by
Keith Hunt
WHAT ABOUT THE MAN CALLED WILLIAM DANKENBRING?
During the last number of months (this was in 1988) a reader has
sent me some copies of a publication called PROPHECY FLASH, put
out by former Plain Truth writer and Worldwide Church of God
member WILLIAM DANKENBRING. The same man also sent me a few of
Dankenbring's articles.
I have received (in 1988 this was) some letters asking me what I
think about the writings of William D. To answer this question
let me first of all give you a short history of this man as he
was connected to the WCG. Below are a few paragraphs taken from
September 1987 AMBASSADOR REPORT:
Dankenbring's Triumph Publishing:
William Dankenbring is a name many former WCG members will
recognize. After graduating from Ambassador College in 1963,
Dankenbring wrote for the Plain Truth for 11 years. He
wrote on an amazing variety of subjects, and one former
Plain Truth editor has called Dankenbring "one of the best
writers the church ever produced." In 1974, however, the
Plain Truth went through an editorial department
reorganization and Dankenbring found himself no longer
working for the WCG.........
Cut off from writing opportunities with the Plain Truth,
Dankenbring, nevertheless, remained loyal to Herbert
Armstrong and the WCG's theology. But he still desired to
use his writing and business skills in a way that would
advance what he saw as "God's truth." That desire led to his
founding Triumph Publishing, an independent publishing
company devoted to disseminating - on a commercial basis -
many of the same teachings the WCG was promulgating.
Right from its start, Triumph did not thrill the WCG.
Dankenbring was not criticizing the WCG's leaders and he was
in harmony with all its teachings. In fact, he remained a
loyal, tithe-paying member. But Triumph still made many in
the WCG uneasy. "Who gave you the authority to do this?" was
a question frequently put to Dankenbring by members who
could not fathom "truth" coming from any source other than
HWA or his hirelings. The ministry, too, on a number of
occasions, challenged him on certain wordings that appeared
in his articles and on whether it was appropriate for him to
market his books during the WCG's Feast of Tabernacles.
Behind his back, however, the official WCG position toward
Dankenbring was vehement.. ................
Still, Dankenbring was not disfellowshipped. Triumph
continued to grow, and by 1980 more WCG members than ever
were familiar with Triumph's books and articles. Official
WCG tolerance for Dankenbring, however, ran out some months
ago when, instead of simply putting out materials that
echoed official church dogma, Dankenbring published an
article that put forward a new view of the 2300 clays
prophecy of Daniel. The article was distributed to a few
members and a handful of ministers, most of whom seemed to
view it favorably. He was then to learn, however, that in
the WCG "new truth" can still only come from one source -
the man at the top.
After 30 years of dedicated service to the WCG, Dankenbring
was summarily disfellowshipped in January. None of his old
friends in the ministry cared enough to even want to discuss
"his problem" with him. Phone calls requesting counselling
on the matter got him nowhere......
After looking over all the tapes and articles Mr. Dankenbring has
to offer his readers (again remember this was back in 1988 when
I was writing this) one quickly sees that a large number are
DEVOTED to EXPOSING the "35 Places where the WCG have gone into
error" as one article is entitled, besides all the DIRT that has
taken place in the organization over the last 18 years.
One must ask the question and wonder that if William D. KNEW all
this - WHY did it take the WCG to DISFELLOWSHIP him in 1987 and
NOT him LEAVING the WCG on his own? When many in the KNOW like
himself HAD LEFT the WCG many years BEFORE, WHY was he still
content to remain LOYAL to HWA and to the WCG's theology.
Through ALL THIS he REMAINED a LOYAL tithe-paying MEMBER. One
must also ask the question: If the WCG had CONTINUED to TURN A
BLIND EYE to his publishing enterprise WOULD HE HAVE LEFT ON HIS
OWN ACCORD BECAUSE OF THE ERRORS AND ALL THE DIRTY STUFF THEN
GOING ON IN THE WCG?
In other words WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR W.D. to come to see
the errors of the WCG and ONLY AFTER they "pushed him out" did he
go to town in exposing them. I can not help but get the feeling
from his writings that he is on a vendetta -- a retaliation
towards the WCG for the "evil" they have done to him - a loyal
tithe-paying member. I get the gut feeling from what AR said
about that Dankenbring did not want to leave the WCG but,"Phone
calls requesting counselling on the matter got him nowhere" as
something is not truly genuine in his NOW open attack on the WCG.
I get a gut feeling he is VERY UPSET that they kicked him out and
that he was not allowed to remain a loyal tithe-paying member.
I find this "not standing for truth and right" (as he should have
done years earlier) a large black mark against him. It is true
that the WCG HAVE DOCTRINAL ERRORS, but many that Mr.D. calls
errors and that he supposedly gives the truth on, I find to be
the errors of himself, false ideas that he now has and teaches.
Some I will expose in future editions of this paper (which I did
as I published "The Truth of the Matter" magazine for 7 years -
1988 to 1995).
Now to a quote from William Dankenbring himself:
THE CALLING AND CONVERSION OF A MODERN SERVANT OF GOD! Did
God truly call William P.Dankenbring to be His servant, Or
is it all a myth, a mental aberration, a fantasy? Here,
examined in detail, is the intriguing, factual story -- the
exciting, moving history of how God began to work in the
life of this individual, how He called him, taught and
trained him, and brought him to his present ministry and
work, patterned after the work of George Mueller, the
"apostle of faith," during the last century. This cassette
tape shows the ups and down, the hills and valleys, the
triumphs and defeats, and the major crises and turning
points in the life of this "iron-willed, resolute bringer of
good tidings of the kingdom of peace," as his name means in
the German language. $4.95
Mr. Dankenbring patterns himself after the work of George
Mueller.
