Monday, January 13, 2020

The Way of the Waffling Prophet:


waffle
[ˈwäfəl]

VERB
waffling (present participle)


  1. NORTH AMERICAN
    fail to make up one's mind.
    "Joseph had been waffling over where to go"

  2. BRITISH
    speak or write, especially at great length, without saying anything important or useful.
    "he waffled on about everything that didn't matter"
    synonyms:
    prattle · chatter · babble · ramble · jabber · gibber · gabble · gab · burble · run on · mutter · mumble · prate · drivel · bleat · cackle · hum and haw · blather · rabbit · witter · natter · flannel

The Way of the The Waffling Prophet










Armageddon Will it come on Trump’s watch?

Now personally, I don't believe that Dr Thiel has an insincere bone in his body. I fully believe that he sincerely believes his own press and place in the Biblical scheme of things. I think, like I was myself, that he, and all in the COG way of being,  is still stuck in the "The Wonderful World Tomorrow. What It Will Be Like"  and "Are we living in the Last Days?" mode.  We can all access what the Bible says. It is what it means, for whom and when,  that divides everyone into a thousand different churches each led by someone who knows themselves to be more correct than all the others. Personally I have never met anyone that said they attended the false Church and knew they were sadly mistaken about their beliefs.

And too, it is no surprise here that I do not personally believe any human being not then and not now can "pre-dict" the future. From bones and stones to visions and revelations, I simple don't believe it to be how life works. Much Bible prophecy did not come to pass as advertised and all sorts of apologetics have been invented to make them seem as if they did no matter the doubts.  Also, and this is especially true with regards to the Birth and Death Narratives in the NT, what seems prophetic is simply OT scriptures mined by writers who needed to tell and upgraded tale and "according to the scriptures" became more true than most like to believe. It was not according to history or to reality. The Book of Revelation is a failed first century prediction that the Romans would be driven out of Jerusalem and the Jews and Jewish Christians would prevail. They weren't and they didn't. None of it is for our times though certainly can be used as if it was. That's the nature of vague prophecy uttered with hyperbole and dramatic content.  I once asked a well educated theologian who his comments on Revelation.  He said whoever wrote it was on good drugs.

That said...

Dr. Bob Thiel's way of being a prophet hardly abides at all in the Biblical model of "Thus saith the Lord" or "I was in vision on the Lord's Day..."  

Bob is the Prophet of Waffle.  Rather than make bold statements such as "Trump fulfills Ezekiel 32", "This Roman leader changed times!", "Petra IS the Place of Safety!" and "Armageddon WILL come on Trump's watch!", he knows better than to do that evidently.  Very risky as to one's credibility as a prophet if you keep getting it wrong. Better to leave waffle and wiggle room and at least be able to say "I NEVER SAID IT WOULD HAPPEN! I only asked if it COULD". If need be, this line can be followed by "You people just don't get it!" or "It's SPIIIIRITUAL!"  Always have a personal out.

Dr Bob's is to waffle...

Waffle Bob will always have the advantage to say both "We (I) in the Continuing Church of God predicted (which is also not the same as prophesied)  this!  So see, I am a Prophet!" or simply deny or never mention that which didn't come to pass. Take credit for a good guess and not responsibility for an inaccurate one. 

It's easier and less risky to say "Are the fires in Australia as sign of God's judgment?" than "The Fires in Australia are a sign of God's judgment."  Someone is bound to point out that much of it is arson.

  Dave Pack is the Master of the Non-Waffle Prophecy and still manages to blot the blunders out of his mind and the minds of all those who love bold BS. Bob seems to avoid this problem with the Art of the Waffle. 

Dr. Bob posts 20 Waffle Ready things to watch for prophetically in the coming year. 



1. Scoffers and the Modern Media
(And BannedHWA)


2. Morality Prophecies Being Fulfilled Daily (Sodom and Gomorrah)
(People behaving as they always have)


3. Internet Censorship
(Of ME, which I seriously doubt as well, though others should be)


4. Weather Sorrows and Troubles
(As usual on earth)


5. Earthquakes
(Your continent floats on a sea of liquid rock dufus)

6. The White Horse of the Apocalypse (Pope Francis, Vatican, Ecumenical Movement)
(Don't forget "This is the LAST POPE and he will change his name to Peter" again.)

