Dennis on Jesus Saying "Terminations, Resignations, Disabilities, Defections and Death Will Soon Be Rampant among The Priesthood, Pharisees, Sadducees, Buttusees, Jews of Jerusalem and Romans"

Jesus: "Terminations, Resignations, Disabilities, Defections and Death Will Soon Be Rampant among The Priesthood,  Pharisees, Sadducees, Buttusees, 
Jews of Jerusalem and Romans. 

Soon They Will All Come to ME!"

I'm pretty sure we'd all barf had any Jesus actually said this and had it jotted down for all times to come.  We'd also be able to look back and see that it didn't exactly work out as Jesus pre-dicted or pre-spoke. 

 

The Church of God experience from WCG days up to today is like a 12 ring circus.  Each act has it's own barker or ring master. Each pipes to the audience for attention and what a noise it all is.  Each beckoning for the spot lights to be shined on them and demanding not to be left in the dark while they vie for the attention their acts so badly need. And acts the are.  From clowns and poodles to Tigers and Elephants, each act attracts it's own crowd and applause.  Some more than others of course.  Many flit back and forth between rings following wherever the spotlight takes them for a little bit of all of it. 

The title wars are truly amazing.   We have "That Ring Master," and "Watcher Ringmaster's"  There are Apostolic Ringmasters along with Presiding ones.  I'm sure some where in there are Zurubbabelian Ringmasters and Joshua  Ring Masters.   It's all quite amusing, however pathetic.  After all, it's just a circus.  Or to paraphrase the late Bill Hicks...

"The (Churches of God are) like a ride at an amusement park. It goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud and it’s fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: Is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, “Hey – don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride…” But we always (disfellowship, mark and marginalize )those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok.  (Ted kicked out, Herbert Dies, Tkach and Co is in, Jesus tricks us, United is divided, Church of Brotherly Love spews hate, Global goes micro, Living is dying, Restored brings back all the past mistakes, Splinters fall to slivers and Non-Prophets embarrass them all . But it doesn’t matter because: It’s just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to (stay only for the paycheck, leave because no one listens to you, threaten all those who oppose you with all the above in the title.  Follow "that" and now yet another "this" non-prophet.) The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on (tithes and offerings) each year and instead spend it on (caring for your family, saving for your children's education, take time off for yourselves and go where you want to go instead of where you are told to go.  Buy yourself some real books on theology  and after you read them, tell your circus master you did it.  Learn to say "no" and  "I don't see it that way.  Notice for once you don't care for the show and act and you are not a trained poodle or monkey.) and forever live in peace."

The mean spirited and threatening title of Dave Pack's latest amazing, over arching and one that he never quite ever has  put this way before, as he might crow, is about as much proof even the most brain dead of followers that Dave is for Dave.  Dave's mantra has always been, "Come unto ME all yea that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."  Of course, the rest will exhaust you and somewhere down the line you will once again come to see you must move on even if the options are getting thin.  I guess there are small community circuses you might try out if you love the circus.  Like so many leading the various slivers of God, Dave Pack is religious but has not a drop of spirituality running in his veins.  We can kid about it, but it really is all about HIM.  It is about HIS vision, not yours, HIS version, not yours and  His-Story, not yours.  It's smoke and mirrors, masks and illusions.  Well, that's a circus I suppose.  

Back to spirituality, which is a concept that seems to escape the Religionist COGs and most Fundamentalists, and that inner spirituality that cannot be controlled by others and cannot possible adhere to the false idea that "we must all speak the same thing."

Some definitions:

·        Religion is an institution established by man for various reasons. Exert control, instill morality, stroke egos, or whatever it does. Organized, structured religions all but remove god from the equation. You confess your sins to a clergy member, go to elaborate churches to worship, told what to pray and when to pray it. All those factors remove you from god.

·        Spirituality is born in a person and develops in the person. It may be kick started by a religion, or it may be kick started by a revelation. Spirituality extends to all facets of a person’s life. Spirituality is chosen while religion is often times forced. Being spiritual to me is more important and better than being religious.
 

·        True spirituality is something that is found deep within oneself. It is your way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and people around you. It cannot be found in a church or by believing in a certain way.

Consider the following in favor of the spiritual path:

·        There is not one religion, but hundreds (This is a tough one for COG One True Churchers.  They have to see it is wrong already amongst themselves with 600 other One True Churches but that's what religion blinds in most.)

