Ronald Weinland is a hardcore religious crackpot and leader
of the Ohio-based doomsday cult the Church of God (a Herbert Armstrong splinter group), who apparently thinks that he has been appointed by God to
reveal the timetable of the end of the world, as described in Revelations, to
his fellow humans. His claims are laid out in his book 2008: God’s Final Witness, which identified his wife Laura as
another Revelation witness, and which he continues to promote despite the
rather obvious fact that his predictions for 2008 failed rather badly. He
originally prophesied that Christ would return on September 29, 2011, but later changed it to May 27, 2012 (and issued a stern warning to those who mock him that they would be divinely cursed with “a sickness that will eat them from the
inside out”). Tough luck, and after that date came and passed Weinland
backpedalled and provided Pentecost 2013 instead, all the while urging his
followers to give him money. Currently the idea seems to be that Jesus will
return on “a future Pentecost,” and some people seem willing to continue to
send him money.
The return, believes Weinland, will be heralded by a World
War III that will cause the destruction of the US and most of the world, except
for ten European countries that will unite under the rule of the Anti-Christ (most
likely the Pope). Things will then go badly for the final 3.5 years of the
Earth. There is a website debunking his claims (a rather straightforward task,
really) here,
though I am not completely convinced the people behind that site are ideally
well-hinged either.
In June 2012, Weinland was convicted of five counts of tax
evasion, and is therefore currently in jail, where he belongs.
Diagnosis: Rarely has anyone been a more deserving or easier
target for mockery than the Weinlands. And he
still seems to have supporters out there. Words fail.
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