Gerald Flurry has written a new book of child rearing. These are quotes from the first few pages. God forbid if you are a person who does not want children!
God has flooded the pcg with incredible new revelation on many prophetic subjects and doctrines, including child rearing. He has also raised the ruins of Mr. Armstrong’s work with the establishment of Herbert W. Armstrong College, Imperial Academy, publication of The Bible Story, Youth Bible Lessons, True Education magazine, and summer camps around the world. This should impress upon us how important child rearing is to God.
Jesus Christ is our Husband, and He wants to be certain that we don’t look to any individual, any man, more than Him—that we will never exalt a man or 10 men above Jesus Christ. That is what created the Laodicean condition today! We are Christ’s helpmeet. We are to love God, our Husband, above the members in the Church.
Having physical children helps prepare the firstfruits to get ready to have billions of children in the World Tomorrow. Those converted in the Millennium are likened to children of the Husband (Christ) and His wife, the Church. Rearing physical children is a type of what we will be doing spiritually in the World Tomorrow! We are called to help Christ in this job—to be His helpmeet. God wants us to focus our minds on all the children to come on the scene in the future and to get ready to rear them and dedicate them all to the Father, the way Hannah did her son.
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.
The Bride of Christ must build a natural yearning, a natural desire, to have spiritual children!
The physical family is here only to help us get into the spiritual family.
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.
God is teaching us that we must understand our purpose for being created, or our life is shamefully wasted. That is what this world is now learning by excruciating experience!
This is one way to increase membership - if you can get the kids to stay.
ReplyDeleteBut why do they want more children if they are about to flee to the place of safety - which is a cave?
I can imagine in the millennium, all the PCGers going around saying - "who's your daddy!".
We have so much to look forward to.....
Is Flurry taking a cheap shot at the childless Gerald Weston?
ReplyDelete"..build a natural yearning, a natural desire to have spiritual children"
ReplyDeleteThis is typical ACOG speak. Members are expected to fake reality. A reality defined not by God, but by the ministers. Demanding others fake reality is a bully rather than a biblical trait.
Having physical children helps prepare the firstfruits to get ready to have billions of children in the World Tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThat Jesus dude, such a failure.
Have ACOG members considered that their religion teaches that they will marry their Elder Brother? No wonder WCG was so popular in Appalachia!
ReplyDeleteShouldn't the teaching be that we are destined to have children with our FATHER rather than our Elder Brother? This would then make HWA's activity with Dorothy a prophetic antitype!
ReplyDeleteI can never figure out just who's married to who. Christ is my husband but also the church is his husband or maybe his wife I forget. That's two husbands, unless Jesus considers me now female, for one wife making it some kind of threesome or including all my friends in the church, a more and moresome. IF it is a guy being the husband of another guy I thought that's what all the Evangelicals were trying to prevent?
ReplyDeleteAs a guy I'd prefer a wife but Jesus is not a wife and has no wife so as his siblings begotten by his Father and a neighbor called the Holy Spirit it would seem Jesus is my brother, but now I am married to my brother and the neighbor begot me which makes him a half brother if the neighbor is the Father's Brother too. There seems some kind of fornication in their somewhere.
It all sounds like some kind of gay polygamist fornification cult.
On top of this, I hear the Church is the mother of us all so Jesus is marrying his mother , the Church, and since I also am married to Jesus that makes my Mother my wife too and if I read I Corinthians 5:1 where someone was sleeping with his father's wife and getting handed over to Satan for it, this is going to all end badly for me since my father's wife is also my wife or mother which is even worse than sleeping with dad's wife!
I'm missing something aren't I? I'm not built for having children. Sounds awkward and painful. And for sure I"m not going to be comfortable having billions of Children with Jesus. I assume he gets to be the guy so that leaves me pregnant and barefoot for all eternity seems like. Not exactly the Wonderful World Tomorrow for me.
