False Prophet Ronald Weinland

For years, even before I began blogging, “Doctor” Bob Thiel has been blogging about False Prophet Ronald Weinland.  Weinland has always used the initialism “PKG” to refer to his awkwardly named church (Church of God — Preparing for the Kingdom of God), Thielogical Bob decided to invent his own acronym “PFK” which he uses in his blogging.  I was perfectly happy to let Ron choose his own initialism, but Bob has been the only one to use “PFK”, or actually “CGPFK” — up ’til now, that is.

Earlier this year, Weinland’s evangelists Johnny and Terry incorporated a new corporation registered in the State of Georgia, named the “Church of God PFK, Inc.”   Interesting.  Could Johnny and Terry be getting ready to stage a palace coup?  Personally, I doubt that.

My guess is that Ronnie told them to set up this corporation.  And that when he did this, he was thinking of the Worldwide Church of God receivership in 1979.  When the state of California took over the church finances, Herbert Armstrong fled to Tucson Arizona, a short ride away in his Gulfstream jet and out of reach from service by the civil authorities.  Stan Rader set him up as a corporation sole, which is a legal entity separate from Herbert Armstrong as an individual but which Herbie could control.  Then the word was passed down through the ministerial hierarchy to the local congregations, so all the members then sent their tithes to Herbie’s new organization and starved the receiver in California from any more funds. Eventually Rader was able to stonewall the investigation for long enough that a political solution was reached with legislation removing the state’s attorney general from being able to pursue those types of investigations.

At some point during the upcoming tax fraud case, Ron may tell his members to instead send their tithes to the new organization, just like Herbie.  But there are some important differences:

• Ron is under criminal indictment, Herbie never was.
• Herbie could escape legal effects with a short plane ride in his Gulfstream jet, Ron really has nowhere to run to.
• The IRS does not appear to be interested in church revenues.  Ron could have taken all church revenue as a salary, and the IRS would be completely happy if he had declared it as personal income and paid his income taxes accordingly.

It will be interesting to watch the Insane Lying False Prophet maneuver his way through the next 191 days before Christ doesn’t return.

Yesterday, Mal challenged me to listen to Ron’s sincerity in last Saturday’s sermon, which I did and offer to you as well in this convenient audio clip:

(link for flash-impaired browsers if you don’t see the play button above)

I also offer you this audio clip from Weinland’s sermon of March 29, 2008, just prior to the first blowing of the First Trumpet:
(link for flash-impaired browsers if you don’t see the play button above)

My question: Does Ron sound more or less sincere in the first clip than he did in the second of these clips?

And I offer this bonus clip from last Saturday’s sermon and invite your reaction to it:
(link for flash-impaired browsers if you don’t see the play button above)

And I also offer this clip of what happened after Ron’s dog found out that Dill Weed Jr didn’t think too highly of his master.

Early this morning we had some comments left on some older posts by Ryan.  While it’s not clear that Ryan is a PKG member, he clearly is drinking Ron’s Flavor Aid.  In order to consolidate the discussion, and since people tend to ignore older posts concentrating on the more recent ones, I am quoting a couple of his posts here.

One of his comments on a posting from last year reads:

Now we see how it is that people do twist and distort what is said.  Mr. Weinland did not call God a liar as was stated that he did, and neither did God lie to him or anybody else.  This is not how he explained the second time-line.

Ryan, that point is discussed in some detail on my last post and in its comments.  It’s quite clear that either God lied or Ron lied.  All of Ron’s BS explanations justifying his change to the second timeline don’t change that there was some lying going on.

In apparent response to this comment by Whisper, on a post in which we were discussing Ron’s ruptured appendix:

The longer Ron is “out of action” the more time his sheeples will have to assess the situation and possibly, oh my goodness, allow some doubts to rise to the top and be thought upon. How can the most POWERFUL man ever birthed with the full power of GOD behind him and whom is immune to DEATH and who’s enemies and detractors shall be PUNISHED in the exact same way the attempt to harm the Witness, who is Gods Final Witness and one (spokesman mind you of both as the other is a woman and can’t speak) of the 2 Witness’s of REVELATION, who is a APOSTLE and the end time ELIJAH, how can he suffer from such a malady as a pandects that would indeed be life threatening if not for medical treatment by others? How can such a powerful man who’s prophesied stock and trade is miracles (although destructive) of God be afflicted by such mundane maladies? Doesn’t these maladies make Ron look, oh… HUMAN? MORTAL? You know, one of the rank and file, another man, no better or worse than the whole?

