Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Dave Pack: Talking Until It’s True



Talking Until It’s True

 

Nobody on the face of the earth has a more dysfunctional relationship with the Holy Days than David C. Pack of The Restored Church of God. Throughout the year, he fixates on a Holy Day and talks the brethren into a coma with his electrifying reasons for this, that, and the other malarkey. He marvels at his own cleverness in coming up with a new catchphrase or analogy that becomes as short-lived as his empty promises.

 

As of “The Greatest Unending Story! (Part 464)” on August 26, 2023, the Feast of Trumpets has again caught his eye. All she had to do was gyrate in a tight sweater, and poor Feast of Tabernacles got ghosted, left to wonder why she was not pretty enough. Dave likes ‘em stacked, honey.

 

Everyone except Dave knows this relationship is temporary. But hey, maybe things will be better this time around. After all, both have matured over the last year and had more life experience to gain wisdom to avoid the pitfalls of the past. Rumor has it they already hooked up, and nobody at Headquarters has the heart to tell him love is not better the fifth time around.

 

David C. Pack is now the Studmeister General of The Hit-It-N-Quit-It Church of Another god.

 

 

I am an unordained non-prophet/non-psychic, but you may doubt me. In the article, Mind The Gap, I wrote this before I listened to Part 464:

 

By introducing the new phrase "Initial Kingdom of God," he can save face by manipulating language for when he later shifts the First Kingdom timeline or adds back in a fourth iteration. Flip a coin to figure out which.

 

The coin landed on the edge and stayed put. Dave changed the timeline AND added a Fourth Kingdom back into the mix.

 

Part 464 was the polar opposite of the week before. Instead of padding and stalling, he made significant changes to the prophetic landscape.

 

•  The Kingdom of God does NOT arrive on the Feast of Tabernacles.

•  The Feast of Ingathering is Trumpets, not Tabernacles.

•  He returned to a four-measure Kingdom of God.

•  The identity/timing of the First Kingdom is a cliffhanger for Part 465.

•  The Feast of Trumpets is the Second Kingdom.

•  The Last Days began on Trumpets in 2015, not Tabernacles.

•  His inarguable “Golden Document” lays out the Day of the Lord.

 

David C. Pack can make gigantic changes in only 86 minutes because he has mastered the Bible-teaching technique known as "Just keep talking until it becomes true." Quoting the Bible is optional but enhances the illusion of authenticity.

 

Talking until it's true proved quite effective when he spent 100+ minutes declaring Russian President Vladimir Putin was the Sixth King of Revelation 17 but then wiggled out of it in a record 57 seconds.

 

The 1335 of Daniel is no stranger to this approach. Each time it started, stopped, moved, restarted, restopped, and moved again was all thanks to the patronizing efforts of one who knows how to keep talking until it becomes true.

 

 

Part 464 – August 26, 2023

@ 08:28 So, let’s talk a little bit more about Trumpets. Since we closed with trumpets have blown before. I hinted at something last week, and I wanna get back to it.

 

At this point, eyes rolled across the globe in The Restored Church of God. An international "Oh, here we go again,” thought in pure unison was so perfectly tuned that it almost became audible to dogs. It is time to dust off the old Trumpets “Kingdom Solar System” stored in a box in the garage.

 

@ 08:38 Let’s start asking some questions. I began to be troubled by something that the church taught. And I learned some things about it that have caused me to kind of reverse track, and I want you to understand what I learned.

 

“Kind of” reverse? Why members do not stand up and walk out for good could be studied by mental health experts for decades.

 

@ 8:54 The church always taught that the Feast of Ingathering was the Feast of Tabernacles…Is that true? Is the Feast of Tabernacles the Feast of Ingathering?

 

You can always tell where Dave is going by how he leads the question.

 

@ 10:04 Does the Bible actually say the Feast of Ingathering is Tabernacles? Or does it say it is Trumpets? And careful reading discerns that.

 

David C. Pack is NOT your guy when “careful reading” is required. His piss-poor reading comprehension skills are legendary and well-documented.

