The Restored Church of God

David C. Pack started his own money machine called the Restored Church of God

In the Spring of 1999, a minister by the name of David C. Pack, who had been fired from both the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) and the Global Church of God (GCG), started a group called the Restored Church of God (RCOG). Its stated goal was to republish all the writings of Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) that were in print at the time HWA died in January 1986. The RCOG had attracted about 300 people and the printing had already begun when, around the very day of the first anniversary of the RCOG, David Pack changed his mind and decided that no HWA CDs or booklets were to go out. Donald H. Tiger, the man behind the HWA CD project, ended up without a job, as seems to have been the case with just about everyone who had ever worked for David Pack and his RCOG. The Restored Church of God has a Web site at http://www.RestoredCOG.org.

David C. Pack

Notes:

1. Herbert W. Armstrong's writings are still available

   For anyone interested in seeing virtually all of the writings of Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), see the following Web pages:

   Pabco's Home Page - HWA's writings on the Internet
   
   Herbert W. Armstrong Library and Archives
   
   Hoselton.net - HWA's writings and Global Split Page

2. David Pack's Reign of Terror

   The June 1985 issue of Ambassador Report (AR32) had an article about David C. Pack, when he was a minister in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), called David Pack's Reign of Terror. This article has now been posted at http://home.neo.rr.com/lilshep/bill/terror.html at Bill Sheppard's Web site.

3. Norman Edwards calls David Pack "a wolf in shepherd's clothing"

   The January/February 2000 issue of Norman Edwards' Servants' News newsletter mentioned the history of David C. Pack in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), the Global Church of God (GCG), and the Restored Church of God (RCOG). Anyone thinking about following David Pack should first read this article. On page 20, Norman Edwards wrote, "Dave Pack has been a wolf in shepherd's clothing and should not be any kind of minister or servant among the people of God (emphasis his in original). The only apology I will make for that statement is for not having clearly stated it sooner in the pages of Servants' News. I base this conclusion on direct personal experience and the testimony of dozens of witnesses." This article about David Pack and his Restored Church of God can be found at http://www.servantsnews.com/sn0001/contwcg2.htm at the new Servants' News Web site.

4. Friend says Donald Tiger wrongly indicted

   An unsigned Update on the Restored Church of God's (RCOG's) Web site, dated June 10, 2000, happily announced the arrest of Donald Tiger, the man behind the HWA CD project, and made it sound like it was God's doing and not David C. Pack's. For the rest of the story, there is an article in the July 31, 2000 issue of The Journal with the heading Friend says Church of God member wrongly indicted. This article has now been posted at http://home.neo.rr.com/lilshep/bill/tigerstory.html at Bill Sheppard's Web site.

5. Thomas Munson's experiences in the Restored Church of God

   A member and employee of the Restored Church of God (RCOG) by the name of Thomas L. Munson wrote a letter around September 2000 about what David C. Pack is like. He wrote, "I fully expect that I too will be accused of the most heinous of crimes when I am gone. My real crime was selling my successful business and making the largest contribution to Restored in its history. The majority of the directed funds I contributed were not spent as directed, by the way. Now I will face certain economic hardship in order to stand on principle. I put my family in harms way by coming to work for him, but I do not fear. God is my rock. He has always been there for me." Thomas Munson's letter can be read online at http://home.neo.rr.com/lilshep/bill/munsonletter.html.

   Tragically, Thomas Munson's bad experiences appear to have eventually caused him to become disenchanted with all religion. The following comment by Thomas was posted at http://xcg.kingary.net/?id=536 at the f(hwa)=xcg Web site.

   Thomas Munson         04/01/2006 06:02 PM I thank god that I am an atheist!!! Actually, I am a born again atheist. I was born as an atheist, left atheism as I was brainwashed into religion as a small child, then after years of unanswered prayers rediscovered atheism and became “born again” as an atheist. So called answered prayers are mere coincidences not some god answering prayers of the faithful. It was a very interesting study.

