Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Dave Pack: RCG Youth To Be Eaten Alive, Elijah, Doubt, New Moons, Wade Cox, Kingdom Arrives April 8, 2024




It’s A Given

 

Truly desperate times have come upon The Restored Church of God. David C. Pack needed something unique to revitalize the brethren's waning enthusiasm and dwindling generosity. He dusted off a Hail Mary theological gimmick among the pages of ccg.org the Bible, and presented it to the RCG brethren as timely revealed knowledge.

 

During “The Greatest Unending Story! (Part 479)” on November 11, 2023, Pastor General and Historical Revisionist David C. Pack “restored” the observance of new moons. Roderick C. Meredith just phoned Headquarters from the grave to gloat, “I told you so, Dave,” before returning to not-alive status.

 

All this time, I considered Christian Churches of God and its pushy minions to be the Flat-Earthers of the COGs. Who could have imagined that David C. Pack would be the one to elevate Wade Cox and his Hillel obsessors into the mainstream?

 

Dave’s new moon observance was part of the larger picture pointing to a new, way-out-there date.

 

The Kingdom of God Arrives

On Abib 1—April 8, 2024

 

Dave nearly broke his foot punting the ball that far down the field.

 

 

Remember this?

 

Flashback Part 477 – October 28, 2023

@ 00:19 I love to stand up when I speak. I can be more animated and natural, but I’ve got so much paper…

 

Because David C. Pack loves to stand so much while he speaks, Part 479, two weeks later, was also preached ex cathedra. Another unwieldy stack of notes prohibited him from vertically parking behind the lectern.



That may appear on the surface to be nitpicky, but it further establishes a habitual pattern of David C. Pack’s lying even about trivial matters. The guy just wants to sit but conjures a false excuse that does not hold up to the mildest of scrutiny. Lying is not just what he does but who he is now.

 

Brethren of The Restored Church of God would be well-served to remind themselves about the source of their present new moons truths. David C. Pack is a noted blaspheming liar, false apostle, hypocrite, and antichrist advocate. The new moons verses are in the Bible, but do you really want to trust this guy’s interpretation?

 

Flashback Part 443 – May 18, 2023

@ 1:25:35 They're here because their parents tell them to be here. So, let's talk about the youth of The Restored Church of God. …Unless they fear God and start right now. So, let's talk about what God says He has in store for young people today who will be ripped up and eaten alive if they don't pay attention.

 

Flashback Part 476 – October 21, 2023

@ 1:37:06 So, when is the midst of the year? When is it? It’s October 29th. One week from tomorrow morning at sundown in Jerusalem.

 

Flashback Part 436 – April 20, 2023

@ 41:03 Now, why is this the most important sermon? Let's just say I don't care how many times I've preached. This Series would be an unequivocal abject failure if it did not end where we had the Kingdom of God in the right place.

 

Flashback Part 478 – November 4, 2023

@ 49:18 Anybody who teaches error isn’t wise, never mind faithful. That's the stupidest thing you could ever do.

 

David C. Pack sure does love his stupid. He loves it thick and often. He bathes in it. He puts it in his hair each morning. He frolics in stupid so much everyone around him gets drenched. Based on his words, The Restored Church of God has become the world headquarters of stupid.

 

And now he is the new moons authority? How does David C. Pack have any credibility whatsoever on any spiritual matter under the sun? Excuse me…under the moon?

 

 

Part 479 – November 11, 2023

@ 00:47 The Plan of God Series continues.

 

Dave keeps pushing to rebrand his prophecy series into a gospel series. If he has been focusing on prophecy while getting the timing wrong, he is a false prophet. But, if he has been focusing on the plan of God while getting the timing wrong, that was just a logistical mistake. The repackaging is intentional.

 

Fully embracing his biblical role as Elijah That Prophet, David C. Pack restores the concept of restoring truths to the brethren of The Restored Church of God. Remember, his splinter group was named that for a divine reason. Herbert W. Armstrong of The Worldwide Church of God may have restored some truths, but Dave is tasked with restoring the biggies.

 

@ 09:21 But he [HWA] didn’t restore the Kingdom and didn’t understand that. Now, Elijah. There is a man who finishes the Mystery of God. He executes it. He carries. He discharges it… conclude[s] the Mystery. And not long before he sounds. So, how does he do that? He prepares the way before the Father…He prepares a people for the Lord. John the Baptist did. Okay, he makes this vision plain. He keeps a charge. So, the question is, does he come first and restore things to the church? Would that be a fair statement?

 

@ 11:21 So, it's worth considering how much restoration has occurred…does the Bible directly tell us in a way WE just didn't see because WE got, you know, kind of carfangled around with years? We're waiting for a year. We're gonna have to look at that for a final time and see if we can eliminate all doubt. And I mean, once and for all. And I'm gonna make a prediction. I'm gonna predict (if I could), there will not be a single one of you in this room today or ever after, not one of you, not one of you, and I mean, we will have even a half a doubt about exactly when the First Kingdom of God arrives. It will be impossible for you to doubt it. I'm gonna destroy every single point of resistance in your mind as the second of two things that will be restored (if you will) today.

