Fake COG Prophet Publishes 8 Points On Why He Is The Best COG Ever To Exist

One thing the Church of God lacked in so many of its leaders were ministers with a sense of humor.  Many were so tightly wound up that you wonder how they ever went to the bathroom.  Occasionally we heard sermons injected with humor which was a fresh twist over the constipated Debbie-downer sermons we were subjected to most times.

Those days are now over!  Praise God and pass the offering plate, Bwana Bob Thiel is here to entertain us with the best list of proofs on why he has the most superfantabulous church in the 21st century. Dave Pack was seen whimpering, yet again, in his formal gardens over this humiliating situation.

God's most favorite end-time church leader is so superfantabulous that God had to doubly bless him and send him into several dream states where his mind regurgitated one of the silliest COG claims ever!

The Great Bwana has published a hilarious list of pointa as to why his personality cult is different than all of the other COG's.

Apparently, one of his potential converts had been church hopping through various Churches of God due to the fact she cannot make a decision on her own as to who might be doing what is right.  As usual, she needs someone to tell her how to believe.

Bwana Bob writes:

• Someone who attended with RCG, then CGG, and also LCG telephoned me and asked me how CCOG differed from the other COGs.

Bwana Bob then drew up a list, and then was so insecure in what he wrote that he had to consult with his 2 ministers in Europe and a few of those in Africa.

• After telling her several reasons, I put together a list and had it reviewed by CCOG ministers in Europe and Africa. Here is a partial list:

Get your popcorn ready and a beer for the entertainment that is to come.

• We are more biblically-focused. Our sermons tend to contain more scriptures than others–enough so that our English online sermons have truly helped fulfill Matthew 28:19-20–we have taught all that the New Testament records that Jesus taught (proof can be seen in a sermon listing of the Gospels, etc. with links at COGWriter.com).

Seriously?  Just because someone spouts hundreds of scriptures in a sermon that covers 30-40 different topics does NOT prove Bwana is more biblically focused!  Nor, does have a huge list of sermons on the Gospels instead of what they actually profess, still does not make one's cult as biblically focused.

• We also read the entire ‘book of the law’ every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles as instructed in Deuteronomy 31:10-13We also read the entire ‘book of the law’ every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Well, whoop-dee-do! During Herbert Armstong's reign, we had to hand-write out the entire book.  Other COG splinter groups, like the legalistic Pharisee James Malm do the exact same thing.

Those that seem to have turned their backs on Jesus feel the need to place the emphasis on the law nowadays.

• We have more information in more languages in order to fulfill the commissions of Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19-20 to reach the world with the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and other teachings.

Bwana Bob, like most of the other self-appointed COG guru's, has no gospel message that humanity needs to hear.  When the crap that he fosters off as gospel is so totally devoid of anything that centers upon Jesus, there is no gospel message worthwhile.

• Many teachings are restored in more detail. 

Considering NOTHING was ever lost, to begin with, there are no teachings than have been revealed other than extra-biblical crap that no one needs to worry about.

• We were the first group in the 21st century to boldly, and more accurately, teach why God made anything including humans. Which is: God made what He did so that eternity would be better and that God made humans so each who ultimately accept Him, in their own way, will help make eternity better (it is not clear if the other COG’s teach this yet).

Well of course none of them teach this because it is not true.

• We post more accurate information online on prophecy and world events (for example, which shows we are serious about Jesus’ admonition to watch (Mark 13:37) and warn.

Never has the Church of God seen a bigger liar than we have in Bwana Bob.  Form his self-appointment and the lies about his double blessing to how moronic prophecy predictions, it has been a train wreck from the start.

Bwana Bob is so in tune with his god that he is INCAPABLE of having prophetic errors!  That statement alone makes him a liar.

• We do not have the prophetic errors that many teach, which (unless they change) will prevent them from knowing when the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21) will start until it is basically too late.

Bwana Bob claims to be the fastest growing COG out there.  He has less than a hundred followers in all the English speaking countries of the entire world, while most of his "converts" are professional Sabbatarian church hoppers who are constantly searching for the next convenient white savior to give them more laptops and money.  Besides, there is another Church of God who claims to add way more African members that Bwana Bob does.  Sadly, this is another idiotic splinter cult of Armstrongism run by deranged Wade Cox.

• We are the fastest growing xWCG church in the 21st century.

Bwana Bob still is trying to "prove" he is legitimate because had some dreams after a night of eating bad sushi.  He believes that just because some mentally disturbed woman in the Southern Hemisphere dreamed a dream about Bwana Bob that this also legitimizes him.  Of course, he tries to lend credibility to the dreams by claiming Loma did the same thing when she dreamed up the Church of God.

