False Prophet Ronald Weinland

False Prophet Ronald Weinland stated that he has cut back on advertising. Quantcast and Alexa, two websites that track Internet traffic to websites, agree with that statement.

This graph of traffic to the-end.com goes back nearly 3 years.  Right after the Feast of Tabernacles in 2007, Ron began spending increasing amounts of money on Google advertising, resulting in a significant increase of traffic early in 2008 based on various apocalyptic key words.  The advertising budget was cut after the failure of the first timeline and the announcement of the 50th truth.  Keyword advertising on Google and Yahoo rebegan with the second timeline in October of 2008.

This graph of web traffic to the-end.com from Alexa goes back only two years and is consistent with a bit more detail.  The sharp drop-off in traffic early in 2009 coincides with the 2-day fast at the end of January last year during which PKG members were to pray for an increase in the Thunders to humble people.   It also shows the traffic dropped of dramatically just before the Feast of Tabernacles last year and then picked up again right after.  Ron stated that he was going to leverage the apocalyptic movie “2012″ that was released back in November, and traffic did increase about that time but has tapered off.

This graph from Google Trends shows the search for the keyword “2012″.  Searches increased just prior to the release of the movie but have tapered off since, similar to the drop-off in traffic to the-end.com.  It appears that this keyword has been removed from their ad program as searches on “2012″ no longer serve up a sponsored link.

The reduced traffic to the-end.com will result in fewer people willing to ignore the lack of evidence and join Ron’s church.  It seems that Ron was able to handle most of the baptisms as he traveled around the country, so I’m not sure what his current flock of elders do.  Questions to an elder are likely to be referred to the FAQ page on the church website, and failing that to Ron himself.  After the first rush of excitement of the 59 new ordainees and their trip to Cincinnati next month, how are they going to handle the lack of opportunity to practice their new eldering skills?

Ron is dangling the carrot that hordes of people will be drawn to his church when the great tribulation finally hits.  But he was claiming as far back as 2004 that disasters would make advertising unnecessary. And they’re still waiting.

Today marks the end of the second 19-year time cycle since the end of Herbert Armstrong’s two prophetic 19-year time cycles.  January 7, 1934 was the first of Herbie’s radio broadcasts.  January 7, 1953 was his first broadcast in Europe at the end of HWA’s first 19-year time cycle.  The end of the second 19-year time cycle, January 7, 1972, was to mark the beginning of the 3 1/2 year Great Tribulation leading to the return of Jesus Christ on Trumpets of 1975.  Each of these January 7′s was Tevet 20 on the Jewish calendar, but this year Tevet 20 is today, January 6, 38 years later on the Jewish holy calendar.  While the sun, moon, and earth are supposedly on a perfect 19-year time cycle, Wikipedia explains that while that’s pretty close there’s actually a two-hour difference.

When the Great Tribulation did not manifest in 1972 and the Worldwide Church of God did not flee to Petra, Herbert Armstrong back-pedaled in a “personal” in his “Tomorrow’s World” publication, claiming that he was not a prophet.  The evidence contradicts this as indicated on this website with over 200 prophecies by Armstrong and his minions.  The book “Matches in the Gas Tank” also says differently. As described in that book, Herbert Armstrong spoke on the Feast of Trumpets 1967, and opened with:

Herbert W. Armstrong walked to the podium and stood before the mike. He was middle-aged, prosperously rotund, and clothed in a fine wool suit. His full gray hair was combed straight back; his cold stare pierced rimless glasses. His bearing was regal; he radiated authority. His voice exuded charisma: a beautiful baritone with the timbre of a finely-tuned instrument. Each word was delivered with absolute conviction because, as he told us, God had given him extraordinary intelligence and speaking ability so he could serve as His emissary on earth.

“Eight years from today, Jesus Christ will return,” Mr. Armstrong thundered, holding his Bible in the air.

