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January 2006:

• New year on different calendars

  January 1, 2006 is the first day of the new year on the Gregorian calendar. Many people will celebrate it and make resolutions for the coming year. As for these resolutions, well, nice try, but as the saying goes, "In one year and out the other." 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. Many people will use this occasion as an excuse to get drunk.

  This is actually 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 30, 2006 on the Gregorian calendar. For special dates in the coming year go to the Annual Holy Day Calendar for 2006.

  
  

• Gavin Rumney's Ambassador Watch ends

  The following COG News Flash at http://www.thejournal.org/issues/issue104/ambwatch.html at The Journal's Web site appeared in December 2005. It told about the end of Gavin Rumney's Web site, called Ambassador Watch, which was located at http://www.ambassadorwatch.co.nz.

  Ambassador Watch's creator puts his controversial Web site 'out to pasture' After five years on the Web, the Ambassador Watch Web site, earlier known as The Missing Dimension, has been "put out to pasture," says its creator and operator, Gavin Rumney. The upkeep of the site, at www.ambassadorwatch.co.nz, which took a highly skeptical approach to much that goes on in the various Churches of God, was "hugely time-consuming," Mr. Rumney told The Journal Dec. 20. "Twenty hours a week was the bare minimum to keep it rolling over," he said, "and requests for information and resulting workload was becoming unmanageable." Mr. Rumney, a former Worldwide Church of God member who lives in the Auckland, New Zealand, area, said that, from the beginning, "I wanted to create a place where the issues of accountability in the various churches--both financial and structural--could be aired." "After five years I felt that there wasn't much else to add to that basic message and that it was time to move on."

  One person expressed the wish that Gavin would have left online the material that had already been posted at his Web site over the years.

  
  

• Online books at The Journal's Web site

  The Journal's Web site at http://www.thejournal.org has now posted online a couple old books that people might like to read.

  Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright by J. H. Allen

  The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop

  
  

• Ed Mentell, Sr.'s Painful Truth Web site gets suspended

  Anyone going to Ed Mentell, Sr.'s Web site--most recently being updated by its new editor Mike Minton--got a surprise. On January 11, 2006, visitors to The Painful Truth Web site at http://www.herbertwarmstrong.com were greeted with the following brief message:

  Account for domain herbertwarmstrong.com has been suspended

  The writers at The Painful Truth Web site had been mourning the recent loss of Gavin Rumney's Web site, called Ambassador Watch, and speculating that Gavin might have had some reason for shutting down besides the excuse he gave to The Journal about it being too time consuming. They suspected that a guy by the name of Wade Cox might have influenced the decision to call it quits.

  The old Ambassador Report files by John Trechak, which contained the occasional interesting article, had been posted at The Painful Truth Web site. However, the current crop of regular contributors were just filling space with their own anti-God blatherings, reasoning around that things like homosexuality were just fine, etc. They were contributing nothing of value, and Ed Mentell, Sr. agreed with their blatherings.

  One no-value-added contributor to The Painful Truth Web site hid his bad name by calling himself Kscribe. He liked to send e-mails to Web sites that disagreed with The Painful Truth Web site, hinting ominously that the information they posted was "about to become a legal issue." Well, it has been said that what goes around comes around. Kscribble and his ilk might now have a chance to go to court like they pretended that they wanted to.

  By January 18, 2006 The Painful Truth Web site was back online, now at http://thepainfultruth.org/pain.htm.

  
  

• Gary Scott's xcg blog gets warned by Web host

  A man by the name of Gary Scott has a blog called f(hwa) = xcg at http://xcg.kingary.net, which people usually just call the xcg site. On January 13, 2006, he posted the following warning that he had received from his Web host:

  Potential Suspension? - 13 January 06 I received the following notice from my web host: There was an email sent out regarding letters we’ve received from lawyers for an organization claiming libel and slander against content on your site. We are not taking any measures at this time as far as taking anything down on your site, but you need to be aware of this issue. If a court order is provided and we are forced to take down your site, there’s nothing we can do about it. However, we don’t plan to take your site down unless a court order is provided. You may want to reconsider what you do put on your site to avoid these issues though. I’ve yet to determine any details. Posted by Gary Scott

  
  

• Twenty years since Herbert W. Armstrong died

  Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), the founder of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), died twenty years ago on January 16, 1986 on the Gregorian calendar.

  Since HWA's death, the WCG under the leadership of Joseph Tkach, Sr. and his son Joseph Tkach, Jr. has openly rejected virtually everything that HWA taught--except for tithing--and removed ALL of HWA's writings from print. The income, and regular attendance at WCG meetings, are now down to about a tenth of what they were in the peak years. Many different splinter groups have formed--over 300 by some counts. Confusion abounds.

  
  

• January 16th on Gerald Flurry's pagan calendar

  Gerald R. Flurry, the founder of the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), made a big fuss about the January 16 date, the date on the Gregorian calendar of Herbert W. Armstrong's (HWA's) death in 1986. Details can be found at Robert S. Kuhne's Web site, called The PLAIN TRUTH About Malachi's Message And THAT PROPHET, at http://www.pcog.info. Since God does not reveal anything to a false prophet like Gerald Flurry, he makes up this sort of nonsense to waste people's time year after year. Robert Kuhne explained it well.

