Dave Pack was on a treasure hunt a few years ago to try and find the original Elijah Cup that was produced by Steuben Crystal in the late 60's and early 70's. This cup was given to Herbert Armstrong by the the Advisory Council of Elders in May of 1982. The cup that was given to HWA was an original, #14 out of a series of 25.
Since Dave thinks he is the only legitimate heir to Herbert Armstrong running a Church of God, he has to have more physical things to legitimize him as the soon coming Joshua. Despite many months of searching and pleading to the present owners of the cup, Dave had to settle on another edition.
Dave, never one to spend his own money of anything, conned a loyal church member to fork over $25,000 to buy this "gift" for Dave. A wealthy RCG members buys Dave the gift and presents it to him, instead of an Advisory Council of Elders, as an acknowledgment of his office. What a disappointment that must have been for Dave. How can the leader of the most super-duper Church of God ever to exist be so humiliated? His members have had a good laugh over this one.
Leave it to Dave to also find spiritual significance in this cup. Of course like anything involving Dave he has to be part of the equation. Dave claims God had inspired him to preach a sermon nine days prior to the Advisory Council presentation. Dave claims he is the one that called HWA Elijah first. It was his sermon that brought this all to the forefront. Dave wants you to think God was already performing a might work in him prior to his termination from the Church of God for a year. Dave for some reason never mentions this gap in his ministerial credentials, but that is another subject for a later time.
My 1982 “Elijah” Sermon
On April 24, 1982, I first preached about Mr. Armstrong fulfilling
the Elijah role. The Church had already known this since 1971, or
earlier. The title drove home the point: “The Prophetic Significance of
Mr. Armstrong’s Office.” It is posted on our website—and it proves that
neither I nor anyone else “dreamed up,” after Mr. Armstrong’s
death, what had been our long-held understanding. All who take the time
to listen to this sermon will recognize there was once no doubt or
confusion about who we believed had fulfilled the Elijah prophecy.
If you hear it, ask if I would have been permitted to give this
sermon on my own authority. Certainly not! As mentioned, Mr. Armstrong
was always uncomfortable with ministers artificially elevating him. We
will later see he completely understood that a sermon like mine did not
do that. Over 600 people heard it when I delivered it. (Also, I know of
one senior evangelist who gave a similar sermon in 1979.)
I quote it so that you will have no doubt of its strength or
clarity—or of my long-held position. Looking back, it also spoke
directly to attacks that did come on Mr. Armstrong’s office, possibly
even beyond what I even envisioned, and I was plain. For simplicity, an
ellipse separates several short sections that are placed together:
“That office as we come to see becomes the focal point
of all the prophecies about the warnings as we go through the
scriptures. And because there is a two-fold authority that an apostle
holds, that’s why from Satan’s point of view, all kinds of attacks have to ultimately be directed toward that office.
“Look, if you knock out a deacon somewhere or a Church elder or a
pastor or even an evangelist, and we’ve lost some of those, it may be a
small ripple effect in the Church. Even a pillar member locally could
cause a small ripple effect in the Church, but if you can knock out an apostle,
if you can knock out an Eisenhower in World War II, you know, the
general of the armies, the five-star general, or a MacArthur in the
Pacific Theater, you’d have far greater effect than an infantryman who
dies storming Iwo Jima. The effect is not the same.
“So it will become clear as we go on why these attacks have to continue to come against that man.
If there is no other thing that’s accomplished, and I’m sure there will
be after the sermon is over, than just to explain that one point to us—why those attacks must come,
not as single rifle shots but almost in machine gun bursts, one bullet
after another flying—then I will have accomplished what I wanted to do.
“Now turn to Matthew 17.
We’re going to look at a couple of lengthy verses in Matthew…And again,
brethren, I think we are going to begin to see that Mr. Armstrong’s
office is far, far greater than any of us realize, far, far greater…
“There is one man at this point in
time—not the human form of the man, we should say, that makes him
special, but that particular office that that man holds, as a great
servant of God, is the one that stands between utter destruction for
this world and continuing on to the Return of Jesus Christ. Have you
ever looked at it in that context? Have you ever seen the office of
Herbert Armstrong as that big before? Does that sound blasphemous to
you? Does that sound like we’re boasting of apostolic office? Brethren, I
hope not. I hope we understand it. You could say, ‘That can’t be
Herbert Armstrong…’
“It’s somebody in the spirit and power of Elijah. It is somebody, by
the way, who, when you ask him, ‘Who are you?’ will not say, ‘I am
Elijah,’ as we have had people say. He will say, just as John said, ‘I
am John.’ I don’t think John called himself John the Baptist. Maybe he
did. If you ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He will say, ‘My name is Herbert’ or
‘Mr. Armstrong’ or whatever.”
Dave was able to con his wealthy church member to buy the "gift for him in 2009.
It should be noted that in 2009, The Restored Church
of God was able to purchase one of the other 24 cups made by Mr.
Yenawine. It now sits prominently displayed in our Executive Office. A
picture is on the opposite page.
The WCG Council of Elders spent $11,500.00 in tithe money to buy HWA this cup. Dave's wealthy member had to dish out $25,000.00.
Dave is also not happy that all of the men on the Advisory Council all left to go to various splinter cults except his. For some reason Dave just CANNOT attract people to his group. They all go elsewhere. They abandoned the faith. Only Dave, God's most superfantabulous Church of God leader in human history has the correct faith.
Some on the 1982 Council were: Dibar Apartian, Aaron
Dean, Roderick C. Meredith, Raymond F. McNair, Ellis LaRavia, Robert
Fahey and Leon Walker. There may have been others who also slipped into a
splinter. Of course, some others, like Dr. Hoeh and Dean Blackwell,
never left the WCG, and both died having left the faith.
Think! The entire 1982 WCG Advisory Council of Elders
and senior ministry have sold out to numerous false doctrines. This is a
fact, not because I say so, but because history proves IT IS A FACT!
Though some assert otherwise, most of these men have abandoned many doctrines that Mr. Armstrong taught.
Dave fails to mention that he did the exact same thing. Not only did he leave to teach other doctrines but he also left for one specific reason, MONEY! Dave's lust for money is legendary in the RCG.
By the way Dave. I don't know why you have such a problem in securing one of the books you were after. I have two that were given to me last year, including one that has many pictures of HWA's other Steuben pieces. HWA had several pieces in his home. Are you going to buy those to also impress yourself with?
I know you read this blog, Dave. I know it for a fact. Please keep us informed on how that "Joshua" thing is going so that we can buy you the latest Steuben piece, "The Toilet Bowl of Joshua."
