False Prophet Ronald Weinland

“Take Action” is the name of False Prophet Ronald Weinland’s newest sermon series.  The action he is discussing is a church-wide fast, but not anything Two-Witness like.  There is a mention of heat — but not from fire emanating either from his mouth or the Silent Witness.  Rather, it is a reference to the weather and that now PKG members are allowed to wear more casual clothes when coming before God.

In previous sermons, he has indicated that he will be going to Europe for the feast instead of Australia which he has done in the years 2008 through 2011.  In 2012 he spent the feast in the basement of his mansion on the golf course wearing a GPS ankle bracelet because he had been convicted of criminal tax fraud and was awaiting sentencing.  In 2013, 2014, and 2015 God placed his name on the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Institute where Ron was incarcerated.  This year it seems that he can’t get a visa for New Zealand and Australia because of his conviction with other countries like Canada and the UK also unwilling to have him visit.  No doubt he will soon exercise his Witness power to call down plagues on countries that reject him.

It’s been May since Ron posted on his blog, and April since my last post.  The number of comments on that post has grown to over 300 so this one can be used to continue conversations.

On a personal note, I obviously have been much less involved with this blog although I do monitor what’s going on. I grew up in Armstrongism in the 60s while it was still called the Radio Church of God.  I rejected Armstrongism before Herbie’s Great Tribulation failed to materialize in 1972.  Since then I’ve led my on life including having a family and a successful technical career.  I began blogging in 2008 before the first time Ron’s Great Tribulation failed to start.    This has been an opportunity for me to work through my own personal experiences in Armstrongism and have decided to focus on other things.  I will keep the blog open, and continue to monitor things.  If Ron does something Witness-like I would start up again unless that Witness-like thing is the enforcement of the death curse he issued twice in 2008.

This post is timed for publication at the minute for sundown in Jerusalem at the start of False Prophet Ronald Weinland’s latest 1260-day period.

This will be the fourth Great Tribulation I’ve experienced.  The first Great Tribulation was the one that began in 1972 leading up to the time that Christ didn’t return on Trumpets of 1975 per the prophesy Herbert Armstrong cleverly had surrogates put out so he could deny it.

The second Great Tribulation began in April of 2008, when Ronald Weinland prophesied “nukular” explosions in US port cities by the following July, but this Great Tribulation didn’t last very long.  Weinland abandoned that timeline just two months later — but without his stopping his preaching in violation of his “If by Pentecost” promise made on March 29, 2008.  Instead, he announced another timeline.

The third Great Tribulation began in December of 2008, with Weinland and the Mrs. traveling to Jerusalem a second time on the tithe-payers’ dime to “begin their jobs as the Two Witnesses”.  But even though Weinland didn’t abandon this timeline, Christ did not return on May 27, 2012. Too bad for Ron because a couple of weeks later he was convicted on 5 counts of criminal tax evasion.

So now we have the start of the fourth Great Tribulation, with an extra 50 days padded in there to make Ron’s date counting come out.   This time Ron isn’t in Jerusalem as he is still an involuntary guest of the Bureau of Prisons residing at the minimum security prison camp in Terre Haute, Indiana.  But maybe he’ll breathe fire on the guards until they release him to take off his lime green jumpsuit and put on his $1500 suit of sackcloth in order to confront world leaders, turn water into blood, and strike the earth with plagues.

Somehow I think this is not the last Great Tribulation I will experience despite my advancing years.

I ran across this article which led to an “Aha” moment.  Hubris Syndrome combines aspects of different personality disorders, such as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and Histrionic Personality Disorder.

—————The symptoms of hubris syndrome, from a scholarly article: ————–

In making the diagnosis of hubris syndrome we suggest that ≥3 of the 14 defining symptoms should be present of which at least one must be amongst the five components identified as unique.

—– Back to discussion —————-

Here are some characteristics that Weinland displays from the list above:

•  (#6 unique) I have heard Weinland use the royal “we”, as in “we believe”.
• (#7 NPD) Although Ron talks about “walking side by side to God’s house in counsel-blended sweet”, at the end of the day he’s not willing to accept the advice or criticism of others .
• (#8 NPD) He has an exaggerated self-belief in what he can achieve (#8).  Millions of people will still yet join his church.
• (#9 NPD) Weinland thinks he only answers to God.
• (#10 unique) Ron had the hubris to think he could take the witness stand in court and get off.  Instead he just made himself look even worse, bragging about the suit the church paid for that he was wearing to court on non-church business.  And his explanations for his Swiss bank account.
• (#14 HPD)  Ron left the nuts-and-bolts of financial accounting to Laura.

With 6 characteristics 2 of them being “unique”, in my opinion Weinland meets the criteria for a diagnosis of Hubris Syndrome.  Perhaps some of my readers more familiar with him could add to this list.

