The idolatry at the Edmond compound continues to run amok at the worship of the "book" that Gerald Flurry plagiarized of Jules Dervaes. Malachi's Message was Gerald Flurry's first book that he "wrote" to justify his apostasy from the Worldwide Church of God as he struggled to start the Philadelphia Church of God.
In an article that was just posted, More Than History, geared towards the PCG "youth" under 30 years of age, James Brandon asks what he perceives as a most important question:
“What was it like reading Malachi’s Message for the first time?”
My mother sent me this book when it was originally a spiral bound mimeographed book. She was searching for the "one true church" as her "friends" in Cantonment, Florida kept convincing her to jump COG's with them numerous times over the years. I still have that original book to remind me to never allow myself to follow these "demonic" men...but that's another story.
Brandon writes:
Herbert W. Armstrong died on January 16, 1986. So if you are less than 30 years old, you were never alive at the same time as Mr. Armstrong. Malachi’s Message was first published in 1990. If you are 26 or younger, Gerald Flurry’s manuscript is older than you. I fall into this category. The readership of True Education falls into this category. That’s you.It's still hard to believe that HWA has been dead for 30 years. The world has not ended. We are not in Petra or in the millennium that HWA and crew have been predicting for 90 some years now. None of us ever expected to graduate from high school, attend college, get married, have children, grand children, great grand children or to leave the church. We either would be in the kingdom or in a concentration camp eating our children if we first had not been hung up on meat hooks by the Germans.
Instead we have been subjected to hundreds and hundreds of harlot daughters of the one "true" mother church. Each and every one of them proclaiming they are the end-all for truth. Before Rod Meredith, James Malm and Dave Pack set themselves up as the sole arbiters of "truth" there was Gerald Flurry and his Malachi's Message.
PCG has placed this book right up there next to the Bible in its historical and speculative relevance. It is the "history book" of the PCG:
Malachi’s Message is a history book to us. That can be a hard concept for our parents and the previous generation to grasp sometimes. If they came out of the wcg, that book explained current events that were unfolding before their eyes. They probably have an “I saw Mr. Armstrong speak live” story. They can put bearded faces to names like Joseph Tkach and Joe Tkach, Jr. They also remember the changes. They remember the books and booklets being taken out of print. They remember the Who Was Jesus? booklet. The things you read as history, they heard from the pulpit.
Malachi’s Message is one of the foundational writings of this Church era, and the revelation from God that showed many true Christians where He had moved the lamp. Our inability to imagine what that time period was like should drive us to learn from our elders about their experience with that important book.Yes, by all means learn about Gerald Flurry's vile start to his church, which is much more important than ever following Jesus! Malachi's Message is just as theologically important as the Robber's Cave campground in Oklahoma where Lil'Stevie first read his copy of the book. These are major events in the PCG history. Jesus isn't, but the book is!
Then to show just how corrupt and idolatrous the PCG is in its reverence of this "holy book" Brandon writes:
After the 2016 Ministerial Conference, almost every single message given at Headquarters touched on or drew heavily from Malachi’s Message. Mr. Flurry focused the ministry back on that book, and they, in turn, directed our focus back to it as well. Malachi’s Message is for all of us, but our generation needs extra help to understand the depth of that message. Often second and third generation Christians have to work harder to value the truth. We have not had to fight for it in the same way as our parents or grandparents. We have not experienced a ministry deliberately trying to lead us astray.Notice that their focus is upon a virtual pile of bullshit instead of following any principle that Jesus ever conveyed.
Malachi's Message is literally a "lamp" that lights their way!
Your parents, my parents and members in our congregations have battled that strong delusion. They read and proved what Mr. Flurry wrote, and they followed the lamp.Brandon ends with this:
Our appreciation of Malachi’s Message needs to be far deeper than just a surface reading and an intellectual understanding. That book changed peoples’ lives, and our generation has to work to understand that in a deeper way.
Talk to your parents if they came out of the wcg. Seek out the older members in your congregation and learn their history with that foundational book. Make Malachi’s Message come to life. Make Malachi’s Message more than history.It is appalling and also amazing the lengths COG members go to in order to keep searching for "truth." They keep looking towards idiot men like Malm, Pack, Thiel, Flurry, Meredith, Kubik and others to deliver the truth to them. Most in the COG never have the gumption or the wherewithal to ever think for themselves. They have to have some man deliver books, booklets, have visions and dream dreams so that they might have the answers to everything in life. It's a scary world out there that just might make you think for yourself.
