LCG’s Richard Ames died
Richard Ames with a “Telly” Award for “Tomorrow’s World”
(Photo by Joyce Thiel)
Evangelist Richard Ames of the Living Church of God died last evening. Here is an announcement from LCG’s presiding evangelist:
His death was not unexpected as Richard Ames has been quite ill for some time.
His wife Kathryn is in my prayers. My wife Joyce and her, long got along well.
Anyway, I first met Richard Ames at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California back in 1980.
I have mixed feelings about him, which makes writing this difficult.
The late LCG minister Gaylyn Bonjour made the following statement about him:
Richard Ames is loyal to a fault.
Gaylyn emphasized the last word. Gaylyn also emphasized that Richard Ames had great difficulty admitting mistakes.
Richard Ames, himself, said he wanted to be remembered as one who, “Turned many to God.”
Yet, his acts of omission tended to allow many to not be Philadelphian.
On the positive side, Richard Ames assisted me on some matters and made certain positive comments.
For example, after I had written and submitted a paper to the then LCG Council of Elders which explained how Greco-Roman Catholic private prophecies were opposed to the Bible and the Church of God, he had his then top assistant, William Bowmer got me copies of articles, that the old Radio Church of God published decades earlier, that had similar conclusions. I later wrote the following related articles about them:
Christ or Antichrist? 1961 article by David Jon Hill, originally published in the old Good News magazine. Here is a related video in Spanish: ¿Cristo o Anticristo?
Will You Be Deceived by Antichrist? 1964 article by David Jon Hill, originally published in the old Good News magazine.
Richard Ames, along with the late Dr. Roderick C. Meredith and Dr. Douglas Winnail, was one who stated that he believed I might be a prophet of God (see also How To Determine If Someone is a True Prophet of God and Church of God Leaders on Prophets).
Furthermore, in a meeting with the Charlotte evangelists on December 15, 2011, Richard Ames commended me for an article I had posted earlier that morning defending various fasts that LCG had called (LCG Fast Comments and Complaints). We specifically discussed my view that “I personally received certain spiritual insights/gifts as the result of LCG fasts in 2009, 2010, and 2011” related to me and the matter of prophecy, spiritual gifts, and insight into how acquiring certain information on Greco-Roman Catholic prophecy was helpful.
At another meeting with the then LCG evangelists in Charlotte (North Carolina) on December 16, 2011, Richard Ames prayed, with “Amen” concurrence from Dr. Meredith and Dr. D. Winnail, that “Dr. Thiel” would continue to do the work that God has had given me to do, etc. He also specifically called my writings/work “an additional witness.” Hence, there was a concurrence with the evangelical and prophetic fruits of that work I was doing. This, also in my view, was unintended confirmation from all the Charlotte-based evangelists of LCG that I was authorized to speak out in an evangelical and prophetic role; like a “prophetic evangelist” or “evangelistic prophet.”
But I do not believe Richard Ames shared that type of information in proper detail with people like LCG’s current presiding evangelist Gerald Weston.
Richard Ames also agreed in meetings over the years that LCG taught the wrong prophetic sequence regarding the 11th chapter of the Book of Daniel as well as the start of the Great Tribulation and that LCG should adopt what I proposed on that. But that was never corrected by him nor LCG. Unless that changes, LCG will NOT know when the Great Tribulation will begin until it is basically too late.
Richard Ames also concurred that various statements in LCG’s Official Statement of Fundamental Beliefs needed to be corrected. And even though he and the then presiding evangelist of LCG said they would fully correct it by the and of January 2012, that never happened. To see more on that, check out the article: December 2011 Proposed changes to LCG’s Official Statement of Fundamental Beliefs. A review of LCG’s online statement of its Official Statement of Fundamental Beliefs, still has nearly all of the errors that Richard Ames was supposed to correct.
On October 8, 2012, Richard Ames told me he was still willing to see why LCG’s then new (officially taught in 2012) falling away doctrine was wrong–but although he never corrected it, Gerald Weston, earlier this year, made some corrections to it (see The Falling Away: The Bible and WCG Teachings).
Also on October 8, 2012, Richard Ames again agreed to consider fixing various errors that LCG taught related to church history (which he originally did in 2008 or 2009), but he never actually did (see also October 2012 Emails Related to GCA Booklet).
On July 20, 2011, Richard Ames reported the following:
Dr. Meredith in his upcoming September-October Living Church News article writes: “Remember, in doing our part, we need to take proper action to protect ourselves and our families…. May God inspire us all to ‘take action’ and to do our part in every way—yet seeking God more than ever so that we are ‘walking with God’ and can then have His protection and His guidance in the days just before the final events of the age occur—as they surely will.” His article includes excerpts from a Federal Emergency Management Administration “Guide to Citizen Preparedness” which emphasizes “creating a disaster plan” and presents guidelines on “disaster supply kits.”
Yes, as Dr. Meredith admonishes us, we need to “take action” physically and spiritually. We are living in the “end-time” or “the time of the end,” an expression emphasized five times in the book of Daniel. Outlining the sequence of prophetic events, Jesus stated, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:6-8).
In these dangerous times, we need to live with active faith and ensure that we “are not troubled” as we experience “the beginning of sorrows.”
The non-taking of proper action, as well as not keeping promises, is why I left LCG (see also Why Bob Thiel Left the Living Church of God).
Since the time Richard Ames reported about the sorrows in 2011, LCG seems to have backed off on whether or not it believes that the beginning of sorrows has begun. If it has, then according to other statements from Richard Ames, this would have meant that he felt at least one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse began his ride no later that in 2011 (with 2009 most likely based on other LCG writings–see also An LCG ‘whiteboard’ helps demonstrate why it will not know when the Great Tribulation starts until basically after it does).
Many in LCG do not realize that.
That said, last week Aaron Dean, currently in the United Church of God, sent me the following:
Dear Bob,Thanks for the letter and the links in it. Glad you finally got a French hymnal for your people.I heard Richard Ames is in palliative care with his organs shutting down. Seems the old guard is leaving fairly quickly. A few of us will be the ‘old guard’ pretty soon.All the Best,Aaron
Yes, there are less and less of us who were once part of the old Worldwide Church of God who are still around.
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