1980/1981 Spanish Department Break In

1980 Spanish Department, Envoy

1980/1981 Spanish Department Break In

By Wes White

            Around 1980 - 81, I was part of a scandal at Ambassador College in Pasadena.  It was called “the Spanish Department Break In” and the top guys in the WCG did pretty good job of hushing it up.  

            Before I get into this historical recounting, I want to back up a bit and mention a few things about “The Browning of America” which got posted on Banned a few weeks ago.  Byker Bob asked me for my thoughts on the comments that were being made and I never responded for a couple of reasons.   

First, I can post comments to the Painful Truth site, but I can’t seem to post comments for the Banned site.  It may because I’m attempting to perform this function from my phone or because I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to social media.    

Second, I figure that my chance to talk is when I get something posted.  After that, it’s everybody else’s turn to talk. At that point, it doesn’t hurt me to just sit and listen and learn.  

            I appreciated all the comments – even the ones that took exception to what was in my script.  (Yes, what was published was only a script for a “Start Our Sabbath” program.  It was never intended to be a finished article.)  

I have been asked if it bothers me when people on Banned disagree with what I write.  To that, I always respond with, “Of course not.  I expect the readers of Banned to disagree with a lot of what I say.   Disagreement is part of the exercise.  This is healthy.  If disagreement bothers me, I have no business sending material to Banned.” 

            Further, I always point out that, when Banned’s readers have disagreed with me, they have never gotten personal or hateful as I have experienced in the COGs where church leaders and their wives have said things about me like: 

n  Wes is looks like Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges. 

n  Wes’ long hair makes him look like an ugly old woman. 

n  Wes’ motive is to become the face of our church organization. 

n  Even though Wes is a member of our organization, “he has no standing.”  

            I have found that any disagreement with me on Banned is always issue-oriented and never gets into personal attacks. Again, I think that issue-oriented discussion is healthy and necessary.  When a guy preaches something or writes something, he doesn’t deserve a free pass. No one.  Including me.   

            So again, I am grateful to Banned for allowing me to post material.  

            Now, for the story of the Spanish department break in. 

            In either late 1980 or early 1981, I was approached by one of HWA’s aids.  He was gunning for Tom Turk, who was the director of the church’s office in Mexico City. This HWA aid wanted to get rid of Tom and replace him with Robert Flores Jr, the aid’s good friend.   I have never been given any indication that Robert had anything to do with the events I am about to describe.  

HWA’s aid told me that there were “illegal things” going on in the Spanish department and that he needed to get this information to HWA so HWA could fix it.  So the aid told me it would be helpful if I were to participate in a late-night break-in of Leon Walker’s office.   Leon was the head of the Spanish department. 

            I was leery of the whole idea and told him, “You don’t need me to break into the Spanish department offices.  You can get into any office on campus that you want.”  I reminded him of how he and his cohorts had done a midnight raid of the Ambassador Faculty offices a few months prior. They had brought with them a bunch of manila envelopes.  Each envelope had the name of a faculty member.  The burglars also brought many typewriter ribbons to match the various typewriters in the offices of the faculty.  When they entered a faculty member’s office, they took the typewriter ribbon from his typewriter and replaced that used ribbon with a new one. They put the used ribbon in the corresponding envelope for later review.  The next morning, the faculty member would have no idea that someone had taken his ribbon.  The HWA aid and his cohorts then spent the next few days painstakingly reading what had been typed on the typewriter ribbon.  BTW, the only “bad” information they found was that Dave Albert had written a letter to Bell & Howell to apply for a job.  

            After I expressed my concerns to HWA’s aid, he told me why he wanted me to join him in this expedition.  He said he actually needed my Spanish-speaking wife to go on the mission. She was bilingual and an employee of the Spanish department.   

At the time, I was married to Linda Hardy White.  After 25 years of marriage, she died of ALS in 2003 and I have since remarried.  The aid told me that he needed Linda to translate documents for him while going thru Leon’s office.  My presence was needed because he felt it was “inappropriate” for him to be in a building alone at night with a woman without her husband there.  My next thought was, “Great.  I get to be a chaperone for two felons.” 

            So, in an effort to aid “the apostle” in his work as the “head of the church,” I consented.  

            I make no excuse for participating in this horrible act. It was illegal and immoral and unethical.  I never should have done it.  

            So, on a Friday evening around 10:00 pm, the aid (with the assistance of a college maintenance employee who disabled the alarm systems) took Linda and me into the Spanish department and we did our “investigation.”  HWA’s aid had flashlights, a tiny camera he had bought in Hong Kong, a small tape recorder, and a few other Watergate burglar-type items.   