Because of that, Bwana Bob's personalty cult is the ONLY true Philadelphia splinter group out there today.

• Like the start of the Philadelphian era was preceded by a dream from God given to a woman, the official 21st century start of the remnant of that era was also preceded by a dream from God given to a woman–furthermore several associated with CCOG have had confirmed dreams. We are not just one of scores of COG groups, but the only international Philadelphian organization and the leader of the Philadelphian remnant that God is using to go through doors He opens (Revelation 3:7-8) for the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14, Romans 11:25, etc. in the final phase of the work.

If Herbert Armstrong were alive today, Bwana Bob's ass would be kicked out the door so fast that his head would spin.  The boot imprint would be permanent!

Gerald Weston Continues His Debbie-Downer Singsong

Where would the Church of God be today without all of the miserable leaders who have to continually find something wrong with the world around them?  Beauty and awesome things surround them and all they can see is death and damnation.  

These kinds of men thrive well in the COG culture which looks with eager anticipation on seeing all their enemies and detractors destroyed so that they and they alone can enjoy Petra as they prepare to be "gods" in the sad little world they see coming.  So many of these church leaders take great delight in their graphic depictions of the death and destruction they want to see reign down from heaven above.

Whether it is Bwana Bob and his endless tales of Catholic/Mayan nonsense or the legalistic grace killing bullshit of James Malm, the craziness knows no end to the fantasies they dream up.

Living Church of God's "my god is going to SPANK the world" Roderick C. Meredith was the king of the bully pulpit in the COG.  Never have we seen a man who was so giddy at seeing humanity destroyed than we saw in Meredith.  From parents eating their children to women being raped and hung up on meat hooks, to Germans bashing babies heads against the ground, the death and destruction flowed forth in an almost orgasmic state of ecstasy from his lips. Meredith's eyes would glaze over as he pounded the podium and shouted his end-time blasphemies.  The more bloody and graphic he could get the more turned on he got.

Today in 2019, that legacy carries on in Living Church of God with Gerald Weston.  Gerald is the "Debbie-downer" of the Church of God.  Everything in his world is awful and evil and filled with more sex than Hugh Hefner ever experienced!

In the latest issue (July/August) of the Tomorrow's World, Weston has an article up titled: 

"THEN COMES SUDDEN DESTRUCTION"

You wont find any rainbows and cotton candy here, just Brexit, angry Germans, and angry Beast, and the world order collapsing.

The world order as we have known it for the last 75 years is breaking down. Consider the British exit from the European Union, a body already in crisis economically and politically. Right-wing groups are rising in Hungary, Poland, and Italy. The U.S. is pressuring Germany and Europe to increase their military spending—something that did not work out very well for the world the last two times it happened. The right-wing nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now the third-largest political party in Germany. Nations are turning inward, and this trend is no longer on the fringe, but is becoming mainstream. Where is it leading?

The Bible foretells of a resurrected “beast” power that will rise in Europe. (For more on this, read our booklet The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor, or Soon-Coming Reality?) The end of this age will come suddenly and (for most) unexpectedly, yet those who are watching will not be caught unaware (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4). Our world is going morally and financially bankrupt “gradually”—the “suddenly” will soon follow. How many of us will recall the experience of the 1930s generation? Historian Kagan observed (as I quoted in the previous issue of this magazine), “They learned, and we have now forgotten, that when things start to go wrong, they can go very wrong very quickly, that once a world order breaks down, the worst qualities of humanity emerge from under the rocks and run wild” (p. 24).

Living Church of God is morally and financially bankrupt in their fake "christian" actions. The corruption spread from Worldwide Church of God through Meredith, Davis, Ames, and others as they jumped ship into Global and later into Living Church of God. The moral cesspool of Armstrongism that still exists in LCG. UCG. CCOG, RCG, PCG, COGWA, and Malmism, put the things going wrong in the world to shame.

These men whine and bellyache on why their message no longer attracts people. The more they are ignored the more angry and bitter they become.

They are so miserable in this life that they can fidn no joy. Can you image spending 3 1/2 years in Petra with these yokels?  Or even worse, an eternity in the kingdom as they play gods!

The hot licking flames of the lake of fire sound better!

Herbert W Armstrong: What Did He Do... (part 2)

What Did He Do... (part 2)

When talking about my cult upbringing, people sometimes ask me what I would say to Herbert W. Armstrong if I were able to travel back in time and meet him. (He died in 1986 when I was 13)

My answer is always the same.

