It has to be rough being the most ridiculed prophet of the Church of God. Being the newcomer on the block that is already overrun by countless other self-appointed false prophets, church leaders, and outright liars, it is a constant struggle to maintain legitimacy. Today in COGland prophets are a dime a dozen.
One thing they all have in common is that they love to trot out Herbert Armstrong as proof of their legitimacy. There was only one chosen leader, appointed by Herbert Armstrong himself thus invalidating every one of the current crop of church leaders.
The other thing most of them have in common is the myth of proper church government. Armstrongism has always been hierarchical with the power concentrated at the top by some self-appointed grand guru, chief overseer, apostle, prophet, or pastor general. They all imagine themselves as leaders of an army of followers marching forward militaristically like those in Onward Christian Soldiers. The problem the Church of God faces today with these blithering idiots is that NONE of them are men with masculine leadership skills. Some think the more bombastic they are the more they are in tune with god.
This all brings us today to our Great Bwana Bob Mzungu Thiel, a church leader so far down the totem pole that he is constantly covered in crap from all of these above him. The Great Bwana is like most of the other self-appointed COG leaders who know that God never appointed them. As hard as they try, they just can never gain the legitimacy they crave so narcissistically
It is even worse when you have self-appointed yourself after getting kicked out of your original church community. When that happens the black marks are already stacked against you. After Rod Meredith publicly humiliated the Great Bwana Bob he has never been able to get his foot in the door. That is why out of the thousands of Living Church of God members he has been unable to gather many followers. They saw his hypocritical know-it-all attitude when he was amongst them and it disturbed the vast majority of them.
This damaged track record is constantly niggling at him and that is why he constantly has to keep trying to prove his legitimacy. After all, it is all about him and not so much about Jesus.
Fortunately, even trotting out dead Herbert does not help their cause, particularly when they use church government as their basis for existence. Most people know for a fact that Herbert Armstrong would have kicked these little guys out of the church so fast their heads would be spinning 38 years later. But, yet they persist.
For some absurd reason, the Great Bwana Bob thinks that his little cult is the faith once delivered in the 1st century and that all of us should immediately acknowledge him as the true prophet and the one true church. It just irks him to high heaven that people mock him and do not respect the church government structure he believes he has in place that places him at the top and the rest of the church under his feet.
On May 7. he trots out several articles by Herbert on how we can lose our salvation by not following proper church government and not heading the appointed church leader and his wisdom. He starts off by using Herb's bellowing article, Some of You May Not Make It Into God’s Kingdom – Does It Mean YOU? as the basis of guilt-tripping backsliders and the rebellious people of the church into following him because proper church government DEMANDS they do.
Remember this crap?
Since Adam failed to resist Satan and to restore the GOVERNMENT OF GOD, none of Adam’s children could overcome Satan and qualify to replace Satan on that throne over all the earth and to RESTORE the government of God. So finally God sent His OWN Son, His only-begotten Son, to become human as well as divine. Jesus was GOD in human flesh — God as well as MAN. He was the ONLY human ever able to obey God’s great spiritual LAW perfectly, resist and conquer Satan and QUALIFY to RESTORE the GOVERNMENT OF GOD on earth!
More than that, He was able to set us an example of living THE WAY of God’s spiritual LAW, to die for us, paying for us the penalty of our sins, and to be resurrected by the FATHER, thus making our resurrection and immortal life possible — so that WE may become God’s CHILDREN in GOD’S FAMILY, and born GOD BEINGS.
We together with God and with Christ shall form THE KINGDOM OF GOD, RULING ALL THE EARTH WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. Satan then shall be banished.
And then there was this:
The KINGDOM is the divine FAMILY of God. If we cannot live as a FAMILY should live, according to God’s SPIRITUAL LAW, now, while in God’s Church, WE SIMPLY WON’T MAKE IT INTO God’s KINGDOM (which is His divine FAMILY!).
Now PLEASE! PLEASE, dear brethren, HEED THIS! Many of you are NOT living the kind of FAMILY LIFE that is preparing you for God’s Kingdom. And if you DON’T repent, and reorder your whole FAMILY life, YOU SIMPLY WON’T MAKE IT INTO THE KINGDOM! I MEAN THAT! It is LIFE AND DEATH for ALL ETERNITY!
We found at the summer SEP camp at Orr, Minn., that in many cases the children DO NOT EAT WITH THEIR PARENTS AT HOME!
It is reported to me that many of you are LAX in child training and in teaching your little children! You ARE NEGLECTING YOUR FAMILY LIFE. And you may be NEGLECTING SO GREAT SALVATION.
Listen to what God SAYS! “How shall we [we in the Church] escape, if we NEGLECT so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3).
… many of you are NEGLECTING your very salvation!
God says to YOU: “For the time IS COME that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if… the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (l Pet. 4:17-18). (Good News, January 1981)
The Great Bwana then adds some more Herbism's to back himself up as the one legitimate COG leader:
Five years after the above was published Herbert W. Armstrong died.