Jesus Christ did not return 8 years later, on Trumpets of 1975.  Despite his claim that he was not a prophet, Herbert Armstrong continued to issue prophecies that turned out to be false. Herbert Armstrong claimed to be God’s apostle speaking in his name, and issued prophecies. To claim that Herbie was not a prophet is just so much jailhouse lawyering. Try this one on the judge: stick up a 7-11 and when you get caught, base your defense on “I didn’t claim to be an armed robber”.

This is year 5770 on the Jewish calendar.  Herbie and his wannabee imitators use the Jewish calendar to set the days on which to observe the Holy days.  Weinland emphasizes this in his 20th “Truth”. Yet despite their claims that God allotted 6000 years for mankind to figure it out on our own, False Prophet Ronald Weinland claims that Jesus Christ’s return is imminent despite 230 years remaining according to the Jewish calendar.  Pentecost of 2012 will be pretty much the same as Trumpets of 1975.  Ron has a lot of revisions left to accomplish.

Being the beginning of a new year, it’s time to look back at the past year and also look forward.

A year ago, I made a few predictions such as that the inauguration of Barack Obama would come off despite Weinland’s prophecy that it wouldn’t happen. As I predicted, the pope still hasn’t done anything beast-like and has given no indication that he’s even heard of our Spokesman Witness, much less that he’s irritated by him.

The end of January saw the unprecedented 2-day fast in which members were to pray for death to humble people from an increase in the thunders.  Since this didn’t happen, Weinland twisted their prayers as justification for the Tribulation not being great (or even minor for that matter).  As I expected, Weinland has hammered on the 4th Thunder, the economy, even turning it into the 1st Trumpet with green currency being grass.  I guess countries with different colored currency will skip the 1st Trumpet.

February gave the opportunity to show Weinland’s member control tactics in an email exchange with an exiting member.  It seems that any problems you have with Ron and his false prophecies are due to some sin in your life.

In March, after the second trumpet did not strike within the first 90 days of the 2nd Great Tribulation, “Citizen X”, who was the only pro-Weinland blogger (albeit claiming neutrality), declared Weinland to be a false prophet. Weinland also made another radio interview with Cincinnati radio station WLW, his first in about 10 months, and stated that “nukular” explosions would occur within a year.

In June, Ron gave a presentation at ideaCity and fled after being exposed to Rick Miller’s comedy routine.  The formidable prophet was still so rattled 3 days later that he got the day for the event mixed up in his sermon.  But never fear, Jeremy knows how to edit sermons and does.  And on the 21st of June yet another prophecy in “2008 – God’s Final Witness” failed as the US is still an independent nation.

In July, Kirrily worked through some of her anger at being exploited by Weinland.  Also in July, recordings surfaced revealing Weinland’s tactics as he seized control of The Church of God, Inc. from its lay board as I transitioned from Blogspot to this WordPress blog.

In August, Weinland came out against Facebook and stated he was not an apostle.

In September, he missed his live appearance for the Feast of Trumpets, which was also the 40th sabbath of judgment of the Great Tribulation.

In October, Weinland redefined Time in his Last Great Day sermon with the help of alternate definitions in Strong’s Concordance, selecting the one that suited him.

November was an eventful month, as he declared himself to be an apostle despite his denial of such less than 3 months earlier.  Audra was ordered in federal court to give testimony to the IRS to support their criminal investigation of Ronald Weinland.  He also defrocked one of his elders for being on Facebook.

This past month has also been eventful, as Weinland demoted his spiritual idol Herbert Armstrong to only a “type” of an Elijah, claiming himself to be the final Elijah-to-come to restore all things.  And also announcing the ordination of women within PKG besides Laura.

We can put paid to yet another failed prophecy, as put out during his Google Adwords campaign earlier last year.  America is still an independent nation despite Ron’s extension of our economic woes.

Now for the predictions.  I predict that Weinland will keep most of his members as he marches them in close-order drill to the right and to the left.  I don’t think that there will be a strong reaction to his ordination of women since that was practiced in WCG, although only to the rank of deaconess which did not include the right to perform baptisms.  A lot will depend on whether Ann, Myrtle, or Chris throw their senior elder weight around too much.  I wonder if Wayne’s tendency to sheriff will rub off on Chris.

