Is “That Prophet” Alive Today?

 

Is “That Prophet” Alive Today?

 

Ever since “The Greatest Story Never Told! (Part 8)” given on December 12, 2015, David C. Pack has made it a doctrine of The Restored Church of God that “That Prophet” of Deuteronomy 18:18 and Acts 3:23 is Elijah the Prophet, not Jesus Christ as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong of The Worldwide Church of God. That had been a “bedrock” understanding about Jesus Christ for decades.

 

Being that David C. Pack had declared himself to be Elijah the Prophet eleven months earlier made this new teaching all the more convenient for him to be greater in importance to God than ever before. He was in the Bible more than he previously thought. It was the beginning of the floodgates opening.

 

Part 8 @ 06:49 Who is That Prophet of Deuteronomy 18? Two great questions immediately come up. Is he Christ or is he a man? And when is his commission carried out? Is he God or man? And when does he do what he’s supposed to do? Big question. Well, let’s go read in Acts 3, what it says. I’m gonna answer it in a way that is impossible to misunderstand.

 

And yet, Dave misunderstood it for the remaining 1 hour and 50 minutes. Then has continued to misunderstand for the next 6 years and 8 months…plus.

 

That logic never made sense to me because Jesus Christ was a man. If Dave was denying He was a man, then he is denying that God came in the flesh. Dave never went “all the way” there, but when he would dip his toes into that pool, I got incredibly uncomfortable.

 

It would have been such a simple question at the time, “Mr. Pack, isn’t Jesus Christ a man?” I guess either no minister at Headquarters asked him or he just “explained it away” without considering fully what he was saying.

 

This is a clip later in the message where he stated flatly that Elijah was That Prophet. See Audio: Part 8 Elijah That Prophet at end of this article.

 

This “new doctrine” took a sledgehammer to my spiritual foundation and rocked where I was as a Christian and what The Restored Church of God was doing as the place I had been “giving all” to. His “Ah shucks, it had to be someone” comments did not soften the cut I felt when I first heard this teaching.

 

This was the sermon that kept me tossing and turning three nights in a row. I had never been so spiritually disturbed. That teaching was wrong and not of God. I knew that. 

But on the other hand, I was in God’s one true church. Mr. Pack was the one God chose to lead the Work of God until Jesus Christ returns.

 

I wondered:

 

How is it possible that Mr. Pack could be so utterly wrong about something so utterly important? It’s all throughout our literature. It’s in The World to Come broadcasts. Mr. Pack wrote an entire book about it to prove that Gerald Flurry of The Philadelphia Church of God was a false prophet. It is a title only for Jesus Christ. Acts 3 makes it so clear. And yet…

 

It was a surreal time. I did not hear anyone else make a comment about it. All the ministers were acting like “business as usual.” Co-workers did not seem to be in a haze of shock.

 

I must be the only one at Headquarters that has a problem with this. Maybe I’m not as close to God as I thought. Maybe I am not of the wise because “the wicked shall not understand.” Maybe I’m a tare. Maybe I don’t have enough faith. Maybe I don’t have God’s Spirit after all. Maybe the devil is tricking me. I better counsel with the ministry.

 

On that Wednesday morning, I counseled with the Headquarters Pastor at the time who was training another man I liked very much. They spent the next 90 minutes showing me from the Bible how Mr. Pack was correct in his teachings and I was just not looking at it the right way, but that is okay because it is a minister’s job to help guide the brethren.

 

I was a sheep and the two shepherds were going to help keep me from wandering off.

 

I came with my Bible, but also with Mr. Pack’s own literature. I only had the heart to read a few “mild” quotes from it. “That book is old understanding,” the minister said. I have to stay current with what God is revealing to His apostle now. It is part of a Christian’s journey. This is why Christianity is hard.

 

By the end of the session, they got me to see it their way. I hugged both of them, feeling relieved. But the moment I started walking down the hallway, the “wait a minute” questions started to pop in my head.  “What about…” and “What about…” all the way to my truck in the parking lot. By the time I opened the door, I was already back to, “No. That’s not right. No way. Jesus Christ is That Prophet.” I could not shake it.

 

At this point, I was determined to do a deep study in my Bible when I got home. This was against the advice of the minister. He told me to “trust God’s government” and “do not study this any more.”

