Disgruntled COG Prophet Tries Claim He Is The ONE MAN To Lead Final Phase Of The Work And All Who Reject Him Are In Rebellion!

Bob Thiel, now a totally discredited Church of God leader has been doubling down on his authority as the ONLY end-time COG leader and that church members should yield to his church government and recognize him as the right ONE to lead the church.

Bwana Bob has a lengthy post up today about proper church governance and uses Herbert Armstrong's letter he wrote on church government while the Worldwide Church of God was being investigated by the State of California for financial malfeasance.

Thiel quotes the entire letter, but here is the except that Thiel believes pertains to him:

God ... He has always worked through ONE MAN at a time. He worked through Abraham. He worked through Moses, through Joshua, through one "judge" at a time, through Samuel, through David, through Solomon. He worked through Peter and when Peter had left the Middle East, through Paul. These men had, in greater or lesser number, staff assistants under them, but God's WORK was through the ONE MAN AT A TIME! THIS IS THE "WORK OF GOD" -- and not a humanly organized institution, operation or organization on the worldly corporate type of organization, function and procedure. (Armstrong H. Just What Is 'The WORK'? Good News, April 1981)

God never works through committees. God works only through one man at a time, and always did. All through the Bible you will find that God had to work through one man at a time. (Armstrong H. Another Civilization. Sermon, October 2, 1982)

To administer these many operations, God--not a vote of the members--"hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers." Or, as stated in more detail in Ephesians 4:11 (RSV): "And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers." ...

Evangelists were leading ministers, proclaiming the gospel to the public, even raising up local churches and having supervision over some churches ... an evangelist may hold executive functions under the apostle in the Church headquarters or work today. An evangelist is not necessarily stationary. Pastors are stationary pastors over a local church or contingent group of local churches. (Armstrong HW. Mystery of the Ages, Chapter 6)

Now what kind of a building do you have if part of the facade, one or two stones, or one or two pieces of the wood of it is over one place and some of it is over in another State, and a part of it is in another nation, and another part of it is somewhere else? Would you call it a building? And yet there are those that say; "Well I'm a loner, I'm an individual Christian. I don't want to be a part of any church organization." And then there's those who say; "I don't want to follow a man." And yet that's what they do do, they follow a man usually. And they go off into many little cliques, each one of them following one man. 
   
Now God has always worked through one man as leader. But that man is only a leader, and always it has been God. For example, when Samuel was a prophet leading the people of God, they didn't want Samuel anymore, they wanted a human king like the other nations. God said; "It isn't you they have rejected Samuel, you weren't the real ruler, I was. They have rejected me that I should not rule over them." (I Samuel 8:7 paraphrased). This is eighth chapter of I Samuel. And, you see it was God ruling them, not Samuel. 
   
And so it is really Christ leading the Church today, it is not I. I am only an instrument. (Armstrong H. Ephesians 3 & 4 Bible Study, January 2, 1981)

Thiel is struggling right now to regain control of his rapidly dwindling church, particaurly in Africa. According to him rebellion men have arisen and are casting negative stories about him and his African work. These men are in direct rebellion against him as the ONE TRUE Church of God leader. They have rebelled against TRUE church government. 

If you wish to be Philadelphian faithful, you need to know who the O N E M A N at this time leading the final phase of the work is (watch also Dreams, the Bible, the Radio Church of God, and the Continuing Church of God). 

 

If there is some type of a crisis, what should members do? 

 

Support that ONE MAN unless he is clearly an apostate.

But you are Bob! You are apostate! 

Bob Thiel Upset Over Satan's Minions On Banned, Smears Serbian Members Who Left

 

This just gets better by the day!

One of the reasons for posting this is that Satan's minions at the anti-COG Banned by HWA website are elated+ that the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) lost about ten people this year. Eight were from Serbia. All of them rejected biblical governance for various reasons. The fact that we gained over 250 this month in Lodwar is not something they were interested in mentioning.