If you know anything about Leon Walker, you will not be surprised to learn that we found nothing incriminating in Leon’s office.  Absolutely nothing.   I was relieved because I really liked Leon.  

            By Monday morning, my guilt feelings were kicking into overdrive, so I went to Leon and confessed the whole thing.  He recommended I tell HWA. 

            The next question for me was: “How do I do this?”  HWA lived in Tucson.  He was afraid to enter California because he might be served with a subpoena.    

We didn’t have email back in those days.  And, if you wrote to HWA, you had to type your letter on a special typewriter that had extra-large print because his eye sight was so limited.  Back then, we had no personal computers with various small-to-large font sizes. 

            So I went to HWA’s executive offices on the fourth floor of the Administration building and asked if I could type a letter on their big-print typewriter.  Stan Rader’s secretary begrudgingly obliged me.  After I typed the letter, I gave it to her and asked if she would fax it to HWA in Tucson.  There were very few fax machines on campus in 1980.  She rolled her eyes and agreed to do this for me.    

            Several weeks later on President’s Day 1981, my boss (Raymond McNair) showed up at my house, told me to put on a suit, and informed me we were going to Burbank Airport to see the apostle on his private jet.   

            When Raymond and I arrived at the airport, he told me that HWA would not be getting off the plane.  Process servers, remember?  So we boarded and sat down with HWA and Leon Walker and Greg Albrecht.   I believe Bill Stenger and Leroy Neff were there. 

            Right off the bat, HWA thundered his first question to me, “Who made you write this letter?!?”  I was insulted.  I stiffened and told him that no one made me write the letter.  He told me that, if I lied to him, I would be struck dead in the same way that Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead after they had lied to Peter.  He again tried to get me to say that I was forced to write the letter.  I wouldn’t budge.  We were at a stalemate.   

Then he started insisting that Stan Rader made me write the letter.  I really denied that one.  After a few minutes of this badgering, Leon Walker (bless his heart) came to my rescue.  He informed HWA that it was he (Leon) who had recommended I tell HWA about the break in.  

            So the apostle shifted gears.  He then started berating me because he said I had no business involving Rader’s secretary in the matter.  (He didn’t want Rader to know about the break in.)  I told HWA that the Executive office was the only place on campus I knew of that had a big print typewriter and fax machine.  Then Leon intervened again.  Bless his heart.  He told HWA that he shouldn’t fault me for working with Rader’s secretary on this because (he reminded HWA) he (HWA) had only recently written a front page article in the Pastor General’s Report that heaped high praise on Rader’s secretary.   

I will never forget HWA’s response.  He said plaintively, “I had to write those nice things about her because she threatened to go to the press about me!”  I thought he was about to cry.   

            This was a bombshell.  First, what information could this woman have on him that scared him so much? And second, he was admitting to several of us that he wrote things in the Pastor General’s Report that were false!   

            I already had my doubts about his leadership before I got on that plane.  I mean, I had already figured out that his teachings on interracial marriage were totally off base.  And I had already figured out that his practice of marking and disfellowship was the antithesis of Christian love.  His admission regarding lying about Rader’s secretary was the coup de grace for me.   From that moment forward, he had lost all credibility in my eyes.  

            But my story doesn’t end here.  My punishment was that I was temporarily  banned from being in California.  Linda and I would be sent anywhere outside of California where we wanted to go and live for six months (on probation) so that I could “think about things.”  I gladly complied with leaving because I reasoned I would soon be exonerated and that, when I returned to Pasadena, I would find that things had been cleaned up at headquarters.  After all, I had given HWA the smoking gun which clearly showed the corruption that was right there in his executive office.  

            Was I naïve or what?  I would have been better off trying to buy some bridge in Brooklyn.  

            Needless to say, things did NOT get cleaned up.  They only got worse.  A month or two later, HWA wrote in the Pastor General’s Report that “there was no Spanish department break in.”  Not true.  There was a break in.  I was part of it. 

Then, about six months into my banishment, I received a call from another of HWA’s aids.  He asked me to recant of my claim of a Spanish department break in.  I stood firm that there had been one.   

Finally, I received a call from Raymond McNair, asking me to return to Pasadena. I refused.  By that time, the gig was up.  I saw what these guys were all about.  Shortly thereafter, I resigned.  

This is not a story of how Wes got screwed.  I brought this situation onto myself.  I ask for no pity and deserve none. 

Rather, this is a story of how Wes got delivered from the jaws of men who were doing evil things.  God blessed me with an escape from that loony bin.  I left Ambassador and got a job in the real world where I learned real-world skills.  I was able to have a career until I retired in 2014. 

