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Current events in the Worldwide Church of God and its splinter groups

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January 2009:

• New year on different calendars

  January 1, 2009 is the first day of the new year on the Gregorian calendar. Many people who celebrate it will stay up late waiting for it to arrive. On the Gregorian calendar old days end, and new days begin, at midnight. This is a good time to remember that on the Hebrew calendar the new year begins in the spring time rather than in the middle of winter. Also, old days end, and new days begin, at sunset rather than at midnight. The first day of the new year on the calculated Hebrew calendar this time will be on Thursday March 26, 2009 on the Gregorian calendar. For special dates in the coming year go to the Annual Holy Day Calendar for 2009.

• David Pack loves money, not people

  Among the so-called Churches of God (COGs) are some severe and calculating leaders who demand unquestioning loyalty. They appear to back up all their demands with biblical references. Those who defy their rules are punished harshly. Those who join their cults end up placing their family in the hands of a dictator. Then, rather than stand up to the man they had once idolized, they submit themselves and their family to years of mistreatment.

  Some men are persuasive orators, but with a shadowy past. Sometimes the only warning sign seems to be that they have a contentious spirit. On paper, they might appear to be convincingly inspired, and few are able to predict the true nature of such men, and the final tragic results of following them, until it is too late.

  In a sermon posted in December 2008, David C. Pack--who started his own money machine called the Restored Church of God (RCOG)--was at it again. He shouted that he has "no use" for former Worldwide Church of God (WCG) people who request hard copies of his literature. He called them just "collectors" and said that they probably would not read it anyway. David did not seem to have any understanding of what people have been through with the Worldwide Church of God going bad under the godless mis-rule of Joseph Tkach, Sr., and then such satanic frauds as Gerald Flurry and his so-called Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) appearing on the scene to prey on those who were trying to hold on to the truth of God. It can be confusing now that so many different self-appointed leaders have set themselves up and are each shouting at the people to send them money. Of course, maybe everyone could do without all of David's lengthy talking and writing. Maybe he simply talks too much and writes too much. Tremendous amounts of talking and writing are not what make someone a true servant of God. People really do need to get back to actually reading the Bible itself.

  Maybe David should just put prices on his literature instead of pretending that he is generously giving away the truth for free, but then flying into rages and accusing interested people of "stealing" his cult's literature and broadcasts if they don't quickly send him some money. David Pack's inability to keep up his friendly, generous act for very long is another blot on the COGs. The supposedly "free" literature that is a tradition of the so-called COGs can prove to be quite costly.

  A booklet called Here Is The Restored Church of God explained that, "The Restored Church of God receives financial support from the voluntary tithes paid by its members. They recognize the abundant blessings promised by God to all who obey His law of tithing." Don't ever be too quick to believe anything you read about tithing being "voluntary." When some people made that mistake, apparently not believing in "the abundant blessings promised," David Pack became very angry and shouted in his sermon that, "If people don't tithe, they're gone!" Now, that is something you can believe.

  David Pack does have some interesting things to say sometimes. Hopefully, he was just having another one of many bad days, and will get over it, as well as get over his greedy desire to totally plunder his followers. Some people thought that three tithes plus offerings was plenty. David can make that scenario look light and easy by comparison. When it is all about numbers and money, bad things can happen.

  Those who were looking for a man of God to support in teaching the truth of God can end up with some angry, self-appointed leader shouting at them to sell their houses and send in the money so he can build a show-off auditorium for worldly entertainers to play around in while he calls it a "house of God." If such greedy, angry idiots really knew anything at all about the Bible they would know that the only true "house of God" has always been in Jerusalem!

  It is strange that whenever the "end of the age" and the return of Jesus seem so near again, that the little people get shouted at yet again to come up with even more extra money again--above and beyond their regular required tithes and offerings--to build yet another auditorium for the honor and glory and profit of the world's godless, immoral, drugged-up "entertainers." When something as mind-boggling as the destruction of the United States and Britain is at hand because of their sins, what else is there to do, huh?

February 2009:

• United Church of God growth rate of zero percent year after year

  The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) under Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. (JWT, Sr.) fell apart at the start of 1995 after openly turning against virtually ALL the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) and the Bible. When the United Church of God (UCG) splinter group was officially formed several months later on May 1, 1995 about 20,000 people quickly went with it. The UCG literature of the time mentioned that at the rate it was growing there would be about 25,000 people in it by the end of the year. So, of course, that did not happen. The UCG writings also mentioned that it had taken HWA many years to grow his WCG to the size that the UCG was now already at. The writer did not seem to realise that the only reason the UCG had so many members so fast was because it was feasting on the remains of what HWA had built and what JWT, Sr. had destroyed.

