Is it wrong to criticize or mock self-appointed prophets in the Church of God?

For over eighty some years now the Armstrong Churches of God have had hundreds of self-appointed prophets popping up and proclaiming a message of death, gloom, and utter destruction. For eighty some years now, each and every one of these men (and a couple women) have been proven to be liars. That sad track record has never stopped new ones from popping up in the church.  Hardly a year goes by now that some know-it-all comes forth proclaiming a message to the church that is supposedly coming directly from God.

Every time these self-appointed prophets started making their prophecies, the church leaders in Pasadena would start mocking them because they knew it was just another whack-a-doodle hitting the scene.  Even the men in the church that many called prophets ended up being made fun of. The last official prophet of the church to be ridiculed was Gerald Waterhouse.  The older this guy got the crazier his claims became. When he started justifying Joseph Tkach Sr. in biblical terms, his credibility went down the drain.

Seeing the utter failure of Gerald Waterhouse in action has never been a deterrent to those that continue to self-appoint themselves as prophets and church leaders.

The Great White Bawana, the new savior of the African peoples is NOT happy about a recent post here on Banned.

God's prophet starts off by quoting Jesus, shocker, I know, but Jesus only works when ACOG leaders can use him as a threat:

04/26/19 a.m. Jesus warned:

11 "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12) 

So, prophets will be improperly spoken against. Jesus would have not mentioned that if there were not to be prophets after His departure from the earth.

There is a HUGE difference in the Prophets of old who actually prophesied things as compared to today's upstarts who self-appoint themselves and lie through their teeth. THAT is the history of prophets in the Armstrong Church of God movement.

Now, consider something that Jude admonished:

17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. (Jude 17-19) 

Why mention any of that here today?

A reader here made a "funny" about his Supreme Delicateness which was offended and did not see the humor in it. 

Well, I saw the following posted at the Banned by HWA site which was specifically directed against me that was made last night:

A COGprophet said to one of his evangelists, “Who do people say that I am?” The evangelist mentioned a few names, and the COGprophet said, “Who do you say that I am?”
The evangelist answered, “You are the end-time prophet of the most faithful remnant of the Church of the Philadelphia Era”, to which the COGprophet replied, “Blessed are you, for this was revealed by our Father in heaven”.
“Oh, no, Pastor” the evangelist exclaimed, “you told me yourself, many times! Don’t you remember?”

Another commenter at that site seemed to enjoy the above--although I never a conversation like this with our only evangelist.

Seriously dude? Did anyone ever claim you did?  It is sarcasm, oh most Delicate One! All you have done for several years is tell us over and over WHY you are a prophet. Anyone that has to justify himself over and over and over and over and over, already proves he is not a prophet.  Your actions should speaking mightily better than incessant boasting.

Anyway, The Great Bawana continues on to do the exact things that was made fun of above.  He has to PROVE to all of us how great the is.

Now, while I rarely look at the comments at that site and even rarer make any posts about the mocking done there, consider something that post brought to mind. 

Did God reveal anything to CCOG's evangelist related to me or not? Or did everything come from my comments like the Banned commenter seemingly wants everyone to believe? 

Here is a written report from Frederick Ochieng (the son of CCOG evangelist Evans Ochieng) on two dreams he had:

Dear pastor

Greetings pastor.  I believe you are doing good though you are having great thrust of fulfilling Matthew 28:19 of which we must do before the return of Christ. ...

I had two dreams 

1. Before our family joined CCOG my father was then working with voice in the Wilderness Church of God. When I was sleeping I had a dream and in my dream I saw a light and the light was not normal, the one who was standing by the was You pastor Bob according to my dream. Then I had voice shouting, "Arise you who are sleeping, for the Lord is near." I again I heard another voice shouting, "Come up Evans and let us do the work we are called to do." I then saw a man dressed in white clothes join hands with my father walking together towards a very big lake then I woke up. 

2: In my second dream some weeks after my first dream and in my second dream I saw almost the same dream and now this was in New Zealand. I did not know about the CCOG group in New Zealand before I had the dream. 

Fred

Dreams are an important "proof" that Bawana Bob likes to toss out as proof of his prophethood and his appointment to start a new splinter personality cult called the Continuing Church of Bob.

Now consider something that Jesus taught:

15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (Matthew 7:15-20) 

The CCOG has been--by far--the fastest growing x-WCG COG in the 21st century. CCOG clearly has the fruits that Jesus indicated that a true prophet would have.

People should really heed of the stories in the Bible that talk about how Satan can come across as an agent of light and righteousness: 

He masquerades in costumes of light and righteousness. 

In 2 Corinthians 11:13–15, Paul says that some people are posing as apostles who are not. He explains like this: “Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.”

In other words, Satan has servants who profess enough truth to join the church, and from inside teach what Paul calls “doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). Jesus says they will be like wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). Acts 20:30 says they will not spare the flock, but will draw people away to destruction. Without God’s gift of discernment (Philippians 1:9), our love will be suckered into stupidity.