Many of those poor guys who worked in Pasadena or in the field ministry have not been so blessed.  Today, many of them have no career skills.  They have no pension – no 401K -- no Social Security.  They’re stuck working for one of the Armstrong offshoot organizations because they have no other prospects for real employment.   Many of them don’t agree with what’s being preached by their churches.  They don’t agree with the way things are run.  Yet they stay because they have nowhere else to go.   

Further, they are scared because they have no other options when it comes to putting food on the table for their families.  I understand that some people reading this will gleefully say these guys deserve every bit of the misery under which they suffer.  They may indeed deserve it.  That’s not a judgment for me to make.   

The point is that I have sympathy for anyone who suffers – even those who have brought their misery on themselves.  To be sure, I would sympathize with them more if they would admit their guilt and repent of it.  So many of them have done so much damage. 

Let’s conclude this story.   

I praise God that He got me out of that viper’s nest!  My escape had nothing to do with my own goodness.  It has everything to do with God’s mercy.  

People who I know in the COGs get upset with me when they see my posts on Banned and on the Painful Truth.  They demand to know why I am in communication with these blog sites.   Long ago, I gave up trying to explain to them that I view the blog sites as watchdogs against the tyranny of the Armstrong movement.  Usually, these blog sites are the only place people can go to hear the other side of the story.   

So I am relating this break in incident as accurately as I humanly can for the purpose of making sure that we retain as much of our church history as we can.  Warts and all.  Even bad stuff done by me.   I mean, isn’t the Bible full of accounts that show the sins of so many people?   

Also, we’ve got to learn from our past.  The WCG was so dysfunctional in so many ways.  (Understatement of the year?)  One of the organization’s dysfunctionalities was that they were so deficient in showing Christian love for one another.  No matter how you try to spin it, breaking into someone’s office was not an act of love. It was a horrible thing to do.  I confess my sin so that others can learn from my mistake.   

Again, my thanks to Banned for this opportunity to relate history and to discuss the current state of affairs in the COGs.  There is so much that needs to be fixed in so many of these offshoots.   I don’t criticize their behavior and teachings out of malice.  I criticize them in the hope they will change and learn to exercise more of Matthew 5, 6, and 7 in their dealings with those they serve. 

            

Restored Church of God Continues To Implode

There is more good news out of Wadsworth, Ohio today about David C Pack's Restored Church of God. His personality cult continues its downward spiral by more defections from his headquarters.

Over the last few months, key people have left the RCG. 

Dave's right-hand man, his "Aaron Dean", left. His wife was also a longtime employee in their editorial department. 

RCG's main programmer also left. 

Their HR manager is gone too. 

It is great to see more and more people waking up to the abuse and lies emanating from Dave, but sadly many still are enraptured by the guy.

King Gerald Flurry, the Stone of Herb and the New Place of Safety

False prophet Bob Thiel no longer needs to worry about sharing Petra with at least one Church of God.  It seems that Gerald Flurry has a new place of safety that he is taking the Stone of Herb to so his creature "jesus" can come and sit on it. While Gerald is in his new place of safety he will be the true King that the true Church of God members will look to as the final authority as they are trained to rule the world.

His new place of safety is Adullam, located between Jerusalem and the Gaza strip.  Adullam was first mentioned in Gen 38:1 and Micah 1:15.  Adullam is the place that David supposedly escaped to when he was running from Saul.

22 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.

Gerald Flurry writes in his new book, The Throne of David how the Philadelphia Church of God is getting ready to flee, with the Stone of Herb.  This is part of the reason Flurry bought his jet so it could transport the Stone of Herb and his family to the place of safety.

Could this king be someone outside God’s one true Church? That would be impossible. This king is speaking the truth and hasting righteousness, so it must be a converted member in God’s Church. 

God has to have a king in this Church who is a descendant of David. And we also must have a stone that is a symbol of David’s throne. God has given us a new stone. The stone is alwaysassociated with the throne—not only as a symbol of the throne, but also a symbol of our Rock, our Leader, Jesus Christ! 

It was right around January 16, 2017, that God revealed the truth about the new stone of destiny. 

And it was on this date that God moved the throne of David to this Church!God is getting us ready to go to the place of safety where David’s throne is prophesied to be. There is a new king and a new stone. There has to be for this prophecy to be fulfilled! And this new king would have to be God’s apostle, at least for this time. 

The prayer rock, the new symbol of David’s throne, also came to us through a descendant of David, Herbert W. Armstrong. And it all happened around January 16, 2017, the anniversary of his death. 

