God's Final Witness Is Ronald Weinland?

he latest figure to step forth touting himself to be one of the Two Witnesses is a bizarre false prophet named Ronald Weinland, has added his name to the infamous list of delusional religionists in the strange days that have found us.

Another partaker of the the tainted legacy of Herbert W Armstrong's Worldwide Church Of God, Weinland is aggressively following in the WWCOG's tried and true approach that says Christians will believe almost anything -- especially if they can get it for free. Like the cult of 7th Day Adventism and their ubiquitous free publications Sign Of The Times and National Sunday Law, Ron Weinland pays organizations to give away his book 2008 God's Final Witness.

Obviously, the New Testament tells us the Gospel itself is to be free (Jesus never included book publishing as a definition of the actual Gospel), but apparently the old admonition that says "you get what you pay for" is still intact, for it seems that most of the "free" goodies Christians can get are so laced with theological poison they're not exactly a Spiritual bargain. So it is with Weinland's piece of published trash (did I mention it was "free?")

At least I didn't have to waste a great deal of my free time to find out his doctrine, as Weinland hadn't finished even his first chapter before he came right out and flatly stated his supposed identity:

"I am to announce, through God's direct revelation, that I am one of those two witnesses." (page 16, 2008 God's Final Witness)

Throughout the book, Ron Weinland repeatedly tells us he is God's Final Prophet, and any who reject that statement will die in the tribulation to come:

"The primary reason God reserved the fullness of this knowledge, until now, is to reveal who is His end-time prophet....as a consequence, they will also recognize that I am who I say I am -- God's end-time prophet and the spokeman of the two end-time witnesses." (page 204) 

"I am God's end-time prophet, the one sent by the Almighty God to all mankind at this end-time." (page 173)

There are a dozen places in Weinland's book where he claims the world will be judged based upon their response to his macabre message. Conversely, Jesus Christ clearly stated that those who continually trumpet their own standing are not of Him:

"He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him." (John 7:18)

Since Weinland calims to be able to receive "direct revelation" from God, it's curious to find the book filled with all sorts of faulty and unscriptural assertions -- but perhaps his hotline to God wasn't working well when he wrote his epic. After all, even the Internet has bad days. 

Most of this pretender's output draws on long taught precepts of Armstrong's Church of God (see the essay The House That Herbert Built on this site), but mercifully, Ron does have a couple of new wrinkles in the racist garbage he regurgitates from Armstrong. Of course, the Germans are still the bad guys (the "Assyrians" as taught by most of the Armstrongists), and the British are still the good guys (the "lost tribes" of Israel nonsense), but my personal favorite is how, even after the Millennial reign of Christ, everyone gets a second lifespan of 100 years in which to prove they're worthy.

Most Christian groups recognize Revelation tells of how all the wicked people who have died without Christ throughout history are to be resurrected for the judgment. Indeed, the central characteristic of this prophetic sequence is how all the dead who rejected Christ, were judged and cast into the lake of fire:

"And I saw a great white throne,...And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God...And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:11,12,15)

Ron Weinland simply ignores this plain statement and twists the text completely as he claims that all the wicked dead don't end up in the lake of fire at all. He says everyone gets another chance to live in what he calls "God's world." Writing about the 1,000 year reign of Christ on Earth as described in Revelation, He states

"But the rest of the dead [the rest of mankind who had lived and died throughout the first 6,000 years of man's time on earth] lived not again until the thousand years were finished [they will be resurrected to physical life once more, but they will then be living in God's world once the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ has ended]." (page 140)

This means we'll see Hitler, Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, Attila the Hun, and even Charles Manson, in "God's World." However, since they've been dead for so long, Ron tells us they will behave better in their second time around. 

