The Philadelphia Church of God - Page 3

Gerald Flurry breaking up families: Just another rough day in the cult

Notes:

15. January 16th on Gerald Flurry's pagan calendar

    Gerald R. Flurry, the founder of the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), made a big fuss about the January 16 date, the date on the Gregorian calendar of Herbert W. Armstrong's (HWA's) death in 1986. Details can be found at Robert S. Kuhne's Web site, called The PLAIN TRUTH About Malachi's Message And THAT PROPHET, at http://www.pcog.info. Since God does not reveal anything to a false prophet like Gerald Flurry, he makes up this sort of nonsense to waste people's time. Robert Kuhne explained it well.

    January 16th Since the beginning of the PCG Gerald Flurry has placed a great and prophetic emphasis on the date of Mr. Armstrong's death, January 16, 1986: "Malachi's Message" was first received by many people on January 16, 1990, the very day of the anniversary of HWA's death (January 16, 1986). We didn't plan it, but we were happy it happened that way. You are going to see the date of HWA's death take on more significance as time goes on. Mr. John Amos and I were disfellowshipped on December 7, 1989 -- 40 days before the anniversary of HWA' death. The number 40 is significant in the Bible. The third 19-year time cycle of the Work of the WCG ended in January of 1991 -- the same month as the fifth anniversary of HWA's death. In the original version of "Malachi's Message" we asked this question: "Will we see some dramatic event in the world or within God's Philadelphian and/or Laodicean Churches then?" THE PERSIAN GULF WAR BEGAN ON JANUARY 16, 1991! God considers the date of HWA's death to be very significant. [MM pg. 149p4] Just about every year he has stretched and strained to find some "significant" event which occurred on January the 16th. The start of the Gulf War or some minor earthquake. One year it was an earthquake that actually occurred on January 17th, but that was close enough. Another year he said it was a "spiritual earthquake" of new revelation God had supposedly given him on that date. With literally millions of events happening each day, it would be no great task to find something "significant" that one could claim was relevant to the Church on any day of the year. According to Gerald Flurry, the latest "significant" event to occur on January 16th was the $3 million settlement agreement with the WCG to purchase the copyright for Mystery of the Ages. Although negotiations began around March of 2002 and the final legal documents were not signed until March of 2003, he claims the agreement was made by telephone on January 16th. While his word may be good enough for PCG members, others who lack "faith" might like to see some physical proof of that. To date, the only proof of when this agreement was made is the legal document referred to by Gerald Flurry in the quote below: We made the agreement on January 16th. It was signed by the Worldwide and consummated yesterday, March the 7th, fifty days after January the 16th. [G.F. sermon, The Mantle of Elijah part II, 3/8/03, tape1:side1] It should also be noted (C.S.) that there is no scriptural example of God ever using the pagan Roman calendar to calculate, observe, or honor anything. All of God's special days are based on the Hebrew calendar, on which Mr. Armstrong's death date was Shebat 6. As can be seen from the table below, there is only one time between 1986 and 2010 that Shebat 6 falls on January 16 (dates taken from The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, by Arthur Spier). Roman date of Shebat 6 for the years 1987 - 2010 1987 Feb. 5 1993 Jan. 28 1999 Jan. 23 2005 Jan. 16 1988 Jan. 25 1994 Jan. 18 2000 Jan. 13 2006 Feb. 4 1989 Jan. 12 1995 Jan. 7 2001 Jan. 30 2007 Jan. 25 1990 Feb. 1 1996 Jan. 27 2002 Jan. 19 2008 Jan. 13 1991 Jan. 21 1997 Jan. 14 2003 Jan. 9 2009 Jan. 31 1992 Jan. 11 1998 Feb. 2 2004 Jan. 29 2010 Jan. 21 Comment: What a contradiction to use the Roman calendar to honor a man who restored the use of the Hebrew calendar to the Church!

    
    

16. Bob Thiel catches Gerald Flurry playing with the statistics

    A member of the Living Church of God (LCG) by the name of Bob Thiel has a Web site called COGwriter, which is located at http://members.aol.com/cogwriter/home.htm. A section called COG News: Emphasizing News of Interest to those Once in the Worldwide Church of God at http://www.cogwriter.com/24news.htm had the following article. It appears that Bob does not carelessly believe all of Gerald's claims. Neither should you.

