New Book: The God Followers by Rand Zacharias

Here's what happens when you try to literally live 

by a human interpretation of the words from the Bible. 

Here is another book that has been written about life in Armstrongism.  The God Followers by Rand Zacharias 

 Imagine trying to grow up and do everything right. You're six years old and you know that Jesus is coming back...soon...and the world the way you know it will all change into a perfect world, an Utopian dream, a world tomorrow.

Rand Zacharias weaves an eerily humorous autobiographical tale of very creatively-enhanced non-fiction (with a little fiction added for a twist).

His story begins graduating from a world-renowned institution of excellence. He's graduated from the cult's unique learning institution--Ambassador College. Zacharias moves back in time and tells the genesis of their capture involving his loving father, who brought the family for the ride after a fiery explosion during the winter of love--1969.

Did Zacharias find the narrow path that leads to God? You'll find out.

Amazon has this blurb:

The God Followers is the autobiographical trauma-dy, tragic comedy, of growing up in a cult after Rand's father is caught in a fiery explosion. This real life account may make you question the inner workings of any organized religion--while taking you through the challenges of living in a manner of a literal interpretation of that ancient text--the Bible.

In paper back form it is here on Amazon where you can also read a small excerpt:  The God Followers

By eBook, Kindle, and other formats it is here:      The God Followers and here eBook

Follow Rand on his blog:  Randillusions

New Book: Genocide Revealed by Aleksandar Veljic

There is a new book that has been published by a former COG member Aleksandar Veljic.  It is about the massacre of Serbs, Jews and gypsies by Hungary during WWII.   Genocide Revealed: New Light on the Massacre of Serbs and Jews under Hungarian Occupation    Amazon has this review from Wade Frannson who is soon to publish his own book about life in Armstrongism - The People of the Sign.

Aleksandar Veljic has spent seven years doing primary research on events that were covered up 70 years ago. The list of accomplices is long and is not limited to Europeans. In the wake of WWII Miklos Horthy was given an unprecedented get-out-of-jail free card, as stated by the Wikipedia article on Horthy "But American trial officials declined to present charges against Horthy, a kindness that may have been the result of the influence in Washington of Horthy's admirer, the former ambassador John Montgomery." In other words, if we recall the geopolitical context - Horthy's strong anti-communist record was enough for the U.S. and others to turn a blind eye to his overt support of racist facists like Hitler, and the genocidal activities he endorsed and supported in regions under his control.

While under arrest, he made appearances at trials in which he helped convict others, but during which he was never required to testify. After his release from the Nuremberg prison, in December 1945, Horthy was supported by John Montgomery, Pope Pius XII and others. He could also count on admirers such as Joseph Stalin to plead for mercy on his behalf.

I would not have been aware of any of this if it weren't for the work of Aleksandar Veljic. In recent months the BBC has picked up on his work, Serbian news media and agencies are getting involved, and respected members of various Holocaust Societies in Israel and elsewhere are highlighting the importance of this book.

One thing is for sure, Veljic's work is important and explosive enough to stir up interest in atrocities that have been buried for too long. It's not just that the victims' blood cries out, it's that Horthy's reputation has been laundered, that his memoirs have been published in several languages, and that statues of Horthy are on display in his honor, and that schoolchildren in Hungary and elsewhere are reading stories about his role as a heroic leader, with no idea that in other ways he was a very evil man.

The facts, for example, that he was the first anti-Semitic European Leader, and that he had close ties to Hitler, who admired him during Hitler's own ascent to power, need to be surfaced, examined, and judged. Not to mention his record of endorsing genocidal atrocities.

This book is destined to cause a re-examination of those facts.

Congratulations to Aleksandar Veljic for his diligence and fortitude, in the face of opposition, with no resources and very, very little official support, on having created a work of original history that is destined to be cited in every subsequent work on this and related subjects, of which we can be sure there will be many.

Wade Fransson
Managing Partner
Something Or Other Publishing, LLC

Is Dave Pack Ready To "Squeal Like A Stuck Pig?"

The small group of apostate church jumpers at Restored Church of God have this little blurb up today about Dave Pack ridiculing Ron Weinland and his idiotic May 27th prophecy:

New Open Letter Addressing Ronald Weinland’s Prophecies

Mr. Pack has written an extensive Open Letter to followers of the Church of God – PKG. It is titled “Ron Weinland—Spectacularly Wrong!”

Over recent years, Ronald Weinland fell into ridiculous teachings on many topics, but especially his framework of prophecy. He has announced a series of failed predictions. He is most noted for predicting that Jesus Christ will return on May 27, 2012.