In the radio broadcast he did, titled End Time Falling Away, Herbert Armstrong taught that the New Testament shows there will be falling away related to the Church of God in Acts 20:28-29, as well as a massive turning aside towards fables for the world in 2 Timothy 4:3 (note, all oral quotes in this document are from my notes and may not always be verbatim but do accurately convey what he taught):
Men to turn away from the truth … Acts 20:29 and 30 … Paul … wanted to meet with the leaders of the church … What church? The Church of God! … “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.”
Imagine being so blinded by one's self-importance that the Great Bwana can't see this is talking about himself.
The Great Bwana then goes on to try and blame Tkach Sr and others for the miserable state of the church today. I hate to burst the Great Bwanas bubble but the church was already doomed decades before Tkach ever took over.
His successor was NOT faithful and led what was perhaps one of the largest ‘falling aways’ in the history of the Church of God.
Thus, Herbert W. Armstrong was correct to warn people who thought they were Christians that they may not make it into the Kingdom of God.
He continues with this:
While the above seems to have other applications, the fact that two-thirds of those in the old WCG accepted total apostasy after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, and about one-third did not, makes the possible application of the Tkach apostasy seem to fit.
Nowadays, most remaining Christians do not accept proper church governance–even though Herbert W. Armstrong emphasized that a lot in his final years on Earth for Philadephian Christians.
The Great Bwana is leading up to why he and he alone is the one true church leader and why we would submit to his governance:
After Herbert W. Armstrong’s death, not only was there a falling away, it has become clear that the Laodicean era has been upon us.
Sadly, most who did not fall away from Christianity have drifted into Laodiceanism.
If you are going to believe the church-era nonsense then you would need to admit that the church was already Laodicean many decades earlier. There is nothing Philadelphian about the COG today. Brotherly love does not exist in the COG today, even in the improperly named "continuing" Church of "god".
In the end times, MOST true Christians will be Laodicean. It is not that the Laodiceans cannot enter the Kingdom of God, but they have issues that they need to change–and risk severe chastisement in this life if they do not repent.
Do not remain Laodicean.
So what is a grievous sinning Laodicean to do?
Why, join the one true Church of Bwana Bob! Woo Hoo! Petra here we come!
He continues by quoting some more Herbism's:
God has always, in dealing with humans, worked through ONE MAN at a time — one who believed God! Some in ancient Israel challenged this one-man leadership. Some, like-wise, have challenged it today! … In founding God’s Church, Jesus worked primarily through one man, Peter, even though He originally chose His 12 disciples. Few have ever noticed how Peter was the real leader. Jesus had told His disciples to go NOT to the gentiles, but to the “lost sheep of the House of Israel.” … Notice now PETER’S preeminence. Few have ever put all these scriptures together as I shall now do. This shows PETER was leader. … And, though there were other apostles, God worked primarily through ONE man –PETER! Has God changed? Or is He the SAME still today? … The Jerusalem conference (Acts 15) showed that PETER was predominant over even Paul, although Paul was the ONE MAN God worked through primarily in the ministry to gentiles. The CHURCH is GOD’S Church. (Armstrong, Herbert W. And NOW Christ Sets Church Back On Track Doctrinally. Good News, April 1979).
Notice that Herbert Armstrong believed that God mainly worked through the leadership of one man at a time to lead various phases of the work. Scripture, shows for example, that the mantle passed from Elijah to Elisha (2 Kings 2:9-15). The ‘mantle’ would currently be with the person/group that truly functioned as the ‘pillar and ground of truth’ (1 Timothy 3:15).
For fifty years in the second century, according to Herbert W. Armstrong, that man was Polycarp:
It is significant that after his release John trained Polycarp elder of Smyrna, a city near Ephesus in the province of Asia. … At neighboring Smyrna, Polycarp presided over the Church of God for half a century after John’s death. Polycarp stood up boldly for the truth while many fell away and began having fellowship with the Catholic bishops of Rome. History relates that following the example of Peter, Paul and John, Polycarp wrote many letters to congregations and individuals, though all these have perished, save one in an edited version. (Armstrong HW. The Church They Couldn’t Destroy. Good News, December 1981)
For over 50 years in the 20th century, it was Herbert W. Armstrong.
And in the 21st century, that one man is not in any of the independent or more structured Laodicean groups.
Support the remnant of the Philadephian era and God’s work today.
Do not delay (cf. Zephaniah 2:1-3).
The Great Bwana is a deceitful liar to claim he is that "one man". He is everything but that. No real Christian would ever follow such a deceitful little man, particularly one who says as many lies as he does. He and Dave Pack are just alike as they manipulate and deceive their followers.
The more a COG leader shouts to us about how important they are and how they are God's highly chosen it should be a bright beacon to us all that these men are liars. If they have to continuously prove to us who they are then they are not the kind of person any of us needs to follow.
Stay away, Far away!
DO NOT DELAY!
