Bob Thiel has been gloating recently about his recent trip to Africa where he gives the impression that half the African continent is getting ready to join up with him. He has written about it on his blog, in his magazine and as of yesterday, in The Journal. He is taking great pleasure in sticking his finger in Meredith and Luker's face mocking their rejection of him.
Leaders once part of the Global Church of God, Living Church of God, Worldwide Church of God, Church of God an International Community, Church of God in Truth, Church of God 7th Day, the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other groups but now part of the Continuing Church of God also attended.
The Continuing Church of God has more than 20 congregations in East Africa
Africa is functioning as a proving ground to show us that this work is being led in the way that Jesus Christ wants us to go. We in the Continuing Church of God also expect to lead what the Bible refers to as the “short work” in Romans 9:28.We are always trying to figure out how to best serve the needs of our brethren in Africa. The work of God through the Continuing Church of God is bearing fruit around the world, and Africa is showing that this is so.
Thiel writes in his member letter:The Journal Issue 160
From his News of Those Once Affiliated With The Oval Church of GodAs far as leaders new to the CCOG, after the conference, one of the attendees who asked for a meeting with myself and Pastor Ochieng, became one. This was John Owak. For the past ten years he had been a minister in the United Church of God. John Owak explained that he had been studying CCOG literature for some time (he had also contacted me in the past), and the conference convinced him he wanted to be part of CCOG. He asked if we would accept him as a volunteer (unpaid, and he did not ask for a salary) pastor of the CCOG in his geographic area, working under the direction of our Regional Pastor Evans Ochieng, myself, and ultimately Jesus Christ. Pastor Ochieng and I agreed and wish to welcome him into the CCOG.
Leaders once part of GCG, LCG, WCG, COGaic, CG7, SDA, and/or VWCG, but now part of CCOG also attended. This was the first time I had been able to meet any of them in person (some had email contacts with me prior). CCOG currently has over 20 congregations in East Africa, with more expected soon.
As far as leaders new to the CCOG, after the conference, one of the attendees who asked for a meeting with myself and Pastor Ochieng, became one. This was John Owak. For the past ten years he had been a minister in the United Church of God (UCG). John Owak explained that he had been studying CCOG literature for some time (he had also contacted me in the past), and the conference convinced him he wanted to be part of CCOG. We discussed also differences in the governance, prophetic understandings, and the work between CCOG and UCG. He then asked if we would accept him as a volunteer (unpaid, and he did not ask for a salary) pastor of the CCOG in his geographic area, working under the direction of our Regional Pastor Evans Ochieng, myself, and ultimately Jesus Christ. Pastor Ochieng and I agreed and welcomed him into the CCOG.
Leaders once part of GCG, LCG, WCG, COGaIC, COGIT, COGTE, CG7, SDA, and/or VWCG, but now part of CCOG also attended. This was the first time I had been able to meet any of them in person (some had email contacts with me prior). CCOG has over 20 congregations in East Africa.
All of this church poaching apparently has various COG groups quit concerned and are now scrambling to send ministers to Africa to see if they can keep their members from joining Thiel's little splinter group.
Thiel reports this about the various COG's sending ministers to Africa:
04/11/14 p.m. Although I have not seen anything in writing, I have been directly told that Bill Goff (once of GCG and now heading VWCG) and Peter Nathan (once of COGaIC and now LCG) have gone to Kenya in an effort to see if those that were once associated with them personally will support them at this time.
In writing, I have seen evidence that John Elliot of UCG is in Kenya, in order to try to prevent some there from leaving UCG over some longstanding concerns.
Africa might give one group or another some bragging rights, but it is not the cash cow that could finance some sort of large scale, global endtime work. Probably, though, Bob Thiel has found an audience which will graciously look past his weird hand gestures and farting noises, chalking them up as simply being cultural differences.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I had a friend from Guatemala. Once In the midst of a discussion, he commented, "In my country, they don't know the meaning of words such as capitalism and communism. They just know the meaning of the word hunger." And, that is true in most impoverished third world nations. Loyalty is oft extended to the person who gave you your last meal.
These duelling ACOGs, sometimes even bearing gifts such as cows, would do well to study Che Guevara, who was accustomed to the impoverished conditions south of our own borders, but was faced with a completely different set of circumstances as he tried to foment a communist revolution amongst the poorer nations in Africa.
