Ron's Church, An Overview

In late 2006 and early 2007, False Prophet Ronald Weinland gave a 3-parter entitled "God's Church, An Overview". He stated that the sermon series was intended for new members and those who would come after them. Despite that, those sermons are no longer linked on the COG-PKG website. Nevertheless I was able to obtain copies and listen to them. It's somewhat understandable as to why he pulled them.

On Saturday December 23, 2006, Weinland stated:
“To all of you listening, this is the second to the last sabbath in 2006 – we have one more sabbath for this year. Beginning in the month of January, I’m just going to state this, I’ve asked God that the seven thunders begin to sound, distinctly so, OK. There’s been some thundering in the distance, but now it’s going to get a whole lot closer. …. It’s time for things to begin brethren. We have a period of time where things can begin to take place and to follow suit with what’s written in the book."

The following Saturday, December 30th of 2006, Weinland was confused about the thunders he himself defined, mixing up the 4th and 5th thunders, stating:
“some have asked about the death of different ones, they all go to the 4th thunder, …. There are those that want to jump ahead to the 4th thunder, especially when it’s about the churches, it’s like there’s a joy about certain ones dying. There’s no joy God says he doesn’t enjoy the death of human beings"
He then went on to speculate that the death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin could be part of a thunder.

On the first Saturday of 2007, January 6, Ron ironically read from the last verses of Revelation (chapter 22) which reads :
¹⁸For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

¹⁹And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Then Weinland talked about sending a copy of his book with a letter marked "Personal" to 3 of the 5 ministers mentioned in his book with plans to do the same for the remaining 2 the following week. For those not familiar with Weinland's prophecies, beginning on the bottom of page 107 of "2008 God's Final Witness" it states:
"The most notable deaths early on, which are yet to come to pass, will be the two remaining television presenters in the Living Church of God. The sound of this thunder will be intensified by the early deaths of the leaders of the Philadelphia Church of God, the Restored Church of God and the Church of the Great God."
and a bit later:
"How much more specific can one be to show that he is either of God, and indeed His prophet, or someone who has clearly stepped over the line to be dealt with by God in a speedy manner. Time will tell! And, you don’t have long to wait!"
Ron, Ron Ron. No one was looking forward with eager joyful anticipation to the deaths of these 5 ministers. They were looking for whether you passed the test you defined for yourself as to whether you are really God's prophet. By the way, all five of these leaders of competing splinters of WCG are still alive more than 2 1/2 year after you published your book. (The accursed five who've outlived their time are: Rod Meredith and Richard Ames of LCG, Gerald Flurry of PCOG, Dave Pack of RCG, and John Ritenbaugh of CGG.)

Toward the end Ron talked about how the book printing and interviews publicizing it were nearly 2 months behind schedule. In reality it was longer than that. On last page of this divinely inspired book it states:
"When this book is published at the end of summer of 2006, (with distribution in full swing in the fall), there will be a maximum time of two years remaining before the world will be plunged into the worst time of all human history."
The book was not published at the end of summer, 2006. It wasn't until almost 2 months into the fall, on November 14, when it was released to the printer and made available for download from Weinland's website the-end.com. Even though it was well after the fall of 2006, that hardly constitutes "distribution in full swing". And even though it's longer than 2 years after the delayed publication, we are not "plunged" into the worst time of all human history -- despite the difficult economic times, it's far from the worst it has ever been.

And Weinland made this ironic statement.
“I’m so tickled that we have a very short work to do. Because they can’t come after us like they did Mr. Armstrong. They don’t even have time to get organized. Because they started lambasting him and the Worldwide Church of God as being a cult. And the government of California gave him a hard time, gave the church a hard time. They were stirred up in spirit, in a wrong spirit. We aren’t going to be around that long, to worry about all that. They don’t have time to even come after us. They’re going to be preoccupied with other things. Thank God. You’re going to come to understand that far more deeply as we go through some of this. You truly will."

Ronnie boy, not only have you had many critics (none of whom are deceased despite your death curses) but the government is coming after you in a more intense fashion than it did HWA. HWA had the luxury of fleeing a California subpoena a short plane ride away to a neighboring state. You, on the other hand, are facing the wrath of the IRS. And I suspect that you closed down your Swiss bank accounts after your attorney told you that you couldn't avoid extradition. Does anyone understand anything "far more deeply"?

Happy Birthday Ronald Weinland

Yesterday, False Prophet Ronald Weinland was in the Belgium/Netherlands area. Somehow his Cincinnati area elder Ralph Dowd found the resources to make yet another trip to follow Ron. Wayne Matthews and wife Christine from Australia were there as well, despite the fact that he was recently looking for employment.

