“I want to make a statement about…me…now, if I became deceived, I will never tell you what I’m going to tell you now…I am telling you if I go off into strange ideas, misconduct, rebellion, you name it, don’t follow me. I want to tell you that now, because if I start doing that I’m gonna try to get you to follow me! I’m gonna come to you and tell you it doesn’t apply, it doesn’t mean me, no, no, no, no, no, no, it’s OK to follow me because ABCD and XY and Z. Do you understand what I’m saying? Listen to me now, when I tell you don’t follow me if I go off into weird ideas, or if I get off into other things that are total absolutely unscriptural conduct, because if I do I’m gonna paint it with a different face and try to get you to follow me. Do you understand what I’m saying brethren? Please remember that, because I promise you that if I become deceived, I’ll forget it, and I’ll want you to forget it…And I hope you’ll remember it well enough to quote it right back to me…But I’ll tell you what, I’m not going anywhere.”
-David C Pack
December 12, 1998
The Clarion Call of Apostle David C. Pack
Video and audio files can be found here and on Rumble
Wowie Zowie! Now we know what might have been if Dion and the Belmonts or the Dovells had been into Physics.
BB
Your right Douglas. There is no going back for Armstrongism.
Even if Ian gave his best efforts to restore the movement, he could never restore what has decayed to the point of no return. Can’t be done.
And over at Banned!, Rod Meredith’s Super Special Not So Special Christmas Sermon, just reeks of the Arrow of Entropic Time.
The Armstrongists and the ACoGs — the CoHAM — don’t take us seriously at The Painful Truth. They feel that they can safely ignore us and it will have absolutely, positively NO negative impact on them. That is only partially true up to a point. For one thing, we have the force and the authority of the Universe behind us. Let them match that. The thing that can’t ignore is the reality we represent.
In spite of the fact they try to ignore us, the Universe is out to get them and it will. We already see evidence of that and they cannot escape it. It’s like someone hanging from a cliff with their fingernails and slowly but surely slipping further and further to plunge to their doom, leaving fingernail marks in the dirt.
The main problem is that they don’t want to face the Arrow of Entropic Time gracefully and admit that either they will fail slowly but surely or else they are going to have to garner energy into their system from outside — and, so sorry, any potential outside entropy reducing resources are UNAVAILABLE. Not going find more people to come in. Not going to get more money. No extra contributions.
Armstrongists need to consider the advice of the Implementation Consultant of Paycor, Jonathan Moore in his article, Effective Leadership is More Than Pissing in the Soup. Frankly, it’s the leaders’ fault that the CoHAM is so screwed up. They don’t understand leadership. All they know is being in charge.
And fortunately for us, they will continue in their entropic ignorance, continuing their screwups for the indefinite future, proving what we’ve been saying all along.
‘The main problem is that they don’t want to face the Arrow of Entropic Time gracefully and admit that either they will fail slowly…’
Well that is to be expected. Science is not their strong suit. They believe a man in the sky will change the physics of the equation.
They believe a man in the sky will change the physics of the equation.
That’s really hilarious given that Scripture has God saying, “I change not”.
Actually, if you think about their God as the Creator, they would have Him to be the GREATEST Scientist, Technologist, Engineer, Mathematician in the Universe of all time! His greatest interest seems to be STEM.
So how would it be, for all eternity, God trying to interest Armstrongists in the things that really interest Him, but they ignore Him and want to socialize instead… with each other, because, well, darn it all, they can’t understand one thing that God says or does and they want to indulge in their silly delusions of unreality.
Sort of like right now.
How very insulting to God, not even to be interested in the greatest things He does (oh, you know, like DNA) and don’t share any of the interests He has at all.
Most Armstrongists don’t have any concept of the laws of the universe beyond such things as Levitical law, or perhaps the law of biogenesis, or the undeniable one, gravity. They don’t realize that God uses natural processes in an orderly fashion, processes that are consistent with and caused by the laws of the universe. Like evolution. They also have no idea that a generally recognized law can be countered or overcome through the application of a higher law, or combination of laws, thus taking precedence. This is how planes defy gravity, or how space travel is possible. When Armstrongites do get around to acknowledging such precedences, it is usually for something really stupid, like thwarting the science of genetics to somehow make British Israelism true. Or invalidating radio carbon dating.