The world we live in is NOT the black and white world that Armstrongism has tried to deliver to us.
No human COG leader to this day has the ability convey "truth" to us. James Malm cannot. Bob Thiel cannot. Rod Meredith never has. Dave Pack is incapable of doing it, and Gerald Flurry certainly has not. Flurry is so morally bankrupt that he even plagiarized the very book that he places next to the Bible!
Over the millions of years of human existence the human brain has evolved to have the ability to form reason, examine our lives, and to formulate understanding that far exceeds anything a group of people wandering around the desert in Palestine could have ever imagined. We do not need apostate men like Flurry, Malm, Meredith, Pack and others telling us just how things are or should be. These men have bastardized every single thing they have ever touched or been connected to.
All of these men have placed rules and law above this:
Matthew 11:28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Check out:
Malachi's Message: How True Is It?
The Plain Truth About Malachi's Message and That Prophet
Gerald Flurry: The PCG is FIRST After Jesus Christ
Suffered Many Abusive Experiences In The Church of God
Robber's Cave: Philadephia Church of God's Most Holy and Sacred Site
Standing on Holy Ground At Robber's Cave
Robber's Cave: A Philadelhia Church of God Landmark
and the person that started it all: Jules Dervaes
22 comments:
Id like to see Dennis Diehl write his own version of Flurry's book.
He could call it "MALACHI"S MASSAGE" !
I thought the Greatest book next to the Bible was
The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump.
Two things are going to take place here. Having had years of experience in Armstrongism, I expect that the majority of the young people responding will provide the "correct" answers which they have been programmed to give. This is the way it has always been. Secondly, anyone brave enough to give counterpoint type responses will get into serious trouble, and their responses will be thrown into the trash and not published.
Thinking back to a parallel question which could have been asked of us ACOG OG types, like "What was it like reading 1975 in Prophecy for the first time?", the answer in my head which I would have rejected as I made up an approved comment would have been: "It was really f¥€cked! It scared the crap out of me and I wanted to die! It ruined a couple of decades of my life before 1975 came and went and I finally realized that the Armstrongs were totally false prophets and it wasn't going to happen!
Statistically, we know that most of these church kids are going to leave, finding other more valid solutions and answers. The ones that don't are being raised in narcissistic families, will have personality disorders which don't allow for close relationships i.e. the capacity to let others (and God?) in, and at best will be what they were trained to be, what church officials pejoratively refer to as "second generation Christians"
Quite honestly, a kid would have a better chance at normalcy (whatever that is) being raised by Jax Teller or Dexter Morgan.
BB
"MALACHI'S MASSAGE", that is funny!
I am perplexed that in 2016 there are still people trying to figure out which HWA cult has the "the truth". With the availability of information at our disposal, it is pathetic to think there are still so many who believe the bible is a book meant for the 21st century.
Possibly it is "Pascal's Wager" at work. The basis of the bet is "I would rather believe in god and a religion and be wrong, than not believe, and be wrong". For some people it is a safe bet, like an insurance policy. For others, religion is like an expensive hobby. It occupies their time and energy, and puts them in a make-believe world, where they are special.
Evolution is a very slow process, but I believe that eventually mythology will be seen for what it is. It could take thousands of years, and many more wars, but it is moving us forward.
People are waking up. How many on this site see religion (and I mean every sect and cult that exits) for what it is?
Marvin Campbell was a snake in the grass member in Kansas City, who always was looking for a way to advance himself, often at the expense of others. When WCG imploded, Campbell, always the opportunist, stole the entire membership listing of at least one (perhaps all?) of the KC congregations.
In order to ingratiate himself to Flurry, he then offered this list as a way and means to send all members Malachi's Message and a couple of other things. Suffice it to say, many weren't happy with this, but it did serve Campbell well, rising through the ranks up to #3 in PCG (echoes of Meredith and his place in the WCG hierarchy).
