I remember going with a minister to a home in Idaho once where the woman heard the voice of God often in her head. She had a young baby so the minister asked me to tend to the baby while he talked to her about her visions and voices. The baby had not had a diaper change in a pretty long time, so I took care of that in the kitchen while the minister tried to help her. Seems she was killing chickens on the farm and trying to resurrect them…without much luck. We never made any connection to the danger and I doubt either of us understood the symptoms of schizophrenia, but I do now.

After that, I returned to Ambassador for my last year and was reading the LA Times in the lounge before breakfast. My eye fell on a small article about a woman in a small town in Idaho who was found sitting in her car on a mountain top waiting for Jesus to return. I knew the name. They found the baby dead in the backseat. Or should I say, still dead.

It was my first wake up call to the dangers of missing the symptoms of delusional thinking with religious content. There was nothing spiritually wrong with the woman. She was clearly mentally ill and no one was smart enough to spot it before it was too late.

Moving right along...

From the Bible we find a man once laid on his right side for 390 straight days and then flipped over for another 40 because the voice in his head told him to. He drew Jerusalem on clay and lay siege to it with an iron pot (Ez. 4). He even cooked his food with human waste or was told to but begged off that.  Some think he was to mix it with his food as human dung does not burn.  (Ez. 4:9) and dug a hole in his own home and squeezed himself through it with his possessions on his back (Ez. 12).

His name was Ezekiel. Maybe he was traumatized by the captivity or the destruction of the symbol of all that was holy and stable to him, the temple. He died forever ago and lots of the stuff he said was going to happen never really did far as we can tell. I hear a lot of minister types quoting him 2500 years later as if you can read the news and immediately see what Ezekiel was talking about.

 I know most will say that God told him to do these things….but think about what you are saying. Would you say that about Andrea Yates who God told to drown her kids , The Son of Sam or Mijailo Mijailovic who killed the Swedish Foreign Minister, Anna Lindh, saying when asked who told him to do it, "I think it was Jesus. That he has chosen me”?
An Old Testament character, Moses, went up into the mountains a few times because the voice in his head that no one else could hear, called him up for a meeting. He said it was God, but when he came back down the mountain carrying , what he said were the rules from the voice in his head, he ordered the murder of 3000  men women and children for not patiently waiting for him. And these people had already had a pretty tough time getting out of Egypt doing what the voice in Moses's head told him to do. He had friends killing friends and families all because the voice in his head told him to.

It all started with Moses running across a burning bush through which he was quite sure he could hear the voice of God talking to him.

Yet again, an Old Testament figure called Abraham, hears a voice in his head telling him to kill his only son and decides to do as he was told. So he lures his son into the appropriate mountain and breaks the bad news to him as to just what the sacrifice is going to be.  The voice in his head intervenes in the Isaac of time and I imagine that was the end of any real and trusting relationship between Abraham and his son from then on.  Mrs. Abraham, like Mrs Lot, evidently didn't even seem to mind what hubby was up to and I can't imagine Isaac not telling her how the day had gone.  (It never happened but it's quite a story.)

There was a prophet (was he given a double portion of the spirit to fight a cold?) who married a prostitute because the voice told him to. We had to drop the standard laws of marriage for this one, but its ok if you are doing it for God. Man was his wife mad about that! The guy even began to think he was a reincarnated form of the guy before him who talked to the bush. Tons of people obeyed this guy for a time, but usually not for very long. Hosea I think.


The more I think about it, the more I have to admit that voices in the heads of people I never met, and no one at that time could hear themselves, have played a really big role in who gets the final say in religion. When you think of it, those of the Christian faith think nothing of believing whatever those thousands of years before are recorded to have heard broadcast inside their heads as being from God. How could one ever know what really happened or even if it did, but to question following what they are said to have seen or said or been told to do comes easily for most who never think about what they are actually believing and doing.

Paul in the New Testament, it is said,  fell off a donkey when he heard a voice in his head about giving Jesus a hard time in his old job. He even saw a flash of light in his head, brighter than the sun and it was already noon when this happened! That’s pretty darn bright! When people in the Bible light up, it’s ALWAYS brighter than the sun. You’d think more people would notice. The others either heard the voice but did not see the light, or saw the light but not the voice, stood up, or all fell down depending on the story your read in the Bible. The voice in Paul’s head told him it was time to change jobs and he’d get his vision back if he did what he was told. Today we might say he had all the symptoms of heat exhaustion or maybe even temporal lobe epilepsy where voices and flashes are pretty darn common along with an intense sense of morality that others must get in tune with. It's a medical problem in the brain.

Paul went on to write most of the New Testament and continue to tell people nothing about any real Jesus he had ever met. No stories, no miracles, no teachings, nothing about the 12 men Jesus had to follow him, and I would expect to have passed the teachings on to others. Maybe even write something about Jesus, after all there were 12 of them! But alas, they didn’t much and we have no clue what happened to them save made up "traditions".  It’s all hearsay. Some say that they were merely a symbol of the twelve signs of the zodiac surrounding the central sun/son, and not real people, but let’s not go there.
Paul spoke volumes about the one who spoke to him in his head and he saw often in visions. When he gave the instructions for eating the body and blood of Jesus, he said very plainly Jesus himself told him about the details of that. "That which I have received from the Lord, give I unto you.." Paul never met the real Jesus so I’m pretty sure he meant in vision. When he said, “have I not seen the Lord?” he didn’t mean in person. He meant in his visions. It can also mean "have I not experienced the Lord," which is not the same as knowing any earthly Jesus.   Paul even took a trip to the third heaven, but said the stuff he saw was too much to share at this time.  Typical of a man who wanted to be thought of as special but could not be pressed for details he could not come up with.
We read in  the book of Mark that Jesus mom and brothers came down to Jerusalem to get him because THEY thought he was “mad.” I don’t think they thought he was angry, but rather insane.
Jesus kind of blew them off in a way that would have got me slapped by my dad for being so rude to mom. It was like he didn’t know them. Mary had evidently completely forgotten about his wonderful birth story and all those great things she kept and pondered in her heart. Besides he had to do what the voice in his head said.

Later, other writers who wrote about Jesus dropped this hot little tale and told a really cute story about how Jesus came to be. God himself had visited her, well no, I guess the Holy Spirit did. You know the third thing in the Trinity and she was pregnant by no less than the Deity. She burst into song about this in Luke and seemed to know that Jesus was literally “fully God and fully man”, whatever that means. I can understand one thing being fully something, but not two things being fully the same thing but different and coequal but not. Church talk. I guess it’s one of those mysteries we hear about when one story leads to the next and we tie ourselves in a knot, wrapped in a enigma and all that.

Matthew tells a great story of Jesus birth, different from Luke’s, but at least they cleaned up that embarrassing tale about Jesus being hauled away by his family for being insane. Mark must have been mistaken according to Matthew and Luke, but Mark was the embarrassing story and came before the cute story, I suspect it had a ring of truth to it, at least as local rumor had it.

