God's Chosen COG Prophet Get's Conned

How many years have we been saying here that many of the groups that latch themselves on to various COG's are professional church shoppers looking for easy handouts from the gullible white saviors in America?  They go from one Sabbatarian group to the next till they find some sucker willing to give the laptops, seeds, money, Bibles, and anything else they want.  The self-appointed COG leaders lap this up because they think their god has sent them these new converts.

Our great white savior, Bwana Elijah Bob Thiel, prophet and Chief Overseer of the improperly named "continuing" Church of god, has insisted regularly that he is able to discern the integrity of his church leaders in Africa.  Well, that has come crashing to an end when he had to admit recently that he had attracted men with no integrity and were using him.

Bwana Bob writes on August 29:

As most of you are aware, I left my last church because of repeated integrity issues with its leadership, as well as partially because of how it changed to define itself (for some details, see Why Bob Thiel Left the Living Church of God).

It is amazing how Bwana Bob did not have the ability to discern that Rod Meredith had no integrity, to begin with.  Most who have been in the church and worked with Meredith understood this for decades!  Men of low integrity attract men of low integrity.

After comparing biblical teachings to their actions (and lack of keeping promises they repeatedly made), I concluded that the ‘Philadelphia mantle’ could not be with the top administrative leadership in that organization, and that the mantle had passed as one of its ministers had speculated to me it may have a couple of times.

In CCOG, we have since had to deal with other leaders with integrity issues of various types.

In 2013, we actually had two leaders in Kenya with the same first and last name (but from different towns). The first one turned out to be a complete fraud, while the other one was not. The first leader we started to work with in Malawi, while not a complete fraud, had severe integrity issues, so we stopped working with him. As it turned out, in time, we ended up with many more times the number of congregants in both Kenya and Malawi than those leaders with integrity problems claimed to have.

Recently, I am saddened to say, we became aware of an integrity problem with a leader in Mexico (Ismael Jimenez). So I investigated this by checking with multiple sources. Furthermore, I and a minister from another COG group gave him opportunities to repent and ‘come clean’ so to speak, but as of yet he has not truly done so. So, the CCOG has had to drop affiliation with him and we hope and pray that he repents. We also pray that those who had fellowship with him will one day see the truth about this and again wish to support the work of the Philadelphian remnant.

Working on this matter took up inordinate amounts of time, and more time looks to be required.

The Bible shows that dealing with people who have integrity issues is not new to the Church of God. Even Simon Magus believed and was baptized by the Apostle Philip (Acts 8:13). The Apostle Paul ended up having problems with many he worked with in Asia Minor (2 Timothy 1:15), as did the Apostle John (3 John 9-10).

This is a perfect description of Bwana Bob Thiel who is too blinded by his awesomeness to even understand what he wrote.

Jesus had to deal with the false as well (John 6:70). Furthermore, Jesus specifically predicted that Philadelphians would have to deal with false ones (Revelation 3:7-9) and we in CCOG have ended up doing so.

How can we fault Bwana Bob and the rest of the splinter group leaders as men of low integrity, considering their own original leader, Herbert W Armstrong, had low morals and integrity.  Every single one of the current top leadership of the COG splinter groups are men of low integrity. They all set off on their own in order to ensure a steady flow of income.  It had nothing to do with doctrinal purity.  They knew they were all getting fired or laid off and had no marketable skills. Stealing tithe money from duped members was more important than doctrinal purity or integrity.  All of these men cannot understand why the broad majority of the church never joined up with them.  Integrity is the one important quality none of them had and still do not have.

Fake COG Prophet Still Irritated That No One Recognizes Him As A True Prophet

Self-appointed prophets have come and gone in Armstrongism over the decades. Every one of them has been abject failures and outright liars.  This doesn't matter though to the current cabal of liars claiming they are the rightful true prophets of the church.  They even go as afar to acknowledge the other fake prophets in the COG today, but somehow miss that they are just as sick and perverted as the others are.

It is always fun to see our resident fake prophet from Arroyo Grande continually whine about constantly being dissed by COG members and groups.  Bwana Bob Thiel feels he is the most significantly important man the church has had in this turbulent end times.  He even goes as far as to use Norm Edwards as proof of his prophethood.  One self-appointed group leader telling another self-appointed group leader how important they are.  Seriously?  While Norm may have done some good works in the years he has run his own personality cult, he is still in the same category as Bwana Bob, Pack, Flurry, Weston, Kubik and the rest of the heretical COG splinter leaders.

...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.

Because of false prophets in a couple of COG-related groups and a disbelief in prophets by most of the COG groups, the non-Philadelphian COGs have a lot of severe prophetic misunderstandings.

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.

