A former member of LCG and later a member of the improperly named "continuing" Church of God contacted me today about an article on Bwana Bob's blog. The Great Bwana to Africa and 299 Caucasians has a story up about one of his members and presenters from Canada who was apparently cured of ALS, also known as Lou Gerhig's Disease.
I am not here to denigrate Herb Haddon's apparent miracle and the complete disappearance of ALS from his body, rather it is the disgusting actions of Bwana Bob turning the focus away from the miracle in Haddon's life to putting the focus upon himself and his church. This is also what appalled this former CCOG member that contacted me.
Bwana Bob writes:
It should be noted that even though ALS is not supposed to go into remission, the medical doctors still believe that Herb has ALS.
While God has healed people in and out of the COG throughout the church age, this apparent healing may be a sign–particularly if other healings of this magnitude or even greater take place. A few years back, we had a deaf man experience a miracle in that he was able to hear after Pastor Evans Ochieng preached in Migawi, Malawi).
God does heal! Healings can be a sign from God (Mark 16:18c).
Herb Haddon, who was lame, now walks. The deaf man in Malawi was able to hear.
So far, not much wrong with this, but things quickly derail into the chief narcissist making this story about himself, his church, and the ungodly heathens in these supposed end times who will not acknowledge him as a prophet and a true church leader. The depth of his narcissistic depravity knows no boundaries.
Consider those in light of the following related to men John the Baptist sent to check up on Jesus:
4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Matthew 11:4-6)
As far as the poor having the gospel preached to then, we have more than 5,000 congregants in poor regions of Africa who are with us and regularly hear the good news of the Kingdom of God.
Yet, many Christian people in these times act like they are ‘above’ accepting that poor Africans are important, despite the prophesied need for the fulness of the Gentiles to come in per Romans 11:25. Most end time Christians feel that they are ‘above’ accepting that God could have a prophet at this time and that God is intervening with dreams in the CCOG and accepting other supernatural signs now, despite that being prophesied for the last days per Acts 2:17-18.
The apostles were confirmed by signs that followed them (Mark 16:20) and there have been signs that have confirmed the Continuing Church of God.
Laodiceans, sadly, seem to be offended by such things–or at least do not take them seriously enough to change.
Perhaps because the bulk of end time Christians were prophesied to be Laodicean (cf. Revelation 3:14-18), Jesus said:
8 … when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)
Many in the CCOG had faith, and Herb Haddon’s medical team now says he does not have ALS.
Real Philadelphian Christians have more faith than the bulk of the Laodiceans do.
The New Testament warns:
40 Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you:41 ‘Behold, you despisers,Marvel and perish!For I work a work in your days,A work which you will by no means believe,Though one were to declare it to you.’ (Acts 13:40-41)
The Laodiceans were prophesied to have the wrong work and were condemned for it (Revelation 3:14-22)–while those of Sardis lost doctrines they should have held onto (Revelation 3:1-6). Those Christians are unwilling to accept the correct work in the end time, even when they are told.
The New Testament further warns Christians:
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said:“Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:12-19)
Sadly, most Christians are lukewarm (Revelation 3:14-22) and have a heart of unbelief in the signs that God said He would use in these times.
Do you have faith to believe and understand that God has been dramatically intervening in the Continuing Church of God over the years?
Can you accept that the types of signs that have been prophesied are really happening?
If so, do not be lukewarm about it.
What a smarmy little weasel Bwana Bob is. No one in the other COG's is as good as he is and are also not experiencing any healings or miracles on the magnitude that his members are experiencing.
The former CCOG member wrote to me:
As many of us dreaded, Bob Thiel uses the healing from ALS to focus on him and speak up against other church of God groups and lift up himself and his group, rather than just giving God the glory and turning people to God. God can and does heal, but nought but an insecure church politician will try to falsely profit (yes as in "false prophet") from it as though his church position had something to do with it.
This former member wrote much more that could easily identify him, which I will not post there, however, I will post this final comment from him that pretty much sums up the disgust people have for Bob:
I did attend Bob Thiel's ccog for a while, more out of a desire to visit with some church buddies than out of anything for Bob Thiel. Well, it became too much after but a short time. and now this crass, cheap move Bob Thiel does as we dreaded. Disgusting. I would be the first to decry the evils done by these "churches", especially done by LCG, and now the narcissistic constancy from Bob Thiel and ccog. I've experienced the worst of them and their satanic ministers. However, I cannot deny what God has done in Herb Haddon's life. If one is an atheist, then at the very least there is an area of spontaneous healing that is as yet unexplained.
