Why Is God's Schedule With The COG Constantly Being Disrupted?

A question has been submitted:

The various comments on Church of God Faithful Has End-times Timeline Laid Out For You reminded me of a question I have long wondered about, but kept forgetting to ask. 

At various times, God’s Schedule has gotten disrupted because “the Church wasn’t ready” or some similar excuse, I mean, reason.  Did the various leaders explain how that worked with the Parable of those virgins and the oil lamps?  The Bridegroom didn’t say, “Oh, excuse me, I didn’t realize some of you had forgotten your oil, I’ll just go back and come again tomorrow.”  No, he stuck to His schedule and slammed the door in some of their faces.  It seems to me that something similar would apply to all the times the Church wasn’t ready.

The Great Falling Away: The Semantics of Hype

 

This blog recently published a chart authored by someone in a splinter group and showing a sequence of events for the end of the age. An interesting point is that in a gloss, the author identifies the "great falling away" of 2 Thessalonians 2:3. And something needs to be said about the semantics of this. Nowhere in scripture does it speak of a "great falling away." This coined term cries out for capitalization, like The Great Tribulation, so I will write it as The Great Falling Away (GFA). In particular, the word “great” is absent in the Biblical text. Apparently, Paul really had in mind just your “everyday” falling away.

Scripture clearly speaks of a falling away in this passage from 2 Thessalonians. But almost everything about it is unclear. It is uncertain if it is “the” falling away or “a” falling away. It has been translated both ways and the underlying Greek word translated as “a” or “the” really means something like “which.” Further, whether the article is definite or indefinite, does the term refer to a single monolithic event or to all apostasy generically that precedes the revealing of the man of lawlessness? And nobody knows who the man of lawlessness is. A candidate is Seleucid tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes. And nobody knows what the reference to the Temple really intends. It could mean what it says: the Temple of God in Jerusalem. Or some say it could mean the church. So we have a collection of elements of uncertain meaning. And using a particular stew of these elements to concoct a monolithic end-time event is difficult to justify.

To choose to give this terminology a particular rather than generic meaning – from “a falling away” to “the GFA” - requires some sense of the propagandistic value of language. There is no special event that could be termed The GFA as if it were a milestone in the prophetic future as the chart shows. Paul believed that Christ was going to come almost momentarily. And apostasy was to happen first. So it is really unlikely that he saw this falling away far down the corridors of time occurring as a “great” event of the 21st Century.

But this collection of uncertain elements could be packaged as a 21st Century prophetic event with a little imagination and the right semantics. It is done like this. First, without warrant, put the definite article in front of the name of the event. This would be like calling it “the great falling away.” Then it helps to capitalize it. And it becomes The Great Falling Away. It acquires the cachet of a single, isolated event not a phenomenon stretching over time. Then the most important maneuver: Invoke the type-antitype model. So there may have been a former and typical fulfillment. Nobody has identified this. So which falling away is the typical falling away? 

People have been apostatizing from the beginning. This falling away in Thessalonians is just one instance in a class of such events spanning the entirety of church history. But in case someone turns up something that seems unequivocally like the forerunner event, you have that covered. The important matter is that there is yet coming an antitypical end-time event. Finally, use this artfully packaged term in writing and preaching until it takes on a life of its own and becomes unquestionable.

As a sidebar, there is another problem. It is called presumption. Splinterists are afflicted with a hubris that leads them to believe that the great currents of scripture are all about them - little apocalyptic Millerite organizations with very few members and always on the verge of schism in the 21st century. Hence, The GFA is enlisted on the chart to refer to the splintering of Armstrongism, an event that nobody is even aware of except insiders. In this spirit, each Sabbath a globally significant drama, putatively, is played out at services. And the lead player in the dramatis personae is the little denomination itself. It is a profound but dubitable ego trip for followers.

