Friday, April 4, 2014

Bob Thiel: My Path To Prophethood Is Exactly Like Herbert Armstrong's. A Woman Dreamed It.




Prophet Bob Thiel is now using "dreams" to legitimatize his position as a prophet of God.  Remember Loma Armstrong's dream she had that spurred HWA to start the Radio Church of God?  Bob Thiel is claiming that he also has had a woman dream about him.  Because she dreamed about him it therefore make shim a true prophet and COG leader.

Its too bad that he does not heed HWA's own words about crazy kooks proclaiming themselves prophets!

In all the years I worked in Pasadena, hundreds of nut jobs paraded through the church proclaiming they and they alone had the truth.  Many even carried picket signs in front of the Hall of Ad proclaiming their prophet status.  Bob Thiel is just one more in a long line of false prophets to lie to the church.

Dreams and the Continuing Church of God

Do dreams and prophets have any place in the Christian Church today? Are any related to the Continuing Church of God? The Bible shows that God often chooses to work with prophets through a dream (Numbers 12:6), and I had a confirmed one.

The Bible records that God often has used dreams to give messages Genesis 20:3-7, 28:10-17, 31:10-13, 31:24, 37:5-10, 40:5-18, 41:1-32; Numbers 12:6; Judges 7:13-15; 1 Kings 3:5-15; Daniel 2:3-45, 4:4-27, 7:1-28; Matthew 1:20-25, 2:12, 2:13, 2:19, 2:22; Acts 2:16-17; 16:9).

Of course, not all dreams come from God. Here is something that the late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote about dreams:

Let me say here that in about 99,999 times out of 100,000, when people think GOD is speaking to them in a dream or vision in this day and age, it is pure imagination, or some form of self-hypnotism or self-deception. I have only come to believe that this dream was a bonafide call from God in the light of subsequent events.
And that is correct. Most dreams are not from God, even if people think that they are. Dreams from God are shown to be correct in the light of subsequent events (though just because a dream ends up being correct, that does of itself, not prove that it was from God as there can be other factors, cf. Deuteronomy 13:1-5, but God Himself does sometimes use dreams, Numbers
12:6; Acts 2:17-18).

Though many discount all dreams, many also forget that Herbert W. Armstrong believed that his wife Loma Armstrong had a dream from God prior to the start of the Radio Church Church of God, although it took him some years to accept the validity of it:

Within 30 or 60 days after our marriage God spoke to my wife in what might have been an intense unusual dream, or a vision—but it was years later before we came to realize that this really was a message from God.

So, there was a dream from a woman that preceded the start of the old Radio Church of God that Herbert W. Armstrong led.

A question to ponder is have there been any dreams from God in more recent years?
Prophet Thiel claims that he also had a dream about himself.  He cannot prove that in any manner whatsoever. Yet, he expects people to take his word for it.  Sadly, deceived people have.

In addition to my dream (which seemed consistent with Number 12:6 and Acts 2:17), there also seems to have been at least one other dream that essentially confirmed that the mantle had passed to me and the Continuing Church of God.
In order to bring in a second "opinion" he claims a woman in New Zealand also had a dream about him.  Notice his use of Matthew 18:16 as further proof of his legitimacy.

This dream came to a woman named Fesilafai Fiso Leaana of  New Zealand after going to bed on December 8, 2012. Portions of it, too, were also confirmed by subsequent events.

Although some have chosen not to believe all the facts about how and why the Continuing Church of God began, recall that  the Bible teaches: 16 ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ (Matthew 18:16) 19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. (1 Timothy 5:19)

Of course, since Gaylyn Bonjour always freely admitted that he did the ‘double-portion’ anointing, there long had been a second witness.

 Yet, in addition to various facts, the dream from Fesilafai Leaana (who I did not meet until late 2013) looks like perhaps God was planning on making it clearer for true Philadelphians to see that the mantle location had truly changed.

Of course, some will discount dreams and their confirmation as proof of anything they do not wish to believe. Many want more dramatic signs (Matthew 12:38; 1 Kings 19:11-12), but God does not always do it that way (Matthew 12:39-42; 1 Kings 19:12-14). Page 96

Bob Thiel Slams Rod Meredith, Again.......

