exactly what was needed.  So, it is important not to overlook the audience-related nuances in what his words tell us.  As I examine two verses in Matthew 5, it will become obvious why this is important.   

The Redemption Model in Matthew 5:19-20

Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount to his disciples and to a Jewish crowd purportedly on the Mount of Beatitudes near Lake Tiberias. Matthew 5 begins with, “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.”  Some have asserted that Jesus was not speaking to the crowd of Jews but only to the disciples. This is likely meant to support the idea that the Sermon on the Mount, with its references to Torah, was a thoroughgoing New Testament statement without Old Testament influence.  But it is clear that Jews were a part of the audience because Matthew 7 ends with, “Now when Jesus had finished saying these words, the crowds were astounded at his teaching.”  They must have all been close together to be able to hear the voice of Jesus.

I think the Jewish audience had an inkling of what was going to happen by the time Jesus reached verse 17 of Matthew 5.  He had already talked about who would enter the Kingdom of Heaven in the Beatitudes and he did not mention once keeping the Torah.  So, by this time the crowd was probably thinking, “This guy, this miracle worker, doesn’t believe in following the Torah.”  He answered this unvoiced objection by stating pre-emptively that he would not abolish the Law and the Prophets (the Tanakh) but would himself fulfill its demands perfectly – every last word not just a selection.  All the commandments, statutes, judgements, ordinances, rituals and ceremonies.   In this, Jesus took a shot at the Pharisees.  He would later accuse them of preaching but not doing what they preached (Matthew 23:3).  He, further, explained that one had to not only teach but do the Law in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Pharisees were teaching but not doing.  

In the course of this, in Matthew 5:19-20, Jesus touched on the model of redemption that was relevant to this audience.  He said, 

“Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

There is a reason why I refer to this passage as a redemption model and not a salvation model.  If you are familiar with Christian soteriology, by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), then Matthew 5:19-20 is informative. It tells you that Jesus is not speaking of salvation (“entering into the Kingdom of Heaven”) as we know it from Pauline theology. In the Pauline model of salvation, one does not enter the kingdom of heaven by achieving a certain level of righteousness.  In this case, a level that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees – both groups ardent Torah keepers.  That would be salvation by works.  Jesus did not speak of New Testament salvation by grace through faith in this sermon.  He spoke the Torahic concept of keeping the Law in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven as Jews understood the Kingdom idea. This was the idea that keeping the Torah would bring blessings in this temporal, earthly life (Leviticus 18:5, Deuteronomy 30:15-16).  In Second Temple Judaism to “take upon oneself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven” meant consciously keeping the Torah, and submitting to God in this lifetime.  Within the boundaries of this system, if you were good then you had a good life on earth but in the end everyone went to Sheol where they lived a diminished existence in a dim, subterranean shadow-world.

Further, Jesus states in verse 20 that someone can break laws, even the least of them, and teach others to follow this evil example and still be in the Kingdom of Heaven.  The downside for that person is only that the person will be one of the least in rank.  This does not sound like the dire consequences that Paul spoke of in reaction to the activities of the Circumcision Party when he said in Galatians 5:4, “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

This drives the conclusion that Jesus is not speaking about the Christian model of eternal salvation but the Jewish model of earthly blessing.  The deeper picture is this: Jesus, who was under the Law, was speaking to Jews who were under the Law.  Jesus had not been crucified and the grace he was to bring was not known yet.  When Jesus mentioned the Kingdom of Heaven, the Jewish audience was not seeing the shining, mystical scenarios from the Book of Revelation because John of Patmos would not write until years later. There was no golden vision of the Parousia because Jesus was standing right in front of them and nobody could foresee his death and return, not even his own disciples.   There is no discussion here of the Crucifixion, grace, faith, the Ekklesia and theosis.  Instead, what was in view, was the earthly Judaic Kingdom of Heaven that meant for the future the coming of the Messiah militant and the exaltation of the nation of Israel and the casting down of Israel’s enemies.  Even Jesus’ own disciples held this view (Acts 1:6, Luke 24:21).  But some may see Matthew 5:19-20 not as instruction to a mixed audience of Jews under the Law and the disciples of Jesus but instruction solely to Christians under grace.  That brings us to Armstrongism and the Circumcision Party. 

