Ron’s Peace
False Prophet Ronald Weinland made a rare visit to Cincinnati for yesterday’s sermon. Our most formidable prophet was unprepared and 15 minutes late getting started, blaming it on leaving equipment at home. Ron made up for the late start by ending his sermon 15 minutes early. I wonder if his elder John & wife Mary Kay were tempted to blow off the sermon and go to Marc and Chelsea’s wedding, which was only about 3 miles from their home.
Ron is preparing for the Feast of Tabernacles coming up in 8 weeks now. Ron has finished the 5th sermon of 7 that he has planned, and each of his evangelists is tasked with giving one sermon. He’s also thinking of printing up a booklet to be handed out within PKG near the end of the feast. Ten sermons makes one for each of the eight days with an extra sermon on the first and last days. Ron promises not one, not two, not three, but at least four new truths to be unveiled during the feast. Provided he can restrain himself from revealing them earlier. Of course he’s not feeling the same kind of pressure to reveal them sooner as was the case with the 50th truth, when he just had shut down a timeline and told his members that they were no longer sealed in the 144,000.
Four new truths added to the 53 he has now will put the count at 57. Since the effect of the trumpets continues to delay (now 85 weeks and almost halfway through the Great Tribulation, and most of a year into his shortened not-so-Great Tribulation), Ron needs to roll out more new truths to keep the sheep happy. I expect that Ron has found at least one of his new truths with the aid of Strong’s Concordance. Yesterday, he came out with the word Jerusalem meaning “peace”, as in “shalom”. In reality, “Jerusalem” is a Canaanite word meaning “Foundation Of Shalem”. Shalem is a known Ugaritic god. Since “Jerusalem” sounds sort-of Hebraic, the Hebrews did not rename it.
Ron repeated a pacifist rant criticizing the war in Afghanistan. If the IRS scoops him up, perhaps he’ll claim they’re trying to shut him up for his criticism. That may come soon, as the IRS has been investigating him for at least 25 months now. I’m still expecting that the investigation will resolve one way or the other by the end of the year, as the average length of an investigation is 14 months.
A pity. 50 was a nice round number.
A round number, yes. But still 50 “truths” too many.
“Four new truths added to the 53 he has now will put the count at 57. Since the effect of the trumpets continues to delay (now 85 weeks and almost halfway through the Great Tribulation, and most of a year into his shortened not-so-Great Tribulation), Ron needs to roll out more new truths to keep the sheep happy. I expect that Ron has found at least one of his new truths with the aid of Strong’s Concordance. Yesterday, he came out with the word Jerusalem meaning “peace”, as in “shalom”. In reality, “Jerusalem” is a Canaanite word meaning “Foundation Of Shalem”. Shalem is a known Ugaritic god. Since “Jerusalem” sounds sort-of Hebraic, the Hebrews did not rename it.”
Hrm, those “new truths” could go either way — towards a Tkachian “two covenants” understanding, or closer to the original doctrines of the WCG than PKG has been, to date. I think it’s more likely he’s going to take the fire-and-brimstone approach that Armstrong did, when 1975 in Prophecy failed, and blame it all on “The Bride of Christ was not Ready!” and “I never set dates, brethren!” combined with “Get the Church BACK on TRACK!”, which means a descent into more conservative Armstrongism, once again. Which means he might poach a few more from “the scattered church”, but it’s going to make it less likely that any recruits from “the world” are going to stick with it, if he goes back to “keeping the Law”.
Actually there’s a third direction, the one he’s taken. I expect Ron will bolt-on a new truth that won’t contradict anything he’s put out so far. Well, there may be a contradiction, such as his recent claim to be the End-Time Elijah and an Apostle in contradiction to some early statements. His followers will swallow something like that whole, like the changes one of them made to the Wikipedia article on PKG. I don’t expect him to go either of the directions Aggie suggests, but instead the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition will just roll out more Signs and Lying Wonders to distract his followers from the utter lack of fulfilled prophecy.
Mike in criticising yesterday’s sermon said:
“Yesterday, he came out with the word Jerusalem meaning “peace”, as in “shalom”. In reality, “Jerusalem” is a Canaanite word meaning “Foundation Of Shalem”. Shalem is a known Ugaritic god. Since “Jerusalem” sounds sort-of Hebraic, the Hebrews did not rename it.”
