Would Born Again Christians Wear Stars Of David While Eating A Rare Steak Before They Throw Out Their Leavening Products After They Cast Lots On Whether Or Not Jephthah Killed His Daughter To See If She Had A Soul?

Another Saturday, another Bouncing Bob sermon

Bwana Bob, the savior of Africa and 299 caucasian members, posted his latest sermon the other day and it is a humdinger of useless information. It is just one more example on what a poor speaker Bob is and how he covers up his lack of sound theological education by rapid-fire diversion topics in his so-called sermons. Just get a load of all the things he "preaches"on in this one sermon. 

CCOG Q&A: Eating Blood, Born Again, Jesus, Leavening Agents and more! 

 

In this sermon, Dr. Thiel answers questions that have been submitted to the Church of God on many topics, such as: 

Thiel starts right off the bat with a deceptive comment. Not one single member of the improperly named "continuing" Church of God has ever written in to him asking for an answer to these questions. All he has done is steal information from the letters that the Letter Answering Department of the Worldwide Church of God had written on every conceivable topic imaginable. Bob has done nothing but plagiarize other people's materials, once again. After all, there is not a single orginal thought in any COG leaders head in 2021.

• Does the biblical prohibition against eating blood mean one cannot eat rare meat?
• Satan: Immortal or Destructible?
• What about casting lots?
• Did Jephthah kill his daughter?
• Is it better not to vow than to not fulfill one?
• Was it only the Jews who were God’s chosen people?
• Are Christians begotten now?
• Are Christians born again at the resurrection?
• Was Jesus equal to the Father?
• Does the Star of David have a pagan connection?
• What is a soul?
• Do the reigns of some kings contradict each other?
• Is literature available in languages other than English?
• Do we discard non-food items for the Days of Unleavened Bread?
• What are the names of leavening agents?
• What are commonly used ingredients that are not leavening agents?

Dr. Thiel goes through scriptures, facts, COG documents, opinions, and historical information to provide answers.

The mere fact that Bwana Bob bounces around like he does demonstrates that he has no real training in public speaking. If he ever spoke like this in Spokesman Club when would have been mocked relentlessly! A quick perusal of public speaking points illustrates what a poor speaker Bob is.

Three questions to ask yourself
When deciding on a speech topic, ask yourself these three questions: 

 

1. How much do I know about the topic? Your audience needs to recognise you as a credible speaker and being knowledgeable about your topic is an easy way to do this. A good understanding will help you explain difficult parts of the topic and give you more confidence during the questions and answers session.
2. Am I passionate about the topic? Your passion on the topic will affect all areas of your delivery, including body language, eye contact and energy levels. If you are interested in the topic, you’ll engage with the audience better and generally make for a more interesting speech.
3. Will the audience be interested in the topic? If the audience doesn’t see how they can learn something useful from your topic, they’ll either not turn up or switch off early during the speech. Remember that your speech topic needs contain value for the audience. Guide to Choosing a Successful Speech Topic

Another public speaking web site had this:

In the body, the fewer the main points the better. For short classroom speeches, under 10 minutes, speeches should not have more than three main points. For longer speeches, more than five main points ensures that audiences will have trouble following and remembering the speech. In the speech, main points should be clearly stated and "signposted," marked off as distinct and important to the audience. Transitions often serve to signpost new points, as do pauses before an important idea. Additionally, speakers might number main points—first, second, third or first, next, finally. Always make it easy for the audience to recognize and follow key ideas.Structuring the Speech

Not one single follower of Bwana Bob in Africa cares about ANY of these topics. 99% of Christians do not either. These are just diversions away from the fact that he denies Christ and is not his follower. He can't even preach on the guy in a single sermon without any of this useless fluff thrown in.

 

Living Church of God: Is Denmark Getting Ready To Persecute The LCG?

 

The boys in Charlotte are concerned about a new Danish law that requires sermons spoken in a language other than Danish to be translated and submitted to the state for approval. Since LCG considers itself to be a religious minority, they see this as a direct assault on their freedom to say anything they want. We saw where that freedom went when Meredith's sermons drove Terry Ratzman over the edge and to start shooting up one of their churches. 

This will certainly send the Great Bwana Bob Thiel into a homeopathic knicker twisting frenzy as a sure sign the Beast is rising up in Europe to persecute the Church of God. Oh, wait, the Living Church of God says the same thing. No surprise there. Persecution is always at the doorstep ready to throw LCG members into concentration camps and hang their children from meathooks, at least those who are Laodiceans.

Danish Law vs. Religious Freedom: A new law under consideration in Denmark would require all sermons not given in the Danish language to be translated and submitted to the state (The Guardian, January 31, 2021). According to the government, the purpose of the new law is to “enlarge the transparency of religious events and sermons in Denmark, when these are given in a language other than Danish”—ostensibly part of an attempt to combat growing Islamic extremism. 

 

However, many are concerned that the proposed legislation represents extreme governmental overreach that would squelch freedom of religious expression—as it impacts all religious minorities in the country, not just Muslims. In addition, many fear that, if the law is passed, it will “be replicated elsewhere in Europe at a time when religious minorities were generally finding their freedoms being encroached upon.” At this time, it is unclear whether translated sermons would need to be submitted before or after they are given. 

