The Feast of Tabernacles In The Church of God...A Time of Disunity or Millennial Harmony?

In the Church of God the Feast of tabernacles always attempted to portray a foretaste of the Kingdom of God where everyone dwells in harmony.  Tens of thousands would gather at the larger sites with 8 days of sermons and fun.  There was unity unparalleled, as false as it was.

Now let's flash forward to 2016 and you will see how broken up and divided the Church of God has now become.   Look below at Branson Missouri.  Look at how many DIFFERENT Church of God's that will be meeting there.  Each one proclaiming that they and they alone are keeping the Feast right.  Some will publicly tell their members to NOT associate with any of the other COG's present.

It truly is a sad state of affairs in the church.  If they cannot get along now, how in the world will they all dwell peacefully together in Petra when the call comes out to flee there?

Missouri has the following Feast sites in its borders.

Missouri—Branson: UCG, http://feast.ucg.org. 

Branson: CGWA, http://feast.cogwa.org. 

Branson: ICG, http://intercontinentalcog.org. 

Branson: Oct. 15-22, International Congregation of Yahweh, www. feastgoer.org/metamorph_spring/ branson16.html. 

Branson: CGMI, http://thecogmi.org. 

Branson: Sept. 14-21, Church of God in Truth, http://postponements.com. 

Eminence: Oct. 15-22, Congregation of Yahweh (Missouri), http://yahschosen.org. 

Greenville: Sept. 17-24, Yahweh’s Restoration Ministry, http://yrm. org/FOT2016. 

Lake of the Ozarks: Feast of the Nations, http://sukkot- fotn.org. 

Osage Beach: LCG, https://fot2016.lcg.org. 

Steelville: Sept. 17-24, EliYah, http://praiseyah.com.

And then there is the Sunshine state, as divided as ever.

Florida—Destin: Church of God Big Sandy, http://churchofgodbigsandy.com, David Havir III, (903) 714-3007.  

Fort Myers: CGWA, http://feast.cogwa.org. 

Fort Walton Beach: Common Faith Network, www.commonfaithnetwork.org, (513) 755-0040. 

Fort Walton Beach: CGI, http://cgi.org/feast-of-tabernacles. 

Fort Walton Beach: CGMI, http://thecogmi.org. 

Lantana: Christian Church of God, Neville Gilbert, jancgil@aol.com, (561) 547- 4952. 

Melrose: Community of YHVH, http://fallfeast.com. 

Panama City Beach: LCG, https://fot2016.lcg.org. 

Panama City Beach: UCG, http://feast.ucg.org. 

Panama City Beach: ICG, http://intercontinen- talcog.org. 

Panama City Beach: CGI, http://cgi.org/feast-of-tabernacles. 

St. Petersburg: COG in Miami, http://godschurch.org. 

  

Rod Meredith Says Time Is Short...For The One Millionth Time

For over 60 years now we have had the unfortunate pleasure of having to listen to Rod Meredith run off at the mouth that the world is coming to an end, that time is short, and that it is time to step up the game and preach a forceful message.  Like Bob Thiel, James Malm, Gerald Flurry and Dave Pack, its been one lie after another. Endless false prophecies and wildly absurd speculations.

Meredith knows that the old guard are quickly dying off and that his life is soon to come to an end while his kingdom still has not come.  As his life winds down he still feels the need to get a "forceful" message out to the world.  In other words, since time is short, it is the duty of the members to send in all the money they can so the greatest work ever can get its final message out.

Dave Pack his own version of an end time message that has failed for three years in a row now.  Bob Thiel has a bastardized Catholic/Mayan version.  James Malm, the professional Judaizer, pretends that the knows the date of the end, Gerald Flurry is ready to dig up the Ark of the Covenant so he can get his final word out.  Don Billingsley is so crazy that he has become the laughing stock of the church due to his absurd ads in The Journal. Which end time version is the correct one?

With literally thousands of failed prophecies uttered by Church of God leaders over the decades the church has lost all credibility, except in the eyes of a few die-hard believers.  Unfortunately we may soon see some of these die-hards do horrendous things in order to bring in the end times they fervently desire.  Or, they may suffer horrendous abuse at the hands of certain leaders.  Mass deaths and suicides may be on the horizon.

How many more lies will these men need to proclaim till people wake up?

Frankly, brethren, I deeply feel that the next two to three years of your life will see big changes—perhaps more than any we have seen in modern times. It looks like many massive changes are beginning to come together in our society—new leaders with drastically different ideas taking over the United States, big changes coming in Europe and a possible disintegration of the entire European Union, along with increasingly dangerous threats from China and the Far East. We need to realize that more and more reports are coming out almost every month about the threat of the Zika virus and a “new” virus against which there are apparently no defenses! So it is possible that the massive disease epidemics prophesied in the Bible are slowly beginning to develop. Also, bigger upsets and natural disasters than ever before will occur, including powerful storms, fires, earthquakes and other events of increasingly unprecedented magnitude.

All of this certainly indicates the need for us to “step up our game” and have a real impacton this terribly deceived world while we have the opportunity. It means each of us whom God has called needs to realize that our lives are short and we need to act to do God’s Work while we have the opportunity. As you know, many of our older ministers and brethren are dying. Each of us still living needs to truly go “all out” to seek God like never before, as the final years of this society close in upon us. Are you, personally, truly seeking God and His power? I know that most of us are sincere, and are attending Sabbath services and tithing regularly. But, in many of our personal habits and ways of life, are we just drifting rather than powerfully growing and “crying out” to God for all of us to have a much bigger impact on this sick world?