The Armstrongist Interpretation and Its Similarity to Circumcision Party Belief

In the wake of the church planting work of Paul and bar-Nabus, a collection of Pharisees who had a different view on what Christ said, began to aggressively push a different message.  They asserted that one had to be circumcised in order to be saved.  They also asserted that one must keep the Law of Moses to receive salvation.  This group of Pharisees is known to modern critics as the Circumcision Party.  But they could just as accurately be referred to as the Torah Party. 

The view of the Circumcision/Torah Party on salvation has a modern parallel among Armstrongists.  The Circumcision/Torah Party and Armstrongists came to the same conclusion about the Torah’s relationship to salvation.  The citation from a sermon by Herbert W. Armstrong at the beginning of this opinion piece underscores this.  Armstrong drew the same conclusion that the Circumcision/Torah party drew – that the Torah is still a requirement for salvation.  The difference is that the Circumcision/Torah Party, influenced by the Pharisees, promoted the Law of Moses with fidelity to the Tanakh.  Whereas, Armstrongism promotes a streamlined, mini-Torah.

See Rod Meredith’s article, “Is Obedience to God Required for Salvation?” for how the argument supporting this Armstrongist doctrine is developed.  We do not have, as far as I know, a record of how the Circumcision/Torah Party developed this conclusion.  They may have simply misinterpreted statements like Matthew 5:19-20. In the statement of Herbert W. Armstrong’s position in 1979 cited at the beginning of this opinion piece, it is clear that Armstrongists are required to fulfill the Torah in the same way that Jesus fulfilled the Torah down to the jot and tittle level (though in 1956 Meredith, in his article previously cited, excluded the sacrifices and imposition of the death penalty).  If Herbert W. Armstrong’s view were really true, we would all be capable of human earthly perfection in this life (this is a belief found among some Millerites called Spiritualizers) and the imputed righteousness of Christ would be rendered superfluous.  So, the Armstrongist view leaves us with some unresolved issues. 

Conclusion

The Sermon on the Mount is a significant part of what Christians view as the Law of Christ. But it was not delivered to Christians but to Jews of the Second Temple period, Jews who were under the Torah.  While the Sermon on the Mount is bedrock Christian doctrine, it must be recognized that it was delivered in Jewish terms to a Jewish audience.  Jesus read the room and spoke to his audience.  During the course of the sermon, Jesus even mentioned taking a gift (Greek, doron, which is typically an animal sacrifice) to the alter, a sacrificial practice required under the Law but not in Christianity.  We must recognize the coloration of Second Temple Judaism in the Sermon on the Mount and permit the words spoken by Jesus later through the Apostle Paul and the author of Hebrews to temper these Judaic views.

Jesus Sure Has A Hard Time Finding A Place To Live On The Old Ambassador Campus

Remember the glory days of old when the Worldwide Church of God used to proclaim that God lived in the Auditorium and that God and Jesus were present in the everyday activities of the church?

Well, that all came to a screeching halt when the Great Apostasy happened and the church splintered into the winds with some of the wildest and most idiotic men ever produced by the COG movement.

Jesus and God soon found themselves standing on St John Ave wondering what in Gehenna fire happened! Never fear though. The Holy Spirit was quietly working in the background and Jesus and God soon found a home once again when Maranatha High School and Harvest Rock Church bought the lower campus in 2004. 

The Auditorium (that glittering “Carnegie Hall of the West” Herbert Armstrong built as a literal house for God) was soon rocking to praise and worship under Che Ahn’s charismatic crew. Herbert had his second coronary at this point.

Then, God’s House went up for sale! Oh noes! Never fear, though—Samuel Kitchen stepped up to the plate to buy it. We are still waiting on that one. (In the meantime the $45 million listing from 2024 got quietly yanked off the market by Harvest Rock in May 2025. Divine timing, no doubt.)

It wasn’t long until earlier this year that Jesus had a home once again on campus—in Mayfair! Steadfast Church sprang up using the old mansion (the historic 1902–03 Tudor Revival Sprague/Mayfair house on Orange Grove) as their worship space. They were part of a church-planting group that starts in people’s homes and small offices or rented rooms from other churches.They were able to meet in Mayfair for several months until their pastor made the decision in June of this year to shut it all down. 

Jesus got evicted again! Is the property cursed, or what?