  January 16th Since the beginning of the PCG Gerald Flurry has placed a great and prophetic emphasis on the date of Mr. Armstrong's death, January 16, 1986: "Malachi's Message" was first received by many people on January 16, 1990, the very day of the anniversary of HWA's death (January 16, 1986). We didn't plan it, but we were happy it happened that way. You are going to see the date of HWA's death take on more significance as time goes on. Mr. John Amos and I were disfellowshipped on December 7, 1989 -- 40 days before the anniversary of HWA' death. The number 40 is significant in the Bible. The third 19-year time cycle of the Work of the WCG ended in January of 1991 -- the same month as the fifth anniversary of HWA's death. In the original version of "Malachi's Message" we asked this question: "Will we see some dramatic event in the world or within God's Philadelphian and/or Laodicean Churches then?" THE PERSIAN GULF WAR BEGAN ON JANUARY 16, 1991! God considers the date of HWA's death to be very significant. [MM pg. 149p4] Just about every year he has stretched and strained to find some "significant" event which occurred on January the 16th. The start of the Gulf War or some minor earthquake. One year it was an earthquake that actually occurred on January 17th, but that was close enough. Another year he said it was a "spiritual earthquake" of new revelation God had supposedly given him on that date. With literally millions of events happening each day, it would be no great task to find something "significant" that one could claim was relevant to the Church on any day of the year. According to Gerald Flurry, the latest "significant" event to occur on January 16th was the $3 million settlement agreement with the WCG to purchase the copyright for Mystery of the Ages. Although negotiations began around March of 2002 and the final legal documents were not signed until March of 2003, he claims the agreement was made by telephone on January 16th. While his word may be good enough for PCG members, others who lack "faith" might like to see some physical proof of that. To date, the only proof of when this agreement was made is the legal document referred to by Gerald Flurry in the quote below: We made the agreement on January 16th. It was signed by the Worldwide and consummated yesterday, March the 7th, fifty days after January the 16th. [G.F. sermon, The Mantle of Elijah part II, 3/8/03, tape1:side1] It should also be noted (C.S.) that there is no scriptural example of God ever using the pagan Roman calendar to calculate, observe, or honor anything. All of God's special days are based on the Hebrew calendar, on which Mr. Armstrong's death date was Shebat 6. As can be seen from the table below, there is only one time between 1986 and 2010 that Shebat 6 falls on January 16 (dates taken from The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, by Arthur Spier). Roman date of Shebat 6 for the years 1987 - 2010 1987 Feb. 5 1993 Jan. 28 1999 Jan. 23 2005 Jan. 16 1988 Jan. 25 1994 Jan. 18 2000 Jan. 13 2006 Feb. 4 1989 Jan. 12 1995 Jan. 7 2001 Jan. 30 2007 Jan. 25 1990 Feb. 1 1996 Jan. 27 2002 Jan. 19 2008 Jan. 13 1991 Jan. 21 1997 Jan. 14 2003 Jan. 9 2009 Jan. 31 1992 Jan. 11 1998 Feb. 2 2004 Jan. 29 2010 Jan. 21 Comment: What a contradiction to use the Roman calendar to honor a man who restored the use of the Hebrew calendar to the Church!

  
  

• Bob Thiel catches Gerald Flurry playing with the statistics

  A member of the Living Church of God (LCG) by the name of Bob Thiel has a Web site called COGwriter, which is located at http://members.aol.com/cogwriter/home.htm. A section called COG News: Emphasizing News of Interest to those Once in the Worldwide Church of God at http://www.cogwriter.com/24news.htm had the following article. It appears that Bob does not carelessly believe all of Gerald's claims. Neither should you.

  01/17/06 a.m. Gerald Flurry wrote this in the February 2006 issue of his Philadelphia Trumpet magazine: Currently The Key of David ranks as the third-highest rated religion program in the United States. (However, our television program is really a news program with a religious base; we have to teach about world news and then show how it is fulfilling Bible prophecy.) This ranking doesn’t even include our worldwide television broadcast. This did not seem true to me and according to Nielsen Media Research (THE ratings company for television), Gerald Flurry is not even in the top ten. Which, as of May 2005 (the last information I have seen) were: #1--Joel Osten #2--In Touch/Stanley #3--Ken Copeland (weekly and daily) #4--Robert Schuller #5--D James Kennedy #6--700 Club #7--Creflo Dollar #8--Jack Van Impe #9--Day of Discovery #10--Life in the World/Joyce Meyers (weekly and daily) Nielsen’s latest ratings sweep, back in November 2005, will not be made public until next month. Does Flurry know something Nielsen doesn’t? Or did he jump up in the July 2005 list? Or? It does the COGs no good to exaggerate impact. Perhaps some day PCG will explain how they are somehow #3, when Nielson does not have them in the top ten. I know that LCG averaged over 2,000 respondents (people calling in as a result of watching its telecast) per week. In that same article, Gerald Flurry suggests a greater television impact than HWA by picking the year that HWA got the least respondents and attempts to build his impact compared to that. He, like RCG, uses percentages without actually stating numbers, which makes it hard to know PCG's actual impact.

  Ahhh, statistics. It has been said that there are plain old lies, and then there are damnable lies, but worst of all there are statistics. The simple fact is that if people like Gerald Flurry, leader of the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), and David Pack, leader of the Restored Church of God (RCOG), really wanted people to know the truth about what was happening, they would give the straight numbers. They would not just come up with deceptive and misleading percentages that do not tell the whole story.

  
  

• Family break-up calls in Gerald Flurry's PCG

  A clever little conqueror by the name of Gerald R. Flurry continues to impose his will in installments. For the latest installment, it looks like Gerald Flurry now wants the members of his Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) to stop associating with anyone in their family who was baptized in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) but has not gone over to his PCG. After wasting so much time and money following Gerald, it is difficult for his followers to resist his latest demands and risk being expelled from what they have been falsely told was God's one and only true church. They have also been told lies about how God will be mad at them if they leave, or get kicked out of, the PCG. The technical term for this sort of treatment is brainwashing. Yet, all of this brainwashing does not clean their minds. Rather, it leaves them in a more messy state than ever. Just another rough day in the cult.

  The following letter appeared at a Web site called Mike's Enlightenment Page, which is located at http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/mike_ep/mike.htm. The letter can be found on the Web page called Letters From Those Impacted By Philadelphia Church of God for 2006, which is at http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/mike_ep/letters/ltrspcg06.htm. There are already a few other letters there that confirm this report.

  PCG Tells Members it is Time to "Wake Up the Laodiceans": January 11, 2006 I recently came across your webpage and would like to offer some information and observations for the consideration of you and your readers. Last Thursday (January 5) I received a call from my PCG-member father to tell me that he and mom could no longer associate with me. Three of my siblings who were baptized in the WCG received similar calls. The other four siblings (non-baptized in WCG) did not receive a call. The basic reason given is that it is to wake up the "Laodiceans." He admitted that their definition of Laodicean is anyone who is Christian, but not a part of PCG. He sounded conflicted about it, but felt he had to follow "headquarters," at least for the time being. Please pray for all members of the PCG who are being given very heavy burdens. --J. K.

