Dr Robert Thiel, aka “COGWriter”, wrote a truism on his blog, Church of God News recently wrote in relation to false prophet Ronald Weinland:
Because of false prophets, people seem less willing to believe the true predictions of God’s word as explained by His servants. But whether people believe the prophecies of the Bible or not, they will come to pass.
Personally, I think that concisely sums up Satan’s strategy for confusing people in the end time.
Thiel correctly identifies Weinland as a false prophet. Not only does Weinland claim to be a prophet, but he claims to be no less than one of the Two Witnesses of Revelation.
Well, I guess the shoe is now on the other foot, as James Malm on the website “TheShiningLight” (sic) wrote the article “Robert Thiel: A False Prophet Unmasked” [link now gone].
It is quite clear that Robert Thiel who runs a blog at: cogwriter; has thrown the Bible into a blender with every pagan prophecy he could find and created an appalling atrocity against the word of God. Robert tries to interpret the Bible prophecies by melding all this mishmash together. Vainly leaning on the fevered imaginations of God defying men, he has gone very far astray.
OK, whatever. If it ended there, I doubt I’d be very interested. However, he goes on to say:
Any man who relies on extra biblical and especially on pagan religions for his understanding of any part of God’s Word and teaches others to do so: IS A FALSE PROPHET; SO SAYS THE WORD OF GOD, Deu 13 the whole chapter. He IS NOT TO BE RESPECTED OR TRUSTED. HE IS TO BE TREATED LIKE ANY OTHER FALSE PROPHET.
OK, so anyone who relies on “extra biblical” material is a false prophet? So, does that mean using a concordance is out? Commentaries? Halley’s Bible Handbook? The daily newspaper? I mean, where does it end?
Of course, Thiel defends himself in “James Malm Continues to Mislead”. It is apparent that Thiel has called Malm out on some of his timelines. I’m not sure why people seem to get so carried away with date setting, especially after seeing all of the pain and confusion it has caused in the past.
I do not see anywhere where Malm has claimed that 2009 is the definitive year in which the False Prophet of Revelation would be setup. At worst (from what I’ve read), Malm seems to be guilty of prophetic speculation. And, yet is it truly unreasonable that if you are going to publish dates for someone to tell you why they think the dates are wrong? Are we so conditioned against criticism in the Church of God that we cannot accept even objective analysis?
Again, why the need to set dates? I just don’t know. I do know that if you set a date and nothing happens on that date, then you should expect some flak!
Malm’s criticism of Thiel borrowing from all sorts of traditions prophecies of various types is not totally without merit, and Thiel should expect as much. Thiel seems to spend quite a bit of time on his blog covering Catholic and Mayan prophecies in particular. While I understand that it can be a reaction to the current fascination with such things, it seems to me that he is too drawn up in false prophecies and needs to emphasize the Bible more (for a good reason to concentrate on truth rather than spending too much time on falsehoods, see “Book Review on The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies”).
However, calling Thiel a “false prophet” is truly beyond the pale. To me, a false prophet is one who makes predictions and they don’t come to pass. So, who does that fit more in this case?
What I want to know is where is Jesus in the midst of all of this?
35By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:35, King James Version)