Did You Bake Your Cake Yet?

 

Imagine worshipping a book so much that you bake cakes to celebrate it! 

Forget the Bible, Mystery of the Ages rocks!

Hubristic Pride: The Exaggerated Sense of the Self

 

No one in the left-over debris of the WCG holds himself in higher esteem, in his own eyes, than David C Pack. 

How a man can publicly and consistently brag about his amazing self is beyond me. One would think he'd catch on, sooner or later, at just how delusional, self-serving and stupid he sounds and comes across to those oblivious to it all. 

Why do people brag about themselves in such a way? And how can they do it with a straight face? What's going on? 

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Who knows himself a braggart, let him fear this, for it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass. —Shakespeare

Sickening Samples of David C Pack's hubris

 “I’ve been studying God’s word for almost 50 years. And I’ve studied prophecy, I know this, like no man who’s ever lived. And I’m gonna tell you things over the next several weeks that are so awesome, so mind-bending, even before today.”

“These are mysteries. Nobody understood any of this. I didn’t and took me a while to put it together. I mean, I feel like I could write a new King James Bible better, with the Greek and Hebrew. They were fine, I’m not I’m not trying to brag, but I’ve   had to. That’s where I got up to and I do estimate it’s about 9000 hours of study on this.”

I’ve come to the point whereas I’ve explained, I’m encyclopedic on the Bible, I can just study it in my mind, I can call up these verses and I just then I just said, ‘I’m not gonna stop.’ Then I took a pause and by nightfall I was over a hundred and eventually over a hundred and ten.” 

It just never happened. I’ve studied Church history like no one I’ve ever known,

maybe there’re some who know it better than I do, but I wrote a lot about it, I’ve talked about it, and I’ve harkened to this point.”

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For pages of David C Pack's hubristic bragging and delusional self-worth and hyperbolic achievements see:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14o-MoBeyhpWmNNhE0bHaHPArnA7sUefF/view

Many thanks to Marc Cebrian for his compilation of Dave's quotes about himself over the past years. 

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Why Do We Brag?

If you're so great, why do you have to continually remind yourself?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/one-among-many/202203/why-do-we-brag?msockid=1eb54dd6f85a6af4098e5bbaf9536b71

No one likes a braggart. Indeed, the term’s definition and connotation entail a negative evaluation. Despite its social harmfulness, however, bragging has not died out. How can this be?


Bragging is a form of self-promotion and self-promotion is not bad by definition. It has its uses. Students of persuasive speech learn that they must establish their credentials, that is, their expertise on the subject matter they are about to discuss. Audiences of goodwill want to learn, and they will appreciate credible claims of expertise.

 

Sometimes, you see, we have to toot our own horn because no one else will do it for us—and when we do, we do gain advantages.


Bragging, however, is different from the communication of expert credentials. Bragging is gratuitous. It seeks applause from the audience without offering anything in return. When braggarts only gratify themselves without creating value for the audience, they should realize that it is time to step on the brakes.


Still, audiences may be forgiving or ignorant, and braggarts may know this. Research shows that simply claiming to be above average on some talent or skill induces observers to perceive the claimant as competent—at least until the claim is proven to be false (Heck & Krueger, 2016). In other words, bragging may work because the audience does not have enough information (yet) to evaluate the braggart objectively.

Personal Note: The RCG members have, by now, more than enough evidence and information to evaluate the braggart objectively 

Braggarts may try to anticipate—and manage—the audience’s reaction to their exuberant self-presentation, and here desire encroaches on reality. Scopelliti et al. (2015) showed that braggarts have empathy gaps they are unaware of. They project the positive feelings stirred up within themselves by their own bragging onto others without realizing that these others do not care as much about them as they themselves do. Braggarts pay a reputational cost because they fail at perspective-taking.


Self-praise, i.e., bragging, amounts to an expression of pride. During the era of the Enlightenment, David Hume was skeptical of a view shared by many philosophers at the time that expressions of pride are necessarily signs of vanity, or, as he would put it, vainglory. Hume (1776/2015) argued that vanity or pleasure-seeking is not the cause of virtuous acts, that is, virtuous acts are not byproducts of vanity, but that instead the pleasure of self-satisfaction is caused by virtuous actions. When we act virtuously, Hume argued, feelings of pride or self-satisfaction are morally justified. Why not feel good after having done good?


