Worldwide Church of God Offshoot News – Pack's Restored Church of God announces nationwide television program

The Restored Church of God (RCG) will premiere The World to Come™ with David C. Pack on nationwide television in the United States this September. The program will feature Pastor General David C. Pack "analyzing world news and explaining Bible prophecy with a unique approach, stripping away mystery from current events while detailing many other biblical truths."

RCG is just one of around 500 splinter groups birthed from the former Worldwide Church of God created by Herbert W. Armstrong, a cult of theology that pretty much died along with Armstrong when it changed its theology to more mainline Christianity and became known as Grace Communion International.  One of these splinter groups, the Church of God – PKG, made headlines this year when its leader, Ronald Weinland, declared that Jesus Christ was returning on May 27, 2012 and warned mockers of his proclamations that they'd die of cancer.  Weinland was convicted of tax evasion in June.

In his "Who is David C. Pack" video posted on YouTube and embedded below, Pack takes aim at all the other 499 or so splinter groups who were "confused" and "watering down" the doctrines laid out by Armstrong.  According to the video, Pack has a divinely-appointed commission:   "God would send a man to make sense of the uncertainty and division among God's people. Personally trained by Mr. Armstrong, that man is David C. Pack."

Pack attended Ambassador College (a Worldwide Church of God institution) and entered the Worldwide Church of God ministry in 1971 until he quit over doctrinal disputes following Armstrong's death. "Mr. Pack's ministry became a beacon of clarity to those struggling to come out of the doctrinal error and return to the truth that Mr. Armstrong taught," Pack's promotional video narrates. "In early 1999 Mr. Pack established the Restored Church of God as the continuation of the one true church Jesus established."

The video describes a "splinter packet" that people can read — a collection of pamphlets penned by Pack that explains why his church is the only true church that continues on with "the work" begun by Armstrong.


{video link}

Pack's ministry patterns itself after Armstrong, printing numerous free books and pamphlets,  "The Real Truth magazine" (patterned after Armstrong's "The Plain Truth magazine"), The World to Come program (patterned after Armstrong's The World Tomorrow program), and the Ambassador Center (patterned after Armstrong's Ambassador College).

According to the RCG press release:

In this violent age filled with war, famine, pollution, disease, disasters and economic uncertainty, The World to Come with David C. Pack answers life's greatest questions straight from the Bible and provides solutions for unsolvable worldwide problems and conditions. Each weekly 30-minute program is recorded in high-definition and will be broadcast with closed captions for the hearing impaired. More than 125 million viewers will have access through over-the-air stations, select cable affiliates, and two separate satellite networks.

"Everyone recognizes the world is in terrible trouble," stated David C. Pack, Pastor General of RCG. "In an age of uncertainty, The World to Come is a voice of plain truth, proclaiming humanity's only hope—in terms heard nowhere else!" (Editor's note – exclamation mark is quoted.)

RCG is apparently engaged in all sorts of earth-shattering, groundbreaking things as it paves the way for the return of Jesus Christ and the world to come.  It redesigned its website, which it says "now takes its place among the most advanced in the world, eclipsing all other religious sites!"  (Editor's note – exclamation mark is quoted.)  It is also building a "a magnificent World Headquarters" in Wadsworth, OH, that "will reflect the extraordinary tradition of the Worldwide Church of God’s three Ambassador College campuses—which the Church long understood were in fact to reflect the quality and character of God!"  (Editor's note – exclamation mark is quoted.)

The RCG World Headquarters, patterned after Armstrong's Ambassador College, is different from the $20 million Armstrong Auditorium in Edmund, OK, built by a different Worldwide Church of God offshoot, the Philadelphia Church of God.

According to an article about the Pack church's building plans, written by the Akron Beacon Journal and reprinted at Silenced.co, "While the new complex will offer a larger worship area than the current 150-seat multi­purpose room, one of the primary reasons the church needs more space is because of its publishing operation, expected to grow with the cable television launch."

Pack's press release and "World To Come Television" web page don't say what cable and satellite networks his 30-minute program will be broadcast on — but it is unlikely that ex-church members at the Exit and Support Network and Silenced will be tuning in for the show's promised answers to life's greatest questions.

 

D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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  • Rob S

    Life's greatest question is…. Why Me?

  • http://www.facebook.com/MattiesDad Shane Granger

    For clarity on Armstrong's legacy, it should be noted that the Philadelphia Church of God actually owns the copyrights to most of Herbert W. Armstrong's writings and distributes them free upon request. This was the result of a six-year court case PCG fought with the Worldwide Church of God after Armstrong died. PCG was started in 1989 by Gerald Flurry when he was fired from WCG for resisting the doctrinal changes away from Armstrong's teachings. Flurry founded the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation in 1996 on the exact pattern of Armstrong's Ambassador Foundation, and founded Herbert W. Armstrong College in 2001 on the exact pattern of Armstrong's Ambassador College.

    • Deborah_B

      Good point about that lawsuit. Out of this 120,000 or so who were members, are most of them still with the Philadelphia group? Or are they basically new people?