In breaking news, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, foretelling six more weeks of winter.  Punxsutawney Phil’s predictions are more often wrong than right.  But still right more often than False Prophet Ronald Weinland, whose ability to prophesy anything correctly is zero.

One year ago today was Ron the Con’s first full day in Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute, having voluntarily reported there during the prior day (Feb 1, 2013).  In the year since then, Ron’s little religious empire has been crumbling.  He lost his evangelist Terry Wrozek, who had been with him since he left WCG following “the apostasy”.  He lost his senior elder Ralph Dowd who had been with him nearly as long.  Many others have left PKG, including several who testified at his criminal trial. Even his own son-in-law, brother-in-law, sister, and mother have left.

Ron has many Groundhog Days in front of him, with his release expected for Feb 17, 2016.  Will Ron finally get it right before being released?  I doubt it, rather expecting him to attempt to rebuild his empire from whatever ruins await when he leaves prison to return to his home on the golf course.

The rhetoric against False Prophet Ronald Weinland and his family can get pretty fierce in comments to blog posts.  And the posts themselves cover events over a period of several years.

This blog has static pages linked in the banner at the top of every page on this blog.  I have just added a new one

Lies and Broken Promises

The purpose of this new page is to summarize statements by Weinland that turned out to be false at the time or broken promises later on.  Comments on that page are disabled, if you have any please leave them on this post.

As today starts another year, and per tradition I look back at last year and put forth my non-prophetic guesses for the coming year as to False Prophet Ronald Weinland.

In January, the five month point was reached before Christ’s second non-return on Pentecost of last year. Ron explained that the five month period of torment didn’t mean that people would be tormented for the full five months, but five months during which we would be tormented even if only for a minute.  Ron and I both had interviews.  Mine was on a God Discussion Blogtalk program heard by a few dozen.  Ron had an interview on a minor market radio station, the only one after advertising his availability.  So much for his being sought out by the media as he prophesied in “2008 — God’s Final Witness”.  In the meantime, I found evidence that Ron’s claim that Joe Tkach died 40 weeks to the very hour after his Atlanta sermon was just another of his lying wonders.

February came with happy news, the birth of Kirrily’s son who wouldn’t exist had she continued to follow Weinland. Also in February, Ron’s talented legal defense team came up with the third time line for his criminal trial, with the trial date rescheduled for June 4 after having been originally scheduled for January 31 and then continued to March 20.

During March, Ron faced competition from David Pack, one of those who he prophesied to die early on following the publication of “2008 — God’s Final Witness”.  He also faced competition from his own breakaway splinter.

During April, Ron made his final tour before his criminal trial to Australia and New Zealand for the Days of Unleavened Bread.  Then he spiritualized the deaths of the Two Witnesses as God showed great mercy so Ron and Laura would not have to literally-physically die in the streets of Jerusalem the following month.

May was the month it all didn’t happen.  Ron made his farewell tour to Europe mid month, then returned to Kentucky for his pretrial conference shortly before he and the Mrs did not meet their fate in the streets of Jerusalem at the hands of the beast power.  He then recorded an emotional sermon reading what almost sounded like a suicide note.  Web traffic to my blog which had been increasing steadily due in part to people curious about his books due  to his Google advertising campaign.  On the day of Christ’s non-return (May 26),  web traffic peak at a record amount.  Shortly after the moment Christ didn’t return (sundown in Jerusalem), Ron fulfilled my prophecy by posting on his blog, and later in the day recording a Pentecost sermon. with his present Present Truth(tm) that Christ is returning next Pentecost.

Despite his stated expectation that Christ would return on Memorial Day weekend, Ron kept his talented legal team engaged in preparing the defense at his criminal trail which final began on June 4.  After a week and a half of government revelations countered by a black-hearted defense, Ron was found guilty by a jury of non-peers in just a few hours.  Judge Reeves did not send him straight to prison, and his neighbor and cult member Joyce Garrett put up her home as collateral so that Ron could wear the GPS ankle bracelet of humility and watch cable TV while awaiting his sentencing.  Two of the jurors were so offended by Ron’s actions that they got on this blog and supplied details of his perfidy.

During July and August, Ron lost a number of members, some prompted by Christian in Australia, and a group in the UK.  Ron lost elders he ordained in 2008 including the notable defection of Adrian Gray in New Zealand to HWA-wannabee-and-ayatollah Dave Pack.

In anticipation of his original sentencing date of September 24, Ron recorded all the feast sermons except for 3 given by his evangelists Johnny, Wayne, and Terry.  The US probation officer asked for more time to prepare the pre-sentencing report, so Judge Reeves delayed sentencing to October 29.  Even though Ron was given more time, his prerecorded sermons were the ones delivered.