For the record, I still consider myself a Church Of God member and in the general lineage of the 7th day Sabbath teachings -- as in the body of Jesus -- albeit I speak loosely. I was in WCG and then in LCG (Lucifer's Camp of Gehenna).
I want to be shocked by Bob's actions, but I cannot. This is typical of him. Bob is more of a narcissist than I think David Pack is.
ReplyDeleteWhat an idiot! We should rejoice at what happened to Mr. Haddon. But if healings prove a church, a quick Google search proves that several Protestant churches and Muslim mosques are also the true church!
ReplyDelete"No one in the other COG's is as good as he is..."
ReplyDeleteYears ago I listened to some of Dave Pack's sermons for their sleep-inducing qualities (except when he yelled and screamed). I remember he would repeat a list of miracles he said members reported, and then made similar claims: this only happens in the RCG.
As a pastor, I healed one totally deaf member. He even graduated from the school for the deaf in SC. The congregation knew him as totally deaf. Having a blind, deaf and non verbal brother, I watched him quietly interact with others. I had anointed him several times along the way. I gently set him up from time to time speaking to him from behind and noticed the turn to look at me.
ReplyDeleteOne day I took him to lunch and finally got around to his deafness. He read lips amazingly well. I said, "You're not deaf are you? I grew up with deaf and you don't have the mannerisms that go with deafness. Tell me about it..." He looked at me , tears rolling down his cheeks and said, "No, I am not deaf". And we had a good chat about why he didn't want to hear. There were psychological reasons but no physical ones. I believe he went on to claim he was healed and could hear again.
But that's the only healing I can recall of the "and the sick shall be made well" type, which of course it wasn't.
Of course, "divine healing" was and is a sensitive topic with some. Many will make bold claims because it feels special. In reality, I can say I never saw anything in all the anointing I did that indicated a miraculous healing of the Biblical type. It either was not something that would last anyway, something that was not what they thought, something that stayed the same or something that shortened their lives. No terminal cancers healed. No resurrections. Never got an arm, leg, finger or foot back once it was gone.
Now I did have good success with colds and flu.
Close friends noted that if they wanted to die early, just have me anoint them! lol.
I would wish this gentleman well with ALS and yes, Bob hijacked his story to shine the light on himself and all his maybe prophetic nonsense about his insignificant church that resides mainly in his mind.
Curiously, HWA was baptized by a Baptist Minister, and his wife was healed by the prayers of a couple from the Billy Sunday Evangelicial Association. Apparently God does what he desires without regard to "denomination" . From the Autobiography of HWA below:
ReplyDeleteThat evening this man and his wife came, about 7. He was rather tall. They were plain people, obviously not of high education, yet intelligent appearing.
“This is all rather new to me,” I began, when they were seated beside my wife’s bed. “Would you mind if I ask you a few questions before you pray for my wife?”
He welcomed the questions. He had a Bible in his hands, and one by one he answered my every question and doubt by turning to a passage in his Bible and giving me the Bible answer.
By this time I had become sufficiently familiar with the Bible to recognize every passage he read—only I had never thought of these biblical statements and promises and admonitions in this particular light before.
As these answers continued coming from the Bible, I began to understand, and to believe—and I knew the same assurance was forming in Mrs. Armstrong’s mind.
Finally I was satisfied. I had the answer from the Bible. I believed. My wife believed. We knelt in prayer beside her bed. As he anointed my wife with oil from a vial he carried, he uttered a quiet, positive, very earnest and believing prayer which was utterly different from any prayer I had ever heard.
This man actually dared to talk directly to God, and to tell God what He had promised to do! He quoted the promises of God to heal. He applied them to my wife. He literally held God to what He had promised! It was not because we, as mortal humans, deserved what he asked, but through the merits of Jesus Christ and according to God’s great mercy.
He merely claimed God’s promise to heal. He asked God to heal her completely, from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet.
“You have promised,” he said to God, “and you have given us the right to hold you to your promise to heal by the power of your mighty Holy Spirit. I hold you to that promise! We expect to have the answer!”
Never had I heard anyone talk like that to God!
