False Prophet Ronald Weinland

False Prophet Ronald Weinland spoke from the Vancouver WA area this weekend.   Since God is showing the mercy of continuing to delay the Great Tribulation, PKG members are taking advantage of this while the opportunity presents to travel to meet their spiritual idol.  He announced trips through the end of February, stating that it’s difficult to plan ahead.  I agree, as Ron will be occupied with his criminal trial in March and if he decides to make a plea agreement has to do so early in the month.

Ron is astounded that some of his elders are hedging their bets by setting funds aside in case Jesus Christ doesn’t return.  Bet-hedging is reserved for the false prophet, who paid his property taxes even though that would not be necessary if Christ really returns in May.  He recommends they listen again to the Last Great Day sermon to reestablish their confidence.  I have a feeling they are thinking of what Ron said in the LGD sermon when deciding to hold back.  I say “Shame on you elders!!  Send it all in!! Ron has an expensive legal defense team to pay for.”

Ron stated that Joe Tkach’s apostasy took place to the hour 13 time 70 weeks before Christ returns.  Ron has scheduled Christ to return at sundown in Jerusalem, which is when God’s day begins.  The time for sunset in Jerusalem on December 17, 1994 was 4:38 PM Israel Standard Time (IST).  IST is UTC +2 hours, while Eastern Standard Time is UTC -5 hours for a 7-hour difference.  So sunset in Jerusalem on 12/17/94 occurred at 9:38 AM Atlanta time.  Was Joseph Tkach speaking at 9:38 AM?  Below is a picture of the Atlanta congregation bulletin for that momentus date. 

Note that they were required to clear the hall at 1:30, and other reports indicate that Joe had to cut his sermon short.  Had Joe started his sermon by 9:38 AM?  I doubt it.

Whether or not Joe’s sermon took place exactly 13 x 70 weeks to the hour before Ron’s prophesied return is beside the point.  It is trumped by current events.  Or non-events.  Thielogical Bob just posted breathlessly that Obama was pulling half of our troops out of Germany.  This would be the President Obama who did not take office in January of 2009 because Weinland prophesied that we would not have a new president.  And wait a minute!!! We’re now less than 5 months from Pentecost.  Germany was supposed to be the beast power occupying the US and tormenting us.  Instead, it sounds more like we’re occupying them.  How could that be?

Ron said that he was crunching numbers during the morning before the sermon.  Looking for more signs and lying wonders to distract his following from his continuing prophetic failures.  Ron is bowled over by those still blogging about Herbert Armstrong 26 years after his death.  And by those who blog against him.  By the way wRonG, I don’t need to mention your scatological references, you provide a target-rich environment otherwise.

The God Discussion pod cast show is now available online as an archived MP3 file.  Right-click and then save-as this link to the archive file (about 42 MB). My part starts about 1 hour and 10 minutes into the file.  Ronnie’s first death curse on me and you other mockers was replayed as an introduction.  After a bit of theme music I come on at 1 hour and 12 minutes into the file.

This was a new and interesting experience.  Thanks to all my readers who tuned in.  I didn’t realize it until someone pointed it out and I listened to myself that I do sound a bit like a famous someone.  If I can learn to repeat words three times in a row I’ll have him nailed

In this morning’s posting, I commented on how False Prophet Ronald Weinland had not conducted an interview since advertising his availability for one at the beginning of December.  Turns out that he has just done so along with a post on his blog republished below for your comment.

I listened to Ron on the way home from work, about a 40 minute program.  He dodged the question as to why we should listen to him given all the false prophets who have preceded.  If the interviewer had been familiar with Ron he could have asked about all of Ron‘s false prophecies that have preceded.

I’m still scheduled to be on the God Discussion pod cast show.  Here is an updated link to tonight’s program with some additional info:

There is a web-based chat room that appears automatically, also, and it tends to be a hoot.

When it is live, the page notes that it is ON AIR and it will play from your computer speakers (you might have to press a button — BlogTalk keeps updating but generally, the show automatically plays).  About 10-60 minutes after the podcast concludes, it is available for download as an MP3 from BlogTalk and shortly thereafter, is available on iTunes.”

I’m scheduled to be on in the second hour (7 PM Pacific / 10 PM Eastern)

————Here’s a repost of Ron’s posting: ———————————————

As far as I know, False Prophet Ronald Weinland has not had any media interview resulting from the advertisement he put out last month.  But yours truly, the Mike-who-advocates-not-drinking-the-Flavor-Aid, will be on Blog Talk Radio on the God Discussion show tonight (Thursday, Jan 12).  The show starts at 6 PM Pacific / 9 PM Eastern and I am scheduled to be on for about 15 minutes during the second hour of the show.

