Imagine being a prophet to the Church of God and only having less than 0.75%* of Church of God members even interested in your message! Gerald Flurry and Dave Pack garner a higher percentage of COG member's interest than the self-appointed prophet of Grover City, CA receives. Never has a self-appointed prophet to the church had such a dismal respectability rating than the self-appointed prophet, the modern-day Elijah to the Church of God, and Great Bwana to Africa, Bob Thiel.
The Grover City peddler of homeopathic remedies and other quackeries had another major meltdown today over the fact that I do not, and 99.94% of COG members do not recognize him as a true prophet or a legitimate leader of a Church of God.
In another mind-numbingly long screed justifying his self-appointment and his usual myths about LCG leaders telling him that he was a prophet, Bwana Bob delivered another cut and paste justification for his existence.
Hoss, a reader here on Banned summed up Bwana Bob's typical response techniques to criticism:
Bob's links to links to links and eventually back to links you already linked to... it reminds me of old R/WCG literature - when you get a book/booklet/article/reprint, there will be at least one reference to another book/booklet/...
But, yes, you find why Bob left, because he thought LCG "lost it" - no longer "has the mantle" and isn't "Philadelphian", an he thinks he was given the mantle, is the remnant Philadelphian short end-time work, etc.
In Ralph Orr's classic article on HWA and CG7/BI, he made a statement about HWA that seems applicable to Bob: HWA set criteria on which to determine the "true church" and "true doctrine" - but, he asked, was HWA actually qualified to set the criteria and make a legitimate assessment?
All of Bob's responses are endless cut and paste jobs from previous postings and articles as if this was legitimate proof of himself. He does this on his blog and as a result, makes for some of the longest and weirdest postings ever. No one cares to read 500 links to other articles as proof of anything. His African followers sure do not read any of that crap!
Nothing infuriates the Great Bwana more than having people critique him. He thinks so highly of himself that he expects readers to roll over and lap up his writings as 100% truth and direct revelation from his god, whatever that creature is in his mind. He expects us to believe that Gaylyn Bonjour was supposedly inspired by Bwana Bob's god to doubly bless him in order to cement his prophethood stance in the Living Church of God. He also expects us to believe that the entire ministry of the LCG looked at him as a living prophet in their midst, which most did not. He also expects us to believe that Jim Meredith is a legitimate source for validation. Jim Meredith was one of the most discredited men the church ever had to lead a department at LCG headquarters.
The Great Bwana is infuriated that we keep saying he was kicked out of LCG. I remember the day that an LCG member sent me the sermon where Rod said Bob was kicked out of the church. Gavin Rumney and I posted the story and it was news to Bwana Bob, as he had not yet heard about his banishment and pitched a fit because he had to read about it first on dissident blogs. What a great day that was in Banned land! LCG members flocked to read about Bob's meltdown and public humiliation by Rod Meredith.
His own propaganda department that permanently dwells in his head immediately kicked into action and said it was HE who was kicking Living Church of God out and not the other way around. He says he kicked them out of his life because they would not heed his words.
I chose to leave LCG because of its integrity problems and its intentional failure to fix doctrinal and prophetic errors it promised to fix.
Imagine a man with no integrity telling another church that has integrity problems that they have no integrity! This is like a spoiled brat screaming at his parents that he hates them because they don't give him what he wants so he is leaving. What a hoot! Herbert Armstrong could never have imagined his legacy would be so tarnished by our current crop of petulant man/boys pitching hissy fits over who has the best Church of God or is the official legitimate prophet. What a disgusting quagmire of stupidity!
While Gary Leonard tries to lump me in with people like CGPKG’s Ron Weinland, PCG’s Gerald Flurry, and until his death, James Malm. All of whom were self-appointed in the prophetic realm and all of whom clearly made false prophecies. The reality is that I am not self-appointed, nor a certified liar, plus predictions I have had have certainly come to pass. I have not been false–this fact (plus the fact I do not take a salary from CCOG) goes against the paradigms that people like Gary Leonard have. And in his case, result in him repeatedly posting falsehoods that the uninformed (as well as those who prefer to believe a lie) accept.
