United Church of God reject, Larry McElroy gives another spiel about having his eyes "anointed" so that he could see clearly that God was only working with Davie Pack. Apostate McElroy abandoned his responsibilities in UCG in 1999 and then went splinter surfing for several years till he visited the worlds largest and most miraculous ministry that God had ever placed on earth.
McElroy writes:
Upon leaving UCG (after four years there), we sought out, bumped into, observed, visited, and in some cases tried to participate in a wide variety of groups in our quest to find where God was working. We could categorize the groups in the following manner:
- Fellowships—loosely organized groups in which there were continual doctrinal conflicts and friction
- Prophecy groups—false prophetic nonsense was their main focus
- “One-issue” groups—such as calendar and sacred names groups
- Intellectual groups—leaders who didn’t want to serve people, but had a following
- Internet ministries—800 number call-ins for Sabbath services
- Groups playing Mr. Armstrong’s tapes—living in the past and doing nothing to give others the Truth today
- Isolation groups—taught members to leave the big city, strive to make themselves ready by living together, and not worry about warning the world
It's interesting that not one of then would have him. He was looking for a place that would let him minister and they would not.
He then leaves all the splinter surfing behind and starts holding own home church. He writes:
Is McElroy too blind to see that he has just described the Restored Church of God? Only I would call it a cesspool.In 2004, we were on our own, meeting in our home with our family and several friends. Again, we asked, “Where is the Work of God?” Was the Work destined to just die out? The “churches of God” were contaminated, bickering, tepid, a confused consortium of individuals thinking they were “just fine” (Rev. 3:17)! Each group believing they were the answer! Blindness caused so many to depart from the “old paths” (Jer. 18:15).
Then low and behold, a message from God caused McElroy to see and ad for Davie's group. He sent off for a reprogramming packaged of Davie's books. Then a month and half later his eyes were anointed and he could see clearly. Then he set up an appointment to go and visit the headquarters of Davie's group. From meetings with King Davie and with back slapping Department heads, he went to members homes (hand selected so that no crazy RCG's members could influence McElroy into taking his money elsewhere). It was one big lovey-dovey love fest. Smiles and hugs all around. Even the Care Bears could not get this sentimental.
He concludes his love fest with this:
Back to the beginning: Truth is the rarest and most important commodity on Earth, and it is few that find it. How far will we go to qualify for eternal life? How much effort will we exert to obtain salvation? How much will we give up to serve those who need a powerful message of hope in these desperate times?
Truth cannot be found in Packism, that is a plain and simple fact! You cannot qualify for salvation. All the law keeping and government following will never lead anyone to salvation.
Then he concludes with a final sentence that explains what Davie is doing with his posting by these apostate ministers. He is wanting them to all come to his cult. The more ministers that come to him, the more people he thinks will be drawn over with them. More people equals more money.
His entire ad little letter is here: A Most Important Trip
13 comments:
My eyelid hurts looking at that picture...
M.T.Cornea
"Truth is the rarest and most important commodity on Earth, and it is few that find it."
The truth regarding an individual's personal ability to survive and thrive and be happy, is available to everyone. The truth about humanity, its origins and its meaning, is available to no one. You aren't going to get either one of these from Dave Pack or an ancient manuscript.
"How far will we go to qualify for eternal life? How much effort will we exert to obtain salvation? How much will we give up to serve those who need a powerful message of hope in these desperate times?"
Unfortunately, all of these statements are founded upon lies.
"How far will we go to qualify for eternal life? How much effort will we exert to obtain salvation?"
Even PCG and LCG aren't that screwed up. Apparently Pack has forgotten that even HWA acknowledged salvation as a FREE GIFT from God, which no human being could qualify to earn. You can't qualify for salvation, according to HWA, although you can lose it by rebellion. It's the REWARD for which you have to exert effort, unless you just want to be a doorkeeper in the Kingdom of God for eternity.
Is Pack now teaching salvation by works, contrary to HWA? Or has McElroy started to teach a heresy that Pack doesn't himself teach? Seems all isn't quite right in Packland!
Oh, goodie gumdrops ! Another exciting post. They make us wait too long for their pearls of wisdom. I want to hear from them everyday on the wonderful work and love-mania fest over there at FunLand.