At the appointed time, click this link for the show page.  I’m not sure exactly what link to click once you reach that page, once the show goes on the air we’ll have an hour to figure it out.  I may update this post when we figure it out.  And if you miss it somehow, the archive of the show should be available later in the evening.

I imagine the show audience will include a number of PKGers curious to hear the voice of a dead man.  Given that Ron placed a death curse over 3 years ago against anyone who would criticize him, and I have been his most consistent public critic since then, I must be dead.

False Prophet Ronald Weinland just updated his “Seeking a Response FAQ”.  Here is what the intro used to say:

Due to an ever-increasing number of people who desire a response from the Church of God – PKG, we are now handling all requests in the following manner. Any who want to debate beliefs or who are seeking to express their own ideas will not receive a response. Such e-mail will simply be deleted.

Those who can receive more direct contact with God’s Church are those who are genuinely seeking help and desire a closer relationship with the Church. If you are one of these people, then you must be patient and closely follow the instruction given in the steps below.

You must be willing to search out answers through your own efforts. For nearly all questions, you can receive answers if you will do more searching and digging on your own with the resources we have made available to you, and as you do this you will be led to more direct contact with us.

You have before you all that is needed in order to properly respond to God’s calling, if you are genuine about your desire to repent and change your life, so that you might have the opportunity to live into the new age that is now coming to this earth. If you follow the steps outlined below, you will have all that is needed, at this time, to properly equip yourself for the coming of Jesus Christ.

Here’s what the new introduction to “Seeking a Response” says {with commentary}:

This article is being written to specifically address issues that will surface in this last five month period of this end-time that ends on May 27, 2012. {How about addressing the lack of the beast power that was to be tormenting the US by now?}

As stated in 2008 – God’s Final Witness, we do not know the day that the Second Trumpet will sound, nor the time that the following five trumpets will sound. {Let’s see, the 5 trumpets that follow the 2nd one are the 3rd through 7th. Yes it’s true. Ron doesn’t know when any of them are to sound, including the 7th. The 7th trumpet will NOT sound at sundown at the start of Pentecost in Jerusalem.  But you’re getting ahead of things, Ron — we’re still waiting to see all the exactly-what-it-means-destroyed-plant-life of the First Trumpet.} But we do know that as this sequence of events unfolds, people in ever increasing numbers are going to be drawn to God as they seek the answers to why such horrible events are happening in this world. {Actually it’s the opposite. PKG members will leave the church as non-fulfillment of Ron’s prophecies continue.}

If you want answers and seek a response from the Church to your questions or desire baptism then we urge you to closely follow the guidelines of this article. As conditions worsen and larger numbers of people begin to turn toward God, {only in your fevered imagination, Ron} we are going to have a more difficult time responding to all who are wanting help due to our small number of ministers throughout the world. {Made smaller by the no-show of the 3000 ex-WCG members who were to join your church by now.  And it will be even harder if you end up being imprisoned for criminal tax fraud.} Therefore, it is all the more important that you follow these guidelines so that the likelyhood of a response to your questions can be answered.

Any who want to debate beliefs or who are seeking to express their own ideas will not receive a response. Any such e-mail we receive will simply be deleted.

What will be telling is what Ron does over the next couple of months.  Ron has until around the 8th of March to negotiate a plea arrangement for a reduced sentence.  If the church’s legal team and investigator are not able to put together a defense, he might decide to do that.  By now, they’ve had about two months to look over the discovery and may have a pretty good idea.  If Ron decides to make a plea, we may have the 58th truth rolled out in the next few weeks to suspend the current timeline and prepare the church for an extended absence of their spiritual idol.  Interested observers will be listening for clues in upcoming sermons. Ron can turn things on a dime. Back in 2008, he was still talking great tribulation in May, by mid-June he aborted the first timeline and rolled out the 50th “truth”.

In the meantime,  you may remember Harold Camping’s May 21st date for the rapture last year.   Media interest in this year’s false-prophet-with-an-end-date-in-May has been sparked by this posting on the God Discussion site.  Their posting has been reposted and referenced on dozens of blogs over the past few days.  The God Discussion website has a live PodCast on Thursday evenings beginning at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific time.  Yours truly is scheduled to be interviewed about Weinland during the show, probably about an hour into the show for about 15 minutes.  The topic probably will not include a discussion as to whether Ron is mentally ill — I am not a mental health professional and have limited qualifications in that area.  Will provide more details on this Sixth Thunder event as I get them.