If any scripture describes Bob Thiel perfectly, the above does!

Bob Thiel is NOT a prophet. He is NOT an apostle.  I can state that as fact.  I have no fear in saying that nor do I fear that I am "mocking" a true prophet of God. I can rest assured in that fact too.

Anyway, it is not only the anti-COG types at Banned who seem to delight in spreading inaccurate information about me--various ones once part of GCG have done so as well. 

Sadly, few will accept the biblical criteria for a prophet but prefer to be mockers.

Thank goodness a COG group had some balls and stood up against Bawana Bob's lies!  The rest of he splinter cults give he free run to do all the damage he can.  After all, its just poor Africans who are being hurts instead of money giving Westerners.   Only when splinter groups see their income drop do to defections to other splinter groups do they ever speak out.

Bawana ends with this:

While some denounce dreams, God had Peter remind people that they would occur in the end time:

17 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)

Many seem to forget and/or discount the biblical fact that God said He revealed himself to prophets via dreams (Numbers 12:6). And many of those once part of the old Radio/Worldwide Church of God seem to forget that that work was proceeded by a dream by a woman--which also happened prior to the start of the Continuing Church of God...

And we have seen the MESS the dream of Loma has caused in the thousands of lives lost over the decades because of church lies and false teachings.  That is NOTHING to brag about as a "proof!"

The Chosen One ends with another warning to NOT mock him:

But instead of accepting the truth, many prefer to be mockers.

If Bawana Bob was genuine then there would be no need to mock him.  The problem lies in our history of over 80 years now of these self-appointed turds rising up and making proclamation's about their uniqueness. 

I will state again:

Bob Thiel is NOT a prophet. He is NOT an apostle.  He is NOT a legitimate Church of God leader.  I can state these things as fact.  I have no fear in saying that nor do I fear that I am "mocking" a true prophet of God. I can rest assured in that fact too.

Carla Powers Mother Has Died

Mary Ann Holloway Powers wrote the final page of a remarkable life story on April 28, 2019.

Born September 17, 1932 in Wooster, Arkansas to Doyle Patrick Holloway and Cordie Delia Matchett Holloway, Mary Ann was the fourth of five children. Growing up during the Depression on a sharecropper’s cotton farm, she was ready for a new life when Charles Daniel Powers came calling. Married April 4, 1949, at age 16, the couple settled near Conway, Arkansas where Mary Ann worked as a clerk at Sterling Drugstore while Charles learned auto repair and later served his country during the Korean War. After Charles returned from the service, their first child, Carla Anne, was born in 1955, followed by Charles Steven in 1958.

Their lives took an unorthodox turn when Charles joined the Radio Church of God, a religious cult founded by Herbert W. Armstrong. Required to separate themselves from nonmembers and cut off from the world by adherence to the church’s unusual practices, the family moved to the church headquarters in Big Sandy, Texas in 1960. It didn’t take long for Charles to become disenchanted with Armstrong’s dogma and soon disenchantment turned into violence. Four years later, their third child, Daniel Franklin, was born. In 1968, Mary Ann escaped from Charles with the three children, taking only the clothes they were wearing.

After relearning to live in the world, first in Jackson, Mississippi and then in Minden, Louisiana, Mary took it by storm. She got an education, worked as a legal secretary and became a realtor. By 1980, she owned her own real estate company in Longview, Texas and during the 1980’s was one of ERA’s top brokers. After orthopedic issues ended her real estate career, she joined son Steve to form Propulsion Technologies in Shreveport, Louisiana. PowerTech Propellers was a success and she was honored by the Small Business Administration as a Woman of Enterprise at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. In 2000, she retired to her home on Cross Lake in Shreveport.

Mary is survived by her three children: Carla Powers Herron (Spicewood, Texas), Steve Powers (Shreveport, Louisiana), and Dan Powers (Austin, Texas) and four grandchildren: Andrew Herron (Houston, Texas), Connor Powers (Shreveport, Louisiana), Evan Powers (Austin, Texas) and Samantha Powers (Shreveport, Louisiana). She was preceded in death by her parents and three siblings: Dortha Holloway Hightower, Bob Holloway and L. D. Holloway. She is survived by her brother, Doyle Patrick Holloway of Conway, Arkansas, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Bossier Press

You can read more on Mary Ann and Carla's time in Armstrongism in Carla's book:

Matches in the Gas Tank: Trial by Fire in the Armstrong Cult

Carla Powers was Daddy's princess back in Arkansas in the late 1950s. Then Daddy got religion.

That religion, based in the teachings and deprivation of narrow-minded, punitive ministers, tormented her dangerous alcoholic father and her entire family. Growing up, Carla never knew a woman could do anything more than she was asked—or demanded—to do. She definitely never imagined that other worlds would open up to her and she would rise to become a powerful attorney.