Bro! Chill out! You ARE self-appointed. God had nothing to do with it. Gaylyn Bonjour had nothing to do with it. Your nightmares after eating some bad Chinese food have nothing to do with it. Your entire persona is a creation of your own mental maneuverings. You and you alone set yourself up as a supposed prophet to the church and the leader of a supposed "Philadelphian" church. Add to that your round-robin "ordination" to further legitimize yourself in the eyes of your African followers and here we are today, witnesses to yet another crazy splinter group of Armstrongism.
When you read his screed, if you dare, you will find almost every single paragraph mentioning himself. There is NOTHING about Jesus leading him or his capability as a prophet in leading people to Jesus. Nothing! Nada! He cannot and never will.
You can read his long-winded, backslapping, narcissistic screed of self-idolatry here: False accusers, LCG, and a true prophet. Have a strong alcoholic drink nearby as you will need it.
Behold! I am the one true prophet to the Philadelphian Church of God.
Stand in amazement and awe of me as I talk about myself, yet again!
* The 0.75% is a generous amount of members who have expressed interest in Bob's message and also assuming that there are around 40,000 COG members in the various splinter groups and non-affiliated groups. Taking his 300 some caucasian members who believe him and subtracting that from the 40,000 leaves an appalling lack of interest across the board from COG members. Never has the COG seen such a pathetic excuse for a splinter group.
The voice of one crying in the naturopath store. Make straight the curtains for the YouTube.
ReplyDeleteIs Bob's long post a joke? Surely it is. That was the funniest shit I have read in a while.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that he does not talk about Christ, nor do most of his blog entries either. More proof he is a self-centered false propeht. Not Christ-centered, but Bob-centered.
ReplyDeleteI just want to thank Banned for steering me away from Continuing Church of God. My family had been looking for a Sabbath keeping group and had come across the cogwriter site which seemed to have a large amount of study material, but I didn’t realize the owner of the site and leader of CCOG was such a person until learning about it on Banned. My family ended up attending Church at a UCG group, which has been very nice to us, and no false claims of them being prophets. I don’t know what would have happened if we had gotten sucked into the Continuing Church, so thank God for Banned.
ReplyDeleteIf I am counting correctly, 37 of the Bible's 66 books contain fewer words than that one whiny post from Prophet Bob.
ReplyDeleteThiel makes a "public relations 101" error by constantly complaining about BANNED, and even against me, TONTO a mere commentator on this blog, at his website.
ReplyDeleteBobby... your best strategy is to simply ignore people who snipe at you, and let "your great works" and "predictions" speak for themselves!
If the grandeur of your presence, insights, predictions and great works cannot be "self evident to all" proof of your high calling and prophetness, then you are in a very sad place. It seems that only a small handful of people who have a formal education above the 9th grade level seem to even give you a head nod.
Take the BANNED PEPSI CHALLENGE and simply give a precise, time dated to the minute , irrefutable in the scientific method and test, prediction and perhaps you would be worthy of notice. EXAMPLE -- The precise time, location and exact magnitude of a remote earthquake, or the exact day and location for a hurricane, or the last 3 digits of the stock market close at a future date , etc.
You need to rethink your product. First step might be to remove the recognition of your "status" or title in life, and just subjugate that to pointing to Jesus Christ, his word , and practice. Encourage people to be free of you, and encourage them to greater and better things than to "just be under you and your divine oversight". Advocate for people to have a personal relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ , away from, and free of , YOU!
I am a believer of God, the Bible, and his Commandments, including the Sabbath Day. You cannot dismiss me as a heretic, or atheist. You are under a delusion, and self hypnosis, and I sincerely do hope that you do "snap out of it".
