Raiders of the Lost Ark - Bwana Bob Style

For some reason, certain Church of God leaders seems to imagine themselves finding the Ark of the Covenant and that when they do this will prove their legitimacy and prove the Bible.

First, we had Gerald Flurry, seeking to dig up Hill of Tara in Ireland where he foolishly believes the ark is buried. So sure of this he was, that he bought a property in England to give him better access to the hill. Never once did it cross his alcohol-riddled mind that there was no way that Ireland would allow a national treasure to be dug up by some lunatic American religious snake oil salesman. That was no more going to happen than Scottland giving him the Coronation Stone for his mythical creature to come back and sit upon.

This brings us today to our very own Great Bwana to Africa, the greatest Church of God leader since the 1st-century church leaders walked the earth. A man so important and significant that he was planned before the creation of the world by God and Jesus himself to arrive in these perilous end times to be doubly blessed in order to give a final warning to the world. A man who is so significant that he is the end times embodiment of Joshua, Amos, Zechariah, Elijah, Elisha, Micah, Zerubbabel, Moses, Aaron, David, Soloman, Paul, Peter, Simon, and Judas. As the greatest man ever sent to the world, he is the official church historian in all matters of church history, doctrine, and official church teachings. No man has a more correct understanding of doctrine than the Great Bwana. Also, as the world's foremost scientist and pill-pushing snake oil salesman, Bwana Bob Thiel fits in well with Gerald Flurry as they both are living in a make-believe fantasy world.

Check out his latest made-up fantasy about one of his trips to Israel and the Ark of the Covenant. In a LONG article that none of his African followers gives a rat's ass about, he goes into great detail about the Ark of the Covenant. As with all of his articles it involves a lot of Catholic and Muslim myths and legends that he tries to use as truth. None of it is new information until the Great Bwana starts talking about HIMSELF, as usual. 

God's greatest gift to the world writes:

Back in October 2013, while attempting to take some photos and to video some of the remains of the Church of God on Jerusalem’s Western Hill, I was approached by a Jewish rabbi named Avraham Goldstein of the Diaspora Yeshiva. He asked why I was there, so I explained it. He then asked me if the Continuing (sic) Church of God would like to be involved in an archaeological project related to that general area. He mentioned doing excavations related to what some believe is David’s tomb, located below. Many consider that only a legend and not the real location–though the actual location of David’s tomb has not been verified in many centuries. However a Jewish rabbi who claimed to visit it in 1163 A.D. stated it was below this particular Mt. Zion.

Avraham Goldstein also believes that the ark of the covenant may be directly below or near it via tunnels. He offered to take me below in the tunnels on my next visit to Jerusalem. I told him that I was interested, but I have not been to Israel since. Yet, I expect to go again within the next several years.

The Great Bwana expects you to believe that a Jewish Rabbi would walk up to him and immediately invite him to start helping with an archaeological dig. The sheer stupidity reigns supreme here!  If anything, this rabbi saw another rich American Evangelical who would have money to dump into another archeological project that the Government of Israel was not interested in. Little did this Rabbi know that the one man in all of Israel that day that he decided to ask had no money and no real church to back any project.

This is the face of the Church of God today and why it is so totally irrelevant. Jesus is pushed to the sidelines while unimportant topics and fantastical beliefs are always at the forefront.

Church of God International does NOT want you as a member if you cannot handle their political rant sermons!

If You're Interested in Christ or the Gospel, CGI Is NOT for You!

The latest offerings from the Church of God International may be of interest to ultra-conservative Americans, but folks who are interested in hearing about Jesus and his message will be very disappointed! I can hear it now: "There goes Lonnie and his sour grapes again!" "Hasn't he got anything better to do?" "Why must he persist in ATTACKING Bill Watson and Adrian Davis?" "Those guys are living rent-free in his head!" "Why is he ATTACKING his family's religion?" "He is an accuser of the brethren!" "Satan is using him to ATTACK God's Church!" The responses are so predictable, because this is the way that Armstrongites have ALWAYS reacted to criticism. Since the days of Herbie, they can run traditional Christians and their beliefs into the ground; but you let anyone criticize what they're doing, and the howls of "persecution" are deafening!

