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
We may be amused by this, but Dave Pack is one theologically and psychologically troubled human being.
Good thing he runs his ideas by his leading ministers and how more amazing it is they agree with him out of concern for their jobs no doubt. Show me that any one of them would survive to sundown if they said "Dave, I'd be real careful about this and the impression you have of yourself as spoken of in the scriptures." I simply can't believe all his ministers believe Dave's sure words of buffoonery.
I got a pit in my stomach listening to this, I was present for everyone one of those sermon Sound bites. I remember recently corresponding with a member who tried to convince me that leaving was "my" mistake and that I was "blind". But I came from the outside looking in, to the inside looking out, and then back from the outside looking in and now see better than ever that this is more about money than anything meaningful. Some muster the courage to remove themselves from a situation they hoped would allow them to grow but come to the conclusion that they were better off without the church in their lives in the first place.
The part that makes me most sick is when members laugh at Pack's behavior with the scriptures. Dave is careless with the scriptures as noted in the clip in this entry. I felt more compelled to change when RCG stood "in its lane" and preached about christian living, and how to get a grip of oneself in this world, how to be a more wholesome person, how to deal with my own downfalls, how to help others, think about others, and on and on. Not necessarily feel-good sermons, but sermons that hit me hard and twisted my gut, forcing me to see parts within myself that could improve. I would have been fine attending services where i knew i would never see a prophetic event in my lifetime if it meant i would not be constantly pushed into "my Lord delays His coming" attitude by the constant timeline errors and false hope RCG embedded into my heart. I think most people dont see this, but one reason why ppl would have the "my lord delays his coming" attitude could be because they were constantly told by religious leader like Pack that Jesus' coming was imminent and after being disastrously wrong so many times they took on that mindset they were warned not to.
Now all RCG has is this prophecy that started with just over 75% of the FIRST sermon being cut out. If this isn't a wrong foundation to start such a massive restructuring of prophetic events on then you have simply, lost your ability to do your own thinking, searching the scripture whether those things are so and you are enabling pack to assert his perceptions over the scriptures and fit them into his self-serving motives.
I have to believe that the current membership has no access to original tapes, stopped taking notes because its too much to understand, have become lazy in proving scriptures (although pack stated you only prove scriptures prior to baptism, once baptized you cannot prove again what you have proven already), have never really gone back and truly kept record of all the times pack felt he was 100% certain only to be wrong, and have not taken scriptures seriously on what God says to do when encountering a presumptuous and false prophet.
There is complete burnout in RCG, the ppl there are way in too deep. Conditioned by fear to stay. I thought i had great friends there, i felt miserable the first two years after leaving, but seeing now that even after leaving and others leaving and the way we simply no longer have anything in common i feel less saddened by my decision to leave. For me it was building up each time he proved to be wrong, the way he treated employees, the way he was protected with a circle, the way he bashed ministers, the way he was aggressive and compulsive, the way he saw himself as a central figure in everything, the way he spoke about money, the way he wanted things on the campus for the so-called benefit of the city and world figures who would grace the campus with their visits, etc. Pack is stuck in the Armstrong days, and on this i conclude by quoting one of Packs most favorite quotes:
'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.' - George Santayana... Where is The Armstrong empire today? The buildings? The Money? The ministers? The people?
As limited as I was working against what was becoming a power and money play in the name of God, I was able to learn something very valuable. We are told to test the spirits in the bible. I had a chance to do this up close at the Feast in Wadsworth one year and it wasn't pretty. The details concerning that don't matter. What matters is the overwhelming evidence of an organization whose leader is being led by another spirit and a majority of the ministers are completely deceived by him.
What you experienced for two years was the breaking of the bond of brotherly discipleship. The demand of this organization is that you have to be all in or else. I stayed far too long not believing much of the narrative until I realized there is a reward for the hypocrite.
Keep your eyes and ears tuned to this organization for something big is going to happen in their future. And when it does, there is going to be a people in need of a helping hand.
4 comments:
We may be amused by this, but Dave Pack is one theologically and psychologically troubled human being.
