Poor Dave. Yet again he lashes out at other COG's because no one in them wants to jump into his personality cult.
Today he posted his latest Friday Update on the most superfantabulistic COG ever to exist in human history. There is no COG greater than the Restored Church of God. There is no COG doing such a mind boggling "work" as the Restored Church of God. There is no COG leader in human history that has ever been as awesome and magnificent as Davey. He is the Superman of the COG's! Kneel at his awesomeness, marvel at his wisdom, and laugh at him all you want.
He first lists all the qualities that he claims the leaders of the various COG's are using to keep their members blinded to the awesomeness of Dave. What Dave did in posting this was to describe the very things he does in his organization!
For now, until circumstances force public admission of (deep) decline, expect more cover-ups. They look like this:
1) Outright denials that there is “trouble.” Dave denies his group is having trouble.Top leaders must continue employing these and other techniques (more could be listed) in months to come to get you to believe all is well. They must put a positive face on what is really NO expansion, NO advancement and NO progress of ANY kind. They must spin events and speak falsely or the truth of their condition would be known—and that must not be allowed to happen. See through hollow comments, and shallow cover-ups.
2) Minimizing falling income. Dave minimizes his steady to lagging income. There is no major growth.
3) Twisting the “narrative” of what is happening to fit agendas. Dave twists the narrative about his life to fit his agenda. Embellishments abound that many people know to be outright falsehoods.
4) Declarations that “everything is fine,” even to the point of “protesting too much.” In a sense, this will confirm what is occurring for those who can discern such denials for what they really are—admissions. Dave cannot shut up about how fantastic his group is. That is a sure sign that things are NOT as he implies.
5) Announcing that “God is testing us!” when God is not working through them and has never led them. God is always testing Dave's group. He is constantly reminding his members that they are lacking in God's spirit when they do not give all their income to him.
6) Claiming “Satan is attacking us!” when their problems are God’s doing. Dave is always worried about Satan. He cant shut up about the guy.
7) Speak of unity even though the organization is shot-full of dissension and division. Dave gives the impression that his group is 100% unified. It is not, I can guarantee that! too many readers share things here. Too many people share their horror stories with Exit and Support Network. Dave's cult is broken and diseased.
8) Introduce more false teachings to distract members with supposed doctrinal “advancements.” But leaders will be careful not to go too far too fast, as did the WCG leaders, knowing this would trigger an exodus, the opposite of what they are so desperately seeking to avoid. Paralleling the WCG apostates, UCG announced that it plans to spend much time at its May conference discussing “spiritual gifts.” Besides appealing to people’s vanity—because brethren can now see themselves as “gifted”—this becomes its own form of obfuscation. It gets people’s minds off the ongoing daily train wreck (UCG) in which they exist. Dave burdens his members with unnecessary laws, rules and regulations that have destroyed marriages and torn families asunder
9) Create other diversions to distract members. Announce new programs, projects, committees, promotions, etc. Dave is constantly announcing new programs, projects and articles to divert peoples attention away from the corruptible filth that exists in his group.
10) Marginalize, attack and disfellowship members and ministers who leave or won’t buckle under pressure. Dave marginalizes members and spouses of RCG members. Dave disfellowships anyone he thinks might stand up to him. Dave publicly rebukes those he kicks out for their bad attitude and threatens members with there salvation if they communicate with these people.
11) Attack the one exposing what is happening, and try to get him to stop so they can get away with what they are doing. Dave attacks the leaders of the various groups for exposing him and his lies. Dave attacks blogs, newsgroups, and web sites that are critical of him.
Bloggers, critics and self-appointed leaders without the facts will further confuse everything more than they are already. As organizations continue their slow-motion collapse, these outsiders will look to garner a greater following. Others will mock and lampoon these announcements because, like most in the world who make only a pretense of being Christian, they have no true interest in what God’s Word says.
Then Dave lashes out at various COG's and their leaders.
United Church of God. This may be the most weak and broken organization ever built by men who thought they were serving God. UCG literally has more false doctrines than true ones. And brethren there are so used to public discussions about taking care of ministers that they have grown numb to this constant focus on self-preservation. With income dropping, and a decimated leadership in recent times, what could hardly seem to get worse will.Then to show that Davey reads this blog, he goes and quotes the very things I posted the other day about the lackluster COGWA. Too funny!
