Dave Pack: I teach IMMUTABLE teachings like Peter and if people leave over that then they don't want to serve my god.

Immutable Awesomeness 

Dave says:

He told the people then that they were waiting for it. How could Peter say that if he believed it was after the Millennium? He told them they were waiting for it in their lifetime. Don’t fault Peter. I’ve told you that God’s apostles get things wrong. They can—but it’s usually timing. Mr. Armstrong didn’t say there is no New Heavens and New Earth; there is no New Jerusalem. He got the timing wrong. But I would say, we would all agree that he was a lot closer than Peter, who said it was going to come in the lifetime of that generation, because they thought they lived in the last days…

“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless [despite the fact there’s all this tremendous heat, and destruction], we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness” (vs. 12-13).

You cannot get around that. I’ve read that since I was 18 years old in college. How is that? But the Church taught otherwise. Brethren, I never left and said, “This can’t be God’s Church! They don’t even know when the New Heavens and the New Earth are.” I didn’t know either. I just looked at that and thought, is there some other day of the Lord, when these will pass away? Now I know. Now I understand. It wasn’t our time. We weren’t supposed to know it.

But you cannot get around these verses. They’re immutable. They’re impossible to get around. That’s why Christ keeps weaving into all of this, My Word stands forever. Don’t despise My Word. It’s purified seven times. Every word of God is pure, and so on and so forth…

“Wherefore, beloved…[a little motivation part here] seeing that you look for…[it means “wait for,” look it up] such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless…[How ready are you at this point on the Sabbath, brethren, to hear that? Boy, oh boy. Be found without spot, blameless.]…And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…[He wants us to make it. If the scoffers say, “I don’t know where He is. God is slack.” Forget that! God is giving people a chance to make it. He wants everybody to make it!]…even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;

“As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood…[God wrote certain things in Paul’s epistles, so that people would go there and foul it up, if they are unlearned and unstable]…which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest [which means “twist”] as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (vs. 14-16).

If people leave over this, they don’t want to serve God…They’re rebellious. They’re going to be out if they don’t repent. Let them go. I don’t know that any will leave. This is a big understanding. I repeat, it’s impossible to miss. It’s immutable. God has written it, as it were, in blood, stone, and steel. You can’t get around it with His Spirit revealing it to us. If they leave—saying “Mr. Armstrong didn’t teach this!”—then they’ve rejected his greatest teaching, which is, “Don’t believe me. Believe your Bible.” Hundreds of times I heard him say it.

Dave Pack: There Will Be Scoffers In The Last Days

Poor Dave.  People are ridiculing him and making fun of what he teaches!

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming…[Time is going on. Well, we’re in those times now. That’s one of the problems of the last days, by the way, there are scoffers]…for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word [the Word of God] are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (II Pet. 3:1-7). So there is a day that the heavens and earth are, sort of, being reserved and kept in the store against this day of judgment and destruction—that’s perdition, judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

It is always interesting to see Church of God ministers throw this verse around so freely, especially when most of the things they have preached have failed to happen.   All it takes is one failed prophecy to make everything they preach not credible.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22The Message (MSG)21-22 You may be wondering among yourselves, “How can we tell the difference, whether it was God who spoke or not?” Here’s how: If what the prophet spoke in God’s name doesn’t happen, then obviously God wasn’t behind it; the prophet made it up. Forget about him.

Everything Dave Pack, James Malm and Bob Thiel preaches been made up. Forget about them!

Dave Pack: My Illogical Logic. See The Problem?

Dave Pack has made so many absurd comments and predictions over the years that he constantly has to back peddle and set things "straight."

Dave has another "sermon" up online and it starts out with this silliness:

Okay, really quickly, I might throw out an interesting point of, we’ll call it the illogical logic. Imagine that there was no First Dominion followed by the Kingdom in Zion…and God wipes out an entire Earth for things they never knew. People of all nations and religions—no matter the ignorance—didn’t even know about Christianity, and God pours horrible plagues on them, and they had no idea why He did it.