False Prophet Ronald Weinland spoke from Tuscaloosa Hoover, Alabama this weekend.  Must not have found any associate elders since he had to import Ralph Dowd from Cincinnati to give the opening prayer, and Johnny came from the next state to give the closing.

Last week someone asked Ron about the 5 months of the 5th trumpet. Ron doesn’t know yet, so PKG members will have to wait awhile for Ron to figure out a lame excuse.  Right now he is probably distracted by his legal troubles.

Ron was not too distracted to do his favorite thing of figuring out how many days are between two other dates.  With today being 40 Roman years from Herbert Armstrong’s 1972 start of the Great Tribulation, Ron got to recycle HWA’s epic “My Commission” article from back then yet again.  And will get to recycle it yet again as HWA took on the “David defense” which is that none of God’s prophets are perfect.  Ron and HWA take that to high levels.

Ron cautioned against numerology, but pointed out as I did in a comment earlier this morning that it is exactly 13 70-week periods from December 17, 1994 to May 26, 2012.  Microsoft Excel comes in handy for false-prophet tracking.  The false prophet probably doesn’t know how to use it, unless Greg Chipps showed him how.  Since Christ’s return is scheduled for 11:36 AM EST on Saturday, May 26th of this year, I wonder if Tkach’s declaration in Atlanta took place at around 10 AM on December 17, 1994 or whatever time corresponded to sundown in Jerusalem on that date.  Perhaps one of my readers who was there will chime in with an answer.

Ron claims that thirteen is the number for rebellion and apostasy.  He didn’t back that up with any scripture.  But yet again Ron trots out more signs and lying wonders to fill in for the failures of his prophecies.  Ron did not discuss the progression of the 40 weeks of judgment on the modern scattered nations of Israel that took place over the last 40 weeks.  Ron did not discuss the demise of the United States as a nation within 6 months after the fall season of 2008.  Ron has not explained the lack of trumpeting and as he admitted in the sermon, he has no explanation for the 5-month period and the lack of beast power activity.  Yet he did not admit to being a false prophet, and therefore I don’t win Dill Weed’s Great End-of-the-End Contest as today was my date for Ron to own up to his failures.

Update: A connection just struck me.  Today, January 7 is my grandson’s 7th birthday.  Based on that, I prophesy that Christ will NOT return on May 27th nor any other day this year.  I prophesy that millions will not join PKG this year, not even thousands.  Let’s see whether my sign and lying wonder trumps that of demonstrated False Prophet Ronald Weinland.

This post is being published 25 minutes before sundown in Jerusalem on January 7, 2012 (which is 9:50 AM EST).  Sundown in Jerusalem is exactly 140 godly days or 20 weeks before the time False Prophet Ronald Weinland has scheduled his bro’ Jesus Christ to appear in the skies of Jerusalem and resurrect him and the Silent Witness from the streets of Jerusalem. So you are probably reading this during the last, final Half-a-Time.

It’s also the end of this period, as defined by Rotten Ronnie in his blog posting dated April 1, 2011:

Tomorrow {April 2, 2011} is the beginning of a new period of time for this end-time. It is a “time” of 40 weeks in the “complete judgment” to be executed upon the scattered nations of Israel and upon the Israel of God (the Church) that was scattered. The whole world will suffer during this period, but the focus is upon both physical and spiritual Israel.

In the past, I have not had the need to write much in the postings on this site. That will all begin to change as we are entering a new stage in time. The Thunders will increase in far greater magnitude and frequency and the first few Trumpets will sound with great devastation to follow.

……….

That is why such events must continue in magnitude and rapid succession, so that mankind will begin to fear and question, “Why are such things happening?” Only when people are brought face to face with death and massive destruction will some humble themselves before God and begin to seek His help and deliverance. Otherwise, people don’t seem to see the need for God’s help and deliverance in their lives.

 We are entering a momentous time. After two years of mercy, the United States will now begin to answer for ignoring God’s warnings. Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the continent of Western Europe are going to begin to answer right alongside the U.S.

So we’ve reached the end of this prophetic 40-week period of complete judgment on the scattered nations of Israel.  Did the Thunders increase in far greater magnitude and frequency during this period?  Did a few of the Trumpets sound?  Or even one of them?  Seems that instead we got another 40 weeks of God’s mercy.

We are within 5 prophetic months of Pentecost.  Are there any jack-booted German soldiers marching down your street?  Are they even mobilizing?  Is the pope organizing the beast power into the next Holy Roman Empire?  What is the pope doing these days?