 

Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought are all central tenets of Western civilization—and have been for centuries. These fundamental freedoms have allowed the Church of God to freely preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to nations all over the world (Matthew 28:18–20). However, Bible prophecies indicate that the freedom to preach the truth of Scripture will be greatly restricted as we approach the end of the age (Amos 8:11–12). Bible prophecies also reveal that a European “beast” power will emerge that will control not only trade but even religious ideas and teachings. The newly proposed Danish law could be a small foretaste of what is coming in the years ahead. For other important insights into Europe’s future, be sure to read The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor or Soon- Coming Reality?

Never fear though, Doug Winnail is back with warm fuzzy Happy Sabbath thoughts on the value of suffering through trials. 

The Value of Trials: Trials are never pleasant. Yet, when trials come, it is important to maintain a godly perspective (Isaiah 55:8–9). The Bible reveals that God allows us to experience trials to accomplish His purposes. Job was a “blameless and upright” man “who feared God and shunned evil,” yet he encountered a sudden series of tragic reverses because God was working out a purpose in his life (Job 1–2). Jesus and John the Baptist did not suffer and die because they sinned. They each had an important role to play in God’s plan, and their lives ended when they had fulfilled God’s purpose. We can be confident when trials come if we remember that God cares for each of His children (Matthew 10:29–31) and that God is molding and fashioning each of us for a much bigger purpose (Philippians 1:6). We also need to remember God’s promises: that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28), and that God will “make the way of escape” when we look to Him during our trials (1 Corinthians 10:13). This is why James wrote that we can rejoice as we endure trials, so we can learn lessons as we see God’s purpose for our trials (James 1:2–4). 

 

Have a profitable Sabbath, 

Douglas S. Winnail

Commercial Break: The Origin of Jesus Throne (Repost from 2017)

 The Stone Cries Out..."I'm erratic!"

The story of this rock begins and ends in one paragraph in Herbert Armstrong's autobiography2 where he tells the story of how he was a guest at the farm home of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer E. Fischer and while exercising on the hilltop he discovered a rock "about 14 inches high," where he prayed for the success of the new campaign meeting west of Eugene, Oregon. This rock was evidently the right height for him to kneel beside and so HWA said it became his "prayer rock." He goes on to say that he is sure that he "drank in much energy, spiritual strength and inspiration at that prayer rock."

(It was also a lot history that would contradict his beliefs)

Jesus Delivers His Throne To the Willamette Valley (13,000 BCE) and PCG

Gerald's Throne for Jesus Arrives in Portland and is ice rafted down to Eugene.

1000 Ft high surge roars down the Columbia River Basin at Crown Point just outside Portland 15,000 years ago after 2000 ft High ice dam bursts in Montana.  The flood created the Scablands of Eastern Washington State and flowed to 200 feet deep at Eugene, Oregon

Crown Point on the Columbia today.  The huge rock in the upper left corner is Beacon Rock and is the core of an extinct volcano left after the flood washed the cinder cone clean away leaving the basalt plug.

Jesus's PCG Throne appears to actually be an "erratic" commonly found in the Willamette Valley from Portland to Eugene.  The rock appears to be typical granite which is not a type of rock found in the area.  Thus it is called an erratic.  Granite such as commonly found on farms in the Willamette Valley originally comes from Idaho or Montana and these erratics are called "ice rafted" as they could only have gotten here by melting out of ice.  

The Eugene Erratic?

Eastern Washington State erratic

                                          

The Missoula Floods (also known as the Spokane Floods or the Bretz Floods) refer to the cataclysmicf loods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ice age. The glacial flood events have been researched since the 1920s. These glacial lake outburst floods were the result of periodic sudden ruptures of the ice dam on the Clark Fork River that created Glacial Lake Missoula. After each ice dam rupture, the waters of the lake would rush down the Clark Fork and the Columbia River, flooding much of eastern Washington and the Willamette Valley in western Oregon. After the rupture, the ice would reform, creating Glacial Lake Missoula again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_Floods

The Flood even  ice rafted one of the largest meteorites in America, down from Montana and melted it out in West Linn, Oregon , 8 miles south of Portland, where it was found in a farmers field.

"Known as "Tomanowos" to the Clackamas, who lived in the Willamette Valley before the arrival of European settlers, the Meteorite is revered by the Clackamas and their descendants. According to the tradition of the Clackamas, Tomanowos has healed and empowered people in the Willamette Valley since the beginning of time. The Clackamas believe that Tomanowos came to the valley as a representative of the Sky People and that a union occurred between the sky, earth, and water when it rested in the ground and collected rainwater in its basins. The rainwater served as a powerful purifying, cleansing, and healing source for the Clackamas and their neighbors. Tribal hunters, seeking power, dipped their arrowheads in the water collected in the Meteorite's crevices. These traditions and the spiritual link with Tomanowos are preserved today through the ceremonies and songs of the descendants of the Clackamas. Beginning in the 1850s, the Clackamas, along with more than 20 other tribes and bands from western Oregon and northern California, were relocated to the Grand Ronde Reservation in Oregon. Today, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, a federally recognized tribe, is the successor to the Clackamas Tribe."

https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/the-universe/planets/planetary-impacts/willamette-meteorite/agreement

You don't find 16 tons of iron that hit earth at 40.000 mph back in the day lying in the dirt of a cleared farmer's field.

So....the Sacred Stone of Blasphemy is most likely also an  ice rafted and deposited erratic from Montana compliments of the Missoula Flood.  

The Prayer Rock on the way  to Eugene, Oregon

The very rock that HWA prayed before and that Gerald Flurry now declares to be where his Jesus will return to is actually contains in it's actual history the  proof that the tales woven by HWA  and Flurry  (Dave Pack as well) about a 6000 year plan of God and a recent creation is somewhat mistaken to say the least.  . 

