Prophet Bob Thiel is now using "dreams" to legitimatize his position as a prophet of God. Remember Loma Armstrong's dream she had that spurred HWA to start the Radio Church of God? Bob Thiel is claiming that he also has had a woman dream about him. Because she dreamed about him it therefore make shim a true prophet and COG leader.
Its too bad that he does not heed HWA's own words about crazy kooks proclaiming themselves prophets!
In all the years I worked in Pasadena, hundreds of nut jobs paraded through the church proclaiming they and they alone had the truth. Many even carried picket signs in front of the Hall of Ad proclaiming their prophet status. Bob Thiel is just one more in a long line of false prophets to lie to the church.
Dreams
and the Continuing Church of God
Do dreams
and prophets have any place in the Christian Church today? Are any related to
the Continuing Church of God? The Bible shows that God often chooses to work
with prophets through a dream (Numbers 12:6), and I had a confirmed one.
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 2:16-17; 16:9).
Of
course, not all dreams come from God. Here is something that the late Herbert
W. Armstrong wrote about dreams:
Let me say here that in about 99,999 times out
of 100,000, when people think GOD is speaking to them in a dream
or vision in this day and age, it is pure imagination, or some form of self-hypnotism
or self-deception. I have only come to believe that this dream was a
bonafide call from God in the light of subsequent events.
And that
is correct. Most dreams are not from God, even if people think that they are. Dreams
from God are shown to be correct in the light of subsequent events (though just
because a dream ends up being correct, that does of itself, not prove that it was
from God as there can be other factors, cf. Deuteronomy 13:1-5,
but God Himself does sometimes use dreams, Numbers
12:6;
Acts 2:17-18).
Though
many discount all dreams, many also forget that Herbert W. Armstrong believed
that his wife Loma Armstrong had a dream from God prior to the start of the
Radio Church Church of God, although it took him some years to accept the
validity of it:
Within 30
or 60 days after our marriage God spoke to my wife in what might have been an
intense unusual dream, or a vision—but it was years later before we came to
realize that this really was a message from God.
So, there
was a dream from a woman that preceded the start of the old Radio Church of God
that Herbert W. Armstrong led.
A
question to ponder is have there been any dreams from God in more recent years?
Prophet Thiel claims that he also had a dream about himself. He cannot prove that in any manner whatsoever. Yet, he expects people to take his word for it. Sadly, deceived people have.
In
addition to my dream (which seemed consistent with Number 12:6 and Acts 2:17),
there also seems to have been at least one other dream that essentially
confirmed that the mantle had passed to me and the Continuing Church of God.
In order to bring in a second "opinion" he claims a woman in New Zealand also had a dream about him. Notice his use of Matthew 18:16 as further proof of his legitimacy.
This
dream came to a woman named Fesilafai Fiso Leaana of New Zealand after going to bed on December 8,
2012. Portions of it, too, were also confirmed by subsequent events.
Although
some have chosen not to believe all the facts about how and why the Continuing Church
of God began, recall that the Bible
teaches: 16 ‘by the mouth
of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ (Matthew 18:16) 19 Do
not receive an accusation against an elder except from two
or three witnesses. (1 Timothy 5:19)
Of course,
since Gaylyn Bonjour always freely admitted that he did the ‘double-portion’
anointing, there long had been a second witness.
Yet, in
addition to various facts, the dream from Fesilafai Leaana (who I did not meet
until late 2013) looks like perhaps God was planning on making it clearer for
true Philadelphians to see that the mantle location had truly changed.
Of
course, some will discount dreams and their confirmation as 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). Page 96
