Bob Thiel is back at it again — because apparently one self-appointed “ordained prophet” title wasn’t enough ego inflation. He’s once more wheeling out the dusty corpse of an article by Norman Edwards (yes, that Norm Edwards from the old Global Church of God… the group that dramatically imploded into nothing, that Thiel himself joined after apostatizing from the Worldwide Church of God in a glorious fit of rebellion, then repeated the performance at Global when he apostazied into Living Church of God which he later apostaized from to start his own group).
Norm, that self-styled theological giant who thought he was too smart for the rest of the imploding COG wreckage, now runs Nashville Christian and gets quoted like he’s some kind of authority. Thiel loves him because Norm wrote a long piece arguing that God still wants prophets today. That article alone discredits him.
Edwards’ article consists of cherry-picked verses, emotional appeals about “pride,” and the usual “if you disagree with me you’re judging and God will judge you back” guilt trip. Thiel adds his own multi-thousand-word commentary and a sprawling “55-point list” (bullet points of “look how wrong everyone else is about current events”) to “prove” he’s the only legitimate prophet left in any “real” Church of God group.
This entire exercise is peak COG drama. Thiel is desperately trying to justify his self-appointment with the exact same playbook every self-proclaimed prophet has used since the New Testament closed: “The Bible says there were prophets back then, so there must be one now… and surprise, it’s me!”
Here’s the part Thiel and Edwards conveniently gloss over while racking up those endless word splatters of special pleading.
The New Covenant is not a continuation of the Old Testament prophetic office. Hebrews 1:1-2 makes it embarrassingly clear:
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…
God used to use prophets. Then He sent Jesus. That’s the upgrade. The foundation of the church was laid by apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). Foundations get laid once. You don’t keep pouring concrete forever or the building never gets built.
Jude 3 tells believers to...
Jude 3 tells believers to...
contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Once for all. Not...
once for all until Bob Thiel needs to feel important in 2026.
1 Corinthians 13:8-10 says prophecies will cease when “that which is perfect has come.” The completed New Testament canon is that perfect revelation. We don’t need new words from God when we already have the full written Word. Anything claiming to be new revelation gets tested by the existing Bible—and most of it fails.
The New Testament is full of warnings about false prophets in the last days (Matthew 24:11,24; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1). It never promises a steady supply of true ones running around giving personal prophecies and correcting entire church groups. The only future prophets the Bible clearly points to are the Two Witnesses—and they show up during the Tribulation with actual signs and wonders, not blog posts and 55-point lists of other people’s mistakes.
Even Herbert W. Armstrong, the man Thiel claims to follow, repeatedly said he was not a prophet and that there was no need for prophets in the church during his time. Thiel conveniently ignores that while quoting everything else.
Thiel’s big evidence that he’s the real prophet? A massive list of how every other COG group misunderstands prophecy, followed by claims that only he gets it right.
It’s not prophecy. It’s commentary on the news mixed with old doctrinal arguments. Russia doing something? Prophecy! Europe uniting? Prophecy! Debt crisis? Prophecy! Someone in another group changing their mind about the King of the South? Double prophecy!
This is not “God revealing His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). This is a guy reading the same headlines everyone else reads and then saying, “See? Only the true prophet understands this.” It’s the theological equivalent of claiming you’re psychic because you predicted the sun would rise tomorrow after it already came up.
The entire 55-point list is an exercise that boils down to: “Everyone else is Laodicean and wrong. Therefore, I must be the Philadelphian prophet.” It’s circular reasoning dressed up as deep insight. No specific, testable, future predictions that only he got right. Just after-the-fact “I told you so” on things that were already happening or obvious.
Thiel spends endless paragraphs accusing others of pride for not accepting prophets… while claiming to be the only ordained prophet in the entire COG world. That’s not humility. That’s the spiritual equivalent of walking into a room and announcing, “I’m the most humble person here.”
He quotes a guy from a dead splinter group to prop up his own splinter group. He left three organizations in rebellion and now positions himself as the faithful remnant. And he has the gall to lecture everyone else about not recognizing true prophets while ignoring that the Bible’s actual test for prophets (Deuteronomy 18:22) involves 100% accuracy on future events—not compiling long lists of other groups’ mistakes.
The New Covenant doesn’t need modern prophets because we have something better: the completed revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures. Everything else is either repeating what’s already written or making stuff up.
Bob Thiel can keep writing his 8,000+ word defenses and his endless “everyone else is wrong” lists. The rest of us will stick with the faith once for all delivered—without needing a self-appointed narcissistic prophet from the wreckage of failed COG groups to explain it to us.
