PCG Suspends Convicted Felon Mark Nash

Things are not too rosy on The Compound lately.  The PCG recently suspended PCG minister Mark Nash.  Nash has a rather dubious background in the PCG. He went to prison for defrauding the IRS and through it all the PCG kept him on salary.  We now have two felon's in the Church of God sent to prison for the same thing, Ron Weinland and Mark Nash.

Exit and Support has this:

Another person of interest is Mark Nash. He is a former Navy Seal or Green Beret, with all the "talents" taught to them. He went to prison for defrauding the IRS, and yet was not even suspended while in prison. In fact, he was allowed to give sermons while on leave for "good behavior." If any member on the bottom level was similarly put away, he would be put out for putting the "church" in a bad light. After all, even deacons are supposed to be "blameless" in the world and of "good reputation." What gives? What do these men know that keeps them in the "good old boy network"? These two men, at least, have knowledge that keeps them on the "inside." Otherwise, Flurry would have disposed of them long ago. Mark Nash now teaches Physical Ed and who knows what else.
It doesn't take much to realize that Gerald Flurry is over a barrel with at least these two men. --Former member WCG/PCG 

Update: We were told the following by a PCG exiter: "Mark Nash received full pay as a minister and office manager while he served his time in prison." See: "Transfer All Your Assets to Gerald Flurry After You Die" about an article Mark Nash wrote in the Royal Vision, January/February 2004. Update: In 2012 Mark Nash was a PCG HQs preaching elder and Festival Dept. Manager. In 2016 he was suspended.

On May 19, Exit and Support received this letter:

Mark Nash Suspended:
May 19, 2016
I wanted to let you know that I heard about a month ago that Mark Nash, a minister at HQ, has been suspended. It was announced at services by Wayne Turgeon. It did not say his wife, just him. Wondered if you knew this or had heard anything? --Anonymous

All of the articles Nash has written over the years are still posted on PCG's web site.  Since one of them deals with PCG members making the church beneficiary in their wills, Flurry cant have it disappear until he has one of his boys rewrite it.

This is an earlier article I had on Mark Nash:  Philadelphia Church of God's Mark Nash 

How Not To Be Discouraged...According to the Philadelphia Church of God

Leave it to a fun loving privileged little white boy at the Edmond compound to tell the struggling Philadelphia Church of God members how not to be discouraged.  Discouragement can be eliminated if PCG members support the church.  Their spiritual lives will improve too.

Michael Cocomise writes:

Hearts in the Work 

If we lack vision, we lack hope. If we lack hope, we cannot do God’s Work. If we fail to do the Work, we fade spiritually. Hold on to the vision God gives us in the Bible by doing the Work. In the process, we will increase our depth of vision, and that will give us greater hope. 

Sometimes “put your heart into the Work” can become cliché and we shrug it off. You might be thinking right now, We hear that all the time! Just put your heart more into God’s Work. I am not at headquarters; I am not a staff member. How can I put my heart more into God’s Work? 

No matter where you are, you are involved in the most crucial aspect of God’s Work. The Work does not thrive at headquarters or in the field because of new machines or clever thinking. It thrives because of God’s people pouring their hearts into it through prayers! It advances because of God’s people deeply studying their Bibles, fasting on occasion, raising strong families, sharing godly conversation, raising funds together, spending time together. 

Cocomise then continues with this little list of vital things that you can do to stop discouragement.  As usual, Jesus is nowhere to be found.

Do not believe that you are not a vital part of God’s Work! That belief does not come from God. If you would like some specific ways to pour your heart into God’s Work more, here are three:

• You can listen to KPCG.fm 
• Read The Philadelphian (members only) 
• Listen to Stephen Flurry on the Trumpet Daily 

Doing these three things will eliminate most discouragement, however deep discouragement requires something harder.  You must FAST!

None of these tips replaces or comes before our most important tools in battling discouragement: prayer and study. Fasting may even be necessary from time to time depending on how discouraged we may get. Nevertheless, these additional tools can serve as a great method to boost our resistance to discouragement when it arises.