One can note similar semantic issues in regard to "The Great Tribulation." A term of a generic nature is hyped into a specific terminology. Not a good technique for literalists. David Bentley Hart did a NT translation with special attention to what the source Greek actually was saying. And he stated in responding to a review written by Garry Wills: ". . . I had not been aware before reading it (the review) that the term “great tribulation” had any special association with certain nineteenth-century schools of Protestant chiliasm . . ." In other words, at the level of the source Greek, "The Great Tribulation" is a common language reference in koiné to a “really bad time.” It seems to have been recruited as a special term to support special pleading by Dispensationalists in recent history.

And, finally, it is only fair to state that the Protestant movement and the Roman Catholic Church both have interpretations of the passage in 2 Thessalonians. Of particular interest is the Roman Catholic view. It is the most like the splinterist view as to time element. “The Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches have interpreted this chapter as referring to a future falling-away, during the reign of the Antichrist at the end of time.” (Wikipedia, under the title “Great Apostasy”.)

This op-ed has been about an interpretation and a debate in the spirit of Midrash. But the debate is sometimes hindered by the use of tendentious, neologistic terminology. The fact is, splinterists who are preoccupied with prophecy have their own lexicon and it does not always reflect the unadorned language of the Bible. So, if you have formed the impression that this is a confused issue of high uncertainty and making use of The GFA in any prophetic countdown cannot be anything but dubious, you have understood the concern. An event of such uncertain character in nearly every dimension should not be scheduled for the end-time.

By Neo

Recent Restored Church of God Former Member Speaks Out: “Mr. Pack where are your sheep? Why have they deserted you, Mr. Pack?”

April 9, 2021

Mr. Pack,

 

You have said that people are making excuses to leave RCG.  I think people are making excuses to stay!!  It’s the only way to explain why so many have stayed since you began making repeated failed prophecies beginning around 2012.  You say, “wait until the end of the series…wait until you hear the conclusion,” and other similar phrases.  The series never ends!  It is like the story of Scheherazade and the 1001 Arabian Nights. How many times have you said that it was the last sermon in the series?  At least her stories did come to an end, and her life was spared.  Her name, by the way, means “noble heritage.”

 

You have mentioned repeatedly that your last name, “Pack,” means “Passover.”  I looked it up some years back, and indeed, coming through the Anglo-French, which includes the Hebrew, it does mean Passover.  However, you claim that your name comes from your German heritage.  In the Anglo-Saxon, which includes the German through old English, it has a very different meaning.  I suspect that you are aware of that.  I think that if you want to be totally honest, you should announce to the Church what your German name really means. I have copied and pasted it below:

 

From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history

 

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Pack.' Probably it is a harder form of Patch, which see. Pakes is the genitive form; compare Jones, Williams, Collins, &c. (v. Paxon for further evidence).

 

(Anglo-French) the French Paque = 1 One born during the Passover Festival or Eastertide [French pâque, Old French pasque, Latin pascha, Greek πάσχα; Hebrew pesakh, a passing-over] 2 a derivative from Teutonic: v. under (English) Paque (without a diminutive suff.) is now uncommon in France.

 

(English) 1 the A. - Sax. pers. name Pœc(c)- [either from an Old Teutonic word seen in Old Norse pakki (m.) = Dutch pak = Ger. pack, a pack; or Old English pǽca, deceiver: cp. the place - name Packington] 2 metonymic for Packman, q.v.

Pack Translations

1.    Pack, der ~ (BrutZeugGesindelSippschaftKanaillePlebsPöbelGelichterLumpengesindel)

                                  brooding, the ~ Noun

                                  brood, the ~ Noun

                                  sitting, the ~ Noun

2.    Pack, das ~ (LumpengesindelBrutPöbelGesindelSippschaftKanaille)

                                  scum, the ~ Noun

                                  riffraff, the ~ Noun

                                  ragtag, the ~ Noun

                                  rabble, the ~ Noun

 

Wiktionary  

Pack  noun

1.           abwertend: heruntergekommene, (teils kriminelle) Menschen; Gesindel  Pack → rabble;

Pack  noun

1.           An obnoxious, or mean and offensive person     vermin; → Gesindel; Pack;

 

 

My family goes back to Kings of England, too, by the way.  And from there it follows that my family also goes back to King David.  I imagine this applies to a great many people, not just you and me, and of course HWA.