 

Spoiler Alert: The Bible never says it is Trumpets. He says that. Which then makes it true.

 

Dave has an awful track record for mucking up prophecy so bad his own church has to remove content from its websites. Brethren can have fun in Member Services counting how many "Greatest Untold Story" Parts have gone missing since the last time they looked.

 

@ 11:07 That began to weigh on me. Do we have something wrong here? Are WE under the impression that we’re waiting for the Feast of Tabernacles for the Kingdom of God when it is Trumpets? So, I began to look more deeply at it.

 

“Are WE under the impression?” Are you kidding, Dave? That was no impression. That was Part 461. The Kingdom of God arriving “at the split-second” of the Feast of Tabernacles next month was the official Restored Church of God doctrine. Like all other understanding in that organization, it comes and goes based on David C. Pack’s say so.

 

After this, Dave began using circular logic, assumptions, and presumptions to make a case that “the Feast of Ingathering” is Trumpets and NOT the Feast of Tabernacles.

 

This first question-as-a-point is a prime example of much of the Part 464 content.

 

@ 11:27 Would God put Trumpets and Atonement at the back end of one year and the Feast of Tabernacles just days apart at the start of another year? That would be a strange thing to do.

 

Totally strange. People have been troubled for centuries accepting Christmas just before New Year’s.

 

Throughout Part 464, Bible verses are slathered with the mortar of Dave’s confirmation bias. He talks and talks and talks until it all becomes true, regardless of what the Bible says.

 

 

Once David C. Pack “sees” something in the Scriptures a certain way, even an oracle from Gabriel could not dissuade him.

 

@ 15:27 …and I haven’t even gotten into the things that will explain how the church never had the Feast of Ingathering correct.

 

How many more Worldwide Church of God teachings must be dismantled before Dave finally abandons it entirely? The way he continually chips away at WCG doctrines, you get the impression the Apostasy was taking place long under the rein of Herbert W. Armstrong, and it did not take Joe Junior and his pepperoni-lusting cohorts to bring it about.

 

Herbert W. Armstrong got so many things so wrong for so long that it seems inevitable that the day will come when Dave finally disregards him fully. That dead “apostle” will eventually become no more than “just some misguided old coot who thought he saw special things in the Bible” until David C. Pack had to come along and clean up his ignorant mess.

 

The one positive thing you can say about HWA and his legacy is that when he had a doctrine, he stuck to it for decades. Dave is known for teachings that cannot endure past supper.

 

@ 15:43 So, let’s just formally state here before we go through all this (and I’ll state it a couple more times), the week WE thought [laughs] the date WE thought we were waiting for just jumped two weeks closer.

 

That is called “spin.” Dave puts a happy face on reversing his own ideas. All this means is that his impending failure will happen two weeks sooner than anticipated. And it will surely fail.

 

@ 15:57 We’ll talk a little later about whether anything happens even in front of Trumpets. That’s a separate question. My purpose now is to thoroughly and completely remove all doubt that the Kingdom of God does come at Trumpets.

 

@ 26:43 The Feast of Ingathering is Trumpets. It has always been Trumpets.

 

Edward L. Winkfield (aka “Stepford Prime”) must be curled in a ball under his desk when he considers even more literature in the dwindling RCG library that will have to change.



@ 1:23:51 The Kingdom comes on Trumpetsand two days later, everybody’s enjoying it.

 

 

David C. Pack keeps talking until it becomes true. Since no clear verses in the Bible make his point, he has to talk around them. Each verse he reads must be explained and explained and over-explained.

 

He cannot let the Bible interpret itself because it was written like an ancient Mad Libs. Dave needs to fill in the blanks with his words so it can say what he needs it to.

 

In this example of Dave using his circular, self-supporting logic, he actually exposes a big hole in his own conclusion. He fills the air with words, trying to defeat the Feast of Tabernacles, but winds up defeating the Feast of Trumpets at the same time.

 

Time to pause the skimming.

