Ever since Loma Armstrong had her dream/nightmare that spurred her husband on to start a money making empire, various Church of God wannabe leaders have attempted the same thing. Dreams and visions have produced a plethora of incompetent abusive COG leaders. Just look at the hierarchy of any of the larger COG's today and you sill see what those nightmares have produced.
Using dreams as a tool to legitimize yourself is also another attempt to cover up the fact that these men have no original thoughts in their heads. Everything they do is copied from the actions of Herbert Armstrong. Even though they all live and have churches that exist in the 21'st century, they still rely on a model from the late 19th century work/power ethic. Just like Herbert Armstrong, these men have never held legitimate hard working jobs where they have had to toil with their hands and get dirty and sweat. God forbid if a COG leader ever had to sweat from physical exertion! Basketball maybe, but never physical work. Any how, that's another story.
Today, we have another self-appointed COG leader who is trying to legitimatize his apostate brand of false Christianity. Bob Thiel is back with another poor attempt in trying to prove he is something more than another crazy Californian.
The self-appointed prophet/apostle/chief overseer and world renown expert on the Mayans, writes this about himself, though he uses HWA's own words to discredit himself.
Do dreams and prophets have any place in the Christian Church today? Did any precede the start of the old Radio Church of God? What about the Continuing Church of God (which did not officially form as a declared entity until December 28, 2012)?
The Bible records that God often has used dreams to give messages (Genesis 20:3-7, 28:10-17, 31:10-13, 31:24, 37:5-10, 40:5-18, 41:1-32; Numbers 12:6; Judges 7:13-15; 1 Kings 3:5-15; Daniel 2:3-45, 4:4-27, 7:1-28; Matthew 1:20-25, 2:12, 2:13, 2:19, 2:22; Acts 16:9).
I had a dream prior to the start of the Continuing Church of God, as did someone I did not know who lived in New Zealand.
While some may wish to discount what happened with me, let us also look at something that the late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote about dreams:
Let me say here that in about 99,999 times out of 100,000, when people think GOD is speaking to them in a dream or vision in this day and age, it is pure imagination, or some form of self-hypnotism or self-deception. I have only come to believe that this dream was a bonafide call from God in the light of subsequent events. (Autobiography of Herbert Armstrong, (Volume 1), chapter 10, 1973, p. 194)And that is correct. Most dreams are not from God, even if people think that they are. Notice what the Bible teaches:
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God. (Ecclesiastes 5:7)
Most dreams don't come from God but from the minds of delusional self-adsorbed men...except in Thiel's case. Since he is the ONLY legitimate TRUE COG leader on the face of the earth today, his dreams are 100% God inspired. No nightmares for Bob!
Like I said above, Thiel goes on to elaborate how he has patterned his mini-cult after Herbert Armstrong's example. Just because Loma and HWA had dreams, Bob can too!
Loma and Herbert Armstrong were married in 1917. They were specifically told that they would have a work to do. Furthermore, the bright lights in the dream may have had to do with doing a work (cf. Matthew 5:16)–a work that seemed to vanish and return (flash). Thus, there was a dream from God given to a woman in the 20th century that preceded the start of the old Radio Church of God that Herbert W. Armstrong led. The Radio Church of God represented the start of the Philadelphia era and the Philadelphian work–a work that is not finished (cf. Matthew 24:14-15)–and Herbert W. Armstrong claimed that a dream given to his wife was from God, prior to the start of the Philadelphia era.
Since the Philadelphia era was raised up years after that dream, a question to ponder is would God do anything similar to point to the continuation of the end-time COG remnant of the Philadelphians? Consider that in Loma Armstrong’s dream that there were two sets of flashing stars–there were two parts to the dream. Herbert Armstrong is now dead and there was a pause between the work God had him to do and the completion of the final phase of the work to finally fulfill Matthew 24:14 (cf. Isaiah 29:14).