Church of God, a Worldwide Association (COGwa), which constantly emphasizes ministerial job security, retirement and benefit packages. Almost no work of any kind is being done there. For instance, now well over two years old, they just produced their first booklet (an e-booklet only, not hardcopy). This is worse than pitiful. And they just publicly reported (without embarrassment), “The PC Department emailed 40 people and telephoned an additional person for a total of 41 outgoing contacts for December 2012” and “The Personal Correspondence Department mailed 77 responses (including one surface mail letter) in January 2013, making the month’s activity one of our highest” and “We sent out 49 emails and one surface mail letter in February, for a total of 50…” Astonishing! These are both truly much ado about nothing—ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
Philadelphia Church of God recently announced that it has seen a drop in income in virtually every category, including some with severe drops, all since 2013 began. One category did stay flat, which means it declined just due to inflation. Never forget that inflation requires at least minimal growth for any organization to just tread water. This is the single greatest reason that the splinters growing at a few percent annually look almost exactly as they did 15-18 years ago.
COG-PKG false prophet (Ron Weinland), currently in prison, will probably soon see his group collapse or even completely disappear. One month from today, at sunset on May 19, after Christ did NOT return on Pentecost, hundreds or many hundreds of people may leave him that night. In fact, giant cracks having already appeared in his organization, he announced a fast for this week. Where will these hundreds go? Weinland is already conditioning people to stay, and probably simultaneously working on how to explain being wrong again—both of these while coming to grips with over three more years in prison.
The Living Church of God is sinking perhaps faster than anyone—media pullback, contracting income and continuing financial incompetence, internal dissension, rampant health problems, people leaving, etc. And regarding false doctrine, its leadership is doubling down on errors. The Council in LCG is now quietly talking of introducing what will be more false teachings.For 10 weeks now Dave has been posting this letters as proof of his awesomeness and how superfantabulisitc his personality cult is. Yet, people are not leaving the COGs to join up with him. Their money is nowhere to be found! Dave is pissed!
Many thousands are reading these Friday announcements and either agreeing with them or hoping they are true because it means we will all be back together. THEY ARE TRUE! However, seeing that large numbers are not moving toward God’s Church, and being too weak to act on their own, these thousands choose the easier path of believing there is safety in numbers.
Um Dave....RCG is NOT God's church. Never has been and never will be. It doesn't matter how many ministers you poach from UCG and LCG, the RCG is an impotent little personality cult.
25 comments:
How I wish false ministers with false grandeur concept of themselves stop milking people whose only fault is finding ways to please and worship God. Instead of taking advantage and duping these people to his personality cult, Pack should pack his bags and do a more decent job. I agree that his church or any of the WCG splinter groups cannot be the true church. And how I wish people would realize that they should not allow another person or church for that matter to stand between us and God. Pack's church is just another money making venture, as all other churches are.
At what point do the RCG members decide, hey, these Friday-updates by Pack aren't shaping up to square with reality - everyone's not flocking here, and the WCG diaspora has not gotten back together.
And, quite soon, Pack should be running out of ever greater superlatives to use for even greater predictions, and the updates will inevitably have to be toned down in volume, methinks.
Ah, never mind, i forgot HWA never ran out of superlatives, and his ALL CAPS key never failed him....
Many people have left RCG over the years. I am just one of them. The more he becomes like Flurry (taking on roles and titles), disfellowshipping and abusing members...people start waking up. I hope many more arise from their slumber. Dave Pack is nothing, but a BIG fraud!
Quite a study in projection. Dave seems to be slipping into something as things don't seem to work out as planned. Since winning is everthing, what happens when you aren't winning?
Ron Weinland seems to not notice he is sitting in prison for a time, times and half a time. You can't be a goofball on the kinder end of theological observation or a deluded and unstable "theologian" on the other end of the scale and not get noticed these days. But not noticed in the ways they had hoped.
The Theological Dilemma the COGs and all Fundamentalists weave into their theology as the drawing card is "Will Jesus return or will he not?" and they mean in their lifetime. That is the sole motivator. It draws the fearful and easily led types. Warnings, witnessing, predicting, speculating and "send it in" are all a part of that schtick. Reading the newspaper more in times past but now using the Internet now like you would read the Bible is one fatal flaw.
"When I was young..rivers were just rivers, mountains were just mountains and trees were just trees...
When I got older ..rivers weren't JUST rivers, mountains weren't JUST mountains and trees were anything but JUST trees.
But now that i am old..Rivers are just rivers, mountains are just mountains and trees are just beautiful trees..."
The Bible itself is it's own worst enemy for misleading and sidetracking good folk on many topics wasting, or should we say "learning and growing in Grace and Knowledge, the hard way...There may not be any other way to be honest.