Cocomise can't bring in any scriptures by Jesus on how he makes burdens light and carries the weight, instead he has to resort to an Old Testament hero that PCG places more significance upon.

Baruch was right there serving as secretary to God’s prophet, Jeremiah. He was right at the center of God’s Work. They had the vision, yet Baruch still found a way to fall into discouragement. No matter who we are, we can get discouraged. Baruch became selfish, and God had to remind him that even though life might have been easier if he were in a different situation, the only thing that would save his life for all eternity was holding on to the vision and delivering God’s message. Our situation is no different. If we deliver this message, hold on to the vision, and faithfully support God’s Work, we will defeat Satan and his effort to crush us through discouragement. God is ready and waiting to encourage you through His Work!

Big bad meanie Satan is out to discourage PCG members.  Apparently that discouragement never comes from the perverse teachings of Flurry, the abuse of Wayne Turgeon, the arrogance of the ministry, and much more.  Great would be the day any of this "men" ever took responsibility for anything.

Gerald Flurry, Beggars and Lives of Excess

The Philadelphia Church of God recently ran an article by a young woman from The Compound about how her life was "touched" by a poor beggar boy in South Africa while she and her privileged white family celebrated the Feast of Excessive Spending.

She writes:

That was at a Feast in South Africa in 2005. I was 11 years old and quite selfish, but that incident changed the way I looked at life. Living such rich lifestyles—as we do in America—can make a person begin to feel entitled to things, just like I felt entitled to a bigger, nicer vehicle, but we cannot think that way. It has all been given to us, and it can all be taken away just as easily, especially now in this end time. Mr. Gerald Flurry has even warned us be prepared to lower our standard of living because it is not always going to be rainbows and butterflies like it is now. 

Gerald Flurry and other  Church of God leaders have been touting Herbert Armstrong's "lower your standard of living" mantra for many decades now.  While Flurry, Pack, Thiel, Kubik and others spout the same drivel, they demand that their members continue to send in as much money as possible to keep their rich white lives maintained in their current standard of living.  Not once has Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Bob Thiel or any of the other so-called leaders ever lowered their standards of living.  Herbert Armstrong never set the example for them, so they have no idea how.

UCG and LCG are prime examples of that.  Both of these churches were started in order to maintain the current lifestyles of their leaders and ministers. Of them both, UCG was the most flagrant in their desire to maintain their ministerial perks.  Knowing that they were to to soon lose their jobs due to the doctrinal changes and the dramatic drop in income to WCG, ministers met and conspired in Kubik's and other ministers homes on campus plotting and scheming on how to take as many members and as much tithe money with them as possible.  Their new church they started was not so much over doctrinal changes, as most of them were the major enforcers of Tkach Sr. changes, but was really about the money.

When has Gerald Flurry ever taken a pay cut?  When has any of his intermarried family members ever taken away cut?  Instead, a million dollar facility is being built so that his grand-kids can practice Irish dance while PCG members struggle to make ends meet.

In the Church, we not only have many physical blessings from God, but we also have His truth and His protection. We have the hope of the World Tomorrow that is coming so soon. 

Whenever I feel down and discouraged, I always try to count my blessings. It actually does work! If you are sad like I was, it might be a result of selfishness and ingratitude. You cannot be unhappy if you are truly thankful. If that little boy had the blessings and truth we have, he would never be unthankful. 

Truth?  What truth?

Those "physical blessings" would all dry up the second members stopped sending in their
hard-earned money.  God isn't blessing the PCG, members are propping up.  If they all stopped sending in money for one month, the entire family enterprise would collapse.

Who in there right mind would want to live in a "world tomorrow" that is managed by PCG tyrants?  Imagine what a hellish life it would be with Wayne Turgeon lording himself over you and your family!  The lake of fire would start to look like a much better alternative.

