How to spot lying false prophets--like Ronald Weinland, for example
One of Ronald Weinland's Web sites at http://www.ronaldweinland.com
had a February 7, 2008 update that said, "the final
countdown has begun, as the 1335 days before the actual day Jesus Christ returns
began on February 2, 2008." It also mentioned "the return of Jesus Christ and the
establishment of God's Government over all the earth in the fall of 2011." Another
page at his Web site at http://ronaldweinland.com/?page_id=5
claimed that God made him a prophet in 1997. He also claimed to be one of the "two
witnesses" mentioned in Revelation chapter 11, but said that he would not know who the
second witness was until at least April 2008. Anyway, Ron will be the spokesperson
for the two. In April, Ron announced that the second witness was his wife Laura.
Her job will be to “witness” (i.e., watch) Ron “witness” (i.e., prophesy).
After the complete doctrinal change and break-up of the Worldwide Church of God
(WCG) in 1995, many people who still believed some things began to search for the one
true splinter group that they assumed must exist. Unfortunately, many fell for the
various, different, self-appointed prophets that appeared out of the wreckage of the
WCG. On page 16 of his second book, called 2008--God's Final Witness,
Ron wrote that,
"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."
This claim certainly catches one's attention. After all, one does want to listen
to any message from God through any true prophet, or witness, of His. In Old Testament
times, God told Aaron and Miriam, "Listen to my words: When
a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him
in dreams" (Numbers 12:6, NIV). But is this what happened to Ron?
Is this how it was revealed to him? Apparently not! Rather, he just felt that
God had "directly revealed" something to him through his "study" of the Bible and his
daydreaming. He just imagined that he was onto something, and wrote up some theories
of his own devising. And that is where it all falls apart
and goes bad. You cannot just make up stuff in God's name. God has to give you the
message. The Apostle Peter explained that, "Above
all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own
interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke
from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:20-21, NIV).
Yet, people continue to make up prophetic theories of their own and expect God to bring
them to pass. This is an ancient problem. God once explained, "They
say, 'The LORD declares,' when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words
to be fulfilled. Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when
you say, 'The LORD declares,' though I have not spoken?" (Ezekiel 13:6-7, NIV).
Will Ronald Weinland be so full of the Holy Spirit that he will have the power
to help people? He himself writes not to expect it. You should note what Ronald
wrote on page 12 of 2008--God's Final Witness:
"You should note that God did not use the gift of healing or the performance of other
miraculous signs to deliver the Israelites from Egypt, and He will not use such signs
in the end-time to reveal where He is working and with whom."
Those who have read the Bible, or even just the book of Exodus, might recall that God
did use miraculous signs and wonders to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. Rotten
Ronnie is just trying to discourage people from asking for the healing that
he knows he has no power to do, even though he claims to be a prophet and one of the two
witnesses. Perhaps deep down inside he wonders why a man of his position has no power,
and why God does not talk to him. He is neither the first guy, nor the last, to imagine
that he is one of the two witnesses, and to be still waiting to receive his power. He
has now been reduced to hoping for the deaths of the leaders of the other splinter groups
to fulfill his own guesses and desires.
What can one expect from the "two witnesses" when the true ones really do appear?
The Bible says, "If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from
their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must
die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time
they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike
the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want" (Revelation
11:5-6, NIV). They will stand out from all the false witnesses who came ahead of time.
You can expect that they will actually wear sackcloth like the Bible says, rather than
reason around like Ron that it just means that they are humble.
Technically, false prophets like Ronald Weinland should be stoned to death.
God said, "But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name
anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of
other gods, must be put to death. You may say to yourselves, 'How can we know when
a message has not been spoken by the LORD?' If what a prophet proclaims in the name
of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not
spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him"
(Deuteronomy 18:20-22, NIV). Fortunately, with Ron's guesses, one won't have
to wait the usual three to five years to figure out that he was just another nut case.
Three to five months should be plenty. Then, some of those who have had their time,
and energy, and money worse than wasted might begin to understand why God had such
a drastic penalty for telling lies in His name.
The New Testament contains this warning from the Apostle Peter: "But
there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers
among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign
Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their
shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these
teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has
long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping"
(II Peter 2:1-3, NIV). It is easy to ignore all the ham-eating, Sunday-keeping false
prophets in the world. Obviously, such ignoramuses don't know anything. The big problem
today is with all the false prophets that came from within the Worldwide Church of God.
A serious problem has arisen these days as many former members of the Worldwide
Church of God started their own groups that observe the biblical seventh-day Sabbath,
and call their groups by the name Church of God (COG), yet make up lies in God's
name and pretend to be His prophets. This certainly does "bring
the way of truth into disrepute." The only reason that most of these goofballs
know any biblical truth at all is that they learned it from guys like Herbert W. Armstrong
(HWA). So far, so good. But then they point out that not all prophetic knowledge was
revealed to HWA, so they take it upon themselves to fill in the gaps by making up crazy
new theories of their own. They also say that HWA did not quite figure out everything,
so they come up with new doctrinal ideas that contradict what he taught. Even while
praising HWA they disagree with him and change what he taught, and not for the better.
Ron is just one example of many who do this. Here is a quote from page 205 of
2008--God's Final Witness:
"Although Mr. Armstrong understood that the Trinity was a lie, God did not give him
full understanding of what was true concerning Himself and His Son, Jesus Christ. God
did not fully lead him out from the pollution of the false Trinity doctrine. Mr.
Armstrong still believed that Jesus Christ had eternally existed. God gave Mr. Armstrong
enough to conclude that the Trinity was a lie, but He did not lead him fully into the
truth. God reserved this revelation until now, at this very end time, during the time of
the opening and the fulfillment of the Sixth Seal of Revelation."
People need to stop and consider that if the God of
the Bible really does exist, He can and will carry out His own plans on His
own schedule. There is no need for anyone to make up lies in
His name, other than to fulfill the prophecy that many false prophets will arise and
deceive many. People need to read the Bible for themselves,
and hold on tight to the truth of God that it teaches, while rejecting all the time-wasting
and money-wasting false prophets who come around telling ridiculous lies that they have
made up. It is truly amazing how many greedy, outright liars came
out of the WCG. But then, Jesus did warn that "many false
prophets will appear and deceive many people" (Matthew 24:11, NIV). As this
problem continues, some people might start to take more seriously Jesus' warning
about false prophets.
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