Banned by HWA! News and Observations About Armstrongism and the Church of God Movement
Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
Concerned members have seen this show before. The verses are real. The application is not. The storehouse is not a PO Box in Iowa. And no amount of Malachi citations turns a self-appointed collector into the mouth of the god.
Samuel Kitchen claims to have found what the apostles somehow missed: that your salvation, your ability to endure, and your children's safety hinge on sending checks to a PO Box in Fairfield, Iowa, addressed to "Support Services of the Worldwide Church of God"-or to him personally. Stop "returning" the tithes, he warns, and Satan the Devourer will come for you and the kids. The Great Tribulation, apparently, has your invitation in hand. He says the Bible supports it, provided you squint and disregard the New Covenant.
Kitchen has turned a sizable collection of Bible verses into a weapon, using them to pressure COG members into handing over their money. Malachi 3:8-12 sits at the center of his case: "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me... in tithes and offerings." The passage says to bring every tithe into the storehouse so that "my house" has meat; in return, the Lord will open heaven's windows and rebuke the devourer (Mal. 3:11). Kitchen's definition of that storehouse shifts as needed. At different times, it becomes his own checking account-authorized by a Philippine elder's letter-the spiritual temple represented by his reconstituted WCG, or Haggai's barn, where the seed, naturally, stands for the Holy Spirit. Faith in Christ's finished work does not rebuke the devourer here; giving money to Kitchen's operation does. If you refuse, the devourer remains unrebuked and is unleashed on you and your children.
He wraps himself in Jeremiah 15:19-21: "If thou return, then will I bring thee again... thou shalt be as my mouth... I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall... I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked." Kitchen treats the passage as both a ticket to safety and a demand for payment. Return to the WCG-meaning, send money to Sam-separate the precious from the vile-meaning, stop backing those other COG groups-and you may stand before the Lord while Satan is rebuked. Refuse, and the warning turns brutal: "YOU WILL NOT ENDURE! You will be delivered to Satan the Devil, and HE WILL DEVOUR YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN!" The expensive house is dismissed as worthless. Earlier donations to other groups supposedly enriched Babylon, and the talent will be taken away. Life and death are presented as a choice: pick the PO Box.
Genealogy settles the argument, Kitchen claims. He traces his line through Joseph of Arimathea, the house of Josiah-Hen, Zerubbabel, and even Herbert W. Armstrong by way of Siward Bjorn. Zechariah 6 instructs people to bring gold and silver to the house of Josiah, son of Zephaniah; Kitchen identifies himself with that house. From there, he concludes that the three tithes restore the temple through him. Christ builds His Church and appoints its officers, so, in Kitchen's view, He placed this man in the body. To challenge that appointment is therefore to challenge Jesus, insult the King of Kings, and reject the claim that the man washing windows-or holding whatever job he has that day-was personally installed by the Head of the Church. Before Kitchen was ordained, an elder in the Philippines once sent a letter authorizing him to receive tithes. That letter takes precedence over the New Testament's plain teaching that giving should be voluntary and cheerful, "not under compulsion" (2 Cor. 9:7). Even after the elder who issued it moved on, the authorization somehow endured-much like a marriage or ordination that never expires when money is at stake.
This is intimidation disguised as proof-texting, not gentle pastoral advice. The tiny following is told that refusing to join or finance the operation amounts to robbing God, rejecting the restored WCG, and exposing the entire family to the devourer. The actual New Covenant receives no such attention: Christ is the once-for-all High Priest, His body is the temple, and righteousness comes through faith rather than law-keeping or loyalty to an organization. Hebrews calls the first covenant obsolete. Kitchen, however, wants it revived-with himself cast as a modern Zerubbabel, gathering the gold and silver.
This pattern has been around for years: failed prophecies, claims of special authority, a mysterious letter, Bible verses stripped from their context, and threats that your children will suffer if the payments stop. Kitchen is hardly the first person to use it, and he will not be the last. What sets him apart is the tiny scale of the operation-and the enormous claim attached to it: your salvation supposedly depends on sending your money back to his storehouse.
If heaven opens only when money reaches Fairfield, and the devourer stays away only while the bank balance rises, then the gospel has become a subscription service. The brethren are not being fed. A man is shaking them down, turning "bring the tithe" into "bring it to me-or else."
Pastor Bill Watson of the newly minted Church of God Independent Ministries of Medina, Ohio, has apparently decided to void the commandment against stealing! In short, he has decided to use material on his website that was produced under the auspices of his former employer, the Church of God International of Tyler, Texas. Indeed, it appears that Bill believes that he is entitled to use whatever materials he was personally associated with from his former association (even though he was a paid employee of that organization). This will, of course, remind many of us of what Gerald Flurry did with many of the publications of the old Worldwide Church of God when he began using them in connection with his Philadelphia Church of God.
Poor Bill, apparently the talent pool in Medina is so limited and lackluster that he feels the need to “borrow” these materials and rebrand them to support his own “work.” As of last night and this morning, he has presented on his website two programs from the Tyler organization to support his own independent ministry! They are: Halloween: Is it Christian? and Chronicles of the Early New Testament Church. Although my father (Wayne Hendrix) and Bronson James were credentialed ministers of the Church of God International and died before Bill left that organization, Bill feels that these productions rightly belong to him. Not to mention the fact that Vance Stinson, the current leader of the Tyler group, also appears prominently in the historical feature on the early Church! Never mind, Bill worked on and appeared in both, so they’re HIS to use however he sees fit!