Opening with a more than cursory overview of the truth of prophecy, including some brief statements from Mr. Armstrong, this article goes on to identify and refute Weinland’s bizarre, totally unscriptural prophetic scenario. Addressing a number of topics in a way you have not seen, it is a tool to help misled followers untangle themselves from a web of error and delusion.

Apostle Pack says:

 Some time before (referring to Harold Camping), a lesser known “prophet,” Ronald Weinland (of the Church of God – PKG), had spun his own theory about how Christ would return on May 27, 2012. He began pushing in earnest his end-time scenario—through extensive ad campaigns much like Harold Camping—five and a half years earlier in late 2006, in belief that the Great Tribulation would begin on December 14, 2008. (Also paralleling Harold Camping, Ron Weinland has had to recompute events and dates because of failed prophecies.)

Dave does not recognize the fact that Herbert W Armstrong had hundreds of failed prophecies. Gerald Waterhouse had hundreds of them, Dean Blackwell had his share, John Rittenbaugh has his embarrassing failures.  The list could go on and on.

The most magnanimous Apostle to ever walk the face of the earth has this to say:

True ministers of God strive to never attack other human beings. They are for the truth rather than against people—and there is a big difference. Therefore, I have determined to actively resist and teach against any false doctrines that are deceiving people among the splinters. However, this subject presents a unique problem with this policy.

Dave then goes on to say this:

When a leader teaches a false concept or doctrine, it rarely has anything to do with himself. Generally, the heresy can be clearly singled out and countered without having to necessarily address the man who teaches it. 

This is going to come back and  bite Dave in the ass big time!   RCG is all about DAVE!  It's all about HIMSELF!  Hersey in the Restored Church of God is centered squarely in Dave Pack's shoulders!

Dave goes on to say this about prophets, which of course does not apply to him:

The Bible says prophets fall into one of two categories—true or false. All prophets—past, present or future—are one or the other. They cannot be both, and they cannot be in-between. Within the category of false prophets are two types: Those who claim to be a prophet, but falsely foretell events, not being inspired by the true God—and those who do not necessarily claim to be a prophet, but who teach falsely about prophecy—and for that matter any other aspect of God’s Word. The latter would include false teachers and false ministers. Like false prophets, false teachers assert they are vested with God’s authority. Rather than falsely prophesying future events, they teach false doctrines supposedly from the Bible. Therefore, Jesus’ warnings about false prophets also apply to false teachers, who work in the same way.

Ronald Weinland is a complete fraud, and one who is breathtakingly ignorant of even the most rudimentary elements of prophecy—of events that should be impossible to misunderstand. He is utterly wrong—and in his case spectacularly so, and on virtually every point! The Bible does not validate any of his prophetic ideas. You are about to see this.

We can rightly says:

 Dave Pack is a complete fraud, and one who is breathtakingly ignorant of even the most rudimentary elements of prophecy—of events that should be impossible to misunderstand. He is utterly wrong—and in his case spectacularly so, and on virtually every point! The Bible does not validate any of his prophetic ideas. You are about to see this.

Dave says:

Tragically, most who read Bible prophecy remain in near total ignorance of its size and scope. They are completely unable to recognize the speed, sequence and timing of its prophecies. And this is on top of not truly comprehending what any of them means! So many just cannot untangle the maze of what happens when, as well as where and to whom—and WHY!

 Then says this  about his prophecies.  He knows EXACTLY how they will all come about:

The interested reader will want to view my 2-part World to Come broadcast series titled “26 Prophetic Events in Exact Sequence Before Christ’s Return!” It reveals in detail all that lies ahead.)

Dave then goes into a look screed about the specific things that will happen in a specific order.  Just typical Armstrongite prophecy silliness.

 Dave does write some good things in his letter that are spot on about Weinland.

...seeing through Ron Weinland should be a snap. Incredibly, he has managed to get almost nothing right—NOTHING! It has been said that even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut. Not Weinland! He seems unable to get anything right, even accidentally. Again, if Elijah mocked the ancient prophets of Baal, I can mock a modern one.

Pack has this to say about lying false prophets.

A final word of caution: When their silliness is exposed for what it is, false prophets usually squeal like stuck hogs in protest. With his “credibility” now at stake, I realize this article might cause Ron Weinland to smear my credibility. He virtually has to. But at best his words will only carry “weight” until May 28 when his prophecy fails. The even barely discerning person will realize Weinland cannot use God’s Word in any intelligible fashion to do this.

I can see that very soon we will see Dave squealing like a stuck pig because of his lies.

Beware all you splinter cult leaders, Dave has his sight set on you next!  God's most powerful Apostle over the largest web based minister on earth today is coming after you!