  In the June 24, 1985 Worldwide News newspaper Herbert Armstrong wrote that,

  "God had blessed His Church with an unprecedented approximate increase of 30 percent per year for 35 years. As these liberals began gaining more and more control God removed His blessing. I have often said that God blesses us as we please Him. During these liberal years in the 1970s, the income virtually stagnated. In 1974 the Church experienced a 1.6 percent decrease in income under 1973, the first negative growth in the Church's history. It fell another 4.8 percent the following year."

  "Since God brought me back from total heart failure, and directed me in removing these liberals, and putting the Church back on track, He has restored His blessings. Income for the Church this year will run two times the dollar volume of 1978. Income growth is allowing the Church to get the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world as a witness as never before. These physical blessings are matched by new spiritual growth and new truth added to His Church."

  One of the "liberals" in the 1970s was HWA's own son, Garner Ted Armstrong (GTA), who had spent too much time fooling around with women other than his own wife. It was an improvement when HWA expelled his own son GTA from the WCG in 1978. Another reason for lower income in the 1970s might have been the failure of HWA's own prophetic guesses in his own booklet called 1975 in Prophecy!. The Church did not flee to the caves of Petra, Jordan--the expected "place of safety"--in 1972. Jesus did not return in 1975. Members who came along later were not told about these past prophetic mistakes. One WCG minister mentioned in a sermon that in one congregation that he helped to pastor he "had to counsel with about 40 youths who were engaged in ongoing fornication." Some people believe that HWA himself contributed to the problems by changing the WCG's teaching on divorce and remarriage (D & R) in 1974 and then marrying a divorced woman half his age in 1977. By 1984 HWA, too, had divorced her.

  After Herbert W. Armstrong died on January 16, 1986 at age 94, Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. took over the Worlwide Church of God and quickly began the process of running it into the ground. Joe's team of Weasels & Fibbers & Sinners mocked HWA's claims of growth in the Church. Now that the sneaky Tkach team has shrunk the WCG's income by about 90% off the peak, it is time for them to stop mocking HWA's claims of past growth. The WCG attendance, around 150,000 people at the peak, is also way down by a similar amount, though the WCG disguises that fact by using an old membership figure on its Web site to deliberately deceive. It is their current false membership figure that deserves to be mocked.

  Near the end of his life, Herbert Armstrong had made it appear to be so easy to grow the church that some other people thought that they could easily do it too, and even better than HWA had done. Now that the United Church of God splinter group has been around for 13 years, let us examine how it has performed. Below is a table with some interesting numbers.

  Table of attendance projection figures for the United Church of God if it grew at a 30%/year rate compounded annually, starting with about 20,000 people in 1995. 1995 -  20,000 approximate starting attendance 1996 -  26,000 1997 -  33,800 1998 -  43,940 1999 -  57,122 2000 -  74,258 2001 -  96,536 2002 - 125,497 2003 - 163,146 2004 - 212,089 2005 - 275,716 2006 - 358,432 2007 - 465,961 2008 - 605,750 projected ending attendance Actual 2008 UCG attendance: about 20,000 people.

  Well, it could have been worse. One attempt by some "liberals" in the 1970s to break away from HWA and his WCG and form a separate "United Church" came to nothing at all. The ministers who joined this more recent United Church in 1995 to continue to collect a paycheck had gone along rather happily with all the other changes that Joe Tkach, Sr. had made in the previous nine years of his WCG leadership. Some ministers finally rejected the last changes when they saw that the jobs were disappearing from the WCG and reappearing in the UCG.

  Now, why is the UCG not growing by leaps and bounds? Is it not pleasing to God? Well, maybe not.

  A normal, decent person might carelessly assume that the people who show up at the UCG would know something about behaving properly. But, they would be WRONG! Many of the people who attend the UCG meetings do not behave properly at all.

  Next, any normal, decent person might carelessly assume that if someone is behaving badly in the UCG, a minister would have a talk with the bad character and convince him or her to stop the bad behavior. But, again, they would be WRONG! The UCG ministers cannot even tell the bad characters there to behave properly. They can only tell the innocent victims of outright perverts to either keep quiet or else stay away. Of course, this does not exactly set things up for God to bless the UCG and bring in more people to be used, abused, and slandered.

  The UCG has turned into a hangout for unrepentant, unconverted unbelievers and sinners who behave badly. Any true Christians who ended up in the UCG risk being dragged down by the constant harassment of all the ignorant unbelievers and habitual liars in it. The story that UCG members "meet in peace" is simply a work of fiction by a dishonest writer. Even Aaron Dean, who worked closely with Herbert Armstrong in the Worldwide Church from 1974 until 1986 as a steward and then as his personal aide, is faced with other United Church leaders trying to silence him and oust him. Worse than just disliking HWA, the UCG leaders also appear to dislike God's laws. And that is why their UCG social club is not really sociable at all. That is also why, after initially collecting some former WCG members, the UCG is not really growing at all. It appears to be stagnating until the unconfessed sins in it cause a major split or fragmentation.

