Dave Pack: Birthday Present…Truth

 

Birthday Present…Truth

David C. Pack of The Restored Church of God dismantled another legacy doctrine of the Worldwide Church of God by sanctioning the celebration of birthdays. While teaching the “present truth” that observing birthdays is not inherently evil after all, the Pastor General shined another spotlight on the rebellion and monumental hypocrisy of Herbert W. Armstrong.

For years, the Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God had not-so-secretly honored his mother by sending her roses on her birthday in direct violation of a doctrinal understanding enforced by lesser “ministurds” for decades. (Thank you for that phrase, Dennis.)

The moral of the story: If you are “low key” about your covert defiance of church doctrines and happen to be highest in the food chain of your dogmatic religious organization, you can get away with just about anything. David C. Pack has fully embraced this “grand pattern” and plans to preserve it until he retires into the grave.

Beginning with “The Greatest Unending Story! (Parts 552 & 553)” on January 11, 2025, Dave eased into dissolving the long-held belief that Jesus Christ was born on the Feast of Trumpets in the fall. It was no coincidence that the discovery of this mystery birthday ties directly into the timing of the 1335 and the Day of the Lord 1290 of the book of Daniel, which ushers the arrival of the Kingdom of God…just over the horizon.

Jesus Christ was born on Abib 1
The 1335 begins on February 12, 2025
Not January 29
The Day of the Lord begins on March 29

What was sin yesterday is righteousness today.

It was a tremendous relief for members who no longer needed to hide their interactions with relatives around birthdays. The guilt from eating a bite of cake or paranoia around being spotted holding a present has been evaporated. Repentance is no longer required after saying “Happy Birthday.”

Birthdays have come to The Restored Church of God.

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Dave has grossly misunderstood the 2 Peter 1:12 term “present truth” and uses it as his Get Out of Jail Free Cardwhenever he wants to invoke or revoke an established church doctrine. The way he understood something yesterday is different from today, but both adherences were correct at the time. This invalidates the concept of “error” from church vocabulary.

Dave's technique is to read the same ambiguous verses he taught for decades and reverse the logic to fit his current narrative.

·      None of Job’s children died on a birthday. Only the servants did.

·      Pharaoh killing the baker on his birthday “does not taint” them.

·      John the Baptist's death on Herod's birthday is just incidental.

·      Ecclesiastes 7:1, "the day of death than the day of one's birth," was misunderstood. It does not mean birthdays are inherently evil.

·      Acknowledging a birthday is not the same as observing a pagan custom.

I already knew this, and so did many who cycled through RCG. Regardless of the evidential legitimacy of enforced doctrines, a member must comply, or they are labeled self-willed, arrogant, and rebellious.

The standard ministerial response was:

“Oh, you think you know better than the ministers of Jesus Christ who were ordained and received an extra portion of the Holy Spirit? God opened your eyes and not theirs because you’re so special? God defied His own government structure by revealing to a lay member what He has withheld from the only living apostle?”

As of Part 552…apparently so.

Even when I was a zealous member of The Restored Church of God, I knew their teachings about birthdays being evil were thin and unbiblical. Man, they had to reach. Even the World to Come episode that addressed this was based on inductive reasoning, not clear Bible verses.

RCG has already begun washing their hands of the sin of the sin of birthdays. You will no longer find the four-page article “Are Birthday Celebrations Christian?” once listed on their website, but you can visit the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to see it in its former glory. Or download a PDF copy HERE.

The 2017 Pillar issue featuring the article “What’s So Bad About Birthdays?” is available for download.

Reading their now-redacted materials with a “birthday present truth” perspective exposes how flimsy some RCG doctrines can be because they were established on human steam, not clear commands of God. The “because I say so” theology lives on.

If there ever was a long-standing doctrine that lacked power and clarity, it was what WCG and RCG taught about God hating birthdays. The rationale in this Real Truth article from 2014 is some of the weakest you will find, yet it was compelled upon members anyway.

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Part 552 – January 11, 2025
@ 27:46 Now, that’s a shocking thing to understand. And the thing it does [chuckles] it makes Mr. Armstrong look like he was doing something RIGHT when he honored his mother on her birthday for decades of his life.

The unrecognized implication is that Herbie was knowingly doing something WRONG, and Dave was just fine with that. According to David C. Pack, "The greatest servant I ever knew" was a blatant hypocrite and willful authoritarian who kept his defiance “low key.”