Anyway, at least one of the ill-informed at Banned posted things to the effect that the CCOG lost 1/2 of its Caucasian members as that poster apparently thought we had more people in Serbia than we had. Another commented that the CCOG would lose most of its African members, because we would be losing the financial support of the Serbians. That, of course is absurd. The Serbian group has been subsidized for years by the CCOG--they have never supplied the CCOG offices in the USA or Africa with money. Furthermore, the financial support given by the CCOG to Africa was one of the reason that they gave for leaving. Anyway, some at the nned by HWA site are falsely predicting a CCOG collapse--that is simply wrong. While we do not like to lose members, and will ubdoubtedly sometimes lose more because of a new group that formed, to the best of my knowledge (not counting those we put out last year for financial corruption) we lost about ten and gained over 250 congregants this month--the CCOG remains the fastest growing x-WCGgroup in the 21st century. The assertion that enitre countries have left the CCOG is not true--which countries? Certainly not Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Rwanda, DRC, South Sudan, or Ethiopia. Nor are we facing any financial crisis.

Many of the ignorant and inaccurate comments at the Banned site bring the following scripture to mind:

16 The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes Than seven men who can answer sensibly. (Proverbs 26:16) 

Irrespective of facts provided many at Banned prefer their own faulty judgments and accusations.

Speaking of the Banned site, someone who left us a while back, sent me something on Friday that he tried to get posted at the Banned site--but it does not look like it ever was posted. It included the following statements:

I wish nothing but the best for Dr. Thiel. I don't agree with what is happening in Africa and I feel that Dr. Thiel should handle the situation differently but I am not him. Saying that I am not against Dr. Thiel and still consider him a friend and have the utmost respect for him. ... He does have many gifts and I wish him the best. Like Paul and Barnabas they went separate ways that is how I feel about CCOG and Bob Thiel. Saying that I am not an Elder in the Church nor will I ever be one. I am just a believer and if God allows me to use my skills to help the work I will. Aleksandar Veljic is a personal friend of mine someone I have the highest respect for, and even he is not attacking Bob Thiel after leaving CCOG and has told people publicly that they should not do so. So not sure what people at banned are trying to accomplish. Bob Thiel is a great person and I honestly believe his heart is in the right place ...

Sadly, many have succumbed to gossip and innuendo. To assist those interested in the biblical truth about governance as well as to deal with various allegations of corruption, we put out the following sermon yesterday:

Aleksandar Sasha Veljic : More on Bob Thiel's Cover Ups In Africa

 

So that Terry`s words of the scandals I was suffering about for 6 years would not be just words, let me illustrate it. After my visit to Africa in 2017, I had a very strong feelings that those attending CCOG there really had no idea about the Bible prophecies. I reported my feelings to Bob Thiel, so perhaps that is why he might have been suspicious about whether those attendees there understand all that we teach. The second scandal I witnessed was that nobody has ever anointed sick in Kenya. To his credit, Bob Thiel did write to Evans about that, but did Evans care? Of course not. Being loose there and having a total trust of Bob Thiel he has been abusing widely his position. When Terry returned from Africa, I asked him if he had ever seen Evans or any deacon anoint the sick. As I presumed, no Terry hadn`t seen it. In other words, those people in Africa resist to change and bring themselves into the harmony with Christ and the Bible, which just proves to me that many of them are not interested in Christ-like life, but their goal is to milk as much money from CCOG leader as they could.

There was another scandal when Evans told me with much pride how he took one of his sons to the Kenyan army. So, that son was fighting Islamic insurgents in Kenya. At that time, as Evans told me with not small pride, his son was a "cadet". I was shocked. And that was an indication to me that African CCOG members don`t really understand Church teachings. I informed Bob Thiel about this, but I have never heard anything about it afterwards.

