Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Ai COG: Comparing Cults: JW vs. WCG (part 2) Salvation and the End Times

 


4. Salvation: Work Hard, Pray Harder, Hope You Make It

Both Jehovah’s Witnesses and Armstrongism have a fun little tradition where salvation is a work-in-progress. Grab your spiritual hammer and start building — salvation is a DIY project that requires constant effort. Forget grace; it’s all about earning your place in the next life.

Jehovah’s Witnesses turn salvation into a spiritual to-do list. To make it, you’ve got to get your door-to-door evangelism in, obey the rules (no birthdays, no Christmas, no blood transfusions), and keep up with the constantly shifting doctrines of the Watch Tower Society. Just when you think you’ve checked all the boxes, they throw in a new rule, and you’re back to square one. You could live a spotless life for 80 years and still not be sure if you’ve done enough. But don’t worry! If you’re not part of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s game over — extinction at Armageddon, no second chances.

Armstrongism is no less enjoyable. Instead of “saved by grace through faith,” Armstrongism suggests you can earn salvation by obeying Old Testament laws — because who needs the New Covenant when you can go full Leviticus? Not only must you observe the Sabbath (on Saturday, not Sunday), but you also must follow dietary laws and make sure you’re fulfilling your role in the Millennial Kingdom (coming soon to a near-future near you). Jesus? He’s not here to save you — He’s here to oversee the kingdom you’re preparing for Him.

On the other hand, traditional Christianity teaches that salvation is a gift, not a prize for the most active member of a spiritual to-do list. You don’t earn it; you receive it by faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross. It’s like someone just handed you free tickets to paradise and said, “Don’t worry about the rules — Jesus handled all that. You just accept the gift and enjoy the ride.”

5. The End Times: Who Needs a Hopeful Future When You Can Have an Apocalypse?

Both Jehovah’s Witnesses and Armstrongism are obsessed with predicting the end of the world — it’s like a game of prophetic one-upmanship. Who can predict the end of the world more accurately? These guys act like if they keep forecasting Armageddonyear after year, they’re eventually going to get it right. In the meantime, they can make everyone feel anxious and miserable.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses went big with their prediction for 1914 — the year that Jesus supposedly returned invisibly (because why would the Son of God want to show Himself when He can do it in stealth mode?). When that didn’t quite work out, they just moved the goalposts. But don’t worry! They’re still hanging onto the idea that Armageddon is just around the corner, and everyone who doesn’t have a Watch Tower membership card is toast.

Armstrongism didn’t stop at “the end of the world”. Oh no, Armstrong had big dreams of a Millennial Kingdom — complete with divine rule, eternal peace, and a new world where you might even get a nice little mansion, if you did everything right. Forget about Jesus’ return to bring salvation; He’s coming to reign and settle in as the ultimate cosmic landlord. If you were hoping for a Savior who would deliver you from sin, Armstrongism offers you real estate instead.

Meanwhile, traditional Christianity doesn’t waste time trying to predict the date of the Second Coming — that’s just God’s business. We don’t need to be obsessed with apocalyptic scenarios because we’re already living in hope and grace, knowing that Jesus will return in His own time, to make all things new. We don’t need the anxiety of “the end” because we know that eternity with God is already secured. No need for millennial predictions — just live faithfully and trust in God’s promises.


Conclusion: The Unfortunate Trend of “Do-It-Yourself” Christianity

When you take a hard look at Jehovah’s Witnesses and Armstrongism, you realize they both have one thing in common: they think they know better than the Church. Whether it’s rewriting Scripture or imagining new doctrines about Jesus and the end times, they’ve somehow decided that 2,000 years of traditionneed a little tweaking.

But the good news is that traditional Christianity has survived despite all the fanfare and flair of these new “prophets.” We have the Bible, we have the Church, and we don’t need to rewrite anything or predict the end of the world to have hope. Jesus is enough. ✝


Comparing Cults: JW vs. WCG © 2025 by Ai-COG is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0




Sunday, February 23, 2025

Dave Pack: A Hearty Stake

 


A Hearty Stake

During “The Greatest Untold Story! (Part 558)” on February 15, 2025, David C. Pack of The Restored Church of God utilized Abib overkill, proving that Jesus Christ will bring the Kingdom of God on March 29, 2025.

When nothing prophetic occurs on Abib 1, the Pastor General’s boastful words will once again expose his nakedness as a liar, blasphemer, and biblical fraud. Part 558 demonstrates that his own tongue is his worst enemy.

David C. Pack savored his victory lap before the race started.