Ater reading that I got an image in my mind of Maurey Povich saying, "Jesus you are Not the father."
DeleteA few months ago, weren't PCG members told that since time is short they must STOP having children?
ReplyDeleteOne of the various things which makes us different from the animals is that we humans can choose whether or not to have offspring. There are some people who are actually not suited to having children. Many of those who were raised in Armstrongism fall into this group, because of all of the innate goodness that being raised in that cult takes away. After all, to be suited for parenthood, one must be an empath. In Flurry’s cult, members are taught to leave their disabled children at the mall. They are taught to shun family members who leave the church. They must prevent their children from getting proper medical attention. And, families are impoverished by the financial teachings of the church. Childrens’ emotional nourishment takes a back seat to fear of the Germans. Children go to school every day with a severe “us against them” mentality, and are unable to have friends amongst those who would normally be their peers.
ReplyDeleteHaving children in that cult is actually an endorsement of Gerald Flurry and the wisdom of his teachings. It is a statement as to how “wonderful” membership in PCG is. It is taking your offspring, the most precious thing in your life, and sacrificing their best interests to that idol. Of course he is going to encourage this type of support from his followers! Bottom line is that many of these kids are going to end up in therapy and analysis for years to come.
BB
This is probably the wrong forum for this, but I've been studying this topic in recent days.
ReplyDeleteJesus referred to the disciples as His children three times in the KJV. Among other things, that would indicate Jesus considered Himself God, in spite of what James Malm seems to say.
So maybe PCG members ought to go recruit disciples. Maybe.
I have no idea how Dennis passed AC.
ReplyDeleteMaybe your time would be better spent figuring out what the very valid causes might have been for his leaving, 7:39, and how AC ultimately caused the reversal of his guiding philosophy. That’s the real story. Bogus theology has temporarily destroyed the man’s faith.
DeleteJust so you know, this book is almost certainly not written by Gerald Flurry. Just scrolling through I noticed there are definitely a few of his articles that have been inserted in. But anything that is "original" writing in this book is probably Dennis Leap--when I was at HQ he had been working on this for the past few years.
ReplyDeleteWait a minute, wasn't this the same group that had a minister say to abandon a disabled child in a mall? Isn't this the same group that has broken up families for one ridiculous reason or another?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have read, the PCG is and hasn't been family friendly for a long time. Now that the older members are dying off, now they want husbands and wives to start having more children? Which is it? They can't seem to make up their minds.
In closing, I say to the PCG members that may read this site, do you really think that you would be included on Flurry's jet to flee to some place of safety? Do you really believe that he and his chosen ones give one hoot about you other than your tithes and offerings? You people are in for a big shock when he waves bye, bye to your sorry asses.
February 23, 2019 at 7:39 PM
ReplyDeleteLots of us "passed" AC - it was not rocket science. And even more have passed AC in cars and on foot.
Actually, when I was a sophomore at AC, Jimi Hendrix’s cover of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” was popular and everywhere on the radio.
DeleteI was beginning to experience deep questions about AC, the type that you just couldn’t ask, or people became angry. The words to this song (which is actually still all over the radio) were considered to be cryptic in nature, but I found some very profound connections between them and my existence at AC.
Too lazy to retype the lyrics here today, but if anyone would care to Google the song, perhaps you might observe and be able to relate to the same parallels.
BB
Byker, did you also listen to Hendrix's "Purple Haze"? Also filled with cryptic meaning from an AC perspective.
ReplyDelete[Verse 1]
ReplyDeleteThere must be some kind of way out of here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion
I can't get no relief
Businessmen they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth
None will level on the line
Nobody offered his word
Hey
[Verse 2]
No reason to get excited
The thief, he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
The hour is getting late
Hey
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 3]
All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants too
Outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl
Hey
[Outro]
All along the watchtower
All along the watchtower
To me, it sounds like growing cognitive dissonance and a cultish experience.
