Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Gerald Flurry and the King of the East





Gerald Flurry and the King of the East
By
Miller Jones/Lonnie C. Hendrix

From time to time, I force myself to check in on what the various WCG splinter groups are doing. I recently subjected myself to an installment of Gerald Flurry’s Key of David program, and I must say that I was impressed by “that prophet’s” ability to warp and twist prophetic Scripture. The program focused on events in the Middle East, specifically Lebanon, and explored how events there would lead to the fulfillment of prophecies in Psalm 83 and Daniel (Chapters 11 and 12).

However, a more general word about Flurry’s interpretations of prophecy is appropriate before I explore the problems with this particular utterance. Mr. Flurry frequently makes the mistake of applying specific prophecies to himself, his Philadelphia Church of God or groups that he doesn’t like. He is also fond of transferring the identities of ancient peoples and nations to modern nations – especially with regard to the United States and Britain as Israel (which many folks, including yours truly, have debunked here and elsewhere). Finally, “that prophet” has a propensity for seeing almost every prophetic utterance in the Bible as applying to the “end time.” Unfortunately, these predispositions have led Mr. Flurry (not unlike Mr. Herbert Armstrong before him) to make some erroneous predictions about what the future holds.

In this latest example of his prophetic malpractice, Flurry pointed to Lebanon as being the catalyst for a future confrontation between the King of the North and the King of the South. He went on to identify Germany and her allies as constituting the modern manifestation of the King of the North, and Iran and her surrogates as the King of the South (Daniel 11). Based on this dubious interpretation, Mr. Flurry went on to predict that Germany and her allies would eventually triumph over the Iranian led forces.

Never mind that history and most biblical scholars have linked the King of the North with the Seleucid kings of Syria, and that those same sources have equated the King of the South with the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt. Never mind that these designations also make sense when one looks at their respective geographical locations relative the Holy Land (Egypt is South of Jerusalem and Syria is North of there). Iran, on the other hand, is due EAST of Jerusalem (it would be more appropriate to tag Iran as the King of the East). To be fair, Germany is located to the northwest of the Holy Land. So I guess it wouldn’t be too big of a stretch to ignore the western drift of this kingdom – we shouldn’t be too picky!

Even more interesting is Flurry’s justification for these designations. In his booklet entitled “The King of the South,” Flurry writes that “In 65 B.C., Syria was swallowed up by the ROMAN EMPIRE, and became a Roman province. The Roman emperor now controlled Judaea, and therefore the king of the north, here referred to, is, at this time, the emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE.” Mr. Flurry conveniently failed to mention that Ptolemaic Egypt also became a part of the Roman Empire in 31 BC. So, according to this line of reasoning, shouldn’t we conclude that the Roman emperor also became the King of the South?

Hmmm, I have a prediction of my own to make:  Those folks who choose to swallow Gerald Flurry’s interpretations of Bible prophecy are going to be disappointed in the near future. His offerings may titillate a few of the aging and uniformed former adherents of Armstrongism, but I don’t think that they will get much attention from serious students of the Bible.

6 comments:

  1. Absolutely NOTING that Gerald Flurry says is worthy of listening to. It is one lie after another. While he and his family live high on the hog and use doctors at every minor bump the members suffer.

    For decades now the church has been saying this same load of bullshit and not once in its existence has any prophecy they ever utter come true.

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  2. Even if the Angles and Saxons had started out as being the purely preserved descendents of Manasseh and Ephraim in the 16th Century, (they were not!) they have long since become "Samaritanized" by the other groups of colonists and immigrants over the past five centuries.

    Herbert Armstrong also failed to account for the fact that in terms of percentage of the ethnic makeup of the USA, the German genetic heritage has consistently been #1 on the list. So, his "Assyrians" have always constituted the predominant population of his "modern day Israel".