The religious apple does not fall far from the corrupted tree.

Herbert W. Armstrong. Do as I say, not as I do.™

Despite granting liberty to the birthday captives, Dave pled for moderation.

@ 48:39 My purpose is not to spell out what we can do on birthdays. Clearly, were time to go on, I would address that.

@ 48:50 But let’s not have what I call a “pepperoni pizza moment.” …Don’t go, “Oh, boy!” You know, over the next few weeks, please don’t go off half-cocked and do something. You know, throw some big party. Don’t do that. Wait. Show restraint.

Dave wants the brethren to show restraint after decades of damaging experiences with their families around birthdays. Ask anyone freed from RCG about the uncomfortable situations they found themselves in when close family members begged them to be a part of a birthday celebration.

Dave is doctrinal Karate-Do-Yes and Karate-Do-No at the same time. This feels awfully familiar to their New Moon observances, which still have that trumpet making an uncertain sound.

@ 1:38:15 …but it duddn't mean that gifts couldn't be given on birthdays. Or that they should be. So, that’s why I say we gotta be careful.

Countless difficulties were needlessly created because members tried to obey the anti-birthday command that they were force-fed while also trying to counter-balance the perspective they were in a repressive cult. We all walked that narrow line at some point, whether it was attending a party but not eating the cake or standing silently while everyone else gleefully sang, “Happy Birthday.”

This now-defunct doctrine caused grief and pain for children, whether they were members or not. It is heart-wrenching for a parent to explain to their small child that they can only observe an activity but not participate.

My buddy Peter in Canada still gets hot under the collar when you mention the harm of RCG’s birthday doctrine. He is justly angry for what he allowed RCG to put his children through.

Rejecting birthdays sparked tension between spouses. Emotionally separated parents from children. This created an unnecessary resentment towards all religious organizations and resulted in the opposite of “letting your light shine.” Instead of letting our works carry a good name, Christianity was further despised. Thanks a lot, Herbie.

This doctrinal flip-flop will not heal the trauma of generations nor erase the personal horror stories many endured in the name of “obeying God.” According to David C. Pack, all that family suffering was in vain.

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Birthdays are now acceptable in The Restored Church of God because determining the day of Jesus Christ's birth is essential to knowing when the 1335 of Daniel would begin 45 days before that.

Abib 1 [1290] begins at sunset on March 29.
Shevat 15 [1335] begins at sunset on February 12.

Dave needed one birthday to matter, so he made it happen.

@ 1:17:20 If that could be the birthday of Christ, you you almost find yourself asking, “Does the Millennium begin on Christ’s birthday? Abib 1 [February 12, 2025]?" I mean, it's starting to look suspicious, but we've gotta prove it.

@ 1:30:55 And when that week [70 Weeks Prophecy] is over, when we get to the next Abib 1 on His Day, which would be kept forever, every year forever, on His Day, the Day of Christ. If you can prove Abib 1, we’re gonna celebrate His birthday every day forever. We won’t call it a birthday party, but it’d be His birthday. So, I mean, we’ll let God tell us what it was.

Part 553 – January 11, 2025
@ 05:49 So, Christmas is a counterfeit birthday. A counterfeit gift giving in the wrong time to the wrong Jesus, by the way. So, it’s fitting that Another Jesus would be born at another time.

Just like David C. Pack is a counterfeit apostle, prophet, teacher, shepherd, and minister.

@ 06:18 So, God says I hate your star. Okay? Now, nothing wrong with a star. God showed a star when when Christ was born. Nothing wrong with a star. “I hate YOUR star.” [chuckles]

Dave slipped into another doctrinal moonwalk without the same fanfare he used to enact it. He taught in 2023 that stars were evil. But today, not so much.

The same weak strategy to promote the evils of birthdays is employed to defuse them.

@ 07:11 So, you can begin to think of things in a certain light, and this is a whole different way of thinking. You’ll begin to work off of these things in your mind. There nothing wrong with this.

@ 21:04 On Abib 1, in this great Day of the Lord, you could have all kinds of people saying, “Happy Birthday and Happy New Year.” Don’t say “Merry Christmas.” [laughs] Okay?

