Ghastly days! Whatever shall I do now that the Great Bwana Bob Mzungu Thiel has written another screed about me and the reader/commenters on this blog? The world is a terrible place, and this blog is making the Great Bwana's life a living hell. Who knew?
Anyway, the sun is shining brightly here in Southern CA, and life is good, though apparently not so good in Grover Beach, CA, where God's most incredible COG leader to ever walk this green earth channel's dreams and visions from some unknown entity he deems worthy of telling people about.
The entity fed this hilarious headline into Bob's amazing brain early this morning, "Things Satan does not want you to believe are not believed by all but the Philadelphian remnant"
In his mind, big ol'meanie Satan is on the warpath against him and his perfect little church, the best embodiment of 1st-century Christianity the world has ever seen. The creature he calls "satan" has apparently taken over the minds of everyone on this blog and has directly mind-melded with us to pick on Bobby and his amazing "work".
Satan does not want people to be in the Kingdom of God. He does not want Matthew 24:14 since it will be a countdown for his end.
He wants to dissuade you and others from being in that Kingdom or supporting the most faithful proclamation work.
How does he do that?
Through lies and false witnesses.
This entity he calls "satan" is out to get everyone, including everyone on this blog, though apparently it has already won that battle. At least in his mind's eye.
While you might think you are immune to Satan, remember that the New Testament teaches:
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, (1 Peter 5:8-9)
Satan does not want you to truly have faith in God or His word.
I think the verse he quotes above encapsulates why we do this blog. The Church of God is filled with devouring lions seeking to destroy all they come into contact with through heretical doctrine and outright drivel they deem God-inspired.
Now the fun begins:
...throughout history, God’s true church has been spoken against in many places. Notice confirmation of that as far back as the Book of Acts where the true church is called “this sect”:
22 … concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere. (Acts 28:22)
Some of Satan’s allies at Banned by HWA website and other places continue to post lies about those of us in Continuing Church of God (CCOG) as well as other COGs.
Yes, some who claimed to be with us in the old Worldwide Church of God, as well as some who claimed to be with us in the CCOG have turned aside and became false accusers. The Apostle John ran into similar issues as he wrote:
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. (1 John 2:19)
Bwana Bob does not understand that many of us here"went out" from the lies and falsehoods of heretical doctrines and found true rest in the One that the church claimed it was following. The ministry in the Church of God was a cesspool of bad actors - though I will say there were a lot of good men who tried to do their best over the decades and who were actual agents of grace to church members. Sadly, most of those men were gradually beaten down or driven out by the corrupt leadership over them. There was nothing godly about church leadership.
That is consistent with Satan’s hope as he is called the “accuser of the brethren” which he does do day and night (Revelation 12:10), so it is no great surprise if his lying human assistants spread lies regularly.
If you are not part of a COG (Church of God), Satan hopes you will dismiss the true Christian faith as a false cult–this is something he and his followers have done throughout history.
The true Christian faith is NOT to be found in the misnamed "continuing" Church of God. It isn't there and never will be until Bob Thiel repents of his lies and delusions of grandeur.
Jesus, Himself, said that people who claimed to believe the Bible often denounced God’s prophets:
11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)
Bob, you are NOT a prophet of God. You have never been one and never will be one. That is an immutable fact.
Notice the following evil that was posted at Banned by HWA:
Bob Thiel has lied to us from day one about God speaking to him in dreams, that he is the only COG doing the work, that he is a prophet, that he is Elisha, Elijah, Zephaniah, Joshua, and many other appropriated personalities (about the only thing left to call himself is Legion). Has Bob ever apologized and will he EVErRapologize for lying to us?
Now the above is false witness from Gary Leonard (the webmaster of the above site and the one who posted that).
You are gaslighting your naive followers if you deny you have appropriated the names and characteristics of the prophets mentioned above and others where you claim you are the modern-day reincarnation. You are not even worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence with any of them
Satan hopes you will believe lies.
One of the Ten Commandments is, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16).
Yet repeatedly, Gary Leonard has borne false witness.
There is no point in me, Bob Thiel, apologizing for telling the truth.
And yet, here you are, doing it once AGAIN!