 

But, I knew I had to “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.” That was a foundational verse for my entire Christian journey. I spent weeks going through my Bible and the RCG literature (before it was removed from every nook and cranny at Headquarters). I was driven to prove what was true. My intent was not to prove Mr. Pack wrong. But that did become the ultimate conclusion.

 

After much study, I proved it all the more powerfully that Jesus Christ is That Prophet. I still have those notes. At this point, I just had to “endure” the stab in my gut whenever Mr. Pack would bring it up. I began to listen to him more carefully than in the past and really hear what he is saying and how he is saying it.

 

If he is so wildly wrong about this teaching, what else is he wrong about?

The seed was planted. I became a David C. Pack skeptic. I never believed he was an apostle anyhow, I just “accepted” everyone said it. But this new way of thinking grew. I was deeply interested in critical thinking, prosecuting the truth, proving all things, and letting the Bible prove the Bible.

 

Eventually, I resigned from The Restored Church of God in March of 2021. And now I have a website. That has been an odd journey.

 

 

Due to all the whoppers Dave laid out in Part 381 this past Sabbath, something huge escaped my attention, which is probably fine since that article was more than long enough already.

There is a new big question on the table: Who is That Prophet now?

 

Follow the logic:

 

Jesus Christ was That Prophet  Dave Pack becomes Elijah the Prophet  That Prophet is actually Elijah the Prophet Dave Pack is then Elijah That Prophet  Dave Pack now is NOT Elijah the Prophet  Dave Pack cannot be That Prophet  Ancient Elijah is still dead and cannot be That Prophet  Who is That Prophet now?  Dave throws a dart on his open Bible

 

 

Based on what was just declared on July 9, David C. Pack HAS to also do a major reversal on who That Prophet is. If Dave is not Elijah the Prophet, then he cannot be That Prophet. Since the ancient Elijah the Prophet is now one of the Two Witnesses who will need to be resurrected before he can start his commission, he cannot be That Prophet either. Can he?

Dave may squint and turn his head sideways at Deuteronomy 18 to make that also be about the Two Witnesses of Revelation, but since the word there is prophet—singular, he will really need to pull off some world-class Biblical Twister to sell that, even to Brad.

 

Here’s an idea. I have already declared I am a non-prophet/non-psychic, but allow me for a moment to channel Dave’s warped thinking into my brain. THUNK. Do not try this is at home. It is for demonstration purposes only.

 

I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. Deuteronomy 18:18-19

 

If I were Desperate Dave running on the hamster wheel in the third floor Executive Imaginarium with The Coffee Kid and Pepper Boy manning the projector, here is how I would do it:

 

First, look up each and every word in Strong’s Concordance. Then, remove all the words that those awful, incompetent translators added in to “cloud” what God was really saying. Read all the various other translations. Then examine what is being said and who it is being said to.

 

Eureka! I have the answer. 

 

God was talking to Moses. God is telling him He is going to resurrect another prophet like him. That other prophet is Elijah. God was telling Moses that he was going to get a partner named Elijah. Since Elijah and Moses will be the Two Witnesses, they are like each other. Plus, Elijah was a great speaker and Moses was not, so logically, Elijah would be “the chief” of the two. Elijah is a type of Aaron going before Pharaoh, so of course what HE says will carry consequences to those who do not heed.

 

It makes perfect sense that God hid this in His word until the very end, right there in the Old Testament and we never saw it because it wasn’t time yet. No minister I ever talked to or even heard about ever read that verse and said That Prophet of Acts 3 was going to be working with Moses and that the Two Witnesses are right there in Deuteronomy 18. It’s impossible to misunderstand. Once you see it for what it is. This is the most electrifying knowledge I have ever been privileged to teach in my fifty-some-odd years of preaching. And you are the very first who get to hear it. Because you held on, brethren.

 

Yikes. I just wrote that. That is not a Dave quote, just in case you were wondering.

 

The long-standing Acts 3 distortion would still be in play regarding Elijah. Forget the fact Peter keeps bringing up Jesus Christ from beginning to the end of that chapter. Peter was just a fisherman, so what did he know? Dave has no problem repeating, “Peter got it wrong” anyhow.

 

Seriously, if Dave uses this angle to teach it to the church, that would be incredible. And he would owe me sixty bucks.

 

Could you imagine? God’s Apostle, who is also here “in the spirit and power of Elijah” draws the same conclusion as an antichrist? Except, I got here first. For the record, I found this answer inside 30 second just before noon on Monday, July 11, 2022.