   Before anyone goes along with David Pack, they might want seriously to consider whether they want to risk suffering a great financial loss like Tom did, and whether they could stand to suffer such bitter disillusionment without losing faith in God. All who follow David Pack can expect to face these problems.

6. Bill Sheppard's Information page about David Pack

   For more information about David C. Pack and his Restored Church of God (RCOG), from those who have been there and found out the hard way, go to the Information page at http://home.neo.rr.com/lilshep/bill/information.html at Bill Sheppard's Web site.

7. David Pack gets "marked" by the Living Church of God

   On August 3, 2000, Roderick C. Meredith's (RCM's) newly formed Living Church of God (LCG) "marked" David C. Pack and declared him an "enemy of the Church." The notice of marking that was to be read in all LCG congregations can be read at http://home.neo.rr.com/lilshep/bill/packmarked.html.

8. David Pack's silent treatment

   In explaining his policy of not answering "accusers," David C. Pack said that he has found out that people are only satisfied with an answer until another question comes up. Then, people want to have the next question answered too. Apparently, people should never have more than one question in their entire lifetime. To nip this problem in the bud, David Pack has decided not to answer any "accusations." In actual practice, he does seem to talk about certain matters when it suits him to do so.

9. Rewriting Herbert Armstrong's booklets

   The stated goal of the Restored Church of God (RCOG) was to republish all the writings of Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) that were available at the time HWA died in 1986. David C. Pack was even said to have talked about moving to another country to continue to do this if the laws in the United States stopped him. In a letter to "Brethren and Subscribers," dated April 28, 2000, David Pack wrote,

   "Along a similar line, many of you have now received Don Tiger's "CD Letter" (it can also be read on our website), you know that the Worldwide Church of God has threatened (twice) to sue RCG for what they believe is a violation of the copyright they think that they hold on all of Mr. Armstrong's materials. Of course, they are completely wrong, and we have no intention of being threatened away from doing God's Work simply because misguided men want us to stop. We stand on rock-solid legal ground! Have no doubt of this. A whole variety of attorneys understand and have told us as much."

   Of course, whenever you discuss a potential lawsuit with an attorney he will tend to say, "It's looking good." Naturally, he wants to be hired. Only after you have wasted thousands of dollars retaining his services will he tell you, "It's not looking good." No doubt there are many jokes about attorneys and their greed, but this Web site is not dedicated to that topic.

   In a letter to "Brethren and Subscribers," dated May 30, 2000, David Pack wrote, "So it is my duty to tell you that Mr. & Mrs. Donald Tiger and Mr. & Mrs. Robert Papay have been disfellowshipped from the Restored Church of God." Along with this letter there was a cassette tape that had a twenty-one minute sermonette by David Pack called CDs, Compromise, Conflict & Conscience. In the sermonette David Pack claimed that he had been very busy but that the more he learned about Donald Tiger's CD project, the more uncomfortable he became with it. He claimed that Donald Tiger wanted to record everything from the past century on CDs without comment. Such a collection would be a fantastic resource for a historian--or anyone else--who wanted all the facts. But David Pack explained that he was not called to be a church historian, and that making all the past errors available to new people would just confuse them. Some problems that David Pack said he had with making available all the literature from the past included:

   • Many things on the CDs "did not remotely represent the truth of God."
     
   • Literature from the 1970's would contain the "garbage from the liberal years in the 1970's."
     
   • HWA's 1939 article on government in the church advocated democratic government. Later, HWA changed his mind.
     
   • HWA's 1973 booklet on Divorce & Remarriage was repudiated by HWA a year later.
     
   • The old literature taught that Pentecost was on a Monday, but HWA later taught that it was on a Sunday.
     
   • Enemies of HWA were supposedly telling people to get the CDs because they would expose HWA.
     
   • Many old Plain Truth and Good News magazine articles were full of predictions that Jesus would return in 5, or 6, or 7, or 8, or 10 years.
     
   • HWA's booklet called 1975 in Prophecy! was a mistake.
     
