Sunday, October 20, 2013

Bob Thiel Now Claims He Is A True Prophet



What's a poor church leader to do?  Bob Thiel leads a personalty cult that he formed to gather members to himself.  He was never ordained in any capacity to the ministry.  He is everything that Herbert Armstrong aggressively fought against.

Because he has no real legitimacy for his position, he has to continually throw around scriptures that he thinks elevates himself to lofty ecclesiastical positions.

He claims hands were laid on him that gave him a "double dose" of the holy spirit. That was his only claim to fame for a couple of years.  Now, he is throwing around the world "prophet."

Is the naturopath ready to claim he is a prophet?

Thiel has to haul out an old Leroy Neff letter because there is nothing in his bible that legitimizes himself.

Thiel writes:

A true prophet would not need to be from a major theological institution, have the most magnanimous personality, be a great speaker, or have a large or impressive Church, but would be the type willing to meet in members’ homes. He also does not have to have had a ministerial background. God chooses who His prophets are. Notice something from the Old Testament:
14 Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: “I was no prophet, Nor was I a son of a prophet, But I was a sheepbreeder And a tender of sycamore fruit. 15 Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, And the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ (Amos 7:14-15)

Theil has no theological education, is not a personable person to be around, is certainly NOT a great speaker, and does not have a church.  He also does not have any ministerial background.  According to his earlier writings, God personally "picked him" for the position he is in.

Thiel also has a secular job.  Notice how his version of a "prophet" also has a secular job:

So, a prophet also does not need to come from a ministerial family, but instead can be called if he has a secular work background.

Bob must know that he is like all the other COG prophets who have lied to members over the decades.  They made many mighty prophecies and none of them have come to pass.  Bob wants to make it known - through Leroy Neff - that it might take years or decades for a prophecy to come true.  So when Bob makes a fool out of himself when he utters something stupid, he wants a free pass for the next few decades until something happens that fits his scenario.

Leroy Neff wrote not to disqualify a prophet if some predictions take a long time to happen:
Then there is the prophet or minister who says something will come to pass and it apparently does not. Such a one would certainly be labeled false by most observers. This is one reason, but not the only reason, why almost all of God’s prophets throughout history have been labeled by many as false!

Consider such men as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. They sometimes prophesied for many years, and yet what they said would happen did not come to pass immediately. Why didn’t these prophecies come to pass?

The answer was that it was not yet God’s time for their predictions to come to pass. At the proper time, sometimes years or decades later, the prophecies were fulfilled. And in some cases, what they prophesied has not yet come to pass even in our day, but will be fulfilled in God’s time. There is a time, after ample warning, when God will finally say, “None of My words will be postponed any more” (Ezekiel 12:28).

There are other examples where God’s true servants expected certain events to occur in their lifetimes. During his earlier ministry, the apostle Paul apparently expected Christ to return during his life (I Thessalonians 4:17, I Corinthians 15:51).

Later, he realized that it would not occur until later (II Timothy 4:6-8) . Paul was criticized and labeled “false” by accusers, but the members of God’s Church knew he was a true servant of God. (Ibid, p. 11)
In other words, get your free pass ready to hand to Bob.  He is incapable of making a mistake.  It will all come true eventually.

Bob knows he will be ridiculed when he is a prophet, but that's OK.  His Bible says it is so:

Truly, most people will not listen to a true prophet of God in this age. And, even when God grants power to His two witnesses, most in the world will not only not listen to them, they will be deceived enough to support an army that will fight against the returning Jesus Christ (Revelation 16:13-14; 19:11-19)!

Thiel also gives a warning to the "fake" prophets that contact him.  Notice how important the laying on of hands is to him.  This is Thiel's only claim to fame.

Thus far, none who have ever contacted me and claimed to have been a prophet of some type have had hands laid upon them to give them the type of anointing that a true prophet of God would likely have had in this church age if God was selecting them. Hence, if the anointing from a true minister has not happened to you, understand that I do not now accept that you are a prophet or one of the two witnesses. Laying hands upon yourself is not enough.

Thiel was not anointed by a true minister, so why is he making  such a rule against those that come to him doing the EXACT same thign he did to Rod Meredith?

This idiot truly knows no shame as he continues trying to prove his legitimacy as a new prophet in the COG.

