Another day in COGland and another prophet is whining. Not much new with that. Today's little rant is by our favorite self-appointed imposter of the improperly named "continuing" Church of "god".
Elijah Amos Bwana Bob Thiel is once again claiming that his message will soon be throttled by the government as it persecutes the "one true church." Once again he trots out the claim that he is the modern-day version of Amos. At this point in 2019, just exactly who is left from the Bible that all of these upstarts NOT claimed as their own?
Amos, an older contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah,[1] was active c. 750 BC during the reign of Jeroboam II,[1] (786–746 BC) making the Book of Amos the first biblical prophetic book written. Amos lived in the kingdom of Judah but preached in the northern kingdom of Israel. (Book of Amos. viewed 02/22/2014)
Before becoming a prophet, Amos was a sheep herder and a sycamore fig farmer. Amos’ prior professions and his claim “I am not a prophet nor a son of a prophet” (7:14) indicate that Amos was not from the school of prophets, which Amos claims makes him a true prophet (7:14). His prophetic career began in 750 BCE out of the town of Tekoa, in Judah, south of Jerusalem. (Amos the Prophet, viewed 02/22/2014)
It is interesting that he had to tell people that one becomes a true prophet in a manner that most did not expect. The Apostle Paul attempted to defend his apostleship in that same manner (2 Corinthians 11:5, 22-29)–and that was to people who were supposedly in the Church of God.Dagnabit! When will all of you Laodiceans learn just how special Bwana Amos Thiel is! He had dreams and was doubly blessed in an unconventional way, that no one expected!
Here we go again, its the "famine of the world." The Church of God's favorite mantra. This time there is an additional hidden meaning in what Amos wrote above. As a prophet of God, Amos had channeled through his brain a secret meaning for what "famine of the word" meant for those in the end times. Unfortunately, Amos just was not able to put the vision he had seen into words. He had been shown the INTERNET and how it would be used to spread the message of the Kingdom of God in the future and then how it would be used to inhibit the work of God going forth.One of the messages that Amos proclaimed is that the time would come when people would not be able to find the words of God:11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12)
What? You say? Amos believed that? Yes Sir Bob, he did! So says the modern day Amos!
I believe that the above warning is a reference to a coming internet censorship. And in the Continuing Church of God, we have already experienced some of this.
But the major fulfillment is likely to start just before the start of the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7), also called the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21).
Perhaps under the guise of “neutrality,” perhaps under the guise of “The Patriot Act,” perhaps under the guise of “public welfare,” perhaps because of alleged “intolerance,” calling parts of the COG message “hate speech” and/or national security threats/issues, something will be done to stop perhaps all of the organized media efforts to proclaim biblical truths. A short work will be done (Romans 9:27-28; see also Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word), which will trigger the end (Matthew 24:14), and likely then the famine of the word (Amos 8:11-12).Never has the Church of God had a more persecuted leader and group than the one Bawana Amos Thiel leads. Never have true Christian been persecuted so much as has the self-appointed prophet, Amos Thiel. and the improperly named "continuing" Church of "god".
Then to appeal to Church of God members, Amos Thiel tosses in some British Israelism for the final touch.
Amos is giving a warning to those called by Jacob’s name (which was also Israel), whom according to Jacob himself, would seem to be a reference to the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48:16). In modern times, this would be the Anglo-Saxon nations such as Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, and also the United States of America. The reference to trusting Mt. Samaria in Amos 6:1 could be a reference to trusting the USA to defend in the end. That will not end well for the USA or its allies of the Anglo-Saxon nations.
Of course, few in those nations believe that they will be taken over and have such calamity. But that will come to pass. Most would not listen to Amos then, and most, sadly, will not listen to Amos now.
you had better start paying Prophet Amos Thiel his proper respect!
Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
ReplyDelete:12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
Amos Thiel gives us his thoughts on the above verses by writing the following:
"...I believe that the above warning is a reference to a coming internet censorship. And in the Continuing Church of God, we have already experienced some of this.
But the major fulfillment is likely to start...Perhaps under the guise of “neutrality,” perhaps under the guise of “The Patriot Act,” perhaps under the guise of “public welfare,” perhaps because of alleged “intolerance,”..."
