Dennis on: "The Lord (Delays His Coming) Of Restored Church of God Castle Progresses Sorta

 The Lord (Delays His Coming) Of Restored Church of God Castle Progresses Sorta

Castles are spiffy things.  While we may say "a man's home is his castle," there is nothing in this world like actually having and living in one.   I do hear they are hard to heat and winters can be difficult with a certain dankness and chill in every room. But if you stand close enough to the fire, I suppose you are well warmed and filled.   As long as the Lord of the castle can order that whole forests with all their trees  be sent in to fuel the warmth, beauty and construction needs of the Lord of the Castle, all is well.  The peasants can also expect most of their crops to be sent to the Lord as well.  I also suppose the royal and loyal troops can also be sent out from time to time to enforce the laws of the Castle Master upon those who fail to send in all the trees and crops on their land as instructed.  Castles are high maintenance and can leave the peasant landscape a bit tohu and boo hoo at times.  (Let him who reads understand) 

Castles are actually places to hide and fear based constructs.  Water filled moats to slow the advance of any wanting to get in serve as the first line of defense against intruders real or imagined.  Very high walls are next and put the intruder at a distinct disadvantage.  It is simply impossible to climb a vertical wall in soggy wet clothes or armor.  The only way you could ever get in once you got into that mess was for the Lord to lower you a rope, after careful scrutiny, and haul you up.  You would then be interrogated as to why you did not show up at the narrow gate and slender bridge  for questioning in the first place and go by the rules of the Lord.  Scriptures about trying to climb in ways other than those allowed would be read to you and you would probably be put in the prison cell until you could prove your sincerity. If you had nothing to offer the Lord of the Castle, or were deemed a threat, out you go. The Lord would mark you and throw you off the walls back into the moat to swim home if you did not drown.  

Only the chosen and special people to the Lord get to live and abide in the Castle.  After all, the purpose of a castle is to keep the peasants (pagans) out and preserve the wealth and ideas of the Lord.  The are meant to insulate those within from those without.  The Lord of the Castle meets with only those he agrees to let in.  He only has to take counsel and advice from the few trusted knights that already abide in the castle by his good graces.  They know they will be on the outside looking in with all the rest of the peasants should they displease the Lord of the Castle or offer advice and counsel counter to the already preordained and acceptable answers.  And there are many preordained and acceptable answers to be memorized and agreed with, at least outwardly. 

 "Agreeth thou  I am the Lord of the Castle and that my Castle, my moat, my walls and myself were spoken of by our fathers long dead?"  

 "Oh yes, yes my Lord.  Agreeth I do! Truly this place was spoken of in times gone by and would be built by another Sir Lancelot to come, which is you!"    

"Well, spoken Knight......abide ye yet more as long as ye seeth the truth"

Castles can be a bit limiting as one's access to the countryside is limited.  The peasants, who are free of the Lord's limited views and not bound by the views of the ONE, often have much more fun and live a larger life than those trapped in the security of the castle.  Oh the Lord has his own servants do the quick run out and back to get supplies or to meet with peasants who admire his Castle to see if perchance they may have something the Lord might need, but over all it is a dull and boring existence waiting for the enemy which seems to be everywhere and nowhere to be found.  

To face this boredom the Lord has limited access camps, within the walls for Children of the Knights and Approved Peasants.  Archery, boiling oil pouring, catapulting and pushing wall climbers backwards skills are taught to the young. A great time is had by all.   The highlight is when the Lord visits the campers.  He rides in with his Knights, armored up on the best horse in the land. Dressed in the official "ME" youth shirts and uniforms and they chant  "Awesome, Awesome, Awesome...My World is Gyrating" as the Lord of Restored  passes to review the progress of the children.  Outside the walls, the non-chosen peasant children are fishing, laughing their butts off and fighting with wooden swords and riding on branches and jousting with brooms.   "Ok, you're the crazy Lord of the Castle this time.... "   "Awwwwww...I always have to be him!"   "I got you..."  "Did not..."   "Did too..."   

SEP (Send Everything Posthaste) Camp 2013

There are leadership classes, Knights Clubs, lead by the Lord to give the appearance of intellectual stimulation and proper delivery of the ideas approved by the Lord.  And of course there are Peasant Picnics and jousting tournaments.  When the Lord comes on the course to joust with a chosen knight, the Lord always wins.  It is just better that way for all concerned.

