Things were already weird in Grover Beach California where the world's foremost historian, the most widely respected scientist, and the world-renowned authority on the Catholic Church lives. The Great Bwana to Africa and 299 Caucasians has dreamed up so many titles and accolades about himself that it is hard to keep track of them anymore. Being that he is self-ordained and not part of any apostolic succession, many consider him a fool beyond measure.
That self-appointed awareness has reached a new height today as the Great Bwana has decided he needs to educate officials at the Vatican about TRUE Church history (the Armstrongite version). This all comes about because the Vatican announced the other day that they were forming a commission to research into the early days of the church and the amazing history of that time.
This is the complete article that Bwana Bob quoted and edited out things he did not want you to read.
Vatican conference convenes experts to study early Christian history
VATICAN CITY — A Vatican conference will gather both Christian and non-Christian historians and experts to delve deep into the history of the church in the first centuries of Christianity.
Speaking to journalists at the Vatican press office Oct. 26, Norbertine Father Bernard Ardura, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, said the conference program was inspired by Pope Francis, who urged him "to work with scholars from all scientific backgrounds, from the most varied cultural sensibilities and from the most diverse historiographical methods."
"Pope Francis insisted on the need for the committee to promote a fruitful collaboration in the scientific field, not only with Catholic academic institutions, but as well as with all historians and specialists in auxiliary sciences of history who are ready to work together in the search for the truth, taking into account only their scientific expertise," Father Ardura said.
At the Oct. 27-29 conference, titled "Inquiry into the history of the first centuries of the church," will bring scholars from across Europe as well as India, Iraq, China and the United States to focus particularly on the first two centuries of Christianity.
The two main historical accounts of the early church have several points of conflict, Father Ardura said. The first account is that of Eusebius of Caesarea, the fourth-century bishop who chronicled the church's development from the first century to the fourth century.
The Norbertine priest noted, however, that Eusebius' account of the first-century church was so similar to the Christian church that existed in the fourth century "as if it had always been as he knew it."
"It is as if we were to say today that the early church was like that of the 21st century. It is obvious, instead, that there has been a development," Father Ardura said.
The second historical account, he continued, was more in line with Martin Luther's perspective, which chronicles the "progressive degradation" of the church over the centuries until the Protestant Reformation.
Father Ardura emphasized the importance of the conference in studying the church's history and searching for truth no matter where it may lead. However, he also noted that the conference is only the beginning.
"We will not arrive at certain conclusions," Father Ardura said. "We want to give space to researchers who in various disciplines have acquired knowledge" of early Christian history.
The most amazing prophet to ever exist in Church of God history has this to say:
It would be fantastic if Bernard Ardura, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, really will pursue and accept the truth wherever it leads. Hopefully, his is not an ecumenical agenda, but real quest for truth–we shall see. I am considering contacting him and perhaps may try to meet with him someday.
Someone needs to give Bernard Ardura a heads up before he speaks to the greatest prophet the world has ever seen!
This is one more issue that is the cause of Rod Meredith and certain fools at LCG headquarters who stroked Bwana Bob's fragile ego by claiming he would be a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church. As if the Catholic Church would care what some whackjob cultist from California had to say!
16 comments:
Oh, brother! How can Thiel be this stupid?
If they ever allow him access to Vatican personnel they will eat him alive.
Rabbi Dr Bob Squarepants Amos Elijah Prophet One of the Two Witnesses & Big Bwana of all Africa Thiel never fails to astound and astonish one with his insights.
One can most certainly see him making the cover of ‘Time’ magazine sometime in the near future.
Let's Go, BobThiel !
"Let's Go, BobThiel !"
I agree! Let Thiel go over there. It will be the biggest shitfest we have ever seen!
Does Bob Theil believe HWA's Simon Magus conspiracy theory? Just imagine him trying to share that one with the Pope!
Hey! Anyoone know what's going on with the Kitchens these days?
Some knowledge of church history and doctrinal development has its value; for one thing, to dispel the fallacy that the First Century church was the same as the Twenty-first Century church or vice versa.
But, for some COGs and non-COG groups, the "history" is distorted to isolate their church as the "true successor" to the Apostolic congregation of Jerusalem - as in Bob's "Apostolic Succession" sermon.
