False Prophet Thiel Says God Is Deliberately Burning Southern California Because They are Such Horrible Sinners

California Fire News

First it was LCG claiming that the "highways have been made desolate" in the United States because of the Boston bombings, snow in the Midwest, and flooding on the Mississippi River.  Now we have the non-ordained self-appointed false prophet Thiel claiming the current fires in Southern California are a sign that prophecy is being fulfilled.  God knows that Californians are the most vile of sinners in the entire world and need to be spanked grievously.

Although California historically has wildfires, the Bible mentions fire as something God sometimes uses to punish.  Here are some examples:

11 The Lord said:
“Surely it will be well with your remnant;
Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you
In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.
12 Can anyone break iron,
The northern iron and the bronze?
13 Your wealth and your treasures
I will give as plunder without price,
Because of all your sins,
Throughout your territories.
14 And I will make you cross over with your enemies
Into a land which you do not know;
For a fire is kindled in My anger,
Which shall burn upon you.”   (Jeremiah 15:11-14)

12 O house of David! Thus says the Lord:
“Execute judgment in the morning;
And deliver him who is plundered
Out of the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My fury go forth like fire
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.
13 “Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
And rock of the plain,” says the Lord,
“Who say, ‘Who shall come down against us?
Or who shall enter our dwellings?’
14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,” says the Lord;
“I will kindle a fire in its forest,
And it shall devour all things around it.”‘  (Jeremiah 21:12-14)

11 The Lord has fulfilled His fury,
He has poured out His fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion,
And it has devoured its foundations.  (Lamentations 4:11)

15 There the fire will devour you,
The sword will cut you off;
It will eat you up like a locust.  (Nahum 3:15)

The non-ordained self-appointed false prophet continues:

Although my prayers are with those affected by the fires, and where I live is also subject to wildfires, I also pray that those in California will repent as worse problems are ahead if the State continues to go in a moral direction away from the Bible.  Weather problems can be a warning.
Jesus taught:

7…And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:7-8).
8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. (Mark 13:8)

LCG Using News Stories To Fit Proof-texts of Scripture

To show how LCG proof-texts scripture to fit it's erroneous prophetic world view, check out the following announcement from LCG dated April 26, 2013.  In  the typical worldview of Armstrongism it can only quote from Hebrew scriptures to reinforce its prophetic stances.  In this case Rod Meredith resorts to using a verse from Leviticus. An obscure verse about highways being desolate automatically is taken into the 21st century and applied to something that has nothing to do with what is being imagined.

Highways Desolate

Bible prophecies warn of curses to come on the Israelite-descended nations because of their outright rejection of God and His laws. One of God’s punishments for disobedience will be “your highways shall be desolate” (Leviticus 26:22). Recent events in the United States and Canada reveal how this prophecy might be fulfilled. Last week in Boston, during a manhunt for a bombing suspect, the city mandated that residents remain in their homes. Businesses were closed, children could not play out of doors, and only police cars and armored vehicles were allowed on streets—the roads and highways were desolate (The New Yorker, April 19, 2013). Concurrently, a portion of the U.S.’s largest “highway”—the Mississippi River—also came to a grinding halt. “Barge shipping on the Illinois River and parts of the Mississippi River will remain impeded until at least early next week as the flood-swollen waterways slowly recede from record- or near-record-high crests” (Reuters, April 23, 2013; Reuters, April 22, 2013). This followed a partial shut-down of river traffic in both August and December of last year, due to low water levels in the river system (Reuters, August 20, 2012; Reuters, December 26, 2012). Also this week, many major U.S. airports experienced significant flight delays due to budgetary furloughs of air traffic controllers (The New York Times, April 23, 2013). In Canada, a plot targeting an international railway train—another highway—was foiled this week (National Post, April 22, 2013). These sobering events provide a glimpse of things to come if our nations fail to return to God.