I'm quite surprised that Thiel has set off somewhat of a crisis or emergency amongst these church groups. but, here again, we are confronted with a dose of hyperbole, which in times past has just not matched up with reality. Personally, it does my heart good to know that anyone is actively trying to alleviate the human suffering on much of that continent, so long as it's not done in a paternalistic fashion.
BB
THIEL WROTE:
ReplyDelete"We in the Continuing Church of God also expect to lead what the Bible refers to as the “short work”
--I understand Thiel to not be very tall. So in this instance he is being truthful!
ReplyDelete"Leaders once part of GCG, LCG, WCG, COGaic, CG7, SDA, and/or VWCG, but now part of CCOG also attended."
Bob Thiel should have said, "Leaders STILL part of GCG, LCG, WCG, COGaic, CG7, SDA, and/or VWCG, but now ALSO part of CCOG also attended."
If Bob Thiel is a really slow learner, he'll get lots of members from Nigeria. Lucky for him that David Pack already got that Prince Money Seminar guy from Nigeria.
And not so long ago in The Journal a certain advertiser bragged that there were 7,000 Africans who joined his church.
ReplyDeleteHe also said in the same advertisement that he was going to establish churches in Saudi Arabia.
The Church of God Most High had a congregation of "loyal" members in Africa, but when visited, the leaders found a rather Pentecostal group whose services they could not understand because they could not speak the language.
What CoHAM leaders need to understand that in Africa, people will take the support of the LCG, UCG, COGWA, CCG, COGMH or any of the other alphabet soup equally: Multiple sects of the ACoGs may be paying money to the very same congregation, thinking that the people are a loyal following to their particular sect when they are not. The CoHAM gets played.
To paraphrase G'Kar of the Narn in Babylon 5: Just remember, when you are in Africa, no one is exactly what they seem....
But if you only care about numbers, then, by all means, put on the blinders and count the people in your census, if it makes you feel better.
Fools.
Bob is a nothing. I don't know why this blog is obsessed with him. Let us know when something important happens.
ReplyDeleteI am glad this blog keeps the spotlight on Thiel. He is not some little benign thing with a tiny group of followers. LCG, UCG and others may pay light lip service tot he guy by off handily discussing him in letters. LCG, UCG and other s are quit concerned about the impact Thiel is having on some of their members. Legalists are never happy staying with their current groups. When someone who is more "truthful" comes along and claims to be a pre1986 follower of HWA then there is a percentage in Armstrongism that will instantly flock to him. It is the older members though that do this. Younger members could care less. He has the potential to be just as deadly as the other COG's
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"I am glad this blog keeps the spotlight on Thiel....He has the potential to be just as deadly as the other COG's."
That is why I would not want to underestimate the serious harm that Satan can do through some seemingly impotent, harmless, false prophet like Bob Thiel.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a story in the Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Volume 1, Chapter 38, Subheadings: Gospel to the Holy Land, and The Deception:
He had gone to Jerusalem, all right. But he had found that the church and church members supposed to exist there were nonexistent, he said. The man whose name was used as a representative of the church also proved, he reported, to be a representative for other churches, drawing financial compensation from all of them.
The "converts" being made in the Holy Land, he reported, were not Jews at all, but Arabs--who were not really converted.
The procedure used in the Holy Land, he reported, was this: These supposed missionaries, evangelists, or "representatives" who drew money from several Protestant denominations, and reported "large harvests" of "converts," each had a small tent, in which they served tea and cookies. Like a barker at a circus sideshow, they shouted, beat tin pans, made noises to attract a crowd, announcing free cookies and tea. When the crowd gathered, the "missionary" went through a short two- or three-minute "spiel," after which he offered the free cookies and tea to all who would raise their hands and say they accepted Christ.
The natives all raised their hands, partook of the tea and cookies, and then proceeded to the next tent where they got "converted" all over again!
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Maybe Bob Thiel should study the Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong rather than Mayan, Kenyan, Catholic, and other pagan prophecies.
I'd like to see him debate the cream of the crop of the Lemba tribe as to whether or not they were Israelites. While DNA actually is on their side, it is doubtful that anyone steeped in Armstrongism could make allowances for African Israelites in their theology.
ReplyDeleteBB
Then again, maybe Bob Thiel should get a real life instead of his fantasy-based tithe mining life.
ReplyDeleteMany Mickey-D's are now hiring.