I contacted the leadership of the Church of God International to ask them why they were allowing Bill to use these materials. Did they make a present of them to Bill when he left their organization? One of the current leaders responded that they were not previously aware that Bill was using these programs, and that they were “drafting a takedown notice.” I’m wondering how Bill will react to that. I guess we’ll all have to wait and see what Bill does next. Will he continue to steal programming from his former employer? Or will he get those old creative juices flowing again and produce something “new” for his own organization? After all, Bill is still busily trying to cannibalize members from the folks in Tyler, and what better way to do it than with their own programming!!!!! Take that, you infidels!
After I had finished this post, Mr. Stinson said that he was unaware of Bill’s use of their material. A little later, this policy note was issued by that organization:
CGI Content Reuse Policy
The Church of God International (CGI) makes its videos, audio recordings, and literature freely available to support its mission. Free access does not grant unrestricted permission to reproduce, edit, rebrand, or republish these materials.
Sharing links to CGI’s original publications and official media channels is encouraged. Requests to upload copies, reproduce literature, adapt content, or incorporate substantial portions into another organization’s materials should receive CGI’s written approval in advance.
Approved reuse must identify CGI as the source, retain applicable author credits and copyright notices, and follow any conditions of permission. CGI material must not be presented as another organization’s original work or used to imply CGI’s endorsement or affiliation without authorization.
When unauthorized use is identified, CGI’s preferred outcome is prompt correction. Depending on the circumstances, this may involve removing the material, restoring attribution, or making revisions agreed upon with CGI. Attribution alone does not replace permission where permission is required.
This policy does not limit uses permitted by applicable law, including fair use for news reporting, criticism, commentary, scholarship, or teaching.
Permission requests should be directed to info@cgi.org, identifying the material, intended use, proposed changes, and distribution method.
This was sent to me by a reader here on Banned about a member-led initiative for COGWA and UCG to keep the Feast of Tabernacles together in 2028.
This is a member-led initiative, but I can see it getting squashed by the powers that be in heart beat. And anyone supporting it being "punished," if not disfellowshipped.
The real reason the powers that be don't want this is, as we know, money. If you're loyalty is divided between two orgs, then so will your dollars. (That's one of the reasons, especially in COGWA, why people can get kicked out for attending another org.)
I doubt this will actually happen. But it's interesting to see.
COGWA and UCG members are launching a member-led initiative for a joint Feast of Tabernacles site. Anyone who has spent even one day in a Church of God organization knows this will never actually happen. Leadership in both groups is far too busy guarding their little thrones, protecting their domains, and making sure no one else gets to decide who speaks, who handles the money, or who gets the final veto for anything like this to survive contact with reality.
There are people from both organizations who were disfellowshipped by their original churches. That alone would turn any shared site into an awkward minefield the moment a disfellowshipped member had to sit in the same room-or worse, share a potluck table-with the very minister who marked them and showed them the door. Deep-seated resentment still runs through some of the ministers who felt betrayed when COGWA walked away from UCG in 2010. Those wounds did not magically heal because a handful of members posted a proposal online and set up a Facebook page. The men who spent years convincing themselves (and everyone else) that the other side was the problem are not suddenly going to discover humility because members want a joint Feast.
The Churches of God have spent decades perfecting the art of splitting, never the art of reuniting. From the post-WCG fragmentation onward, the pattern has been consistent: disagreements over governance, personality, "the work," or who gets to control the money and the microphones produce new letterhead, new Feast sites, and fresh claims of being the real continuation. UCG itself was born from one of those splits. COGWA then peeled off from UCG after years of internal friction that the official statements still describe as irreconcilable. Fifteen-plus years later, the two groups still run parallel Feast operations, parallel media, and parallel claims to be the faithful remnant. A member-driven "shared site" for 2028 does not erase any of that-especially when the people who would have to approve it spent the intervening years reminding everyone why they could not possibly share a stage, a budget, or a microphone.
The proposal itself tries hard to sound harmless: separate registration, shared speakers, 50/50 or attendance-based finances, no merger, no change to either church's government. On paper it is modest. In practice it would require ministers who still nurse grievances from the 2010 split to cooperate on budgets, speaker selection, children's programs, and emergency protocols while pretending the old scores have been settled. It would also require both administrations to trust that a joint site would not become a recruiting ground or a platform for members to compare notes on which organization has the better governance or the less authoritarian pastor. History suggests neither set of leaders is eager to run that experiment. They have never been known for risking their authority on the off chance that ordinary members might enjoy fellowship without their constant supervision.
Disfellowshipped members add another layer. COG culture has long treated marking and disfellowshipping as tools of order-handy reminders of who is in charge. Once someone has been put out, they are usually expected to stay out. Dropping them into a shared Feast with the minister who performed the ritual is not fellowship; it is theater that most of these leaders would rather avoid. The same goes for the ministers who still view the other side as the ones who abandoned the true structure or the true work. Anger that "still permeates" does not stay politely in the background when housing, offerings, and who gets the keynote slot have to be negotiated. These are the same men who can spend an hour explaining why unity is vital and then spend the next decade making sure it never happens on anyone else's terms.