    01/17/06 a.m. Gerald Flurry wrote this in the February 2006 issue of his Philadelphia Trumpet magazine: Currently The Key of David ranks as the third-highest rated religion program in the United States. (However, our television program is really a news program with a religious base; we have to teach about world news and then show how it is fulfilling Bible prophecy.) This ranking doesn’t even include our worldwide television broadcast. This did not seem true to me and according to Nielsen Media Research (THE ratings company for television), Gerald Flurry is not even in the top ten. Which, as of May 2005 (the last information I have seen) were: #1--Joel Osten #2--In Touch/Stanley #3--Ken Copeland (weekly and daily) #4--Robert Schuller #5--D James Kennedy #6--700 Club #7--Creflo Dollar #8--Jack Van Impe #9--Day of Discovery #10--Life in the World/Joyce Meyers (weekly and daily) Nielsen’s latest ratings sweep, back in November 2005, will not be made public until next month. Does Flurry know something Nielsen doesn’t? Or did he jump up in the July 2005 list? Or? It does the COGs no good to exaggerate impact. Perhaps some day PCG will explain how they are somehow #3, when Nielson does not have them in the top ten. I know that LCG averaged over 2,000 respondents (people calling in as a result of watching its telecast) per week. In that same article, Gerald Flurry suggests a greater television impact than HWA by picking the year that HWA got the least respondents and and attempts to build his impact compared to that. He, like RCG, uses percentages without actually stating numbers, which makes it hard to know PCG's actual impact.

    Ahhh, statistics. It has been said that there are plain old lies, and then there are damnable lies, but worst of all there are statistics. The simple fact is that if people like Gerald Flurry, leader of the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), and David Pack, leader of the Restored Church of God (RCOG), really wanted people to know the truth about what was happening, they would give the straight numbers. They would not just come up with deceptive and misleading percentages that do not tell the whole story.

    
    

17. Family break-up calls in Gerald Flurry's PCG

    A clever little conqueror by the name of Gerald R. Flurry continues to impose his will in installments. For the latest installment, it looks like Gerald Flurry now wants the members of his Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) to stop associating with anyone in their family who was baptized in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) but has not gone over to his PCG. After wasting so much time and money following Gerald, it is difficult for his followers to resist his latest demands and risk being expelled from what they have been falsely told was God's one and only true church. They have also been told lies about how God will be mad at them if they leave, or get kicked out of, the PCG. The technical term for this sort of treatment is brainwashing. Yet, all of this brainwashing does not clean their minds. Rather, it leaves them in a more messy state than ever. Just another rough day in the cult.

    The following letter appeared at a Web site called Mike's Enlightenment Page, which is located at http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/mike_ep/mike.htm. The letter can be found on the Web page called Letters From Those Impacted By Philadelphia Church of God for 2006, which is at http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/mike_ep/letters/ltrspcg06.htm. There are already a few other letters there that confirm this report.

    PCG Tells Members it is Time to "Wake Up the Laodiceans": January 11, 2006 I recently came across your webpage and would like to offer some information and observations for the consideration of you and your readers. Last Thursday (January 5) I received a call from my PCG-member father to tell me that he and mom could no longer associate with me. Three of my siblings who were baptized in the WCG received similar calls. The other four siblings (non-baptized in WCG) did not receive a call. The basic reason given is that it is to wake up the "Laodiceans." He admitted that their definition of Laodicean is anyone who is Christian, but not a part of PCG. He sounded conflicted about it, but felt he had to follow "headquarters," at least for the time being. Please pray for all members of the PCG who are being given very heavy burdens. --J. K.

    This is all rather amazing. Frankly, the behavior of most PCG members is not good at all. They lack the good sense to look into matters and check things out. Of course, they are forbidden to do so. They should be thankful when other members of their family who did not fall for the PCG con-job still care about them in spite of their faulty thinking and their support of evil. Now, they are following orders from cult headquarters to cut off contact with the very people who could have been forgiven if they had disowned them for joining the PCG cult.

    To be fair to Gerald Flurry, it could be pointed out that one noisy old man in the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) had produced three godless Glombowski brats. [Definition: The term Glombowski denotes a godless person who continually insults and slanders innocent church members, and tries to stir up other wicked people against them for no reason. See also Jezebel, Judas, etc.] They had lied and slandered shamefully in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), and continue to do so in groups like the United Church of God (UCG) where unbelievers like themselves are always welcome to hang out. At least in this particular case, shielding and protecting other PCG members from such godless offspring could be considered a good thing. The problem is that in cases like this one, where the instruction might be for everyone's benefit, the noisy old PCG man just ignores it.