Ryan responded:

Whisper, that is the point, Mr. Weinland is indeed human, and his books never said that he would be immune to sickness, but he just won’t die is all.  This is like the things I’ve heard about him not utilizing his prized Witness powers to shut up the heavens to make it not snow or rain so that he will be able to travel to wherever he goes.  But convenience is not the reason for those powers, whether it would be him or anybody else, helping out themselves would not be the reason for Witness powers, but do you really think so though ?

Apparently Ryan was also responding to my post about Ronnie’s itinerary change due to last year’s snowpocalypse or possibly the follow-up post which also mentioned the End-Time-Elijah’s susceptibility to poison ivy and perfumes.  Setting aside whether or not God’s Most Formidable Prophet should be vulnerable to maladies and whether or not he prophesied during the days of his recovery from appendicitis, let’s address the appropriate use of Witness Powers.  Ryan, if it’s trivial to use Witness Powers to enable the End-Time Prophet to keep to his itinerary and preach the word of God, then why is it not a trivial use of Witness Powers to put a death curse on mockers who don’t impede his prophesying in the slightest?  And speaking of Ronnie’s death curse (which BTW was the only exercise of his Witness Powers), whether it was trivial or not, why am I (his most persistent mocker) still mocking away over two years after he called for my speedy death?  Why did Ronnie find it necessary to spiritualize my death?  Which BTW is total BS — I find that my blogging activity has been a positive personal development exercise for me.  The people who are really suffering as a result of Ron’s activities are the family members of his followers.

And why would the use of Witness Powers to prove himself as God’s End-Time Prophet be a trivial use?  Seems to me that turning a few fountains into blood would be an effective way to make people take him seriously and consider his warnings so that God could show his mercy on them.  Speaking of proving himself to be a prophet of God and death curses, why are all 5 of the specific individuals who were to die early on as proof of Weinland as a prophet of God still alive?  Reminder, this was a test Ron defined for himself on page 108 of his latest book.  It was just over 4 years ago that he wrote these individuals letters calling on them to repent or else.  They didn’t repent and there was no “or else” either.

So, I’ve had my response.  You can respond as well.  And so can everyone else.  And like Ryan, let’s disagree agreeably.  We’ve had a couple of PKG members on this blog, Fred Roberts and Zach(helpingusoon), who were very obnoxious.  But Ryan has been respectful and so should you.  Well, we’ll give Kirrily some latitude to be snarky since she’s an ex-PKG-member, but no name-calling.  Your turn.

This blog has remained focused on False Prophet Ronald Weinland as his timeline continues to compress against his so-far-since-the-last-change and for-now firm deadline of  Pentecost of 2012.  Meanwhile, other events have gone on in the Armstrongist CoGland and CoG-Blogland.  The United Church of God has undergone its own splintering recently with about 1/3 of its elders splitting off to form the Church of God, a Worldwide Association which I call “CoGaWA”.   (Weinland was a UCG member for around two years following Joe Tkach’s apostasy which opened the first seal in December of 1994.) The UCG bruhaha has been well described on other blogs such as Banned by HWA and also The Shining Light which is authored by James Malm.   James has dabbled in his own prophetic musings centered around Weinland’s current timeline, except that he quickly backed off when nothing happened.

The As Bereans Did blog also had a few pieces on the UCG splintering.  The ABD blog started up blogging about Weinland within a few weeks of when I did, but since has moved on to other topics.  Today I received notice that they are shutting down but imagine that they’ll leave the blog up for future reference.  One of the authors there, xHWA, was quite helpful with this blog in its project documenting Weinland’s takeover of the church corporation and its assets from the lay church board in early 2000.  Best of luck to the authors there and I expect we’ll hear from them occasionally.

