Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
I wrote that letter in September of 2000. I must give Dave Pack some of
the credit for the fact that I no longer hold on to what was then
sincerely held beliefs. One benefit from my experiences with Pack is
that my children have been spared having to be raised in a fear inducing
religion. They are happy, intelligent, law abiding, caring individuals
who have empathy for others. I am proud of them!
I have never in
my life encountered someone as despicable as Pack. Hopefully never
will again. He takes sincere people and uses them up, and spits them
out, without a shred of concern about how he destroys peoples lives. I
feel sorry for those he has convinced to liquidate their savings and
pull big triggers and send it all in to him. He is all about money,
always has been, always will be. Money appears to be his God.
It
is very telling that he demands that his contributors have absolutely
no say in how he spends their money. I would bet that it is safe to say
that he still uses only a fraction of third tithe he collects from
trusting contributors in a manner that they would approve of!
I
have since recovered from my interactions with him, and rarely give him
much thought. I am sure he thinks of me a hundred times more than I
ever think of him. Looking at his web site I see he mentions me without
naming me, and tries to defame me through innuendo. He apparently
can't help himself. He is too egotistical.
I see how he has
declared himself an Apostle, and see the failed prophesy that he made
last fall. He can add false Apostle and false prophet to his resume
now! I wonder what entertaining wackiness his mind will come up with
next?
A reader here commented on the thread about David C Pack the other day.
He makes a valid point:
That DCP's August 31, 2013 prophetic guess totally failed and none of
the deceived, robbed, impoverished, gutless, emasculated wimps in the
RCG dares to call him on it is kind of appalling too.
These "16" that David C Pack constantly talks about as his loyal group of ministers who are helping forge the "Great Reunification" know for a fact that Dave lied to them by the end of October of 2013. Yet these impoverished men still fornicate with Dave's so called ministry. They have literally whored themselves out to a false prophet and documented liar. Its more important to start an agricultural program or get a pay check than it is to have a set of balls and to take a stand against one of the sickest and most abusive Armstrongite splinter groups yet.
How these men can justify sitting there week after week watching the members being treated they way they are and do nothing about it is disgusting. They truly are EMASCULATED, GUTLESS, and IMPOVERISHED WIMPS!
Robert Taylor has put the Bible Sabbath Association UK web site back up. He has been incognito for the last couple of years because the UK government, Israelis agents, and the Jesuits have been using satellites to pick his brain clean and to monitor him.
Here are some of the things used upon him by the UK government:
A person is given
a signature that is locked onto the satellite.
“Once the target
is a “signature”, he can almost never escape a satellite’s probing eyes. (As an
article in Science explained, “tiny computers ... check the incoming signals
with computerized images, or ‘signatures’, of what the target should “like.”)
As long as his tormenter or tormentors--those with the resources to hire a
satellite--desire, the victim will be subject to continuous scrutiny. His movements
will be known, his conversations heard, his thoughts picked clean, and his
whole life subjected to bogus moralizing, should his tormentor diabolically use
the information gained. A sadist could harass his target with sound bites, or
audio messages, directly broadcast into his room; with physical assault with a
laser; with subliminal audio messages that disturb his sleep or manipulate
persons around him into saying something that emotionally distresses him; with
lasers that turn off street lights as he approaches them; with tampering with
lamps so that they burn out when he hit’s the switch; and in general with the
knowledge gained through omniscient eyes and ears of satellites. In short, a
person with access to satellite technology could make his victim’s life a
living nightmare, a living hell.”
Eyes Not Your Own
It is also
believed the laser beam from the satellite surveillance can turn our eyes into
a camera and can convert our thoughts to an audible voice so those behind
the beam can see and hear everything. This allows access to personal
information which would otherwise not be available.
The surveillance
used in my situation included the use of microwaves, a laser beam,
sending unusual smells, sending cartoons, subliminal messages, and hacking into
the body.
Few would believe
the experiences that I have encountered in the last few months. Most assume
craziness, or think that my behaviour resembles mental illness, the
psychiatrist thought so, and gave me a prescription for mental illness It happened
one evening, I noticed when pointing my camera at the lights a purple/blue beam
came from the heat source and onto my person. The laser beam is sometimes
described as a “particle beam” and is used for satellite surveillance.
The laser beam
would follow me wherever I went, even outside, during the day or night. It was
unusual, believing it to be sent by “God” at the time. Outside the beam of
light went through the sun, and onto me. It must have been the oil, I thought,
it claimed to be powerful.
