It is time for another doozy from the Self-appointed, almost arrested but not arrested, Elijah, Elisha, Joshua, Second Witless Witness, Chief Overseer and eternally Bitter Bob Thiel. Has the church ever had a man so preoccupied with self-deception as we have witnessed in Bawana Bob?
For many years he thought his prophetic powers so significant that he could tell Rod Meredith just how things should be. That deception clouded his brain so much that he actually thought Meredith and the rest of the boys in Charlotte would actually heed his words. After his spiritual wanna-be father publicly rebuked and humiliated him in front of the entire Living Church of God, the Chosen One had a dream.
In that dream, his brain revealed to him that HE and HE ALONE was the Chosen One of God to lead the remnant group of true believers into the Place of Safety and ultimately into the Kingdom of God where HE and HE ALONE would sit on the right hand of Jesus Christ as they ruled the universe together. His brain told him that no human leader of ANY other Armstrong Churches of God was as qualified as he was.
His brain also told him that this was NOT self-deception but direct channelling from his god as to how things WILL BE in the end times and that HE and HE ALONE had the ONLY truth.
Nope, no self-deception there, no-sirree Bob!
The Undeceived One has these words of wisdom for ACOG members:
Researchers have concluded that there are costs associated with self-deception:
The invisible downside of cheating in life
People who take shortcuts can trick themselves into believing
they are smarter than they are, says Tom Stafford, and it comes back to
bite them. …
The researchers ran another experiment to check that the effect was
really due to the cheaters’ inflated belief in their own abilities. In
this experiment, students were offered a cash reward for accurately
predicting their scores on the second test. Sure enough, those who had
been given the opportunity to cheat overestimated their ability and lost
out – earning 20% less than the other students.
The implication is that people in Chance’s experiment – people very
much like you and me – had tricked themselves into believing they were
smarter than they were. There may be benefits from doing this –
confidence, satisfaction, or more easily gaining the trust of others –
but there are also certainly disadvantages. Whenever circumstances
change and you need to accurately predict how well you’ll do, it can
cost to believe you’re better than you are.
That self-deception has its costs has some interesting implications.
Morally, most of us would say that self-deception is wrong. But aside
from whether self-deception is undesirable, we should expect it to be
present in all of us to some degree (because of the benefits), but to be
limited as well (because of the costs).
Self-deception isn’t something that is always better in larger doses –
there must be an amount of it for which the benefits outweigh the
costs, most of the time. We’re probably all self-deceiving to some
degree. The irony being, because it is self-deception, we can’t know how
often. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150225-unexpected-downside-for-cheaters
Jesus taught that Satan was a liar and the father of lies:
44
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you
want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he
speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it
(John 8:44)
Of course, Satan takes advantage of deception and encourages humans to deceive themselves. Recall what happened to Eve:
Also recall all we have witnessed with Bawana Bob over the last several years! Eve was not the only one deceived!
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. (1 Timothy 2:14)
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of
its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
(Genesis 3:6-7)
Satan was involved, but the woman allowed herself to be deceived. This type of deception happens every day.
It sure does Elijah Bob! It sure does!
But what about Christians? Can Christians fall victim to self-deception?
Jesus warned that most Christians in the end times would be deceived:
14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the
Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are
neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then,
because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out
of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and
have need of nothing’ — and do not know that you are wretched,
miserable, poor, blind, and naked — 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold
refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you
may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;
and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I
love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. (Revelation
3:14-19)
Although most Laodiceans do not believe that they are deceiving
themselves, Jesus said that they were. Jesus said that Laodicean
Christians needed to repent–they need to change.
This is the same tired and worn out excuse that self-appointed and self-deceived ACOG leaders have been dishing out for 80 some years now. Anyone who does not believe them is a Laodicean. Bullshit, Bob. Bullshit!
In addition to doctrine and how they lead their lives, there are
serious prophetic deceptions that the Laodiceans have fallen for. A list
of 38 prophetic deceptions that various Laodiceans (and those of
Sardis) believe is in the article The Laodicean Church Era. Believing several of these will insure that Laodiceans will not realize that the Great Tribulation is here until it is to late for most to flee (cf. Revelation 12:14-17).
Self-deception is common. Try not to fall for it. The word of God is
truth (John 17:17), hopefully you will believe it enough so that you
will resist Satanically-encouraged self-deception (cf. James 4:7).
For once I agree with Elisha Bob! Do not fall for the Satanically-encouraged self-deception of the self-appointed doubly blessed Bob Thiel! Of all the sick idiots leading various splinter groups right now, self-appointed Bob is the sickest of the lot.
