Dave Pack's All Time Greatest Financial Hits 2007

Just a reminder, in Dave's own words,  of the way he makes his money and what he expects of the gullible as they gyrate in their seats amazed at his powerful, inspired meaningless sermons and calling. 

"If you hold those riches, I'm telling you, you trust in them"

"Go get a big chunk out of your home. And put your money where your mouth is and send it here. And I'm not talking about one, two, three thousand either. How about ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, or one hundred thousand dollars? Go do it."

"Wives, you can be independent in this. You have 1/2 the worth of whatever you have in your house.

I'm officially telling you this...Wives, legally you have the 1/2 the funds. What are you going to do about it?...Husbands...'well, my wife is not in the church'...tell her...'you don't have a voice woman' "

"Go get those assets and get them here"

"Don't sit on vast resources that we can use now"

"We are not a splinter"

"I do not covet your silver or gold...the gold and silver is God's and He will get it someway"

"We do not have the funds...plans...bookstores...We need to redesign our web site...We need many hundreds of thousands of dollars to arrive at God's headquarters soon...the timing is now"

"This is different...ask Him for the faith to liquidate certain assets and give it to the work"

"I'll say it again, we are talking about liquidating existing assets...it all belongs to God and the brethren"

"We have a lot of plans so big going on in this office it would cause just this room to to rock and gyrate if you knew what was going on. We just need a lot of money and we need it post haste...I would give more if I had it"

"Herbert Armstrong wrote an article...'Prepare to greatly reduce your standard of living'...What he wrote by far, is more for us now than it was then... its all going to be taken away from us anyway brethren"

"There will be follow-up sermons. Time to bring in related points"

"Let us know how much you plan to send and when you plan to send it...You must be willing to communicate... If you do need to counsel, please do that...If you are not ready to distribute what you have...you don't believe the flow of prophecy"

(Comment:  It's NEVER the LAST BLAST with Dave. Just the next one.) 

"This is announcing the last blast, the clarion call as it were, to finish the work...Whether it is 4,5,7, 9 years to go, God knows...This is liquidating assets...I have the authority to tell you to do it... I have the moral and spiritual, and ecclesiastical authority to tell you to do what I have also done"

"Get it now when it requires faith... when you are dead you don't need it... if you named us in your wills, it can take us months or years to get it"

"The wives in the faith will say give everything you can...We don't have the luxury of waiting years...today, leaving everything in your will simply doesn't work"

(Comment:  A Personal favorite and one I'm sure would make his lenders nervous. He may need lenders that go by the rules and they may just be his naïve church members and ministers.)

"Now you just have a second mortgage... and frankly we flee before most of it ever becomes due"

"...some may think that they want to tap their 401k--maybe you want to let us know that... why would you want to tell us? We are starting to prepare a budget now, the needs are now...it would be nice to know now"

"Think big...Pull big triggers"

"There is only two positions you can take regarding all that I have mentioned, only two, there is no middle ground. You're either going to yield, to submit and to follow, the clarion call that the time is now or you're not. And postponing a decision is deciding not to do it...It's saying I'm going to wait until it gets closer because it is not there yet...Don't say that I'm going to wait until it gets closer, when I can see...The decision is that my treasure stays on earth or I goes to heaven. Period. I will not lay up for times to come or I will. And this is the real test of Laodicea... either hold on to your assets... or give it... God is in this decision, no question. Testing the church's faith"

"We live in the most materialistic age in the history of the world. People trust in physical things. They trust in bank accounts...If you have excess and don't need it, those verses mean you...That's the Laodicean attitude...Put your money where your mouth is...Empty your assets"

"There is only one place He works...Where the...work is...that's where God is working...one elder commented here at headquarters, if people can't be motivated by a clarion call to finish the work such as this, why will those same people somehow believe the internal signal given to the church of the 1335? Why would they believe it?"

"This is the Laodicean age...Be careful that you don't tell us how to spend your assets... It belongs to God.. You don't tell God or His servants how to spend it"

"Your faith is being tested. Think about that"

"We will all fast on November 17th...I have to...ask you for a very special financial sacrifice for God's work"

"The purposes of the fast...(a). To fast for God's intervention...(b).Fast for personal faith and courage to follow what I am asking you to do...(c). Fast for personal strength...(d)...Fast for faith and courage in others with more than you to give...Go get a big chunk out of your house...their assets, IRAs, and pension funds...(e). Ask God to move specific properties...that they have told us they want to sell. Pray that these properties move...that is part of what this fast is about"

David C Pack-The Clarion Call-November 3, 2007

Dave Pack and his "fundraising" con game

From an RCG source:

Not content with conning his members to mortgage their homes, turn over IRA and retirement accounts and send in multiple tithes and offerings, David C Pack has also required his members to do regular fundraising in order to raise money to fund his utopian pipe dream in Wadsworth, Ohio.