God made all these things happen miraculously. This is all prophesied, and God has brought it about in a way that is truly mind-staggering when you think about it. 

We have discussed here many times before that he as appointed himself as King of the church. He claims Micah 1 is about him and his new place of safety.

King James BibleYet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

The book of Micah has some key scriptures we can better understand in light of this new revelation.

This book covers a span of time from just before the Great Tribulation to a time far into the Millennium. It prophesies what will happen to God’s people during the Tribulation.

Micah 1:9 says, “For her wound is incurable ....” This is a time when the nations of Israel are sick with an incurable wound—a life-threatening condition that cannot be healed! Their only hope is to go through the holocaust of the Tribulation.

“Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee” (verse 16). Here is a descriptive warning of what is about to come upon national Israel. Think of the symbol of the United States, the bald eagle. God says the baldness of Israel is going to be enlarged as its people go into captivity! During the Great Tribulation, they will suffer as never before!

Now—what will happen to God’s people during that time? Verse 15 says, “Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.” This translation is a little awkward. The word Mareshah means summit, or chief place. And the New King James Version reads:

“... The glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.”

Where is Adullam? This was the cave to which David escaped when he was on the run from King Saul (1 Samuel 22:1). Remember, Micah is an end-time book. Here is a prophecy of a time when “the glory of Israel” will come to a cave, or rocky fortress. The Cambridge Bible Commentary says it is “the worthy part of Israel” that goes to Adullam. The Soncino commentary says, “[T]he phrase means that Israel’s nobility will take refuge in a cave” (emphasis mine throughout). Who are the nobility of israel? They are the people who have the throne of David!

They are spiritual Israel, or God’s true Church.

God considers these people worthy to take responsibility for David’s throne. That is a lot of responsibility! But these people are God’s nobility! What greater nobility is there than having David’s throne?

David escaped to the cave of Adullam along with several hundred people. Prophecy shows that, in the end time, God’s people will have to escape to a cave as well. They will go to a rocky fortress to escape the Holy Roman Empire, which has been chasing them for centuries! The Church had to flee into the wilderness for 1,260 years (Revelation 12:6—described prophetically as “days”). Now, we will have to flee for 1,260 days (verse 14). When we do, we will take with us the throne of David.

We must be prepared to go to the cave of Adullam, the place of safety. Make this a part of your thinking, because we live in the most urgent time ever! We must be willing to go anyplace and do anything God wants. We must get our minds conditioned to do that! He often offers opportunities or directs us to do things we don’t want to do, humanly. We all have to do things we would rather not do; that is good for us! We must have the mindset that whatever God says, we will do. That will bring the most wonderful reward you could possibly receive!

You can review the history: David and God’s people came to power shortly after he left that cave. God says that immediately after we leave this rocky fortress, the place of safety, we are going to come to power! We will rule the world with Jesus Christ on David’s throne!

Think of the honor God is giving us! What a wonderful blessing it is to have the great God give us the throne of David—which is really the throne of God—now! What a calling we have been given, and what a blessing to understand this and to know what it all means!

Micah 2:6 foretells of God’s lukewarm people trying to stop us from prophesying these things. They are not the nobility of Israel. They want to blend into the world and prophesy smooth things.

That is not the life God has called us to! Those who sit on David’s throne must obey the great God with all their being as David did, a man after God’s own heart! That is what God wants all of us to strive to be: men and women after God’s own heart!

God abundantly rewards such obedience. He promises that even in the very worst circumstances, He will protect us. As people attack us, they will fall, and we will be the only ones left standing.

How the Church of God Splits Happened

God strikes down Second Witness...But NOT in Jerusalem!

The Church of God has always been blessed by having so many prophets, scholars, and end times witnesses in its midst.  While a few have been women though the overwhelming majority are self-appointed men who feel they have a higher calling than the dumb sheeple and therefore need to be heard.

Well over ten years ago one of the biggest liars in the Church of God proclaimed himself one of the end time Two Witnesses.  Ron Weinland went on to make many SURE predictions and prophecies that we all now know to be complete utter bullshit.  2008 came and went as Weinland was publicly humiliated in San Francisco at an Idea City conference:

He was so sure that his creature "jesus" was going to come back with righteous fury in 2008 that he made the rounds publicly proclaiming his message and writing a "book" on it all.  Then, like any good Church of God prophet, his rantings failed.  His god had changed the return time, it then turned into a "spiritual return", the brethren were not ready, the same old tired shtick.

Then his god turned its back on him once again and let the United States Government swoop in and convict him in court sending him to prison for a prophetic 3 1/2 years.  2013 was a humiliating year for him as he turned the reigns over to his money-laundering daughter and his wife Laura, the diamond  wearing Second Witless Witness.