Specifically, the Lord (and there are many Lords of other castles) of Restored Castle has issued a degree that all other Lords must come to his castle and bring the peasants with them or risk death by decree.  The Lord of Restored wants this done by the Fall harvest because this was revealed to him four years ago but only now revealed it and why would it be later than this Fall if God reveals it now to him?   One very stupid peasant raised his hand and asked the Lord of Restored why he waited four years to reveal this and would not God have wanted him to reveal it then as it was given to him then?   The Lord said,  "Well wise one....with observations like that you will really go up in my kingdom."  Next we knew he was standing at the bottom of the stairs to the gallows and the Lord of Restored said.."Up you go young man."  There were no more questions.

The Lord of Restored and the Castle of God, as he now calls it, gave many sound proofs as to why all these things must be and shortly come to pass.  Secretly he is training Pipers to lead the people back to the Lord of Restored Castle this Fall.  Pipers may also be picked from the Lords of other castles who have lived in shame and ignorance of the true Lord of all Castles until now and deeply repent. There will be difficult hoops to jump through to qualify for this that position.  One Piper named Peter was too busy picking pecks of pickled peppers to respond and scoffed at this crazy decree. Neither he nor his pickled peppers have been heard from again. 

I personally would not wish to live in a castle.  Impressive places yes, but they are designed to keep only the few small minded and subservient agreers inside and the wonder of the whole wide world out.  I admit, I am not much of a Lord of Restored or any other castle fan.  I would not do well sitting for hours having the Lord of Restored or the lords of any other castles school me on what to think, what to believe and how everything should and is going to go as if the Lord of Restored or others really knew.   I have known other Lords of Castles who tried to give that impression to the chosen peasants and knights and....well....they are all dead and gone and the beat goes on. 

 

The Lord of Restored has been so long behind the walls of his castle that the light of the world cannot penetrate and illuminate anything.  Soooo serious and limited in his understanding of science and theology done well, the Lord of Restored Castle seems off into strange and weird ideas that he hopes you never question him on.  He once said he was not going anywhere with strange ideas...but if this not going anywhere, I'd hate to think where the Lord of Restored thought he'd have to go to be strange.  But, he has assured the peasants that this is not what he meant and they should have no concerns...whew!  Are you listening brethren....

Ultimately, castles are not happy places.  They are dank and chilly or humid and hot depending on the season.  They scarf up an inordinate amount of resources just to keep it going and often the Lord of the Castle requires the work of the castle bound be done for free as a sign of dedication to the Lord.  Those paid by the Lord know their horse and armor  can be taken away anytime they get off track and on some other page than the page of the Lord.    Always living in fear with guilt and shame to keep the peasants in place is not my idea of living.  Personal progress and growth never happens in castles,  Castles are too small and cover such a limited area of territory to be of any real value.  The confine people, ideas and learning, which is what they are meant to do.   Castles are where one lives to stay the same, learn nothing new, never step outside the box provided by the Lord of the Castle and quietly wonder if maybe there isn't more to life and learning than this.

There is......wonderful things...

contact Dennis at   DennisCDiehl@aol.com

Dennis on: "It Is Certain"

I had a Magic 8 Ball when I was a kid.  You asked it a question and one little window in the fluid and answer filled ball would float into view.   As it anything and it would tell you how it all is and how it all will be.   Well, it also had built in doubts and fogginess.   "Yes," "No," were the obviously black and white answers.  "It is sure," was another form of yes but more dogmatic.  "Cannot see at this time" was another form of "Ask again later" which were also options in the Magic 8 Ball.  I think it also said, "Cannot say at this time" but maybe I'm thinking of how Dave Pack toys with his church.

As a kid, you or at least I was going to be careful what I asked it because I didn't want the wrong answer.  Someone said to ask it if I would live longer than 16 and no way was I gonna ask that!  If I wasn't, I didn't want to know!  You didn't screw around with the Magic 8 Ball! I do wish I had asked it at 14 if I should pursue The Plain Truth and WCG.  "Focus and Ask Again,"  I suppose.  

 

As tempting as it might be as a child to take the Magic 8 Ball seriously, it was a childish thing.  In reality, the future is unknowable though you would not know that listening to all the predictions and prognostications of the various Apostles and High Priests in the Sliver Churches of God.  Quantum physics and the fact that the actual position of any electron which makes up our reality is unknowable has a theory that parallel universes exist.  They are unreachable but the theory is that every time one makes a decision to do or not do, be or not be, turn left, turn right, say or not say, pursue or not pursue, a parallel universe forms where one did in that one what was not done in this one.  So somewhere Elvis is alive and working at Walmart. Somewhere  I never heard of the WCG and became the guy on the Discovery Channel who tells us all about Neanderthals in Ice Age Europe.  Somehow it's nice to know there are other me's doing other things because the possibilities are endless.  It's a nice theory.  Of course in one parallel universe, I don't exist or died in the World Trade Centers.  Perhaps in another, I work for Dave Pack. 

