Jesus Who?

Gavin Rumney at Ambassador Watch has picked up my story on Weinland's hovel, both front and back.

Gavin wonders how one can qualify to be the collector of God's tithes:
"What I don't understand is just how you pick up an official accreditation for this kind of thing. Where do you collect an application form? Does Ron have a framed certificate on his wall, personally signed by Jesus Christ, authorizing him to function as His official tithe collector?"
He continues on, asking:
"Does Christ sign off on Ron's raises? Will Ron get a divine bonus this year despite seriously screwing up his prophecy about 2008?"

Gavin, how could you ask such ignorant questions? If you'd just listen to Ron's sermons you'd realize that Jesus is not a middleman in this, he's not in the chain of command. Ron speaks directly for God and Jesus is only the elder brother whose only job is to return and resurrect God's favorite son, Ronnie. Besides, God wanted him to put out his earlier prophecies to test the CoG-PKG membership, and train them for even bigger and better things (big surprises).

If you'd been listening to Ron (God), you'd also realize that God's Prophet has stated that his curse against his critics still applies, never mind that he's not the Spokesman Witness right now. You should have been more careful what you said about Ronald Weinland (God).

Feeling anything yet?

No Humility Back Here, Either

In my last post, Weinland's Hovel of Humility, I showed the front of Ronald and Laura Weinland's house. The view from that angle is somewhat misleading. Large windows and entrance-way lead to the impression that the house is smaller than it is. This photo shows the rear of the house and gives a better perspective as to its size. Notice the wing that extends to the rear from the far side of the house. The covered porch (no barrels of water in sight) is behind the garage on the nearer side of the house.

I estimate that the False Prophet's house is at least twice the size of the house in which I grew up along with four siblings. With blue collar wages, that was the best my father could do after tithing to another false prophet, Herbert Armstrong. It's too bad that productive members of society allow such leeches to deprive their families for such unworthy results such as to buy an over-sized house for only Mr. & Mrs. False Prophet to live.

The median price of a home in Cincinnati is $162,500. At $381,000 the Weinland home is worth more than twice the median. I wonder how many of Weinland's followers have a home valued significantly (say 25%) above median. And how many that do have homes have mortgaged them to the hilt in support of Weinland's insane prophecies, in contrast to owning them free and clear as indicated by a comment (if true) to the other post.

Weinland's Hovel of Humility

False Prophet Ronald Weinland has made it clear that he will not wear clothes made of actual sackcloth during his term as an end-time witness, but instead will be wearing the Sackcloth of Humility (it's spiritual).

The usual picture that comes to mind of a person claiming to be an end-time witness is of a nut such as Yisrayl Hawkins who has a compound near Abilene, TX with trailers filled with supplies to survive the Great Tribulation and who blathers on about the "nukular baby".

On the other hand Ron Weinland has a much more mainstream appearance and is more articulate in interviews. The picture of Ron on his website shows him wearing a normal suit not made of sackcloth. Weinland has a home to match that image.

Spokesman Witness Ronnie and Silent Witness Laura live in a home in an exclusive suburb in the greater Cincinnati area. This suburb is also home to professional football players. The Weinland's home was valued at $381,000 when they bought it and even at that price is not the most expensive house in the neighborhood. That price is more than twice the value of my house, which is not in a depressed area. Perhaps I should have picked a more prophetable, er, profitable occupation.

Of interest is the green vegetation around Weinland's property in this picture taken in mid-July 2008 made available to Don't Drink the Flavor Aid. I guess that it wasn't included in the 1/3rd of vegetation destroyed by the First Trumpet. Oops, wait. The timeline was rewound and the First Trumpet won't be re-blown until December 14. So there's still time for all the green to turn brown, and if it doesn't happen right away we'll have all the way until the Fifth Trumpet.

Weinland has claimed that he was cashing out his equity in his home to help fund his media blitz with Google Adwords promoting his books. Since an audit of the church finances is not available, this claim should be viewed with a great deal of skepticism. But even if true it indicates a lack of total resolve. Ron and Laura should have sold the house and moved to an apartment. If the cost of upkeep is not more than $4000/month it has to be close to that when you consider the principal and interest on a loan of that amount together with the property taxes and insurance and probably homeowners association dues.

With the question being whether Ron the Rebooter is drinking his own Flavor Aid or just handing it out, this suggests that he is just handing it out. As indicated by his lack of total resolve and willingness to move to a cheaper dwelling instead of staying in this nice home.

To the False Prophet: Before you get all "stirred up" about my publishing a picture of your house, remember that you published directions to it when you hosted a reception for Jeremy. Note that the directions to your house are not reproduced here -- that's not the point of this post.

See the next post for a view of the back of the house.

Ridiculous Ronald

Ronald Weinland is ridiculous. And no, it's not due to this picture of the false-prophet-to-be in his underwear choking his chicken.

During the James Whale interview in April, Ron Weinland prophelied that there would be nuclear detonations in port cities of the US 45-90 days after April 17. Yesterday, July 16, was that 90^th day. No nuclear explosion in a port city – or any other city. Yet one more failed prophecy, one of many.