Dave dreamed up "fundraising" in order to supplement the 1st tithe, 2nd tithe, 3rd tithe, tithe of the tithe, holy day offerings, special offerings, member/co-worker letter appeals, summer camp funds, and his "common" doctrine that everything everyone has belongs to God and therefore as God's only true representative, it all belongs to him.

Members have drained themselves dry and yet Dave is still not happy. He has required them to do all kinds of fundraising activities in order to send to him. He claims this is exactly what the children of Israel did during the Exodus.  They fundraised!

Over 3,500 years ago, the Work of God centered on the “work of the tabernacle” (Ex. 35:21).

Back then, God’s people were expected to be involved in a unique way. You might say they were to raise offerings, as it states in Exodus 35: “This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying, Take you [bring] from among you an offering unto the Lord; whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it” (vs. 4-5).

The people heeded God’s command and became doers of the Work: “And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted…” (vs. 22).

The word willing is quite telling. One of its definitions is “magnanimous,” which means charitable, selfless and unselfish. During the time of the Israelites’ work, the people were focused and “all in” on bringing what they valued to the Work.

God’s people today are no different!

This is what RCG members are encouraged to do:
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During the past year, once again, those in the Church who have had a willing heart have been magnanimous, to say the least. Consider what we accomplished this past year just through this partial list of fundraisers:

• Popcorn sales

• Honey sales

• Movie nights

• Sausage sizzles

• Concert nights

• Cakewalks

• Barbecues

• Formal dinners

• Egg sales

• Entertainment nights

• Sewing shirts

• Loose change collections

• Recycling drives

• Bake sales

• Pen sales

• Theatrical skits

• Origami displays

• Woodburning art

According to Dave, God has always used fundraising as a test of the faithful to see if they were worthy of God's love and mercy. Dave calls some of this work "cunning."  

Throughout the history of God working with human beings, He has always used some form of fundraising, as we call it today. He has always been interested in watching how committed His people are to His Work when it comes to bringing what they possess or are able to produce.

Back in Exodus 35, He actually gave His Spirit “to devise cunning works” in the building of the Tabernacle (vs. 32, 35). Some of the above-mentioned projects certainly qualify as cunning works! God has not changed. He will do the same for us today—if we ask Him for it! Praying about what you can do is an indispensable part of being a true servant of God. We must get on our knees and beseech the Creator of creativity to give us the ability to devise cunning works for Him. 

"Cunning" is an appropriate word for Dave Pack and his empire.  Notice what the online dictionary defines cunning as:

Deceitful is a perfect description of everything that revolves around Dave and his ministers.

Even though the creature Jesus "christ" Dave claims is ready to come to Wadsworth and walk the hallowed grounds, church members are expected to keep fundraising.  Even if the work is short, they still need to fundraise.  They need the practice now because when Dave's "creature "christ" returns, they will be fundraising in the kingdom to come.

And it does not matter how much time remains. Do you realize that fundraising will continue in some form after Christ returns? Believe it because it is a proven barometer of where a heart is positioned.

Whatever time remains until Jesus Christ returns to begin His next phase of the Work is precious time and opportunity for all of us to do something. For those who are involved, we must not stop until we are told to do so, as were the Israelites: “Moses gave commandment…saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So, the people were restrained from bringing” (Ex. 36:6).

That day is coming—but it is not here yet. Inspired by the historical account, continue to have a willing heart to fundraise, and keep up the creativity to make it happen!

The sad thing is that his shrinking membership follows these commands and do this kind of stuff in order to send it to Dave.  After all, it all belongs to his god.

PCG: STOP COMPLAINING!!!!!!!!! You murmur against God when you complain about the ministry!

Joel Hilliker from the Philadelphia Church of God cannot stand people who complain, or at least that is what he wants to make you think you are doing. For anyone who dares to question, it is thrown back in their face that they are complainers. Nothing infuriates a Church of God leader more than to be questioned or have someone complain about them.

