Is the COG Pulpit a Place for Ministers to Air Their Pet Theories, Conjectures, Political Opinions or Restored Insights?

A review of Nathan Albright's paper on: The Importance of Teaching What the Bible Says from the Pulpit and Avoiding Personal Speculation as an Abuse of the Power of the Pulpit

The white paper argues that the pulpit is a stewardship of already-given revelation, not a license for the minister’s theories, conjectures, political opinions, or “restored” insights presented as if they carry the same weight as Scripture. Authority is derivative and contingent on fidelity to the text. When that line is crossed, the office becomes self-promotion, personality cult, and spiritual coercion. That framework sits in sharp tension with classic Armstrongism on both church government and the New Covenant. 

Armstrongism’s view of the minister and the hierarchy

Herbert W. Armstrong taught that God restored “the government of God” in the church through him. That government is pyramidal and top-down: Father → Christ → apostle (Armstrong himself) → evangelists → pastors → elders. All authority flows downward; members do not vote doctrine or choose leaders. The apostle (and, by extension, the ministry under him) received the keys to bind and loose. Doctrine came through the apostle; lower ranks taught what headquarters authorized. Questioning official teaching was frequently treated as rebellion against Christ, not merely disagreement with a man. Armstrong presented himself as the end-time apostle through whom lost truths were restored after centuries of apostasy. His writings and verbal judgments functioned as the authorized interpretation. Local ministers were expected to preach the approved package. The congregation’s role was largely to “pay, pray, stay, and obey.” This is the opposite of the paper’s insistence that the preacher is a steward, not a proprietor, and that hearers must be trained to distinguish what the text actually says from what a minister imagines. The paper’s warnings map almost one-to-one onto documented patterns:

• Personality displacing the text (“cult of personality”).
• Opinion sanctified as revelation (“binding and loosing” used to settle extra-biblical or speculative matters).
• Coercive spiritual control (members’ decisions on marriage, health, employment, and even private Bible study were sometimes subordinated to ministerial judgment).
• Lack of real downward or peer accountability at the top.

Armstrong did say “don’t believe me—believe the Bible.” In practice, the institutional structure made an independent conclusion that contradicted headquarters costly. That is precisely the abuse the paper describes.

The New Covenant tension

Armstrongism taught that the Old Covenant is ended, but the New Covenant has not yet been fully ratified (it is completed at the marriage supper / Christ’s return). In the meantime, Christians live under its terms: the law written on the heart by the Spirit, yet the Sabbath, annual holy days, tithing, clean-and-unclean meats, and other “spiritual” statutes remain binding. Salvation is by grace, but God “will not save anyone He cannot govern.” The ministry exists to teach and enforce that government. 

Jeremiah 31 / Hebrews 8, however, describe a covenant in which “they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” and “no longer shall each one teach his neighbor.” The paper’s call for congregational biblical literacy, transparency about uncertain interpretations, and the congregation as a safeguard against pulpit abuse sits far closer to that New Covenant description than Armstrongism’s mediating hierarchy does. In the paper the Spirit and the public text are sufficient; the minister’s job is to read, give the sense, and apply—not to stand as the indispensable decoder of “restored truth.”

Armstrongism effectively keeps a strong teaching-and-governing priesthood in place while claiming the New Covenant is already operative in part. The paper treats that arrangement as an Old-Covenant-style mediation that the New Covenant was meant to relativize.

Where the paper and Armstrongism overlap—and where they cannot

Both sides can quote 2 Timothy 4:2, Nehemiah 8:8, and “it is written.” Both claim to reject speculation. The disagreement is over who decides what the text actually says and how much extra-biblical material (British-Israel identifications, successive church-era schemes, detailed prophetic timetables, binding administrative rulings) may be presented from the pulpit as if it were the plain teaching of Scripture.

The paper’s principles—textual control of the sermon, admission of uncertainty, doctrinal consistency checked against the whole canon, and accountability structures that include the congregation—would have constrained the very mechanism Armstrongism used to establish and maintain its distinctive doctrines. A minister who treated Armstrong’s unique restorations as non-negotiable revelation would, by the paper’s standard, be guilty of the malpractice it condemns.

Conversely, remaining Armstrongist groups would likely reply that the paper itself is a Protestant-leaning document that underestimates the New Testament offices and the need for unified government to prevent “every man doing what is right in his own eyes.” They would argue that their hierarchy is the biblical pattern and that dropping it produced the doctrinal collapse they saw after 1986.

The paper does not leave much room for that reply. It locates authority in the public, inspectable text rather than in a living office that claims to restore or bind what the text left implicit. That is a New Covenant move: the Word is no longer locked behind a specialized caste. Whether one accepts Armstrong’s restorations or not, the paper’s logic treats the elevation of any minister’s interpretive system into binding revelation as the very distortion it exists to prevent.

Conclusion: When “New Revelation” Becomes the Oldest Abuse

The principles set forth in this paper are not abstract. They are a measuring line. Apply them to the pulpits of Bob Thiel, David Pack, and Gerald Flurry, and the verdict is unambiguous.

Each of these men has taken the sacred trust of the pulpit and converted it into a private franchise for ongoing revelation. They do not merely explain Scripture; they present themselves as the indispensable conduit through which God is now speaking things previously hidden or insufficiently understood. That is precisely the substitution of personal theory for biblical exposition that this paper condemns. It is opinion masquerading as revelation. It is the preacher becoming proprietor rather than steward.

Gerald Flurry has declared himself “That Prophet,” the last voice before Messiah, the conduit for revelation drawn from the major and minor prophets, Lamentations, Daniel, and Revelation. He has described hearing a voice that delivered new understanding about a “new throne of David.” The congregation is expected to receive these claims as the unfolding of God’s government, not as one man’s reading. That is the cult of personality this paper warned against, dressed in prophetic titles. 

