Dave Pack's Mind of God

In light of the blog post below about pastor-gods in the Church of God, here is a quote from God's most important man on earth who has the world's largest and most effective ministry ever to grace humanity.

Dave Pack

What a joy to spend all day with the brethren-Sabbath services, luncheon and then an extensive Bible Study answering the longest list of questions I have ever received at any Bible Study (some were still left unanswered). It is obvious that the brethren are studying and are interested in knowing the mind of God. This is a far  cry from my last years as a pastor in the early 1990s.

The Cult of Pastor-god's in the Church of God

There is a great blog that is by a former pastor (non COG) which is called Why Churches Suck.  Sadly it is no longer being updated. He has an article about the personality cult of pastors in churches. I have included his entire post below.  It is too good to see fade into oblivion.

Armstrongism is filled with the cult of "Pastor-gods." Just look at Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, Rod Meredith.  These men can do no wrong.  People get giddy with excitement at the mere presence of these men in their midst.  People get tears in their eyes when they see these men.  Their writings are on par with scripture and considered just as sacred.  They get seats of prominence at all functions and at church. They build enormous edifices supposedly dedicated to God but in fact are monuments to failed virility.  Fellow ministers jostle and beat their way  to be at the top next to these men.  Walking over others backs to advance is considered sacred duty.  Members literally bow to their magnificence when they cannot make any decision without first asking their pastor-god for approval.

What has been your experience with Pastor-gods in the Church of God?

The Cult of the Pastor-god

When the church is at its healthiest, many people contribute to the life of the body with gifts they’ve been given.  One of those gifts is “pastoring”, or care-taking.  Mixed with all the other gifts in the body, the whole community is healthy, alive, free, and an expression of God’s love in the world that is obvious and undeniable.

But this is very rare among church gatherings.

Much more often, the group is dominated and defined by the personality of one person: the Pastor-god. 

The Pastor-god is not merely a contributor within the body; he is the voice, the face, and the authority in the church.  He is the boss, the CEO, the example, the teacher, the father-figure.

In the Cult of the Pastor-god, they are called “God’s anointed”.  They are the one who communicates God’s word to the followers.  They are the mouth, while the church is the ears.  Their part is to provide care and discipline to the people; the people’s part is to listen, honor, and follow.

And in many churches, this model works flawlessly.  People really want someone to lead and protect them—without it they feel vulnerable and lost.  And of course there are no shortage of people willing to assume this role of the Pastor-god.

The Pastor-god claims to not want adulation and adoration from the people, but inwardly they crave it.  The people claim they don’t believe their pastor is a god, but they treat him like he is.  When the pastor makes them proud, they heap accolades.  When the pastor does not live up to his god-like standard, they look for ways to take him down.

When the Pastor-god is there, the people feel safe.  When the Pastor-god goes away, the people are devastated.  

Of course this is nothing new—people are afraid to be leaderless, as was the nation of Israel when they demanded a leader:

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” (I Samuel 8:19-20)

God reluctantly gave them their leader, an outstanding young man named Saul.  Their craving for a leader was satisfied, but it was wrong; what resulted was anxiety, strife, war, madness, and death.

 

One of the reasons churches suck today is because they are much less like the body of Christ and much more like the Cult of the Pastor-god—or "the cult of personality."  More and more within the church are recognizing this disturbing reality:

“...evangelicalism is not so much a religion as a series of fast-moving personality cults.” ― Frank Schaeffer 

Thinking about this, I could not get the image of an old Star Trek episode out of my mind.  It’s called Who Mourns for Adonais and it’s about the Enterprise crew coming face to face with Apollo, one of the gods from earth’s ancient culture. 

 

Remember this one?

As the episode goes, back when the gods (turns out they were actually aliens) came to earth, the primitive people saw their power and naturally fell down to worship them.  Under their authority, people felt cared for--and the gods were happy to have the attention.  It was a comfortable, but immature and ultimately dysfunctional relationship.  The gods’ part was to provide care and discipline to the people; the people’s part was to listen, honor, and follow…

…just like in the Cult of the Pastor-god.

In those days, to defy the gods was a fearful thing—as Captain Kirk discovered when he dared to defy Apollo’s authority:

Kirk: “Apollo, we’re willing to talk, but you’ll find we don’t bow to every creature who happens to have a bag of tricks.”

Apollo: “Agamemnon was one such as you, and Hercules--pride and arrogance.  They defied me, until they felt my wrath.”

Have you ever been called “proud” or “arrogant” by a pastor-god when you questioned their authority? If you have, you have come face-to-face with the Cult of the Pastor-god.

 

Apollo expected these people to fall down and honor him just like people did in the ancient days.  But Kirk, recognizing the dysfunction of such an authoritarian relationship, continued to defy—and the conflict escalates:

Apollo: “I could sweep you out of existence with a wave of my hand, and bring you back again. I can give life or death. What else does mankind demand of its gods?”

Kirk: “Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate.”

Apollo: “We shall not debate, mortal.  I offer you eternal rest and happiness according to the ancient ways. I ask little in return. But what I ask for I insist upon.”

The one thing he cannot handle outright defiance; he can only insist on its authority, and promise judgment upon the one who dares defy them.  If you do decide you need to escape the cult, understand one thing:

There is no gentle way to get out of the cult of the Pastor-god.  