I would grab him by the lapels of his $2000 suit coat and shout in his face as loudly as I possibly could, “YOU STOLE MY POTENTIAL AND MADE ME AFRAID OF MY OWN FAMILY, ASSHOLE!” And then, depending on my ability to restrain myself, I might then, possibly, spit in his face.

But here’s the real kicker of the whole scenario… I don’t think that he would have had much of a reaction to our confrontation.

After all, we are talking about someone who, when confronted with accusations about his incestuous acts on his youngest daughter, never once denied them and is said to have even admitted abusing her to several people. (Source links available upon request)

The incest allegations notwithstanding, you can’t really call Herbert a “monster.” Looking at other cult leaders like Jim Jones, L. Ron Hubbard, and David Koresh, Herbert Armstrong looks almost harmless. So, really, what did he do that was so bad? I mean, after all, didn’t his organization donate money and labor to truly worthy causes all over the world? Didn’t his teachings promote things like eating healthy diets and strengthening the nuclear family? Who could have a problem with a guy like that?

Well, when you look at the backgrounds and behaviors of notorious cult leaders, a commonality becomes apparent. Those people share the distinction of recognizable acute mental illness. Herbert wasn’t diabolical or sadistic, he was just a charismatic and selfish (and/or greedy) narcissist. And that was the secret to his success and longevity. “Crazy” cult leaders burn themselves out (sometimes literally), but a “Con Man” cult leader can live to the ripe old age of 93 and die surrounded by millions of dollars’ worth of golden finery and his very own private jet.

Now let’s look at what he left behind besides the $80,000 golden chalices and a stack of writings, that if laid out page by page, end to end, could reach beyond the moon.

He left millions of isolated, confused, and fearful people with little or no financial stability or plans for the future aside from going to “the Place of Safety” in order to hide from “the Great Tribulation” (aka “Armageddon”). Each of those people had been encouraged to cut ties with their “unconverted” family members and friends. They lived in a world where their only real support structure was The Worldwide Church of God and the followers of the teachings of Armstrongism.

Even though “the church” was VERY big on family, it had an ability to destroy families that statistically rivaled substance abuse and infidelity. A bizarre doctrine known to Armstrongers as “D and R” (Divorce and Remarriage) was arguably one of the worst offenses that the church ever committed.

It was a position that made, at least a little bit of sense, on paper.

If a man and woman made an oath before God to belong only to each other until separated by death, then they should be held to those terms. So, if a woman divorced her abusive husband and then years later married another man who treated her with nothing but love and respect, their otherwise legal marriage could be ruled invalid by the Worldwide Church of God, and the couple would have to separate if they wanted to escape the horrors of “the End Times.” It was not uncommon for children to have loving and safe two-parent homes ripped apart because of the ill-informed judgments of a man and his ministers.

And then you have families like mine.

Now, I’m not naïve to think that were it not for my mother’s indoctrination into the WCG that my parents would have remained happily married. The most likely would have divorced at some point anyway. All of my parent’s siblings divorced at least once, so I’m sure my mother and father would have split up as well. But WCG doctrine made the idea of her ever getting remarried iffy at best. Moreover, my actual father was considered “spiritually dead” and despised by God for rejecting Armstrong’s “true gospel” teachings when they were shared with him. (More on that in a page or so)

Now add to the surgically precise and sterile removal of my father’s influence (or any hope for a future step father to take his place) from my life, the endless preaching that my unconverted family members were, at their core, people who hated the “truth” about God’s Plan and would constantly be inspired by demons to pull me away from God’s divine protection so that I would fight for the side of Satan.

For reference, think of the movie, The Matrix. When you were in the matrix, each and every person you encountered, who wasn’t a part of Morpheus’ group, could at any moment turn into an Agent and kill you. According to the cult of Armstrong, any person who wasn’t under God’s protection could conceivably be a demon (or under a demon’s control) and actively seeking to pull you away from God’s protection.

Now let’s follow that to the logical conclusion that myself and many other children raised in this belief structure came to.

Your unconverted family members, school mates, and basically anyone you don’t go to church with (and possibly some of the one’s you do go to church with) might be a demon intent on tempting you to do something that would make God mad enough to exclude you from being among the protected.

But then it gets worse.

You see, in Armstrongist belief, the people who never knew the truth will eventually be instructed by God’s chosen people on the true purpose and plan that God has for them. It’s fine just as long as you never knew that you about the rules you were breaking. HOWEVER, if you had been shown the truth and then rejected it, well….