·        There is only one type of spirituality.  (Meaning it is an inside job and not that which others pour into your head with demands and expectations of compliance)

·        Religion is for those who want to continue rituals and the formality (Or feel they must to be the True Church)

·      Spirituality is for those who want to reach the Spiritual Ascent without dogmas
 

·      Religion is for those who are asleep

·      Spirituality is for those who are awake

·      Religion is for those that require guidance from others (The "Follow Me" of COG)

·      Spirituality is for those that lend ears to their inner voice

·         Religion has a dogmatic and unquestionable assembly of rules that need to be followed without question  (Religion is a dog thing.  Obedience and reward)

·         Spirituality invites you to reason it all, to question it all and to decide your actions and assume the consequences (Spirituality is a cat thing...I'll take you view under consideration.)

·        Religion threatens and terrifies

·        Spirituality gives you inner peace

·        Religion speaks of sin and of fault  (and prophecy and tithing and building and doing)

·        Spirituality encourages "living in the present" and not to feel remorse for which has already passed - Lift your spirit and learn from errors  (Being not doing.)

·      Religion represses humanity, and returns us to a false paradigm (Seeing the world through the eyes of the one who thinks he knows more than you ever can.)

·      Spirituality transcends it all and makes you true to yourself (Being one's self is important and a God given expectation for you to live your Story, not someone else's.)

·      Religion is instilled from childhood, like the soup you do not you want to take

·      Spirituality is the food that you you seek, that satisfies you and is pleasant to the senses

·      Religion is not God

·      Spirituality is infinite consciousness and all that is - It is God 

·      Religion invents

·      Spirituality discovers/Religion denies and covers up

·      Religion does not investigate and does not question

·      Spirituality questions everything
 

·      Religion is based on humanity, an organization with rules

·      Spirituality is DIVINE, WITHOUT rules
 

·      Religion is cause for division

·      Spirituality is cause for union
 

·      Religion seeks you so that you create

·      Spirituality causes you to seek
 

·      Religion continues the teachings of a sacred book

·      Spirituality seeks the sacredness in all the books
 

·      Religion is fed fear

·      Spirituality is fed confidence
 

·      Religion lives you in your thoughts

·      Spirituality lives in your conscience
 

·      Religion is in charge of the "to do"

·      Spirituality is in charge of the "to BE"

·      Religion is a dialectic

·      Spirituality is logic
 

·      Religion feeds the ego

·      Spirituality makes you transcend
 

·      Religion makes you renounce yourself to the world

·      Spirituality makes you live with God, not to renounce him
 

·      Religion is adoration

·      Spirituality is meditation
 

·      Religion is to continue adapting to the psychology of a template

·      Spirituality is individuality.
 

·      Religion dreams of glory and paradise

·      Spirituality makes you live it here and now

·      Religion lives in the past and in the future

·      Spirituality lives in the present, in the here and now

·      Religion lives in the confinement of your memory

·      Spirituality is LIBERTY in AWARENESS.
 

·      Religion believes in the eternal life

·      Spirituality makes you conscious of all that is
 

·      Religion gives you promises for the after-life (or that which is always just around the corner, soon, any  time now, just over the hill...send it in.)

·      Spirituality gives you the light to find God in your inner self, in this life, in the present, in the here and the now…

I hope many COG folk find Dave Pack's negative projection of his own inner world and self view disgusting, arrogant, discouraging as a way of being in religion and self serving.  Dave can say "it's not about the numbers," all he wishes but it is always about the numbers, small as they might actually be. 

I have asked Dave to publicly talk religion, theology, Bible and the COGs with me now three times.  I never ask that because I thought he ever would. Of course he won't.  Dave Pack is very intimidating when one is under his "care," but outside of that...not so much.  Big fish in a 10 gallon tank.  Scares all the fish in that tank to death of course, and life in that small tank goes better when the little fish feed the big one, but out in the ocean of real fish that are bigger, faster, smarter and more evolved to do what fish in the ocean do...not so much either. 

Anyway, personally I resent the threats Dave uses hoping against hope that what seem as naturally occurring events in the other COG''s are somehow being prophesied by himself.  What Dave is doing is not predicting, he is observing and anyone can see what he sees if that's what interests you.  Bob Thiel does the same thing.  He reads lots of news and like a reporter, picks out things that might happen if A and B lead to C.  Hardly the stuff of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who also got it wrong quite often themselves.  