@ 22:24 It’s not Trumpets. We’re trapped in Trumpets. And God know that Herbert Armstrong, this great servant, he did [chuckles] he did what he was supposta do, he had the truths of God right. In fac–in some ways, he was a little ahead of his time because he did what he as he honored his mother and didn’t stand in the way of other people.

When Herbert W. Armstrong played down his hypocrisy, he posthumously exercised premature righteousness, not arrogant stubbornness. Maybe all the members of The Restored Church of God should roll the same dice by picking their least favorite doctrine and putting that philosophy into practice.

@ 22:47 [HWA] Just said keep it low-key. Pretty much everybody [in WCG] did and and and most did nothing at all.

Brethren of The Restored Church of God, please hear your Pastor General. David C. Pack just told you that if you are going to willfully sin, just keep it low-key. That is totally fine.

What a dismal swamp of confused doctrines that spiritually bankrupt organization teaches.

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Knowing the birthday of Jesus Christ caused all the mystery pieces to fall into place, and David C. Pack will finally be proven to be a true servant of God on February 12, 2025.

@ 38:01 So, you you’re looking at February 12^th. If there’s some other way, I don’t know how to do it, brethren. I’m I’ve tried my heart out.

@ 38:59 Remember that God puts Elijah in charge, typed by Jeremiah, at the “new year of trees.” Well, guess what? That is the 15^th, the 15^th of Shevat. 15^th of Shevat.

@ 53:15 A Trumpets Day of the Lord, Christ’s birthday in the fall, and the 1335 days that was related to that since they did not see they [WCG] did not see that. Worldwide did not see this First Kingdom. All of that collapsed together now. It’s over.

It is hard to fathom that The Restored Church of God is not yet over. And yet, it still limps along.

During “The Greatest Unending Story! (Part 554)” on January 18, 2025, Dave visited the idea of moving The Last Great Day again. In 2023, he attempted “The Last Great Moving Day” by declaring it needed to shift from the fall to the end of the Days of Unleavened Bread. That idea cooled faster than his coffee. 

During Part 554, Dave plucked out that holy day and placed it onto Abib 1 to fit the rest of his theological fantasy because…why not?

Part 554 – January 18, 2025
@ 21:26 So, it makes ya suspicious. Is the Last Great Day gonna shift?

@ 21:43 Is the Last Great Day portable?

"The Greatest Unending Story! (Part 555)" given on January 25, 2025, was a colossal nothingburger. Yawn. As a follow-up, Dave was a no-show on Wednesday’s New Moon despite his assurances he would speak. You cannot trust the words of David C. Pack. He continuously proves that.

The entire church system HWA constructed continues to be an unreliable mess, and David C. Pack persists in championing that filthy banner of malarkey.

Birthdays are now sanctioned in The Restored Church of God, but that is only a present…truth.

Marc Cebrian

See: Birthday Present…Truth

On Not Being Perfect: Against the Armstrongist Idea of Becoming God-as-God-is-God

 

A Depiction of Mathematical Perfection

(Fair Use)

On Not Being Perfect 

Against the Armstrongist Idea of Becoming God-as-God-is-God

By Scout

 

My wife expects me to be perfect.  But she knows I am not God.  Talk about dissonance.  God is almighty and, by comparison, it’s a wonder I can function at all.  Only God is perfect and always will be.  He is absolute and cannot be improved upon. We are imperfect and always will be.  We will always be growing and improving (Philippians 3:13). A revealing analogy for this is any geometric figure.   A cube is pictured above.  It is a concept from geometry which, as other fields of mathematics, is concerned with the ideal.  When I say a geometric cube is a “concept”, I mean it can exist as a perfect shape in our minds.  But we do not find this perfect shape in nature.   Take iron pyrite, for instance.

When iron pyrite crystalizes, it forms a cube.  But any pyrite cube, even under the best of conditions for formation, is not perfect.  It only looks perfect to us at our natural viewing resolution.  In reality, its defining lines are formed of an arrangement of molecules of iron sulfide.  In geometry, ideal lines are defined as having length but no width. We can imagine a geometric line but we cannot draw one. If you could see the edge of the pyrite crystal, where two planes intersect to form a line, it would be ragged row of molecules, not perfect like the ideal geometric line.  God is perfect like the geometric cube in geometry and we are irregular like the cubic pyrite crystal.  