Unfortunately, if they don't behave better, none of them will die young, because in Ronald Weinland's world, everyone gets exactly 100 years to prove they've learned their lesson:

"All who have ever lived and died will be resurrected to physical life once more. There will no longer be reproduction of human life, but there will be a one hundred year period of time for man to live and be judged by God's way of life." (page 169)

Actually, I may need that second hundred years, because since I've spoken against "God's Final Witness," Ron will likely see to it that I miss that Millennial thing. Hopefully, when I get my guaranteed hundred years, I won't have to live near Vlad The Impaler.

I probably should worry about writing such an inflammatory piece about God's Final Witness, because Ron Weinland is using his "witness" status to rain revenge on some other Armstrong followers who have apparently rubbed him the wrong way. As he offers his version of Revelation's mysterious passage concerning "seven thunders," he says he gets to choose the 5th thunder (and hints he may be directing the 6th and 7th) -- and he has chosen to punish those in "God's Church" who haven't received him:

"This phase of the Fifth Thunder is one of my own choosing, which God has granted me....The method of this one last great chastening...the method for revealing through whom God is working will not be done through the manifestation of miraculous healings performed by ministers. Specifically regarding His two end-time witnesses, it will be by the power given to them for destruction and plagues, not healing!" (pages 101,104).

Weinland then recounts a recent event in which seven people died, and four were wounded, in a shooting spree in one of God's "scattered" Armstrongist churches that had failed to follow in the true path. Thus, although I've mocked this clown because he's so far off the Scriptural mark with false doctrine, we see the zeal of "believers" like Ron Weinland is not to be taken lightly. Truly, as Jesus said, "ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16).

On a recent bad fruit day in 2005, a religious zealot shot and killed 7 people, including the pastor, his son, and 5 church members before shooting himself. Weinland attributes this heinous deed to the removal of God's protection from this sect, and claims that God is humbling the Armstrong churches from which he sprang. He further states that other leaders of these Armstrongist sects will be killed until they receive Ron Weinland as God's Final Prophet!

Weinland then retells the story of how the prophets of Baal died horribly for crossing a prophet of the LORD, and says that he has asked God to execute those who have rejected his ministry in a similar fashion:

"I have also made a petition to the ETERNAL God of Abraham. My petitition is that this first phase of the Fifth Thunder be fulfilled exactly as it is written here." (page 107)

He even tells us who is next on his hit list:

"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." (page 108)

So much for Christ's admonition to pray for one's enemies, but this monster has nothing to do with Christ. To put it another way, this guy is completely out of his mind -- but it's self evident some other entity has chosen to inhabit the mind of Ron Weinland.

In the face of his obvious willingness to shed the blood of anyone who disagrees with his murderous megalomania, it seems a bit mundane to detail more of his false doctrine. However, I will make the effort since the Apostle Paul instructed believers to

"Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have have learned; and avoid them." (Romans 16:17)

Indeed, when Jesus Christ tells us "a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit" (Matthew 3:10), we would do well to recognize the tree is the group that generated all of this evil -- and that tree is Herbert W Armstrong's Church Of God. Thus, the doctrinal elements of this wicked tree should be considered in the light of the Word of God.

Following in the heretical doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses and early 7th Day Adventism, Weinland (and the "scattered" COG churches) teaches the doctrine of the trinity is a Catholic invention, and is a "perverted, sick, and damnable doctrine" (page 193.

Although a Roman Catholic council formally declared trinitarian doctrine in 325 AD, about 250 years before that, the Apostle John wrote

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."

Indeed, in years of researching the subject, I've written a trilogy of books in which I determined the only three books written in the Old Testament after Israel's exile functioned as a prophetic introduction to Israel concerning the LORD's triune nature. The primary goal in these three Scriptural accounts was the standing of the believers, and the building of the temple -- a subject anticipating the Spiritual temple of the New Testament Christian.

The book of Esther's great king Ahasuerus, the central character of the entire story, represents the Father, whereas Nehemiah, as the one who actually builds the temple represents the Son. The Holy Spirit is seen in the 3rd book of Ezra, as the priest who sanctifies the temple. It's difficult to see how the Catholics managed to write three Old Testament books 500 years before the first Catholic was born!