In my case, in November/December 2011, I prayed that if I truly had a prophetic role from God that He would have something happen during a planned mid-December 2011 trip to Charlotte, North Carolina to confirm it or deny it if that were His will. As it turned out, on 12/15/2011 hands were laid upon me in Charlotte by ordained minister Gaylyn Bonjour.  He prayed that I would be granted a “double-portion” of God’s Holy Spirit. He told me that he had not ever done this before but he felt that it was reminiscent of the time that the prophetic and ecclesiastical leadership mantle passed from the Prophet Elijah to Elisha (2 Kings 2:9-13). This minister had been unaware that I had prayed that God would have me anointed or somehow identified for a prophetic role on that mid-December 2011 trip if that were His plan for me and I had never discussed my possible prophetic role with him prior to this anointing. This 12/15/11 anointing appears to be the first biblically-appropriate prophetic anointing in the Church of God in many decades, if not many multiple centuries. And the legitimacy of this anointing has been proven by subsequent events–though many do not seem to understand how God works at times. And yes, I will add that I believe that I do have the appropriate prophetic fruits that Jesus discussed (Matthew 7:15-20) and that those truly interested in the truth can see this if they truly wish to prayfully look into this.

Herbert is rolling in his grave right now!

18 comments:

Unknown said...

Has the "Naturopath" possibly morphed into a ...

"SOCIOPATH"???

Joe Moeller
Cody, WY

Richard said...

Keep something in mind here. Dr. Thiel predicted on his blog that Harold Camping and Ronald Weinland's dates for the second coming would be wrong -- and Dr. Thiel was right.

Doesn't that settle everything?! :-/

Byker Bob said...

In case anyone is wondering where Charles M. Schulz got that little piece of theological wisdom, yes, he was once a member of COG-7! He had apparently also spent time as a Lutheran, and as a Methodist, but later described himself simply as secular humanist.

So far as Thiel goes, this is going to be his life's pathology. I don't see any recovery from such massive delusion. It is very difficult for me to understand why someone would even want such a "position", but maybe he spent more time in Spokesmans Club than I. It would be interesting to know how this is affecting his family.

BB

Anonymous said...

Anyone can claim to be a prophet using criteria similar to what Bob has come up with and many people have. He has deluded himself. Where are the fruits that we can all see? We are waiting ...

Anonymous said...

So he prayed to God to reveal His will to him during the conference in 2011 and to demonstrate he was being ordained as a prophet. Lo and behold he has hands laid on him during that conference and this confirms to him that his prayer has been answered ie he is a prophet as other OT prophets like Elijah was. I think he's misguided and deceived himself. I recall when I was young that I prayed to have it confirmed to me that the WCG was God's true church. I prayed that if it was true that God would reveal it so by my parents finding my letter I had hid and that it'd be a Sabbath too. Later when my mom found the letter she asked me to explain myself. I was amazed that it happened on a Sabbath day. So to me I had believed this was a sign from God!
Looking back now however I've learned the errors of WCG & that it definitely was not the true church. So how do I explain this incidence? I believe I was naive in my faith pure & simple & coincidence happens. But by boxing God in like that to answer my prayer my way as if He's my own genie is immature & dangerous as I've since learned. Truth is truth & needs no fire signal from heaven to prove it. As the Scripture says, there's a way that seems right to a man but it ends in death. Likewise the WCG should stand on its own merits if it is truly God's true church--but it couldn't because it wasn't! And HWA should stand as a prophet or as a liar depending on his predictions--and he was proven a false prophet in his own lifetime! I believe Bob will learn all of this sooner or later as well.

DennisCDiehl said...

Bob Thiel so badly wants to be considered above average and a Prophet, he has molded everything from scripture to the comments of others and fairly random and mundane circumstances into proof to only himself.

One of the great traits of WCG Bible Haunted Wannabe's is their absolute need for titles and recognition. They are incapable of working with anyone and others must work for them. Dave Pack never could work with anyone. His track record proves this over and over. Only when he gets to be the self centered man in charge does he thrive and abide no criticism. Weinland...ditto. Flurry...ditto.

These men are the clowns of Theology and Christianity no matter the form it takes. Like little guppies in the lake, they would not last two minutes in the real world of theology and peer review.

Bob Thiel is a silly man and a caracature of everything that is fast becoming obviously wrong with religious organizations. He needs to offer credentials for a small fee to all who wish to also be Prophets. That's where his success would probably lie.

I love that one can be a prophet EVEN if what he says takes a long time to come to pass. lol, I can do that! Dorks.

DennisCDiehl said...

PS

A fool seems a genius to another fool. This explains why, after all the evidence of failed leadership and terrible theological understanding and non training, these clowns still have seat warmers every Sabbath.

Corky said...

Superstitious people are exceptionally prone to superstitious delusions. This shouldn't have to be pointed out to anyone but people who believe in invisible, supernatural entities are superstitious people. Period. End of story.

Anonymous said...

Dennis, hindsight is 20-20. Now that most of us here are out, we can read info we were not permitted to read before. We can't forget how kept-in-the-dark the members are. Are they fools, or are they just victims?

Anonymous said...

People who follow Bob probably don't do so because he seems so great, but because the alternatives are so bad.

DennisCDiehl said...

