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 chose himself to reveal the 7 thunders of Revelation 10 that was not revealed to John in his hallucinogenic dream. In his book “2008 God’s Final Witness” Weinland described the 6th of those thunders as

The Sixth Thunder is the growing revelation of God’s end-time witnesses. That revelation is that I am the spokesman of God’s two end-time prophets—the spokesman of His two end-time witnesses.

This thunder will grow louder as the events described in the previous thunders continue to unfold with ever increasing intensity, proving the validity of what has been written and that what I am saying is true. Radio and television interviews will become more the norm as curiosity, news, controversy, and fear increase in proportion to the growing intensity of these thunders.

The last radio interview available on the web was on March 6 of last year, and there have been two reported by Weinland since but these were in local markets and podcasts are not available. The one and only television interview of Weinland was recorded in January of 2008 and has aired only on Australian TV. Weinland expected that the interview that was recorded would be played back after April of 2008 to prove that he had prophesied all the disasters that unfolded. “Interview” should be in quotes because the program consisted of maybe 20% sound bytes of Weinland and the rest criticism of his apocalyptic mind view. The program first aired in November of 2008, and then again as a repeat a few months ago.

When it comes to print media, I turned to Google News for recent publications. It currently has links to this article and this other one. But these are not news articles but rather are spoofs on “The Spoof” website. I found them mildly amusing, but don’t come close to the spoofs written by Kirrily in comments on this website 1 2.  Sometimes you have to have been there   There were some other articles a few months earlier in traditional print media, but these also were of the type that pointed out failed apocalyptic prophesies.

Google also sheds more light on the growing recognition of Ronald Weinland with its Google Trends service. Here is a chart of web search history for “ronald weinland”

The start of search activity on Ron coincides with the Google advertising campaign that Ron’s followers paid for that intensified right after the Feast of Tabernacles of 2007.  The peak is right around the start of the first Great Tribulation on April 17, 2008.  After that, Google search interest decreased as his prophecies failed and did not return even with a renewed Google ad campaign later in 2008.  So much for the following prophecy from “2008 GFW”:

The growing manifestation of proof that I am God’s end-time prophet and that I am the spokesman of His two end-time witnesses is a thunder that will become powerfully stronger all the way up until the very return of Jesus Christ.

Weinland’s book was published November of 2006.  Interest peaked in April of 2008 and since has waned.  And there has been no growing manifestation of proof that Ron is spokesman of the two end-time witnesses.  But there has been a growing manifestation of proof that he is a false prophet.  And every post that I make as such, as I disprove the only exercise of his Witness powers which was to place a curse on me to speedily die from the inside.

Over the past several years, False Prophet Ronald Weinland has conducted a number of interviews on single-market talk shows to promote his books.  He had an interview a few weeks ago, but refuses to post an audio of it claiming that it’s boring. (Ron, I don’t mind — listening to your sermon last Saturday was the epitome of boring).  He also was interviewed on Toronto radio as part of promoting his appearance at Moses Znaimer’s ideaCity last June, but no audio of this is available either.

The last interview audio of Weinland available on the Internet was conducted over a year ago, on March 6, 2009 on WLW’s Mike McConnell radio program.  It is available as an 18 MB MP3 download from the WLW website.

At about 4 minutes into the interview, we have this exchange:

Mike: What happened December 14th? (of 2008)
Ron: December 14th was when the first trumpet of the last 7 trumpets was blown.  There are 7 trumpets that are going to be blown, the second one is when nukular devices will go off in this country.  And even back then, just before April I told you in that particular interview that we would have a period of about 45 to 90 days.  That also has changed.  That has been extended to possibly up to a year.  It’s going to depend upon how people respond this year. …. We have a period of time in this country, we are going down the tubes.

Then about 14 minutes later at the end of the interview, Ron started backpedaling when Mike set out to confirm this — which is fast even for Ron.

Mike: When’s the next event that I can look for that might fall into line with your belief system here?
Ron: Well, it’ll be nukular weapons going off here in major cities in the United States.
Mike: Within a year.
Ron: I’m not going to give you a time frame.
Mike: You said God might give us as much as a year.
Ron:  That’s right.  He might give you as much as a year.  He might give you a little bit more.  It depends on your response.

Mike McConnell did respond to Ron, and we must all thank him because due to his response, God gave us a little bit more than a year, so far.  And I suspect he’ll give us even more.

So Sunday was the expiration of yet another prophecy.  And last month was the refailure of yet another.  In his book, Weinland prophesied the downfall of the US no later than June 21 of last year (6 months after the fall season of 2008).  Later Weinland stated that the 8-month delay of his 1335-day timeline from Feb 2 until Sept 30, 2008 changed everything.  Eight months after June 21, 2009, actually 241 days later, was Feb 17, just a few weeks ago.

Are there any readers who live in the Cincinnati area who could call in and suggest to Mike that he have Weinland back on to talk about his prophecies? (WLW contact page).  Maybe Mike could discuss some of Ron’s extra-curricular activities and new titles with him.

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.

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.