Tonto. If you are a believer in God commandments why do you lie online CONSTANTLY ??
DeleteBob tries to do too much with too little. He's trying to be Herbert W Armstrong, Herman Hoeh, and Gerald Waterhouse all in one. He should take the advise Jethro gave to Moses and at least delegate 'damage control' to a would-be Waterhouse.
ReplyDeleteBut instead, he'll keep doing it all himself, and badly, following advise that Jethro would give to Uncle Jed!
My brother actually had some interest in joining up with Bob's group. Thankfully he started waking up when I directed him to this blog and he started reading about Bob. What scared me about his interest in Bob was that he has worked hard over the years and has a lot of money. I was afraid he would start giving it to Bob instead of providing for his children's college educaiton.
ReplyDeleteI hope this blog and those who recognize Bob's heresies keep up the good work you are doing here. No more COG members need to lose their lives in another splinter cult of the church.
Bravo 10:03! The more we can keep out of Bob's cult the better!
ReplyDeleteTonto is [as ever] on the right track. Bob needs to grin and bear it. Didn't Dave Pack have a policy of "don't dignify your accusers with an answer"? By drawing attention to the accusers, Bob is revealing negative things to his naive followers - that he has critics who have valid points to make, he can't give a simple answer, and he's a whining wiener [for our British readers, "silly sausage"]. Sorry, but I am really trying to be polite in the way I say the last point.
ReplyDeleteBUT no Biblical prophet was expected to to things like tips on the camel races. Natural disasters, sure - they would tell us the next locust plague, famine, tsunami, etc. Of course, we all know Bob does not claim to get direct revelation, only dreams about himself and his mission, and the health of Rod's family [I read that somewhere in that yuge thing about "Why I left LCG]. So don't expect being warned about things that may be important in the short term.
(1 Peter 3:16) (Matthew 5:11)
ReplyDeleteI believe the scriptures above apply to Bob Thiel. Be careful about what you read and believe. Search the scriptures daily like the Bereans of old to find out if a matter is correct or false. Prove what is truth!
This website is spreading lies and will most likely continue to do so.
11:44. Those scriptures might hold true about Bob if he were a real Christian who actually follows Christ instead of the dreams and fantasies he creates in his mind. Bob is a Moses worshipper and not a Christ-follower. The focus of every one of his articles is upon himself or some archaic doctrine that one under the New Covenant cares about.
ReplyDeletedoctrine that one under the New Covenant cares about
ReplyDeleteWhen we get to that point, it's like Godwin's Law (comparisons to Hitler)
Bob can give chapter and verse to explain why an "Old Covenant" as you call it command must be kept. No one, no one, ever answered my question, "Where are the terms of the "New Covenant" as you call it laid out in scripture so that we can see it for ourselves". Only Jer 31 - okay, Bob says the commands are written on his heart, and I think he jumped the gun on that one. And does the NC abolish ALL the Laws or only the ones Jesus and Paul didn't mention?
Evidence the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath to Sunday:
ReplyDelete“For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the [Roman Catholic] church outside the Bible.”
- “To Tell You the Truth,” The Catholic Virginian
“From this same Catholic Church you have accepted your Sunday, and that Sunday, as the Lord’s day, she has handed down as a tradition; and the entire Protestant world has accepted it as tradition, for you have not an iota of Scripture to establish it. Therefore that which you [Protestants] have accepted as your rule of faith, inadequate as it of course is, as well as your Sunday, you have accepted on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.”
- David B. Ray, The Papal Controversy Involving the Claim of the Roman Catholic Church to the Church of God
I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to any one who can prove to me by the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic church alone. The Bible says, ‘Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.’ THE CATHOLIC CHURCH says, ‘No! By my Divine power I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.’ And lo! the entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church.”
