False Prophet Ronald Weinland

In my previous post, Gaoled Geek Greg, I discussed how one of Weinland’s elders has spent some time in jail for not making court-ordered domestic support payments.  More details on Greg’s situation have come to light from a recent court opinion.

The following excerpts are taken from the opinion rendered by the Michigan Court of Appeals in response to an appeal filed by Greg which contested various elements of his divorce decree. In the opinion written by the court, Greg is referred to as the defendant and his ex-wife is the plaintiff.

The parties married in June 2001 and had two children: [Child 1], born in November 2004, and [Child 2], born in November 2005. {Child 2 was born the same month that Ron kind-of-sort-of announced that he was one of the Two Witnesses before clearly announcing it the following month.}

In our case, the parties married on June 9, 2001, and defendant was earning approximately $121,000 working a full-time position and a contract position. At the time of the marriage, defendant was a member of the Church of God, and after the marriage plaintiff became a member as well. Toward the end of this turbulent marriage, in approximately February 2008, defendant [Greg] quit both of his jobs and took a position with the Church of God PKG, earning $36,000 per year. In this position, defendant traveled around the world proselytizing the church’s views. Indeed, it was a result of defendant’s choice to become employed by the Church of God PKG, as well as some of the effects emanating from the views held by members of that church, that led plaintiff to refile for divorce in March 2008. By the time the judgment of divorce was entered in April 2009, defendant had been working at the Church of God PKG for more than a year.

There was a previous divorce filing in August 2005 which was dropped early in 2006, shortly after Child 2 was born. Perhaps Greg’s ex-wife was distracted by the birth of her second child and the litigation, and the true impact of Ron’s announcements in November and December of 2005 of being a Witness didn’t sink in right away.  Some of Greg’s peculiar religious views were described in the opinion:

Plaintiff testified that defendant was reluctant to allow [Child 1] to attend preschool, expressing fear that “something would happen, and there would be like a lock down, where you wouldn’t be able to go and retrieve your children from school.” {Perhaps Greg feared that a lock down would be imposed when the 2nd Trumpet “nukular” bombs exploded in US port cities.}  Plaintiff also testified that defendant told the children that “[Christmas] is a lie” and “mommy put those presents under the tree.” Plaintiff testified that defendant would not let the children view carved pumpkins at Halloween and explained in front of the children why certain holiday traditions are “bad” and “evil.” Plaintiff testified that, regarding her new boyfriend, the children “say Phil doesn’t follow God; Phil’s bad; daddy doesn’t like him.”

Although we’re hearing this through Greg’s ex-wife in an adversarial situation, these statements are completely consistent with Rotten Ronnie’s goofy theology.  The opinion went on to discuss monetary issues.

The parties had $74,000 in a 401(k) account, $14,000 of which was defendant’s premarital property. Defendant “cashed out” the account, and, in doing so, subjected it to a 10% penalty. The court stated that defendant would be responsible for the penalty.

It’s my understanding that court-ordered property settlements from retirement savings can be handled by transferring the funds to the spouse’s retirement plan without the transfer being a taxable event.  I wonder if Greg’s 401(k) withdrawal was actually part of his “pitcher breaking” in response to Ron’s Total Resolve sermon.

Here are some statements concerning the court-ordered support payments:

In considering spousal support, the trial court found that plaintiff earned $40,000 a year working part-time and that “she should be able to return to full-time employment within two years.” It found that defendant has an income of $113,000…..   The court awarded $159 a month in spousal support for two years…   The court also based its child-support award on an income of $113,000 a year.

In looking over the child support formulas in Michigan, and assuming an income net after taxes of $70,000/year for Greg if he had not foolishly quit his job, and about $30,000/year of after-tax income for his ex-wife, then if I’m reading the tables correctly Greg would be required to pay 2/3 of total child support of around $2100/month, so around $1400/month would be the court ordered child support payments from Greg.  In addition to which Greg was ordered to pay $159/month in temporary spousal support for 2 years.  I could be in error in interpreting the tables, so you are welcome to study the formulas and supply any corrections to my estimates.  I suspect that if I’m in error in calculating the support payment, it’s on the low side.