In his Last Great Day sermon, Ron explained that the Great Tribulation was being delayed because the year-long Great and Terrible Day of the Lord started off with the nighttime portion.  During October, I made a number of posting based on trial transcripts.  The October 29 sentencing date was postponed to November 14 to allow more time for objections at the hearing.

During November, I wound up the posting of trial testimony with the devastating testimony of Audra and the IRS special agent who investigated the case.  Devastating for those who had eyes to read.  Yours truly attended the sentencing hearing, meeting two of the jurors away from the hearing and one of the cult members inside the court building.  Judge Reeves sentenced Ron to 42 months along with fines and restitution with a self-reporting-to-prison date of January 2.  Following the hearing, I visited the Boone county clerk’s office and found that Ron also played loose with the facts in signing his daughter’s marriage certificate, claiming the ceremony had taken place on Kentucky soil when according to Audra’s testimony it happened in Germany.

The year ended with Ron’s reporting date to prison delayed to February 1.

During the first post of last year I predicted:

Looking forward to this coming year, I prophesy that Christ will not return on Pentecost or any other day.  I am more sure of this than Ron is of the opposite.  (Remember that Ron hedged his bet by paying the property tax on his house on the golf course even though there would be no legal repercussions before Pentecost.)  I am less certain of how this failure will play out in terms of Ron’s response.  If the outcome of his legal situation results in his imprisonment before May, I expect he will declare some kind of timeline change.  If he beats the rap, the recognition of failure will come later.  There is a possibility that Ron will spiritualize the return of Christ as he has other failures such as the non-sounding of the First Trumpet.  And as he did the non-deaths of his mockers and critics.

I predict that Ron will retain a sizable following even after the failure of his prophecies, and this even if he ends up with an extended vacation in Club Fed.  Significant numbers of his followers will leave, and if Ron is isolated in prison more followers will drift away during his imprisonment.

I’d say I pretty much batted 1.000 on that.  Looking forward to the coming year, I expect that Ron will show up to prison as scheduled and Joyce Garrett will get her house back.  Ron will have new Present Truths(tm) to explain why the daylight portion of the Day of the Lord is not accompanied by the Great Tribulation and yet another Present Truth(tm) in May to explain why Christ is still a no-show.  Ron will leak more members, but the majority will continue to stick with him to pay for his lawyers and his back taxes.

I wish all my commenters a successful New Year, and hope that those in the process of exiting will have a smooth transition joined by yet more PKG members who open their eyes.  I plan to continue blogging but hope that things begin to wind down.

With all the events surrounding the sentencing of False Prophet Ronald Weinland and having a life of my own, I neglected to check on Ron’s property tax payment.  Even though dawn was about to break in the great and terrible Day of the Lord, Ron still paid his property taxes this year in a timely fashion, even getting a 2% discount.  This even though Christ will again return next year really for sure this time next May, well in advance of when he would be evicted for non payment.  Well, it would actually be Laura as Ron will be living the life of ease in Club Fed.  It’s interesting to note that Audra is still in the middle of Ron’s financial dealings, having apparently written the check.

When I visited the Boone County administration building in Burlington on the day of Ron’s sentencing, I also found some interesting facts about Ron’s financial dealings.  I was able to pull up records of Ron’s financing of his mansion on the golf course.

On February 18, 2005, a mortgage for $300,000 was made on his house.  He sold his house in Toledo two months later and may have applied equity from that sale against the mortgage.  This mortgage amount was under 80% of the original tax appraisal of $381,000.  Being under 80% loan-to-value, the mortgage lender allowed Ron to pay property tax directly to the county instead of requiring him to deposit monthly into an impound fund with the lender.

On October 27, 2010, he refinanced his house for $267,100.  Probably he did this to get a lower interest rate, and with a lowered principal.  This new mortgage amount is about 75% of the current (lowered) property tax appraisal of $357,000, which may itself be higher than the appraisal used for the financing.

After the Feast of Tabernacles in 2007 and Last Great Day Total Resolve sermon in which he announced stepped-up advertising for his books, Ron and Laura went on their 10-day Total Resolve Mediterranean Cruise.  During his first sermon following his return, Ron made the following statements:

• “is it Total Resolve, or 50% resolve”?
• “what we do have the ability to do, we’d better do it… We’d better think about what we can do”
• “We’re trying to get a second mortgage right now. “
• “And now I want to get that money that we put in there , because we put a pretty good chunk in there, for our equity, to have a lower interest rate, a lower payment.  So we tossed a whole bunch of equity from another house … we’ve been very blessed over the years.”

