I Am That Man! The ONLY Man Who Is Proclaiming The Gospel of the Kingdom

Why is it that the Church of God has bred so many narcissistic morons that have set themselves  up as the one true end time man who has the direct avenue to God?  All these self-appointed fools do is claim one title after another and lie through their teeth as they deceive members and take tithe money from financially strapped members just so they can have a so-called work.

To answer the question, JUST WHAT IS THE WORK?, Herbert W. Armstrong personally wrote:  

But Christ said to His Philadelphia era Church, that because we have but little strength, He would OPEN THOSE DOORS TO US (Rev. 3:8)" (Letter 11/19/76). 

The PURPOSE for which Christ built the Church exemplifies its WORK...1) To ANNOUNCE to the world for its witness the coming Kingdom of God...2) To prepare the people to whom God adds to the Church...God has always worked with humans. He has worked with O N E  M A N at a time...The WORK consists of proclaiming the Gospel, by radio, by television, in print (Armstrong HW. JUST WHAT IS THE WORK? PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT - VOL.3, NO.6 February 6, 1981) 

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). 

Who is the one man at this time? 

The O N E  M A N at this time is Dr. Bob Thiel who while assisting in the directions of others who are supporting him, is proclaiming Christ's Gospel of the Kingdom by radio, via YouTube "television," via Internet articles, in person, and in print as he leads the Continuing Church of God.

Then there is this from Amazon where he peddles his prophecy porn:

Bob Thiel was raised in Michigan into a Catholic family, He moved to California in 1976 and is loyal to Holy Bible and the Church of God. His first book was published in 1994. Dr. Thiel is a one of the world's foremost authorities on prophecy writings, a published Ph.D. and a highly regarded researcher with multiple research awards to his credit. He holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of LaVerne, a Master's degree from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. from the Union Institute and University. Throughout his academic and professional career he has studied philosophy, religion, science, and prophecy; in recent years, has had scores of articles published on these subjects in magazines, newspapers, religious publications, and scientific journals. Married to his wife Joyce since 1981, the two have made multiple trips to ancient sites around the world including Asia Minor, Mayan sites, Vatican City, Patmos, Constantinople/Istanbul, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the South Pacific.

Other than Dave Pack, can the COG have a bigger narcissist in its midst?  "World's foremost authority on prophecy?"  If that is true then my cat speaks German!  There is not one single COG leader that is an authority on prophecy OR who has ever uttered a true prophecy, including Almost-arrested Bob Thiel.

He also makes it appear as he is still a devoted Catholic by stating he was raised Catholic and now remains true to the Church of God.  To many Catholics, this means he is still a Catholic since they refer to themselves as the church of God.   The COG has been filled with myriads of men who use slight of hand when talking about themselves and the church.  Deception without really lying is the name of the game.

On another site in 2012 he was featured in a blog interview under Paranormal Features about his book on 2012 and the Rise of the Secret Sect.

When asked about how he does his research he says:

Where do you research for your books? 

I buy and read other books, visit libraries, and go to sites of interest around the world.  Additionally, online resources are also helpful.

Anyone can buy books, visit libraries and "visit" sites pertaining to a subject that interests them, yet that does not make them authorities on the subject. Until a person gets their hands dirty and spends decades digging in Mayan ruins, excavating sites, collaborating with world known scientists and real authorities, enduring endless hours testing and retesting, attending a real seminary where one actually did real research with in-depth years-long study and not doing an online distance-by-learning degree study where one picks their own topic and does not start with ones own COG biases in order to make ones conclusions fit ones assumed conclusions (church teachings), then a person might be found to have more credibility. Doubly-blessed Thiel reeks of deception.

Does Elisha Bob look like a man who has ever gotten his hands dirty by doing hard work and building up some calluses on his delicate hands?  He is another COG elitist who has been pandered to by silly men who thought he was "converted" and had some kind of special knowledge thus "doubly blessing" him.

What are you passionate about these days?
  
I am passionate about trying to warn people not to follow false prophets as well as not to dismiss the value of prophecy because there are many false prophets.  I also believe that God loves everyone and that God's real plan makes sense, so I try to explain it despite my limitations.

Yet here is a man who is a false prophet.  A man who self-appointed himself.  His theological training was by two certified false prophets,  Herbert Armstrong and Rod Meredith.  He has debilitating limitations right out of the starting gate!