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus was so anxiety ridden not to know who his real father was ("we were not born of fornication") that he took mom literal when she got tired of him asking and said “God is your father. Now wash up for dinner” Who knows?
Some say his cursing trees for having no fruit at a time of year when there is not supposed to be fruit, or attacking the legitimate money changers in the temple who really were simply changing pagan money into temple scrip for the purchase of sacrifices, were not good signs of quality mental health. That last act probably got Jesus killed by the Romans, though somehow it ended up being the Jews fault. I guess it was easier and a bit wiser to blame the Jews who could not hurt you, rather than the Romans who could kill you. We give these stories a pass too easily.

As long as we are on the topic... I always found it interesting that the poor seizing child in the New Testament who threw himself in both the fire and water often, or maybe just fell in them when this hit him, cried out, foamed at the mouth and then recovered pretty quickly when the demon was put out, had all the symptoms of infantile epilepsy. Every one!

 No one knew what that was back then anymore than any other mental illness or even the concept of mental illness. Up through the Middle Ages beyond, the Church labeled everything either of God or of the Devil.  You could lose your head or go up in flames over having the wrong answer.  I wonder how people back then would treat a kid with epilepsy! It runs its course in about 30 minutes so it would sure appear that the old demon was banished but I bet it returned and could easily be prevented with one taking their Dilantin.  It has also been found that Canabis Oil can drive out a seizing demon.

Jesus had a hard time doing this stuff in his hometown because a prophet has no honor in his own town or with his own family.  They know you pretty darn well and got so concerned they came down to retrieve you for your own good, if you believe Mark. Of course he blamed the weak faith of the group, but maybe that’s because they all know you so well and aren’t easily convinced. I mean, if Jesus was God, really, really, really GOD, would the force be thwarted just because the neighbors who knew you as a kid had a hard time accepting that? I think not! Since when does being God in the flesh depend on the acceptance of the people who know you best?

Jesus also got rid of a whole legion of demons in a man that lived in a cemetery, naked breaking out of the chains used to bind him.  Chains were the medication of that time.  Anyway, aside from this man having every symptom of schizophrenia, or at best, severe mental illness, all the demons in him  were cast into a herd of pigs and they ran down into the sea from a town no where near the sea and drown. Kind of a marathon run and by the time they got there, they’d be skinny and pooped out pigs. Bible geography gone bad.

Some historians say the story of the swine was really the true story of Titus driving the Jews in to the Sea of Galilee in a campaign against them and sending his men into the water to spear them, thus becoming  "fishers of men." I don't know...

Anyway….What about the author of Revelation? . Whoa…those were some good drugs! Whoever wrote that was one angry human being and hated both the Apostle Paul (the false Apostle the Ephesians called out) and the gentiles.   Death, destruction, fire, plagues, trombones, vials and all sorts of stuff pour out on everyone! This Jesus is not such a nice guy.  The one in the Gospels can’t possibly be the same one as in Revelation, but that’s what they say. The one in Revelation seems like an end stage psychopath gone amuck. I’m not sure I could be comfy in heaven or the kingdom with one who could be so freaking mean to everyone except those special ones. I always felt a few seminars or maybe a refresher type program would send a kinder gentler message, instead of all the butt kicking, death and destruction. Maybe a nice lunch between encouraging sessions and a Luau in the evening where we could all marvel at actually meeting the real God and Jesus. And hey…if the presenter is really God or Jesus come down…I mean really really…I’d listen and be good. But alas, this Jesus in Revelation is a case…maybe literally. It’s just one big vision in someone’s head hearing voices again that others can’t hear and seeing things others don’t see. Yet, good folk eat it up and read as if they also hear the same voice in their head.

Someone once asked what’s the difference between a Bible Prophet or Christian fundamentalist and a paranoid schizophrenic? Well, one hears voices in their head, has a heightened moral code, is judgmental yet can be very deceptive and manipulative, has delusions of being on a mission from God, sees things that no one else present sees, hears things that one else hears, sees lights in his head, is the center of the universe and has special knowledge that must be kept secret until the right time an then can only be understood as explained by the one. The other, of course, is a paranoid schizophrenic.

I had a close friend in high school who in college came down with the classic symptoms of schizophrenia. Very intelligent but all of a sudden was overcome with the chemistry of schizophrenia that comes mostly between 18 and 35. He simply could not function in this world. His perceptions and his reality were far different than even he could understand. He died in his chair, alone in a dingy apartment.  I wish I had gone to see him. I suspect he took his life but no one will talk about it.  His sister took her life a few years later. She was living unknown to me in SC and I wish I had been able to go see her.  Something ran in the family.

What if those strange but dedicated characters spoken of in scripture , or alive today seeing themselves as the reincarnation of these prophets and kings are simply mentally ill?  When these modern day prophets and dreamers tell us what their God tells them or shows them, how can anyone trust that?  Why would you?  How could you?

We know more now than we did 3000 years ago. And yet when it comes to the Bible and those who declare themselves the special men of God, we go as blind as Paul claimed to go on the road to Damascus. (Even though Paul himself never says this was the mechanism of his conversion. Perhaps even worse, like Jeremiah and Jesus, he was called before birth in the womb as he notes in Galatians.) Pretty darn special! And yet we can allow that kind of perspective to be religious when today, we would get very uncomfortable with a real person saying that about themselves.

What seems ok as long as it is in the distant past becomes freaky if in the present. Many who turned away from Paul or an Ezekiel may have had that gut level discomfort. I doubt anyone today would feel a religious zealot who cooked dinner with or in his own dung would be anything but twelve short of a dozen.

Why is this an issue? Because a minister, maybe sincere, and maybe simply mentally unstable or delusional can hide in the ministry much better than he can hide at IBM. A minister that is prolific, charismatic while also dictatorial and delusional looks spiritual and obedient. The quirkiness is mistaken for spirituality and obedience to God.

They have the ability to be deceivingly compassionate one minute and intensely angry at anything and everyone the next. They don’t like to be contradicted, corrected nor have their mental processes questioned. They NEVER take personality tests! How is it that normal human beings, who have accurate perceptions about the mental instability of some at work, then lose that instinct at church? The quirkiness at work becomes the spiritually desirable trait in church! Go figure!

When Alexander Haig declared himself in charge of the government after the Reagan shooting, he was torn to shreds for his misstep and is still trying to explain it. But when a pastor type declares himself a “Watcher” or an “Apostle” or a Prophet or incredibly more special than the average human, it gets swallowed hook, line and sinker?

What if the behaviors recorded thousands of years ago that has been the basis for so much religious zealotry is simply better understood in the context of mental illness? We always say if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and swims like a duck, there is a good chance we may be dealing with a duck. When it comes to religion however we change our perceptions. If it walks like a narcissist, if it talks l schizophrenic and if it has all the symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy, it must be a man of God!

We need to be both compassionate towards the mentally ill and vigilant in spotting it in the delusional type leaders that have arisen from the implosion of the Worldwide Church of God.  Mental illness in religion can take you far.

