Dr. Robert Thiel
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Arroyo Grande, CA
Dear Dr. Thiel,
I have carefully read and marked your paper to Dexter Wakefield on the “Chronology
Related to Bob Thiel and Evangelistic and Related Matters.” Since this matter relates
to your relationship with the Church as a whole and your entire future, I have decided
to answer this matter myself. I have prayed that for your own good and your future
reward in God’s Kingdom, you will sincerely ask God at this time to give you an open
mind and willing heart to heed Almighty God’s instruction in Proverbs 15:31-33:
“The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. He who disdains
instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility.”
Bob, I have personally liked you, wanted to encourage you and have tried to work
with you for years. However, I have seen that you have had great difficulty in learning
the lessons of deep humility that God wants all of us to learn. With very few
exceptions, nearly everyone who knows you has clearly seen that—although you
have a quick mind and great energy—you have nearly always thought very highly of
yourself and of your own opinions. You have offended or at least “bugged” dozens of
Church members with this very self-important, pushy and “know-it-all” attitude and
approach. So if I, as a minister of Christ for over 60 years and one old enough to be
your father—can help you, I would certainly like to do this. For I love you as a fellow
human being and one I have known and shared a number of hours with in talking
over matters related to the Bible and our entire purpose here on this earth.
However, Bob, your own remarkable vanity and “dreams of greatness” have greatly
affected your ability to think clearly many times. Over the last few years, many of us
have noted that you have begun to think of yourself in terms that are not realistic.
Also, to abet your desires to be a “great one” in the Work, you have carefully and
cleverly twisted and enlarged upon many things people have mentioned to you.
Throughout this entire “chronology” paper you have done this over and over. Recently,
I had a meeting with Messrs. Ames, Winnail, Wakefield and my son, Jim, to discuss
this paper you sent to Mr. Wakefield (and now I see you have also sent it to Messrs.
Tyler and Weston). All of us in the meeting except Mr. Wakefield have gotten to know
you somewhat and have heard many others express concern about your egotistical
ideas that you believe you are a prophet or one of the two witnesses. I will not take the
time to argue about every single point you bring up in your paper; that is not the
important matter. I will just say that over and over you subtly twist, enlarge upon or
exaggerate many of the things you think you heard—some of which you may have
“partially heard” but enlarged upon in your own mind and received in a way that was
not intended by the one doing the speaking. Near the very beginning of your paper
you try to quote Gary Ehman as saying that God has used you to “prepare the
Church” and then you go way beyond what Mr. Ehman intended to say. Then, you did
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the same thing relating to the January 6, 2000 incident about me saying, “That is you”
in relation to Roman Catholic prophecies. Then, you indicate that you told Davy
Crockett that I was going to be “hit” with something bad to teach me a lesson. Then,
you indicate that the “mini-stroke” I had in September 2008 was in fulfillment of that
prophecy. Bob, I never knew that you had given such a prophecy and never felt that
this min-stroke I had at age 78 was any sort of “fulfillment” of anything you had ever
said! Bob, do you really believe that you “prophesied” to my having a stroke, and that
it was a direct result of my not heeding correction from you? I strongly suggest you
consider Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a
fall.” Then your letter goes to October 3, 2008 where you say that I said, “God may
consider you to be a prophet.” Bob, as you well know, I had my stroke in September
2008 and was still very weak and disoriented as a result of it. That you would take
anything that I said in that time period and try to use it is not right. I do not ever
remember saying anything like that, and I can assure you that I have never thought
you might be a prophet! But if I did make some kind of statement in this regard, I was
simply trying to encourage you to go on and grow in your understanding of the Bible
and willingness to serve. Then you go to January 2009 where you say I told you that if
I was raised to the office of apostle, I was “considering ordaining Bob Thiel as a
prophet.” That, Bob, is simply not true! For I have never, at any time—considered
ordaining you as a prophet. This is not because I don’t “like” you, but rather because I
have understood for years your tendency to bring in “odd” or “Catholic prophesies” or
put unusual twists on scripture in such a way that no true prophet of God would ever
do.
You are probably correct in your statement that in the Spring/Summer of 2009 I may
have told you that I was “praying for the success” of your prophetic book. For I have
tried to be your friend and encourage you without giving you delusions of “grandeur.”
However, it appears that any encouraging thing that I or most anyone else has told
you seems to be adding to this “delusions of grandeur” feeling you have about
yourself.
Then, in your paper, you go on to describe your meeting with me in Panama City and
later with Dibar Apartian who, you say, “believed” then that God had a top prophetic
role for Bob Thiel. However, all of us who knew Mr. Apartian at that time and have
talked to him many times about these matters know that Mr. Apartian did not think of
you as a prophet. You can easily ascertain that by talking to Mrs. Apartian, Mr. Ames,
Dr. Winnail and all of us. Bob, since you have this powerful feeling of “greatness” you
often “read into” what anyone says. This kind of idea of you being a prophet that is
pounding away in the back of your mind is once again causing you to twist your own
memory of what is said by others.