In Karma-like fashion, his own demise started with his failing health which caused him to break the holy code of shunning the PCG unconverted by reaching out to his kids. He was marked and left to die, by those who readily accepted his help, until he no longer met the grade. Turncoat "Christianity" became the norm we see still in vogue today
I always thought it hypocritical that the church could badmouth books like the Book of Mormon, Enoch, etc., as non-Biblical, not God authored books, but out of the same breath, make books that HWA would write (or now many that the mini-me's like Flurry and others now write) could take on Biblical comparisons and proportions.
I always wondered how the church could ignore verses like Proverbs 30:6 .."Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar" as well as Deuteronomy 4:2.."You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you".
I guess those OT scriptures and words were done away with (conveniently like so many other parsed beliefs that no longer benefited the ministry).
Flurry's book ranks right up there with Mystery of the Ages as the two most boring boosk the church ever published. Both would make great lining for a bird cage.
Dexter Morgan. I always envision him going after COG leaders. What a blessing that would be!
Oh yes, Malachis Message. Revealed to Gerald Flurry by "A MIGHTY ANGEL FROM GOD"...and then revised multiple times because that angel just didn't quite get it.
Oh, now play nice, 11:16! Remember, as we judge, so shall we be judged!
Still, it doesn't hurt to visualize the pictures on the wall of Dexter's clean room if he set one up in Edmond. There would be a picture of the old lady who went blind because she was told she couldn't take Passover unless she threw away her glacoma medicine, and a picture of a crippled child left at the mall. And the young Canadian lady who committed suicide because she couldn't associate with her "Laodicean" parents. There have been huge numbers of victims over the years reported both here and at ESN. And the thing is, every ACOG leader probably has numerous such victims. They say they do what they do to glorify God. Boy Howdy, just watch out for their places of "safety"!
BB
Malachi's Message was filled with blatant errors. Only those not versed in The Bible would be hoodwinked by the crap (that is in it). Flurry has edited it several times.
Hey GRF and PCG which version was inspired by God? Does God make mistakes in His Revelation?
And then have Flurry correct them?
God is not the author of confusion, but Gerald Flurry is!!! MM is one of the major proofs that Gerald Flurry is a false prophet (leading a bunch of sheep who graze on his B.S.)
Get out while you can!!!
"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself." Sir Richard Francis Burton
MM was written by several ministers. Herbie was right when he often said that he felt that he didn't write the book.
10.44 HWAs 'in the name of the Living God, I tell you we only have 5-7 years till the end', is one of the biggest informal add-ones to the bible. And a lie that caused enormous damage to many peoples lives. No doubt HWA will shrug this off as 'collateral damage' come judgment day.
12:52 Herb did not write any of Malachi's Message. Herb did Mystery of the Ages which was nothing more than a compilation of sermons. Six Pack Flurry plagiarized MM from Jules Devares.
James Brandon is the late Ron Fraser's grandson. And considering how high up into PCG Fraser got it is little surprise that his grandson should rise to such prominence in PCG.
1.05 PM you are right. My mind is fading in my old age. I had in mind Mystery of the Ages. A comment on the Shining Light blog, acknowledged that he and other ministers wrote Mystery of the Ages.
Malachi's Message ranks well with Dianetics.
Connie, I'm afraid if I wrote Malachi's Massage it would rub folks the wrong way...
I don't know about that, Mikey, at one point in my recovery from Armstrongism, I actually took the time to read Dianetics, and even found a couple useable nuggets. Hubbard was capable of occasional brilliance, although I was not persuaded to buy into the whole Scientology crock. Malachi's Message, otoh, is totally devoid of any redeeming value whatsoever. A person would probably get cancer of the anus even from attempting to use it as toilet paper.
BB
"That book NEVER quotes Scripture, unless it quotes Mr. Armstrong quoting Scripture."
-- An observation about MM, from the time, years ago, when the parade over to Flurry's group began in my area.
The bias, and the Armstrong idolatry, expressed in one brief statement.
A friend and I read through the copy so generously provided by the person here then leading people to Flurry, and that was my friend's comment.
Then we threw the thing in the garbage.
I read MM and enjoyed being exposed to what was then a dissident point of view. The same with Malms blog. Without being exposed to different points of view, a person can inadvertently have their mind imprisoned by a certain belief. Even if correct, this can result in a narrowed understanding and application of the belief.
Wow. You people are blind, leading the blind.rrr.
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