 

Surely if Flurry or someone was giving this long series of failed prophecies, you would lampoon him to no end. Speaking of Flurry, it is hard to tell where he leaves off and you pick up, regarding taking titles.  I suspect that if you and Flurry were in a room together, there would be little room for anyone else. 

 

I noticed that there have been a number of sermons about ministers in the past few months.  The job of ministers, as described in the sermons, is not reflected in the ministers of RCG.  Most of the ministers I have dealt with are either bullies or just plain clueless.  

 

First, there was Turck. He was a power-hungry tyrant with a bad case of Little Man Syndrome.  How many hours did I listen to him screaming at me over the telephone?  More than I care to think about.  Sometimes I do believe he was literally “hopping mad.”  He called me so many mean and vicious names, it makes me blush to think of it.  He did me a favour, though, when he said that “all of HQ” thought I was a joke.  Even that there was a saying, “that God corrects the Church through” me, which he implied that you had said.  I thought how sad that HQ didn’t have better things to do than to talk about me! He told me that he hated when an email from me or my family came across his desk, that he hated having to deal with me…he stopped short of saying that he hated me, but it was no great leap to figure out that he did!  I do not know who finally got rid of him, but I always suspected that perhaps Mr. Wachuku might have mentioned something to you, after being bullied by Turck.  As I said to you at the time of Turck’s dismissal from RCG, who could bring charges against Turck when you claimed he was your best friend.  Count Turck among the flatterers.

 

Then I had to deal with other men that I did not know.  They were tutored by Turck, and felt it appropriate to treat me as badly as he did…I know you had Jeff ask me for the names of “the men” that I had mentioned in my email to you.  I named four of them, but did not name the other two, as they were too highly placed at HQ.   The four that I did name were later removed from RCG.

 

I will mention one of them now.  Brad Schleifer.  Perhaps your biggest flatterer.  Flatterers only flatter those from whom they can get something in return.  Brad was a pompous ass back when I first met him.  I always think of him as a snake-oil salesman…oozing as he walks.  How does someone as short as Brad look down his nose at others?  Glib and greasy, that’s Brad.  He loves to point out that he was an atheist. I believe he still is.  He is SO like his mother and step-father…too good for the commoners, loving to suck up to the people they can use, or who can give something to them.  Take away Brad’s titles, his impressive salary (and Ginger’s), and house…see how much loyalty is left then.  Brad’s initials say it all… B.S.  or to use all three initials and throw in a couple of vowels, as in the Hebrew… BoGuS.

 

James Rodrigues.  I met him.  He was friendly for all of two seconds.  Then his face and voice changed, what I call putting on the minister act…he told me to get out of Florida and go back to Maine.  I did so.   

 

Bob Knightly…your man from Massachusetts.  He has called and asked my opinion so many times, I stopped answering the phone.  He can’t answer questions about anything relating to anything!!  And because he can’t come up with an answer, he speaks louder and louder, until he is yelling.  I finally contacted HQ about him, as you know.  I never heard back from HQ, but Bob did…and gossiped about me to others, who told me about it. The last time we spoke on the phone, he asked what I thought about your “new revelation,” that WOMEN could receive the SAME REWARD, as WE, the ELITE, the MINISTRY.  I didn’t tell him that that was not new revelation…I was taught that 40+ years ago in WCG, and further that some women would receive a higher reward than men. The one time I allowed him into my house, the first thing he asked was, “Ya know what they call people from Massachusetts don’t cha?”  Put him on a Zoom call with you and ask him that same question.  I would love to see his face and hear his answer to you!  He threatened to visit a number of times, but then, thankfully, came up with several excuses not to. I blocked his number so that he cannot call me ever again.  If he showed up at my house, I would not let him in.