In 2015 he had a heart attack that his god apparently let happen in order to humble him.   Not one to learn from his mistakes and failed prophecies, he developed even wackier predictions as he wrote another book.

Once the convicted felon was let out of prison, he started making more and more idiotic prophecies to the point he now has his "jesus" returning in 2019.

His god must not be pleased that felon Ron has not learned his lesson.  At the beginning of July 2018, the all-powerful god of Ron struck him down with another heart attack.

One person on a Weinland newsgroup wrote:

"I don't recall anywhere in Rev 11, where God makes His #1 prophet/servant sick and disabled. How are the TWs going to do there job, if the lead man is sick and disabled? Did God drop the ball? Did God forget to give Ron the health he needs to do his job? Or MAYBE Ron is a false prophet?"

How is Ron and his dingy wife Laura going to be the Two Witnesses as we approach Pentecost 2019 when he is laid up? What a cruel joke Ron's god played on him.  Dingy Laura now has to step up to the plate. Ron has never really had much faith in his dingy wife as he used to force her to leave the room when he spoke.  Was she giving off bad vibes?

Weinerdude's heart attack presents a huge problem for his god and the church.  As one of the Two Witless Witnesses, he is supposed to be preaching for 1,260 days getting the message of his god across to the world as a final witness.  His wife Laura is supposed to be by his side doing the same thing. Now that he cannot speak publicly and his dingy wife is incapable of it forming a logical sentence, how is the message of his god going to get out there?  Millions upon millions of people will not be able to hear the word of his god and will lose any chance of escaping the tribulation soon to come!  

Another person has noted on a Weinland forum:

"(Rev 11:3)  And I will give [power] to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.

How hard can it be? If you just believe what is written, it's easy....

THEY BOTH TESTIFY. The verse is plain, the English is clear, BOTH witnesses testify. They both do it EVERY DAY for 1260 days. They don't testify/preach/prophecy on Monday, and then take the rest of the week off. They don't go on cruises and get deep tissue massages, while browsing through the Fredrik's of Hollywood catalog for expensive panties. They both work and they both preach for 1260 days.

Another person made this checklist up:

1) BOTH the Two Witnesses are MEN  (YLT Zec 4:14  And he said, These are the two sons of fresh oil who stand by Jehovah of the whole earth. )

Instead of making excuses by trying to force the verse to mean "children" instead of "sons", why not just believe what is plainly stated? IT'S SO EASY. Believing the truth is easy, believing lies is hard work.

2) They both prophesy

3) They both defend themselves if necessary, by killing their enemies by breathing fire on them (they are COMMANDED by God to kill their enemies, it is not an "option") 

4) They both stand toe to toe facing the Beast Leader and his army. 

5) They turn rivers to blood 

6) They cause droughts for as long as they wish 

7) They have discretion to call down as many plagues as they please  

8) They both get martyred  

9) They both get resurrected 

10) As "payment", 7000 give their lives for killing these two prophets...

Weinland has been placing curses on people for over a decade now and not one single person has died, so how can he call fire down from heaven to destroy his enemies? Even better, how can his dingy wife Laura call down fire while wearing her fur-lined panties that she bragged about years ago?  Imagine her craggy fingers bedecked with numerous diamond rings pointed at you as fire proceeds from her fingertips.

Can you imagine God allowing one of his powerful witnesses having to undergo a quadruple heart bypass surgery before he begins witnessing?  What happened to the all-powerful god who could have secretly healed Ron's heart so that he could carry on unencumbered? 

Can Armstrongism get any stupider than this? Oh, sorry...there is Bob Thiel.  Three peas in a pod.

 

Self-Appointed COG Prophet Claims To Know Everything About Atheists

Why is it that certified liars who have self-appointed themselves as COG leaders, prophets, teachers and self-appointed scholars think they know everything about everything? Why do they feel the need to lambast others outside their groups when the Church of God community is one of the biggest messes that can ever be imagined? Arrogant and despotic leaders are wrecking peoples lives.  Hundreds and hundreds of splinter groups all doing what they want with nothing truly unifying them.  On and on they go casting stones from their fragile glass houses.

Anyway, back to the antics of the self-appointed and improperly doubly blessed Elijah Bob Thiel. He claims to know WHY there are atheists.  The problems with Thiel's exposes starts in the very first sentence.  For many years now he has mocked the magazine Christianity Today as "improperly named" because he thinks they are not real Christians.  Like any good Armstrongite, he believes there are no Christians outside the Armstrongite circle of Church of God's. But anytime he finds an article that supports his erroneous beliefs he latches on to its proof he is correct.  Hypocrisy is never something he thinks about when he opens his mouth.