What does the analogy tell us?  There is a category difference between God and us. God is uncreated and absolute.  We are created and relative.  He is perfect but we will always strive to be perfect.   But Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”   One of the hallmark principles of the New Testament.  The ultimate stretch goal.  How can we become perfect like God is perfect?  Is Jesus being realistic?  Did the Pharisees, whom Jesus opposed so energetically, have it right – nothing is too extreme.  The term for perfect in Greek is “teleios” and its meaning is close to our word “complete.”  Teleios is related to the Greek word “telos” which means “goal”. Teleios expresses the idea that something has reached its intended goal.  In concept, teleios is like the term “finished product” rather than the philosophical concept of absolute, mathematical perfection.  Be the very best pyrite crystal you can be. 

And Jesus said, “as your Father in heaven.”  We are to reflect God’s perfection.  A pyrite crystal reflects but does not attain to the ideal geometry of a cube. Even in the next life we will be a reflection of God’s perfection like the moon does not generate light but reflects the light of the sun (Revelation speaks of this poetically, “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb”). If we are not in relationship with God, we will not reflect his perfection but dwell in darkness.   We are contingent and cannot function as independent, self-contained beings, now or ever.  If the sun goes out, the moon will no longer reflect any light. 

Again, Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  Armstrongists see this from an odd, minority perspective.  They see in this statement of Jesus the strange and heady idea that God’s perfection is attainable for them personally.  They can be one day, they believe, God as God is God.  Without a doubt we are to be partakers of the divine nature but there is a great, unsurpassable gulf between being the absolute God and merely a partaker of some of his virtues and capabilities.  Don’t get me wrong.  Being a partaker of the divine nature is the most wonderful destiny that one can imagine.  It transcends our ability to understand it.  It is just not the same as the unreachable and misinformed God-as-God-is-God idea. 

 

Pastoral Note:  I am in no way pastoral in my inclinations but there are some things that are so obvious that even I can discern them.  Perfectionists are the unhappiest people in the world.  They always want perfection, as they define it, and they are consistently and perpetually disappointed. Nothing worldly that you care about is perfect. A rock might be a perfect rock but who cares.  The Pharisees must have been a dour lot, if they really believed in all that compulsive attention to detail.  To teach someone to be a perfectionist without including the necessary concept of grace is to teach someone to be unhappy. Someone said that perfection is the enemy of good.  I agree with that. And I was joking about my wife.  She only expects me to be the amateur that I am.  Mostly.

 

 

Adult Sabbath School: The Unteachable Robert Thiel

 

This Posting is for Robert Thiel, only, 

as I am sure he will read it shortly.  

Whatever the context, you Robert, as head of God's one surviving True Church, keep taking Isaiah 28:10 out of it.

On August 31, 2020, you repeat, for the umpteenth time, your mistaken exegesis on how one is to study the Bible. In classic WCG mode, you once again make Isaiah 28:10 mean what it never meant.

Today, and once again, you perpetuate the error...

"The Bible Supports the View that It Tends to Literally Interpret Itself"

Notice what the prophet Isaiah taught:

Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message?…For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little”… But the word of the LORD was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” (Isaiah 28:9,10, 13 NKJV)." Should you literally believe the Bible?

====================================================

In the past, you complained....

Dennis Diehl, and many others, have ignored and/or despised the following instructions as to how to understand doctrine: 

 

9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: (Isaiah 28:9-10,)" 

Apostate, former WCG minister, challenges COGwriter’s biblical interpretation methods: Which should you rely on? 

 

It is you, Bob, who ignoring the context and making this mean what it does not.

so once again...

How NOT to Study The Bible
(Or at least which scriptures not to use explaining how)
By The Apostate Former Minister

(Your label Bob)

 

 

Isa 28:10 (KJV) For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little. 

 

 

The above scriptures, very familiar to all COG ministers and members alike, have been misquoted, misused, and misunderstood for decades. Ministers of every denomination quote them when asked "just how should we study the Bible?" It is taken to mean that one studies the Bible line by line, topic by topic, skipping over here and then over there to find similar ideas and phrases that one can simply stitch together and come up with God's eternal truths on all things.

The modern term might be called "Proof Texting". Often it is simply the "hunt and peck" method to showing what you already want to be so is so.