As sad as that story is, God made it happen to teach me a lesson about gratitude. And maybe one day in the World Tomorrow, when we are teaching all the people, He will let me scoop that little boy up in my arms, squeeze him tight, and tell him that I love him—that everything is going to be okay, and that there are people out there who want the best for him. I’ll share the hope we have with him. And I will thank him for the valuable, life-changing lesson he taught me about being thankful.

For the sake of the world, may the day of PCG's "kingdom" never come!

LCG Member on Egyptair Plane That Crashed

This was sent to me from several LCG members this morning.  An LCG member from Paris was killed in what looks like a terrorist attack upon an Egyptair flight heading to Cairo.

Egyptair flight MS804: 'Terrorism more likely than technical failure', says Egypt – live

(CNN) EgyptAir Flight 804 vanished off radar on its way from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard, an airline official said Thursday. The plane was flying at 37,000 feet when it disappeared with 56 passengers and 10 crew members, the airline tweeted. 

Monique Dalle, member of the Paris congregation, wife of Jean-Jacques DALLE, is on the flight MS804 that disappeared en route from Paris to Cairo. Monique was to see their daughter Esther. Jean-Jacques and their son Nathan are at home in Paris without news from the authorities. Please pray for the family.

It Takes 3 1/2 Years to Complete Holy Orders In Bizarre COG Splinter Cult

Its been quit some time since we have heard about Eric King.  He has been busy making thousands of predictions,  searching for UFO's, communing with extraterrestrials, and working on his psychic powers.  King is so attuned to his extraterrestrial Anoh that he now has developed an intense study program for his acolytes.  Acolytes may now take "Holy Orders."

This extraterrestrial that regularly talks to King is also a follower of "Jesus."  Anoh is part of the angelic beings that did not follow Satan in rebellion. Now they fly around the world in UFO's delivering "human potential" messages.

“The knowledge that you receive at SOCT is important knowledge because it leads you to master your own consciousness. Through the power of Yeshua Hamashiach you are transmuted, forgiven and strengthened to become a New Creature in Christ. All socters have the Holy Spirit working in and through them. We must always stay concerned about personal advancement according to the Divine Precepts of the Order. We are interested in regeneration.” ~ 

“We begin to understand how our thoughts and actions influence all that surrounds us. We are wise in that we seek not only spiritual but scientific methods of dealing with problems. We experience self-transformation on all levels. We manifest the White Light of our bodies. It surrounds us and all socters become awake, aware and alert of the presence of this Great Power. As we move into the New Year [2016] let us continue steadily on our path and in so doing remember….Peace, Tolerance, Truth; Salutation on All Points of the Triangle; Respect to the Order.” ~ Anoh (December 2^nd 2015)

Part of the ritual in King's Holy Orders is celebrating the "Lord's Supper."

As Christians we partake of the “Lord’s Supper”. This ritual was instituted by Jesus Christ Himself and is a powerful transformative experience when one truly understands what all the symbols used mean. We also use symbols and objects in ritual to strengthen the over all experience. Sacred material tools are used. ~  

When a socter performs a ritual he or she comes to a higher awareness. The student is no longer in his or her home while doing this but instead the student is in a Sacred Temple, a Holy Place. Visualization is extremely important while in ritual. The student now is in direct contact with Divine Intelligence. The rituals help one to “Know thyself”. The student develops a different feeling about him or herself and their relationship to all that surrounds them. A more holistic view of life becomes a reality. ~ 

All of you acolytes out here had better start putting your brains to work!

In ending this paper I will say that if you study with us here you will learn a lot about yourself. We have wonderful Human brains. We have so much potential to create a better world and collectively we have not succeeded thus far in doing so. SOCT teaches the Seventh Message which contains the necessary knowledge and practices to create a better world. Won’t you join us in our efforts? Together we can achieve amazing things. ~

Peace Profound,

Sir Eric William King

 Sir Eric in intense study draped in his prayer shawl

Philadelphia Church of God: John Amos Equal To If Not Greater Than Christ

His Holiness Saint John Amos

The Philadelphia Church of God has reposted a mind-numbing post on why PCG members MUST remember John Amos.  Forget Jesus Christ, John Amos deserves your reverence!

