False Prophet Ronald Weinland

False Prophet Ronald Weinland was in Florida this weekend.  Johnny and the Georgia bunch came down, but Ron still gave a couple of the local elders a chance for some mike time giving the prayers instead of having his senior evangelist do one.  Ron is continuing to beef up his elder staff to handle the hordes of people who will join PKG after the second trumpet, whenever it gets around to blowing.  I expect that Ron will soon have another wave of ordinations.  He promoted David Conley of McDowell, VA to senior elder (Hi Dave), and did the same with Scott Cameron of Colby, KS whom he had recently promoted to elder.  He also announced the ordination of Scott’s wife Kris as associate elder without further comment.  Kristina is Ron’s sister and is much younger than Ron, being just a few years older than Audra who is a senior elder.

The meaning of the word “Jerusalem”  was a topic of Ron’s sermon and also on this blog last weekend.  Last week I pointed out a web site that had some additional information as to the meaning, Mal took exception to this telling me that Ron was perfectly correct.  In his sermon this weekend, Ron stated that he had the “Jeru” part wrong, but when on about it not mattering.  I agree.  The meaning of “Jerusalem” doesn’t matter in the context of Ron’s continued prophetic failures.

Ron spent part of the sermon reading his latest blog post.  Ron admitted to another mistake, which has since been corrected in the posting on his blog.  In Ronnie’s second timeline, September 28, 2008 was not the opening of the seventh seal but was the sealing of the 144,000.  All this symbology is confusing even for the false prophet who made it up, as demonstrated on his own blog.  An explanation is that Ron may be under increased pressure from the IRS special agent conducting the criminal investigation.  Ron spoke of stirred up beings on the warpath.  In the past, spiritual warfare has been associated with IRS activities.  Ron was under so much stress that he slept over 12 hours Thursday night.  Perhaps he didn’t sleep well Wednesday night from stressful events that day and was catching up on Thursday night.

Ron explained the significance of the number 36 which is the count of the “truths” he has invented.  Ron has doubled the accomplishments of his spiritual idol, Herbert Armstrong, who only invented 18 “truths”.  How incredible!!

Ron took time to issue a fatwa against the use of two-piece bathing suits.  Somewhere in the sermon was a relatively brief pacifist rant.  Ron mentioned a cartoon in which someone asked God to smite his worst enemy.  The next frame showed the petitioner charred with smoke curling up. Ron should take a lesson from this, and be careful about calling down fire on those who harm him.  My Bible verse of the sermon is Romans 3:13.

In January of 2003, Ronald Weinland traveled to Zurich, Switzerland to open bank accounts investing in euros and Swiss francs. (Hyperlinks for iPod and iPad users who can’t access Flash)

Jan 4, 2003 (mp3)… That’s why we’re going, I mentioned last sabbath, that’s why I’m going to Switzerland next week, two weeks.  To put monies in the church over there, into Swiss francs and into euros, to give us time.  There’s going to be a period of time where we’re going to be able to function.  I’m going to tell more when we come to the sermon about Two Witnesses about why we’re going to do some of that even more so.

Swiss Bank of Zürcher Weinland

Could this be a picture of the bank he chose? This bank is located in Rheinau, about 10 miles north of Zurich’s airport. Why would he chose this bank housed in a rather plain building? Raiffeisenbank Weinland is located in Zürcher Weinland — I’ll let you ponder that for a bit.

May 24, 2003 (mp3) There are times when I – I marvel.  I marvel at how fast the euro has grown.  I marvel at about what economists are saying it’s going to do this year We put a tidy sum over in Europe for a purpose and for a reason because of what’s coming, to continue on in the church.  To continue to support or to give.  Whatever God leads us to give at that time.  And we’re going to put more over there now.  Because the chief economists in this country are saying right now that we’re just beginning this process of seeing the Euro grow in strength and power.  Do you know where it is to this day?  We’ve already made around 25, 30 thousand dollars in a few month’s time, just by putting that money over there.  Astounding. Astounding.  We’d put a lot more in.  (Chuckles) But that’s what it’s all about.  Not just helping us to  prepare for things in the future that ought to shock you that this dollar is going down the tubes

The previous statement is from his sermon delivered in Portland, Oregon before a live audience of fewer than two dozen people (some of whom traveled great distances to see their spiritual idol). Weinland never put a copy off this sermon on his web site and did not send out cassette tapes as he normally did. If Weinland invested $290,000 in euros at $1.06/euro in January of 2003, then in May of 2003 at $1.17/euro that investment would be worth $25,000 more. Or if he invested $300,000 at $0.72/Swiss franc in January then in May at $0.78/Swiss franc that investment would be worth $25,000 more. So it seems that no matter how he allocated the funds between euros and Swiss francs, he put around a third of a million dollars in the Swiss accounts and certainly more than the $200,000 he mentioned on Dec 28, 2002. As a reminder, it is not illegal to have a Swiss bank account. What is illegal is failing to report to the US government your foreign accounts over which you have signature authority by June 30 of the year following, should the balance of all your foreign accounts exceed $10,000 at any time during the year. Which is obviously the case regarding Weinland’s accounts, but it is not known whether he filed his FBAR forms as required to report his accounts. Each of us will have to assess for ourselves how likely it is that he did comply with the requirement.

