Restored Church of God: Remember as you fundraise for the church that the more zealous you are demostrates to God how much he can use us in His kingdom

Why is it that so many of the "larger" splinter cults in the Church of God are so consumed with money? Their god has to be the most impotent thing humans have ever created. It apparently cannot do anything to save people unless money is flowing into these COG leader's tax havens that they call "churches."

Restored Church of God, under the most superfantabulous Dave Pack, is the one group who's god is consumed with building up its monetary stockpile. The more money you give the more Dave's impotent god inflates.

RCG's Kenneth Orel writes:

Through hard work and vision, God’s people have raised over 2.5 million dollars over four years. This has made possible monumental advancements in the Work—much more than you may realize.

If you have participated in fundraising over the past four years, you have been directly involved in preaching the good news of the soon-coming kingdom of God to a world filled with misery and hopelessness. You have been directly responsible for helping warn the physical nations of Israel of the coming Tribulation and warning spiritual Israel—those with the Holy Spirit—of possible eternal death if they do not “anoint their eyes.” Collectively, we have supported God’s 21st century servant by providing and generating the funds necessary for him to speak to the world. Did you realize fundraising supported such a massive purpose?

How has the "world" ever benefited from any of Dave's miraculous works? Unless one looks at his superfantabulous web site, which incidentally is the greatest thing humans have ever created, one would not have any idea who Dave Pack is and what the Restored Chruch of God is. He has had zero impact on the world. No world leaders have ever met the reclusive Dave. His magazine is a piss poor imitation of the old Plain Truth magazine that went out to over 8 million subscribers. Dave is lucky if he can get his own members to read his Real Truth.

Orel goes on to make this appalling statement:

Those of us who are zealous and participate in fundraising demonstrate to God how much He can use us in His kingdom. For years, we have been taught that we are in training. Training implies we are getting ready to be used when the time comes. That time is quickly coming upon us.

Given how sick the leadership is in various Church of God groups and the abuse they dish out, the question that needs to be asked is WHY would ANYONE ever want to be a part of those "special kingdoms" they have created in their own minds. It is not a kingdom God has ever planned. These fake kingdoms are only figments of COG leaders warped and deluded minds.

Did you know that the more money you give the better the chance that people who the god of Dave has "called" will now have a chance to join the one true church?

If you do not fully understand this aspect of “doing the Work,” here is more clarification: Participation in God’s Work involves the support of spreading the message of the good news of God’s kingdom by television, radio, print and the Internet—all tools that are available to us right now. From here on out, every penny brought in by fundraising will be used to reach individual human beings who are being called out of Satan’s kingdom and into God’s kingdom—to join in the work of spreading that good news to all nations. 

 

Remember, those people being called, like yourself, have been specifically chosen by God to be the firstfruits of His master plan of salvation. Is fundraising becoming more important in your eyes?

And the COG has the nerve to mock Catholics and indulgences! Hypocrites!

As usual in the Church of God movement, members are always found to be lazy and disinterested in the lofty goals of their leaders. The world is STILL in a screwed up mess because of you lazy members!

Over the years, there have been many in the Church who have done much and have gotten involved, yet sadly, there have been those who have done little or nothing. The difference between these two types of people is vision. To those who are involved, the kingdom and their part in it is real. They see the destruction Satan has wreaked on an unsuspecting world, and have determined in their mind that they want to be used by God to clean up the mess.

Those of you who do not fundraise are allowing Satan access to your mind. That crafty devil is looking for ways to he can use you thwart the master plan of the creature Dave calls god.

Do you realize God is watching us every moment to determine who will assist Christ in cleaning up Satan’s mess? “And that You should visit him [man] every morning, and try [test, investigate, examine, prove] him every moment?” (Job 7:18). He is evaluating how He can use us to transform people’s lives later by how much we do now. 

Fundraising is the reason the "work" exists, because the impotent god of Dave cannot bring to fruition its pathetic kingdom without some money in the coffers.  And, the more money you raise and give to this great work of Dave and his impotent god, the better the chance that god will have a special role for you in its sad little kingdom. The more you give the better looking that crown is going to be!