David Pack has claimed the offices of apostle and Elijah, then walked some of the claims back only to rebuild them under new language. For more than a decade his “Greatest Untold Story” series has reset dates for the Kingdom, the 1335 days, and Christ’s return—dates that have failed again and again. When the words do not come to pass, the explanation is always that the brethren misunderstood the timing or that “inspired preaching” is not the same as prophecy. Deuteronomy 18:22 does not grant that loophole. A man who repeatedly speaks in God’s name about events that do not occur is not a misunderstood steward. He is a false prophet. The pulpit becomes a mechanism of perpetual crisis and dependence. That is spiritual coercion. 

Bob Thiel has constructed a prophetic résumé out of dreams, a “double-portion” anointing he interprets as the passing of the mantle, and the assertion that the Continuing Church of God uniquely displays the signs of Acts 2:17–18. Those who do not recognize his office risk missing protection in the hour of trial. The paper’s call for transparency of interpretation—admitting uncertainty rather than disguising it as revelation—is ignored. The minister’s private experiences become the new canon that the flock must accept. 

All three men operate inside the Armstrongist assumption that God still funnels binding truth through a single hierarchical office. They have simply placed themselves at the apex. In doing so they invert the New Covenant itself. Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8 describe a covenant in which the law is written on hearts and “they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” These leaders insist the opposite: the brethren cannot fully know until the man at the top decodes the next installment. That is not government of God. It is the older priesthood of mediators standing between the people and the finished Word.

The paper stated that to speculate beyond revelation is not creative theology—it is spiritual malpractice. These three have gone further. They have made the malpractice official doctrine. They have trained congregations to treat their evolving interpretations, failed predictions, and self-referential titles as the voice of God. That is deception of the brethren. It is an abuse of the very hierarchy they claim to represent. It is the pulpit used as a power structure rather than a sacred trust.

The remedy remains what this paper first declared: return the pulpit to what Scripture actually says. No new apostle, no end-time Elijah, no “That Prophet,” no dream-validated office is required for the church to hear God. The Word is already given. The Spirit already writes it on hearts. Any man who stands in the pulpit and says otherwise—who makes himself the necessary conduit—has ceased to be a steward and has become a liar. The call is not to a different personality at the top. The call is back to the text, to humility, and to the freedom the New Covenant already purchased.

Silent Pilgrim

Bob Thiel, Despite The Law Being Weak and Useless, Still Claims Christians Are Required To Tithe

Bob Thiel is back with his repeat article where he gets all prissy about Banned claiming tithing is no longer commanded. The fact still remains, tithing is not a New Covenant command. Bob Thiel and the improperly named "continuing" Church of God still continue to lie that it is because he still erroneously believes large parts of the Mosaic system are still binding on New Covenant Christians. That is the Armstrongist package. It is not what the apostles taught the churches.

Tithing as a required tenth (and sometimes two or three tenths) was Israel’s covenant tax for Levites, festivals, and the poor. The New Testament replaces that system with generous, voluntary, Spirit-prompted giving. Jesus did not install a Christian tithe. Paul never commanded one. The early churches did not practice one as law.

What Thiel actually teaches

Thiel’s CCOG statement of beliefs and his long article Tithing Questions and Some Answers are explicit. Tithes belong to God (Leviticus 27:30). Faithful Christians follow Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:23. Because the priesthood changed, tithes now go to “those representing Christ’s ministry” (Hebrews 7). They teach first tithe for the work, second tithe for feast travel and food, and third tithe in years 3 and 6 of a seven-year cycle for the poor. They apply Malachi 3:8–10 to Christians: withholding tithes is robbing God. They argue tithing predates Moses (Abraham and Jacob), so it cannot be “just Mosaic.” They insist it applies to all increase—wages, not only farm produce.

That is consistent Armstrongism. Herbert W. Armstrong treated tithing as a living financial law. After the old Worldwide Church of God abandoned those teachings, remnant groups kept them. Thiel presents CCOG as the place the “most faithful” should send the money.

The arguments sound biblical until you put them in covenant context.

What tithing actually was

Under Moses, Israel was a theocratic nation with a landless priestly tribe. Tithes supported Levites (Numbers 18), funded pilgrimage feasts (Deuteronomy 14:22–27), and every third year helped Levites, sojourners, orphans, and widows (Deuteronomy 14:28–29). Combined, the system was closer to 20–23% in some years than a neat 10%. It was tied to the land, the temple, and the Levitical order.

Abraham’s tenth to Melchizedek (Genesis 14) was a one-time gift from war spoils, not a standing tax on income. Jacob’s tenth (Genesis 28) was a vow. Neither is a law that binds the church. If “Abraham did it before Sinai” makes tithing a creation ordinance, the same logic would keep circumcision—which Abraham also practiced, and which the apostles explicitly refused to impose on Gentile believers (Acts 15; Galatians 5).
Jesus and Matthew 23:23

This is what Thiel imagines as his strongest-looking verse. Jesus tells Pharisees they tithe mint, dill, and cumin but neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness: “These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

He was speaking to Jews still under the Mosaic covenant, before the cross. In the same discourse, He talks about the temple, oaths, and other law-keeping. He Himself was “born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). He also told a healed leper to offer the gift Moses commanded (Matthew 8:4). No serious reader treats that as a standing command for Christians to bring animals to a temple that no longer exists.