Recent research suggests that both Hume and the philosophers he criticized had a point. In a series of studies, Jessica Tracy and her collaborators have brought the distinction between authentic and hubristic pride to light (see Mercadante et al., 2021, for an overview). Whereas authentic pride is grounded in effortful achievement (what Hume called virtuous action), hubristic pride is grounded in the idea of one’s own intrinsic superiority.

Observers are attuned to the difference. They can, for example, tell hubristic from authentic pride from differences in body posture and gaze behavior (e.g., a braggart is more likely to stare at you as if demanding validation).

Intriguing as this research is, it returns us to the question of why bragging is not self-eliminating. Are some braggarts perhaps self-sufficient as their own adoring audience? Such individuals only need others to witness their self-congratulation; these others do not need to endorse it. Other braggarts, of a more insecure stripe, need the audience to agree with them; they seek to extract approval with tactics such as fishing for compliments.


Sophisticated braggarts use nuance to lavish praise on themselves (Krueger, 2017). They will not, like Muhammad Ali, baldly declare that they are the greatest; they will only let you in on the fact that third parties, especially parties of high prestige, have already done the lavishing. On the websites of some academics, for example, one may find a list of awards, emphasis on the prestige of these awards (if you did not know), and even added emphasis on the fact that the self-describer was the very first person to win this very prestigious award, without ever being told what that person actually did to win these awards.

This strategy of showing off one’s existing fame is, alas, self-limiting. Eventually, discerning audiences will ask, "And what is it that you actually do?" Being famous for being famous lacks substance. The braggart is, as Shakespeare put it, shown up as an ass (i.e., a donkey). Still, the possibility remains that less discerning audiences settle for appearances, at least as long as they don’t have to pay. Perhaps this is enough for the braggart.


All told, psychology gives little comfort to the braggart. Stephen Hawking put The Bard’s verdict more colloquially: “People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.” Then again, who would ever make such a boast in the presence of Stephen? Such a person would definitely have to be a loser.

God’s Work Needs God’s Representation

 

Timothy Kirchen has a post about. "God’s Work Needs God’s Representation". It has a lot of the normal Armstrongist beliefs till this paragraph:

Because the Church is to become the Kingdom of God, it must already reflect both life and government now — before Christ’s return and the resurrection. Christ, as Head, leads His Church both spiritually and organizationally so that when the resurrection occurs, the Church can immediately transition into ruling the Kingdom of God without needing to redesign its structure or reestablish spiritual life.

 Can you imagine Christ coming back and immediately unleashing the Churches of God upon the world as the perfect embodiment of church government and spirituality? Seriously? 

Looking at these blasphemous church leaders masquerading as men of God today in COGland and how they have set themselves up as God's personal mouthpiece—and watching the pure hell their current churches are experiencing—how could anyone in their right mind see a bunch of COGers elevated by Christ into gods and goddesses to rule the world and expect true church governance and true spirituality?

The Churches of God are filled with spiritual rot thanks to men like Thiel, Pack, Flurry, and Weinland. God is no more going to use these guys than he will Gerald Weston. Where is there any COG doing a "work"? No one even knows who any of them are anymore!

Ron Weinland and His "The Rest of... Mystery of the Ages"

For many decades, Herbert Armstrong was the final word on everything. No one dared question him or add to his writings. That only lasted until the Great Apostasy, when scores of underlings—almost always unimportant men in the Church of God—decided they were more enlightened and that God had doubly blessed them with superpowers of understanding, giving them permission to start new churches.

Whether it was Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, Alton Billingsley, and so many more, these guys all imagined that their god was speaking directly through them and that they were in constant mind streams of new revelation from their individual gods.

Gerald Flurry has changed many of the words in Mystery of the Ages because, taken at face value, it labels Flurry as a fraud and impostor. Dave Pack felt God needed to reveal more to him and now wallows in the mire of hundreds of failed prophecies and predicted dates of Christ's imminent return. Bob Thiel has also added to the things Herbert Armstrong taught and claims he is the only one Christ is working through today. Alton Billingsley's predictions have also all failed, even though God had specially set him up as the final truth preserver.

