Translating The Most Important Book In The World

 

There have been several comments here in the last couple of days detailing what a poorly thought-out plan it is of Bob Thiel to translate HIS book into 1,000+ languages. No matter how many languages he supposedly translates HIS book into it will never be ultimately understandable in the native languages and nuances of that language as he imagines. All of those translations are nothing more than paraphrases of his original booklet. Things he deems important are lost.

Years ago, we used to discuss translating as it related to the Bible itself. Pages were filled with details regarding some of the questionable activities of some of the specific members of King James's committees, particularly Erasmus. That topic provided additional proofs that the type of fundamentalism and inerrancy taught by HWA/WCG/AC is simply not possible. Overall, the major concept became that the very act of translating from one language to another is in reality paraphrase. Things of importance are lost. I probably have a better idea of the potential impact of this because I'm involved with Japanese and Chinese industrial equipment, and our manuals for these are translated from the manufacturer's languages into a "sort of" English. This requires experience and intuition to understand. Although our materials predate AI, I've read some of the AI translations which are currently emerging. I can tell that this process exacerbates the problems we will have when they get around to applying this to our manuals. 

 

The reason this used to be the province of university professors, and why the Catholics and other publishers of the Bible work with fewer languages than Bob does on his books is that only those who have cultural insights into those who speak the various languages have a deep enough understanding of the various nuances to be accurate. Bob will probably say something like "Oh, but I'm a prophet, doing the work of God! My translators are inspired!" Unfortunately, it is not reasonable to expect this when using known fakes and imposters to do the translating. We know this from other aspects of Armstrongism such as healing. The frequency with which it occurs does not make it reliable, or even practical.

The glaring reality with Bob and his book is that he believes his book is more important than the Bible. A reader here noted how extensively the Bible has been translated, a book far more important than 60 pages of self-importance grandiosity. Far more people have read the Bible than will EVER read Bob's booklet. His booklet will NEVER touch the lives of people like the Bible has done for centuries.

"The Bible has been translated into many languages from the Biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. As of September 2023 all of the Bible has been translated into 736 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,658 languages, and smaller portions of the Bible have been translated into 1,264 other languages according to Wycliffe Global Alliance".

Another reader made this astute comment on how this translation program is all about himself.

...have made available the good news of the kingdom of God in more languages than has ever been done since the start of the Christian church in Acts 2. 

 

...and there you have it! Bob just elevated himself above Christ's apostles, and above Herbert Armstrong. Bob admits that he can be deceived yet still be one of God's leading servants (but remember how he attacked Rod Meredith for smaller deceptions than have afflicted Bob), but despite that deception he can still be God's Number One Servant Ever. 

 

Oh, and Bob, if you are reading this, let's talk about what it means to have "made available" a translation. Some of your translations are into languages with just a couple thousand speakers somewhere in Asia, speakers who don't have access to modern tools like the Internet in their homes and sometimes not even in their villages. If you really are serious about wanting to "make available" a translation, simply getting the translation done and put on the Internet isn't going to cut it.

Yes, Bob, those Apostles you insult, the ones who didn't translate Christ's message as widely as you have had done, actually WENT to the people they wanted to serve. They weren't playing a numbers game. They traveled to remote and dangerous locations, where they trained and ordained elders and deacons.

Bob, you haven't done that. You're a pretender. A fraud. A laughingstock everywhere other than your deceived, mentally ill mind.

The Great Bwana Bob's so-called ministry has always been a numbers game and never really about touching people's lives with the word of God. It is always about himself in every article, sermon video, and booklet. Just look at his websites and blog and see how much he promotes himself while ignoring Jesus. The earth has never had a greater man walking its green hills than the feet of the Holy Bob.  

Another read here wrote about the blatant hypocrisy of Holy Bob and his recently revealed translation debacle.

Bob knows that he is supporting a translation service that falsely uses the names of real translators as fronts for the AI-produced translations. 

 

As such, he is correct to tell us that HE isn't being scammed. Rather, Bob is willfully participating in a scam that defrauds real translators by using their CVs to give Linda Jane's AI service a credibility it does not deserve. Bob is willing to pay this service a fraction of what the real translators (whose names are falsely being used, who don't actually do the translations) would charge.

If Bob wants to buy AI translations, he could do so from any number of services. But the fact that Bob is willing to pay a service that knowingly and blatantly misrepresents itself, and that does so by stealing real translators' identities, tells us what Bob really thinks of the Ten Commandments.