As for his god loving all humanity, he conveniently fails to tell "Laurie" that his god is ready to destroy most of  humanity through war, pestilence, disease, and famine.  He fails to tell her about the rampaging Germans, Chinese and Muslims who are scheduled to wipe most British Israelite nations off the map or take them into captivity. Elisha Bob and most of the COG movement has made its mission to get across how pissed off its god is and how It is going to leash fury upon the world.  Again, deception is the name of the game.

Elijah Bob also has words about those who criticize his books:

How do you react to a bad review of your book?
  
The few "bad reviews" of my book I have read have always suggested that the bad "reviewer" really did not actually read (or at least understand) 2012 and the Rise of the Secret Sect.  Those who have actually read and understood it do not tend to write bad reviews.

He assumes that anyone who disagrees with his already incorrect book has not read it nor understood the message he was attempting to get across.  It never crosses his mind that people can easily disprove all of his books.  A first-year seminarian at Fuller Theological Seminary can do that!  Again, deception is the name of the game.

John D, on the Church of God Perspective blog, is correct in stating:

Bob Thiel Is Still a Liar and False Prophet

Bob Thiel wants to pick on anyone and everyone in order to justify his own beliefs and vaunted ego. However, the fact is that he is a liar, he does not care for the truth, or accuracy for that matter, and he constantly compares himself to others.

A reader responded:

It’s obvious Bob Thiel is trying to present his credentials in a positive fashion which he hopes will leave a positive impression to the reader. But “studied graduate level” is not the same as earning a degree at graduate level, also “after a lot of writing” being granted a Th. D. doesn’t exactly tell the reader where it came from. Such a presentation of credentials leaves it open to a readers imagination. It can lead a reader to believe he’s achieved an impressive Th.D. or it can lead a reader to believe it came from an online version of the old saying “Where’d you get that degree, out of a Cracker Jack box?” 

Besides nowadays when it comes to teaching ideas about prophecy, there is a tendency to be evasive and vague enough to avoid timelines. They don’t make statements about events that will absolutely occur in the readers lifetime, but maintain a dialogue that leaves an impression that they absolutely know it may happen in a person’s lifetime. A legitimate question is, would a real prophet act like that? 

The question still remains about Amos Thiel:

Would a real prophet act like he does and do the things he does? 

The answer is NO!

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Dave Pack: God Deliberately Scheduled HWA's Life So That He Had No Time To Discover What I Know

Never one to be humble, Dave Pack has declared the following quote below as his take on HWA.  God apparently decided to structure HWA's life so that he never had the opportunity to read the Bible and discover the things Dave has uncovered.  Herbert could never have withstood the tiresome duty it is to spend countless hours preparing to reveal this new knowledge, week after week, hour after hour, minute after minute, second after second.  Dave is the COG Energizer Bunny, he never stops.

We had no idea what we were pulling through the wall, and that both of those, together, lead into something I want to tell you about Mr. Armstrong. Because I can report something about Mr. Armstrong that no one could ever say. I’m in a unique position to describe him…report something about him that no one else ever could, and it speaks to this prophecy. He’s going to come up at the beginning and the end of the sermon, but you’ll understand why this portion of reference to him is at the beginning.

God structured Mr. Armstrong’s life so that he had no time, literally, to research all that God has shown. God built his schedule, his ministry and his life—in the many latter years of his life—that would have never permitted him to research all that God has shown. And because of his particular nature, where had he begun to see the wires that were hanging out, he would have grabbed hold of them, wrestled them to the ground in a death grip and never turn them loose until he’d figured it all out.

Here’s the problem…It takes about 25 to 30 hours of my life just on what I’m delivering you—and it’s been going on for 14 months now. He could never have stopped his life. You just have to believe that. Visiting world leaders, doing all the things he was before that—building three campuses, an enormous worldwide ministry; of course, letters and broadcasts, and all the other things. He could never have done that without literally breaking the Work. Now, there are other reasons God waited to reveal this understanding, but I wanted to take you to the literal, physical reason—and that’s if you don’t count his age, you see.

God Hates Skyscrapers

Did you know that God hates skyscrapers and towers?  After God got really angry at the Tower of Babel, he has been holding back his wrath till the Arabs and others have built tall skyscrapers.  Even worse, some of the residents in these towers have decked their homes out with gold, marbles, beautiful wood, and paintings.