Jesus fulfilled the law (Matthew 5:17; Romans 10:4). After His death, the ceremonial and civic scaffolding of Israel’s covenant—priesthood, sacrifices, food laws as covenant markers, and the tithe that funded that system—does not transfer automatically to the multi-ethnic church.
Hebrews 7 does not re-enact the tithe

Armstrongists lean hard on Hebrews 7. Abraham tithed to Melchizedek; Levi, still “in Abraham’s loins,” paid tithes through him; therefore the greater priesthood (Christ’s) still receives tithes.

That is not the author’s point. Hebrews 7 argues that Melchizedek’s priesthood is superior to Levi’s, that Jesus is priest forever after that order, and that “when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well” (Hebrews 7:12). The next verses say the former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (7:18–19). The whole letter is about the old covenant becoming obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). Using a historical illustration of Abraham’s gift to prove a mandatory 10% church tax reverses the argument.

Hebrews 7: 

 

14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, 16 one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is declared:

You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.[a]

18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

If Hebrews 7 reimposed tithing, it is strange that the rest of the New Testament never tells a single congregation to do it.

What the apostles actually commanded

Paul organized a collection for poor saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–2; 2 Corinthians 8–9). The principles are:

• Set something aside on the first day of the week, as one may prosper.
• Give according to what you have, not what you do not have.
• Give not reluctantly or under compulsion.
• God loves a cheerful giver.
• Sowing bountifully and sparingly have consequences.

He defends the right of gospel workers to be supported (1 Corinthians 9:13–14; 1 Timothy 5:17–18; Galatians 6:6). He never names a percentage. He never cites Malachi 3 as church law. He never instructs Gentiles to calculate first, second, and third tithes or to send festival money to a central feast site.

That silence is not an accident. If a 10% (or 23%) legal requirement remained, the man who fought circumcision so fiercely would have said so.

The New Covenant promise is the law written on the heart (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Hebrews 8), not a recycled Levitical payroll. Believers are not under the law but under grace (Romans 6:14). That does not mean stinginess. It means the floor is no longer a tax bracket and the motive is no longer “or you are robbing God.”

History does not rescue the doctrine

The first-century church supported ministers and the poor by freewill gifts and shared possessions (Acts 2, 4; Didache). Second-century writers such as Irenaeus contrasted Jewish constraint with Christian liberty: Christians give freely, not the lesser portion. The Didascalia said Christians were not bound to tithes and firstfruits in the old way.

Mandatory ecclesiastical tithing as a fixed percentage enforceable by church (and later civil) law is a later development—clearly visible in sixth-century Western councils such as Mâcon (585), not in the apostolic age. Thiel’s claim that “the original catholic church” tithed as CCOG does overreads later practice back onto the New Testament.

Why the Armstrongist version is especially burdensome

Even among tithe-advocates, three full tithes is a minority reconstruction. Many scholars see overlapping descriptions of the same tithe used in different ways, not a stacked 20–23% annual levy plus feast travel. Binding that reconstruction on Christians, then directing it to one remnant organization as the storehouse, turns a disputed Old Testament administrative question into a test of loyalty.

Thiel notes he takes no salary. That is personally commendable and irrelevant to whether the law exists. A teacher can be unpaid and still be wrong about the covenant, which he consistently is.

What Christians are commanded to do

Give. Support those who labor in the word. Help the poor, especially the household of faith. Do it regularly, proportionally, secretly where possible, and cheerfully. For many people a tenth is a wise starting discipline. For some it is too little; for some in hardship it would be crushing. The New Testament refuses to freeze that into a statute with a curse attached.

Malachi 3 was a rebuke to post-exilic Judah for starving the temple system God had actually commanded them. Quoting it as if every paycheck that does not send 10% to Grover Beach is temple robbery is covenant confusion.

Tithing as Armstrongism defines it is not a New Covenant command. Generous giving is. The difference is not a loophole for greed. It is the difference between living under a fulfilled law and living as people who already belong to the One who owns everything—and who gave more than a tenth.

LCG Admits They Have Little to No Growth While Bob Thiel and Wade Cox Claim They Have Converted the Entire Continent of Africa

Forty years after Herbert Armstrong's death, despite hundreds of splinter groups all proclaiming themselves as the one true Philadelphia church, not a single one is able to attract and maintain members. Sure, there are the dubious reports by Crackpot Bob about amazing growth in Africa, but it is all unsubstantiated and depends upon a tight-knit group of church-hopping former Adventists/COG7/Armstrongite leaders. Bob's numbers are as dubious as Wade Cox proclaiming that half of Africa has joined his cult, including scores of Muslims. If we were to believe either self-appointed nutjob, the entire continent is now Church of God members. How are they all going to fit in Petra?

When the church imploded, there was no unified exodus to one church. Hundreds of competing self-righteous know-it-alls set themselves up as HWA's rightful heir of the one true church. Disgruntled members of these groups also church-hopped from one group to the next until they found one that best fit their feelings. 

More and more people are seeing through the lies of COG leaders and continue to drop out of church groups. Plus, the foundation of all of these splinters is former WCG folk who are now in their 70s and 90s. As more members die each month, no new younger people are joining. Why should they? Younger people have search engines. They can read the history, the failed dates, the leadership scandals, the endless “we are the one true remnant” press releases, and the critical archives in an afternoon. The internet did not just expose the remnants. It made joining them look like volunteering for a retirement home with extra prophecy charts.

LCG is not going to grow any more than Samuel Kitchen's group is. The pattern is not mysterious. A movement built on one man’s authority, specific prophetic timelines, and the claim of unique restored truth does not age well once the founder is gone, the dates pass, the internet exists, and the original converts start collecting Social Security. The splinters keep proclaiming victory. The metal folding chairs keep getting colder. The young keep googling. And Petra, if it is still taking reservations, should probably ask for a deposit. The no-show rate looks rather high.