COGWA Claims Your Itching Ears Have Lead You Away From The "Truth"

The piece be;ow from COGWA is classic Armstrongist rhetorical machinery dressed up as pastoral concern. It takes Paul’s warning in 2 Timothy 4:3 about people who will “not tolerate wholesome teaching” and “collect teachers who will pander to their own desires,” then quietly redefines “wholesome teaching” as whatever the current COGWA leadership happens to be preaching. The implied syllogism is simple and ironclad:

1. We (the ministers) teach the truth. 
2. Anyone who questions us, our doctrines, or our authority is therefore itching for something else. 
3. Therefore that person is already on the road out of “the Church.”

Convenient, isn’t it? The same verse that was meant to guard against false teachers is repurposed as a loyalty test that protects the institutional hierarchy. Question the continued binding force of the seventh-day Sabbath under the New Covenant? Itching ears. Wonder why the New Testament never commands tithing the way the old WCG/COGWA still does? Itching ears. Notice that Hebrews 8 and Jeremiah 31 describe a covenant in which the law is written on the heart rather than enforced by a ministerial caste? Better stop before you wander off after “man-made fictions.”  The article’s three “keys” only tighten the leash. 

• Cultivate humility is code for “never trust your own reading of Scripture more than the ministry’s.” Jeremiah 17:9 and 1 Corinthians 10:12 are weaponized to produce permanent self-doubt. The Laodicean rebuke is wheeled out on cue: if you think you can stand without us, you are already “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” In other words, independent thought equals spiritual blindness. The New Covenant reality—that every believer has the Spirit and is a priest (1 Peter 2:9; Hebrews 8:10–11)—is nowhere in view. 
• Surround yourself with the right teachers means “stay inside the approved circle.” Hebrews 13:17 is quoted as if it were a blank check for unquestioned obedience rather than a call to accountable shepherds who will one day give an account. The article never contemplates the possibility that the “right teachers” might themselves be the ones who have drifted. Armstrongism has a long history of treating every successive splinter’s leadership as the sole remaining guardians of “the truth once delivered,” while every previous leadership is retroactively declared apostate. The pattern is self-sealing. 
• Remember what the truth has done for you is the nostalgia play. The “miracle” of calling is described in pure Armstrongist categories: the gospel of the Kingdom as God “reproducing Himself,” the ongoing obligation of Exodus 20, the physical resurrection of the body into spirit life, etc. None of this is allowed to be re-examined in light of the New Covenant’s explicit statements that the old covenant is obsolete (Hebrews 8:13), that dietary laws and holy days were shadows (Colossians 2:16–17), or that justification is by faith apart from works of the law (Galatians 2–3; Romans 3–4). The moment you notice the dissonance, you are told you are failing to “value the truth.”

The net effect is a climate of fear that keeps people spiritually trapped. The “itching ears” label functions as a preemptive strike against any Berean impulse (Acts 17:11). It turns the priesthood of all believers into a dangerous heresy and replaces the freedom of the New Covenant with a perpetual dependence on the ministerial class for “guidance.”  Paul’s actual concern in 2 Timothy was people who would abandon the apostolic gospel for myths that scratched their religious itch. Armstrongism inverted the warning: the itch is now defined as any desire to test the organization’s distinctive package against the finished work of Christ and the explicit terms of the New Covenant. The result is a closed system in which the only safe posture is grateful, uncritical submission.  That is not spiritual maturity. That is institutional self-preservation with a thin veneer of Scripture.

-------------------------

Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy about something that would happen to some of the disciples of Jesus Christ: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4, emphasis added throughout).

Sound doctrine is another way of saying “truth,” and the danger isn’t that something happens to truth. People just stop wanting it. Not because it loses its power or becomes less life-changing, but because a different itch starts to take over:

An itch shaped by personal desires.

This was a prophecy about the Church: members abandoning the gospel message for things that sounded better or felt nicer.

What they would land on instead were, of course, shams. Lies dressed up in something shiny, packaged in all the right ways, but empty in the end.

Trading truth for something else

What makes a group of Christians give up everything and walk away from the truth that once set them free?

The same tug that pulls humanity as a whole away from truth: we want our ears scratched by things we like. Things more comfortable—things that don’t require a big change in how we think.

That’s a struggle for us, because as Christians our job is to live by every word of God (Matthew 4:4), and the Bible wasn’t written to indulge us. It was written to challenge us. It cuts like a double-edged sword, laying naked the thoughts and intentions of our hearts (Hebrews 4:12). It holds up a mirror and shows us personal flaws and the sins we have not yet overcome (James 1:23-25).