Lil'Joel writes:

Are you a complainer? If so, you have company.

Our predecessors, the ancient Israelites, were masters at murmuring. Remember, God was personally, directly guiding their lives. He sent Moses to liberate them from soul-crushing slavery. He wrought miraculous plagues, delivered freedom, parted the sea, destroyed the pursuing army, and led the way in a supernatural pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.

But when the water supply ran low after three days, what happened? (Exodus 15:24). And when they were wearied from their travel a few days later? And when they ran low on water again? And when they craved meat? (Exodus 16:2-3; 17:2-3). And when they were staging to enter the Promised Land itself? There, under the cloud of God’s presence, eating miraculous manna from heaven, even overlooking the Promised Land, “the people were as complainers” (Numbers 11:1; Companion Bible).

What was the reaction of the God who was giving them all these blessings? He told Moses, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me” (Numbers 14:27).

The spies who had scouted the Promised Land doubted God, slandered the land, and “made all the congregation to murmur against him” (verse 36). Their murmuring depressed the morale of the whole nation, and an entire generation missed the opportunity to enter the land God was presenting them. What a tragedy!

That same God is working in your life. Do you murmur against Him?

In order to keep its members under control, and to never question the ministry or Gerald himself, it is important to make sure they think they are murmuring against God when they dare complain.

In 1 Corinthians 10:10, New Testament Christians are warned, “Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.” Those Israelites died physically, but Christians are in danger of being destroyed by Satan, spiritually!

Christians have the responsibility to hold their leaders responsible when they become abusive and actively destroy members' lives, both spiritually and mentally.

Murmuring is often subtle and half-suppressed, but it is always muttered with discontent and hostility. And it is embarrassingly common.

It is common in the Church of God because of the many debased leaders it currently has destroying lives and stealing members money for their own grandiose schemes.

As in Old Testament Israel, living God’s way in the New Testament Church requires waiting, enduring, suffering and correction. You sometimes run low on resources. You sometimes miss the things you had to give up. You sometimes don’t know what lies ahead. And it is so tempting and so easy to quietly complain or ungratefully grumble.

No Church of God member EVER needs to suffer because of degenerate leadership. This is just a sick excuse that abusive ministers in the church scare their members with.

But God hears. And He considers that criticism not truly against the minister who instructed or corrected you, or that policy that inconvenienced you, but against Him! (Exodus 16:7-8). Realizing this should stop us in our tracks.

This is not true at all.  This thinking is a sick result of the "government" doctrine that some of the COG's use to control members.

God commands us, “Do all things without murmurings [complaining] and disputings [arguing]” (Philippians 2:14).

If a minister was actually doing what Jesus taught and practiced grace and mercy in all aspects of his or her ministry then there is seldom room for complaining.

Murmuring is a leaven: It spreads—within you and to others. It discourages families and congregations as readily as it did ancient Israel. It demoralizes and endangers your spiritual fellow soldiers.

In spiritual war, we need high morale. “If you really have the spirit God wants you to have, the high morale, you are going to win three battles where you would normally win one,” Gerald Flurry writes (How to Be an Overcomer).

The only spiritual war going on in the church right now is due to the abusive ministry and the sick doctrines and teachings they are imprisoning members with.

Replace the leaven of murmuring with the unleavened attitude of “[g]iving thanks always for all things” (Ephesians 5:20). “[B]e content with what you have; for he has said, ‘I will never fail you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5; Revised Standard Version). Be like Paul, who said, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11).

So, let's get this straight.  Members are to rejoice and give thanks for the PCG forcing them to abandon family and friends. They need to give thanks for being bled financially dry to fund a private jet for the exclusive use of the Flurry family and to fund a money-draining concert series and for having to live lives in poverty. Let's all be content doing that.

Yes, sometimes we suffer. But this must drive us not away from God but closer to Him, His ministers and His Family, with an attitude not of complaining or accusation, but gratefulness and humble supplication. As with the Israelites, God will put us through trials, but He also will miraculously deliver us out of them all!

God is not producing the trials that COG embers are suffering under when they follow Flurry, Pack, Weinland, Theil, Malm, and many of the other despots.  These sick men are causing the trials, not God.

