Prophet Thiel is picking apart Harold Camping today concerning his latest prophetic failure. Jesus was supposed to be returning on Friday, October 21st. That is after Jesus failed to show up last year on May 21st.
Prophet Thiel is indignant that Camping fails to understand what allegory is. Prophet Thiel is the LAST person on this earth that needs to be reminding Camping on what allegory is!
The Prophet writes the following as the reason Camping's predictions failed. Camping did not understand allegory.
The short answer is that Harold Camping allegorized away too many key scriptures. In other words, he relied on his own private interpretations and imaginations more than looking at the prophetic sequence that Jesus Himself gave in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. It is that simple. He ignored the fact that required physical events in the Great Tribulation had not happened, nor did the signs in the heavens preceding Jesus’ return occur. Notice that Harold Camping and His followers ignored Jesus’ words which could not pass away:
Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If that's not the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is! Living Church of God's entire existence is based upon a failure to understand what parables, allegory, myths and legends have to do in scripture.
LCG/COG has used the private interpretations and the imaginations of Herbert Armstrong and Rod Meredith as a basis of doctrinal "truth" for decades. Neither man has any seminary training and is ignorant of biblical hermeneutics, exegesis and eschatology. Neither man has any understanding how Christian thought developed over the centuries from Plato, Aristotle, and other great thinkers.
Many of the Bible stories were never meant to be taken literally. Armstrongism has never understood that fact. While parables, allegories and legends may have great truths in them - just as Greek mythology does - it does not make them "true" in the sense that the event actually happened.
Armstrongism also fails to recognize that Revelation was a hotly disputed book that only made it in the Canon by the skin of it's teeth. Yet, Armstrongism looks at it as one of the greatest books ever written. Literalism literally destroys the mind!
Prophet Thiel follows with a quote from the International Business Times:
Doomsday prophet Harold Camping gives bad name to Christianity, denounced by …
International Business Times – Self-proclaimed Doomsday prophet Harold Camping is nothing more than a charlatan, a fraud who has given a bad name to Christianity, according to Christian leaders.
On that we all can agree! Thiel however goes on to write:
The iniquity of false prophets such as Harold Camping, Ronald Weinland (who still claims that Jesus will come on May 27, 2012), and others will turn various people off about prophecy.
Prophet Thiel calls Wienland and Camping false prophets and men who turn people off towards prophecy. What the hell does he think Rod Meredith has done? Rod has made hundreds of false prophecies over the decades. Meredith follows directly in the footprints of Herbert Armstrong who has an even longer list of failures. What about the tens of thousands who have been turned off to the church and God over the decades because of the lies of Meredith and Armstrong? Why do their failed prophecies continue to get glossed over?
Thiel continues on:
Those who follow Ronald Weinland of CGPFK may wish to ask themselves how they will feel on May 28, 2012 when Jesus does not return the day before as well (Ronald Weinland, like Harold Camping, also seems to excessively allegorize away prophetic scriptures).
False prophets result in an increase in scoffers, yet despite them, Jesus will return, but not in 2011 or 2012. Please do not allow false prophets to turn you aside from the prophetic and other truths in the Bible.
I would say that those who continue to follow Rod Meredith after his promotion of January 1972 as the date we were supposed to flee to Petra and a few years later for the return of Jesus, may wish to ask themselves why they follow such a failure! How many lives were destroyed over that one? Meredith had his golden gloves right in the middle of the mix! What about his continued "we only have 3-5 more years left" mantra that he has been spitting out for decades? How can you believe a liar who has been saying the same thing for 50 some years?
Meredith's false prophecies have certainly brought out the scoffers (including this one). We see right through the blatant lies of the man and know him as just one more in a long line of religious despots that seek to control the lives of COG members. Meredith, Weinland, Pack, Flurry, Cox, Steven's, are sick little men who are in deep need of psychiatric help. How many more men, women and children need to die because of these guys?
13 comments:
YES, they are all false prophets.
But that doesn't prove that there aren't TRUE PROPHETS of the Creator.
Your morbid fascination to the point of idol worship of these mere men is more amazing than their falsehoods.
The ancient 'gods' were both beneficent and malevolent. Obsessing on this tiny cult and its failed leaders is nothing more than worship of the great 'malevolent,' paying awe to those we love to hate.
You have gone 180 degrees from fawning idolatry to unreasoned despising of HWA and co., but it is ALL just IDOLATRY, putting FALSE THINGS above the CREATOR.
My point?
You are absolutely NO DIFFERENT than those who your tirelessly persecute and berate.
You're doing EXACTLY the SAME thing that they are doing, but from the OPPOSITE EXTREME.
You claim to be 'free' from Armstrongism, so why does your 'editor' systematically DELETE comments like this one?
Because your NOT free, you're still as much a slave as your were when you fawned at HWA's enormous shadow....
FORGET the tiny COGS and BE FREED by the MERCY of the TRUE MESSIAH!
"True Messiah?" And who is that supposed to be? The Messiah cannot be found in Armstrongism. The Messiah cannot be found in sacred names baloney or new moon festivals. So who is your messiah?
No2SIN, why are you filled with such anger? Why are you defending two liars on prophecy?
The truth needs to be known!
False prophets need to be exposed!
People need to be freed!
Web sites like this are needed!
Rod Meredith can be explained through standard pathology: He was a Golden Gloves contender as a teen -- he won boxing matches by doing brain damage to other competitors.
It is clear that in his testosterone soaked state, a few of the contenders did him brain damage.
So it's no stretch of the imagination that Rod Meredith has been brain damaged from teen age.