When the Insane Liar prepared to rescind his original timeline, he stated in a post on his blog: “If I have jumped the gun in a couple of interviews and interjected my own understanding into the timing of events, and have thereby been presumptuous, then I will repent and move forward.” He then stated in a sermon the next Saturday that he did interject his own understanding, but that he wasn’t presumptuous. Never mind that in an earlier sermon discussing the James Whale interview he indicated that God revealed things in that interview.

How ridiculous. Unfortunately, only some of his followers have recognized how ridiculous Weinland is.

Something negative did happen yesterday. The government of the Sindh province in Pakistan banned both of the False Prophet’s books, stating in its press release:

CONTROVERSIAL BOOKS CONFISCATED/BANNED Karachi, July 15:
The Government of Sindh has banned the two highly controversial books titled “The Prophesied End Time” and “2008 God’s Final Witness” written by Ronald Weinland under section 99-A, Cr. P.C. 1998. the book contain material which may offend the sentiments of Muslims, Jews and Christian and is likely to create resentment among different religious groups leading to law & order problem in the country
The Government has ordered to confiscated all its copies wherever found in the open market with immediate effect and to take necessary legal action against the writer, publisher, distributors, sellers and others concerned, under the relevant law.

So Weinland has finally achieved some official recognition. Too bad he won't be extradited to Pakistan, but he does like to travel. Could Ron be persuaded to visit Pakistan to promote his books?

Government, Government, Government

The title of Insane Lying False Prophet Ron Weinland’s sermon of yesterday was “Feast of 2008”. But it could have had a different title more similar to the title of this post.

Ron did talk about plans for the Feast of Tabernacles this fall. No one is to travel long distances for the feast, and no one is to assemble for more than four days. Not even if they are able to. Some people might even work some days during the feast, listening to a sermon in the evening. The False Prophet is spending the first part in New Zealand and the second in Australia. Because of the time zone differences the sermons will be available as downloaded files for those in the US. I imagine that Ronald Weinland will deliver each of the sermons himself including the one for the day that he will be travelling between New Zealand and Australia.

It’s doubtful that anyone would be able to travel long distances. It seems that members were instructed to keep only one-fourth of their second tithe for attending holy days and then to send the remainder to Ronnie to help push up Google’s earnings with his Adwords campaign.

There were two underlying themes Ron Weinland put out in yesterday's sermon. One was fear, with the message that the situation could deteriorate so that people could not travel – so this year would in any case be a dress rehearsal for the Great Tribulation. He suggested that people get MP3 players and load them up with sermons so they could listen to them for feasts during the Great Tribulation should the Internet go down.

The second theme was government. Ronnie asked how God places his name on the site for the feast. The answer: “Government”. “The Feast of Tabernacles has everything to do with Government.” Several times he reiterated “Government, Government, Government” or “Order, Order, Order” to emphasize his point.

There is still some question as to whether Ron is drinking his own Flavor Aid or just handing it out. Here are my thoughts on the just-handing-it-out idea: Weinland has planned the scenario out in advance, including the timeline change. If world events had seemed to support the first timeline he would have stuck with it. Since events didn’t support the first timeline, he had the second timeline ready to go. Where he has miscalculated is that he expected a greater response to the Google Adwords campaign, but it hasn’t resulted in the number of people he expected. Also, I think the ones it has attracted tend to be disturbed people who may not have the asset sizes that he was expecting to be able to plunder. If this is the scenario, I look for him to continue to mold his followers to blind obedience to God in the form of Ron, followed by a big push for more money this fall and into next spring for some type of media campaign, and then a move to Europe. From Europe he can continue to produce sermons and shear his dwindling flock. At the end it may be just his elders, who despite some speculation to the contrary do pay tithes. And if they leave he simply retires in place.

One the other hand, if Ron Weinland is drinking his own Flavor Aid, I have no thoughts on what to expect. Just-handing-it-out may be preferable to the alternative.

Dueling Prophets

The Ambassador Watch blog has a post discussing the declining traffic at David Pack's web site. Since I'm blogging mainly about a different false prophet, I thought it would be interesting to compare their websites. So I went to Alexa and generated the graph, reproduced below.

(click on graph for an expanded view)

This graph shows that the Pack-man's traffic (thercg.org) began its decline as Ron Weinland's traffic (the-end.com) began increasing back in November. That suggests that they are dueling for the same demographic but that Weinland is throwing more money at his ad campaign.

But that idea is shot down when Weinland reduced his ad budget in mid-June and his traffic sharply declined. At that time Pack's traffic increased briefly but now is at its lowest level in months. In fact it's the same as James Malm's theshininglight.info. While Pack has a following from whom he has demanded money ("get those assets and get them here"), Malm informs me that his ad campaign is self funded. Perhaps Pack is investing the money in his building program instead of Internet ad campaigns. Or maybe it's being spent on expanding the payroll for family members.

Doing a service

At one point during False Prophet Ron Weinland's sermon of June 28th, he said "They think they're doing a service" in reference to his critics.

