David C. Pack vs A Sabbath Test
Timeline of Events
"The Blood On Your Head"
O n July 8, 2005 Blow the Trumpet published a crushing response to an RCG disclaimer that was added to their article condemning A Sabbath Test. In this response, Blow the Trumpet offers the RCG $10,000 if they can produce the Email they (the RCG) claim was a confession from the authors of A Sabbath Test admitting that they knew Dave Pack did not write the RCG article. Blow the Trumpet then offerd a challenge to Dave Pack to debate the issue publicly.
"The Ten Thousand Dollar Challenge"
On Thursday June 16, the Restored Church of God issued a scathing indictment of a book entitled A Sabbath Test, which appears in our library. Blow the Trumpet originally attributed the article to RCG’s leader, Mr. David C. Pack. However, after reading our rebuttal to their essay, the RCG has apparently decided to distance Mr. Pack from this very contentious essay. According to their website, Mr. Pack did not actually write its condemnation of A Sabbath Test after all. He simply provided some oversight to the project as well as some editing. As a result, the RCG has decided to break with their practice of assigning no author to such articles and give a byline to Mr. George Rogers who it now claims headed up a team of writers assigned to this project.
If you are wondering why they would take this action, join the club. We have no idea. However, it is interesting to note that almost immediately after our rebuttal was written, Blow the Trumpet was contacted by a frequent website visitor who predicted something like this would happen. Actually, this frequent visitor predicted that Mr. Pack would either 1) pull the article off his website out of sheer embarrassment, 2) attempt to rehabilitate the article by making edits to it, or 3) distance himself from it by attributing it to someone else. Two of the three predictions have come to pass. Besides adding a byline, the article was also edited in an attempt to deflect our rebuttal.
When announcing its byline addition, the RCG renewed its indictment of both A Sabbath Test and its authors—and once again they flooded their essay with a mountain of deception, distortion and misrepresentation. Below are their comments, as they appear under the title THE WRITERS OF OUR PUBLICATIONS, which is located on the bottom of their essay. Additionally, we have provided our response. We have broken it into three segments. Each one is presented, followed by our response.
Restored Church of God:
The Writers of Our Publications
By George Rogers The Restored Church of God
A final point of clarification must be brought to this matter.
Articles produced by The Restored Church of God that do not indicate an author—do not carry a byline—are usually written by several staff writers, with one primary author. Such is the case with this article.
Books, booklets and articles written by Mr. David C. Pack always bear his name. This alone declares that he did not author this article. The authors of A Sabbath Test already knew by other means that Mr. Pack did not write this article, and privately admitted this to us in an e-mail sent to point out their rebuttal, lampooning and ridiculing Mr. Pack. Yet, in the fury of having been exposed by a staff of writers in The Restored Church of God, they deceitfully attributed the article to Mr. Pack and chose to assassinate his character—even though they knew he did not write it. They recognized that most people could never learn what they knew!
Our Response:
Dear Mr. Rogers,
Produce an Email where anyone from Blow the Trumpet or the authors of A Sabbath Test privately or otherwise, admitted to you that they knew Mr. Pack didn’t participate in writing your article and we will send you a check for $10,000.00. You made the claim; therefore, it should be easy to prove. We’re waiting Mr. Rogers.
It strikes us as odd that an author like yourself who quoted A Sabbath Test so prolifically in your essay, would chose not to quote the Email that would so powerfully prove your point. What’s that all about Mr. Rogers?
Something you may fail to understand in your concept of reality is that an accusation is not proof. But it is clear that you try to sell it as just that. However, if your assertion is true you should be drooling at the chance to shut us up. We’re still waiting Mr. Rogers. On the other hand if your assertion is nothing but another deception, (or perhaps just a "boo boo"), then you should think long and hard about slinging your toxic waste and calling it righteous indignation.
For your information, here is the closest thing we could find that privately admits to knowing anything that comes remotely close to what you are claiming. It was written by Mr. Dennis Fischer in an Email sent to Mr. Pack informing him that Blow the Trumpet had written a rebuttal to his attack of A Sabbath Test.
“Personally, I think you owe it to yourself and those who helped you write your article to read our response.”
This hardly sounds like Mr. Fischer knew that Mr. Pack had nothing to do with this article. On the contrary, these words say just the opposite. If this is what you are referring to as a “private admission,” then you should be ashamed of yourself. There isn’t an honest person on the planet that would draw your conclusion. But perhaps that’s the problem. We don’t have an honest person here. Mr. Rogers, we believe your distortion of the real truth is symptomatic of a mindset that is woven throughout your article. You simply fabricate a lie and sell it as gospel. We’re waiting Mr. Rogers.