 

Dave will destroy all doubt. As he is oft to do with his shiny new ideas until he is inspired to discover “something WE missed.”

 

 

Fast-forwarding to the "we already knew that" punch line, Abib 1 begins God's Sacred Calendar, and the next occurs on April 8, 2024. Yes, that is next year.

 

@ 59:45 What I could do without giving you a lot more material, I could just say, “Let’s have dinner right now.” There is no way in this life the Kingdom is gonna come before April 8th…Well, as I say, there's a big, big, big rest of the story, but first, I’m gonna drive this home. And underscore it over and over and over and over again. We are not waiting for Tuesday or next Sabbath. We’re waiting for something you don’t know about, but we’re not waiting for the Kingdom until April 8th. That’s the night of April 8th, which would be dawn in Jerusalem on Abib 1.

 

@ 1:05:31 Now, brethren, I'm well aware that we’ve been to Abib before, but not with everything restoredwhere WE understood…

 

Dave makes all things new.

 

@ 1:08:33 It's a year of the Lord, and all the years of the Lord are Abib 1 to Abib 1. Now, this should be a tremendous reason to rejoice. Even if we were just gonna enjoy life for the next five months till April 8th, 'cause we've got it! We've got it! And we keep new moons.

 

If Dave were not so equally confident with his past presumptive conclusions, you could almost root for the little guy that he finally nailed it this time around. Alas, it was not meant to be.

 

@ 1:13:07 So, you’ve got a church calendar. You’ll never get another one. You’ve got your last calendar. Cherish it. It’ll tell ya exactly when this is gonna happen, and it’s impossible that it’s wrong or years from Genesis to Revelation 9 when God references a year…changed, and we could never know what would surely come.

 

@ 01:23:40 And on the next Tuesday, April 16th [2024], God accepts them [Israel]. And then, six days later, they’re keeping the Passover on April 22nd next year. It’s inarguable. I tried to be faithful to when I thought years began. I should have realized the Jews minimized the sacred month.

 

Those pesky Jewish scholars keep casting stumbling blocks before Dave to the point he needs all-wheel drive to traverse the Third Floor Executive Imaginarium.

 

@ 1:24:29 And, obviously, God allowed me to go down that road [of being wrong] or we’da been looking for the wrong year or the year (we could say), the right year at the very, very wrong time. And we would not have restored all kinds of things.

 

Being in error is part of Dave’s god’s plan for revealing knowledge to his church. The drills are paying off now because none of this information will be altered, changed, or need future clarifying. In the world of David C. Pack, it is possible to know God’s truths too early. He must forget how many thousands of years old the Bible is.

 

@ 1:26:11 Because, on Abib 1, Elijah lands at dawn in Jerusalem. Impossible to argue.

 

 

It only takes a few verses to see why Dave is making his great assumptions about new moon observance. The ccg.org website has more than enough resources to satisfy the morbidly curious where you can get lost in the theological weeds if you happen to be a glutton for punishment.

 

There is no denying we will all observe new moons in the Kingdom of God when Jesus Christ comes according to Isaiah 66:23. But the trap Dave and Wade both fell into is the inferred observance rather than a clear command post-New Testament.

 

If God listed the new moons alongside the commands for Sabbaths and Holy Days, Herbert W. Armstrong would have added that to the list of his "restored truths" eighty years ago. Sabbath and Holy Days are holy convocations and commanded assemblies. New moons are not. There is a lot of ancillary biblical support for new moon observances that encourage “because I say so” theology. If God wanted His people to observe new moons as much as He wanted Sabbaths and Holy Days, He would have said so. That seems pretty cut and dry to a simple, unordained non-prophet/non-psychic.

 

Otherwise, you have self-evident authorities like Wade Cox and Dave Pack cracking the new moon whip over your head, feeding you notions of missed salvation because you did not buy what they were selling. They are the timeshare salesmen of the COGs. You better act quickly to take advantage of this unique offer before time runs out, causing you to miss the opportunity of a lifetime…literally.

 

When I stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, and He asks me why I blew off David C. Pack’s version of new moons, I will say, “It was not commanded. No clear instructions were given on how to do it correctly during my lifetime, so I didn’t play along with know-it-alls who pretended to have the answers. I figured you would make it clear when you were ready to.”

 

Regardless of how many verses David C. Pack puts together that make sense on paper because it is from the lips of David C. Pack, extreme caution is advised.

 

The idea that Dave is now on team CCG within the worship doctrinal spectrum is not good news for Wade and his cohorts. Having Dave inadvertently on your side is not a good look for anyone. Even you, Wade. It should be a fearful thing for Dave to agree with anyone.