Greetings from Charlotte,

The Council of Elders met online Wednesday to gain a quick overview of trends within the Church around the world. We are seeing new members come along—some brand new and others coming to us with a WCG background or from other fellowships—but growth is slow, in large part due to having to replace those who have finished their race. Several members died recently, including our longest ordained minister, Mr. James Wells in Kansas City. I’ll be traveling there for his funeral. We still struggle to reach a younger demographic, but there are congregations that have significant numbers of children and teens. Many young couples are having three or more children, and it does not take many child-bearing couples to significantly impact a congregation. Dr. Wilner Pierre reports that all our members are safe following a gang raid in Haiti, near Port-au-Prince, that left at least 47 dead and 50 kidnapped. With such violence, along with earthquakes, fires, floods, and other natural disasters, let us remember to pray for one another.

—Gerald E. Weston

PCG: They Didn’t Win in Court. They Bought Their Way Out—Then Edited Herbert Armstrong

The Philadelphia Church of God has spent more than two decades crowing that it “won” the lawsuit the Worldwide Church of God filed after PCG printed Herbert W. Armstrong’s writings without permission. That claim is not a misunderstanding. It is a sales pitch. PCG uses it to present itself as the church God miraculously protected and as the rightful heir of Armstrong’s work.

Gerald Flurry put the myth in print in the May 2003 Philadelphia Trumpet:

We have just won the greatest victory ever in the Philadelphia Church of God! It will probably be our most thrilling victory in this entire end-time work.

PCG was still repeating the same line years later, including earlier this year. The court record tells a different story. So does PCG’s own later editing of Mystery of the Ages—the book it claimed was too sacred to touch.What the courts actually decidedWCG first sued PCG in 1997 to stop PCG from distributing Armstrong’s works while WCG owned the copyrights. The court dismissed that first filing without prejudice, meaning WCG could sue again. It did. The second case ran until 2003. 

The reason for the suit was straightforward. PCG never asked permission. It copied Mystery of the Ages almost verbatim, swapped the copyright notice from WCG to Herbert Armstrong, and stripped out the warning against reproduction without permission. By the time of the Ninth Circuit decision, PCG had distributed about 30,000 English copies plus foreign-language editions. 

In 1999, the district court granted summary judgment to PCG and charged WCG nearly $300,000 in attorney’s fees and costs, but stayed payment pending appeal. That is the only stage PCG can honestly call a win—and it did not last.

On September 18, 2000, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court 2–1. It held that WCG owned the copyright, that PCG’s wholesale copying was not fair use, and that the district court had to enter an injunction stopping PCG from distributing the book. PCG also had to pay WCG’s appellate costs. The case was sent back for a damages hearing. 

The Supreme Court declined to hear PCG’s appeal on April 2, 2001. In March 2001, a new district judge granted a preliminary injunction. From that point forward, PCG was legally barred from distributing Mystery of the Ages. The remaining question was not who owned the book. It was how much money PCG would have to pay WCG for having printed it anyway. 

WCG’s forensic economist later put the claimed “profits” denied to WCG at about $3.84 million, or $4.3 million with interest, based on PCG’s distribution of nearly 100,000 copies. The damages trial was scheduled, postponed, put back on the calendar, and pulled off again while the parties talked settlement. Those talks broke down in December 2002. Then, in early 2003, the case disappeared—not because a judge declared PCG the winner, but because the parties cut a deal. 

Attorney Helen Liggett summarized the record this way in 2007:

So the facts are, Worldwide Church of God sued Philadelphia Church of God and lost at the district court level, then won on appeal, then was awaiting an amount from the court as to how much PCG would have to pay WCG and instead took money from PCG to dismiss the case and let PCG restart publishing of HWA’s works and for damages that the court would have ordered PCG to pay.PCG didn’t win, it lost in court and was going to be ordered to pay WCG damages, but WCG and PCG agreed on an amount, so the judge never decided the damages issue. There is no way that can honestly be characterized as a victory for the PCG.

That is the case. Not a divine reversal. A purchase.WCG took the cheap exitJoseph Tkach Jr. had already told the public why WCG wanted the book buried. In Transformed by Truth he wrote that the church felt it was its “Christian duty to keep this book out of print … because we believe Mr. Armstrong’s doctrinal errors are better left out of circulation.” 

That was the moral posture during the lawsuit. WCG had repudiated Armstrong’s core teachings: British-Israelism, the God Family, Saturday Sabbath as a salvation issue, and the rest of the system it later branded heresy. After Armstrong’s death it pulled Mystery of the Ages, destroyed warehouse stock, and told critics the book was “riddled with error.” Then, when PCG printed it anyway, WCG went to federal court to keep those “errors” off the street.

By 2003 the posture had changed. WCG’s income had collapsed from roughly $170 million before the splits to about $25 million. The damages trial was still ahead. Enforcing copyrights against a swarm of Armstrong splinter groups and internet archives was expensive and leaky. So WCG sold. 

On January 16, 2003—seventeen years to the day after Armstrong’s death—the parties agreed that WCG would sell PCG the copyrights to Mystery of the Ages and 18 other Armstrong works for $3 million. PCG later said insurance covered about $1 million of that, leaving PCG a net cost of $2 million. The paperwork closed in March 2003. The injunction was vacated. The lawsuit was dismissed. No judge ever fixed a damages number. 