      • No2HWA

        Gerald Flurry only has around 4-5,000 members. Of all the splinter cults to break off Armstrongism, this one is the most dangerous. They have instructed members to cut off all ties with family if they were ever part of he COG and did not join PCG. Grandparents refuse to see grandchildren. Parents refuse to see children. Flurry even had them whipped into a frenzy a couple years ago that they were fleeing into Petra Jordan. Even after Flurry was arrested in a drunken stupor he still has a small following.

        • http://www.facebook.com/MattiesDad Shane Granger

          Many churches, not just PCG, follow the biblical command to shun members who have departed from the faith. With eternal life at stake it is done in love to help wake them up before it is too late to repent. Does that makes a church dangerous, or exhibit their concern and love for those shunned members, lest they lose their salvation? As for the arrest, Flurry publicly repented before the church and the community of the incident 14 years ago and has not had a drop of alcohol since, except for a thimble of wine once per year at the Passover service. The fruits of his work since that time speak for themselves. Deborah, PCG membership is around 5,000 worldwide. Many are former WCG members, but many new converts have come along as well.

          • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

            To insist someone stays and even threatening them with a non-existent hell is not love. Threats are not at all love, esp when they are meant to do nothing more than control someone. It is also abusive and not at all psychologically healthy.

  • Peter

    At one time, Armstrong's Worldwide Church
    of God was perhaps the most successful and profitable in using the evolving
    media of the day. In the mid-sixties, I would listen Garner Ted Armstrong, with
    his hypnotic voice, every morning, at 5.30 am, on my way to work. What did I
    know at that age so I sent for some of their literature and The Plain Truth magazine.
    With Garner Ted, Armstrong didn't need crusades like Billy Graham because the
    last figure I saw was that these charlatans brought in over $70 million a year,
    in 1970 dollars.

    My parents were nominal Christians and, of
    course, a subject never discussed in polite company, blind acceptance, in other
    words. But, it was the sixties and the dynamic going on with songs like Dylan's The Times are a
    Changing and With God on Our Side plus the Beatles and Stones was
    revolutionary. We questioned everything, especially Viet Nam, even though I'm
    Canadian we protested and welcomed a lot of draft dodgers, who were perfectly
    welcome. I'm a child of the sixties, stuck there, actually, and I don't regret
    it. It was a wonderful, magical time to be alive and it won't happen again. It's
    interesting that conservative Republican's said their favourite song was The Who's
    Won't Get Fooled Again, and these neo-Neanderthal's don't understand Pete Townshend was talking about them.

    Anyway, it can't happen
    again. The surviving Beatles, the Stones and Dylan have lost their fire. The
    only one who still has it is Springsteen and when was the last him you heard
    him on the radio? There are some breaking the barriers but the media treats them
    like freaks, like Lady Ga Ga. Meanwhile mega-churches following the formula set
    by Armstrong rake in millions from their naïve saps.

    Anyway, I went off topic and
    I apologize: just my personal journey.

    • Deborah_B

      No problem going off topic. Garner Ted was a very gifted radio broadcaster, which helped recruit so many people and their dollars and I think that you are right in your assessment of the Armstrongs.

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  • Laymember

    Senator Bob Dole, a personal friend of Garner Ted Armstrong, had all of the Garner Ted Armstrong, (actual TV show titled after his own name) preserved into the US Congress Library TV and Film national archives. They continued the congressional order after those programs from 1972 to 1978 were archived, and the Library continued to archive every program the father Herbert Armstrong made from 1978 till his death in 1986. However whenever the father took over the broadcast in 1978 he changed the name to coincide with the radio version titled The World Tomorrow. It is the only program of a religious nature preserved in the national archives. A wikipedia article indicates the program is once again on the air and copyrighted to the splinter group Church of God, Worldwide Ministries, under The World Tomorrow Evangelistic association. Evidently they own the copyright to the archived TV shows made by Herbert Armstrong from 1978 to 1986. Mark Armstrong, as producer of the Garner Ted Armstrong program, inherited the copyright of his dad's materials and has since aired several of the archived shows. Pack is off his rocker as are many of these self appointed splinter group leaders who are blind to the fact Ezk. 34 and Jer. 23 apply to them, and not the Sunday preaching devil ministers. The splinter churches have the truth in that they keep the God ordained and santified 7th day sabbath Christ kept, Saturday, over the 1st day of the week devil deception Sunday worshippers and the Holy Days of the Lord rather than the phoney fairy tale man made devil inspired Christmas, Easter, and Halloween.
    But the splits have occured just as God ordered Daniel to write in Chapter 12, verse 7 …and I heard him, (the angel on the bank of the river), swear by HIM, (GOD), who lives forever, saying, "It will be for 3.5 years. When the power", (financial ability to preach the gospel, GOOD News of Christ's return and God's government set up on this earth for all eternity), "of the holy people", (those babtized believers and core supporters mainly splintered fragmented former members of THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH of GOD) "has been finally", (not yet completely) "broken", (fragmented into smaller "splinter groups" BY GOD HIMSELF), "all these things, (earth shattering events leading up to the great tribulation and two witnesses final end time WORK), "will be completed".