I do have one prophecy.  I will lose Dill Weed’s Great End of the End contest as False Prophet Ronald Weinland will not make me the winner of the contest by admitting to his abject failures in today’s sermon. Instead of owning up to his mistakes, Ron will roll out more signs and lying wonders to distract the deluded from his vast shortcomings.  PKG members will march around Jericho for one more of Ronnie’s 140-day “days” and at the end we’ll see what falls down (if not before).

The above was the post I composed, mostly in advance, in honor of this prophetic event.  After completing it, Ronald Weinland posted a post on his own log in honor of it.  Haven’t had much time to look at it, so I’ve added it here so we can all look at it (and comment):

—— Ronnie’s Latest Posting ——————–

There is a common misconception that False Prophet Ronald Weinland will easily escape his legal troubles by just paying his taxes.  Comments like these have appeared on blogs recently:

• “It is likely that RW will be required simply to pay back taxes with a percentage dollar penalty — and only after there is either a convinction or (more likely) an IRS judgment against him.”
• “But even if he has no real problem with the I.R.S. (and presuming he will be cleared, he would not),…..” {this from Thielogical Bob, who thinks an IRS Criminal Investigation is the same as an audit.  And: No, Bob.  The IRS does not investigate to clear someone. Also, IRS policy is to cease any civil audit while a criminal investigation is underway.}
• “He probably will avoid actual jail time, he will pay a hefty fine….and probably ask the members for help with it.” {Now I agree with the last part.}
• “I agree that he probably won’t do time. What does the government gain, except for making an occasional example to put fear in others, from expensively incarcerating someone like him?” {To the first sentence: based on what?  To the second sentence:  Well ….. yeah!!!}

Some think that after the IRS develops a criminal case, the accused can make it go away by simply saying “Well, OK you caught me.  So I’ll pay what I owe and go on.”  It doesn’t quite work that way.  Referring to the last comment quoted above — yes, that’s exactly the “gain” they’re looking for — to put the fear in others against cheating on their taxes.  The above comments are misinformed speculation without basis.  What I have below is based on research of actual source documents, and while I am not a lawyer I think what I have is a lot, lot closer to reality.

IRS Criminal Investigation has spent over 41 months investigating the case and the assigned special agent has likely worked thousands of hours.  Additional effort was required by the Department of Justice to dispute Weinland’s motion to quash summonses in 2008 and to enforce the summons on Weinland’s daughter Audra and church bookkeeper in 2009.  The case has been extensively reviewed by others in the Internal Revenue Service before a decision was made to refer the case to the Department of Justice.  The DoJ Taxation Division has reviewed the case before referring the case the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, who has reviewed it.  And then it was further reviewed by the grand jury which returned an indictment with 5 charges.

So after all that effort, the Government is going to want its pound of flesh from taxpayer (or perhaps not) Ronald Weinland who is incidentally the Spokesman Witness and a False Prophet of the God of Abraham.  After it gets its pound of flesh, the government will only then go after whatever taxes are owed.  So long as a criminal case is under investigation or prosecution, the civil case (audits, etc) is put on hold, but once the criminal case is dispensed with anywhere along the line (ranging from a criminal case dropped due to lack of prosecution potential to the ending of a criminal prosecution whether or not successful) the civil case resumes.  The IRS will go after whatever taxes it feels is due them plus civil penalties.  And there may be civil proceedings even if the criminal case falls apart, since the element of willfulness is not part of a civil case and the burden of proof is less than in a criminal case

The “pound of flesh” would be criminal penalties imposed following the successful prosecution of False Prophet Ronald Weinland in a court of law.  The penalties in the indictment (5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine) are for each and every of the 5 counts.  A total of 25 years in prison and a $1.25 million dollar fine. Many associated with abused PKG members will be disappointed, because in reality Weinland won’t face anything near that penalty from the court if convicted.

The following discussion is derived from the 2010 Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual {PDF File}.  As I am not a legal professional, I may have misinterpreted it, so others are encouraged to review the material.  The following discussion also is moot unless and until False Prophet Ronald Weinland is actually convicted or pleads guilty in US federal court, which has not happened at the time of this posting.

The sentencing guideline has a formula or process.  First, the severity of the crime is assessed to determine the “Offense Level”.  For tax offenses, the table below is used, with the amount of tax loss in dollars determining the “Offense Level”:

Next adjustments are made based on other factors and a sentence is determined based on the offense level and prior criminal history.  The table to the right shows the sentence in months for each offense level.  The sentence is selected to the column corresponding to the number of prior convictions.  As far as I know, Weinland has no prior convictions so the first column (“I”) would be used.