God's greatest end time prophet, Dave Pack, who runs the superfantabulous Restored Church of God has this to say:

You know it’s interesting. You look at the age that we live in, and people today are building these incredible residential towers. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen an interview of Donald Trump on the 55th story of his tower…marbles, gold, silver, tapestries, paintings, beautiful woods…magnificence in a tower. So it’s not a strange concept. You go around the world. New York is now loaded with them, partly because that man wanted to build them. But all over the world now, people…and the devil counterfeits everything…I’m not calling his place devilish, but you know, the Catholics always want high places—always do. The Tower of Babel…They started to build this tower, God knocked it down—said, “You don’t do that. You don’t stick a tower up into Heaven” and sent them away babbling different languages.

And when Christ comes He’s going to destroy all the towers, because there’s going to be one tower. We’re actually going to see He calls it a “tower”—one tower on Earth that sticks way up, and in importance is at the top of all the mountains of the earth. I mean, the ultimate lofty mountain, but now we know has a city on it, and it’s a city that has to accommodate ten thousands of people, ultimately, when it’s in Jerusalem, and they’re all living in mansions that probably, we would assume, look better than the one at the 55th story of Trump Tower or those towers that are all over the world now, where people live, because people want to live up. They’re going back into cities to live higher and have grand views, because everybody…I mean, men understand that. I’m pretty sure God does. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to look out of a 1,500-mile-high city.

So God is not about to have dwellings for three-and-a-half years…condominiums…high rises…that are more beautiful than His. You know it’s been said that Donald Trump is the only man who will ever downsize into the White House. That would be true, and not just physically come down, but just the quality of where he lives is just beyond magnificent. It’s never happened before. He’s worth twenty times George Washington. Almost exactly twenty times George Washington—who was the wealthiest president in our history. So the first president was the wealthiest until probably what will be the last one, who’s worth twenty times more.

But there are people that live in these incredible dwellings. Mega millions and millions of dollars for Penthouse suites. His kids live below him in that tower. Christ is not going to be second fiddle to places like that. I’m not just pointing to him, but there’s been scores and hundreds of thousands of people. Mr. Trump’s son in law, who’s an Orthodox Jew, is thirty-five years old and his net worth is 500 million dollars. At thirty-five…he made it himself. And he lives in an unbelievable place, too, lower in the tower as I understand. So, we are…we’re going to—you’re going to—live in a tower. You’ll be able to flit right out the window, though, and that’s another discussion. You’re going to have…fewer limitations. Let’s just put it that way. 

The One Word Never Before Understood

hy·per·bo·le

noun, Rhetoric.

Obvious and intentional exaggeration.

An extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”.

Revelation 6

12And when I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red, 13and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind.14The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.

One would be quite enough

Revelation 9

15So the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16And the number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number. 17Now the horses and riders in my vision looked like this: The riders had breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and brimstone. The heads of the horses were like heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.…

I'm assuming you  heard their number wrong and made up the fire and smoke part.

Daniel 7:27 + Matthew 24:31 + Mark 13:27

[27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. [31] And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN TO THE OTHER. [27] And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the UTTER-MOST PART OF THE EARTH TO THE UTTER-MOST PART OF HEAVEN.

That's quite a streeeeeeetch!

The untrained ministry of the Splits, Splinters and Slivers needs to grasp the word Hyperbole if they are ever to teach the Bible as it was written and meant as a Book for it's time but not for these times.   Dave Pack's sermons would be ever so much shorter if he'd not struggle with trying to make his views both Old and New Testaments literally true. He'd not try to illogically connect a long thin Mt. Zion with his long and thin compound spewing out footage by length and width as if it mattered.  It doesn't.  He'd not bend and twist his mind and thus his sermons around every imagined detail that somehow has to be literally true and "figured out."

If they ever understood the word, Hyperbole they'd all stop weaving tall tales on how it all will be. No one would end up worrying about Petra and what to do with the dog or unconverted children and they'd cease making absolute fools out of themselves boring or scaring their members half to death.  

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COG False Prophets Eating Crow, Once Again. Yummers!

For decades, the Church of God, through Herbert Armstrong, Garner Ted, Rod Meredith, Gerald Waterhouse, Almost-arrested Thiel, James Malm, and others, have been hyperventilating that the United States was suffering from its worst drought ever and would never recover.  Food supplies would soon run out and parents would start eating their children and people fought over food.  Famine would lead to pestilence and death as bible prophecy came alive. Their eyes would almost glaze over in orgasmic delight at such scenarios happening.

