Thankfully Dead
David C. Pack of The Restored Church of God has never been accused of being “warm and fuzzy.” The Pastor General equates how trustworthy something is to how loud he can shout it. Sometimes, it feels like he is attacking something with disgust, even when he is countering his own recent understanding.
Mass world death was a central topic during "The Greatest Unending Story (Part 438)!" on April 27, 2023. This tied into the Kingdom to Israel arriving on Pentecost and the Kingdom of God on the Feast of Trumpets. How do two Holy Days connect to the death of over five billion people? The Tribulation.
Now that Dave avoids “setting dates,” he still does everything he used to except the clear summary that provides compelling YouTube content.
“Elijah announces to the world on Pentecost, one month from now.”
Nope. He did not say that.
“Jesus Christ returns on the Feast of Trumpets this year.”
Nope. He did not say that.
“Five billion people die starting in August.”
Nope. He did not say that.
The Bible verses are there. The timing is there. His private interpretations are there. But he refuses to finish the job of “making it plain.”
This is the current picture as of Part 438:
• The Kingdom to Israel arrives on Pentecost. It begins at sunset on May 27 at 8:48 PM ET. There is a three-month announcement period in which David C. Pack, as Elijah That Prophet, speaks to the world, offering everyone the opportunity to obey God before horrific destruction occurs.
• The Tribulation begins on August 17 at 8:22 PM ET. This is one month before Trumpets and sees the rise of the Sixth Head Man of Sin. During this period, two-thirds of everyone alive will die. That is approximately 5.3 billion people. This death is permanent, also known as the “second death.” They will never afterward have hope of receiving salvation.
• The Kingdom of God arrives on the Feast of Trumpets on September 15 at 7:36 PM ET. Jesus Christ rules this one-year Kingdom where everyone left is trained to help facilitate the next seven-year Kingdom.
Even though Dave will not spell out a quotable summary, that is Part 438. How much of it sticks in the short-term remains to be seen. The postponement of Part 439 is not a good sign for consistency’s sake.
The scenarios David C. Pack preaches about are in the Bible. There are clear verses about global punishment and mass death. Parents eating children. Children betraying parents. Death on a scale that has not yet been seen since Creation. All of that is true.
The problem is not the source of the information or whether it will come to pass. The problem is the filter through which it is disseminated. David C. Pack has proven he is unreliable and untrustworthy.
Plus, there is a fist-sized callus where his heart should be.
After painting the dire picture of permanent death for most alive today, Dave informed the brethren that their loved ones may fall victim to this. It must have been exciting to those in The Restored Church of God with non-member parents, children, or friends.
That scenario includes every single one of them.
fearmongering
the action of deliberately arousing public fear or alarm about a particular issue
Part 438 – April 27, 2023
@ 1:07:18 So, I can’t tell you exactly how all of our relatives come through all of this. If your relatives are dead, thank God every day that your relatives are dead ‘cause they’re gonna come straight into the Kingdom of God. If you have friends that died, everybody who’s shot and killed in this world right now, you read about people killed in Chicago, drop to your knees, and thank God they were killed. ‘Cause they’re not goin’ through this [First Kingdom]. They’re gonna come up in the Kingdom of God. Maybe they suffered enough.
@ 1:08:06 I lost my 99-year-old aunt about ten months ago. Thank God she died. I think differently now. I watch the news differently.
I am sure there was quite the condolence card from the Pack household. Who are we kidding? Mrs. Pack wrote the card, and MAYBE Dave signed it.
How could I possibly think that?
The man who voiced The World to Come, most Behind the Work documentaries, and many other videos for The Restored Church of God was dying of cancer. We commissioned a sympathy card for him. All MPS signed it. Brad Schleifer signed it. Mrs. Pack signed it and wrote a beautifully thoughtful note.
But I could not get David Crowl Pack to sign it. All he had to do was write his name. Apparently, he could not be bothered. Brad and Mrs. Pack were handling this, as I was not allowed.
