Saturday, December 3, 2016

Dave Pack: Is His "jesus" Returning First To Wadsworth, Ohio Before "It" Returns to Jerusalem Years Later?



Dave Pack is all giddy that his fake "jesus" is coming back to this earth multiple times.  "Its" first coming is specifically for Dave and his little group.  Is Dave trying to tell us that his "jesus" returning to Wadsworth first?  Dave says his creature is NOT coming to Jerusalem first, but to Israel.  Anytime an Armstrongite starts talking about Israel they are not referring to the nation in the Middle East, but are referring to the United States.

Dave surely cannot be referring to England because this is the place where Gerald Flurry will be waiting after he has stolen the Stone of Scone from Scotland and taken it to Westminster Abbey so his "jesus" can come and sit on it.  There is no way Dave will share the spotlight with Gerald Flurry, let alone Westminster Abbey.




Where the Kingdom Begins


The almost universally believed destination of Christ’s Return is Jerusalem. But is this what God’s Word says? Christ will of course ultimately rule from there—countless scriptures show this—but is this where His tiny mustard-seed Kingdom begins? Does His first-century coming provide a clue?
Notice Jesus was born to Mary in “a city of Galilee, named Nazareth” (Luke 1:26)—well north of Jerusalem! Far from a prominent city, Nazareth was scoffed at as a kind of dead-end backwater by Jerusalemites. After Jesus called the apostle Peter, He then called Philip who reported to Nathaniel that they had found Christ. Not convinced, Nathaniel asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Clearly Christ’s first century coming was to an unexpected place. His arrival shocked and confused the masses: “Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?” (7:41). Both Nazareth and Galilee were looked down on by the elites of Jesus’ day.
Christ started His ministry away from Jerusalem—a pattern we will see holds.
The prophet Micah further establishes the Kingdom moves to Jerusalem: “O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto you shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem” (4:8). It does not say the Kingdom—Christ’s rule long before events in Revelation, after which it picks up again to continue for 1,000 more years—is built in Zion or starts in Zion. (Nor does it say it arrives there from heaven.) Micah says it “comes” there, meaning it was initially somewhere else. Of course it was—in a location called “His place!”
Let’s look at one last description of the Branch in an unusual context. The setting is a great war that afflicts the nations of modern Israel—and the disastrous effect on Jerusalem and the tribe of Judah: “Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man [the survivors of the war], saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach” (Isa. 3:25-4:1).
Many other Bible passages detail the war that Isaiah references—where it starts, how it spreads, who it affects, and its unimaginable severity. This is a completely separate event that occurs long, long before Armageddon, but this is not our subject here. Those who think the world is already at war between clashing cultures will soon realize today’s events are essentially NOTHING. Conditions will grow infinitely worse and eventually engulf all the nations of the West. What is coming is beyond imagination. Therefore most will be caught completely off-guard.
Isaiah continues, showing what is happening alongside the war. Let’s read what no one ever sees: “In that day [by this time, when the devastation of war has grown great] shall the Branch [the growing, maturing sprout] of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth…excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel [from the war]. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem [many will have died]: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning” (vs. 2-4). Fiery judgment is involved, including the furnace we read about. Read Isaiah 31:9.
By this point the Branch and the Kingdom—having already been on Earth for some time—are flourishing! This is the result of the previously mentioned “Marvelous Work,” covered momentarily. The fruit is called “excellent and comely,” meaning an “ornament.” Christ is called “glorious” and “beautiful.” The latter meaning “in the sense of prominence; splendor (as conspicuous)”—by this time the Kingdom has become the opposite of small and hidden! It is conspicuous and prominent! At this point many millions of people will have come into the Kingdom. Try to make all of this—any of it!—fit the popular narrative! No one is teaching it, yet it is the truth of your Bible visible in PLAIN SIGHT on the pages.
Isaiah 59 brings another perspective of Christ coming to Jerusalem—again, years after His Kingdom began small: “The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord” (vs. 20). Then chapter 60 begins, “Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen [risen, not descended] upon you [remember, from a depressed placeunderneath and below view]. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall ariseupon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you” (vs. 1-2). Ponder this. If Jesus started His journey in heaven, He would be described as descending—not rising—on Zion! Do not miss this! Many verses do confirm Jesus comes from heaven to His people. It is several years later that He comes to the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4) and shortly after that to Zion, which is adjacent to it.