In all these years from HWA to all that followed and all who followed setting themselves up as beacons, growing in GRACE has been elusive at best and non-existent for most, and knowledge? .....uh huh..sure.
IMHO
NO2HWA said:
"Then to show that Davey reads this blog, he goes and quotes the very things I posted the other day about the lackluster COGWA. Too funny!"
Actually you simply used a well known tactic of Mr. Pack. When he suspects someone of "leaking" Church stuff and sending it in to this Blog he is said to send the suspected household slightly altered information that looks like what everyone got. He can then nail them when the altered and tell tale infor shows up in print here. Pretty cool huh! :)
Dave must be losing it. His "anal-ysis of the whys and wherefores is shallow and bogus. Excellent counter view to his NO2HWA Dave, for all he thinks he sees is an excellent observations that the eye that sees cannot see itself, a finger can't touch itself and you can't bite your own teeth. Dave only experiences himself through the responses of others. Inside it appears at time, no one is home.
Finally, we have someone to take over The Journal from Dixon Cartwright and make it much more exciting and relevant with Dave as the next brilliant editor.
If Davey preaches British Israelism he is a false prophet working for "the other side".
Great going, building up the Synagogue of Satan, there Bucko!
Dave's disappointment hissy-fit is nothing new to COGism. I remember when Rod Meredith started Global in the early '90's, with the collapse of the WCG following shortly thereafter in 1995. Many Global loyalists just could not fathom why those leaving the WCG in droves didn't all immediately flock over to Global, and start sending their tithe checks to the mighty Rod of God. The financial support of such ex-WCG members was an arrogantly assumed “given” among Global leaders, and when it didn’t happen, it set the stage for the ultimate bankruptcy and debacle of Global. These self-appointed COG sages truly are "legends in their own minds" – and when others don't recognize and reinforce this delusion, then they get their BVD's all in a wad over it.
Also, recall M. John Allen’s angry rant about folks not being willing to financially support his great Internet-based “Work” and so he just gave up out of frustration, though not without first lashing out at the unspiritual heathens who wouldn’t mindlessly bankroll his amateur operation:
http://armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com/2012/09/m-john-allen-passive-aggressive-prophet.html
I guess what always surprises me the most about the wacky world of COGism’s is how downright predictable it all is – the same old “bluff and bluster” strategies employed by the unimaginative leadership, leading to the same old disastrous results, causing the same old seething angry outbursts against the “unspiritual.” Then a little time passes, and the whole dismal process starts all over again with only slight variations in another group and setting. Astonishing the lack of creativity among COG leaders.
Much can be said against HWA.
One thing that cannot be said about him is that he did not lust after COG 7th Day members and try to "raid" his former church for members, nor constantly harangue them to join "The Philadelphia Era".
Oh, he would diss them on occasion calling them "Dead" or "Sardis" , but he did not ever issue clarion calls to them to join his ranks. He instead chose to grow his new work from "new blood". Other than the original 19 members in 1934, Armstrong did not attempt to leach off of the COG 7th Day.
Cutting up and fighting over remaining market share from the remnants of the WCG is NOT GROWTH. All of the COGs are guilty of this type of claim, and sheep stealing, rustling or deception is NOT GROWTH.
Internet hits ARE NOT GROWTH.
Television stations ARE NOT GROWTH.
Magazines ARE NOT GROWTH.
Prophetic speculations ARE NOT GROWTH.
Endless doctrinal debates ARE NOT GROWTH.
The fruit must be NEW human beings who find direct relationship with Jesus Christ, repentance, and grace. Discipleship and brotherhood.
Since that is not happening, especially in Packs group, then all of this bluster is as it says in 1 Corinthians --"Sounding Brass and tinkling cymbals"
Dave makes for the ultimate "Sweet Gypsy Rose" caricature in that regard with..."Rings on his fingers and Bells on his Toes!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5zkkALYBAI
Joe Moeller
Cody, WY
I can see where that UCG spiritual gifts where mere members are told they have gifts gets under Dave's skin. In RCG ONLY Dave has the gifts, or gets the gifts. The members are the givers. God's way is give not get as we all know and that's the RCG members gift, to give so Dave can get.
Makes perfect sense
Few will go over to Dave, if any because, unlike Dave, they don't see a humble, kind and serving pastor or shepherd type person in Dave. They see a small empire builder. A ego centric man who tries to make the mundane spectacular. They see a controller and there are enough folk stewn across the path of Dave Pack over the years to ask, "so how'd that go for ya?" and get the same answer the Cherokee would offer should they be asked along the trail of tears. Geronimo was asked when in prison in Florida, by the army guy that captured him if he wanted to go to heaven when he died. Geronimo asked the General if he was going to be there? "Why of course," he said. "Then no," Geronimo answered. lol
I think many would at least ask the blessing..."May God bless and keep Dave Pack.......far away from us."