For those who desire to take this seriously and therefore are qualifying now for positions of great service in the government of God, Christ asks a compelling question: “What more can you do?” (Matt. 5:47). The context of that question comes when Christ was explaining that the law has been magnified. God’s Way is always about doing more—pushing ourselves for the greater benefit of others. 

 

For those who have chosen to be in His Kingdom as rulers (and it is a choice), Christ needs to know who is going to go above and beyond what is expected of them. (Read about the unprofitable servant in Luke 17:1-10.) 

 

Just doing what is expected of us is not enough—not for anyone who desires to wear a crown serving under Jesus Christ in His government. They must do more.

Actually the only thing anyone is going to serve "under" here is King Dave himself. Jesus is no more part of this plan than he is in sending Bob Thiel visionary dreams.

Now, for the grand finale...

The Church is poised to become the biggest thing in religion the world has ever seen. The Greatest Work no longer “lies yet ahead.” The Greatest Work described in Isaiah 29:14 and Habakkuk 1:5 is now! 

 

 

Why are so many in the COG happy reading the Bible in isolation than they are in risking themselves and going outside and doing it?

 

Christianity Without Religion (PTM) has a short article up by Brad Jersak, People of the Book or the Book Above the People?

It includes this comment by Barbara Brown Taylor on the Bible and how people worship the words in ink more than the concept of putting those words into action and doing something about it. This has been the malady of the Church of God for decades. The words in The Book, the inked out words, are far more important than actually doing what it says. The church has always been selective in what it believes and practices when it comes to this. This is part of the reason Pack, Thiel, Weinland, Weston, and Flurry are all about talking and writing so much. They think their spoken words and their writings are far more important than actually being 'followers of the Way' and getting off their privileged asses and putting their so-called faith into action. These fake leaders and far too many other COG leaders think their words are far more important than following Jesus. In the same manner, they have deified the words of the Bible and the book itself as the reality instead of moving past the printed words and into doing some kind of action. This is why so many COG members ignore church leadership any more.

"… I notice [that] whenever people aim to solve their conflicts with one another by turning to the Bible, defending the dried ink marks on the page becomes more vital than defending the neighbor. As a general rule, I would say that human beings never behave more badly toward one another than when they believe they are protecting God. In the words of Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas, “people of the book risk putting the book above people.” "

 

"I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place, since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape. Neither I nor anyone else knows how these stories will turn out, since at this point they involve more blood than ink. The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me, is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become living words in the world for God’s sake. For me, this willing conversion of ink back to blood is the full substance of faith. 

 

In practice, this means that my faith is far more relational than doctrinal. Although I am guilty of reading scripture as selectively as anyone, my reading persuades me that God is found in right relationships, not in right ideas and that a great deal of Christian theology began as a stammering response to something that had actually happened in the world."

 

-Barbara Brown Taylor

London Calling: Upcoming Forbes Interview on WCG's teaching on "The Place of Safety"

 

I was contacted by an editor at Forbes London who is writing about WCG's teaching on "The Place of Safety" and my personal experiences with the concept as a former Pastor.  Interesting in that Forbes is mainly an economics publication 

(I hated the speculation and never intended to tell anyone to go anywhere taking Gerald Waterhouse's marathon sermons with a grain of salt from my youth. You all recall, I am sure, his response when I asked him what he would do when HWA died. I eventually told him personally how I felt about his visits and that he caused more problems for me than he solved. He just said "Is that right?" and I got kicked under the table). I would have opted for online "final training"  The whole concept was a badly cobbled opinion and teaching taking many unrelated and vague OT and NT scriptures and weaving them into making the texts mean what they never meant nor could mean to this day ).  After the Jonestown debacle, the fear of it all in the minds of many was set.   However, I found that "going along to get along" was more common than speaking up. 

Before this interview, Wednesday, I would like a bit of fresh input on how you may have felt personally about it when the concept was presented. No rants, just how you really felt.  Fears, expectations, questions, etc.  Back in the day, did you agree?  Did you look forward to it?  

Thanks for your input. 

An aerial view of Petra reveals that while it may have deterred the Romans, it is not exactly safe from above in our day.