In the latest edition of The International News, there aren't ANY articles wholly devoted to Jesus, his message, or salvation through him. Instead, we find there the following articles: Were the Ten Commandments in Force Before Moses? by Mike James, What Is Mankind's Option for Survival? by Bill Watson, Kung Fu Fighting by Jeff Flanick, A Brief Review of "Thin Again" by Michelle Algarra, What is an Abortion? by W. Adam Boyd, Enroute to the Kingdom by George Roper (at least George mentions Jesus and his teachings), Questions and Answers by Vance Stinson (What about imprecatory prayers? and Is cremation an acceptable option?), Male and Female He Created Them by Mike James, Feast of Tabernacles 2022 in Poughkeepsie, New York, an obituary for Kenneth Bounds, Why Baptize? by Robert Onsando, and Four Baptized in Sheridan, Wyoming.

In his article, Bill Watson wrote: "Consider for a moment the fact that the United States has just appointed a female Supreme Court Justice that cannot define what a women is!" <I think he meant "woman"> "How is that kind of nonsense acceptable? It is also now confirmed that the disgusting information coming out from Hunter Biden’s laptop and the revelation of his business and salacious shenanigans are legitimate and unlike originally portrayed as 'conspiracy,' is now shocking most of us that this is real! Why hasn’t he been arrested and indicted?" He continued: "Compound that with Ghislaine Maxwell’s disclosure of names and mountains of video evidence revealing 'highly influential' men and women participating in and guilty of statutory rape—and shockingly, not one of these powerful and famous political or business leaders, movie stars, or educators have been arrested, indicted, and convicted! How does this happen? Where is the outrage? Who is protecting these people? And what is really behind the 'curtain' that these leaders and elitists don’t want us, the people, to know about them? What evil has been perpetrated? It’s obvious: if the truth were to come out, as it has about Mr. Hunter Biden, Anthony Weiner, Bernie Madoff, and so many others, this would be extremely embarrassing and ruin their images and positions of influence, as was done to some of the above-mentioned men—and now, most recently, Prince Andrew. Frankly, it should lead to the conviction and incarceration of ALL those participants!" Of course, there isn't any mention of Donald Trump or his possible crimes!

Not convinced that Mr. Watson's article is too focused on the current political culture in the United States? Bill continued: "Presently, the United States is agonizing and languishing from misappropriated policies that are igniting inflation, interest rates, energy co-dependence, and the dilution of American culture due to immigration policies that are weak in managing restriction and restraint!" Still not convinced? Watson noted: "Never in our lifetime have we seen such negligence of law enforcement. The conditions surrounding the borders of the United States are now being characterized as an INVASION! The smuggling of fentanyl, meth and other drugs is out of control. And much of this is due to the Cartel dominating the human trafficking, drug, and weapons smuggling industry! In the meantime, government policies are weaponizing specific segments of the government, to reduce the rule of law—and the increasing crime rate substantiates this fact—“blood touches blood”—random violence is now common in many of the western cities of the USA, Britain, and Europe, due to the lack of law enforcement!" To be fair, he does go on to say that Christ is going to return someday and establish God's Kingdom on this earth.

But Pastor Watson's article for The International News was NOTHING compared to the sermon he delivered this past Sabbath at Medina! He insisted that the United States has an ethnicity problem, not a racism problem. He suggested that someone might have a problem if they married a "black lady, brown lady, or an Asian lady." He went on to complain about our modern usage of the word "gay." Apparently, Bill yearns for the good ole days when that word meant "happy." From there he launched into another diatribe about the "CCP" Virus (for those of you who may not be familiar with this terminology in referring to Covid-19, it stands for the Chinese Communist Party Virus). Bill insisted that the Chinese "seeded" the world with the virus. He noted that all of this used to be regarded as a conspiracy theory, but that now we know it's a "fact." He went on to say that Doctors Birx and Fauci have changed their minds again and are now saying that natural immunity is just as good as being vaccinated. Before finishing, he also mentioned the "87,000" new IRS agents, the Chinese threat to Taiwan, and the outrageously high gas prices (although they've recently dropped, I share his discomfort with those gas prices). He did, however, return to a semi-religious theme to conclude his message - He encouraged everyone to attend the Feast of Tabernacles to experience a foretaste of God's Kingdom!

