Why Does Our Crackpot Prophet Continue To Use Norm Edwards As Validation?

 

One would think that after being set apart by God as the foundations of the world were laid out and the plan of salvation was being developed, our illustrious self-appointed prophet in these perilous end times would not need to continually try and prove his prophethood status. Each year he must trout Norm Edwards as some kind of authority on prophets. Two erroneously wrong individuals do not make it right.

Norm Edwards was like the Great Bwaana to Africa and his 100 Caucasians. He left the church in a spirit of rebellion to start his own group because he knew MORE than those he was rebelling against. Norm did have one good thing going for him: he put what he believed into action and started a recovery center for recovering addicts.

Norm had a fan following of dissident members in Pasadena during the WCG upheaval and afterward with The Servant News and lately with Shepherds Voice.

The Great Bwana starts off by letting us know that Edwards was a former member of the Global Church of God (another rebellious COG splinter group). That right there makes Norm 100% legitimate...NOT!

The bouncing Bwana starts off with this from Edwards:

“… I [an angel] am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10).

With dozens of New Testament Scriptures explaining and encouraging the ongoing prophecy in the New Testament and with no scriptures clearly declaring its end, one must conclude that prophets and prophecy are something that God wants for His Church today!

Implementing These Truths

In this 21 st century, most who call themselves Christian neither observe the Sabbath nor seek prophets or prophecies in their congregations. A few teach and practice one or the other. Only a tiny fraction accepts both.

The single biggest difficulty in acquiring any truth, no matter how valuable, is overcoming our own human pride. It is very difficult to accept that we have been wrong about something for many years— especially when we have been right on other things. The lessons of the books of Kings and Chronicles come to mind. Each king’s life is frequently summed up in a single statement— explaining what he did right and where he fell short. If we hunger and thirst for God as King David did (Psalm 63:1; 107:9), we can receive all that he has for us—and obtain a good report (Acts 22:12; Hebrews 11:2, 39).

Right off the bat, Bwana Bob fails Norm's standards for a prophet. Bwana Bob is one of the most prideful people the church has seen in decades! 

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness(1 John 1:9).

Beyond our personal decision to accept a biblical truth, we find difficulty dealing with Christian friends with whom we will differ. From our long friendships, we see each other as fellow believers. But our difference in Biblical understanding raises the questions in each person’s mind: If I do this and they do that, am I wrong? Are they wrong? Should I continue to fellowship with them?

Finally, for members of a church group with a doctrinal statement that is decades or centuries old, growth is rarely quick or even possible. Both religious and civil leaders struggle with prophets today for the same reason they did in the Old and New Testaments. The prophets speak for God, not for the religious or civil leaders of the day. People who always prophesy what the leaders want are probably false prophets.

Strike two for Bwana Bob. He does NOT speak for God! That is a fact. God doesn't deal in maybe's, could be's, and possibles, all hallmarks of the sad little ministry of Bwana Bob. 

This writer heard a church leader put forth this argument against prophets in the church: “If there are real prophets today, then we could ask them and know for sure when Christ will come back. But the Bible says that no man knows that time, so there cannot be prophets today.” We should never underestimate God. He is quite able to not answer the questions we do not need answered now. Jesus already explained this leader’s question:

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:6-8).

Individual believers can choose to accept and practice the Scriptural truth about prophets quietly. But if they speak openly and often, they will probably be required to depart for a new congregation. This takes faith to “walk in the wilderness” until new believing friends are established. …

One can quietly come to understand that God grants the gift of prophecy today and continue to fellowship and serve with the same brethren. But when a believer receives a prophecy in a church meeting (1 Corinthians 1 4:30) or makes important life decisions based on a current prophesy, then division often arises. Is this person hearing from God? Should we take action on what he says?

Bwana Bob does not have the gift of prophecy. This is a well-understood fact that the ENTIRE leadership of the Living Church of God understands as do 99.98% of LCG members. That is why LCG turned their backs on Bwana Bob en masse!

A little later Bwana Bo says this:

A while back, Norman Edwards also wrote an article Need Prophets More than Prophecy where he went through additional scriptures. Here are some items from that article:

Do people today have faith that God is able to prophecy through people in their congregations?

1Jo 4:1-2 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

Note: If there were no true prophets, there would be no need to “test the spirits”—because every prophet would be a “false prophet”. But because there are both true prophets and false prophets, we need to “test the spirits”.

Rev 1:1-3 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants — things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

The last book of the Bible is a prophecy inspired by Christ, given to the apostle and prophet named John.

Rev 10:7 But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.

There is no Old Testament prophecy about a “seventh angel” and very little about a “mystery of God”.