Well, that time cannot be today b/c "the word of the LORD" in printed form is easily found worldwide.
At some point isn't the Bride, God's Church, PERHAPS supposed to be with the Groom, Jesus Christ, and isn't Jesus Christ to return to reign on earth until His Father subdues all enemies: the last enemy being death? And Satan comes out of some pit at the end of a 1,000 years.
Is Bobby Amos Thiel PERHAPS still looking forward to PERHAPS 10 kings/nations to exist and his PERHAPS Mickey Mouse Millennium (MMM) of 1,000 years of Jesus Christ reigning on earth?
PERHAPS (a favorite word of Bobby Amos Thiel?) Bobby Amos may want to consider, if PERHAPS in reality Jesus Christ were not on earth during his MMM, that that 1,000 year period of time PERHAPS may be an excellent time to have a famine "of hearing the words of the LORD?"
It's not happening today, and it won't happen when God's Kingdom is established on earth in the future.
PERHAPS Bobby Amos Thiel will think about that some more.
And time will tell...
John
Bob indeed is like Amos the Prophet. Lacking self awareness and hearing the voice of God in his head and dreams. Very typical of a less conscious time in human history where people heard the voice of the gods and the king having less personal self awareness. God is everything and common sense or being in tune with the times and increase in knowledge, which is not a bad thing, escapes the "Bicameral" mind as defined by Julian Jaynes in "The Origin of Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-personality-analyst/200905/was-personality-550-bce-different-our-own
"According to many scholars of the era, before about 550 BCE, human personality was different than it is now. The conscious, aware, self was simply a different and more limited entity. It was not until the Axial Age that reflective self-awareness, reflective consciousness, and a modern sense of identity emerged.
Three differences in particular separated the pre-Axial from contemporary personality.
The first difference was in how people perceived their thoughts. Pre-Axial peoples often attributed their ideas and motives as coming from outside themselves, from other people, from nature, or emanating from Gods.
Secondly, Pre-Axial peoples were almost exclusively aware of the outside world of the land, people, things, and the gods they perceived around them. They tended to ignore their inner ideas and feelings almost entirely. Their psychological thought processes remained mostly unexplored territory. One exception: under some life-threatening circumstances, their attention could be captured by extreme feelings of fear and terror.
Third, for a pre-Axial person, identity was limited to one's name, parentage, occupation, and personal life history. By contrast, for most of us today, our identities include also a sense of our thoughts, beliefs, goals, and moral characteristics.
Many pre-Axial written works (e.g., before about 550 BCE) though richly detailed, lack introspective, reflective words, descriptions or accounts. I.E The Illiad versus the Odyssey. One also sees this typical lack of a self as compared to one who just obeys the voices in their heads (Abraham, Moses etc) rather than act on their own logic and self aware reasoning. (Saul, for example, was much more aware of himself and acted accordingly much to the bicameral prophet's dismay.
From one perspective, Amos exhibits the many qualities of pre-Axial human beings. When he hears voices he obeys. He responds with little or no internal awareness, and he possesses little or no identity beyond a name, life history, and occupation.
…
'''Yet Amos' apparent lack of awareness is similar to the descriptions others of the pre-Axial period have provided of their own and others' acts.
Dennis-- Me thinks that Thiel needs some "AXIAL GREESE"! :-)
ReplyDeleteI am still reading the book by Jaynes - I read about 10 books at a time so it takes me a while
ReplyDeleteThe WCG and many of the splinters taught/teach that the fulfillment of the famine of the word of God would happen when the Church departed for the place of safety. Bob Thiel like many of the others believe that they and only they are the arbiter of the word of the Lord. That Bob feels like he already is suffering from suppression is nothing but vanity.
ReplyDeleteSince this prophecy is specific to the "hearing" of the word of God, the ownership of bibles or CDs or downloads of the bible could not be equated to what this prophecy is talking about.
Bob Thiel once again, for the umpteenth time, has to write or interject something to try and legitimatize himself as actually being a prophet. This time he makes the statement: "It is interesting that he had to tell people that one becomes a true prophet in a manner that most did not expect". While this statement could be absolutely true, does it support Bob Thiel's belief that he is a legitimate prophet?