It is always interesting watching the wet behind the ears "men" in the various COG's determine what they think women need and feel.  Most of the men doing this already have problems in their own marriages and write these articles because they feel their spouses are not respecting them as they should.  This message started with Herbert Armstrong and Loma and is carried on to this day by weak impotent little men.

Philadelphia Church of God's Joel Hilliker writes:

The Basic Needs of a Man

1. He needs to be admired.

2. He needs honest feedback.

3. He needs to be respected for his role as the leader.

4. He needs to be bolstered and encouraged.

5. He needs recognition for his achievements and success.

6. He needs the loyalty and support of the opposite sex.

7. He needs a challenge, and to be understood for his masculine interests, drives and ambitions.

8. He needs a woman to be enthusiastic and responsive to his ideas, suggestions and requests.

9. He needs appreciation for the special things he does.

10.He needs a sense of self-worth.

Men—here is the list of a woman’s needs. Working to understand these and fill these needs will make you a more valuable companion and friend to the single women in the Church. Pray that God would give you the love, wisdom, kindness, tact, patience and tenderness to exhibit these qualities.

The Basic Needs of a Woman

1. She needs attention.

2. She needs appreciation, approval and sincere compliments.

3. She needs people and personal relationships.

4. She needs to be loved, respected and treated with tenderness.

5. She needs a shoulder to cry on without fear of rejection.

6. She needs to know that her opinions count.

7. She needs to know a man appreciates her differences & tries to understand her emotional makeup

8. She needs a man to tell her of his plans so she’ll know how to properly prepare for them.

9. She needs to be assured that he is mindful of her physical limitations.

10. She needs for a man to be sensitive, protective and caring of her total welfare.

This outline concluded these lists by saying that these needs and differences can be summed up in two broad principles. These are points we should remember in our dealings with the opposite sex. We should picture them as if stamped on their forehead or as a sign hung around the neck:

· For the man: needs a sense of self-worth—treat with respect.

· For the woman: fragile—handle with care.

SaveSave

All of these little things are adding to bigger problems for Dave Pack in Wadsworth.  Once he really pisses off the resident's, things will get worse for him. He will then start screaming "persecution" just like Thiel and others do.

What a beautiful day! One and three-quarter inches of rain last night. Wonderful! We needed it! And the campus looks green. I didn’t realize until last summer…I’d never heard this before, but we water the grass on a regular basis here…for years…with irrigation. The water comes from our wells and lakes and so forth, but when you…when you use…or I guess, even some city water, I’m not sure if we do that at all…somehow it’s not the same. It doesn’t leave the lawn looking as green as water sent from God from the north, straight up.

It’s a strange thing. We don’t get any more water from the sky than we put on it ourselves on a regular basis, but it will get huge brown stripes in areas when it’s water from the city or even from a well than it will…than what it gets if it’s natural rain water. It’s a strange thing. So we can keep it alive and somewhat green, but I am thrilled when I see the rain from the sky, from God. It’s just a funny thing.

As a matter of fact, when we use our irrigation and when there’s been droughts, it’s caused attitudes in the city, because people believe that the city is giving us our water, which would not only cost us money, but it would cause problems in the city…as it does. They think that, “Well, the city says, let them get water, but everything else gets brown,” and that’s not true. But the rumor is out there that the City has cut a special deal with us. That we are drought-free when other areas turn brown, and that’s not true.

SaveSave

The most superfantabulous Church of God in human history is planning on expanding into an earth shattering global encompassing religious empire that will be the topic of conversation for the ENTIRE world, even though 99.99999999999999999% of humanity has never heard of the Restored Church of God.  Dave expects his "Drudge" style sight to draw in millions and millions of people around the world discussing his utterances.

We are looking at triangulating, from three different perspectives, maybe very soon all three places in place. This is a different discussion for later with more detail, but three different ways the Work will go forward.

Number 1: Massive Internet presence. It appears that the funds to do that are going to be here—more than I ever dreamed.

But on top of that, it looks like we may be going back into television, which five years…I’m not certain. We’re really going to be sure, but it looks like the funds to do that, and I mean worldwide, are going to be in place as long as it’s the right thing to do, and it could work synergistically with this massive Internet presence instead of replacing it, as we did five years ago, and finding out it wasn’t effective in a big way, because it stood pretty much alone.

And we couldn’t afford to do both while we were biting off building this building…But it caused us to have to pull back over four years ago. Now we can do both.

But there’s something else we can do. The third thing we can do. We may start a third website, or it’d be another website…actually a fourth website, but it would be the third element, here, where on a daily basis or very close to daily, we would be posting something new. We want to get into the world conversation in a bigger way. The news cycle of this world is way beyond what it was under Mr. Armstrong when people got monthly magazines. Well, we’re bi-monthly. Semi-monthly wouldn’t even be fast enough, but we’re bi-monthly, and it takes 500 man hours to produce a single Real Truthmagazine. So I’m willing to do that, if that’s the right thing to do, but if it’s not, I’d abandon it in two seconds. It was never used by any servant of God prior to Mr. Armstrong.

I’m not saying we’re going to abandon it. We’re not planning to, but those hours…building a kind of a Drudge-like site where we’re posting things on a daily basis in this fast news cycle. News cycle—if you go longer than about two days, you get out of the cycle. People are reading stuff right out of the palm of their hand, and we’ve got to get into that conversation. And if that happens, with two other powerful entities triangulating our commission, we could get very big fast as long as there’s quality stuff—doesn’t have to be long, but quality stuff coming every day. Written material, linking to other things we have so people get something new all the time, and all three of those linking to one another.

When you consider we’re the world’s largest religious publishing operation…ever…standing behind all of that, then you can see how rapidly this could grow large. Now I’ll just say to all of God’s people, you know, don’t pull back now. We’re moving ahead based on some just fascinating things that we are hearing.

SaveSave
SaveSave

Dave Pack seems to be making excuses as to why his group is not growing physically as a church.  Income still forces him to struggle, leading to his cancellation of his TV programs and the building of his mini-me auditorium and student center.  Now that he has had heart survey and is sidelined while recovering, his cabal of 16 are running things.  No matter how hard he boasts about the magnificence of his personality cult, it is struggling to survive. People are NOT flocking to him as he always lets on.

But we’ve reached a point where people can absolutely love the message, come in droves and still not act on it, and that’s a curious thing. So the number of people who are interested in us, following us, will rise into the many, many, many mega millions. It’s already in the millions, tens of millions, who know about us, but it’s going to explode eventually into hundreds of millions. I guess first scores and then hundreds, but it’s already scores of millions who know about us.

“…but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness” (vs. 31). There is just too much out there to buy and to do. And the cares of this life, and drunkenness and surfeiting, which can mean, not just a hangover, but debauchery, are what people are sucked into. They can read The Real Truth magazine…And this was decades ago, before Mr. Armstrong died…It was The Plain Truth back then.

