John Ritenbaugh wrote an article in The Berean the other day discussing prophets in church history and COG folk who set themselves up as prophets in the church even though they have no qualifications.
All of us desire to know the future so we can be prepared for it. We want to be in control of our destinies and not at the mercy of events. However, some have this desire so strongly that they set themselves up as channels through which the future is revealed.
Such people have misled many. Deuteronomy 18, along with chapter 13, warns against such people. Whether they are called diviners, charmers, spiritists, or channelers, using methods like reading tea leaves, casting lots, or conducting séances, they are to be seriously and carefully avoided because there is no godly reality to their prognostications. Those seeking to know are being misguided, putting themselves at the mercy of lying demons, or at the very least, imaginative men and women.
At other times, simply following a church tradition regarding a prophecy can also mislead a person. This occurs because someone in the past, sincerely believing he understood a particular prophecy, began preaching his belief, and many in his audience then believed without the resources to prove the interpretation wrong. Due to frequent repetition, it came to be accepted as truth.Today this would apply to many in the Church of God. Dave Pack, Bob Thiel, James Malm, Gerald Flurry, Will Dankenbring and many others. It also applies to Ritenbaugh and his hundreds of failed prophecies. Every single one of them have a string of failed prophecies covering the ground at their feet. Thousands are sucked into this madness and actually believe it is truthful. Each of these fraudulent men have repeated their nonsense for so long that they actually believe themselves.
Of course the biggest false prophet the church has right now immediately suffered major butthurt. Bob Thiel says that many COG members will fail to recognize true prophets, especially when that prophet is himself. Who is the true prophet for this age? Who else has been double blessed and had nightmares where dark forces said he was the chosen one?
While I am not about to analyze all of John Ritenbaugh’s points, the reality is that most real Christians will NOT accept biblical criteria for prophets in this age.
Sadly, many people in the Church of God (COG) have trouble believing that God actually uses prophets or how He would use them today.According to Thiel, all COG prophets out there right now are false, except of course for himself. They have disqualify themselves because they are liars. Even id those properties are "at best questionable," they are still lairs. Apparently the questionable emphasis Thiel makes on countless speculations does not enter this equation.
But first, it should be noted certain leaders of other COGs have disqualified themselves on certain matters of prophecy, especially when they insist on matters that are wrong, or at best questionable.Then Thiel gets to the just of his posting. He and he alone is a true prophet! LCG said so!
Prophet is an office and prophets are to prophesy. Although the position of groups like LCG is that it has NO prophets (which is likely the case as I stopped attending late on 12/28/12), it should be noted that its top leader had repeatedly taught in the past that God may consider Bob Thiel to be a prophetThiel cannot stand the fact that 99% of COG members think and know that he is a liar. Because of that he needs to throw out scripture point out that they are wrong:
Contrary to scripture, most end time Christians do not heed the following from the Apostle Paul:
Despise not prophesyings. (1 Thessalonians 5:20, KJV)
Do not despise prophecies. (1 Thessalonians 5:20, NKJV)Those that deny the prophet status of Thiel are lukewarm Laodiceans. How can they not know that Thiel is the chosen one?
The fact is that Laodiceans believe that they do not have need to listen to any of God’s end time prophets (Revelation 13:14-18), even if some believe that God uses prophets.He then lists 36 failed prophecies and false teachings of various COG groups. Of course missing from all of that is all of Thiel's lies.
The only COG leader out there telling the truth is Thiel. Even Herbert Armstrong would be agreeing with him, if he were still alive.
Some will come up with their preferred rational as why not to agree with the position of the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) on these matters. Yet not only are they biblical, on most of those points, the old WCG taught what I believe that the Bible teaches on them (on the few that it did not, one is consistent with a November 1979 HWA writing and on the others, a former adviser to HWA told me that HWA would have agreed with me on those as well, as one he had not investigated and some others were not issues when he was alive.First it was double blessings, double nightmares and self-appointment, now it is the blessing of Herbert Armstrong. Thiel's comment is quite laughable since HWA would have ripped Thiel to shreds and left him a blubbering mess after publicly rebuking him from the Auditorium stage and in all print materials. Meredith's rebuke would be baby pablum compared to HWA's rebuke. So once again we see Thiel lie in order to make himself look set apart and special.
Thiel continues:
It should be noted that leaders in the Living Church of God and/or the United Church of God confirmed to me personally that I was biblically correct on all the above points, despite the fact that their respective churches hold to several of the errors pointed out above. (emphasis his)No one in the Church of God is more qualified that Thiel! Kneel at his feet in wonder and amazement!