But then again, Armstrongism is actually an altering intoxicant, much as alcohol or drugs. A bottoming out process is the only factor which could produce a change of focus or behavior. Problem is, there are functional Armstrongaholics, just as there are functional alcoholics, who either ignore or are not bothered by the raging symptoms their dependency is causing in their lives. The mood altering qualities overwhelm the symptoms.
BB
If they could turn back time… They still would get it wrong. Everything is predicted with imperfect hindsight.
I remember listening to the audio portion of LCG’s program, What’s ahead for 2001? Of course, not the vaguest hint of 9/11.
There’s a better one than that. Richard Pinelli came to town to guest preach the correctional sermon September 9th, 2001. His message: God is going to tip over your barrel. He talked about how people were going to find that if they kept up doing what they were doing, God would ‘tip over their barrel’ and upset everything for them.
Why did he give the sermon?
Well, it turns out that a mentally ill pervert man in United was stalking a married woman in the church and had been doing so for 7 years. It came to a head when she came out of services with her husband at church to find that he had used his finger to print the words “You are mine, you belong to me” in the dust on the trunk of the car. There were also incidents at their apartment when she was alone during the day that she would open the front door and there he was in the parking lot sitting in his car. When he saw her, he started the engine and roared off.
This couple had gone to the local ministry. Then after getting no response, the contacted the Council of Elders. They even sent a registered letter to Aaron Dean. No response. At the Feast of Tabernacles I went to talk with Robert Dick not only because he was the Chairman of the Board of United, but he was also the Chairman of the Ethics Committee. He was a real Dick about it. He told me that all such questions should be referred to Dennis Luker, since he was the pastor and Regional Director. That was stupid because Dennis Luker was actually behind the stalking and was helping the stalker. Later, at the court hearing where the judge granted a restraining court order to the stalker, two elders, two deacons and a deaconness sat there with the stalker to help defend him. The judge wasn’t fooled for a moment and issued the restraining order. Later at another Feast I talked with a single woman who had a single man stalking her. One day she got a call from an insurance agent asking about her being named in an insurance policy with her stalker named as the beneficiary. And who was the pastor? You guessed it — Dennis Luker. She finally moved away and owned a condo that had 24 hour security personnel at the front with cameras protecting the area. The UCG was no help at all, so the lesson is, if you are in an ACOG and you have a stalker, you need to get your own help and fix the problem yourself, remembering that Chuck Harris was stalking Brenda James and finally shot and killed her — so beware.
Anyway, here was Richard Pinelli giving this sermon about God tipping over the barrel to the people who were being stalked. The message: You don’t report crimes and you don’t go to the authorities if someone is stalking you. You have to take it. You do not at all implicate the church in any way even if it is responsible. He was being a real butt. Furthermore, I shook his hand after services and introduced myself. He pretended he didn’t know me. Of course he knew me. He was playing “let’s pretend”.
You know what happened two days later: 9/11. And in his sermon, about God tipping over the barrel, was not one word about one of the biggest events in America’s history. He completely missed the opportunity to reveal God’s prophecy. I guess he was too busy chewing out people who were being abused in the church — the victims are always supposed to just lie down and take it and the perps not only go free, but they are given full support of the ministry throughout the entire organization. It’s coverup for the good of the order. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t cover the victims.
I also remember vaguely that Herbert Armstrong was bragging about some radio station he was going to be on in the Middle East that was being scuttled at the time he was saying how it was going to be so good for God’s [his] Work [ego narcissistic source].
I also have had occasion to converse with a man who carried artillery as concealed weapons to church regularly. He was fully licensed to do so. As I recall he was also an arms instructor of some kind. I’m pretty sure that anyone in the church stalking him or his family would likely stop doing so in short order. Matthew 18 really works if you’re carrying the firepower to back it up.
And why are we having this discussion?
Because Armstrongism is cult, that’s why.
Interesting in how close a COG can come to a major event and have no clue about it. Then after it occurs, they become instant experts with imperfect hindsight. Then there were all those bold predictions in the Plain Truth which didn’t occur or are still “5 to 10 years” in the future.