The Bible, which the Great Bwana leads us to believe he thoroughly believes in, has this to say about the lying Church of God false leaders and false prophets:
“Beware of the false prophets, [teachers] who come to you dressed as sheep [appearing gentle and innocent], but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matt 7:15 Amplified Bible
“Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned. Matt 7: 15-16 Message Bible
Notice the following gaslighting by how he deviously uses certain words to dance around what he really believes:
The second is that I never said I or the CCOG were the only ones doing the work. What I have said is that the CCOG best represents that Philadelphia remnant and that we are leading the final phase of the work.
Gary Leonard and those who believe his lies need to repent.
Of all the things I may have to repent of, calling you out as a liar and false prophet is NOT one of them and NEVER will be. You are exactly like Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry, who are also proven liars and false prophets.
He continues on trotting out Gaylyn Bonjour as legitimizing his prophethood status by reportedly asking God to give Bob a double blessing and then has this to say:
And that includes what I have written about him, dreams, and the prophet matter. My teaching about what happened is accurate and not false. I have not lied about this.
The Book of Proverbs teaches:
16 The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes
Than seven men who can answer sensibly. (Proverbs 26:16)
Satan hopes that YOU will be lazy and not believe. Satan hopes YOU will not take the time to check out the truth on this. Satan does NOT want YOU to accept that God really has been providing and fulfilling dreams in the 21st century.
John D had this to say about you, Bob Thiel, on the Church of God Perspective blog:
Bob Thiel wants to pick on anyone and everyone in order to justify his own beliefs and vaunted ego. However, the fact is that he is a liar, he does not care for the truth, or accuracy for that matter, and he constantly compares himself to others.
12 We don’t dare class or compare ourselves with some of the people who advertise themselves. In measuring themselves against each other and comparing themselves with each other, they are simply stupid.
~ 2Co 10:12 (CJB)
Bob Thiel Is Still a Liar and False Prophet
John D also had this to say about you:
Lies of the Prophet
I’ve already discussed more than once the big one. If he is a prophet, then what is his message? A prophet, after all, is one who utters or speaks for God. So, let’s see what the message is! Lay out your “prophecies”, Dr Bob, so that those with discernment can see!
All along, his “credentials” have been exaggerations of different events. For example, he makes a big deal of being anointed, but he was anointed for something completely different, even he has admitted before. He makes a big deal of the anointing minister calling for a “double portion” of God’s Spirit.
OK, but so what? If I am anointed for a head cold, can I really take that as a validation of something completely unrelated? Even if the one doing the anointing has no clue about the matter? Does God really work that way?
Well, now he is claiming to be “ordained”. The lid is off, folks! He has clearly crossed the boundary of stepping on the line between truth and fiction and proclaimed a complete lie!
No one has ordained you, Dr. Bob. Get over yourself!
In fact, how many prophets in the Bible were ever ordained? Frankly, I can only think of one, Elisha, who is also the one whom Thiel likes to compare himself with. Even then, it was a prophet ordaining a prophet, not a priest or even a Levite!
There is a good reason for that, in fact. Prophets always came from outside of the system because their primary function was to sound a warning when the system itself broke down. The civil government was supposed to keep the religious order in check, and vice versa. When both failed, God sent prophets to warn and rebuke.
As a consequence, prophets worked outside of the system. They did not break away and create their own country or their own organization for worship. Would You Hire These Liars to Teach Your Children? Some people obviously worship a “god” who approves of liars.
Wallace Smith, a minister in the Living Church of God had this to say about you, Bob:
Perhaps it should be said that I am aware of individuals who claim “dreams” which they hope to convince others are such “special revelations.” Of course, we are to test such things against other criteria and, again, all I have seen continually fall short when they are examined. (That, or the claim is beyond examination, making it unable to be tested.)
As one example, I’ve heard of one who claims that he dreamed God would exalt him above the leaders of the Church when he, supposedly, had no beef against them at that time. Yet, years ago, at the very time this fellow claims he had the dream, this same individual personally expressed to me his beef and his intense frustration that Church leaders and the Council of Elders did not accept his interpretations of prophecy. Such a dream during such days strikes me not so much as prophetic as very, very human. (I should add that I mentioned to him at the time my concern for his attitude about the Church’s leadership, and maybe I could have done more to help him see it. I don’t know.) About that same time Mr. Dibar Apartian warned me over lunch, as did others, that the fellow apparently thought himself a prophet, many years before he left the Church and began claiming to be just that. Again, for such a one such “dreams” of personal glory seem easy to imagine — given simple human nature, it would almost be surprising if there weren’t such dreams accompanying such attitudes and personal ideas. Even ignoring other factors (and, wow, in that case are there “other factors”) that make it all the more clear, I’m sorry but such “revelations” are simply not convincing, and don’t even come close to fitting Mr. Armstrong’s clear, biblically informed definition. Plain truth about “Prophets” from Herbert W. Armstrong
The very church that Bob Thiel apostatized from knows him to be a false prophet and a liar. That's pretty damning! Even worse for Bob, Dibar Apartian knew Bob was not a prophet, and yet Bob claims Apartian fully endorsed him as a prophet. Bob continues to be a liar.
