Are reader here commented on another thread about the greatest COG prophet the church has ever seen since Jesus walked this earth:
Zippo said...
And in today's sermon, Bob gave a "who knows" speculation that some of his writings may go into the Bible. GTA and others suggested before that the book of Acts may be expanded to include all COG history.
The Great Bwana is in for a shock when he finds out there is no way in gehenna fire that will ever happen! The Church of God has always held a belief that the acts of COG members and ministers would be added to the Book of Acts because it supposedly has no ending as other books tend to have.
That is such a presumptuous claim that it is almost blasphemous. Herbert and Garner Ted both claimed this and it was taught at HQ. The main problem with all of this is that Armstrongism considers itself and its followers as the only true Christians who would qualify to be added to the book. Christians over the last 2,000 years that were not "COG" members are totally cut out of the picture. Their lives and ministry are worthless compared to the glorious words and lives of COG self-appointed prophets and apostles.
Who in their right mind in a glorious millennium would want to sit and read the words of Bob Thiel? Dying in the tribulation would have been a better fate for them than that!
17 comments:
Thiel has said a lot of incredibly stupid things over the years but this tops the list now. Not since David C Pack has the church had a bigger liar.
The Bible has room for the Amalekites, Simon Magus, and Diotrephes. It may someday have room for Bob (and Dave, and Ron, and Rod, etc.) but not in the way he would like.
I can think of some writings by Dr. Thiel that will NOT need to be added to a Millennial Bible.
Because the Kingdom of God is absolutely NOT going to have U.S./Canadian football - right?
I can see it now...the New and Improved Bible will have the following verses added
II Acts 1:15
Thus sayeth the greatest prophet of the Lord, "Thou shalt not play tackle football, for it is a sin to tackle your opponent. Thou shalt not lust after the cheerleaders which can cause men to commit fornication and adultery with their eyes."
One thing for sure about Bob and his church is that this blog has caused MANY people to not join Bob's cult. He only has members in regions of the world with limited computer and internet access. Americans of a COG background turned their backs on him almost immediately. That is why his numbers are appallingly low in the US/Canada/New Zealand/Australia and England. For all intent and purpose, he has been an abject failure with his so-called gospel.
I remember comments on the books of the Bible not ending in "Amen" being "incomplete". GTA suggested that the Book of Acts "could become a very large book".
And there were comments on some of HWA's tomes being canonized - hopefully not MOA and Missing Dimension!
Don't forget HWA's other two dismal failures, Tomorrow's World and The Incredible Human Potential. No one would read these if they were added to Acts.
The one thing I will say about Thiel, compared to some of the other goofballs out there in the COG world, is that I dont think he is an avaricious person, or trying to shake down people for money.
He apparently does not inure himself with a salary, and puts his own money into his imaginations.
Now dont take this as any kind of endorsement. Thiel has delusions of grandeur about himself , and should just work on helping people quietly and without self proclamations about his "title and mantles" or supernatural abilities.
Perhaps be more like Bill Goff who ministers and provides all he can materially for the people in Africa, without the vanity.
You know, I remember the missing "Amen" being a thing too, though I dont recall talk of HWAs works being added. Dont have total recall though, nothing would surprise me.
I dont recall talk of HWAs works being added
Talk about adding any of HWA's works to the Bible was a low-key thing. I remember this being hinted by a minister at a small "single men's Bible study". And the minister remarked that something about our little study may be added to Acts - but that may have been subtle humor...
Heh, I dug up this quote from Hoeh about 3 John's "missing" amen...
"John reveals, in the letter, a pagan conspiracy. It was a diabolical attempt by Simon Magus and his false apostles to seize the name of Christ, gain control of the true Church, and masquerade as "Christianity." God did not permit John to make known, in plain language, the names of the leaders of that conspiracy, and the city of their operation. That is why John cut his letter short. The missing "Amen" is to tell us to look elsewhere in the Bible for the answer."
Maybe its just an accident of phrasing but when he says "God did not permit him", all I can think of is that Monty Python scene with Joseph of Arimathea's written message.
I also heard, back in the Seventies, the statements that "the book of Acts is still being written" and "one day the co-worker letters would be added to the book of Acts." This reveals much about the true views of the old WCG. HWA always spoke very favorably of conservatism and condemned liberalism. Yet Armstrongism is radically liberal in important aspects of its denominational dogma. Armstrongism has been willing to change and progressively adapt the Law of Moses to modern expectations. Armstrongism, by claiming the book of Acts was still being written, opened the canon to further additions. These are radically liberal positions.
The canon is one of the most traditional institutions that Christianity has. Even Armstrongism regarded the King James translation process as a kind of verification and validation on the scripture. And further it was done by people who had racial gravitas - the translators were "Israelites." The KJV was an Israelitish product - it bears a kind of BI imprimatur. The idea that the canon was still open is a wholesale abandonment of conservative principles.
HWA had a semantic problem with the term "conservative." That is the theory I have as I try to explain the data. He used the term as an epithet in describing his enemies without reference to the term's accepted usage. He was willing to go against tradition and make changes and his perceived enemies were willing to do that as well. There was no political difference between them. They all fit the definition of the term "liberal." Since it was the hidebound Law of Moses that got futzed with, one might even say "radically liberal." "Liberal" was just a term that HWA recruited to describe people he believed to be oppositional to his views. It would be truer to meaning if wherever the reader sees HWA use the term "liberal," the reader substitutes the term "oppositional" - derived from oppositon to HWA's ideas. This historical war of semantics in the WCG has nothing to do with the classical ideas of liberalism and conservatism. It had mostly to do with ego.
You can be a supporter of opening the canon to additions or you can be a conservative but you can't be both of these at the same time.
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"Conservative" and "liberal" are slippery slope terminology. I'll like it when the day comes when the terms "unrighteousness" and "righteousness" are paramount.
Some more idiocy from Bob: "I believe that the government of the USA will take steps to get this website removed from the internet not too many years from now. And it may very well involve the US FBI."
No, sorry Bob, your group is way too small and too disinteresting for the government to ever notice. Sorry to pop your ego balloon.
Anon 5:27:00 PM PDT
FBI Director, 'Hey guys, do we have anything on Bob Thiel'?
FBI Secret Agents, 'Bob who'?
FBI Director, 'Oh, never mind'.
Bob who?
Well, if J. Edgar Hoover was still alive, he might have been offended by Bob blaming Californian natural disasters on LGBTQ...
I just don't understand Christians who believe in the imminence of the apocalypse, yet fail to see the correlation between the drying rivers in the USA, Europe, and now even the Yangtze River in China, and the prophecies in Revelation. Because Republicans do not believe in global warming because steps required to combat it will change the way business is done, the Christian right is largely blinded to the fact that global warming is from right out tof the pages of Revelation! God is allowing the consequences for mankind's poor stewardship of planet Earth to affect all living creatures, and rather than acknowledge what is plainly happening, Republican Christians defer to their party's agenda instead! It reminds me of the blind leaders of Israel during Jesus' physical life and ministry.
Bob Thiel is without a doubt a maverick who positions himself amongst the ACOG leaders. You'd think that as a maverick, and a naturalist, he would be able to see what is going on, and would speak out about it, but like everyone else, he ignores it because of the conservative agenda.
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