There have been rumblings and splinterings going on the anti-CoG blogs as well.  A bit of history.  Aggie/Purple Hymnal terrorized ex-CoG blogs and forums and also had the Weinland Watch blog active mostly in early 2008.  Later on Aggie shared a blog for a time with Russell Miller called “I Survived Armstrong”, now defunct after Russell moved on and later decided that he wasn’t an atheist after all and believed in God, but not in Christianity.  Blogger “J M” who has had the shadowsofwcg.com domain for sometime and has had a forum and several blogs over the years which he had shut down and restarted.  Awhile back, “J” restarted his blog and has blogged more about the topic of grace.  Recently, Russell decided that he is a Christian after all.

This all came to a head over the past few weeks.  Aggie posted a comment on the Shadows blog which seems to have led to more of the combative interchanges that Aggie is famous for but apparently has been deleted with Aggie being banned from the blog.  Aggie took the fight to his own Purple Hymnal blog, threatening to expose “J”‘s identity.  “J” responded by identifying himself as one Jeff Miller, after which Russell Miller exposed Aggie’s true identity on his blog.  After a flurry of posts on the Purple Hymnal blog this weekend, Aggie deleted the whole blog.  (Given the same last name, and the association with Russell hosting Jeff’s blog, I wonder – is it possible, could they be related?  Maybe brothers? One mustn’t assume, after all Miller is a common surname.)

But Aggie has not disappeared from the Internet.  Aggie has reincarnated on a new blog with a new focus and a new identity and is no longer Aggie. Aggie now goes by “psalmsofpraise”.  That’s quite a mouthful, so I’m abbreviating it as POP.  POP has even commented under his new identity on this blog.  The last time Aggie commented here was last year when I deleted his comment for getting into it with other commenters.  Oops, I have to change my habit now, as it turns out that Aggie was indeed female.  Many believed Aggie female solely due to the sound of her handle which was short for the gender-neutral “aGnosticAtheist“.  POP is welcome to comment here so long as she doesn’t make personal attacks on the other commenters.

There have been other bloggers with a former association with Armstrongism who became atheists and then later decided that they weren’t atheists after all.  BykerBob and Russell Miller are examples, and now     I’m not totally surprised at POP’s retreat from atheism, I’ve wondered if they were emotional atheists as a reaction to events and not truly atheists.  Not trying to climb inside their heads, just wondering.

The difference is that the first two didn’t go back to Armstrongism, and POP has.  Still trying to wrap my head around that, and a small piece of me wonders if she’s pulling our collective leg.  At least she is not joining one of the splinters but is starting up her own (very) small splinter.  You can task her for all the details on her new religious position on her new blog.

In the midst of all this identity outing, Gavin Rumney coincidentally opined on the topic of anonymous critics and credibility on his blog.  Gavin is certainly entitled to his opinion.  And I’m entitled to mine.  Given that my life has been threatened by Ron Weinland.  OK, it was spiritual as is just about all of the nonsense that comes from his mouth.  I’m amused by Ron’s death curse.  What doesn’t amuse me is what his deluded followers may do, such as exhibited by CoG-PKG member Fred Roberts. Given that Fred lives on the opposite side of the globe, I’m not likely to see that particular sheepherder on my doorstep.  But the mentality is still out there.

When it comes to my credibility, the readers will just have to decide for themselves if Ronald Weinland is more credible than I because after all, he’s put his identity out there while I have not.  That obviously outweighs all the false prophecy and promise breaking that Weinland has committed over the past few years, at least in the minds of his deluded followers.  A few have considered the points I’ve raised and made their own decisions.  That’s all I ask.

We were blessed with about a half-an-hour of silence yesterday, as that’s about how late False Prophet Ronald Weinland was getting started in Detroit.  He had major problems getting his Internet streaming audio feed started despite the presence of his house geek Greg Chipps.  Ron wound up his sermon series on relationships in the family, and promises to get back to prophecy starting next week.  2011 is the year that things start happening, with the US going down the tubes.  Nevertheless, he is planning trips all the way up to the Feast of Tabernacles which with the Last Great Day is again planned for all 8 days.  Somewhere along the line he’ll drop back to reducing the 5-month captivity of the US by the European beast power to 4 months and part of a month during 2012.