SaveSaveSaveSave

The new prophet and apostle of the Living Church of God has a new letter out to the faithful.  As usual, everyone else in the world has fake faith except for the chosen few of the LCG church.  The other manipulative tool that Weston uses, is the same one the Mormons use.  "Don't' believe us, but let your heart tell you what you read is true. " The problem with this is that many people will claim they believe just to fit in with all the other "believers" who let on like they have it all right.  It is ok for this to happen in LCG, but those in other churches or in mainstream Christianity are incapable of knowing what is right.  The world is incapable of discerning God in their lives, but LCG is not.  Well, we have all seen how well that has worked over the last 30 some years!

So that no one misunderstands, we should not have blind faith, as so many in the world have. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 admonishes us: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (KJV). Yes, we must prove all things, and that is why we routinely instruct individuals seeking baptism not to believe something because that is what they always believed (or assumed). They need to prove to themselves the existence of God, that the Bible is His instruction book to mankind, and that this is the true Church. These things are provable! It is not good enough to have “always believed in God” or that “I grew up in the Church and know it to be the true Church.” Many atheists sincerely believe there is no God, Muslims sincerely believe truth is found in the Koran, Protestants sincerely believe their form of Protestantism is the religion of the Bible, and Catholics sincerely believe they are the “true Church.” Believing something and proving something are two different concepts

Does "believing something and proving something" apply to LCG's reliance upon the myth of British Israelism as it pertains to new covenant Christians?  They believe it is true, but can't prove it, just like they accuse Christians in other churches.

Weston believes that he has it all worked out and it does not matter what anyone thinks, which is exactly what those in other churches feel about their understanding and belief.  The difference is, Weston is right and they are wrong. Ha! Ha!

Many times over the years, when events became difficult or confusing, I personally went back to review these three pillars of faith. I proved to myself then—and still can today—that God exists. I proved to myself, and still can, that the Bible is His word. And when it comes to the true Church, I know what the Bible says and cannot deny where God is working, based on what it says. It does not matter to me what others believe; I KNOW what I believe and why!

Weston is dwelling upon faith because he wants LCG members to be prepared for their upcoming persecution.

Faith is the kind of evidence that gives courage to go through the most excruciating trials without giving up. “Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented…” (Hebrews 11:36–37). Only faith gives us such assurance that we, too, will obey God in the face of adversity. 

The only persecution LCG has faced have all come from within and it is has failed miserably so far.  The persecution has come from on high to its members, not from some external source.

As usual with a COG, it is all about works and doing it all right.  As usual, the members of LCG are apparently too incompetent to get it right.  It has to be exhausting for LCG members to always be struggling to get it right and being told they are not.

Matthew 11:28-30The Message (MSG)

28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

When Dave Pack was able to poach Dale Schurter from United Church of God, Dave Pack was crowning like a rooster.  Never had a defection been more significant than Schurter's.  Dave immediately put Schurter in his re-education program to weed out the devil's influence from the aberrant doctrines of the United Church of God.  After many long weeks, Schurter emerged as a new man with all the vigor that Dave demands.

Weeks and months went by as Schurter dreamed up bean fields and agricultural programs that were going to set the Restored Church of God into the forefront of the news.  Those ensconced on the compound would learn how to grow things as it was grown in the Garden of Eden.

Then as Dave likes to say, "Bam!" Dave sent Schurter to the fringes of the group to purge the demons of UCG that still lingered in his soul.  Both he and his wife were ridiculed in the pulpit by Dave.  Never has a man descended in the ranks of the COG as fast as Schurter did.

After languishing for many months on the fringes, Schurter is now back in power and in the good graces of superfantabulous Dave.

Anyway, also, another piece of good news that could have been mentioned any number of weeks ago, that I don’t think was ever announced to the whole church—Mr. Schurter, Mr. Dale Schurter, is actively serving in the ministry again; doing much better and that’s wonderful—at the young age of 80, about two weeks ago today…So he’s serving as the Associate Pastor with Mr. McElroy in Dayton, Ohio, and I love to make those kinds of announcements.

An 80 year old man has no business pastoring a church congregation no matter how "good" they might be.  Besides, if RCG members truly believe what Dave teaches them, then how long will it be till Schurter goes off the deep end again and messes with Dave's teachings?

How can the people of Dayton be so stupid?

See:

The Dale Schurter Propaganda/Resignation Letter

Deluded Dave says:

Now, one other thing that obviously drives that and can speed it up is how much money we have to spend on media. And as I’ve been saying recently, two or three times, and it’s continuing to increase. The number of dollars that we can put into media appears to be as though it’s going to be significantly greater, earlier than I ever dreamed. So that’s going to drive it, because, as Mr. Armstrong understood and every marketer understands, it’s how many eyeballs can you get on whatever the product is you’re offering.

Dave has been off the air with his telecast for some time now.  Money was needed to fund his campus expansion. Apparently, buildings and grass lawns were more important than his "gospel" message.  His move back into television is now dependant once again upon the financial support of his members. You can see below that Dave guilts his members into giving more money.  The more they give the more people who respond, the less they give, the fewer people will watch and read Dave's stuff.  All belongs to God, therefore as God's most important man in human history, everything belongs to Dave. Send it in, dumb sheep.

So, if we’re on worldwide television again soon—and that’s now back in play in a serious way…Again, if people who have said they’re going to give certain amounts do, that’s in play, if just some of that arrives. A massive internet presence at the same time, with an ability every month to add more…And that will be driven by how much God’s people continue to give, you could call it generosity, you can call it obedience, because common belongs to God as much as tithes do…that will have an effect. So we can all pray about that. 

SaveSave

Almost-ordained and almost-arrested Bob Thiel has an article up by John Ritenbaugh about prophets.  It is ironic that Ritenbaugh writes about prophets/false prophets in the church.  Ritenbaugh was the prophetic guru of many in the Glendale/Pasadena are for many years.  Everything the man talked about people salivated over, copied, taped and shipped all around the country.  Ritenbaugh has ended up like all of the other false prophets in the church, an epic failure!

All of us desire to know the future so we can be prepared for it. We want to be in control of our destinies and not at the mercy of events. However, some have this desire so strongly that they set themselves up as channels through which the future is revealed. 

Such people have misled many. Deuteronomy 18, along with chapter 13, warns against such people. Whether they are called diviners, charmers, spiritists, or channelers, using methods like reading tea leaves, casting lots, or conducting séances, they are to be seriously and carefully avoided because there is no godly reality to their prognostications. Those seeking to know are being misguided, putting themselves at the mercy of lying demons, or at the very least, imaginative men and women. 

At other times, simply following a church tradition regarding a prophecy can also mislead a person. This occurs because someone in the past, sincerely believing he understood a particular prophecy, began preaching his belief, and many in his audience then believed without the resources to prove the interpretation wrong. Due to frequent repetition, it came to be accepted as truth. 

It is important for us to understand that prophets were not merely temporary and occasional expedients God would turn to. They played a vital and continuing role in Israel, especially in those times before the Word of God was widely distributed. This is why God makes provision for them within the law. He shows in many places that those He appoints to the prophetic office will always preach the keeping of the commandments of God as evidence of the Source of their inspiration. They will teach the conservation of past truths even as they break new doctrinal ground. 