Well,I have the tape of the life and work of Mueller and from
what I've seen of Dankenbring's work with all the price tags on
all his books, articles and tapes - just about nothing free with
Mr.D. (and he also works at a secular job while doing his
ministry), Oh I see there is a lot of difference between the
faith of W.D. and that which George Mueller exercised. But where
does William D. get his example of Mueller from? Why the other
"apostle of God" - Herbert W.Armstrong. HWA used Mueller's
example of faith to claim his work was founded on the same faith
as the "apostle of faith". Now Dankenbring continues in the same
self deception.
Notice how Mr.D.gives you the meaning of his name, as if there is
some great significance in his name to fit his unique and special
calling. He gives you the meaning of his name in the German
language. I wonder if it has the same meaning in the English
language? But it does not really matter. Was there another man
who used to lay heavy importance on the meaning of his name? Oh
yes? HWA used to tell us how his name meant a STRONG ARM - God
needed someone with a will and mind that was like a strong arm to
do His end time work, hence Herbert ARMSTRONG!
Now dear reader do you suppose I could figure out some great
important meaning and significance to my name - HUNT - in the
calling of God for me to His ministry? What name games some
people like to play - what vanity it is. I will say no more about
such foolishness.
Here's another quote of W.Dankenbring from his March the 20th
1988 Prophecy Flash:
What is my calling of God? Sometimes I am mystified myself
by the wonder of it all. Why did God ever call me, directly,
when I was but a teen-ager? Yet He did -- several years
before I ever heard the name of Herbert Armstrong!.....
The insight and understanding God has given to me indicates
that my primary purpose for which I was called is 1) to warn
the Church, and 2) to warn the nations of Israel, including
England and the British peoples. Just what direction and
form this warning will take, eventually, I do not perceive
at the present time. God may well raise up others, in each
nation, to help me in this end-time witness. It could even
be that men in the Worldwide Church of God will repent, come
to their senses, and be a part of this final witness.
The first part of the above again reminds me of the vain
rambling of HWA when he liked to write about how God must have
been guiding his pre-conversion life in the ADVERTISING WORLD -
to prepare him for the great literature task of the gospel.
Probably most of the men ordained to the ministry of Jesus Christ
could, if they meditated long enough on the subject, come up with
some good sounding evidence to show how God was leading their
lives before conversion or knowing about HWA, to prepare them for
the work of the ministry they are now doing.
This kind of talk by Mr D. leads me to wonder if he is not trying
to tell his readers that he was especially and uniquely called of
God - over and above everyone else - to do and head up the "end
time work of the Lord." The last paragraph above would also
indicate that he is thinking along this line.
Notice he talks about others being raised up in other nations "to
help me" and that his work is the "end-time witness" and "this
final witness." Nothing so far in his literature that I have
indicates that he recognizes there are other true ministers of
God already out there performing the end-time work.
He seems to be oblivious to any other church work that could be
from God and a part of the true body of Christ, other than his
own. But that should not be surprising when you consider he had
to get the "push out" from the WCG itself as late as 1987. He was
quite content it seems to have remained with them, believing I
suppose, that he was of the only true Church organization that
constituted the body of Christ. So when kicked out from that
group he would naturally have deducted it was they who had gone
astray and needed to repent, and God was now leading him to
fulfil the destiny that had always been planned for him by the
Lord - to head up the "final witness."
I await to see if William Dankenbring will start to call himself
"God's apostle" or maybe even "the Elijah to come" - time will
tell, but nothing today will shock me for history does repeat
itself and Jesus did warn us that in the last days just before
His return, "...there shall arise false Christ's and false
prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that
if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect"
(Mat.24:24).
Better be on your spiritual toes!!
...............
Written in 1988
END NOTE:
It was not long after I had written this that William D. came out
with his FIRST "date setting" prediction as to when the Great
Tribulation would come and hence three and a half years later,
the return of Jesus. He was soon to find himself with egg on his
face.
Then he gain tried to "date set" the end time Tribulation into
the early 90s, and was soon with more egg on his face.
But un-flinching, with more pomp and proudness he "date set" once
more, this time for 1997 or 1998 (the exact year I've forgotten
now) for the Great Tribulation to start.
It was at this time that I wrote in my magazine, all about
Dankenbring's (and a few others - ex-WCG fellows) date setting
predictions, and told my readers that I would predict that Mr. D.
(and the others I named at the time) would ALL HAVE A DOZEN EGGS
SMASHED INTO THEIR FACES, because they would all be found to be
false date setters.
I do not know if Dankenbring is still trying to set dates for the
end-time Tribulation and return of Jesus. But with THREE FAILED
ATTEMPTS I would hope he's given up on that, but people that have
huge ego, seldom learn from their foolish mistakes.
Like so many other false prophets, Dankenbring has truth mixed
with error, so to the "unlearned" or ones who do not know how to
go into the technicalities of Bible study, he posses a real
threat, and they can be led astray quite easily by his
"scholastic" sounds from his mouth and pen. His errors on
"counting to Pentecost" I have exposed on this Website under the
studies on Pentecost. I have also exposed his paper that he
brought out some years ago that claimed Jesus was a "Pharisee."
I will shortly up-load all that in-depth study paper of mine to
this Website.
.................
