By now in 2019, we should never be surprised at the lunacy coming out of the Philadelphia Church of God, all thanks to the visions Gerald Flurry receives from his god.
Desiring Spiritual Children
Now, consider this inspiring parallel. It is natural for us to desire physical children. In fact, some women have such a strong maternal desire that they have children even when afflicted by grotesque health problems. Still they have children, because that desire is so strong within them.
What about having spiritual children? We don’t naturally desire spiritual children. That is an unnatural desire. How much time do you spend thinking about all those wonderful children that you’re going to have with Jesus Christ, your Husband? How much do you yearn for sons and daughters in the Family of God? Do you desire with all your passions to have children in the Family of God? We must build that yearning for a spiritual family.
That is so unnatural that it takes the Spirit of God to truly yearn for that; yet that is the purpose Christ’s Bride will fulfill!
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The Bride of Christ must build a natural yearning, a natural desire, to have spiritual children! That desire, however, must come from God. Remember, spiritually we are the woman; we must be building this spiritual yearning within us, where we feel we must have spiritual children. The real family is the God Family! That’s the family God wants us to really get passionate about.
The physical family is here only to help us get into the spiritual family.
This God Family vision really stretches your mind. It is unnatural for us, but it is the way Christ, our Husband, thinks! We must think that way too if we are to marry Him! (Philippians 2:5).
Imagine what Christ would say if we married Him and then told Him that we didn’t really want children. Of course, this is hypothetical; we would not even be Christ’s wife if we thought that way. If we don’t want children, then we are in the wrong spiritual family! And we won’t be the Bride of Christ.
Christ is determining now if you want to have a lot of children; and by a lot, He means all of humanity. Multiple billions of people will be given the opportunity to be a part of the God Family before this is over.
Well...aside from this being theological and spiritual BS, it feels somewhat weird. I guess in the Churches men have to cope with the idea of being the Bride of Christ while women get to wonder what the hell being a son of God means for them. Somewhere it is written "for they neither marry nor are given in marriage" so it appears this relationship is like a giant orgy of some sort. Creepy... :)
ReplyDeleteGerald is a great example of having too much time to think up too little truth.
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ReplyDeleteOnce again, Flurry shows his tendency to make physical anything that to real Christians is spiritual. He raises some interesting questions:
ReplyDeleteWhen Christ was married to ancient Israel, how did they make babies? Who were those babies?
God the Father has a Son, Jesus Christ, but who was the Mother? Did Christ need a Spirit-Mother to be born as the Son? If so, who is She? If not, why assume that Christ and His Church will be making babies?
If Jesus Christ is a Son of God without a Spirit-Mother, can't His younger brothers also be born that way as Sons? Or, is it that the God Family will be closed at 144,000 (give or take a few) rather than 3?
Flurry sounds more like a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness in this passage. Very strange.
Anon said : "God the Father has a Son, Jesus Christ, but who was the Mother? Did Christ need a Spirit-Mother to be born as the Son? If so, who is She?"
ReplyDeleteShe was probably Asherah the original consort to El. I'll spare us the explanation. There was no Jesus, or "the one who became Jesus" hanging around his father God existing before the Jesus of the Gospels and his birth via Mary and someone else very human. That's how it really works. In John the Pharisees say "we were not born of fornication." That was the going rumor and the reason the Birth Narratives were later inserted into Matthew and Luke , over riding the genealogies which give Jesus a very human origin and ancestors that would be moot if any god was his "real" father.
William Dever's book Did God Have a Wife? adduces further archaeological evidence—for instance, the many female figurines unearthed in ancient Israel, (known as Pillar-Base Figurines)—as supporting the view that in Israelite folk religion of the monarchal period, Asherah functioned as a goddess and consort of Yahweh and was worshiped as the Queen of Heaven, for whose festival the Hebrews baked small cakes. Long story.
But originally Asherah was the Mother Goddess and consort of El who was adopted by Israel as God but dropped Asherah the mom. She turns up as a pole/tree in the worship of rebel Israelites.
Occam's Razor, Dennis, please. You don't need to say so much. Flurry's speculations can be explained far more simply: "When you say Budweiser, you've said it all."
ReplyDeleteIs an older man trying to spiritually explain a young girl's pregnancy?
ReplyDeletePS. Polytheism in Isreal evolved into Monotheism ditching the consort and need up back to Polytheism in Trinitarianism where one that's polytheism revisited no matter the apologetics
ReplyDeleteThanks very nice blog!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the confused sounding PS. Word chooser evidently did me in And I noticed it not. lol
ReplyDeleteSo what does Flurry think his crazy evangelistic efforts are..."spiritual sperm"??
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ReplyDeleteTonto, you should have heard Rod Meredith get absolutely giddy talking about the sperma (Greek: σπέρμα) that God puts in us when we receive the Holy Spirit. If you do an actual Bible study you'll find that where σπέρμα is used it usually refers to physical plant seeds or to one's descendants, but Meredith seemed to get excited by the idea of receiving God's sperma even when the text didn't put it quite that way.
ReplyDelete"So what does Flurry think his crazy evangelistic efforts are..."spiritual sperm"??"
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm in no way defending Flurry the herbie mini-me wanna-be, here in 1 John:
1Jo 3:9 - Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
The Greek word for seed is indeed "sperma".
Kevin
The Herb churches have a history of telling people what they should be feeling. If they were feeding their members spiritual meat rather than milk, the corresponding feelings would naturally follow. However, yearning for spiritual children is not natural.
ReplyDeleteAsking members to fake reality and pretend, is the church culture, and a bully trait.
I find this whole experience in growing up in a dysfunctional and unhealthy church/cult, very educational & experience worthy for the good. I no longer trust organized religion, man made, self indulgent/money hungry organizations. This is a good thing. I believe Flurry is a hypocrite, liar, money grabbing scoundrel and will eventually be hung out to dry. If not in this world (which he probably will anyway), but by God himself. What a lying, embarrassing scoundrel!
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