As usual, every single one of them has been proven liars once again.  None of us ever need to fear the lairs in charge of various COG's.  Their prophecies lies are constantly failing.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22 ESV / 35 helpful votes
And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

 Almost-arrested Bob Thiel has been claiming that the California drought would destroy the state and it would never recover.  It was a sign of the end times, proving once again that the time is near to flee.  Rod Meredith has done the exact same thing.

Notice this story:

 US drought levels fall to lowest point in years

Just 5 percent of the United States is experiencing drought conditions, the lowest level of drought here since government scientific agencies began updating the U.S. Drought Monitor on a weekly basis in 2000.

Record rain and snowfall over the winter on the West Coast and heavy spring rains in the Midwest have alleviated some of the worst and longest-lasting drought conditions ever recorded.

The word on the street in Arroyo Grande is that all of the butt-hurt salve has been sold out in all of the stores.

The Journal: News of the Churches of God: Issue 194

The Journal: Issue 194

Issue 194 of The Journal is out and includes a recap of the Ambassador Report gathering that was held after the Ambassador Reunion in Las Vegas.  Various individuals connected with the Ambassador Report told their stories about their magazine and the issues they went through in getting it out to the public for people to read.

There is also an article about the New Church Lady Conference that was sponsored by Church of God International, Christian Educational Ministers and Dynamic Christian Ministries.  This conference sounds much more refreshing than the tired old Proverbs 31 woman routine that the church used to foster off on women in the glory days of the church gone by, as they tried to keep women tied down to the 1950/60's kitchen/saran-wrap culture of the church.  Since it is 2017, it is refreshing to see them stepping outside the box.

There is a great letter by Reg Killingsley about Victor Kubik's recent tirade on The Shack (book and movie).  Kubik wants people to burn the book.  How dare they find "truth's" in a book of fiction, when they have so many fantastical stories from the Bible that he knows to be 100% actual events. Since Kubik has never had a real theological education outside a COG environment, he is unable to discern how Bible stories using allegory and myths can convey eternal truths, even though the events were not actual events, but this idea fries the brains of too many COG leaders.

A time to refrain from burning 

[The Shack, by William Young, has been a best-selling book since its publication in 2007, and in 2017 a movie was made based on its story. 

[Recently United Church of God president Victor Kubik reviewed The Shack (see tinyurl.com/kubik999) and found it wanting. 

[In this letter a reader of THE JOURNAL reviews Mr. Kubik’s review.] 

Can you be a bibliophile and burn books? In his review of The Shack, Vic Kubik appeared to be preaching to the choir; he probably won’t persuade many Trinitarians. 

And therein lies the problem: Is The Shack a novel and film based on a novel or is it a theological exposition? 

If it’s a novel, shouldn’t we just take it on the author’s terms? 

In a review we might choose to say that any relationship between biblical teaching and the novel is, in our view, purely coincidental. 

But to burn it down? Say you didn’t mean that, Vic! 

Book-burning has a long and ignoble history. Book-banning has like- wise been the bane of churches and cultures. 

So it comes as a surprise that seekers after truth should seek to suppress a work just because they believe it reflects heretical views. 

After all, don’t Bible students realize that one man’s heresy is another man’s orthodoxy? 

Pan all you want, but don’t ban. Or burn. 

It’s like junk food. Just let people know there are other, healthier options. Encourage them to make good choices. But then let them choose. 

Douse the flames. Don’t fan them. 

Reginald Killingley Big Sandy, Texas 

I imagined the real issue that Kubik has over the movie and the book is that it portrays God as a black woman.  In the church of God this is the ultimate blasphemy, God being black AND a woman! Even worse, the Holy Spirit is Asian!  Lord, have mercy! Ghastly Days!  What's a poor COG minister gonna do?????

Like any book of fiction, no one takes the story literally, but as a journey with the divine to find comfort with eternal Christian truths.










James Malm will be sure to be incensed at an article claiming that Jesus will NOT be marrying the church.  Ouch!

There is even a short update by our own Ian Boyne on the Church of God International in Jamaica, which seems to be growing while other COG loose members.  Maybe he is on to something... :-)

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