Member initiatives like this one surface regularly in the various COG groups. They reflect real desire among some people for less isolation and more normal fellowship. They almost never survive contact with the ministerial layer that controls the calendars, the sites, the money, and the final yes-or-no. The track record is not subtle: the Churches of God have demonstrated, repeatedly and over decades, that their leaders are far better at forming new organizations than at sharing one. A joint Feast site would require both sides to act against that well-established pattern-and against the instinct of men who have spent their careers making sure the domain stays theirs. Betting against it has been the safer wager every time.
I'm a couple weeks into a road trip across Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada, and I recently crossed the Arizona Strip-the stretch between Hurricane and Kanab, Utah. The highway drops into Arizona there, passing the communities that polygamous FLDS groups established in Colorado City, originally called Short Creek, and Hildale. After their leader, Warren Jeffs, was imprisoned, the communities unraveled. Many members left for other states or Mexico, while others stayed and now live alongside "gentile" nonbelievers, including former members who returned and have since become a powerful presence.
Why bring this up here? One of our illustrious ministers became convinced that God had chosen him to establish a Sabbatarian community near Zion National Park. Of course, God did!
So, here we go...
Darryl Henson's Arizona Strip Sabbatarian "remnant" community, A Congregation of God (ACOG), also called "A Free Church," followed a familiar Armstrongite pattern. It began with a divine dream and developed under tight hierarchy, with land deals framed as leases rather than ownership. Nearby were other isolated "true believer" groups. Eventually, factional disputes led to rent strikes, lawsuits, and a partial settlement; Henson continued preaching. The community lies in the remote Arizona Strip near Cane Beds and Fredonia, Arizona, close to the FLDS communities of Colorado City and Hildale-a sparsely populated area long attractive to groups seeking distance from outside oversight.
Around 2000-2001, Henson, a former Church of God minister who says Herbert W. Armstrong ordained him and thereby gave him "apostolic succession," reported a dream or vision in which God instructed him to prepare a gathering place for Christ's remnant near Zion National Park. He later bought approximately 110 acres in Arizona's Mohave County, in the Cane Beds area; the sale closed on December 7, 2002. The property was divided into roughly 96 one-acre lots.
In a January 2003 letter and related materials reported by The Journal: News of the Churches of God, Henson proposed 49-year leases rather than sales, drawing on the Old Testament idea of jubilee. He said the arrangement would keep the land intact for God's purposes, block outside buyers, and prevent subdivision. The upfront cost was roughly $2,500 for undeveloped lots or $4,500 for lots with a residence, followed by $75 monthly. Lots were assigned by lottery, or "casting lots." Volunteers put up a 50×110-foot metal church hall, along with a shop and other buildings. Henson and his wife, Marla, initially held the title and intended to transfer it to the church after the lots had been allocated. The group cast itself as a hierarchical "free church," outside the corporate rules governing 501(c)(3) organizations. Henson alone, they believed, had been commissioned by God to run it. Years later, he said none of them had expected the present age to last the full 49 years.
This resembled classic end-time remnant geography: the faithful were isolated, access to the land was controlled, and the arrangement was presented as divinely ordained-not as an ordinary real-estate deal.
Unity within the Armstrongite groups never extended much beyond theory. By the mid-2010s, residents who had signed the leases and lived under them were turning against Henson's leadership. They stopped attending fellowship and paying tithes, yet continued living on the land. Some pressed for ownership or the right to subdivide their lots-demands Henson rejected as inconsistent with both the original documents and their intent. In a public statement widely circulated around 2020, he insisted:
Land and the church's purpose belonged together, set apart for God's remnant. A lease did not transfer ownership or promise a sale. Neither biblical Israel nor the New Testament church governed by majority vote; members were expected to obey those responsible for oversight (Hebrews).
Trying to take the land or church, he warned, meant "fighting against God," a claim he supported with Jeremiah 11 and the rebellion at Anatoth.
He said "Immanuel the Christ" had personally directed the entire project through dreams, visions, and scripture, while he led it as the founder under Christ.
Some residents stayed put or simply refused to leave, and a rent strike followed. Once again, the hierarchical "one true church" model ran into people who had committed their money, time, and even relocation to the project before deciding its leaders could no longer be trusted.
The dissidents-whom the group said included some former fellowship members-went to court seeking recognition of their membership, control of the land and other assets, and possibly the church's dissolution. The dispute ended in an out-of-court settlement: a tenants-in-common agreement gave the rebels an ownership share of the residential property, reportedly about 43 acres secured through the rent strike and related pressure.
According to ACCOG's later account, the pastor and the faithful members who remained sued over the acres, alleging theft by extortion under Arizona law. They pointed to rent strikes, intimidation, false accusations, attempted bribery, blackmail, lies, and fraud. The group says the original community stayed peaceful until "human nature reared its ugly head," and still presents the episode as a distraction from preparing for the high calling.
The church later became the nonprofit A Congregation of God Corporation, filed in 2016 and still active. Its address is 2280 East 3200 South, Fredonia, AZ 86022, and L. Darryl Henson is listed as president/CEO and statutory agent. ACCOG.net continues to publish sermons into 2026, including material on end-time preparation, 1 John, faith, hope, love, and other Armstrongite themes.