No sooner had the
laser beam been discovered, a few weeks later, which would have been after
Passover 2013, voices began to appear. These were men and women who would be
talking about me, and followed me wherever I went. The voices sounded like they
came from microphones into a speaker, they were powerful voices, but, only I
could hear them.
At the beginning
they impersonated the voices of neighbours day and night, hearing a loudspeaker
at night. The loudspeaker would broadcast my voice from thoughts put into my
mind. They would impersonate my voice and family members. Software is available
that this can be done. Every night the voices of neighbours were heard with
every type of allegation made.
The people behind
the beam believed I was one of the Two Witnesses or Antichrist, and this was
broadcast out on the loudspeaker for the neighbours to hear, they included many
other allegations.
-------------
One day, a strong
energy field came over the whole body, which felt just like going through
chemotherapy. The energy field went across the body from the bottom to the top,
just like going for X-Rays in a machine. There was pain in the brain, that I
was convinced half of my brain was destroyed and was living on half a brain. At
the same time, at night, I went into some type of trance, where gibberish would
be coming out of my mind. The voices expected this night after night, and told
people not to worry about it. The craziest nonsense came out of my head, there
was no coherent structure in my thoughts at all.
Following this,
electromagnetic energy/microwaves where being beamed down so strong that I had
to turn off the electricity supply on two occasions. Shouts from the neighbours
said to turn off the power supply, the energy beam was going to kill them. To
save the neighbourhood, I had to turn off the electricity. The power was very
strong and overwhelming, but putting my head in the microwave oven proven
ineffective. Sheltering under the stairs was of little help, nor was trying to
put on silver foil. Whatever it was, it made the head very sore and could
easily push people over the edge of insanity.
The voices must
be computer voices since you hear the same people 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. They never go home, as you would expect, but there must be a controller
behind the computer screen. They put subliminal messages in the tape recorder,
so when listening to music, there would an underlining message the subconscious
is receiving or being programmed with. They do not respect the religious
customs or observances of the people they watch. The Sabbath is a time of
ridicule, and Pentecost could not be observed due to the threats I was
receiving. Often, they will use ridicule, or have debates with the person
convincing them that they are irreligious or do not have any knowledge of any
subject matter. The situation becomes one of psychological control and mind
manipulation over another person.
These voices
claimed to be members of the Golden Dawn, the Jesuits, Police and Israel. The
voices would change with various accents. Israeli accents were used convincing
me I was listening to someone important, which I thought to be Shimon Peres.
----------------
The Israeli
voices believed that I was Jesus’ last offspring on the earth and needed to be
taught a lesson in humility. They were going to rescue me in the night whilst
the Golden Dawn were secretly plotting to send me to South Africa. The Israelis
were going to put me on a plane to ship me off to some Arab country to face
beheadings from the Islamic terrorists. But since I was one of the Two
Witnesses, I would naturally escape by calling fire down from heaven. The
script kept changing as you would expect. My family were going to South Africa
without me, and I would end up in an Israeli detention centre where the most brutal
torture would be melted out on Jesus’ son. The torture so severe, the eyes
would water just thinking about it, with cold chills rolling down the spine and
teeth gnashing as in the last day of judgment.
The Golden Dawn
would then make an appearance, working with the police, on child abuse
allegations against members of the family. We have been watching you from
birth, claimed the Golden Dawn, from your time in South Africa until now. They
claimed to have tried to kill me off at various times but could never get close
enough until now. They claimed that my salvation had been lost when studying
into the occult.
They appeared to
know a lot about the Worldwide Church of God, believing it to be the only true
Christian group.
They said they
would cancel my passports, hack into my computer and email accounts, suspend my
driving license, block telephone numbers of church members, cancel bank cards
and put me on fraud charges to name but a few. It later got more sinister
accusing me of child abduction, impersonating police officers, murder,
terrorism and a host of other allegations. They also seem able to disable
people by various frequencies they use, mostly, in the evening, the pain can be
indescribable in the head. Lying on the bed gives some relief.
The technology is
very advanced, one occasion I tried to play a sermon tape of Herbert W
Armstrong, but the tape player would not press play. The voices said that Shaun
did not want to listen to Herbert Armstrong, but after three hours, he changed
his mind allowing me to hear the sermon.
Poor Bob. His bitterness towards Rod Meredith knows no ends. Thiel was
stung by Rod's rebuke of him over a year and half ago, so much so that
he had to start the "One and Only True end time Church."