Not only were/are the teachings of HWA and now Gerald Flurry erratic at best, but both men prayed before one and were granted their erratic theology. 

PCG: Gerald Flurry Going Is To Be Crowned First And Then Christ Can Return And Get His Crown.

 

Can you imagine those early pioneers of the Church of God as they gathered in Belknap Springs envisioning what absolute vile filth that the Church of God would descend into with the current reign of apostate leaders (Pack, Flurry, Weinland, Thiel)? They would be appalled that people could descend to this level of spiritual degeneracy! 

Gerald Flurry has taken this spiritual degeneracy to a new low. He has crowned himself king. He dug up an old rock that Herbert Armstrong supposedly prayed at and has brought it back to Edmond Oklahoma where it is revered in awe by devotees as the very rock Christ will come back to sit upon...AFTER Flurry is officially crowned as KING before Jesus receives his crown.

This new throne changes God’s Work significantly!
The new throne elevates our royal standard.
Having this throne, we must come to think about ourselves in a royal way.

We have to think about and study this throne deeply to appreciate what God has given us. We possess the very throne from which Jesus Christ will rule, and the very law He will administer, in the World Tomorrow! God wants His Church today to demonstrate to the world as best we can what that rule will be like! That is quite a responsibility. But we are doing all we can to fulfill it. 

Notice what PCG has its focus upon...a dirty old rock. Not that dude they claim to follow, but a dirty old rock. Plus, Flurry is indoctrinating PCG members and his cult college students into believing they are "royalty". 

We must keep that new throne focus. We strive to make this Church as royal as we can. We have a royal Church, a royal Imperial Academy, a royal college. We have the only royal hope there is in this world: the new throne of David! 

 

That throne’s namesake, King David, loved music and dance. He was highly skilled at these arts, and used them to glorify God. When he brought the ark into Jerusalem, “David danced before the Lord with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14). When King Saul called for some uplifting art forms, one of his courtiers described the young David as “a skillful musician, a fine dancer, a gentleman, a good reciter and a handsome man, and the Everliving is with him” (1 Samuel 16:18; Ferrar Fenton). Even in music and dance, David honored God. That is royal dancing and music!

HWA "college" students are not taught to be followers of Jesus and to share in that story, but they are being taught to dance and singing musicals produced by PCG.

Our young people are being taught these skills. God’s Church today has royal musicians and royal dancers. They are learning that you can praise and honor God with music and dancing. I believe much of David’s dancing was along the lines of Irish dancing today.

OCG students and members must strive to follow the rock. Not Jesus, but a dirty old rock. 

Always strive to fulfill the vision of the new throne. If you have this vision, it makes a difference in your music, dance, or anything you do. God wants us to lift everything to a royal standard and dance like David would dance with all his heart—and like we will in the World Tomorrow! In all we do, we must try to take it up to the royal level! We have a huge responsibility to uphold God’s standard!

PCG is teaching its declining membership that they too will sit next to Jesus upon that dirty old rock to be kings and priests. Can you imagine the living hell it will be for those under the thumb of these crazy people?

God is preparing us to be kings and priests! He is raising that standard and fashioning us into a supremely royal and majestic people who sit on the throne of David with Jesus Christ! We are contributing to the royal family rule of God!

Flurry's mental ramblings get even weirder:

What a wonderful honor for God’s Church to be given a dual crown from God now—the crown of a king and a priest! (Zechariah 6:11-12). No other era of God’s Church ever received what we have received. 

 

But think about this: The dual crown magnifies our reward after emphasizing Christ.

This all revolves around the Father and the Son. This prophecy is about Jesus Christ, and the king-priestly crown conferred on “The Branch.” Here you have an end-time Joshua receiving this dual crown, then right on the heels of that, Jesus Christ returns! This is a stunning turn of events! 

 

Also, Joshua receiving this crown signals the fact that all of God’s firstfruit saints will receive the same dual crown, the crown of a king-priest! What an exalted office! Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords! That is coming, and we are getting ready right now (Revelation 19:7). Christ’s Bride gets ready because she sees the reward: We will be kings and priests sitting with Jesus Christ and helping Him implement the royal law from the very throne of God! She sees the madness of this world, and yearns to stop it! We must hurry, because time is running out! 

 

This really magnifies you. God wants you to understand what your reward is going to be! He wants it to be real! He wants you to live like this is going to happen! The people serving Him today will have dual crowns and will sit on that throne with Christ for eternity!

No, they won't, and that is a FACT! 

Can the depth of wickedness get any worse in COGland with Flurry, Thiel, Pack, and Weinland? Sadly, every day is a new day of bizarre behavior and apostate teachings. As the years stretch on and their god has not returned, the weird crazy crap they preach will get worse and worse. 

 

Are You A Spiritual Baby In The Church In Need Of A Self-appointed COG Leader Telling You What To Believe? One Crackpot Prophet Thinks So...

 

There is one trait that differentiates COG followers and Christians in the so-called world when it comes to understanding spiritual maturity.

Church of God leaders what you to remain as little whiney babies, totally dependent upon their words, and teachings. The most dangerous thing a COG Christian can do is decide to move on from the baby pablum that is spoon-fed to members and to become a mature Christian, grounded in Jesus Christ. 

Almost-arrested Elisha Bwana Bob Thiel, the self-appointed savior of Africa and 299 Caucasians let it be known tonight that he does not expect spiritually mature Christians to be part of his cult. If you were, you would be out the door so fast his Fatima's skirt would be even higher than it is already!