Whether this was Dave saying, “I’ll get to it," and never did, or his human pillows never brought this to his attention, I do not know. Brad knows, and maybe he can clue me in one day.
No matter because the end result was the same. Alan received the card before he died. The card did not have David C. Pack's signature. This angered and disgusted me. It was a piercing moment that solidified that The Restored Church of God and David C. Pack are not practicing what they preach.
@ 1:51:43 Lemme say one last time, if you have friends or relatives who’ve died, thank God they did.
Dave must have forgotten what the mourning process is like. He is too far removed from emotional pain to consider how words like this would affect the brethren.
His primary point was that things will be so bad in the Tribulation that it is better for those you care about to already be dead so they can be resurrected into the Kingdom of God with a greater chance of avoiding eternal death.
Unfortunately, he is incapable of presenting that idea in a more palatable fashion. Emotional intelligence is not his strength. Neither is tact or compassion. Hence, you get explosive comments like this. Even if you slather on generous portions of context, it does not excuse the distress and panic he induces in the members of The Restored Church of God.
How Dave could preach fear and death without inserting the money angle is a mystery. He rarely lets an opportunity go by that ties panic and despair to Common, especially with another Green Envelope Day occurring later this month.
Dave’s latest tirade exemplifies the erosion of the RCG Tier System. He gets a thought in his head, and it shoots out of his mouth unfiltered. Empathy be damned.
The brethren of The Restored Church of God have the privilege of understanding this. Their eighteen-year-old children who bolted from the church could be eternally killed in the next three months. One spouse gets to look across the supper table at their non-believing spouse, quietly wondering what kind of death will befall them in August before being tossed into the Lake of Fire.
My great hope is that nobody in The Restored Church of God followed the instructions of David C. Pack. I hope nobody went before God on their knees and expressed gratitude for the murder of others.
When this doctrine inevitably changes, those same people will be guilted into returning on their knees to repent and ask forgiveness.
Paul told people to follow him as he followed Christ.
David C. Pack does not follow Jesus Christ as an example. His words are more similar to a dragon than a lamb. His words ring more like a foolish shepherd rather than a good one.
Once "The Greatest Untold Story!" Series is finally over, everyone can be thankful it is dead.
Marc Cebrian
See: Thankfully Dead
At 18, in 72, I left the church and went to community college. My mother, a member from ‘58, told me that if I heard that “they” were on their way to drop bombs on the US, to drive TOWARDS Manhattan as “they” would take out all the big cities first and she didn’t want me to suffer, be tortured and raped by “them.” Gee, thanks Ma.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the GRATEFUL DEAD were a rock band! ?
ReplyDeleteSeems Dave is a fan of The Grateful Dead
ReplyDeleteBeing a member of the RCG must be like sitting captively in a public restroom with your eyes watering because the guy in the stall next to yours is totally oblivious to the humanitarian gesture of a courtesy flush.
ReplyDeleteSo, what is the takeaway from Dave's latest example of insensitive buffoonery? Seems like we've got ourselves a major social dilemma! What is the proper way for any of us to greet Dave if we happen to run into him at the local dispensary? "Hi Mr. Pack, I hope you die!"??? Have we actually reached the point when we can openly express our most fervent wish for him, and is he warped enough to take it as a compliment? Can we also say it to Gerald Flurry or Bob Thiel?
I'd rather epistle in my epantsles than make David C. Pack my Apostle!
ReplyDeleteSpeechless. The Bible says to stay out of debt over and over. For a leader to demand people to go into debt not being able to provide for their families, give up their property, cars, savings, inheritances, steal from their spouses, not have money to bury a family member, get rid of pets and don't get any pets because they need to eat, maxing out credit cards IS SATAN.
ReplyDeleteWe have never been under the levitical system in the United States. That is Israel; not the USA. Satan comes to steal. Does anyone read the Bible? Why are people not reading the Bible? There are many, many verses talking about staying out of debt. It is so basic to provide for your family. These cults obviously manipulate normal human emotions encouraging them to put them into a box and set them on a shelf . Take the David Ramsey Financial Peace Class. Take care of your families. Have a retirement for when you are too old to work. Stop burdening the tax payers and giving money to people influenced by demons. This leads to depression, break up of marriage and family and atheist children.