Nightmares and Double Blessings Do Not A Prophet Make...or Modern Day Elisha's

The sheer depth of lunacy that the Church of God has produced over the decades in regards to self-appointed prophets  apostles and two witless witnesses is appalling.  Even more appalling is that self-appointed false prophets claim an ordinary prayer is somehow a direct line down from God to set them apart from all other Church of God leaders and ministers.

Over the decades literally hundreds of these fraudulent fools have come knocking at he doors of the church with new found revealed knowledge gained through direct communication from God in visions and nightmares.

Bob Thiel has taken on many mantles and names over the last few years of his vain attempt to make himself legitimate in the eyes of COG members.  Because Rod Meredith slammed the door in his face and publicly rebuked him, Thiel has had a hard time drawing regular COG folk to his dark side.

Because no one listens to him in the except for several hundred African's who found a new cash cow, Thiel has to continually try and prove he has been God sent.

Because of his bitterness at Rod Meredith that still consumes his dark soul, Thiel has to claim he is the Elisha to succeed the corrupt Elijah who was unable to lead the church properly.  Meredith was Elijah and Thiel is Elisha.  Elisha picked up the mantle that elijah was too inept to wear. Thiel has now taken on the mantle that Rod Meredith used to wear.

Elijah, however, over time seem to have lost the mental/emotional ability to properly lead (cf. 1 Kings 19:13-18). God later took him and replaced him with Elisha as the top ecclesiastical authority. Elisha then received a “double-portion” (two-portion literally) of the gift that God had given Elijah:

9 And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?”
Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”
10 So he said, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.” 11 Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
12 And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. 13 He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. (2 Kings 2:9-13)

The recipient of the double-portion, Elisha, was a type of Elijah. Elisha picked up the mantle of Elijah (2 Kings 2:13) which God wanted him to have (1 Kings 19:16-19), did a similar miraculous dry river crossing (2 Kings 2:13-14), also did other miracles (2 Kings 4:30-35; 2 Kings 10:5-14; 2 Kings 6:16-18), as he replaced Elijah as God’s top ecclesiastical authority on earth (cf. 1 Kings 19:16). 

Thiel continues to drag Gaylyn Bonjour though the mud by making false assertions that Bonjour deliberately set him apart as the new Elisha. 

A minister of the Living Church of God prayed and anointed Bob Thiel for a ‘double portion’ of God’s Spirit back in late 2011 and told him that was reminiscent of what happened to Elisha.

Bob Thiel has now taken on another new mantle, that of John the Baptist.  Meredith dropped Elijah's mantle and Thiel picked it up.  Thiel also places himself on par withHerbert Armstrong  who claimed he was a voice in the wilderness.  Thiel is NOT that voice in the wilderness.

Interestingly, for several years after Elisha picked up the mantle that Elijah dropped, Elijah was still alive. While many outside of the Church of God seem to doubt this, the following passage confirms that Elijah was still alive later, even though the main work/mantle had shifted to Elisha:

5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem…
12 And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying,
Thus says the Lord God of your father David:
Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, 13 but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father’s household, who were better than yourself, 14 behold, the Lord will strike your people with a serious affliction — your children, your wives, and all your possessions; 15 and you will become very sick with a disease of your intestines, until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day. (2 Chronicles 21:5, 12-15)

The Bible, however, teaches that a voice from the wilderness would come again:

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3)

John the Baptist said that he was fulfilling this (though he did not indicate he would be the only one to do so):

19 Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”…

23 He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,”‘ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:19,23)

The Church of God position has been that someone would come in the spirit and power of Elijah to “restore all things” and possibly be one of the two witnesses. While the late Herbert W. Armstrong (died in January 1986) sometimes indicated that he fulfilled that role, he told people that I have personally spoken with that there could be another other than he. Those with a WCG background might find the following quote from Herbert W. Armstrong of some assistance here as he wrote: 

Those called into the Church were called not merely for salvation and eternal life, but to learn the way of God’s government and develop the divine character during this mortal life in the Church age…

Also Malachi 4:5-6 pictures the Elijah to come at the very end of the Church age (Mystery of the Ages. 1985, pp. 201, 349).

NO ONE is called to learn about government or to develop "divine character" during their Christian walk.  It is an absolute impossibility  despite the ranting of legalists like Malm and Thiel.  These two men bastardized everything they touch in regards to redemption, justification and salvation. These two men are walking sin machines! 

Thiel closes his silly rant pointing out that Dave Pack is not the modern day Elijah.  Only THiel can possibly be the true Elijah:

Now, I should add that RCG’s David Pack is NOT the prophesied endtime Elijah despite his claims earlier this year–he has NOT restored the truth and is confused/wrong on many points. 

Those of the true and genuine Philadelphian remnant will pay much attention to the voice of the true final Elijah. Those who do not will not fare as well as they could (cf. Revelation 12:14-17). 

We in the Continuing Church of God “have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19, KJV).”

I can state with a fact that Bob Thiel is NOT Elisha, Elijah, or the latter day John the Baptist.  Thiel, like Malm, Pack and Flurry are corrupt men masquerading as men of light. If there were ever "doctrines of demons" to be preached, Thiel is doing it now.

Thiel's  so-called ministry is nothing more than a vanity project as Gavin writes:

His tiny Continuing Church of God is a vanity project that has a future only as long as Bob's personal longevity, and nobody lives forever. B

Bob Thiel is NOT Elisha, Elijah, John the Baptist, a prophet, a true minister, or a follower of Jesus.

When Thiel writes or speaks, Jesus truly weeps!