Good thing he runs his ideas by his leading ministers and how more amazing it is they agree with him out of concern for their jobs no doubt. Show me that any one of them would survive to sundown if they said "Dave, I'd be real careful about this and the impression you have of yourself as spoken of in the scriptures." I simply can't believe all his ministers believe Dave's sure words of buffoonery.
I got a pit in my stomach listening to this, I was present for everyone one of those sermon Sound bites. I remember recently corresponding with a member who tried to convince me that leaving was "my" mistake and that I was "blind". But I came from the outside looking in, to the inside looking out, and then back from the outside looking in and now see better than ever that this is more about money than anything meaningful. Some muster the courage to remove themselves from a situation they hoped would allow them to grow but come to the conclusion that they were better off without the church in their lives in the first place.
The part that makes me most sick is when members laugh at Pack's behavior with the scriptures. Dave is careless with the scriptures as noted in the clip in this entry. I felt more compelled to change when RCG stood "in its lane" and preached about christian living, and how to get a grip of oneself in this world, how to be a more wholesome person, how to deal with my own downfalls, how to help others, think about others, and on and on. Not necessarily feel-good sermons, but sermons that hit me hard and twisted my gut, forcing me to see parts within myself that could improve. I would have been fine attending services where i knew i would never see a prophetic event in my lifetime if it meant i would not be constantly pushed into "my Lord delays His coming" attitude by the constant timeline errors and false hope RCG embedded into my heart. I think most people dont see this, but one reason why ppl would have the "my lord delays his coming" attitude could be because they were constantly told by religious leader like Pack that Jesus' coming was imminent and after being disastrously wrong so many times they took on that mindset they were warned not to.
Now all RCG has is this prophecy that started with just over 75% of the FIRST sermon being cut out. If this isn't a wrong foundation to start such a massive restructuring of prophetic events on then you have simply, lost your ability to do your own thinking, searching the scripture whether those things are so and you are enabling pack to assert his perceptions over the scriptures and fit them into his self-serving motives.
I have to believe that the current membership has no access to original tapes, stopped taking notes because its too much to understand, have become lazy in proving scriptures (although pack stated you only prove scriptures prior to baptism, once baptized you cannot prove again what you have proven already), have never really gone back and truly kept record of all the times pack felt he was 100% certain only to be wrong, and have not taken scriptures seriously on what God says to do when encountering a presumptuous and false prophet.
There is complete burnout in RCG, the ppl there are way in too deep. Conditioned by fear to stay. I thought i had great friends there, i felt miserable the first two years after leaving, but seeing now that even after leaving and others leaving and the way we simply no longer have anything in common i feel less saddened by my decision to leave. For me it was building up each time he proved to be wrong, the way he treated employees, the way he was protected with a circle, the way he bashed ministers, the way he was aggressive and compulsive, the way he saw himself as a central figure in everything, the way he spoke about money, the way he wanted things on the campus for the so-called benefit of the city and world figures who would grace the campus with their visits, etc. Pack is stuck in the Armstrong days, and on this i conclude by quoting one of Packs most favorite quotes:
'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.' - George Santayana... Where is The Armstrong empire today? The buildings? The Money? The ministers? The people?
Before registering for another RCG feast, consider leaving the RCG! Dave Pack in no way practices truth in advertising for his defective product!
BB
Anon: 8:32 well said.
As limited as I was working against what was becoming a power and money play in the name of God, I was able to learn something very valuable. We are told to test the spirits in the bible. I had a chance to do this up close at the Feast in Wadsworth one year and it wasn't pretty. The details concerning that don't matter. What matters is the overwhelming evidence of an organization whose leader is being led by another spirit and a majority of the ministers are completely deceived by him.
What you experienced for two years was the breaking of the bond of brotherly discipleship. The demand of this organization is that you have to be all in or else. I stayed far too long not believing much of the narrative until I realized there is a reward for the hypocrite.
Keep your eyes and ears tuned to this organization for something big is going to happen in their future. And when it does, there is going to be a people in need of a helping hand.
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