The episode follows a familiar Armstrongite pattern. A leader claims a personal commission from God through a dream or vision, then builds a hierarchical remnant apart from "worldly" corporate structures. Biblical ideas-jubilee, casting lots, apostolic succession-help organize a land deal, while the ministry retains final control. Unity breaks down once COG members live together and money and property become contested. Proximity to FLDS communities brought no more harmony than Pasadena or any other COG headquarters.
Henson repeatedly insisted that the project was not really about him-he was merely "a human and a sinner"-but about God's purposes for the land. At the same time, he maintained that he had received a unique commission and held special authority. The leases meant to protect the project instead became the focus of accusations that promises had been broken. And the hierarchical structure, which rejected majority rule, drew legal challenges aimed at changing ownership and governance. A partial settlement transferred shares in the residential property; afterward, the remaining group brought additional legal claims alleging extortion. The community never disappeared completely, and Henson still preaches. Yet the original plan for one unified, sacred gathering place for the remnant ended in familiar COG patterns: factions, property disputes, and court action.
Another dreamer acquired a stretch of desert and learned that "iron sharpening iron" among Sabbatarian believers can create more sparks than unity, especially when leases, tithes, and land titles are involved. The Arizona Strip experiment adds another example to the long post-HWA history of hierarchical remnant projects breaking apart under their own internal pressures.
History has taught us one thing about Armstrongites: put two or more of them on the same piece of land, let them start talking about "unity," and a disfellowshipping, lawsuit, or both usually follows. Cane Beds did not collapse simply because Darryl Henson was unusually inept, although leasing rather than selling the property-and the paperwork claiming "God told me in a dream"-hardly helped. The deeper problem was structural. Like every other attempt to build a pure remnant community since Herbert Armstrong's death, it could not survive once the pressure of a single headquarters disappeared.
When the WCG, the mother church, changed direction in the mid-1990s, its followers did not unite behind a shared standard. The great splintering began almost at once: hundreds of groups emerged, with each claiming to preserve the "true" doctrines. Their leaders invoked apostolic succession, a special commission, or some personal revelation to justify their authority. What followed was not a purified church but a cottage industry of rival prophets, calendars, and theories about the identity of the "elect," along with a steady flow of lawsuits over buildings, mailing lists, and the occasional bank account. Unity survived only while one man held power and one set of property titles remained in place. Once that arrangement broke, the knives came out.
Henson's Arizona Strip project repeated the old pattern on leased land, only in miniature: a dream, a hierarchical "free church," and a carefully worded agreement that left control with the ordained ministry. The remnant, its leaders insisted, would finally live together in peace. That lasted until tenants stopped paying rent and demanded ownership. Accusations followed; then a settlement divided the residential lots, followed by legal action over "extortion." Iron sharpened iron, but the points turned inward. The forces behind Living Church of God, United Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God, Restored Church of God, Church of God a Worldwide Association, and scores of smaller bodies resurfaced beneath the mesas. This time, the dispute centered on a plat map rather than a mailing list.
Armstrongites have not stayed united for long since the original headquarters lost its authority. Sooner or later, the disputes turn inward: who counts as the rightful successor, who understands the Holy Days correctly, who may legally hold title, and who supposedly "fights against God" by challenging the pastor's control of the property. Cane Beds followed that same script. Its trailers, 49-year leases, and a neighbors' sign from the FLDS could almost have carried one message: "Welcome to the club." The remnant is still divided, the lawsuits are still there to be filed, and somewhere another man with a dream and a deed is preparing to learn the same lesson.
Just when you thought Bob Thiel had exhausted every dusty name in the early church for his endless "unbroken laying-on-of-hands succession" chain, the Crackpot Prophet has outdone himself. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Nepos of Arsinoë-now officially a direct descendant of the Church of God movement. Yes, really. The same Nepos that mainstream history remembers as a third-century Egyptian bishop who liked a very literal, earthy millennium and got gently corrected after he was already dead.
Nepos was bishop in the Arsinoë (Faiyum) region of Egypt in the first half of the third century. He wrote a now-lost work called Refutation of the Allegorists (or Book of Nepos), arguing against the allegorical reading of Scripture popularized by the Alexandrian school-Clement, Origen, and later Dionysius of Alexandria. Nepos took the thousand-year reign in Revelation 20 literally: Jesus returns, the saints reign with Him on earth for a thousand years of righteous (and, according to his critics, somewhat "Jewish" and bodily) delight. He also wrote hymns and psalms that the brethren enjoyed. Dionysius of Alexandria, who later wrote against the doctrine in On the Promises, still spoke of Nepos with genuine respect: praising his faith, industry, diligence in the Scriptures, and his psalmody. Dionysius treated him as a brother whose interpretation was mistaken, not as a heretic or outsider.
After Nepos died, his teaching continued to circulate in the Arsinoë villages. It produced enough unrest that entire churches experienced schisms and "apostasies." Dionysius went there, called a three-day public examination with the local presbyters and teachers, and sat with them from morning till evening debating the book. The chief promoter, a man named Coracion, publicly renounced the chiliastic view after the discussion. Dionysius wrote his refutation because the book was still circulating and persuasive, not because Nepos had launched a rival "true church" that rejected the rest of the faith.