Wallace Smith also says this in another article:
"Other titles have come and gone… Various Self-Appointed Prophets and Luminaries of Imagined & Alternate Realities (L.I.A.R.s) have declared or implied that they have been given the title of or are the prophesied individual Elijah, Elisha, Zerubabbel (son of Shealtiel, though I wonder why one prefers the spelling in the Catholic Douay Rheims: “Salathiel”; interesting, that), Joshua, et al. Maybe you have heard a title I haven’t. If so, I’m not sure I want to know…
That none of these who consider themselves Prophets actually are any of these people or have any right to any sort of title is one thing. But the point of post (which I thought I would never get to!) is that it is yet another technique and not just a personal obsession. Sure, it generally represents a delusionary mindset and an incredible ego, but it also adds a level of “excitement” to the Self-Appointed One’s self-appointed “ministry”: Wow, this is a guy spoken of in the Bible, itself! More importantly, it has the potential to lend an authority to the individual’s words that neither the individual nor the words have earned."
And a little later, this:
"It is not that there are no titles in the Bible and it is not that the Bible cannot make a claim about an individual in our day. It certainly can and it certainly does. But how terribly badly some lust after being such an individual! In some cases they must search the Scriptures seeking out what they can apply to themselves. In other cases, they simply seem to have an ego and pride that the devil can take advantage of, “helping” them to “see” themselves in God’s own words (and in some cases, in the words of heathen “prophecies,” as well) over time.
It is a useful technique for Non-Prophets because increasing their credibility—being taken seriously—is vitally important to them. However, they have not earned the sort of credibility that justifies their self-declared “Prophet” status. Consequently, they must seek out other sources of credibility that can give them a short cut. For instance, it would be difficult to earn the sort of credibility the Two Witnesses will eventually have when God empowers them (cf. Rev. 11:3). Clearly, Revelation says the Two Witnesses are a couple of fellow who should be listened to."
"Not all Non-Prophets feel the need to take a title on themselves, to be sure (I won’t speak to the temptation they may have to do so, as I do not know) as it takes a really special level of self-delusion (or, on the flip side of the coin, a special level of confidence in one’s powers of con-artistry). Nevertheless, it is a technique that is on display out there in the Parade of Self-Appointed Ones time continues to present to us." Techniques of Non-Prophets: Got Me a Title!
Bob's hilarious screed continues on about how we mock his dreams and revelations he channels from the entity he follows and then says this:
Those who believe the false assertions at the Banned by HWA website are among those that love and practices lies.
Those who do so should repent.
Jesus taught:
44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:44-45)
Gary Leonard remains in my prayers.
Anyway, what Satan continues to hope is that you will believe lies, not believe that God actually has sent fulfilled dreams to those in the Continuing Church of God, and that you will not look into the details to see if it is so–like the Bereans of old did in Acts 17:10-11.
If you are not part of CCOG, Satan wants you to stay away from it.
He does not want you to be dedicated or noble enough to see if what is written here (and in the related links) is really true.
Heck, even God wants you to stay away from the improperly named "continuing" Church of God.
I have no fear of the god that Bob Thiel follows. We will continue to call him out as the liar and false prophet that he is.
Cheers
8 comments:
Thank goodness for Banned by HWA.
For giving us, the no ones, the faces without a name, the no bodies a voice.
But especially for exposing the appalling lack of knowledge and theological ineptitude and error of the Armstrong movement and its various 'leaders'. And exposing their abuse of scripture and the membership. That these groups are in serious decline and their 'message' is invisible is a telling indictment against them. Continue to expose these b*st*rds, their errors and their delusions.
Like other ACOG leaders before him, Bob Thiel has an exalted sense of self and is operating under the delusion that "the truth" has been revealed exclusively to him and his associates in the ACOGs. This is the epitome of a cultic mindset. For Bob and his cohorts, anyone who disagrees with them or criticizes them in anyway is doing Satan's work and is persecuting God's people. In reality, NO ONE in ANY of the ACOGs has been subjected to real persecution by anyone at any time (like being imprisoned for their beliefs, beaten, subjected to restrictions, killed, etc.).