 

If God reveals to Dave the same information I just found sitting with my laptop on my couch, what would that say about me from a biblical perspective? That is not a question for you or for me. That would be a question for Dave. We’ll jump off that bridge when we get to it.

 

Or…and I hope this is truly the case, Dave goes the other way and he announces that Jesus Christ really really really is That Prophet of Deuteronomy 18 and Acts 3 after all. They can take all that literature out of the trash bin and put it back onto the shelf.

 

I would feel very comfortable with that because it would be true.

 

But if he does this, it will yet be another reversal of a foundational teaching of The Restored Church of God that has been held on to for almost seven years. Talk about shaking the tree again with that one.

 

He surely won’t spend 1 hour and 57 minutes explaining how he is NOT That Prophet and that Jesus Christ is. I’m curious to see how much energy he actually devotes to dismantling his own erroneous teaching.

 

If Dave went this route and returned to “Jesus Christ is That Prophet” just as I asserted back in 2015, then I could imagine the counseling that Bradford G. Schleifer would give as I sat in his office.

 

“Well Marc, you didn’t exercise enough patience. You answered the matter before you heard it. See, God sorted it out just like Mr. Armstrong always used to say. You didn’t trust God’s government, His Church, His ministers, or me. You didn’t believe Mr. Pack was God’s apostle and this is the result. If only you had held on just a little longer…”

 

I feel a little bit like Thanos taking his seat.

 

Now…we wait.

Marc Cebrian

See: Is “That Prophet” Alive Today?

Elijah That Prophet

Dave Pack Makes Another U-Turn And Declares Himself UnProphet-able

 

“David C. Pack Declares Himself UnProphet-able”

 

In another hairpin reversal of reversals, David C. Pack of The Restored Church of God declares he is NOT “Elijah the Prophet” in The Greatest Unending Story! (Part 381) given in Wadsworth Ohio on July 9, 2022.

 

Not to spoil the suspense, but here are the notable whoppers from this message:

·      When God told Elijah in 1 Kings 19:18/Romans 11:2-5, “Yet have I left seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal” it was not a reference to people in the time of ancient Elijah, but is a future fulfillment by the members of RCG.

·      The Two Witnesses are resurrected Moses and Elijah.

·      Dave is not “Elijah the Prophet” but more a John the Baptist “Like-Elijah” figure.

·      The parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke 16 is actually about the Day of the Lord to be fulfilled in the future.

·      Math math math math math points to Tammuz 15 (Wednesday night to Thursday night) for the start of the 1335. 

Man o man, where to start…

 

 

The beginning of the message was almost equally as disturbing as the content which followed.

 

@ 00:13 Well, I assured you there we we would not have another message. So much for so much for the Methodist doctrine of assurance. [Audience laughs]…The picture is exactly the same. Couple dramatic changes to our understanding, but the picture stays the same.

 

Why is that funny?

 

Mr. Pack told us there was nothing more to learn, but…ha ha ha.

Mr. Pack said Jesus Christ HAD to come last week, but…ha ha ha.

Mr. Pack said we had a “perfect picture” last time, but…ha ha ha.

Mr. Pack says we have reached the end, but…ha ha ha.

Mr. Pack says one thing and does another…ha ha ha.

 

The fact some in the audience laughed was actually bothersome to me. The man is stringing those people along and they seem to be just so okay with it. That feels a bit Twilight Zone-ish.

 

Listen to it yourself:  see the sound file at the end of this post Open and Laughing at end of this post

 

Dave then reminded people that Tammuz 15 was still the day it all begins. Make sure to underline that Post-it Note still on your fridge.

 

Going to Romans 11 and 1 Kings 19, Dave explains how the “seven thousand knees which did not bow to Baal” are actually not in Elijah’s time, but in the future and those are the people in RCG.

 

Imagine this: Elijah is distraught and wants to die because he is all alone. God gets his attention with a “still, small voice” and tells him, “I have reserved 7000 knees that have not bowed to Baal, buuuuuut that is all about people who will live almost 3000 years from now. So yeah, I know I was supposed to comfort you and let you know you are not alone, but actually Elijah…you are alone.” In effect, God pulls a fast-one on one of His servants.

 

Then Dave went on to the topic of the Two Witnesses.

Over the past several years, he would “wonder out loud” during a sermon about who these men could be. For a while, he suggested it was Jeff and Kevin. But when they left RCG, then he mused at some point about it being The Coffee Kid and Pepper Boy. More jokingly, but still.