Occam's Razor would suggest that we have an easy and real explaination for his being a false prophet and never being smart enough to be able to figure out that he was following a charleton and his brutalizing aggressive abuse of his congregation.
ON THE TIMING OF FALSE PROPHETS
If a false prophet says something will happen in 100 years, or even in 50 years, nobody will pay any attention to him. Why should anyone?
If a false prophet predicts something in a year or two, he will quickly be proven wrong and ridiculed.
The 15 to 20 year prediction seems most effective. Along the way it can also be said that something will start to happen in 3 to 5 years. It is close enough that some will listen. Even after it is proven wrong by the passage of time, a delay can be added to the story at the end. After being strung along for so many years it will be psychologically very difficult for people to admit that they were simply lied to by self-appointed leaders who were not sent by God--unless they were just sent to fulfill the prophecy that many false prophets would come. They might even become so used to being lied to and financially drained by shameless perverts that they don't seem to mind it.
The Sunday-keeping false prophets are bad, but one really cannot expect such ignorant sinners to know anything.
The so-called COGs are a different matter. Such people who claim to believe in the laws of God ought to know that it is wrong to make up and spread lies in God's name. The fact that their careless lying has become a thoughtless habit does not excuse it.
I agree with Anon. These lying false prophets of Armstrongism need to be exposed. People need to be freed from the garbage that Armstrongism has created. I am glad this site is doing it!
Gerald Flurry of the Brother-Hating Church of Fraud used to talk about how we were in the "end times." In fact, he said we were in the "end of the end times." He even mentioned the "last hour" but he did not dare say much more for fear that if he did the end would probably come immediately.
One guy in the PCG expected to flee to Petra within a couple years. This was now well over a decade ago. He will have handed over a lot of money over the years just to be lied to. Well, not just lied to. His family might also have been abused quite badly by the old predators there.
Now all the talk about the end seems to have been replaced by all the talk about a building program. It is too bad that these cult leaders can't explain to everyone ahead of time that in order for Jesus to return they first have to build yet another auditorium to try to impress the world with the world's own performances in it. Gerald just could not see that far ahead. Gerald had taught at first that there would be no time to build auditoriums or colleges.
HWA was right: "There are no prophets in the church today--EXCEPT FALSE ONES!"
This brings up another point of interest. After 20 years of claiming to be a prophet leading the church, and editing and changing HWA's writings to allow this, Gerald finally decided to call himself an apostle too. Gerald had been so busy coming up with other names, offices, titles and positions to try to compensate for his short height that he forgot all about that one for two decades.
The next step is to set up his son Stephen to take over this family business if Gerald dies before the end comes. The people have been conditioned to support this non-working scam.
NO2S IN said: 'But that doesn't prove that there aren't TRUE PROPHETS of the Creator.'
Actually it does.
"You claim to be 'free' from Armstrongism, so why does your 'editor' systematically DELETE comments like this one?"
Perhaps you are more annoying than helpful?
"FORGET the tiny COGS and BE FREED by the MERCY of the TRUE MESSIAH!"
Ok. And I guess if you are the true Christian in all things true, you'll just have to forgive us....
;)
"If a false prophet predicts something in a year or two, he will quickly be proven wrong and ridiculed.
The 15 to 20 year prediction seems most effective. Along the way it can also be said that something will start to happen in 3 to 5 years. It is close enough that some will listen."
Excellent observation! That's exactly right. Say 100 years from now and who cares. Say next year and there is no time to take advantage of it all. 3-5 keeps the older off track in their real lives and 15-20 makes the young look at what their life choices are going to be, often as we know, sadly mistaken.
Eventually there are so many "Gun Laps" they run out of bullets but have kept it going their entire lives.
"Gerald had taught at first that there would be no time to build auditoriums or colleges."
However upon reconsideration, I would like a monuement to myself!
Anonymous 10:22PM said, "The 15 to 20 year prediction seems most effective. Along the way it can also be said that something will start to happen in 3 to 5 years. It is close enough that some will listen. Even after it is proven wrong by the passage of time, a delay can be added to the story at the end. After being strung along for so many years it will be psychologically very difficult for people to admit that they were simply lied to by self-appointed leaders who were not sent by God--unless they were just sent to fulfill the prophecy that many false prophets would come. They might even become so used to being lied to and financially drained by shameless perverts that they don't seem to mind it."
MY COMMENT - BINGO! You just described Herbert W. Armstrong's end time "string them along" prophecy model. The origins of "1975 in Prophecy" can be found in the 1950s. As Byker Bob has pointed out on this website several times, by the time he arrived at Ambassador College in the 1960s, the College was teaching in classes the mathmatical calculations that pointed to the great tribulation starting in January 1972, and the return of Christ in 1975.
What was shocking to me was that NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, was said from the WCG pulpits in Washington/Baltimore when January, 1972 passed without the German attack on America. As I've mentioned before, after years of listening to WCG sermons on the coming great tribulation, I would look out my window in my Laurel, Maryland home in January, 1972 to see if I could see the Germans arriving in my neighborhood to kill us all.
In retrospect, it was all one great big joke - sort of a giant snip hunt. But, the most amazing thing was that NOBODY said anything from the WCG pulpits when January, 1972 came and went. It was as if all the past sermons and church chatter never happened.
The old adage, "Burn me once, shame on you; Burn me twice, shame on me" applies here. These people that have held on listening to Rod Meredith say, "We have 3 to 5 years left" for 50 years - shame on them.
By the way, I first heard Rod Meredith say, "We have 3 to 5 years left" in 1969.
Richard
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