Gary (along with many of us who contribute here) have emerged from this delusion and have worked to expose it and help those who have likewise been ensnared by it. Pointing out faulty reasoning and interpretations, inconsistencies, misrepresentations, and misleading statements is NOT persecution! Moreover, engaging in this exercise does NOT make us servants of Satan, but agents of truth and God. In other words, Bob and his folks are calling evil good and good evil (the very thing which they accuse everyone else of doing).
The TRUTH is Jesus Christ. He is the true Sabbath rest, and God is using him to save humanity from sin and death. Moreover, Scripture is clear about the fruits or evidence that the Holy Spirit is dwelling within someone (HINT: It has NOTHING to do with what you know or think you know). Indeed, it is actually those who claim to have the truth and have it all figured out who are the real Laodiceans (like Bob and his associates). Likewise, Bob and the other ACOG leadership glory in the fact that they observe some of the commandments of Torah, but those who are truly blessed are the ones who are loving God with their whole being and loving each other as themselves - Jesus identified these two commandments as the foundation and fulfillment of God's Law. Sorry, Bob, you're just NOT as well off as you think you are!
Shouldn't he be thanking us? After all, as a group, we always give him the most dynamic reaction that he ever receives from any source in his life. Who, except some in the LCG, would even know he existed were it not for this blog? But, since HWA set the example of frequently using Satan to validate him, Bob plants the false "S" flag on Banned in an effort to do the same! I mean, if Satan personally takes the time to attack, doesn't that make you a big man???
Millar/Lonnie @ 3:21:12 pm PST
Thank you for your comments. As to persecution, what does the Armstrong movement know about this?
I think of the tragic suffering of the Yazidis of Iraq. The terror that befell the Kurds of Iraq and Iran and Turkey. The persecution of the Jews and Roma Gypsies and Gays in Nazi Germany. The terror of Soviet Russia.The gulag of North Korea. The absolute hell that women and girls face daily in Afghanistan today. The suffering in Israel Syria Gaza Lebanon Sudan Libya Yemen Somalia DR Congo etc etc. etc. The persecution the Armstrong movement likes to totter out when confronted by others that question their legitimacy and theology is like listening to a broken record. It is sickening.
Bob cannot get over himself when he gets so much attention.
The TRUTH is Jesus Christ.
If you could prove that you could argue it successfully on sites run by atheists, buddists, muslims, or zionistas. That is where you should be.
5.38pm, Christ is the epitome and embodiment of every virtue including truth. John 14:6. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life;..." The proof is obtained by observing what He and the Father have created.
Buddhists, muslims etc are basically beyond reach this side of the second coming. Many would be crushed by social disapproval if they embraced the truth.
Here's the thing. If there is anything we know from our Armstrong experience and the current political situation, it is that ideas cannot be killed. We can debunk them, demonstrate ways in which they are damaging, attempt to reason with the people who hold them, with the hopes that they can be educated away from an erroneous mindset, and even present much better alternatives, but for whatever reason, these people cannot see or hear us. They hold these ideas because they are integral parts of their own essence, and fully compatible on some deep level with their core person. I watched this for the first time with my own parents, imagining that it was impossible for them not to see what I saw. Sadly, it did prove to be impossible. Ultimately, I understood that there could never be a relationship with them based on parity, and mutual respect. In later life, being codependent to their cultic behavior held no appeal to me whatsoever. I had already become sick of that as I was being raised by them. I looked to other people and places for the good that one normally absorbs from one's parents, and fortunately, that sort of surrogate arrangement worked for me, tempered by the knowledge that no mentor is ever perfect.
Collectively, the ideas my parents held were the thing for which they would fight
tooth and nail to preserve at all costs. They were always on the defensive about them, and everything else was simply expendible, even us, their children. And there you have it. Unless we maintain balance and a modicum of flexiblilty, that "thing", whatever it is in each of our lives, becomes what enslaves us! Which makes it a weakness in terms of overall impact on our lives.
Bob Thiel will continue to be the totally predictable Bob Thiel as we know him. Even he cannot do anything about that. We know the thing that he will fight to his death to hold on to. That is what is enslaving him! All we can do is to point this out so that others will not fall prey to the same type of enslavement. There is nothing Satanic about that! Not even!!!
BB
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