With a few hundred US members and several hundred poor African members, Thiel is set to take his mind-boggling work to the leaders of the world so that the entire earth will hear the message of the kingdom before the end happens.In the past, like in 2013 and 2014, I have called the time between his death and the formation of the Continuing Church of God the transitional phase –which is consistent with Loma Armstrong’s dream. God will cut that final work short (Romans 9:28) which results in the famine of the word (Amos 8:12; ) which is consistent with the vanishing stars in Loma Armstrong’s dream (though there could be other interpretations–we in CCOG are continuing the Philadelphia work and expect to be the ones God will use on earth to help finish it).
Theil thinks his new cult is the fulfillment of the second part of Loma's nightmare:
Thiel's work now surpasses anything Dave Pack, Rod Meredith and Gerald Flurry are doing. Even with all their expensive media campaigns they are poor imitations of the greatness that is Bob Thiel!Notice that the dream was to go until the end of the world and the coming of Jesus–since Herbert Armstrong has been dead since January 16, 1986–if the dream was from God then, does it not make sense that the second half of the dream would be fulfilled by another in the 21st century? We in the Continuing Church of God are fulfilling that second part of stars.
Perhaps it should be mentioned, Herbert Armstrong had more information about what I am referring to as the first set of stars in the dream. He wrote:
It was a dazzling spectacle…People by the hundreds came running into this broad intersection looking up to see the strange phenomena … A vast multitude of eyes were upon us… I have only come to believe that this dream was a bonafide call from God in the light of subsequent events. (Armstrong HW. The Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, 9th installment. Plain Truth, August 1958, p. 18).Eyes of a vast multitude suggest that the dream was saying that the work to be done was to have a witness to many. This happened with the old Radio and Worldwide Church of God under Herbert Armstrong’s leadership in the 20th century. The second set of stars in the dream, which he did not mention in the August 1958 Plain Truth, article, but did in his published Autobiography, may pertain to what I have called, for years, The Final Phase of the Work. But even if it had applicability to the ministry of Herbert Armstrong only, the dream, which he shortly before his death he confirmed he believed was from God (per Aaron Dean, who I discussed this with on October 30, 2015), shows that one did precede the COG work he was involved in.
Thiel then goes on to express his bitterness he STILL holds against Rod Meredith's rejection and later church wide public humiliation.
Several years ago I had a dream, which while I did not understand it at first, as it became more and more fulfilled over the years, I began to understand it and believe it was from God.
I was 50 at the time (which essentially makes me an ‘old man’ per Numbers 8:25; cf. John 8:57). In my dream, there seemed to be two parallel lines. Living Church of God (LCG) evangelist Roderick Meredith was on the top line and I was on the line much below. In the dream, I kept calling up to Dr. Meredith, but he never would respond. This lack of response made no sense to me during the dream. Then after what seemed to be a long time, the lines-crossed with his line dropping and my line going up.
One reason that I did not understand it at the time was that I was on relatively close speaking terms with Dr. Meredith then (he repeatedly told me he considered me to be his friend, plus he had appointed me an adviser to LCG on matters of doctrine and prophecy), so that aspect of the dream made no sense. Also, since I had no intentions of leaving Living Church of God then (and certainly no plans to start a separate church), it was not clear what the dream was saying. Another reason I was unsure about the dream then was that I had not had any anointing for the Holy Spirit beyond baptism when I had that dream.
But these matters changed eventually. For one, I was unexpectedly anointed for a ‘double-portion’ of God’s Spirit (cf. 2 Kings 2:9) on December 15, 2011 by an LCG minister named Gaylyn Bonjour.
Furthermore, over time, Dr. Meredith became more distant from me, would not keep various promises to me, and ultimately stopped speaking with me. And after I got a letter from him on 12/28/12, it was clear to me that there was no way that the Philadelphia mantle could be with him or any of his leaders. These subsequent events showed me that the dream was being fulfilled.
The fact that Americans are sending this moron money shows how gullible and naive people really are. God never expects this kind of loyalty out of any Christian.
You can read Thiel's entire long winded post here: Dreams, the Radio Church of God and the Continuing Church of God.
Be prepared to be dumbfounded at the sheer arrogance and audacity of Thiel.
