Bob Thiel, the non-ordained self-appointed prophet, revelatory, apostle, Chief Overseer, renown authority on prophecy and the Mayan's, has been working overtime to legitimize his standing in the eyes of COG folk.
Since Bob self-appointed himself (after jumping to conclusions) after Gaylor laid hands on him and asked his god to give Bob a "double portion" of the holy spirit.
Today Bob is seeking to give more authority to his title of church leader as also a visionary prophet who has dreams and is able to interpret them.
Thiel writes:
Do dreams and prophets have any place in the Christian Church today? Are any related to the Continuing Church of God (which did not officially form as a declared entity until December 28, 2012)?
The Bible records that God often has used dreams to give messages (Genesis 20:3-7, 28:10-17, 31:10-13, 31:24, 37:5-10, 40:5-18, 41:1-32; Numbers 12:6; Judges 7:13-15; 1 Kings 3:5-15; Daniel 2:3-45, 4:4-27, 7:1-28; Matthew 1:20-25, 2:12, 2:13, 2:19, 2:22; Acts 16:9).
The Bible shows that God often chooses to work with prophets through a dream:
6 “Hear now My words:Notice that the above says that God will speak to His prophet in a dream. Notice also:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision;
I speak to him in a dream. (Numbers 12:6)
28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream (Jeremiah 23:28)
After reading the above, you know immediately where Bob is going with this. He has to give authority to the fact he apostatized from the Living Church of God by stabbing his former boss in the back.
Poor Bob, the holy spirit had not revealed to him what this dream was all about. Then, low and behold, Gaylyn Bonjour had to go and anoint him with what Bob thinks was a "double portion" of the holy spirit. Little did Gaylyn realize what he did and how Thiel would twist it around into something Gaylyn had no intention of happening..I was 50 at the time (which essentially makes me an ‘old man’ per Numbers 8:25; cf. John 8:57). In my dream, there seemed to be two parallel lines. Living Church of God (LCG) evangelist Roderick Meredith was on the top line and I was on the line much below. In the dream, I kept calling up to Dr. Meredith, but he never would respond. This lack of response made no sense to me during the dream. Then after what seemed to be a long time, the lines-crossed with his line dropping and my line going up.
One reason that I did not understand it at the time was that I was on relatively close speaking terms with Dr. Meredith then, so that aspect made of the dream made no sense. Also, since I had no intentions of leaving Living Church of God then (and certainly no plans to start a separate church), it was not clear what the dream was saying. Another reason I was unsure about the dream then was that I had not had any anointing for the Holy Spirit beyond baptism when I had it.
Then to further legitimize himself with this nightmare he had, he claims that it is the result of Rod Meredith "distancing" himself from Bob. Is it any wonder Meredith restricted ties to Thiel! Meredith apparently saw how crazy Thiel was getting and did not want to encourage him any more.But these matters changed eventually. For one, I was unexpectedly anointed for a ‘double-portion’ of God’s Spirit (cf. 2 Kings 2:9) on December 15, 2011 by an LCG minister named Gaylyn Bonjour.
Much to Thiel's chagrin, almost all COG members do not recognize his as a legitimate church authority. Thiel is in the same class as David C. Pack. Both have become laughing stocks in the Church of God. He blames this attitude on all the false prophets and apostles that have popped up over the years coming out of the church. Not a single one of them was legit, however, Bob is. Why can't the rest of-the COG see that?
Despite what the Bible supports, most Church of God groups do not seemingly accept that there are any prophets today, nor do they seem to accept that God actually sometimes speaks in dreams in the 21st century–some, oddly, seem indignant of the very idea. Part of the reason for this is that those self-proclaimed ‘prophets’ outside of the Continuing Church of God have tended to proven to be false (see also Why Be Concerned About False and Heretical Leaders?).
But that does not mean God doesn’t ever use dreams or have any in the office of prophet or ever pour out a ‘double-portion’ of His Spirit (cf. 2 Kings 2:9-15) as happened when an ordained minister so prayed and anointed me on December 15, 2011
Then to give even more credence to the existence of the Continuing Ed Church of God, one of Thiel's members also had a dream. This woman dreamed that the LCG had apostatized and the truth now was with Theil. How convenient!
The dream began with myself and approximately 70 New Zealand Living Church of God brethren, then suddenly LCG vanished (I was wondering where is LCG?) and I was left standing with approximately 10 people excluding myself, on a very high building. We were standing on the very top of the building, where I couldn’t see the bottom, there were no other buildings, just this building. I could not see the bottom of the building but just clouds below the building and clouds surrounding the building which led to a beautiful white mountain – a mountain that had no ends on either side. The building was pretty close to the mountain, I could see the top of the mountain. The mountain was all white and so beautiful. I remember that I began to be filled with joy and peace. But also wondering how we got up on this building and confused why there were no other buildings but the clouds seemed like it was hiding the building and I felt protected or it felt like a safe place. I looked around there were still only about ten people there, the only person I could clearly recognize was Shirley constantly working, the approximate ten others were just sitting and standing around. So I walked around the building looking for the large crowd from LCG, but all I kept returning to was that Shirley was working and doing different types of work alone while the others were still sitting and standing around the building with me. I wondered why she was working a lot. I could not find LCG.
Then suddenly a message came to my mind: “There is a secret in the mountain”. And I was so happy to know that, I was still feeling elated and could still see the beautiful white mountain and wondered about the secret. Then I asked: “What is the secret?” Then the message said, nobody knows the secret in the mountain but only you have received this message that there is a secret in the mountain. Then I asked ‘what is the secret in the mountain?’ I received a message to my mind that told me that “the secret in the mountain is the Ark of the Covenant”. Then the dream abruptly ended because I woke up. And immediately, I woke up my husband and recounted the dream to him, and I told my husband that it reminded me of when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on the mountain and that the mountain was also covered with clouds.
As usual in Armstrongism, neither this woman or Thiel had any dreams that involved
The dream seemed to be a signal to confirm that the Philadelphia mantle was not with the Living Church of God, but instead was associated with someone that that had something to do with the ark of the covenant. Prior to the dream Fesilafai Fiso Leaana indicated that she had problems with how the leadership in LCG viewed the Sabbath, and that was one of the issues that I dealt within weeks of the formation of the Continuing Church of God.
There is lots more about this dream here. Thiel then goes in to say that most in the COG mock him and do not recognize him but he has his god on his side.
Of course, some will discount dreams and their confirmation as proper proof of anything they do not wish to believe. Many want more dramatic signs (Matthew 12:38; 1 Kings 19:11-12), but God does not always do it that way (Matthew 12:39-42; 1 Kings 19:12-14).
Bob asks: "Can you believe?"
Read the entire dream sequence here: Dreams, the Bible, and the Continuing Church of God