They both forthtell – that is, proclaim a message truthfully, clearly, and authoritatively to those for whom it is intended – and they will on occasion, but not always, foretell – that is, predict events before they take place. 

It is misleading to believe these verses in Deuteronomy 18 apply only to Christ. His is undoubtedly their ultimate application, but the promise and description applies to all true, God-ordained prophets. Notice some of the identifiers in these verses:

1. God established the foundational pattern for the prophetic office in Moses (“like me”). 

2. God will raise a prophet up from among the Israelitish people. Later biblical sources show he might be drawn and appointed from any of the tribes and from any occupation. In other words, he did not have to be a Levite. 

3. He will perform the function of a mediator between God and men (verses 16-18). 

4. He will stand apart from the system already installed. He will not be antagonistic to the system, but he may be very antagonistic to the sins of those within the system, especially the leadership. 

5. God will directly appoint and separate him for his office. Thus, the thrust of his service as God’s representative is direct and authoritative. By contrast, the priest’s function flowed from man to God by means of sacrifice – far less direct and more appealing and pleading than demanding. The New Testament ministry combines elements of both, but parallels the prophet’s function more than the priest’s. 

Simply and broadly, a prophet is one who is given a message by another of greater authority and speaks for him to those for whom the message is intended. Thus, Moses was God’s prophet, but Aaron was Moses’ prophet. 

Without a doubt, when we hear the word “prophet,” we immediately think of the Old Testament. This is a natural reaction because that is where most of them appear in the Bible. Our memory instantaneously brings forth names like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and David – all great men. However, without a doubt, the two greatest prophets of all time appear in the New Testament: John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. John the Baptist is the last and greatest under the Old Covenant, and Jesus Christ is the first and greatest of the New.

John W. Ritenbaugh
(The Berean, September 18, 2016)

Ritenbaughs comments above did not sit too well with Almost ordained and almost arrested  Bob Thiel. Ritenbaughs comments make Almost ordained Thiel our to be a false prophet.  that irritated Almost arrested Thiel so much that the made this comment, referring to himself, of course:

...the reality is that most real Christians will NOT accept biblical criteria for prophets in this age. 

Sadly, many people in the Church of God (COG) have trouble believing that God actually uses prophets or how He would use them today.

The Apostle Paul makes it clear that not all are prophets. Prophet is an office and prophets are to prophesy. Although the position of groups like LCG is that it has NO prophets (which is the case as I stopped attending late on 12/28/12), it should be noted that its then top leader had repeatedly taught in the past that God may consider Bob Thiel to be a prophet

Almost ordained Thiel still continues to lie that Rod Meredith called him prophet.  Meredith may have had tons of faults, but Meredith was not that naive or stupid to call Almost-arrested Thiel a prophet.

Almost ordained Thiel is so sure that he is a prophet that he has to quote Jesus where he states that prophets will be reviled and persecuted. Almost-ordained Thiel likes to pretend he is being reviled and persecuted by those of us here and by those in other COG's who laugh and mock him.  Such a sad little man.

Jesus taught: 

11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

Contrary to scripture, most end time Christians do not heed the following from the Apostle Paul:

20 Despise not prophesyings. (1 Thessalonians 5:20, KJV)
20 Do not despise prophecies. (1 Thessalonians 5:20, NKJV

Why should a Church of God member ever trust any of the false prophets of Armstrongism?  Every one of them have proven to be liars, including Almost-ordained Thiel.

The Almost-ordained false prophet then precedes to make a list of 38 different items that he claims all of the other COG's are in error on.  See it here.

The lying false prophet is now dragging United Church of God into the mix.  Not only does he claim LCG claimed he was a prophet, but UCG did too!  He claims that LCG and UCG recognized that all 38 of his points were 100% accurate.

It should be noted that leaders in the Living Church of God and/or the United Church of God confirmed to me personally that I was biblically correct on essentially all the above points, despite the fact that their respective churches hold to several of the errors pointed out above. Those who rely too much on a compromised ministry (Ezekiel 34:7-10) to teach them prophecy that is not truly in accordance with scripture need to realize that according to Jesus’ words in Revelation 2 & 3 and Luke 21, only relatively few Christians will be protected from the hour of trial that will come upon the whole world (Revelation 3:10;

The church has had false prophets in its midst from its very inception.  The Pasadena headquarters
was filled with them.  Hardly a week went by when a new prophet would appear at the Hall of Ad proclaiming some absurd prophecy. Hundreds, if not thousands made their way to Pasadena over the decades.  Everyone of them is long gone and forgotten. Some had died, some still write silliness and publish it, and others finally hung up their prophetic glasses and got on with life, still as deluded as ever.  Others like Almost-ordained Thiel and the Church Pharisee James Malm set themselves up as godly men do a "work".  All they do now is toot their own horn and make idiotic predictions and then lie that they never did when confronted.

The Church of God in Wales holds staunchly to everything that Herbert Armstrong wrote and said. There is a reason for that. In their eyes, Herbert W Armstrong was an apostle through whom God communicated directly to with all of the spiritual knowledge that he dished forth. Because of that, no ordinary church member or minister could every receive spiritual knowledge that they could share with the rest of the brethren.

According to the COGinW, the disunity in the COG today is the result of busybodies pretending they are modern day conduits of knowledge from God. Thanks to the false prophets of Armstrongism, men like Almost-ordained Bob Thiel, Pharisee James Malm, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry and many others have set themselves up as apostles and teachers of blasphemies, pretending to be conduits of God's word. These liars are the reason behind the great disunity in the church today. All of these petulant little men took it upon themselves to set themselves up as apostles and prophets.

Unity is a vital and eternal quality that God insists is present within each of His potential sons and daughters. Without it, there can be no True Church of God; God and Christ and those within the Family of God are all to be one (John 17:21). If unity is lacking between different organisations that all claim to be the True Church, it indicates a grave sickness. “The people judge or decide” – the very meaning of the word “Laodicea” – gives rise to such an antithesis of unity. It produces a myriad of different interpretations of the same scriptures. But scripture is not for private interpretation (II Pet 1:20). 

God has given His Church the means whereby the unity He insists upon can be achieved. To be in harmony under God, each of God’s people must have the humility to grow according to the grace given and not attempt to take something that is not theirs. The grace to lay foundations within the Church is specifically given to apostles – not the general ministry or membership. Only by aligning our teachings and beliefs with such foundations can the unity God wants be produced. Going in any other direction takes us away from God’s revelation and will produce chaos and confusion – the utter antithesis of what God insists must be found within His Family.

Several LCG sources have sent things to me over the last several months complaining about Living University, the "educational" arm of the Living Church of God.