Oct 21, 2008 (mp3): We have some monies in Europe that are set aside.  I’m just going to be real blunt with everybody.  Because there are those who find fault with us, in the world.  And even with our government.  OK.  That we are doing things in a certain way and we always have because everything we do is about God’s church.  OK.  So much so that we have tried to diversify various things.  We put money in Europe a long time ago, several years ago.  In Switzerland.  And we intend to use it.  Or in Switzerland or somewhere.  God’s Two Witnesses.  We started putting money there before I knew that’s what it  was all about, and what was going to take place.

Weinland has claimed a membership of 300 for several years prior to 2008. If we estimate his revenue from each member at $2000 per year considering tithes and offerings, that works out to a total of $600,000 per year. Church operations would not use much of this, considering that only a few locations meet regularly in rented facilities. The costs to operate a website and provide Internet streaming audio and mail out cassette tapes are minimal. The rental of a facility for the Feast of Tabernacles could be costly but would be reduced according to the number of people who rent rooms in the hotel. I find it quite plausible that he could accumulate such a fund. I also understand that there was a special fundraiser to initially fund these accounts.  I wonder if he had someone as a second signature on the accounts, maybe Laura?  Or Audra, COG-PKG bookkeeper?  Or maybe even Jeremy, who now lives in Germany. But you have to wonder: Why would the end-time Two Witnesses with special witness powers need a Swiss bank account?

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.

False Prophet Ronald Weinland was in Cincinnati this weekend for, as Jack puts it, the annual excuse fast.  According to Ron, last year’s two-day fast was a historic event to be long remembered, as it induced God to show mercy by delaying the tribulation.  That’s his story and he’s sticking to it, with no mention of the prayed-for death and destruction that was to occur from an increase of the thunders.

Thunders which he now states are not his, and were put in the book to give people a hard time, to trip, to find fault, to stumble where they will.  But on page 111 of “2008 God’s Final Witness” Ron wrote “These thunders are largely a matter of my own choosing, which God has given to me since I am His spokesman and the one who will stand before Him to the whole world during this end-time…. All Seven Thunders are given as God’s proof that I am His end-time prophet.“  Ron insisted that everything in his book would happen, but the timing had changed.  But on page 4, he stated “The proof of the validity of my first book, and now this one, is in the timing and the destruction that follows, exactly as both books describe.“  So now the thunders are not his, but God’s and were given to trip up a few critics? Does anyone see the irony in the following statement from Ron’s sermon? “I can’t tell you how much I loathe and I hate the spirit of justification.” Dill Weed has lot’s more to say about this.

Several minutes before the end of the sermon, Ron went on a rant about the hypocrisy of government, exploiting young men sent off to war.  The rant morphed to “And this government is sick in those things.  They’d like to shut my mouth.  And they’re working hard on it.  They only do what God gives them to do.  And they’re going to hear that a whole lot more as we go forward when God gives greater power.” Sounds to me like the IRS criminal investigation is not going well from Ron’s point of view.  So 60 weeks into the Great Tribulation and he still doesn’t have his Witness powers? Hmmm.  Hopefully what God gave the IRS to do will shut him up.

Ron’s rant continued on, switching to his critics.  He addressed us directly, asking what we wanted to save for “the new age” that we don’t believe is coming, but hypothetically speaking.  For myself, a utopian millennium would NOT include prideful, self-justifying false prophets who exploit those silly enough to follow them.  He continued on, accusing his critics of twisting and distorting and stirring up dirt and mud.  Ron, if you think I’m twisting and distorting, be specific — what exactly?  As far as the “stirring up dirt and mud” bit, I think he’s just trying to establish a defense for his followers who find out about the well documented existence of the IRS criminal investigation.  Or perhaps what set Ron off was my pointing out that he is the Son of Perdition.

Weinland ended his sermon and rant with a promise that his critics are about to learn a harsh lesson.  Ron, is “about to” any sooner than my quick death from the inside you cursed me with 59 weeks ago?

False Prophet Ronald Weinland has updated his published itinerary to include a trip March 27 through April 6 to New Zealand and Australia for Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Given his usual pattern, we could expect a trip to Europe for Pentecost, another trip “down under” for the Feast of Tabernacles, and one or two more European trips late in the year.  I wonder if the tithes and offerings of the overseas members pay for the travel expenses for the Two Witnesses and whomever else they decide to bring along with them.

I also wonder if the Son of Perdition realizes that the statute of limitations clock stops ticking whenever he’s out of the country, giving IRS Criminal Investigation that much more time to build a case against him.