In our common COG experience we have the Dave Packs, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland types, along with the bit players in the form of yourself, who employ this tiptoeing through the Bible, "here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept " and coming up with pure trash and self-righteous drivel instructing good men everywhere how to interpret scripture through their mistaken notions about them.

Dave Pack can wander all over the Bible, Old Testament and New and come up with his weird and strange ideas about himself as spoken of by the Prophet Haggai, like anyone ever heard of Haggai, and get members gyrating in their seats. You can spend all day making Bronze Age weather explanations the modern-day ones and tell us it is how God "tries" to get our attention. They all do by looking here a little and there a little, putting line upon line together, and coming up with weird and strange explanations galore.

...they and you are mistaken.

To begin with, Isaiah is written to the drunken priests of Ephraim. I know "context" is not a word most COG ministers are familiar with, but context is important. In verse 7 we see the priests and prophets are being chided, to say the least, for being drunk with beer and wine, whether actually, figuratively or both, befuddled and stumbling while they are seeing visions and making rather important decisions. Not exactly the way to go but with the Assyrians beating on the door, understandable.

 

 

⁷ And these also stagger from wine
    and reel from beer:
Priests and prophets stagger from beer
    and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
    they stagger when seeing visions,
    they stumble when rendering decisions.
⁸ All the tables are covered with vomit
    and there is not a spot without filth.



 

 

Not a very pleasant sight and the information they come up with is, to both Isaiah and Bible God, puke.

In reality, it is Isaiah mocking these fools with the following which has been taken as "here a little, there a little, line up line, precept upon precept" and how to study the Bible. Some commentators feel this is what the priests are saying to Isaiah for chiding them. They definitely are NOT having a discussion on how to study the scriptures!

9 “Who is it he (Isaiah to the Priests or they to him in scoffing) is trying to teach?

To whom is he explaining his message? to those just taken from the breast?

To children weaned from their milk,

10 For it is:
Do this, do that,
a rule for this, a rule for that[a];
a little here, a little there.”



 

Translation:

Who are you talking to? (Either Isaiah to the drunken priests or they to Isaiah ) Children? You sound like children. (Or Isaiah sounds like a child to them in "Who does he think he is?" mode)
blah, blah, blah, nah nah-nah nah nah, do this, do that, rules here, rules there. Always the rules!

Bible God is mocking these men and accusing them of baby talk. In context, to me and others, it seems more of Isaiah mocking them in their drunken state than they him but either way, it is not a treatise on how to study the Bible. It's an accusing blow out between Isaiah, Bible God, and the Priests with the Assyrians waiting in the wings.

In the original Hebrew, the phrase in Isaiah 28 verses 10 and 13 is: "sav lasav sav lasav, kav lakav kav lakav" It is pure gibberish and akin to our "la la la la" and "blah blah blah." It is a mocking tone imitating the drunken gibberish of the priests and prophets of Ephraim and Judah as Assyria knocks at the door to scrape them off the earth. It might also be that the drunken priests are mocking Isaiah as It is NOT a scripture one should use to teach how to study the Bible that's for SURE!

"You want baby talk? I, the Lord, will give YOU baby talk. Want to make more fun of Isaiah? Get ready for this..."

¹³ So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
    they will be injured and snared and captured.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
    who rule this people in Jerusalem. 

 

Translation:

So then mister priest and prophet, you want to make fun of me for warning you? If that's the way you want to be then that's the way the Lord will teach you. Blah...blah...blah...nah nah nah nah nah...do this, do that. You like rules? I got rules! You will be over run by your enemies, you who rule Jerusalem. I will arrange for Assyria and the Babylonians to take you away.

(They would have no matter what, but Israel, being in the way between Africa and Europe, was always going to get overrun by someone. They spent a lot of their time trying to figure out why God was punishing them when in fact they just were in the way to the major nations seeking control as major nations are wont to do.)

 

So, there we have it. Short and simple. The next time you hear a Church of God Minister, Member or any devotee tell you that you study the Bible, "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little," just slap your head and explain it to them.

Isaiah 28:10, in CONTEXT, is Bible God/Isaiah mocking the drunken Priests of Israel (Ephraim) for issuing their rules to the people to "do this, do that" which sounds like baby talk and stupid, being drunk, while the enemies of Israel approach to take them away. It can also be viewed as the drunken priests scoffing at Isaiah first for warning them. Depends on the commentary. It cannot, however, be taken as the premier scripture on how to study the scriptures.