Ron Weinland is perfectly correct Mike. Hebrews 7 verse 2 confirms that the Bible meaning of ‘Salem’ is ‘peace’.
Easton Bible Dictionary definition of Jerusalem is “Foundation of Peace”.
Take a look at the link I provided in my post.
I did Mike. Since the sermon was referring to the Bible, it is the Bible’s own definition of Salem that carries the authority.
Mal, the word “Jerusalem” in not in your reference. Just because a word sounds the same does not mean it has the same meaning. Unless “king” meaning regent results in “making” meaning my mother the male regent.
Mal,
A broken clock is right twice a day… so what?
Yet more truthes…
How many truths will Ron fabricate? That depends directly upon how many predictions do not come true and how bored Ron gets. Ron is pretty board now I think but holding fast.
Let’s see 3-1/2 Year G-T is, um… 42 months. This shindig started in April of 2008 so that’s, uh… 27 months gone by out of 42. 64% already passed and only a recession on the radar. Hmmmm…
Oh that’s right he made a second go at it after he failed so miserably the first time. So uh… the total is 42 again and this time only 19 have passed and thats ah… 45%. That far into the GREAT tribulation and only a recession to show for it.
Oh that’s right he shortened it and… hey you can’t shorten it that’s not even Biblical. For you see… hey you can’t have a prophetic timline that is wrong in the first place that’s not Biblical! So back to his first one again and that is 27 months in with no “G” in Great. To give Ron credit the thunders didn’t work out to well either and… oh I guess that’s not to Rons credit after all.
Hmmmm… sounds like Ron’s a failure. I guess it’s a good thing he has and only ever has represented Ron and Ron’s bank account.
As a certain cat owner would say “Tick Tock Ron, your time runs short”.
Mal,
You’re awfully picky about people getting things right; you’ve made it a point to correct people on what they say about Ron, about exactly what he teaches, about word definitions, etc. Why aren’t you this picky about Ron’s failures?!?
Ron’s prophecies and his excuses have been shot down in flames; why do you think there’s no one left standing? All of his followers have been in full retreat since 2008.
Good point, Angel. It’s like Mal is trying to find the needles of right among all the hay of failures and wrongs. If he falls into the haystack of failures, he could probably burrow his way out without finding a single needle. They are that few in comparison.
Mal, sitting on that fence is sure to give you a sore bottom as well as a major headache. I hope you finally choose the wide open field of freedom rather than the smothering confines of the haystack full of failures and confusion.
Ron’s holding back the new truths for the feast… so he must know there’s not going to be a calamity that will prevent the whole church from hearing the feast sermons…so perhaps the truths have something to do with the timeline?
I suspect ‘decision making’ is not one of Mal’s strong points, but everyone has weaknesses. I also suspect that his procrastination over ‘Is he’? or ‘Isn’t he a prophet?’ would be keeping Mal’s world in an almost frozen state in time. A decision either way would bring a tremendous sense of relief. And the clock of life would recommence ticking… A new page would be turrned. New realities would appear.
When I’m in a bind as far as making a decision I seek the help of a rational, logical friend. God gave or we were born with an ability to be both rational and irrational. I’m yet to meet anybody who is convinced that behaving or thinking irrationally can be of benefit in the long run. I say the long run because sometimes behaving irrationally can help get what you want in the immediate term. A shallow victory. Misplaced pity.
Life is too short to be stuck in a rut all of the time.
That’s a good point, Ron is delaying the revealing of “Truths” and ergo surely knows that no calamities will strike in that delaying time as the “Truths” would not be able to be communicated to some (or many?) of the faithful. So the 64% of the time already passed will progress to 67% before the “Truths” are told. Why form a 3-1/2 year Great Tribulation if your only going to Tribulate the final moments of it? Surely it would be much more wise to devise a 3-1/2 month Great Tribualtion and Tribulate the heck out of it ergo using the whole prophecied time instead of using a mere small fraction of it and letting the rest to simply fill space?
Of course the “Plain Truth” of it all is that Ron knows nothing of the future and can predict not a whit of it.
Go figure?
