Birthday Present…Truth
February 1, 2025 | by Marc Cebrian
David C. Pack of The Restored Church of God dismantled another legacy doctrine of the Worldwide Church of God by sanctioning the celebration of birthdays. While teaching the “present truth” that observing birthdays is not inherently evil after all, the Pastor General shined another spotlight on the rebellion and monumental hypocrisy of Herbert W. Armstrong.
For years, the Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God had not-so-secretly honored his mother by sending her roses on her birthday in direct violation of a doctrinal understanding enforced by lesser “ministurds” for decades. (Thank you for that phrase, Dennis.)
The moral of the story: If you are “low key” about your covert defiance of church doctrines and happen to be highest in the food chain of your dogmatic religious organization, you can get away with just about anything. David C. Pack has fully embraced this “grand pattern” and plans to preserve it until he retires into the grave.
Beginning with “The Greatest Unending Story! (Parts 552 & 553)” on January 11, 2025, Dave eased into dissolving the long-held belief that Jesus Christ was born on the Feast of Trumpets in the fall. It was no coincidence that the discovery of this mystery birthday ties directly into the timing of the 1335 and the Day of the Lord 1290 of the book of Daniel, which ushers the arrival of the Kingdom of God…just over the horizon.
Jesus Christ was born on Abib 1
The 1335 begins on February 12, 2025
Not January 29
The Day of the Lord is March 29
What was sin yesterday is righteousness today.
It was a tremendous relief for members who no longer needed to hide their interactions with relatives around birthdays. The guilt from eating a bite of cake or paranoia around being spotted holding a present has been evaporated. Repentance is no longer required after saying “Happy Birthday.”
Birthdays have come to The Restored Church of God.
Dave has grossly misunderstood the 2 Peter 1:12 term “present truth” and uses it as his Get Out of Jail Free Card whenever he wants to invoke or revoke an established church doctrine. The way he understood something yesterday is different from today, but both adherences were correct at the time. This invalidates the concept of “error” from church vocabulary.
Dave's technique is to read the same ambiguous verses he taught for decades and reverse the logic to fit his current narrative.
• None of Job’s children died on a birthday. Only the servants did.
• Pharaoh killing the baker on his birthday “does not taint” them.
• John the Baptist's death on Herod's birthday is just incidental.
• Ecclesiastes 7:1, "the day of death than the day of one's birth," was misunderstood. It does not mean birthdays are inherently evil.
• Acknowledging a birthday is not the same as observing a pagan custom.
I already knew this, and so did many who cycled through RCG. Regardless of the evidential legitimacy of enforced doctrines, a member must comply, or they are labeled self-willed, arrogant, and rebellious.
The standard ministerial response was:
“Oh, you think you know better than the ministers of Jesus Christ who were ordained and received an extra portion of the Holy Spirit? God opened your eyes and not theirs because you’re so special? God defied His own government structure by revealing to a lay member what He has withheld from the only living apostle?”
As of Part 552…apparently so.
Even when I was a zealous member of The Restored Church of God, I knew their teachings about birthdays being evil were thin and unbiblical. Man, they had to reach. Even the World to Come episode that addressed this was based on inductive reasoning, not clear Bible verses.
RCG has already begun washing their hands of the sin of the sin of birthdays. You will no longer find the four-page article “Are Birthday Celebrations Christian?” once listed on their website, but you can visit the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to see it in its former glory. Or download a PDF copy HERE.
The 2017 Pillar issue featuring the article “What’s So Bad About Birthdays?” is available for download.
Reading their now-redacted materials with a “birthday present truth” perspective exposes how flimsy some RCG doctrines can be because they were established on human steam, not clear commands of God. The “because I say so” theology lives on.
If there ever was a long-standing doctrine that lacked power and clarity, it was what WCG and RCG taught about God hating birthdays. The rationale in this Real Truth article from 2014 is some of the weakest you will find, yet it was compelled upon members anyway.
Part 552 – January 11, 2025
@ 27:46 Now, that’s a shocking thing to understand. And the thing it does [chuckles] it makes Mr. Armstrong look like he was doing something RIGHT when he honored his mother on her birthday for decades of his life.
The unrecognized implication is that Herbie was knowingly doing something WRONG, and Dave was just fine with that. According to David C. Pack, “The greatest servant I ever knew” was a blatant hypocrite and willful authoritarian who kept his defiance “low key.”
The religious apple does not fall far from the corrupted tree.
Herbert W. Armstrong. Do as I say, not as I do.™
Despite granting liberty to the birthday captives, Dave pled for moderation.
@ 48:39 My purpose is not to spell out what we can do on birthdays. Clearly, were time to go on, I would address that.
@ 48:50 But let’s not have what I call a “pepperoni pizza moment.” …Don’t go, “Oh, boy!” You know, over the next few weeks, please don’t go off half-cocked and do something. You know, throw some big party. Don’t do that. Wait. Show restraint.
Dave wants the brethren to show restraint after decades of damaging experiences with their families around birthdays. Ask anyone freed from RCG about the uncomfortable situations they found themselves in when close family members begged them to be a part of a birthday celebration.
Dave is doctrinal Karate-Do-Yes and Karate-Do-No at the same time. This feels awfully familiar to their New Moon observances, which still have that trumpet making an uncertain sound.
@ 1:38:15 …but it duddn't mean that gifts couldn't be given on birthdays. Or that they should be. So, that’s why I say we gotta be careful.
Countless difficulties were needlessly created because members tried to obey the anti-birthday command that they were force-fed while also trying to counter-balance the perspective they were in a repressive cult. We all walked that narrow line at some point, whether it was attending a party but not eating the cake or standing silently while everyone else gleefully sang, “Happy Birthday.”
