Why Do COG Leaders Set Themselves Up As Our Intermediaries?

Someone made a comment on here recently about how COG leaders have set themselves up as intermediaries between their members and the god they claim to follow.

Most of them, but not all, will bellow that they do no such thing, but in actuality they are.

All of them have made the claim that they are the one true church carrying on in the footsteps of Herbert Armstrong. As leaders of the one true church, they have deliberately maligned all other COG's and delegated them into lesser than status or actual Laodiceans.

They all claim exclusive knowledge through dreams, visions, nightmares, or whatever other entities they channel their "knowledge" that comes to them through.

Dave Pack has been preaching a 300+ sermon series on the visions and dreams he has that lead him to interpret scripture to prove his creature he calls "jesus" will be returning three times and that its imminent return is always days or weeks away. He bellows that no other church has this knowledge and no other church has access to God and his "christ" unless they are members of the Restored Church of God.

Bob Thiel does this by claiming his legitimacy through dreams and visions he claims he has had along with a couple other mentally unstable people in the Australasia regions of the world. Never have we seen a more pompous self-indulgent leader than we have in Bob. He has the exclusive doctrines and teachings that only he understands and repeats ad museum that only he has the right interpretations to scripture. His endless diatribes that all COG members need to recognize him and his work, and join in that work, in order to know the "correct" time to flee to  Petra/Pella or some other hellhole he expects his followers to go to are beyond pale. No one knows the right time to flee except him. Therefore your salvation is dependant upon his interpretations, dreams, visions, and nightmares.

Gerald Flurry has set himself up as King of the Church of God because he has now in his possession a dirty old rock from the hills of Oregan that he claims his creature he calls "jesus" will return and sit upon. No other COG out there has this revealed knowledge and therefore are Laodiceans and are cut off from God. Only through Flurry can salvation be attained.

UCG, LCG, COGWA, CGI, and many of the other minor COG groups also claim that they are the only ones with the real truth. Most of them no longer state that publicly in order to appear more "loving" towards other COG members, but corner a diehard evangelist or minister and they will tell you that their group is the only COG doing the work and that they are the correct path to salvation.

COG members have been duped for so long by this kind of reasoning that they have turned into gullible sheep who sit there week after week believing that their leader is the right, correct, and one true leader of the end time COG, and because of that, their salvation is in his hands. Most will not admit that until you push them as to why they have not left for another group or left the COG entirely. They have been frightened into following a bunch of spiritual frauds that only care for the members as long as they give money.

COG members believe this because they have never heard that much about Jesus preached. Oh sure, they will talk about the veil in the temple being torn in half, and in the next breathe tell you that every damn law in the old covenant is still in force today, all except for the ones they conveniently don't want to follow and they always have an excuse as to why they don't. The new covenant is always shoved to the rear burner in order to promote the law and other nonessentials.

Ask most Christians today who their intermediary is and they will name Jesus and the work accomplished and finished on the cross. Most COG members cannot do that. They need the revelations from their leaders, their writings, and visions to tell them what to believe.

There is only one intermediary and it is NOT Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, or ANY of the other COG leaders or corporations. Bob, Gerald, Dave, and the others are not necessary for anyone's salvation and no one will ever attain it through them. It is an impossibility.

Crackpot Self Appointed Gentile COG Prophet Says Yellowstone Will Blow During Tribulation

Our favorite crackpot COG prophet got into a royal snit the other day when he took offense to people on this blog calling British Israelism a myth, He was not happy and penned copy and pasted the longest and most boring stuff imaginable to prove it is all true, but did reveal that he is a Gentile just like his African followers. No, Bobbie is not self-identifying as Black, but he declares he is a genuine Gentile.

Today he has his naturopathic knickers in a holistic twist over droughts in the West and the warnings that scientists shave been making for decades about some future event where the Yellowstone volcano might blow up and the Rotorua volcano in New Zealand doing the same. These two volcanoes are in countries that his myth of British Israelism identifies and "Israelite" nations and therefore doomed to damnation and destruction. What better way to wipe out those grievous  non-Continuing Church of God members than to incinerate them with a massive volcano! I can hear the sizzling of the truth deniers and sinners right now!

You are expected to believe his doom and gloom schtick because he has personally visited those sites.

