Dave Pack: "Could you please check your records to see if your Pentecost offering was mailed?"

There is one thing that Dave Pack values above all else and it is not Jesus and his radical message where he overturned the tables of the money-changers or as a pastor dispensing mercy and grace to those around him.  It's not even about the gospel message.  It is money. That thing that his Bible tells him is "the root of all evil" is the most important thing that occupies Dave's mind.

Imagine sitting at home and seeing this email pop up in your messages for the day:

Church Administration has given me a list of those who have missing Holy Day offerings. Your name was among them. It says that they did not receive your offering for Pentecost. Could you please check your records to see if your Pentecost offering was mailed?

There are times when Holy Day offerings are mis-categorized or brethren fail to note the nature of the offerings on their check. If you have already sent in your offering, please contact ___@rcg.org with details of the offering (i.e. check number, dollar amount,Holy Day, etc.) so that your payment record can be reconciled. If it was an oversight, or was inadvertently forgotten, it is not too late to mail your Pentecost offering to Headquarters.

Gerald Weston: Beware of Fake News

It was kind of funny reading how Gerald Weston wants us to beware of fake news. Remember, this is coming from Living Church of God..need I say more?

We hear a great deal about fake news these days and there is no lack of it coming from all quarters, as objectivity is sorely lacking in politics, academia, media, and popular culture. However, there is also much misinformation regarding God’s plan and how He is working it out. The doctrines of Jesus and first-century Christianity have been drastically altered, watered down, and infused with pagan philosophy and religion. You likely understand this, being readers of Tomorrow’s World and viewers of our television program. Our booklets point out biblical truths that you never hear in most churches, where greater emphasis is placed on “feel good” gospels rather than straight-talk messages from the Bible about the need to change and become conformed to the Jesus Christ of the Bible.

Look at the decades of misinformation that has streamed out of the church, doctrinally and spiritually. Weston is in no position to warn us about misinformation, particularly when it comes to religion. Living Church of God does NOT follow first-century Christianity.  That is a totally impossible thing for any of today's groups to do.  It doesn't matter how much they claim to.

LCG's booklets do not steer people to the truth but to legalistic mumbo-jumbo that is not required of new covenant Christians. The so-called "straight talk" is devoid of anything about grace, mercy, and justice, all things Jesus talked about and accomplished.

Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthians is as relevant today as it was in the first century: “For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it” (2 Corinthians 11:4). Paul explained later in this same chapter about those preachers who bring a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into minister of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (vv. 13-15).

Paul's rebuke of the Corinthians is certainly relevant today when it perfectly describes the hundreds of splinter groups all doing what they want and not being followers of the Word. 

Of the five things listed below they have zeroed in on one of them...REBUKE. LCG has a sad reputation of using this to the extreme, though rather selectively depending upon who you are. Rod Meredith was heavy-handed at this down through his slash and burn periods when he was over Church Administration and then as leader of two separate splinter groups. Long-suffering has never been quality that LCG and its leaders practiced, but then neither did Herbert Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God.

No, the problem was not for that day alone. The Bible prophesied this would be an issue for our day as well. Paul instructed the young evangelist Timothy, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).

And the prophet Isaiah was instructed to take God’s warning and to “write it before them on a tablet, and note it on a scroll, that it may be for time to come, forever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord; who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’ and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us’” (Isaiah 30:8-11). 

And here we go again, sex. Is there any topic that fascinates LCG leaders more than sex? 

It has never been popular to teach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and to warn this world of what is to come if we do not turn around and go a different direction, but it is shocking how rapidly censorship of non-politically correct ideas is descending on our Western world. Truth is suppressed, while every kind of sexual filth and violence is promoted. You would be surprised how often one of our television programs is rejected by a station or governing authority because it does not fit the politically correct narrative.

Ah, the other favorite topic of Weston and select COG leaders...we are being persecuted. These sad boys have no idea what persecution is. Having an asinine broadcast or article rejected is not persecution. Real Christians around the world face persecution every day from Muslims, Hindus, and others. They are dying for their belief while Weston, Theil, and the rest of the boys go home every night to their nice homes, feed their faces, drink their wine, and play on their computers. Persecution has never been so horrible!

Paul instructed Timothy regarding “the last days” and how they would be marked by danger, as “men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control. . .” (2 Timothy 3:2-5). Danger may come in many different forms and include physical injury or death, but what about the danger we see today of someone losing a job for tweeting a comment that does not fit the agenda of today’s “social engineers”? 

This is the world in which we are to preach the truth unapologetically, and God tells us through the prophet Ezekiel that we will be held accountable if we fail to do so (Ezekiel 33:1-7). Even the Proverbs warn us that we will have to answer to God if we hold back from warning the world of where it is heading: “Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Surely we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?” (Proverbs 24:11-12).