I will address more splinter leaders in the future—and in detail. This includes certain other deceivers within these groups.

Dave's letter is long and boring, filled with typical Armstrongite theological stances with a Dave spin added to them.  Read it at your leisure because it is all fantasy:  Ron Weinland—Spectacularly Wrong!

UCG: Money. Money, Money - It's A Poor Church World

Melvin Rhodes, UCG Chairman has a letter on Realtime United detailing the latest UCG Council of Elders meeting.  This apparently is the most cohesive and unified Council of Elders in Church of God history.  Especially now since they have kicked out all there rebellious troublemakers and whiners that made UCG COE a very unhappy place to be.

For the first time in recent memory we managed to cover all the items on our agenda. This is testimony to the incredible spirit of unity and cooperation that exists on the Council of Elders at this time. This does not mean there was no discussion before decisions were made. There are 12 men on the Council and they have 12 different opinions, but we all share the same goals. Our purpose is constant—to preach the gospel and to prepare a people.

The letter quickly moves into the proverbial favorite topic of Armstrongism - money.

We were thankful to note that God has continued to help us through a calendar year of financial challenges. In serving our many congregations around the world we had to step out on faith, asking God to provide. And He always did and continues to do so.

With an 18% drop in income after the vast majority of UCG ministers defected to a new and improved COG and thousands of members jumping ship with them, they now are not able to do the things they want to.

Then they get to the real meat of why they want new members.  It's not about redemption with the grace of God, but it is about money.  The more people that they can con into joining the organization the more money they will have.  They admit they do not have the resources now to do what they think they should be doing.

Our new budget for the coming fiscal year includes a “faith line” like last year. When it is presented, you will see that 30.5 percent of our income is now devoted to preaching the gospel. In spite of suffering a loss in income just over a year ago, we have been able to do more—going through doors as God has opened them. We do not want to let up on these efforts. While our current income will not supply all our needs, we are asking God to call new people into the Church to help finance further efforts.

I guess UCG has taken a lot of heat when it was shown that Living Church of God devotes way more money to spreading the "gospel" than they do. LCG uses over 40% of their money towards what they proclaim is a gospel message, while previously UCG was doing a little over 25%.  The obvious factor here is that UCG is still spending most of it's money on minsters salaries and perks.  A large percentage of UCG  elders jumped ship from WCG in order to maintain their income and now UCG has to keep financing that amount above proclaiming a "gospel" message.

We preach the gospel through our varied media efforts including our website with over 300,000 unique visitors per month; our flagship magazine The Good News; Vertical Thought for our young people; the Bible Study Course for in-depth biblical teaching; and our dozens of booklets and other literature. All our beliefs are clearly answered in our literature, which is freely available to everybody who wants it anywhere in the world.

All of this costs money. With more money, we can do more. Please pray that God will add more people to His Church—people who can help contribute to our efforts.

There you have it, blatantly in print-more people equals more money.

UCG brass want s all of you deadbeat members to know that you need to start sending more money in.  They cannot do the things they want to without you sacrificing more money.  It's all YOUR fault!  UCG seems to be reading from Dave Pack's 'con the brethren' financial model.

In order to devote more to our increased media efforts, our home office expansion proposal is “on hold” until our finances enable us to expand without borrowing. 

If you start sending in more money then we too, can become the most important "Christian" web site on the net.  That's going to be a pretty hard task since Dave Pack claims HIS ministry is the largest and most influential web site on earth today.

It is hoped that we will soon be able to expand the video studio—without which we are limited in what we can accomplish in keeping up with advanced technology like Internet television and an even more professional program. We would like to expand our production of short topical videos for our website that deal with the latest news and items of interest. Our goal is to make the United Church of God, an International Association, website the first Christian website people will turn to for biblical answers and a deeper explanation of what’s going on around the world. We have a long way to go, but are confident that this is the direction in which God is leading us.

Christians are NOT going to turn to UCG for Biblical answers.  That is a proven fact through out the past seven decades of Armstrongism. Ultimately it has accomplished nothing other than creating over 600 splinter groups of which all are impotent wanna-be's.

Then they take a little slam against there boat jumpers who defected to COGWA.  These men apparently had a lot of ethic's issues.  Oh wait, since when has this NOT been a problem with Church of God ministers????? Almost every splinter group was planned, organized and incorporated while in the employ of a previous church.  UCG's present group of elders are no more ethical than the elders in COGWA.

Here's a challenge for the UCG Council of Elders.  If you are really men of faith, then take an immediate 30% pay curt.  Cut off all ministerial allowances and perks.  Steer that money into your pet projects and set an example for the rest of the church.  Prove to your members that you really are ethical men with Christian standards.