Bob Thiel has a long post up today where he quotes an article that Norm Edwards had in the Shepherd's Voice magazine put out by Chicagoland Church of God.
Edward's writes about the history of prophets in the church and in Armstrongism, including the lack of real prophets today. Need Prophets More Than Prophecy
Armstrongism has always been obsessed with prophecy more than being prophetic. Prophets are always visionaries who foresee the world ahead. I do have to hand it to Norm Edwards, because he actually is putting his belief in a kingdom of God into present day existence, where he sees people made whole. Lives have certainly been touched, enriched and strengthen by Edward's ministry.
Now lets get to Bob Thiel's take on prophets. He claims he is THE prophet. One that has been specifically ordained by God to be prophet. Thiel writes:PABC currently has 14 guests, though a family of 3 and a family of 4 have told us they may need to come within a few days. It is difficult for homeless families to remain together as the Veterans shelter in Akron does not accept women or children, and the other shelters in Huron, Sanilac and Tuscola Counties do not accept men. Just last week, a man and his son who had been with us for five months found a stable place to go.
PABC has been in operation for 3½ years now. In that time we have housed 242 persons, 96 men, 86 women and 60 children. We have provided 19,124 bed-nights, 9,517 for men, 5,440 for women and 4,167 for children. (the total number of nights that all of the people stayed). We have talked to 125 additional people (more than the 242), whom we either offered to help or for whom we found a better solution. Many times, the fact that a person has a definite place to go for the night allows them to concentrate on less sure, but more long-term solutions.
Norman Edwards once was on the board of directors of the Global Church of God. He runs the Port Austin Bible Campus and is editor for Shepherd’s Voice magazine. He is not part of the Continuing Church of God, where, I function its human leader (and am an ordained prophet).
Why Thiel continues to LIE about being ordained is beyond me. No one in ANY Church of God laid hands upon Thiel and specifically ordained his as a minister or prophet. Thiel took the prayer of Gaylyn Bonjour who asked for double blessing of God's spirit upon Thiel as if it was an ordination that set him apart from the rest of the apostate COG leaders. Rod Meredith quickly nailed Thiel for ...his "...self-important, pushy, "know-it-all" attitude."While Norman Edwards and I have long disagreed about aspects of church governance and various matters of doctrine (and I would have suggested a different title, etc. for his article), we both agree that many who are in or claim to be in the Church of God (COG) wrongly do not accept that God has any prophets today. We also agree that most have severe difficulty to identify one who really is a prophet because of various unscriptural biases and improper criteria that they have.
As Norman Edward’s article points out, it is scriptural to now have prophets according to the New Testament. But many who truly believe that they live by the word of God have discounted or overlooked what the Bible actually teaches and/or have been influenced by others who have done the same or worse. The COG has at least one demonstrably true prophet today, yet most in the greater COG world seem to be able to ignore the truth about that, like most ignored John the Baptist and others in their day.
So shame on you COG members who do NOT see Thiel as a prophet of God! You have been warned that the church has ONE prophet alive today, and you know who he is, yet you do not believe him! Shame, shame, shame!
Someday these fools will realize that the future is not something that can be known as it has not yet occurred. Knowing the future is function of Bronze Age shenanagans and wishful thinking. When the future gets here and becomes a present moment then one can know it.
ReplyDeleteBob wanted to be a prophet so bad, he even trampled on Mr. Bonjour's wishes and intent just to claim that he was "ordained" as one. Its so silly, but I guess Bob's vanity couldn't hack it any other way.
ReplyDeleteNever trust the future to anyone whose past and present is a TRAINWRECK!
ReplyDeleteJoe Moeller
Cody, WY
ReplyDelete"There is even one man who left LCG a year ago who styles himself a prophet, who voraciously seeks out and studies the prophecies of every false religion that he can find, in order to find support for his own false prophecies." (This is the comment that ticked off Thiel)
Excellent brief summary of that goof Bob Thiel. This simple truth hurt his foolish pride.
The problem in the ACOGs is the disconnect. The people who claim to be prophets are inaccurate, or purposely vague. So the name "prophet" becomes meaningless in that setting. If there are any prophets today, they couldn't possibly be functional prophets and still retain Armstrongism as their basic mold. The minute they open their mouth to say "Assyrian" or "modern day Israel" everything that comes out of their mouths from that point on is compost.
ReplyDeleteBB
Bob Weinland, what can be worse than a false prophet who has not enrolled in a state sponsored "rehabilitation" program that punishes you out of your "evil" ways?
ReplyDeleteThis boy will have his falling out. He is arrogant and haughty. That day will come.
Worse than that, Thiel was seething at the time of his non-ordaining anointing because he felt LCG was making errors in some areas and somewhere in his mind, thought he would do better if he were in charge. Hence why he claimed "a prophet is a higher rank than an evangelist" and so forth. The fact that he thought LCG, or any other established group, would simply hand the keys over on some dude's say-so is hilarious and confirms way too much in Meredith's rebuke letter.
ReplyDeleteBut its always easier to blame others than see the faults in oneself, and Bob is no exception.
Dennis wrote:
ReplyDelete"Someday these fools will realize that the future is not something that can be known as it has not yet occurred."
Although, the future can often be guessed with some degree of accuracy!
Such as predicting: "Nothing these dudes prophesy is going to happen"....
or
"No Jesus Christ figure is going to deflect the asteroid with our name on it, it's up to us."