 

Can the future be "divined"?   I seriously doubt it.  Humans have been predicting and prophesying about what WILL happen or what we CAN look forward to for as long as they could throw bones in a bowl.  It's what humans do to give current lives meaning and hope.  We are so used to Bible prophets and their prophecies that knowing the future is a given if you just get the combination of factors right and of course are in tuned with the appropriate god who knows the end from the beginning.   I'm not sure that's a good thing and if so, why not just let it unfold as locked in and forget about it all?  

Lets be specific with the Bible and the WCG experience which is merely typical of all fundamentalist and literalist views of the future and it's knowability. Nothing I can tell WCG/HWA or whoever ever foretold occurred as predicted.  The Apostle Paul was certainly off track in time and space with his soons and shortlys as anyone can see.  There was no "we" shall be changed and "we" shall be caught up for him as he thought he foresaw.  He was wrong.  The Apostle Paul died just like everyone else admitting he did not get to see the promise he thought was promised. I have a suspicion Paul's death was embarrassing to the Church or the how and why would have been in the Bible.  It is not. He simply disappears as do all the disciples, traditions notwithstanding.  Humans have been wrong about what they see in their futures ever since.  

 

When some can clearly see an Old Testament prophet was wrong in his views such as an Isaiah saying the Nile would dry up or Egypt would be desolate, some simply say it hasn't happened "yet."   From failed prophecies spring the term "types" and "duality".  It's an apologetic used instead of having to say one was wrong. 

 

Dave Pack, as we know, is now a current and classic example predicting future events as if he knew.  He is clever, depending on your definition of clever,  but it is no big thing to be the most clever person in a mental hospital.  Ron Weinland was a future knower except he didn't actually know and probably could not have predicted his current status as a ward of the state. Prophets can never seem to see their end.  Gerald Waterhouse was a knower but nothing he knew actually happened and what others told him he might need to consider but rejected did indeed happen.  I seriously doubt GTA would have thought he would die of pneumonia in his 70's or that Dean Blackwell would be pushed aside , get discouraged and bewildered mostly likely by it all , get a job at Walmart and die of a broken heart.  I never would have predicted my brother in law, who was an absolute health food fanatic and should have lived to be 100, would die rather quickly of Hodgkin's Lymphoma at 64.  For him, as a WCG minister, that was retirement.  I recall once kidding Joe Tkach Jr that I suspected his retirement plan for the ministry was for them, at 65, to drive into a tree.  Now at 63 and having been at least correct on what WCG had no intention of doing and I knew it, I wish I hadn't said that!

Men like Dr. Robert Thiel who take titles of prophet to themselves can't see anymore into the future than I can by reading the same websites and news blogs he does.  In our day and age, anyone who would say "God showed me," or "God told me," would be dismissed as either lying or schizophrenic.  We give Old Testament prophets, Major and Minor a pass on their sources of information ONLY because it is written down in a holy book and was said a long time ago, or so it is said.  Most Christians would never understand the practice of writing long winded speeches for Bible characters that were never really said but only imagined to be said by others who wrote what they imagine they would have said had they lived to say it.  Mary did not really break into the Magnificant and song when she found out she was pregnant with Jesus, the Son of God.  The writer imagined she did and copied the song of Hannah in the OT.  In the Bible, infertile women give birth to special men.  Virgins give birth to gods.

 Some NT books, attributed to the Apostle Paul and others are not actually written by them.  They are written by others in the name of and the spirit of Paul for effect and authority.  They weren't actually the words of Paul or Peter.  It was a writing style.  Even in the Gospels we have conflicting accounts of what Jesus is said to have said by others.  When you think of it, every "thus saith," or "Jesus said," is merely hearsay.  One writer calls it the Sermon on the Mount. One calls it the Sermon on the Plain.   Which was it?

 

The Apostle Joshua C. Pack is not really getting the future right nor who he is anymore than Gerald Flurry is "that Prophet" in Malachi or Ron Weinland and Laura were the Two Witnesses.  They live God and Prophecy haunted lives that lead others down their path and deprive others of going down their own.  Perhaps in a parallel universe these folk never heard of Dave Pack and never sent anything in, which would be nice.

