It is always fun to watch our resident whack-jobs who have set themselves up as God's official mouthpieces and leaders of the greatest COGs ever. No matter how crazy they, are everyone is always WORSE than they are.
The Great Bwana to Africa and 100 Caucasian Bob Mzungu Thiel takes his arrogant narcissistic behavior to the extreme and lashes out at COG7. Ever since Herbert slapped the label "Sardis" on them, other COG leaders and members have called them Sardis and say they are dead spiritually. This is a pretty bold epitaph coming from crazy COG leaders who are presently leading some of the weirdest off-the-wall personality cults the church has ever seen.
They love to lash out at COG7, which has a more active church than any of these splinter COGs can ever dream of having. Here they are in 2023 with between 200,000 - 300,000 members while the biggest of the COG groups is lucky to have 10-11,000 on their rolls. Sadly, the angriest of the COG groups tend to be the itty-bitty COG groups which have hardly any members.
COG7's Bible Advocate has more articles that tend to be Christ-centered than any COG publication does.
The one thing that ticks off the self-serving COG leaders is that the COG7 doesn't whip themselves into a frenzy of prophecy malarkey like they all do. Everything COG leaders have said, whether speculating or prophesying, has been one epic failure after another. All of them are liars and yet they try and shame COG7 because they aren't as concerned about prophecy as they are.
The Great Bwana Bob Mzungu writes this about them:
Jesus seems to be warning Sardis to know its history, stop changing doctrine, and pay attention to prophecy.
With its intentional lack of knowledge on church eras/history its doctrinal changes, Sabbath compromising, and its lack of prophetic understanding, it really does seem to me that no other group throughout recent history fits Jesus’ description of the Sardis church more than CG7-D and apparently CG7-Salem.
Church eras are irrelevant in the New Covenant, regardless of what the Great Bwana Mzungu Bob says. Also, COG7 is well aware of its history has has a far more interesting and factual publication of that history than any of the bunk Armstrongism tries to pass off as historical truth.
As for prophecy in the COG7, they say this:
PROPHECY
Bible prophecy preserves and strengthens a believer’s hope for the Second Advent. It identifies religious, social, and political trends and events, including the rebirth of the nation of Israel, which point to the imminent return of Christ and the eventual establishment of God’s eternal kingdom on earth.
The Great Bwana Mzungu Thiel adds this:
CG7-D says so much prophecy is in the past that it will be overtaken like by a thief in darkness. CG7-D does NOT advocating watching for many prophetic events as it teaches that they are past.
If my life was being consumed by prophecy I would much rather adhere to COG7's understanding that a lot of prophecies are in the past than listen to the useless pathetic junk that Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, and Alton Billingsley try and pass off as prophecy.
Bwana Bob Mzungu then says:
CG7-D seems to be connecting 300,000 brethren to error.
In the past several years, CG7-D has been making it clearer and clearer that it does not understand end time prophecy. And it is teaching this in such a manner as to likely mislead most of its claimed 300,000 brethren. They apparently will be overtaken as with a thief in the night. They seem determined to ignore the warnings to the Sardis Church.
This is absolutely laughable considering the king of errors in Armstrongism right is Bwana Bob Mzungu Thiel.
Each year that goes by in the declining Armstrongite COG's it becomes clearer and clearer that absolutely NO ONE leading a Church of God in the Armstrongite movement today understands property. These men have misled more people than COG7 will ever do. Multiple millions were hoodwinked by the Plain Truth and Good News Magazines for decades concerning prophecies that have never come to pass. How quickly they all cover up the utter nonsense from 1971-1975.
The COG's whiniest little prophet then says this:
My experience is, however, that CG7 is open to allowing many doctrinal ideas, including many that I do not believe are COG. Plus it is a fact that many within it have drifted away from the truth in various ways. Many do not realize this, but some in Sardis did keep the biblical holy days–and that is something CG7 does not endorse (though will often tolerate).
Well, if that is not calling the kettle black! Look at the state of Armstrongism today. Hundreds of splinter groups each with varied doctrinal ideas that are so different that they can't and will not unify under one banner. Armstrongism has lost hundreds of thousands of members over the decades due to all the lies and abuse, and yet COG7 is wrong in the eyes of the Great Bwana Bob Mzungu.
The Great Bwana then pops his holistic cork COG7 leader Whaid Rose's comments about Martin Luther:
The Reformation’s Brightest Light
By Whaid Rose
What’s the story of the Reformation’s main man? Born to Christian parents in Germany in 1483, he was reared under strict discipline. But inner peace eluded Luther as he grew older; he struggled to know freedom from sin and assurance of salvation. Keeping his promise to become a monk if spared from a life-threatening thunderstorm, he joined the Augustinian Order and devoted himself to a rigid monastic lifestyle. But this only deepened his anxiety and despair.
Luther’s transformation began when, as head of the theology department at the University of Wittenberg, he began a serious study of Romans. Suffice it to say, he discovered justification by faith (1:17) — God’s sovereign act whereby He declares us “not guilty” and places us in right standing with Himself, on the basis of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. Luther’s life was suddenly and forever unshackled.
As a result, Luther became increasingly unsettled by the unbiblical practices of the Roman Catholic Church, which led him to nail his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church on October 31, 1517. These were merely questions and propositions for debate. But thanks to zealous university students and Guttenberg’s new invention, Luther’s theses were soon spread all over Germany, sparking a firestorm. When his books were burned in Rome, he appealed to the emperor for a hearing. It was granted, bringing us to the showdown at the Imperial Diet (assembly) in Worms, 1521. Asked if willing to recant, Luther begged time to think it over and spent the night in agonizing prayer.
It’s believed that Psalm 46, the biblical framework for Luther’s signature hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” was before him that night. As Luther stood before the assembly the following day, his inquisitor demanded a final answer, prompting his now famous response: “I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me.”
This is Christiandom’s finest hour.
The COG hypocrite adds:
Whaid Rose clearly has not shown himself to be among the “few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments” (Revelation 3:4) (God will be the judge of him and the others).
All should realize:
Martin Luther was never a Christian.
Nor is Bwana Bob,
His psaltery statements were NOT “Christendom’s finest hour.”
Dwight Armstrong's hymns were not the COG's finest hour. Yet, Luther's hymns are sung and memorized by millions of Christians.
He did not truly respect the Bible.
When have Bob Thiel and most other COG leaders ever respected the Bible when they seek to deny the New Covenant on a daily basis as they prostrate themselves at the feet of the law.
We certainly do not need another person like him today.
We most certainly do NOT need any current COG leaders we have today who have made themselves hostile to Christ, nor any others that will almost assuredly pop up over the next few years.
Martin Luther intentionally mistranslated the Bible for it to say “faith alone” the way he advocated it.
Every single Armstrongite/Millerite leader has mistranslated the Bible for decades by forcing the law on followers, deceiving them with false prophecies, and intentionally denying faith alone is all that is required of a follower of Jesus. Nothing gets COG leaders goats more than eliminating the focus on the law and instead focusing on Christ. Faith alone in Christ, such as the thief on the cross or even the faith Abraham had before the law, infuriates COG leaders and gets their veins bulging and fists pounding the podium quicker than the local pedophile does.
The Great Bwana Bob Mzungu then ends with another slap across COG7's face placing them next to the Armstrongite faithful that refuse to follow Bwana Bob's preaching and false prophecies. According to him, COG7, like all Armstrongite COG's are too stupid to understand the Bible and will NOT know when it is time to flee to Petra or some other godforsaken place where Bwana Bob is going to lead his few followers for 3 1/2 hellish years of psychological and spiritual torture.