Bwana Bob said on February 25th in his weekly "sabbath" letter to his African faithful:

Until we are born into the Kingdom of God, we are all spiritual babes and need “the pure milk of the word, that we all can grow spiritually.

Bwana Bob needs his followers to be dependent upon his every word, as silly and unimportant that it is most of the time to any REAL Christian.  When you look at Bob Thiel's websites, his articles, sermons, animations, blogs, it is nothing but rubbish. Pure unadulterated pablum for babies who have to wait for their spiritual daddy to tell them what to believe.

When looking up different definitions of what a mature Christian is, I came upon this great definition which describes Thiel's theology to a "T:".

'Baby Christians', a baby is a person, a little person who is utterly dependent upon another. It is a person who is amused, often times, by rubbish - you can give it the box of the toy and not the toy, and it will be more amused with the box than the toy. A baby is a creature that seems to put into its mouth anything that it finds lying on the ground. As that little baby gets older - and it doesn't need to get too old, I can tell you, to go into little tantrums when it doesn't get its way. When we look at the figure, or the metaphor, or the illustration, the analogy that Paul gives us of baby Christians, we see that he's talking about people who are always dependent upon others, who never learn to have spiritual independence and growth individually. They are often amused by rubbish, by things that don't really matter, they'll put anything into their mouths, they'll feed themselves on anything except the word of God, and they are often - within the church of Jesus Christ - prone to tantrums. That's what a baby is like, and if you can imagine what an adult like that would be, you have now imagined what the Corinthians Christians were like in the days of Paul. Baby Christians

COG leaders never teach their members to reflect upon scripture, to question it, to examine it, and determine if it will fit life situations. 

For the last 16 years, I have been leading a 4-year course on the Bible, church history, and living your life fully as a Christian by looking at ways to put your faith into action in the world around you. Every four years the theme for that year is Living as Spiritual Mature Christians. A couple notes from the lesson plan has this:

Within the arena of Christian ministry a person demonstrates intellectual maturity as one reflects carefully and critically within life situations in ways that increase and enhance the ability to discern God's self-revelation and action.

Every age and culture must apply the model of Jesus to its own times and circumstances. The question of what constitutes Christian maturity must be answered afresh by each generation. What first-century Christians in Antioch thought about being Christ-like would be vastly different from those in pre-Reformation Europe or from those of us in the United States at the close of the twentieth Century. Christians in every era and location seek to model Christ out of their own experiences of the world, with their different needs and responsibilities, with their vastly different self-concepts. (Parent, Educating for Christian Maturity)  

This is why when you hear COG leaders spout off, today in 2021, that that are practitioners of 1st century Christianity you know that it is pure bunk. For them to say this proves they are not mature Christians. They are so immature that they cannot even model Christ in 2021 but struggle to model Moses. But, of course, the reason for that is that the COG cannot and will not focus upon Jesus. Its focus is upon the law, rules, proper church government, and idiotic worthless topics that have no meaning whatsoever to a Christian walk.

God is not after spiritual police but passionate followers. Mature Christians are so convicted by their belief that they are not so close-minded that they see everyone else wrong. That can sit down and glean wisdom from people of other Christian faiths, Muslims, Buddhists, and even atheists. They can share stories and support each other and not wag the crooked finger of COG hypocrisy in their faces. One can listen intently and not always agree, but still be kind and gracious to others. Baby Christians cannot stand the thought of even associating with a Catholic, Pentecostal person, or sitting in a Gospel praising African American church service, and God forbid if a Mulsim or an atheist ever came into their presence.

Baby Christians only love themselves and the group they are in.  All others are Laodiceans destined to the lake of fire. It just irks their pharisaical knickers that Jesus had a special love for those on the margins. This was the dividing line between him and the self-righteous Pharisees and other law keepers. Jesus surrounded himself with that with no voice - women, poor, lepers, the sick, centurions, slaves eunuchs, tax collectors, the dead, and others considered unclean

Mature Christian's hearts break for those in the world suffering and who have no voice. For the hungry, those suffering from famine, war, and persecution. They do something about it. They don't sit in their lovely home in Grover Beach CA and bitch about being persecuted when real Christians are being persecuted in Syria, Iraq, Malaysia, India, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. Some of them are even in prison or dying for their beliefs, while fake COG prophets whine like little crybabies that Youtube or Twitter blocked some poorly made video.

Why would ANYONE let some self-righteous turd tell them to remain spiritual babies? Babies are easy prey for predators and the current Church of God movement is FULL of predators!

14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. The Message, Ephesians 4:14-16 

 

Therefore let us get past the elementary stage in the teachings about the Christ, advancing on to maturity and perfection and spiritual completeness, [doing this] without laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God...Hebrews 6:1

Dave Pack: All the beautiful hoity-toity people left the church and the non-beautiful ones stayed

 

From an RCG source with an excerpt from sermon 287:

Now whenever Mr. Armstrong used the term, "whenever God shook the tree" back in Worldwide, I watched this over and over, because I pastored more people than anybody ever. And I knew many, many ministers, and I just saw a lot. And it was part of my training. I noticed that all the beautiful people would always leave. All the "hoity toitys," the people who wanted to be seen and the flatterers, it was always at the end of one of these sweeping problems, like 1974 or other times, even in the apostasy, in the early nineties. The beautiful people would go over a cliff like lemmings, because their heart wasn't here. It was the non-beautiful people, who stayed. People didn't care, who “read” the beautiful people like they were a book, like they were "McGuffey's Reader," "See Spot Run." That's how hard some of them were.