In this age of the internet and its instantaneous source of information, this ongoing shitstorm of the Great Bwana Bob Mzungu Thiel has been endlessly entertaining and yet painful to watch. It is fascinating watching his so-called ministry unravel in front of our eyes and yet painful to see the hundreds and hundreds of lives being spiritually damaged by his lies.

The Great Bwana Bob was not called and sent forth by God to preach the gospel. Bob called and sent himself after three different Church of God churches REFUSED to ordain him. He preaches, not the true gospel, but a false one. Paul saw such ministers in his day: 

For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, this you tolerate verywell! NASB 2 Cor. 11:4 

I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. NLT Gal. 1:6-9

These sly deceitful men came in through the backdoor claiming lofty positions, uninvited, in order to keep people slaves to the law. Bwana Bob was NEVER invited or encouraged to start a new splinter group, he had no position of authority but gave himself titles of importance. He trampled all over the backs of those who came before him, discrediting them as ineffectual and that he had the only true way of doing things. 

Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery Gal. 2:4

You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us. (2 Cor. 2:17).

While the Great Bwana claims that he is not in this for personal wealth, he is in it for the personal gratification and notoriety/accolades he so desperately seeks. Accolades that he never got from his father, Raymond McNair, Dibar Aprtian, and Rod Meredith. He is like a poisonous snake slithering through the tall grass catching you unaware, deceptively dangerous.

How Dare ANYONE Criticize The Publication Of Bob Thiel's Book Into Over "1,000" Languages! HOW DARE YOU!

You know you are doing something right when even Greta agrees with you!

The Great Bwana to Africa and 100 Caucasians, the Chief Overlooker of the improperly named "continuing" Church of God, the greatest Church of God leader in the history of Christianity, the only doubly-blessed, self-appointed, non-ordained Church of God leader in modern history, the world-famous self-trained theologian, the worlds foremost authority on the Mayans, a proud supporter of Pakistani translation scams, an avid user of Artificial Intelligence, and the final witness to the Catholic Church has a new article up that bemoaning the fact that he gets criticized for publishing his poorly researched and outright heretical booklet on the so-called Kingdom of God that he believes the entire world needs to read.

Still stinging from the recent exposé on how he is using a fraudulent translation company run by a Pakistani man instead of a so-called Linda Jane who can't write proper sentences in English, the Great Bwana wants us to believe that all of his reported translations are accurate or nearly accurate.

He writes how disappointed he is that people DARE to criticize him:

We now have had that booklet translated into over 1,000 languages!

Based on what we have been told we expect to continue to receive about two dozen more languages/dialects per week for the next few months, and likely more thereafter.

Consider that along with the following:

2 Paul and Barnabas … 3 … passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy to all the brethren. (Acts 15:2-3)

Yes, the fact that we are able to reach more Gentiles (and Israelites), because we have information on the gospel of the kingdom of God in more languages should cause great joy to all the Philadelphian brethren. 

 

However, there are critics who are not pleased with this. 

I hate to break it to the Great Bwana, but he is NO Paul or Barnabas, nor does he have a message that brings "great joy" to his followers. 

For those who thought the Great Bwana was wasting funds, he says you're denying Christ's commission to reach the world or you are just a bitter, sour, unhappy, joyless, jealous person who resents others being reached by his so-called ministry". Wut?????

The reality is that we are not wasting funds with this. Only those who do not want to accept the Jesus’ commissions to reach the world (Matthew 24:14, 28:19-20) or are not joyful that others can be reached (cf. Acts 15:3; Romans 11:25) would want to come to that conclusion.

Stung by the fact he is using a scam translation company with a fake woman named Linda James, he ASSURES us that they have told him they do NOT use artificial intelligence to translate his poorly researched theologically bankrupt booklet. Linda James says so!

Even if the translators do use Artificial Intelligence (which the translation manager has denied), we have not been financially scammed. We have used the same translation entity off and on for many years, and we do not pay for the translations until after they are received and in a format that makes our uploading of them easiest. They have always charged what we agreed to and we have always paid them for what they delivered.

The Great Bwana has been forced to admit that not all of the translations are accurate, but they are pretty close and he is ok with that.

Now, what about the quality of the translations? 

 

Because most of the translations we are receiving have not been translated by people who have a Church of God background, there are misunderstandings on certain points. 

 

Yet, they are still readable. Years back, I asked a Ukrainian man who received some of our literature in the Russian language if the translation (from the same source we are still using) was good, and he said that it was.