Perhaps what you meant to say was that Mr. Pack informed Mr. Fischer that he had nothing to do with the article. Mr. Pack stated in his Email to Mr. Fischer that a “team” was involved in writing it. However, in that Email, he clearly identified himself as a part of the team. Notice his use of the word “we.”
“The article was written (by a team of men) because I was aware that many in other groups are swallowing your foolish form of bondage. We did this because, as Mr. Armstrong proscribed in Mystery of the Ages, “It is the duty of Christ’s true ministers (and how scarce today) to protect the begotten but yet unborn saints from false doctrines, from false ministers” (pg. 262, hardcover – emphasis his).”
Mr. Rogers, our question to you is this: When Mr. Pack said, “We did this,” to whom was he referring? Mr. Fischer’s assumption was that he was referring to the team of writers of which he (Mr. Pack) was a part. After all he said “we.” Furthermore, when he said “did this” what was he referring to? Mr. Fischer assumed he was referring to writing the article you now claim to be yours. In other words, Mr. Pack was saying “We (the team, including myself) wrote the article because…
You may have a problem with Mr. Fischer’s interpretation of Mr. Pack’s Email, but your real problem is that you will never be able to produce some secret document that admits what your accusation asserts. Once again, we’re waiting Mr. Rogers.
Restored Church of God Disclaimer continued:
Recall that Christ said, “You shall know them by their fruits.” Apart from the error of their doctrine, in the above way, these men have also told you other of their “fruits.” They have supplied you with additional crucial information about how you can “know” their character. Hebrews 5:14 explains that you are supposed “to discern both good and evil.” This means that you are accountable for recognizing when evil men and seducers are in your presence (II Tim. 3:13).
Our Response:
Dear Mr. Rogers,
We at Blow the Trumpet have no problem accepting the standard you have presented in the above paragraph. However, our question to you is, WILL YOU LIVE BY THAT STANDARD? We ask this because there are a few more “boo boos” in your disclaimer. Consider the following:
1) Contrary to your assertion, the authors of A Sabbath Test did not write the article that appears on our website. Even a casual examination of it would make that pretty obvious. Furthermore, one of the authors is not even affiliated with us and was somewhat reticent about our publishing the rebuttal. The fact of the matter is that Blow the Trumpet wrote it and we stand behind every word of it. Don’t look now, but it would seem to us that you are advancing the same “deception” you accused others of. The difference is that we had every reason to believe Mr. Pack was a key figure in the production of your article. His own words bear this out. You on the other hand were just guessing, and poorly at that.
2) In addition to Mr. Pack’s own words suggesting he was directly involved in the writing of your essay, we had other reasons to draw that conclusion. For example: we believe that Mr. Pack routinely exercises strong oversight of all RCG publications. We don’t say this in a pejorative way. It is simply his management style. However, more than that, we believe your work reflected his position totally and had his unqualified support and agreement. In other words your article expressed his sentiments 100%. Did we misunderstand this? If we did, please let us know and we would be happy to correct our mistake. Furthermore, if Mr. Pack is having second thoughts on it, as it appears he is, once again let us know. We would be happy to make the appropriate changes. Come to think of it, perhaps you may want to consider adding another disclaimer or two.
3) The private Email you mentioned in your opening paragraph was written by Dennis Fischer (a co- author of A Sabbath Test) and appears on our website—so much for private. Mr. Fischer is also one of the principals of Blow the Trumpet, a fact we have never hidden from you. However, his note was written to someone he thought was a friend who had just blasted him in an Email (also on our site) sent approximately one week earlier. It addressed an avalanche of hate launched by Mr. Pack. Quite frankly, it stunned Mr. Fischer and he wanted to think long and hard about responding. Finally, Mr. Fischer’s second Email never even mentioned A Sabbath Test and only referred to this issue in passing. The main thrust of it addressed a tirade thrown by Mr. Pack's first Email. At this point it is important to understand that all of this appears on our website. Furthermore, anyone who reads both Mr. Pack’s and Dennis Fischer’s words can easily see who is smearing whom. Tragically, we suspect that after reading this correspondence you would actually conclude that Mr. Pack was being civil while Mr. Fischer was screaming uncontrollably. Mr. Rogers, the fact of the matter is that your accusations regarding this issue are based on your own “pre-determined conclusions”. In other words, you are writing what to want to believe regardless of what the facts clearly reveal. Quite frankly, your own hate has poisoned your judgement. Ironically, that is what you have deceitfully accused others of doing. What you have written in your disclaimer stands as a testimony of your own bigotry.