And you know, this well-known evangelist's wife standing there talking to a bunch of other ministers wives said, "I'm so glad my husband is an evangelist so that, I can buy several mink stoles." And then she showed them her mink stole, what a filthy attitude. Well, she's long gone. Their husband's long dead, but I knew I knew her well. So the beautiful people would leave, like rabbits in a storm. The old timers, sometimes but when the going gets tough, the tough got going, and the rest got out! They were gone.

Now, the church is growing all over the world. We bring people to Headquarters and sometimes because you have greater needs at Headquarters--small church--you have to accept people who don't belong at all, even in the church, nevermind Headquarters.

But you can't tell, because the first flatterers the earth will see are not going to be during the first kingdom. There are other flatters, and they will come here and they may be, almost like "rocks "God raises up to Abraham, to help and do a certain work and then they're gone. It's like we were just on their "bucket list" and they get a "check mark" and off they go! That was it. "You didn't think I was serious about this did you?" Well, I drew a salary for five or 10 or whatever number of years, "You didn't think I meant it did you?" "I'm a fraud, I'm out of here!" But it would always have to be [that] things were a little tougher or didn't go like they thought it should. "I can't take this!" They practically stamped their feet and ran out, like a brat in the grocery store aisle.

And I just tell you, at the end of all of this, the people that come through, are the ones that trust in the Lord. "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith in the earth?" The beautiful people who are always the ones that rise in power, they have more gifts and more skills and they're more in love with themselves, they're more self-focused and self-centered, and self-righteous, we would call them the “elites.” They believe God put them on to run the world. But as soon as he wants to run the world, watch for how many of them are gone. When you look for, you know, the house of the wicked, Psalm 37 says there they're gone in their house too. So, it's, it's a lesson to us. We stayed the course. It's part of why I said we stand first in line. We not only had to do this, we had to do it in the Laodicean age. And that was not easy.

The RCG source notes:

I do find it funny all us Ex-CGers were considered vile, ax grinders, heretics, opportunists, rebels....but now we are the BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE... gotta love it!

Dave Pack claims he is a messenger of a greater power who's work is so awesome that it is preparing the way for God and Jesus to come to earth at the same time

 

A reader here has been listening to Dave's sermon and pulled out this tidbit of absolute nonsense. Dave has placed himself at a level far greater than the god and creature "christ" he claims to follow. Only by his work can his " god & christ" come to earth together because he has prepared the way.

"So, you’re left with two choices: either there is a man on earth sorta like me up here now, or somebody else, who’s preparing the way for those two (God and Christ) to come out of the gate and build the initial Kingdom of God, or that messenger comes first, now that we know Ezekiel 21, with many, many others and prepares the way for God and Christ to come for the second iteration of the Kingdom because the crown already came off and here comes Christ later. Those are your only choices. Either there’s some human messenger talking to the church, explaining that God and Christ are coming together, or there’s a messenger with greater power, and a lot of others with him, in some kind of governmental structure that brought iniquity to an end where people got exalted and a lot of big people got taken down, and then God and Christ come because this man prepared the way before him. Do you see my point? Those are your only choices. And Ezekiel 21 will not allow you to believe any longer, or me – and this is the tip of the iceberg – that some church figure, me or anybody else, prepared the way for God and Christ to come out of the gate. That’s impossible, and you know nothing yet of the many, many other verses that say that’s impossible. That’s what the tease was about in last night’s email."  

 

Crackpot COG Prophet On Why People Who Use Splenda and Sweet'n Low Will Not Recognize The True Church

Will Splenda keep you out of the true church?

 

It's another sunny day in Grover Beach, CA, and our favorite self-appointed crackpot prophet whips out another ludicrous article. Never has a prophet been so consumed with some of the silliest and irrelevant topics that a prophet would be speaking about than in what we see penned by Almost-arrested, doubly blessed Elisha Bwana Bob Thiel, the great savior of Africa and 299 Caucasians.

There is a reason you do not see prophets in the New Covenant church or even in its theology. Apparently, God foresaw the future line of blithering idiots the Church of God would be producing in 2021, in the likes of Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, Dave Pack, Alton Bilingsley, and Bob Thiel, and then decided that with the becoming of Christ no more prophets were needed. 

If you are a Christian and a follower of Christ then that need for a prophet is eliminated, plus the problem with today's COG prophets is that they all speak presumptuously for the god they claim to follow. The self-appointed prophets in the Church of God today were NOT appointed by God nor set apart by God to spread some kind of end-time prophetic message.

Notice what Deuteronomy (the COG's favorite book, after Leviticus) has to say about our current crop of self-appointed prophets:

But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’“You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’“When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)

That's pretty strong words against our COG prophets. Considering the fact that every single one of these guys has prophesied things that never came true, even just ONE time, is all we need to know about these fools. God rejects them just as we should.

But let's not forget our favorite blithering idiot of a prophet, Bob. Today he has an article up about artificial sweeteners (which actually has some good info in it) and then goes on to equate the idea that people refuse to listen to science that artificial sweeteners are bad for you just as they refuse to listen to the self-appointed prophet of God and the message from the one and only true church supposedly doing a work today. 

I'll skip the artificial sweetener fact list and jump in where he starts comparing those people who use it to those that reject his teachings as a prophet and as a non-apostolic minister pretending to lead a church today.