DBP
TLA, you're right. AC was not rocket science. I earned an F in Rod Meredith's class, but he gave me a D.
ReplyDeleteI have never figured out why, since he was so severe in general. Maybe he thought if he didn't flunk me out, I could be salvaged. HA! Me salvageable? Not likely.
Ah, Purple Haze. Never made the connection of that song to AC, 12:05. Care to elaborate? Back in the day, I kind of dismissed it as a drug song. Funny thing is, when it was first popular, Bill Cosby came out with a satirical knock-off of it called "Hooray for the Salvation Army Band!"
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Hendrix song is pretty much true to my core musical tastes. It is "Red House". Still carry it in my car on one of my "desert island" CD mixes. Also have some relatively rare stuff Hendrix did with Buddy Miles at the drum kit, Billy Cox on bass, and Lee Michaels on the keyboards.
BB
'scuse me while I kiss this guy...
ReplyDeleteThat classic misheard lyric could apply in all sorts of inappropriate contexts in WCG and the splinters! As for the real lyrics:
Purple Haze was in my brain,
lately things don't seem the same,
actin' funny but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky.
Purple Haze all around,
don't know if I'm coming up or down.
Am I happy or in misery?
Whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me.
Purple Haze was in my eyes,
don't know if it's day or night,
you've got me blowing, blowing my mind
is it tomorrow or just the end of time?
Sounds like a typical cult member, love-bombed and conforming, but confused. Turns out it wasn't the end of time, though, just tomorrow. But who's "that girl"? Loma Armstrong? Some effeminate pretty-boy minister with perfect helmet-hair?
Got it! I can see some poor dude sitting in his dormitory trying to come
Deletedown from all the joykill he just sang at sabbath services from the Purple Hymnal.
“That girl”? Well, as we were recently reminded in another post, the WCG was supposed to be the bride of Christ.
Kissing the sky (in the AC sense) could be a metaphor for prayer.
Sadly, just as I thought I recalled, the lyrics testify that Mr. Hendrix was acquainted with Mr. Owsley!
One good thing about Ambassador was that they did teach us not to indulge in behavior that could place our bodies and our minds at risk. Much of their brainwashing was probably worse, but looking back, I’m so glad to have missed out on the whole LSD thing.
BB
all the joykill he just sang at sabbath services from the Purple Hymnal.
ReplyDeleteByker, you're so carnal. How can you not be inspired by such lyrics as:
Blow the horn, let Zion hear, for God's day is now at hand;
Let the people tremble in this day of clouds and gloominess;
Troops so great and mighty strong, there has never been the like;
Nothing shall escape as they devour the stubble on their way.
Fire before them shall devour, flames ablaze are left behind;
Such as Eden was shall become a wilderness that's desolate;
Like the noise of chariots; and as horsemen do they run;
Nothing shall escape as they devour the stubble on their way.
People are faint at their sight, for they run like mighty men,
Moving each on his own way they do not tangle in their paths,
Each does follow his own line, climbing walls like men of war;
Then they charge as warriors and advance like fighters on their way.
They upon the city leap, break thru weapons each unharmed;
Run up on the walls and climb in houses thru the windows leap;
Earth is quaking as they come, heaven shake, stars cease to shine;
Then the Eternal thunders and the sun and moon become both black!
Purple Haze is infinitely more uplifting than "Blow the Horn, Let Zion Hear!"
Amen, brother! I used to listen to Dylan’s “Desolation Row” while driving to Sabbath Services, picturing GTA as Cassanova, and HWA as the Phantom of the Opera. The song actually makes reference to “getting ready for the Feast”.
DeleteBut, even listening to the rock medley by Cat Mother and the Allnight Newsboy (a Hendrix-backed group) was more edifying than “Praise Ye the Lordo”.
Contemporary praise music of the rock genre in a mega-church is just awesome! Too bad we couldn’t have been pioneers in that. Mark Armstrong had a pretty hot little band back in the day.
BB