False teacher Thiel writes in Why are there atheists? 

At the Christianity Today website, an author (Shawn Graves) asked and provided some answers to the question, Why are there still atheists?

A lot of ink has been spilled over whether God exists. Within this context, some theists like to point out that “God has made it plain” that he exists, that “God’s invisible qualities … have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Rom. 1:19-20). They urge us to remember that the “heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Ps. 19:1). In a recent Christianity Today article, Jim Spiegel cites these passages and writes: “This naturally prompts the question: If the evidence for God is so abundant, then why are there atheists?” 

Spiegel asserts that for many atheists, it’s not “cool, rational inquiry” that led to their atheism. Rather, in many cases it’s complex moral and psychological factors that produce atheism. For example, Spiegel points to research suggesting that some prominent atheists had broken, defective relationships with their fathers. Others live in perpetual disobedience and rebellion—resisting lifestyle changes required upon adopting theism. And still others confess that they just don’t want there to be a God. Spiegel contends that immorality has cognitive consequences—it impedes one’s ability to recognize that theism is true. 

No doubt he’s right. Surely some people accept atheism due in part to such powerful motivational factors. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/marchweb-only/whytherearestillatheists.html

Then the craziness begins. He believes that the reason evolution came into being was that there were a bunch of fornicating sex-obsessed men who could not keep their pants zipped up.  Nevermind the fact that many COG leaders had the same problem, but that is another story to contemplate.

Now, actually one of the reasons that there are evolutionary atheists is, believe it or not, in the 19th century various male “intellectual” were looking for excuses to not have to abide by biblical standards of sexual morality. And back then, some of them even admitted that is why they embraced the concept that life randomly evolved without a creator God.

Next, he blames evangelical Christians as being people with no morals:

I would also add hypocrisy to the list. The fact that evangelicals, for one example, are more likely to be involved with fornication than the general public, despite biblical admonitions against it, turns people off.

Fornication in the Church of God has been going on for 80 some years now and very actively as many know.  Then look at the immoral lives of many of the COG leaders and higher up ministers. Don't look at or blame evangelicals till your own house is in order!

War apparently also creates atheists, at least in the improperly self-appointed scholar Thiel's eyes.

 War is another factor. Many non-believers point to religions such as Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism as major causes of war, which turns many people off to the idea that there is a truly loving God. But of course, all scholars realize that early Christians would not participate in carnal warfare. And in my opinion, this is still true of faithful Christians today .

Next, he takes a dig at Bart Ehrman:

There are also scholars, for example, like Bart Ehrman, who started out as Protestant but when they learned more about church history, realized that Protestantism simply did not fit with much of the Bible. And while he may be more of an agnostic than an atheist, the fact that most of what is considered by the world to be Christianity, is not Christianity, and this turns many off of religion (though it does not necessarily make them atheists). 

Thus, the improperly named scholar Thiel proclaims that it is "...illogical to be an atheist."

But I would like to add that it is illogical to be an atheist. While there may be many reasons that people may doubt the existence of a personal God, such as the one that the Bible teaches about, the reality is that any that conclude that there cannot be a creator/god are being foolish:

1 The fool has said in his heart,”There is no God.” (Psalms 14:1, NKJV)

I can honestly say that I would rather sit at the table and have a conversation with Bart Ehrman than I would at a table with a COG leader running off their self-righteous mouths. They seem to forget that Jesus would do the exact same thing. Eating dinner with prostitutes, tax collectors, and unbelievers was his thing to do.  Can you imagine any  COG leader doing that today?

The Church of God should be on its knees begging forgiveness for destroying the lives of its members and ripping out any bit of spirituality that they may have originally had when they joined the church. The families that had marriages ripped apart because immoral divorce and remarriage doctrines, the thousands of lives lost due to faith "healing" thanks to the church deciding doctors were agents of Satan, to the hundreds, if not thousands that have died from suicide over the decades due to the way the church treated them, to the  people gunned down in church thanks to filth from Rod Meredith's sermons, and to its continued path of making church members feel like unworthy worms in God's sight.

Here is what the improper scholar says that makes atheists fools:

One of the reasons that it is foolish to conclude that there is no God is because humans should realize that we are finite beings. No human has been to ever place in the universe, no human has lived forever, no human has been to every possible dimension that may exist in the universe. Since no human has done that, for any human to conclude that there cannot be a god or any type is illogical. Why? Because no human has enough possible proof that God cannot exist. Doing so with limited “evidence” is foolish. 