I get the sense that Ron does a lot of his plotting and planning on the road.  It was on the road to Detroit just over a year ago that he decided that he was an apostle after all.  A road trip takes him away from the distraction of cable TV and gives him a chance to ponder and plot.  Ron finally made reference to the turmoil in the United Church of God with a large number of their misters leaving to form a new organization, the Church of God a Worldwide Association.  The continued splintering in Armstrongism reminds me of a joke:

A man was marooned on an island by himself, and finally rescued.  His rescuers asked why he had three huts.  “Well, that one is where I live and that’s the church I go to.”  “But what about the other church?”   “That’s the church I used to belong to.”

With the new year we take a look back and a look forward.  Ron started off the first sermon of last year in January announcing a long list of new elders, giving only the first names.  When I reported first AND last names for many of them, Ron said I was doing a favor by publicizing them.  Despite that stated opinion, he continued to give first names only as he continued his ordination spree and lately has become even more closed mouth, not even giving first names mentioning numbers only, and some of his ordinations have not even been announced. February was a big elders conference in a nice Cincinnati area hotel.   Major blizzards changed his travel plans last winter as he did not exercise his witness powers to shut up the heavens.  I mentioned a couple of his elders undergoing personal trials related to following a false prophet.  March started some interaction with “Aaron Robinson”, a wordy blogger who shot his wad with apolgetics for Weinland and then disappeared from view.  In April we dealt with Zachary/helpingusoon, who swooped into the comment section of this post with an obnoxious defense of Weinland backing off when chastised by someone else thinking about following Weinland.  In May, Weinland’s long lost sermon about establishing his Swiss bank accounts came to light, astonishingly revealed by Ron himself on the PKG website.  The summer was slow with Ron repeating his objection to Facebook and adding an edict prohibiting bikinis and speedos.  The activity picked up in September as PKG member Fred Roberts stopped by to profanely battle and threaten the RAT P#### Weinland-haters.  Ron and a contingent including his brother-in-law went down under to attend the feast and deliver four new “truths”.  Ron was missing most of October as he recovered from a burst appendix, resurfacing in Las Vegas at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino to conference and whatever else with his top elders and evangelists.  The pace reduced in the last two months of the year as Weinland blathered on about family relationships.

As expected, we had disasters, natural and man made which Ron amplified using reputable websites such as worldnetdaily and sources such as Christian Identity leader James Wickstrom.  As I did not expect, Ron remained free to travel as the IRS investigation has not resulted in a Department of Justice prosecution.  On April 15th the statute of limitation for any offenses Ron may have committed relative to tax year 2004 expires, unless he filed his 2004 tax return after April 15, 2005 or unless the IRS gains some additional time by documenting all the time Ron was out of the country after that date.  Also, the IRS is investigating his tax returns for years after 2004 and the statutes of limitation expires later.  So we just have to wait and see, as the IRS is not allowed to publish the existence of the investigation or even if it has been ended due to the lack of prosecution potential.

Kirrily has reduced her participation here and while I welcome it, I view the reduced participation as a good thing if it means that she’s moving on with her life and wish her continued success.  In August, Mal stated: “I stick to my original estimate, that at the start of 2011 I expect to have reached a decision regarding RW and PKG.”  I hope he will recognize Ron as the false prophet he is but based on recent exchanges fear that he will climb down on the opposite side of the fence.  Despite their behavior here, I hope for the best for Zachary and Fred Roberts and that they also will recognize Weinland’s prophecies for the nonsense it is.  And Aaron Robinson, where ever he is.  I hope that Weinland’s own little splinter comes to its senses before falling into hard times in Greece.

As for myself, I plan to reduce my focus on Weinland to pursue other interests.  But I’m not going fishing, as Ron has recommended as that doesn’t interest me.  But I am interested in photography and also an athletic activity which has a social component, and sometimes combine the interests.  But Ron would secretly be disappointed if I quit blogging, as he is secretly tickled to have critics just like Herbie does.  So I plan to continue blogging, just not as often.  At least until he does something interesting, which will happen sometime over the next 17 months as we wait for the non-return of Jesus Christ.

Last Saturday was a significant day on False Prophet Ronald Weinland’s timeline.  The latest one, that is.  In his 2009 Last Great Day sermon, Ron reset the “Time, Times, and Half-a-Time” period of Great Tribulation to begin the day after the Feast of Trumpets of 2009, a day on which he was too ill to deliver a sermon.  Also, he redefined “Time” as 280 days instead of 360 days.  So under that new understanding, last Saturday was the end of “Time and Half-a-Time”.  Only two more Times to go before the non-return of Jesus Christ.  Amazing that Ron made absolutely no reference to that historical occasion during his historical jump into the future last Saturday.