I think we should send in our resident Rambo sayeth the “Colonel”
On a more serious note from this article;
“Ron repeated a pacifist rant criticizing the war in Afghanistan”
If he were in charge of the US or European policy at the time of Hitler…we would all be speaking German right now & many many more people would be dead. I dread to think what kind of world it would be like…..surely this also shows yet again the “fruits” of a so called Christian as after all the greatest commandment is to love thy neighbour “more” than thyself John 15:13
Or should i say the “greatest love”
angel
This blog is essentially one way traffic (understandable due to it’s nature), so I’m well aware of all the arguments against RW. I also understand why feelings run high against him, also against the old WCOG, and against ‘Armstrongism’ in general. I’ve learnt a lot from the people posting here about their experiences with WCOG and PKG.
I’ve not yet fully closed the door on RW for various reasons, which maybe I’ll summarise in another post.
So, as someone still interested in both sides of the argument, I notice comments I see here that don’t seem justified and sometimes I make a response. Maybe you see that as being picky. Perhaps it makes the blog more interesting when there is some debate? Fair criticism I acknowledge, but I don’t find everything on this blog to be fair criticism.
I stand by my last comment regarding the name Jerusalem, which maybe you found ‘picky’.
In his criticism of last week’s sermon, Mike implied that RW dreamt up a connection between the name ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘peace’, so essentially rubbishing the sermon which was entitled ‘The Way of Peace’. Personally, I found it to be a good sermon and would have found it good given by any preacher.
Mike’s info about the origin of the name Jerusalem is interesting, but If you check out numerous Bible dictionaries and concordances you will see that the link RW made between ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘peace’ is perfectly valid. If Mike is challenging RW on that one, he is out of step with Christianity at large. I don’t think my comment was ‘picky’.
Also: “All his followers in full retreat since 2008″ ? “No one left standing” ? Maybe that will become the case, but not quite true just yet I think.
“Oh that’s right he shortened it and… hey you can’t shorten it that’s not even Biblical”.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Whisper, I wouldn’t pretend to know the true meaning of this Scripture. But maybe it is relevant ?
Mark 13:19,20
“For in those days shall be affliction, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never shall be.
And unless the Lord had SHORTENED those days, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect’s sake, whom He has chosen, He has SHORTENED the days.”
Shortened – who said it wasn’t shortened from some other number to 3.5 years? More bible bs.
Or indeed, shortened from the start (to start later) or taken off the end (to finish earlier – shortened).
So, the bible doesn’t say.
So we have to believe a prophet – and what is the test of a prophet again?
Oh that’s right, by their prophecies coming to pass EXACTLY as they predict.
Rons failed Mal. Get over it. Go to another COG, they are pretty much all the same so it seems.
Aggie, the reason your comments disappeared is that I’ve removed them. Please do not again make characterizations of another commenter here. If you disagree with someone’s point, address the point without casting aspersions, founder or otherwise, against the other person.
Mal, I am not offended by your comment about being out of step with Christianity at large. It’s absolutely true. The article I linked is not really inconsistent with Ron’s claim either, but explains it.
But I am puzzled by your using that argument in support of Ron, who is himself out of step with Christianity-at-large on just about every other point. For example, the “6000-year-plan-of-God” doctrine, which is one thing that attracted you to him, if I recall previous exchanges correctly. Please remind us though, if you would please, how long it is that you’re going to give Ron before you hop off the fence. What is your deadline for “nukular” explosions in US port cities?
As others have written, the Prophet Ron Weinland prophecied 3-1/2 years, not 3 years, not 2-1/2 years, not 2 years. 3-1/2 Years was to be the GT as predicted by Ron via God.
For Ron to be a Prophet he can not be wrong and he can not alter anything. No prophecy given in the bible can be altered or shortened. By the grace of God the time and hardship upon the Chosen (all of humanity by last count) God shortened the days of Tribulation down to within Human tolerance, in Ron’s words to 3-1/2 years length. Who knows what time frame of Tribulation would be to great for mankind, but thankfully the promise by God is that it will not be that long. If memory serves God does not make hurdles for men or mankind so great that man can not rise above them, he only makes them difficult so that man will strive, become strong and learn wisdom.
Ergo, it is not biblical that God would shorten the days of his prophets prophecy for that would be God lieing and then altering his own words to mankind.
Go figure?
“Mal, I am not offended by your comment about being out of step with Christianity at large……………. But I am puzzled by your using that argument in support of Ron, who is himself out of step with Christianity-at-large on just about every other point.”
Fair comment Mike.