Everything about this article is truly disgusting!

Gareth Fraser is the author.  He is the son of the legalistic tyrant Ron Fraser who died in 2013.

Gareth  starts his article off by quoting Gerald Flurry who made the claim that John Amos had attained the highest success possible that any man on earth has ever had.  That relegates Jesus Christ back to the corner as the weak, impotent, effeminate grace-ite that is ignored.  Besides, Amos is better than Jesus Christ.

“John Amos has just achieved the greatest success attainable on Earth!” wrote editor in chief Gerald Flurry on the cover of the June 1993 Philadelphia News. The article recounted the biblical promises to those who die “in the faith,” such as this man born in 1929.

He then closes the article with the belief that Amos will be sitting on the same throne as Jesus Christ.

And finally, in his booklet Who Is ‘That Prophet’?, Mr. Flurry fittingly remembered his loyal friend and confidant: “Mr. Amos has these words written on his gravestone: ‘To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne’ (Revelation 3:21). I know Mr. Amos is going to be there with Christ on that throne. Will we be there with him?”

You can read the rest of this disgust display of bullshit here:  Why You Must Remember John Amos 

Also check this out:

What Did John Amos Really Die Of?

PCG Canonizes John Amos

John Amos: A Biographical Sketch 

Life of PCG's Helen Amos

UCG/COG Suicides

The Philadelphia Church of God is not the only Church of God group that is having suicides because of church actions.  The United Church of God is also dealing with suicides of youth and younger members.

From an earlier thread related to PCG recent suicide.

Since the young man was cut off from most friends and family, we'll never get a 100 percent accurate picture of what happened. But we've seen enough similarly tragic stories in COG groups to connect the dots fairly well. In 2014, 30-year-old Janet Privratsky committed suicide after PCG's no-contact policy cut her off from her family. Last year, a 27-year-old David Ekama – a member of the United Church of God – took his own life. We have personal knowledge of another UCG teen who ran away and left his parents a suicide note after being pressured by tent-mates at UCG summer camp around the time of the UCG-COGWA split. What were they pressuring him to do? Leave UCG for a more conservative splinter that kept the law and Sabbath closer to the way WCG founder Herbert W Armstrong taught. Thankfully, his story had a happier ending. But the pattern is clear.

Suicides have been another sad legacy of the Church of God movement over the 8 decades of its existence.  From church members to college students and to the son of a "popular" evangelist the sickening trend has seen no end.  When the message offered has no hope attached to it because of heretical and deviate teachings of church leaders, its no wonder people have no hope.  When the message is totally devoid of Jesus and focused upon a "stronghand from someplace" that is ready to beat the crap out of humanity, where is there hope?

Herbert Armstrong's "Failed Business Man" Home Street: Klikitat Street in Portland

Neighboring house on Klikitat Street in Portland, Oregon 

where Herbert Armstrong lived with his family 

while failing to support them as he spent 6 months in the local library.

Dennis made a visit recently to the area of Portland where Herbert Armstrong moved his family.  This is also the area he was living in when he was without work and spent 6 months parked in the library instead of supporting his family.

He loved to portray himself as a "failed business man" yet for someone who was such a failure he lived in an upper class home in Portland.  Just how truthful was Herbert in how description of the life of his family while living on Klikitat Street.

I happened to cross Klikitat  St. coming home the other day and realized it was where HWA lived and where Richard was born.  I went looking for 1831 but there was no such address between 17th and 18th that crossed Klikitat.  Close but not 1831.  I was impressed however with the homes.  Really large classy and I am sure the originals from the 1920's.  For being a "failed businessman" just three years earlier, he still had expensive tastes it seemed if that was the correct area of Klikitat.   ......photos of the homes closest to the address.  The homes put me in mind of smaller versions of those on the AC campus

In Fall 1926 while visiting Armstrong’s parents in Salem, Oregon, Herbert's wife Loma was introduced by her in-laws’ to Emma Runcorn. Mrs. Runcorn and her husband O.J. were lay leaders in the Oregon Conference of the Church of God, Seventh Day. They introduced Loma to the Saturday Sabbath doctrine. Hearing about Loma's new found religious fanaticism, Herbert became incensed. Loma challenged him to find biblical support for Sunday observance. Armstrong began an extensive study of scripture too prove Loma wrong.  