7. Strife and the Red Horse of War
(Nothing new here)

8. Trade
(Which of course has been going on since Neolithic times)

9. The Deal of Daniel 9:27 (Donald Trump, Palestinians)
(I thought it was Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Clinton, Bush?)

10. Knowledge Increasing (5G)
(But not what the James Webb Space Telescope might reveal or Hubel has.  Knowledge increasing has always been a troubling prophetic trend for the Church.)

11. Debt
(Big time Prophetic topic!)

12. US Dollar Dominance will Decrease (Instex)
(They all do in time)

13. Cash, 666 (Legal Entity Identifier), & Gold (Russia, China, Romania, Poland)
(Not to mention  Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Uzbekistan!" 


14. Europe Will Work to Reorganize
(Women will clean their houses and men will help occasionally!)


15. Europe Will Have a Great Army (Ursula von der Leyen)
(Hey, what happened to Karl Theodor  Von Pretty Boy?)


16. Steps Towards the Formation of the King of the South Will Occur
(Lindsey Graham?)


17. The Time of the Gentiles will Lead to Armageddon (Velt and Road Initiative)
(It's always been the time of the Gentiles. That would be most humans actually)


18. Jews Ready to Sacrifice
(Bring on the Red Heifer!)


19. Fulfillment of Matthew 24:14; 28:19-20 
(Gospel of the Kingdom and the Short Work)
(Not again! You're just saying that because you think your time is the time. Besides, "short", "shortly" and "soon" mean "long", "longer" and "never" in prophetic talk)


20. 2020 Presidential election.
("What's all this talk about  Presidential Erections?"  Elections!
"Oh, never mind"
Rosana Rosanna Danna)


Let's face it, if Dr. Bob was Matthew or Luke, who really weren't the real Matthew or Luke BTW, his prophecy of Jesus  would sound like this...

"Could God send a Son to die for our sins?"

"Did Jesus cleanse us from Football?"

"Is Bethlehem a reasonable place to be born?"

"Could Mary have stayed with Cousin Elizabeth in Jerusalem instead of a stable?"

"Could Jesus be wrapped in swaddling clothes and just what is swaddle?"  

"Could  the whole world be  taxed by Caesar?"

"Will Wise Men  see a star in the East and Go West?"  

"Real Star or Just an Angel?" 

"Could Mary be the Virgin of Isaiah 7:14?"

"Will she name him Immanuel and does it mean "God with us" or "God IS With us"?  "Does it matter"

"Could Jesus be the Messiah of Psalm 22"

"Will Jesus, the possible Messiah of Psalm 22, call himself a worm and not a man?"
(v. 6)

"Will Herod be the Beast of Jerusalem and think to slaughter the innocents?"

"Will Mary and Joseph tell the other parents to grab their children and run Or will they just quietly leave knowing something they don't know?" 

Musings on Waffles...

"I've waffled before. I'll waffle again."  Howard Dean

"A waffle is like a pancake with a syrup trap."  Mitch Hedberg


"Sounded like a load of waffle to me." "There was some important stuff hidden in the waffle."  J.K. Rowling



"Way, way back in the day, like in the 1990s, if you wanted to tell everyone you ate waffles for breakfast, you couldn’t just go on the Internet and tweet it out. There was only one way to do it. You had to go outside and scream at the top of your lungs, 'I ate waffles for breakfast!' That’s why so many people ended up in institutions. They seemed crazy, but when you think about it, they were just ahead of their time."  Ellen DeGeneres"

Sunday, January 12, 2020

COGWA and its Disingenuous Revisionism Pulls 25 Year Anniversary Out of 8 Year Old Hat



When it was brought up here recently that COGWA was claiming its youth camps were celebrating 25 years, people were accused of lying.

Anyone who was ever part of the United Church of God at its inception experienced first hand the major upheaval when the vast majority of UCG ministers and a huge number of members left to join up with the newly formed Church of God a Worldwide Association.  That date was December 23, 2010



Announcing the
Church of God, a Worldwide Association
Today we are announcing the formation of a new international congregation of believers, the Church of God, a Worldwide Association. Our church organization incorporated on December 23, 2010 and has members, congregations and ministers around the world. 
The formation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, results from several fundamental disagreements within United Church of God, an International Association. After numerous efforts to engage in biblical resolutions and reconciliation, all efforts failed, and a separation became inevitable.
Then on January 11, 2011, COGWA officially adopted their name
January 11, 2011 – The meetings began as Interim Board President Mike Hanisko called upon Kevin Epps for the opening prayer. Mr.Hanisko then announced the result of the ballot for our church name. Of the 118 ballots cast, 78 chose “Church of God, a Worldwide Association.” So our temporary name has now become our official name.
Given that COGWA officially was incorporated with their new name in 2011, how can they in 2019 be celebrating 25 years of youth camps?  Apparently, taking UCG's years of holding camps prior to them. they consider that part of their scorecard.

