Monday, August 7, 2023

Crackpot Prophet Says That Once The European Beast Power (Germany) Conquers The United States It Will Make a Deal To Give Alaska Back To Russia


Gone are the days when we thought Gerald Flurry, Ron Wienland, and Alton Billingsley were the resident Church of God crackpots with their end-time looney tune ideas. The things they have said and still say pale in comparison to the absolute idiocy that comes out of the mouth of our self-crowned end-time prophet to the Churches of God, the Great Bwana Bob Mzungu Thiel.

Today the Great Bwana Bob Mzungu had another prophecy/conspiracy-laden pop-tart up about Alaska. There has been severe flooding after a glacial dam burst on the Mendenhall River near Juneau, Alaska. Several homes were damaged or destroyed in the flooding of the river. This event fits nicely into the end-time scenarios that the Great Bwana NEEDS to happen in order to validate his craziness.


Then the great Bwana Bob Mzungu adds:

Floods can cause problems in many places–and do.


Then things drastically switch gears as the Great Bwana Bob Mzungu wets his pants over China and Russia conducting naval exercises close to Alaska.

China & Russia Sent Huge Naval Flotilla Toward Alaska; US Responds By Dispatching Destroyers. August 6, 2023

A large joint Russia-China military exercise which is being described as unprecedented in size has sparked alarm in the Pentagon, given it took place off Alaska, causing the US to dispatch four navy warships and aerial assets in the same waters, a very rare move itself of significant size. Zero Hedge

Which then immediately turned into this:

Beyond being provocative, as I have reported here over the years, Russia wants at least part of Alaska, which it once controlled, back.

Last year, a reader tipped me of to the following that Newsweek posted:

‘Alaska Is Ours!’ Billboards Appear in Russia After Threat to Reclaim State

July 7, 2022

Billboards proclaiming “Alaska Is Ours!” have been spotted in Russia one day after a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the country could reclaim the territory that was sold to the U.S. in 1867.

Multiple billboards bearing the slogan surprised residents in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk after being spotted on Thursday, according to Krasnoyarsk news agency NGS24. One day earlier, Putin ally and State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suggested that Russia could “take back” Alaska in retaliation for economic sanctions imposed on Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The idea that Russia will regain Alaska is not “totally mad” as the tweet states. I do NOT think it is mad at all that some in Russia think that they should regain control of Alaska.

The Great Bwana then adds this comment from the Governor of Alaska:

 

 

In Bwana Bob Mzungu's constant crybaby state of mind, he envisions the citizens of Alaska meekly standing by and allowing Russia to take over the state. Of course, this is after Germany had bombed the hell out of the state and imprisoned Alaskans in concentration camps. That's the kind of scenario crybabies like Bwana Bob Mzungu would allow to happen. 

Considering almost 60% of Alaskans have guns, I see scenes from the original Red Dawn playing out when I read Bwana Bob getting aroused at the prospect of Russia trying to get Alaska back.

 

Then, for some ungodly reason, he quotes Adam Schiff (one of California's biggest elected morons) who represents CA District 30 which includes West Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and parts of Los Angeles. 

Our big Church of God snowflake continues (remember, Bwana Bob is an authority on EVERYTHING...):

February 3, 2020 
 
Adam Schiff of California claimed during closing arguments in the Senate impeachment trial Monday that President Donald Trump will sell a U.S. state to the Russian government if not removed from office. 
 
If “abuse of power” was not impeachable, Schiff argued, “then a whole range of utterly unacceptable conduct in a president would now be beyond reach.” 
 
“Trump could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange for support in the next election, or decide to move to Mar-A-Lago permanently and leave Jared Kushner to run the country, delegating to him the decision whether they go to war. Schiff: Trump Will Sell Alaska To Russia If We Don’t Impeach Him

Here is how the Great Bwana Bob Mzungu Thiel sees Russia getting Alaska back:

Although Russia does not know how it will happen, I think I do. It is certainly possible that if Russia makes a deal with the rising European Beast power that it may end up with Alaska. 
 
Consider the following prophecy:

39 Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain (Daniel 11:39). 
 
The “he” is the European King of the North (cf. Daniel 11:40). The strongest fortresses in the 21st century belong to the USA, and to a lessor degree its British-descended allies. 
 
Since Bible prophecy points to Anglo-lands being divided in various scriptures, Russia may well end up with some of all of Alaska and maybe even parts of Canada.

He ends with this:

Russia still has limited ties to Alaska–and it does want it back. 
 
Flooding aside, yes, I believe Russia will end up with Alaska.

This is the kind of useless crap that occupy the minds of Church of God spiritual deviates who are consumed by legalism and the desire for their vengeful god to come and wipe out humanity that they see as grievous sinners who defy their god in everything they do. 

If they were actually followers of the New Covenant and dared to recognize Jesus, which they really do not, they would understand that their lives do not need to be filled with endless speculation, worry, and wanton vengeance as their minds currently dwell upon. It really pisses these guys off that here they are trying to do everything right and be perfect while all around them people do what they want and don't care what they, the self-appointed prophets of doom say.

Christians at rest in New Covenant understanding don't need to worry about this kind of pseudo-prophetic drivel. Being at rest and living in confidence in that rest supersedes all of the pop-tart theology of Bwana Bob Mzungu and the rest of the self-appointed prophets of doom in the Church of God movement.


