The Reluctant Prophet

Ron Weinland has always envisioned himself as God's greatest mouthpiece since Herbert Armstrong died. His role as a prophet has changed some since he made his epic failure in 2008.  He makes an excuse that he was "resisting" being a prophet.   Check out his convoluted reasoning below:

The Bible actually speaks of two different kinds of prophets in the sense of how God works with them and works through them. One is (as I have mentioned many times) stated in the book on the back page, back cover, about what a prophet is, in the sense of what I was at that time, what I could say to that point in time, because I couldn't say more because I was resisting, frankly. Yet that is the definition of a prophet, one who is able to be given inspired understanding or speaking to give those things that are a matter of prophecy, but not a matter of God giving them specific prophetic things in the future. There's a difference. So you'll find that throughout scripture, that God has used prophets in different ways, especially in the beginning of the Church. They weren't for writing things for the future, they were a matter of things with inspired speaking, inspired understanding of things of prophecy. So again:

A prophet’s job (function) is not like that of an apostle. A prophet simply writes or speaks what God has given him and he does not expound or elaborate on it; however, an apostle does teach and expound on “present truth,” doctrine, and prophecy to the Church.

Dave Pack: My Warning MUST Reach 600,035,000+ People

Did you know there is a specific number of people that need to be witnessed to in the world?  Dave Pack knows precisely how many need to hear his message. This also includes tens of thousands wayward Church of God members and ex-members.  Everyone needs to hear about his "jesus" that will be retuiring to walk the green hills of Wadsworth with him, since he is the most important human representative ever to run a Church of God.

Only those who will return to—or who come to believe—all of the truths that God taught His Church are candidates to join His final Work. Those firmly rooted in different ideas should attend one of the organizations that may still want to do some kind of “work,” but not be concerned about doctrinal precision. We bear such people no ill will, but know they will be more “content” elsewhere.

Partly because they do not see the crucial importance of doctrinal purity, all the big splinters also do not grasp the colossal importance of what is at stake in the true Work of God today. Only one or two organizations even begin to remember, let alone comprehend, that a powerful WARNING must reach 600 million Israelites throughout many nations and territories. And, again, no one seems to recognize another related warning must reach over 35,000 in the splinters or holding to some truths at home, with both of these to occur before the Tribulation. 

Dave Pack: I have not seduced my members to walk back into the world like UCG has done

So says Dave Pack:

If you are in the United Church of God (UCG), Living Church of God (LCG), Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), Church of God, a Worldwide Association (COGwa), or any other splinter or sliver that came out of the WCG, this will be among the most important reports you will ever read. But think as you read. So sadly, great numbers of brethren have become content to let their leaders do their thinking for them—and with ETERNAL LIFE at stake! This letter will not help such ill-informed, easily seduced, “obedient” people.

If there has ever been a group of Church of God that has let its leader do all of their thinking it is the members of the Restored Church of God.  Has there ever been a more subservient and obedient group of COG members?  No RCG member is capable of knowing what Dave does.  None of them have an inside line to God like Dave does.

Do you know what one of the identifying hallmarks of a backsliding church is?  Its dress standards!  Not the lying or abusive ministry, but the jeans or open collared shirts.

The United Church of God becomes a case in point. This organization has been marching directly back to the world for the almost 19 years of its existence. (I explain this in detail in many places. Dress standards alone in ALL of the groups are blinking neon lights to those with observant “eyes to see” that this march is happening everywhere—that many are even moving beyond Laodicea.) United’s journey is almost complete. Obviously, they deny this. But has anyone ever seen, or even heard of, a single church on Earth—EVEN ONE!—that admits it is of this world? Of course not. That United’s leaders are now working in a “cooperative” tandem with a large group that Mr. Armstrong’s son led away in rebellion over 35 years ago is merely the latest outrage they commit against God, Mr. Armstrong’s legacy and their docile membership who are so willing to let them get away with their deceit. This deception necessarily involves what they say about me and God’s true Church and Work! (That Mr. Armstrong’s long-time, professed-to-be-loyal assistant leads UCG’s charade and no one calls him on it is appalling. But none can confront when they are pushing from behind.)

Ouch!  Someone does not like Aaron Dean too well... but he does have a point.  He saw how all of the top men in LCG ran their congregations in Pasadena that were filled with spiritual and mental abuse, how they schemed and plotted behind the scenes to form United while on WCG payroll, and tin spite of all of that, he jumps ship to join up with those very same men HWA and Tkach were none too happy with.

Then Dave lobs another spot ball into UCG's backside:

So many remain seduced into believing God no longer has—or never had—just one church under one government and doing one Work, but rather is what Joe Tkach and evangelicals believe—that a divided Christ is working in many places under many leaders doing part of His Work here, there and the other place—who knows, maybe hundreds of places.