 

@ 32:37 It is interesting, is it not, brethren, that when God says Feast of Tabernacles, it means it? He says it. Does He just interchangeably call the Feast of Tabernacles the Feast of Ingathering? Or does He use a different term because they're not the same thing? The Feast of Ingathering is the Feast of Ingathering. The Feast of Tabernacles is seven days. It’s the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Ingathering is a season. The Feast of Tabernacles is seven days. They can’t be the same. They don’t carry the same name.

 

And yet, he is saying the Feast of Ingathering is the Feast to Trumpets. Why does that work and Tabernacles does not? Because Dave says so. He JUST said so.

 

@ 26:43 The Feast of Ingathering is Trumpets. It has always been Trumpets.

 

And the Feast of Trumpets is a single day, not a “season,” either. Seven days does not work, but one day does. See the problem? And this is not the most significant hole Dave has on his hands with this foolishness.

 

Brad would say I am assigning motive here, but based on how Dave presents his Ingathering evidence, I get the distinct impression he knows it is false. The largest “tell” of the night was when he did not have the courage to read all of Deuteronomy 16:16.

 

@ 34:41 “Three times in a year shall all your males appear,” and then it lists the three. It just God just chooses to list it, telling Moses you're gonna do it.

 

That one verse sinks his entire ship, and I think Dave is acutely aware. His talking it into the cornfield afterward is painfully transparent.

 

Examining key verses in Exodus 24 and 32 alongside Deuteronomy 16:16 will be handled in another article. The points are too sharp and too exposing to be missed. The Bible destroys the entire “Ingathering is Trumpets” argument and confirms it is Tabernacles.

 

 

@ 27:38 So, we didn’t carefully discern that the Feast of Ingathering is NOT Tabernacles. It’s a nice concept. It’s not wrong to think that way. It’s certainly when all of the brethren gather. But, this isn’t about the brethren gathering. Feast of Ingathering. It’s about the crops being gathered.

 

David C. Pack will use literal interpretations of verses when he needs to but also explains them as "types" when it is convenient to his current theology. This idea is well-suited when your overarching strategy for unveiling the Mystery of God is to keep talking until it becomes true. You can never lose in that scenario. Well, except when you start setting dates.

 

For David C. Pack's new theory about the Feast of Ingathering to be correct, this is what needs to be believed by the brethren of The Restored Church of God after hearing all of Part 464.

 

·      Exodus 23 and 34 list three holy days in a purposefully wrong order, but Deuteronomy 16:16 lists three holy days in the correct order.

·      Twice, God intentionally deceived Moses by tricking him into recording lists out of order.

·      Twice, God intentionally had verses recorded in Exodus in a “confusing” manner to hide it from all His sheep for thousands of years.

·      Twice, God intentionally gave a list out of order with no biblical solution to prove what Ingathering actually is without a man’s private interpretation to piece it together.

·      If God once deceptively listed something in the Bible, you will never be able to trust if any other list is correct without a man telling you so.

·      For over fifty years, Herbert W. Armstrong did not carefully read and discern the verses on this topic, and all the ministers in WCG were not allowed to see it correctly.

·      God did not allow Herbert W. Armstrong to understand “the Feast of Ingathering” correctly because to know it “too soon” would spoil His plan.

·      The members of The Radio/Worldwide Church of God, throughout their entire existence, never correctly understood the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles.

·      The Feast of Ingathering is about agriculture in the Old Testament and is not a symbol of how God will gather His people at the culmination of His plan. But it is “okay” if you see it that way.

·      The invisible start of The Last Days in 2015 invisibly moved from the Feast of Tabernacles to the Feast of Trumpets as easily as just saying it makes it so.

 

All those things must be accurate for the Feast of Ingathering to be the Feast of Trumpets, as presented in Part 464.

 

The alternative would be that David C. Pack is just wrong.

 

Consider carefully before you take a coarse file to Occam’s Razor.

 

David C. Pack knows how to fill the air with words without saying very much. He knows how to read the Bible but explain away what it says so it says what he wants. He learned more than he realized from Joe Junior and the Pepperoni Crew.