Furthermore, if the laws of bioscience are accepted as valid, one can easily prove that something outside of those laws (God) was necessary for life to begin and to continue. Amino acids simply did not randomly line up, become alive, realize that they had to eat, realize that they had to have a means to eat, immediately have a way to utilize food (like a properly developed digestive system), realize they had to reproduce for survival of life, and have the means to do so. It is illogical to conclude otherwise. 

He concludes with this:

But, despite the fact that some claim to be atheists, God’s existence is logical.

Faithful people throughout the centuries of the church have struggled with faith due to doubt and questions.  It is not something that is wrong.  The entire belief system of Judaism allows people to question and dialogue over belief and unbelief. Even in scripture people have been allowed to question and wrestle with God.  Armstrongism taught its followers to never question and be blindly obedient.  Wrestling with sculpture has never been an aspect of the Armstrongite version of the church.

Armstrongism and a lot of Christianity come up with lots of non-spiritual reasons why it exists: fear, guilt, shame, and the need or desire for authority in one's life.  Many, if not most are unwilling to think critically.

One question that might be asked is:  If it is so absolutely vital to get church right, why does God have to speak through contradictory and competing middlemen who have muddied the waters for 3,000 years? 

Better yet, the question we should all be asking is why would God be speaking through the rebellious  "Problem Child" Bob Thiel?

PCG: Kieren Underwood Refutes David Vejil's Article About Germany

The Remarkable Identity of the German People

In 2014, David Vejil wrote the above-named article for the Philadelphia Church of God.  It is an attempt to prove where the people who call themselves Germans came from and what they are destined to do.  Anyone with a history in the Church of God will know where the article is headed.

Germany’s recent history is marred by the two most destructive wars in human history and the most systematic genocide. Were these two world wars flukes? History shows that Germany’s ancient history is also filled with blood and violence. Just who were the ancient Germans, and where did they come from? The answers will not only surprise you, but they will also help you understand Germany’s immediate future!

Several months ago, a writer for the Philadelphia Trumpet and for the Phildalephia Chruch of God left the PCG. On June 17th, I posted the resignation letter of Kieren Underwood here:

PCG Kieren Underwood - "I hereby renounce every article I have ever written for The Philadelphia Trumpet...one thing it does not do well is tell the truth."

The article mentioned in Underwood's resignation letter about Germany is below:

 Double click to enlarge to read quote about the Germanic peoples

Hello Mr. Vejil. You wrote the article “The Remarkable Identity of the German People.” I have a number of comments on it. Most of it, I assume, was taken directly from research Herman Hoeh and the WCG did. Nevertheless, if you write an article like this, you have a responsibility to make sure you check all the sources. Please read the rest of this very carefully and think about whether you can stand behind your article’s claims.

-    You mention the Bayerische Chronik. You say it “reveal[s] that some of Asshur’s descendants settled in Europe from Mesopotamia soon after the Flood…”

As you even mention, the Chronik is “now relegated to pure myth.” That’s because it is: 

“In his Chronik, Aventinus fabricated a succession of Teutonic kings stretching back to the Great Flood, ruling over vast swathes of Germany and surrounding regions until the 1st century BC, and involving themselves in numerous events from Biblical and Classical history. 

These rulers and their exploits are mostly fictitious, though some are derived from mythological, legendary or historical figures. Examples of the latter are Boiger, Kels II and Teutenbuecher, whose joint reign is given as 127–100 BC, and who are based on King Boiorix of the Cimbri, the unnamed king of the Ambrones, and King Teutobod of the Teutons.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Aventinus)

-    You then move on to say that the “Assyrians were forced to settle the southern shores of the Black sea by a group of invading warriors from Central Asia.” (Who were Scythians.) You also quote Herodotus, who mentions that there are Assyrians in Cappadocia.

This only proves that some Assyrians were moved to Cappadocia (by the Black Sea). Actually, the vast majority were not taken captive to this area. You can find this information in literally any history book on Assyria. After the Scythians weakened the Assyrians, the Medes, Persians and Parthians (and others) joined in on the fighting. The Assyrians were eventually conquered around 605 BC. Yet they were not taken captive and deported! 

“Certainly by 599 BC at the very latest, Assyria had been destroyed as an independent political entity, although it was to launch major rebellions against the Achaemenid Empire in 546 BC and 520 BC, and remained a geo-political region, ethnic entity and colonised province until the late 7th century AD, with small Assyrian states emerging in the region between the 2nd century BC and 4th century AD.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria)

Even if you could prove some of those Assyrians in Cappadocia moved into Germany, the vast majority are still in Mesopotamia!  