 

I have heard things about other ministers, and I believe those things.  Those are not my stories to tell. 

 

Ministers’ wives are as bad, and in some cases, worse than their husbands.  A woman does not have to worry about “the men” looking at her breasts or legs…their wives are always checking them out.  Diana Toro, who was very nice, until she became a minister’s wife, told me that I was not to wear sandals.  It was not at services, and I didn’t pay much attention to her.  Leanne Kaidannek and Pat Bishop were quite reasonable about certain things regarding women…but I don’t know many, if any, others like them…and of course, they are gone. Pat Knightly and her husband couldn’t take their eyes off a woman who had two discreet tattoos.  They met with her, before allowing her to come to services.  They were not interested in anything the woman had to say, they just kept talking about her tattoos.  Bob would call her and ask her what she thought of your prophecy series, and if she said she liked it, then Bob liked it too.  If she said she didn’t like it, then Bob would agree with that.

(By the way, there were people in WCG with tattoos, and they were never instructed to cover them up.  Also, there were people who wore rings on fingers other than the ring finger, and even one had rings on her toes!! And men were not restricted to white shirts!!)   Ask Pam De John for her honest opinion regarding women in the hot, humid south being required to wear pantyhose.                

 

I came to the HQ picnic/auction one year.  It was held the day your first wife had died.  Most people were shocked to see you and your daughter and your son there.  I remember seeing you and the practical nurse…and I told my family that you were going to marry the LPN.  A few months later you said you were dating an unnamed woman, and then you married her before a year was up (divorced a couple of times, to boot.)  Big surprise.  (Yet others, such as Mr. Lovell and Mrs. Denee were told they could not marry after they each were widowed.)

 

At the auction, I was a bit shocked to see the competitiveness.  I did bid on an afghan that no one wanted. I bid on a piece of jewelry that I knew someone else had been outbid on and gave it to her as a gift.  The last item I bid on was another afghan.  I wanted to give it as a gift.  You jumped in later in the bidding, but I continued to bid.  You were at the table next to me.  You said, loudly enough for me to hear, “these people like to bid against Mr. Pack.  They want to see how high Mr. Pack will bid.”  I stopped bidding, and you got your afghan.  The whole auction disgusted me.  I was not the only one who was shocked.

 

In the early years of RCG, you said you would hold fast to the doctrines that we knew in WCG.  You said that no one can come along and change the doctrines of an apostle.  You stayed with that for quite a long time.  Then, came a line or two that caused me to cringe…along the lines of “Mr. Armstrong was right as far as he knew…”  or “God couldn’t show Mr. Armstrong this, for __________reason.”  Then you would make changes and say there hadn’t been any changes.  It reminded me so much of WCG when they were throwing doctrines out by the bucket-load.  Recently you said that Mr. Armstrong “literally only got one thing wrong…the 1290.”

 

You started saying, “if you don’t believe _________then you don’t have the holy spirit.”  Or, “I’m teaching this by the authority of God.  If you don’t believe it, you are not converted.”   I was happy that you finally stopped saying it, and wondered who had told you to do so.

 

For nearly a decade (?) you have been saying things like, “this is the truth. You can’t argue with it.”  “If it’s not true, then Scripture is broken, and you might as well throw the Bible away.  You can’t make it say anything else.”  Then the next week, you will say “we used to believe _______. But God has shown me that is not right.”  So, does that mean scripture is broken, or that you are using private interpretation?  Are you adding and subtracting from the words in this book?  You recently said that you do not use the Bible, as it slows you down, and that you are like a conduit through which God streams.  Considering how many scores of false predictions (dare I say false prophecies?) that you have made since about 2012, perhaps you should use a Bible and slow down…and even ask which god it is that is using you.  (I would love to know who told you that your new teaching on the NTBMO was wrong, and wondered how he/she brought about getting you to change it back.)

