The Apostle Speaks: The Truth About the Races and Biracial Marriage in RCG...

I reluctantly managed to slog through Part 3 of Dave Pack's long ago sermon on "The Truth 

About the Races"   Only during Pandemic unemployment would one do that. 

To Dave's credit, the sermon was not overtly racist and please know I am neither an expert on racism, the origins of races or the genetics that got us there.  What I do know is that it is not what Dave thinks and teaches nor the Bible the source of truth on this matter.

 His point, at least at the end of Part 3 was that racism in RCG is wrong but so is interracial marriage and RCG will not condone it.  I believe he encouraged that to be defined only as whites don't marry blacks or yellows. Yellows don't marry whites or blacks and Blacks don't marry whites or yellows.  All shades in between are up for grabs and RCG doesn't have the time nor does Dave to "rule" on each and every case.  I think it's just the kind of thing you know when you see it. Perhaps if you don't know it when you see it Dave or one of his ministers will bring it to your attention because they do. 

Also, this is just an overview and impression as if I was sitting in the audience and not a scientific rebuttal though it is scientifically rebuttable for sure. I'm just not the one to do it.  But I think we all know the basic drill and this has been Dave's truth for 50 years which he gets from the tale of Adam and Eve, Shem, Ham and Japheth and the myth of Noah as presented in the OT.  

Dave also believes that language came from the Tower of Babel incident but this is plainly not the real explanation of what I am also not an expert in and that being the origin over 200,000 years of language development  in the human adventure. 

The Nutshell story from Dave

Personal disclaimer

By now you should know that personally I don't find the stories of Adam and Eve, talking serpents, the fall, the flood and Babel to be literally true and nothing but myth with meaning I suppose. These events did not literally take place in time and space as presented. They are neither the way humans showed up on the planet, who begat who to bring us to day or the origin of the races.  For me, Dave's sermon is moot before it begins but now moving on....

Dave spends some time on who "The sons of God " were who "looked on the daughters of men that they were fair"  he notes that "fair" means "white".  It doesn't really. It means "beautiful" or "real hotties" so he messes up there right from the beginning but he needs it to mean "white" evidently. This is not a sermon about human  hotties that the gods just couldn't resist. 

Basically Adam and Eve had three kids, Cain, Abel and Seth.  Seth went bad too so God had to destroy humankind.  (Evidently God is incapable of reasoned counseling and communicating with his perfect creations that was all "very good" just a couple of chapters earlier). 

This lead to the need for a cleansing and a worldwide flood would do it. Noah was found "perfect in his generations"  Dave notes this means that Noah was "perfect in his engenderments" or basically he had racially pure kids and offspring. Evidently in the whole world, where Dave says before the flood there were probably "Billions" of humans already, Noah won the lottery in his perfect and pure genes.  This is a man God can save along with his perfect family.  

So off they go, build an Ark, Noah and wife, Shem, Ham , Japheth and their wives then saving their asses while  others drown like rats clawing at the Ark as it drifted away. The other billions evidently had no clue what was happening or why. Of course the fact that other civilizations were up an running all around the world at the time of the "Flood" and suffered no glitches in continuity is a problem but not one to address here. 

This is the part I like and was new truth to me.  WCG taught that Shem was "white", Ham was "black" and Japheth was "yellow". How that could be with Noah, the dad, being perfect in his engenderments is not explained.  Soooooo.....new idea.   Shem, Ham and Japheth were all very white reflecting their dad's perfection in his children.  I take it Noah was white or he'd have to be either black or yellow and that ain't gonna fly.  

Shem really took a white woman in marriage.  Ham really took a black woman and Japheth got stuck having to take a yellow woman in marriage I suppose.  Where these three white, black and yellow women came from is not explained. If they were sisters, they would have been all lily white as was perfect Noah their perfect in his engenderments dad and brothers.  So I got nothing on this one. 

Graaaaaadually over time, the races formed and separated after the flood, God confused their languages and they all headed off in all directions to find their places in the sun because there was no sense being around those who you could not understand.  Evidently white folk got a common white language, black a common black language and yellow got theirs.  

All of this is nonsense of course but I assume it left the audience gyrating in their seats or at least it better have. 

No, no, no!

Uh uh uh....

Don't even!

For some reason, Dave felt the need to remind the brethren that he had baptized lots of white , black, yellow, red and all shades in between people in his ministry.  I'm sure in his mind, "more than anyone else in the entire history of the church", but that's just something I suspect he might think.

Dave, as I said, does end with a nice talk on how RCG is not racist and they all need to be careful not to be.  BUT!  Interracial Marriage will not be tolerated or allowed in the Restored Church of God and Dave hopes they got the point.  A point which could have been made, oh...about an hour and twenty minutes ago in a this hour and twenty four minute fantasy about the origin of the races. We probably should use the term "Biracial" rather than Interracial these days. 

Here is why humans have different skin colors.

(Culture and practices are a whole other topic)

Gerald Weston: UK Banned Our Program On COVID-19 Because They Didn't Like It Due To The Fact They Eat Bacon And Sausage

This has to rank up there in "The Dumb Things Church of God Leaders Say" category.  Gerry sent this in a letter to supposedly 300,000 co-workers and members recently. What a shining example of logic this man displays!