Dave Pack noted a few years ago that all who oppose him tend to die.  Personally I have noticed that older people tend to die, but maybe that is just me. He interprets life events in others as somehow connected to opposing him. About as egocentric as it gets.  While he may think real life works that way, he speaks BS.  If I or those that don't agree with him and aren't unafraid to point out his foibles and religious yet without any spiritual content threats died tomorrow, he'd announce it as yet another "proof"  of his great insight and true work.  It would be BS, but he knows how to use circumstances to draw erroneous conclusions that serve, supply and feed the most overarching work on earth. He did not invent this approach. He may even do it subconsciously, but I have my doubts about that disconnect.  Pat Robertson and Benny Hinn are masters of false implications as are many who seek the time, money and adoration of others. 

Personally my hope that few if any, no matter the difficulties in other COGs will buy the expensive ticket price to Dave's One Ring Circus.  But the pressure is on.  Bills have to be paid and numbers have to be brought in to keep the show on the road. It's what a great Circus Master does....But when it is all said and done, it is just a story...just a ride.

denniscdiehl@AOL.com   

Restored Church of God: A Few Things To Consider

A few things to consider by those RCG members visiting quietly here.

He keeps reminding you from the pulpit what a good teacher/leader he is....but nobody has heard of him.

When faced with a personal problem that you need his council on, he snaps "What do you want me to do about it!?"

He removes associate ministers from the church that become popular with the church family.

He does not conduct funerals unless he absolutely cannot get out of it.

He thinks people will lose their blessing if they don't get a chance to donate to his ministry.

He only accepts correction from ministers of equal anointing or higher, so don't even think about it.

He doesn't visit people in the hospital unless he absolutely can't get out of it or God tells him to go, which is not often.

He tells stories from the pulpit of people who were healed through his prayers and none of them go to his church.

He removes associate ministers who can preach as well as he does.

He is rarely seen in the company of low-income congregants.

He believes you should compete against each other to 'get around his anointing.'

He feels his adult children are owed big church salaries despite their lack of experience at, well.....everything

He returns from headquarters and hints how he corrected their doctrine, taught the leaders back their own sermons to them and was generally Joe Cool when he was there.

He becomes VERY upset if you don't call him by his title.

He tells you that as your pastor he is your 'anointing connection.'

He thinks sneering at pastors of smaller churches is acceptable.

He hints that higher profile ministers come to him for advice.

He tells you outright that all his peers come to him for advice.

He maintains he is the one that God sent to preach his favorite doctrines to the area: he's God's man for your town. Someone preaching a similar message in the area is not God's man for the area.

He competes with other ministers to be top dog in the eyes of those he admires and imitates.

He believes the type of ministry he does (teacher, prophet, etc.) is the most important.

You may NOT ask how money is spent in the church.

He regularly suggests there are other preachers/congregants trying to undermine him.

Congregants are charged for copies of his sermons.

He cannot take a joke. And if you try to tease him, he MUST retaliate.

He feels that the church is riding the coattails of his faith.

Match each of the above examples with the characteristics taken from Narcissism In The Pulpit below. There are no wrong answers.


You are welcome to post comments of other examples of

                             "Your pastor might be a narcissist if..."

1. Feels grandiose and self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements & talents to the point of lying, demands to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements).

2. Is obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence, unequalled brilliance (the cerebral narcissist), bodily beauty or sexual performance (the somatic narcissist), or ideal, everlasting, all-conquering love or passion.

3. Firmly convinced that he or she is unique &, being special, can only be understood by, should only be treated by, or associate with, other special or unique, or high-status people (or institutions).

4. Requires excessive admiration, adulation, attention & affirmation - or, failing that, wishes to be feared and to be notorious (narcissistic supply).

5. Feels entitled. Expects unreasonable or special & favorable priority treatment. Demands automatic and full compliance with his or her expectations.

6. Is "interpersonally exploitative", I.e., uses others to achieve his or her own ends.

7. Devoid of empathy. Is unable or unwilling to identify with or acknowledge the feelings and needs of others.

8. Constantly envious of others or believes that they feel the same about him or her.

9. Arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes coupled with rage when frustrated, contradicted, or confronted