His future waves of ordination will take in most of the sealed, particularly those healthy and employed who generate more income.  He will then move to the younger unsealed members who have been with him for awhile and attended the 2006 Feast of Tabernacles.  There will be few if any ordained among the members who joined as a result of the Google Ad campaign which began in earnest in late 2007.   Ron promises to dangle yet more carrots in front of his members.  Probably will include the assumption of yet more titles with the proof based solely on his declaration.  Any new changes in doctrine will be designed to intensify his hold on his followers.

I predict that over the coming year there will be bad weather events, earthquakes, an armed skirmish here and there, and a few ups and downs of the economy.  One of the Fated Five of the Fifth Thunder may die (after all they’re in their 60s and 70s and 3 of the 5 have buried their first wives), and if it happens that will be shown as evidence of Weinland’s prophethood even if Meredith and Ames are not the first to die.  The 6th thunder will die off since the movie 2012 has been released for awhile now and when we get into the new year there will be less inclination for “end of the world” predictions.  Ron may get a radio interview or two in some local market but his ideaCity audience will not be repeated.

I also predict that IRS Criminal Investigation will refer the case against Ronald Weinland to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution later in the year.  They’ve been on the case for 18 months now, which is longer than the average of 14 months for an investigation, so it would seem they still feel that they have a good chance of making a case in court.   There is also a statute of limitations deadline for the first tax year for which they’re investigating him, and time has to be allowed for the review process and obtaining an indictment.  The statute of limitations is 6 years from the required filing date of April 15, 2005 for tax year 2004, or April 15, 2011.  However, the statute of limitations starts at a later date if he filed later, and is extended whenever he is out of the country.  As a reminder, a DoJ referral would not mean that Ronald Weinland is guilty of criminal tax evasion as that can only be determined in a court of law.

I hope that neither the IRS or the DOJ gives Weinland a taxpayer conference before deciding to proceed toward prosecution.  I think it likely that if Weinland feels the law closing in on him, he will make another overseas trip, one much, much longer than usual.  Or use his many members to hide him away from the beast power now recognized to be manifested in the criminal justice system.

I further predict that Weinland’s curse that I die speedily from the inside will be delayed long enough to see if my predictions come true or not.

To “Weinland Observer”, I hope that my reading of your absence from my blog is correct, that your parents have engaged with you and shown to you that this prophet is false, and that you’re back to doing the normal teen things.  Life, particularly at your age, is hard enough without a religious exploiter involved screwing things up even more.

To Kirrily, I know this last year has been a crazy one for you.  I hope that this coming year will settle out and be your best ever.

To all of my readers, thank you for following my blog.  And to those of my readers who are elders, and to “Observer” and other lay members of The Church of God – PKG, I hope you will have eyes to see and ears to hear and will stop drinking the Flavor Aid stirred up from Ron’s delusions.

A year ago this Monday, False Prophet Ronald Weinland started his job as Spokesman Witness for the second time and also restarted the Great Tribulation.  But he’s had to restart the Great Tribulation yet again and will do so again.

Four years ago tomorrow, Ronnie declared himself to be the Spokesman of the Two End-Time Witnesses.  And 15 years ago tomorrow, Joe Tkach Sr opened the First Seal in his December 17, 1994 sermon in Atlanta witnessed by Weinland’s backup man Johnny Harrell.

Joe Tkach reprised his Atlanta sermon a week later in his “Christmas Eve” sermon in Big Sandy.  Ambassador College alumni including relations of mine were in attendance for a reunion.

Here is a clip of the first part of Tkach’s “Christmas Eve” sermon.

Thanks to J of Shadows of WCG for finding this. He has links to both sides of the first audio tape of the sermon on his blog. (YouTube limits clips to 10 minutes each).

A video of the sermon was distributed to all the local congregations in the Worldwide Church of God in January of 1995. As a result of the changes introduced by this sermon, WCG imploded with Ronald Weinland leaving WCG as minister in March of 1995 and incorporating The United Church of God – Toledo, Inc. the following month.  And the rest — is history.