 

No one seems to admit much that ALL the New Testament predictions about how short time was back then for them as spoken by the Apostles or how far spent was the night and how into the last hour those folk were was simply wrong.  Paul was wrong.  John was wrong. Peter was wrong. Church fathers were wrong. Revelation, a book actually written by Jewish Christians to encourage those stuck in Jerusalem and showing how the Romans would be routed in 3.5 years etc, was wrong.  And....it is equally wrong to use Revelation as a prophecy for any other time than that time.  I know that is hard to swallow but what does "to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass," mean to you?  If I had a hundred year old book that had the phrase  "this afternoon it is going to rain," I would not take it as a prediction of the weather where I lived and when I lived.  Why do you?

Now if I want to play the prediction game I can too.  Gut feelings, seeing how A can lead to B and the concept of for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction do have meaning in our world.  Effects actually do spring from causes. 

I could have predicted somewhere, someone was going to fly off the handle or have their last button pushed and shot up a COG somewhere sooner or later.  I felt it would happen in California but I felt it was inevitable because  you can't hurt some people over and over and not have someone lose it.  I recall being in the car when the news of a shooting in a church at a Sheraton Hotel, and it was Saturday happened.  There was no name given in the first report but I said,  "It happened" to myself in the car.  Next newscast I knew I was right.  That's a gut feeling based on if you do A it leads to B sometimes or Z.  Personally I thought it would happen in Southern California first, but it's hard to get behind those gated and locked office buildings uninvited. 

To myself as a Minster outside the loop of ministers I found myself in the 70's and 80's "predicting" that if HWA didn't get off his live until Jesus returns kick and deny his age and humanity, the church was in for a ride.  But that is not prophetic.  It is common sense.  When I read my first blog site on the then new Internet, I recall thinking, "this is going to give all nutcase churches and ministers one hell of an exposure."   Common sense not prophecy. 

Claiming to know the future and declaring it is probably one the more human and organizational forms of insanity that can infest a planet.  It makes lousy citizens out of the believer and raises false hopes when one needs to make more effort to take care of business.  It makes some lazy and others nuts.  It produces both large incomes for the prophets and enemies galore.  It disillusions when that was an avoidable experience and sets folk up for learning exactly what St. John of the Cross meant by "the dark night of the soul."  If nothing else, belonging to a church that over practices the non art of prophecy come alive is a formula for one hell of a mid-life crisis.  It can ruin your relationships and leave you in the dumpster emotionally.  Trust issues become a real problem and then more A leads to more B.

Since the future is unknowable, let me make some predictions :)

1.  In time all will come to see that Apostle Gerald Flurry is neither "That Prophet" nor is Apostle Pack any Joshua the High Priest spoken of in the minor prophet Haggai.   We have already seen Herbert Armstrong build anything that lasted and his hand did not actually finish anything unless you reason like Dave Pack.

2. All, not just three of the COG leadership in the splinters and slivers will die sooner or later as will all their followers.  I will also die sooner or later.

3. Properties bought and building built will be bought and used by others in time who can use it for their own views of the world or businesses. Houses for God will be foreclosed on. Some may be hauled away to the dump or recycled. 

4. There will be lots of last Popes in the future.  His name will be John Paul Benedict Francis Peterstein of Bavaria and very pretty.  

5. The general surviving members of the various splits of WCG are too tired and suspicious of abusive title takers to move and reunite , yet again,  and  get the Apostle Joshua C Packs vision of himself and prophecy still coming alive on the road or back on track. This will cause paying the bills issues as it already has for the Apostle Flurry.  This will not trouble the Apostle Joshua because it has never been about the numbers or the money.

6. The Restored Church of God's Feast of Tabernacles this year will be a bit bigger but after calculations done in private by the Apostle Joshua, it will be evident there are curious attenders who are not so willing to give up their monies in offerings.  The numbers simply will not match up with what the money should be.  Eventually they will be termed the Lurker Church of God and cast out.

7. The Restored Church of God's Feast of Tabernacles this year will be a bit smaller because everyone is getting ready to get their kids back to school August 30th 2013 and using second tithe for school clothes and tires for the car or even groceries and rent.   

8. Dr. Bob Thiel will get a booster seat for his you tube ministry, stop waving his arms around when he talks like the kid on Problem Child making fun of Gilbert Godfrey and stop saying "Greeting friends around the world" as if he has to get that said and done so he can wave his Bible in the air.  

9. I predict you thought I was going to have 7 points which is why I had 9

It seems that once the Apostle Paul got real and realized all his bluster was just that, he mellowed a bit.  If he wrote I Corinthians 13, which does not sound like the ranting pompous Paul of his other books, he had changed a bit as time went on.  He concluded that even if he had the language of men and angels or the gift of prophecy, which he actually didn't , but had no love in him , it was all a wash.   It was of no value.  He was nothing and had lived for nothing real.  He concluded that Faith, or believing the unbelievable, Hope, which was what prophecy was all about and meant to encourage, and love were three basic values or ways of thinking.  He concluded love to be the most important. 