  Aaron Dean

  Most United Church of God people seem to be united only in their collective desire to be free to sin while pretending to be good church members. It will prove to be a frustrating exercise in futility for anyone to wait for the UCG to smarten up and repent. No improvement in the behavior of those who hang out at the UCG can ever be expected to occur unless and until a well-deserved "great tribulation" forces them to face up to the truth about their own bad behavior. The good news is that those who are sincerely searching for the truth of God do not have to go along with all the godless, lying, slandering unbelievers that the UCG is so full of. In fact, they should avoid such bad influences for the sake of their own mental and spiritual health.

  The leader of one smaller splinter group has mentioned that the UCG started with many errors already in place, and is now losing the truth that remains so rapidly that the UCG, like the WCG, might soon disappear back into the world. That remains to be seen yet, but it certainly is possible. Just a small step remains, as many people in the UCG act like they never came out of the world in the first place. Approximately half the people who hang out at the UCG are obnoxious and/or actually MALICIOUS. The other half, while not like that, don't seem to have any serious interest in the truth or in doing anything right. While all this is most unfortunate, it is simply the plain truth about the way things are.

April 2009:

• David Pack's tales of cups and idolaters

  In 1982, the Advisory Council of Elders in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) had purchased a Steuben art glass called "The Cup of Elijah the Prophet" and presented it to Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) as a gift. This was back when they and the other WCG ministers and members still believed--or at least pretended to believe--HWA's claim that he was the one who was prophesied to come in the power and spirit of Elijah to "restore all things." HWA, who had given away a lot of Steuben crystal art objects to various world leaders, was now given one himself. David C. Pack, who founded his own Restored Church of God (RCOG) in 1999, would have liked to get his hands on HWA's old cup from the WCG, which inherited it when HWA died in January 1986. Even though David now views himself as the only true successor to HWA, it did not work out. Since God apparently did not see fit to pass on Herbert Armstrong's cup to David Pack, he simply bought his own used copy from among one of the 25 copies that had been produced. The cup came out in 1976 at a new price of US$11,500.00 but could now be found on E-bay for US$25,000.00--a little bit more than the average person's average, used drinking glass might sell for. It is interesting to hear how the pricey commercial products of some guy out in the world can suddenly become such important Church of God (COG) relics. Apparently, there is also a newer version of the cup, so it might not be quite as rare as some people might like to imagine. This is how it goes with all the mass produced "collectible" junk out there.

  Steuben Art Glass "Cup of Elijah"

  In his sermon called In the Same Judgment his followers were told about the cup available on E-bay but also that the Restored Church "probably" would not buy it. Just in case, and in keeping with the title of his sermon, David Pack shouted that anyone who did not have the same judgment as himself, and who disagreed with anything he decided to do, could "get out" of the RCOG. A very serious problem with self-appointed, absolute dictators is that one never knows beforehand what ideas they will come up with. The little people will always be required to accept everything without question, or else get shouted at to "get out" of the church. The claim is often made, or at least implied, by such types that God's Holy Spirit is leading them, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about. In actual practice, it is not always clear which spirit is leading them, and there can end up being plenty to worry about.

  In David's next sermon, posted in April 2009 and called A People Prepared--or Idolaters!, he mentioned that he had bought the cup, but said he would quickly get rid of it if it became an idol. He mentioned that "several hundred" people had left the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) to go with his Restored Church, but that one by one they had left him, too. He attributed this to PCG members being a bunch of idolaters. For sure, there are many people wandering around the WCG and its splinter groups who have many mental and spiritual problems. Nevertheless, one cannot rule out the possibility that the problem could also have something to do with the fact that David Pack cannot seem to get along with anyone else. After all, not everyone likes to be shouted at and financially drained all the time.

• More Pack tales: The Authorized Biography of David C. Pack--Volume One

  April 2009 brought the release of The Authorized Biography of David C. Pack--Volume One. As the saying goes, "Interesting if true." David Pack could have named names a little better if he really cared to warn people about the bad characters out there, especially the ones who are still in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) or its splinter groups.

  If nothing else, the book might at least discourage people from wrecking their bodies by taking part in competitive, professional sports. It is amazing how hard some people will train to try to become something as useless as an Olympic athlete. The bad examples set by the ancient Greeks with their theaters (which often performed highly erotic plays) and their stadiums (where athletes appeared in the nude) still influence people today. Furthermore, all of the local church sports events and picnics that David hosted to try to increase the size of his congregations back in the WCG supposedly made for popular events but did not seem to truly convert people. Just going for the social activities is not the same as going for the truth of God.

  If the old tightwad won't send you a free hard copy of his book, you can always read it online at his Restored Church of God Web site. The book can be found at http://www.thercg.org/books/tabodcp.html. Increase the font size and sit back. The book is about 600 pages long. It is also available in PDF format for those who really want to print off their own copy.

