Philadelphia Church of God: Lost In Translation

Soon after the Philadelphia Church of God was forced to pay over $3,000,000 for the rights to publish Mystery of the Ages and to pay for the rights to publish the rest of HWA/WCG's old literature, Gerald Flurry began to subtly start changing things.

He first started with The Mystery of the Ages.  Herbert Armstrong had stated in the book that,

“No prophets are mentioned as having either administrative, executive or preaching functions in the New Testament Church.”

This statement was a big slap in the face for Gerald Flurry as he has declared himself a prophet in the Church of God.  Since Flurry has placed HWA on par with Jesus Christ, it would be a searing shock for PCG members to read that God's greatest man said there were no prophets in the church today, since Flurry has claimed he is one.  Who is a poor PCG member to believe?  Gerald or God's greatest man?

Lil'Steveie wrote in PCG's PGR, Oct. 21, 2004, p. 3-4:

We removed that sentence from the 2003 version, not because we are doing away with Mr. Armstrong’s teachings, but because of what God has added to the Church since Mr. Armstrong died—the revealed truth that there is, in fact, a prophet guiding the Church today who also serves an administrative and executive position within the Church. God did not reveal this to Mr. Armstrong before he died, just as He didn’t reveal the specifics about the Laodicean rebellion—for obvious reasons…

According to HWA, God Himself dictated the book (along with Aaron Dean):

Dear Brethren and Co-workers with Christ:

Since last December I have been working diligently on the LARGEST AND MOST IMPORTANT BOOK OF MY LIFE. IN REAL FACT I FEEL I MYSELF DID NOT WRITE IT. Rather, I believe God used me in writing it. I CANDIDLY FEEL IT MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK SINCE THE BIBLE. …“We want to reach the largest audience possible with this book. I know you will feel the same way when you read it.

That certainly is a bitter pill for Flurry to swallow.  However, he could care less because most PCG member do not have the sense or intellect to research things on the internet.  They rather would prefer to be blindly led on and lied to by their prophet who can do no wrong.

Flurry has take the editing process even further.

PCG's latest "Lil'Super Boy" Grant Turgeon writes:

EDMOND—For a dedicated group of 45 Philadelphia Church of God foreign language translation department staff members and volunteers, translating is about much more than just cranking out as many words as possible. PCG translators and editors also strive to correct errors in previous translations and achieve complete accuracy.

Apparently all WCG literature was seriously flawed because of Satanic influences while they were translated.  Those errors have to be "correct" to fit the logic of the PCG.

Several translators and editors said the focus on accuracy within their 22-year-old department is heightened due to the fact that most of the Worldwide Church of God translations they inherited are unfaithful to Herbert W. Armstrong’s original style and intent. While they sometimes use faulty wcg foreign-language renditions as a foundation, they always compare their drafts with updated pcg English versions to ensure nothing is “lost in translation.”

WCG translators were so spiritually corrupt that they even changed HWA's book, The Incredible Human Potential! Those men and women who were part of WCG and who translated books and booklets into Spanish, Italian, French, German, Norwegian, Dutch were apparently used by Satan to bring error into HWA's writings.  Flurry declared recently that the Tkach's were "the man of sin" who were satanic.  Since neither man was in charge in the 1970's who was allowing Satan to work in its midst at that time?

Vernier said flawed versions in French and several other languages developed in the late 1970s when liberals took over the Church. Norwegian team leader Joop Roelofszen added that the Dutch and Norwegian translations changed in 1985, less than a year before Mr. Armstrong died.

“I’m nearly done reviewing The Incredible Human Potential; 95 percent of it is right on,” Local Elder Carlos Heyer, a Spanish-language editor, said. He added that “the style of intellectuals is not Mr. Armstrong’s style of all caps, italics and exclamation marks. They doctored the translations into the accepted style.”

PCG feels by their adding to the booklets and "correcting" them they are "putting back" the truth of Herbert Armstrong.  They do admit that the WCG changes some words because HWA's writing's were racist  at times.  PCG does not care about that.  Racism and bigotry is inherent in British Israelism and they cannot touch that sacred cow!

Mr. Heyer said wcg translators also tried to squeeze the Spanish message into the same number of pages as the original English, even though it requires “10 percent more words in Spanish to explain the same thing in English.” They even changed book and booklet titles. For example, The United States and Britain in Prophecy became The Master Key of Prophecy.

Vernier said the same thing happened with French translations. For example, translators axed 22 pages from Mystery of the Ages, eliminating any mention of the 12 tribes of Israel or the Assyrians. Translators supposedly made this major revision in order to make Mr. Armstrong’s message seem less “racist.”

“I know Dutch translations sometimes omitted parts of texts from Mr. Armstrong, just like the English ones,” Mr. Staal said, “mainly after he died, but even before that.”

“Why is there this tendency to help poor Mr. Armstrong communicate in their style?” Mr. Heyer said. “They felt he needed a filter. They took Mr. Armstrong’s punch and pow. We’re putting all that back.”