Court-ordered payments of over $1500/month would be pretty tough to make out of $3000/month salary after paying taxes and first tithe and second tithe as well.  And would still be tough even if Ron has liberalized tithing requirements for employed elders and only taxes are taken out.  Living on that salary would be rather frugal even if Greg did not have his other unmet obligations.  The majority of the appeals court did not agree with Greg that his support payments should be based on the low salary that Ron pays him but instead on the salary he had demonstrated himself capable of earning.  The minority opinion gave the notion that support payments should be based on Greg’s current Ron-decided lower salary only moral support, not legal.  The court expects that a parent will make sacrifices for his/her children, even if that sacrifice includes keeping a higher paying job.

So Greg broke a pretty expensive pitcher when he quit his job to work for the Spokesman of the Two Witnesses.  Not only did he give up a well-paying job and his 401(k) savings, he gave up his family including children whose names also begin with “G”.

In listening to one of Ron’s sermon statements from 2007, it seems that Greg is one of the architects of Ron’s 15 minutes of fame on the Internet.  Previously, Ron had focused on old school promotion methods such as advertising in Readers Digest just like his spiritual idol Herbert Armstrong.  Greg persuaded him to try Google Ads starting in 2007 and the rest is history.

As far as Greg’s PKG salary, it seems to be a bit low even by Ron’s standards.   Daughter/senior elder/bookkeeper/personal assistant Audra owns her own home, on which property taxes are assessed based on a value of $140,000, which is likely about what she paid for it back in 2007 just before the first sealing of the 144,000.  I doubt that anyone could qualify for a mortgage of that amount with an income of only $36,000.  So there seems to be a benefit to being a member of the family through whom God is working — powerfully, powerfully so.  How is it that 24-year-old Jeremy is able to afford to travel to southeast Asia?  Does a starting graphic design career pay that well, even as talented as he seems to this lay person?

Who would have imagined that now over two years since the first opening of the seventh seal and over 15 months after we weren’t able to inaugurate a president to replace George W, that the court system would still be in business to handle divorce matters?  And who’da thunk-it that this blog would still be continuing 70 weeks after the End-Time Elijah and Spokesman Witness pronounced a speedy death curse on its author?

A personal note to Greg who may be among the PKG members and elders who read my blog:  Wake up and smell the Flavor Aid, man!!! You’ve allowed your spiritual idolatry to destroy your personal life, don’t let your commitment to this demonstrated false prophet continue to damage your obligation to and relationship with your children.  Your relationship with your children’s mother is obviously damaged beyond all repair.  But your relationship with your children should be cherished, not further abused by polluting it with the pathological views of a demonstrated exploiting false prophet.  Stop the madness!!!  I didn’t give your full name so that a potential employer Googling your name would not end up on this post.  End the madness, salvage what you can, fix it now!!!

False Prophet Ronald Weinland was in Windsor CT today, making up for the trip he canceled in February instead of using his Witness Powers to shut up the heavens and stop the blizzard.   He continued his Passover series with part 7 and promises to inflict even more parts.  He went through the story of Peter’s denial of Christ several times and several times did the cock crew.

Ron mentioned planning for the Feast of Tabernacles this fall, which will be the third organized Feast after the very last organized Feast in 2007, but which this time is for the full 8 days of the Feast and the Last Great Day and not just 4 days.  He will use many of the same feast sites but a few will change. According to Ron, the feast site in the UK will move to Scotland.  Scotland is where his senior elder there, William G Milne lives. (BTW Ron, Scotland is part of the UK.)  Ron expects to have feast plans finalized by Pentecost.  Audra and the rest of you elders, better get busy.

The Spokesman Witness is mellowing out with his mockers.  Today he didn’t remind us of the death curse nor did he mock us.  It seems that now God will give us another chance, since we just don’t understand that Ron is really a prophet of God despite the fact that every single one of his prophecies have failed. Unlike the last two sermons, he did not mention May 27, 2012 but did mention the 5th Trumpet and how Germany will soon come to ascendency in Europe preparatory to taking over the US as well.   He took some time to stereotype Jews, at least he didn’t talk about the size of their noses.