Part 558 – February 15, 2025
@ 58:14 What an amazing privilege when God eventually gives you the day.

@ 2:02:47 We were seeking the truth, and we found it. Abib is a great discovery.

The doctrine that the Kingdom of God will arrive on Jesus Christ's birthday next month did not come from God, nor is it a truth that has been found. It will simply be “David C. Pack’s Prophetic Failure #95 Since March 2022” and nothing more.

Dave was on fire during Part 558, and you could tell the little guy really believed he had it all finally figured out.

@ 07:53 And when you walk outta here today, you'll be overwhelmed, which is wonderful. That's exactly what I want. …I want you to walk out and say, "It's impossible. It's impossible that we're not waiting for Abib."

Reality will prove to be the biggest Party Pooper. Apparently, learning from our mistakes and letting history be our guide is for suckers. David C. Pack will rinse and repeat his prophetic lunacy, and nobody can stop him.

For someone claiming to be a servant of Jesus Christ, David C. Pack’s colorful descriptions inexplicably drift into the dark. He uses phrases like "faster than bullets from a machine gun," "the smoking gun verse," "this is the hill I die on," "dismal swamp," or "dead man walking."

Dave summoned the spirit of Bela Lugosi to illustrate his Abib overkill.

@ 07:24 So we're going to very patiently drive a big stake through the heart of all other dates using this Sabbath and next. 

@ 55:22 So, I'm just trying. I told you I'm at at at a point. I hope this is never boring. But, I hope it’s almost that way because it just driving a stake through the heart and and anybody can, at the end of today, might argue that it wouldn’t be this year, but they cannot argue that there is a kingdom of seven years and it begins in Abib in the year of God’s choosing.

@ 1:28:34 The question is: When did that 7 years begin to count? 1955. So, it proves Abib. And it appears to prove this one [2025]. I could just zoom through these, brethren. And, you know, get ‘em all out in a sermonette or even one sermon, but they’re so powerful, I wanna drive a stake through your heart. Through through the heart the heart of your thinking. Our our thinking. But a strake stake through through the heart of this subject.

David C. Pack has been driving a stake through the hearts of RCG brethren since 2013 with his unending sermon series, false dates for the return of Jesus Christ numbered well past one hundred, and brainwashing his worshippers into believing he speaks with God’s authority.

Passive hirelings like Bradford Schleifer, Edward Winkfield, and Ryan Denee allow the biblical fraud to continue because it lines their pockets and keeps the heat on in their cushy campus homes. A stake has been driven through the heart of truth in The Restored Church of God, and it will never live there again.


  


David C. Pack has no comprehension of the implications of what he says. During Part 558, a point of logic he used to prove the legitimacy of Abib 1 actually disproves it.

The pervasive cognitive dissonance between Dave’s mouth and his brain often results in inconvenient contradictions solidifying the perception of his prophetic madness.

@ 2:03:10 A date that will surely come must be given us. It’s gotta be given toe us with proof of the year.

David C. Pack gives God credit for the Abib 1, 2025, teaching and states God needed to provide the evidence. One of his points does him more harm than good.

@ 2:03:41 It means that the people who are reading those verses hafta know the date. …Think: just start with this. “Cannot tarry” is its own proof it has to be the first year of application after learning Abib. Once you learn Abib, it can’t go another year. Or two or five. It hasta be after you first learned it.

@ 2:04:11 But, once you learn it’s Abib 1, so God could not let us know until it was app–the applicable year.

@ 2:04:22 Once we learned Abib 1, that has to be to be year by definition. “It will surely come.”

While Dave intended to drive a stake through the heart of doubt, he actually drove a stake through the heart of his own theory.


  


The reason David C. Pack counts me as an enemy is not because I fabricate lies about him. It is not because I unfairly misquote him. It is not because I spread false rumors to besmirch his “good name.” Nor is it because my old buddy Satan and I occasionally enjoy Buehler’s fantastic pancakes together.

No. Dave accuses me of being a murderous, hateful adversary because I accurately record what he said and quote him later. One of his self-induced curses is that nothing he says ages well.

Learning Abib 1 now proves 2025.
Just like in 2023.

Man…this is going to piss him off.

Flashback Part 414 – January 14, 2023
@ 1:07:49 So then, what did the Bible just directly tell you is the Day of the Lord? Abib 1. It’s impossible to argue with that.

@ 1:08:46 I could stop the sermon now and go on to other things, but I’ve decided I’m just gonna drive it home and crush all idea that the Day of the Lord is not Abib 1.

@ 1:25:10 Why would God show us Abib 1 in a definitive way? Absolutely inarguable.

