Matching Tracksuits

It had to happen. From the morning of January 16, 1986, it became an inevitability. When the charismatic leader of a religious organization dies, change is inevitable. I suppose it doesn't have to be a particularly charismatic leader to necessitate change when he dies, but the more charismatic, the harder it is to maintain the same arch of theological development because so much of the theology is grounded in the leader's personality, whether or not followers admit or even are aware of it.

When Herbert Armstrong (HWA) died in 1986, there was no way things could go on as they had before. The most basic reason was simple: everyone believed, implicitly or explicitly, that Armstrong would be alive until the end of time as we know it, until Jesus's second coming. When he passed in his sleep without a single trumpet blast from heaven, without a chorus of angels announcing the return of God incarnate to Earth, it was the first of several inevitable changes in theology. When the new leadership began changing doctrinal distinctives like British-Israelism and the nature of God, the changes were simply too much for some who longed to return to the age of Armstrong. They removed themselves from fellowship and formed an offshoot. More like a hundred-and-some offshoots, but three or four main ones.

Each of these offshoots were in competition for new members as they left the parent organization for the dozens of newly-forming off-shoots, and for many, the medium for measuring the acceptability of this or that splinter group (as they came to be called) when considering membership became the group's faithfulness to Armstrong's teachings, which constituted true Christianity restored again. But slowly, inevitably, these groups began tinkering around the edges of Armstrong's theology. This point was "clarified," and that one "elucidated." Nothing ever really changed -- it was all euphemistically described to the followers, just as it had been in the original group after Armstrong's death.

David Pack, though, founded a group called the Restored Church of God that built its whole membership on the solemn promise that nothing about HWA's teachings would change. But reality tends to get in the way of such far-reaching promises, and one of the earliest dilemmas for the church was the appropriate use of the Internet in spreading Pack's (and by extension, HWA's) theological musings. After all, Mr. Armstrong didn't use the Internet: he used radio and television. For the outsider, this seems like a simple issue: Herbert Armstrong didn't use the Internet because it didn't exist, and so it wasn't any kind of doctrinal issue, just an administrative decision. Still, Pack took a whole sermon to explain to his small flock that, even though it looked like he was making a change, he wasn't making a doctrinal change.

But further challenges waited.

As Pack was only ordained a pastor in Armstrong's church before the breakup, and as he recognized only Armstrong as an authority, he had another problem: He wasn't doing a pastor's job. He was preaching the Armstrongite Gospel to the world, which Herbert Armstrong always taught is an apostle's job. Armstrong was, in the eyes of his followers (which is really all that matters), an apostle on the same standing as the New Testament apostles, and for a pastor to step out of his assigned roll like that seemed mutinous. It was change. So in 2004, Pack declared himself an apostle as well. Problem solved.

But a door opened.

Once a leader who has sworn not to change a single teaching of his claimed predecessor, all doctrines become open for review. This is what happened in the Worldwide Church of God that ultimately led to its turn to orthodoxy and the thousands upon thousands of members who fled to other splinter groups to hold on to the faith once delivered. Pack would have to be very careful not to make changes that seem too drastic, too far-reaching. The solution: add doctrines. Don't change any existing ones -- just add. "These weren't revealed to Herbert Armstrong because he didn't need to know it, but now I can restore this truth."

He has criticized other leaders for doing this, but it was of course inevitable that he do it himself. But how far could he go? He declared himself an apostle in 2004 shortly after declaring himself to be the prophesied "Watchman." It's been over ten years since he made a major change that he's revealed to the public. In his most recent sermon, though, Pack makes the biggest and most dramatic change of his career, arguably of just about any of the splinter leaders.

In short, he makes the claim that if "you were called by God, and you are to participate in his work and walk in his ways, you have to turn over your assets to God's church" and that "salvation is attached to [this new doctrine]." He calls this doctrine "Common," and roots it in the observation that the New Testament church apparently shared a lot of things."Not even Armstrong went that far," a friend and fellow cult-watching enthusiast commented, and that's about right: it is such a drastic change from Armstrong's simple requirement of a 10% tithe on pre-tax income figures that it amounts a wholesale theological change. After all, how can you tithe 10% when you've already contributed all your assets?

This change reveals a megalomaniac mindset of literally historic proportions, a cult of personality that is simply dangerous.

Yet how could this happen? How could he go so much further than Herbert Armstrong ever dared, demanding more fiscally from his followers than Armstrong even dreamed of requiring? It is in part because I believe Armstrong was more mentally stable. Armstrong declared himself to be prophesied in the Bible, but he claimed no supernatural powers for himself. Pack has done just that.

Just what these extraordinary powers might be remains unanswered. But clearly there's a disconnect between reality and how Pack sees reality. But when you see yourself literally in the Bible -- well, when you see yourself in the Bible after using some horrible interpretative techniques -- there's almost no limit to what you can attribute to yourself. It's not too hard to see how far reality has taken leave from Pack.

To suggest that because one Greek word appears to be pronounced like the man's hometown -- that shows just how little Pack understands basic exegetical concepts. But it gets worse:

Moses's "strong hand" equals Armstrong? It would be laughable if it weren't for the fact that so many people are allowing themselves to be duped with this nonsense.

One would think that after the long history of false predictions, both in the Armstrong community and in the general Christian prophecy-loving population, that a leader of a group in 2015 would have learned some lessons. If he hadn't learned from others, one would think that Pack at least learned from himself. In 2004, for example, he stated the following, playfully edited:

It is now 2015, so apparently we did have ten years remaining until the end of the world as we know it, and I would wager that, come 2019, we still won't have seen the end of the world. And yet, on and on he will go until the day that he dies continually proclaiming that "time is short," just like Armstrong did.