That is the historical Nepos. Now for the Thielian upgrade. According to Crackpot Bob and the CCOG, Nepos "had laying on of hands succession from the apostles," was a well-respected leader of the faith once delivered to the saints, and was succeeded by Macarius of Edessa. The actual CCOG article is more cautious when you read it carefully: it says "presuming" Nepos belonged to the faithful continuation, "if the succession hypothesis is correct," and "possible successor." In other words, they inserted him into the list because he was a literalist millenarian who opposed allegory, then invented a clean handoff to someone in Edessa for whom there is no documented connection. No historical source places Nepos outside the ordinary Egyptian church under Alexandria's orbit. No source says he kept the seventh-day Sabbath, rejected the developing mainstream calendar or practices, or considered himself the sole true remnant. Chiliasm was still widely held in the second and early third centuries by people as diverse as Papias, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus-none of whom were "Church of God" in the Armstrongist sense. Dionysius simply moved the ball toward a more spiritual reading, and most of the local churches followed after the debate.
Thiel's version turns a respected local bishop whose distinctive teaching was debated and largely abandoned after his death into a foundational link in the one true Church of God succession. The same man who died in the communion of the churches of his day is now retrofitted as the anti-allegorist hero who alone contended for Jude 3. It is succession by selective quotation and hopeful presumption. When the evidence is thin, the list still gets another name.
The lies stop when the desire for an unbroken institutional pedigree stops outweighing what the sources actually say. Until then, expect more forgotten bishops to be drafted into the ranks of the "faithful remnant," complete with video titles and radio segments. Nepos was a literalist chiliast bishop who wrote hymns, opposed allegory, and was treated with respect by the man who later refuted his millennium. He was not the missing link that makes the Continuing Church of God the sole heir of the apostles. History is less cooperative than the succession charts.
After looking both of his sons in the eyes and repeatedly declaring that he would never move away from believing that the Kingdom of God would arrive on the Day of Atonement, David C. Pack of The Restored Church of God moved away from believing that the Kingdom of God would arrive on the Day of Atonement.
During “The Greatest Untold Story! (Part 649),” given on September 12, 2026, which was also the Feast of Trumpets, the Pastor General spent one hour and 51 minutes walking on eggshells. The Kingdom could come just before Tishrei 10 by a day or two, but perhaps after, closer to the Feast of Tabernacles.
Since he had to admit again that no man knows the day and the hour, Dave was unsure when the Kingdom of God would come. He took unearned delight in not declaring a specific date after getting the previous 145 wrong.
Part 649 – September 12, 2026 @ 1:51:29 We don't know. I didn't give you a date. And you know what gives me great joy? Oh, is that gonna frustrate our enemies.
Dave does not understand that these types of quotes make my day. They tickle me to no end and provide wonderful video content for social media. Please do not tell him, Brad.
The Feast of Tabernacles prep sermons in The Restored Church of God have changed significantly since I resigned in March 2021. During “The Greatest Untold Story! (Part 650)” on September 19, 2026, Dave fed his sheep undercooked malarkey instead of meat in due season by offering up theoretical possibilities instead of decisive facts based on solid biblical evidence.
Part 650 – September 19, 2026 @ 1:37:10 It could be Opening Night. It could be during the middle of the Feastat a couple different moments. Who knows, maybe eve–it’s just somewhere in there. Or it could be the Last Great Day. Or you get to the maybeit's the Sabbath at the end of the month. Or it or you just keep going.
David C. Pack is a living example of insecure arrogance on a biblical scale. He broadcasts his obvious inability to grasp any measure of self-reflection based on reality, but is in full-blown beast mode when it comes to blaming others for his prolific failures.
According to him, nobody in The Restored Church of God ever leaves for a legitimate reason. There is no biblically-based standard David C. Pack can be held accountable for. Failed dates are just insignificant trivialities that should be endured by any faithful believer.
Dave conducts a Master Class in how to avoid accountability by utilizing the technique of minimizing to defuse the gravity and harm of what he has done.
@ 1:34:51 Many times people have left in the past because I got the wrong date.
@ 1:35:29 Now people get hung up on what I would call a a minnow.If that's a blue whale [Kingdom of God], that's the big centerpiece of prophecy. The minnow is what date’s it gonna be. “Mr. Pack got the date wro–.” Yeah, but he got the Kingdom right. I did.
@ 1:36:16 The date is a gnat on an elephant's back. The elephant is the Kingdom. The date’s a gnat. It's a flyon the top of a big barn. That’s what. The barn is the Kingdom.
God has a sense of humor and is a fan of irony. David C. Pack admits he has dedicated his life since 2012 to a pursuit that he characterizes as a minnow, a gnat, and a fly. He is so busy condemning others and reducing legitimate concerns of his worshipers that he fails to see how he exposes himself by declaring the unimportance of a delusional “divine charge” rocketing past 650 sermons.
In his own words, David C. Pack is wasting his remaining days chasing after a gnat. Ponder that.
@ 1:36:43 But the people who leave because I got the date wrong never believed a Kingdom was coming. They didn’t. The date is inconsequential.Anybody in the in a task no one has ever had in the history of the world would try to figure out and give certain dates. I learned don't do that. It can backfire.
Dave did not learn anything because he is still at it with more words he would soon regret in 3…2…1…
@ 1:37:52 But since I'm not gonna talk about timing anymore,I'm gonna get it I'm gonna get it all out there right now…I I mean, the Series is over.
That was all preparation for the Feast of Speculations forced upon the members of The Restored Church of God. Instead of focusing on the legitimate reason for the holy days instituted by God, Dave’s worshipers were looking forward to compulsory sermons stuffed to the gills with personal opinions, conjecture, outright fabrication, intentional deception, and self-serving ego-stroking.