Bwana Bob also makes this idiotic statement as further proof he is is a prophet:

Norman Edwards runs Nashville Christian Media and has been the editor for Shepherd’s Voice magazine. He is not part of the Continuing Church of God, where, I function as its human leader (and am an ordained prophet; the only known such prophet in any legitimate Church of God group). 

Could Bobby Thiel Be the One True Prophet in the Church Today? Possibly Not True.

"I function as its human leader (and am an ordained prophet; the only known such prophet in any legitimate Church of God group)."

Prophet Robert Thiel

"I" is a non-stop storyteller, spinning tales
of the past, the present and the future -
constantly editing, interpreting
and directing this inner movie.
- Josh Baran

Living Church of God Hypocrisy: Taking Care of the Disallowed

For over two decades we have watched as various Church of God's denigrated those who are not part of their system. They preach from their pulpit demanding that families cast out family members, relatives, and friends who are no longer part of their group.  They do not care how much damage this causes or the lives destroyed.

They mock Christians outside the insular circle of Armstrongism as "fake" or "so-called", all the while they act in the most unchristian manner imaginable.

Who can forget the PCG story of the family who was told to take their mentally challenged child to the mall and drop it off so the government could take care of it!  After all, the church needed the money being spent on that challenged child more than the child did.

Then there was Rod McNair claiming elderly people in nursing homes were demon-possessed.

Facebook is filled with stories of people who have had their parents tell them they are no longer allowed to talk to them or see their grandchildren because they are not PCG members.  Talk about being disallowed!  Children, parents and former members of LCG also share their horror stories on how nasty and demeaning the ministry is at times.

For some reason, Gerald Weston thought it was a good thing to publish this article on how to "reach out to a troubled world." Given the horrendous track record of abuses in the WCG, GCG, and LCG under Meredith it is obvious they do not practice what they preach.

The Disallowed

The disallowed are those who are prohibited, restrained, or hampered—those refused and not accepted.

Many problems in the world are the result of discrimination based on race, ethnicity or national origin. God anticipated this problem and gave specific instructions for dealing with it. “One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you” (Exodus 12:49). The stranger or foreigner had to obey the rules, but there was only “one law.” God did not want the Israelites ever to forget that they had been oppressed in Egypt for centuries. “You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21).

God knew the human proclivity to “disallow” or discriminate against others, so He emphasized His instruction on the subject. There is no misunderstanding this plain statement: “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:33–34). The Israelites were not merely to tolerate foreigners—they were to love them. There was also instruction to remember the “stranger” during the Festival seasons (Deuteronomy 16:11, 14), as well as to be fair in employment practices and to remember the poor (Deuteronomy 24:14,17–22). 

Foreigners or strangers have their part to do, but they are to be given an opportunity. The core of the message was that no one should be left out. “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 31:12).

God’s instructions make it clear that we should not scheme against those who are vulnerable. He inspired Zechariah to write, “Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother” (Zechariah 7:9–10).

James gave a stinging rebuke to those who showed partiality to the wealthy but showed disdain for the poor, whose clothing revealed their poverty. He summed up his rebuke with these words: “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:8–9). Paul put it succinctly, “For there is no partiality with God” (Romans 2:11).

 We do well to remember the “disallowed,” assisting them, including them, and meeting their needs as we are able. No one will be disallowed in the Kingdom.  Reaching Out to a Troubled World

The Soon Coming Coming Destruction

At this time of writing, one of the most powerful hurricanes in modern history is devastating the Bahamas with winds of 185 Miles Per Hour - gusting to an unfathomable 220 Miles per hour at times. The images I have seen coming out of the storm have been nothing short of absolute devastation - homes demolished, extreme storm surge, people trapped. It is a worst-case scenario for the Bahamas - but they have been warned. 

All of this got me to thinking about another type of warning the Church has been blasting for over 70 years - a warning of extreme destruction, demolition, and damage due to what is known as the "Great Tribulation" - a "Great Near-Extinction Event" of nuclear war that immediately heralded the supernatural and very visible return of Jesus Christ to Earth and the beginning of Armstrong's version of the Kingdom for 1,000 years. 

Somehow, we believed that Herbert Armstrong and his successors had all the tools to know what was coming. We believed he had the satellite, the radar, the ground truth, the reports, and the understanding necessary to put everything together to make a solid forecast. Herbert and company sold us into believing he had the ability to interpret the radar, look at the satellites, read into the news, understand the models and through a divine calling, somehow see, just on the horizon, the Category 5 Armageddon about ready to unleash it's fury onto the world. 

The problem was, there was never a Category 5 Armageddon on the horizon. Sure, there were flare-ups, showers and storms, and dark skies on the horizon. But these all ended up to just be passing showers of little consequence. If Herbert and company had looked up beyond their tools, they would have seen that there was absolutely nothing of any significance on the horizon. They would have seen they were wrong. 