Despite the fact that Bob is not ordained and has absolutely no authority to set up a church, at least according to Armstrongite governance structures, Thiel had to self-appoint himself, knowing that no one else would.
Today, Bob is lashing out at Meredith and others, claiming they are tools of Satan who are actively promoting Satan's plans.
Thiel writes:
Have various leaders and writers associated with the Church of God
promoted Satan’s plan? Has Satan influenced various ones to help
fulfill his plan?
Thiel then quotes something from James Malm where Malm jabs Thiel for his constant fascination with Mayan and Catholic prophecies.
At this point we exclaim how terrible it is to seek out a
familiar spirit [demon] about the future or anything else. Yet we do
exactly the same thing in the church of God groups! What do I mean with
the statement? I mean that whenever we study the teachings of false
religions or of worldly men and apply them to keep them, instead of
going to the word of God; we are turning our backs on the word of God to
consul with familiar spirits [demonic] spirits.
How many of you consult horoscopes in the local papers? How many COG
groups beginning with HWA, turned aside from what Jesus Christ
commanded us to preach, in to a worldly business model organization and
outreach? How many organizations use the Roman Catholic Beast
government [adopted by HWA after Loma's death] system for church
leadership?
There is even one man who left LCG a year ago who styles hiself a
prophet, who voraciously seeks out and studies the prophecies of every
false religion that he can find, in order to find support for his own
false prophecies. (This is the comment that ticked off Thiel)
Do we not realize that learning false doctrine and prophecy to follow
it, is turning our backs on the word of God to embrace the ways of the
enemy of God? (Posted 01/18/14)
Then Thiel justifies his prophecy peddling by this:
James Malm is promoting Satan’s plan in several ways. First of all, I
do not seek out false prophecies to find support for my supposed false
prophecies, thus he is bearing false witness. And he should know that,
but does not seem to care how he tries to ‘spin’ my writings.
Thiel is not truthful when he makes such comments. Thiel searches out everything he can find that fits his own perverted understanding of prophecy - all of which he got from the perverted understandings of Armstrong, Meredith, Hoeh and others. Any "pagan" prophecy that makes his end-time malarkey seem valid, Thiel uses. Thiel is more than preoccupied with Catholic and Mayan prophecies, so much so that he keeps writing books about them. Thiel puts more validity into Catholic prophecies than even the Catholics do!
Theil then claims that all of Malm's prophecies have failed too, because unlike Thiel, Malm is not using the CORRECT way of understanding prophecy as he does. Thiel thinks that by using another failed Armstrongite preacher, David Jon Hill, that he too is a proper prophet.
Additionally, perhaps I should point out that James Malm himself
essentially insisted that the Great Tribulation had to begin in 2008 or
2009, and I denounced him (see James Malm Challenges COGwriter)
for that and was right. Furthermore, he has claimed that the Great
Tribulation could start in pretty much every year since that time. I
have boldly claimed it could not, and of course, have been right every
time (see When Will the Great Tribulation Begin?).
He, and others, who insist I misuse non-biblical prophecies simply do
not understand who the old Radio Church of God taught them, which is
the same way I do (see Hill DJ. Christ or Antichrist. Good News
magazine, Radio Church of God, April 1961; also see the article Satan’s Plan).
Thiel then claims that he alone has denounced the false prophecies of Malm, Pack and Weinland. Thiel fails to understand is that every single person with a COG background with ANY common sense can quickly see that the prophecies of these men are not true. Every single one of us here understands that!
Thiel then has to attack Rod Meredith, AGAIN, by claiming he and the others that pick on him are all agents of Satan
Apparently James Malm and other critics of mine believe that
Philadelphia Christians should be ignorant as various ones, including
Roderick Meredith, have publicly criticized me for this. An odd thing
about those two, however, is that they both have referred to
non-biblical prophecies, yet have condemned me for that.
Satan is using these men, and I assume us, in pointing out the fallacies of Bob Thiel. Its nice to know that Bob is without sin.
None have convicted me of sin, though people like James Malm,
Roderick Meredith, and David Pack have falsely accused me (Ronald
Weinland has as well, but his references were a bit more subtle).
Using lies, false prophecies, and character assassination have long
been part of Satan’s plan to stop people from listening to God’s
prophets throughout history.
Wanted to post pics and cartoons but my techno smarts outsmarted me. Gotta get to work so wanted to get her introduced to Banned HWA before I had to go...I has to go!! View all her cartoons and let's welcome her "humor" to Banned HWA!