   • An article from around 1962 claimed that Hitler was still alive and living in Argentina.
     
   • Many writers no longer believe what they wrote in the past.
     
   • Many writings from the past were wrong even back then.
     
   • One CD was of old Envoys, the Ambassador College (AC) yearbook. It would be a "sad walk down a bad memory lane" of people who had died and left the church.
     
   • The old literature was full of errors that HWA later grew out of.
     

   Yes, all these things could "confuse" people. Or, maybe, enlighten them.

   David Pack announced in the sermonette that he was working on one "pure" CD that would contain only the writings of Herbert W. Armstrong that were in circulation at the time of his death in 1986, but nothing ever came of it. Half a dozen new attorneys advised him to wait. Shortly after writing so boldly about how he was going to reproduce HWA's writings, David Pack's attitude underwent a complete change. Perhaps he was spooked by the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) losing a round of its court case with the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). This helped David Pack to gain a whole new respect for copyright law. He feared that a lawsuit could destroy his church. An article appeared at the RCOG's Web site called Why RCG Does not Publish, Distribute or Link to Herbert W. Armstrong's Literature. It explained that "copyright law prohibits the reproduction and distribution of [HWA's] literature."

   Next, David Pack decided to rewrite each piece of WCG literature using different wording to give the same teachings. Those who don't take this latest approach of David Pack are said to be "lazy." David Pack has been accused of producing great amounts of literature by getting others to do the research and writing, and then putting his own name on the booklet. Actually, some literature does not have his name on it as the author, and at times he has said that others have helped him with the research for certain books. Many of the writings produced by David C. Pack and his Restored Church of God can be found at http://www.thercg.org/booklets.html and read online. His literature about the WCG's Apostasy and the WCG Splinter Groups can be found at http://www.thercg.org/splinters.html.

10. Rising through the ranks

    In a lengthy sermon given in March 2005, called 21st-Century Apostle, the 56-year-old David C. Pack explained that on January 1 he realized that he was an Apostle, even though he had previously stated that he was not planning to claim any such office. His understanding just grew. Why be just a Watchman and a Messenger when he could be an Apostle too? He assured his listeners that he had no plans to give himself endless titles and offices the way one fellow from Oklahoma had done (who was now up to about 31 positions). Part of the evidence given for David Pack being an Apostle was that he had done a lot of writing recently. For more evidence that he was an Apostle, David claimed that all sorts of miracles were being done, such as the casting out of demons. It was also brought up that with him having such a high rank now, the members, ministers, and evangelists from all the other splinter groups could now come to his Restored Church of God (RCOG) and submit to him, and give him their tithe money.

    In David's defense, if he is going to start and run a church organization, it does seem more reasonable for him to call himself the "Apostle" than to call himself the "Presiding Evangelist" or (worst of all) "That Prophet" like some splinter leaders call themselves.

11. Miraculous healings in the Restored Church?

    After a tragic shooting in the Living Church of God (LCG), David C. Pack gave a sermon in which he claimed that the people in his own Restored Church of God (RCOG) would not have such bad things happen to them because they would be in a "circle of protection." He had also claimed that there were many miracles occurring in the RCOG, such as demons being cast out, and people being healed of all sorts of things. This made it sound like the one organization where God was working.

    Therefore, it was a bit surprising to hear David Pack give a sermon called At the Red Sea, in which he explained that his wife had cancer and that her condition was "absolutely grave." Shortly after, in an even more surprising letter dated July 26, 2007 and called Special Letter Regarding Mrs. Shirley Pack, the Apostle David Pack announced the death of his wife Shirley M. Pack on Sunday July 22, 2007. She was just 62 years old, and had helped tremendously with typing out all the literature that the RCOG had produced. Even in the letter announcing the death of his wife, David wrote that, "We have had many dramatic healings in The Restored Church of God, and all of you regularly hear of them." Strangely, it just did not work out the way one would have expected it to for Shirley, with her being so close to the Apostle and the center of the circle of protection and all that.