 

@ 24:30 [Mimicking brethren] “You can't do sacrifices. They're not to be kept forever.” Really? Sabbaths, yes. Holy Days, yes. New moons, no. Does the church have this right? And what are the implications of it one way or another? Should the Church of God, did the Church of God have an obligation as much to keep new moons as it did Sabbaths and Holy Days?

 

@ 29:40 And no, I’m not suggesting new moons are holy, but they are equated. You know, you’re supposta absolutely be at all seven Days of Unleavened Bread, but the five in the middle aren’t holy, but you better be there. They’re not Sabbaths.

 

@ 30:11 So, new moons are sort of in the category of their sort of stand-alone moeds not in the middle of Unleavened Bread or the Fall Feast. Therefore, they're not actually holy time per se, but they are beginning to look like they’re commanded to be kept.

 

@ 44:51 Well, then maybe should we keep Holy Days? They’re just pretty much left out. No, it’s a given. The Sabbath’s a given. So, any idea, "Well, the New Testament doesn't mention new moons." Well, actually, it does. I'm gonna show you. It’s a given. It’s a given that new moons should be kept. And I would submit to you that previous ages knew it.

 

The previous ages knew it based upon what facts exactly? 

 

Going forward, any doctrine in The Restored Church of God can be instituted and required because it is designated as “a given.” David C. Pack talks until something becomes true with Because-I-Say-So authority. As time goes on, it gets easier and easier to implement. That is all the proof the folks in RCG need these days to incorporate a new day of worship.

 

The prosecuting attorney in me wants to point out that this is all circumstantial evidence and insufficient to get a conviction. This case would not hold up in court.

 

@ 45:13 And if I’m gonna be faithful with the word of God…The new moons have to be kept. Now, [chuckles] it remains to be seen how many we get to keep, you know.

 

This is a strange thing to say, considering the Kingdom of God will arrive on April 8, 2024. Dave should be able to count the new moons he gets to keep on one hand.

 

 

Based on these words by David C. Pack, I will put $20 on the table right now that the Israeli-Hamas war will end before April 8, 2024.

 

@ 1:10:40 Does this Series really go on any further? Time’s gonna go on. I mean, think about the [Israeli-Hamas] war. The war has 149 days to go. You better buckle up.

 

If Dave wants "a given," here is a good one: This Series will never end. Part 500 is on the horizon and barreling down fast. He does not know that yet, but everyone else does. Yes, he eats his own malarkey.

 

@ 1:45:18 The war will continue another 149 days.

 

The man will not and cannot ever be right. A divine repudiation of David C. Pack’s claims will be demonstrated by physical history when that war ends long before his artificial deadline. Or after. Taking a contrarian approach to all things David C. Pack is always the safest choice on the prophetic roulette table.

 

@ 1:12:32 And it’s impossible that it can go beyond Abib 1. The Mystery of God is almost over. Obviously, I wondered why I was learning and tying some big ribbons and knots and bows on this with five months to go. But, before we can get to that, I’m gonna hafta talk to you. I knew I’d hafta just stand up and explain, you know, these great truths.

 

Just stand up in the figurative sense only, of course. Dave knew he had to just stand up and explain…while sitting down. Little moments like that tickle me.

 

Using the power of presumption, often-read Hebrews 10:25 has finally been understood because it is a given.

 

@ 1:44:23 “So much the more as you see the day approaching.” So, we’re thinking assemble is a Sabbath or a Holy Day because we weren’t keeping new moons. It’s neither Sabbath nor Holy Day. They’re new moons. So, on God’s authority, if I’m His apostle, they’re new moons.

 

Based on that criteria alone, they are NOT new moons because David C. Pack is not an apostle. Not now. Not ever. He does not and cannot speak with God’s authority. He is a documented false prophet, false teacher, blaspheming liar, hypocrite, and antichrist advocate. God does not use such men to bestow knowledge to His people.

 

@ 1:44:38 Or all those verses mean something else, and let’s go keep Christmas.

 

Dave loves his All-Or-Nothing theology. To deny keeping new moons is the same as keeping Christmas.

 

@ 42:31 So, Israel kept new moons. We are spiritual Israel. We’re the tribes of Israel. How in the world could we say we don’t do it? “Well, we can’t do sacrifices.” I’ve explained that. Then, let’s shuck the Sabbath and the Holy Days.

 

If you do not keep the new moons RCG-style, then you might as well give up the Sabbath, too. The desperate manipulation is so very transparent.

 

 

The new moon development in The Restored Church of God is a monumental shift that should reinvigorate dead-brain, wide-eye swooning from the grassroots All-Believing Zealots in their private chat groups.

 

David C. Pack is eagerly trying to plant his flag on Legitimacy Hill, but Wade Cox has already been camping out there for decades. And that guy is totally dug in. Both men should agree to solve the top-dog competition by Thunderdome rules: Two men enter. One man leaves.

