Fred Dattolo Gives a Warning to PCG Members

Fred Dattolo laughed several times while giving a recent Bible Study.1 He warned about intense persecution to come and also talked about what happens when someone marries outside PCG or leaves a mate who is still inside.

Read: An Open Letter to Gerald Flurry and the PCG Ministers by Dan De Gennaro where Fred Dattolo is one of the ones held responsible for the suicide of his daughter Janet De Gennaro.

“For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” ~II Timothy 1:7

Following are excerpts from a transcript sent to us. Comments and headers inserted by ESN.

Get Ready for Persecution

Members are to “get ready for persecution” and this persecution will be “more than its ever been” and “more intense” because of PCG’s “high profile.”

COMMENT BY ESN: What high profile? Many people, especially those who aren’t religious or interested in prophecies, have never heard of PCG unless they are searching for such subjects online. But GF continues to fantasize that millions are reading his Trumpet and watching his Key of David.

PCG will be persecuted by: (1) the media (PCG may go to court again like they did in 1979); (2) the Laodiceans; (3) the government; and (4) the Catholic church.

COMMENT BY ESN: It was back in the late 60’s when 1, 3 and 4 were to befall members of the Worldwide Church of God before they fled to Petra (the Place of Safety). All religions, especially the Catholics, were going to come against “God’s one and only true Church.”

The main reason the Catholic church exists is to “destroy the Work.” It’s good to think about that once in awhile because Satan is the one who orchestrates all this persecution that is coming on “God’s church.”

COMMENT BY ESN: This is nothing but a recap of everything Herbert Armstrong–the man GF looks up to and emulates–broadcast decades ago.

The battles, stress and hardship we’ll suffer–which are needed to build character in order to rule with Christ–will get more severe, and we can “expect problems” when we support “God’s Apostle” (one of GF’s many titles).

COMMENT BY ESN: The words “building character” are not found in the Bible. However, in a controlling, abusive group, those words are interpreted as what happens when the member grows more and more in obedience to the government of the organization.

The Christian Soldier

Went through the whole “Christian soldier” thing and elaborated on the points of what members should not do and what they should do. Satan has access to our minds because we are automatically “tuned in to Satan’s wave length” when we wake up and we need to “turn the channel.”

COMMENT BY ESN: This was just a broken record of everything HWA has said since GF and his ministers can’t come up with anything new.

Those Who Leave or Marry on the Outside

He attempted to frighten the singles and members from leaving as he went on about Satan stalking us and exploiting our weaknesses. He said everyone who has left and married outside “the Church” comes back with “horror stories” and said “what do you expect?”

COMMENT BY ESN: This is true only if the person who left is still holding to PCG teachings and doctrines as “the Truth” and and marries someone who has a different belief system. Then this would apply: How can two walk together unless they be agreed? (Amos 3:3) How can you be yoked with someone who believes the opposite than you do? Or doesn’t believe at all? (II Corinthians 6:14)

He went into all kinds of “stories” about what would happen if you left PCG with your mate still inside and there were children involved. He described what the wife (in PCG) would want compared to what the husband would want; i.e., taking the children to services with her. Then he told one wild scenario about how the wife could say, “If you leave me (leave PCG), I’m going to kill myself.” He insisted these stories he was telling were true and he could give even more cases.

COMMENT BY ESN: These “horror stories” are not because someone up and left or married outside PCG, but because PCG is known to destroy families by splitting the family up with one person in PCG who is wanting to take the children to services (even wanting to divorce the mate) and the other one who is not in PCG not in agreement, along with being cut off from those in PCG, even perhaps from their own children. The other scenario of being forced to stay and not leave because the wife “threatens to kill herself” is another result of entanglement with PCG and its destructive doctrines. (Update: “Unmarried People No Longer Permitted to Go to Bars” (9-12-23 letter)

Myths and Contradictions

“When Herbert Armstrong died people’s world fell apart.”