WCG officials called it stewardship. Chief financial officer Bernard Schnippert said the church had “found a buyer who’s willing to pay for material which [they] think is valuable,” and that the church “would never be able to make this amount in royalties” by publishing the works itself. In-house counsel Ralph Helge told ministers the $3 million offer was “substantial,” would bring “assured revenue,” and would end “further intensive, costly litigation.” Critics said the quieter truth out loud. Former WCG pastor Reginald Killingley put it this way: “They’re willing, in effect, to support what they condemn—to permit the perpetuation and promotion of heresy for the sake of money.” Phil Arnn of Watchman Fellowship called it an ethical problem: WCG had spent years insisting Armstrong’s doctrines were spiritually destructive, then cashed a check so a splinter group could put those doctrines back into circulation. 

WCG had other options. It could have held the copyrights, licensed the titles, and collected royalties for as long as the copyrights lasted. It could have kept the works out of print, as Tkach said Christian duty required. It could have published annotated editions under its own control. Instead it took a lump sum, walked away from ongoing property rights in those 19 titles, and let PCG restart the Armstrong publishing machine.

That is not courage. It is a cash-out. A church that claimed Armstrong’s teachings were false still monetized them, then left the field.

And it did not even sell the whole library. The deal covered 19 items: seven books, eleven booklets, and a 58-lesson correspondence course. Armstrong wrote thousands of other pieces—Plain Truth articles, Good News articles, booklets, letters, broadcast scripts. Those copyrights stayed with WCG, later renamed Grace Communion International. GCI still holds a large share of Armstrong’s intellectual property even while teaching that the man was a false teacher and that his system was unbiblical. The institution that “disproved” Armstrong remains a landlord of Armstrong. Then PCG started altering the book it called "inspired"PCG’s public story is that it rescued Mystery of the Ages from destruction and preserved Armstrong’s words. That story collapses as soon as you compare the 1985 text with the edition PCG issued after it owned the copyright.The most important deletion is not subtle. On page 245 of the original, Armstrong wrote:

No prophets are mentioned as having either administrative, executive or preaching functions in the New Testament Church. 

 

PCG cut that sentence from its 2003 edition. Researcher Robert Kuhne documented related passages that PCG also stripped or planned to strip, including Armstrong’s statement that the Church is built on Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles, and this line from page 350:

All teaching came from Christ through the apostles — and a few times Christ communicated to apostles via the prophets (of which there are none in God’s Church today since the Bible for our time is complete).

PCG did not hide the motive from its own ministry. In the October 21, 2004 Pastor General’s Report, Stephen Flurry explained the edit in language that should end any claim of textual fidelity:

We removed that sentence from the 2003 version, not because we are doing away with Mr. Armstrong’s teachings, but because of what God has added to the Church since Mr. Armstrong died—the revealed truth that there is, in fact, a prophet guiding the Church today who also serves an administrative and executive position within the Church.

He added that there were “no prophets in the Church during the Philadelphia era—throughout the entirety of Mr. Armstrong’s ministry—but God has since revealed that there is one leading His people during the Laodicean era.” Rather than write a new section into Armstrong’s book, PCG “felt it best to preserve the text as closely as possible to the original and simply strike that sentence and then let our other literature, like That Prophet, reflect the Church’s new teaching.” The next printing, he said, would also cut the parenthetical on page 350. That is not preservation. That is retrofitting.

Armstrong’s sentences were a problem for Gerald Flurry because Flurry claims to be “That Prophet,” a man with administrative, executive, and preaching authority over the church. Armstrong said the New Testament Church does not run that way and that there are no such prophets in God’s Church today because the Bible is complete. Those lines had to go so PCG literature would not contradict PCG government.The irony is blunt. PCG spent six years in court insisting that Mystery of the Ages was so essential to its faith that suppressing it violated religious liberty. After it bought the copyright, it treated the same book as a draft that could be silently corrected to match Flurry’s office. WCG had been accused of rewriting Armstrong to bury him. PCG rewrote Armstrong to enthrone a successor Armstrong never appointed.The myth and what it is forPut the pieces together and the “greatest victory” slogan is doing institutional work.

PCG printed a copyrighted book without permission. A federal appeals court said that was infringement, not fair use. An injunction stopped the presses. A damages trial was coming. PCG then paid millions of dollars—$3 million on the face of the settlement, about $2 million after insurance—to buy the copyrights and make the case go away. That is a commercial settlement after a legal loss, not a court victory. 

WCG, having told the world it had a Christian duty to keep Armstrong’s “errors” out of print, sold those same writings because $3 million in hand beat the cost and uncertainty of holding the property, collecting royalties, or fighting every copy on the internet. It abandoned the moral claim that justified the lawsuit and kept the rest of Armstrong’s catalog anyway.

PCG then edited the crown jewel of that purchase so Armstrong would no longer say there are no New Testament-style prophets running the church. The book that supposedly proved PCG was Armstrong’s faithful remnant was altered to prove Gerald Flurry is a prophet Armstrong said the Church does not have.

None of that requires a theological verdict on Armstrong, Flurry, Tkach, or anyone else. The paper trail is enough. PCG did not win the lawsuit. It lost on the law, bought the inventory, and then changed the inventory. WCG did not protect the public from teachings it called heresy. It sold the rights, took the money, and left the contradictions standing.

Please Advise: How a Grown Man Checked His Brain at the Door and Outsourced His Soul to Crackpot Bob

A former Worldwide Church of God member supposedly wrote to Bob Thiel with a problem that should have been solved by adulthood: he could not decide which splinter group to join. The churches disagreed with each other. Gerald Flurry was wrong about Jacob’s stone. David Pack claimed the Two Witnesses were already in his congregation. Living Church of God said the Mark of the Beast is Sunday worship and left it at that. The man was confused. So naturally he asked the one person whose entire ministry consists of announcing that everyone else is wrong.