Adjustments downward to the offense level may be made.  From the sentencing guidelines: “If the defendant clearly demonstrates acceptance of responsibility for his offense, decrease the offense level by 2 levels.”  I believe this applies if the defendant pleads guilty to the charges before trial, which is the outcome for most cases in which an indictment is returned.  But Ron must make that decision known during the week prior to the pre-trial conference in mid-March.

Adjustments upward may also be made.  From the sentencing guidelines: “If the offense involved sophisticated means, increase by 2 levels. If the resulting offense level is less than level 12, increase to level 12.”  and: “Conduct such as hiding assets or transactions, or both, through the use of fictitious entities, corporate shells, or offshore financial accounts ordinarily indicates sophisticated means.”  Weinland’s Swiss bank accounts might fit this definition, although he may argue that in his case this was not a sophisticated means since he disclosed their existence in various sermons to his church.

The total of the evaded taxes charged in the indictment of Ronald Weinland was $357,065.  That is offense level 18 (more than $200,000).  If 2 points are added for “sophisticated means” (the Swiss bank accounts), then he would be sentenced at offense level 20.  From the sentencing table shown on the right, offense level 20 has a sentence ranging from 33 to 41 months.  A sentence of 40 months within these guidelines seems appropriate for a convicted lying false prophet (if he is indeed convicted).

On the other hand, perhaps False Prophet Ronald Weinland is not inclined to take his chances at trial and wants to negotiate a plea agreement.  Let’s say that the Assistant US Attorney is willing to re-arraign the Spokesman Witness on just one of the counts.  DoJ policy for plea agreements requires the accused plead guilty to the count with the highest offense level, which is the count for tax year 2008 (that year seems significant for some reason, I’m trying to remember what that is ) and the amount evaded during that year as charged in the indictment is $133,023.91.  That’s offense level 16.  Let’s say that he is able to persuade them not to add 2 points for “sophisticated means” and to take off 2 points for “thinking differently” about his actions, putting him at offense level 14.  That’s a sentence of 15 to 21 months.  A 15-month sentence would get him out in July of 2013, too late to deliver the Pentecost sermon from the Netherlands.  He would have to wait until 2014 to do that.  Or perhaps go to Jerusalem and lay his corpse in the street for 3 & 1/2 days prior to Pentecost 2 years behind schedule.

So the offense levels would be in the range of 14 to 20 with a sentence ranging from 15 to 41 months.  If Weinland could manage to limit his offense level to zone C (offense level 12 or 13), as a first offender he would be eligible for a split sentence, as little as one-half served in prison and the remainder on probation.  Home detention would be an option.

But if convicted within a range of offense levels of 14 to 20, Ron would be incarcerated for the full sentence.  Except the sentence can be reduced for good behavior by up to 54 days for each year served.  That is Ron must serve about 85.2% of his sentence.  So for a 15-month sentence he could be out in about 13 months, possibly in May of 2013 if beginning incarceration this coming April.  Maybe even in time to do the Pentecost bit in 2013.

Then there are criminal monetary penalties (fines).  The table to the left gives the range of fines.  An offense level of 14 has fines ranging from $4,000 to $40,000.  An offense level of 18 has fines ranging from $6,000 to $60,000.

The fines imposed may be at the higher end of the ranges.  According to the sentencing guidelines, the costs of incarceration are to be considered.  According to Wikipedia, “In 2001 among facilities operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, it cost $22,632 per inmate {per year}, or $62.01 per day.”  There’s been a bit of inflation since 2001, so the costs would be even higher.

Additionally, Weinland would be subject to an additional $100 assessment for each of 5 counts if convicted.

If Weinland takes this to trial and is convicted, he could be required to pay the costs of prosecution.  That would be at minimum the $40 per day paid to each of the jurors and government witnesses along with their travel costs, maybe $700 to $1000 per day for 12 jurors, a couple of alternates, and a couple of witnesses.  The costs for the prosecutor, judge and court staff, and courtroom could be added for the trial time along with the time needed to prepare.  The estimated length of trial is 7 days, not including the time for the jury to deliberate.

The amount of the fines may pale relevant to civil penalties.  Weinland would be expected to pay the $357,065 in taxes owed.  But it could be a lot more with civil penalties.  And could be even more based on the original taxes.  The charges include only the amounts they feel that they can prove that Weinland “willfully” evaded, so they may be conservative as to the amounts.  When pursuing him for amounts owed on a civil basis, the burden of proof is much, much less.  If Weinland is judged unfavorably there could be a lot more that he’ll need to levy from his tithe slaves.    And let’s not forget the cost of Weinland’s legal defense, which includes a great team of lawyers with 2 attorneys and an investigator.

Note: the motion hearing scheduled today for Ronald Weinland has been delayed until February 17.