And then there is Ron Weinland—the only Church of God leader, so far, who is a convicted felon. His prophecies and predictions have also failed. He, too, needed to correct Herbert Armstrong in his understanding, particularly when it comes to Mystery of the Ages

Herbert Armstrong's Mystery of the Ages identifies seven key mysteries that he believed were hidden from the world and revealed through the Bible, which he interpreted to explain existence. These seven mysteries are: God, Angels and Evil Spirits, Man, Civilization, Israel, the Church, and the Kingdom of God. 

Ron Weinland states, regarding Mystery of the Ages as to why he had to add four new mysteries:

Although this book was a compilation of the fifty plus years of revealed truths given to Herbert W. Armstrong, there was still more truth to be revealed. God reserved a double portion of His spirit to be poured out upon His final apostle for the end-time. The giving of that extra portion of His spirit was for the explicit purpose of revealing many more truths to His Church, and to the world, before His Son returns as King of kings. God’s purpose in this has been to reveal far greater understanding of Himself and His creation at the final stages of the end-time. God is doing this to open the way for great understanding when He begins to pour out His holy spirit upon multiple millions to be called into His Church.

What's with all of these self-appointed crackpot prophets claiming they are doubly anointed, doubly blessed, or are the recipients of a double blessing specially reserved for them by God for use in these perilous end times? 

I do not know how Weinland can claim this since Bob Thiel claims he got the final double blessing. Just more proof they are both liars.

The nonsense continues:

These final four truths that God has given His Church are profound beyond measure. In this final great revelation to mankind, these truths put the finishing touch on what God is now going to perform in His great creation, as He ushers in His Kingdom upon the earth.

These final four truths, revealed through God’s final end-time apostle, bring the total of additional truths added since the apostasy to 36. 

 

New Covenant Christians understand that the office of apostle is foundational and temporary under the New Covenant—the new relationship with God established through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Hebrews 8:6–13). There is no need for apostles today, despite the deceptions that Bob Thiel and Ron Weinland promote as supposed "facts."

The New Testament describes the church as "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone" (Ephesians 2:20). Just as a building requires a one-time foundation, the apostles' role was to lay the groundwork for the early church by spreading the gospel, planting congregations, and providing authoritative teaching. Once this foundation was established in the first century, the need for new apostles ended, as the structure could then be built upon the completed New Testament scriptures.

No one alive today in any Church of God meets the biblical criterion of being an eyewitness to Christ's resurrection, making the office unrepeatable.

Apostles authenticated the gospel message through signs, wonders, and miracles, but this was tied to the launch of the New Covenant era. No man alive in the Armstrongist churches today has ever authenticated the gospel message through signs, wonders, and miracles. None of them—including Bob Thiel and Ron Weinland— will ever do so in the future. They cannot even get a prophecy right, so how in the world will they ever perform miracles and wonders?

Weinland continues:

This is double what God gave during the Philadelphia era. Indeed, a double portion of God’s spirit has been poured out, and the Church and world are now prepared for the final events that will transpire and lead into God’s Kingdom finally being established on this earth.

There is not an Armstrongist church leader alive today who has ever had a "double portion" bestowed upon them, no matter how much they claim so.

These are the supposed "new truths" Wienland pulled out of his posterior

The Spirit Realm

The first of the last four truths that God has chosen to reveal at this stage of the end-time concerns God’s judgment upon Satan and the punish- ment he will receive from God for his rebellion. To understand this pun- ishment and why Satan has been allowed to dwell on this earth, in the presence of mankind—deceiving mankind, cannot be fully understood without understanding the two truths that follow this one.

Then the stupdity just gets worse:

It simply states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). This verse begins to reveal great and awesome things about God, yet most who read this do not begin to comprehend the magnitude of what God is revealing. Most of the Church of God that was scattered after the apostasy read things into this verse that are neither stated, nor implied. 