    Really, all those who believe in the HWA prophecy mold have to substantiate his dogmatic identifications and pronouncements is that certain current nations appear to resemble prophetic descriptions in the Bible. So, they believe in the guesses and leaps which were made to fill in the blanks by their "Apostle", even in the face of an abundance of evidence which contradicts his conclusions. And, these are the same fine double standard folks who apply their own set of rigorous standards to hold evolutionists accountable, but reject applying the same standards to HWA's theories. Can we all imagine the integrity of science if evolutionists' primary "proof" were, "But Mr. Darwin was God's Apostle!"?

    Prophecy, long used as a bully club in the Armstrong movement, became their most pathetic element back in 1975.

    BB

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  3. “Absolutely NOTHING that Gerald Flurry says is worthy of listening to. It is one lie after another.”


    That is an excellent brief summary of the little fibber. Sometimes a false prophet's entire lifetime of drinking beer, talking nonsense, drinking beer, writing nonsense, drinking beer, and behaving badly really can be summed up that simply.

    The important question is, Will anyone waste their own lifetime listening to his nonsense, reading his nonsense, putting up with his nonsense, and financially supporting his nonsense? It would be a sad and tragic waste if one's own life could be summed up by saying that one had done that?

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  4. Gerald Flurry proclaimed Iran to be the King of the South back in 1994.

    It is complete nonsense of course. Iran is east, not south, of the Holy Land.

    But every now and then Flurry introduces a new doctrine which he presents as "new revelation" to PCG lay members. These "new revelations" are meant to be taken as a sign that God is with PCG and no other religious group in all the world.

    What is conveniently ignored is that many of these "new revelations" are actually changes, just like Tkach's changes. They change what HWA taught.

    Flurry's "new revelation" that Iran is the King of the South contradicts what HWA's WCG taught. They were inclined to believe such a personage would arise among the Arabs, not Iran.

    One of these "new revelations" is that Flurry is "That Prophet". That idea was introduced in 1999. But this contradicts HWA's teaching that Prophets under the New Testament dispensation have no administrative role in "God's Church". HWA even wrote that in Mystery of the Ages. PCG has since ripped those words out to hide their contradiction of HWA's teachings.

    Another "new revelation" is Flurry proclamation in 1992 that Malachi's Message is the Little Book of Revelation 10. This actually changed HWA's teaching on this matter. HWA taught that the Little Book referred to his visits to world leaders after his failed prophecy that the Great Tribulation would start in 1972 failed. (HWA actually started visiting world leaders before 1972.)

    As for Lebanon I am aware that currently PCG portrays Lebanon as being "conquered by Iran" because Hezbollah at present is on top of the pecking order in Lebanon. They do so in order to fear monger about Iran in order to "prove" that Flurry was right to proclaim Iran as King of the South back in 1994. But considering how Lebanon used to have a long running civil war I am practically certain this is a vastly over simplified portrayal of the current situation in Lebanon.

    It's all nonsense of course.

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  5. King of the East, indeed! Last time I checked my map, Adolph Coors' empire was centered in Denver, which is west of Oklahoma!

    BB

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  6. RE: Gerald Flurry the King of the PCG Dunghill


    Redfox712 said...

    “What is conveniently ignored is that many of these "new revelations" are actually changes, just like Tkach's changes. They change what HWA taught.”



    Excellent observation! Gerald Flurry wrote early on that the PCG had been “FLOODED WITH NEW REVELATION” but claimed (falsely) that it only built on what HWA had taught and did not change it.

    Many WCG members thought they were so smart and brave to reject the doctrinal changes that the Tkaches were making and go with Gerald Flurry because he claimed (falsely) to be holding on to everything that HWA had taught. In actual fact, Gerald totally changed a lot of HWA's major doctrines. Gerald not only quoted Adolph Hitler as saying that a clever conqueror will impose his will in instalments, but actually did so himself to his own unsuspecting PCG members. PCG members are now cut off from all outside contact and are so spiritually blind that they do not even realise what has happened over the years. Any PCG members who do know that something bad has happened now feel powerless and afraid to try to leave the PCG for fear that all their fake PCG “friends” and even their own crazy PCG family members will cut off all contact with them if they do.

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