Redfox at the Living Armstrongism blog had a post a few days ago about a chapter in Dave Pack’s Autobiography which mentions Weinland, calling him a false prophet.  Pot.  Kettle.  Black.  Pack has like Ron appointed himself as an Apostle but unlike Ron will not claim to be one of the Two Witnesses.  Those roles are reserved for two members of his church whom he will appoint and supervise.

False Prophet Ronald Weinland began writing his second book after the 2005 Feast of Tabernacles.  On the second page he starts out.

The publicist of my first book scheduled interviews for me throughout the United States. Those interviews began in September 2004. ……

And on the following page:

The United States witnessed a record breaking year for hurricanes both in number and magnitude. 2005 had the most named tropical storms on record. Letters of the Greek Alphabet have never been used to name storms, but even now in December, Hurricane Epsilon has become the fifth named storm in the Greek Alphabet. This past year witnessed the highest number of hurricanes on record along with the most category five storms ever. In August, Hurricane Katrina produced the greatest destruction from a natural disaster ever seen in the U.S., which left some areas of New Orleans almost wiped out. This devastation is so great that there is not enough time to rebuild it before this age of man comes to an end.

From another perspective, the average number of named storms in any season is 10, but in 2005 there were 26. The average number of hurricanes is 6, but 2005 had 14. The average number of major hurricanes is 2, but 2005 had 7.

What we have witnessed since those interviews a year ago {relative to December, 2005} will only increase in magnitude and frequency until we come to the last and final stage.

So did the magnitude and frequency of hurricanes increase since the sermon to PKG on December 17, 2005 which included the claim that he was one of the Two Witnesses and in which Ron rolled out the draft of the first chapter of his second book from which I quoted?

I turned to Wikipedia for answers.  Wikipedia has articles on recent hurricane seasons, which I have compiled and graphed for your inspection.  My graph includes the number of named storms, number of hurricanes, and number of major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher for the years of 1994 through 2009.  I’ve also plotted the average for each of these numbers based on the 1994 through 2001 hurricane seasons which mainly preceded the opening of the 1st Seal on 9/11.

While 2005 was an unusual hurricane season, all seasons since have been in normal range.  Despite Weinland stating that what had been witnessed would only increase in magnitude and frequency, the number of storms decreased and there were fewer than average number of hurricanes in 2006, 2007, and 2009.

A Weinland apologist will point out that I’ve only talked about frequency of hurricanes, while the third thunder is all weather events.  We’ll ignore that Weinland was only talking about hurricanes in the first chapter of the book and hadn’t yet gotten to defining the thunders which John was forbidden to reveal.  The US government National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a web page with statistics relating to the cost of weather disasters.  Here is a graphic that shows the number and total costs of billion-dollar weather disasters.

While 2005 was certainly a costly year, all the years since have been less costly.  In fact they’ve been less costly than the 1988 season in inflation-adjusted dollars.  But Ron prophesied that the magnitude of the Third Thunder would only increase.

The next argument from the Weinland apologist is that Weinland didn’t restrict the thunders to the US.  But on page 199 of his book published in 2006, he wrote:

The reason this book and The Prophesied End-Time have so much to say about specific events that will take place in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and much of western Europe is that these nations are very specifically identified as the descendents of those lost ten tribes of Israel! End-time events focus first on the demise of these nations over the next couple of years.

As an aside, Weinland has updated the “Trips” page on his blog with a travel itinerary into September.  He also edited the introduction to say:

In this end-time, Laura and I will continue to visit God’s Churches in the various areas of the world where His people are scattered. We will continue to focus on serving those whom God is calling as long as we are able to accomplish such work.

