The Great Bwana has this little tidbit up today, trying to legitimize himself and his church as following in the line of apostolic succession, which is supposed to make his "ordination" legitimate. Mind you, this is a man whom the Worldwide Church of God, Global Church of God, and Living Church of God REFUSED to ordain due to his lack of humility, narcissism, and prideful boasting. This then led him to fictionalize in his head that the "supposed" double blessing by Gaylyn Bonjour was actually an ordination. It wasn't, and Gaylyn Bonjour said he never intended that when he laid hands on Bwana Bob. The Great Bwana then had to have one of his African followers, who was ordained by another Sabbatarian group, ordain him. If Herbert Armstrong were alive, he would have kicked Bob to the curb swiftly and without mercy. No man in the history of the COG movement has ever been refused by so many COG groups for ordination!
The time is coming when the Beast power will rise up and, at first, I expect that he and his supporters will give lip service to the idea of the Greco-Roman apostolic sees as partial proof why they, and not groups like the Continuing Church of God, have ties to apostolic Christianity. They will be wrong, of course. But we of the faithful flock need to be able to explain why they are wrong and that is part of why I posted this about the claimed ‘see’ of Venice.
Only those who have the same teachings and practices of the apostles can possibly have true apostolic succession.
Which brings to the third point: we in the Church of God do have apostolic succession.
In the Continuing Church of God we trace our succession through what has been called the “Apostolic See of Ephesus,” but also sometimes called the “See of Smyrna.”
A reminder for Bob from: Bob Thiel's Ordination Conundrum and His False Claim of Legitimacy
LOFCOG asked:
Does the witch doctor's ordination and alleged succession also extend to his animated Cartoon Bob character as well?
I'm convinced that it was Evans' idea, not Bob's, to have Evans lay hands on Bob. When you lay hands on someone, you are showing yourself to be their superior. Evans needed to lay hands on Bob to show his African flock that Bob was subordinate to him. But doing this screwed up Bob's claim to legitimacy. Deep down, despite all his mincing and flailing about it, Bob didn't trust his accidental "ordination" from Gaylon Bonjour, so he was willing to accept a real and intentional one from Evans. But you can't ordain someone to an office higher than you hold, unless it's some special one-off miracle like Bob used to say happened when Gaylon laid hands on him. Once Bob decided to supplement Gaylon's ordination with Evans', he lost all claim of being anything more than another evangelist. He can't be a prophet anymore.
7 comments:
we trace our succession through what has been called the “Apostolic See of Ephesus,” but also sometimes called the “See of Smyrna.”
The WHAT?!?!
I've been part of COG's for more than 40 years, and this is an absolute first. Herbert Armstrong's books never used any such language. Did Herman Hoeh?!?
Nah, its his Polycarp fixation at work.
Until he can trace who ordained Herbert Armstrong, and then who ordained him, yada-yada-yada, back to the original apostles, he has nothing.
Another attempt to defend the succession claim. Nathan Albright, the fellow who produced Armstrong “Heritage Day” for Aaron, Dean and UCG, recently posted what appears to be nothing more than an effort to push back on my Ezra 2/Nehemiah 7 precedent article (link at bottom). He criticizes “apostolic succession” in the Catholic Church by positing that the NT ministry is not a “priesthood.” He doesn’t actually deny ordinational succession for his ministry, but a casual reader might be forgiven for thinking he saying that. I replied that such a terminology change does not nullify the precedent when the practical system is essentially the same.
Also on there, I tangled with an Armstrong historian using the name “ShareGive.” I cited some of his in my writeup to demonstrate the lack of verifiable succession. He attempted to push back on what I said, and in the process, Albright stopped approving my responses to him. Yet ShareGive was allowed to continue posting. Unexpected, but of course not all that surprising.
ShareGive bailed out, claiming lack of time. He did, though, make a point that my backfire on him. He claimed that Armstrong was subsequently ordained again by the Salem CG7 when they do his name for “the 70.” In a subsequent email to ShareGive, I said this (one typo corrected here):
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“I really would like verification of the Point 1 one-of-the-70 ordination of Armstrong. He doesn’t mention it at all in his autobiography, and very much downplays what was involved in his connection to the Salem group. He says he got picked as one of the 70, and he sent them reports. If that ordination actually happened, then it would support a side-theory of mine that Armstrong omitted referencing ministers and [CORRECTION: “in”] his original 1931 ordination because he wanted to downplay in readers’ eyes his connection to CG7 and make his ministry look like it fell out of Heaven to build up his power and prestige among his followers. Much like how he falsely denied CG7 membership and completely omitted his 1930 CG7 re-baptism by Elder Stith.
It’s amazing how often pro-Armstrong arguments end up having to revise Armstrong’s on rendition of history. In the 1931 baptism case, you actually have to hope he was a self-important jerk, because otherwise he’s omission kills his credibility (and succession claim).
Thank you in advance.”
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No response yet.
My censored responses are available on my own blog post linked to in my name her on BBHWA.
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2025/05/17/white-paper-succession-in-the-melchizedek-priesthood-a-biblical-analysis-in-contrast-to-levitical-and-roman-catholic-models/#comment-94308
Excellent movie, very germane: The Apostle, starring Robert Duvall.
I seriously doubt that Bob Thiel even questions the realness of the role he has chosen to play. Even committing a murder didn't shake Duvall's faith in his "calling". He kept right on "being" an apostle in jail. Most of us whose WCG parents told us had a special calling thought it was absolutely ridiculous and ran from it. I just don't understand how some people could buy into it and throw their lives away when it is obvious that they all fail. It wasn't too long ago when some of us used to exchange comments with apocalyptic activist David ben Ariel. These people die, and their families die, their fondest expectations being unrequited. They're locked into the stuff.
Link correction: https://catsgunsandnationalsecurity.blogspot.com/2025/03/reference-to-followers-of-armstrongism.html?m=1
I mean, Bob sees a degree of mysticism in this magical "laying on of hands" ritual, but also espouses this notion of this invisible, intangible "Philadelphia mantle" that just sort of flies around to different dudes at various moments. Yet ironically, Bob was never ordained a minister in a COG. His "laying on of hands" came through a prayer request for healing which Bob has to cling to to fit his own paradigm.
You would think that that circumstance would tell Bob something about himself (cf. Meredith's letter advising him that he was overly arrogant and obnoxious and people were repelled by it), but of course it doesn't.
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