Restored Church of God Disclaimer continued:
Because of the controversial nature of this article, addressing such a volatile, divisive issue within the splinters, we feel that an exception needs to be made to our “byline” policy. The names of the authors are: George C. Rogers (primary author, now listed at the beginning), with Bruce A. Ritter and James F. Turck, contributing writers, all of whom contribute to The REAL TRUTH and other RCG publications.
Mr. Pack’s only involvement was the final editing phase—a small percentage of the total man-hours involved. We mention this because many erroneously assume he writes everything listed on our websites.
This question arises: Why did Mr. Pack not write the article?
First, he knew this false teaching would not be taken seriously by serious people. Any who are familiar with our websites understand that he has much “bigger fish to fry”—that he has been called to “shoot elephants,” not “swat gnats” and shoo “ankle biters.” While Mr. Pack has written 65 books and booklets, containing over 4,000 pages (plus countless articles), a sizeable and growing number of skilled writers exist in this powerful, worldwide Work. This article did not require the authorship of the leader of the Church. Mr. Pack could not invest his limited time. Mr. Armstrong knew when to delegate to others what he did not need to do.
Perhaps it is helpful to note that Mr. Pack’s time is primarily invested in directing the overall Work, recording broadcasts, and researching and writing publications, which address the big picture of the real tests that face God’s people today, as opposed to investigating the latest creative new ideas being conceived on the Church of God landscape.
As we continue to identify and counter false teachings, deviating from the restored truths delivered to the Church of God when it was on track under Mr. Armstrong, we expect continued negative repercussions from their promoters and sponsors, and we expect further attacks on us because of what has been explained in this expanded article and in this inset. Nonetheless, the truth will be defended, and this is why we addressed the counterfeit “Sabbath test.” We have done what God requires.
For those who desire to know what the REAL end-time test is, read Mr. Pack’s book “ANOINT YOUR EYES” – Christ’s Warning to His People.
– George C. Rogers
Our Response:
Dear Mr. Rogers,
Our question to you is this: Why would Mr. Pack or anyone else in the Restored Church of God care if someone referred to the article as Mr. Pack’s? After all, it represents the official position of the Restored Church of God, doesn’t it? And Mr. Pack is the physical head of the church, isn’t he? We just don’t understand why this is such an issue to you. In your disclaimer you even stated that you are changing a longstanding practice of your organization? We don’t really mind, but it just seems unnecessary. If Mr. Pack really had no part in this essay and has a problem with being associated with it, let him say so. A simple “I didn’t write it. These are not my words” would suffice. As for us, we will continue to refer to it as Mr. Pack’s article in the same way we would refer to the New York Yankees as George Stienbrenner’s team. You know, like “ Mr. Steinbrenner beat the Red Sox today.”
With that said, we have some more questions for you. First, why all the posturing? Why must you arrogantly exalt yourself and your leader while at the same time belittling people like Dennis Fischer and those who share his position on this vital issue? Why all the self promoting? And why all the condescension?
Well, Mr. Rogers, we think we know the answer to these questions. You do it because you and Mr. Pack are afraid. You fear that God’s people are being moved by a great truth that shouts from the pages of your Bible—a truth you are simply too pompous to hear. Furthermore, that fear is growing. That’s right, growing! While you try to convince yourselves and anyone who will listen, that you are skilled writers or gifted leaders, others are now doing a work that you are too frightened to do. Furthermore, it just galls you that some “nobodies,” oops, we mean “gnats” and “ankle biters” have the courage to do it. It frustrates you because deep down inside of you a question is beginning to linger. It is even beginning to torment you. You know the question:
“Could the authors of A Sabbath Test actually be right? And if they are wrong, why can’t we expose their lie?” Because, quite frankly, your "skilfully" written essay didn’t come close.
An Invitation
Well here is a chance for Mr. Pack as the leader of God’s people to silence this heresy. We at Blow the Trumpet propose a debate be held on the issue of dining out on the Sabbath. Furthermore, in the interest of fairness, Mr. Pack may pick the time, the date, the location, and even the audience. Furthermore, he may bring as many authorities on the subject as he wishes. As for us we will send one man, armed with one Bible, and perhaps five smooth stones. In the end we are absolutely convinced that everyone in that room will be persuaded to walk in God’s law (Ex. 16:4). That is our challenge. We make it because we are NOT afraid.
Mr. Rogers, this is a serious issue that needs to be discussed by serious men, not a “team” of conceited self-aggrandizing braggarts. If you are the serious men you claim to be, then step up. If not, then stand down and just pretend you are men of courage. We suspect you will chose the latter, for obvious reasons.
Blow the Trumpet
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