The Great Joy When Leaving The Church

From Exit and Support.

A person describes the joy they have when leaving the abusive Philadelphia Church of God.   This is the same joy that thousands have shared on different FB pages as they talk how their lives have been since leaving the church.

June 29, 2017
I don't even know where to begin. It's so difficult to summarize my experience and sort out how I'm feeling about everything that this so called "church" has put me, my family, and countless others through. The abuses that we undergo are covered up kept hush-hush and resolved through gossip started by who knows. I started becoming very skeptical when my own family began to be ripped apart by the ministry, who were not to be questioned ever! Every problem was pushed back on us not having it all together, or not praying and studying. No biblical proof was offered, just the opinion of a man who thought he spoke with God's authority--although certainly not with God's LOVE. It's so clear to me now why no one was ever allowed to compare stories or talk about counseling sessions. They did not want us comparing notes on our interactions with the ministry.  

But my last service was when our local minister aired all my family's dirty laundry in front of the congregation, blaming everything on my father's inability to lead. Taking no responsibility for his own interference and meddling. FURIOUS. I left knowing I'd never be back. I told no one and refused to talk to anyone after. A clean cut was the best resolve for me. I was so sick of being dragged into everyone's drama when I had no part in it. And I was certainly tired of feeling beaten down--not good enough and chastised every week at services. Also, if I missed a week, I felt like a child being scolded. I wish I'd left sooner. No, I wish I never would have attended at all.  

Since I've been out, I've been happier than I thought possible. I'm happy to let God judge me. At least it will be true justice. If anyone is considering leaving, do it now. I waited years and regret it deeply. I will mourn family left in and pray they leave. --Raised in WCG; joined PCG as adult

I Know More Than The Apostles And The Prophets Of Old! I Am Super Dave!

Super Dave

Dave's own words:

I want to hold up a tool here and explain something that is coming, and you can maybe appreciate from afar little more than the fact that it is a long list, two pages. A list of the sequence of events from now till we’re inside the final phase of the Kingdom of God. Absolutely everything that is going to happen, I have put into a list that I’m told everybody will be thrilled to see. I actually got the idea before I heard from Mr. Kaidannek and some others how much you brethren here and around the world would love such a list. Well, it now exists. It’s currently got 83 separate points on it, and I’ll selectively read a few just so you can kind of appreciate… 

Point number 12: The first two shepherds are cut off inside a month from Christ’s Coming. 

Point 43: The famine of the Word occurs in Judea only, with the Gospel continuing worldwide and also in nations of Israel. 

Point 67: The whole house of Israel, billions, is resurrected. 

And there are many, many other details in here…I would say down to almost exquisite detail…that form a single list, in order of everything that is going to happen from the very book of Daniel being unsealed, which is the first thing on the list, all the way to the Kingdom of God has come in its full and final form, and what that means. 

So, before I give it to the Church, I would like all of you to know that, because of what’s at stake—and, I’m going to release it. There’s never been a document like it. Nobody has ever put all these things together. The list is still growing, and therefore, I want it to be…number one, thorough. I want it to be crystal clear and easy to read, and I want it to be right. And so, before we give it to you, I want to be sure that I have achieved those three goals. 

Probably, there will be a few verses included here and there in various places on the list, and in most cases though, there will not be, because every teaching aid cannot contain everything or it would be just massive. But when you put them all together, then all these aids that we’re producing provide all the answers that people want. If they want detail, they can…they can, of course, read the transcripts. 

There is a point up to which this project would be too thin, not any meat on the bones, and therefore, not as useful as it could be. There is a point past which, maybe it’s sort of a range in there, a place past which it’s too much, too long and too detailed. So I want to strike that balance as well and leave you with something that is enormously helpful. It will cause a firestorm in the splinters, I promise you. Tens of thousands, scores of thousands of people will see it. It will be eventually, I’m sure, shared far and wide in places we can’t imagine. Hence, again, the need for it to be thorough, clear and right. 

Nothing, again, like it obviously could have ever been produced before because first, the prophets, who were prophets, did not understand even what the apostles were taught by Christ personally. The apostles did not understand what John was taught, in the book of Revelation, after they’d all died. John didn’t understand what Mr. Armstrong came to know 2,000 years later, essentially—19 centuries later—because he saw various heads of the beasts in Daniel line up with Revelation, and he saw the Church eras play out, and he could speak with a greater authority. But let’s face it, Mr. Armstrong did not understand anything that’s been in the last 64…Now here is Part 65…sermons in the newness of those parts. He understood much of it, of course, where we’ve referenced things. So there never has been or ever will be a tool like this again, and I’ll just say one last time, hence the need that it is thorough, clear and right.

Dave Pack: When it is time to flee do NOT go back home and get your expendable wife

Super Dave has a warning for those men who are at work or not at home when he issues his Clarion Call.  They are not under any circumstances to go home and get their wives.  Apparently, their wives are expendable.  I think in this case though if should be the wives not going home to get their husbands since so many COG men are so emasculated.

“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married…they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all…[So that’s likened to Christ’s Return, we’ll see that in a moment.]…Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat…drank…bought…sold…planted…built; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:26-30). So it’s talking about Christ’s Return.

Now here’s an interesting statement…“In that day…[I want you…I want to read this and see if you can figure out what in the world Christ is saying.]…In that day, he which shall be [on] the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back” (vs. 31). Stop. Now, how in the world could people be thinking about that in the face of salvation?…What?! Want to go back to the house and get mom’s picture and a favorite sweater?

It’s interesting, “stuff in the house”…“stuff” is quite a word…It means “a vessel, implement, equipment or apparatus, specifically, a wife as contributing to the usefulness of the husband…” You wives never thought of yourselves as “stuff,” but now you know…and, presumably, if your husband was on the housetop and he was coming back for a vessel, implement, equipment or apparatus, he’d better be looking for you, too, right?

So…a little humor, there, but that’s what it means. The Greek is skeuos, and there’s a spiritual point. It might literally mean: No, this is you. Don’t go get your wife, and certainly don’t get your favorite chainsaw or hammer or, you know, the expensive vase you bought, this expensive vessel. Don’t go back there!” And if you’re in the field, don’t go back. Now, who would be thinking of that in the face of an angel taking you to the reckoning and the joy of the Lord and salvation! Who would be thinking that?! Let’s keep reading…

“Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it…[What?! How could you be thinking “save your life” when you just made eternal life, if you will? You won’t have a spirit body yet. This is the Return of Christ.]…and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it” (vs. 32-33). Who would be wanting to hold on to this life, on the very day they’re offered the next life?! See the problem?

“I tell you in that night [verse 34] there shall be two in one [couch]”…We know this now…One taken; one left. Two grinding, one taken; one left. Two in the field, one taken; one left (vs. 35-36). Now…whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…taken, just gone. An angel arrives and says, “You ready to take a ride?” Boom—there’s no decision. So which is it? Are you taken or is there a decision point? See the problem? Make yourself come to grips with this. Are you just simply swooped up, the way rapturists think, off to heaven…Only we understand the truth of it…or are you a person who has a decision to make? You’re on a housetop, you’re in the field; there’s things you want, or you want to look back. Remember Lot’s wife turned to salt.