Sunday was two Roman years since the Seventh Seal opened for the second time in 2008.  The world was not “shocked and in horror” on November 14, 2008 as prophesied on page 23 of “2008: God’s Final Witness”.  Nor has it been shocked and in horror on any day since then.

On a different topic, a rumor has reached me that Weinland has disfellowshipped his elder Bill Kotaska of Florida.  This may relate to his realignment of senior elders, taking some territory from Dave Conley and assigning it to Mitch Williams, and assigning Florida to Dave  instead.  There is no confirmation of this rumor, if you have any more information on this situation please leave a comment or send me an email to the address on the mailbox in the right-hand column.   Perhaps Bill had sin in his life as evidenced by questioning the lack of fulfilled prophecy, as was the case with “Washtay” in this email exchange almost two years ago.  If true, this would be the second of Weinland’s elders to be disfellowshipped in the last year.  Benjamin Ikwueme was defrocked because he wouldn’t knuckle under to Ron and give up his Facebook page, and later was disfellowshipped.  Here’s hoping this rumor is true and that yet more will soon follow.

According to the “Trips” page on False Prophet Ronald Weinland’s blog, he is scheduled to appear in Las Vegas this weekend.  Will Ronnie miss the 4th week in a row and if so will Wayne start the rotation of evangelists giving sermons?  Or will the Spokesman Witness make an appearance, thundering about his critics twisting and distorting and spinning the episode as God’s intervention to allow him to deliver 4 new truths?  And will he also explain how it is that he managed to prophesy each and every day* despite being too sick to deliver a sermon? Was his sick body somehow giving testimony?  Too whom? We’ll soon find out.   (* Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. )

In other news, it turns out we have a spare.  About a year ago, Ronnie announced that he is an apostle.  And according to this other blog, Six-Pack a.k.a. Gerald Flurry has decided that he also is an apostle. (So if Ron’s appendicitis turns out to have be fatal, we’re still OK as we have a backup apostle Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, but is Six-Pack imitating Ron? Or maybe it’s Clarion-Call David Pack?  No, it’s probably the ultimate spiritual idol, Herbert Armstrong.  Now refresh my memory, has That Prophet also claimed to be the end-time Elijah?  If not, what are you waiting for, Gerry?

Back in February, I reported on Weinland’s elder Al whose business was undergoing foreclosure.  His case is working its way through the court system, already with a judgment of foreclosure and orders for sale of the property.  I also reported on another of Weinland’s elders, Greg’s, and his woes and tribulation in the court system as he tried to get the court-ordered child support reduced in the divorce case filed by his now-ex-wife who wasn’t favorably impressed by Weinland’s false prophecies.  The Michigan Court of Appeals was not very sympathetic to his arguments, and a few months later the Michigan Supreme Court refused to even hear the case, letting the ruling of the lower courts stand.

I found an online resume from a 53-year-old who, like Greg, also worked for the Church of God – PKG.  In this case from 2007 through 2009.  Here is the resume’s description of his accomplishments while working for Ron:

Position: International Distribution Manager
• Responsible for the supervision of: Inbound (Unloading and Receiving), Distribution, Outbound (Loading), Transportation (Carrier Relations) and Office Operations
• Develops strategies and objectives to maximize productivity and leverage expenses. Analyze trends, solve problems and motivate associates to maximize productivity.
• Manages to ensure operational excellence in all distribution areas, including efficient operations of software systems, equipment, inventory, warehouse layout and product placement, maintenance and organization of all distribution.
• Evaluates the effectiveness of and recommends alternatives for work methods, procedures and controls to achieve accurate and timely movement and processing of product.
• Manages continuous improvement and efficiency gains to reduce overall costtoserve.
• Coaches, trains, and develops Associates informally and through formal training programs.