  This is all rather amazing. Frankly, the behavior of most PCG members is not good at all. They lack the good sense to look into matters and check things out. Of course, they are forbidden to do so. They should be thankful when other members of their family who did not fall for the PCG con-job still care about them in spite of their faulty thinking and their support of evil. Now, they are following orders from cult headquarters to cut off contact with the very people who could have been forgiven if they had disowned them for joining the PCG cult.

  Another Web site has an article called On Parent's and Religion at http://www.mindfury.com/blog/2006/01/on-parents-and-religion.html. The article is dated January 9, 2006 and mentions this new development in the cult.

  To be fair to Gerald Flurry, it could be pointed out that one noisy old man in the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) had produced three godless Glombowski brats. [Definition: The term Glombowski denotes a godless person who continually insults and slanders innocent church members, and tries to stir up other wicked people against them for no reason. See also Jezebel, Judas, etc.] They had lied and slandered shamefully in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), and continue to do so in groups like the United Church of God (UCG) where unbelievers like themselves are always welcome to hang out. At least in this particular case, shielding and protecting PCG members from such godless offspring of other PCG members could be considered a good thing.

  
  

February 2006

• Saint Valentine's Day--A custom of interest to immoral women

  Gregorian calendars sometimes have February 14 marked as something called Saint Valentine's Day. This is a time when single guys get reminded that girls like to receive Valentine's Day cards, flowers, chocolates, etc. They are warned that until they accept this as the "gospel truth" their marital status will not change. Married men, too, can get in trouble if they forget about this day. And merchants, in their never-ending quest for the fast buck, try to milk this custom for all they can. They do it for money, not for love.

  Since people in general really are ignorant, and really don't know what they are doing or why they are doing it, all sorts of strange things get said at this time of year. Immoral girls "living in sin" by being "shacked up" with jerks who do not want to marry them try to tell other guys to get them something for this day. Divorced women, with or without children, want single guys to get them something for this day. Horny old women want younger guys to buy them something for this day. "Single moms"-- known in the past as "sluts with bastard children"--want single guys to buy them something for this day. Nutty old women with crooked mouths and incestuous minds tell boys that it would be nice of them to give a Valentine's Day card to their own mothers. It is interesting to observe that some girls who are currently single don't seem to be as interested in these customs as the sluts are. One single girl said she would like to have a baby, but that she is not interested in getting married. She said she would like to raise her child by herself. Don't be surprised when such girls fornicate, and then later expect other guys to be interested in them, and to do something "romantic" like buying them something for Valentine's Day.

  The craziness and complete lack of any moral sense at all goes on and on with this unbiblical custom. It seems to be a predominantly female custom, sort of like Halloween. Many guys could do without such hassles. Females seem to become emotionally attached to all sorts of bad customs. Some weak guys feel compelled to go along with such things so as not to provoke the wrath of ignorant, immoral, and bossy females.

  This so-called "Saint Valentine's Day" custom is just more nonsense that is not in the Bible. People today, including those who profess to be Christians, are typically in complete ignorance of the teachings of the Bible. They do not know anything about the customs in the Bible, and do not want to know anything about them. Nor do they care to know the true history of their own unbiblical, pagan-based customs that they are so crazy about.

• David Ben-Ariel, bad movies, and bad choices

  Since the breakup of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) after its blatant apostasy in 1995, many individuals have arisen to set themselves up as teachers and preachers, supposedly carrying on with what was believed in the past, but always with some modifications. One guy now calls himself David Ben-Ariel for that Hebrew flavor. He has a profile at his Web site that gives such information as: "Astrological sign: Capricorn" and "Zodiac Year: Boar." That someone would be into astrology in any way is always a bad sign. For more bad signs, keep reading.

  David Ben-Ariel, as he calls himself, posted an article called Brokeback Mountain Blues at his Web site, dated Saturday, January 14, 2006. The entire article can be read at http://beyondbabylon.blogspot.com/2006/01/brokeback-mountain-blues.html. The first few paragraphs are quoted below.

  Brokeback Mountain Blues I wanted to see it, but I didn't want to see it. I'm talking about the "gay cowboy" movie called Brokeback Mountain (even though I read Jake Gyllenhaal, one of the two major actors - "Jack Twist," wants it to mean much more than that to its audience). I didn't want to see Brokeback Mountain because I felt it could be considered some type of tacit approval of two men "falling in love," which goes against my Christian grain and biblical beliefs, but I wanted to see it because I am humanly "gay all the way." However, I am not a practicing homosexual (some would say I'm a professional one), sober and celibate by choice, so help me God, because of deep spiritual convictions. I went and ran errands with a gay friend (who knows my beliefs and knew me wild and now knows me tame), visiting his "lover" in the Bowling Green, Ohio jail where he's doing ten days for a drunk driving, donated an autographed copy of my book Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall to the main library in downtown Bowling Green (since I was born there 46 years ago, but never lived there), we picked up some fast food and visited my friend's mother where we ate and then he asked if I wanted to see Brokeback Mountain that would be showing at Franklin Park Mall (now called Southfield or something since the Brits took it over) in Toledo shortly, so I said yes and we rushed to get there and made it--ten minutes late. He had seen it a week earlier up in Michigan with some gay and lesbian friends, thinking it wouldn't be shown around here--wrong!

  Since Brokeback Mountain was one of the worst movies of the year, you can expect all sorts of movie reviewers to claim that it was one of the best movies of the year. To be blunt, nobody should ever watch such filthy shows.

  Even in the WCG before its breakup there were guys who liked to watch shows with homosexuals. One pot-smoking fornicator kept on recommending shows like Kids in the Hall and Saturday Night Live. Talking about Kids in the Hall, he said that, "It's really funny. You would really like it. It's good, clean humor." When the one he was talking to did not like the crude, perverted "humor," the dope-head would try to invite him over under some other pretext, but then try to get him to watch such shows. He wanted his guests to take their shoes off at the door to keep the floor clean so he would not have to sweep it more than once every six months. It was important to him to keep his floor clean. The minds of his guests were another matter. He would try to fill his guests' heads with the worst filth he could find on all the cable television stations he subscribed to. One night a guest politely said that it was getting late and excused himself while they were watching the stupidest movie that could be found. The guest was later informed that someone thought it was "rude of him to leave in the middle of the show." They did not think it was rude of the host to try to pressure girls into having sex with him, but they thought it was rude for anyone to politely decline to go along with his evil behavior. Some people could dress well for church but had warped minds.