It is still too early to have final figures, but our telecast “Why Does God Allow Pandemics?” looks as though it will bring in twice as many requests as normal. The offer for that program was a DVD titled, “God Answers His COVID-19 Critics.” Sadly, the program was censored in the United Kingdom because they did not like it. Perhaps it is because their “traditional English breakfast” includes two or three types of bacon, pork sausage, and black pudding (something that is made with blood, often pig blood, and looks like a thin hockey puck). If you were one of those who missed the program, just let us know and we will be very happy to send you the DVD that contains the program, or you can go online right now and see it at Why Does God Allow Pandemics. May 21, 2020

UCG: The Experts On Leadership

UCG is trotting out an article written in 2008 by Scott Ashley concerning biblical leadership and UCG members are sending it to their social media pages as a shining example of what is wrong with leadership in the government, instead of what is wrong in the leadership of their own church.

Well, if God looks at the example that the United Church of God leadership has set, then we are really screwed over!

Ashley writes:

What does God look for in a leader? Does He expect certain standards and behavior in a person chosen for a role of leadership and service to others?

At a time many Americans are asking themselves what behavior they should expect from their president, and the holder of that office is frequently heard quoting the Bible, perhaps we should examine what God expects of a leader.

The Bible is clear that God expects one put in a position of responsibility to meet certain qualifications. This is first brought out when God began working with the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt. God was working with a nation of former slaves, shaping and molding them into a new nation. Where would He begin?

One problem quickly became apparent. Since the people brought their questions, problems and disputes to Moses, the decision-making process quickly became a bottleneck and ground to a halt. The solution? Share the load by delegating authority to capable leaders.

By what criteria were leaders to be chosen? Moses was advised to “select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness …” (Exodus 18:21).

With a core leadership of able, God-fearing, truthful, unselfish men, the new nation would build a firm foundation. Moses solved his immediate problem and gave his people a sound start on nationhood.

Through the apostle Paul, God enumerated requirements for positions of leadership and service within His Church. Consider the standards, listed below, that Paul gave to his fellow minister Timothy for choosing such leaders:

“… The presiding elder must have an impeccable character. Husband of one wife, he must be temperate, discreet and courteous, hospitable and a good teacher; not a heavy drinker, nor hot-tempered, but gentle and peaceable, not avaricious, a man who manages his own household well and brings his children up to obey him and be well-behaved: how can any man who does not understand how to manage his own household take care of the Church of God? … It is also necessary that he be held in good repute by outsiders, so that he never falls into disrepute and into the devil’s trap.

This certainly does not describe UCG leadership.  From pedophiles, adulterers, inappropriate touching, stalking, and verbal harassment, UCG has led the way on how to NOT do what is right. 

“Similarly, deacons must be respectable, not double tongued, moderate in the amount of wine they drink and with no squalid greed for money … They are first to be examined, and admitted to serve as deacons only if there is nothing against them” (1 Timothy 3:1-10, New Jerusalem Bible).

Many of the leadership in UCG were well know around Pasadena as alcoholics. 

Apparently, we are also to believe that UCG leaders are NOT arrogant, hot-tempered, not heavy drinkers, or filed with avaricious. Seriously?

Titus 1:7-8 adds: “The presiding elder has to be irreproachable since he is God’s representative; never arrogant or hot-tempered, nor a heavy drinker or violent, nor avaricious; but hospitable and a lover of goodness; sensible, upright, devout and self-controlled …” (New Jerusalem Bible).

We should ask ourselves: If these are minimum qualifications for overseers of a small congregation of believers, what should we expect from those who oversee states and nations?

Those who excuse the president’s admitted peccadilloes fail to note that any schoolteacher or principal, university professor or supervisor in private business would likely be immediately fired for such conduct. Military officers would be discharged, court-martialed or imprisoned—and many have been—for actions many are willing to tolerate in the nation’s commander in chief. Many Americans don’t seem to appreciate the irony that they hold the presidency to lower standards than any of these jobs.

Moses and Paul understood that leadership requires moral authority to be credible. If one is to accept advice, decisions and instructions from leaders, one must have confidence in the core values and moral foundation behind their words. GN

Leadership in the church does require a moral authority to be credible. Sadly, the Church of God leaders across the board have failed in this matter abysmally.

Living Church of God Minister Sets The Standard For All Other Ministers

Once more, we have the sterling example of Christian love that the Living Church of God exudes through its ministers. 

Sadly, the bar has always been low, but they keep lowering it.

I attended what I hope was my last WCG-splinter funeral today for my mother-in-law...a faithful, 50+ year member of WCG, then GCG, and for the past 20 years or so, LCG. 

I understand that in the eyes of their "pastor" that my husband and I are the worst possible people on the planet... Former members, apostates, the "fallen away". And it boy, did it show!!!! 

The pastor didn't offer a single word of condolence or comfort to my husband or his brother... The last living members of their immediate family. He didn't speak to my husband, didn't shake his hand and say "I'm so sorry for your loss... Your mother was a lovely woman and so proud of you both." You know, the kind and decent things that people usually say when two men just lost their last surviving parent. 

To be fair, his wife did make an effort to be polite and nice... Which frankly made the fact that her husband utterly ignored the deceased person's two sons even more noticeable. 

My husband, on the other hand, this EX member, the apostate, the fallen one... Went out of his way before we left to walk all the way across the cemetery to thank the two men who were waiting in their pickup truck to place his mother's coffin into the ground. You tell me... What would Jesus do? 

Reprinted from Facebook with permission.