 

Sunday, August 6, 2023

Vic Kubik: The "Great Apostasy" And The Justification For The Start Of United Church of God


 

Most of us here experienced the great upheaval that hit the Worldwide Church of God in the 1990s with its rejection of certain extra-biblical teachings and doctrines of Herbert W Armstrong. Regardless of where your sympathies were on either side of these changes, they were traumatic and not well thought out when they are announced. It was assumed by many in leadership positions that the majority of the church members would blindly follow along because they had had "church government" shoved down their throats for decades and would not rebel en mass as so many did. 

Most of us watched as various men who always thought themselves far more enlightened than regular members beat their chests in self-righteous indignation and claimed they were taking up the mantle of truth the WCG was rejecting to preserve the truth once delivered. Each one was always more deserving of followers than the previous chest thumper.

One of the most prominent groups to break off during this time was those that started the United Church of God. What was most galling about this event is that far too many of the ministers leading up to the changes and for a while afterward, while still on WCG payroll, pretended to follow and enforce WCG edicts as changes were slowly happening. These same men kicked out lots of members for disagreeing with the various changes while they themselves were having questions about the changes. A divide in loyalties was quickly happening in Pasadena and within the ministry. In Pasadena many of these men soon started to gather on and off campus in various ministers' homes to plan how they could take as many members, mailing lists, church inventory, and as much money as they could to start a new splinter group. 

Most of these men had never worked a full day of manual labor outside the privileged lifestyle of a paid dark-suited church employee and were fearful of now having to get real jobs to provide for their families to live on during the transition they were planning. Gone would be the ministerial perks of $5,000 Feast allocations and tax deductions they were so privileged to partake of over the previous decades. Life was going to be tough for these guys and they knew it. But, with good planning and locations to start gathering tithe money of unhappy WCG members, they knew they could raise the money they needed to transfer over from one paid job to another keeping their important lifestyle intact.

For far too many of these men who started splinter groups, it was not so much really about preserving doctrine but a means of preserving income. Church teachings and doctrines came second. 

Scores of books, articles, and video programs were made by men on both sides of the issue justifying their stances on why the changes were made and why those that started new groups had the right to do so. Most members read and watched these men while many times rolling their eyes at the stuff they were hearing, yet switched groups over and over till they found a group that satisfied their perceived needs.

This brings us to today as we have Victor Kubik telling his version of that story. Like far too many other COG men who authored stories, it comes across as self-righteous justification or martyrdom for the truth as they saw it.

Kubik currently has three editions of his version of the United Church of God story up to read. He started his series in mid-May 2023.

I am curious as to what those that read here think about his version. 

Chapter 1 The Genesis of the United Church of God

Chapter 2  Crossing the Rubicon on March 3, 1995

Chapter 3  Conflict Erupts 

Trying to get out from under the weight of history

 



Trying to get out from under the weight of history

Lonnie Hendrix

As part of the comment thread for a post that appeared here, Trooisto asked CGI’s Jeff Reed: “How does your church reconcile the failed prophecies, proclaimed to be uttered under the authority of God, by your church’s founding fathers, HWA and GTA? How does all the written and recorded evidence of false prophecies of your leaders impact the legitimacy of your church and your claim to have a ‘correct set of beliefs’?” Trooisto went on to note: “CGI also copied the extra-biblical doctrines of British Israelism from HWA and much of the same failed prophesies of impending, in the next few years, catastrophes to fall upon ‘Israelitish nations’. You can claim to have a historical foundation in Jesus, but Jesus never identified certain European nations as being lost tribes of Israel and Jesus never mentioned the United States. So, an honest admission should be given that at least part of your church’s theology came from HWA, as also preached by GTA prior to the inception of CGI and for the first twenty years of CGI’s history. Anything short of that acknowledgment is a dishonest whitewash of CGI history.”

For me, these observations underscored a problem that ALL of the Armstrong Churches of God must confront: “How does one handle all of that sordid history regarding their origins?” And, to be clear, I’m not talking about the Seventh Day Baptists, the founding of the Adventist Movement, or the history of the two Churches of God, Seventh Day. No, I’m talking about the history that begins with Herbert Armstrong. How does one deal with: The events surrounding Armstrong’s separation from the COG, 7th Day? Armstrong’s plagiarism and borrowing from other traditions/organizations? The problems with Armstrong’s character? The large volume of writings that were generated over fifty years (including failed predictions and changes in doctrine)? The teachings of Herbert Armstrong which have been thoroughly discredited and/or effectively challenged (e.g. Anglo-Israelism, Headline Theology, the warning message for Israel, tithing, the nature of the message about the Kingdom of God, Church government, etc.)? The behavior of Garner Ted Armstrong, and the impact of his (and others’) efforts to systematize Herbert’s teachings? What happened with the Tkach regime? The numerous splits/schisms which have happened over the years before and after Herbert Armstrong’s death? These are all part of that great weight of history that confronts ALL of the Armstrong Churches of God!

Hence, the question: How does one deal with all of this sordid history? Well, so far, the ACOG’s have dealt with their history in the same way(s) that most people, organizations, and nations have dealt with unpleasant episodes in their history. In brief, humans have a tendency to deal with past embarrassments by: 1) Ignoring them/pretending they didn’t happen, 2) Trying to change/modify the narrative and put a more positive spin on what happened, 3) Confronting the unpleasantness, and trying to deal with it. Moreover, if any attempt is made to confront the past, people usually try to emphasize the changes they’ve instituted and/or the measures which they have taken to address past injustices. Needless to say, remedy number three requires the most soul-searching and work and has, consequently, been the least popular way of dealing with all of the unpleasantness in our collective past. And, as we look at the Armstrong Churches of God, we see that most of them have simply ignored that past or attempted to change the narrative – neither of which has worked very well for them in the age of the internet.