 

Other tell-tale statements that I have learned from WCG, GCG, and LCG…and now RCG.  “Everything is going well at HQ.”  “No one is leaving.  As a matter of fact, we have record numbers of new people”  “Income is way up…much higher than last year.”   I remember in the first or second year, hearing some of those lines…only to learn that the whole HQ staff had been replaced, and I saw the letter they wrote to you.  Other similar incidents come to mind…I’m sure you remember them better than I.  You have been saying throughout this series that no one is leaving.  Every now and then, you will say one or two people have left.  Recently you implied that some people were leaving and that they have lost their salvation.  Only the people in RCG have salvation, and that is because they have come to a certain point in time.  I didn’t know that was how salvation worked.  (You have said that is how things work in PCG a number of times.)  One of the biggest false statements made by various COGs, including RCG: “All of the ministers agree.  Not one minister disagrees.” I actually heard a leaked tape, back in 1998 or 1999, when GCG was slinging so much mud around.  On it, all the board members were fighting and disagreeing all over the place. Recognizable names…disgraceful.  Sure enough, the next sermon had Meredith saying how they had had a meeting and all the ministers agreed, and how wonderful everything was going.  How many times have you said, “all the ministers agree with me,” and then we find out (or maybe we don’t find out) that one or more ministers have left?

 

You have said that it was you who discovered that God was in the OT.  Funny, but over 40 years ago, I asked a minister how to tell when it was God or Christ being spoken of in the OT.  He answered my question rather easily.

 

After the Feast of Tabernacles, I think in 2018, you started your sermon by commenting on how someone you had spoken with at the feast had said that people were told not to approach you.  You seemed so surprised!!  I rewound it and watched it five times!!  There were sermons, emails, and announcement bulletins, addressing this!  Not to mention that every Feast site in North America had daily announcements regarding this.  “Mr. Pack is an apostle.  You do not approach him.  There will be a receiving line for any new people to meet him. You will say hello and move on. If you have met Mr. Pack previously, you will not be in the receiving line.  He is important and has better things to do.”  I had personally been told that I am never to speak to you, never to email or telephone you, never to contact you, or be in the near proximity of you and your wife, because I was lower than dirt and not fit to be near you.  And, why, by the way, do you need to have “security men” form a line separating the Feast-goers from you?  Are you thinking you will be attacked and “the men” will protect you?  

 

I think that is the same Feast at which you held up a paper and showed its edge to the attendees, saying, “ I was this close to death.”  After all the time you had been ill with heart problems but were saying there was no danger.  Which statement is true?

 

Pets.  I believe that HWA covered the topic of pets.  Pets would not be resurrected.  You said they will be.

 

Speaking of pets, you have said we are not to have pets.  Why do people at HQ have pets?  And why, oh, why, do you have HORSES???!!!  For the privileged few?  

 

You say you may have to re-write the literature, as what is currently there is all wrong.  A look at the public website shows teachings from HWA…which you have not taught for a decade.  I wonder what people who are lured in by the public website think when they learn that the old ways are no longer taught.  Aren’t you supposed to teach the gospel to the world?  Why one gospel to the world and another gospel to the church?  Doesn’t that by definition mean that one or the other is “another gospel?”  Not to mention "another God" and "another Jesus."

 

I did not attend the Feast in 2020.  I had asked repeatedly if there would be masks and social distancing…after a long time, I was told there would not be any precautions against Covid at the Feast.  I opted to stay home.  You said that if you had faith, you would not get Covid.  You made fun of the other church groups who wore masks and did not sing during services.  You ended up having Covid for seven weeks, which was not announced until you had recovered.  Why the secrecy?  Did you not have faith?  I had heard, very shortly after the Feast that all of HQ had come down with it.  Evidently, it was a super-spreader.  Every year people are told to stay in their hotel room if they have a cold or other illness…every year those same people think it means everyone else…which means every year one or two people spread their coughs and colds, and a lot of people end up being sick.  Did you think that Covid would be different?  God expects people to use their common sense.  That would include using precautions during a pandemic.  (I forgot, it was prophesied for you to not speak until God gave you more new knowledge.)