Avoiding artificial sweeteners, chemical additives, excess refined sugar, and some other items commonly associated with junk foods is consistent with the warning to eat what is good. 

 

Despite the truth, most people (over 98%) who take typical vitamin supplements believe that whatever they take is actually natural and does not have the risks that researchers keep finding that typical vitamin supplements have. This is a false belief. The truth about vitamins in supplements can be known, but most do not want to learn and then act on the truth. 

 

It is a lot like religion. False religion is also artificial and it DOES NOT BRING salvation.
Because of tradition, family influence, and/or social pressures, most people (over 99%) have a faith (religious, atheistic, or agnostic) that is based upon false belief.

That is a perfect description of the Church of God splinter groups today. A works-based false religion that will not bring salvation. A lot of COG members are in it because of family influence and pressure from other COG members to stay in it. Almost all of the larger groups in the COG are based upon false belief and the command to heed church government.

Most WILL NOT WORSHIP GOD IN TRUTH, but instead cling to falsehoods and false traditions. Many use Jesus’ name, but He says He will say to many that He does not know them. 

 

Like those who swallow a lot of artificial sweeteners try to convince themselves that they are helping themselves. 

 

Nearly all take false beliefs into their hearts and minds all the time. They hope, despite the truth, that physical benefits and/or spiritual salvation will come from faiths built upon falsehood. 

 

Consuming large amounts of artificial sweetener can increase the risk of diabetes, obesity, dementia, and other diseases. Being a consumer of false religion does not lead to salvation in this age.

Following these false COG leaders leads to unhealthy mental issues, poverty, sickness, broken marriages and families, divorce, depression, suicide,  and even murder. These followers all hope, despite the truth surrounding them that salvation will come to them through their church and its leadership. Follow them and you will make it to the kingdom and become a god as God is God.

Prophets of God, when they were needed, encourage and convict people to act upon something in order to prevent something drastic from happening. Not so with Bob Thiel. This bumbling fool preaches on these topics as if they are important to anyone seeking to be a follower of Jesus Christ:

• Purim 2021 and Iran
• Could Switzerland be descended from Gad? (Even if it is, it is not relevant)
• I365: 800-Year-Old Prophecy and Hidden Torah Codes 
• COGwriter: No, not this COVID pandemic …
• Polycarp: Any relevance? What did Herbert W. Armstrong teach about him? (Herberts opinion is irrelevant)
• Is it really logical to believe in God? (Bob is unable to prove his point on this subject)
• German State Forbids Drivers From Wearing Masks, Sunglasses & Hats At Same Time’
• Did Papias of Hierapolis teach CCOG or Church of Rome doctrines? (It is a FACT that Papias did NOT teach CCOG doctrines, in fact, no one in the Bible does)
• Should believers ‘completely trust’ the KJV Bible?
• MS: If You Believe Life Will “Return To Normal”, You Have A Fundamental Misunderstanding Of The Times In Which We Live; Biden Pushing ‘Equality Act’
• BibleNewsProphecy: USA pushing (im)’moral leadership’? (COG leadership has been the most immoral group of men ever)
• ‘China Betrays Its Deal with the Vatican’
• Joe Biden: life may not return to normal this year due to COVID mutations; Paul Roberts: The Covid Pandemic Is The Result of Public Health Authorities Blocking Effective Treatment
• Sermon: What Type of Catholic was Polycarp of Smyrna?
• Munich Security Conference: Biden urges allies to show democracies can ‘still deliver’
• ‘Biden Withdraws Trump’s Restoration of UN Sanctions on Iran’ ‘Israel: US paving path to Iranian nuclear bomb with push to rejoin JCPOA’
• CG7-Denver, the Paulini, and Binitarianism
• 1984 to be banned? Vaccine needed to buy & sell? 666 precursors?
• Nord Stream 2 and other European moves away from the USA: USA too damaged to lead?
• Conspiracy theories do not mean that Freemasons do not exist
• WND: Archbishop to Biden: Stop calling yourself a ‘devout Catholic’ (God says, Bob Thiel Stop calling yourself a Christian!)
• ‘You Must Eat 100% Synthetic Beef, Says Bill Gates Who Is An Early Investor In The Fake Meat Industry’
• Ash Wednesday: Did Early Christians Observe Something Like It?
• UN: Iran producing uranium metal in violation of 2015 nuclear deal; Israel is concerned and may not support Biden-Harris plans
• Aim of impeachment to support monitoring ‘domestic terrorism’? Kevin Sorbo removed from Facebook
• Mardi Gras and Shrove Tuesday?
• Germany pushing ‘mark of the beast’?
• AP on COVID conspiracies, but it fails to report on major vitamin D study
• DW: 500 years after Martin Luther’s excommunication: A chance for ecumenical Christianity

Not one single thing listed above is relevant to a Christian's walk. None of them have anything to do with salvation. While they may be interesting or even factual, they still are 100% irrelevant to the spiritual life of a follower of Christ.

Fake prophets and false preachers in the Church of God need to keep their few followers whipped into a frenzy of fear and dread. Because every single one of today's COG leaders ignores Christ and everything he came to accomplish and did, they are left with the kind of crap Bob publishes and the things Pack and Flurry says.

Followers of Jesus know this:

Philippians 4:6-7
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This invalidates all of the conspiracy theories, false doctrines, false teachings, and blatant lies of today's COG leaders. No one needs their crap.

Philippians 4:9
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

 

Colossians 3:15
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 

 

Romans 5:1
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 8:6
6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

Ephesians 6:15

15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 

 

John 14:27
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. 