Dave also has a point above that nails UCG and every other splinter group.  There are well over 400 splinters and slivers that have broken off from the mother church, the Worldwide Church of God over the decades.  All of them claim to the one true church sticking to the faith once delivered.  Yet, NONE of them will ever call out some of the blatant lairs leading other COG splinters.  Inwardly they believe that they are all "brethren" on many different pathways to the same God, yet they will mock and condemn Christians of various denominations and/or religious traditions of believing the same thing.  The world is always wrong but COG leaders never are.

Is Bob Thiel Getting Conned By Some Of His African "Members"?

Almost, but not arrested Elijah Bob Thiel has been giddily proclaiming he has over 3,000 members now, of which 2, 996 live in Africa.  That all might sound impressive, if one had not paid any attention to the countless stories posted here and on other COG related sites on how many African Sabbath keeping groups have allegiances to many different parent organizations, all done in an effort to draw in as much money from gullible white Americans.  Thiel is such a narcissist that since God directly spoke to him in a dream, then his god would never allow people to take advantage of him. This seems to be a major issue in the Sabbatarian groups, from SDA, COG7 to the Armstrongite off shoots, including Thiel's.

Church of God News had this up about from Bill Goff who runs Voice in the Wilderness.  Bill has one of the few groups that actually seem to be doing some good in the world.  Ironically, most all of the other Church of Gods will not financially assist him in caring for others.

Voice in the Wilderness Church of God

Update from Bill Goff, April 21:

“Last week we were contacted by a church group in Canada. They were asking if we had any information concerning a church organization in Bungoma, Kenya, that they have been supporting the past few years. We offered to travel to Bungoma (located on the Uganda border) to investigate for them. Nehemiah and I traveled there on Thursday, and our trip was a success. We found the church group to be totally legitimate and caring for quite a number of orphans.

Over the past few years we have investigated quite a number of “churches” here in Kenya that numerous churches of God in the States had been supporting financially. The majority of them turned out to be “cons”.

So, we thank our Heavenly Father for enabling us to work together and help one another whenever possible. We may be of different administrations, but there are no barriers between us, because we are of the same mind and same spirit. And much can be accomplished when we work together in unity and strive for humility. Praise God for that!

This is also a busy day today. We are having combined Sabbath services in Ikenye. There will also be a number of baptisms. (There are 20 being baptized, most are from the border group next to the Maasai tribe). We have been counseling with them for some time now.”

Whack-a-doodle COG Chief Pharisee Begins What "Might" Be The Final Push

Where would the Church of God be without all of these prophets of doom predicting the eminent end of the age and the great persecution to soon begin?  The Church of God Chief Pharisee and law idolater, James Malm, has been wildly predicting the end times to soon happen for several years now.

One of Pharisee Malm's acolytes writes:

James–

This is all fascinating to contemplate and an exhausting workload for you to anticipate! Since you will be busy, busy, busy, it may seem like overkill to suggest yet another project, but I will do it anyway. That would be a study through the book of Deuteronomy (which book you have, as yet, steadfastly refused to revise and update in your survey of Biblical books.)

The Chief Pharisee is rewriting scripture in numerous articles and booklets/books as he works his way through the Bible with the ONLY correct interpretation ever imagined by a human being on how HE thinks it all should read.

As you know, Deuteronomy has 34 chapters and the Feast of Tabernacles and the 8th Day would give you approximately four chapters a day to cover. So what better study to cover as both a warning and preparation of the brethren during the Feast of Tabernacles and 8th Day that just may be the last one before the onset of great tribulation? (see Deut 34:9-12) And even if that turns out to not be the case, it is something profitable you have not covered in quite a while. Okay, that’s my nickle’s worth.

The time is at hand and the Chief Pharisee needs to warn ALL the brethren in all of the hundreds and hundreds of splinter groups that they are ALL wrong and he is right.  Leave your heretical laodicean churches behind and come over to where the light shines perpetually upon the law instead of Jesus Christ.  Oh, and bring your money as the final push is at hand!

Be patient I will get there! The Epistles and Prophets will take up until just before the Fall Feast with enough time left to do some posts on the Fall Feasts themselves; and for the Feast I have planned to do Deuteronomy and follow through with Joshua after the Feast. Somewhat like I posted on the Spring Festivals early and then posted on Salvation during the Spring Feast this year. James

PS I have not refused, it is a question of timing! I planned this year to be a big push to prepare the brethren.

Hoeh, I'd Like to Show You Something..

The Clovis Incident

(Just filler until Dave Pack , Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland or Bob Thiel says something incredibly stupid)

I went to a bit of trouble to get this 12,000 ish year old Clovis Point from my collection onto the plane and out to my last refresher program. I wanted to show it to Dr. Hoeh and get his comments on the Clovis people populating North America approximately 13,500 years ago.  

The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture, named for distinct stone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1920s and 1930s. The Clovis culture appears around 11,500–11,000 BCE, at the end of the last glacial period, and is characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools. Archaeologists' most precise determinations at present suggest that this radiocarbon age is equal to roughly 13,200 to 12,900 calendar years ago. Clovis people are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous cultures of the Americas.