 

Most individuals make an assumption concerning verse 14; this is a grave error and actually blasphemous in nature. It states, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14). This is a simple statement in reference to verse 1 of a revelation to mankind concerning the Word of God, but because of the awkward translation of the verse into English, it is misapplied to a Trinity doctrine. The Trinity teaches that there are three beings in the Godhead that are separate, yet one. The belief of the Trinity is that the “Holy Ghost” (as translated into the English, King James Version) is one of those beings and has eternally existed. The belief also teaches that Jesus Christ is one of the beings of this Godhead who has eternally existed.

So when people read in John 1:1 that the “Word was with God,” they mistakenly assume that this is speaking of the Word in verse 14 that was made flesh—which is clearly speaking of Jesus Christ being the one made of flesh. Because of this assumption, people miss the far greater revelation that God is giving about Himself and His plan for mankind. 

 

When it states that the “Word was with God” it is not stating that the Word was Jesus Christ who was “with” (along side) God. This word “with” in Greek does not mean “along side or together with, as to be with someone.” A simple short study of the word would reveal how it is used in other scripture. There is another word in the Greek language that does mean “to be with someone or along side someone,” but this is not such a word.

Let’s notice a simple example of this: “And he said, Go into the city to [this word “to” is the same Gk. word translated as “with” in Jn.1, but means “unto,” “to,” “at”] such a man, and say unto him, The Master said, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at [the same Gk. word that means “unto, to, at”] your house with [a different Gk. word that does mean “with,” as along with], my disciples” (Mat. 26:18). Jesus was not telling his disciples to go into the city “with” the man they were to meet, but they were to go into the city “to or unto” the man he described. He was not telling them that he would keep the Passover “with” the house, but “at” that house. He did say that he would keep the Passover “with” his disciples.

Now, returning to the verse in John 1:1, it is simply saying the “Word was unto God,” not “with” God. In other words, the “Word” was unto God and unto no other. The Word was ONLY unto God. It was God’s Word. In this verse, Jesus Christ is clearly not being spoken of as being “with” God.
This verse is simply a greater revelation of what is recorded earlier: “I am the LORD [Yahweh], and there is none else [Heb.—“no one else”], there is no God [Elohim] beside me: I girded thee, though you have not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD [Yahweh], and there is none else [Heb.—“no one else”]” (Is. 45:5-6). 

 

Those who cling to any part of a Trinity doctrine, either claiming that the Holy Ghost has eternally existed, or that Jesus Christ has eter- nally existed, or both, ignore God’s clear words. This false doctrine of the Catholic Church (that many others have embraced) has caused great confusion in the world and has hindered the spread of the true Gospel (good news) from God about His true plan and purpose for mankind. It has hindered those in Judaism and Islam from learning truth that came through God’s great Prophet, Jesus Christ. The reason being, both of these religious groups believe that God is One (which the world of tradi- tional Christianity has always rejected), and that only the One Almighty God has eternally existed; therefore, they have been quicker to reject any of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

 

In very clear and even stronger terms, the LORD God (Yahweh Elohim) reveals that He is the Creator of all things and that there was no one else who helped in His creation: “For thus says the LORD [Yahweh] who created the heavens; God [Elohim] Himself who formed the earth and made it. He has established it. He did not create it in vain, but He formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD [Yahweh]; and there is none else” (Is. 45:18).

The craziness continues, which is too endless to post here. 

These are the rest of the new revelations he has had:

HISTORY OF THE SPIRIT REALM
THE CREATION OF EVIL
THE CREATION OF ELOHIM

TRUTH #1: There is an end to Satan’s existence. His punishment is that of eternal death, never to have life again.

TRUTH #2: Angels were created and composed of spirit essence and given life by God (spirit life), yet they do not have self-sustaining life inherent in themselves. They are sustained by God, and only God has immortal, self-sustaining life inherent in Himself. It also needs to be understood that at their creation (although the angels were given spirit-sustaining life) they were never given of the holy spirit, nor were they ever given access to it.

TRUTH #3: God created both good and evil,

TRUTH #4: Through the power of the holy spirit, Almighty God will “dwell” IN His Family into everlasting life, and they will always dwell IN Him. 

 

You can read this mishmash of made-up heretical nonsense here: THE REST OF...MYSTERY OF THE AGES

It is like Bob Thiel on steroids!

Hat tip to David for this information!