Matches in the Gas Tank tells the story of life inside the Radio Church of God and the influence of Herbert W. Armstrong, the Church's founder and prophet. Under his influence, Carla's family moved away from relatives and friends to Big Sandy, Texas, an enclave in which everyone lived by strict and unforgiving rules arbitrarily determined by Armstrong. His vision of how to get to "The Kingdom of God" and avoid a sea of flames consisted of unending lists of rules covering everything from food consumption, to financial responsibilities, to sexual behavior. The only way to rise above the poverty level was to become a minister, and the only way to become a minister was to continually police your neighbors for sin. Ministers were allowed to barge in a home any time of the day or night to inspect everything from the cleanliness of a family's kitchen to the contents of their tax returns.

This is the story of how Carla escaped the control of the church and found a way to deal with the legacy of abuse and shame left to her by her father. As she embraces her difficult childhood, she comes to understand that while those we love have the power to hurt us, they can't destroy us. We can find strength in unexpected places.

Anyone who has had a less-than-perfect family, has struggled with the faith of her fathers or has gone through recovery from abuse, perfectionism, or any cult of personality will connect with the power of redemption in this moving memoir.

The Lies Jehovah's Witnesses and Church of God Leaders Say...Notice the Similarities

Submitted by a reader here

Satan continues his attacks by trying to scam highly favored prophet of God, but who is REALLY being scammed?

Satan has been working overtime to discredit and humiliate the greatest prophet and Church of God leader the church has ever had in its midst.

The Chief Overseer and self-appointed prophet of Arroyo Grande went into detail the other day on how people at trying to trick and deceive him.

CBS put out a report a while back about what one author believes are the top six scams that affect people in the USA:

Overall, the nation’s most prevalent scam remains a fake check con, which involves “overpaying” for a product or service and asking the recipient to refund the difference. By the time the victim realizes that the check used for payment was bogus, the con artist has walked away with the consumer’s money…
The top six scams in order:
1. Fake checks
2. Bad Internet sales – products never delivered or misrepresented
3. Sweepstakes/prize/free gift cons that request payment to get your winnings.
4. Advance fee cons that promise a loan or line of credit, if you pay them first.
5. Phishing scams that attempt to get personal information to get access to your accounts, your tax refund or to open credit cards in your name.
6. Recovery/refund cons that promise past victims a recovery of swindled funds in exchange for a fee. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-6-us-scams/ 

Of course, there are also other scams. 

As far as these six go, a while back someone tried the fake check scam for a business I own. I did not fall for it. The only one in the list that someone has not directly tried to involve me in is number 4 (although I may not have read every loan offer enough to see if that was the case). Otherwise, numbers 3, 5, and 6 are very commonly pushed to me. But other than number 2 (I have made some purchases over the internet that were misrepresented, so took action), I have not fallen for any of the scams. 

 The prophets of God have to be constantly on guard! Satan is a tricky dude!

Sadly, many people are greedy and do not care how they harm others. Scams are based upon lies, theft, and deception. Scammers are, according to what Jesus said, a type of destroyer and murderer:

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)
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. (John 10:10) 

The Bible teaches “love truth” (Zechariah 8:19) and that those who do not have the “love of the truth” will perish (2 Thessalonians 2:10).

Lying is prohibited by the Ten Commandments:

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)

20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Deuteronomy 5:20)

Bawana Bob claims he is immune to scams yet he has been scammed by some of his African members for some time now.  They are playing him for money as they also seek money and items from the Seventh Day Adventists and other Sabbatarian groups.

Even worse though, is the scam that Bawana Bob is concocting by claiming to have been doubly blessed by God and set apart to start a new splinter group of the already fractured Armstrong Churches of God.

Elijah Bob tosses out scripture to state that lying is wrong, yet he has lied from the very beginning of the start of his splinter personality cult.  God no more blessed him to start a new group than God made Bob the modern day Elijah, Elisha, Joshua, Amos, or any other crazy personality's he wishes to be associated with.  He preaches lies in his sermons and leads sincere people away from God.

Elijah Bawana Bob's followers in Africa do not need some "white savior" to come and save them. They do not need a church leader from America preaching Westernized religious cultish bullshit at them, particularly when it is tainted by so many heretical teachings of Armstrongism.

Bawana Bob is too blinded by his narcissism to see what he is doing.  He defiles himself with his heretical nonsense,

Those who scam defile themselves. 

Those of us who believe the Bible, have read the Bible, and believe in keeping the Ten Commandments have long realized that telling the truth contributes to happiness. Notice the following:

18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law. (Proverbs 29:18)

14 Happy is the man who is always reverent (Proverbs 28:14).

Since he doesn't believe the Bible he claims to follow, he is incapable of preaching anything about Jesus and the New Covenant.  He thinks it is easier to follow a bunch of rules and be kept in the safe box of legalism, all safe and comfortable than it is to be lost in the wild abandon of grace and freedom.

Update on Kevin Dean

The latest from one of his victims:

He is in jail and they won't let him post bail because he is a flight risk. He was in Germany for a time but they caught him in Mexico and he was extradited to the states.