- Bishop Thomas Enright, personal letter printed in Experiences of a Pioneer Minister of Minnesota
“There’s but one [church] on the face of the earth—the Catholic Church—that has the power to make laws binding on the conscience, binding before God, binding under pain of hell fire. Take for instance the day we celebrate—Sunday. What right have the Protestant churches to observe that day? None whatsoever. You say it is to obey the commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ But Sunday is not the Sabbath according to the Bible and the record of time. Every one knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, while Saturday is the seventh day and the Sabbath, the day consecrated as a day of rest. It is so recognized in all civilized nations. I have repeatedly offered $1000 to any one who will furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money…It was the holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week.”
- Bishop Thomas Enright, “Father Enright on the Sunday,” printed in The American Sentinel
“Is Saturday the seventh day according to the Bible and the Ten Commandments? I answer yes. Is Sunday the first day of the week and did the Church change the seventh day—Saturday—for Sunday, the first day? I answer yes. Did Christ change the day? I answer no!”
- James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore (1877-1921), signed letter
“Reason and sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either…the keeping holy of Saturday or Catholicity and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.”
- James Cardinal Gibbons, Catholic Mirror
“The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her Divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.”
- James Cardinal Gibbons, “The Christian Sabbath,” Catholic Mirror
You guys here at banned are being faced with the ultimate question is the Sabbath made for Christians? I recommend you guys start trying to seek the plain truth with an open mind. Try to keep the Sabbath, Sabbath related, and in Sabbath Talk. Those who do not keep the Sabbath are not of God.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous (12:53)
ReplyDeleteIf we had only Jer 31:33 we might be at a loss. It seems to say that the OC litigation will be written on people's heart as the new covenant. Does that mean that the OT law that says if your son persistently misbehaves you should take him outside the city and stone him?
Jeremiah 31:34 has the rest of the picture. At the center of this new covenant is the forgiveness of sin. God says "for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." And then we have Christ stating "For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." And further, the blood of Christ is the life of Christ and he lives his life in us. And the ultimate goal of the NC is the same: "I ... will be their God, and they shall be my people."
An extensive list of "dos and don'ts" were used to implement the OC. This was intended to bring people to the goal of "love your neighbor as you love yourself." But it did not achieve it because of the hearts of the people. The NC has not such extensive list - like a contract with many clauses. It is open-ended. It is intended to achieve "love your neighbor as your love yourself" through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Love is broader than any list that could be specified.
In fact, that is one of the things I learned in the WCG back when. You can have all kind of laws, statutes, commandents and regulations and people can comply with them in the letter and still not have a loving concern for others. WCG members could keep the sabbath with the perfectionism of a an Hasidic Jew and still be legalistic and judgemental and uncaring.
I am not sure how you define a covenant. Probably the first thing you should describe.
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Whatever the "simplicity that is in Christ" is, you guys make it a complicated kinda simplicity at best.
ReplyDeleteAnon 241 - I have a document with about 4 pages of Catholic claims that the transfer of the Sabbath to Sunday was by their authority. I showed it to a Protestant Pastor who was formerly Catholic, and he insisted the change was made by the Apostles.
ReplyDeleteTrying to think of some prooftexts, the best he could do was "Paul said to meet on Sunday" and "The women went to Jesus' tomb on Sunday".
Although there is evidence of an earlier transition, the Catholic Church wants to claim it was by their authority - just like HWA was makes claims on doctrines that were "revealed" to him by earlier authors.
What do you think is the truth Hoss?
ReplyDeleteBob Thiel truly has to be the saddest excuse for a COG leader in this day and age. So pathetic.
ReplyDeleteAnon 656 - What do you think is the truth Hoss?
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm uncertain of the motivation and historic record of a transition from Sabbath to Sunday, I still believe the Fourth Commandment as it was written. I've tried to be a Sabbatarian as best I could since an early age.
It's interesting that God wrote the 10 commandments with His own finger. Otherwise some would claim that there were copying errors.
ReplyDelete