All I can say is that it sucks to be you.

The good news is that you aren’t going to hell - because there is no hell. The bad news is that there is a “Lake of Fire” (no, it’s not like the one in the Meat Puppets song) and you’ve got a one-way ticket straight in.

No written warning, no second chances.

You’ve got to get it right the first time or God will judge you to be as evil as the demons who lead you astray.

Let me make this crystal clear for you.

Adolf Hitler gets a second chance because (presumably) was never able to receive Herbert Armstrong’s broadcasts or publications. God is going to show him mercy.

Me, on the other hand, I’m beyond forgiveness. I had the ultimate blessing of being born into God’s true church. I was given unlimited access to information about God’s true plan. I lived among God’s chosen people. I “kept” (observed) God’s true holy days and followed his laws and commands – and then I rejected all of it (for several reasons I will go into later in another post) and walked away forever.

So let’s recap.

Family is super duper important to God, but some people aren't allowed to have one because that would break God's rules.

My entire family, aside from my mom and my sister, everyone at my school, and basically anyone I meet who isn’t a cult member is potentially a demon with the intent of making me a servant of the Prince of Darkness.

Adolf Hitler gets a mulligan and a private tutor from among God’s chosen faithful servants, but if I leave the cult, I am damned to burn because (unless, of course I change my mind and return to the cult BEFORE the Great Tribulation starts).


This seems like a good place to pause until next time.

I will be glad to answer any questions or address any comments you'd like to share below.

Or you can email me at Ripley@ripleyjohnson.com


RJ

See Part 1 here:  "What Did He Do That Was So Wrong?" (Part One)

Deep Time--And Why Understanding It Would Have Mattered

One of the erroneous concepts given me as a child and then as a naïve young man all caught up in the Worldwide Church of God's "Whale of a Tale" and "A Theory for the Birds" and  concerned more about all things pertaining to the message of the Bible and the consequences for not understanding it and then believing it all,  was the concept of Deep Time.  

Deep Time in my hand: 12 million year old Megaladon Tooth. 14.5 Billion year old Iron Meteorite and thousands of years old stone tools I found in the Willamette River in Oregon just last year.

Planted firmly in my head was the idea that it all began with two people called Adam and Eve, perhaps thousands of years ago, but only thousands and progressed through the lives of a Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob sometime back in time since then, Major Prophets in the 6th Century BCE transitioning into the life of Jesus in the 1st Century CE, various Apostles, who knew everything,  and then leading up to now over the past 2000 years since.  That was it. That's all of history and certainly all I ever needed to know or care about.  

Astronomically, the Milky Way was the entire Universe up until the 1930's when it no longer was and every lifeform on the planet was an original creation and looked just like those named by Adam in the Garden of Eden, as noted, just a few thousand years back in time.

We, as humans, were the focus, center and reason for it all and that "soon" it would all change for us either by going to Heaven (Or God forbid, HELL) or as I was convinced as a teen, culminate in the Wonderful World Tomorrow and hopefully not annihilation in a Lake of Fire for not getting it. 

Hmmm....

It took way too long to appreciate the reality of deep time and all that had really transpired in all that over that deep time would lead to "our time".  

Over that deep time there have been, so far discovered, 5 mass extinction events of most of the previous life on the planet over the past 3.8 billion years, though our minds don't do well with the word "billion". These life forms will never again present themselves to tell their story except in their fossilzed remains and humans will make careers finding and placing correctly in deep time. This also applies to the real origins of the human species and "US". 

Two personal favorites: 400+ Million Year Old Trilobites
Science notes we are most likely in the Sixth Mass Extinction event now with climate change and the stress human progress and population have put on the planet. 

So what? What does any of this have to do with Banned HWA and the processing of the WCG experience that it serves?  Because, to me and in my own life, the not so deep time perspective of the Bible kept me off course in that which perhaps I should more have done with my life personally.  I and it kept me from following my real curiosities about it all. I was too easily satisfied with the myths and tales woven by people I never met and who's world view was not one that most would take seriously today. Except I did until I couldn't any longer.  

Since time was short in the 1960's and it was all going to end, my budding interests in dinosaurs, fossils and all that I would later come to understand as Paleontology, mattered not a bit. Having grown up very conservatively Dutch Reformed Calvinist, I was already blind to the concept that there was more, much more to life and the history of it all.  The lenses and filters I viewed everything with and through was "Bible Time", which is a very limited view of all that actually was the real history of our planet and life on it including ourselves.