"Sometimes in life there is nothing left to do but have a good laugh"
Buddhist Proverb
Rachel Wolf 's Church of God Background
Dennis: "So just how did you come into the truth.."
(Naw just kidding..)
"What is your COG background?"
Rachel responds
hmm.. it was just something I started referring to myself as... my inner "Doomsday Girl"... then I was playing around and drew her up... then people wanted a comic strip so i played around some more and made one. -- I was born and raised in WWCG, attended the Houston North congregation. Went to AC from '93-'95. Didn't finish AC because my parents left with the split for UCG. Six months after leaving AC and going back home, I quickly saved money, left home and shortly after quit the church all together. Basically since I no longer lived with my parents, why keep going back to the insanity.
total time in WWCG - birth 1976 to leaving somewhere around 1996-1997.
"My my...what big fruit you have..."
"The better to impress you with my dear"
"Growth is the greatest indicator of fruit. Each category forms anotherfruit one can measure. In this regard, The Restored Church of God is without peer in every category of measurement!"
Annual "Fruits" Letter 2014
David C. Pack
The only thing wrong with "Growth is the greatest indicator of fruit" concept is that there is no adjective to describe the kind of fruit you end up with. Fruit can be good or bad, sweet or sour, fresh or rotten, attractive or ugly, smooth or prickly, edible or inedible, healthy or poisonous and so forth. It can be nutritious or can leave you sitting in the bathroom all day or at least running back and forth.
If you went by religious organizational growth, you'd not first think of the infinitesimal Restored Church of God in our world Mega Church Growth. Few if anyone in the world of one man mega church pastors ever heard of Dave Pack.
I'm sure the Redemption Outreach Church two blocks from me, with 7000 members every week attending would put Restored Church of God into perspective. Of course it is a one man/woman show as well, or was and what I warned a few about happening based on my own experiences with topic did happen a few weeks ago and we'll see if it survives. That one man/woman Church leadership thing is a slippery slope if ever there was one. It probably will survive due to the nature of the folk it attracts. They all have drama that I'm sure the Pastor does not make issues about so they will cut the Pastor much slack for his own I am sure.
Let's keep our perspective here
What Dave Pack means about growth is grown among the equally insignificant and infinitesimal OTHER Churches of God that split and splintered off of WCG which was also a rather insignificant religious blip on the big screen.
Not all growth is an indicator of good mental health
While growth is obviously necessary to produce fruit, I think we'd all agree that asking what kind of fruit is it producing is not an unreasonable question to ask. Dave is a numbers man. He can deny it all he wants but that has always been the litmus test of who's more of God than others. We could speculate on whether love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness or longsuffering were Restored Church of God fruits but I spare you. Part of the problem, of course, is that the New Testament itself only gives church power to a very few men. Those being James, Peter, John and Paul. So the precedent for the "my views are God's views" problem is built into the system. Actually the NT is the stage for the Apostle Paul who presents his views as THE views while Peter, James and John serve as occasional walk ons. Go read Galatians 1- 2 again and ask yourself if Paul was a team player or sold on his own views above all others. Do Peter, James and John and their storied association with Gospel Jesus seem to mean much to Paul to you in the text? Does, "I learned NOTHING from them" or "Reputed to be pillars" strike you as arrogant and odd? How about being called, not on the Damascus Road in vision but from the womb strike you? Jesus gets to say a few things, but it is basically a Pauline Production. So this template has served the COGs well in the mistaken idea that "God always uses one man..." A more ridiculous and dangerous view of how humanity comes to proper perspectives on how things really are there never was.
I don't think angry, cowered, badgered or compliant members of any church are good fruit. The number of times people hit on a site , to me , is not a good indicator of good fruit. With Growth as an indicator of fruit then porn is an orchard of fruit.
I don't believe in the idea of "The One True Church" anymore. That idea has built in drama and conflict guaranteed. I don't think church should be drama filled nor do I think when it is we should get to call it persecution or satanic attacks on God's obviously true people. In 1979 when the Satan in the form of the Attorney General of California attacked WCG it really was only WCG and HWA getting a good going over for real abuses. No Satan had anything to do with it. It was a religious abuse of power and privilege thing that caught up with WCG/HWA. Even at the time, my own concept, while in some forms of denial too was HWA was getting a good dose of reality and that he could not just do as he wished freely spending the hard earned money of others on religious fantasies of his church or himself. Someone had to send the message that enough was enough and the free ride and pass was over. Herbert Armstrong no more went to the world leaders and "Kings" with "the Gospel of the Kingdom of God," than I did. He paid his way in at times and of course they liked the gifts paid for by US. The Apostle Pack expects to be well rewarded for his vision and meandering theology. In fact, he demands it to have even more visions and meandering and addled theology. Can't wait for the voices of God speaking directly to Dave and members that came up a few months back. Only in religion are voices in the head thought to be a good thing. Maybe they are the true origins of religion.