It was not a long prayer—perhaps a minute or two. But as he spoke I knew that as sure as there is a God in heaven, my wife had to be healed! Any other result would have made God out a liar. Any other result would have nullified the authority of the Scriptures. Complete assurance seized me—and also my wife. We simply knew that she was released from everything that had gripped her—she was freed from the sickness—she was healed! To have doubted would have been to doubt God—to doubt the Bible. It simply never occurred to us to doubt. We believed! We knew!
As we rose, the man’s wife laid a hand on Mrs. Armstrong’s shoulder. “You’ll sleep soundly tonight,” she smiled quietly.
I thanked them gratefully. As soon as they had left, Mrs. Armstrong asked me to bring her a robe. She arose, put it on, and I walked slowly with her out to the street sidewalk and back, my arm around her. Neither of us spoke a word. There was no need. We both understood. It was too solemn a moment to speak. We were too choked with gratitude.
By the time HWA wrote this, he must have known that God doesn't always heal. Claiming that God not healing "would make God a liar,,(and).. would have nullified the authority of the scriptures." is deceitful, manipulative clap trap. God sits on a throne and has the right to perform, or not perform this service. It is His property
DeleteThis is Herb the salesman lying, since a lie can have the power of truth. If members believe that God will always heal, people will join Herbs church and the ministers will be looked upon as junior gods. Just like Paul when he healed in Acts. And at the cost of a pile of corpses that might have lived had they seeked medical treatment rather than "healing" from a lying minister of religion.
Thanks, Tonto - I remember when I first read that in HWA's Autobiography. The sequel to that was about the man losing his ability to heal after he wouldn't accept HWA's early writeup on Sabbath keeping.
ReplyDeleteAnd there were the disciples who told some exorcists to stop because they were in their group (Mark 9:38, Luke 9:49). Jesus' rebuke to the disciples included "for whoever is not against us is for us". COGs seem to prefer George W Bush's version, "whoever is not with me is against me".
One former C-COG member pointed out that instead of bragging about himself and his organization Thiel should have let the healed man tell his story and then followed up with a written prayer for the glory of God.
ReplyDeleteWhile we're on the subject of healings, has Bob ever figured out that Gaylyn Bonjour's prayer over him actually FAILED? He says he asked for prayer for health issues and wisdom before meeting with Rod Meredith. Obviously, Thiel wasn't granted wisdom, as Rod went on with his old pattern of flattering Thiel to his face while ridiculing him behind his back, yet Bob still couldn't catch on to what was happening with the false "you might be a prophet because you're a big tither and we don't want to lose you" narrative. If Bonjour's prayer didn't give Bob the health or the wisdom he was seeking, why on earth does he believe that it gave him a prophethood he claims NOT to have been "seeking"?
ReplyDeleteSeems pretty clear in retrospect that Bob was seeking prophethood all along. Desperately, in fact. A seeking that essentially proves he's NOT a true prophet. Which makes Bob a FALSE PROPHET.
LCG IS LUKEWARM.
ReplyDeleteBanned is ice 🧊
DeleteAnon 1:17 PM LCG is just as phony as the rest of them nothing is special about them.
ReplyDeleteAt least, after these two healings, Dr. Thiel didn't declare himself a beatified saint.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to Loma's healing, HWA's Autobiography has an account of him going to see Aimee Semple McPherson, and his encounter with a Pentecostal family - which led to his account of "an angel turning the steering wheel of his car".
ReplyDeleteThis site should be renamed to the ANTI Bob Blog. There are 67,342,201 split-offs, and Bob get 57.23071 percent of all the analysis (trust me, I did the math).
ReplyDeleteBob gets more attention because his sillyness is obvious. The others are skilled in evil and harder to fault.
DeleteGaylyn Bonjour must be on a higher level than Jesus. Even Jesus made a mistake when he appointed Judas, and Herb made a mistake when he appointed Tkach, but Gaylyn couldn't possibly make a mistake when he raised Bob to a Prophet. Gaylyn is infallible.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Gaylyn must be on a higher level than Prophet himself in order to have the authority to make such an appointment. And of course, all the ministry fasted and prayed beforehand ... right?
Hoss with an angel driving Mr. Armstrong's car who needs autopilot.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThis site should be renamed to the ANTI Bob Blog. There are 67,342,201 split-offs, and Bob get 57.23071 percent of all the analysis (trust me, I did the math).
July 3, 2021 at 5:41 PM
LOL. Good one .... I didn't 'do the math', but that sounds about right. HAHAHA!!