 

Watch out, Wade. Dave loves to sucker punch.

 

It remains to be seen how much paper is consumed by all the printing of CCG materials at RCG Headquarters. Highlighter pens are in extreme demand as Dave and his merry band of hirelings attempt to play catch-up with decades of material to absorb and adopt.

 

The RCG new moons doctrines have already shifted beyond Part 479. It is a given that they will evolve because they are figuring it out on the fly. Now, Wade Cox gets to stand quietly at the third-floor tower window, watching Dave and his cowardly enablers scramble to get a grip on this present truth.

 

The Series will go on. April 8, 2024, will come and go without a prophetic occurrence. David C. Pack will change his tune with “something WE missed.” In the meantime, Wade Cox gets to feel pretty good about himself. All of that is a given.


Marc Cebrian

See: It's A Given



Bob Thiel Has Lost All 3,000 of His Malawi Members


 

Bob's self-imagined world is crashing down around him. Gaylyn Bonjour's so-called double blessing has ended up being a double curse.


We now know Dr Pastor Bobby is Totally Bogus in everything he does. I knew all about the African corruption, which is really bad, but I did wonder how he could get so many of these translations for such a cheap price. He just wasted tithe payers' money on FAKE people claiming they're working on translations, when he would've been better off admitting the truth. But, maybe they're putting mind zombie spells on him to render him a moron.

The TRUTH is coming out on a Great many things. 
 
All of his so-called 3,000 members in Malawi are completely gone. The hope of Israel Worldwide Church of God has completely taken Malawi. Radson Mulozowa is dying. His so-called Registration in Malawi was a complete forge job for all these years. Soon he'll be banned from Malawi with Mozambique soon to follow.

It's like I said, this is the end of the Continuing Church of God and prophet Bobby.
Terry Nelson

BREAKING EXPOSE (More Updates): Crackpot Prophet Bob Thiel, Linda Jane and the Translator Scam



 
A Linda Jane, from Huntsville, Alabama, USA, she says, acts, since at least 2015, as the "stateside" point of contact for unwary translation clients, mainly those requesting Asian languages for Christian materials. She even has a website to show (but, of course, with no address and no phone number): Teams of Translators / teams-of-translators.webnode.com . The website shows very interesting characters.

From an anonymous source: Banned additions in red. Also, note that this is a compilation of three separate emails.

Wow!

Bob has gotten huffy about those who've figured out that his many new translations are done via AI. He has denied that he uses AI for his translations. Well, it turns out that this is just another half-truth.

Bob is paying a shady service that at the very least makes false claims about its translators, using photos of other people deceptively and putting false names to those photos. It appears that Bob's translation service uses AI while claiming otherwise, and while making false claims about its "translators". I looked up the "Linda Jane" who Bob mentions in his 11/16 letter to the CCOG brethren, and it turns out that she's a scammer. Skip to Note 147 (posted below) here: Translator-Scammers-Notes


Banned: This is what Bob Thiel wrote in the November 16 Letter to the Brethren:

An anti-Church of God website, with no basis in fact, falsely posted that what we are receiving are Artificial Intelligence (AI) translations of our The Gospel of the Kingdom of God booklet.

That is not the case.

Additionally, I again asked the translation leader about how the translations are done, and here is what she sent me on Tuesday: 

Dear Sir,

How are you? I hope you are doing well.

First of all, I am sorry to write a reply to your last email. I was busy with certain other projects.

Secondly, I already have mentioned, that we are connected through a large network of translators, proofreaders, teachers, preachers, Pastors and publishers around the world.

When you asked me to start translating “The Gospel of the Kingdom of God” into as many languages as possible, I immediately communicated with the network and we started working on it for as many languages as we could.

Thirdly, we got each and every work proofread through human efforts and whenever we got negative comments, we rejected that specific file and didn’t send you. So, be assured that these are purely human translations.

Fourthly, we have received hundreds of translations already that we haven’t yet sent you because Brother David Lewis works on these files, arranges them, converts them into PDF and then sends them to you. …

In Christ,

Linda Jane.

Anyway, it looks like we will receive hundreds more translations of our booklet in the future, so that means we may have over 1,000 different languages/dialects by the end of this calendar year. Perhaps one day 2,000 or more! 

Banned: This is Note 147 mentioned above:

Kishan Singh (from India). Photo used in the site belongs to to Gautam Adani, one of richest men in India... The scammers didn't even changed the photo filename... Linda has nice words about "Kishan": "Helping Hands for Handicapped in Rajasthan, organized by our Brother Kishan Singh". And about Napoleon Zaki, "we are support xxxx Ministry, run by our Brother Napoleon Zaki"Linda also has a "secretary" with a very funny name: Andrewson Chris. Photo used in the site belongs to Chris Coyier, a web designer and developer living in Milwaukee. Again, the scammers didn't even changed the photo filename...As for the payment, Linda stated to a US prospective client: "We will accept the bank wiring in Pakistan the most needed area for now to build three orphanages and 5 widows houses." A Napolean Zaki, the "Final Beneficiary", will, no doubt, build the "3 orphanages and the 5 widows houses"! 
 
