It's been a few hours since we had anything on here from our favorite Holy Child, the world's foremost church historian, the Great Bwana to Africa, and the most important COG leader in human history whose existence was planned before the beginning of creation as part of the salvational works necessary before Christ can return back to earth.
The Great Bwana has a bone to pick with people in the church who "gossip". Of course, in Armstrongland this is anyone who dares to criticize church leaders and what they preach. When these people wake up and dare to question, they are immediately labeled as "dissidents" in order to shut them up. The problem the Great Bwana and most of the other abusive COG leaders today have is they no longer have the power to shut people up. The internet has basically destroyed their quests of omnipotence and pure devotion from their rapidly shrinking fields of devotees.
In a letter to his African followers and his 150 Caucasians, he trots out his favorite COG personality, Dibar Apartian, and an article he wrote for the January 1982 Good News magazine.
WHY God Hates Gossip!
by Dibar Apartian
Do you know what scourge victimizes more people every year than all the sicknesses and accidents in the world? It is the deadly poison of gossip.
The Bible reveals that Satan the devil is the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10).
But how does he accuse us? By spreading rumors and causing gossip.
Shutting down questioning by their followers is an important method of control for cults and the Churches of God have mastered that ability. Labeling people dissidents and then publicly disfellowshipping and marking people is an effective tool to shut people up. Fear is one of the most important tools used by the Church of God to control members.
Thankfully, we have all watched over the last several decades and especially over the last several years with Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, and Gerald Flurry as people have publicly exposed their lies and false teachings, and outlandish proclamations.
The other tool to shut people down is tossing around the label "true Christian". Bwana Bob is particularly prone to this as a vain attempt to legitimize his little personality cult and devalue all other COG groups and particularly Christians in the world.
Quoting Apartian,
But God commands, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Ex. 20:16). Do you grasp the depth of this commandment? Bearing false witness against someone can not only involve lying, but also accusing, gossiping and spreading rumors.
If you are truly a Christian, you should never take part in any of these activities. You should not accuse others, whether it be to defend yourself, to cover your mistakes or merely to make yourself look good in the eyes of others. In other words, the Ninth Commandment forbids lies, accusation, gossip and spreading rumors. That’s what bearing false witness is!
As a true Christian, you are to love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:39). But how can you love your neighbor if you accuse him or gossip about him? How can you love him if you have a part in breaking up his family or his home or in making him lose his friends?
How can we love men who lie about themselves, destroy families, spiritually decimate members' lives, cause suicides, and even murder?
Should COG members sit by and let these men get by with their abuse or hold them accountable?
Jesus certainly held the leaders of Israel and elsewhere accountable for their actions. He flipped tables and cast out the money changers. He warred about lying ravenous wolves pretending to be "true" COG leaders, he warned about false prophets who dream dreams and set themselves as rulers over the members. He warned how easy it is to be conned by these duplicitous buffoons.
At the end of quoting Apartian's article, the Great Bwana has this to say:
Be a true witness, not a talebearer. And yes there are times we all should keep our mouths shut.
Yes, Bob, it is time to shut your mouth! Stop lying to your followers about nightmares you have. Stop assigning yourself the Biblical attributes of Old Testament characters. You will never in your entire life ever measure up to any of those prophets! Stop preaching and writing about thousands of asinine topics that NO ONE in Africa or the rest of the world gives a rats ass about. Stop writing about things that have nothing to do with being a follower of Jesus. Stop preaching your false gospel that totally ignores Jesus and anything he proclaimed and accomplished through his death and resurrection.
Yes, Bob. It is time to keep your mouth shut!