Bob’s reply was a masterpiece of pastoral self-righteousness. He doubted Pack and Flurry were even converted. He declared that the only Church of God that is Philadelphian is the Continuing Church of God. Not all in CCOG are Philadelphian, and there are a few Philadelphians hiding in other groups, but no other organization represents the continuation of Philadelphia. 

Therefore, the man should use “God’s criteria” (conveniently listed in Bob’s own articles) and none other. Most people, Bob added sadly, refuse to believe and insist on using their own standards. How Laodicean.

The pattern is familiar to anyone who has ever been part of Armstrongism and who has watched the Armstrong movement fracture since 1986. Every new leader discovers that his group is the faithful remnant. Herbert Armstrong’s “Philadelphia era” apparently ended with his death, then immediately restarted in whichever living room the latest prophet happened to be sitting. Bob’s version comes with extra features: confirmed dreams, the signs of Acts 2:17-18, articles printed in more languages than anyone else, and the exclusive promise of protection in Revelation 3:10. When Jesus returns, the implication is clear enough. He will look for the group that kept the right list of 18 restored truths, practiced hierarchical government under a prophet who received a double portion, and refused to let members think for themselves. Everyone else gets the lukewarm treatment.

What has happened to people’s ability to think independently? Decades of being told that “God’s government” means the man at the top decides doctrine, prophecy, and which articles you must read before you are allowed an opinion. The emailer’s question—“who do you go with?”—is the logical result. CHurch members were told what color and kind of car to buy, what color shirts and suits to wear, how long skirts should be, how to color code their Bibles according to official church teaching, and never to ask questions. After years of being trained that disagreement equals rebellion, the safest move is to outsource the decision to whoever claims the loudest that God talks to him in dreams.

Bob is not uniquely guilty of this. Pack, Flurry, Weinland, and a dozen others have played the same game. The difference is only branding. One man’s “Philadelphia remnant” is another man’s “Laodicean error.” The Bible itself is treated as a multiple-choice test whose correct answers happen to be the ones published on cogwriter.com this week.

The real scandal is not that Bob thinks his church is special. Every religious entrepreneur thinks that. The scandal is that grown adults still write him asking which church Jesus would pick, as if the Second Coming includes a membership audit and a name badge check. Independent thought has been reclassified as a character defect. “People decide” churches are the problem, Bob says. The solution is a church where one man has already decided for you.

If Jesus returns and the first thing He does is ask to see your CCOG literature rack, we will all owe Bob an apology. But reality states this will NEVER happen! Until then, the more honest title for the operation might be: “The Continuing Church of Bob — Because Thinking Is Hard and Dreams Are Easy.”

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A while back, I received an email from a former Worldwide Church of God member that included the following:

I AM CONCERNED ABOUT SOME ISSUES OF MR. …. BELIEF AND APPARENTLY YOU DON’T AGREE WITH. I DON’T THINK THAT ANY OF THESE CHURCHES AGREE WITH OTHER SO WHO DO YOU GO WITH? …

SOME OF GERALD FLURRY’S TEACHINGS ARE COMPLETELY WRONG AND HE’S GONE FAR OUT ON SOME THINGS SUCH AS ARMSTRONG’S STONE REPLACING JACOB’S. MANY, MANY PLACES IN THE BIBLE STATES THAT CHRIST IS THAT ROCK AND IT’S SPIRITUAL. CHRIST DOESN’T NEED A ROCK. FLURRY BASED HIS THEORY ON THE IDEA THAT COME KIDS STOLE JACOB’S ROCK FROM ENGLAND. THAT’S AMAZING SINCE IT WEIGHS OVER 350 LBS. I’VE READ OTHER LITERATURE THAT THE STONE IS STORED IN SCOTLAND.FALSE PREACHER #1

I SAW A DAVID PACK SERMON ON THE INTERNET ABOUT THE 2 WITNESSES . HE SAID THAT THEY ARE IN HIS CHURCH RIGHT NOW. I BELIEVE HE’S NOW PULLED THAT SERMON BECAUSE I COULDKN’T FIND IT NOW. FALSE PREACHER #2

I SAW A SERMON BY THE LIVING CHURCH OF GOD ABOUT THE MARK OF THE BEAST AND THE PRESENTER SAID WITHOUT HESITATION THAT THE MARK OF THE BEAST IS SUNDAY WORSHIP. PERIOD.. HE MADE NO MENTION OF ANY MARKS ON YOUR BODY OR 666. SABBATH MAY HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT, BUT THERE WILL BE OTHER FACTORS. YOU LEFT BECAUSE OF DOCTRINE. I’LL ????????? ….

NOW I COME TO … A FALSE TEACHER …

YOU SEE HOW A PERSON COULD BE DECEIVED?

PLEASE ADVISE

Anyway, here is what I responded to the former WCG member with:

Dear …:

As I have repeatedly written at COGwriter, I doubt that David Pack or Gerald Flurry are converted.

I consider that the only COG that is Philadelphian is the CCOG–though not all in CCOG are Philadelphian and there are Philadelphians not in CCOG–but no other COG represents the continuation of Philadelphia.

You should use God’s criteria, and none other to decide.

Here are two links you should read and pray about if you are truly serious:

1. How does the Continuing Church of God differ from other Sabbatarian COG groups?
2. Does the CCOG have the confirmed signs of Acts 2:17-18?

But most refuse to believe and use their own standards.

Best regards,

Bob Thiel

Many have been confused and used the wrong criteria to assess churches.

Sadly, in the end time, in Revelation 3:14-19 Jesus revealed that even most real Christians would use their criteria, not God’s as they would be part of the “people decide” churches (which is basically what Laodicea means).