I probably kept myself in the dark through the years until the lights went on with certain topics where one led to another. I am sure had i taken the Methodist Seminary route instead of WCG I would have had the same things come up. Maybe the Methodists would have actually brought them up in seminary.

I shouldn't label folks. It's just with all the infor available these days, there is little excuse to let the lone ranger keep you in your seats . They are not fools, but maybe foolish

Anonymous said...


Regarding possibly "sincere" but definitely FALSE prophets:

I have had the great misfortune of meeting many very bad characters, high and low, in the WCG and its splinter groups such as PCG, GCG, and UCG. The only way I can think of that they could ever possibly be "sincere" at all is if their minds are so completely warped and perverted that they truly do believe that all their own evil thoughts, evil words, and evil actions are somehow actually good.

"Sincere" or not, the fact is that they are nothing but evil continually. And that is all that really matters.

Byker Bob said...

Thiel made a fatal mistake by not allowing commentary at Cogwriter. I'm sure that anonymous posters would have made him feel very important, and very special, if he had only had the wisdom to allow them!

Come to think of it, he should go back and read on his own site my words that he quoted re the failure of all the ACOG prophets to have foreseen the tsunami. Of course, quite predictably, he whitewashed and subsequently excused Uncle Roddy from my indictment. There's just no holding these guys accountable!

BB

DennisCDiehl said...

The only absolute requirement for Prophet, I'm sure in Bob's mind, is that they be a resident of California...

Anonymous said...

I was going to say, "Bob Thiel's Armstrongist church is to other Armstrongist churches, like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree is to other Christmas trees."

However, this would have wrongly disparaged Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, and not disparaged "other Armstrongist churches" enough.

But, you get my drift.

RSK said...

Thiel clearly outlines his own wish to be a prophet leading up to his anointing for a "health concern" that just happens to legitimizes his wishes.

His desire causes it to make sense to him, but to the rest of us its a hilariously twisted line of reasoning.

Meredith has tenure.
Flurry has relics and other trappings to appeal to.
Even Pack at least gets to flaunt his weed-patch.
Thiel? He has seriously awkward Youtube videos.


Questeruk said...

Bob Thiel describes how to be a prophet.

1, A prophet “does not have to have had a ministerial background. God chooses who His prophets are.”

So a prophet can be anyone drawn from the 7 billion on earth. So Bob Thiel qualifies on point 1, as does every other human being on earth..

2. A prophet “sometimes prophesied for many years, and yet what they said would happen did not come to pass immediately. Why” because “it was not yet God’s time for their predictions to come to pass.”

So what a prophet says doesn’t need to come to pass for many years. Bob Thiel qualifies on point 2, as does every other person that has made a statement about the future that has not yet come to pass. .

3. A prophet must be anointed. And low and behold Bob Thiel says “As it turned out, on 12/15/2011 hands were laid upon me in Charlotte by ordained minister Gaylyn Bonjour”

Yes, but why were hands laid upon him? Because Bob asked the minister to anoint him, as he was feeling unwell. This is something that ministers in the churches of God do to members that request it.

However, Bob qualifies on point 3, as would every other person in the cogs who have ever requested to be anointed for healing. Probably the majority of contributors here would qualify, if they look back far enough in their past!

So really it comes down to point 4 – the “double-portion”.

The minister that anointed him, at Bob’s request, “prayed that I would be granted a “double-portion” of God’s Holy Spirit”.

Why would the minister mention the apparently essential words of “double-portion” that accidentally turned an anointing for health into an anointing of a prophet?

If anyone wants to check back, they will find that Bob was up before the ‘top’ ministry, Rod Meredith etc, because he was openly disagreeing with aspects of what they were saying.

For Bob it was a crucial meeting, as a quite possible outcome was that he would be put out of his church. He said that he mentioned this to the minister anointing him, that he needed God’s help in putting over his points in the most coherent way that he could at the forthcoming meeting.

Understandable then that the minister included a few words on this subject, such as the “double-portion” of spirit in the meeting that was about to occur. History shows that most people in this sort of situation certainly needed extra help!

Unfortunately Bob, grasping at straws, has taken this one sentence to means that he was somehow ‘accidentally’ anointed as a prophet.

You sort of wonder what Gaylyn Bonjour thinks of this – he anoints someone that has asked to be anointed for healing, and adds a few words of comfort regarding Bob’s imminent meeting with the hierarchy, and suddenly Bob is a prophet!

Anonymous said...

The phrase "false prophet" implies there is such a thing as a real one, and given the attitude of many of the posters to this blog, you are pre-disposed to scoff PERIOD,

regardless of whether God speaks or not. You are merely professional scoffers who quite naturally fulfill the prophecy of there being scoffers in the end time.

Now what I want to know is can you save your own lives in that time of peril?

Then I would be convinced that you are that much better than false prophets like thiel, but until then you are just the other side of the same coin.