The members of The Restored Church of God saved up all year to sit and listen to Dave bloviate on whatever random idea popped into his head. Do not pity them. They willfully choose to endure this torture and pay him to do it.
During "The Greatest Untold Story! (Part 651)" on September 26, 2026, on the First Day of the Feast of Speculations, brethren learned that Dave had suspicions about the Kingdom arriving before the Feast, but his god led him to discover the Day of Judgment is the Last Great Day.
The Kingdom Comes on The Last
Part 651 – September 26, 2026 @ 01:05 You saw all the things that seemed to say the Feast of Tabernacles, just as I did. But yet I was suspicious it wasn't the Feast, and it turns out it was not.
Dave truly loves to be right about being wrong. It is really the only thing he is actually good at.
@ 59:06 If God tells us the Day of Judgment,if He does, He points to only one day that I can see. Whether other people know it or not isn't relevant. There's a day that can't tarry, and there's only one day in the crosshairs.
@ 1:00:08 If God tells us the day of Judgment, He points to only one day.
@ 1:14:49 A resurrection, a judgment, people can begin to be converted. It's on the last day, and the only place you'll find it identified anywhere is the Last Great Day,which, oh, by the way, this year is a weekly Sabbath. It ends a week, it ends the Feast, and it ends a year.
Dave admits his Last Great Day speculation could be wrong, but members should blame God at that point.
@ 1:29:50 …when God will pours out His Spirit in the last days, Joel 2, is both a Sabbath last day, and potentially it looks like the Last Great Day. If God has thrown that in to throw us off, then that's what He did.
Dave’s god tricked him yet again because during “The Greatest Untold Story! (Part 652)” on September 29, 2026, the brethren learned that they are NOT waiting for the Last Great Day.
No Kingdom on The Last Great Day October 3, 2026
Dave continues taking on the characteristics of his inept god because the Pastor General intentionally hoodwinked brethren during Part 652 to perform a bait-and-switch by utilizing premeditated deception to serve his own ego.
Instead of telling them from the start that the Last Great Day was no longer the day they were looking for, Dave padded his sermon for one hour before actually getting to the point. See if you can spot him setting everyone up for disappointment.
Part 562 – September 29, 2026 @ 1:01:39 All right, now we’re we'll do something unusual today. We'll continue into the Last Great Day. But maybe toward an unexpected end. [chuckles]We'll carry out an exercise.
An end unexpected to them, but he laughed because he knew where he was misleading them. David C. Pack is a very disturbed man. How anyone can remotely believe he is a minister of Jesus Christ or that God’s Spirit guides him needs a reality check.
@ 1:01:59 We’ll carry out an exercise to appreciate how difficult it has been locating the right date when the Kingdom begins. I think you’ll enjoy this.
Only one member of The Restored Church of God enjoyed Part 652. That person was David C. Pack because the message was an exercise in self-serving CYA.
Instead of focusing on biblical facts and Christian principles, Dave meandered around the Bible to illustrate how darn hard this whole prophecy business is. After all, who knew chasing a minnow would be so slippery?
@ 1:03:08 It’s all very, very compelling. Now, a few more scriptures in parallels pointing to the Last Great Day.
@ 1:10:41 Could that be pointing to the Last Great Dayat the split second it begins, called the 21st, but really the 22nd? …Remember, we're going through a kind of an exercise here. I'm trying to show you how difficult it is to put this together.
@ 1:12:44 That helps the Last Great Day case.
@ 1:27:20 Are we waiting for the Last Great Day? Lot of evidence we are. Or must we wait further?
Dave knew before he sat down on the stage that they are not waiting for the Last Great Day and still chose to waste everyone's time by boring the brethren to death so that he could feel good about himself. He spent 45 minutes doing this to them.
@ 1:31:09 Having watched the Last Great Day seven times, perfection, [chuckles] almost, with nothing happening, should we learn it's just not the right day or learn that we just didn't wait quite long enough, has to be one more?
He finally spelled out what those who pay attention to Dave already knew. The Last Great Day ain’t it.
@ 1:33:47 How do you make that fit the Last Great Day? And the answer is it's very, very hard. Some would say, “Mr. Pack, it's impossible.”Those verses aren't true if the Last Great Day is, or the Last Great Day isn't true if those verses are.
@ 1:44:19 The Last Great Day case is very strong. Yet you have seen it can be broken.
Dave suggested that the Kingdom would come before the end of Tishrei and that the Series was finally over. Both of those proved false because everything taught during the Feast of Speculations in The Restored Church of God is just speculation. But that was not the end of it.
After spending 45 minutes during Part 562 showing brethren how difficult it is to find the right day the Kingdom of God arrives, Dave offered an alternative viewpoint: It is quite easy. During “The Greatest Untold Story! (Part 563)” on October 2, 2026, Tishrei 30 became the obvious answer to the question everyone has been asking for two thousand years.
The Kingdom Comes on Tishrei 30 October 11, 2026
Part 563 – October 2, 2026 @ 00:08 The Last Great Day is here in Jerusalem by about 15 or 20 minutes, and nothing's happened. So I I don't think anything will.
@ 00:36 But we'll be looking only at the day the Kingdom comes today. And it it it'll be it'll be pretty easy, actually. Surprising, but easy and with much proof.
