Anyone with an extended period of time in the Armstrong version of the Church of God movement knows full well the "Ambassador Quality" it attempted to use in its publications and videos. Top-notch film crews with state-of-the-art technology pumped out slick propaganda videos that kept the lay members "informed" and supposedly impressed by that "Ambassador Quality". Those days died out with the implosion of the church and the tithe money dried up.
In the meantime, new and improved COG movements popped onto the scene, some literally overnight, attempting to restore the church to its glory days. These churches thought they brought over the brightest and the best when they formed their churches. UCG puts out its own slick church propaganda videos as does Dave Pack. Gerald Flurry has his own top-notch propagandists pumping out more articles, videos, and documentaries than any COG out there.
And then there is this. You only need to watch the first couple of minutes to see how bad it really is. You will know nothing new about this "christ" that embarrasses so many in the COG movement.
The Continuing Church of God is pleased to announce this sermonette from its Continuing COG channel:
Millions Today Do Not Know Who Christ Really Was
James Martenet uses scripture to explain who Christ Really was. He does so by going over a message once written by the late Herbert W. Armstrong with various biblical quotes.
The typical white CCOG member is a middle-aged man at the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, who derives his self-esteem from his church membership rather than from any quality or accomplishment of his own, and who resents the fact that the ministers in his previous splinter group never ordained him as a deacon or selected him to give sermonettes.
ReplyDeleteWhoosh what patronising psychology. Says more about you than he.
DeleteEven worse, Bob is pleased to announce it. Bob, obviously, can't see the problem here for the trees.
ReplyDeleteI have seen in most if not all of the splinter groups, the failure to heed the words of God in Matthew chapter 17 when He says "this is my son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him".
ReplyDeleteMost, if not all, keep repeating the name HWA instead of Jesus. They are hearing and bowing down to the name of a man. The Apostle Paul warned of this when people in the Church were bragging about who baptized them.
Sadly, this is a commentary for the end times because it will probably be those in the "Church" who will run here and run there when they are told it is Jesus, but instead it will be a mere man. When we fail to listen to and hear Jesus, we are left to our own devices.
I'm surprised that Thiel has revealed himself to be such a loosey-goosey liberal, what with allowing a speaker to wear a hideous brown shirt, without a coat, while giving a message. Neither HWA nor RCM would have permitted such laxity.
ReplyDeleteAt 26:28 in that video, Thiel's man tells us that Jesus Christ had sinful flesh. He doesn't seem to understand Romans 8:3, which explains that Jesus came "in the likeness of" sinful flesh, not "with" sinful flesh. There's a huge difference, yet this seems to go right over the head of Thielists. This speaker doesn't even realize that he is proclaiming Christ's inability to save us. Thiel's man tells us that human nature is inherently sinful. But if that's true, neither Adam nor Christ could possibly have lived a sinless life and overcome sin.
ReplyDeleteSo, are Thielists reintroducing the idea of "original sin" which HWA rejected? Or are they just ignorant of their own theology? Or, should I say, Thielology?
Wow, what a trippy back drop. Kind of looks like "Space Time" being bent or the like , while collapsing into a black hole.
ReplyDeleteFlurry, Pack, Weinland, Thiel , Cox, et al. should all go back to "Ambassador Quality" by getting a CHICKEN SUIT , like "Big Beak" used to wear on the Festival videos!
I have always considered the videos coming out of the CCG as being towards the bottom of the heap, but this one takes them even lower. How can anyone watch this stuff and think they are hearing God's word?
ReplyDeleteI have always considered the videos coming out of the CCG as being towards the bottom of the heap, but this one takes them even lower. How can anyone watch this stuff and think they are hearing God's word?
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is Broadway Bob's way of showing us that he is by far the most skilled communicator in his improperly named Continuing Church of God?
I've heard a lot dumb sermons over the years, but this one seems to cap them all off.
ReplyDeleteThe scary part is that Zerubbabel's videos look more professional!
ReplyDeleteBroadway Bob's way of showing us that he is by far the most skilled communicator
ReplyDeleteA few weeks ago Bob put up a sermon done by a chap in Central America - I think it was Panama. I don't know his affiliation with Bob's mob, but his sermon was far, far better than anything that came out of CCOG.
self-appointed, diploma mill Ph.D. "earning" Bwana Bob Thiel
ReplyDeleteSelf-appointed, yes, but to be fair to Bob, it's his ThD from an unaccredited Indian institution that has been questioned. As Bob has had peer-reviewed scientific papers published, a bogus PhD would have been discovered long ago. I'd go so far as to say that his PhD would be of far greater value than any AC degree. As for his ThD, well, I can't say, only that his dissertation appears to show more academic scholarship than the Compendium.
Downward spiral presupposes that an org was ever rising in the first place. How can you go on a downward spiral if you are already on the bottom?
ReplyDeleteThiel's group just gets weirder by the day. Who in their right mind thought this was a good thing to post?
ReplyDeletedownward spiral
ReplyDeleteBob claimed CCOG was the fastest growing 21st cetury COG. Going from zero to thousands in Africa was his great leap forward. Now comes the slow slide of natural attrition.
This was absolutely horrible! Even the near 80 year old president can read from a teleprompter better than this....
ReplyDelete@ 7:28 AM, it's so interesting to see how men like Thiel, Pack, and Flurry begin their splinters by claiming that they are restoring a doctrinal purity that the mothership abandoned, but soon start teaching their own weird doctrines. Despite his many degrees, it is obvious that Bob doesn't have a clue about Christian doctrine, and it seems he is reenacting in his CCOG some of the same doctrinal wanderings that the early Christian church went through.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteBob has no real peer-reviewed dissertation defended degree in theology. He took a few classes here and there, like Fuller and Ambassador but was not qualified to get a degree. He tries to impress the public by claiming he studied at Fuller, but in reality, only had a class or two because he thought he knew better than they did. There is nothing genuine and truthful about the guy. Once his African leaders figure out what a fraud he is there will dump his pathetic ass and move on to the next Sabbatarian group.
We must look in several areas as we search for relative value. The fact is that even if Bob's degrees had equivalent value to the same degrees from acredited colleges or universities (bachelor, masters, doctorate), ultimately the value lies in the measurable accomplishments which resulted from such degrees. Bob processes all of his incoming information through his bizarre religious beliefs, meaning that he negates (being kind) at least 50% of the education he receives in class. Then, he also processes the information which he shares with others (his flock) through that same belief system. Whomever Bob teaches does not receive the value of the education normally expected of a doctor's level because Bob has allowed the teachings of a high school dropout to negate and devalue his degrees.
ReplyDeleteno real peer-reviewed dissertation defended degree in theology
ReplyDeleteThe closest thing was possibly some of the critique given by Dennis.