For many years now we have been regaled by wild stories from the Great Bwana Bob Thiel about how amazing he is and his so-called church is. There has never been a more miraculous COG in the history of humanity nor has the church ever seen a greater man than what we see in the Great Bwana Bob. No one has been persecuted more than he has and no COG has ever suffered as horribly as his church has.
That all came to a screeching halt when the most persecuted family in the church stepped forward with their horror stories:
Samuel Kitchen writes:
Now Herbert W Armstrong came in the spirit and office of Elijah the prophet. He came to “prepare the way of the Lord” as mentioned in Malachi 3, and 4 explains, and he came to “restore all things” as Jesus Himself said in Matthew 17:11.If God didn’t send such an individual, He would allow “utter destruction” to curse this earth(Mal. 4:5-6).In Matthew 24:22, concerning worldwide destruction, Christ says “but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.”So this man has something to do with raising up the elect of God. This single human man is not only important to God, but also those with that man are important to God!!!The fate of the World depends on them!The Worldwide Church of God is in 100% agreement and support of everything Mr. Herbert W Armstrong taught!Where he goes, we go. We do not run, we not retreat, or depart from God’s leadership through one man!While he was alive was Herbert W Armstrong available to every member of the Church? Could he simultaneously appear in every congregation of the Worldwide Church of God? No!Now instead of everywhere in 1986 and prior, we have EVERYWHERE 1986- FUTURE!And while not every member of every congregation received the teachings from the apostle of Christ simultaneously while he was yet alive, members are receiving those teachings, this preaching, as they do through time.How are we bound to such a work now, when the servant of God died so many years ago? By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit! Without it… WE HAVE NO CONNECTION!!!!! We have no reason to obey it. We have no reason to hold fast to it otherwise! But those of us who have the Holy Spirit dwelling and leading in us, recognize the authority of Jesus Christ, and the work of God being done in the flesh, we forsake everything in surrender to Jesus Christ! Those who have not yet surrendered wholly to Jesus Christ do not understand why we do what we do!!!They say we ought to join or become another group or church. They think the job started through Herbert W Armstrong is not going to finish, since he died. They think the physical aspect is needed! It is a SPIRITUAL WORK!!!!And while there may be great distance between people, those with God’s Holy Spirit are on a total different frequency than the rest of this world! The connection will always be made!So back to 1 Kings 19.Elijah was fleeing Jezebel because she wanted him dead. His colleges were attacked and the students and teachers were murdered.He ran a days journey into the wilderness, and here received two meals from an angel of God.The first meal was to recover from what he was then experiencing!Think of the 1970’s and “liberal period”.Jesus Christ through Mr. Armstrong sustained the membership who held fast. Without that spiritual food, many would have STARVED SPIRITUALLY!The second meal was for the intent of preserving the servant of God for a journey he was going to make! Now from 1981- forward we have received spiritual food, through Mr Armstrong, that is aiding and assisting the membership of the Worldwide Church of God to continue to EXIST for the last 40 years.
Apparently everything that Herb did prior to 1981 was wrong. In 1981, when he supposedly put the church back on track thenthe church was on the right path
For the first time in ourchurch history, the Church of God was organized right in 1981!Prior to 1981, the Church was organized to a “corporation” pattern. There was a board of directors that could fire Mr Armstrong, but they wouldn’t.But 1981, Christ through Mr Armstrong put the Church back on the right track, and placed ONE MAN IN CHARGE of EVERYTHING via corporation sole! The government of God was restored to the Worldwide Church of God. And the work, the congregations etc got organized rightly under Mr Armstrong.
This was done in the state of Arizona.