Several weeks ago I had a email exchange with someone who had downloaded the Insane Liar's book "2008 God's Final Witness", read it and was terrified as a result until deciding to Google Weinland to find out more. The question to me was whether I think Weinland is really a false prophet.

Here is my response, edited slightly to keep the anonymity of my correspondent.

___, I don't just think he's a false prophet -- I absolutely know that he is a false prophet. His second book "2008 GFW" does not give specific dates, but he has given them on radio talk show interviews, sermons, and on his own and church websites. The Seventh Seal was supposedly opened on March 18th, and the First Trumpet signaling the start of the Great Tribulation supposedly blew on April 17th.

Read the bottom of page 23 of "2008 GFW". Were you in shock and horror on March 18th? Without Googling the date, ask yourself what significant event happened on that date? We still remember "September 11" seven years later, but do we remember March 18 only 3 months later?

I could go into other specific prophecies which have already failed, but these are well described in my blog and other blogs I link. It only takes one failed prophecy to make a false prophet -- Weinland has numerous prophecies that have already failed.

Weinland has made a very extraordinary claim which is that he and his wife are the two witnesses of Revelation 11. Don't you think that an extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence?

You are googling him now, earlier might have been better, but now is still better than later after you've already made life altering changes that would be necessary to join his cult. Better now before you send him money that you could better use to deal with what the future throws at you.

Yes, there are difficulties in the world: flooding in the US Midwest, oil well over US$100 / barrel, cyclones and earthquakes in Asia. But Weinland didn't predict them. In fact in recent sermons he has made statements indicating he doesn't know the future.

Yes, it is natural to be fearful for the future of our children (and grandchild in my case). But to rely on a False Prophet such as Ron Weinland to lead us would be a serious mistake. If we look to him to lead us it would be like looking to a blind man to lead us across a busy street.

Weinland has relied on Google Adwords to provide links to his web site promoting his false prophecies. The Adwords he's chosen for generating sponsored links to his website tend to be pessimistic in nature, such as "stock market crash". I suspect that you may have been hooked by a Google search on search terms such as this or other pessimistic ideas. Or you may have visited a web site discussing pessimistic ideas. If this is the case for you, I'd be interested in what the web site or Google search words were.

Try to strike a balance between living for today and living for the future. Spend time every day enjoying watching your childre grow up, but also spend time every day making reasonable preparations for what the future could throw at you and your family recognizing that you won't be able to prepare for every possibility. But to let every negative future possibility overwhelm you today would be a mistake as you will lose today while you might not lose tomorrow.

Best Wishes,
Mike

How did my correspondent get mousetrapped by Weinland? By Googling "Good Christian Parent" and ending up on a website with an ad to the toxic web site which promotes his books.
Also responding with "You're doing a really good thing with your blogs. Thank you." So Kudos also to my fellow suffers of Weinland's death curse (i.e. blogging critics of Weinland).

So Ronnie boy, I don't just think I'm doing a service -- I absolutely know that I'm doing a service. If this correspondent is the only one I've helped extract from your grasp, then it was worth the efforts. But somehow I think there have been others.

Weinland Prepares the COG-PKG to Turn Left, Turn Right

On July 5 the false prophecy road show was in the Toledo, Ohio area but across the border in Michigan. Most of the interesting parts were in the last half-hour of the sermon. Later on we figured out what the interesting parts were really about.

At one brief moment, Weinland seemed emotional talking about all the people he prophesied to die. But he recovered quickly.

A number of members have left COG-PKG since the timeline reset over the last couple of weeks, but a number also remain and Ron Weinland continues to tighten his grip on them. He announced that big surprises were coming, and they should be prepared to "move left" or "move right" on a moment's notice, like in the military. Supposedly these instructions would come from God, but of course we know they'll be conveyed to them by the False Prophet. He said that an epic spiritual war is taking place right now in the angelic realm.

He mentioned that god had revealed something to him the night before, but everyone would have to wait -- and "everyone" includes Laura.

I could speculate on where this might be headed, but I'm reluctant to do so for fear I'd be right again. Anyone who hasn't left the COG-PKG by now will probably stick with Weinland through the next dozen timeline changes and do whatever Weinland claims is an instruction from God.

Weinland Speaks the Truth

At a point about 5 minutes before the end of ILFPRW's sermon of June 28, he made an ironic but truthful statement: ".... if you're following me, you're doing the wrong thing." Of course that was part of a larger point which was that people should be following the "lamb".

Elsewhere in the sermon and in the previous week's sermon False Prophet Ron sells the point that people were right to follow Herbert Armstrong on the Monday Pentecost thing even though HWA was wrong. Further that it would have been wrong for them to have observed Pentecost on Sunday before HWA changed it. This is an attempt to justify following Ronald Weinland despite his own failures. And a contradiction to when he says ".... if you're following me, you're doing the wrong thing."

Give it up Ron. You know you're full of it, just grasping at straws to keep your following. Give it up. Don't drag your church members through any more of your deluded drama.