  It is interesting that guys like David Ben-Ariel who said he once was "wild" now claims to be "tame" and wants to write about religious matters. It is good when people repent of their sins and try to live right, but usually they never fully recover from the effects of their wrong ways if those ways were extremely bad. Something always seems to remain wrong with them. Should you listen to such people? Well, in a word, NO!

  David Ben-Ariel wrote an article called Bewildering: Philadelphia Church of God, dated Saturday, September 17, 2005, which can be read at http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=69731. In the article, David wrote that,

  "Whether we like it or not, God, in His infinite wisdom, chose Gerald Flurry to REVEAL to God's Church what was going on--and thereby allow us to show our true colors by how we responded to Malachi's Message!"

  Actually, God, in His infinite wisdom, did NOT choose Gerald Flurry. It is significant that David Ben-Gay would choose to recommend such a complete fraud as Gerald "That Runt" Flurry and his copied Malachi's Message book that after half a dozen revisions over the years suddenly became the "little book" of Revelation chapter 10, delivered by a mighty angel. Producing complete frauds like Malachi's Message--the "centerpiece" of the PCG's literature--is one of the ways that Satan starts strange new cults. It is NOT the way the true Church of God (COG) operates. The centerpiece of a true Christian's literature is the Bible. Gerald Flurry is NOT "the leader of LAODICEA" as David claims now that Dennis Leap has expelled David from the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), but rather the leader of a satanic SCAM! It looks as if those who are all buggered up choose to recommend such evil things to others to try to get them "all buggered up" too.

  Below is a quote from the beginning of the 1992 edition of Malachi's Message by Gerald Flurry. Notice all the revisions that are listed.

  THIS BOOK IS NOT TO BE SOLD It is a free educational service in the public interest, published by the Philadelphia Church of God. FIRST EDITION, January 1990 SECOND EDITION, Revised September 1990 THIRD EDITION, Revised January 1991 FOURTH EDITION, Revised April 1991 FIFTH EDITION, Revised September 1991 SIXTH EDITION, Revised July 1992 Foreign language editions: Spanish, French and German © 1992 Philadelphia Church of God. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.

  Later, Gerald began to leave out of Malachi's Message this interesting information about all the revisions. Of course, if this book had been delivered by a mighty angel, you can be sure that there would have been no need to revise it again and again. Furthermore, a mighty angel could have given the message directly to Gerald. There would have been no need for Gerald Flurry, and his accomplice John Amos, to get their ideas from the writings of Jules Dervaes, who had previously sent him a copy of The Letter to Laodicea. Such problems are what some people might consider to be a "trunk of the tree" type of issue.

  Too many people do not care about what is true or right. They look to such things as the number of television stations that someone claims to be on, or to the circulation numbers claimed for a magazine, or to the number of other suckers who have fallen for something. Then, they are too easily impressed by relatively small numbers that seem large to them. But they do not look to see what the truth is. Even if the PCG's Key of David television program got on every television station on earth, Malachi's Message could never be the "little book" mentioned in Revelation, and Gerald Flurry could never be That Prophet, and the PCG could never be any sort of true Church of God. Ultimately, God will root out organizations like the PCG that were built on lies and are infested with perverts. In the meantime, people need to be very careful not to get mixed up with such groups.

• The Journal's article about Flurry's fanaticism

  The Journal newspaper had an article in its January 31, 2006 issue about Gerald Flurry, age 70, forbidding members of his so-called Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) to associate with family members or friends who were baptized in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) but did not go with his PCG. The article is called PCG clarifies disfellowship policy, gives main purpose of church: the need to expose Satan. The article can be read online at http://www.thejournal.org/issues/issue106/pcg.html. OK, agreed, there is a need to expose Satan. He was recently observed working through "That Runt" in the PCG. Consider yourself warned. To clarify this issue, let it be said clearly that the PCG was bad from the beginning, having been built on the faulty foundation of a drunken, lying, false prophet and his shameful "little book" that he plagiarized and then revised a number of times. It was NEVER at any time any sort of true Church of God (COG). The PCG always was, is, and will continue to be, a satanic impostor. No good at all can ever come of it. Therefore, the situation in the PCG can only be expected to get worse with time.

  It is tragic that even Americans in the land of the free and the home of the brave would give up all their natural rights to go with a complete fraud like Gerald. Everyone should read their own Bible, and obey God's laws as written in it, and not get caught up in all the wickedness of the PCG. Obeying the laws of God, and obeying the laws of Gerald, are two completely different things.

• Reader asks three questions about Flurry and the family

  The following e-mail was received by THE PLAIN TRUTH WEB SITE (TPTWS) on February 28, 2006:

  Gerald Flurry and PCG This is a bad organization. My daughter's MIL is in PCG and has cut off contacting 2 of her 3 children because they had been baptized into WCG though not attending anymore. The one that is not shunned told her mom not to drink the Kool Ade. They all know that momma is going to flee when the great profit--intentional spelling--Flurry says it is time. This cult is mind controlling. I can think of no other reason for an otherwise sane woman to do such a hideous thing. I have 3 questions for any in PCG who have read this (and they have to be out there.) 1. Who created and ordained the family? 2. Who is trying to destroy it? 3. Who are you following? HINT: the answer to 1 and 2 are not the same.......

  Gerald R. Flurry, the founder and leader of the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), is systematically, step by step, cutting off any connection his PCG followers may have with any source of sanity. In installments, Gerald has forbidden them to read any literature that he does not approve of, forbidden them to go on the Internet, and now forbidden them to associate with any friends, or even family members, who were baptized in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) but did not join his PCG cult.

March 2006

• Where is God's True Church today?

  The biblical Sabbath versus the pagan Sunday

  Most so-called "Christians" today have just carelessly followed whatever church they were born into. The result is about 1.9 billion Catholics and Protestants on earth today who do not really know what the Bible teaches about anything. They know only the unbiblical, pagan-based customs that were handed down to them by their parents and churches. So, each week they observe Sunday [the first day of the week] instead of the biblical Sabbath [the seventh day of the week] that God gave in the Bible. When the Protestant churches came out of the Catholic church during the so-called Protestant Reformation, they kept various Catholic customs, such as observing Sunday. The Catholics also observe customs like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and other such nonsense that they made up themselves based on pagan customs. The Protestants go along with these Catholic cusotms as well. The typical, ignorant, so-called "Christian" today does not even know about the festivals that the Bible says were given by God Himself.