This now-defunct doctrine caused grief and pain for children, whether they were members or not. It is heart-wrenching for a parent to explain to their small child that they can only observe an activity but not participate.
My buddy Peter in Canada still gets hot under the collar when you mention the harm of RCG’s birthday doctrine. He is justly angry for what he allowed RCG to put his children through.
Rejecting birthdays sparked tension between spouses. Emotionally separated parents from children. This created an unnecessary resentment towards all religious organizations and resulted in the opposite of “letting your light shine.” Instead of letting our works carry a good name, Christianity was further despised. Thanks a lot, Herbie.
This doctrinal flip-flop will not heal the trauma of generations nor erase the personal horror stories many endured in the name of “obeying God.” According to David C. Pack, all that family suffering was in vain.
Birthdays are now acceptable in The Restored Church of God because determining the day of Jesus Christ's birth is essential to knowing when the 1335 of Daniel would begin 45 days before that.
Abib 1 [1290] begins at sunset on March 29.
Shevat 15 [1335] begins at sunset on February 12.
Dave needed one birthday to matter, so he made it happen.
@ 1:17:20 If that could be the birthday of Christ, you you almost find yourself asking, “Does the Millennium begin on Christ’s birthday? Abib 1 [February 12, 2025]?” I mean, it's starting to look suspicious, but we've gotta prove it.
@ 1:30:55 And when that week [70 Weeks Prophecy] is over, when we get to the next Abib 1 on His Day, which would be kept forever, every year forever, on His Day, the Day of Christ. If you can prove Abib 1, we’re gonna celebrate His birthday every day forever. We won’t call it a birthday party, but it’d be His birthday. So, I mean, we’ll let God tell us what it was.
Part 553 – January 11, 2025
@ 05:49 So, Christmas is a counterfeit birthday. A counterfeit gift giving in the wrong time to the wrong Jesus, by the way. So, it’s fitting that Another Jesus would be born at another time.
Just like David C. Pack is a counterfeit apostle, prophet, teacher, shepherd, and minister.
@ 06:18 So, God says I hate your star. Okay? Now, nothing wrong with a star. God showed a star when when Christ was born. Nothing wrong with a star. “I hate YOUR star.” [chuckles]
Dave slipped into another doctrinal moonwalk without the same fanfare he used to enact it. He taught in 2023 that stars were evil. But today, not so much.
The same weak strategy to promote the evils of birthdays is employed to defuse them.
@ 07:11 So, you can begin to think of things in a certain light, and this is a whole different way of thinking. You’ll begin to work off of these things in your mind. There nothing wrong with this.
@ 21:04 On Abib 1, in this great Day of the Lord, you could have all kinds of people saying, “Happy Birthday and Happy New Year.” Don’t say “Merry Christmas.” [laughs] Okay?
@ 22:24 It’s not Trumpets. We’re trapped in Trumpets. And God know that Herbert Armstrong, this great servant, he did [chuckles] he did what he was supposta do, he had the truths of God right. In fac–in some ways, he was a little ahead of his time because he did what he as he honored his mother and didn’t stand in the way of other people.
When Herbert W. Armstrong played down his hypocrisy, he posthumously exercised premature righteousness, not arrogant stubbornness. Maybe all the members of The Restored Church of God should roll the same dice by picking their least favorite doctrine and putting that philosophy into practice.
@ 22:47 [HWA] Just said keep it low-key. Pretty much everybody [in WCG] did and and and most did nothing at all.
Brethren of The Restored Church of God, please hear your Pastor General. David C. Pack just told you that if you are going to willfully sin, just keep it low-key. That is totally fine.
What a dismal swamp of confused doctrines that spiritually bankrupt organization teaches.
Knowing the birthday of Jesus Christ caused all the mystery pieces to fall into place, and David C. Pack will finally be proven to be a true servant of God on February 12, 2025.
@ 38:01 So, you you’re looking at February 12th. If there’s some other way, I don’t know how to do it, brethren. I’m I’ve tried my heart out.
@ 38:59 Remember that God puts Elijah in charge, typed by Jeremiah, at the “new year of trees.” Well, guess what? That is the 15th, the 15th of Shevat. 15th of Shevat.
@ 53:15 A Trumpets Day of the Lord, Christ’s birthday in the fall, and the 1335 days that was related to that since they did not see they [WCG] did not see that. Worldwide did not see this First Kingdom. All of that collapsed together now. It’s over.
It is hard to fathom that The Restored Church of God is not yet over. And yet, it still limps along.
During “The Greatest Unending Story! (Part 554)” on January 18, 2025, Dave visited the idea of moving The Last Great Day again. In 2023, he attempted “The Last Great Moving Day” by declaring it needed to shift from the fall to the end of the Days of Unleavened Bread. That idea cooled faster than his coffee.
During Part 554, Dave plucked out that holy day and placed it onto Abib 1 to fit the rest of his theological fantasy because…why not?
Part 554 – January 18, 2025
@ 21:26 So, it makes ya suspicious. Is the Last Great Day gonna shift?@ 21:43 Is the Last Great Day portable?
“The Greatest Unending Story! (Part 555)” given on January 25, 2025, was a colossal nothingburger. Yawn. As a follow-up, Dave was a no-show on Wednesday’s New Moon despite his assurances he would speak. You cannot trust the words of David C. Pack. He continuously proves that.
The entire church system HWA constructed continues to be an unreliable mess, and David C. Pack persists in championing that filthy banner of malarkey.
Birthdays are now sanctioned in The Restored Church of God, but that is only a present…truth.
