A Follower of Ron Reponds

I just received an interesting comment in reply to my last post, and thought it deserved more prominent coverage.

Commenter "rj" who may be a COG-PKG member and in any case is a follower of False Prophet Ronald Weinland wrote:
"I believe Ron and Laura Weinland are the two end-time witnesses and the tribulation has begun on dec 14. I think most people expected it to begin with a big bang, I most deffenently did not. If something huge happened on dec 14 and if all of those ministers [Meredith, Ames Rittenbach, Pack, and Flurry] would have all died by now, a lot more then 10% of a third of the scattered church would of reconized the Weinlands were the witnesses and the remnant would be a lot larger, but this way most have written him off as a false prophet. Also most believe that Jesus Christ will return on Trumpets, so I think something big will happen in the spring of 2009 or in 2010 so it will appear the tribulation will end on trumpets This is a blessing because it shortens the severeness of the 3&1/2 year tribulation. Also the fact that this site exists as well as others is an encouragement to me, because in order for scripture to be fulfilled there has to be mockers and scoffers, and who better for satan to use then highly intellegent, disgrunted ex-members"

This is a cut-and-paste of the entire comment, so I have not introduced any grammatical errors or taken out any paragraph breaks. I find it difficult to pick out sentences without paragraph breaks, so I'm repeating the comment again, point by point, as I respond.

"I believe Ron and Laura Weinland are the two end-time witnesses and the tribulation has begun on dec 14."

It would be very interesting to understand why you believe this. Do you have anything more than the "proof" you offered later in your comment? Why do you believe that Ron and Laura are the two witnesses? Where's the proof? Where is the evidence of the First Trumpet since Dec. 14?

"I think most people expected it to begin with a big bang, I most deffenently did not."

I disagree with that statement. I definitely didn't expect a big bang, either. Nor did "most people". Most people expected nothing to happen. Which is what happened. Or didn't happen, depending on how you want to say it.

"If something huge happened on dec 14 and if all of those ministers [ Meredith, Ames Rittenbach, Pack, and Flurry]would have all died by now, a lot more then 10% of a third of the scattered church would of reconized the Weinlands were the witnesses and the remnant would be a lot larger, but this way most have written him off as a false prophet."

(Actually it's "Rittenbaugh", not "Rittenbach", and there should be a comma after "Ames" since that's the last name of one of the ministers and not Rittenbaugh's first name.)

That's very interesting. You've admitted that the prophecy about the ministers failed, and the reason it failed was so that another wouldn't fail.

As a matter of explanation, the "remnant" to which "rj" refers is those who would have joined Weinland's one and only true church who were formerly members of WCG when the "Son of Perdition" Joseph Tkach committed the "abomination of desolation" against the rebuilt temple (WCG) when the First Seal opened. AKA Tkach's infamous Dec 17, 1994 sermon in Atlanta. With the WCG membership in the ballpark of 100,000 at that time, a tithe of 1/3 of those would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3300 people. Weinland has mentioned the 300 often in his references to Gideon's army and the breaking of the pitchers. Communications from ex-members of COG-PKG have put the membership at the 2007 Feast of Tabernacles at the 300-450 range of which 300 could be ex-WCG. He's also mentioned in sermons "another 2700 out there". Apparently, the numbers aren't exact just like the numbers of the COG-PKG members actually sealed on September 30.

[Note: in his sermon the following day, Weinland speculated that the total could be a tithe of all, not just one-third. Perhaps not an important prophecy, except to "rj".]

In his book the False Prophet described the prophesied deaths of the five specific ministers "rj" listed as proof that he was a prophet, said they would happen "early" after the publication of his book in 2006, said they were part of the thunders that would sound loudly before the 7th seal opened and the Great Tribulation began.

"Also most believe that Jesus Christ will return on Trumpets, so I think something big will happen in the spring of 2009 or in 2010 so it will appear the tribulation will end on trumpets"

I don't know whether or not most believe that Christ returns on a Feast of Trumpets, but I find it interesting that you think God will deliberately deceive people.

Do you believe that "2008 God's Final Witness" is a divinely inspired revelation from God? If so, how can you believe that it will be as late as 2010 before something big happens? According to the book, the Fifth Trumpet has to sound before June 21 because the Fifth Trumpet is when the US is no longer an independent nation and the USA is to no longer be an independent nation by that date. In June, Weinland's story was that the book was true but he presumptuously put his own interpretation on it to come up with his first timeline. So now the story is changing again and the book is false? Either the book is true or it isn't -- so which is it?

"Also the fact that this site exists as well as others is an encouragement to me, because in order for scripture to be fulfilled there has to be mockers and scoffers, and who better for satan to use then highly intellegent, disgrunted ex-members"

Considering the source, I'm not totally sure whether to be flattered or not by being called "highly intelligent" so I'll just say "Thank you .... maybe." As far as being a "disgruntled ex-member" a read of my profile which can be accessed on the side of this blog would have shown that to be incorrect in my case. I am not nor have I ever been a member of COG-PKG, WCG, or any of the "splinters". A read of other blogs actively mocking this False Prophet show this to be the case for others. Others may be ex-WCG, but so far at least there are no ex-COG-PKG members blogging against Weinland.

Nor am I fulfilling scripture. I am not mocking a true prophet of God. Speaking of my being a mocker, I have a question: "How long is 'speedily'?" Weinland said I was going to die speedily from the inside, so what's the longest I can expect to live? It's been 13 days so far -- doesn't seem particularly speedy.

So "rj", what will it take and how long will it take for you to recognize that Weinland has deceived you? Will you still be following Ron during the 2012 Feast of Tabernacles when Christ still hasn't returned? Indications are that you only have ears to hear what Weinland said in his latest sermon, and you'll never even attempt to draw a line in the ever-shifting sands of his prophecies.