  The annual festivals that God gave in the Bible

  The churches of the world do not teach people to remember the weekly Sabbath day of the Bible, much less the annual festivals that God gave in the Bible. The churches of the world do not observe the biblical spring festival called Passover which is followed immediately by a seven day festival called the Days of Unleavened Bread. Some so-called "Pentecostal" types have heard of the next festival in the year, called Pentecost, but they don't understand it at all, and turn it into a time to make silly noises. The biblical festivals in the fall are the Day of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the seven day Feast of Taberncales with a Closing Assembly right after it on the eighth day. These festivals that the Bible says were given by God Himself are almost totally unknown to the typical, ignorant, so-called "Christian" today. Whenever such people do hear about these biblical festivals, they tend to despise them as being "weird Jewish customs." Of course, it would not look good for these ignorant characters who falsely claim to be Christians to openly admit that they actually HATE God, Jesus, the Bible, and the laws and festivals taught by God, Jesus, and the Bible. So, it is common practice today for so-called "Christians" to call God's laws and festivals "Jewish customs"--since they are observed by some devout Jews--and then to say that they despise these "weird Jewish customs."

  Chapter 23 of the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament of the Bible mentions the weekly Sabbath and lists the annual festivals that God Himself gave. Notice that the Bible claims that these customs came from God Himself. They were not just made up by the Jews. Notice also that Moses was told to teach them to all the Israelites, not just to the Jews. The Jews are from the tribe of Judah, which is just one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Judah was just one of Jacob's twelve sons. "The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies'"" (Leviticus 23:1-2, NIV).

  Jewish customs that really are weird

  Different Jews throughout the world do have various different customs, some of which really are weird. Some Jews have just made up stuff off the tops of their own heads. For sure, this really can be weird. A Jew left to himself without the laws of God to guide him can be a really weird Jew. When the Jews were scattered by God among the nations of the world as a punishment for their sinning, some of them adopted the various local customs of the places where they landed. For sure, these customs, too, can be weird. Some sinful Jews went to Hollywood and produced really weird and perverted movies. Movie goers don't seem to mind this sort of weird stuff. In fact, they love to watch truly weird and perverse stuff in movies. But for some reason they don't like the teachings of the Bible, which are totally different from their own beliefs and hence seem just too weird to them.

  Catholic and Protestant customs that are really weird

  Observing unbiblical, man-made, pagan-based customs like Christmas and Easter with Santa Clauses and Easter Bunnies mixed in does not seem strange at all to people today who profess to be Christians. But for some reason they just cannot stand anything that came from God and is commanded in the Bible. They don't have any interest in learning about the customs that God Himself gave in Old Testament times and that Jesus Himself observed along with his own followers in New Testament times. They always absolutely insist on doing something else. None of their effort goes into obeying God. All their effort is spent on trying to explain why it is so righteous of them to reject everything God said to do, while insisting on doing the sort of things that He said not to do.

  God's Ten Commandments

  The weekly Sabbath and annual Sabbaths and festivals are not the only things that Satan and his followers do not like. Another thing that Satan's false churches have a problem with is something known as the Ten Commandments. For some reason, they just don't like these laws that God gave. A brief summary of the Big Ten is given in the table below.

  Brief Summary of the Ten Commandments
  1. 2. 3. 4. 5.	Don't have any other gods. Don't make idols. Don't misuse God's name. Remember the Sabbath day. Honor your parents.	6. 7. 8. 9. 10.	Don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Don't give false testimony against your neighbor. Don't covet your neighbor's stuff.

  Again, people do not like these laws. It is common for people to refer to them as the Law of Moses, and then to pretend that it is just that man's laws that they don't like. Moses delivered these laws to all the Israelites--not just to the Jews, who were only one of the twelve tribes. But the laws themselves came from God. At the beginning of the list of the Ten Commandments in Exodus, the Bible records that, "And God spoke all these words:" (Exodus 20:1, NIV). God Himself wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. "Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets" (Exodus 32:15-16, NIV). It is interesting to hear ignorant and sinful Sunday-keepers today refer to these laws as "the traditions of men."

  Jesus did not do away with God's ways

  In New Testament times Jesus said, "'Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them'" (Matthew 5:17, NIV). Yet the churches today try to say that Jesus did away with God's laws. When Jesus was asked what to do to get eternal life, He answered, "'If you want to enter life, obey the commandments'" (Matthew 19:17, NIV). Yet the churches today teach that anyone who tries to do such a thing is under a curse.

  Sinful people hate God's ways

  Things like the weekly Sabbath day and the annual festivals at three seasons in the year with their seven annual Sabbath days are mentioned in the Bible, and came from God. They are not weird or bad. The Bible claims that these things came from God Himself, and that the Israelites, too, had a natural tendency to rebel against them. People despise the Jews--one of the twelve tribes of Israel--because they have a reputation for at least partially remembering and observing these customs that came from God. Catholics and Protestants alike are united in their dislike of the Ten Commandments with its command to remember the Sabbath day. Why do people today who falsely profess to be Christians actually HATE the festivals and laws that the Bible says came from God? The answer can be found in the New Testament of the Bible: "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God" (Romans 8:6-8, NIV). Sinful people are hostile to God and His laws. The Bible says that, "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness" (I John 3:4, NIV).

  Since people utterly refuse to obey God's laws, they try to get around verses like these ones by making up their own laws to observe. For example, they observe Sunday instead of the biblical Sabbath and then claim that they are obeying the commandment by keeping one day in seven. They actually reject the commandment of God in order to keep their own tradition. This is the exact same problem that the Pharisees had, who rejected the commandment of God in order to keep their own tradition.

  False churches doing their own things for their own reasons

  There are many churches that claim to be of God, full of people who imagine themselves to be Christians. Some people even carry Bibles to church. But these people often do not even know what the Bible teaches. And whether or not they know what it teaches, they do not obey it. They actually reject what God said in the Bible and want to do something else. The ways and customs of all these false churches show clearly that they are just doing their own things (and Satan's) for their own reasons (and Satan's)!