Translating all of this, the resume is for Weinland’s senior elder Steve in the Cincinnati area.  Steve’s wife Patty is one of Weinland’s associate elders. Using his airline miles, Steve financed  Weinland’s first trip to Europe as the head of his own CoG back in November of 1999 .  Steve was in Europe at the time working for Procter & Gamble, and knew Ron from when he was assigned in the mid 80′s to Cincinnati as associate pastor in the Worldwide Church of God.  Later on Steve hopped up on Ron’s false prophecy bandwagon.

Steve left his job with Procter & Gamble and went to work for Ron just before the Last Organized Feast of Tabernacles in 2007.  Steve’s job was to run the “fulfillment center” which processed orders for Ron’s books.  After the feast in 2007, Ron went on his Total Resolve Cruise and also ramped up spending on Google Adwords advertising.  Late in 2007 and during the first part of 2008, a Google search of various apocalyptic terms would result in a sponsored link for the-end.com where the gullible could order a free copy of “2008 God’s Final Witness”.  Greg was in charge of baiting the Google Ads hook, and Steve was in charge of reeling in the fish by sending them a copy of Ron’s work of fiction.

After Ron shut down his first timeline in June of 2008, he also suspended his Google ads for a few months and then resumed it again at a lower pace in the fall of 2008.  Traffic to the-end.com reduced in 2009 except for a brief spike at the end of the year associated with the release of the movie “2012″, but then fell off even further.  With this reduced traffic, Steve’s services weren’t needed any longer so now he’s looking for employment.  This resume was put online in June.

I hope that Steve is picking up the pieces of his broken pitcher and has found employment to replace that which he foolishly gave up to work for a false prophet.  Likewise, I wonder if Deputy Sheriff Wayne Matthews has found employment to replace that which he gave up early in 2008 to become Ron’s evangelist just ahead of the first Great Tribulation that didn’t happen. And I hope that Steve and Patty soon come to their senses and quit following Ron.  But that probably won’t happen, as Steve and Patty were sealed on the Feast of Trumpets in 2008 as part of the 144,000 to be converted to spirit beings on May 26, 2012 when Christ doesn’t return.

Greg’s is not the only family broken up as the result of Weinland’s false prophecies.  A recent comment to my last post has told of another divorce in process.   I know of other divorces resulting from his apocalyptic fantasies.  And of others who have mentally abused their mates.

Another recent comment by an ex-member expressed somewhat less than a wish for Ron’s speedy recovery. Despite his speedy death curse against me, I’d notify the authorities if I thought his life was threatened.  But if he beat the odds and turned out to be one of the rare individuals to succumb to appendicitis in spite of advanced medical care then I would mourn him for oh, about 2 nanoseconds.  Or maybe a little bit less.  Ron’s legacy of broken pitchers, broken families, and broken futures.

False Prophet Ronald Weinland was a no-show in Melbourne, Australia where he was scheduled to appear.  The Day of Atonement is over with in Australia, those PKGers in the US have to continue to starve themselves until this evening. Ron’s evangelist and local sheriff Wayne Matthews gave the sermon.  He explained the situation like this:

Mr. and Mrs. Weinland have arrived safely, which is exciting and holding up health-wise, which is very good.  And other than that, we’ll just get straight into the sermon.

There was no other evidence of their presence, and it appears that Wayne was using his own computer, not Ron’s.  So where was Ron?  He’s had all week since appearing last weekend in Los Angeles to travel to Australia and recover from jet lag.  Perhaps he’s frantically working on his Last Great Day sermon which needs to be a barn burner, tying all 4 of his new “truths” together.

At one point Wayne said “We are deceived”.  He had it right until he went on explaining that they were deceived but aren’t anymore.  So sad. His sermon was mostly the same boring nonsense.

If you’re looking for a more interesting bit of Armstrongism, you may want to download some audio files from another site.  Gerald Waterhouse was a brown-noser for Herbert Armstrong and then Joseph Tkach who traveled around delivering 3-4 hour tributes to them.  There are files for two different “bible studies” on the linked site each well over 2 hours long.  These were recorded in the early 80s prior to Herbert Armstrong’s death before he could be one of the Two Witnesses.  I sampled some of these comedy routines, including his description of the organization of the government which God would be establishing any year now after eating Sunday chicken and giving salivation (sic).   Somehow I missed out when I was required to warm the hard metal folding chairs, he must not have made it to my area before I escaped.  So this is a chance for me to catch up.