Theil talk and meet with Ardura?! Fat chance! A serious scholar like him has no time for a self-deluded fraud like Bobo. And even if he got a chance to speak with Ardura, the man would dope out within a couple of minutes that he was talking to a nut case. And if Bobo started to bounce and flounce around while he was talking, Ardura might say, " Holy Mother Of God! I think we might have a case of demonic possession here!"
Bob Thiel secretly hopes that upon visiting officials in Rome, that they will recognize his greatness and MAKE THIEL THE POPE!
The only scholar from the Adventist movement that I know of as being recognized and respected by the Vatican was Dr. Samuel Bacchiocchi. Dr. Sam had a few things going for him that are somewhat out of reach for "Dr." Theil. For one thing, he was Italian, having been born in Rome. Also, he did not just read and speculate about Catholics, he was the first non-Catholic to be admitted to the Pontifical Gregorian University since its establishment in the 16th century. He received his doctorate in Church History in 1974, his thesis having been based upon the decline of sabbath observance in the early Christian church, and his research for this was done in the Vatican libraries.
Would Bob Theil consider his own questionable credentials to be equal to those of Dr. Bacchiocchi?
"I am considering contacting him and perhaps may try to meet with him someday."
Depends on why Bob wants to contact him - we assume Bob wants to take the position as the purveyor of historical truth and corner Fr Ardura into admitting Catholic error? Or could it be that Bob wants to approach a genuine church historian (not like Dr Hoeh) and glean something from him? Or is it just to be annoying, as he is the official COG thorn-in-the-side of the Catholic Church (and others)?
We shall see what we shall see...
What the Catholic church proposes is an example of hold your friends close and your enemies closer. Bob qualifies as neither to them.
The worst activist in the ACOGs, by any metrics, was David ben Ariel. I did exchange comments with him on one of the old dinosaur forums yesrs ago, and he practiced civility and restraint there, but he was indulging in some really strange and very public activities, like writing letters to German political figures, urging them to live up to their prophetic identities. He also attempted (don't know if he actually succeeded) to contact Arnold Schwartzaneggar ostensibly to determine whether he had any interests in running for office in Germany (Arnold apparently held dual citizenships). Guess David thought the terminator would make a good beast. As a self-identified Zionist, Ben Ariel was also arrested, deported, and banned from Israel for suspicious activities around the temple mount and Dome of the Rock Mosque.
We have not known Bob Thiel to attempt to foment fulfillment of HWA's interpretation of prophecy up to this point in time, but we do know that many ACOG people desperately want such prophecies to be fulfilled, so that their lives and all they have been believed can be validated while they are yet alive. Watch for more desperate moves in this direction, if not by Theil, by any number of the other so-called leaders.
As crazy as David ben Ariel was, he was a nice likable person. I met him years ago.
I have also met Bob Thiel and my first impression of him was of a self-righteous know-it-all that was better than the rest of us and that he needed to be seen as something significant and important.
David, now deceased, had issues around his masculinity that are awfully reminiscent of Bob's. Could it be that their prophetic activity has something to do with validating themselves as acceptable to God, even favored by Him, so they don't have to think too hard about the stuff bubbling around just below the surface in their subconscious?
David, to use deep and arcane psychological jargon, was not an asshole or elitist about his beliefs. He just put them out there on a take it or leave it basis. I don't ever recall his having complained that nobody was accepting him as a prophet, or making threatening statements about God punishing those who would not listen. His views were certainly pretty far out there, kind of extreme Armstrongism. Many of us felt encouraged to look for the occasional Jewish person in our genetic woodpile. He actually tried to become one!
Herbert Armstrong spoke often against his arch nemesis. That would be science in its entirety - the same science that has(had) no long term answers for mankind according to him.
So, why would Bob want to wade into a confab of scientific expertise?
If he were to some how get his foot into the door, what angle would he take? No matter what he would do, it would become soon evident to all involved - men looking to discover a foundational truth to establish another important tenet of universalism, that it would take the greatest faith of all time to believe that christian exclusivity resides solely in a small health food store in California.
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