Can there be a better description of the men pictured above than the following verses from Ezekiel 13?
Sadly, those in the various COG's blindly follow these men as if God speaks directly though them. The church has been well trained to listen to their lies as god inspired. It loved listening to the endless speculations of Gerald Waterhouse and John Ritenbaugh before Herbert Armstrong died. Then as the church miscarried hundreds of splinter groups, new prophets and Elijah's stepped in with even more wildly fantastical utterances. Why do the people of the church love listening to their lies?
People Who Love Listening to Lies
Ezekiel 13 1-2 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, preach against the prophets of Israel who are making things up out of their own heads and calling it ‘prophesying.’
2-6 “Preach to them the real thing. Tell them, ‘Listen to God’s Message!’ God, the Master, pronounces doom on the empty-headed prophets who do their own thing and know nothing of what’s going on! Your prophets, [Church of God], are like jackals scavenging through the ruins. They haven’t lifted a finger to repair the defenses of the city and have risked nothing to help Israel stand on God’s Day of Judgment. All they do is fantasize comforting illusions and preach lying sermons. They say ‘God says . . .’ when God hasn’t so much as breathed in their direction. And yet they stand around thinking that something they said is going to happen.
7-9 “Haven’t you fantasized sheer nonsense? Aren’t your sermons tissues of lies, saying ‘God says . . .’ when I’ve done nothing of the kind? Therefore—and this is the Message of God, the Master, remember—I’m dead set against prophets who substitute illusions for visions and use sermons to tell lies. I’m going to ban them from the council of my people, remove them from membership in Israel, and outlaw them from the land of Israel. Then you’ll realize that I am God, the Master.