    People with serious health problems should not be totally surprised if the RCOG does not come through for them either, or help them to get healed either.

12. David C. Pack wants access to all your wealth NOW!

    To the public, the so-called Churches of God (COGs) try to project an image of generously giving away free literature in the public interest. On the inside, it is a different story. The more strict so-called Churches of God (COGs) are infamous for wanting lots of money from their followers. With groups like David Pack's own Restored Church of God (RCOG), even the little bit of "free" literature that they do send out to impress people seems to get cut off if the recipients are not quickly impressed to send in some money.

    Members are expected to send in a tithe (tenth) of their gross income each year, which might seem reasonable since it takes money to run a large organization. Members are also expected to save up a second tithe (tenth) of their gross income each year to cover their expenses of attending the annual conventions, and send a tithe (tenth) of this second tithe (tenth) to headquarters. Any leftover second tithe, referred to as "excess second tithe," is expected to be turned in to headquarters. Every third and sixth years of a seven year cycle, members are supposed to send in a third tithe (tenth) of their gross income to headquarters. This "third tithe" is supposedly for such things as helping poor church members, which sounds good, but it no longer seems to find its way to them in groups like Gerald Flurry's so-called Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) or David Pack's own Restored Church of God. Guys like Gerald and David seem to find other uses for the third tithe money. They like to brag that they are faithfully collecting third tithe in their groups, but don't mention that they are not faithfully helping their own poor members with it. Also, at each of the church's seven annual Sabbaths, members are supposed to give generous offerings above and beyond their required tithes.

    Typically, even all the regular required tithes and offerings are not enough money to satisfy the leaders, and special appeals are made for even more money from the members. Merely paying the three required tithes (tenths) of their gross income and giving offerings at the seven annual Sabbaths is considered to be only doing what is required of them, and makes them "unprofitable servants." So, they then find out that they are expected to give extra, generous offerings above and beyond the regular required tithes and offerings, to support building programs, etc. The leaders even want people to neglect their own families and relatives, and will their estates to the church when they die. But, the need and greed for more money is so great that the self-appointed church leaders cannot even wait for their own members to die! They want to help themselves to their members' estates right NOW! And, just as the Pharisees of old would devour widows' houses and make long prayers, so the modern--and even worse--crooks will devour everything in sight that they can and make long explanations in seemingly endless writings and preachings to justify it. They try to give the world the impression that their church knows how to live the abundant, good life while in fact their own members are being absolutely plundered. David Pack wrote a booklet called End All Your FINANCIAL WORRIES. Little did his followers suspect when they went with him that their financial worries were just about to begin.

    Mark 10 contains the story of a rich, young man. "Jesus looked at him and loved him. 'One thing you lack,' he said. 'Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me'" (Mark 10:21, NIV). It was not a poor man, or even an average man, but someone with "great wealth" (verse 22). He was told to give to the poor (not to con-artists pretending to be poor). Notice that he was not told to hand the money over to Jesus, or to Judas Iscariot who carried the money bag and was a thief (John 12:4-6), or to the church, or to the synagogue. Rather, he was to give it to the poor. It is very interesting when some supposedly stricter COG groups can't even stand to help their own poor members with the third tithe money that was supposedly collected for that very purpose. Members are expected to live within their means and have the faith to send in the third tithe money, as well as all sorts of other tithes and offerings. Yet, the leaders of these groups don't seem to live within their means, or have the faith to use these directed funds for their stated main purpose.

    David C. Pack started his own money machine, which he called the Restored Church of God. At its Web site is posted a sermon called Clarion Call--The Time is NOW!, given on November 3, 2007. In it the aggressive, competitive David Pack is going for the gold--your gold! Another Web site, called the Exit & Support Network (ESN), has an article about it called Exposé of "Clarion Call--The Time is Now!" (Pt. 2) posted online at http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/artcls/pack3.htm. Before anyone follows David Pack anywhere, or sends him a dollar, they should have a look at this article. It could give them some valuable insight into what is going to come in the future from the Pack man: he is going to gobble up everything he can. If a member does become destitute as a result of the whole experience, he cannot count on receiving third tithe assistance. He probably can count on being told to get a job and get back to work.