Location of Christ’s “Place”

Certain passages further prove Christ relocates to Zion, and these provide clues about which nation He will come to. A prophecy for our time—the latter days—that almost no one talks about is found in Numbers 24. The prophet Balaam foretold, “In the latter days…there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre [Ruler] shall rise out of Israel [not Judah]…Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remains of the city [this is Jerusalem]” (vs. 141719).
Called the “Star” here, other passages describe Christ as the “Sun of Righteousness” (Mal. 4:2), “Day Star” (II Pet. 1:19) and the “Bright and Morning Star” (Rev. 22:16). He brings His dominion—His rule!—to Jerusalem and Judah from a different modern nation of Jacob (Israel). This cannot be referencing Christ’s birth location because He was born of Judah, and in Judea. Many scriptures covered in my thorough book America and Britain in Prophecy make clear the distinction between Judah and the other 11 tribes of Israel. In fact, the very first reference to “the Jews” in the Bible shows them at war with Israel (II Kgs. 16:1-6)! The modern Mideast nation called Israel is in fact Judah, with the democratic, English-speaking nations of the West identified as the descendants of the rest of the tribes of ancient Israel. Jesus Christ first comes to one of these countries, NOT Judah!
Isaiah 41 contains more proof: “I have raised up One from the north, and He shall come” (vs. 25). “North” means “hiddendark; used only of the north.” It continues, leaving no doubt this is Jesus Christ: “He shall come upon princes as upon mortar [establishing His authority over all earthly leaders], and as the potter treads clay. Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know?…and I will [at this point] give to Jerusalem One that brings good tidings” (vs. 25-27). Here is a prophecy of Christ being “raised up”—think “growing up”—sprouting from—a northern country(a modern Israelite nation of the West) to defeat His enemies.
This intervention, coupled with good tidings—the true gospel—is absolutely necessary given that horror begins in Jerusalem the very day Christ’s little Kingdom begins.

The Church of God and Its Dystopian Society



The Painful Truth has a new article up on Armstrongism and the Church of God and its vision of things to come and how none of it has ever come to pass and what happens to people caught up in the deception.

Just what is a dystopian society?
  • A dystopia is considered a fictional society usually portrayed as existing in a future time, when the conditions of life are extremely dismal due to deprivation, oppression, or terror. 
Sound familiar? Remember the Good News magazine that spewed out the WCG’s view of what God’s utopia would look like? It was heaven on earth. But to enter into this wonderful time (the kingdom) would require you to do unending somersaults of law keeping, tithing, and blindly obeying those who really did not care for you or your family.  
Remember the Plain Truth? Have you ever read Meredith’s or Flurry’s rag? They fill your mind with a hopeless air of despair. 
The propagating of these ideas and others into the minds of their audience that future race wars are coming, or economic collapse is just a few short years away, are an ideology the ACOG’s place into print within their magazines in order to form opinions, prejudice and to mirror church doctrine. This conditions the membership not to jump ship and chance that they will be caught up in the fray when the projected SHTF moment materializes. Anyone who has spent a decade or more in one of these groups can attest that a SHTF moment is always just a few years off.
What the ACOG’s fail to foresee is the results of their endless negative prognosticating. When a human has confidence and optimism, the very joys of life itself stolen from them, you take away the zeal for life, you squelch the will to live. You destroy the individual. What you have left is a shell of the former and a slave which needs to be constantly managed in order to maintain his or her direction forward.  
The Dystopian standard-bearer (an advocate or champion of a particular cause or ideology) often feels trapped and is struggling to escape and questions the existing social, political, or in our case, religious systems. 

The article is well worth the read: Herbert Armstrong's Utopian Society