A couple of years later, while there were differences between how a Chinese CCOG member and a translator thought a few words should have been translated, the translation itself was still fine. 

 

I also had someone in India verify that one of the languages from there that we had was understandable. 

 

A year or so ago, a man I knew who was once part of the Worldwide, Global, and Living COGs (and is now not with any of them nor with the CCOG, but with a smaller COG group) went over our Armenian translation. He basically edited a few words because the literal translation from English into Armenian did not have quite the meaning as English-speakers understood. So, some edits were made. But, even without the edits, the basic concepts of the coming Kingdom of God were conveyed. 

 

So, yes, I have made several attempts to validate the translations (though there have been issues in a couple, like Serbian, that we had completely redone by someone we knew). 

 

That said, even among native speakers in CCOG, there are differences of opinions about how certain works in the Spanish language, for example, should be translated. 

 

So, “perfect” translations are very subjective and may not even be possible in many (or even all) cases.

Apparently, his god magically changes the words to his perceived truth as people read his books, if not then it is obvious the Great Bwana really doesn't care. In the Great Bwana's eyes, the people who read his books are exactly those in scripture:

9 “Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? 10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.” 

 

11 For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, 12 To whom He said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear. (Isaiah 28:9-12) 

 

Notice that even having some language difficulties seems to have been prophesied. And, I have been saying that about our translations for many years.

The HUGE glaring difference between what the scripture talks about and what Bob THINKS it is about are worlds apart.  That rest to come is what Christians understand is the rest in Christ, the rest in the New Covenant, something you never hear Bob speak about, so it is quite obvious why people can't hear.

The Great Bwana Bob Mzungu then brings in Isaiah through a quote in the New Testament to bolster his cause (which neither do):

We are to reach people in multiple languages as a witness before the end comes (Matthew 24:14), despite the fact that most will not respond in this age. And we know that there may be difficulties caused by translations. 

 

Now, please notice the version of Isaiah’s language statements in the New Testament:

21 In the law it is written: 

 

“With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people; And yet, for all that, they will not hear Me,” says the Lord. (1 Corinthians 14:21) 

 

So the New Testament is clearly also prophesying that other languages would be used–and we in the Continuing Church of God have been doing so in more languages than any other COG has ever done.

Literally, Bob is not doing this kind of speaking nor does he have any men capable of doing it. 

Those that mock the Great Bwana's mission are nothing more than Satanic-inspired troublemakers:

We in the Continuing Church of God have been preparing for that as that is part of the short-work of Romans 9:28. 

 

Jesus gave the following commission:

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20) 

 

This involves working to reach people in multiple languages. Jesus’ statements in Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19-20 are the major commissions of the faithful church. The “phil,” as in Philadelphian Christians, means fraternal love/affection, which in the biblical context includes supporting the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom of God to all that we can. 

 

Satan does not want people reached in other languages.

Satan is always that big meanie out to stop self-appointed Church of God leaders from getting their messages out. 

Trying to cast doubt on God, His word, His ministry, His people, and His faithful church is something that Satan and his associates do. That is one of the reason that Satan is referred to in the Bible as “the accuser of the brethren” (Revelation 12:10). 

 

Sadly, many throughout church history have succumbed to his ways.

Actually, many more false prophets, false teachers, and false apostles have done this throughout church history, including what is happening through the improperly named "continuing" Church of God in this day and age.

The Great Bwana thinks so highly of his own message that it also has the potential to reach the lost sheep who are wandering aimlessly about because they do not have a REAL shepherd. 

This may also help us find the lost sheep, or more accurately, make it easier for the sheep to see the fact that we are witnessing to them and perhaps that the Father is also now looking for them (cf. John 4:23-24), in order to call them (John 6:44; Jude 1).

I can state for a fact that God currently looking for any lost sheep to add to the Great Bwana's church roster. The truth is, those people are not lost, the Shepherd has never abandoned them and knows exactly who they are and works with each of them to bring peace and rest to their lives. So why in the hell would Bob's deity bring them to him? 

After a whole lot of excuses, he drags Herbert Armstrong to reinforce his convoluted thinking:

Thus, the Bible is quite clear that the open door is the door to proclaim the Gospel. And I believe that God has opened up the door to develop literature in over 1000 languages to us, so we are also going through “the door of faith to the Gentiles.” 