    The March 2008 issue of The Real Truth magazine that David Pack produces had an article called America's Banking Crisis--A Financial Tsunami Approaching! to frighten people with stories about the economic problems that might come in the future. Members of his own Restored Church have already been hit by a financial tsunami that could leave them all washed up.

13. Cost Update: David Pack's "vision" grows more expensive by many grand

    In a sermon called March 2008 Update: The Vision Grows Grander, the self-sent apostle David C. Pack announced some of his great building plans for the future. Below are some quotes from his sermon.

    "We have to have a building. We cannot go forward as the final work of God on earth any longer without a building."

    "We have secured quite a few acres...."

    "We are planning a building of four stories with an incredible view that will boggle your mind."

    "We are never going to finish the work of God on the second floor of someone else's building."

    "This is not my work, brethren. If it is, we're all in big trouble."

    Besides a headquarters building, David Pack said he wants to build a college campus and start a two-year college program so that the first crop of students can graduate on Friday June 4, 2010, exactly 39 years after his own Friday June 4, 1971 graduation from Ambassador College. He also wants to have a youth summer camp and a full-time worldwide ministry. He plans to have all sorts of gardens with one being called the "Footprint Garden," which will be the size and shape of the auditorium he plans to build, and hopes will be the final "house of God" in this age. If you listen to his sermon, which is posted online at his Restored Church of God (RCOG) Web site at http://www.thercg.org/sermons.html, pay careful attention to his comment near the end that if it is just his work they'll all be in big trouble. Actually, David would still come out of this OK. The financial backers might be a different, sadder story.

    Why the need for the headquarters building, and college campus, and auditorium? The early work of Jesus and His Apostles did not seem to need an expensive building program. Apparently, things are different now that it is the final work of God. These future dreams are always very inspiring. The actual past history is a bit more sobering.

    After Herbert W. Armstrong's (HWA's) initial foray into prophetic guessing was proven wrong by the passage of time, HWA moved to Pasadena, California and built the headquarters for his Worldwide Church of God (WCG), as well as the Ambassador College campus. Later, the beautiful Ambassador Auditorium was built.

    Building a Christian college always seems like a great idea. However, these things do not always work out as well as one would hope. Without serious, ongoing, active effort they can degenerate into worse places than a regular college. One might even wonder what the point of it all is when one thinks about all the Ambassador College sluts who fooled around with Garner Ted Armstrong (GTA) and others during the Armstrong era of the college. Or the godless sluts who dropped out pregnant after one year, or the godless sluts who graduated "with distinction" under the Tkach era, before the whole sordid cesspool was shut down. One graduate, Gerald Flurry, became a drunken, lying false prophet with his own cult full of lying, slandering, sex maniacs. Another graduate, Ronald Weinland, makes up so many prophetic lies in God's name that one wonders how a grown man can lie that much in God's name without blushing. And there are many other greedy, lying kooks who came out of that place. In fact, it is sickening to think about all the BAD characters who came out of Ambassador College, with many of them passing themselves off as ministers in order to collect a paycheck.

    The example of HWA's building program seems to have started the strange custom among some splinter groups of trying to build an expensive auditorium for worldly musical performances and plays to try to impress the world, and calling the auditorium a "house for God"!!! According to Herbert Armstrong's booklet called 1975 in Prophecy!, the end of the age and the return of Jesus should have come soon after the Ambassador Auditorium was completed, but HWA later explained that his 19-year time cycles had actually ended up being fulfilled by the WCG getting to put advertisements in the Readers Digest magazine, and by the church obtaining some financing. In similar manner, David Pack has his followers thinking that the end of the age and the return of Jesus will come within about half a dozen years after they have completed his buildings. Once again, time appears to be short. So, yet again, people must scramble to sacrifice and give to a building program. To modify a phrase someone else came up with, those who do not know or remember the past are condemned to rebuild it.