It is too late for me to follow my bliss as they say. I will never be the Paleontologist I now know lay just under the surface of my young life. Whether I "wasted" my life in becoming versed in the story of Bugs Bunny, which I might as well have studied, or not depends on how I view it. I learned a lot and sometimes learning what you don't believe is just as helpful as what you do now believe with more evidence and based on less faith in the unbelievable. 

But perhaps just one young person, male or female, might catch their own vision of wanting to do what they actually love and not be sidetracked by the pettiness and limited views of those piously convicted but marginally informed as I was when younger. 

Having been a pastor for over 1/3 of what I suspect my lifetime to be, I get to share here my experience and conclusions just as all other do. Just because they don't lead me into another splinter of WCG or back full circle to my Presbyterian Dutch Reformed Roots, as it did my parents who were both Elder and Deaconess in WCG, My sister and son now somewhat Evangelical with another in Catholic mode, does not mean I have no right to share my own experience and conclusions.  

It may not help most No doubt it will piss off a few here that I no longer see as they see or am as they are,  but it might help one follow their passion for learning instead of getting stuck in the Bronze and Iron Age views of others real or imagined. 

How long is deep time?

Deep Time is the term used by scientists to describe the vast amount of time that has passed since the formation of the universe.  It is an amazing.. 13,820,000,000 years long For many of us we can almost remember back to our early childhood and maybe can comprehend the lifespan of our parents and grandparents.

The Wonder of it all...

Whale Evolution: It's No Mystery

Victims of Kevin Owen Dean Encouraged to Contact US Marshal's Office

He is guilty of molesting a raping many, many young girls at the Y.O.U camp in ORR, Minnesota where he essentially an "all action pass". Anyone who he abused should get into contact with the US Marshall's office. We need to fight these pedophiles you prey on and ruin young girl's lives. 

He molested me at 14, raped my sister at 16 and had an ongoing "relationship" with my other sister for years- starting when she was about 15. She had Stockholm syndrome and "fell in love with him". He impregnated her at age 16 and made her get an abortion. 

I have reached out to the US Marshall's office. 

He needs to pay for his crimes.

LCG Men To Be Taught How to Be More of a Man's Man

Proper masculinity has always been the obsessive topic of Rod Meredith and the Living Church of God. The men of the church never seem to be masculine enough for the current administrations.  They need to constantly be reeducated yearly on how to be a man's man.

Apparently, the current state of affairs in LCG and the madness that abounds in the church is leading to this decision to reeducation the men on how to be more manly men and heads of their households.

Introductory Session: 

“Men, Masculinity, and Madness: The Current State of Affairs”

No other Church of God could have picked a more appropriately named site to hold this mini-conference than LCG.

Blowing Rock Conference Center in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. 

Calling all men! If you’d like to spend a weekend learning more about God’s way of life and building bonds of brotherhood with your fellow men from around the country, then register now for the Men’s Training Camp in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. The Men’s Training Camp will begin on the evening of Friday, August 23, and conclude at noon on Sunday, August 25. Men from the age of 16 through 100 are welcome (in fact, we’d even welcome you if you are over 100)!

Genetics, Racial Intermarriage and Armstrongism

Genetics, Racial Intermarriage and Armstrongism 

Back in the Seventies, an Ambassador College Pasadena graduate showed me some notes he made in one of his classes. The topic was preparation for marriage and the notes he showed me dealt with racial intermarriage in particular. The policy as he wrote it was that anyone who was one-eighth Hamitic or more could not marry into the White (Shemite) race. And anyone who was one-quarter Japhetic or more could not marry into the White race. It now strikes me as remarkable that such imprecise terms as “Hamitic” and “Japhetic”, when applied to modern racial categories, would be used in the formulation of policy that would affect people’s lives. It was also revealing that the policy was formulated to protect the White race from “contamination” by gene flow from other racial branches. 

The Biblical Condemnation of Intermarriage 

The Bible does condemn a certain type of intermarriage. When Israel invaded Palestine, they were told not to marry into the tribes that occupied the land before them (Deut. 7:3). In Ezra 9 and 10, we find a condemnation of the Jews for intermarrying with these same Canaanite tribes. The book of Nehemiah recounts that Nehemiah confronted Jews with rants and violence for having intermarried with these people. According to the Biblical account, the issue for Ezra and Nehemiah was the detestable practices of these people foreign to Israel. Did this instruction also entail race? This will be examined in the next section. 