Pride really is the biggest problem for end-time Christians. Especially the kind that looks in the mirror and sees a prophet staring back.
Way back when Bob was still posting as GCGWriter, he lashed out against Norm Edwards as a beyond-the-pale apostate, and he lambasted those who dared to speak up, even partly, in Edwards' defense.
ReplyDeleteToday, he praises Edwards as a source of truth and wisdom.
This just goes to show that Bob is a man with no fixed principles, and no integrity. Bob will say and do whatever he feels he needs to do to draw attention to himself. He may be laughable, but he is also contemptible.
He surely doesn't care about the oppressed and innocent, as long as he can push his agenda as the Fastest growing, most Holy Philadelphia Mantle Government COG in the History of the World 🌎. As Rod Meredith pointed out. Bob you are Suffering from Delusions of Grandeur 🤪Bob seriously Evans and Radson are making a fool out of you-. If you only knew what was really happening . Awe you don't want to know, your whole world would be destroyed. Best you keep spreading the BS, it keeps this blog interesting. I mean who would have thought a church involved with Witchdoctors 😈👹, I mean it's crazy 🤣
ReplyDeleteWell, here's the big question? So you think God is using prophets today? Can you show me just one through whom God is speaking, and whom God is validating in the same manner as He employed in the case of the Old Testament prophets??? No, you can't! The dude would be drawing incredible crowds, and all eyes would be fixed on him. Now that would really be something, just like it was in Old Testament times!
ReplyDeleteThe reason HWA always insisted that he was not a prophet is that undoubedly he would have ended up being called a false prophet, or a liar! He had to have realized this from the statements he made over the radio during WW-II
I don't know why people even bother with the Armstrong false prophecy model! It's all a mess of $hit anyway. It's also heen tainted by the bad people whi have exploited it to brainwash and control people!
Armstrong’s “I am NOT a prophet” line first appeared in the February 1972 Tomorrow’s World “Personal,” and he repeated it several times afterward. It was a fancy trick , no more than a rhetorical shield that allowed him to deny prophetic status while continuing to make prophetic claims.
DeleteHis behaviour contradicted his denial because we know that for decades, beginning in the 1930s and continuing right through to the end of his life, he issued predictions in bold capital letters (“GOD SAYS”, “THIS IS GOD’S WARNING”), insisted that God had revealed the timing of events to him, and declared that he was the one through whom God was speaking. One of his most dogmatic latter prophecies occurred in 1984 where he wrote an article about 'where are we now in prophecy' or words to that effect and promised Petra. That the war in heaven with Satan had happened or was about to.
He described his “Work” as the only voice announcing God’s end‑time message. In practice, he rejected the title while performing the role, claiming divine authority for his warnings but shielding himself from accountability when they failed.
ps the sleight‑of‑hand trick first appeared in 1972 because Armstrong had been caught with his pants down. For decades he had taught that 1972 would be the year the Church fled to Petra, that 1972 would mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation, and that 1975 would be the approximate date of Christ’s return. When January 1972 arrived and nothing happened, he faced the collapse of his most public prophecy. His sudden declaration, “I am NOT a prophet,” was a way to deny prophetic status at the very moment his prophetic timetable had failed.
PS Armstrong had dramatic pants down failures long before 72 but they were hidden as time passed by. Some dissidents had hard copies but by and large they generally became forgotten. The 1972 to 75 fiasco could not be hidden of course as his ‘work’ was big by that time.
DeleteNow with the internet and the availability of all of his publications the entire sorry bombastic and false record is laid bare for all to see.
Great post NO2HWA. One of the best yet. Sharp and to the point. No ambiguity here. Scripture does fire both barrels across the bowels of these wannabe prophets. Take that Thiel and those pretenders to Herbies throne….of thorns lol.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I see the Assyrians, sorry Germany have lost their place in the World Cup, losing to the Paraguayans. But Ephraim is doing well ha ha. My pick is France (Reuben), to those in the know lol, will be in the final against Argentina. But that prophecy of mine might change tomorrow. But if it comes about, a prophet that surely makes me. Move over Thiel.
Point 1 of 55 Point List.........."and will have to go through the Great Tribulation."
ReplyDeleteNo. The GT was in Judea in the first century - Mat 24:16.
Point 2 of 55 Point List........ "still needs to be preached to the world as a witness per Matthew 24:14". No. The end has already come - 1Cor 10:11; Col 1:23.