 

Herbert W. Armstrong understood that the door was opened to proclaim the gospel:

Also a door was to be opened for this leader and/or the Philadelphia era of the Church to fulfill Matthew 24:14: ‘And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come’ (Mystery of the Ages, pp. 290-291).

HWA had the charisma and the wherewithal to keep people engaged. Bwana Bob does not and in fact repels people. 

He even manages to bring in Herman Hoeh to back his actions up with:

Perhaps it should be pointed out that the old Radio Church of God taught that, “Blindness is happened to Israel, not forever, but until the full number of Gentiles who are to be converted in this age comes into the Kingdom. (Hoeh H. The Coming UTOPIA… Wonderful World of Tomorrow. Plain Truth, March 1957, p. 6.

Hoeh would be shocked and appalled that Bwana Bob is claiming his comments are a foretaste of what would be happening in these perilous end times with and apply to him.

The end is rapidly approaching and "some church" needs to be fulfilling the commission. No guesses as to who that is:

Having materials in multiple languages are needed for the full number of Gentiles can be converted in this age! 

 

Yes, this age. 

 

We are closer to the end of this age and some church needs to be working on having numerous languages–and we in the CCOG are.

Only those truly converted true Christians in the one true church understand this unlike the bitter Laodiceans who mock him by throwing fiery darts at him.

Yes, those properly dedicated to God’s work will support the preparation for the gospel to reach others, as well as to not be turned aside by those who spew forth “the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

Never in the history of Christianity has there been a church like the improperly named "continuing:" Church of God:

Never before in the history of the Church of God has any group made so many languages/dialects of the good news of the coming kingdom of God available in anything close to the 1000+ languages we have and plan to increase.

The Great Bwana has a word to say about those who mock him and even this letter he has written to his 100 Caucasians:

If you want God’s kingdom to come–which is something that Jesus said you should pray for (Matthew 6:10)–you would want to support the most cost-effective ways to reach as many as possible in the world as a witness. 

 

Satan and other critics do not want you to do so. They want you to turn aside, or at least delay, your support. 

 

Remember Jesus warned Philadelphian Christians to let “no one … take your crown” (Revelation 3:11)–and that include critics. 

 

Now, by posting about this, yes, I expect insults from critics who do not share the focus, vision, or the biblical priorities of the CCOG.

Well, no shit Sherlock! Those who are Christian know for a fact that you are NOT a true minister of God nor is your church a true church of God. That is an indisputable fact! Even those not part of any religious movement know for a fact that you are not a representative of the Christian God.

The Great Bwana ends with letting know that he "could be easily deceived" but not likely, but possible since all true leaders can be deceived:

And while I am not perfect, and can be deceived–which can happen to God’s leaders (e.g. Genesis 27, Joshua 9, 1 John 2)–we in the CCOG have the broadest radio presence of any COG I am aware of, have been the fastest growing x-WCG group in the 21st century, have restored the most truth in this century, have the signs that the Apostle Peter said the end time faithful would have in Acts 2:17-18, and have made available the good news of the kingdom of God in more languages than has ever been done since the start of the Christian church in Acts 2.

While all of those statements are true, there should be no denying that the last item is an absolute and indisputable fact. 

 

Yet, the following apply to many critics who are not interested in checking out the facts:

16 The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes

Than seven men who can answer sensibly. (Proverbs 26:16)

Frankly, the only indisputable FACT here is that Bob's booklet on the kingdom is not spiritually enriching nor truthful to anyone, especially to those easily deceived. 

I wonder when Bob will ever write a book about Jesus, grace, justification, and sanctification and what that means? That might be worth translating, unlike the worthless the junk he writes now.

 

 

Banned Is The New Russian Propaganda Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Well, we did it again. We went and hurt the delicate feelings of the greatest Church of God leader since Dave Pack. The Great Bwana to Africa and 100 Caucasians wrote a letter to his dwindling faithful bemoaning the recent story about his use of a scam translation company and other comments by Terry Nelson. The excuses are flying fast and furious. I am sure Terry Nelson will have more to say on this. 

Read it here: Letter to the Brethren: November 23, 2023

The anti-COG site that had various assertions also included a letter from some blotted-out source that the registration documents were forged. That type of assertion is not proof. This sort of reminded me of the assertion by Joe Biden that the Hunter Biden laptop story was fake because 50 or so ‘experts’ said that the laptop story LOOKED TO THEM to be Russian propaganda–yet the fact is that those who signed were political hacks who were wrong, as Hunter Biden has since admitted that the laptop in question was his.