Yes. He said that with a straight face and an overly dramatic pause for emphasis. David C. Pack depleted all his credibility on August 30, 2013, yet still puffs his feathers like he can be taken seriously. His god coaxed him into another embarrassment.
@ 01:30 The Bible talks constantly about this date, and if God didn't want us to have any idea about it, He wouldn't do it.
@ 12:09 Tishrei 30 is, therefore, locked. You might say it's trapped as our goal.
@ 12:31 Only one day works for the Kingdom of God. It's a day that cannot tarry. The last day of Tishrei.
@ 16:34 Now, is all of that a coincidence?Because if it is, we're on a major role. So as I said, you're piling on, and it become “Wow, wow, wow. Whoa, it's hard to break.” …if it isn't eight days away, then I have no remote idea what day we are waiting for.
More words to soon regret in 3…2…1…
@ 16:55 You'll never have to worry about a date. Because I'll have none.
David C. Pack has no concern for taking the Lord’s name in vain, swearing falsely, blaspheming, stealing God’s authority, or crediting God for being the source of lies.
@ 56:46 But it never says Tishrei 30. And I dare say none of us thought about it. It would have to be very carefully discerned, with God's help,of course, or remain unknown.
@ 57:31 A thief event says no one can anticipate it unless God divinely reveals it,and only near the end so it wouldn’t get out too too far. No one would guess Tishrei 30…
This next clip explains why David C. Pack will never quit. He has manifested a reality in which his god wants him to keep trying after failing 146 times. The path to prophetic legitimacy is paved with carnal perseverance. These motivations are entirely human-generated and have nothing to do with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The evidence is well-documented.
@ 58:04 A thief event says no one can anticipate it unless God divinely reveals it.And God it can–If God conceals a matter, nobody finds it. But if you keep searching, you know, Proverbs 25:1, it's the honor of kings. And so I thought, “Well, Father, all right, I better I've got to stay with this. This is my charge. Eventually, You're gonna make it clear,and all the people that didn't believe there’s gonna be a Kingdom in the first place would quit because of all the dates that I got wrong.But eventually, You'd reveal it near the end, and no one would think of Tishrei 30.”
Dave’s perceived enemies and the RCG doubters who eventually quit will all regret the day his god turns him into a real boy prophet. Do not lose any sleep fretting over that possibility.
@ 1:42:47 So, if the Kingdom does not come some hour on the 30th and all these points are wrong, no future date appears better than any other.
Dave's god gave him so much help, proving that the Kingdom of God arrives on Tishrei 30 was super, duper easy. Surely, making this "the best Feast ever," the brethren could finally rest with surety that everything their Pastor General told them was accurate and biblically sound. Well, then Dave stepped off the stage.
The. Next. Day.
No Kingdom on Tishrei 30 October 11, 2026
RCG brethren were probably grateful for the idea that their Pastor General would not be wasting yet another afternoon during the Feast of Speculations, especially on the Last Great Day. But alas, it was not meant to be.
It only took David C. Pack 89 seconds to dismantle 104 minutes of sermon from the previous day. During "Special Announcements" on October 3, 2026, the Pastor General declared that the Kingdom of God would not be arriving on Tishrei 30 because something “enormously powerful and actually stronger” was just over the horizon.
I wonder if the elderly in wheelchairs at the back of the hall could smell Dave’s pathetic desperation. How many excuses can you count? At least he only blamed God once.
Special Announcements (Last Great Day) – October 3, 2026 @ 03:16 Okay. The reason I wanted to come up here was we all realized we're part of a very, very dynamic processthat is now 654 parts long. And I mentioned it was blue sky beyond Tishrei 30. And it's not. Because,as has often been God's custom,let's just put it that way, I learned the most right after I just spoke.And this happened again.
By his own admission, Dave should never speak because he will learn more later. The brethren should never accept what he teaches because it will always change afterward. RCG's human idol just admitted it is God's will to not allow him to speak the truth.
That fine point will escape Dave and his enablers at Headquarters.
@ 03:54 And I sat with a group of men in a series of meetings. So, believe it or not, and I would not have believed it. There is actually a stronger date not far ahead. I do not expect next week.It could be. Could be wrong. And you should you should watch. But I do not expect a week away to be the date we're looking for.Now, some of you may guess it. Okay. That's fine. Hope you do. You can have fun talking and thinking about it. But you'll remember how I closed, and that got me thinking. And I will detail I will detail this enormously powerful and actually stronger case.
As the RCG brethren flew back to their regular lives after the conclusion of the Feast of Speculations, there must have been some discomfort gnawing in their guts because they recognize that the Series is not over and the next malarkey-infused theory their Pastor General peddles will liquefy when exposed to the air.
David C. Pack was not right about the Day of Atonement. He was not right about Opening Night. He was not right about the middle of the Feast. He was not right about the Last Great Day. He was not right about Tishrei 30.
Whatever David C. Pack teaches during Parts 654, 655, and into the 700s will rot because God is not inspiring him to teach what he does. That is not speculation.