In Spring 1927 after spending many weeks at Portland Public Library, to his astonishment, his study revealed that the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. As a result both Herbert and Loma began keeping the Saturday Sabbath. Armstrong frequently consulted with an evangelical minister and was then baptized in May/June 1927 by the Pastor of the Hinson Memorial Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon. Herbert once said of this Pastor, "The man is the most godly man in all of Portland." Shortly after that, Armstrong and Loma began fellowship with a Church of God (Seventh Day) group in Salem, Oregon.  

On October 13, 1928 Herbert & Loma welcomed their first son Richard David "Dick" Armstrong. The Armstrong family was living at: 1831 Klickitat St. in Portland. On February 9, 1930 Herbert & Loma welcomed their second son Garner Ted Armstrong. The Armstrong family was now living at: 839 E. 75th St. N. in Portland. In Spring 1931 the Armstrong family moved from Portland to nearby Salem (Mulino? Armstrong's parents?).  

In June 1931 Herbert W. Armstrong was ordained by the Oregon Conference of The Church of God, which took place in Eugene, Oregon but the Great Depression was beginning and he was later temporary laid off as a Minister. In December 1932 Armstrong took a temporary advertising job in Astoria, Oregon with "The Morning Messenger" newspaper. In February 1933 Herbert got his full time ministry back but was paid only $3.00 a week salary. Local membership, mostly farmers supplied the Armstrong family with vegetables and grains for meals and paid their house rent. Herbert W Armstrong: His Eugene and Portland Radio Days

========

But if these were the lean years finan- cially, they were years of coming into the true riches. Yet, I still had many lessons to learn. 

Not only was TRUTH to be discovered and dug Out of God's spiritual gold mine-the Holy BIBLE-but there was much character to be developed through hard, cruel ex- perience, the dearest teacher of all. 

I should not have thought so at the time-but God knew that I needed much more humbling-much more chastening and punishment at the hands of God! 

I had been humbled! 0 yes! And still, I know now that had God allowed me to have prospered financially at that stage of spiritual experience, self-pride once more would have seized me and the humility would have fled! The les- sons so far received by all this chasten- ing would have been lost! I was to have to suffer much more-and my family to suffer it with me! 

Gagging on Macaroni 

At this time, during 1928, we were living on Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon. We were falling dangerously behind in paying the rent. The real- estate agent who collected the rent came very frequently to the front door. To others he was a kind and pleasant-look- ing man. He taught a Sunday-school class. But to us, he was a dark, fore- boding, frightening, almost devilish-appearing man, when, of evenings, he so frequently stood at our front ent a number of times out of his own pocket. 

At one time we were in darkness nights against our will. The electricity was shut off because the bill was de- linquent. My wife did her cooking on a small gas stove, and our gas was shut off. Only the water was left running. We were out of food, and out of fuel. Our heating stove was one my father had made, shaped something like an old covered wagon-with rounded top. 

The children were crying with hun- ger. My stomach gnawed with pain. Like old Mother Hubbard's, our cup- board was bare, save for a little maca- roni. But there was no cheese or any of the ingredients used in baking maca- roni. There was not even a grain of salt. AND, there was no money to buy any. door, demanding in a deep, bass, stern tone: "Can I have the rent?" 

We simply didn't have the rent! We began to live in darkness, without lights, in hopes he would think we were not at home. Whenever he came, we knew just how a whipped dog feels when his tail is between his legs. Actually, this man, who appeared to us almost as an enemy, was kind enough to pay our  rent.  Plain Truth September 1959

The Failure of COG Media

A reader here sent the following observations and questions regarding how Church of God leaders portray themselves as great stalwarts of truth, yet when you check out the number of readers and followers, the numbers are minuscule even among their own membership.