Gentile Bob gets all giddy when he constantly mentions this:

The Bible connects sin and drought. Scripture shows that water/rain/drought will become a problem for various disobedient peoples:

He never mentions the fact that in the states with drought problems that there are false prophets and false teachers in the Churches of God promoting non-biblical lies. Perhaps his god is angry over all of the current crop of COG liars and is punishing those states and countries because of these men? Is Bob the cause for the California drought? Using his "reasoning" then YES, he is!

Oh, and there are earthquakes in CA and the West! Who knew! We need a prophet like Gentile Bob and an Idahoan conspiracy theorist, Michael Snyder,to tell us so with this blaring headline:

The Shaking In California Is Getting WORSE As Hundreds And Hundreds Of Earthquakes Cause Alarm On The West Coast

The Gentile Bobster hysterical continues with this:

Jesus warned about a time of earthquakes, famines, and troubles:

8 … And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. (Mark 13:8)

Water shortages can lead to famines.

We are in the time Jesus called the beginning of sorrows.

Of course, it is not just North America that could be affected by troubles, famines, volcanoes or earthquakes.

Consider also the following related to New Zealand:

The North Island of New Zealand is chock full of volcanoes—and big volcanoes at that. No less than four major calderas sit in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) that stretches from White Island in the north to Ruapehu in the south. One of the most violent volcanic eruptions in human history took place in ~186 AD from Lake Taupo. That rhyolitic (high silica) eruption produced an ash plume that may have towered 50 kilometers (164,000 feet!) over the caldera, what we call an “ultraplinian” eruption (and anything that is “ultra” has to be big). More recently, Tarawera in the Okataina caldera erupted in 1886 in one of the most explosive basaltic (low silica) eruptions on record that had ash plume that reached 10 kilometers (~32,000 feet) and buried a number of towns along with blasting a new valley out of the landscape. The North Island is definitely a place where volcanic unrest is taken seriously.

After tossing in Jesus as an afterthought, Gentile Bob continues by letting us know that he has physically stood on top of NZ's volcano! Damn! It will blow for sure now! Everything self-appointed COG leaders have attached themselves to end up having problems. If I were in NZ I would leave the country right now!  Gentile Bob has doomed you to utter destruction. Don't go to Australia though, he plans on seeing them destroyed too and you don't want to be in that mess either.

You must remember that since Gentile Bob STOOD on top of this volcano he is now an AUTHORITY on the matter. Just like he has been in the Vatican and is now a world-renowned authority on Satan's Chair.

Gentile Bob continues:

For years, I have warned that the USA could be hit with a ‘perfect storm’ of events and disaster that could weaken it during the ‘beginning of sorrows’ so that it would be easier for it to be taken over at the start of the Great Tribulation. Now, we see that the space agency NASA sees Yellowstone as a serious risk. And while some will scoff and say that the probability is too low, less statistically ‘probable’ events have happened. Plus, because of the decline in morality in the USA, destructive events are going to hit it.

I have seen more immorality in the Churches of God than I have in my neighbors.  So where does that leave us? Are our nations suffering because of the immoral COG leadership, who should be setting the example and do not? Are Bob's grievous sins causing CA problems? (Watch Gentile Bob pull a Meredithism, when he too declares he has not committed a major sin since baptism or self-appointing himself as a COG leader).

Gentile Bob then ends with this:

Things will not remain as they have. There is a serious drought. Yellowstone could erupt. Elements will melt. Get your spiritual life in order. 

 

Life can end suddenly and unexpectedly.

For COG members this is a constant worry. In the back of their minds, they have been conditioned to believe that they are not ready, that their sins have caused Christ's delay in his coming, and most importantly, that they are NOT worthy. This is what COG false prophets like Gentile Bob, Gerald Flurry, and Dave Pack do. They denigrate their members and make them feel worthless.

Real followers of Jesus are secure with their standing with God and don't let their lives be consumed by false prophecies and mindless rants of mentally deranged COG leaders. Their standing is secure in the One more solid than any COG leader.

PCG's Wayne Turgeon Gets His Comeuppance From Swiss TSA Agents

 

Wayne Turgeon, of the Philadelphia Church of God, recently got his comeuppance, though, like Bob Thiel, he looks at this as persecution. Turgeon is well known to PCG members and exCOG members as being one of the more abusive ministers in the PCG.

It was hilarious to read the following report on Exit and Support Network about Turgeon's latest exploiters which this time let him know the world does not revolve around him or his opinions. Just like Bob Thiel, Turgeon went and threw a self-righteous fit that he was being persecuted. Then he had the audacity to tell PCG members that hearing his story should inspire them to pray for the ministers in PCG around the world as they face persecution.

