Posted with permission obtained by Marc Cebrian
Love Waxing Cold in RCG
by Jessica Brown
A former member of the Headquarters congregation of The Restored Church of God wrote this in the Ex-RCG Facebook Group. It is being posted publicly with permission.
The Last Great Day has ended, and once again, the brethren of RCG are now returning to their homes after being told for the 3rd year in a row they would not be returning home from the FOT.
I woke up this morning with a pain in my heart, knowing many are going to feel sad and confused by everything, yet they will be unwilling to leave because there is "nowhere else to go.”
There is a place to go. In fact, there are many places one could go and worship, even if that place is your own home for a while.
But some will be stubborn and hold on, thinking DP will eventually be inspired to "get it right.” I personally used to think this way, and I've also heard other members voice those words.
The problem is he will never get it right because if he did, the scriptures would be broken. God cannot speak through a man who has so clearly deviated from sound doctrines and changes teachings every week. A man who has become completely self-willed in trying to discover when Christ will return. He is a man so filled with pride that he cannot take a step back and apologize for all of the confusion he's caused in RCG. Instead, he will point the fingers at others or at God, and the cycle of failed predictions will continue in the coming months and intensify once again when the spring holy days arrive.
At what point will people say, "enough is enough?"
I have so many dear friends still in RCG who are the stubborn types that probably will never leave, and it makes my heart hurt to know that they are STILL clinging to the false teachings of a man and not proving for themselves whether DP is a man of God or not. It leads me to believe I've forever lost these friends to a raging false prophet and that they will start becoming even more imbalanced in their thinking as the teachings become more strange. And because of the environment becoming more harsh and unmerciful, especially with their new rules implemented at the FOT this year, some of the members are going to become more hostile and cold towards those who have left RCG due to the failed prophecies. Talk about "love waxing cold.”
It's beyond frustrating, and I feel powerless watching this happen and not being able to do anything to help the people I care about. I can only stand by and wait for God to intervene and put an end to the confusion.
Sorry for the long post. I just felt the need to get that off of my chest because it has been making me feel extremely depressed. I've been doing my best to hold on to the hope that this out-of-control prophetic train will soon be stopped and people will wake up.
Jessica Brown
17 comments:
"the brethren of RCG are now returning to their homes after being told for the 3rd year in a row they would not be returning home from the FOT."
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Luke 13:7: And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Look! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?'
This is beyond just being sad. Is DP's time about up?
“Talk about 'love waxing cold.'” -- JB
The only love in the RCG at this point is Dave's love of other people's money and his current followers' love of Dave's prophetic lies and nonsense.
It looks like Dave's love of other people's money is not waxing cold at all, but rather is growing stronger all the time.
It also looks like Dave's current followers love his prophetic lies and nonsense more than ever, so much that they would not know where else they could go to get such incredible lies and nonsense.
"..and wait for God to intervene and put an end to the confusion."
The above is the common ACOG point of view, and the norm in non HWA Christianity as well. It stems from their churches cultures of only the ministers having power and rights, while members are treated like children. God by contrast gives all Christians great self responsibility. It's in the parable of the sower and many other scriptures.
God commands members to mark unrepentant fellow Christians and treat them as heaven.
Meaning, that it's the responsibility of Christians to AVOID and FLEE from Dave. Just like Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt to protect the new born Christ. They did not expect God to intervene, and fix the problems in their own country in order to protect their child.
In nature animals constantly flee from danger, and it works. It preserves their lives.
If the spirit of God is the spirit of a sound mind, how can any of these people be converted?
what was the new rule at the FOT this year.
Just a short time ago, when Michael Medved was on talk radio every day, one time he enumerated how many times Communism had been tried as a political philosophy, and how every single time it had failed. The principles of Communism always attract and produce authoritarian, tyrannical leaders. The people living under it are basic working folk, trying to raise their families just like the foks in the USA and other free countries. Their leaders hurt and exploit them, with no regard for the value of human life.
We can see how that same principle applies to Armstrongism, no matter how many times it is tried! Let's not forget that David Pack is as he is directly because of the doctrines of Armstrongism, which corrupt its leaders and turn them inhuman. There is a litany of history in the Armstrong movement to prove this. They take love for fellow man, and modify and subvert it with their supposed expression of love for God, which is Pharisaic obedience to every law, and they teach and do it in such a way that it often hurts fellow man. You might say, they leave no room for fellow man. The two components of the royal law of love are intended to flow together, not to be mutually exclusive. Love for God becomes love for fellow man, and vice versa. Don't believe me? Is your unconverted family treated the same way in which church members are treated? Is every person you meet treated as a potential child of God??? Southerners treat Yankees with more love than the love I've seen ACOG members taught to treat ex-members and their own family members. But, then, being Southern Baptists, Southerners would know all about grace, the missing component that keeps their pastors and clergy from becoming jaded towards their members like the WCG ministers are. And, I have to note, there have been WCG ministers who wouldn't play the game, and actually left rather than hurting members. Because of this, they are remembered fondly. Dave is not one of these.