I noted, for example, that Pack is on Twitter.  Not too surprising I suppose, and 100% of his tweets consist of announcements of his stupid RCG videos. 

.But one thing struck me as odd.  His number of followers 

Don’t they have some thousands of members?  Then why does he only have less than 900 followers?

(Incidentally, browsing through his followers just to see if I knew any of them, a lot are obviously not members – some are typical automatic follower accounts, follower fishers (uninterested parties that follow solely in the hope of getting followed back) and such  -- it’s probably less than 700 actual members that actually follow him, maybe even less.

Is he not considered important enough by all of the members to just follow him?
To me, that speaks volumes about his power even in his own church. https://twitter.com/davidcpack/followers Along the same lines....

Then there is David Hulme and his "Vision" 

Hulme’s videos are posted on YouTube, where the average number of views is somewhere around 700-800 per video.  

https://www.youtube.com/user/videosbyvision/videos Now, most have them been sitting around for 1 or 2 years, and most of those from the past year have less than 1000 views, which is pretty pathetic.  I have Youtube videos that have been around that long and accumulated more views than that!

It’s more pathetic considering COGIA also has some thousands of members, you would think at least the membership would definitely view the videos to have a base line of at least that number of views.  But apparently much of the membership can’t even be bothered to view them, so why would anyone else?

"We Found A Gold Mine"

Guest column:

For years, like many others, I had concluded that Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) had done well under Loma D. Armstrong's influence but then, after she died, HWA went off track.  This made sense as this period after Loma dies is when he began to purchase the real expensive planes and spend much of his time traveling in luxury.

However, after reading more of HWA's earlier writings and by re-visiting his autobiography, it became clear that the duplicity went much further back in time and that Loma was in on it too (at least passively). It was clear that even as early as 1947, that both of the Armstrong's were enjoying life at a standard of living far above the average church member.  Few members could have afforded a 7 bedroom, 4,169 sq-ft home on 0.4 acres adjacent to Cal Tech, nor could they have afforded a 6-week first class luxury tour of Europe.  Most still can't 

After realizing how HWA lived while simultaneously claiming one financial crisis after another (even while the income was growing at around 30% per year), comments that I had previously discounted about HWA being largely motivated by money began to make perfect sense. 

One example:

"Honey, I know how we're going to get rich"

Gene Scarbrough, who was an elder in YEHOVAH's Church for over forty years, was ordained in 1967, and came out to Pasadena, California, in that year to serve full-time in the ministry. He told me that years ago his daughter Peggy, spent some time visiting with Mrs. Loma D. Armstrong, who took a liking to her. While they were together one time, Mrs. Armstrong reminisced about how the Work and Church began. While reflecting on how the ministry of her husband Herbert and his eldest son, Richard David Armstrong, originally got started, Mrs. Armstrong told Peggy, "They got into it for the money!"

This type of candid statement would not be surprising if heard from the lips of an enemy of the Church. But, coming straight from the lips of Mrs. Loma D. Armstrong, it packs a wallop!

Another friend corroborates the above story in part. According to his information, Garner Ted Armstrong once told a teacher in the church at Big Sandy and a personal friend that when his father was in the aluminum siding business back in Oregon, he got a call from far away to make a bid on a job. Herbert jacked up the price because he didn't want the job, the location was so distant. To his surprise, the customer said, "When can you get started?" It turns out the customer was the minister of a Seventh Day Adventist Church, and had plenty of money from tithes and offerings. According to Ted Armstrong, upon returning home that evening, Herbert -- who all his life wanted to be considered successful in business and make lots of money -- told his wife, "Honey, I now know how we're going to get rich!"

The above comments may be found at the Hope of Israel site:

And just yesterday (5/14/16), from Art Mokarow...

"We found a gold mine!"

While speaking with Mr.Mokarow about how my views regarding HWA had changed after examining his earlier writings, and how I began to question if he had ever been sincere, Art shared the following, "Before GTA was even preaching, HWA had told Loma that 'We found a gold mine!'"

-Kevin