Nothing like setting an example for your youth in telling the truth...

From COGWA Facebook page









Desperately Seeking Authorization

"I'll crown myself thank you..."

The desperate need to be recognized, authorized, validated, accepted, affirmed, endorsed, verified, approved, sanctioned and given the green light as to one's place in God's Eternal Plan in ministry, is an obsession we have seen play out over the years since the WCG implosion. The paths to authorization a many and creative. They also are invalid and concocted.  

We have witnessed the men of renown, in their own minds at least, going to great lengths and repeatedly to prove that they indeed are anointed, called and set apart to be the Prophets and Apostles of the Continuing Saga Churches of God. Some refine their titles down to the new Joshua, Zerubbabel, That Prophet, A Prophet or The Prophet depending.

Dr.  Robert Thiel goes to yet another great length, and I do mean length, to reaffirm that the dreams he has had and others have had about him that he is the only known and valid prophet in the Churches of God today.  All sincere I imagine, but not credible.  "I had a dream" is a oft used ploy by those who either are willfully ignorant of the nature of dreams that we all have or are manipulative in a way that can't be tested but is simply to be believed by the gullible. 

I had a dream....


Dave Pack, as well we all know, is notorious for shifting the story and changing the game when it comes to title taking.  The man has justified the taking of every title there is and sees himself spoken of in scripture, which to me, is more a form of mental illness and delusional beliefs than anything close to a religious reality. The need to do so is both compulsive and ridiculous. However, Dave, unlike Bob Thiel who begs to be believed, simply states after hours of beating the minds of his seat gyrating members into mental and proof texted belief along with a bit of tale weaving,  that indeed he is an Apostle.  Where Bob Thiel seeks authorization in dreams and sketchy anointings, Dave simply declares it to be so.

Gerald Flurry also is a title taker along with Ron Weinland.  Gerald falls for the self delusion that he is "That Prophet" while Ron fancies he and his wife to be the Two Witnesses of Revelation.  Neither man is actually either and both are delusional tale weavers.

Even the Apostle Paul has a major meltdown over not being recognized as he felt he should be in his own time. The entire chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians is his proof of Apostleship and delivered in a somewhat sarcastic tone to those who seemingly had some doubts.  

"
16I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little...Speaking as a fool, however, I can match what anyone else dares to boast about. 
22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.
23Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking like I am out of my mind, but I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.
24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 
25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.
26In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers, 
27in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
28Apart from these external trials, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches

Paul knew he had not been ordained an Apostle by any, such as Peter, James or John, the closer associates of Jesus himself.

Galatians 1:11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 
12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

Paul went so far as to note in Gal 2:6 As for those who were held in high esteem (Peter, James and John as the Jerusalem Apostles)—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message."

For a more in depth study into who did or did not ordain Paul see:





The taking of titles to oneself and the desperate seeking of approval, affirmation and religious authentication is a common need for those who strike out on their own in the need to lead others in all things Biblical.  It is a required practice and ploy if you are going to take a piece of the mantle left by Herbert Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God.  Joe Tkach did it as well to raise the lowly "Widow's Elder" to Apostle eventually over nothing much. 

In some churches, authorization is by ostentation. "Look at this place!" can be quite enough to convince those so driven. Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry have incorporated a bit of this schtick into their own authorizations by the Deity as his representatives on Earth. Let's face it, when you have one of the few Steuben Cups of Elijah, you gotta be someone special!

https://armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com/2015/02/elijah-dave-pack-ever-so-humble.html

 In others it is also title taking such as Father, Monsignor, Holy Father, Your Eminence, Pastor, Reverend, Bishop or Cardinal, that elevates.  All are designed to set one apart as validated and authorized. When one is either offended by the titles of the "worldy religious", men and women who at least have done the hard work of study and credentialing to be so, they evidently have to appeal to such nonsensical means as dreams, words that can have double meanings and simply declaring themselves so to be. This is the Church of God way to divine authorization.

It, however, doesn't actually make it so and let the buyer beware.