:)
Joe, again I have to very much agree with your above comment. What exactly is meant by the word "growth" - and how is it measured? It seems for far too many COG members and ministers growth is merely confined to the marginal metrics: booklets printed, website hits, magazine circulation, potential television audiences, income, etc.
But as Head Usher keeps pointing out, the real question is how deeply are lives being truly changed and transformed for the good? Not as easily measured as the above items, but vastly more essential.
I'd have to say that most of my former WCG friends and acquaintances are now UCG members, and, to be perfectly frank, I don't sense much growth or excitement in them at all. They come across as being very exhausted and tired of the whole COG thing. Though I sense most of them just don't have the stomach to seriously or rigorously question the very core foundations of a religion they've grown comfortable with over the years and decades - what I refer to as being "ossified in the faith." Just a general impression.
And not to say I agree in any way with Dave Pack's latest tithe-farming recruitment efforts, but I think he does have a fairly accurate sense of where the competing COG's are, that is "going nowhere."
Armstrongism is a ship. The ACOG splinters are simply different compartments of that ship. So, reality is, Dave is sinking right along with the rest of the ship, he just doesn't realize it yet. Oh, by the way, the ship's name is "Denial". And, it's what happens when you contaminate the New Covenant with carefully picked and chosen elements from the old one. The elements on which they focus have the effect of blinding them to the new, and to a truly spiritual experience.
Glub, glub, glub! Why do the bilge pumps fail just when they are needed the most?
BB
I love these Greatest Dave Pack quotes:
"I want to make a statement about...me...now, if I became deceived, I will never tell you what I'm going to tell you now...I am telling you if I go off into strange ideas, misconduct, rebellion, you name it, don't follow me. I want to tell you that now, because if I start doing that I'm gonna try to get you to follow me! I'm gonna come to you and tell you it doesn't apply, it doesn't mean me, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's OK to follow me because ABCD and XY and Z. Do you understand what I'm saying? Listen to me now, when I tell you don't follow me if I go off into weird ideas, or if I get off into other things that are total absolutely unscriptural conduct, because if I do I'm gonna paint it with a different face and try to get you to follow me. Do you understand what I'm saying brethren? Please remember that, because I promise you that if I become deceived, I'll forget it, and I'll want you to forget it...And I hope you'll remember it well enough to quote it right back to me...But I'll tell you what, I'm not going anywhere."
and who could forget...
"I am certainly ready and willing to do the work of spreading the message of the Kingdom of God to the world. I have a whole host of ideas about HOW to do it should Christ make the funds and staff available. For instance, The Plain Truth newsstand program was largely a project that I developed, almost from its inception."
David C. Pack, Why The Restored Church of God? Page 19 second Paragraph Edition 1.2 June 1999
Personally I invented the Space Shuttle around the same time.
Davey needs to learn a thing or two about Entropy although I doubt he could understand it.
Reading through the comments, I got one good phrase from Leonardo - LEGENDS IN THEIR OWN MINDS. Very fitting description for many of HWA trying-hard successors. Pack and the rest of those HWA wannabees like Flurry etc. are nothing more than legends in their own minds.
You can leave the cult but you can't leave the matrix. It's everywhere.
David Pack is right about the WCG splinter groups all being bad and in decline. That was obvious years ago. And it will only get worse. Much worse. That, too, is obvious. The PCG is satanic. The UCG is godless. The slivers are kooks. Etc.
The problem is that David Pack's Restored Church might not be the answer either. And the problem is not just what former members of the RCG say about it. That weird-looking goon in the RCG's annual video who said "everybody does fund-raising" might spook people into realizing what they will be expected to do in all their spare time if they go with the RCG. In fact, David Pack's own frustrated, angry, greedy shouting at his followers in his "Clarion Call" sermon to send him everything they have might not leave people feeling confident. After handing over everything they have, they are of no further use and are free to leave the RCG--as so many already have. Their money/retirement plans/houses stay behind in the RCG. They leave the RCG without them.
