Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Bob Thiel Off In Search of the Lost Ark


Why is it that so many of the splinter cults have to imitate everything that HWA did.  When the WCG imploded all the archaeological digs that the church was participating in ceased.  Then Flurry had to start his version of the "dig".  Now Thiel is going to send his cult members over to dig around Israel too.

It has been suggested that the physical ark of the covenant that the children of Israel had was patterned on one in heaven, thus it could still be on earth.  If it will be found, there is a small chance that the Continuing Church of God may have some involvement with it as we are considering involvement in an archeological project in Jerusalem in the area known as Mt. Zion. On October 24, 2013, while attempting to take some photos and to video some of the remains of the Church of God on Jerusalem’s Western Hill, I was approached by a Jewish rabbi named Avraham Goldstein of the Diaspora Yeshiva who claims that the Ark of the Covenant is below that building on Mt. Zion of the Western Hill.

I love the fact that another Rabbi latched on to another American sucker for funding.  Another great way to waste tithe money.

The Bible shows that well after Solomon’s sons would have died, that the Ark was still in a particular part of Jerusalem:
35:1 Now Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2 And he set the priests in their duties and encouraged them for the service of the house of the LORD. 3 Then he said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the LORD: “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. It shall no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and His people Israel (2 Chronicles 35:1-3).
So what happens if Thiel and crew find it?  Are they considered Levites because he self-appointed himself?

I presume that if the Ark of the Covenant is shown or publicly claimed, some may wish to more thoroughly examine it. However, if it is the actual Ark of the Covenant, this would seem to be quite dangerous from a biblical point of view:
1 Again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the LORD of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. 3 So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. 4 And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. 5 Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the LORD on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals.
6 And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God. (2 Samuel 6:1-7)
Only Levites were supposed to move the Ark (cf. Deuteronomy 31:25; Joshua 3:3), and that is what David finally realized. Non-Levites, like Uzzah were never supposed to touch it.  Though, since there was a change in the priesthood in the New Testament (Hebrews 7:11-12), it may be that ministers that God accepts could move or otherwise handle it.  It may also be that it no longer has any special holiness any more.



15 comments:

Corky said...

It may also be that it no longer has any special holiness any more.

It may also be only a Jewish bullshit story (fable) and it never even existed. Actually, the story about Uzzah dying from touching the ark drastically reduces the probability of its existence. Because the more supernatural elements a story has the less likely a story is to be true.

Why weren't the men who set the ark on the oxen killed? Why weren't the oxen killed? Okay...say three men were involved in a murder but only the man who tried to save the victim was executed for the crime...seem fair and just to you?

No, it's baloney...no ark will be found.

Anonymous said...

Hold the phone.

This is supposedly a denominational leader. And he runs a church. And he calls himself a pastor. Yet he does not have the knowledge about whether or not the Ark of the Covenant has "any special holiness anymore"? He sas to say "It may also be"? "MAY"?


Reealllyyy????????????

Someone send this guy to theology school! Man oh man, this is basic 1st year teaching!!!!!! And he isn't sure.

Ohhhh Ghastly.

James said...

Bob should go to a garage sale, buy a box, decorate it and pronounce to the world that the continuing church of god has found the ark.

Next step to success is to have all of christiandumb flock to his California home to catch a glimpse of the box for a fee of $5.oo

At this point, Theil could piss down on his former master, Rod Meredith, causing him great humiliation and pain.

Its a cog pipe dream. All bullshit!

Anonymous said...

What would happen today if aboriginal tribesmen found a radioactive piece of space debris that had fallen from a military satellite?

Touching this mysteriously hot metal would lead to death. It would certainly seem like a mysterious sacred artifact.

Now, what would happen if Stone Age tribesmen encountered debris from an alien spaceship? And how would the story be told and re-told for several generations before it was written down?

Crazy? Perhaps. But no crazier than the stories about BibleGod.

RSK said...

Interestingly, he quotes much of a PCG article at the beginning of his own, and that particular quote is just what I'd expect from a COG splinter - trying to fast-forward a Bible verse (which I see no reason to lift out of its pre-Exile context) to somehow apply to the future.

But that'd be no fun for Gerry and Bob. You can't scare the wallets out of sheep with Jeremiah's grumblings about the world c.600 BC.