Yes, many of Ron’s teachings are unorthodox and don’t fit in with Christianity at large. I have had to carefully consider his teachings and try to determine if I see any ‘show stoppers’.
For example, many find ‘Truth 42’, that Jesus has not eternally existed (only God the Father has), to be a ‘show stopper’.
jack635 recently pointed out to me the Scripture in John 8:58 where Jesus supposedly says “Before Abraham was, I am”. (The logic then progresses that “I am” is the name for God, so Jesus is God). However, other Scriptures appear to refute this. The following are examples of many:
(1Jo 4:12) No one has seen God at any time.
(1Ti 2:5) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus
(Joh 5:30) I can of mine own self do nothing
(Heb 2:9) But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels
One website states: “John 8:58 is a poor translation and is more accurately translated as, “Truly, truly I say to you, I exist as superior in rank to Abraham’s existence.” The UBS Greek text reads, “prín Abraám genésthai egoó eimí”. In other words, Jesus is telling these Jews that his rank in the kingdom of God is greater than that of their father Abraham. Once he said this, the Jews took up stones to stone him to death.”
So, therefore, I would be unable to say that RW was categorically wrong with ‘Truth 42’, that Jesus has not eternally existed.
“For example, many find ‘Truth 42’, that Jesus has not eternally existed (only God the Father has), to be a ‘show stopper’.”
Please give a few examples of the many who find this to be a show stopper. While Jack and others would disagree, I doubt that is the slightest difference as far as RW being a false prophet. Jack, when you started blogging against Weinland, did you understand his doctrine on the origin of Christ?
Let’s look at it from another perspective, Mal. For the sake of discussion, let’s say that all the rest of Weinland’s theology is correct. Does that overcome the non-fulfillment of his prophecies and make him a true prophet?
This is why I dislike these kind of discussion so much. You end up having to make enormous concessions and accept things that are so mind-bogglingly unlikely to be true that it makes your brain creak, and then argue about the smallest details of this assumption – one that you know is pointless because it is based on a complete pipe-dream.
Let us recap here – a man who wrote a book that stated that if his predictions did not happen by 2008, it would be clear he was a nutjob. None of the predictions came true. They were very specific – 1/3rd of all plant life dying, nukes going off in the states, Germany dominating Europe and the fall of the united states were among the predicted events. All these things were explicitly stated, and right about now is the very latest any of this could have taken place if it was to happen on time.
The same man makes a good living off the tithes he receives, and has conveniently changed the timelines since then. He still claims to be a prophet, and so does his wife.
And yet here we are splitting theological hairs?
There has to be a considerable amount of willing suspension of disbelief going on for someone to even entertain the possibility of Ron being right. This willing suspension is achieved, where the followers are concerned, by giving them the idea that being in the church places you at the very epicenter of importance, gods special chosen people, the only people in the whole universe who believe in the right way and who do gods work. It is not hard to see that for the right kind of person, this is hugely seductive.
Anyway, if you want to split the hairs properly you will find that the key word would be “prin” – Ere, before (time), before that. Not a word used to denote primacy or position, but time. This also explains the odd use of I AM in present tense, as he is probably trying to make the point that he is eternal, although Josephus the historian seems to have used the verb in a similar way, to mean “I have been”. With two pointers to the author meaning pre-existence, not preeminence, I would say the balance of probability points that way.
Mal,
The point of my comment about you being picky, which apparently you missed, was that you don’t seem to be picky when it comes to what Ron has been wrong about. If it’s so important to you to correct what you believe others misspoke about Ron – why does that high standard of being correct not seem to apply when it comes to anything HE says? The whole point of this blog is Ron’s colossal failure to prophesy accurately!
We hold Ron to a higher standard than you do, and that is reasonable both on a human and a biblical level. As human beings, we expect people to be honest and to take responsibility for their mistakes – Ron has done neither. The Bible also holds Ron accountable to be accurate, as his failures would appear to demonstrate (if we were to believe that his predictions came from God) that God either lies to His prophets, or doesn’t know the future as He claims to. That is an extremely offensive idea to anyone who does not believe God lies – and please don’t try to feed me the feeble excuses you’ve chosen to accept from him.
I’m not asking you to come here and agree with anyone, or saying you shouldn’t share your views – what I’m asking is – why aren’t you using those keen analytical skills on what Ron has been wrong about? I don’t have a problem with you correcting someone – all I’m asking is that you be consistent.