Stuff like that is a pretty sure bet :-)
Up until about 2,000 years ago only one man born of woman was considered by Jesus Christ to be the greatest prophet: John the Baptist!
ReplyDeleteMatthew 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Luke 7:28 For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
Bob Thiel exposes his ignorance about Jesus Christ's spoken wprds in those two verses by writing the following:
"...The COG has at least one demonstrably true prophet today, yet most in the greater COG world seem to be able to ignore the truth about that, like most ignored John the Baptist and others in their day..."
John the Baptist (ignored by Bob Thiel) was not ignored by the people in the areas around him:
Matthew 3:5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
John the Baptist (ignored by Bob Thiel) was not ignored by the multitudes, especially the religious leaders of his day:
Luke 3:7 Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
John the Baptist (ignored by Bob Thiel) was not ignored by some of those who were prepared to become a part of the beginning of God's Church:
Luke 1:16 And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
How many hearts will Bob Thiel turn to God? Probably not many, because he's too busy striving to turn hearts to himSELF.
John
John the Baptist (ignored by Bob Thiel) was not ignored by
Well, if you really want to get weirded out, there is one theory that the past, present, and future are all happening simultaneously, and that the time-space continuum is an artificial construct for the benefit of mankind. Theoretically, some could see all of the layers, while others could bend it. But, Bob Thiel is not one of these people!
ReplyDeleteIn the world of the ACOGs, there is no such thing as false prophecy, because at least in this case, they hold themselves to a lower standard. Prophecies are shelved, delayed, perhaps not completely understood, and occasionally fulfilled in imperceivable spiritual manners. So, therefore, in his own mind, Bob has zero possibility of ever being a false prophet, and like the others, infinite capability to use his utterances to intimidate and manipulate people. Perfect conditions for what he hopes to accomplish, and no possibility of any sort of accountability. Hopefully, our little, weak, human attempts at criticizing him are, in his mind, the worst thing that can possibly happen.
BB
Since Bob Thiel claims to adhere to Herbert Armstrong's teachings, has anyone seen a response from him concerning what Herbert Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages about prophets? Pages 244-245, "No prophets are mentioned as having either administrative, executive or
ReplyDeletepreaching functions in the New Testament Church." Thanks!
ReplyDelete"Since Bob Thiel claims to adhere to Herbert Armstrong's teachings, has anyone seen a response from him concerning what Herbert Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages about prophets? Pages 244-245, 'No prophets are mentioned as having either administrative, executive or preaching functions in the New Testament Church.' Thanks!"
Maybe Bob Thiel uses a copy of Gerald Flurry's EDITED and CHANGED version of Mystery Of The Ages, which deleted that sentence so it would not expose Gerald Flurry's own massive and outrageous doctrinal change.
Remember that Gerald Flurry spent about 20 years stumbling around in a drunken stupor coming up with all sorts of names, titles, offices, and positions for himself before he finally sobered up a little bit and learned to his surprise that Herbert W. Armstrong had taught that the church was led by an apostle, not by a prophet. Rather than correct anything, Gerald Flurry then took the title of apostle too.
In a way, this is kind of funny. I've seen posts by ACOG members to the effect that God only holds people accountable for false prophecies if they claim the office of prophet. They use this to justify, and continue the credibility of their leaders, who have "explained developing news events" based on the HWA prophecy model (with a 100% failure rate to date!), in which US/BC are modern Israel, Germany is Assyria, the Vatican is Babylon, and the present is the end times. By no means do they want their leaders branded as false prophets! (Actually, a false prophet is one who makes false prophecies, and this fact is not based on rhetorical semantics).
ReplyDeleteAs the song goes, "Here come ol' Flattop, groovin' up slowly....he got toe jam football, he one Holy roller....got to be a joker cause he so hard to please....." (Thiel), actually claiming the office of prophet (this is not even an ordained office, being a prophet is a phenomenon) and unwittingly doing something for which all of his predecessors have feared to do! By Armstrongish rhetorical standards, he is actually making himself accountable to God for all of the false prophecies of Armstrongism. Why would he do this??? He wants his "fair share" of followers, his own Armstrong franchise "....come together, right now, over me!"
BB
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
"Since Bob Thiel claims to adhere to Herbert Armstrong's teachings, has anyone seen a response from him concerning what Herbert Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages about prophets? Pages 244-245, 'No prophets are mentioned as having either administrative, executive or preaching functions in the New Testament Church.' Thanks!"
Maybe Bob Thiel uses a copy of Gerald Flurry's EDITED and CHANGED version of Mystery Of The Ages, which deleted that sentence so it would not expose Gerald Flurry's own massive and outrageous doctrinal change.
Remember that Gerald Flurry spent about 20 years stumbling around in a drunken stupor coming up with all sorts of names, titles, offices, and positions for himself before he finally sobered up a little bit and learned to his surprise that Herbert W. Armstrong had taught that the church was led by an apostle, not by a prophet. Rather than correct anything, Gerald Flurry then took the title of apostle too.
January 25, 2014 at 5:44 PM -
"HA! Yea, in the mean time...back at the funny farm!"
"Never trust the future to anyone whose past and present is a TRAINWRECK!"
ReplyDeleteThat's why I don't trust the future or the present to the UCG, Mr. Lussenheide!