LCG and the mother church never preached the truth unapologetically. From Herbert's, "A strong hand from someplace" tot he wishy-washy sermons and mind-numbing cable programs, LCFG and most of the COG's are like kindergarteners playing on a playground spinning the merry-go-round as fast as they can to see who they can throw off.

Dear brethren and co-workers, we have a job to do. We are faithfully doing it and your prayers make a difference. When we receive an unexpected tithe from someone who is not even a subscriber, or an inheritance from someone we don’t even know, we recognize that God is blessing us and answering the prayers of His faithful people. Frankly, those of us here in Charlotte and in our offices around the world have been humbled at how our Creator has blessed us during this difficult economic time. I cannot thank you enough for your generosity and for your heartfelt prayers. Please remember to give thanks for the way God is blessing His Work, and for the blessings He pours out on each of us individually.

Sincerely, in Christ’s service,
Gerald E. Weston

Always end your letter with a money appeal. While you lazy and unappreciative brethren fail to send in money, we want you to know that random people send us money all the time. Even more amazing is random people sending us tithe money! Woo Hoo! Now get off your butts and send us your money, too!

Former WCG Member On Being Black and Jewish

On being Black and Jewish

June 28, 2020

SAN DIEGO — Being of mixed racial background and also Jewish often feels like no matter what group you are with, you are perceived as the “other,” sometimes prompting doubts if there is any group with which you truly belong. Such was the thrust of comments made by Jessica Lemoine and Jenni Asher during an Internet forum on Sunday sponsored by the San Diego Outreach Synagogue and moderated by Rabbi/ Cantor Cheri Weiss and her husband Dan Weiss.

Asher, a musician with a degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London, is now studying for the cantorate at the Academy of Jewish Religion in California, the same institution at which Rabbi/Cantor Weiss was ordained. Married to a Jew whose family fled Egypt, Asher decided to convert to Judaism first in a Conservative ceremony and later in an Orthodox one. When her 2-year-old daughter grows up, she explained, should she want to marry a religious Jew, she doesn’t want anyone to question the authenticity of her mother’s conversion.

Prior to Asher’s decision to become a Jew by choice, she had been a member of the fundamentalist Worldwide Church of God, whose members often styled themselves as inheritors of Biblical Judaism. She said she decided to search out “real Jews” and began attending synagogue in London, then continued her exploration of Judaism and eventual conversion in the United States. At first, she said, she welcomed explanations of synagogue rituals from members of the congregations she attended, but after she learned her way through the rituals, she was bothered that people still assumed that she had to be instructed — that because of her skin color, she must not be Jewish. “To be seen as the other, comes as a surprise, when you don’t think of yourself as the other,” she said.

Asher recalled playing violin at a Friday night service, and being asked afterwards by a female congregant, who was White, whether it was true that she was Jewish. The mother explained that her daughter is half-Mexican and considers herself to be, like Asher, a “Jew of Color.” Asher said anyone who looked at the girl would consider her to be White, no matter her Mexican heritage. “I had to grapple with my feelings: ‘This girl passes, what problems does she have?’ At that point, Asher added, “I realized that I’m as racist as anyone else.” Difficult conversations among people of different race are needed “to recognize these feelings exist.”

Asked if she had ever experienced anti-Semitism, she said she had been challenged by people of her former church, but that the opposition she felt was “different” from the kind of negativity she experiences as a Black person.

Read the rest of the article here:  On being Black and Jewish

Dave Pack: The Pathological Liar

Before this gets lost in the comments:

"It is generally known that a younger local elder (having been previously demoted to this rank) at Headquarters recently left the Church. He came to believe that he was above counsel and correction, basically melting down when he faced setbacks and reversals and things did not go his way."

 

This is hilarious reading this description of me nearly 6 years later. I don't even know where to begin with Pack's pathological lying. Yes, I was privately demoted some months before I left. Of course, the reasons aren't remotely close to what to Pack states. I had a pattern of providing counsel to Pack he did not like. When he had enough, he demoted me, privately.

 

One particular thing I had recommended to Pack, he chastised me for on the spot, but then a few months later at the feast, he announced the exact same plan to the church. Did he apologize to me for chastising me for the very idea he came to like and enact? Of course not.

 

Oh, and the melting down when things don't go his way is Pack perfectly describing himself. Many men experienced his epic childish meltdowns over the most trivial of things that affected him personally.

 

Pack also conveniently leaves out how he forced me and other ministers off payroll (in my case fired for supposedly not having suffered enough in life...for real, I was fired for that reason), but then he announces to church that we voluntarily went off payroll.

 

Lies are numerous with that man.

 

Oh, and he fired my wife through me while she was on maternity leave. What was her grievous act? She was supposedly too tough on people...lol. She was an accountant.

 

Once again, a great example of Pack projecting his nature into others.

 

So in the end, after a spirited counseling session with other ministers, I quietly walked out of HQ, wrote a short resignation letter, and haven't looked back since.

 

Life is good.

 

Cheers to critical thinking and choosing one's own path.