Don’t make a trial worse by succumbing to murmuring. When someone else with drooping morale murmurs to you, seek to energize that fellow soldier. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2); “[S]o labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Respond with positivity toward God, His government and His Family.

The only thing members need to do is to encourage one another to LEAVE these sick men and their personality cult empires. If they truly love and bear each other burdens, they will walk together and walk out of these churches.

Shine the light of a godly attitude to the Church and to the world by focusing on the joy of living God’s way, by God’s law under God’s government. In John’s Gospel—The Love of God, Mr. Flurry writes, “[T]oday, we should shine with a certain glory. Our faces should shine with happiness! Isaiah 3:9 describes how, because of Israel’s sins, ‘The shew of their countenance doth witness against them ….’ Look around, and you see many unhappy people in this world—people in the bonds of sin. We in God’s Church should radiate something entirely different! I believe that, in a general way, we may be able to determine how much star quality and brightness we will have in the future by how much our face shines today in happiness and joy. God wants to make you happy. He has commanded that you be happy! And He has instructed us in exactly how to achieve that: ‘If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.’ Conducting your life God’s way makes you happy!”

Living God's way is living in grace, surrounded by justice, mercy, and love. Four things that none of these church leaders understands or practices.

Avoid murmuring, and keep morale high in spiritual Israel. Follow this command of God, and your future will be bright.

Church of God members, especially those in the  Philadelphia Church of God and Restored Church of God will only have a bright future once they leave. It will NEVER happen while remaining as a member.

Stupid Things Philadelphia Church of God Says and Believes

PCG brags that they took money from U.S. Government on exact same day Egypt gave Israel their spoils when expelling them from Egypt several millennia ago.


From Exit and Support

04/24/2020 Sabbath posted 04/23/2020

[Begin sermonette by Andrew Locher] (emp. by ESN)

God measures our faith. Rev 3:8. I know your works… He knows our faith. He only opens doors for only for those who don’t deny His authority in their lives. Js 2:18. We demonstrate our faith by our works thru our actions. We give God a sacrifice–an offering.

Ex 12:31-36 (Modern day miracle for God’s Work.) Promises for those who allow God to fight their battles for them. The more perfectly we allow God to fight for us; the more we trust Him in faith, the greater the miracles we can expect.

…Our income is pretty close to what we had last year, it is down just a little bit, and we are anticipating the likelihood of a loss of productive work from members, prospective, co-workers, donors, surely there will be some that will be affected by the coronavirus lockdown and that will likely lead to a decrease in income. …

I heard that some members were adversely affected. But nonetheless, there is going to be some impact to God’s Work. There is going to be a financial pressure or a need present… So how do Philadelphians respond? …we look to God to fight for us, we step out in faith, knowing God that will respond and He has responded.

Recent events: Sat., March 21, the CARES Act passes Congress and President Trump signs it into law. …PPP would provide a loan to small businesses. We are a non-profit in the eyes of the govt. We meet all the gov’t criteria. April 6 our application is finalized. Told not to expect too much. Reads: Ex 12:36. Sometime on April 8 the gov’t approved a 1.1 million loan for the PCG. It was the exact same day Egypt was spoiled and they gave to the Hebrew people [that] we received the loan from the govt.

On April 9, 1st day of Un. Bread we were notified the money would be in our bank as soon as we signed a few loan documents. April 10 the money was immediately deposited and we started spending it that day.

(Talks about how PCG has been faithful in little things) ..and we continue to obey the law of God, faithful in our tithes and our offerings, have obeyed the coronavirus restrictions, we have been faithful to our duties to warn this world. We have had a tremendous respond in the last month to the Work of God. We do have a job to do and it does require resources to do that job. God commands us to give an offering and He tells us to be generous and He tells us to be faithful to the directions, to doing it His way. And so we will do that today knowing God has already supplemented that offering with 1.1 million dollars, an offering from the federal gov’t. That 1.1 million dollars will not have to be paid back if we follow their rules, which we will. …

Explosive opportunity before God’s Work. God has provided the treasure and our part beyond giving an offering, our job is to walk by faith, to show our faith by our works. (Talks about Ezra and Nehemiah trusting God and He provided treasure.) If you look back at these miracles… what lies ahead? How absolutely exciting and faith-building to be part of God’s miraculous Work. …

God proves to us that if we trust Him in faith He will open doors, to do things for us that we simply can’t do for ourselves. … Please, please don’t let down on your financial offerings, or your obedience to God’s financial laws. … opportunity that lies just ahead of us, we will use this 1.1 million dollars–and perhaps even more. So step out in faith, do your part, show your faith by your works, and give generously to God’s Work, and He will bless us like we can’t even imagine. [end of sermonette by Andrew Locher]

Musings...

