Dave Pack and how he manipulates his people

 From a reader:

While working on a transcript of a DP sermon, I get a better idea of his manipulative technique. Primarily he's presenting himself as clueless to God's intent for him, then pretending to discover it, and being surprised by the revelation. He knows that his true fans are already brainwashed into seeing him as an apostle/prophet/savior/all of the above, so he's playing on this by pretending to realize what his followers already believe about him. So in their minds, Dave is working out what they are already convinced of. They really believe he's like Moses or Jeremiah who did not want to be God's prime man, and so they are even more convinced when Dave plays this whole thing up about getting it wrong. They see him as just trying to figure all this stuff out, and God is holding his hand walking him through everything. So in the minds of his true fans, it's because of his humility that he gets things wrong. They are then primed to accept whatever conclusion he makes about the office he sits in. The reality is that he wants the power, but he has duped his followers that he really doesn't, that he's just in a process of discovering that he happens to be the one God has chosen. It's like Palpatine who humbly accepted the office of dictator, because it was the right thing to do.

Living Church of God To All Ministers - Satan Is Using Sheldon Monson And Others To Disrupt The Work of God!!!!!!

Official Statment of Fundamental Beliefs 

 

Sheldon Monson's Church of God Assembly is having a bigger impact upon LCG than they publicly admit. Their continual lashing out at Monson only raises red flags for LCG members.

Dear Fellow Ministers,

I want to write to you concerning a matter that has been stirred up by some individuals who have chosen to leave the LCG for a new group started by Sheldon Monson. They have lifted a phrase out of one of our online documents that they say shows that the LCG condones abortions—which we simply do not, and never have. 

 

The phrase is taken from the “Statement of Faith” on our MyLCG website. This document does not replace or supersede the Official Statement of Fundamental Beliefs. The “Statement of Faith” is a targeted explanatory document intended to support the Church’s position on specific moral issues in the increasingly litigious environment that exists today. Recent court cases involving religious organizations and aggressive secular government regulation point to the need for ensuring that the Church is prepared for such challenges, even as it relies on God’s protection. 

 

The phrase in the “Statement of Faith” simply acknowledges that there are rare and tragic situations where, without intervention—either divine or medical—both mother and child are at serious risk of dying. These rare situations are to be addressed by the individuals involved (mother and father) in conjunction with their pastor if he is involved. These are individual decisions. The phrase that is quoted from the “Statement of Faith,” does not, in any way, suggest or indicate that the LCG endorses or gives support to the modern practice of elective abortions. 

 

The public position of the Church since at least the 1970s under Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong has been that accepting medical treatment in rare circumstances is not to be equated with elective abortions of convenience that the world presses for today. The Church has never taught that a mother must refuse life-saving treatment in these circumstances. Many of you who have counseled heartbroken families in such tragic circumstances are aware of the distinction. 

 

Our detractors seem intent on seizing whatever issues they feel they can use to misrepresent the LCG in an attempt to justify their rebellion and the creation of yet another organization. This is not the first time this kind of divisive action has been attempted. 

 

A more detailed clarification will be posted on the MyLCG website. If you have any questions about this issue, please contact CAD. 

 

We are certainly living in interesting times as Satan continues his efforts to disrupt the Work of God—especially in light of the very positive developments in the Work in recent months. We need to be praying for each other and for our brethren who are at risk of being caught up in these manufactured and misguided controversies. Your faithful service in this way is very much appreciated, both by the brethren and by all of us here. 

 

Warm Regards,
Douglas S. Winnail

Living Church of God: "the more one comes to know LCG and their leadership, the sleazier it gets"

 

From a reader:

I note two things here.

1. While Gerald Weston and the LCG leadership make a pretense of distancing themselves from worldly politics and not getting involved in "worldly institutions" as a matter of worshipping God, hypocritically they are the very first to laud and to call upon these very institutions they preach against and tell members they must avoid. While they decry America's stagnation and sin, and while they rail against military service, corporations of the world, police, voting etc, they cheer and support what these institutions do. (We won't dirty our hands but we like what they do for us!) So then, the LCG does not agree with what the police do and carrying arms, and they do not agree with lawyering. Yet, Weston was the very first to call the police and sick a lawyer on Jeremy in toronto because Jeremy simply put Weston in his place and did nothing threatening nor illegal. (a long story) Weston also had the stupidity to order that Jeremy himself could have nothing to do with anyone in the Ontario churches. As it turned out all that backfired because Jeremy turned the tables on Gerald and Jean/Marc Arsenault (a ministerial hireling in western Canada who was once a good guy) by having the police deal with LCG as a matter of harassing him. Even the cops got a laugh at Gerald Weston over that. Good on Jeremy. we all got a laugh at that, and even the folks from as far away as Australia and New Zealand heard about it. Of course, weston had no authority to order and enforce anything like that. As long as the members give their sovereignty to their ministers and their hangers-on because they wrongly believe they are submitting to God by doing so -- just as do the kings to the beast power in Revelation 17:13 -- these ministers do as they worldly wish. Idolatry.

2. As someone who was in LCG and who had been considered as a possible minister trainee (which I vehemently refused several times), the more one comes to know LCG and their leadership, the sleazier it gets. LCG, its religio/political hierarchy and its hq are just as political and truly just as sleazy as any politic in the world!