NAMES & EMAILS ASSOCIATED W/ THIS SCAM:
Andrewson Chris / andrewsonchris7@gmail.com
Linda Jane / Jane Linda / j.yiddish.translator@gmail.com / Ph: 001456545447 !!!
Napoleon Zaki / prodical_son2007@yahoo.com (profile on TC is private)
Yee Sum (Chinese Director) / yeesum2006@gmail.com

 






And there's a lot more at that website. Bob is in this way over his head. What a loser!

Notice that the woman running the translation service Bob is using is clearly doing something deceitful. Her website shows a photo of one of her translators, by the name of Kishan Singh, but the photo is actually of wealthy Indian industrialist Gautam Adani.

Banned: Kishan Singh's picture from Linda James website:

Banned: This is who Kishan Singh really is:




She appears to be taking people's money then running their "translations" through Google Translate and other similar services while pretending that she has a staff of native-language translators.

And Bob has been fooled again, just like he was fooled by his African witch-doctor "ministers."

Some prophet, eh?

Observers will also notice that on the website of Bob's translator, the photo of her secretary, Andrewson Chris is on the Web in a couple of other places as a photo of a Mac user named Chris Coyier.

Banned comment: Even the name Andrewson Chris doesn't make sense in real life, but to an AI translator, it does. Also, notice the words printed in red above, more poor translation.

This is the real Chris Coyier:



Bob is a fool.

UPDATE:

Banned: This is who the Translator site is claiming is behind the fake translation site run by scammer Linda Jane:

Can you imagine a bunch of Pakistani Muslims translating Bob's so-called Christian book into dialects where Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere live and do it accurately? What a farce Bob has turned into.

Linda Jane claims to charge between 3-5 cents per word to translate a book from English. 

This is what real translators charge per word. Notice what they say about these fake sites like Linda Janes:

The average cost of a professional translator can range anywhere from $0.10 to $0.30 per word, depending on the language pair being translated, the quality of the translation, the turnaround time, and other factors. Translation agencies may charge a flat fee, but freelance translators may charge by the hour or by the word. The cost of translation can vary depending on the language pair, with some language combinations being more expensive than others. And yes, you will find 100s of people calling themselves translators on Upwork and similar sites. They all will tell how great they are and will quote you like 10% of what any reasonable translation agency would chargé you but there’s a catch. They are not pros! They use public Google Translate to handle your job. Do you know what that means? GT terms and conditions for publicly available free service state that Google is free to use your data you input into GT for any purposes they see fit. It's the security and confidentiality, stupid! (As Bill Clinton would put it.)

For example, a Spanish translator may charge a higher rate than an English translator, because Spanish is considered a high-demand language. Translations between English and Spanish are typically more affordable than those between English and Chinese. The reason for this is that there are more English-Spanish translators available than English-Chinese translators, so there is more competition and lower prices. It is also important to consider the quality of the translation when determining how much to pay for a translator.

Similarly, a translator who specializes in medical documents may charge a higher rate than one who translates marketing materials. Or vice versa. The best way to get an accurate estimate of how much it will cost to hire a translator is to send the text to be translated, along with any instructions or context, to several different translation agencies or freelance translators and request quotes. The total cost will also depend on the length of the text; for example, a short document may only cost a few hundred dollars to translate, while a longer document could cost several thousand dollars. In general, though, it is usually more cost-effective to use a translation agency or team of translators rather than relying on Google Translate or other online services, which often produce inaccurate results.

High-quality translations are typically more expensive than literal translations, but they are worth the investment if your target audience is in a different region or speaks a different language. Finally, keep in mind that the price of translation is often based on the length of the source text. The longer the text, the higher the price will be. This is because it takes longer to translate a longer text, so translators need to be paid for their time.

Happy hunting!


Per-Word Rate

The per-word rate for hiring a translator can vary greatly, depending on the level of skill required. In general, a translator's experience and skill level increase their rate. Experienced translators have the advantage of higher rates because they can handle highly technical content with ease. When interviewing translation vendors, it is important to request a portfolio of samples and references of their work, including actual texts that the vendor has translated for their clients.


Although set-rate pricing is the traditional method, some clients still use a per-word rate. These rates are usually based on the number of words in the source document and the target language document. This way, clients can see the cost breakdown and know what to expect. Additionally, when using per-word pricing, it is crucial to choose a quality-oriented Language Services Provider (LSP) with the experience and expertise to ensure your documents are translated accurately. If you hire a novice linguist, you risk having your documents translated incorrectly or with an unprofessional appearance.