WCG splinter group leaders are getting a bad reputation for doing what I'll call the "Ten Year Twist." WCG splinter group leaders set themselves up claiming to be humble followers of HWA who just want to faithfully hold on to what they were taught in the past. After about a decade--more or less--of claiming to be simply following the teachings of the past, they suddenly make HUGE DOCTRINAL CHANGES, but claim that it is all OK because this "wonderful new truth" (as they call it) can supposedly be "proven" from the Bible.
For example, Gerald Flurry eventually claimed to be "That Prophet" of Deut. 18, and later demanded that people break up and wreck their families and cut off all contact with them. David Pack eventually started to talk about having "all things common," which actually meant having all things become his.
All followers of self-appointed religious leaders eventually get faced with having to go along with whatever the leader comes up with in the future. Then, it is often too difficult and embarrassing for them to admit that they made a fatal mistake and that all their tithes and offerings just went to support evil.
David Pack recently criticized COGWA for saying that people do not have to eat unleavened bread every single day of the Days of Unleavened Bread. David Pack seems to be right about this, but, of course, those in COGWA are free to eat it every day if they wish. That is why even people who agree with David Pack on this point might still stay in COGWA rather than go to the RCG to get shouted at and totally plundered.
David Pack's quoting of HWA sounds good. He appears to be right that many people have suffered mass amnesia when it comes to the teachings of the past. However, the problem is that many people do honestly remember the past, and that HWA was simply wrong about WWII being the end and Germany and Italy winning it. HWA was also wrong about 1975 in prophecy and his 19-year time cycles that led up to it. Even falling back on 1996 did not work out either. All along, while the little sheeple tried to financially support HWA's latest wrong guess in God's name, HWA's own son GTA was getting tattooed, going to the casino, and being sexually immoral. The whole truth is that things were never perfect in the WCG.
David Pack talks about the Real Truth, but he dare not tell the Whole Truth.
Because i enjoy periodically lowering my IQ by perusing the latest on certain COG splinter sites, I came across this gem by Dave Pack:
"Announced earlier, the most important and conclusive article I have written to the Worldwide Church of God splinters has been posted! I promise this will be the single most crucial one you will ever read. If you do not read it all, it will be the worst decision you have made since God called you. Believe this!"
Sweet baby Jesus, this is rich and funny stuff. If you don't read every word of his stupid missive, it's the worst decision you ever made as a believer. :-)
Regarding the comment that Dave Seapack criticized COGWA over their decision not to require that people eat ULB every day of that feast: As I recall, HWA said during a bible study or sabbath service in Pasadena that he did NOT eat unleavened bread every day during ULB because he could not stand the taste of the stuff. He (HWA - you know, God's Apostle) said God only required people to abstain from eating leavened bread, not to actually eat unleavened bread. That was in the late 1960's or early 1970's. I could be wrong but that is what I remember.
"As I recall, HWA said during a bible study or sabbath service in Pasadena that he did NOT eat unleavened bread every day during ULB because he could not stand the taste of the stuff. He (HWA - you know, God's Apostle) said God only required people to abstain from eating leavened bread, not to actually eat unleavened bread."
Well, if you're right about that, then that can only mean one thing. It's time to rewrite history!
If the precise wording of the holy, holy bible says you shall eat it for every single day during the seven days or else be dipped in molten lava, then the one and only apostle of the living god MUST have loved the taste of unleavened bread and eaten it every single day of the days of UB.
Also, the precise wording of the holy, holy bible says that during Joshua's day, god stopped the SUN from moving, NOT the Earth. Which means the Earth is at the center of the solar system, NOT the sun.
So, it's time to rewrite the science books, folks, cause you must ALWAYS pay attention to the precise wording of the holy, holy bible, and it's never ever wrong.
god stopped the SUN from moving, NOT the Earth. Which means the Earth is at the center of the solar system, NOT the sun.
Both the Earth and the Sun are in motion, rotating through our galaxy.
If God stopped the Sun from moving, but did not ALSO stop the Earth, the Earth would rocket out of solar orbit! Could it be that this is the origin of the 365-day year, perhaps it was a nice and orderly 360-day year before God messed things up between the Earth and the Sun?
David Pack said:
"Others will mock and lampoon these announcements because, like most in the world who make only a pretense of being Christian, they have no true interest in what God’s Word says."
No Dave, they may mock and lampoon your announcements because they are overly dramatic, judgmental and merely your opinions. There are Christians more than you and yours Dave and their lack of interest may be in YOU and YOUR views of the Bible and dictatorial leadership where ultimately it is your way or the highway.
How many of your staff have quit you along the way because of your ways? They didn't quit because they didn't want to be Christians. They quit because they did want to be Christians and couldn't find any around you.
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