Beware the Birthday Cake: Armstrongism's Latest Lesson in How to Ruin Normal Life
If you needed another exhibit in the museum of why Armstrongism (and its endless COG splinters) is bad for the human soul, look no further than the latest Bob Thiel piece warning that birthdays and Halloween are basically Satan's greatest hits. The argument, in short: a former warlock says Halloween is "cheating on God," Anton LaVey ranked birthdays as the highest Satanic holiday, a couple of wicked kings threw bad parties in the Bible, and some early church writers frowned. Therefore, real Christians must avoid cake and candy lest they accidentally join the forces of darkness. This is not discernment. This is legalistic claptrap that trains people to treat ordinary family joy like a spiritual landmine.
For those who haven't followed the source material: the piece leans heavily on John Ramirez, a former high-ranking participant in occult practices (Santeria and related spiritualist circles) who grew up in the Bronx. He has described involvement from roughly age 8 to 35, including claims of demonic ceremonies, animal blood, sacrifices, a "mark of the beast," a demonic wedding on Halloween, and rising to high ranks as a warlock. He later converted, became a Pentecostal-style evangelist focused on deliverance and spiritual warfare, and wrote books such as Destroying Fear. In a 2019 Fox News interview, he argued that because he knows the dark side of Halloween from the inside, Christians who dress up or participate are essentially cheating on God. Satanists don't show up for Good Friday, so why should Christians show up for October 31? His personal story of trauma, fear, and escape is real and worth hearing. Turning it into a universal ban on seasonal fun for every believer is not.
The "Satanists do it, so you can't" fallacy
This is the article's central engine, and it is pure guilt by association. Anton LaVey's Satanic Bible does call one's own birthday the highest holiday in that system (followed by Walpurgisnacht and Halloween), because their philosophy centers the self as god. The modern Church of Satan treats holidays as optional and low-ritual. So what? Bad people also eat food, use electricity, speak English, and mark anniversaries. Their ranking does not rewrite the practice for everyone else. If the standard is "the devil's side does something, therefore Christians must never do it," then clear your calendar of almost everything and prepare for a very quiet existence. Intent and context matter. A parent celebrating that a child was born is not performing a blood rite or declaring themselves divine.
Birthdays are not forbidden
The Bible records two clear birthday feasts: Pharaoh's (Genesis 40) and Herod's (Matthew 14). Both are stories of wicked rulers doing wicked things. That does not create a general prohibition any more than one drunken wedding bans marriage. Job's sons held family feasts "each on his day" (Job 1:4) with no condemnation attached. There is no command against marking the day someone entered the world. Josephus notes that Jewish custom avoided birth festivals partly to discourage excess drinking and to prioritize education and sobriety. Origen, writing in the third century, observed that only sinners like Pharaoh and Herod are recorded celebrating birthdays and suggested cursing the day in light of his views on original sin. He is one voice reacting against pagan and imperial customs, not the voice of apostolic Christianity or a binding rule. Most early Christian literature is simply silent on personal birthdays; the church had other priorities. Astrology is condemned. Celebrating a life is not the same thing.
Halloween is not a mandatory pact with demons
Halloween's history is mixed, as is true of many calendar customs. It has roots in the Celtic seasonal festival of Samhain (marking the end of harvest and the darker half of the year, with beliefs about a thinner boundary to the dead). Over centuries it overlapped with Christian observances: All Hallows' Eve, the night before All Saints' Day (November 1), and All Souls' Day. The precise historical relationship between the Celtic festival and the Christian date is debated by scholars-some see deliberate Christianization of existing customs, others note that the November date for All Saints has its own Roman and Western Christian development. Modern American Halloween for the vast majority of participants is secular: costumes, candy, community events, and kids collecting sweets. It is not ritual worship of Samhain, LaVey, or anything else unless someone chooses to make it so.
Ramirez's point that Satanists value the night is true for some, just as some people treat Christmas or Easter in purely commercial or irreligious ways. That does not force every costume or bowl of candy into the category of spiritual adultery. New Covenant Christians live under the finished work of Christ, not a revived Mosaic or early-church purity code on days. Colossians 2:16-17 is direct: let no one judge you in questions of food, drink, festivals, new moons, or sabbaths-these are a shadow. Romans 14 gives the same freedom: one person regards one day above another; another regards every day alike. Each should be fully convinced in their own mind. Handing out candy or letting children wear costumes is not "cheating on God" any more than using the names of months that once had pagan associations. If the activity involves actual occult practice, avoid it. Ordinary fun does not require that.
Why this keeps damaging people
Armstrongism (and groups that still treat Herbert Armstrong's extra-biblical rules as binding) specialized in turning ordinary life into a loyalty test. Birthdays, holidays, and dozens of other customs became markers of the "true church" versus the world. The practical result was not deeper holiness. It was isolated kids, family tension, constant guilt over normal joys, and a focus on what you don't do instead of the fruit of the Spirit, love of neighbor, and the grace that sets people free. HWA himself framed the birthday rule as a general principle he set in the church, not a clear biblical command. That is the pattern: elevate a preference or a historical caution into "God's way," then use it to police people.
New Covenant Christians do not need this. We are free in Christ. Celebrate a birthday as a thankful recognition of life if you want. Skip Halloween if you prefer. Or hand out candy and enjoy the absurd costumes. None of it is a salvation issue, and none of it requires bowing to LaVey, Ramirez's past, or Armstrongist legalism. The real threat to the soul is the fear-based system that treats cake and candy as evidence of spiritual compromise while ignoring the finished work of the cross.
Eat the cake. Or don't. Just stop pretending the devil owns the calendar.
Silent Pilgrim