A couple of questions for Mr. Thiel to consider concerning his self perceived office and how it relates to the prophecy in Amos. Question one would be: why would God raise up a prophet and have just proclaim month after month and year after year about WHY he is a true prophet? Question number two would be: why would God raise up a prophet and then not have him prophesy about anything month after month and year after year? Question number three would be: why would God raise up a prophet and almost the whole world has never heard about or from him for how many years?
Question number four would now be about how the prophecy in Amos could apply to prophet Bob Thiel. Number four: Why would God raise up an end time prophet to only proclaim what prophets of old time already proclaimed? Question number five: Why would God raise up one end time prophet to prophesy about nothing new and only repeat what has already been said for many thousands of years and allow that message to be suppressed and think that a world loaded with bibles in many forms would run to and fro looking for it?
It is obvious that Amos 8:11-12 is a reference to a future event involving a true prophet with a NEW message from God who delivers that word to a great audience and then departs. As that message comes to pass upon that generation, they will go looking, wandering far and wide to find out what comes next.
Commenter John at 6:22 said it all to you Mr Thiel. Perhaps doesn't cut it for a prophet. the whole world isn't going to go to and fro and wander far to hear the next words from Prophet Perhaps!
The only thing worse than being Amos is not being Amos. Or being Flurry.
ReplyDeleteTonto said...
ReplyDeleteDennis-- Me thinks that Thiel needs some "AXIAL GREESE"! :-)
LOL, Probably too late. He has lost his bearings!
"Most would not listen to Amos then, and most, sadly, will not listen to Amos now."
ReplyDeleteWe are all guilty of that. So is he. In spades. It's called confirmation bias. The ACoGs are some of the worst offenders. They restrict their people to their own religious literature. As I recall, Dave Pack even put people out for getting into conspiracy theories. Well, Pack has his own conspiracy theories about Germany. Some media have conspiracy theories that Iran is making nuclear weapons even though the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) have inspected them for over a decade and declared them free of any nuclear weapons program. The news is a farce but Bob and Pack don't get it. They try to make their prophecy fit the news. Some conspiracy theories are true, some are not. Theirs are not. To support one conspiracy theory or another, often information control is used. Alternative views are suppressed by banning them, ignoring them, or creating a taboo against them. That's how FALSE conspiracy theories are promulgated and TRUE conspiracy "theories" (or just the facts) are suppressed. Sadly, the whole world is brainwashed.
Amos was shut down as far as speaking to the authorities, so he wrote instead.
ReplyDeleteMost of Israel and Judah were illiterate, so it goes without saying that only a very few "listened" to Amos' words. In fact, many historians believe Amos was the first book of the Bible to be written, centuries before the post-exilic Hebrews retconned their old histories into the Torah and other books we have today.
Fortunately, we don't need to get hung up as to whether or not Amos possibly prophesied the possible prophet Bob. Bob can point to Mayan and Catholic prophecies, and to members' dreams, if those will convince you to join with him in sending your tithes so he can furnish his African ministers with laptop computers and other tools to help them make connections with and get money from other generous American churches.
Now that Bob is a prophet, Gerald Flurry will claim to be Bob.
ReplyDelete"Very typical of a less conscious time in human history where people heard the voice of the gods..."
ReplyDeleteDon't be silly, Dennis. All the same phenomena that occurred in ancient times still occurs today. The only thing different is the socio-cultural interpretation of the phenomena. That and modern medicine.
Today when people hear the voice of the gods, we just give them lithium, which must be like kryptonite for the gods, because it makes them stfu and stop bothering us. A little bit like the iron chariots that also rendered Yahweh so impotent back in the day (Judges 1:19).
I wonder if the iron chariots we call "automobiles" still render him as weak today?
About 80% of textual scholars have apparently concluded that 1 & 2 Timothy are pseudepigraphical, but if by any chance 2 Timothy 3:16 is right, and Judges 1:19 was divinely inspired, and the bible is Yahweh's autobiography, he wants to think of him as soooo powerful and almighty, then I guess he also wanted us to know some pretty embarrassing episodes about him as well. Much of the book of Numbers, which chronicles the Hebrew god's temper tantrums would fall into that category as well. Oh my gods, grow up Yahweh!