@ 1:25:23 But why would God show us Abib 1 with 67 days to go?

Dave’s logic about “the first year of application” for Abib 1 is null and void. Un-stake that point.

He gave God credit in 2023.
He gives God credit in 2025.
Which is it?

Brethren hear these statements, and they feel awkwardly familiar. Unless members take careful notes of exactly what Dave said when, it is easy for the context to fade and let him bulldoze past it.

Compiling accurate transcripts of what David C. Pack taught was a driving catalyst for me to find the courage to resign from RCG in March 2021. When someone ponders leaving The Restored Church of God, I highly recommend this practice. You will be shocked at what you forgot.

The Headquarters enablers remember, and they say not a word or lift a finger. They do not have your best interest at heart, brethren. Drive a stake through that idea.


_____________________________________________________________________________________


David C. Pack despises being reminded of what he previously said, especially when he over-promised and under-delivered. Brad knows better than to do that.

There is an impossible "Damned if you do, Damned if you don't" mentality at Headquarters, and former ministers can attest to this. No matter which path you choose, you will get spanked.

Flashback Part 414 – January 14, 2023
@ 1:25:14 I don’t care what any enemy knows. I hope the whole world hears it.

No, he does not.

Adhering to this exact principle is the very foundation of exrcg.org and the primary reason why David C. Pack sees articles like this as a vicious attack. For him, there is no difference between an accuser and a scribe. Facts are irrelevant.

Fortunately, Dave is a religious environmentalist who frequently recycles his own malarkey. Because he utilizes a narrow vocabulary, finding similar statements from the past is easier than he would prefer.

A Stake Through the Heart of “First Year” Logic

Flashback Part 398 – October 10, 2022
@ 24:24 So, once you know the 1335, you could never know in any future year once you hit it if it were true. If it doesn't happen this year. It has to apply this year, or it's not a metric. There's no point in telling us that. If it doesn’t apply this year, then next year, you cannot know the divine pledge of something that’s coming in “yet a little while.” You you could hope it was, but you could have no faith that it is in any future year. It only works in the first year of application. After that, hope: yes. Faith: no.

Flashback Part 422 – February 18, 2023
@ 01:57 How could you believe next year? How could you believe it’s certain if this year failed? Or any future year? How could you believe it if you'd been through it once? You're waiting almost a month, “I wonder if it’s true this year?” The 1335, truly, can only apply in the first year you learned its powerful meaning.

@ 02:25 Imagine yourself waiting another year and another year and another year and another and another.

This is precisely what the members of The Restored Church of God have been doing since 2013.

The feigned lip service of the Headquarters hirelings buttress grotesque support for their fraudulent Pastor General.

Spineless cowards like Ryan Denee have known for years that David C. Pack is a religious charlatan. Bradford Schleifer seared his conscience a long time ago. Edward Winkfield allowed his passion for critical thinking to evaporate. Passive capitulation is not an admirable trait, fellas.

It is inexplicable when you realize that field mollusks like Brian Jackson, Larry Cockshutt, Louis Grey, and Robert Knightley do that for free. Ask them a straight prophetic question and watch them stammer.

Flashback Part 429 – March 15, 2023
@ 1:25:39 The 1335 can only come once. I’m the man who’d be asked to believe it in future years. I never could again.

Flashback Part 468 – September 9, 2023
@ 1:20:22 We just learned Av 10. So, how many years we gonna wait? "I'm gonna hasten My word as long as you don't, as long as you understand it could be one or three or five years.” It would only be true in the first yearafter we learned it because that’s the only way we could receive it.

Being shunned as an enemy because you present facts is no picnic. But Dave makes it easy to expose his deceit and drive a stake through the heart of his theological interpretations.


_____________________________________________________________________________________

A thick book could be compiled with quotes from David C. Pack contradicting or embarrassing himself. One unintentionally laughable moment during Part 558 further revealed that his brain and mouth sleep in separate beds.

God has a sense of humor and is a fan of irony. When you dismiss the theological gibberish and Bible Code malarkey, David C. Pack can be entertaining when his rogue mouth utters analogies that are more accurate than he comprehends.

Part 558 – February 15, 2025
@ 56:47 You hope they didn’t lose out on everything because they weren’t patient through a process where we were ever-learning about this marvelous plan where, you know, we should have a giant, we should have a a a a a a beautiful, big garbage can right here to show the rest of the kingdom. Something that big.

You have said it.

Anyone believing David C. Pack is an apostle of Jesus Christ needs to drive a stake through that idea and toss it in the garbage.


Marc Cebrian