It used to say (interesting parts that were removed are bolded):

We have entered the final three and one-half years of end-time tribulation. Laura and I will continue to visit various Church areas and we will continue making such travel plans for as long as we are able. As always, we will continue to look to God to lead us in our planning. Where possible we will continue sending elders to locations where growing numbers of people are seeking baptism and fellowship with God’s Church. We will continue to focus on serving those whom God is calling as long as we are able to accomplish such work.

So growing numbers of people are not seeking baptism, so all these new elders are going to waste.  And 16 months in is timely to recognize that the great tribulation is not 3 1/2 years long

False Prophet Ronald Weinland is closer to home this weekend, only two states up in the Detroit Michigan area.  Greg is ungaoled and gave the opening prayer.  Nevertheless, Ron still had not put up the sermon recording over three hours after the sermon was over even with a geek in attendance.

Sunday AM Update:  The sermon recording is still not posted on the PKG website.  As a public service, here is a recording of it — prepare to be bored.  (25 MB MP3 download) The first couple of minutes of the recording are Ron continuing to battle the hookup (“Oh boy!!!”") before starting services.

Ron is continuing his long sermon series on the passover.  An interesting aside was his criticism of small groups that formed out the breakup of WCG in 1995, and how a minister would go off on tangent.  Of course Ron is not doing that because he is given new truths such as the origin of Christ  by God and we know that absolutely for sure because Ron told us so.

Ron claimed a mighty escalation in the thunders during the last few months.  Which thunders are those?  The only one that he might hang his hat on is the second thunder, with a several major earthquakes that did not effect the modern day nations of Israel and the Icelandic volcano which has a peripheral impact on the tribes of Israel.  The graphs on my last post do show an increase in earthquake thunders over the past few months, but not as Ron as prophesied with a 3-year delay for the current precedented magnitudes.  Even if the earthquake thunder does get worse and worse as Ron claimed today, it’s still too late to prove him as a prophet because it didn’t happen when or how he said it was to happen.  Besides which there are 6 other thunders to look at.

Today is also a prophetic date.  It was two years ago today that Ron, Laura, and the Harrells were in Jerusalem for the event of the first non-blowing of the First Trumpet on April 17, 2008.  There was quite a buzz on certain corners of the Internet leading up to that day, with his Google ad campaign in full swing serving up ad links to “the-end.com” for key words such as “armageddon”.  And two years ago this Monday is the second anniversary of the first time that the Spokesman witness issued a death curse against me.

It was two years ago as of yesterday when I started blogging about False Prophet Ronald Weinland.  My first post about him at my former Blogspot site was about the Second Thunder: Earthquakes.  Being two years later, I think it’s worth taking another look at the earthquake situation.

On page 96 of “2008: God’s Final Witness”, Weinland stated:

The greatest destruction and loss of life from earthquakes is the direct result of collapsing buildings or the power unleashed in the form of a tsunami. Volcanoes are also associated with earthquakes. All these things will continue to wreak havoc on man and nature in an ever increasing magnitude as we approach the very end of this age.

All Seven Thunders will increase in power and recognition over the next two years (from the date of the first printing of this book) and on into the final three and one-half years of great tribulation. The Seven Thunders will serve as a powerful witness that the words of this book are true, and that they are from the God of Abraham, the Father of Jesus Christ.

Using the method described in the earlier blog post, I created graph of earthquake activity over the last 9 years from the US Geological Survey online database. The chart shows a dot for each earthquake by magnitude and date.  I’ve also indicated with a line when Weinland’s book was published in November of 2006.  This chart includes the entire period of Weinland’s Sixth Seal which began on 9/11/01 and ended twice, the first time on March 18, 2008 and the second time on November 14, 2008.

A magnitude 6 earthquake causes no damage except to poorly constructed buildings. A change of 1 on the scale is actually a 32x change in earthquake energy.

If earthquakes had increased in power and recognition during the two years following the publication of Weinland’s fictional work, there would be an increasing density of dots on the chart in 2007 and 2008 above magnitude 6.  And this increasing density would have begun shortly after 9/11.

