Its always fun to wake up every morning and do a quick check of the various Church of God's and find another minister or church leader making a fool of themselves. Its not like this is something that happens infrequently, its almost very single day! Eighty some years down the COG pipeline you would think they would learn to keep their mouths shut. But.......THANKFULLY no!
Today's silliness comes from a man who feels he is the most intelligent and well informed leader of the Church of God in this dispensation. As a world renown authority on prophecy, end times events, vitamins, holistic medicine, the Mayan's and Baron Karl zu Guttenberg's hot mustache, it does not take too much to imagine who this guy is. Its our very own, Bob Thiel. Woo hoo!
It seems that Berkeley, CA is getting ready to pass an ordinance that will require the city to include in all cell phone purchases a warning detailing how dangerous phones are and how far to keep them from their body. This has Thiel quit concerned!
Thiel
quotes:
On Tuesday, the city council of Berkeley, California, will vote on a
cellphone “right to know” law that would be the first safety ordinance
of its kind in the country. It would require cellphone retailers to
include a city-prepared notice along with the purchase of a cellphone,
informing consumers of the minimum separation distance a cellphone
should be held from the body.
He then goes on to say this and later quote from the scientists:
Berkeley’s vote comes the day after the release of a letter signed by
190 scientists from 39 countries calling on the United Nations, the
World Health Organization, and national governments to develop stricter
controls on cellphones and other products that emit RF or
electromagnetic fields (EMF). The letter states, “The various agencies
setting safety standards have failed to impose sufficient guidelines to
protect the general public, particularly children who are more
vulnerable to the effects of EMF.”
While all of that may certainly be true and a legitimate concern, our Chief Overseer takes it another step and equates cell phones to possibly being mentioned in the Bible:
I actually do not have a cell phone. I sometimes joke that I am the
only person in the world without one. But it is not because of health
reasons. Basically, I do not have much of a need for one as I have
sufficient land-line telephones at my home and office, so I prefer not
to bother with carrying and charging a cell phone.
Now, despite potential health dangers associated cell phones, there are some prophetic ramifications of them.
The following scriptures could potentially involve cellular telephones:
15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of
the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as
many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He
causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to
receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no
one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number
of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
(Revelation 13:15-18, NKJV)
Armstrongites have loved to claim over the decades that the mark of the beast will be its power to require everyone to work on Saturdays and buy food, while true COG folk will be imprisoned for refusing to do so.
The above was written over 1900 years ago. At the time it was
written it would seem that there would be no way to stop/monitor buying
and selling that Revelation 13:17 foretells. Now, as more and more
financial transactions are electronic, we are at the point that the vast
majority of financial transactions can be monitored/controlled in some
nations, like those in Europe. The Bible teaches that it will be a European power that is 666 and will enforce what is prophesied in Revelation 13:16-18.
How could this involve cellular telephones?
Well, there have been news reports that certain nations are considering doing away with cash completely. And there are more and more ways to pay electronically with cellular telephones (e.g. see Could Apple Pay be a step towards 666?).
Like so many fools in Armstrongism and the evangelical community that take every single word in the Bible literally, it is easy to see how Thiel can jump to these conclusions. Thiel apparently realizes he is starting to sound absurd so he wants to make sure you know he is not banning cell phone use:
Now, lest anyone get the wrong impression, I did not post this to
tell people that they should not have a cellular telephone nor to imply
that cellular telephones are 666 nor the Mark of the Beast.
I posted about all of this to warn cellular telephone users that the
health risks associated with them should not be ignored. And I posted
this so prophecy watchers would consider that the technology that is
needed to fulfill the buying and selling prophecy in Revelation 13
already exists and possibly may involve cellular telephones.
But he wants you to also know he has WARNED you and anytime a COG leader warns you about something you must realize it is a command!
That being said, there will be a place for more than electronic
currencies. The time will come that problems and debt of the USA will
trigger its economic collapse (Habakkuk 2:6-8) and military conquest
(Daniel 11:39).
Because much of the world has used the USA dollar for decades as the
international/trading/reserve currency, after the USA dollar collapses
people will be hesitant to accept another ‘fiat’ currency (one with no
real backing). This may be one of the reasons that the Bible prophecies
that the European Beast King of the North power (Daniel 11:40) will take “the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt” (Daniel 11:43).
But as more and more people use cellular telephones, it may well be
that some version of them (such as what might become part of a national
identification/bank card) will be part of how the Beast power will be
able to control buying and selling.
Just my luck to find out my iPhone is a tool of the beast power. Who knew....who CARES!