C'mon fellas, what's making you hold back? We want to hear minute by minute updates on everytime King David sneezes. Oh he probably doesn't sneeze cause he owns his own health food empire and has a life time supply of Vitamin C.
They all make me want to gag.
It's called mental illness.
"Truth is the rarest and most important commodity on Earth, and it is few that find it."
Sort of a lame punch line there, Larry. Notice how much better Mark Twain did it:
"Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it."
"My eyelid hurts looking at that picture..."
It's Dave Pack's way of driving people to seek him out for soothing eye drops. He must have cornered the market on Visine, considering all the anointing of eyes he's been doing.
"Truth is the rarest and most important commodity on Earth, and it is few that find it."
This whole concept of "Truth" or "the truth" in the mind of the COGs is slippery and troublesome.
Just as people love to be the first to pass on gossip or a story, so people seem drawn to those who claim to have the "hard to find" truth. Humans seem to love having one up on others.
If truth is so rare and there are the few and not all that ever can know it, what does that say about a God or a plan of Salvation that requires humans get it all exactly right or risk being in "the false church"? It is this getting it all exactly right that causes so many splinters and slivers. Their human leaders play on the "here..no over here," aspects of the few ever finding truth.
It's stupid. The truth is more present truth than plain. Those who say they have it don't for the most part and perhaps those that know it, don't feel the compulsion to say it...
The best I can come up with when COG truthholders go to great verbage about having it is "uh huh..sure, fine, whatever."
Most have not done the hard homework to come to such conclusions and coming to conclusions, by now, should be something most should be wary of.
"...unless you just want to be a doorkeeper in the Kingdom of God for eternity"
I'd be happy with such a lowly position seeing how the psalmist put it, "I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness" (84:10)...
(groan!) I just have a hard time taking the activities of these men seriously any more. Like how many Kubik feet of manure are being spread by UCG, all the Kiloughgrams of tithes supposedly pouring in to COGawa, massive prophecy blizzards that always peter out into Flurries, who is trying to Pack their Home Orifice with reject ministers who ran out of options in other ACOGs, and a group that calls themselves Living but seems to be sliding towards a MerryDeath.
Basically, we're watching Gamaliel's Theorem in practical application. It's sad because of what it means for sincere, well intentioned rank and file members who think they have to follow false and cultic teachers to have a relationship with God. I don't know how many rock and rollers we've got out there, but I think Pete Townshend described these folks very well in the opera "Tommy". Townshend, by the way, had some incredible spiritual sensibilities, and oft shared them in the lyrics of the Who's songs!
BB
Hey, BB, that wordplay was fun. Well played, man.
Also, I like the humane note you strike with the comment, "It's sad because of what it means for sincere, well intentioned rank and file members who think they have to follow false and cultic teachers to have a relationship with God."
A member of one of the UCG congregations that defected to COGWA explained indignantly why: in whatever dispute that was in the South American churches, "UCG refused to support the ministers." Following the habit I developed long ago to preserve my relationships with the ACOG members I know, I smiled and nodded. Inwardly I wondered whether the needs of "well intentioned rank and file members" are ever taken into consideration in GOG governance.
After wandering around for so many years, some "minister" finally found another paycheck. Whoopee! That is great for him. But what about the ordinary little people who become RCG members? Calculate how much joining the Restored Cult of Revenue will cost them. The financial cost might be quantifiable. The lost mental stability, other psychological costs, spiritual costs, and other such costs might be much, much higher.
Of course, the hirelings can now be forced to write whatever David Pack wants them to. David has carefully arranged his concentration camp so that everybody will be under the control of his death grip. I wonder how many others are now living in fear of being told it is their turn to pretend they were "chomping at the bit" to write something. This could possibly lead to some difficulties later on. How will they ever be able to admit later on that they had been forced to do it, and that they had knuckled under to fear of being shouted at by an angry man--and fired. Going with any such group will later just lead to great difficulties in trying to explain just what the heck they were thinking at the time.
In the interest of giving proper credit where credit is due, I must say that he is absolutely, positively correct beyond a shred of a reasonable doubt when he described the Church of Fraud scene as "a toxic spiritual wilderness full of deadly vipers." Truer words are seldom written.
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