Thiel takes the mantle from Meredith

Poor prophet Bob, he just cannot get over the fact that Rod Meredith would not listen to his endless and useless rants about true governance and other things.

Prophet Thiel has "published" a new online booklet about the "true" church.  It is the same old malarkey about who still has it right and who can prove they are true descendants of the apostolic Christians and who use the name "church of God" in their title.

Thiel takes all this nonsense further to try and prove he is a legitimate heir to wear the mantle of the "true" church.

After his little "history" lesson he takes several digs in at Rod Meredith.  Meredith did not appoint Thiel as "prophet" once he began to see how crazy Thiel was getting and that has perturbed Bob ever since.  Thiel also claims that Meredith appointed him, as a lay member, to be an adviser to all the senior evangelists on doctrine and prophecy.  That alone tells you that Thiel has delusions of grandeur.  No evangelist in the history of the Church of God in the last 80 some years has EVER listened to a lay member when it comes to doctrine and prophecy.


Prophetic and Doctrinal Matters

In the Summer of 2005, Dr. Meredith appointed me to be an advisor to the evangelists on matters of doctrine and prophecy.

Some provided advice was heeded, but much was agreed to and not implemented. And this was distressing. It became more so when I was informed via email on October 18, 2012 that over 20,000 booklets with known errors would be distributed to the public (that presumably was interested in the truth about matters such as real church history).  One  evangelist at LCG flat-out told me that it did not matter that errors were being sent out as the readers would not really know the difference.  My pleadings for the truth were ignored.
Gaylyn Bonjour is going to go down in Church of God history as the cause of Bob Thiel's mental breakdown.  Thiel tries so desperately to use Bonjour's prayer of him as the legitimate start of his splinter cult.  Bonjour had no intention of ever doing such a thing and regrets to this day he ever said such a think to Thiel.

Thiel needs so desperately to claim the mantle rests on him and therefore he has to destabilize Rod Meredith every chance he gets and to declare that Meredith no longer wears the mantle.

Back on October 3, 2008, Dr. Meredith telephoned me and stated, “God may consider you to be a prophet.” And after that time, Dr. Meredith would sometimes mention that he felt that I may be a prophet as did one or more other LCG evangelists. In January 2009, Dr. Meredith told me that if he raised himself to the office of apostle that he might ordain me as a prophet (which made me wonder about his view of spiritual gifts and theological authority). Although he did not raise himself up nor ordain me, in the Fall of 2011, I specifically prayed about this prophet matter and asked God to give me insight on whether He might consider me to be a prophet when I was to visit LCG’s offices in Charlotte, North Carolina in December 2011. As it turned out, I ended up having had hands laid upon me by LCG minister Gaylyn Bonjour on December 15, 2011. At that time, he also anointed me with oil and unexpectedly prayed that I would be given a “double-portion” of God’s Spirit (which he ended up telling me was reminiscent of the mantle passing from Elijah to Elisha; cf. 2 Kings 2:9-15). Gaylyn Bonjour’s comments in December 2011 and later in March 2012 made me wonder if the mantle had truly been passed and the final phase of the work could begin (cf. Isaiah 22:20-23; Romans 9:28; Acts 13:41).
Then to further prove that he is a legitimate Church of God leader, he clams that Richard Ames said the word "amen" when praying for him.


Perhaps it should be mentioned that on December 16, 2011, there was a private lunch in Charlotte with me and LCG evangelists Dr. Meredith, Richard Ames, and Dr. Douglas Winnail. Richard Ames prayed, with “Amen” concurrence from Dr. Meredith and Dr. Winnail, that I would continue to do the work that God has had me to do, etc. Richard Ames also specifically called my writings/work “an additional witness.” Hence, there was a broad top-level concurrence with the evangelical and prophetic fruits of that work. Various promises were made to me by Dr. Meredith in meetings that month concerning doctrinal corrections, some of which he specifically assigned dates they would be kept by in earlier 2012, but none were kept that year or the next.