April 2006

• The spring festivals in the Bible

  To see a calendar that lists the spring festivals that God gave in Old Testament times, and that Jesus and His followers observed in New Testament times, go to the Annual Holy Day Calendar for 2006. The dates are the same each year on the Hebrew calendar, but move around from year to year on the Gregorian calendar used in North America today. People who would like to imagine that they are religious should think about these Holy Days that came from God, rather than the nonsense that came from Satan and his followers.

• The Church of God (7th Day) (CG7) -- still small

  The Web site of the Church of God (7th Day) (CG7) can be found at http://home.cog7.org. This is the organization that Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) associated with in his early years when he first became interested in religion after his wife began to observe the biblical seventh-day Sabbath in the autumn of 1926. HWA thought the CG7 appeared to be "small, powerless, resultless, impotent" even back then. It had "scattered members probably numbering less than 2,000--mostly in rural areas." So he began to fellowship with them "while at the same time refraining from acknowledging membership." After a while, HWA went on to start his own Radio Church of God, which he later called the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). It has always rankled the CG7 that HWA would refer to it as the "Sardis era" of the church, while he would refer to his own WCG as the "Philadelphia era" of the church.

  After the death of Herbert W. Armstrong in January 1986, Joseph Tkach, Sr. became the next leader of the Worldwide Church of God and did away with HWA's church eras theory. If he had not done this, his efforts might have been called the "Laodicean era." Eventually, the Tkaches totally changed the WCG's teachings to the point that calling it Laodicean might not be strong enough language.

  The partial quote below is taken from the CG7's Web site.

  WELCOME Committed to the authority of Scripture, the truth of the Sabbath, and the centrality of Christ. That's who we are--the General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day), and it is with joy in the Lord Jesus that I welcome you to our official website. The General Conference is a family of more than 200 local congregations scattered across the United States and Canada. Through the relationship between the General Conference and the International Ministerial Congress, we are a global church, connecting well over 200,000 brethren in Christ around the world. Whaid G. Rose President

  If you are from the United States or Canada, the bit about "200,000 brethren in Christ around the world" might make you think that the Church of God (7th Day) has now grown into a large organization, one that a person could possibly go to. How they ever made up a large number like 200,000 is not made clear, and you can be sure that they intended to be unclear about it. What will become clear if you look into it is that they must have had better luck in South America. One estimate is that in the United States and Canada they now have something more like only 5,000 people. These roughly 5,000 people in "more than 200 local congregations scattered across the United States and Canada" make for relatively small congregation sizes. A careful examination of a CG7 congregation will reveal that one likely reason for the small size of CG7 congregations is that the people just don't seem to get along with each other all that well.

  The Church of God (7th Day) just can't seem to grow by its own evangelistic efforts, so it has always hoped to gain members from other Sabbath-keeping churches. For example, when the Worldwide Church of God disintegrated after Joseph Tkach, Sr.'s open and massive doctrinal changes around January 1995, the CG7 hoped to gain members from the WCG breakup. While some WCG members did check out the CG7, they tended not to stay for long, and usually ended up moving on.

  The CG7 also hoped to gain members whenever there was a breakaway from the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church as well. As with the WCG breakaways, any gains they got seem to have been short-lived, and the SDAs who went to the CG7 usually left and moved on.

  One little Church of God (7th Day) congregation of about a dozen people had always wanted a minister for their province in Canada. Perhaps they thought that a real, live minister sent from CG7 headquarters could get their membership number for the entire province over the 20 mark. Their great accomplishment over the years seems to have been that they once replaced a door on their old church building in a small town. They finally got a minister for a short period, but he seems to have spent his time in the province just working on his house in a bigger city. His evangelistic efforts reportedly amounted to stopping briefly in front of some houses and praying for the occupants while he went for walks in the city. Other people who would have gone to hear him were told by him not to come. Soon, he left the province, and the little church they did have before he came got closed down. The CG7 members were then seen hanging out at--but not joining or financially supporting--one of many Seventh Day Adventist churches in the province. These people who were CG7 members for generations carried their bad habit of bad-mouthing each other into the SDA church where they actually spread lies about some SDA people there. The official CG7 church press just does not tell the truth about what goes on. This naturally leaves some naive people wondering why the CG7 remains so small and wiped out if the people in it are so righteous. Of course, the answer is that there is sin present.

  The same lying spirit that took over the WCG is also at work in the CG7. Someone named Richard Cress wrote an article called Reason on the Season for the July-August 2004 issue of the COG7's Bible Advocate (BA) magazine. In large print under the title he wrote, "The problems associated with Christmas and Easter should not keep us from celebrating Christ's birth and resurrection." And so the clever reasoning goes. The CG7 has always been very smooth in its writings, but tries to slip some pretty big lumps past the reader from time to time. Long-time members of the CG7 should, "Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent" (Revelation 3:3, NIV), as the letter advised the church in Sardis.

May 2006

• Divorce and adultery in the PCG

  One of God's own big Ten Commandments was intended to protect marriages. "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14, NIV), God Himself thundered from the top of Mount Sinai. God also personally wrote it on one of two stone tablets with the rest of His Ten Commandments. "Moses turned and went down the mountain with the tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets" (Exodus 32:15-16, NIV). The tablets of the Testimony were placed in the ark of the Testimony, which was itself put in the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.

  Do such important laws that God gave have any influence today on people in the various splinter groups that came from the breakup of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)? Surely these "churches" that claim to have the truth of God would lead to happy marriages, wouldn't they? You can probably already guess the true answer.

  The following partial quote is from a letter at Mike's Enlightenment Page, dated May 25, 2006, titled Flurry's Greedy Henchmen, and online at Letters From Those Impacted By Philadelphia Church of God for 2006. Go to http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/mike_ep/letters/ltrspcg06.htm.

