False Prophet Ronald Weinland

In June of 2009, Ron Weinland spoke at Moses Znaimer’s IdeaCity.  As one of the presenters, Ron was invited to stay for the several-day event and even planned to attend a luncheon hosted by Znaimer on the sabbath after the event.  But a following presenter so offended our most formidable prophet that — as Whisper explained in a comment on the last post:

But nothing can stop the chosen one with his shield and armor of God. Like the times when Ron went on radio talk-shows and…. oh ya he does not attempt such any more. Well he was able to take a very dangerous trip to Canada and… oh ya he bravely ran away from that encounter with a terribly powerful comedian. Well then, he uses his awesome Witness powers to… ah… hmmmm, I guess not.

Ron fled the conference, and later wrote a letter to Moses Znaimer alluding to a curse on him.

I found a YouTube video of most of the presentation by the offender, Rick Miller.  This was the presentation as repackaged for a half-hour show on Canadian television.  At 2:10 into the video as Rick get up to speak, looks like the Two Witnesses were sitting in the audience together a couple of rows back.

In my opinion, Rick Miller’s message seemed to be more critical of those who took over the Jesus story and made it their own.  Perhaps Ron was really offended that Rick got the standing ovation he thought he was entitled to.

We have a variety of readers here. What’s your opinion of Rick Miller’s presentation?

False Prophet Ronald Weinland posted the following on his blog last week, after referring to the two-day fast on January 31 to February 1 of last year.

Yes, that two-day fast was for the people of this world. It was a petition requesting that more would have the potential of being saved than would otherwise be the case if things happened in their natural, normal progression. Through this fast, God revealed His desire to grant great mercy to all mankind by lessening the time for actual suffering that begins once the Second Trumpet sounds. Once the world begins to become aware of this, the potential for more being saved will become a reality.

A listen through the sermon of January 31, 2009, Ron did indeed mention how nice it would be if the trumpets were delayed.  But what was the purpose of the two-day fast?  What were members to pray for?  Listen to an MP3 audio clip by pressing the play button. (link for the flash impaired browsers)

So again, what is the purpose of our prayers, petitions and fasting before God? … That many more be brought to repentance and acceptance of the truth through the timing, repetition, and power from unleashing far mightier thunders.  And as well the trumpets…

No instructions to pray for a delay in the trumpets, but the opposite.  Don’t believe me? Well, download the Jan 31, 2009 sermon directly from the PKG website, and listen to it for yourself beginning at 1 hour and 11 minutes.  Listen to the whole thing.  Give me the timestamp of any point where members were to pray for a delay of the trumpets.  And no, not any place where Ron said that wouldn’t it be nice.

And provide evidence that what they fasted and prayed for materialized (and no, that wasn’t the non-materialization of the 2nd trumpet).  Yeah, we’ve had a few earthquakes, a few weather events, and even an oil spill but which was stopped before destroying the southern US. Don’t give a list of event like Aaron Robinson did awhile back — give some hard statistics showing the increase in the thunders.  And explain why it isn’t obvious to all,  not just those without the special filters that Ron puts in the minds of this followers.

And if Ron claims again that God delayed the Second Trumpet because of the two-day fast, call BS on him.

Insane Lying False Prophet Ronald Weinland

I’d like to bring your attention to a new blog that has a similar topic as this one.  SplinterSurfer grew up in Gerald Six-Pack Flurry’s Philadelphia CoG.  According to him, he has been a member of CoGs led by some but not all of the men whose pictures adorn the banner of his blog.  One of those pictures should be familiar to readers of this blog, but from my reading I don’t get the impression that SplinterSurfer was ever a PKG member.

SplinterSurfer has guest posts from two who were members of Dave Pack’s Restored CoG.  Dave Pack is yet another claimant to Herbert Armstrong’s mantle, going so far as to claim being personally trained by Herbie for the last 15 years of his life.  Like Ron, Dave also claims to be an Apostle.  Pack had one of his acolytes write a biography of him which is liberally sprinkled with material quoted from Apostle Dave.  Here is one such excerpt from Pack’s biography

In early 1997, the United Church of God pastor in Toledo, Ohio, broke away from that organization and formed his own. The man was relatively young in the ministry, dating back to about 1987 or so.

He had become disenchanted with United. Soon after he left, some of the people who left with him shortly after came with Global. They kept contact with certain friends and, after a time, he wanted to meet with me, and invited me to his area to speak.