COMMENT BY ESN: How many remember that happening? HWA wrote a letter prior to his death that was mailed out to all the members, preparing them to “carry on” after he died. It was the changes in 1995 when the Tkach Sr. video came out that caused people’s world to fall apart and to become confused with many leaving.

He went on about “cursed is the man that trusts in man.”

COMMENT BY ESN: This is exactly what those who left WCG and went to the offshoots did (trust in man) because they believed HWA had the truth that was “restored.”

Started talking about GF and saying we “follow the man as he follows Christ.”

COMMENT BY ESN: Read (and this also applies to Gerald Flurry) the first paragraph of Was Herbert Armstrong God’s True Servant? that says “Don’t members say they aren’t following a man?”

Speculations

Instead of saying “false prophecies” of GF, he called them “speculations” that might happen and might not happen.

COMMENT BY ESN: those are words false prophets always use when they give false prophecies. Its aim is to cause the person to keep looking to the man in spite of his false prophecies.

“We’re blessed if we look to God, the Head of this church”

COMMENT BY ESN: Then how come people are told they are cursed if they leave the “church,” even if they still believe in Christ? The truth is that JESUS CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF HIS CHURCH AND THE AUTHORITY IS FROM HIM, NOT PCG GOVERNMENT. (GOD IN PCG=PCG GOVERNMENT.) CHRIST WILL TAKE CARE OF THOSE WHO HAVE PLACED THEIR TRUST IN HIM ALONE, NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE.

Told a story about one member who was convinced he knew who the two witnesses were and now one of them is dead. (He laughed at this.) He tied this in with “speculating” to make us believe GF false prophecies were speculation and that God is “testing us.”

COMMENT BY ESN: There are those in certain offshoots who to this day say HWA’s over a hundred false prophecies were merely “speculations.” John Ritenbaugh is one who has said this. See footnote #2 at the end of Did Herbert Armstrong Set Dates? where it talks about John Ritenbaugh.

We don’t know all the details about how it will work out when members go to the place of safety but they “better be walking with God and looking to God because it’s going to take faith to flee because it “may not be crystal clear” when the time comes.

COMMENT BY ESN: That is the same thing HWA and Herman Hoeh said decades ago about having faith to flee. (Refer to first part of Philadelphia Church of God and the Place of Safety beginning with “To Just Mention a Few”) Again, God in PCG=PCG government.

Twisting Scripture

Quoted Philippians 1:6 and said what it really means is God will complete His work in us at the day of Christ and if anyone leaves “God’s Church,” He won’t finish it.

COMMENT BY ESN: That is not what that verse says. It is referring to Christ completing His work in us now. (Philippians 1:6: “And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.” AMPC)

To give the appearance of boldness, he said if anyone wants to pick a fight with “God’s Church,” he is going to “bite off more than he can chew.” Related a story about how GF is as “cool as a cucumber” when there is a problem because he knows “God will fight the battle.”

COMMENT BY ESN: One reason GF may seem so fearless is because he is known to have an array of high- powered, shrewd lawyers to defend him, not because he knows “God is with us.”

Talked about Alex Harrison (now dead) and how Harrison once told a guy, “You tell Satan I’m coming after him!” (Laughed a lot at that.)

Could Be Here Ten More Years

GF said he really doubts it but we could be here 10 years from today.

COMMENT BY ESN: I thought GF said time was running out and we are in the last hour?

Conclusion:

The rest isn’t worth mentioning as he repeated the same old mantra we’ve heard a thousand times before. This was only one more ongoing message about what Satan (which is all Dattolo could focus on) will do to singles, members, and their family since Satan can “get to you and catch you unawares.” It’s only purpose was to plant doubt and fear into their minds and keep moving in lockstep obedience to PCG government.

By D. M. Williams
Exit & Support Network™
April 4, 2021

NOTE: Fred Dattolo, pastor of the Edmond congregation, is mentioned several times in the testimony Our Family’s Devastation Due to Gerald Flurry’s No-Contact Policy and he also screamed at a former member in the 2020 letter: Dangerous Lion’s Den.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation..” ~Romans 10:9