That's Satan's goal.
What part of, "The devil seeks to kill steal, and destroy." does David Pack not understand? His response is the opposite of God's personality. Demons have no blood in them, so no compassion. Those are the voices Dave Pack listens to.
ReplyDeleteHow does he explain his Mothballed Media Center and the disappearance of his high-definition broadcast that was supposed to wake up 'Sardis backsliders'?
ReplyDeleteEven in the seventies Herb's multi-million-dollar WT broadcast failed to bring in new converts....tho once, I have to admit, a new young girl turned up at church...but she was unnerved by the dozens of lonely older men who instantly started to 'move in' on her...she bolted after a few weeks never to be seen again!
It would justice if some of these false narcissistic leaders of the Worldwide spin offs would have to get up at 4 am and work a REAL job and had to go the daily struggles the normal people have to endure. May be it would humble them a little bit and they lose a smidgen of their arrogance.
ReplyDeleteI have no great interest in Dave Pack and the RCG. I have worn thin on seeing his photograph. While I believe that all Armstrongists organizations should be opposed because they market heresy, I have no need to know the detail of their repetitive internal machinations.
ReplyDeleteSome controversial leaders revel in bad press because it makes them seem important. It keeps their names before their public. They can play the victim card. They have a significance they would not otherwise have. They might even run for president. Bad press might just be helping their cause and stroking their egos.
An infrequent update on Pack will do. I don't think anything more is warranted for this tempest in a teapot.
I might feel this way if..., well you know...Dave....
ReplyDeleteAmen and amen Anon @8:04 and Anon @ 9:00. The verse same questions I have asked over and over. I think part of the answer is, assuming the best of our fellow man, they are not reading their Bibles, IN CONTEXT, with a consistent hermeneutic. It is simply proof texting and Bible hopscotching. You cannot teach what you do not know and understand.
ReplyDeleteI think Dave missed his true calling as an interrogator at GITMO, considering how he waterboards Scripture.
Asenapine ...
ReplyDeleteAnother one of his bizzaro rants.
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't Dave a graduate of Ambassador college whose selling point was "teaching people how to live?"
We students who were just there for our worthless degrees (in the hopes they would some day be accredited) would occasionally mock Ambassador College amongst ourselves.. We'd make super plastic salesmens' facial expressions, and use exaggerated toothy grins as we said, "Remember, at Ambassador College, above all things, we're sincere!"
ReplyDeleteOh, and basing a career on bogus college degrees? Once again, Bob Thiel proves to be an imitator. Couldn't even be an originator about that! Like I've said many times over the years, none of these guys ever repent of HWA's sins. They consider them to be license!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I missed something, but where are the scriptures that say an unbeliever who dies will be resurrected into the kingdom of God?
Dave has a very charming personality. I bet AC woman were lining up to be his date.
ReplyDeleteMarc, do you know if he’s still planting trees?
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 2:13, I don't know if Dave is still planting trees, but I know for a fact he is spreading fertilizer every time he opens his mouth!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of fertilizer, wouldn't it be nice if an organization like an ACOG had brought a bunch of crap into your life, and if that was your only increase from them, you could somehow tithe your waste products, and send 1/10 of it to them as a symbol of what they had brought into your life?
ReplyDeleteActually, this is not an original idea with me. The one good thing I got from Armstrongism was my life-long job skill in the printing and mailing industry. One of the clients in my post-Armstrong career was a motorcycle magazine, and people who took umbrage with the magazine's editorial policies would sometimes send packages of their own fecal matter to the mailing department of the magazine. Expressing their displeasure in this way missed its mark, however. Unfortunately, it did not affect the fat cat movers and shakers who established the policies of the magazine. The lady who ran the mailing operation, who had become a very dear friend of mine, was seized with fear every time an incoming package arrived at her department.
