Banned by HWA! News and Observations About Armstrongism and the Church of God Movement

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Steve Hassan talk with Worldwide: The Unchosen Church

Steve Hassan's talk w/ Worldwide: The Unchosen Church,

a podcast about the Worldwide Church of God. Hassan talks about defining groups as cults.

Worldwide: The Unchosen Church Podcast Episode 1

Before Joel Osteen, Brian Houston, or even L. Ron Hubbard, there was Herbert W. Armstrong and his Worldwide Church of God (WCG). A doomsday apocalyptic cult active in roughly 70 countries around the globe, the WCG lured its members in with the promise of protection from an impending World War III and a place of leadership in the utopia to follow.

Who exactly was Herbert Armstrong and his followers? What was it like to grow up believing that you were one of only 144,000 people that God called in all of human history to lead his new world order? And how has Armstrongism survived in the 2020s? Find out these answers – and so much more - in this introductory episode, “God Speaks to Us,” narrated, written and produced by a former member of the church itself, Dr. Tricia Jenkins. Sound design and editing by Thirteen Media.

Special thanks to Dr. Steven Hassan, Lisa Metzel Bonnet, Nathanael O’Reilly and D.J. Grothe for their contributions to this episode and to Joel Kramer, who gave us permission to use clips from his documentary Called to be Free, which can be viewed on YouTube.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

WCTV Public TV: Wadsworth, Ohio

Dawn Blue conducts her second interview with Marc Cebrian and Dennis Diehl regarding Dave Pack and the Restored Church of God

RCG’s Inept Prophet: Dooh! I Meant July of 2022

RCG’s Inept Prophet: Dooh! I Meant July of 2022

There was a sound of thunder this morning in Wadsworth, Ohio. At first, I thought it was just another storm, but after listening to Parts 376 and 377, I realized it was perhaps a chorus of hands slapping foreheads during the Ministerial Conference.

True to form, David C. Pack of the Restored Church of God shifted the expected start of the 1335 from Sivan to Tammuz [June 14^th to July] of this year. Why? Because “the math fits better” and scriptural bla bla bla—Of course, it fits better, it’s further away. Plus, all those people sitting in front of Dave will be back home so he won’t have to face embarrassing questions on his way to the bathroom like, “WTF, Mr. Pack?”

Part 376 @ 08:35 “But, could Tammuz work? Now, I I sorta concluded that it it wouldn’t when it looked like maybe a a threat was on its way. But you know, I’d watched us go from Sebat to Adar to Adar II to Abib to Iyar and then to Sivan. Was it possible it could happen yet again?”

What do you mean, “I’d watched us,” when you preached it from your own mind with your own mouth? You were not just an observer watching this unfold before your eyes. Also, there is no “us” in that scenario unless you are grouping in the broken ministers at Headquarters. These defeated men have been trained for years to keep their mouths shut or else you’ll rise from your chair, puff out your chest, and verbally blast them in front of everyone. Is that the “us” referred to?

What do you mean, “it could happen yet again” like that is some external event outside your own control? You cannot possibly mean when you preached for hours about the math and the scriptures and the world conditions and the metrics that Christ is coming imminently each of those times…right?

Part 376 @ 12:07 “And if we can if we can agree, yes so to speak, we can sort of agree with the scriptures that are fighting us right now, then we’d be in a position to talk about exactly what it is, knowing that something absolutely doescome because Tammuz simply does fit better than Sivan…”

Perhaps dedicating his youth to training as a wrestler rather than a swimmer would have helped Dave to sort out God’s word correctly today. That slippery Bible just keeps moving around and like a kid at the Feast, will not sit still.

Part 376 @ 12:56 “…they’re helpful in positioning these 14 ½ days. If you can take all of those and and you can shift them one day, because you’re you you would advance four weeks and one day, 29 days which so you’d advance everything would shift by one day, does it [Tammuz] fit? And what if it not only fits, it fits better? So for now I’m gonna tell you it absolutely fits if you went one more one more uh uh month. It does.”

I’m sure there is a physicist who could comment about what happens to the state of an atom when you “shift by one” electron (plus or minus). True prophets need to be that precise or what are you forced to call them according to the Bible?

Part 376 @ 27:25 “I don’t want this tomorrow night. I want it three months ago. In fact, three years ago would be better. But that’s not what happened. So what we want is the truth. If I’m gonna be wise, fine, but I’ve gotta be faithful to the truth. I can be as wise as however uh wise I think I am or God may think I’ve been, if I’m not faithful to the truth, then forget it. We need somebody else and the same would be true of all of you. So, I’ve gotta be faithful to what the Bible said.”