Yesterday was also Ron's 60th birthday. Ron thinks he won't see his 63rd in his present body as he's scheduled to be resurrected from the streets of Jerusalem at sundown prior to the 27th of May, 2012.

In a moment of irony, he talked about nutcases. Weinland was all upset about being criticized for planning to attend the ideaCity luncheon on the Sabbath of June 20th. I don't think he was referring to one of his blogging critics either. Rather I believe that it was one of his members. He was so upset that he lost his place several times and had to be brought on track by someone in the audience. He mentioned this criticism more than once, and warned that it wasn't wise to criticize God's prophet, not a smart thing to do. Would bring things upon yourself to do that.

Hopefully the member critic reads my blog and will realize that he should not worry. Because here I am blogging away 23 weeks after Weinland issued a death curse against his critics.

My Ronald Weinland Summary Page has a new URL. It had been hosted at googlepages, but Google has decided to shut down that service. Thanks to Jack Said and Ambassador Watch for mentioning the new URL.

Laodicean Spelling Bee

On her fourth attempt, Kavya Shivashankar won the National Spelling Bee. The winning word was “Laodicean,” defined as "an indifference to religion or politics". With a CoG background, I've heard the word but must admit that I've had trouble with the correct spelling. And I'd never heard it applied to politics.

Congratulations Kavya. It's too bad that you don't realize that you are, ironically, in the Laodicean era and have a 90% probability of dying over the next 3 years. That is unless you recognize that Ronald Weinland is God('s Witness) and repent. Set aside your dream of becoming a neurosurgeon. Because even if you do survive "into the new age", that profession will not be required in God's/Ron's kingdom.

Is Weinland FBARed?

False Prophet Ronald Weinland made a couple of references last year to his Swiss bank accounts. He mentioned their existence in his Last Great Day sermon back in October. The accounts had been established several years earlier with the funds to be used "for the Two Witnesses" and at that time he expected to soon move to Europe.

Then in December while in the Netherlands, he reversed this, claiming that he was closing these accounts and repatriating the funds to the US because the government suspected terrorism. He stated that he had come to understand the need to do this within the prior few weeks, inferring that it was a spiritual revelation.

Back in 2004 Weinland bragged : “... we put quite a bit of money over in a bank in Switzerland. And right now it’s – you know the Euro is -- as a matter of fact we spent some out of there and -- $30,000 as a matter of fact that we used out of those accounts. And you know what? Because of the value of it today, none of that’s really gone. It’s still there. It’s like we didn’t spend anything. If that makes sense to you.”

It does make sense to me. I took a look at historical exchange rates between the dollar and the euro. For example, if Weinland put $220,000 into his Swiss bank accounts in euros during the Spring of 2003 when a euro cost $1.10, and then withdrew $30,000 at the end of 2003 or early in 2004 at an exchange rate of $1.25 per euro, then the Euros remaining in the accounts would have still been worth $220,000.

It is not illegal to have Swiss bank accounts. However, it is illegal to have a foreign bank account and not follow the reporting requirements. On line 7 of Schedule B for the 1040 tax return, the filer is to indicate whether s/he has an interest in or even just signature authority over foreign financial accounts with a total value exceeding $10,000 at any time during the year. If that's the case, s/he is required to file Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR) form TD F 90-22.1 by June 30 of the following year. Unlike an income tax return, there is no provision for a filing extension. Also, there is no exemption of this filing requirement for churches.

From Weinland's statement, the balance in his Swiss bank accounts was worth well in excess of $30,000 in 2004 and therefore he would have been required to file the FBAR form. Since the euro fell against the dollar during the first part of 2004 prior to his statement, the money must have been there during 2003 in order to appreciate. Therefore, he would have needed to file an FBAR form for 2003 also. The penalties for failing to file 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

Each year is considered a separate violation. IRS Criminal Investigation is the agency which enforces the filing requirements.

My speculation is that Ron closed the Swiss bank accounts down in December of 2008 so that he wouldn't be exposing himself to a filing violation for 2009. Perhaps after consulting with his attorney after the Feast of Tabernacles, he came to an understanding that he could be extradited from either Germany or Switzerland after all. Or maybe he did file his FBAR form for each and every year that he held the Swiss bank accounts -- what do you think?

The IRS is offering an amnesty program for those who haven't filed an FBAR form as required. It offers reduced penalties and the opportunity to avoid criminal prosecution. In order to take advantage of this offer, one must contact IRS Criminal Investigation prior to September 23 of this year. Sorry, Ronald -- this offer isn't available to you since you're already under investigation.

