Previously we saw how Pack links himself with HWA by using a personal moment with him in order to associate himself with "Elijah" himself. This is just one tale of association that has been spread by his sect, RCG. There are others elements to this narrative as well that are present in his Authorized Biography.
This association with HWA is also pursued in another way, namely by RCG's acquiring of relics. In this book they proudly display photos of one of HWA's electric typewriters, which we are told was used when he wrote Mystery of the Ages (Group 4 of photos in Volume 2, p. 10), and an Elijah glass made of Steuben crystal (Group 7 of photos in Volume 2, p. 9). I thought keeping relics was regarded as idolatrous? Also he mentions that his father attended school with a then unknown HWA. All of these details are used to allow Pack to be linked with HWA.
Furthermore a picture is shown with Pack preaching to a WCG tour group at Capernaum at hill which is suggested to be the "Mount" where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. (Group 5 of photos in Volume 1, p. 4, PDF p. 3) To be fair Pack is not the only one to do indulge in such associations with Jesus. I remember once Gerald Flurry made a TV broadcast at the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem.
And so Pack is able to surround himself with tithe followers and set up his own Armstrongite sect, convincing them that he basks in the glory of HWA.
I've just added some references to the photos mentioned here.
ReplyDelete"I thought keeping relics was regarded as idolatrous?"
ReplyDeleteYou can paper your walls with pictures of HWA, but God help you if you have a cross.
Hard to imagine we were once in that system, isn't it? Now that you see it for what it is.
Oh dear. If Herbert Armstrong once touched something you have, that means you're his favorite minister? That means you have the apostolic succession?
ReplyDeleteEven if he named someone else as the successor in 1986????
That sort of absurd thinking might work for Michael Jackson fanatics, but I thought COG's were supposed to be more reasoned and logical than this.