Rev 10:10-11 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. And he said to me, “You must prophesy againabout many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”

Here an angel is commanding John (or some end-time fulfillment of him) to prophesy. It does not say what he is to prophesy, but it will be given to the prophets when they need it. …Yes, God might choose to give one of them the gift of prophecy, but since most such groups and their schools do not seek out prophetic gifts, they rarely receive them. Notice these important passages:

Matt 23:37-39 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! “See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ “

Matt 21:24-27 But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John — where was it from? From heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

If there was no prophet greater than John the Baptist (Matt 11:9-11) and if the leaders of his day refused to recognize him, what makes us think that the leaders of our day will recognize any true prophets today? 

 Then the Great Bwana opens his mouth and sticks his foot in, as usual:

Norman Edwards was the editor for Shepherd’s Voice magazine. He is not part of the Continuing Church of God, where, I function as its human leader (and am an ordained prophet; the only known such ordained prophet in any legitimate Church of God group).

Complete balderdash! Bwana Bob is no more a prophet than Dave Pack is. In fact, they are both the same, unrepentant spiritual abusers. 

While Norman Edwards and I have long disagreed about aspects of church governance and various matters of doctrine, we both agree that many who are in or claim to be in the Church of God (COG) wrongly do not accept that God has any prophets today and that Laodicean pride gets in the way. We also agree that most have severe difficulty identifying one who really is a prophet because of various unscriptural biases and improper criteria that they have. 

Talking about Laodicean pride - Bwana Bob is its poster boy!  

Because of false prophets in a couple of COG-related groups (PCG and CGPfK come to immediate mind, but there are others) and a disbelief in prophets by most of the COG groups, the non-Philadelphian COGs have a lot of severe prophetic misunderstandings.

Bwana Bob needs to include the improperly named "continuing" Church of "god" in that list of COG's. Never have we seen such severe prophetic misunderstandings!

Bitter Bwana Bob then drags LCG and UCG into the list supposedly claiming he is a real prophet. Both groups categorically deny he is a modern-day prophet!

Some will come up with their preferred rationale as why not to agree with the position of the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) on these matters. Yet not only is CCOG’s position biblical, it should be noted that leaders in the Living Church of God and/or the United Church of God confirmed to me personally that I was biblically correct on nearly all of the above points, despite the fact that their respective churches hold to several of the errors pointed out above. Those who rely too much on a compromised ministry (Ezekiel 34:7-10) to teach them prophecy that is not truly in accordance with scripture need to realize that according to Jesus’ words in Revelation 2 & 3 and Luke 21, only relatively few Christians will be protected from the hour of trial that will come upon the whole world.

Such a load of crap! Such a load!

As Norman Edward’s article points out, it is scriptural to now have prophets according to the New Testament. But many who truly believe that they live by the word of God have discounted or overlooked what the Bible actually teaches and/or have been influenced by others who have done the same or worse. The COG has at least one demonstrably true prophet today, yet most in the greater COG world seem to be able to ignore the truth about that, like most ignored John the Baptist and others in their day.

LOL! So when we laugh at and mock Bwana Bob's self-appointment as a prophet we are being like those in John the Baptist's time! Hilarious! 

Pride is a bigger problem for Christians than most realize. People, including Christians, have a hard time admitting that they were wrong.

Again, never has the church had a more prideful man than we have in Bwana Bob today. That alone has turned off thousands of people, particularly in LCG. They knew his pride got the better of him and refused to follow him into his nuttiness. 

Now, let me add that because Herbert W. Armstrong said there were no prophets in the old Worldwide Church of God when he was alive, many have falsely concluded that there could not be any legitimate prophets in the Church of God beyond New Testament times. But that is wrong. 

Just like Gerald Flurry having to edit HWA's writing to validate himself as a prophet, the Great Bwana does the same thing. HWA would have kicked Bwana Bob to the curb so fast that his head would still e spinning.

The great Bwana ends with this:

Do not let pride or preconceived ideas get in the way of you accepting biblical truth. That, according to Jesus, is actually the biggest problem for most Christians in the end time per Revelation 3:14-22–most Christians refuse to fully “hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:22).

The biggest problem with COG members in this period of time is that there are far too many liars and self-appointed prophets and apostles who have set themselves WITHOUT God's permission and are outright liars and religious frauds. The people in these false groups need to wake up and leave these degenerate churches and find the peace that passes all understanding. It will never be found in these groups, especially in Bwana Bob's lackluster personality cult.

WIll you truly hear and take the proper steps related to matters such as prophets?

Not when it comes from your mouth! Get on your knees and repent you lying false prophet!