Some people are irreparably brainwashed. It seems that bob will go to the grave that way.
ReplyDeleteMost would not listen to Amos then, and most, sadly, will not listen to Amos now.
ReplyDeleteAmos to Bob: So you think you're better than me?
Some people are irreparably brainwashed. It seems that bob will go to the grave that way.
ReplyDeleteMany older ACOG members are no longer brainwashed, but they keep their disappointment mostly to themselves so they can retain a lifetime of social connections and don't go through the trauma experienced by people like Dennis. This is even true of some higher-up ministers in the splinters.
Imagine being Bob. He already thinks very highly of himself, and fits perfectly the profile of so many WCG members who saw HWA as a father-figure and benevolent authority over their lives. Many of these members had little use (and not much respect) for the ministerial hierarchy between them and HWA. They were in WCG to support God's apostle, not to kowtow to ministers who had much less financial success than a businessman like Bob. Once HWA was out of the picture and his organization repudiated his teachings, these members had a problem. Should they admit that they had wasted 20 or 30 years in a cult, supporting a fraud as their leader? Or were they too proud to admit that they had been duped?
Rod Meredith was deeply disappointed by the quality of members who went with Global. He had envisioned himself as the leader of the wealthy and intellectual folks who ended up with Hulme, or at least the "nice" people who went with UCG. In Global, he was always a little uncomfortable around the salt-of-the-earth people who didn't have much money but had a lot of faith in HWA's teachings. That's why Meredith liked to surround himself with the relatively few wealthier members, like Bob, and why he flattered them so shamelessly. Most eventually saw through the flattery, but Bob was just narcissistic enough, just gullible enough. Instead of having to admit that HWA and RCM had duped him, he decided that he was as important as HWA and RCM.
By now, Bob has invested so much in his new church that he can no longer point the finger at others to blame for his brainwashing. At this point, if Bob ever realizes that God isn't behind him, he's sadly likely to take the Terry Ratzmann or Philip Apartian route. We can only pray for the latter, rather than the former, so he doesn't take anyone else with him.
5:47
ReplyDeleteExcellent analysis. You know what you are speaking about. I did skip the things you said about bob though. I do not consider him as significant and wouldn't know who he was if not for this blog.
Nck
Ps I do understand this blogs concern for african people and admit having read cog blog early 21st century. But thought bob to be just another blogger at the time
Dennis 7:18
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the technical nature of this blog does not allow for nuggets like your "axial" comment to remain easy to find.
This blogs tech specs are more Budhist in nature in the sense that all is temporary.
I do empathize with your point since I an regularly immersed by the greatest of art produced, but is not signed by the author for that would have been improper to the God it was dedicated to.
Nck
Bob has invested so much in his new church
ReplyDeleteYes, I feel he has no choice but to plow ahead. He will probably do anything to keep from folding, either from financial loss or self-realization, and merging with a larger or smaller splinter is also unlikely.
Can you imagine if this arrogant little pipsqueaks church votes to merge with LCG! I would laugh my ass off!
ReplyDeleteHoss, the whole point of Bob's church is that Bob thinks he's special. He would only "merge" with other churches that recognize him as a prophet. That means there won't be any mergers. Individual members will simply drift away. What's hilarious is that there are already a couple of men in second-tier "leadership" roles in Bob's church who show signs of believing that THEY are the special one. What will happen when one of these men tries with Bob what Bob tried with Rod Meredith?
ReplyDeleteAnon 415 already a couple of men...
ReplyDeleteAccording to an article in Ambassador Report RCM considered the Global/LCG membership to be "the cream of the crud". But yes, there are a few men of potential in Bob's church.
While Bob's specialty is the HWA BI slant of prophecy, and definitely extra-Biblical prophecy, he lacks in other areas. Suffering from "new manager syndrome" - trying to do too much himself - is a challenge, in that he needs to effectively delegate more. An there lies the risk of losing control to empowered members. When it comes to tightly holding the reins, Bob is definitely no HWA...