Another shock came to me as I returned home. One Kenyan from another Church of God informed me that the other son of Evans participated in the election campaign in 2017. Now, that is not a small thing and, as a representative of Bob Thiel, I surely had to be informed about it. The fact that I was not informed about it told me that they did not want CCOG to know about it. Surely, I informed Bob Thiel who took a swift action to tell Evans` son, who was in that same year appointed a deacon, while his father was appointed an evangelist, that Church members are not to be active in the politics. They both, the father and the son, promised to Bob Thiel they were never again do any such thing. However, last year the same happened: there was Evans` son again in political campaign, but he did not inform Bob Thiel about it. Terry obtained all the official documents from the Kenyan election board. I also checked online the site of that body and found the name of Evans` son listed as an independent candidate in his district. Moreover, Evans` son didn`t even hide his political engagement on his Facebook profile, so the whole world could see his political rallies, posters, Orange coalition promotional material and congratulations sent to him. When Bob Thiel tried to convince me that someone had put Evans` son name on the ballot without Evans` son being aware of that, I reminded him of all this evidence. When he persisted in that claim, my common sense was totally offended. Evans` son was removed supposedly from the position of deacon, but it was never officially announced. However, he was caught preaching at CCOG and the video recording of that has been obtained. What does that all tell us? That nobody can rely on any reports from Kenya. Bob Thiel was lied twice about an important matter. Naturally, one would pose a question as to how many other lies they have been telling me? Yet, he does not question the honesty, integrity and conversion (or at least a level of conversion) of his favorite "evangelist". And it seems he is willing to defend him to the last silly argument that he can come up with. As Terry said, I endured the African CCOG non-sense for years. I could no longer take it. And once Terry presented me evidence, now I had something that I could call upon and use it to finally remove myself from that cancer on the Body of Christ.

Aleksandar Sasha Veljic "...membership of entire countries have departed from CCOG"

Yes, his claim to be the fastest growing Church of God was based on his bogus African membership numbers. And some of us were grieved, while others laughed at that bogus. We were hoping that he might finally see through all that sham he called "the open door in Africa". However, once we realized he would ignore all the evidence, and once we experienced that the words of his "evangelist" Evans is for him above any word or testimony coming from anyone else, I realized there was no hope and I finally understood that CCOG was no longer place for me. Since Bob really does not have any real understanding of what is going on in Africa, but he relies only on the reports he gets from "evangelist" Evans, he may not be even aware of the consequences in Africa, which is that there are even less members than before. In some cases, membership of the entire countries have departed from CCOG, or better said have liberated themselves from Evans spiritual oppression. Non-Africans who have endured all that sham for years share in their joy of liberation. On top of that, for the first time now I am learning of more of corruption and crimes of that African "evangelist" that some members are coming forward to tell me. The abuse that a small congregation in Tanzania suffered is incredible and provides even more proof that Evans Ochieng is not only a false Christian preacher, but a false Christian as well. Aleksandar Sasha Veljic

Wyatt Ciesielka Dreams Up New Excuse On Keeping The Law

From a reader:
 

In an article attempting to debunk Messianic Judaism, Wyatt Ciesielka has this to say about Paul in Galatians 3:23-25 where he talks about the law being a "tutor" till the New Covenant arrived, but then he claims the law is still in effect because Galatians is talking about minor laws, not the major laws.

What are the 613 mitzvot? First, it is helpful to explain what they are not. The 613 mitzvot are not the law of God—they are not the Ten Commandments or the Holy Days, nor are they even the sacrificial system or the Old Covenant. The 613 mitzvot are simply a multitude of rabbinic ordinances (in Greek, dogma) based on human interpretations of Scripture, which in some cases are valid instruction for right worship, but in other instances are instruction only for a temporary time or situation. In other instances, they are misinterpretations of Scripture, and in still other instances they are part of “the law”—not the Ten Commandments, but the lower-case law, which included the “tutor.” This, as Paul noted in Galatians 3:23–25, was superseded by the New Covenant.