It looks like Living Church of God's mind-boggling "university" does not sit well with many LCG members.  LCG, as does several other COG splinters, is attempting to mimic Herbert Armstrong's three campuses that were here in the United States and in England.  No matter how much any of these groups try, they still cannot nor will ever measure up to anything HWA inspired.  As anyone who has ever had any ties to the Worldwide Church of God and all of its hundreds of harlot daughters knows, HWA had a vision, regardless of how it was implemented, that hundreds of thousands bought into over the decades.  Today in 2017 the top four Church of God groups, no matter how hard they try, CANNOT recapture anything that Herbert Armstrong envisioned.

Even naming their one-room schoolhouses as "universities" have not helped these groups.  Only Gerald Flurry has a campus and probably comes the closest to mimicking HWA, while UCG and LCG are lucky if they can occupy a floor or two in their denominational HQ's.

Living Church of God members are particularly perturbed at the "university" they are paying for, that in their eyes is not producing any good fruits.  Most of its "student body" is made up of church members in remote locations "auditing" classes online.  The 20 or so full-time students in Charlotte are an expensive drain on LCG resources.

When you look at the "mission" of the LCG University, notice one group pf people they claim to be touching: "society."

double click to enalrge

The purpose of Living U is to "provide instruction relevant to the changing needs of the Individual, the church, and society." What relevant things is LU doing that is relevant to society?  LU is geared inwardly towards the church and LCG members know this.  It does nothing for society and has had zero impact.  While it may look good on an IRS tax form, LCG members are not happy with LU's mission.

Nor, are LCG members impressed with the rampant nepotism in the hierarchy of Living U.

double click to enlarge

This should be nothing new to LCG members.  This is how the Church of God has functioned for decades.  Family members always received priority in hiring, promotions, ordinations, etc.  God forbid if any lay member was ever appointed to the board of any of these entities!  Lay members have always been considered too stupid to help run any of the church entities.  Only the sons and relatives of the top leaders qualified, no matter how stupid or abusive they are!

The hierarchy of the Church of God has always been "incestuous" in the way all of the top families intermarried and kept control of the family business (the church).  Nepotism was the rule of the day in the old Worldwide Church of God and remains so to this day in EVERY one of the larger COG splinters.

It has been fascinating to see the mental breakdown of Dave Pack over the past few years.  This is not something that just appeared recently though.  Dave has left a trail of destruction in every church area he has ever pastored in.  Worldwide Church of God leaders knew what a sick man he was decades ago and did nothing but move him from one church area to another as members filed complaints.  No one ever had the wherewithal in Church Administration to remove him from the ministry.  It shows that the church had very little care for the members he abused.


The Painful Truth has the following two quotes from Ambassador Report 32 about Dave Pack on its page: The Devil and Dave Pack

From AR 32

Armstrong Follower Held In Murder of Daughter

On Sept. 20, 1984, Armstrong follower Lois Marie Elliott of North Tonawanda, New York was charged with second- degree murder. Police say that before dawn that day, the 36-year-old woman stabbed her four-year-old daughter to death in the child’s bed, knifed herself in the chest, in an apparent suicide attempt, and then telephoned police, saying, “I killed her.” Officers dispatched to the scene discovered the pajama-clad body of the little girl, Roxanne Elizabeth, in her own bed. She had already died from multiple stab wounds, mostly to the chest. Mrs. Elliott was found nearby bleeding from a wound to her own chest. (The Buffalo News, Sept. 20, 1984, p. 1 and Sept. 21, p. C- 5.)

Elliott was divorced from her WCG-member husband Frederick R. Elliott of Kenmore, New York, and had been living with her widowed mother Olive Baldassara. Mrs. Baldassara was home the night of the tragedy, but was apparently asleep in another room during the attack.

Investigators say that Elliott had telephoned police the previous evening claiming her ex-husband had sexually abused their daughter. But police have since concluded that there are “no facts to support that allegation.” After Elliott was treated at a hospital and released into police custody, she told investigators she had “committed a sin that would carry on through her bloodline” and that her daughter had “committed an unpardonable sin and didn’t pray enough.”

Neighbors described Elliott as a reclusive “religious fanatic” who rarely allowed her daughter outdoors to play. Church acquaintances told us that although Elliott had been disfellowshipped from the WCG, she had remained faithful to church teachings and had desired to be reinstated in the church. Reinstatement was not forthcoming, however, because she had been labeled as having a “demon problem.”

One of Elliott’s church friends said, “I don’t think Pack [Dave Pack, a WCG minister in the Buffalo, New York area] ever encouraged her to get psychiatric help. And if he really thought she had demons, why didn’t he just cast them out, like in the Bible?”

Another acquaintance said, “We could sense Lois had a problem, but her church experience and her marriage problems didn’t help her. Then after she was disfellowshipped she seemed to get worse. She really needed help.”

Niagara County First Assistant District Attorney Stephen P. Shierling told the Report he fully intends to prosecute Elliott on the murder charge. But Elliott’s attorney, James Perry of North Tonawanda told us that his client has been declared mentally incompetent to assist in her own defense, has been committed to a state mental hospital for treatment, and that there is no way to know if she will ever recover sufficiently to be able to stand trial.

Whatever the legal outcome, the fact remains that a pretty little four-year-old girl is dead. Neighbors told reporters how Roxanne’s father had visited the little girl at least twice each week and how happy she always seemed to be when he arrived. The Buffalo News story of Sept. 21 had this ending:

Although neighbors Thursday said that they never saw the little girl playing outside, her father, Mr. Elliott, talked about her energy and her precociousness. She loved to dance and draw and could name all the states, he said.

“She had a mind like you wouldn’t believe,” he told The News. “She was like a little adult, a little Shirley Temple. She was so vivacious.” Mr. Elliott then politely declined any further comment, and broke down in tears.

David Pack’s Reign of Terror

On the night of Roxanne Elliott’s death, one of the last people – probably the very last one – Lois Elliott phoned before the tragedy was WCG minister David Pack, pastor of the Buffalo (North), New York congregation.. Exactly what was said, we don’t know. At least not yet. That information may well come out should Lois Elliott ever recover sufficiently to stand trial. What is remarkable, however, is how often Pack’s name seems to appear in conjunction with tragedies in the WCG. For a number of years now, no WCG minister’s name has appeared more often in letters written to the Report complaining of ministerial abuse.

Pack, a burly 6-foot, 5-inch Ambassador College graduate known locally for his authoritarian style, has so incensed some in his flock that a group have circulated an open letter detailing his abuses and have called for his removal. The letter describes Pack’s ministerial leadership as a “Reign of Terror.” On the cover page, addressed to WCG headquarters leaders, they wrote:

“David’s power-crazed quest to totally dominate the mind, body, and spirit of church members has not been done in a corner and has been done clearly in view of all to see at headquarters in Pasadena.”

On the following 13 pages of their letter the allegations about Pack read like a horror story. The authors contend that Pack constantly intimidates members, uses threats and mind-control methods, is given to extreme emotional outbursts, is highly political, believes in winning at all cost, has disfellowshipped members for trivial faults, prescribes diets while “playing M.D.,” insists on being addressed as Mr. Pack, enjoys wearing skimpy, skin-tight shorts to sporting events, has actually worn a wolf costume to church socials, enjoys putting down women, and told one married woman with children, “It would be better for you to shack up one night with a man than wear makeup.” 