If you are struggling to get free from a pastor-god cult, please re-read that last sentence a couple more times. This will be a battle of wills.

Eventually, Kirk and his crew had use force to disable Apollo’s source of power.  Apollo was reduced to his true, powerless nature.  

In the end, Apollo lost everything and is reduced to tears:

Apollo: “I would have cherished you, cared for you. I would have loved you like a father loves his children. Did I ask so much?”

Kirk: “We’ve outgrown you. You asked for something we can no longer give.” 

And there’s the thing.  Even people who have been raised life-long in a pastor-god cult are realizing they can no longer give outright honor and obedience to a religious authority figure.  And they shouldn’t.  Our leader is Christ, not the one up front with the loud voice and the big platform.
 

 

More and more people in the body of Christ are finding true “body life” outside of the Cult of the Pastor-god--but it hasn’t come without a price.  The emotional turmoil that comes from separating from an old authority figure can be intense, even devastating.  

I’ll repeat: There is no gentle way to get out of the cult of the Pastor-god.  

I have my war story of leaving the Cult of the Pastor-god, and I know many of you do too.  If you want to share your story in the comments, please feel free

Another Splinter Cult COG Leader Who Says He No Longer Sins

First we had Spanky Meredith declare that he has not committed a major sin since baptism  Now we have another splinter cult leader who has take it a step further.  Mike Vinson declares he is incapable of sinning now since sin no longer has dominion over him.  Mike is the leader of an extremely small splinter cult of Armstrongism that is unique in many aspects.


For starters he did not take the name "Church of God" to use in his cult's title.  Instead, he calls his group, "Is, Was, and Will Be."  That alone should have people running the opposite direction! He has also surrounded himself with young men in their 20's as his ministers. Apparently these young men are a multitude of "saviors" that have come with the truth to redeem the heathens. A group of young virile young men around an old man There is something really wrong with that picture. Both from having inexperienced boys telling followers what to do, but also the fact of an older man surrounding himself with young guys.

I am writing to advise people of a spiritual movement that goes by the name of IWWB. Website: [www.iswasandwillbe.com]

It's headed up by a chap named Mike Vinson, a former WWCG (World Wide Church of God) member who now believes he has "the truth" and among other things, preaches and teaches that he "no longer sins" or rather, that sin has no more dominion over him.

Some various teachings:

At this point in our walk, our lack of discernment and obedience to the living oracles of God qualifies us as a heathen man, though we have the name of being a “brother” and a “Christian”. But God in his mercy sends to us saviours who begin to deliver us out of the house of bondage, and little by little reveals to us the meanings of God’s word which from Egypt until now are all sealed in parables, symbols, the tongues of Prophets, God’s angels;

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This is not a memory exercise or a history lesson of some physical man coming thousands of years ago. This is an ongoing event of the Father sending the Spirit of His Son in a prepared body, YOUR BODY, to first deliver us from that body of Sin, and at the appointed fullness of time to use that earthen vessel to deliver others subjected to bondage to that body of sin and the law governing it. Those subjected are the whole creation, there is no difference, but the Spirit of Christ is first sent to the “heathens that are called by my name”, that is you and I if we do have his name;

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The Father sends the Spirit of his Son through his prophets to the end that these prophets, men of like nature as us throughout the ages, can be deliverer and saviours of his people. It is through the knowledge and understanding they impact that God’s heathen people are eventually brought out of the house of bondage to be established in the New Jerusalem

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Christ puts away sin by the sacrifice of his own body of sin prepared in our flesh for him to come into. We are now to have this knowledge and do likewise through Christ, to deny our own profile in the flesh and reckon ourselves as dead to sin with Christ. To be no longer servant of the first tabernacle made with hands, but to present ourselves unto God as being raised from the dead, the first tabernacle, to serve in newness of life.

 The Bible has two meanings.  For those "mature" there is one meaning, and for those immature, there is a second meaning.  Armstrongism and other cults have always made a point of claiming that their organization was privy to secrets of the Bible hidden from humanity till revealed to the leader.

So, if we translate the Greek word 'en' consistently, here is what Paul is telling us: 'In the mature we speak the secret, hidden, inward wisdom of God, but in the immature we speak only of the outward fleshly appearing of Christ and of His outward death and outward crucifixion.' How is this all accomplished? It is all accomplished with the same Bible, with the same letters and words. But 'the same letters and words' have vastly different meanings 'in' the 'mature' and 'in' the 'babes in Christ,' who are 'yet carnal.' Paul did not have two gospels, one for babes and one for mature Christians. Rather the one gospel 'Jesus Christ and Him crucified,' is received two entirely different ways in the hearers. And why is that? It will always be the same; it is because "many are called but few are chosen." The "many called [but not] chosen," will always be drawn to the outward, physical letter understanding of prophecy. Anything else is "foolishness" to the "carnal...babes in Christ," to whom 1Co 2 is addressed.

Vinson also believes Jesus is a created creature as do a few Armstrongite diehards that hold annual meetings around the country trying to prove their point.

The craziness of the splinter cults of Armstrongism seems to have no end!  The good thing about all of this is that the more stupid things they say and do the more they discredit all the other COG's, who for some reason seem to think of these nutjobs as brothers in the faith.