The Pivotal Role of Canaan for Armstrongism 

Dr. Charles V. Dorothy gave a sermon in the Field House on the Big Sandy campus back in the Seventies that spoke to this topic. He went over the account of Rahab the Harlot and as a sidebar identified Rahab as a Canaanite. He further described Rahab as a “beautiful Mulatto.” Herman Hoeh had already established for the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) that the Blacks of West Africa were the descendants of Canaan. The electrifying problem for the WCG was that Dorothy’s statement meant that a Black woman was in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. This was not something left to deduction. Dorothy emphasized this conclusion in his sermon and castigated the White people in the audience for being so shocked by this fact. Several years later, in a WCG publication entitled Tomorrow’s World, Kenneth Herrmann returned Rahab to an acceptable racial status and rescued the heredity of Christ. Herrmann in an article about Rahab described her, without citing historical support, as a Moabite – no doubt to a palpable sense of relief for some in the WCG. 

The Biblical accounts of Ezra and Nehemiah do not call out race as a concern. Herman Hoeh imposed race on these post-exilic Biblical events by proclaiming the Canaanites of Palestine to be Black Africans. From this seed flowered the broad racial policies of the WCG. Hoeh’s catalog of racial identifications and affinities served as the foundation within the WCG for the administration of racial policy pertaining to marriage. In the case of Canaan, this supposition also conveniently dispelled, as a bonus effect, the guilt that the United States, particularly the southern States, should rightly have for the heinous sin of state condoned, commercial slavery. This was because a curse of servitude was placed on Canaan in Genesis. I have never seen Hoeh’s detailed work for supporting his various racial identifications. His articles on this topic are more like declarations rather than carefully vetted analyses. It is a mystery whether Hoeh documented the further and necessary details to support his views for WCG internal use. 

The tragic error in this odd chain of events is that the ancient Canaanites were not Black Africans. Dr. Spencer Wells (geneticist, anthropologist) in a National Geographic television documentary explained that his research indicated that there is genetic continuity between the ancient Canaanites, the Phoenicians and the modern Lebanese people (see PBS video The Quest for the Phoenicians). Brody and King pointed out that studies support the idea that the “genetic affinities of the Jewish populations with Druze and Lebanese may reflect a common Canaanite substrate (Aron Brody and Roy King, Genetics and the Archaeology of Ancient Israel). We also have: “Levantine Semites — Lebanese, Jews, Palestinians, and Syrians — are thought to be the closest surviving relatives of the ancient Phoenicians, with as much as 90% genetic similarity between modern Lebanese and Bronze Age Sidonians” (see Wikipedia article on “Phoenicians” for cited sources.) Finally, Jews and Lebanese are both Y-haplogroup J with some inclusions in their modern populations. 

Conclusions 

These conclusions were developed using an exegetical model augmented by genetic findings. 

1. The ancient Canaanites, and their modern-day descendants the Lebanese, are very closely related to the Jews. (Note that the Lebanese may not look like American Jews who are typically Ashkenazi in origin. The Ashkenazi Jews are 30% to 60% European. A better visual comparison would be the Mizrahi Jews of Palestine.). 

2. If you want to view a Canaanite or Phoenician, have a look at photos of the Lebanese people. You will see they are not Black Africans. Then compare photos of the Lebanese to representations of ancient Canaanites from archaeological research. These people, ancient and modern, are incontrovertibly Middle Eastern. 

 Y-haplogroup E

3. Black Africans are generally Y-haplogroup E and Lebanese are Y-haplogroup J. As a sidebar to the main topic, the case of Canaan demonstrates that the descendants of Ham were not Blacks. Canaan is a descendant of Ham and his descendants are not Blacks. Blacks have a genetic origin separate from the Y-haplogroup J people of Palestine. Y-haplogroup E has been in existence for about 70,000 years based on mutational rates of change, long before the putative era of Adam, Noah and Canaan. 

For those who subscribe to the idea popularized by Hoeh that Ham married a Black woman (this is why Dorothy referred to Rahab as a Mulatto), the mtDNA of the Lebanese, inherited in the female line, has European affinities and not Black African affinities. (See Dannielle Badro, et al., Y-Chromosome and mtDNA Genetics Reveal Significant Contrasts in Affinities of Modern Middle Eastern Populations with European and African Populations). Also, autosomal genetic studies would reveal any Black African connections in the Lebanese. 

4. WCG’s racial intermarriage policy based on Hoeh’s interpretation of the Bible collapses under the weight of the science of genetics. The policy was underpinned by the idea that Deuteronomy, Ezra and Nehemiah made not just religious and cultural statements but also racial statements concerning the Canaanites who were erroneously thought to be Black Africans. However, the accounts in the Bible that proscribe intermarriage with Canaanites do not cite racial concerns. The racial spin was added by Herman Hoeh based on his personal research which seems never to have been published. 