CONTEXT BOB.... It's not about how to study your Bible

January 16, the most important day in the history of the world!

It is hard to believe that Herbert Armstrong died 39 years ago on January 16, 1986. From that very moment on, the church has been rocked with untold idiotic rumors and scandals. Hundreds of splinter groups have formed, all claiming they are the best COG to ever exist in human history, so this is not unique to the wonder boy, The Great Bwana Bob, who regularly spouts the claim.

The rumors started the day HWA died. Tkach Sr. supposedly smothered him to death on Loma's favorite chair or in the bed, depending on which fool was telling the story so that he could claim the leadership of the church. Rod Meredith and Ellis LaRavia wet their pants because they thought they should have been made the new COG pope.

For several years, we were assured doctrines would not change, and then they did. Then, there was the infamous Christmas 1994 sermon that pushed many over the edge to start forming their own groups. 

The boys that went on to start the United Church of God gathered for over a year plotting and scheming how they could separate from the mother church, retaining their salaries, drawing as many people as they could with them, along with their tithe money.

Global church of God started in 1992 after the Worldwide Church of God spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in defending loudmouth Rod Meredith from a slander suit by Leona McNair (the first wife of Raymond (Buffy) McNair). Never having to spend a dime defending himself nor having to foot the large court judgment against him and the WCG, Rod quickly jumped ship into Global, where a group of sycophants had plotted and schemed to draw WCG members and their tithe money to support them, Rod and Raymond in their new splinter group.

All of these guys were late to the scene, though, as Gerald Flurry had left in a self-righteous fit in 1989 to start the Philadelphia Church of God. The PCG ended up being the most legalistic and abusive of the splinter groups. Gerald Flurry ended up getting arrested in 1993 for being drunk behind the wheel and trying to bribe a police officer and was quickly sent to jail. Flurry also got in trouble for plagiarizing Malachi's Message from a paper Jules Dervaes had written to the Worldwide Church of God as a warning.

Flurry, who has always operated out of sheer idolatry of HWA, soon started placing religious significance on the January 16 date. He started searching world events that fell on the 16th and decided that God had set this day apart from all others.

PCGNews on X (formerly Twitter) has this to say about the date:

“Single handedly the most ridiculous booklet I have ever read & this was even when I was deeply brainwashed & unable to think critically! This book actually contributed to my leaving the cult” Absolute insanity!

How can the Church of God sink so low? When we think it cannot, it does.

January 16 is supposedly God's miracle day! Who knew?

Flurry writes:

God’s Miracle Day!

Again and again, God is calling our attention back to the pivotal date of January 16. He has performed so many miracles on this date! And so many of the most tragic curses on Israel have happened on this date! Those curses are only a type of what is coming on the nations of Israel if they don’t take heed and look to the great God who is sending them. Everyone on Earth needs to pay attention to this and understand this important truth!

Study this date, and watch for it! It points you to a man around whom so much revolves in this end time! A man who built God’s spiritual temple. A man who restored all things. A man who preached the true gospel of the Kingdom of God to all nations as a witness. A man who warned Israel for decades of the curses and calamities they are about to experience. A man who prepared the way as a messenger before the Second Coming—and whose very work was a sign of the imminence of that earthshaking event!

But far more important than pointing you to a man who died on this date, studying January 16 points you to the great, living, Almighty God of Elijah!

God’s miracle day leads you to the omnipotent God, who rules in the kingdom of men and shapes world events to fulfill His prophecies. It directs you to the Father who is correcting the nations out of His love for them, to turn them from their sins and lead them back to Himself. It draws you to the God who is actively involved in His Church, speaking through revelation and opening mighty doors of opportunity.

And it helps you come to know the great God of miracles—who is about to send His Son to put down the rule of Satan, to take His place on the throne of David, and to establish His perfect Kingdom, administering the government of God and the royal law of God in perfect combination, forever!

Why is it in the Church of God, its god is always calling people to Herbert or some esoteric doctrine instead of calling people to the One they are supposed to be following, as they claim are? 