 

He has finally settled on a resurrected Moses and Elijah. But I would pencil and not ink that. They would have to die again in the streets of Jerusalem to be resurrected again a few days later.

 

Imagine this: You live in Old Testament times as God’s servant, full of faith knowing that when you are resurrected, you will inherit the Kingdom of God and receive your eternal reward.

Buuuuuut…

 

Instead, God says, “Hello, My most faithful servants. You died and are now alive again. I need to ask the both of you to work again this weekend which means both of you have to die again. Yeah. If you could just do that, that would be greaaaaaaaaaaat.”

 

How could you blame the ancient Elijah if he thought that this was strike-two? “First, I am actually alone. Second, I have to die again. Dare I ask what is going to be third?”

 

So, Dave reduces God to the same bait-and-switch tactics that he employs with new RCG members. Is that reasonable to you?

 

And now folks, for the main event:

 

@ 35:51 Well, there would be another person like John [the Baptist] who would come in that spirit and power. John didn’t do a single miracle. There would be another one similar to him who would be Elijah-like in a restorative way. But I am not Elijah the Prophet. I am only in the sense that the ancient John the Baptist came a little ahead of Christ. Would there be a modern man who’d come a little ahead of Christ, carry that name but he has his own name? He’s sorta like Moses, but carries the name of Elijah which is kind of an interesting thing in itself…

 

Dave must have gotten nostalgic for his childhood. He picked a daisy out of the garden and started plucking petals, “I’m Elijah. No I’m not. I’m Elijah. No I’m not. I’m Elijah. No I’m not.” Eventually he is going to run out of petals and get stuck with one choice at the buzzer.

 

But hold the phone. Since God is the one who calls men into an office, does Dave really have the authority to unProphet-ize himself? I thought it was God who revealed to Dave that he was Elijah That Prophet in the first place. Does this mean that God pulled the rug out from underneath Dave for the fun of it?

 

Is God laughing at Dave like Nelson from the Simpsons? “Ha ha. I said you were ‘Elijah in spirit and power’ not ‘Elijah the Prophet.’ Clean the wax out of your ears next time.”

Dave then went through the Bible for some time drawing comparisons to himself and John the Baptist.

 

@ 1:12:01 And now you know he [John the Baptist] wasn’t Elijah the Prophet. And maybe that’s why he did not one miracle. Now, I did a lot of things in the past, more miraculous things in the past. But of recent years because of my role, I don’t. I’ve anointed people that had been healed dramatically. And I’ve had I been the recipient of miracles. So, I think it’s an interesting parallel in that way.

 

The point being, John the Baptist did not do miracles and Dave does not do them any more. That will be important near the end.

 

@ 1:14:13 So, the ancient John [the Baptist] was a prophet who proceeded Christ but he knew that he was not actually Elijah. So, I am not Elijah the Prophet. Not now, not ever. Sort of a a type coming “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” Elijah, apparently was a was a pretty good speaker. John the Baptist was a bright and shining light. I hope to some degree in a small way, I’ve done that. 381 sermons, lo these many years. 44,000 minutes just in the series of preaching. So, you know, I don’t know when I became like Elijah the Prophet, but now I know I am not that man and we no longer have to spend five minutes talking about it. I’m the Seventh Messenger. Yes, I am the messenger who is sent “to prepare the way” right in the face of the Father and Son coming together in Malachi 3:1 before “the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”

 

Technically, Dave is still like-Elijah, just not Elijah the Prophet. Fine, Dave…we’ll play this your way. You are not a false prophet. You are a LIKE-False Prophet. You came “in the spirit and power of a false prophet.” Happy now?

 

@ 37:21 So, you’ve got something else to look forward to. I believe absolutely this Wednesday night you will meet Moses and Elijah. And then you’ll meet the rest of the prophets in a couple weeks after that. And believe me, I’m not I’m not done proving it.

 

He has not “proven” anything. It is just the same tired supposition, imagination, delusion, and desperation plucked from the pages of the Bible and out of the air after Dave brushes away the stars and birds floating about his head.

 

If you had put your money down on the table every time Dave said, “I believe XYZ is going to happen on XYZ,” you would be homeless by now. No car. No food. No clothes.

 

Near the end, Dave went exhaustively into how this coming Wednesday night (Tammuz 15) starting at sundown on July 13 to sundown July 14 is absolutely the start of the 1335 when the Kingdom of God arrives.