There is not one single minister in any of the Churches of God who has suffered any persecution for what they believe. Not one!

It is so funny to watch COG ministers pitch fits when someone stands up to their boastful arrogant personalities. They whine like little babies.

Wayne Turgeon has preached in the past about how members need to behave in certain ways–obedient, patient, long suffering, don’t answer back, do as you’re told, especially with those in authority. Exhibit the fruits of the Spirit.

Well, he recently got a taste of his own medicine. In a recent Bible study he took much time at the beginning to tell a convoluted story about his and his wife’s woes of being denied into this one country (that he wouldn’t name but at the end he mentioned the Alps), and how it took hours and days. All because the rules had been changed due to a technicality and how they were stringent. Being grouchy and short-tempered is nothing new for Turgeon, although he had the members laughing at his plight.

He related more and more problems as he went on saying the latter ones were due to his not contacting this country’s Embassy. Turgeon was short-tempered with several of those he had to deal with and who grilled him with many questions.

He explained that the reason he was going through all these details was to inspire them (the brethren listening) to PRAY for God’s ministers–all around the world. “We don’t know how long this (pandemic) is going to last. But I need to meet some members that haven’t been visited in awhile; I need to meet new contacts that want to come into the church.”

He later asked the authorities for a form (it was 4-6 pages long) so he could complain about his treatment. It was in English but he would have to pay to get it translated into whatever language they have. So he eventually tore it up because it would be too much hassle and may make his future visits tougher if he tries to go back and they (the authorities) had it on file.

Then he said he started wondering “if they might be checking out the Philadelphia Church of God” and the names of those members and the prospective members in those countries he hoped to visit. [Oh yes, Wayne, they might find out what is behind PCG and how much money GF is pulling in and you wouldn’t want that.]

At 1 AM some men come out dressed in military uniform with pistols and he said it was a “little bit intimidating.” (These men were carrying a big wad of papers for them to sign, but Turgeon refused because only one page was in English.) He admitted that he “made several frustrating comments” at that time such as: “If I was back in the U. S. I would be calling my lawyer!” (He told the brethren he didn’t have a lawyer) “I have no rights here! This is being run like a Nazi dictatorship!” He said they (he and his wife) could had been sitting there for hours and if they hadn’t gone on back to check on them they could have been sitting there all night! He said it flustered the officers and the main guy’s hands “started shaking.” Turgeon said, “So we must have had them intimidated.”

Then these officers call security and finally, Turgeon and his wife are escorted to the TSA after 1:30 AM and back out to the lobby. His tote bag was swabbed for drugs. There were bright lights, people talking out loud, etc. At 2:30 AM he falls asleep on an end table and is awaken by three armed immigration officers in the lobby of this airport demanding to see his passport. So Turgeon blurts out, “They took my passport!”

At 8 AM, after it being “tortuous” to try and get any kind of rest, they go to Gate 4 where they were told to go. The first men there at this immigration office were friendly and in T-shirts, jeans and sneakers. But two military security guards had to drive them in an armed vehicle right up to the plane and escort them inside the plane. 

 

Turgeon said he believes it will “only get worse not better as time goes on.” He was glad he gave a study on Acts recently (thinking about what the Apostle Paul went through). He emphasized that members are to “Please PRAY for the ministry. We are not going to quit. They are going to have to kill me first.” (This was the fear part.)

More Stupid Things Gerald Flurry Has Said

 

GF has made an announcement that all men are to wear white shirts for Sabbath services. Evidently colored shirts are out. Exit and Support Network

 

The ultimate goal of Flurry.

LCG Gains Mind-boggling New Number Of Attendees! The Mighty Work Marches Forward With Power!

 

After spending thousands of dollars in holding "campaigns" in different cities, with over 370 attending, the boys in Charlotte are pleased that they have 14 new attendees. They are encouraged about this "positive trend". It is amazing what Church of God leaders in 2021` think are "positive trends." They are grasping at straws.

After a hiatus for most of 2020, the first five months of 2021 saw a gradual ramping up of Tomorrow’s World Presentations by the Living Church of God. In “campaigns” in ten different cities, 373 subscribers have attended, in person or online. What is most encouraging, however, is that out of the six cities where we had in-person events—Williamsburg, Virginia; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Tauranga, New Zealand; Kansas City, Missouri; Greensboro, North Carolina; and, Knoxville, Tennessee—we now have a total of 14 new attendees. While the overall total is small, we are encouraged by this positive trend.