    
    

18. The Journal's article about Flurry's fanaticism

    The Journal newspaper had an article in its January 31, 2006 issue about Gerald Flurry, age 70, forbidding members of his so-called Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) to associate with family members or friends who were baptized in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) but did not go with his PCG. The article is called PCG clarifies disfellowship policy, gives main purpose of church: the need to expose Satan. The article can be read online at http://www.thejournal.org/issues/issue106/pcg.html. OK, agreed, there is a need to expose Satan. He was recently observed working through "That Runt" in the PCG. Consider yourself warned. To clarify this issue, let it be said clearly that the PCG was bad from the beginning, having been built on the faulty foundation of a drunken, lying, false prophet and his shameful "little book" that he plagiarized and then revised a number of times. It was NEVER at any time any sort of true Church of God (COG). The PCG always was, is, and will continue to be, a satanic impostor. No good at all can ever come of it. It can NEVER become the true Church of God. Therefore, the situation in the PCG can only be expected to get worse with time. As the Apostle Paul warned, "evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived" (II Timothy 3:13, NIV).

    It is tragic that even Americans in the land of the free and the home of the brave would give up all their natural rights to go with a complete fraud like Gerald. Everyone should read their own Bible, and obey God's laws as written in it, and not get caught up in all the wickedness of the PCG. Obeying the laws of God, and obeying the laws of Gerald, are two completely different things.

19. Reader asks three questions about Flurry and the family

    The following e-mail was received by THE PLAIN TRUTH WEB SITE (TPTWS) on February 28, 2006:

    Gerald Flurry and PCG This is a bad organization. My daughter's MIL is in PCG and has cut off contacting 2 of her 3 children because they had been baptized into WCG though not attending anymore. The one that is not shunned told her mom not to drink the Kool Ade. They all know that momma is going to flee when the great profit--intentional spelling--Flurry says it is time. This cult is mind controlling. I can think of no other reason for an otherwise sane woman to do such a hideous thing. I have 3 questions for any in PCG who have read this (and they have to be out there.) 1. Who created and ordained the family? 2. Who is trying to destroy it? 3. Who are you following? HINT: the answer to 1 and 2 are not the same.......

    Gerald R. Flurry, the founder and leader of the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), is systematically, step by step, cutting off any connection his PCG followers may have with any source of sanity. In installments, Gerald has forbidden them to read any literature that he does not approve of, forbidden them to go on the Internet, and now forbidden them to associate with any friends, or even family members, who were baptized in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) but did not join his PCG cult.

20. Divorce and adultery in the PCG

    One of God's own big Ten Commandments was intended to protect marriages. "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14, NIV), God Himself thundered from the top of Mount Sinai. God also personally wrote it on one of two stone tablets with the rest of His Ten Commandments. "Moses turned and went down the mountain with the tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets" (Exodus 32:15-16, NIV). The tablets of the Testimony were placed in the ark of the Testimony, which was itself put in the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.

    Do such important laws that God gave have any influence today on people in the various splinter groups that came from the breakup of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)? Surely these "churches" that claim to have the truth of God would lead to happy marriages, wouldn't they? You can probably already guess the true answer.

    The following partial quote is from a letter at Mike's Enlightenment Page, dated May 25, 2006, titled Flurry's Greedy Henchmen, and online at Letters From Those Impacted By Philadelphia Church of God for 2006. Go to http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/mike_ep/letters/ltrspcg06.htm.

    I recently found out that Jeff Greaser (PCG minister in Phoenix, AZ) disfellowshipped his wife of many years, Stephanie, then divorced her and married another woman in the church, Kelly, with whom he was counselling because she had an "unconverted mate." I'm told that this is becoming commonplace, divorce an unconverted mate, or disfellowshipped mate. I would like to see a section for those who have actual first-hand knowledge of ministry, etc., in the PCG who are doing this sort of "wife-swapping" (what else can you call it when a man divorces the "wife of his youth" and marries a newer, younger woman?). I have heard statements from people inside PCG that wives/husbands are actually encouraged to rid themselves of unconverted or disfellowshipped mates. When I left PCG, the first thing Winters did was to tell my wife she should consider divorcing me. She then left too! We made a vow before God, when we were married, that we would be married "until death do us part," and no arrogant jackass is going to cause us to break those vows!

    The Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) was started by Gerald Flurry, who copied and revised a book that he called Malachi's Message, and that he eventually claimed was the "little book" mentioned in the biblical book of Revelation. This raises a question. If his book is really so inspired and great, why are there such shameful results in the little man's little cult?