Then, forty years later, prophecy came alive and intense persecution started on the one true COG family:
Forty years later, was the year 2021.My family was living in Arizona.We had been fighting for the right to exist as the Worldwide Church of God.We had a window washing business, and we had been fighting with a conglomerate of other industry leaders, who used to be in the Worldwide Church of God! They got together and wanted us to be ran out of town. One man stood up for us and wanted to include us with the “network” because he figured they all would do better with us than against us.So we fought underhanded, dirty, thieving tactics, with people pretending to be our company in order to disauade customers from using our services. We had our home taken from us. We were burglarized. We had death threats. We had federal locks on our post office boxes, that had to be removed, we had a lot of “shady” things happen to us, because we were online sharing what we was finding about the Worldwide Church of God and Herbert W Armstrong.Through us, interest was expanded and explored. We had people come out of their churches in disagreement with us, trying to out do us in making these truths available. They thought they were better than us.So through persecution we ended up in Arizona.And there in Arizona, my family was killed.A man who claimed to work for the cia, wanted my dad one day saying it was coming. He wanted us to know it was nothing personal, it was just orders. He had to protect his own family, he said.That may have sounded like words of madman, but when a grandmother is murdered in the hospital, and your mom dies mysteriously and then your dad dies mysteriously, that warning had more weight. We didn’t take the warning lightly. We trusted God. And it just so happens that my dad died in 2021, at the closure of what began in 1981 with the corporation sole.From that point forward I’ve been focusing on raising the alarms to brethren, and to continue to show the Worldwide Church of God does still exist.Now I’ve personally come across some people who has tried to destroy myself and this Church! They have tried to put brother against brother, in order to destroy what is held in trust!
The last man standing! Even wimpy beta heretic Bwana Bob cannot measure up to this!
Now because of this division someone else has started, the threat of some dissident sweeping in to take legal control of the name of the Worldwide Church of God has come.And with family gone, I’ve been told I am the last one standing!In 1983, the paperwork of the corporation sole in Arizona went dark.In 1984 Mr Armstrong returned to Pasadena, and was preparing spiritual food for all of us these last forty years.If Elijah received food to survive the attack from the state government, first, then the second time was meant for 1983-forward to our time, after the receivership, meant for a LONG JOURNEY! Jezebel destroyed the parts of the Elijah Work she could get her hands on!You see how the spirit of Jezebel works?And so forty years later, the Elijah Work still exists and we who have God’s Holy Spirit are connected with that work!And when I read Elijah’s words in 1 Kings 19:10,14, I am moved emotionally. Because out of my personally family, I am alone for now. We’ve been struck by the enemy, and he seeks our destruction!Now Mr Armstrong said there will BE NO ELISHA TO FOLLOW HIM! I agree.In 1 Kings 19, it is a prophecy concerning the end of the Elijah Work.Our work will end, with the rise of the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, a combine of ten toes, or ten nations or groups of nations in Europe, calling themselves “the United States of Europe”!But no, as some mock me, the servant of God did not “go back to Egypt” when he travelled to Mt. Sinai. He was looking for the next instructions from the God of Heaven.And we too, need to look to God and Jesus Christ as our savior and Head! We are connected to the Elijah work if we have God’s Holy Spirit! And we only will have God’s Holy Spirit if we surrender to Jesus Christ and wholly obey Him!Some are saying they are the 7,000 prepared who have not bowed their knees to Baal. When the two witnesses stand up, they will be ready to add to our membership! There won’t be “another church” competing. We either will be together as the true church or we won’t be.As for this legal sweep to grab for legal power over trademark. Merchants fight over that. And our God will destroy the merchants of this earth and avenge our people. A whore is going to be a whore. So a Jezebel will act like a Jezebel.The book of Obadiah speaks on these things. God be praised!
There is one lasting sad legacy of Armstrogism, and that is that it helped create a lot of mentally unstable people! Hundreds of Elijahs have self-appointed themselves over the decades. Prophets and prophetesses regularly visited Pasadena with their prophetic messages. Some pretested with large signs parading up and down the street in front of the Hall of Ad as others tried their best to draw away church members.
I can state with absolute confidence that no one is going to follow Samuel. The few that did previously have all abandoned him after his epic failure at the Feast in Israel/Jordan.
Others, like Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, and Bob Thiel, attempted to start their own groups, supposedly with God's official blessing, which now have turned out to be miserable failures.
Even the mother, GCI is facing difficulties. Are we finally witnessing the end of Armstrongism?