The Clovis Culture is thought now to have perhaps fallen victim to a comet burst or impact  over  the Northern Michigan and Canadian ice sheet, then two miles thick around 12,900 years ago..  The melt water may have been responsible for the Younger/Dryas cooling event around the same  time and the tens of thousands of elliptical ice splash circles in the Carolinas seen only in the 1930's when air travel was becoming popular. 

Carolina Bays near Fayetteville, SC

I approached Dr. Hoeh during the break and asked him about the Clovis people in the Americas while handing him the point to examine.  Of course, in the back of my mind was the church view that humans had been created a mere 6000 years ago in the form of Adam and Eve and this point presented quite a problem for that view, which I had long ago personally given up on. 

His reactions was telling and caught me completely off guard.

"

Dr Hoeh would not take the point in his hand. He simply said...

"That's lovely" 

...and walked away

I'm thinking he didn't wish to discuss the issue

Why Do COG Leaders Try To Rewrite History?

Click on above screen snap for full article

There was great discussion on  a Facebook page today about the Church of God propensity to rewrite history to fit the interpretation that the church was looking for.  There were only a few COG leaders who were actually educated in a "worldly" college and received their Masters and/or PhD's.  Most got their Masters/PhD's from the church run Ambassador Colleges which were not known for pumping out the most highly educated world visionaries or authorities on much of anything.  Though it should be acknowledged that quite a few AC grads went on to higher educational institutions where they received a real education and made something of their lives.  However, that does not excuse the COG historians.

The writer on FB said:

I had a discussion with my sister and bil a few weeks ago. I realized that the only way the cogs are surviving is that they've rewritten history and have convinced the sheeple that they're right.

Just because a self proclaimed authority figure writes a book doesn't make it true.

One of the biggest con-artists in church history rewriting was Herman Hoeh.  His PhD that he garnered from AC was purely based upon the Compendium of World History.  It was used to support the idea that the Church of God had a continuous linage through out history.  The church eventually pulled it from circulation.  Hoeh even admitted later in life the book was filled with multiple errors and that no one should use it as a real guide to world history.




The late Gavin Rumney had this up about Hoeh:

Having known Herman Hoeh (like many others) for nearly 20 years and worked for him for part of that time, if someone had told me that he had adopted elements of the edicts of Zarathustra, I can't say I would be surprised. An intensely private man, Hoeh was an enigma in the truest sense of the word.

If he was anything (and I actually write this with respect), he was an apologist for whomever was in power at the time in WCG.

1) For example, when HWA announced in the 1950s/1960s that the Egyptian pyramids couldn't have survived the Great Flood, Hoeh responded by simply rewriting history. Borrowing heavily from Immanuel Velikovsky's controversial work, Ages in Chaos, Hoeh reworked traditionally accepted Egyptian and Babylonian dynasty chronologies so they fit HWA's Flood scheme. He subsequently published them as "new truth" in the first volume of his legendary Compendium. When HWA later allowed for the pyramids to actually have "survived" the Flood, Hoeh looked like an idiot.

2) The "theology" for HWA's title and rank of "Apostle" came directly from Hoeh. HWA actually initially rebuked Hoeh for calling Armstrong an Apostle, but as we all know, gradually accepted it (although HWA didn't use the title openly for nearly 20 years).

3) In the last months while HWA was dying, Hoeh basically either flat-out hand-wrote sections or heavily edited prior HWA works for the book that became Mystery of the Ages. (Sheila Graham also played a significant role in the production of MOA, which should give Flurry fits). Mystery of the Ages would be more appropriately title "Herbert Armstrong's Greatest Hits," edited by Herman L. Hoeh.

4) Hoeh heavily edited HWA's original Authobiography after Armstrong's death (again with aid from Sheila Graham), adding in HWA letters and the initial pieces about Joe Tkach. The result was a politically tinged tone that produced a quasi-"balanced" view of WCG's founder and made it seem like the selection of Tkach as successor was an orderly process (which it was anything but same).

I had a great deal of respect for Hoeh (particularly in how he and his wife were true servants of humanity), but truly to really understand what he "believed" at any given moment was like trying to nail a wet noodle to a wall.  The Enigma of Herman Hoeh

Rod Meredith's current version of church history being published by the Living Church of God is another case in point.  The same goes to Almost arrested but not arrested Bob Thiel's take on COG history, Catholicism and world history. And then there is Ron Weinland, Gerald Flurry and Dave Pack's appalling take on church history and world events.  All of these foolish buffoons do this in order to make their church look like the "only true church."

All of them are church apologists that go out of heir way to support the teachings of Herbert Armstrong.  Without him none of them had the wherewithal to ever come up with an original idea so it is important to defend Armstrongism in order to stay alive as a group.