 

Speaking of secrecy…you have been saying that you can’t make certain announcements because our enemies will learn of them.  And you talk of spiritual suicide.  These are statements that I would associate with “cults.”  I watched documentaries on Jonestown and Waco over the past year.  I do not think you are there… yet.  I know there have been literal suicides for as long as I can remember.  You have had people in your areas commit suicide and there were three suicides in Maine, as well as a murder-suicide, in the days of WCG.  I think you would not want to be pushing talk of suicide too much…spiritual or physical.

 

I want to clear up the origin of a word that you sometimes try to make into a different word.  Fecund.  It means “fertile.”  No matter how fast you say it and repeat it over and over, you will not make it into the other word you reference, which is not a word, but an acronym.  The acronym came about from Merry Olde England when the bobbies would beat the bushes looking for fornicators.  They would write on the summons, “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.”  That’s where “that” word came from and you will no longer have to try to make “fecund” sound like it in any other sermon!

 

Speaking in the third person… ridiculous.  How would you like it if I peppered this letter with, “You are probably thinking, ‘Well, Mrs.________, that is the most interesting thing I have ever heard!’ ”

Brad was Turck's right-hand man before he was your right-hand man.  I guess that makes Brad secondhand.  He was hand-in-glove with Turck when they put me out of the church, on trumped-up charges.  And it was Brad who said to me, "we wanted to see if you would leave the church."  What kind of a minister does that?  It was Brad who also put his hands on me and called me by my first name, which I had never asked him to do.

 

You say that we must address ministers and wives as "Mr. and Mrs" out of respect for their office.  I believe that is a power play...we call them Mr. and Mrs., they call us by our familiar names to show they have authority over us.  You at least asked me if you could call me by my first name, and I did say you could.  That does not apply to any other minister that is in RCG today. I am not a “Ms.” but a “Mrs.” by the way.

 

You have said that you have personally ministered to more people than anyone else.  If you are such a wonderful minister, where are all the people that you have ministered to?  As far away from you as they can get?  Ask yourself, “Mr. Pack where are your sheep?  Why have they deserted you, Mr. Pack?”

 

You rant against so many people that you once raved about.  Don Tiger, Charles Bishop, Brenda and Darrell Gaug, Steve and Joan Thompson, Tom and Karen Munson, Bill Ambrose, Tim “Griz” Mobley, Bill Behrer, Jeff and Arleen Ambrose, Dale Schurter, Ken Manges, et al.  So many others!  I also remember a time that a woman’s cellphone made a vibrating sound during one of your sermons.  You stopped the sermon and demanded to know whose cellphone was making a noise.  Then you told “the men” to make sure she was put out of the church for a couple of weeks.  Then you went on an extended rant about it and did your best to humiliate that poor woman.  I always wondered if she came back.  Every year at the Feast, announcements are made about cellphones, and every year, someone is sure to have his/her cellphone on, and one of “the men” will simply ask that person to shut it off.  I have not been present at a service again, where a cellphone went off while you were speaking. Another rant that had to be endured by members and waitstaff at a Feast luncheon, was when we were served chicken-fried steak.  You carried on so, it was hard to believe.  I felt bad for the waiters who were serving it, which was simply delicious, and probably one of the better meals I have had at some Feast lunches.  Why say such hateful things regarding a delicious meal, which had had a blessing asked over it, by the way.  Why try to humiliate the servers?  Inexcusable, in my opinion.

 

Like ministers in other COG groups, you will stand up and tell stories of how you were abused by other ministers and administrators, and then you do the same thing to others!

 

You said in the early days that if you went off into strange doctrine, to leave the church and not listen to you. And to remember that you said it, because if you went off into strange ideas, you would not tell us to leave.  Do you remember saying such things?  I do.