P.S. The same former WCG member sent me a follow-up email after I posted this. Here is some of what he wrote (Note: This is a different Mr. … in a different COG than the one alluded to above):

ALSO, I’M NOT HAPPY WITH … IN THIS RESPECT—–I’VE BEEN IN THE CHURCH FOR A WHILE AND ONE OF THE 1ST THINGS I NOTICED IS THAT THEY HAVE LEFT OUT 1/3RD OF THE BIBLE AND THAT PERTAINS TO PROPHECY. I KNOW THIS PANDEMIC CAUGHT THEM UNAWARE AS MR. … DIDN’T CALL FOR A PRAYER AND FAST INTIL THE PANDEMIC WAS IN FULL FORCE. SOME WATCHMAN

I WROTE A PERSONAL LETTER TO MR. … ADVISING HIM THAT ALL SCRIPTURE IS TO BE TAUGHT, AND HE NEEDS TO CRY OUT AND SPARE NOT. THE LATEST ISSUE OF OUR MAGAZINE FINALLY WOKE THEM UP AS THERE WERE SEVERAL MEANINGFUL ARTICLES REGARDING THE TIMES AND PROPHECY ALSO, HE SAID THAT THEY NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB IN BEING A WATCHMAN. THIS IS THE 1ST TIME IN 25 YEARS THAT THEY STARTED TO WAKE UP ON PROPHECY.

My response to the above was to tell him that the COG he attends as well as a group that came out of it do not teach much about prophecy. They also have a lot of prophetic errors.  

Crackpot Prophet's 15 Year Long Bitterness Causes Him To Lash Out Once Again at LCG and PCG - They Are Too Stupid To Know When The Tribulation Starts

In December 2011 Bob Thiel submitted wording changes to Living Church of God’s Statement of Official Beliefs. Charlotte evangelists and ministers allegedly nodded along like they always did whenever Bob opened his mouth, stroking his overinflated ego. By the end of January 2012 the Great Tribulation paragraph was supposed to start at Daniel 11:39 instead of 11:40, because Herbert Armstrong once said something that later got a better translation, and because “Jacob’s trouble” must line up with an attack on the “strongest fortresses” (read: the United States and its British-descended cousins) before the King of the North whirlwinds into the King of the South.

LCG never changed it. As of 2026, their official statement still cites Daniel 11:40–45. Thiel left in late 2012 in a bitter fit of rage and founded the improperly named "Continuing" Church of God, and has spent the subsequent decade and a half reminding the entire universe that they promised him they would change it, but they never did. The grievance has outlived Roderick Meredith. It has outlived multiple world crises that were supposed to be the crisis. It has become its own liturgical calendar: the Feast of Unimplemented Changes.

This is not “love of the truth.” This is a man who treated a parenthetical citation like a marriage vow and then wrote a memoir about the divorce every year.

Armstrongite prophecy is a fear-management system dressed as truth. British-Israelism tells you that America and Britain are Ephraim and Manasseh; therefore, every bad headline is God spanking His favorite grandchildren. The King of the North (a German-led European beast, Holy Roman Empire 2.0) is coming to smash the “strongest fortresses.” The King of the South (an Arab/Muslim coalition south of Jerusalem) will “push,” get overrun, and then the real fireworks start. The TRUE Philadelphians get first-class tickets to Petra and their premium choice of caves. Everyone else is Laodicean and late for the bus and will be either taken as salves to Europe or butchered in the most gruesome manner. After all, Armstrongism requires the butchery to be the most gruesome ever imagined.

Thankfully, new covenant Christianity does not require you to live inside this delusional bubble Thiel has created.

Jesus did not say “blessed are those who correctly sequence Daniel 11:39 versus 11:40 so they can flee on time.” He said the hour is coming when true worshipers worship in spirit and truth, not on this mountain or that one. He said no one knows the day or the hour. He said do not be anxious about tomorrow. The new covenant is “I will remember their sins no more,” not “update your statement of beliefs or you lose the mantle and die in the tribulation.”

You do not have to decode whether “he” in verse 39 is already dividing the land for gain with a strange god before the king of the south pushes in verse 40. You do not have to treat Herbert Armstrong’s WWII-era reading, later adjusted, then re-litigated by a delusional self-appointed prophet, as the hinge of salvation history. The gospel is not a prophecy chart with a “place of safety” checkbox.

Armstrongism turned the Bible into a national-identity decoder ring and then a loyalty test: if your group won’t adopt my sequence, it cannot hold the Philadelphia mantle and therefore cannot finish the work. That is not New Testament Christianity. That is franchise warfare with extra proof-texting.

Daniel 11 is a long, detailed chapter that tracks the post-Alexander world: Ptolemies in the south (Egypt) versus Seleucids in the north (Syria), then later Rome absorbing the northern role. Armstrongism projects the end of the chapter onto the end of the world:

• King of the North = the final European revival of the Holy Roman Empire / Beast system, frequently German-centered, often with a religious figure riding along (Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg). This power supposedly first hits the modern descendants of Israel (US/UK/Canada/Australia/NZ) and later the Middle East.
• King of the South = a coming Islamic or Arab confederacy, classically Egypt-led or a broader caliphate-style bloc “south of Jerusalem.”

The intra-COG fight Thiel is still having is almost comically small: does the Great Tribulation begin when the northern king goes after the Anglo-American “strongest fortresses” (v. 39, Thiel’s hill), or when he later collides with the southern king (v. 40, LCG/PCG wording)? Both camps agree the US and Britain are prophetic Israel, Europe is the bad guy, Muslims are the other bad guy, and their own tiny group is the one that will know when to run. They just disagree on which verse number starts the horror movie.