 

While hiring an in-house translator is usually less expensive, it is possible to find a professional who works on a freelance basis. Most freelance translators charge a per-word rate. This rate is usually lower than the hourly rate. The reason for this is that the freelancer is paid based on the number of words they translate.

 

The cost of hiring a translator varies depending on a number of factors including the language, region, and area of specialization. A minimum of $12 per word is recommended by the American Translators Association, but rates vary according to region and experience. You can also pay more if you need a rush translation. For example, a translator in Louisville, Kentucky, charges $.02 per word if a translation matches 100% of the original. For a 94% to 95 percent match, the rate increases to $.03 per word. If the translation matches only 65% of the words in the original language, the rate may be higher.

 

Translators advertise their services with confidence and charge appropriate rates. It is also important to list which languages they should translate, as some languages are more expensive than others. The cost of each language varies depending on the demand and supply curve.

Hourly Rate

If you are planning to hire a translator, you may need to determine the price of the project in advance. Translators usually quote their prices per word but use hourly rates, too, especially for revision, review and quality assurance tasks, as well as for Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE or PEMT). For instance, they may charge you $40 per word if the project will take three hours to complete. Of course, this can differ depending on the type of project and the deadline.

 

It is difficult to estimate how long a project will take since the language and the subject matter vary greatly. A translation of 5,000 words will take more time than a translation of 500 words. In addition, a translator's experience, education, and subject matter all play a role in the actual number of hours spent translating a project.

 

If you plan on hiring a translator for a specific project, you should first determine what kind of content you require. Oftentimes, highly technical content is difficult to translate and requires specialized vocabulary. This can be a problem even for native speakers. These types of projects require specialists who have experience in the language.

Languages That Cost More to Translate

There are certain languages that cost more to translate than others. For example, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic are some of the more expensive languages to translate. While this may sound like an unfair comparison, these languages have much lower numbers of native speakers, which makes them more expensive to translate. Other languages that tend to cost more to translate are Portuguese, French, Japanese, and Italian.

 

Languages with more difficult language systems are more expensive to translate than others. For example, Japanese has a different writing system than English, which means that it is difficult to find translators who understand the Japanese writing style. In addition, the length of the document will also determine the price of a translation. A shorter document will take less time to translate, and therefore will cost less.

 

The price of a translation depends on several factors, including the type of project and the type of provider. The most common pricing methods are per hour or per word are used for calculations and quoting. But other methods are available as well, such as character, line, and page. The exact cost of a translation project will depend on many factors, including the size of the project and the amount of text it contains.

 

Another factor that affects the price of translation services is the level of expertise of the translators. Some translators are better than others, but if they are new to the language, you can expect the cost to be higher than if you were using a native speaker. In addition, the cost of living for a native speaker of a language can make translations more expensive. 

After reading this it should be quite obvious that Bob is paying exorbitant amounts of money to translate his book or he is blatantly lying about having over 1500 languages in print at this time. The cost has to be out of the roof if he is using real translators. But we all know he is not.

This website says this about the cost of book translations:

Generally, book translation cost ranges from $0.08 to $0.18 per word. If you have a 10,000-word, it will cost between $800 and $1,800 for translation. The cost may change depending on various factors that we will deeply express in the next part. gtelocalize

The Translation Company says this:

Per-word rate is the most common measurement for pricing in the translation industry. Translation services rates in 2023 range from $0.09 to $0.40 per word in the United States. These rates vary due to factors such as choice of language, volume, turnaround, and subject matter.


  
Banned comment: 

Anyone with half a brain can look at Linda James's translation website and see how poorly it is designed. "Linda" clearly is NOT an American and is most likely parked in Gaza, India or Pakistan pretending to speak American English. The wording and phrases are not standard American English and are more likely straight from an AI language translator.

As the person said above, Bob Thiel is a fool! Not only has he fallen prey to his African swindlers masquerading as Christian evangelists, but he has fallen for one of the biggest translation scams out there! And, all of this isn't even including his fake degree in Theology from a "seminary" in India that is housed in a double-wide trailer.

The really sad part in all of this is that some of those African followers are no doubt sincere Christians wanting to do what is right. The problem is that they are being led by religious frauds like Bob Thiel and his fake adulterous and witchcraft-practicing evangelists.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Bouncing Crackpot Prophet Speaks On Hierarchical Governance and Corruption...Hilarity Ensues!


Hi Folks, I think all of you in CCOG Land could USE a Refresher Course in Pastoral Coverup Propaganda. This sermon is the one in which Bob Thiel defends his African Ministry with smoke and mirror tactics. Especially laughable is his holding up the now proven forged Malawian Registration Document, for a split second, saying here it is.  I think he knew deep down it was a forged document but didn't think anyone would catch on. All we said is True. Bob Thiel can't deny Facts, no matter how much spin he puts on it. At least we have him on tape denying the now-known truths of the corruption of his African Ministry Minions. Review this sermon folks and realize all the allegations are true, Thiel will go down in COG History as the most tolerant leader of Church corruption, idiocy, and propaganda manipulation and downright financer of EVIL the Church of God has ever seen.

