Surviving “Perilous Times”

Introduction

BY DAVID C. PACK

Civilization has entered the “last days” – II Timothy 3:1. The context through chapter 4, verse 4, reveals that “perilous times” have come upon both the world and the Church. There are now many kinds of deception and “sleight of men” (Eph. 4:14) being foisted on unsuspecting and gullible brethren. This volume addresses some of the worst of those deceptions, and assists in helping you survive them all!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

As a result of the apostasy in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), approximately 80 percent of the membership fell away from the entire truth of God. The remaining 20 percent, who fled and survived, scattered into many disagreeing organizations, forming at different intervals during the falling away. The fact that so many of the members completely departed from the hundreds of true doctrines, restored to the Church during Herbert W. Armstrong’s 52-year ministry, is a great testimony to the tremendous power of deception. That the 20 percent could not agree sufficiently to be able to assemble together—in one organization—reinforces the fact that additional deception, confusion and division afflicts these “survivors.”

This is not a book with seven chapters, covering a single subject, but rather it is a reference book containing seven related articles. Each in some way pertains either to wrong teachings now circulating in the splinters or to dangerous spiritual trends and conditions, and to false leaders whose methods of deceit are afflicting God’s people with outrageous false thinking. By now, if you read the rest of the Splinter Explanation Packet, you should be able to recognize that the kinds of dangerous pitfalls swallowing God’s people are many.

As a result, as circumstances dictate, later editions of this volume may be amended to include additional articles, explaining future problems and false teachings that have not yet surfaced among the splinters. This has already happened several times. Therefore, the title Surviving “Perilous Times” overarches seven topics, presented in the form of separate articles.

No one article reflects the overall purpose or goal of the book. Each is intended to address a different, crucial issue that has remained unanswered, unaddressed or unexplained—or explained incorrectly—within the splinters resulting from the break-up of the WCG.

The first is an article initially published in late 2000, now listing nearly 200 false doctrines within the splinters, demonstrating how the pervasive “spirit of error” is now quietly fighting for dominance in these organizations, just as the New Testament warned it could (I John 4:6). As a result, false teaching is spreading—again, exactly as the New Testament warned—like cancer and leaven! What is occurring today in the splinters parallels and has actually far surpassed the liberal period of the mid-1970s in the WCG, when the Church was so obviously recognized then to be terribly off track!

The second article explains the real story behind why false leaders in the Worldwide Church of God allowed women, in November 1988, to begin wearing makeup once again. The great majority of women in the splinters have followed their lead and now use cosmetics. What happened here? How?—why?—did so many women buy into such an obviously wrong practice—one that Mr. Armstrong thundered would only be reversed “over my [his] dead body”? This story has been largely untold, with simplistic answers and clichés having been offered to distort the truth about this return to false understanding.

The third article addresses the current popular belief that the wedding supper with Christ will take place in heaven. While this idea is silly, it has become widespread enough that it had to be examined in a systematic and thorough way.

World To Come on The True Church

The fourth article, very extensive, “Why So Many ‘SPLINTER’ Groups?”, was once the centerpiece of a booklet published under this title. (Actually, several of the articles originally in that booklet are now in this book.) This one has been greatly expanded and essentially replaced by “Anoint Your Eyes” – Christ’s Warning to His People, one of the most important pieces of literature that RCG produces. That book is directed to all who hope to escape the Laodicean era and its fate! However, this article contains additional points.

The fifth article—“Dining Out on the Sabbath—What Does the Bible Teach?”—represents another major false teaching that has become widespread in the splinters. Many have now come to believe that it is a sin to eat out at a restaurant on the Sabbath—that this is God’s great “test” today. The severity of this problem is similar to the wrong ideas surrounding the wedding supper issue. If you have not already heard of this thinking, sooner or later you will.

The sixth article, “How Does God Reveal Truth to His Church?”, explains the overall process by which God used Mr. Armstrong to restore the truth to His Church in the twentieth century. (In addition to Article Two, most of this article was written by one of our elders, with my involvement.) As with so many other truths, many brethren are now blurring, or even reversing, their understanding of two crucial doctrinal advancements that Mr. Armstrong made in 1974: (1) circumstances that correctly permit divorce and remarriage as it applies to the Church, and (2) changing Pentecost observance from Monday to Sunday.

Now, incredibly, many hundreds who once understood the plain truth of these necessary changes have now convinced themselves that it was Mr. Armstrong who departed from “divinely revealed truth”—generally seeking to use against him his own statements made prior to the change. This thinking attempts to insert Mr. Armstrong as the true author of the apostasy, which is then deemed to have begun in 1974, having merely accelerated in the 1990s until it engulfed the whole Church.

Strangely, these people often find a way to assert that they are “supporting” Mr. Armstrong and “standing up for the truth”—while they are doing neither. (Our booklet Understanding Divorce and Remarriage and article “How to Count Pentecost” more specifically address these subjects. Any who are troubled by foolish contrary ideas, now circulating throughout the splinters, should take time to study them carefully.)

The book concludes with an “Epilogue” of plain statements from Mr. Armstrong, categorized into critical areas: Laodicea, the apostasy, the all-important principle of following the truth at all costs, the one true Church, doctrinal compromise, how truth enters the Church through apostles, God’s government and its connection to His Work, among other topics.

Three of the articles—Three, Six and Eight—had other primary writers than myself, although I was very involved. There were also perhaps six or seven additional men in each case assisting in research.

Continue to: Article One – ENDLESS FALSE DOCTRINES

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