Note: As it turns out, Kenneth Herrmann did not have to write an article correcting Dr. Charles V. Dorothy and sanitizing the genealogy of Jesus of Canaanite blood. The Canaanites are the same race as the Jews and this is borne out by the science of Genetics. 

 Y-haplogroup J

submitted by Neo

The Prideful Arrogance of Herbert W Armstrong

Check out the humbleness and humility that Herbert Armstrong exemplified for the brethren.  Besides Bwana Bob Thiel, has the Church of God ever had a more humble leader?

ht: SHT for the source

How the improperly named "continuing" Church of God began

From Christian to Christian: Standing Strong

Christianity in the Worldwide Church of God was relatively simple and actually contained in three simple words: Obey Your Minister. Regardless of how many may challenge this supposition, there's really no other way around it. If your minister was your link between you and Christ, of damnation and salvation, of in the Church and Out of the Church, then this statement is truth. The critically thinking individual was not regarded competent enough to understand the mind of Christ like your pastor. Members of the Church were admonished about this time, after time, and after time again, sometimes severely. 

The concepts of Critical Thinking were intentionally not developed within the Church. Any questions you had? Ask the minister. Any doubts you have? Don't discuss it with anyone else - lest you sow division and discord within the Church. Ask a question to the minister like you are supposed to do when you disagree? Find yourself on the bad list - at the least an "unconverted" , to a "bad attitude", to a "rebellious spirit" - and on the shortlist to discipline, up to and including disfellowshipment. More often than not, thoughts, opinions, doubts, and questions by many were pushed way back to File 14 (Not 13 - that's garbage, but 14, the Storage Area!). If you dared share them with anyone in the Church, you ran the risk of a ratter outing you to The Minister - which is worse than if you told him yourself - nearly guaranteeing you being labeled as one "Sowing Division" and risking immediate disfellowshipment for speaking out against Church Doctrine. 

This is why many believers on this blog react so strongly to posts on this blog that foster critical thinking. In the Church, we were not encouraged to use our heads and think. We were not ourselves allowed to "prove all things". We weren't confronted with hard questions - those were for the ministers to handle. We did not converse deeply and with prolonged debate (or were not supposed to anyhow) with those who thought different than we did - whether it was a Mainstream Christian, a Street Hoodlum, a Buddhist, a New Ager, or an atheist. 

Years ago, while in the Worldwide Experience, I would have reacted in the way most probably would have expected. I would have immediately blasted any contrary opinion as - well, lost. You know, shake the dirt off your feet and don't even give a contrary person (derisively labeled a "dissident") the time of day. The biggest and most important function in the Church to keep it together was the appearance and misnomer of what we called "unity", in a religion where reality shows us that we were never truly unified. We were master illusionists. 

These days, in this generation of knowledge, information, history, and science, it's not only good to understand the opinions of other people - it's imperative. The approach we had of "don't look at this, throw it in the trash" these days simply fosters an attitude of ignorance. To understand how another person thinks, we have to understand what they think! And this is exactly what many who are Christians are afraid of. That deep down, they may fall victim to convincing argument and fall into what they perceive as "strong delusion". 

Truth is, every part of every religion - whether it's Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Muslim, or Evangelical Christianity - and yes, even Armstrongism - has a certain level of truth within. This is why all religions have massive numbers - because something clicks with somebody as true, therefore, it all must be true. This isn't so - as nobody has the "lock" on all truth as long as humanity is involved. This is why, in every sect of every religion, you will find literally hundreds and thousands of diverse opinions about how this is so and how that is so. You can be as sincere as you wish - but you can also be "sincerely wrong" - and no one has gotten it completely right. Not Herbert Armstrong, not Charles Stanley, not anyone of mortal flesh. This is why a personal relationship with a personal God is the basis of true and authentic Christianity. 

It shouldn't be scary to acknowledge and to hear other opinions. Rather, we have been given a Counselor, and a Teacher - the Holy Spirit - to help us personally where we are. In prayer, as we connect with the Heavenly Dimension, we can understand - personally. And with Christ in us, and working through us, we can stand and grow in both character and in faith, in the assurance of things unseen, growing daily in the assurances of what we know to be true by Him who works in us, and through us. Without the personal Christ within us, we are only as blades of grass blown by the wind. The danger comes when, in our zeal, we, as Christians, try to convince others of what we know personally to those who try to convince us of what they know academically. We will lose every time with this approach. They will blast us and rip us to shreds using academia against personal experience. This is not the way to go. 