Notice the things they claim are significant that happend on Janaury 16. (of course, you could pick any date on the calendar and fins something intersitng to claim for that day)

Notable Events in the Church

• Jan. 16, 1990: Malachi’s Message arrives in mailboxes
  Stephen Flurry is first member baptized in the pcg
• Jan. 17, 1993: Key of David television program airs for the first time, on seven television stations
• Jan. 16, 1996: New revelation on the book of Micah
• Jan. 16, 1997: First pcg printing of Mystery of the Ages reaches subscribers
• Jan. 16, 2001: John Amos Field House construction is dedicated
• Jan. 16, 2002: Former wcg minister Ernest Martin dies
• Jan. 16, 2003: Initial terms are reached with the wcg for the purchase of copyrights to 19 of Mr. Armstrong’s works
• Jan. 16, 2006: Headquarters staff moves into the new Hall of Administration
• Jan. 16, 2016: Concrete foundation poured for performing arts building
• Jan. 16, 2017: God plants the new throne of David in His Church

Notable Events in the World

• Jan. 16, 1991: U.S. launches Operation Desert Storm against Iraq, starting the Persian Gulf War
• Jan. 17, 1994: 6.7-magnitude earthquake in Northridge, California, one of the costliest disasters in American history
• Jan. 16, 1995: 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Kobe, Japan, kills 6,434 people
• Jan. 16, 1998: German parliament repeals the constitutional right to privacy
• Jan. 16, 1999: Prosecution for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton ends
  Edmund Stoiber becomes chairman of Germany’s Christian Social Union
• Jan. 16, 2003: Space Shuttle Columbia is fatally damaged upon launch; 16 days later it disintegrates upon reentry, killing the crew of six Americans and one Israeli
• Jan. 16, 2004: Exposures end for Hubble Deep Field View, which shows 10,000 galaxies in one photo
• Jan. 16, 2008: Germany announces deployment of combat troops to Afghanistan
• Jan. 16, 2009: Israel agrees to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip
  Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Germany’s Angela Merkel meet to discuss Ukraine and gas supplies
• Jan. 16, 2010: President Barack Obama announces one of America’s largest-ever rebuilding projects after Haiti earthquake, one year into the Great Recession
• Jan. 16, 2013: After the Sandy Hook massacre, President Obama issues a series of executive orders on gun control
  Germany begins withdrawing its gold holdings from Paris and New York
• Jan. 16, 2015: U.S. Supreme Court announces it will hear arguments on same-sex “marriage”
• Jan. 16, 2016: Implementation of Iran nuclear deal begins; sanctions on Iran lifted
  China inaugurates Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
• Jan. 17, 2016: President Obama initiates a scandalous hostage deal with Iran
• Jan. 16, 2017: Obama administration conspires against President-elect Donald Trump days before leaving office
• Jan. 16, 2018: The fbi provides congressional committees with 384 pages of text messages between fbi lawyer Lisa Page and agent Peter Strzok
  House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes puts finishing touches on a memo exposing the RussiaGate hoax.  January 16: God’s Miracle Day

Perhaps the most absurd belief that the PCG holds regarding January 16 is that it is the date that God supposedly moved the throne of David from England to Edmond, Oklahoma, where Jesus is soon to return to (after stopping off in Wadsworth first). That stone was the rock that Flurry went to Oregon and dug up, claiming it was the very rock Herbert Armstrong knelt at as he was planning his apostasy from the Church of God 7. 

It just continues to get dumber by the minute...

Flurry hauled the rock back to Edmond and installed it outside in a meditation garden for the faithful to come to admire and sit and stare at in contemplation. Then, in one of the biggest brain farts the church has ever seen, Flurry decided that this rock was going to be the very rock Jesus was to return and be crowned King of Kings. 

The rock quickly made its way inside and was installed in a covered cabinet on a bed of royal purple velvet so that the faithful could once again gaze at it in ecstasy. Pretty soon, that case was not sufficient, and a chair was built to hold the stone, much like the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey, England. 

Dumb and Dumber kept on dreaming up things, so the chair soon was featured in numerous Celtic Dance productions that Flurry's grandkids and Herbert Armstrong College Students traveled the country dancing in front of. After all, Flurry had declared Celtic Dance, the very sacred dance of David, though the Flurry dancers have not started dancing naked, at least not yet. This is the Church of God, after all, and ANYTHING is possible.

New Throne of David

The final January 16 miracle I want to discuss in this booklet happened in God’s Church on that date in 2017.