I can see where Dave might equate love for God with preaching that Jesus is coming tomorrow every day. Sure. Why not? But, is it love for the members who face Kafkaesque depression every time the forecast fails? Doesn't everybody realize that Jesus just does not return on demand? HWA booked a personal appearance for Him back in '75 that he had no right to, and Jesus did not validate HWA by actually returning. So, Dave didn't even learn from his idol!
My advice to RCG members who find themselves facing a decision is to contemplate what grace-based faith would do for them in their lives. I'm not talking about cheap grace, which is antinomianism, but the real deal as practiced by the Guy whose arrival the current regime just can't seem to get right. But, what do I know?
100% agree. I am from a different COG group. It’s true that the culture is to wait on God to fix it. But instead things get more weird and more broken. But then you realise it’s really up to us to flee when there is a false prophet. But it takes a lot to finally see that. I thought this way once also. You can’t make someone see it. One day you just realise that is the correct thing to do - leave the group.
We were in the RCG for a few years in the early 2000's. It was apparent then that DP was full of himself, and wasn't anyone that God would ever use to lead the "end-time work". Most of those we knew in RCG, have long since left or died. It's sad, but not surprising to see this kind of abuse going on in RCG, but unfortunately it isn't the only COG with this problem.
Listen, for many many years I was one of those second generation WCG, raised from the late 50s on. Into adulthood, having my own kids, never 100% convinced, but I stayed, just. In. case. Like a lot of us, we saw through the curtain. But in the back of my mind personally, what if? Then I came to realize, if it was going to happen, it would happen whether I showed up to services and all the individual feast days or not. I learned it was more about my personal relationship with my faith and not in works. I came to see all those tithes and offerings were being thrown away to mammon, while we were living hand to mouth. And all that not having the most concrete vindication that the RCG members have had for years. It's as plain as the nose on your face if you only choose to look in the mirror.
Anon at 9:55. You had me right up until the end. Grace, the true grace of Jesus Christ, was, and is, NOT cheap. It cost Him everything. It is not cheap grace to consider the Scriptures from Romans-Philemon, and see the impossible cost of law keeping. That is expensive, beyond measure and an impossibility for every human that has ever lived.
Remember, we were purchased at a price and Paul was imprisoned, beaten, nearly drowned multiple times and chained in jail just so we could receive the Gospel of Grace, not the gospel of law. He went to every length possible so we could have the freedom that is in Christ, apart from the law. There is nothing cheap about that.
"AnonymousTuesday, October 18, 2022 at 9:18:00 PM PDT
what was the new rule at the FOT this year."
The rule is ex-members of family still attending RCG are not allowed to attend social activities anymore. Even if the person is respectful or has no intention of "sowing division" they are no longer welcome at RCG events. This is being done to avoid "leaking" of information.
"AnonymousTuesday, October 18, 2022 at 8:35:00 PM PDT
If the spirit of God is the spirit of a sound mind, how can any of these people be converted?"
Scriptures do show that people with the Spirit of God can most certainly fall into unsound teachings. For the people in RCG that do indeed have God's Spirit, it is up to them to recognize the warning pricks from God's Spirit and act on it.
II Timothy 4:3
"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions..."
Will some hang on to the PACK , even if he dies??
Yes, there are still those who think that HWA will be ressurected or the like, or that the "mantle" has passed to Kitchen, or Thiel or whoever.
So Pack will live on with a few for many years, even after his passing. Hopefully, the mass bulk of Pack's followers will find better things to be devoted to.
From time to time we have had commenters appear here who say "Oh, I know (insert faction leader) is not playing with a full deck, but the doctrine is what matters."
I would argue the opposite, that enabling a sick leader just because he says the right things once in a while is in fact contributing to the harm of others.
Jessica's touching letter reminds us of one sobering point. She wrote:
It leads me to believe I've forever lost these friends to a raging false prophet and that they will start becoming even more imbalanced in their thinking as the teachings become more strange.
Typical of most exits, Jessica sounds as though she believes she left at exactly the right moment, or at least not too far after that moment, so she says that things will "start" becoming more unbalanced henceforward. Poor Jessica may not yet realize just how long ago the "start" of the strange imbalance began. I'm glad she's out, but I hope she does the necessary work to discover just how much healing must be ahead for her before she can again call herself "balanced" after years of DCP/RCG.
If Dave is so filled with pride, perhaps Dave has gotten to follow the wrong king.
What might be the source of Dave's pride? Might Job have known?
Job 41:33 "Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.
:34 He beholdeth all high [things]: he [is] a king over all the children of pride."
Will Dave stop following that king of pride mentioned in Job 41?
Time will tell...
John
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