But the amnesty offer might be available to Laura or Audra, should their names have been on the accounts but they haven't filed the FBAR form. If they are candidates for this amnesty, they should contact an attorney for advice. To avoid a conflict of interest, this should be an attorney from a firm other than either the Horwitz Law Firm which represented Ron last year in his motion to quash the IRS summonses for his financial records or Wood and Lamping where his attorney has moved.

According to the IRS FAQ, for someone who had signature authority over an account for an employer and didn't file the FBAR form but otherwise paid their income taxes, there will be no penalty provided the filing is caught up before September 23. Time is running short.

Weinland Says to Get Off the Pot

False Prophet Ronald Weinland was in Cincinnati yesterday after several weeks on the road. He's claiming that new people have joined his church including two baptisms yesterday. It's too bad they didn't check out Weinland's history of failed prophecies, contradictions, and broken promises.

Services on June 20 will be delayed at least one hour from the normal time. That's the weekend immediately after his appearance at ideaCity in Toronto. Ron wants to party a bit longer at a luncheon that's being thrown that Saturday as part of the event, so services will have to wait.

Information on Feast sites is to be published to the members. The "Information List", which was a mass mailing list to the members, has been shut down. It has been replaced by smaller lists which the elder "local" to an area is to administer. It seems that there is a password-protected site at which the members are to register to gain access to the feast site information. Access to feast site information is available only to those who have paid for it with tithes and offerings. Unlike last year, members will be allowed to transfer between different feast sites. Although we are 23 weeks into the Great Tribulation, Weinland says that he doesn't know for sure if there will be a feast.

It seems that Weinland's Witness Powers do not include self healing. Wednesday morning he passed out from back pain and required ambulance transport to the emergency room. But he claims that he has come to understand since his August, 2005 heart attack that he can't die yet because he has a job to do as he announced a few months after that. He used his back as a reason for sitting down while delivering the sermon, which seems to be his general habit now, particularly when addressing smaller groups.

Ron must be running low on funds, as he took time to address the fence sitters who listen to him weekly but haven't joined and most importantly aren't paying tithes. To those who question whether he is a Witness, he forcefully exclaimed: "YES I AM", and told them that they should "get off the pot". Actually, he wants them to do the other action from this earthy expression that he left unstated (would that be "holy s#$t?). I would like for them to get off the pot. I hope they do some research on Weinland before they turn over their brains and their money to him.

Weinland turns 60 next Saturday. Will I be able to observe it? Or will I die the speedy death from the inside that Weinland promised me 22 weeks ago?

Weinland on the Appearance of the Two Witnesses

False Prophet Ronald Weinland has made many predictions. Here's one that he made back in 2004:

…I look ahead. Are we in another cycle? 1260 days? 1290 days? 1335? I don’t know. I have seen 2 very distinct cycles come out in the past. Are we in another one? I don’t know.

I believe we’re getting ready to go into one. I just don’t know what it is. When the time comes, God will show us what it is. But there’s a reason he doesn’t show it at different times. And so we go forward, we believe. And we’re going to do something. We don’t know what it is, we don’t know how great, how strong it will become. When things are going to shift again, when two witnesses come on the scene, we don’t know when that’s going to happen. But when they do, we know how much time we have left. Because they will not be made known, they will not be made manifest, they will not say and do what they’re going to do -- until the very last 3 ½ years. And then we know. There’s no doubt then when things are going to happen.

The following year, on December 17, 2005 while reading from a draft of his book "2008 God's Final Witness", he made an announcement. The final version in the book, only slightly edited from the draft he read in his sermon, is:
It is now with boldness, confidence and great clarity that I give to you what God has given me. I am to announce, through God’s direct revelation, that I am one of those two witnesses. The other witness will be revealed to the world during the time of the great tribulation—within the final three and one-half years of man’s era. During that period of time, we will, together, completely fulfill all that God has given us to witness to this whole earth.

Yet it was only a couple of weeks later that Weinland obliquely revealed in a sermon that Laura would be the Second Witness. It was clear enough to his church that she was the other witness, as he warned them against revealing her. So the two witnesses were made manifest to the Church of God -- PKG. Was December of 2005 the beginning of the final 3 1/2 years? No.

When the book was released to the publishers on November 14, 2006, was that the beginning of the final 3 1/2 years? No. (Not even though the book itself stated that it would be published during the summer of 2006.)

When Laura was officially revealed to the world in the waning hours of April 17, 2008, more than 24 hours after her job supposedly began the evening prior at sundown in Jerusalem, was that the beginning of the final 3 1/2 years? No.

When Laura was officially ordained a prophetess in Jerusalem on Dec 13, 2008, was that (or the following day) the beginning of the final 3/12 years? In case you haven't noticed the pattern here, the answer is "NO".

Poor Ronnie. He's blathered so much he can't remember what he's said, so he can't keep his story straight.