Terry Nelson


This is truly one of the most pathetic sermons you will ever witness. 

It is like watching a petulant grade schooler justifying to the principal why he got caught cheating on a test. 

The excuses are childish and really beneath the dignity of a church leader. 

You can see why the Worldwide Church of God, Raymond McNair, Dibar Apartian, Gaylyn Bonjour, and Rod Meredith REFUSED to ordain the guy.

Plan B: The Ultimate Lèse-majesté Argument of Armstrongism

Terraforming Unfinished Planets.  Credit: Dalein Ballard


Plan B

The Ultimate Lèse-majesté Argument of Armstrongism

By Scout


“Known from eternity are to God all the works of him” (Bible Hub literal translation of Acts 15:18)

 

I do not believe that Herbert W. Armstrong ever set out to depreciate God.  I believe he felt that certain ideas had been revealed to him and on the strength of that supposition he published those ideas as the solutions to the mysteries of the Bible.  Since he ran an autocratic organization, his ideas were never subject to review.  This scenario is a cliché in the history of religion.  But that is my best explanation for what I am about to relate. 

There is a theme that runs through Armstrongism of characterizing God as much less powerful than he actually is.  The theme originates in a pre-occupation with the Old Testament description of God.  In the Old Testament, God is often characterized as an anthropomorph with the inherent limitations.  This was a rhetorical means of communicating with ancient peoples.  It was not intended to be a realistic portrayal of the essential ontology of God.  Those who believe it is a realistic portrayal eventually run into logical dilemmas.  

And to shore up this errant doctrine of God, the frequent reaction is to form a redoubt comprised of many Lèse-majesté Arguments, made directly or by implication: God in his essence is reliant on a functional body, God is in spacetime, God has race, God has gender, God is not absolute but relative, God is contingent and not necessary, the image of God mentioned in Genesis 1 is physical (See end note 1), God does not know the future and, finally, we, too, can become just like God.   In short, God is like a super-human and has human-like successes and setbacks just like us.  He is of our category; he is just more powerful.  He is just the biggest kid on the block.  Such Lèse-majesté Arguments are a blatant mischaracterization of the uncreated and absolute God. 

The Theatrical Script

In the pages of the Mystery of the Ages (MOA), Herbert W. Armstrong’s magnum opus, there is described a great drama.  I will summarize it here.  God created an unfinished Cosmos.  It is full of planets in disarray.  The planets needed to be terraformed. (This is an interesting conjecture on HWA’s part since the MOA was published in 1985 but the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992.  The existence of exoplanets may be the only “prophecy” HWA was right about. It was probably inadvertent.  It is a conclusion that probably stems from a lack of knowledge about astronomy.)  God intended the angels to go throughout the Cosmos and finish the creation.  HWA wrote, “So the angel potential was to take over the entire universe – to improve and finish the billions of physical planets surrounding the uncountable stars, many of which are suns (MOA, p. 90)”.  But the angels rebelled and God then realized when this happened that he needed a better solution.  So, he decided to create man, a reproduction of himself, and train him to do the work where the angels failed.  HWA wrote, “God THEN purposed to reproduce himself, through humans, made in his image and likeness…” (MOA, p. 94, caps mine).  HWA’s statement does not invoke the issue of God’s antecedent and permissive will but is a matter purely of God’s state of knowledge and foreknowledge.  God took a risk and lost because he did not know what was going to happen. 

Man is clearly Plan B – an afterthought.   He was not on the agenda until after the angelic debacle.  God did not foresee the problem and changed his plan to accommodate new circumstances.  God was not in control but reactive – like a human.  God is subject to risk. 

The Theological Analysis

This scenario proposes a very different God from the Christian God.  The Christian God is absolute and transcends our small human ideas of power and control.  But in HWA’s God we have a God who can experience failure, whose plans can be wholly subverted.  This putative lesser God does not know the future in contravention to what James stated in Acts 15:18. He was caught by surprise by the angelic rebellion and had to fall back and regroup.  The result was the innovation of a new sentient creature called a human being that was not originally intended.  

So, HWA’s timeline for this scenario is non-Biblical.  Jesus was slain for us, for human sin, from the foundation of the Cosmos (Rev 13:8).  God knew at the beginning there would be humans and these humans would need forgiveness through the sacrifice of Christ.  Whereas, HWA postulates that mankind was created as a course correction much later than the foundation of the Cosmos.  Acts 15:18 tells us that God knew all of his works at the outset of the Age (See also end note 2.).  This indicates that he is absolute.  He will do what he will do.  He is what he is. And nothing in the created realm can derail or contravene that.  To argue otherwise is to engage in Lèse-majesté Argument.