On page 199 of his book, Weinland wrote:

The reason this book and The Prophesied End-Time have so much to say about specific events that will take place in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and much of western Europe is that these nations are very specifically identified as the descendents of those lost ten tribes of Israel! End-time events focus first on the demise of these nations over the next couple of years. These events have everything to do with knowing the true God of Abraham.

So I used the USGS Rectangular Earthquake Search page which allows gathering data from a subset of the earthquakes limited to a geographic area.  I generated data on a rectangular grid which encompasses the 48 continuous states of the US and portions of Canada as well. The chart below is the result.  Since the data set for this region is smaller, Excel was able to handle a data set including quakes of magnitudes as low as 4.

There is no pattern of an increasing magnitude or density of dots for 2007 and 2008 reflecting increased earthquake activity in the US bringing about its demise.  Furthermore, the reason the scale on the second chart stops at 8 is that there were no quakes exceeding that magnitude in this region of the world since 2001, unlike the rest of the world.  A large number of earthquakes in the 7 to 8 magnitude range would have been adequate to make this a loud thunder, but there weren’t any, not even one, in that range during 2007, 2008, or 2009.

I’ve analyzed these two charts from another perspective, creating a “loudness” graph for the second thunder.  On the graph, an earthquake creates an uptick in the chart according to it’s magnitude, and then decays over time, halving over a roughly two week period.  The function is constructed such that a second earthquake soon after the first will add to its decaying echo, so two earthquakes of equal intensity on the same day would register the same as a single earthquake twice as strong.

The next graph shows what the intensity of the second thunder was like on a global basis.  The second thunder did not increase in power and recognition during the two years following the publication of Ron’s book, but rather decreased.

Since Ron claimed that end time events were to focus on modern-day Israel, I ran the earthquake data for the US region through the same function.  Again, the second thunder did not increase in power and recognition in the two years of 2007 and 2008 following the publication of Ron’s book, but rather decreased.

To the Weinland apologists out there, before you point out that the 2nd thunder has increased over the past few months, point out an example where a prophet of God prophesied falsely, and then later on prophesied correctly.  Even if tomorrow, the “big one” happens both in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, with major earthquakes in Seattle, Juneau, and along the New Madrid fault, it would not suddenly prove that Weinland is one of the Two Witnesses.  I imagine that some other false prophet would get “lucky”, since there are always false prophets making predictions.

Weinland protests that his books are fully accurate, its prophecies just hasn’t happened yet.  Yet on page 4 of his book, he states:

The proof of the validity of my first book, and now this one, is in the timing and the destruction that follows, exactly as both books describe.

And also on the same page, referring to interviews for his first book which started in 2004 (Weinland started writing his last book during the fall of 2005):

What we have witnessed since those interviews a year ago will only increase in magnitude and frequency until we come to the last and final stage.

However, it seems that PKG members can’t remember any further back than the last sermon.  Look again and see whether the earthquakes he was talking about only increased in magnitude in frequency, or ever decreased.  The same with hurricanes.  Ron mentions 26 named storms including 14 hurricanes during the 2005 season.   So each year since had more than that number, and more than the year before?  Did any year since have more than the year of 2005?

A prime example of PKG thinking is “Dominic”, a self-described 23-year-old recent convert who did some drive-by commenting in reply to my last blog post. He claims that Ron and Laura took him and his daughter to lunch, probably with the other dozen PKG members in attendance while in in Phoenix last weekend. We’ll see how soon it is before one of the elders who reads my blog brings him up short for “entertaining demons” and puts him back in his cage.

The prospect of spending eternity with this maniac sounds more like being in hell than in heaven, to use the vernacular (yeah, yeah, I know you don’t believe in those concepts of traditional Christianity, but if you can get past that, maybe you’ll get my point). Given that, I’ll take my chances with the Great White Throne, thank you very much, and would rather take a long walk on a short plank into the lake of fire right behind Aggie than to spend it with Ronnie and his crowd. I do believe that Dominic learned his humility from the master at it, Ronnie boy himself.  After all, his comments were essentially parroting of Ronnie’s nonsense.  Another example of PKG thinking is on this post by PKG wannabee Aaron Robinson.