We'll have to see just how the Dave Joshua Pack screwup of 2013 plays out. God has added new and expansive never before understood in God's crystal clarity elements to the prophecy which is definately "on." I'd not think Dave would be so foolish as to predict that all the churches are coming back under his leadership this Spring again. Maybe he is but it won't happen then as it didn't happen last summer. People aren't in the mood for such games and for better or worse, Dave does not enjoy the "come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you REST," category of minister. All you'll get are marching orders and all you'll give are you time, money and resources.
If one is to be a spiritual person, which is not the same as just being religious, the fruit of being so should actually be good fruit. Spirituality is an inside job and organized religion, an oxymoron of sorts, can't control the truly spiritual person. Religion tells you when to be where, what we all believe and you should too and how much to give. Spirituality is just that. It is personal, calming and hopeful. The Bible does not say, "He that is greatest among you, let him think he is spoken of literally by the Prophet Haggai and yell at you to pull big triggers." Religious people accept applause when they walk in the room. Spiritual people would be much embarassed by that. A religious pastor or person cuts and pastes his way through the Bible coming up with reasons for every belief and why one does or does not do this or that that can be imagined. A spiritual person is probably less so inclined and more live and let live knowing everyone is having a different experience with life with shoes that fit their feet but not one size fits all. That "we MUST all speak the same thing" thing is simply an illusion and meant for control of the group think to the advantage of the person telling everyone that. It is not a spiritual concept. Growing in one's personal grace and knowledge is not so easily contained in commands not to really grow in grace or knowledge unless from approved sources. If your grace and knowledge comes from in-house booklets written by a very few others, you need to smell smoke.
If your minister doesn't help your joy or even create any, something is wrong. If your religion is trauma and drama with much majoring in the minors or making mountains out of molehills, something is wrong. If you are commanded to give what you have not got by people who take it and then have more than they could ever possibly earn on their own, something is wrong. If you take Clarion Calls seriously and think anyone has any right to demand such obscene compliance for such stupid reasons, something is very very wrong and you need to take a good look into yourself to see if it is not faith, but fear, guilt and shame that drives your religion.
Suggested Sabbath Dress for Restored Church of God Members?
If you don't see the illogical thought in sending in your money now and not waiting to leave it in your will because "you won't need it when you are dead," I simply can't help you. If in one sentence a woman goes from having no say over family funds if not in the Church to having say in 1/2 of them if she is in the Church and you don't see the evil in that hypocrisy.....get help.
Homer Simpson is said to have said, "I am sick and tired of you people holding me back from my dreams. I am going to Clown School!" Often, in my own WCG experience as both member and minister, it felt like Clown School and certainly was a circus. If it was not one thing, it was something else. In hind sight, there was no spirituality in any of it. It was religion. It boasted great growth and that growth of whatever dazzling percentage over the last dazzle it might be, it was a numbers game and it was no more related to a spiritual life than Dave Pack being the Joshua spoken of by the Prophet Haggai is to reality.
I believe there are sincere Churches of God and ministers. I truly do. If I had to pick a COG that may be getting nowhere but means well, it would probably be The United Church of God. If I had to pick a Biblical belief, and I don't believe I have to, I'd probably choose the Jewish Christian view over the gnostic and paganized version of the Apostle Paul. I'll not try your patience by trying to explain that again. Trying to combine them both as if they were one in the same is a major theological mistake made but most well meaning "we must all speak the same thing" Christians, but it is silk purses and sow's ears. The Book of Acts was designed to make them seem the same and on the same page which was simply not so.
But it's growin'....
So...while growth may be a sign of fruit, just as smoke is a sign of fire, growth of itself means little or nothing. Well maybe it means trouble ahead. One can grow a brain tumor to a seriously quality size but not want the fruit of it.
Those fun folks at Harvest Rock with their church banners screwed into the pillars. After the idiot pastor spray painted the egrets sculpture with white paint, what more should we expect!