Even so, Bill's sermon was mild compared to Pastor Adrian Davis' sermon just last month! The HOUR AND A HALF long sermon was a diatribe against the Biden Administration. He called his sermon "Build Bad Better" - you know, a not-so-subtle dig at Biden's "Build Back Better" slogan. Once again, one has to wonder why a Canadian pastor is so obsessed with the political culture in the United States! Then, like Bill, he returned to one of his favorite targets - the government's efforts to curtail the spread of the Covid-19 Virus. He said that government restrictions on large assemblies had directly contradicted the command in Scripture to assemble for worship on a regular basis! He even went on to suggest that a SWAT team would have descended on anyone who had tried to hold church services during that period! If that wasn't bad enough, he went on to talk in very graphic terms about the Monkey Pox virus. One has to hope that there weren't any children in his audience as he launched into a talk about how most of the current outbreak could be attributed to "men sharing their genitals with other men!" When he finally got back around to "Build Back Better," Davis claimed that "you will own nothing, but you will be happy!" And, just in case that wasn't explicit enough, he went on to say that it was really a return to communism and feudalism! Talk about over-the-top and inflammatory rhetoric! He went on to declare that "the American system of honoring the individual is dead!" Ironically, at times, it seemed like Pastor Davis was quoting Yuval Harari more than he was the Bible! At one point, he even challenged anyone to offer just one decision that the Biden Administration has made that makes America better. According to Pastor Davis, every decision that the current President of the United States has made has been calculated by him to DESTROY the nation he leads!

Whether or not you agree with these POLITICAL opinions is immaterial to the point this post is making - It is CLEARLY NOT the job of ANY minister of Jesus Christ to be offering such opinions from the pulpit! Most of us attend Church for spiritual enrichment, nourishment, and fellowship. If we want to listen to MAGA talking points, we can turn on our television sets and go to the FOX News channel or any one of a number of other conservative media outlets! A Christian Church should be preaching about the life, teachings, death, resurrection, and messaging of Jesus of Nazareth - period! You can't even call this stuff prophecy - it's just PURE politics!

And, just to cut my critics off at the pass, I have raised these concerns privately with Bill Watson, Vance Stinson, Mike James, Jeff Reed, Wynn Skelton, and others within the Church of God International's leadership team. You can clearly see from my latest report just how effective those contacts were! To be fair, CGI's leadership did make a feeble attempt to rein in Bill's and Adrian's messaging about Covid-19, but (once again) you can see just how much good that did! Also, please note, that I have used their own words - written and spoken - to criticize their messaging. I have NOT attacked personalities. My criticisms are focused on the messaging of these men.

In conclusion, for those Armstrongites who may be looking for a more reasonable, less political, and more spiritually focused organization with which to fellowship, the Church of God International is NOT that church! Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, and Bob Thiel have got NOTHING on these folks!

Lonnie Hendrix

Dave Pack: It is going to give me great pleasure to see those that criticize me burn in the Lake of Fire

 

Burn, Baby, Burn

 

In a rare moment of complete honesty while delivering Part 390 of “The Greatest Unending Story,” David C. Pack of The Restored Church of God made a 30-second comment that gave a glimpse as to the type of man he really is. Some already knew this, but hearing it as part of a Bible study to the entire church adds the exclamation point.

This clip was not included in yesterday’s article because it warrants its own attention and should not be lost in the deluge of “the new moon” nonsense.

 

Here is a glimpse inside the heart of David C. Pack, the Pastor General of The Restored Church of God, the minister of Jesus Christ, an Apostle of God, the Messenger to the Seventh Era, the sometimes-Elijah, “this old shepherd,” the goodman of the house, the wise steward, the good and faithful servant, the angel who spoke with John in the Book of Revelation, a type of Ezekiel, a descendant of the ancient David, the faithful priest “rushing to call it out” and “making plain” to God’s people, David Passover: 

 

@ 53:38 All God’s enemies are put down and the worst ones who hate Him are destroyed forever. It’ll be good to see the Lake of Fire put to good use for people who hate God and they would ruin the lives of others. They need to die.

 

Be careful what you wish for, Dave.

 

Here are some Bible verses Dave forgot to read carefully:

 

Proverbs 24:17

Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth

 

Ezekiel 33:11

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked…

 

I can imagine him standing upon the edge of the Lake of Fire, looking down at those who burn in agony knowing they are being erased from existence. His eyes are unfeeling but a great joy fills his breast. A subtle smug grin betrays his face as people gnash their teeth while screaming because this is their end.

 

Dave was right. And that feels so damn good.

Marc Cebrian

See: Burn, Baby, Burn