The only thing that Christians have for proof are their fruits. The problem is that with many people who claim to be Christians, the fruits just are not there. Instead, there are the "Judgers" who condemn them. There are the "Angries" who blast them with vitriol. There are the "Pious" - the "I'm better than you's because I know the truth". There are the "Righteous Ones" who look down on anyone who believes differently than they do. And the only thing Christians have going for them - EVIDENCE of Christ - is dust in the wind, and then what is there? Absolutely nothing. 

The evidence of Christ - the only thing that shows who we are - and what we are - are the fruits of the Spirit. Gentleness. Love. Mercy. Self Control. Patience. Kindness. Meekness. Joy. This evidence is the only thing that is needed, and the only answer. It is the mind and the emotion of God in action. And as it is said in the Love Chapter - and in a song we all knew or know - we can talk in megaphones, as sounding brass and banging cymbals - but if we do not show genuine love in our actions, conversations and discussions with people of all belief spectrums - than our beliefs and our faith is as useless as bronze age encyclopedias. Because all of the knowledge in the world, and all of the knowledge of our universe, and science, and realms, and realities, and angels, and demons, and animals - and even, as scripture says, height and depth and all things physical - cannot compare to the power of one act of love and kindness. This - love and kindness - is more powerful than all of the knowledge in all of the internet. 

At the end of the day, The only thing that matters is exactly what scripture says - faith expressing itself in love. (Galatians 5:6)  It's the most powerful force and witness in the Universe. Everything else withers, but love stands strong. This is why, and how, we can make it and show Christ in this age of incredible knowledge and understanding. Because there is an abundance of truth in today's knowledge. Yet, there is unbelievable power in love. And that is the narrow road to the narrow gate that is often missed, and few are those who find it.

Submitted by SHT

Fake COG Prophet Claims The Book Of Daniel Has Never Been Understood Until He Arrived On The Scene

What an amazing time to be alive and see prophecy unfold before our eyes!  Never have we seen so many men claiming to have the most ACCURATE interpretations about scripture than we do today.

Our favorite self-appointed and doubly-blessed Great Bwana to Africa, Bob Thiel, claims that he is the ONLY COG in existence who has interpreted the book of Daniel properly.  Because of that, all of the COG's out there will NOT know when the end time troubles hit and when they need to flee.  Only Bwana Bob knows that.  Those stupid little fools in LCG, UCG, COGWA, PCG, and RCG have interpreted Daniel so wrong over the decades that they will have no idea when the shit hits the fan.

Persecution is coming and most in the COGs do not realize how the various persecutions will affect them. 

Those who do understand this properly will have the opportunity to know prior to the start of the Great Tribulation, approximately when it will begin. Those that claim that the “prince to come” in Daniel 9:26 is Jesus and that Jesus is the one that confirms a covenant with many for one week, etc., will not understand as that statement is not a reference to Jesus. The “prince to come” is the final European King of the North. He is the one in Daniel 11:31 who fulfills bringing the end of the sacrifice and offerings 3 1/2 years (the middle of a seven year prophetic week) after the deal is confirmed. Jesus did not destroy the city nor sanctuary, nor is there a biblical record that He confirmed a seven-year covenant.

Because all of you Laodicean heretics refuse to follow Bwana Bob you MAY be given one more chance to stand in awe of his awesomeness.

Those who refuse to accept that are in error (such as the Philadelphia Church of God, Church of God a Worldwide Association, and the Restored Church of God) and will not understand certain end time events.

Nearly all COG groups either do not understand this and/or have significant errors in their understanding of parts of this (including the persecution it is referring to). Prophetic misunderstandings that many COG claimed groups have on some of this is documented in the article Is the Future King of the South Rising Up?

Yet many, including those in nearly all COGs, will NOT understand key aspects of Daniel 2,7,9,11, & 12. There is a listing of 38 prophetic misunderstandings that the Laodicean churches have in the article The Laodicean Church Era, and many are related to the Book of Daniel. Those who misunderstand the sequence and various particulars of the prophecies in the Book of Daniel will not know when the Great Tribulation will come and hence will likely be killed or otherwise greatly affected by it.

Who in their right mind would ever follow such a sad little man as this?  He has no idea what he is talking about and is lying about that things he claims are coming.  From his initial lies about his special anointing to the absurd prophecy interpretations, this guy is absolutely nuts!