DennisCDiehl said...

Israelis, like Nigerians, know how to sucker American Evangelical churches. Doc needs to be wary of the Rabbi. I imagine it took about two seconds for the Rabbi to figure out naive and anxious for fame Bob was an easy target for fantasy archaeology

Byker Bob said...

Theil should read his Apocrypha. Jeremiah hid the ark in a cave on Mt. Nebo. It was never found following the Babylonian captivity.

There are many conspiracy theories involving the Ethiopians, the Knights of Templar, the Lemba, and others. According to one theory, the ark decayed and disintegrated. Perhaps the most durable commodity associated with the ark would have been the two tablets on which the ten commandments were inscribed.

Better Thiel should waste his money on this dig than on converting people to his church.

BB

Your friendly local Jew said...

A "Jewish" rabbi as opposed to a Methodist or Buddhist rabbi of course.

RSK said...

Anon 3:21, you ARE aware of the general practices Thiel espouses, right? :)

Anonymous said...

You can go to http://diasporayeshiva.com and check these people out. Their building is on Mt. Zion.

Don't know why they would need a lot of financial help to dig under their own building. I'd like to know if a trained and legitimate archeologist is going to lead this dig.

RSK said...

"Bob should go to a garage sale, buy a box, decorate it and pronounce to the world that the continuing church of god has found the ark."

I think Ron Wyatt beat him to that a long time ago.

Corky said...

Perhaps the most durable commodity associated with the ark would have been the two tablets on which the ten commandments were inscribed.

Yeah, and, as we all know, an omnipotent God had to use rock on which to write his commandments. Also had to have two tablets of rock because it's too hard to write on the back. Probably should have used gold, since the Israelites were so fond of it. That way it could have been thinner than rock tablets, not to mention, more valuable. Couldn't be stolen either because anyone touching the ark fell down dead on the spot...well, except for the Philistines when they carried it off, nothing hurts those guys.

Mustn't forget Aaron's rod that budded...don't know the significance of toting that around but evidently God has to use a rod/staff to help him walk around too (psa 23:4) so, maybe he used that one when people weren't looking. And, don't forget, it's a defense weapon too and besides that, it's good for turning into a snake when the need arises.

Yeah, yeah, I know, there had to have been some who looked at the stone tablets that took 40 days for a god to make and thought that maybe Moses did it, but you know, there's always heretics and doubters - especially among the stone cutters...

One would think that the gold overlay and cherubs on the ark would have shown up in some rich man's antique collection...but, alas, no. Too bad, really, because one would think that gold would weather the centuries better than the writing on two pieces of sandstone or limestone. What? You thought they were marble or granite? Heh heh, you took that for granted, didn't you? (pun intended) Well, next time you're outdoors, try cutting some tablets out of a hunk of granite with a wooden mallet and a bronze chisel. Remember, they hadn't met the people who invented iron for several centuries yet, the Assyrians.

Oh, I forgot, "god did it". Which brings us back to why rock? Couldn't people memorize the ten commandments written on goat skin? Then people couldn't memorize, verbatim, what Jesus said? Could they?

Byker Bob said...

Well, enough negativity on our parts! One could only hope that Thiel actually does discover the ark. Then, maybe he will feel inspired to test his theory that God considers Armstrongite ministers to be Levites, and actually touch it. Matter of fact, we could pass it through all of the ACOGs as a "Levite detector".

BB

Anonymous said...

Sure, you could pick that one apart for days on end. Why rock? And in what script was it written? (Were the Hebrews literate at this point? Would Moses have been able to read it, or would he need it in hieratic Egyptian script?) Why even bother with writing on stone if you're just going to hide it away in an ornate box no one is allowed to open?

Why is there no description of the ark's return to the temple after Josiah asks for it to be put back in the passage Thiel cites?
Why is it not mentioned in the things the Babylonians take, even though they go so far as to pull the doors off the "Holy of Holies" chamber?
Why does it matter in the first place?

Anonymous said...

The ark was described as being gold-plated wood. Specifically, gold plated acacia wood. We know that certain Egyptian wooden artifacts have survived quite well from 2,000 or more years before Christ.

The leaves of the acacia plant are psychedelic, containing DMT, which when smoked causes euphoria combined with kaleidoscopic visual effects.

M.T. DaGrassee