Weinland also subscribes to the doctrine of Soul Sleep, or annihilationism (once again, something Armstrong got from the cult of Adventism and Jehovah's Witnesses). This is the view that says when you're dead, your really dead, and your soul or Spirit does not continue until that second life heresy he's manufactured.

Although there are many Scriptures which refute this, the most commonly cited verse is Jesus telling the dying thief on the cross

"Verily I say unto you, today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43)

Weinland says that only 144,000 from this small American sect are raised from the dead at the return of Christ (still more Adventist/JW heresy), but the Bible plainly shows there are millions who will be with Him in eternity:

"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation...

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands...." (Revelation 5:9,7:9)

Weinland follows the apostacy of British-Israelism which emphasizes the white European Anglo-Saxons as supposed descendants of the physically dispersed Israelite tribes. This spiritual malignancy is closely related to the "chosen people" myth that God holds certain racial groups (such as Jews and Anglo-Saxons) as heirs of prophetic promises based upon race. This blasphemy (also taught by the Rapture Cult) ignores the New Testament imperative that your identity in Christ is purely in the realm of the Spirit:

"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision [Israelite family lineage] availeth anything, nor uncircumcision [Gentile family lineage]; but faith which worketh by love" (Galatians 3:26,29,5:6)

Although he dances around the subject a bit, Weinland actually teaches the 144,000 are going to become "elohim" -- the Hebrew word that is rendered God in our English Bible. Claiming these special believers will become "the God-Kind," he states that

"Elohim is the name of the God Family." (page 206)

This is an ancient heresy, but since he has removed the divinity of Jesus, and redefined the Holy Spirit as a spiritual power without deity, there's plenty of room in the godhead for us:

"Herbert W Armstrong, was given understanding....that God's Family is not a closed trinity, but instead, it can grow into the billions." (page 206)

When you move into the realm of the "truth" put forth by this liar, he claims you will "become" God. Referencing the believer who allows God and His Son to dwell within them, he writes:

"This spiritual creation continues in spiritual growth until the time it can be born (of spirit) into the Kingdom of God, into the Family of God, becoming Elohim." (page 228) 

"The 144,000 are referred to as the firstfruits of God's Family, since they will be the first from among the families of mankind to be resurrected and become God (Elohim)" (page 232)

Most people who have actually read their Bibles recognize this was exactly the temptation offered by the serpent to Eve in the Garden, if she would only eat the forbidden fruit:

"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5)  

The danger posed by false prophets such as Ronald Weinland is not related to prophecies which fail, it is related to predictions which are fulfilled. The fact is, just about every prophecy teacher on the planet is stating that tribulational events are upon us.

This means that because we do live in the generation which will see all of the tribulational events described in Bible prophecy fulfilled, when these things come to pass, many will follow deceivers like Ronald Weinland, simply because he declared such things. Conversely, it doesn't take a prophet to see famine or world economic chaos coming because the mechanisms are plainly visible to those who are knowledgeable in monetary systems and agriculture!

Worse yet, most believers have been erroneously taught a false prophet is one who misses a prediction, when the Scriptures actually state the opposite:

"If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams.... (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)

It's crucial we see this passage tells us the prophet who pitches "other gods" is a false prophet; and since Jesus Christ is God, anyone who presents a version of Jesus outside of the Scriptural portrait is teaching about another god. The Apostle Paul made the connection when he said

"for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached [or] if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, le him be accursed." (II Corinthians 11:4,Galatians 1:9)

The bottom line is Ronald Weinland, and the "Church of God" that spawned his demonic book, are deceivers of the first magnitude. In this regard, we would all do well to realize that if you find yourself standing at the throne of God and cast into the Lake of Fire for believing the words in books of this nature, you won't be able to tell God "But the book was free, so I thought it came from you."