I drove to Toledo, thinking there was some possibility he wanted to come with Global, or was at least exploring the idea. It became apparent that this was not on his mind, but not right away. Neither was it on the minds of any of the people with him. This was actually good because I did not any longer know how to represent Global in such matters. He was at that point no better or worse off had he been with United or gone with Global.

We met for dinner on one other occasion. I also stayed with him at his house. He seemed like a nice person, just very confused about what he had experienced in both the WCG and UCG. He was disillusioned with all forms of church government, including what Mr. Armstrong taught.

Eventually it became apparent that he was not going to do anything other than his own thing. I watched—up close and personal—as this tragically inexperienced and unsound man literally melted down. Today, he believes that he is one of the Two Witnesses, and if this is not bad enough, he has appointed his wife to be the other.

Of course, the man is simply a false prophet. He would be one of a number that the apostasy would produce. Watching these men sort of ‘pop up’ here and there, as well as watching the kind of people who went with them was its own extraordinary coursework for me. I would later see this coursework as being even more valuable.

Talk about black pots and kettles!!!  In November of 2007, Pack asserted in the Clarion Call sermon that the end was so close that his members should “get those assets and get them here“.   (Sermon summary with transcript, or you can listen to the sermon starting at one hour and 13 minutes into the file and the following several minutes and get the gist quite quickly: 7 MB Real Audio or 47 MB MP3)  He went on to suggest that his members should ride roughshod over any objections from unconverted mates (“Woman, you don’t have a voice here”).

So Dave doesn’t think too much of the Spokesman Witness.  But Ron doesn’t think too much of Clarion Call Dave, as Dave is one of the five CoG leaders who he prophesied would die early on as part of the Fifth Thunder to prove that Ron is God’s prophet.  Dave returned the favor, suggesting that Ron should be put to death.

Dave did get one fact wrong.  Weinland started off earlier in the ministry than 1987, being ordained as a local elder in 1981 and then going into the full time ministry for WCG in 1982.  That factoid is available in Ron’s biography, which wasn’t self-commissioned like Dave’s  — that biography is on this website, just click the “Biography” link up on the banner of this blog.

Dave lives near Cleveland and Ron started his false prophesying while living in Toledo.  What’s in the water in Ohio?  Ron and Dave share more than pastoral backgrounds in WCG. Each, as head of his own CoGlet, recognized Herbie’s teaching that he who controls the money controls the church. Dave’s daughter Jennifer is the accountant for the Restored Church of God, and Ron’s daughter Audra, about 2 1/2 years older, is the bookkeeper for PKG. I wonder if Dave, like Ron, has an IRS criminal investigation for tax evasion. Just think about the possibilities: if they ended up sharing a jail cell would both emerge alive? Probably so, as they would just pronounce death curses on the other and given that I’ve survived one issued over a year and a half go, nothing would come of that.

A sermon file of interest came to my attention recently. In particular, an excerpt of it which I’ve transcribed below. You can also click on the player to listen while you read and double check the accuracy of my transcription.(Hyperlink for iPod and iPad users who can’t access Flash).

False Prophet Ronald Weinland speaking in his sermon titled “Planning Ahead” on Dec 28, 2002:

Also as a matter of keeping the church informed, I wanted to share something else with you.  Some of you I just mentioned beforehand here about Jeremy having an opportunity of going over to Austria this year. He’s going to meet up with some who came over from the feast from Holland and Belgium. And they had invited him to come over. Well, we just happened to take a look at some of the flights over and got a real good deal for him to fly over there. And so he’s going to go skiing.

The reason I’m mentioning that is because — backing up here, about a year ago when Laura and I went over to Belgium and to England, we also took a side trip which I haven’t mentioned to the church, I don’t believe I’ve mentioned to the church anyway, but we took a side trip to Switzerland. And one of the things, primary things motivating some of that was the opportunity to go to a bank there and talk to a banker for some time. We picked out a particular bank. Talked to them about the possibility of transferring funds over to Switzerland.

Because of considering some of the things that are going to come to pass and knowing what’s going to happen to the United States, and being convicted of those things, I started looking at some of that. It’s not just as simple as opening up a bank account like you live here in the United States. It’s much more complicated.  They gave me a book to read, basically. And I’ve gone through a few things there, discussed it with the elders. And they gave some different suggestions which I was very thankful for.  And that’s why we come together like that because as a council of elders for the purpose of counseling and listening to what they have to say and considering those different things, and looking to God’s spirit to lead, guide and direct us.