 

@ 1:16:17 So, let’s reduce everything to math and you’ll walk outta here and you will know based on numbers alone exactly when this is gonna happen.

 

Yikes. When Dave breaks out the calculator and a calendar, it never ends well for him.

 

If you are a masochist, you can hear it for yourself in all it’s easy-peezy glory: see audio clip “Part 381 Kingdom Math” at end of this post

 

Cutting to the chase: Tammuz 15 is the real deal. The millennium (1000 years) starts on Trumpets. You can count a bunch of things with a bunch of dates and you land on this coming Wednesday night at sundown until around dawn on Thursday morning or maybe at any point throughout the day until sundown Thursday night to start the whole shebang. Got it?

 

 

For those still interested, we are going to circle back around to the John the Baptist concept and reveal how Dave is not nearly as good at Daving as Brad is at Daving. I think Bradford G. Schleifer would have had a better run at blurring these concepts so the holes in Dave’s theory were not so gaping.

 

Dave is telling the audience everything they need to hear to prove if he truly is like-Elijah “in spirit and power” or not? The man tells you in his own words. He even uses the Bible to prove which is the answer. It is not only incredible, but plain.

 

Dave claims he is not a prophet. John the Baptist was a prophet. Dave says so at 1:14:13 quoted above. Jesus Christ agrees with this in Matthew and Luke.

 

John the Baptist heard the voice of God audibly and was told exactly what to do and when. Dave has admitted throughout the series he has never heard God speak to him.

 

According to Luke 1:17, John the Baptist came “in spirit and power of Elijah.” That word for power is dunamis. (Strong’s G1411 – From G1410; force (literally or figuratively); specifically miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself).

 

This has been hammered over and over in The Restored Church of God. We know what dunamis is. Miraculous power. Dave admitted that he no longer does anything “miraculous” at 1:12:01 quoted above. So, what “power” is Dave then referring to? Talking a lot? Insurance salesmen do that. Yelling a lot? Army sergeants do that.

 

I would love for some minister on the third floor on Monday who runs into Dave in the hallway to ask him flat out, “What power were you referring to?” It will be the last question they ever ask him, but the look on his face would be priceless.

 

Ask yourself: If Dave once had miraculous power, why would God take it away?

 

Is there an example somewhere in the Bible that could be a clue as to what happened? Yes. But it does not bode well for Dave. Do an e-Sword search in the Old Testament for a man named Saul.

 

Why would God remove His gift from His only living apostle on the face of the earth? Ponder that.

 

So, if Dave does not have dunamis, then what “spirit” do you suppose is moving him deeper into this Tammuz malarkey? Or to previously declare he WAS Elijah the Prophet? Is it the same spirit that caused John the Baptist to witness a dove descend from heaven and rest upon our Savior, Jesus Christ?

 

How many inside The Restored Church of God do you think caught all this?

 

 

How David C. Pack is NOT like John the Baptist:

1) John the Baptist was a prophet, Dave is not.

2) John the Baptist heard God speak to him, Dave has not.

3) John the Baptist was “in the dunamis of Elijah,” Dave is not.

4) John the Baptist kept his dunamis until death, Dave has not.

5) John the Baptist saw spirit, Dave has not.

 

 

Please remember that I did not say these things. David C. Pack said these things. The Bible says these things. I am merely reminding you of it.

 

Tammuz is a one way street. Dave has painted himself into a smaller and tighter corner with each message.

I know the “ministers” in RCG will call me (if they have not already) an antichrist. With this article, they will say I am also committing the unpardonable sin for blaspheming the Holy Spirit. I was a tare amongst the wheat. I am beating my fellow servants. I am deceived. My work is of the devil. Woe unto me.

I humbly request they hold back on any judgment regarding this until Friday morning. Let God prove who is a liar and who is true. Amen to the Kingdom of God coming this week. Amen to the plan of God moving forward now. Amen to Jesus Christ returning to His people.

If I am wrong, I will be cast into a lake of fire. I accept that.

If David C. Pack is wrong, will he repent?