After suggesting that seniors get reverse mortgages because they would not be able to pass anything to their grandchildren, he said that he didn’t care about anyone’s attitudes who would point out where he lived and the car he drives (BMW). These statements are in his sermon of October 27, 2007 beginning at around 37 minutes into the  sermon recording and continuing on for about 10 minutes. If you can stomach listening to Ron, you can start earlier in the sermon at around 23 minutes where he describes sending in second tithe since there wouldn’t be an organized feast in 2008.

In his first sermon of 2008, he mentioned that Laura was visiting a bank about refinancing their house, and that the Weinlands were determined to get the equity out.  {Starting around 53 minutes into the sermon recording for Jan 5, 2008).

So while Ron was suggesting that his members send in their life savings, he and his family were on a spending spree, buying 3 BMWs, going on cruises and vacationing in Hawaii and Las Vegas, and otherwise living an affluent lifestyle above their declared income of $70,800. But they were NOT getting all that equity out of their house.

Total Resolve, huh?

False Prophet Ronald Weinland delivered the last sabbath sermon to be delivered before Christ doesn’t return, unless he decides to assemble his Cincinnati-area acolytes next Friday night for a special sermon.  His senior elder in UK, William Milne, gave the opening prayer.  He read an email from a fence sitter in that region, maybe even our own resident fence sitter Mal (Mal, please check in  — we haven’t heard from you since January).  The fence sitter thinks Ron has the “truth” but doubts that Christ will return next weekend.

Ron took a minute to assure relatives of PKG members that he teaches against committing suicide.  While I don’t foresee a Jonestown-style mass suicide, I think that there may be some individual members who will not handle the non-return of Christ very well.  For a preview of possible reactions by PKG members, the article  A Year After the Non-Apocalypse (hat-tip to Gavin Rumney for finding this) suggests a range of responses based on what happened with the True Believers after the failure of Harold Camping’s prophecies just about a year ago.  My personal opinion is that most PKG members will continue to follow Ron into the next rabbit hole.

During his last sermon, he railed against his critics, and also took another swipe at people who litter.  He stated that the 7000 to die during the hour that Christ returns would be preachers, elders, and bloggers whose deaths would frighten the 63,000 survivors.  I’m wondering about the logistics of that, how the 63000 are going to be aware of this minor calamity relative to all the nukes going off as World War 3 breaks out.  He reflected on history, mentioning his breakup with UCG back in 1997.  How as a teen he wanted to be a general and a jet pilot so he could kill lots of people.  Instead, he’s become a pastor general and has damaged hundreds of lives. The 2 million books that have been sent out (which ends mid week), and all the ordaining he’s done for no purpose now until after Christ returns. The PKG website will survive World War 3 but all the other websites such as this one will be cleaned from the Internet.

Ron stated that if (if?) he doesn’t become a spirit being next weekend, he will realize that he will have more physical struggles and mocking to contend with. Somehow he recognizes this as a realistic “if” but doesn’t view it as reality.  Oooookaaaay.  Ron will repent but signals that he will continue preaching as he has the “truth” and would still believe that Christ is returning soon.  Gavin Rumney reposted an article from late in 2007 about how Ron might play his failures in 2008.  Actually, Ron has already exercised tactics 1 through 4 on Gavin’s list to some extent.  I view tactic #6 as a possibility.  Tactic #5, “I never actually said that, or, I’m not technically a prophet.”  is simply not in Ron’s play book.

A number of other blogs have added countdown timers to their sites.  Most of them count down to midnight on the 27th according to the clock in your PC.  The countdown timer that I’ve had on this website for the past several years counts down to the very minute of this non-event regardless of your timezone.  The “very minute” that Ron has scheduled his elder brother Jesus to appear is at sundown in Jerusalem on the eve of Pentecost.  Which happens to be 12:36 PM US Eastern Time next Saturday. This post is being published one week to the very minute prior.

A note about my countdown timer: it does not show fractions of a unit of time, so when the time remaining is 6 days and a fraction of a day it shows 6.  You may note that 0 months and 0 weeks remain.  But the counter also shows shorter units of time, down to seconds.

Further indications that Ron has decided to not plead to lesser criminal tax evasion charges.  There has been no filing for this and the deadline was Thursday.  Instead, there was a filing by the government to replace one of the two assistant US attorneys — if Ron were planning to plead out I doubt they would bother with a second attorney.  No withdrawal motions from Ron’s attorneys, suggesting that he’s continuing to pay them even though he believes he won’t need them.  Ronnie has a pre-trial conference with the judge on Monday morning and his trial is scheduled to begin on June 4.

Ron ended his last “live” sermon in this physical body with Psalm 116:17 and an admonition to his acolytes to be strong and of good courage, and then gave his own prayer.  I expect another “live” sermon from Ron, still in the same bald-headed physical body, no later than June 2,