Later in the paper, you talk about Dr. Fall and Gary Ehman being approached by you
about your desire to “have hands laid upon you” in order to ask for healing and for
wisdom before meeting with evangelists here at Headquarters. As you point out, they
did not agree to do so. Then on December 15,2011 you went to Gaylyn Bonjour and
asked him to anoint you for an apparent physical ailment, but also asked him to ask
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God to give you wisdom in the upcoming meetings with the HQ Evangelists. He
agreed to do this and, as is his normal approach—he can be emotional and heartfelt
about the matter and asked God to grant you a “double-portion of His Holy Spirit.”
Others have told me that, being partly of French ancestry, Mr. Bonjour is often
emotional and very heartfelt when he anoints anyone. Mr. Bonjour has confirmed he
in no way was intending to ask God to make you a prophet! Yet, because of your
vivid imagination and fervent desire to exalt yourself to that role, you “took it” that
way—as you do so with many other things.
Then you go on to somehow try to indicate that you had special knowledge about how
my wife was to be “hit hard with something.” Consequently when it was announced in
January that she had come down with cancer, you deluded yourself into believing that
you had somehow prophesied this to happen. Nothing could be further from the truth!
She had not been feeling well for months, and the stage four diagnosis indicated that
this cancer had been growing inside her body for many months. Constantly, in your
paper, you seem to be “reading into” events that indicate you were given something
special by God about such matters. Then, you indicate that you feel that “only a
member of the eldership is required to anoint one as a prophet” and use 1 Timothy
4:14 as a proof text. Bob, 1 Timothy 4:14 is clearly, in context, talking about the gift of
God’s Holy Spirit given to Timothy as a Christian—not the office of a prophet.
Certainly, all of us have the laying on of hands by the eldership after baptism to
receive God’s Spirit. But this Scripture is not talking about becoming a prophet, but
receiving God’s Spirit to help Timothy, “be an example to the believers in word, in
conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity”
(v.12).
By “reading into” things that others tell you the idea that you might be a prophet,
you have deceived yourself—willingly of course—so that your mind is now
virtually “fixated” on the idea that you, are a “prophet” of God.
However, what you utterly fail to recognize is that a true prophet of God—in God’s
New Testament times—has always been clearly recognized as such by the ministry
already in high offices in God’s Church; who are shown by Christ—the living Head of
the Church that this person is in that office. Such an individual has always been
cooperative with those doing the Work and has never “set himself up” all on his own
to contradict, to compete, or to be a “lone wolf out there” doing his own thing to exalt
himself.
Although you think you are not like “Ron Weinland” or others who have done this kind
of thing, your present statements and writings indicate that that is exactly what you
are becoming. Therefore, as the one Christ Himself has put in the office of Presiding
Evangelist and leading minister in the Church of God doing the Work of God at this
time, I want to tell you, in love, that you need to realize you are not a prophet, nor are
you recognized as such by the Church or by Christ’s true ministry whom He has set in
authority in His Church. You need to humble yourself and recognize that authority for
your own good. If you end up “fighting” or “competing” with the Work of the living God,
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God will deal with you and He will humble you in ways that we do not now fully
understand. For “whom God loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He
receives” (Hebrews 12:6).
At my age and in my office for so many years, Bob, I can sincerely tell you that I have
no feelings of hate or competition with you. I simply want to help you “wake up”
before it is too late. I pray that God will help you to understand and heed what I am
now telling you as a servant of Jesus Christ who has faithfully served Him full time for
over 60 years. Please be willing to listen and to heed what I am saying in the name
of Jesus Christ!
Bob, you made the statement in your letter, “…his then pastor (Dr. Fall)…” indicating
that you may no longer consider yourself a member of the Living Church of God. If
that is not the case, and if you are willing to repent, to listen and take correction, and
continue to be a part of the Living Church of God, I do ask you, in Jesus’ name to let
us know. If you are unwilling to heed the loving correction given in this letter, and
insist on cleaving to your view of yourself as a “prophet”, let us know this also and we
will understand that you have chosen to trod a different path separate from the Living
Church of God. At least you can be open and honest about this. As the physical
leader of God’s Church, I have an obligation to protect the brethren from wolves, and
I take this responsibility seriously. If you turn aside and try to draw others to follow
you down this dangerous path, we will have to do everything we can to protect God’s
people.
I have prayed for you and will pray for you much more in the days to come—asking
God to guide you in His love for your eternal good. I do ask you to let us hear from
you as I have indicated above. Our prayers will be with you, not against you. May
God guide you to do His will, and not your own.
With Christian love, Roderick C. Meredith
ht:PT