• Serious questions about David Pack's memory of past events

  The Authorized Biography of David C. Pack--Volume One contains the following amazing story in chapter 15 under the sub-heading Miracle Like None Other:

  Miracle Like None Other Everyone has moments when they have wondered if God delivered him. On some occasions one can be certain. “A lot of brethren in the Rockford congregation lived along the big, wide Rock River, which ran through Rockford, and then southwest for at least 100 miles until it emptied into the Mississippi River. It was a long, beautiful drive, and I looked forward to every time I could do it. “Early one morning I took off to visit, heading down Highway 2. There were stretches of road where on the right side was a steep embankment, and on the left side was a long, sharp drop-off down to the river’s edge, and a guardrail. The traffic would often back up in this area because it was a two-lane highway—and there were really no shoulders in this stretch of the road. “A young man’s negligence and impatience almost got him killed. I pulled out to pass from behind a truck that was blocking my view, and realized immediately that I could not clear the truck and return to my lane in time. I had not seen a pick-up truck barreling toward me. I tried to slow back into the spot just vacated, but a Cadillac had filled in behind me. “There was absolutely nothing I could do—I could not go left or right. No time remaining, the truck would now hit me head on—except nothing happened. As it reached me, both of us going about 60 mph, it simply passed right through my vehicle. One moment it was in front of my hood, the next it was in my rearview mirror. “My life had been spared by divine intervention! I have never doubted what happened that day in 1974. I only wonder if anyone else involved was aware as I was of what had occurred. “Coupled with other interventions to spare my life, I am living proof that God heals and delivers, sometimes even when it is partly to protect us from ourselves.”

  Again, interesting if true. Such stories certainly make it sound like God was with David C. Pack and supernaturally protecting him.

  But, how true is this story? How good is David Pack's memory? How accurate and reliable are his recollections of past events from that time period? Is there a way to know?

  Maybe there is!

  Shortly after the release of his "authorized biography," the Restored Church of God (RCOG) posted a sermon by David Pack called Prophecy Series: #37--Event 27: Laodicea’s “Work” and Final Separation. In it he mentioned the idea from the past that the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) was going to flee to Petra, Jordan (the expected "Place of Safety") in January 1972 and that Jesus was gong to return to the earth in 1975.

  Now, David Pack's revisionist history (that is, his deliberately dishonest history) makes it sound like Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) had never actually taught such things. "Ironically," though, some Ambassador College (AC) professors had also believed and taught these ideas. David Pack himself had once said that HWA's booklet called 1975 in Prophecy! was "a mistake." Now, about three and a half decades after it was proven to be wrong by the passage of time, David has suddenly begun to claim that it was never meant the way almost everyone had understood it back then. He now says it was supposedly just something written to warn people about how short time was, rather than to pinpoint 1972 or 1975 as actual dates when something specific would actually happen. Nevertheless, the fact is that earlier editions of HWA's own autobiography mentioned 19-year time cycles leading up to 1972. These references and their "TERRIFYING SIGNIFICANCE" got deleted in later editions of HWA's autobiography.

  At this point, one can't help thinking of a former Restored Church of God member who mockingly mimicked David's style by saying, "I have long believed, and even longer taught, what you are now about to hear for the first time."

  While David Pack made fun of the crop of suckers from the 1960's and early 1970's who had taken seriously the wrong prophetic guesses that they had been taught by HWA back then, one could hear laughter from David's current crop of suckers in his congregation. This latest batch of suckers might someday come to regret having laughed at the old batch of suckers. This latest stunt of David's suggests that he is capable of all sorts of mental gymnastics and simply cannot be trusted to tell the real truth.

  David Pack seems to say many right and good things, which causes some people to have confidence in him. That is why such a character is known as a "confidence man"--or by the shorter term "con man." Then, after telling some truth to gain a following, he tries telling such monstrous lies. Why cannot the mistakes of the past be honestly admitted and learned from? Why the need for deliberately dishonest revisionist history? Be afraid. Be very afraid!

July 2009:

• Still more Pack tales: The Authorized Biography of David C. Pack--Volume Two

  July 2009 brought the release of The Authorized Biography of David C. Pack--Volume Two, readable online at http://www.thercg.org/books/tabodcp2.html#ch55. Nothing gets said about Donald H. Tiger and his Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) compact discs (CDs). That is the way such books tend to be. They leave out the interesting details that people would like to know more about. One can read the 1,200 pages of volumes one and two only to be denied the interesting details. David Pack did mention that all the bad Web sites on the Internet about the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) and its splinter groups do tend to "screen" people out and prevent those who know the past from going with his Restored Church of God (RCOG). It is much easier to get ignorant people enthusiastic about his second restored round of the same old game. David's incredible drive and enthusiasm could carry his work quite far.