If only Dave could hear these words outside his own self-made reality and ponder the irony of it all…if only.

Attendees were encouraged to re-read the article, “All God’s People Back Together Soon!” and then Dave asked, “Was it wrong or was it wrong timing?”

While revisiting “the flock of slaughter” in Zechariah 11, he blessed the audience with this nugget:

Part 376 @ 1:01:25 “I’ve believed for a long time, I’ll say honestly: off and on, off and on, off and on, is that the Laodiceans? Here’s the biggest reason I believe it. A powerful telltale sign. First of all, I know the guys who lead’em, “whose possessors slay them!” A lot of the men in the Splinters who’re leading those groups are killers! I know them! And there’re a lot of others who are wonderful. They’re 24-karat gold. But it’s a lot of the leaders who’re the biggest problems.”

I’m sure nobody in the Restored Church of God can relate to the concept of leaders being the biggest problems in the church. Nobody.

There was nothing in Part 377 worth quoting. However, for the curious, here is a summary of that 47 minutes:

(bla bla bla) Synagogue of Satan, Man of Sin (bla bla bla) “I can slam verses together” (bla bla bla) “zero chance for [June 14, 2022] but it’s okay to hope” (bla bla bla) math math math, new moon new moon new moon (bla bla bla) “I know the people in the Splinters” (bla bla bla) Q and A. Good night.

What do you call a man who re-declares himself Elijah the Prophet and the very next day changes what he prophesied?

Marc Cebrian

Why has the COG rejected the prophet that came to them in a manner not expected?

It is another glorious day in Church of God Prophetland, that fantastical amusement park that never ceases to give us chills with scarry up and down rides and endless mazes where we seem to be in an endless Groundhog Day House of Horrors with no escape.

After listening to Dave Pack's latest prophetic rants, we turn our attention back to our most illustrious prophet that was preordained by God even before He started creating this world. The prophet to end all prophets, the final Elijah. The one to usher in the end times and lead his faithful to the caves of Petra where he will reign in triumphant glory for at 3 1/2 years till Christ walks through the Siq to lead his chosen one into glory so he can be seated at his right hand.

In the meantime, the Great Bwana, the savior of 3,001 Africans and 305 Caucasians is getting perturbed that NO ONE in the COG acknowledges him as the chosen one, the end time Amos, the Elijah. Just like the ancients of old who failed to heed Amos' warnings, COG members today fail to heed the modern-day Amos. Amos was so astute in ancient times that he foretold the internet and the censorship that the world's greatest prophet would have to endure and from which the Great Bwana is currently suffering intensely.

One of the messages that Amos proclaimed is that the time would come when people would not be able to find the words of God:

11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12)

I believe that the above warning is a reference to a coming internet censorship. And in the Continuing Church of God, we have already experienced some of this

After quoting some from Amos, the Great Bwana writes:

Amos is giving a warning to those called by Jacob’s name (which was also Israel), whom according to Jacob himself, would seem to be a reference to the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48:16). In modern times, this would be the Anglo-Saxon nations such as Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, and also the United States of America. The reference to trusting Mt. Samaria in Amos 6:1 could be a reference to trusting the USA to defend in the end. That will not end well for the USA or its allies of the Anglo-Saxon nations.

Of course, few in those nations believe that they will be taken over and have such calamity. But that will come to pass. Most would not listen to Amos then, and most, sadly, will not listen to Amos now.

Now we get to what is frosting the homeopathic butt of our great prophet, no one listens to him! Oh, the humanity! The horror!!! How can everyone ignore him??????

He is perturbed that no one expected a prophet to self-appoint himself after a rebellious hissy-fit with Rod Meredith. Even Gaylyn Bonjour's highly suspect doubly blessing of him failed to convince COG members to acknowledge him. COG members could not handle a prophet arising in their midst such as the Great Bwana did. Even after he had some bad nightmares after accidentally eating some unclean sushi and after some people in other countries dreamed dreams about him, people STILL reject him.

It is interesting that he had to tell people that one becomes a true prophet in a manner that most did not expect. The Apostle Paulattempted to defend his apostleship in that same manner (2 Corinthians 11:5, 22-29)–and that was to people who were supposedly in the Church of God.