I wouldn't accept as true any story of healing that came from HWA. As for the gentleman with ALS, this disease, similar to Multiple Sclerosis is characterized by exacerbations and remissions (symptoms increase, then decrease). While working in a military pharmacy in the late 70's, there was a poster promoting a chiropractic hospital in Denver and claiming it can treat MS, arthritis, and other such diseases. Of course, both of these diseases are characterized by symptoms increasing and then decreasing. It's the nature of the disease. So, if the patient is treated long enough, symptoms will diminish and the treatment will get the credit.
ReplyDeleteLet's see how this gentleman is in the months to come. Then we can see if there was a healing or just a remission of symptoms. If the healing was instantaneous, complete and permanent without having any medical treatment, then I'd be inclined to accept this as a healing from God.
I've heard many people say that God healed them, only to have the issue return. Can you sue God for malpractice?
Jesus healed people who were definitely ill and no effective treatments were available. Any healing had to be from God. God seldom heals today, though he can, but since we go to medical treatment, it wouldn't bring glory to Him. I wonder, if we didn't seek treatments for obviously incurable diseases, if there might be more examples of true healing by God. Let's say you're old, like me, and you got a horrible form of cancer, very aggressive type. If you declined any treatment and you recovered, then God gets the glory. If you die, you avoid living long enough to outlive your brain (Alzheimer's Disease). It's a win-win situation.
Jesus made a mistake choosing Judah? At times He may have thought he made a mistake picking most of these disciples. Their hearts were hardened, their understanding was dull, their memory was obtuse. "Do you still not see or understand?" He may have thought, "Have I got time to choose another group of disciples?" I don't think choosing Judas was a mistake, it was more likely part of the plan.
ReplyDeleteChrist didn't choose any of his disciples. God the Father did. Judas was prophesied. He was chosen so that Christ could personally experience treachery.
DeleteI've noticed that some are pretty involved with the many splinter groups (the banana-peeling, vanity-plate this and that church of god groups), and are working against God's Church being ONE Body, ONE Church -- and are causing DIVISIONS which God says He hates. Soooo MANY banana-peeling, vanity-plate COG "Christians" want to chummy up with other people from these banana-peeling, vanity-plate COG groups. Getting to know brethren whom you might be able to help at some time can be good, but in many cases it's going to be a waste of time and sometimes dangerous because the goal of some ''brethren'' so-called is to chorale up as many people as they can into the particular splinter division with the which they hob-nob. I don't know if I said all that very eloquently -- but I've seen that MANY of YOU know "BRETHREN" in these GROUPS that shouldn't exist and I WANT YOU to KNOW that we are a SPIRITUAL ORGANISM and SHOULD NOT BE CALLING OURSELVES MEMBERS of these banana-peeling, vanity-plate COG groups!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteBob Thiel only gets press here when Dave Pack goes off line begging his Christ to explain why he has never ever been right about anything ever and it's making him look like he's a loon.
ReplyDeleteOnce Dave figures out just how God is giving him more time, we'll be more than entertained by more of what we never understood but do now and the math is still correct even though it also never has been yet.
Ladies shouldn't wear any makeup, and we shouldn't celebrate Christmas, Easter, New Year's, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd you shouldn't be commenting on here anon 11:29 PM. Three fingers coming right back atcha.
DeleteDennis wrote "Bob Thiel only gets press here when Dave Pack goes off line..."
ReplyDeleteSo, Bob Thiel is Sideshow Bob!
sure is Sideshow Bob Thiel.
ReplyDelete"Most end time Christians feel that they are ‘above’ accepting that God could have a prophet at this time and that God is intervening with dreams in the CCOG and accepting other supernatural signs now"
ReplyDeleteJust as the Great Bwana is 'above' admitting to his own delusions of grandeur...
Get some help, Bob!!!
Bob Theil has Jerusalem Syndrome
ReplyDeleteBob has to be the most tone-deaf leader the church has ever seen. He is so consumed by himself that he can't see straight.
ReplyDeleteBob is another profit who hopes to get unearned power, recognition, and respect. Bob, you have to earn what you want in life.
ReplyDeleteAnd please stop slandering God by claiming to be His prophet.
Bob Thiel only gets press here when Dave Pack goes off line
ReplyDeleteJudging by some of the features at his website Bob is trying to get top spot on Banned back.