Bob Thiel has a long post up today where he quotes an article that
Norm Edwards had in the
Shepherd's Voice magazine put out by
Chicagoland Church of God.
Edward's writes about the history of prophets in the church and in Armstrongism, including the lack of real prophets today.
Need Prophets More Than Prophecy
Armstrongism has always been obsessed with prophecy more than being prophetic. Prophets are always visionaries who foresee the world ahead. I do have to hand it to Norm Edwards, because he actually is putting his belief in a kingdom of God into present day existence, where he sees people made whole. Lives have certainly been touched, enriched and strengthen by Edward's ministry.
PABC currently has 14 guests, though a
family of 3 and a family of 4 have told us they may need to come within a
few days. It is difficult for homeless families to remain together as
the Veterans shelter in Akron does not accept women or children, and the
other shelters in Huron, Sanilac and Tuscola Counties do not accept
men. Just last week, a man and his son who had been with us for five
months found a stable place to go.
PABC has been in operation for 3½ years now. In that time we have
housed 242 persons, 96 men, 86 women and 60 children. We have provided
19,124 bed-nights, 9,517 for men, 5,440 for women and 4,167 for
children. (the total number of nights that all of the people stayed). We
have talked to 125 additional people (more than the 242), whom we
either offered to help or for whom we found a better solution. Many
times, the fact that a person has a definite place to go for the night
allows them to concentrate on less sure, but more long-term solutions.
Now lets get to Bob Thiel's take on prophets. He claims he is THE prophet. One that has been specifically ordained by God to be prophet. Thiel writes:
Norman Edwards once was on the board of directors of the Global Church of God. He runs the Port Austin Bible Campus and is editor for Shepherd’s Voice magazine. He is not part of the Continuing Church of God, where, I function its human leader (and am an ordained prophet).
While Norman Edwards and I have long disagreed about aspects of church
governance and various matters of doctrine (and I would have suggested a
different title, etc. for his article), we both agree that many who are
in or claim to be in the Church of God (COG) wrongly do not accept that
God has any prophets today. We also agree that most have severe
difficulty to identify one who really is a prophet because of various
unscriptural biases and improper criteria that they have.
As Norman Edward’s article points out, it is scriptural to now have
prophets according to the New Testament. But many who truly believe
that they live by the word of God have discounted or overlooked what the
Bible actually teaches and/or have been influenced by others who have
done the same or worse. The COG has at least one demonstrably true
prophet today, yet most in the greater COG world seem to be able to
ignore the truth about that, like most ignored John the Baptist and
others in their day.
Why Thiel continues to LIE about being ordained is beyond me. No one in ANY Church of God laid hands upon Thiel and specifically ordained his as a minister or prophet. Thiel took the prayer of Gaylyn Bonjour who asked for double blessing of God's spirit upon Thiel as if it was an ordination that set him apart from the rest of the apostate COG leaders. Rod Meredith quickly nailed Thiel for
...his "...self-important, pushy, "know-it-all" attitude."
So shame on you COG members who do NOT see Thiel as a prophet of God! You have been warned that the church has ONE prophet alive today, and you know who he is, yet you do not believe him! Shame, shame, shame!