    Since Gerald's "little book" called Malachi's Message is approximately one hundred and fifty pages long, let us skip it and go to something shorter. Let us go directly to the Old Testament book of Malachi to see what it really says. The real book of Malachi with Malachi's real message from God can actually be found in the Bible, and it is only about two or three pages long. This is much faster and better than reading what has been called the "silly prophetic junk" that Gerald copies/revises/produces. All the piles of "silly prophetic junk" booklets that cults produce can cause people to become so distracted and confused that they forget about the simple, sensible teachings of the Bible. Notice what God said in Malachi 2:13-16, NIV:

    "Another thing you do: You flood the LORD's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, 'Why?' It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant."

    "Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth."

    "'I hate divorce,' says the LORD God of Israel, 'and I hate a man covering himself [Footnote: or his wife] with violence as well as with his garment,' says the LORD Almighty."

    "So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith."

    The situation did not loosen up in New Testament times when things got more spiritual. In fact, Jesus said, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery" (Matthew 19:8-9, NIV).

    PCG members need to understand that their mate's refusal to carelessly believe, or submit to, Gerald's outright lies does not constitute "marital unfaithfulness." People need to take responsibility for their own actions, and not carelessly assume that they can do all sorts of shameful, evil, disloyal, irresponsible things that God hates, and pretend that they are doing them to serve Him. In the real book of Malachi in the Bible God said, "Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel" (Malachi 4:4, NIV). But instead of teaching people to obey God's laws, the PCG is actually teaching people to disobey God's laws. One result is that the PCG is fast becoming a cult full of adulterers. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not become one of them. The real book of Malachi in the Bible contains this prophetic warning: "'I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,' says the LORD Almighty" (Malachi 3:5, NIV).

    God's laws were designed to strengthen the family, not to destroy it. The real book of Malachi in the Bible concludes by saying, "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse" (Malachi 4:5-6, NIV). Those who follow Gerald and his PCG are already under a curse. Notice how things just naturally tend to work out by themselves through what has been called "the law of cause and effect." Those who financially support all the evil in the PCG will themselves be hurt by it.

    Much has been said by the PCG leader about the need to submit to his own tyranny, which he mistakenly calls the "government of God." Those who really truly do want to submit to the government of God can do so by simply obeying the laws of God, such as the one that says not to commit adultery. Those who want to check out the tyranny of Satan can go with filthy little Flurry and his lying, slandering sex maniacs. Things really can be this simple. Supporting Gerald Flurry is the same thing as supporting Satan.

21. Gerald R. Flurry wants to get into the entertainment business

    Gerald R. Flurry is planning to build an auditorium at his Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) headquarters in Oklahoma. The cost of this 800-seat performing arts center is estimated at fifteen million dollars with completion scheduled for late 2009 or early 2010. While it is called a "house for God" it is really just an auditorium for musicians, singers, and actors (hypocrites in Greek). Just playing with round, loose numbers, if $15,000,000.00 is extracted from 5,000 people, it works out to about $3,000.00 a sucker. The three grand will be above and beyond their regularly required tithes and offerings. A letter about this new development has already been sent to the people who will be paying for it. If sales of tickets for the shows does not cover the cost of upkeep and hiring performers, the PCG members might have to subsidize this thing on into the future. Instead of supporting the truth of God, their money can go to support the high-paid musicians, singers, and actors of the world. No doubt, some PCG members will come to regret having been ripped off, and will wish that they had used their 3K+ to buy their own personal entertainment system for their own home.

    When he started his PCG cult, Gerald initially talked about what a "short work" they were prophesied to do. He said that they were not only in the end time, but "the end of the end time." There was even talk about being in the "last hour." Many members took this to mean that they would soon flee to a "place of safety" (expected to be Petra in Jordan). Now, after so many years of such talk, Gerald has started working on a massive building program for himself and his buddies. Any questioning of all this would, no doubt, be considered a sign of a "bad attitude."

    Even with inflation picking up, fifteen million dollars is still something, and could be used to spread the truth of God. But, it won't be. Whenever someone gets his hands on enough money to seriously spread the truth of God, they are struck by impulses to waste it on something else. In Gerald's case, he never had the truth of God anyway, so it is better to spend the money on entertainment than on spreading his misunderstanding of Malachi. Now, the people at PCG headquarters will have more than just a boring, little clown to entertain them. When his ranting gets monotonous, they can go watch a different show.