The letter quotes Pack as having said, “Everyone who has challenged me has either died, been seriously injured or has been eliminated from the work.” And, “God backs me even if I am wrong.

” On page 7 the authors made this statement to Pack (emphasis ours): Doesn’t it bother you that while you were in charge of the Rochester and Syracuse area there were three suicides? One can only wonder why they chose to kill themselves while you were their main advisor in the area. Perhaps you suggested to one or more of them that they would in no way make it into the Kingdom of God…. A statement such as, “You are no longer in the body of Christ,” could have caused one to give up and kill himself.

The above quote was written well before the Elliott family tragedy. Some who knew little Roxanne and her mother Lois Elliott wonder if it might have been a prophecy.

Church of God News is reporting about Rod McNair's new video that Living Church of God has posted. The Living Church of God has been having issues ever since Gerald Weston's appointment with LCG with members not giving him the respect he supposedly deserves. McNair and others have spent considerable time trying to reinforce the importance of Weston's position as one that is in direct lineage with the Apostle Peter. Apostolic succession supposedly passed from Herbert Armstrong to Rod Meredith and then to Gerald Weston. The problem is the middleman in this equation, Roderick C Meredith. Herbert Armstrong found Meredith to be unfit to be running the church. Armstrong even banished Meredith to Hawaii for a year in order to do some self-examination. It did not work. Meredith could never understand why he was in trouble. Armstrong strongly informed Meredith that he was unfit to lead, yet Meredith rebelled over and over, eventually starting two splinter groups based solely upon his self-righteous personality.

United Church of God members are still being hoodwinked into tithing on the second tithe they have saved for the Feast.  UCG has cunningly changed the name of the tithe of the tithe to the Festival Fund.  Neither one has any scriptural validity.  Of the millions and millions UCG rakes in each year a person would think that UCG would foot the bill for the members.  After all, UCG takes in several large "offerings" during this time that are supposed to be "free will" offerings.

UCG, like most of the other COG's have fine tuned the system to take and take from members, even though none of the ministry and some of the HQ staff save second tithe. Since they are considered "Levites," thanks to the old Worldwide Church of God teaching, ministers do not save second tithe.  On top of that, many ministers and staff staying free at resorts where the Feast sites are located.  Then add to this the "blessing" ministers and certain staff have of having all of their meals, travel, gas and some personal expenses paid for by the church, it is one big happy fun fest of never having to worry about expenses, unlike a large percentage of UCG members have to do.

The Feast of Tabernacles is the highlight of the year for many. It is a great blessing to be able to gather together at Feast sites around the world to picture the coming millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

A lot of planning goes into preparing the Feast every year. Those involved are happy to dedicate their time, effort and expertise, and the ministry looks to God as they prepare messages for our spiritual food.

But the Feast costs a lot of money. Hall rentals, equipment rentals, second tithe assistance for those who don’t have adequate funds, printing expenses, activities expenses and more add up to a lot.

We need your help in being able to provide the Feast venues that enhance our celebration. Please consider sending a portion of your second tithe to help support the Feast. If you have any questions contact your pastor or the treasurer, Rick Shabi, at any time. 

Go to http://donate.ucg.org/ and click on Festival Fund to support the Festival Fund now. Or you can download a PDF of the form to enclose in an envelope with a check or money order. Click the download link on the left hand side of this page to download the form. 

God's most favorite Chief Pharisee is pulling a "Bob Thiel" today by claiming Church of God members are being intensely persecuted, so much so that some are being kidnapped and are being put in deprogramming programs.

This is what the lying fool Pharisee James Malm posted today:

In our modern society Gods faithful are persecuted everywhere; from being rejected by others, all to often including friends and family, to often being denied employment, but the most vile evil is the hiring of so called counselors to brainwash and try to intimidate people out of their faith.  

Such people prey on people of faith by trying to brainwash them; often using lying threats, holding people against their will and subjecting them to mental torture and psychological tricks; subjecting them to this “therapy of coercion” to get people to give up their beliefs outside their will, for big money of course.  

Can this idiot truly be serious????   It is people of faith being brainwashed by the blatant legalistic LIES of Malm, Thiel, Pack, Flurry, Kubik and others.  These men have all left trails of destruction in their wake as they destroy the spiritual and mental health of tens thousands of members.  Demanding the keeping of New Moons and blowing trumpets is just the tip of the legalistic bullshit these morons force on members.  They cannot talk about Jesus but will sit on their self-righteous asses with telescopes straining to see the faintest crescent of the moon rising.

The lying Pharisee then goes on to claim this is happening to COG members:

Such brainwashing mind control techniques as deprivation, hypnosis, the technique of having several persons take turns bullying and intimidating a person while giving the victim no rest until they collapse, and threats of violence and severe intimidation are used. 

If any COG members are dealing with this now it should be Philadelphia Church of God or Restored Church of God members.  They NEED to be deprogrammed!

I can guarantee you that not one single COG member is being bullied to the point they are ready to collapse.

The lying Pharisee continues:

These wicked men often prey on the vulnerable; young, old, weak, emotional, ill or borderline converted, in order to claim successes so as to make more money.  

Don't forget how the lying Pharisee is also begging for more money from his few hundred followers so that he can be supported instead of getting off his ass and getting a real job.  God forbid!

They are in the business of making money and when one stands up to them they will most often back down; if they persist then seek a remedy, first on your knees before God and then at court.  

Brethren, this vicious kind of attack has been practiced on many people of many different faiths even in our “land of the free”, and when the tribulation comes this will be happening on a much wider scale as the legal protections evaporate.

There are certainly cult deprogramming groups out there that deal with Scientology and others trapped in abusive and spiritually degenerate cults. These people have rescued people from dangerous cults and help guide them back to reality.

The lying Pharisee has these words of advice:

The way to deal with such vile evil is to:

1. Remember The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and ground yourself fully in every Word of God, so you can resist the attacks of the devil,

1. Go immediately to God for deliverance,  

1. Remember that God is vastly wiser and more powerful than these wicked men,

1. If you receive invitations to counseling by people who are hostile to your faith, respond by saying that you have as much right to worship God according to your conscience as anyone else does, and reject their invitation clearly, unambiguously and firmly, 

1. Then keep copies of the correspondence or make copies of emails and store them with your lawyer or in a similar safe place, 

1. Inform them that you have made copies of their correspondence and that you will seek a court order of protection if they continue to bother you, and that you will file criminal charges if you are kidnapped or if any further impingement on your constitutional rights occurs.  How to Defeat Satan's Agents

Spiritually degenerate men like Almost Ordained and arrested Bob Thiel, Chief Pharisee James Malm and others will lie through their teeth in order to make themselves look like martyrs for the crap they preach.  The world is not torturing them or persecuting them for their beliefs.  All they want is more money from their gullible sheep to support them in their "ministries."