I have written a book titled The New Throne of David explaining this momentous event. This was the day that God blessed His Church with possession of the very throne that Jesus Christ is about to assume when He returns to Earth!

“He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32-33).

Christ is going to rule from “the throne of his father David.” God has preserved the rulership on that throne by a descendant of David—from the time of David up to the present day! This is an inspiring truth that you can prove from your Bible and from history. You can trace that line down to the present-day ruling family in Britain.

Throughout the generations, a “stone of destiny” has always been associated with that throne. Queen Elizabeth ii was the latest of many monarchs who were crowned beside it—a tradition that goes back to the time of kings in the Bible! (e.g. 2 Chronicles 23:11-13).

However, on January 16, 2017, God replaced that “stone of destiny” with a new stone—and moved the throne of David from Britain into His own Church!

Now God’s own people will have the honor of personally presenting Christ with that throne when He returns. It shows how close we are to that epochal event!

I realize this is a bold claim to make. I urge you to request a copy of The New Throne of David and prove this truth for yourself. There I explain it straight from many passages in the Bible.

One of these is the prophecy of Genesis 49, which is for “the last days” (verse 1). Verse 10 reads, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor [should read, or] a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Jesus Christ] come ….” This prophecy is directly in the context of Christ’s Second Coming. The “scepter” is the symbol of kingly rule—the line of monarchs that will culminate in the reign of Christ as King of kings. And this verse speaks of that rule combining with the role of “a lawgiver”—someone who administers the royal law of God, a priestly function.

If you know the history of the throne of David, you know this has not been a function of the physical line of kings. In fact, especially in recent times, they have often fought against the law of God rather than living and ruling by it!

This prophecy specifically refers to a time when the throne and the royal law would be combined. This happened on January 16, 2017. The scepter must be ruled by the royal law now, and the royal law must be applied to the scepter promise—“until Shiloh come.”

When God gave the revelation about the new stone on January 16, 2017, the royal family of Britain was displaced as the royal family of David’s throne. That was a signal of terrible events to come upon Britain, as well as a sharp decline of America and Judah, the Jewish nation in the Middle East.

One astounding aspect of this truth regards the new “stone of destiny.” I will let Mr. Armstrong explain, from his autobiography, regarding the first public Bible lectures he conducted in his ministry back in 1933:

“Mr. Oberg was starting his new meetings in Harrisburg on Sunday night, July 9. The Fishers and I decided to start the meetings at the Firbutte school the same night. I arrived at the Fisher farm, leaving my wife and children at our home in Salem, about July 5 or 6.

“This was the small—actually infinitesimal—start of what was destined to grow to a major worldwide gospel Work reaching multiple millions of people every week.

“But if small, it started with a burst of energy and inspiration. First, it started with intensive and earnest private prayer. To the rear of the Fisher farm home was a fair-sized hill. Running over this hilltop for exercise I discovered a rock about 14 inches high. It was in a secluded spot. It came to mind how Jesus had dismissed the multitudes, and gone up into a mountain ‘apart’ to pray—alone with God. I dropped to my knees before this rock, which seemed just the right height to kneel before, and began praying earnestly for the success of the meetings. It became sort of a daily pilgrimage, during my stay at the Fishers’, to this, which became my ‘prayer rock.’ I’m sure that I drank in much energy, spiritual strength and inspiration at that prayer rock.”

In 2002, I took a tour of some of the sites of Mr. Armstrong’s early days in the Work, and I saw that “prayer rock.” We asked the owners of the property if we could have it, and that summer we transported it to our headquarters facility in Edmond, Oklahoma.

It wasn’t until over 14 years later that God revealed to me that Mr. Armstrong’s prayer rock had replaced the “stone of destiny.” Once again God is putting a dramatic spotlight on the man who prepared the way for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ!

And it happened right around January 16, the anniversary of his death.

God is continually reminding us that we are continuing the work of Elijah. We must follow Mr. Armstrong’s example. The understanding that God has given me about this stone underlines this point emphatically!

God caused all these things to happen miraculously. It was all prophesied, and God brought it about in a way that is truly mind-staggering!

So there you have it, the most sacred day of the year for Church of God members. Screw Passover, January 16 is it, man! Woo hoo! 

Now admit it, aren't you proud of the rich history of Armstrongism and its ever-so-godly trajectory?