You then quote Mike Edwards from National Geographic, who is talking about the Scythians (supposedly the Scythians who are actually Assyrians): “Nomads and fierce warriors, they lived in Central Asia … and their culture spread westward to southern Russia and Ukraine, and even into Germany.”

Hmm, why is the full quote not given here? What is between the ellipsis? Here’s the full quote: “Nomads and fierce warriors, they lived in Central Asia as early as the ninth century B.C., and their culture spread westward to southern Russia and Ukraine, and even into Germany.” (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0306/feature7/index.html) 

Clearly, the full quote is not given here because it reveals that this is talking of the real Scythians—who were in Central Asia (rather than Mesopotamia) in the 9^thcentury—and not the Assyrian-Scythians you claim they are.  

Even if this were talking of the Assyrians, Edwards says they moved into southern Russia, Ukraine and Germany. So, is southern Russia and Ukraine also descended from Assyria then? By your logic, all three of these regions are now modern-day Assyria.  

-     You then quote Pliny the Elder, who says: “The name ‘Scythian’ has extended, in every direction, even to the Sarmatae and the Germans…” 

So, by your own admission, the Scythians were clearly a conglomerate of a number of different peoples—all lumped together by historians. But somehow, out of all this, when some historian says Scythian and they happen to move into Europe, they must be the Assyrian-Scythians! Of course! There’s no other explanation. 

-    Then, under the subtitle “More Proof,” you quote Smith’s Dictionary of Biography, Mythology and Geography, “Germania”: “[T]here can be no doubt that they … migrated into Europe from the Caucasus and the countries around the Black and Caspian seas.”

Ah, here is the ellipsis again. What is being hidden here? Here is the full quote: “The Germans regarded themselves as indigenous in the country: but there can be no doubt that they were a branch of  the great Indo-Germanic race, who, along with the Celts,migrated into Europe from the Caucasus and the countries around the Black and Caspian seas…” (https://archive.org/details/b2178050x) 

Now, that is just ridiculous. What is removed from the quote is the most important part, because it shows that whoever the Indo-Germans were who moved (you clearly are saying it is Assyrians, but that is your assumption), they moved along with the Celts!  

There are only two explanations here. (1) You failed to check the original quote in Smith’s Dictionary, or (2) you checked the original and took out the information which would incriminate the quote. This is either ignorance or outright fraud.  

-     You then quote Jerome who talks about numerous tribes overrunning parts of Gaul. “Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni and … even Pannonians.” 

By this point, you’ve pretty much given up on trying to convince the reader that these are Assyrian. You just say that historians says these are Germanic tribes, and expect the reader to realize that in your mind, Germanic already means Assyrian. So there—proven!  

-    You then go on to write that “the Germans and Assyrians share the same physical features, the same warlike tendencies and even certain characteristics in art.”

This is almost laughable. I mean, really? The same physical characteristics? As in … light skinned? So, by that reasoning, all of Europe is also Assyria, and also Britain and America, oh, and Russia as well. As for their warlike characteristics, here is a real historian’s analysis:  

While the reputation for decisive, ruthless, military tactics is understandable, the comparison with the Nazi regime is less so. Unlike the Nazis, the Assyrians treated the conquered people they relocated well (as already addressed above) and considered them Assyrians once they had submitted to central authority. There was no concept of a 'master race' in Assyrian policies; everyone was considered an asset to the empire whether they were born Assyrian or were assimilated into the culture. Kriwaczek notes, “In truth, Assyrian warfare was no more savage than that of other contemporary states. Nor, indeed, were the Assyrians notably crueler than the Romans, who made a point of lining their roads with thousands of victims of crucifixion dying in agony.” (https://www.ancient.eu/assyria/) 

And then you go on to give approximately … no proof about them having “certain characteristics in art.” 

-     Finally, “the clincher,” as you say, is that no other country “could fulfill the prophecies of the Bible that pertain to Germany.”  

Do you give any reasoning for this? No. Just read our booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, which also assumes Assyria is Germany! You could prove literally anything with this circular reasoning.  

I wonder what the Assyrian Church of the East thinks about the fact that you believe they are so deceived that they do not even realize they are not in fact Assyrian! If they are not Assyrian, then what are they? This is never, ever addressed by anyone who claims that Germany is modern-day Assyria.  

You have two options. (1) Research this article again and provide proper reasoning and proof that Germany is modern-day Assyria. (2) Admit that this whole effort is a complete fabrication, and denounce the article you have written.  

I am confident that if you put any serious time and thought into this, you will choose option (2).