Throughout this theater developed by HWA, it seems like God’s first goal is to refurbish the Cosmos. Angels did not make the cut so he created man so he could have the needed reliable workers to do this. It is not a plan about sentient creatures becoming partakers of the divine nature but about getting a remodeling job done.  The theology of human salvation is just an expedience.  This, of course, makes no sense because God can at any time refurbish the Cosmos in an instant by fiat.  If he created by fiat, he can refurbish by fiat.  If God involves sentient creatures in this refurbishing, it is to give them the “dignity of causation”, a term used by C.S. Lewis.  What Lewis means is that God could do it all himself but wants man to participate in causation and thereby accords man the dignity of meaningful involvement.  But the “dignity of causation” focuses on the developmental destiny of the sentient creatures, not the remodeling job as portrayed in the MOA.  

So, HWA’s conjectural theater has no Biblical traction.  And it is the ultimate Lèse-majesté Argument against God because if strikes at God’s ontology and his plan of salvation.  This theater denies God absoluteness for the following reasons:

1.     God does not know the future: He is not omniscient.  Prophets cannot validly predict because God doesn’t know what is going to happen himself. 

2.     God can therefore be surprised: He can suffer unforeseen reversals and setbacks. 

3.     His plans can be foiled by his creatures: Not only can his creatures surprise him but can cancel or modify his plans. 

4.     God cannot achieve what is best: His original plan involving the angels was best (it was first conceived and put into action) but he had to replace it with an inferior Plan B involving human beings.  God cannot bring about what is best but may have to pursue the sub-optimal. 

What Difference Does It Make?

Late in the last century, I got some notes from a WCG Ministerial Conference.   The notes were on file at the Roy Hammer Library at Ambassador College, Big Sandy.  I was particularly interested in explanations about pre-Adamic Man made by Herman Hoeh.  I read the notes and found them interesting but they did not add any additional archaeological information to what I already knew.  Hoeh did say something that I readily accepted at the time but is quite alarming now.  He said that God could not have created Adam without preliminary experimentation.  God worked like human engineers who must create progressively more complex models in order to finally arrive at a final design.  The fossilized remains of pre-Adamic man are the remains of these preliminary models.  Apparently, some of his efforts were not successful because some lines of development were terminated in the fossil record.  Though I was too naïve to understand it back then, this is nothing less than an assertion that God is a limited being – limited to the processes of human engineering and fabrication.  He is a trial-and-error god.  Lèse-majesté arguments like this, though supportive of HWA’s Plan B scenario, erode our belief in the greatness of the absolute God.  

A further issue is prophecy.  Millerite derived denominations in many cases have a pre-occupation with prophecy. Given this history, it is ironic that Armstrongism cancels the capability for predictive prophecy at the divine level.  If God does not know the future, such as HWA describes in the MOA, how can God inspire predictive prophecy?  Think for a moment. The Armstrongist Doctrine of God does not permit the existence of predictive prophecy.  This is a show-stopping inconsistency inherent in the theology of Armstrongism.  And the odd view that God is insufficient to sustain a prophetic capability is in accord with the general theme of Lèse-majesté in Armstrongism.  This is a form of Hyper-Arminianism where God not only does not determine the future but also does not know it.  And it further leaves dangling the various references to Godly foreknowledge and foreknowing contained in the New Testament. 

Summation 

God is great.  God is absolute. He transcends all the knowledge we have of reality. He does not just know reality exhaustively, he made reality.  He “speaks” or wills and things come into existence.  He is not bound by time. He knows what we call the future.  If he did not know the future, there would be no such thing as a prophet.  The anthropomorphic language of the Old Testament, while it is rhetorically useful in conveying ideas in a way that we humans can understand, limits God in capabilities to the point that it makes untenable and illogical the proposition that God is creator of all ex nihilo.  That anthropomorphic language is poetry not ontology. Mankind is not Plan B.  There is no Plan B and never will be.  That is just a big, old Lèse-majesté Argument.  (See end note 3).

 

Note 1:  While the image of God is often cited by HWA’ followers as a reference to the shape and form of God, this is not what HWA actually stated.  He said that man was made to become, “the character image of God and also in the likeness or form and shape of God.” (Mystery of the Ages, 1985, p. 102) The term “character” is broad in its scope and can refer to many attributes.  While the idea of the image of God as form or shape conflicts with Christian belief, the idea of character may not, depending on how it is defined. 

Note 2: Though Acts 15:18 may be translated literally as, “Known from eternity are to God all the works of him”, the word for eternity in Greek is “aionos”.  This may be also translated as “age”.  David B. Hart in his New Testament translation renders this phrase as “known from an age ago”.  In any case, it is a clear statement that God has foreknowledge of all his activities no matter what timeframe is considered - activities that for us from our perspective in time would be future. 

Note 3: Many times, Armstrongists will read material like this that exalts God and will term it “atheistic”. How this illogical idea can be asserted is a “mystery of the ages”.