It is a sad fact of life that the people and organizations who bring badness into our lives are often untouchable. When we retaliate, it only hurts their hired hands, people who are not unlike ourselves, while the authors of the badness share in the riches while they remain immune to any retaliation or bad karma directed towards their organizations. This insulation, or untouchability, in which others take the hit for their badness, is why perpetrators of mass badness often continue unfazed by the consequences of their own evil. It's a bitch waiting for the sword of Damocles, or returning karma to finally hit a Dave Pack, a Gerald Flurry, or even an arrogant little also-ran prick like a Bob Thiel. The perpetrators generally die with the most toys and win. Little salt of the earth "true believer" working people with good hearts often bear the brunt of the bad karma that should hit their employers or higher ups. Even if karma hits its mark, the little guys suffer the consequences disproportionately through loss of jobs or the cleaning up they are employed to do.
Some people at AC learned speaking and writing skills. Not a *total* waste of time.
ReplyDelete11:59, If it were appropriate, I'd thank you for pointing that out. But I attended high school in the #3 public school system on the list of top ten schools for the USA, was on student council, on the debate team, an athlete, and actually led an assembly or two. My test scores allowed me to proficiency out of Freshman English upon entry at AC.
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to assess where life might have taken me, had my parents not fallen for the scam. I'm just not one of these people who spent my entire life blaming HWA for all my problems or deficiencies and feeling robbed. In the absence of the scam, I may have been more successful, or less successful, it's difficult to determine that. I will say that I worked much harder than I otherwise might have, to overcome the negatives of a WCG childhood. Sometimes our early negatives motivate us in ways that our positives cannot. Life under any conditions is only a waste of time if we allow it to be. And, yeah, there's been waste, but overall, it has somehow trended upwards.
10.52 am
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned, you're trivializing the harm done by HWA. Accusing his victims of blaming the church for all their problems and deficiencies is a cheap shot, and is blaming the victim. Herbs victims have a right to feel robbed since he did in fact rob them.
Btw, I've heard of teenagers outside the church being in a near catatonic state as 1975 approached. So much for "enjoy your youth young man." Shame on those who think well of HWA.
Not trivializing, Buckwheat. I just refuse to be a victim, and hope that others from my generation have also refused to be victims.
ReplyDeleteThere was a near catatonic state alright, 3:32! As 1972-75 approached, young people in the church and those who were raised in it but had had left discovered a little something from the counter-culture which had by then become pretty much mainstream. It was called marijuana! In fact, if you wanted some good quality product and happened to know one of the ministers' kids, you were pretty much sittin' pretty. Parties all over the place, and there was a lot of pent-up desire for normal let your hair down socializing as opposed to the rigid, best behavior facade one had to put on for church.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, as people realized that the end was not coming, and by the time the Reagan years began in the early '80s, many of the young church people had become mainstreamed and took their places as productive members of society, into careers and the families they thought they'd never get to have, you know, life! The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" became an anthem for some, and people who thought they'd never get to have a life are now in their mid-sixties to seventies. Herbie's fraud never did get us.
It amazes me that Armstrongism has even persisted after the total collapse of its very center-piece! The Germans never got us, and never will! In the remote chance that they come now, oh well! Too late and too bad for Heriberto Doublevee Armstrong cause we already got to have a life!
Grateful Dead at RCG
ReplyDeleteanon1052,
ReplyDeleteYou apparently had a lot of gifts; you are probably an outlier. I think your easy popularity and confidence also protected you. That's great. And, focusing on victim status is not a good long-term strategy for success. However, recognizing being victimized can help you get over some things if you don't view yourself as a victim.
But, your success due in part to your gifts and probably a circumstance that other equally gifted people did not have can result in a perspective that comes across as trivializing. For instance, if your family was upper middle-class then tithing does not have the same impact as it does on a marginally poor or lower middle-class family. Actual opportunities can be lost that have lasting effects. Still, as you alluded to, we really don't know how our lives would develop if we never associated with the wcg. This doesn't mean we can't dig into the negative effects of the wcg on our lives in order take corrective action...which you have done, but others have been put upon more than you, and me for that matter.