It doesn’t always tell us what’s comfortable to hear. And if our minds aren’t conditioned to be corrected and satisfied by what the Bible says, we may start feeling the itch to turn to something else.

“For the time is coming when men will not tolerate wholesome teaching. They will want something to tickle their own fancies, and they will collect teachers who will pander to their own desires. They will no longer listen to the truth, but will wander off after man- made fictions” (2 Timothy 4:3, J.B. Phillips New Testament).

How to combat itching ears

The big question is, How can we avoid becoming the kind of people who set aside the truth for something else? How can we avoid being deceived by our own desires? It can happen—and it will happen to some—but in the end, the ball is in our court.

God doesn’t leave us powerless in how we respond to the truth He gives us. There are real, practical steps we can take to train our minds spiritually. If we want to value truth more than anything else, we must practice the following three keys.

Cultivate humility

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” This is what we’re up against. This is man’s default state. Buried in each of our hearts is a measure of self-deception that tugs on our better judgment, encouraging us to exchange reality in favor of lies.

We’re fallible.

But God doesn’t tell us that because He wants us to throw up our hands and avoid trying. The goal is for us to move away from a reckless “I can’t be tricked” attitude and learn to rely on God for spiritual strength.

Paul put it to the Corinthians very simply, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

The problem with some members in Corinth was that they were too sure of themselves— certain they would not “fall.” It was pride.

Another group had the same issue: the Laodiceans.

Jesus gave them a stinging rebuke: “You say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).

In both cases, the problem was self-reliance. And sooner or later, self-reliance will drive a wedge between us and truth.

Jesus Christ is the only One who has ever successfully cut through every form of deception that tried to take root in His mind (1 Peter 2:22). And it’s His power—His desire for truth—that works in us through the Holy Spirit. If our confidence isn’t in Him, then we’re headed for a fall.

Humility is key to pursuing truth.

Surround yourself with the right teachers

The people in Jeremiah’s day had something in common with the people Paul was warning Timothy about.

“An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so” (Jeremiah 5:30-31).

The descendants of Judah loved the teachers of their day and made a habit of listening to them. But they were liars. They led the people astray and turned them against right teachers—men like Jeremiah, who preached the unadulterated Word of God.

God still has servants today who speak the truth—ministers who handle Scripture correctly and teach wholesome things.

We don’t have to entertain the teachings of impostors; we can choose to surround ourselves with godly leaders who look after our spiritual welfare (Hebrews 13:17).

Remember what the truth has done and continues to do for you

God made it possible for those He has called to understand His truth through a miracle. We

had no part in starting that. God reached down and shone His light in our minds.

Because of that, followers of Christ have a clear picture of the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

We know what God is doing. He’s reproducing Himself—bringing humanity into His eternal family (Hebrews 2:10). We know that plan turns on one hinge: His Son, who gave His life to achieve forgiveness and reconciliation (1 Peter 1:18-19).

We also know the way of life God calls us to live (Exodus 20:1-17). And we know where that way leads: “For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die” (1 Corinthians 15:53, New Living Translation).

This truth is special. And it’s precious.

But there have always been—and will always be—things that try to compete with it. Not long after the Church began, variants of the “faith once delivered” started spreading (Jude 1:3). Paul warned about the disciples accepting “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4) and turning to a “different gospel” (Galatians 1:6). The truth was being challenged by impostors who were looking to gain a following.

And they succeeded in some cases, because certain disciples failed to recognize the value of the truth they had been handed.

Never let the truth go

Satan has launched a war of deception on humanity, and he would love nothing more than to sweep us up in it.

He knows exactly what pulls people away from the truth. He used the precise levers necessary in order to convince Eve to trade the truth for a lie. But we don’t have to give him a foothold in our minds. Through God’s Spirit, we can curb every desire that might cause us to walk away from the truth.

Hebrews urges us, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23).

Let’s cling to God’s truth with everything we’ve got, refusing to scratch any itch that asks us to let the truth go. D

LifeHopeandTruth.comLi f e H o pea n d T r u t h. co m - Open link http://lifehopeandtruth.com

Armstrongism's Cosmic Real-Estate Scheme: Ronald Weinland’s Latest Sales Pitch for Becoming Gods and Landscaping the Universe

Herbert W. Armstrong’s theology never settled for mere eternal life or a quiet spot in heaven. No, Armstrongism promised something far more extravagant: God is a Family of two (for now), and faithful humans who jump through the right hoops will be “born” as literal spirit gods of the same divine species. These newly minted deities will then inherit the universe itself—ruling it, beautifying it, and busily terraforming barren planets for all eternity. The Promised Land given to ancient Israel? A quaint little prototype for the real prize: galaxies upon galaxies of cosmic development projects.