According to what we read, He would have to wipe out everybody who didn’t believe the truth, and that would leave the Church…Now, think about this. Then He would turn the Church into spirit, and the Millennium would open with not so much as Adam and Eve to rule over. You wouldn’t have anybody. Based on all that you saw, if the few men left were merely the Church…and the Church is going to be turned to spirit…where are the nations in the Millennium? Never mind how unrighteous and unjust God would be for destroying people over things they never understood. On the other hand, all of that goes away if there is a First Dominion and a Kingdom ruling from Zion.

……So, if the elect were the only people on earth, then you’d wipe out the earth, turn them to spirit…nobody there and the Millennium is basically a wasteland for 1,000 years without even two people to start over. See the problem?

Never mind explaining away how God says, I’m not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of truth…and I would have all men to be saved, but I’m going to just blastand wipe them all out, and they’re not going to have a clue why I did it. You would wonder why, under those circumstances, they almost could blaspheme such an unrighteous god. 

It is no wonder his followers cannot understand what he teaches.

"The Time of Correction Is Almost At Hand!" So says the Chief Pharisee of the Churches of God

The second self-appointed false prophet of the Church of God (after Almost Arrested Bob Thiel) is the Chief Pharisee and bastardizer of the law, James Malm.  No one in the church has ever taken the law and abused it as much as Malm has.  Even Almost Arrested Bob Thiel pales in comparison.

Malm has self-appointed himself as the chief authoritarian on the law for the church.  No human on this earth understands the law more than Malm does, maybe except for his sidekick Constance, Blessed be!  No human has ever interpreted the bible more correctly than James Malm.  He works day and night in his little apartment pouring over scriptures and adding his own interpretations. Note these are his OWN interpretations and have nothing to do with God anywhere in the mix.

The lying false prophet is so sure the end is coming in the next few years that he is working over time to get some of his books published so people will be able to read them in the tribulation when the Internet goes down.  The Chief Bastardizer of the law claims he has been on a steep learning curve over the last several years in order to get these books out.

Announcements:  I am reviewing and updating all literature and the free Downloads page has been removed from the ashininglight.info site

I have been on a very steep learning curve throughout these past years and I want to do a final version of the books including all changes, updates and points learned over the years. 

Besides growing in doctrine over these years, the very purpose of writing these books – and making my mistakes – has been to learn to write and format books properly in preparation for publishing final solid doctrinal volumes just before the tribulation.

 The Chief Pharisee then makes this hilarious comment:

Besides a solid doctrinal refresher on the New Testament over the next months as the crisis approaches, I want the books to contain the most accurate and updated material possible.

There is NOTHING sound in the legalistic garbage that Malm pumps out daily, particularly when it comes to any New Testament teachings.  Malm is as embarrassed about Jesus as Almost Arrested Thiel is.  The things Jesus taught and accomplished is a major embarrassment to these two fools.

So why this sudden rush?  According to the liar and false teacher Malm, the abomination of desolation MIGHT be set up in 2017 and when it is then 75 days later the crap hits the fan and the Internet will go down and he will not be able to spread his "word."

There is no guarantee of steady electricity or internet in North America during the tribulation and most of the Ekklesia will be caught up in the tribulation. 

My goal is to have about ten solidly doctrinal books ready by the 2017 Fall Feast. The deadline is due to the strong possibility that the abomination may be set up late in 2017 and the tribulation will begin about 75 days after he is set up. If it takes another year, there are still many more things to do. 

I can guarantee you that it will NOT happen in 2017 and Malm will change his story again.  His god was not yet ready to murder millions of people.

Damn!

What a disappointment that will be!

Again!

Why Do People Remain in Abusive Churches?

By Don Enevoldsen

“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.’” (Genesis 2:18)

Who would have thought that the first thing God identified as not good would become the strongest tool of control and abuse in history? Human beings recognize how undesirable isolation is, and they prove it by their willingness to do anything to avoid being alone. That fact explains a wide range of dysfunctional behavior, from the tendency to stay in unhealthy relationships to a fanatical devotion to abusive churches and church leaders.