 

With Part 465 coming this weekend, we can all rest assured the RCG tradition of talking until anything becomes true shall continue.

 

Why are you still putting up with this, brethren?

 


Marc Cebrian:

See: Talking Until It’s True

9 comments:

  1. Herbert W Armstrong never got the festivals right either. A mistranslation of Lev 23:2 is most disconcerting: "feasts" should be fixed/appointed/set times (Hebrew moed) because not all the times are feasts. There is no "Feast of Trumpets". It's the sabbath of noise. Trumpets are not specified in the Hebrew. It appears Dave's delusion is increasing - 2Thess 2:11. Briefly:

    The moon was made for fixed times/moeds (Strong's 4150, from 3259 meaning to fix) - Ps 104:19. God's calendar is based on the moon, fixed from creation, and the Jews have the lunar calculations of that calendar - Rom 3.

    There are only three festivals/chags (Strong's 2282) - Ex 23:14-16. The 14th Passover is not mentioned. Why? It is the first day of seven days of unleavened bread (DUB) - Eze 45:21. The 15th (Lev 23:6) is the NTBMO feast, one day.

    Lev 23 lists both festivals/chags and sabbaths. All the times are moeds but only three as listed in Ex 23 are feasts. The other times are weekly and annual sabbaths

    ReplyDelete
  2. Know what's funny. And in this case, I don't mean ha ha funny. I was reading the opening paragraph, and my mind auto-completed the first sentence. I tripped over what the word actually was, and had to backtrack and reread: What I thought it was going to say was "Nobody on the face of the earth has a more dysfunctional relationship with the Holy Spirit than David C. Pack of the Restored Church of God."

    After reading of this character on virtually every blog or forum which treats Armstrongism, that Freudian thought is what flowed into my mind!

    I immediately thought to myself, "No, that is a terrible thing to think about a fellow human being! Would I like it if someone said that of me???"

    But, it would certainly explain all of his prophetic failures, and the lack of embarrassment, the failure to repent of the sheer mental torment he puts his followers through, and who knows what else?

    ReplyDelete
  3. As you know my favorite Dave Pack quote is:

    "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."
    David C Pack
    December 12, 1998

    You, Marc, are the master of "And I hope you'll remember it well enough to quote it right back to me"

    Your record keeping and ability to retrieve what Dave really doesn't hope you'll quote right back to him, is impeccable. Dave spoke the truth, for once, when he said " 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."

    Well done thou good and faithful, holder of feet to fires, guy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. When will people who keep getting abused by religion and ideology finally figure out that religion and ideology are the problem? Most people, never.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well Dennis, Dave does not say those things because he is deceived or because he forgot but because he is lying and playing with people's minds. It's a power trip he is on.

    Dave basically said: if I lie to you and paint it with a different face it's because I forgot not because I'm lying.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sooner or later, either Pack or Thiel will have something "kind of happen" that might match a little bit with some of the mountainous amount of BLABBER that they produce and put out.

    Although they have done that in the past, on vaguely coincidental things, or "confirmation bias" basis, sooner or later a stopped clock is right, (at least for a second or two) and its bound to happen for both of those characters. Im sure there will be a marching band and great celebration when that happens.

    ReplyDelete
  7. David C Pack predicted so many things that failed to happen. One thing in particular that I remember was the "reunification of the brethren". Pack predicted that all the members from all of the various COG groups would soon abandon their groups, join his, and "reunite" together. Yet, when members from other groups send him email inquiries or ask him questions he doesn't like he responds nastily and aggressively and resorts to name calling like calling them things such as gnats. Lol David C Pack you are confused! You didn't help reuniting anyone 😂

    ReplyDelete
  8. Leave it to Dave not to let an upcoming holy day go to waste and miss an opportunity for yet another date failure.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks Marc. Was starting to have withdrawals from not hearing about Pack. Still a little
    confused .... Does the kingdom still come on the first day of fot, or has that changed to
    trumpets now, or has another kingdom been added again?? Sorry, I have a problem reading this
    in detail since the detail change so often.

    ReplyDelete