Ronald Weinland, leader of the minuscule Church of God Preparing for the Kingdom of God, struck out on his own in 1998, later announcing himself a prophet, apostle, and (with his wife) one of the two witless witnesses of Revelation. His prophetic résumé from the Bob Thiel School of Prophecy is a masterclass in missed appointments: the end was supposed to arrive around 2008, then May 2012, then May 2013, then June 2019. In between failed forecasts, a federal jury in 2012 convicted him on five counts of tax evasion for underreporting income, diverting church funds to personal use, and hiding a Swiss bank account. He served 42 months and has been free since roughly 2016. Undeterred, he keeps writing. 

In July 2026, Weinland dropped Chapter 11 of his latest series—“PHASE THREE: GOD’S FAMILY IN AN ERA OF INFINITY”—complete with a companion piece titled “The Inheritance Awaiting God’s Family.” The text is pure Armstrongist greatest hits. The physical universe, we are told, was never an end in itself. Those billions of galaxies and trillions of solar systems have sat largely barren for “billions upon trillions of years” for one very good reason: the spirit beings destined to fill them, build within them, and beautify them had not yet arrived. Earth’s six-day makeover and the garden-tending assignment given to Adam and Eve were only a “very meager beginning.” Once the Family is complete, the real work begins—solar system by solar system, galaxy by galaxy—creating, improving, and enjoying perfect relationships for infinite time. Everlasting life is nice, but the true inheritance is the entire cosmos as a personal renovation project. It sounds majestic until one does the arithmetic.

Roughly 117 billion human beings have ever lived. The observable universe contains something on the order of 10²⁴ to 10²⁵ planets, with potentially habitable ones stretching into the sextillions. Assign every person who has ever drawn breath to a single world, and you still leave the overwhelming majority of the cosmos empty and unused. Armstrongism’s ready answer is that spirit-composed gods will simply create more life over infinite time and keep expanding outward. How convenient. The universe, it seems, has been politely waiting 13.8 billion years for a relative handful of overcomers to show up with their divine hard hats and landscaping tools. One can almost hear the galaxies muttering, “Finally—someone who knows how to dress and keep a solar system.” 

Then there is the family-logistics problem. If these newly deified humans are to populate planets with their descendants or relatives, where exactly does one draw the line? How many generations back must be included before the entire human race collapses into one gigantic, hopelessly interrelated clan that somehow has to fit on a single rock? At some point the celestial personnel office will have to announce, “Sorry, third cousins twice removed, you’re shipping out to that frozen moon on the edge of the Andromeda galaxy—have fun with the in-laws.” The doctrine’s solution is that earthly kinship dissolves once everyone becomes part of the one God Family. Biological family trees are transcended. Problem solved—by declaration. Scripture, of course, never bothers to describe this administrative miracle, any more than it describes resurrected saints personally seeding life on exoplanets.

These are not nitpicking details. They expose the teaching for what it is: an imaginative speculative fantasy draped over a few biblical phrases about sonship, inheritance, and creation’s longing. Armstrong took legitimate themes and inflated them into a detailed future of cosmic public works for which there is neither textual blueprint nor coherent logistics. Weinland’s latest installment adds nothing new; it simply repackages the old dream in the language of “phases” and “infinity,” delivered by a man whose track record on predicting the future is roughly as reliable as a weather forecast issued by a broken barometer.

The appeal is obvious. Who wouldn’t want to believe that ordinary human life is merely the apprenticeship for eternal godhood and endless creative projects free of selfishness, war, and human drama? The narrative flatters. It also collapses under the weight of scale, kinship, and the stubborn refusal of the Bible to endorse planet-by-planet real-estate development as the destiny of the saints. The universe is vast, ancient, and mostly empty. The claim that it has been holding its breath for a finite number of Church of God graduates to arrive and start the remodeling remains one of the more charmingly absurd promises in the crowded marketplace of religious grandiosity. Weinland and Armstrongism keep selling it. Buyers would be wise to inspect the fine print—and the arithmetic—before signing.