I was recently asked why people stay in abusive churches, not only refusing to leave, but actively defending the system, even when there is overwhelming evidence of hypocrisy, deception and unethical behaviors. A variety of factors combine to produce this state, and while motives can be complex, they generally revolve around the fear of losing connection with the community. Instinctively, most people prefer the familiarity of an unhealthy community to abandonment by the community. Better to belong to something, even if it’s bad, than to be alone.

The threat of being ostracized hangs over every part of abusive church systems. It has always been this way. Recall the parents of the blind man Jesus healed. They avoided defending their own son out of this fear of being cast out.

“His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.” (John 9:22)

All their son did was tell the truth. Their fear prompted them to distance themselves from his defense, even though they were his parents and they saw for themselves that he’d been healed.

Why is this drive so strong? Why is being alone so terrifying? There might be many reasons, but the one that dominates my experience can be seen by examining what causes members of an abusive church their greatest anxiety. Having spent many years in a church where the pastors understood how to push all the right buttons to keep people in line, I’ve had considerable opportunity to observe abuse at its most subtle and its most effective.

For many years I worked very hard at this church. I was head of the drama department, writing and directing plays, Easter pageants, Christmas musicals, and helping to create illustrated sermons. I taught Sunday School classes, did the midweek service for many years, acted as church liaison for many community and political events, and did hospital visitation.

Significantly I had most of those responsibilities before I was on the church staff. Like most volunteers, I sat on the edge of my seat every time the pastor talked about something I was involved in, hoping to hear my name mentioned, even if it was only in passing.

People work incredibly hard for the smallest pat on the back, in the form of some sort of public mention or a title or a small, inexpensive thank you gift. Anything to feel that our efforts were noticed. We see it as an acknowledgement that we have earned a position in the organization. We belong to something bigger than ourselves.

Conversely, we are terrified of what might happen if we do not perform well enough or if we make a mistake. Someone else might replace us and we will suddenly be on the outside looking in. We can’t conceive of not being part of the group. Our sense of who we are becomes so enmeshed in the organization that being kicked out would confirm our worst fears that we might not have much value. No identity and no connection. Alone and forgotten.

It’s not hard to manipulate such people. My pastor often said that they were the best employees because they worked so hard. They are often thought of as people pleasers, but it needs to be understood that the reason for people pleasing is the fear of being sent away. A pat on the back, balanced with the hint that failure to be good enough will result in removal of all approval, and such people will do almost anything. I can assure you that in those days, I would. And I saw it in many others.

Add to that a steady diet of sermons about obeying leaders and submitting to authority if you don’t want God to be displeased with you, and the result will be a loyal, devoted fanatic, for whom no amount of rational argument will be adequate to break the hold of the abusive system. They will defend the pastor and the church against all comers. Note the reaction of Creflo Dollar’s congregation as detailed in Part 13 of this series. The facts of the case don’t matter.

It is in our nature to seek community. A healthy community thrives on the diverse contributions of healthy individuals. Members of the group are encouraged to grow, to express themselves, to find their individual, unique identity and to discover their purpose in life—for the good of themselves and for the benefit of other members.

An unhealthy community thrives on hierarchical control that forces its members into subservient roles—for the good of the organization, not the good of the members within the organization.

It is in our nature to seek community, but it is also in our nature to seek individuality within the community. We must express our unique identity to ever find genuine contentment. Express yourself in an abusive community, however, and they won’t allow you to hang around. You are a threat to the power structure. Until you start questioning the authority, you might never see the overt hostility. Question leaders, however, and you are guaranteed to see it firsthand. Abusive leaders never react nicely.

Where you fit into this dynamic says a lot about you. People stay in abusive systems because the desire for community has overwhelmed all other needs. Fear of abandonment has obscured the necessity for individual expression. Fear of not being good enough has twisted commitment to the community into a self-destructive duty, devoid of personal fulfillment or satisfaction.

Why do people stay in abusive churches? Because they have been taught that disapproval by the church or by the leadership equals rejection by God. And if you’re rejected by God, where can you go? That kind of fear is not easily overcome.

Though difficult to understand or accept when you have been indoctrinated in an abusive church, churches that foster genuine community do exist. Healthy people are never alone for long. They find other healthy people and they form healthy communities. The irony is that until you risk being alone, you will likely never notice those people.