Marc Cebrian

See: “David C. Pack Declares Himself UnProphet-able”

 

Open & Laughing

 

Kingdom Math

LCG: In Seeking To Stop Members From Becoming Another Bob Thiel Ends Up Discouraging Intellectual Curiosity

Intellectual stimulation is vanity

It is well known by now how Bob Thiel thought he had great influence upon Rod Meredith, the Council of Elders, and many of LCG's top men. Thiel was constantly running to them with newly revealed knowledge he had supposedly discovered and therefore had to correct the LCG, its leadership, and its teachings to conform to his own interpretations. After being publicly humiliated by Rod Meredith from the stage, Thiel, filled with vanity, set off on his own to form his own personality cult, though the "personality" in this instance sure leaves a lot to be desired! Oy!

In a letter to the members of the Living Church of God, Paul Sena has written this, Beware of “Special Knowledge”. In this letter, he discusses how church members down through the decades have found themselves wrapped up in special knowledge gained from personal study, conspiracy theories, and other avenues of intellectual pursuit. Of course, when this involves questioning church leadership or beliefs then it creates an open can of worms.

A destructive pursuit has plagued the Church of God for centuries. Perhaps surprisingly, it often starts with pure motives—yet it frequently leads to pride, rebellion, and division. It did so in the first-century Church, and still does in God’s Church today. The pursuit of “special knowledge” is one of Satan’s most insidious and effective tools for attacking the people of God, and the problems it causes can be devastating. Let’s examine some of the effects of this pursuit, and then see what we can personally do to rein it in.

One avenue is intellectual curiosity, which ultimately is vanity:

Notice that Paul referred to the serpent deceiving Eve in the Garden of Eden. We find the account of this deception in Genesis 3:1–6...

The serpent, Satan, appealed to Eve’s intellectual vanity. In effect, he was offering her special knowledge. The appeal of having special information goes back to the very first humans, and Satan played on that desire—in fact, he still does.

Peter addressed the growing problem around 68 AD, 19 years after the letter to the Galatians:

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber (2 Peter 2:1–3). 

 

Notice that Peter uses the term “false prophets,” referring to people who claimed special insight. Such people, he says, are motivated by covetousness—whether they are coveting power, prestige, respect, or something else. Christ’s Apostles, on the other hand, clearly had the authority to preach as they did. 2 Peter 1:16–18 reminds us that, unlike those who claimed to have “new truth,” the Apostles were eyewitnesses of Christ Himself. What’s more, Peter says, “No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation [origin], for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (vv. 20–21). This has always been how God works to reveal the truth.

Intellectual curiosity breeds people like Bob Thiel...

The progression from innocent curiosity to arrogant rebellion usually goes something like this: First, a person notices something in a scripture that piques his interest—it’s something he hasn’t noticed before, but it seems to merit further study. Leaping to his mind as a result of this curiosity is a theory that, for one reason or another, is very attractive to him. 

 

This person then gathers all the scriptures and other documentation—lexicons, commentaries, Google search results, etc.—that seem to support his theory. But here is the danger: Does he honestly consider the evidence he finds that does not support his theory? Has he seriously studied what the Church teaches on the topic? Or is he studying to show his new idea correct, rather than to understand God’s word more fully? 

 

Because the Internet spreads almost every idea imaginable, it is easy to feel validated by finding others who share belief in his newfound theory. Once he feels validated, his theory becomes, in his mind, Truth—with a capital T. Believing he has discovered special knowledge, he begins to share it with people offline, including members of his Church congregation. If he receives positive reactions, he grows bolder in spreading his “Truth” and starts to look for further special knowledge that will gain him more positive attention.

But what does he do if he receives negative reactions? The humble Christian approach is to go to God in prayer and to ask God’s ministers to help him understand what he might be misunderstanding. Too often, however, pride was behind the “special knowledge” in the first place, and though he feels superior to those who do not share his knowledge, he retreats within his own mind, still privately believing his own ideas but unwilling to examine those ideas honestly in the light of God’s word. 

 

Either way, such a proud individual almost inevitably starts finding other points on which he believes the Church is wrong, and he repeats the above steps—either gaining an audience or internalizing his attitude of superior knowledge. His demeanor and attitude change, and his attendance at Sabbath services becomes sporadic. All along, he keeps up a dialogue with others who believe the same things he does. 

…which then brings into being the Bob Thiel’s of the church.