The feel-good story of the day!  No longer burdened by the unscriptural lie of the demand to tithe and give countless offerings to one of the most perverse and spiritually bankrupt Churches of God's on earth today, an ex-member is close to being debt free and buying his first home.

Almost Financially Free After Exiting PCG:

 September 22, 2017

Ever since I left PCG I am much better off financially. They would say pay your 1st, 2nd and every 3rd year your 3rd tithe and of course the tithe of the tithe before FOT. I was always struggling for money and the "church" was like, well, if you are struggling you are not obeying the tithing law and need to do more. I was at one point considering bankruptcy until I finally left. Now, I am doing much better financially. I have paid down a substantial amount of debt and actually have money in my bank account, unlike when I had to send my tithe money and barely had 2 cents left in the bank. I am getting financially debt free and if I was still paying all those tithes I would likely still be struggling all the time. I could never afford a to buy a home and always rented in part because the PCG seem to frown upon people buying houses due to the "end of days" and all and money should be put towards God's Work and not physical things. Now, I actually believe in a few short months I will be able to buy a home. --Former PCG member   Exit and Support

It has to be so frustrating sitting in your home office day in and day out, stymied by the fact that all of the Church of God's laugh at you and members ridicule you.  How can God, who has personally set you apart as a witness to the world, allow such things to happen? But alas, the way of a martyr is always painful and fraught with tests that God allows because he has let Satan run the world.  Big bad meanie Satan is out to make sure COG members do not follow the real prophets of the church. Or, that is what these self-appointed deluded professional liars of the COG believe about themselves.

Almost-arrested and almost-ordained Bob Thiel, God's most highly favored COG leader in the history of the world, and the most disappointing "son" Rod Meredith could have ever imagined, is upset once again that Living Church of God has failed to see that he is the one true prophet of the end times.

This arrogant self-appointed fool has this to say about himself and Living Church of God's stance that there are no prophets in the Church of God today.

Living Church of God members must be devastated to know that when Almost-ordained Thiel left to start his own personality cult, that there are no longer any prophets in the church. Talk about narcissistic arrogance!

LCG’s position is that it has NO prophets (which is apparently the case as I stopped associating with LCG on 12/28/12). And it has had Dexter Wakefield publish that:

We are aware of no prophets in the Church today (Wakefiel D. Living Church News, July-August 2015, p. 26)

But it should be noted that its top leader had repeatedly taught in the past that God may consider Bob Thiel to be a prophet (see How To Determine If Someone is a True Prophet of God). Consider also:

• On August 26, 2012, LCG Evangelist Dr. D. Winnail told Bob Thiel, “We all think that you might be a prophet.”  In order in order to determine who “We all” was, on September 7, 2012, I asked if this was a reference to all three of the LCG Charlotte-based evangelists and Dr. Winnail concurred.
• On January 7, 2013, Dr. Douglas Winnail sent me an email, which included the statement, “we made comments to you  that “you may be a prophet.””

Now that I am not in LCG, it seems obvious that LCG does not have any prophets. As far as LCG and other COGs go, they have at least 38 prophetic errors, which are cited in the article The Laodicean Church Era.

It is no wonder that Rod Meredith denied Thiel for many years and the things he taught.  Meredith no more named him a prophet than Gaylyn Bonjour set him apart to be a splinter cult leader. Everything Elijah Thiel does is because his deluded brain dreamed it up.  God is no more part of Amos Thiel's splinter cult than he is with Dave Pack's or James Malm's.

The false prophet of Africa continues to lie about Rod Meredith calling him a prophet. Elijah Thiel believes that because he is younger than most COG leaders, that HE and HE alone is that younger prophet.  Rod Meredith laughs from his grave at this idiocy!

LCG’s late Roderick C. Meredith taught that Elijah would be a younger man than he. Its Dr. Winnail has taught that the Elijah is not a person but an “Elijah-type work” which fulfills the Elijah prophesies in Matthew 17:10-11 and Malachi 4:4-6 (Winnail D. The Mission of the Church. Living Church News, March-April 2006, p. 7). The Bible shows that ‘Elijah’ will be a person (see also The Elijah Heresies). 

As far as rarity goes, I would ask, “How many people were told by an actual top evangelist in the Church of God that God may consider him to be a prophet?” In the 20th and 21st centuries, there is only one who comes to mind (details are in the article How To Determine If Someone is a True Prophet of God). So, while prophets are “rare,” and being told one is a prophet by an ordained evangelist is also rare, rarity does not mean that there are none.

Thankfully, 99.99999% of the LCG membership know Amos Thiel to be a liar and a fraud.  That is why he has to run to Africa to find members.  Members who are using him for all they can get, but apparently the prophet is too limited in visions to see that.

Over the last few months, we have had various idiots on the web  that have been claiming the end was here.  The latest were the ones who claim planet Nibiru was supposed to hit the earth today and kill us all.  As usual with ALL self-appointed false prophets, they were wrong.  The world is filled with these kind of people, with many of them finding a platform in WorldNetDaily, the official news source for many Churches of God.  This is also the news source for Almost-ordained and arrested Bob Thiel.

The almost-ordained one is particularly perturbed that these lying fools are making Christians look stupid. From wayward planets, Obama and Hillary, to the eclipse, it has been one crazy prophecy after another, and Almost-arrested Thiel has to talk about all of them on his blog.  Why he wants to give them credence by the incessant reporting is beyond most peoples comprehension.

The lying false prophet and self-appointed preacher then makes this hypocritical statement:

Because various ones have falsely claimed that God is sending a message through natural phenomena, they are turning people off against Bible prophecy. 

Seriously?  Almost-ordained Thiel claims these people are turning people against Bible prophecy when he has done the exact same thing!  His prophecies are just as bad as the 208 documented lies of Herbert Armstrong, Herman Hoeh, Rod Meredith and others.

Elijah Thiel then quotes a scripture that describes when he does precisely:

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. (2 Peter 2:1-3)

Almost-arrested Thiel then writes this:

The false prognosticators cause the Christian way to be blasphemed, even though (in my view) none of those I have specifically named are real Christians.

Can he really be serious?  What about the hundreds, if not thousands of false prognosticators that have littered the Church of God over the last 8 decades?  What about the lies of James Malm, Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack and those he has espoused?  Thiel, Malm, and all of the others are the blasphemers!

He ends with this:

...there are many false and heretical leaders that lead people astray on prophecy. Sometimes they mention the Bible to try to act like God sanctions their nonsense. And it is not just the secular fringe people, but also those who claim to be Christian or even in the Church of God.

What about the false and heretical leaders in the Church of God who have led and continue to lead members astray with one lie after another.  Every single one of these lying fools use their Bible to pretend that their god has validated their teachings.  It's not just the idiots on WorldNetDaiy that say these lies, it is Church of God leaders like Thiel, Malm, Pack, Flurry and others that do this day in and day out. Nothing that Thiel or Malm predicts will ever happen.  That is guaranteed!