  I recently found out that Jeff Greaser (PCG minister in Phoenix, AZ) disfellowshipped his wife of many years, Stephanie, then divorced her and married another woman in the church, Kelly, with whom he was counselling because she had an "unconverted mate." I'm told that this is becoming commonplace, divorce an unconverted mate, or disfellowshipped mate. I would like to see a section for those who have actual first-hand knowledge of ministry, etc., in the PCG who are doing this sort of "wife-swapping" (what else can you call it when a man divorces the "wife of his youth" and marries a newer, younger woman?). I have heard statements from people inside PCG that wives/husbands are actually encouraged to rid themselves of unconverted or disfellowshipped mates. When I left PCG, the first thing Winters did was to tell my wife she should consider divorcing me. She then left too! We made a vow before God, when we were married, that we would be married "until death do us part," and no arrogant jackass is going to cause us to break those vows!

  The Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) was started by Gerald Flurry, who copied and revised a book that he called Malachi's Message, and that he eventually claimed was the "little book" mentioned in the biblical book of Revelation. This raises a question. If his book is really so inspired and great, why are there such shameful results in the little man's little cult?

  Since Gerald's "little book" called Malachi's Message is approximately one hundred and fifty pages long, let us skip it and go to something shorter. Let us go directly to the Old Testament book of Malachi to see what it really says. The real book of Malachi with Malachi's real message from God can actually be found in the Bible, and it is only about two or three pages long. This is much faster and better than reading what has been called the "silly prophetic junk" that Gerald copies/revises/produces. All the piles of "silly prophetic junk" booklets that cults produce can cause people to become so distracted and confused that they forget about the simple, sensible teachings of the Bible. Notice what God said in Malachi 2:13-16, NIV:

  "Another thing you do: You flood the LORD's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, 'Why?' It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant."

  "Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth."

  "'I hate divorce,' says the LORD God of Israel, 'and I hate a man covering himself [Footnote: or his wife] with violence as well as with his garment,' says the LORD Almighty."

  "So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith."

  The situation did not loosen up in New Testament times when things got more spiritual. In fact, Jesus said, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery" (Matthew 19:8-9, NIV).

  PCG members need to understand that their mate's refusal to carelessly believe, or submit to, Gerald's outright lies does not constitute "marital unfaithfulness." People need to take responsibility for their own actions, and not carelessly assume that they can do all sorts of shameful, evil, disloyal, irresponsible things that God hates, and pretend that they are doing them to serve Him. In the real book of Malachi in the Bible God said, "Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel" (Malachi 4:4, NIV). But instead of teaching people to obey God's laws, the PCG is actually teaching people to disobey God's laws. One result is that the PCG is becoming a cult full of adulterers. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not become one of them. The real book of Malachi in the Bible contains this prophetic warning: "'I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,' says the LORD Almighty" (Malachi 3:5, NIV).

  God's laws were designed to strengthen the family, not to destroy it. The real book of Malachi in the Bible concludes by saying, "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse" (Malachi 4:5-6, NIV). Those who follow Gerald and his PCG are already under a curse.

  Much has been said by the PCG leader about the need to submit to his own tyranny, which he mistakenly calls the "government of God." Those who really truly do want to submit to the government of God can do so by simply obeying the laws of God, such as the one that says not to commit adultery.

June 2006

• Pentecost

  This year, Pentecost falls on Sunday June 4, 2006 on the Gregorian calendar. It is calculated by counting off 50 days from the weekly Sabbath that fell during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Pentecost is also called the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Firstfruits. To see a calendar that lists the festivals that God gave in Old Testament times, and that Jesus and His followers observed in New Testament times, go to the Annual Holy Day Calendar for 2006.

• WCG puts Dwight Armstrong hymns in public domain

  The Web site of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) at http://www.wcg.org has made the following announcement that will be of interest to some people. Dwight Armstrong was the brother of Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), and the one who put many psalms to music in the WCG's old Bible Hymnal.

  Dwight Armstrong hymns in public domain Worldwide Church of God officials announced on June 26, 2006, that it is placing all Dwight Armstrong composed hymns to which it owns the copyright into the public domain. Effective immediately, any person or group who wishes to copy or use these hymns may do so without receiving permission from the Church. "Time has proven that numerous persons wish to use these hymns in praise and worship and the Church wishes to facilitate such use," said Joseph Tkach, President and Chairman. Church officials have said that the works released into the public domain are only those hymns by Dwight Armstrong to which the Church holds the copyright. No other hymns or materials of any kind are being placed into the public domain, and the responsibility is on the user to ascertain whether the work it wishes to use is one of the released hymns.

July 2006

• Pack man chews up shameful UCG government

  David C. Pack, who started and runs the Restored Church of God (RCOG), has now written a book over 300 pages long called THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD -- UNDERSTANDING OFFICES AND DUTIES. It can be read online at http://www.thercg.org/sep/books/tgog.html. In the Preface, David called it a "fascinating book" and said that "you will not be able to put it down." So he was wrong from the start. Oh, well. Nobody is perfect. Just don't get so lost in the book that you fail to notice some of the double standards in it.

  For example, other former ministers from the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) are not supposed to do any sort of great work of their own since they were only ordained to the office of a stationary minister, and not to that of an apostle. However, David Pack, himself just a minister from the WCG, does whatever he feels like, and then claims that it proves he must be an apostle. If he could do a real healing, that would be a much better proof.

  The book notes that Gerald R. Flurry, founder of the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) "takes perhaps a dozen different titles and offices that apply solely to either the Father or Christ (he takes more than 30 titles total)," and that this makes Gerald a false Christ. "This man is worse than a false prophet, and even a false apostle. By taking just a single title of Christ, never mind having taken at least a dozen divine titles, such a leader has made himself a FALSE CHRIST in the fullest sense." At the same time, Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), the founder of the Worldwide Church of God, gets a free pass. HWA's 52 years of wrong prophetic guesses apparently do not make him a FALSE PROPHET in the fullest sense. It was all just innocent, and harmless, but incorrect, speculation that went on and on for a lifetime.

  Below are just a few selected comments of David's about the United Church of God (UCG), the largest splinter group, which finally broke away from the Worldwide Church of God in 1995 a number of months after the WCG under Joseph Tkach, Sr. had openly turned against virtually everything that it had once taught under its founder Herbert W. Armstrong.

