How Long Will The Hindsight
Church of God Put Up With Pastor Ron?
I have to say , while not surprised, I am amazed at how
either gullible, blind or just plain foolish the followers of Ron Weinland seem
to be. How can you sit there after being
told how literally true Revelation 11 is concerning himself and then ultimately
his wife as the Two Witnesses, and then not see he knows how stupid this is and
is looking for an out?
Weinland now says that the Two Witnesses won't die
literally in Jerusalem after a 3 1/2 year witness against the world and then caught up to heaven. Now, it is the last 3 1/2 years (2008-2012)
of his ministry and he and his wife won't die but will live right up to the
Second Coming.
He is endeavoring to produce mass amnesia in his readers
and followers.
Ron doesn't know who those resurrected after Jesus death
and roamed around Jerusalem were, but he will in a month. What?
Really Ron, if you want to know about that particular part of the
Gospels, just give me a call. But in
short, it never happened and the other Gospel writers had no clue why that came
up either. One did add, "after
Jesus resurrection," when he realized that Jesus had to rise first and
before them... so after the graves opened, they just layed there waiting to get
up...ewwww. But I spare you.
Somehow this is all a great deception of Satan when in
fact it is all a great deception or rather realization that his views are
simply wrong . Rather than admit this,
Ron is endeavoring, as failed ministries often do, to rewrite the story
originally told. Once you start hearing,
"We (read "I") could not
imagine what God was really doing!"
"This truth is more amazing than we (read "I") ever
imagined. or "We (read
"I") just did not understand how awesome and incredible God's plan
is," you really know you are being conned when what was spoken as so
literally true now becomes "Spiritual" and Ron can't imagine how you
could have misunderstood this from the beginning.
If you simply listen to Ron's explanation of all this
with a critical ear you will see that little if any of Ron's way of explaining
this all makes any sense. His sermons are
merely diatribes and opinion with much generalizing. He seems incapable of giving a coherent
explanation of anything. Wandering all over the place as things come int his
mind, you do not get the impression the sermon was actually thought out or
prepared for. While he may tell you how
amazed you should be or how awesome it all is, merely cobbling Old Testament
stories and examples together mean little and prove nothing about our time
today.
If you could read a transcript of his sermons, it would
wander all over the Bible and ultimately mean little by way of explanation and
certainly be very short on any proof that he is on the right track and speaks
for the Deity.
When all else fails, just remind everyone that
ultimately, the timing is in God's hands.
How nice it would have been had he just said that to begin with, not
write and speak like the timing was in his hands and then have to back up to
save his career. Now Ron is blaming the
people for "resisting God's truth and are filled with horrible, horrible
pride..." Ron has an amazing
ability look back in hindsight and discern accurately what God was obviously
doing. Looking ahead?.....not so good at
that.
The COG ministers who base their messages, warning and
reasons for being on Revelation should really go take a history course on the
book. Revelation spoke of the physical
Jerusalem, then surrounded by Romans who finally won out, but now, says
Ron, it is to be viewed as the spiritual
Jerusalem. In fact, real Jerusalem is
called spiritual Sodom and Gomorrah, but the city is literal. Revelation has nothing to do with today. It became a failed prophecy in the Fall of
70AD.
Ron hates the word "crucified." Sick sick...
He prefers stake. Crucified
reminds him of the cross and of course, we'd not want that to happen... I suppose on this, Ron and Bob "We don't
believe in crosses" Thiel agree.
To be honest, sermons by Ron Weinland are like a pilot
saying he's going to fly to Washington and then spends the next two hours
flying all over the Midwest and lands in Cuba... I would bet no one person in that audience
could explain to another just exactly what Ron was talking about and how he
proved it.
Well, I keep waiting for Ron to explain just how
Revelation is no longer to be taken literally and speaking of him and his witness wife, but I just don't think he's
going to get to it. Maybe those in the
audience will be fooled into thinking he did.
I don't know. I don't have
anything personally against Ron Weinland anymore than I do Dave Pack. What I do take exception with is the
ignorance with which they lead their followers.
These men are not well read or educated outside of the very small world
of theology they live in. They are mere
Bible readers, talkers and at times, voice raisers. None of these qualities qualifies them to be
correct in their views or make others believe they are. Like many ministers around here who are
ministers because "I stopped drinking," these men are ministers because they want the
world to be as they see it and they will never sit under the teaching of anyone
but themselves. The pay and perks can be
pretty darn good too.
To conclude because I don't think I can listen to the
rest of today's sermon without falling asleep, Ron has once again turned what
he announced as literally true in the past into a spiritual truth which gets
him off the hook for failed literalisms that must shortly come to past. If the Jerusalem of Revelation 11 is
spiritual then so are the plagues, vials, trumpets , trombones and flutes of
the previous chapters and we can relax.
If God's spirit is dwelling in the Holy City now called
the Church, that is one whacky and confused spirit. How could anyone not consider the fruit of
it as a confused and unsure trumpet?
Ron was greatly damaged by the collapse of WCG . He is very angry and hurt by it all
still. That never goes away I
think. He did not invent that emotion or
result. It was very difficult. It was
being done to us as ministers and not done by us for the most part. I regretted ever hearing about the
Armstrongs, Tkaches or WCG. The cost of my mistake as a younger man was going
to be high and was. I got a counselor
and a Dr. put me on medication to handle the depression and loss. The loss of friends was terrible and
hurtful. I guess they were friends
because of church mostly. In my wildest
dreams, I never would have imagined I would have had such an experiences as
provided by the Armstrongs and Tkaches.
But Ron's current attempt to make Revelation mean what it
never meant is sad and dangerous to the real spiritual health of those who
believe they don't have enough personal permission to think their own thoughts.
Ron is back peddling to save his ministry.
While he is still hooked on "four more weeks" (from this
writing), what that really means seems vague.
Truly, Ron is one of the most confusing COG ministers out there. He still can't really seem to keep the
literal separated from the spiritual. I
think he is simply confused and the hope that lies within him is falling
apart. It will be interesting to see what
five weeks from now do to Ron. He is
under a great deal of stress by his own admission. Personally I hope the man gets some help
before he loses it and leaves the disillusioned to fend for themselves.
In reality, "Revelation was the swan song of
militant Jewish Christianity (before 70 AD).
When Jerusalem was destroyed, when Rome waxed greater and more powerful, when the False Prophet (The
Apostle Paul rejected by the Jewish Christian Church at Ephesus. The Beast was
Vespasian), gained more and more followers, when the book itself was proved
false within two years, (not the speculated 3 1/2) when it became evident that
the Jewish Messiah/Christ would not come, the Hebrew Christians lost their
virility and their cult faded under the combined assault of orthodox Judaism
and of Gentile Christianity..."
The Religion of the Occident, Larson, P. 47
Ron terribly failed to explain how this transition from
what he once felt would literally happen and a major part which he would play in it all. Now, evidently, it has become merely
spiritually true. It just seems like he
has to back peddle, and fast before he has no ministry or credibility.
If Jesus does return in three weeks, I promise to
apologize and admit that , while I did not understand God's witness, and if
it's not a hologram, Ron was right. I
will also ask that next time the Deity provide a better speaker and more
theologically educated Witness...