 

You say “Christ is coming first, no God is coming first, no Christ is coming first, no God is coming first.” Which is it?   “Christ is coming during the fast of Esther…the Passover, Xmas, new year’s”…and just about every other day you can think of.  Which is it?  You used to say that no one can know the day nor hour, except God…as says the Bible.  Now you say it, and change your mind to you can know…you can’t know, you can know.  Which is it??  Recently you said you know exactly when it will happen, but you have said that before! And you said the words “time, times, and half a time,” always refer to a day.  I looked it up, as I tend to do, and it can also mean “year” and “season.”  If someone speaks a prophecy in the name of the LORD and it comes not to pass, it was not from the LORD and you shall not fear that man. ("Medina," by the way is Arabic for "the city." and can be extended to mean "the city of the Prophet Mohammed," not "the city of the Prophet," as you have said.)

 

You have said to sell everything you own and give the money to the church.  I was told to sell my house, that I didn’t need a house.  I did sell it, I did give you some money.  Then I had to buy a run-down old house so I had a place to live!  The minister who told me to sell the house left the church when he was told to sell his house!  

 

Why do the ministers not sell their houses?  Do the HQ ministers and staff live in those houses for free?  Did you give all of your money to the church when you sold your house?  

 

I do not see the doctrine of “common” in the Bible as it is taught in RCG.  We are supposed to sell everything and give you the money.   The Bible speaks of a time when they sold all and went from house to house, sharing everything among themselves, as they had need.  After I sold my house and was in need, I was told that the church isn’t there to give physical help, only spiritual help.  Well, I haven’t had any help, physical or spiritual. 

 

Your sermons could be cut way down to the acceptable one and a half hours, if you cut out all the rhetoric, foolish questions, hyperbole, and loooong explanations as to why you can’t explain your latest revelation.  You have spun such a big ball of yarn that is very twisted and full of knots…no one could ever make use of it.

 

I’ve mentioned flatterers earlier in this letter.  If you really want to know how to tell who the flatterers are in the ministry and at HQ, listen to them speak.  If they are agreeing with you, 100% of the time, as you say they are, then they are flatterers.  If their sermons are glib and greasy, they are flatterers, and they, themselves, do not believe what they are saying.  If their voices sound stressed and it is hard to believe what they are saying, especially when they are asked to defend you, they are flatterers who do not want to lose their big homes and salaries. Listen to the stress in Andrew Holcombe’s voice.  It was evident in Jeff’s voice for years…I’m glad he escaped, but even he stayed long enough to collect a good amount of filthy lucre.  I was really surprised when Greg Kaidannek left and sent a letter with the reasons why.  I knew he didn’t believe what he had been preaching, and I thought he would stay.  I was wrong on that one.  Which men imitate you, in speech, in hand movements, in the content of speech (such as the use of the third person when speaking of themselves)?  Who copies your style and phrasing and use of words (such as “the most fascinating,” the most interesting,”  “I’m going to blow your mind,” etc.)?  These are the flatterers that you wanted to know about.  

 

I am neither a yes-man nor a flatterer. I am saying honest things to you that few others would bother to say.

 

You used to say you were little in your own eyes.  You used to say, “I hope you think I’m not bragging,”  as you bragged about one thing or another. I think you’ve bought into your own hype. As you love to say, “anoint your eyes.”  

 

God is not the author of confusion and there is simplicity in Christ.  Your sermons are full of confusion and not one whit of simplicity.  You are right about one thing, though.  God wants to see who stays and who leaves, but in the exact opposite way that you portend.

 

As you used to say, quoting another ‘apostle,’ “Who moved?”

 

I hope you have some appreciation for my “little letter.”  It was meant to be read in a pleasant conversational tone.  There is no anger, bitterness, acrimony, hatred, or any other negative feeling in it.  If you read negative feelings into it, they are your feelings, not mine.  

 

If I am wrong in these things that I have brought to your attention, may God have mercy on me and forgive me.  If I am right, may God have mercy on you and forgive you.

 

 

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                Former RCG Member