  CHAPTER THREE SPLINTERS IN CHAOS The Very Large, Paralyzed Splinter Nowhere is the departure from God's government more evident than in the largest splinter, begun in 1995. ... The system this organization has created is literally fraught with political infighting and opportunity to climb, ... Recognize that this group also commands extra attention because over half of all those who left the WCG and entered a splinter chose to join this organization. Endless Committees Contrary to Mr. Armstrong's plain teaching--and WARNING!--a doctrine committee appeared so that this organization could examine all the doctrines restored to the Church by Mr. Armstrong. And this was done, wittingly or not, in the same manner that THE APOSTATES' EXAMPLE had taught them! The Top Committee Bear in mind that the overall organization is actually run by an elected 12-man committee called the Council of Elders--something very different than the Advisory Council of Elders that Mr. Armstrong, as both its President and Chairman (as well as apostle and Pastor General), established by HIS appointment of its members to advise him. (But we will see the scope of its government is still in question.) In this splinter, it is the other way around. The council appoints the President who, in both reality and practice, is actually a President who advises the Council (for a three-year term)--making him, in effect, an Advisory President reporting to the Council. (I am compelled to say with the vernacular for those who know what this means for an organization: "It is so bad, you can't make this stuff up.") ... The entire collective ministry of this splinter--over 400 men, and called the General Conference of Elders--votes on all important church matters, including approving budgets, changing doctrines, establishing priorities and, of course, who should sit on the Council (also for three-year terms). National councils in other countries are elected by local ministers. It is widely reported that as many as 25 percent or more of all of the ordained men in this organization refuse to participate in its governance because they either see the process as political or simply do not care. ... Of course, this organization's council has found a way to justify and excuse its upside-down, broken government. Here is how they do this. They declare (variously), "We are awaiting a Chief Shepherd" or "...God's choice of leader" or "...God's man" and "Our form of government is just temporary." The previous president of this organization told me personally in 2003 these very words, and added a comment to the effect that "Our government doesn't really work" and "I serve as long as they will let me." He would not deny these words. Sadly, this decent man was summarily removed--in effect, thrown!--from office less than two years later in favor of a younger, "more progressive" man. Yet, because of this new man's general agreement with the apostates, Pasadena handpicked HIM in 1993 to replace me in Akron, Ohio when I was fired for unwillingness to accept what he embraced. He had accepted--by his own public and private admission!--all of the already scores of false teachings in the WCG to that point, including the trinitarian false god. I have his sermon(s)! Of course, at predictable moments, such men often "see the light" and "recover." Mass Resignation to Lower "Office" At its outset, in an unbelievable act of mindless conformity and "lemming effect," the hundreds of ministers who began this splinter all agreed to simultaneously give up their offices, no matter the rank, and simply refer to themselves as "elders." This designation was now to apply equally to evangelists, pastors, preaching elders, local elders and local church elders. All were now simply elders, with their "rank designation" entirely based on what their exact function or assignment would be at any given time. Incredibly, evangelists of decades standing gave up their offices in the stroke of a moment. So did Pastor-rank ministers of similar seniority. No Wonder ... No wonder local congregational boards were permitted at the outset, even though the home office was forced to renege on this promise because they faced too much of the kind of chaotic government at the local level that they wanted to reserve for their "home office." ... The home office could not get to first base if brethren there were not sending tithes to empower it. Fraud, spiritual or otherwise, often involves co-conspirators, and this organization's leaders have unwitting thousands. Armed with right knowledge, however, individuals can choose to be different.

  David Pack has always seemed to have a problem getting along with other people. This fact, of and by itself, does not necessarily mean that he is all bad. To be fair to David, it needs to be pointed out that it is not always easy to get along with all the people who ended up in the Worldwide Church of God and its various splinter groups, such as the United Church of God. In fact, it is UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE for a righteous man to get along with all the godless, lying perverts who have infiltrated the Church of God (COG) scene. With Satan sending and directing these tares (weeds), conflict is unavoidable.

  A minister in the United Church of God once wrote to someone that he was "ashamed" that David Pack was a minister, but then later kicked out of the UCG the person that he had written this to. Unfortunately, the UCG minister who wrote it got along all too well with some malicious liars that he himself helped to bring into the UCG. He did not get along with the innocent victims of these lying perverts. In the end, the UCG minister showed himself to be someone to be ashamed of. Too many UCG ministers are masters of the smooth lie. Considering the things that really do go on in the UCG, it is logical to question why there are such bad results. It is not unreasonable to at least hear what an observer like David Pack has to say about the UCG, especially since the UCG has rejected much of what Herbert W. Armstrong taught in the past, and has made many changes.

  Below are some more thought-provoking paragraphs from chapter twenty of David Pack's book on church government.

  CHAPTER TWENTY HARD QUESTIONS "Enemies"--"Against Christ and God's Church" You were warned that the last chapter would hit hard. You are beginning to understand how hard. No true Christian doubts that the apostates have been "against God and His Church," "serving the devil"--and, in effect, the worst enemies of Christ and His flock, now for over 20 years (and maybe for all time). This is because the false ministers of this world are not yet very much attacking God's people. But the splinter leaders have supplanted the apostates. These NEWER enemies--yes, Mr. Armstrong has, in effect, called the splinter and sliver leaders GOD'S ENEMIES--are more dangerous than most could believe. Over time, the gap between them and the apostates disappeared. When truly understood, by every standard, they are more dangerous to God's people today than anyone else. While the false leaders of the WCG are fading into the past, the deception, compromise and rebellion of the splinter leaders is PRESENT! Best put: This danger is REAL--it is HERE--it is NOW--and it surrounds YOU! Let's speak plainly. All doubt must be stripped away. The leaders of the splinters and slivers are ENEMIES of the living Jesus Christ, whose Church and Body--and GOVERNMENT--they reject, oppose and FIGHT! Yes, these are fighting God--are against Christ! May they repent before it is too late!

  So, the splinter leaders are actually GOD'S ENEMIES, even though they passed themselves off as good guys who were standing up for the truth. That is a very interesting theory that would explain perfectly why the only thing these self-appointed leaders ever really seem to do is stand up for and support sinful, depraved behavior of the vilest sort. It would explain perfectly why the only thing they cannot stand is the TRUTH! They try to pass it off as showing love when they support every detestable practice under the sun. It is obvious that many of the leaders of the splinter groups, including many of the leaders in the United Church of God (UCG), are actively working for Satan. The bad results already show it, and the fruit can only be expected to become even more rotten in the future.