At the end of his disappointingly non fulfilled prophetic life, Paul defined what he finally understood was more important that claiming to know the unknowable.

^"4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

^{Believing one knows or even can know the future is childish.  The Flurry's, Weinlands and Packs of the Wildworld Church of God are behaving as children in these "heavy" matters of who is who and who is not, who gets to be in charge and who dies.  I predict that these men and those equally given to the foolishness of speculation, wishful thinking and fake insights and motivational ploys will also have to learn this lesson about the perils of prophecy and what really matters.  I also predict they, as HWA, Gerald Waterhouse and others so inclined in the past,  will not learn it in time.} 

 contact Dennis at   DennisCDiehl@aol.com

Pigs In The Pulpit: One Family's Escape From Years of Cult-like Mind Control and Spiritual Abuse

I ran this story many, many months ago.  In light of the recent mental melt down of Dave Pack and Bob Thiel it is even more appropriate today, particularly with Dave Pack.  These men are about to cause serious damage to their members.

While we all find it intriguing to watch the mental breakdown of Pack, Flurry and Thiel over the last several months, this trend is not unique to these guys or with Armstrongism itself.  When legalism is the method of operation in a church it opens wide door for abuse to occur.

We notice it so much in Armstrongism because we have all lived through it.  However, it goes on in other churches as well.

Black and white thinking, law vs. grace, pastors who have all the answers, hidden secret knowledge only for the few, setting dates, prophesying end-time events that never come to pass, and on and on the list of things these abusers do can go..

Buy the book here: Pigs in the Pulpit

From the web site:

There is a dirty little secret in the church world today...

What is truly perplexing, while literally millions of well-meaning and trusting believers and church members have been devastated by its aftermath, no one really wants to talk about it.

 A compelling and powerful new book entitled Pigs in the Pulpit does talk about it, and exposes pastors and other church leaders who spiritually violate the trust placed in them by their vulnerable followers.

What these “leaders” are guilty of is spiritual abuse of authority…and it is rampant in epidemic proportions among Bible-believing Christians. It is often concealed and subtly sold to honorable people under other, more palatable terms such as, “shepherding,” “standing under authority,” “submission to leadership” and many other catchphrases.

 For almost seventeen years, J. Michael Wittman, author of Pigs in the Pulpit, his wife and children were part of a fundamentalist Christian church. Slowly over time, they were shocked to realize that what they were supporting was controlling and spiritually abusive.

 "It's an oxymoron," says Wittman, "The terms 'spiritual' and 'abuse' certainly seem at odds with one another. But in the religious system and Christian church world today, there are countless trusting, hurting members of the Body of Christ who have been deceived and victimized by systematically abusive church leaders and organizations."

In their own lives, including a time when they were appointed and served as assistant pastors of a small church in Pennsylvania, the Wittmans were told who to befriend, where to live and work, what cars to drive and clothing to wear, when to donate money, how much money to give and who to give it to…the list went on and on. Any questioning of “the leadership” or deviation from the "rules of membership," were dealt with brutally and without appeal.

When they finally stood up and objected to the harsh treatment and rigid, controlling environment they and others were experiencing, their lives became a terrifying ordeal and living hell. The Wittmans’ opposition to the manipulative system, and attempt to escape the church leader's influence and control, ultimately turned into a confrontation that included threats against their health and safety.

"I, for one, have been sickened by church scandals and horrific stories of child abuse, sexual immorality and even murder in the headlines, all ‘in the name of God.’ Before I started writing Pigs in the Pulpit, I asked myself, ‘How could intelligent seekers of spiritual truth allow such things to happen to them?’ I strongly feel, through my story, that some long-awaited answers will be brought to light.

“We’ve all seen the extreme examples of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple in Guyana; David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas; Tony Alamo and more, and said to ourselves, ‘That could never happen to us.’

“Then along comes another Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker or Ted Haggard, who publicly fall from grace, and we realize that the lies, manipulation and deceit are more subtle and run far deeper than we’ve imagined.

 “It is my heart's desire to see the 'spiritual Bernie Madoff' type of church leaders, who damage, deceive and rip-off believers, exposed and replaced by loving, nurturing servants who truly want to be Christ-like examples to God's people.

 "Through this book, I attempt to provide some clarity to the abused, suffering and confused Christian convert, who asks, 'How could this happen to me?' and ‘Does Jesus still love me?’ I want them to know that what they’ve endured wasn’t their fault, and they can have a fulfilling and vibrant life with God, outside the small and narrow confines of the religious system.”