HWA originally tied some of this to WWII-era events and a KJV rendering of v. 39 that is less clear than later translations. Thiel’s argument is that Armstrong later shifted and that LCG leaders privately agreed in 2008 and 2011. Whether that hallway conversation happened exactly as remembered is now less important than the fact that it is still the main character in 2026 blog posts.

COG history after Armstrong is a demolition derby of “the other guys lost the mantle.” Global became Living after Meredith was ousted. Living produced Continuing after Thiel decided integrity and footnotes had fled Charlotte. Philadelphia Church of God, Restored, United, and dozens of smaller letters-of-the-alphabet groups all claim to be the faithful remnant. Each one has a slightly different chart, a slightly different villain, and a slightly different reason the others are Laodicean.

Thiel additionally claims prophetic status: dreams, a “double portion” anointing that an LCG minister later said he didn’t intend as a prophet ordination AND that NO ONE can verify ever happened as Thiel said it did, and a running list of world events that “align.” Just because “something vaguely Europe or Middle-East-shaped happened this year” is not the same as “thus saith the Lord.” Thiel loves to boast that he doesn’t take a salary and continuously lets us know he writes an astonishing volume of material. Both can be true. Neither requires you to fear missing the exact verse where Jacob’s trouble begins.

The ongoing bitterness is the proof. A person who left over integrity in 2012 and then spent fifteen years cataloging the same unkept promise is not practicing good theology. He is keeping a wound warm. LCG’s refusal to swap 11:40 for 11:39 in a document most members will never parse is treated as proof they cannot lead the final phase of the work. That is an extraordinary amount of spiritual weight to hang on a citation.

New covenant people can say the obvious thing: if your faith requires you to win an argument about the start-verse of the tribulation against a group you left in 2012, you might have mistaken the appendix for the gospel. The new covenant alternative is almost offensively simple: trust Christ, love people, stop treating speculative timelines by deluded self-appointed prophets as a membership exam, and let a 2011 memo stay in 2011. The end of the age will not be delayed because LCG used the wrong verse number in an article. It also will not arrive faster because Thiel is still nursing a massive butthurt.

Here is is the change I explained and then I submitted in writing to the Charlotte-based evangelists in December 2011 on that topic. They agreed to use the following in their Statement of Official Beliefs by the end of January 2012:

THE “GREAT TRIBULATION”

The Bible speaks of a time of great catastrophe, called the “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21-22; Daniel 11:39[xxiv]-45; 12:1; Luke 21:19-36)—also called “Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:3-7). Jesus Christ Himself will have to shorten those horrific days; otherwise “no flesh would be saved” (Matthew 24:22). We believe that we are fast approaching that time.   We also believe that God promises to protect the faithful Philadelphians from this “hour of trial” (Revelation 3:10).[xxv]

Here are the related footnotes that were submitted as partial explanations of the proposed changes:

[xxiv] Since we teach that the Great Tribulation is the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) and Herbert Armstrong taught that it would begin with something like a nuclear attack on the UK and/or USA, we should not start it with Daniel 11:40 which shows the battle between the King of the North and the King of the South. Verse 39 shows the King of the North going against the “strongest fortresses” (NKJV) and dividing the land for gain. And since we teach that the King of the North will go against the British-Israelite nations first, we should not teach that he goes against the King of the South first. All the HQ evangelists specifically agreed to that sequence in a meeting with me in January 2008 and this would be a good time to modify the Statement to reflect this.

[xxv] Elsewhere in the Statement we mention being Philadelphian. By adding this to the Statement we give outsiders (as well as our own members and those with a WCG background) a reason to understand that God plans to show the Philadelphians special favor.

Yet, despite agreeing, LCG still has not made the corrections over 14 years later.

In the sequence of Daniel 11, the Great Tribulation begins in verse 39, not verse 40. Now there appear to be two reasons that LCG and PCG misunderstand the sequence. First is that the late Herbert W. Armstrong originally taught that sequence because of events related to WWII and a mistranslation of verse 39 in the KJV (which was corrected in the NKJV). Although Herbert Armstrong clearly changed his position by 1979, the leaders of LCG and PCG have overlooked/discounted that. The second reason could be based upon a misunderstanding of a translation of Daniel 11:39-40:

39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. (Daniel 11:39-40, KJV)

The above does not make it clear that the King of the North (the ‘he’ in verse 39) is going against the ‘strongest fortresses like the NKJV and other translations do. Notice a Jewish translation:

39 And he shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god; whom he shall acknowledge, shall increase glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price.

40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow, as he passes through. (Daniel 11:39-40, Jewish Publication Society, 1917)

Some seem to believe that the ‘time of the end’ does not begin until verse 40, but that is a misunderstanding of how the Hebrew text should be understood. The ‘and’ in verse 40 is not the start of the end, but a continuation of what began in verse 39. This is known by others. For example, the Barnes Notes on the Bible states:

And at the time of the end …. The “time of the end” must properly denote the end or consummation of the series of events under consideration, or the matter in hand, and properly and obviously means here the end or consummation of the transactions which had been referred to in the previous part of the vision. It is equivalent to what we should say by expressing it thus: “at the winding up of the affair.”

The ONLY way to reconcile that the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) starts with the beginning of the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21) is to realize that it begins with verse 39 of the sequence in Daniel 11. Those who hold to a start of the Great Tribulation AFTER the King of the North attacks the King of the South will not know until it is too late.

For an English language reader, on the surface verse 40 seems correct as the start of the end, meaning the Great Tribulation there.

Yet, notice the following translation:

40 And in the time of the end the king of the south shall wage war with him: and the king of the north shall rush on like a tempest against him, with chariot and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he came into the lands, and overflowed and passed through. (Daniel 11:40, Smith’s Literal Translation)

The above makes more sense