Scoffing or making a simple an obvious observation?

Calling those who simply noticed that the "soon", "shortly" and "quickly" of prophecy have proven to be not so soon, shortly or quick, scoffers,  rather than those who sincerely notice and observe reality, is a common approach to a church or Apostle being mistaken and unable to admit it. 

While science done well MUST correct its mistakes. Ideas about how it all is in religion is more likely to cover them up and blame those who bring it to their attention. 

 The real problem is that the Church is not given to admitting it is mistaken on much of anything so new explanations must be given for why, in this case, "soon", "shortly" and "quickly" don't really mean soon, shortly and quickly as men count soon, shortly and quickly.  

"God is giving us more time" is an oft spoken apologetic for being mistaken and unable to admit it. 

First of all know that the first century NT writers meant soon, shortly and quickly as men count it.  "Just around our corner" was the intent. It was only after soon, shortly and quickly went "later", "longer" and "slowly" that new explanations for the concepts had to be invented.  This is what the writer of 2 Peter, not actually Peter,  but a much later writer  annoyed by the deaths of most original church members and those who were wondering where Jesus was after all the promises of his immediate return, was addressing. 

This audience reading this,  would know well the Apostle Paul's belief in the immediacy of the Second Coming in I Cor 15 and does not be repeated.  He eventually learned, as do all to this day, he also was not going to be of the "we who are alive and remain" crowd. 

Let's have a look at how "shortly"  going long was handled. 

2 Peter 3: 

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,"

First realise the author was referring to the last days as in their time. No one would be interested to know or teach that this is for thousands of years into the future. And no, it is not dual. He labels those who notice the problem and make the observation openly as scoffers.  They are noticers in fact. Honest, open and sincere noticers and willing to say so.  The rise of scoffers also prove it is indeed more the last days than ever!   Nice touch...

4"And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

This was and still is a reasonable observation. Calling someone a scoffer is what you do when you simply can't admit or acknowledge that the observation is accurate

5"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:"

Now the sincere and honest noticer is labeled "willingly ignorant". I have never in my life met someone, religious or non-religious, that was willingly ignorant.  They may be delusional or sincerely mistaken but not by deliberate choice.  This is somewhat like the the charge that "those who believe in evolution simply don't want to obey God. They want to sin," which is to put it mildly, BS.  Who would do that if they really knew there was a god watching? No one I know. Noticing the evidence is not willingly ignorant or scoffing either. 

6"Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:"

7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." 

This is the beginning of the switch to the concept that the present time is merely a continuation of past events still unfolding. 

Now the real apologetic. First of all, when the original statements of "soon", "shortly", "quickly" and the concepts of "the hour now is" etc were voiced, there was NO indication or teaching that we should remember that God does not see time as we do.  And that His soon, shortly and quickly are not like ours so get that straight from the beginning.  

No...that comes only as apologetic for it not actually being soon, shortly or quickly as advertised. That is the purpose of this passage. Not to admit the obvious,  but to justify and turn sincere observing church members I assume, for who else would care?, into scoffers. Which by the way also proves time is short. 

"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Once again the call not to be ignorant and they don't get it. 

"Now you tell us" might be the lesson of the day here. Why the church was not told that God's days are not their days is because there was no need to make that up back then. Now, after short has gone way too long, there is a great need to issue an apologetic blaming the observer for being ignorant and scoffing rather than being wise and observant of reality.

Also, noticing church members might consider this as slack on God's part, but like days and time, God's kind of slack is not the same as theirs. 

This is the original apologetic of "God is giving us more time" and it is the fault of the scoffing and faithless church member, who in reality is simply noticing and observing the facts. 

Lesson: Those who notice and make proper observations are not scoffers in the real world. How much easier and more credible to say "I/we were sincerely mistaken" than to accuse them of being ignorant and unaware of just how "my ways are not your ways" they were, which is also another apologetic for against one making accurate observations about how things actually are. 

Far more often than the church wants to admit, "there is a way that seems right to a man.." that is right and the wisdom of the noticer, wise. 

IMHO

"B9