By the time he tells his minister about his new beliefs, he is no longer seeking to learn. He is seeking to teach, rejecting all explanations of Church teachings or refutations of his mistaken beliefs. He then leaves God’s Church. He might join another group, he might stay “solo” and rely on the Internet for his study and fellowship, or he might start a group of his own. Whatever he does, he is far from the humble place where he began; he now sees himself as a chosen vessel for special knowledge, and as such, he will eventually disagree with whomever he aligns himself, because he now has the delusion of knowing more than anyone else. If he goes far enough, he will become, in his own mind, the sole authority of God’s truth, ending up completely alone and disconnected from the Body of Christ—the Body that, tasked with doing the Work, now has at least one less person to help with doing that Work.

Of course, this all boils down to the tired and worn-out scapegoat, the most powerful god in Armstrongism Satan.

The only “winner” in this scenario is Satan, who has once again worked on someone in the same way he worked on Eve. In addition to appealing to people’s intellectual vanity, he also works on the ego, causing them to feel slighted. With Eve, he used, God is not fair—He is holding something back from you. 

 

And Satan uses the same tactic today. What’s interesting is that doctrine is rarely the true beginning of the journey: Many times, before the person “gains special knowledge,” he has already been offended by something or someone in the Church. Perhaps there is something that he doesn’t agree with, or his feelings were hurt by an “insensitive” statement or a slight (usually by someone in authority). The person allows a root of bitterness to spring up. Then, believing that he has “special knowledge” the Church lacks, he soon embraces the idea that those who disagree with him can’t be in “God’s true Church.”

This is a pretty good description of Bob Thiel. Is Satan behind his so-called work? 

Look at the tragic results: Another schism in the Body, thereby diminishing the Church’s effectiveness in performing its mission of preaching the Gospel. Another person is now without the nurture and protection of the Church, deluded that he, and he alone, is being used by God to reveal truth. 

 

The particular doctrines in dispute are actually beside the point, whether they involve calendar issues, “sacred names,” the true Gospel, or any one of a hundred other old, tired controversies. Once people start down this path, their argumentative and defiant attitudes become the issue. Paul told Timothy to “charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith” (1 Timothy 1:3–4).  

How sad that these people have forgotten the point of the Gospel: “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm” (vv. 5–7). 

 

Brethren, be on guard against Satan’s lies that play on our vanity. Beware of the danger of thinking you have special knowledge—God doesn’t work this way!

Amen to that! This is why Bob Thiel has been unable to draw the vast majority of COG members into his little group. People recognize there is a different "spirit" occupying Theil's mind.

Sena goes on to tell LCG members to remain humble so that they aren't drawn into this mess. Humbleness is not a factor that has ever played into Thiel's psyche.

God gave a warning to those who take upon themselves the prerogative of spreading “insight” that is not clearly supported by God’s inspired word. Deuteronomy 13:1–5 reveals that anyone who leads others away from God and the truth is guilty of an incredibly serious offense. But that warning is not only to the person claiming to have special knowledge. God says in verse 3 that He is testing those who listen to what the person says. 

 

Those claiming to have special knowledge will always be around, but part of the guilt of spreading it is on the listeners. Some people have “itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3–4) and are looking for “new ideas.” We all need to judge the validity of any idea, comparing it with God’s word, as the Bereans did (Acts 17:11, cf. 1 John 4:1).

Sadly, far too many in the LCG, and other COG's, will take this as an easy excuse never to question church leaders or beliefs. Intellectual curiosity is stifled yet again. LCG, like many other COG's remains fearful that members who actually study and examine doctrinal and church teach teaching, may actually discover many, if not most of them are wrong. It becomes dangerous territory when a church member actually started studying the New Covenant.

Sena makes sure to point out that the church encourages Bible Study...as long as it uses official church teachings to study it with.

Does this mean that we should avoid personal study and talking to others about the word of God? No—we are commanded to study to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15), and to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), which requires study. But the attitude behind Bible study is all-important. Are we striving to become more like Jesus Christ or to become important in our own eyes (Proverbs 3:7)?

How can LCG members become Christ-like when the dude is never discussed most of the time? 

So, beware  of those who have special knowledge as they will try and seduce you:

The allure of “special knowledge” has seduced many since Eve was deceived in the Garden of Eden. It is one of Satan’s great deceptions and one of his most dangerous fiery darts—a deadly trap that leads to arrogance and eventual isolation from God’s plan and purpose. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), and as we read in Ephesians 4, He leads His people to the truth through the authority He has established in His Church. By allowing Him to lead us that way, we will remain steadfastly within the safety of the Body of Christ, now and until the end of the age. 

 

Remain humble, brethren, and watch out for those who claim to have special knowledge.