 

1 Thessalonians 5:23
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

James 3:18
18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. (Have you ever noticed that COG leaders are NOT peacemakers? They are constantly stirring up strife and trauma in the church) 

 

Philippians 4:7
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

No follower of Christ needs to follow anything Bob Thiel says. They do not need to follow Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry or Ron Weinland, or any other leader of a corporate Church of God. 

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5

People In Restored Church of God Need To Hear From Us Former Members

From a comment in a previous post:

Sure wasn't any of that when I was giving on a monthly basis:

- First Tithe
- Tithe of Tithe
- Leftover Second Tithe
- Third Tithe
- Offerings
- Volunteering on the campus on Sunday landscaping
- Working Mon-Fri doing everything on top of my actual job
- Setting up and breaking down the halls multiple times on Saturday, opening doors   for people who never could say hi, bringing in food, vacuuming, etc.
- Fundraising Money
- I was paying on top of everything to attend Ambassador Center
- I dressed the part
- Never stepped out of line
- Said yes
- Shoveled for others and never had time to shovel for myself
- It goes on and on

But as soon as I cut RCG off and stop being a cash cow for them and free labor in many cases, I became all these things. 

I sacrificed a lot, gave up my own path for a cause I believed in, and quietly like many others who needed something to look too, I gave RCG the best of me in all areas, and yet that was simply not worthy. 

People who are in the RCG need to hear us, former members, when we say: "Why are you being faithful to a place and person who won't be faithful to you once you are no longer giving them $$$$$$$$$$$$ and free labor"?

I have sat at HQ before Dave Pack and heard him in real-time completely assassinate the character of HQ ministers/employees who would leave. A lot of these never made it onto the tapes/cd or online files because they were cut. 

But I truly sat there as Pack would spit and rage over ministers and employees who would leave and hear him divulge details of their sins. He would never directly say but infer and when David Pack infers you can most certainly use enough common sense to know who and what he is talking about. 

Over time I felt two things: 1. I cannot safely counsel with HQ ministers and 2. Something had to be wrong if every time a minister or employee left, Pack thought it necessary to go to great lengths to assassinate their character. Something didn't sit right with me about that and I just wanted to hear the other side.

It's not surprising when you hear it. You sort of expected it. It certainly is disappointed. Because you feel like you wasted time.

RCG members are conditioned to believe that any kind of questioning internally or externally = loss of salvation.

This is clearly evidenced in his recent sermon where he states that those who believe they have made it to 1335 are locked in, and settled. 

David Pack has proven himself to be a false prophet and not one minister has enough balls to stand up at the pulpit and give a refresher on what a false prophet looks like. 

You shall know them by their fruits is in the context of false prophets, remember that! Matthew 7:15–18

Testing the spirits is in the context of false prophets. 1 John 4:1

David's prophecy is from his own will, and he has a need to be right, to prove himself. 2 Peter 1:20–21

“I did not send David Pack, yet he ran; I did not speak to him, yet he prophesied".

Jeremiah 14:14
Zechariah 10:2
Jeremiah 23:16
Jeremiah 23:21
Micah 3:11
2 Peter 2:1–3
Matthew 7:15–18

The NT has a lot to say about false teachings and false prophets and yet there is no actual prophet in the new testament, that office isn't seen until two witnesses come later on. But why is that? 

Dave Pack: There has never been a COG that has had more vile, rebellious, heretical, criminal, and opportunistic people in its midst than this !

 

Remember, this is a Church of God where the leader is never at fault. 

It is always those ungrateful sods that are employees and members.

Even though I will begrudgingly take your money, you are still nothing more than walking pieces of Laodicean garbage, unfit to be in my presence.

Psychological Rigidity: Why Certain People Will Never Admit They are Wrong

 

I believe , by now anyone can rightfully wonder after years of being  wrong about  everything Apostle David C Pack can imagine , "What the hell is wrong with this man? 

 I have heard over the years that "Dave Pack is brilliant."  This is not true. If Dave Pack was brilliant, he'd not come up with such foolishness and take every Sabbath to bring his Prophetic Circus to town basing it on foolishness easily disproven. I did not find Dave "brilliant" in his refutable "Irrefutable Proof of God" series either. Loud, cocky and ill informed, but not brilliant in any sense of the word.  

So then I got to thinking that maybe Dave Pack is clever.  I gave up on that too. It is not a sign of being clever when week after week and month after month, ok, year after year,  the man is badly mistaken in his narrow field of prophetic woo woo and can not once admit he was mistaken. Like the Second Coming, everything is right on track even when there is no real train or tracks going anywhere. Most would be able to see this as mistaken and delusional.  Clever is supposed to have some kind of reward. Dave is not being rewarded for this foolishness available for everyone and anyone with half a brain to observe and evaluate. 

Dave seems oblivious to the fact that he has founded his Church on prophetic sand and that in his own mind, he is specifically spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures. That is simply crazy talk. Herbert Armstrong played that game as well and Dave has copied his mentor to the harm of all who come within his reach.  Most would call that a sign of mental illness or at least delusional thinking with religious content. Neither bodes well for RCG in the very near future. 

Dave Pack has become over the year, less and less coherent in his speaking. One can listen to his sermons of the past year and simply end up saying "Huh?  What the hell is he talking about?"  That's not a good sign.  Even I know "the simplicity that is in Christ" escapes Dave. I bet if you asked the Sacred Council of 13 to exactly explain what Dave just spoke about or the big picture of what he feels proves this or that, they would not be able to do it. Going along to get along is more their style it seems. I will be the local ministry is even more in the fog. 