But anyway, Laura and I were going back again this year.  We’ve already scheduled to go back for Pentecost again this year to the same places. And we were going to go on down there to probably open up an account. But since Jeremy was going over in January, it became a little more urgent in my mind that we need to get this done quickly.  So we’re going to go on over there — I’m going to go over there. Laura’s not coming, but I’m going to fly over there to Zurich, straight to Zurich, and talk with a bank there. Possibly the same one that was in Geneva that I talked to, but it will be different people obviously but may be the same banking system. But talked with some in Geneva about opening up an account there in Zurich, and then flying back over and meeting up with Jeremy and flying back with him.

But I wanted to share that with the church, asking you to be praying about it.  Because we’re talking about maybe putting quite a bit of funds over there. We have quite a bit to work with, and haven’t known what to do with it. But it may be for a purpose of what’s coming.  We don’t know what’s coming, and in may be for a purpose of helping to sustain some things in the church. And it may be for a purpose of continuing doing some of the things we’re doing, being able to travel. An so we’re even going to try to get a credit card out of that, that allows us to go anywhere in the world and use those funds. Terry Wrozek had mentioned the possibility of something like that. So we’re going to check into that to be able to use those funds.

I wanted to share with you something else, because I don’t want to hold anything back. It’s going to be in my name, as well. It’s not going to be in the church’s name. So if someone hears about something like that, I didn’t want someone think “What are you going to do, take off to Europe? Whatever, these 200,000 or whatever over there?” No. We don’t want the church’s name involved. It’s going to be a personal account because Europe when it comes to religious groups and so forth, they’re not real keen on some of those things. So when we do transfer the monies we’re trying to think of different ways to put it in there.

We’ll probably put a lot of it into euros, some in Swiss francs. Nothing in US dollars. And that’s not to scare the church that people ought to be doing the same thing. Because it’s going to come down to this is just strictly, I believe deeply whether it would be for us or someone else that’s going to be able to use that money later on. And we have to plan ahead and think accordingly and I believe that’s what God is leading us and guiding us and helping us to think about and consider.

But this doesn’t mean it’s panic time for people in the church to wonder what to do with funds and so forth. The reality is that when things happen you’re going to have to rely on God, period, first and foremost in your lives, in your families, in your homes, and where ever you are. Because it’s not going to be a pretty picture on this earth. And it will be a total reliance , as we heard last sabbath, on God to bring us through these things. And that is a reality, it’s just a reality of life.

Of particular interest is that cassette tapes of this sermon were not sent out, as was Ron’s practice back in that time frame. The sermon tape of the prior week delivered by Paul Worth was sent out, and so was the tape of the following week’s sermon. The audio quality of this recording is consistent with one made at the other end of the teleconferencing hookup that Ron used.

As a reminder, it’s not illegal to have a Swiss bank account.  It is legal to have foreign bank accounts, but if the sum of your balance exceeds $10,000 (as did Ron’s accounts), you are required to file an annual FBAR report.  What are the odds that Ron did that?  The penalties for failing to file the FBAR can be quite severe. The penalties possible include:

• a civil penalty of 50% of the account balance, or $100,000 (whichever is greater)
• a fine of $250,000 and a 5-year prison sentence

Did I get this recording from a disgruntled ex-PKG member? No, not at all. Actually, I downloaded it myself directly from the PKG website. This recording was put up on the website in the last few months.

I’m wondering why Ron had Jeremy put this recording up. My speculation is that IRS Criminal Investigation is getting closer to a prosecution recommendation (or maybe it’s already happened), and that Ron is throwing himself under the bus to protect Laura. The important part is his statement that Laura did not go with him to open his Swiss bank accounts. I’m skeptical that such a legal strategy would work. Obviously Laura knew that Ron was doing this from this statement that was public within the environs of PKG back then. And I expect that Laura signed the annual 1040 tax returns since then, Schedule B of which requires one to list foreign interest sources.  We also have Ron’s statement that Team Member Laura handled their finances.  So much for the “innocent spouse”, so I doubt that releasing this recording would protect Laura legally.

I’m interested in your reactions, and your ideas as why Ron had this previously undistributed sermon posted now for the entire world and IRS Criminal Investigation to download.

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!!!