How could they have been wrong? The truth is very simple and profound. They were operating on flawed data from models that did not have correct information. 

We know what is happening with Hurricane Dorian because the signs are being interpreted correctly. There are satellites looking down. There are instruments collecting information all over the place - from weather balloon launches to hurricane hunter aircraft measuring everything from temperature to humidity to upper level winds. There are high-tech computer models crunching numbers day in and day out, plotting paths and curves to give a general idea of exactly what is going to happen. Radar shows the detailed features of the storm. Infrared shows internal temperature dynamics. Florida and all of the Southeast Coast are being warned that something is going to happen. And indeed, something WILL happen. Do they know exactly what will happen days out? Not precisely, but they have enough correct information to tell you that the hurricane IS coming, and actions need to be taken NOW. 

We thought we knew the same thing on a spiritual scale. We believed that Herbert had the answers. We believed the Church knew "the truth". We put our confidence, our hearts, and our minds into this warning message over and over again. Yet we know now - 70 plus years after 3 to 5 years repeated constantly on a never-ending loop - that the warnings were false. Not only in timing, but in causation, in depth, and in reality - they were false. But why? What false information did Herbert have? How did he get it so wrong? 

Herbert relied on a model we will call the USBP. The USBP Model stands for "The United States Britain Prophetic Model". This spiritual model predicted a particular outcome based on a belief of the United States and Britain meeting certain prophetic criteria. The USBP Model carved a path of destruction based on scriptural interpretation.The model was wrong. The problem is, even now, certain church leaders in Armstrongism are still relying on this false model to make their forecasts. It's stupidity in its finest form. If real meteorologists used an outdated model to predict the hurricane as Armstrongism uses USBP, there would have been no way of predicting where and when Dorian would go. So the first mistake was using outdated or inaccurate information. 

The real model they were using was the IITC model. The IITC model is the "Income Into the Church" Model. In order to keep the Income Into the Church Model high, they had to create the conditions necessary for money. This had to include the proper ingredients: Loyalty (to the Church), Fear (of leaving the Church), Hope (That the Church was correct), and Belief (in everything the Church taught), then they could accurately predict what really mattered to them: Income. The vision they had was of a materialistic Campus that was to be one of, if not, the finest in the world. They were able - with help with the SRM (Stanley Rader Model), to predict the only thing that really mattered to them - money - to build their vision at the expense of using a false model publicly to the Church. In effect, they used a false warning to create an internal financial windfall. You could lump all of this into one word: Deception, intentional or not. 

Unethical? Yes. Lies? Yes. False? Yes. Did they believe it? Yes. When you put your trust in falsehoods - which we know are falsehoods - Armstrongism is the result. Because they believed in an inaccurate, incorrect, and untruthful system, they ended up crying wolf over and over again - predicting a storm that never existed and was never in any danger of existing. Then again, Armstrong never had the degree or the knowledge to understand how any of his "models" worked anyway. He, literally, went to the Library, pulled out some textbooks, and without the aid of any instruction but of his own mind, worked out how everything was supposed to work, and literally went with it, bringing in a crowd of believing suckers who he convinced he was right. He cobbled up his own theories, and then created his own "Armstrong Channel" to promote his own "forecasts" on what he believed was the worst storm ever to hit the planet based on the way he saw the world and the Bible. 

Is there any doubt now why Armstrongism is being ignored? Is there any doubt why all of these splinter groups are absolutely insignificant? Let's face it. Let's be honest. They got it wrong. Absolutely, completely, and totally wrong. 

I am currently watching The Weather Channel of people who have been trained for years and hold actual degrees in meteorology on understanding how the weather works to REALLY warn people about a REAL threat. They have gone to school, learned everything they could about atmospheric sciences, were trained by the best of the best, and now live to warn the public. They know what they are doing and are saving lives using real information to help real people doing a real warning service. Armstrongism, on the other hand, was and is a scam, started by a high-school dropout who used a failed system to create an alternate reality of alternate beliefs that had no basis in reality and still does not today. Armstrongism isfake religion, and always has been, used to enrich their leaders and oppress the poor. And after seventy years, there are still people out there who are listening to the bad spiritual forecasts made from fake preachers teaching from an inaccurate model who were not trained to interpret a jot from a tittle. It's time people wake up and stop listening to bad forecasts and horrible warnings from unqualified "preachers" making a living off of lies while sucking the life out of those who trust them. 

Armstrongism is one of the few places where people actually pay boatloads of cash to other people, willingly, for bad information and false warnings. It's time this stops, because it is literally insanity to do so over and over, and over again, for something that is so obviously proven so fundamentally wrong.

submitted by SHT