So here ,in my view,  is what Dave's deeply embedded problem with himself is and why this Circus he calls the Restored Church of God is pretty much doomed to fail.  But I will let the experts speak to this. 

Why Certain People Will Never Admit They Were Wrong

Psychological rigidity is not a sign of strength.

Guy Winch Ph.D.

(Note: Definition of Psychological rigidity-)

"In psychology, rigidity or mental rigidity refers to an obstinate inability to yield or a refusal to appreciate another person's viewpoint or emotions characterized by a lack of empathy. It can also refer to the tendency to perseverate, which is the inability to change habits and the inability to modify concepts and attitudes once developed. A specific example of rigidity is functional fixedness, which is a difficulty conceiving new uses for familiar objects."

"Mental rigidity often features a high need for cognitive closure, meaning that they assign explanations prematurely to things with a determination that this is truth, finding that resolution of the dissonance as reassuring as finding the truth.^[17] Then, there is little reason to correct their unconscious misattributions if it would bring uncertainty back."  Wikipedia

In other words, when Dave adjusts his mistaken notions to make him feel like he is not mistaken, this is reassuring that he was not mistaken in the first place. Thus every failed belief is upheld and we can know that "the math is absolutely right" and "The prophecy is absolutely on track."  when it is neither. Eventually the end of the line will come when nothing can fix all the mistaken notions and something bad is probably going to happen.  It will not be, "I am sorry, I was mistaken"

The article continues...

We all make mistakes, and we do so with regularity. Some errors are small, such as, “No, we don’t need to stop at the store; there’s plenty of milk left for breakfast." Some are bigger, such as, “Don’t rush me; we have plenty of time to get to the airport before the flight leaves.” And some are crucial, such as, “I know it was raining and dark, but I’m sure that was the man I saw breaking into the home across the street.”

No one enjoys being wrong. It’s an unpleasant emotional experience for all of us. The question is how do we respond when it turns out we were wrong—when there wasn’t enough milk left for coffee, when we hit traffic and missed the flight, or when we find out the man who sat in jail for five years based on our identification was innocent all along?

Some of us admit we were wrong and say, “Oops, you were right. We should have gotten more milk.”

Some of us kind of imply we were wrong, but we don’t do so explicitly or in a way that is satisfying to the other person, “We had plenty of time to get to the airport on time if the traffic hadn’t been unusually bad. But fine, we’ll leave earlier next time.”

But some people refuse to admit they’re wrong, even in the face of overwhelming evidence: "They let him go because of DNA evidence and another dude’s confession? Ridiculous! That’s the guy! I saw him!”

The first two examples are probably familiar to most of us, because those are typical responses to being wrong. We accept responsibility fully or partially (sometimes, very, very partially), but we don’t push back against the actual facts. We don’t claim there was enough milk when there wasn’t, or that we were not late to the airport.

But what about when a person does push back against the facts, when they simply cannot admit they were wrong in any circumstance? What in their psychological makeup makes it impossible for them to admit they were wrong, even when it is obvious they were? And why does this happen so repetitively — why do they never admit they were wrong?

The answer is related to their ego, their very sense-of-self. (Note: Dave believes he is spoken of in the scriptures. There can be no more false sense of self than this.) Some people have such a fragile ego, such brittle self-esteem, such a weak "psychological constitution," that admitting they made a mistake or that they were wrong is fundamentally too threatening for their egos to tolerate. Accepting they were wrong, absorbing that reality, would be so psychologically shattering, their defense mechanisms do something remarkable to avoid doing so — they literally distort their perception of reality to make it (reality) less threatening. Their defense mechanisms protect their fragile ego by changing the very facts in their mind, so they are no longer wrong or culpable.

As a result, they come up with statements, such as, "I checked in the morning, and there was enough milk, so someone must have finished it." When it’s pointed out that no one was home after they left in the morning, so no one could have done that, they double down and repeat, “Someone must have, because I checked, and there was milk,” as though some phantom broke into the house, finished the milk and left without a trace.

In our other example, they will insist that their erroneous identification of the robber was correct despite DNA evidence and a confession from a different person. When confronted, they will continue to insist or pivot to attacking anyone who tries to argue otherwise and to disparaging the sources of the contradictory information (e.g., "These labs make mistakes all the time, and besides, you can't trust a confession from another criminal! And why do you always take their side?").

People who repeatedly exhibit this kind of behavior are, by definition, psychologically fragile. However, that assessment is often difficult for people to accept, because to the outside world, they look as if they’re confidently standing their ground and not backing down, things we associate with strength. But psychological rigidity is not a sign of strength, it is an indication of weakness. These people are not choosing to stand their ground; they’re compelled to do so in order to protect their fragile egos. Admitting we are wrong is unpleasant, it is bruising for any ego. It takes a certain amount of emotional strength and courage to deal with that reality and own up to our mistakes. Most of us sulk a bit when we have to admit we're wrong, but we get over it

But when people are constitutionally unable to admit they’re wrong, when they cannot tolerate the very notion that they are capable of mistakes, it is because they suffer from an ego so fragile that they cannot sulk and get over it — they need to warp their very perception of reality and challenge obvious facts in order to defend their not being wrong in the first place.

How we respond to such people is up to us. The one mistake we should not make is to consider their persistent and rigid refusal to admit they’re wrong as a sign of strength or conviction, because it is the absolute opposite — psychological weakness and fragility.