Above is the screenshot of Gerald Flurry's January 1 prediction that Donald Trump would be reelected and that God was going to perform a miracle. It is now February 15 and the article is still up, apparently because Gerald did NOT make a false prophecy. His god is all-powerful and will still make this happen.
In his article he states:
The God of the Bible is absolutely trustworthy. When He makes a promise, He keeps it. When He issues a prophecy, you can stake your life on it coming to pass!
I have lived my life by this truth for over four decades. And I have seen God deliver miracle after miracle. Never has God failed to do what He said He will.
Back in November, I wrote an article titled “Why Donald Trump Will Remain America’s President.” This article is based on some prophecies in the Bible, and to this day I remain convicted that it is 100 percent reliable. All the evidence may look contrary, but that doesn’t shake my conviction. God will ultimately stop Joe Biden from being America’s next president. Read that article to see what God prophesied. Those prophecies are sure. Keep your eyes on events, and watch what God does!
All of the evidence has proven it to the contrary and yet Flurry is still convicted his words were and still are 100% reliable. Flurry is starting to sound as crazy as Bob Thiel! False prophets in the COG have a fertile ground to plant their batshit imaginations into. There is always some gullible fool that will believe them, though those numbers are rapidly diminishing as every day that passes their lies become more exposed.
Flurry continues:
In Amos 2:11-12, God condemns those who have a “prophesy not” spirit. Then in Amos 3:7-8 we read, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7-8).
There are two opposing spirits here! One says “prophesy not.” The other says, “Who can but prophesy?” The Lion of the tribe of Judah—Jesus Christ—has roared! If you don’t fear God, then you will probably say, “Don’t prophesy.” But if you know God, and you listen to what He says, then you have an entirely different view. Who can but prophesy?
In the Bible prophets were usually men gifted by God to deliver a revelation to the church, but that ability to be a prophet carried tremendous responsibility:
Deut. 13:1 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,
Deut. 13:2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘ Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’
Deut. 13:3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deut. 13:4 “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
Deut. 13:5 “But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.
The Bible says that true prophets of God have to be 100% correct in ALL their prophecies. Notice above that even if they are wrong just ONE time, they are to be put to death! that's a pretty heavy burden to carry for self-appointed COG prophets. They don't care however, their narcissism and mental imbalances cause them to believe they are set apart for an end-time witness. the sad track record of COG prophets is every time they are wrong, their god resorts to sending them a new revelation or understanding that they had been blind to before. That new revelation just keeps getting more outlandish by the day.
COG members have been conditioned over the decades to believe anything that COG leaders say, all because of the erroneous and absurd doctrine of church government. Look at all the times we were told that if a minister speaks it is as if God himself spoke it. To even dare question a minister was a sure ticket to the lake of fire. Because of that members failed to heed the very standards the scriptures told them about prophets it was easy for the current crop of buffoons to step forward and make their claims.
Plus, the biblical office of a prophet no longer exists anyway in the church since the canon of scripture has been completed. That reality is a common understanding in Christianity, particularly since Christ came and sealed the deal. the church does not need fools like Flurry, Pack, Thiel, Wieland, or any of the others if they are followers of Christ, as they claim.
Since COG leaders cannot look to anything Christ said and have to look backwards all the time, let's not forget what Jeremiah had to say about prophets. We quickly can see what frauds we have in the church today.
Jer. 14:13 But, “Ah, Lord GOD!” I said, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”
Jer. 14:14 Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.
Jer. 14:15 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them — yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’ — by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end!
24 comments:
A significant percentage of the population believes the election was stolen.
The truth is that the Democrats outhustled the Republicans because Trump believed the pollsters that he would lose and came up with a fraudulent strategy to overthrow the results.
Because of this shameful act the only thing he is still qualified for is to be a COG leader- but even Donald would not stoop so low.
Flurry said: "The God of the Bible is absolutely trustworthy. When He makes a promise, He keeps it. When He issues a prophecy, you can stake your life on it coming to pass! "
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Two problems with this. In my experience the "God of the Bible is not absolutely trustworthy and promises go awry all the time throughout entire lifetimes. Secondly, it is questionable whether it is "He", i.e. God issuing a prophecy upon which I can stake my life, which of course I won't since it is not really God issuing anything through humans. It's humans thinking of themselves a bit more highly than they ought to think.
Mental illness in the prophet, falsely so called, can also play its part.
Hosea 9:7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel (PCG) shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
Hosea 9:8 The watchman of Ephraim (Gerald Flurry) was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
Ironic, isn't it? For years HWA taught that a strong man would arise in Europe and lead the ten-nation beast power. Actually, the strong man has arisen here in the good old USA. Trump is not terribly strong --- he did, after all, lose the election --- and while he is very skilled at arousing America's id, in other ways he's dumb as a brick. But for his followers he is the strong man who promises to make America great again, which really means make America white again. And every COG "leader" that I know of has fallen right in line behind that faux strong man, just like the stupid televangelists whose doctrines the COGers rail against. Perhaps with their embrace of British-Israelism that is not too surprising, but it's still depressing. The greatest service Trump has performed for this country is allowing us to clearly identify who the posterior-kissing hypocrites among us are, be they politicians, religious leaders, or the average voter. I am appalled that I once affiliated with groups which endorse a man such as Donald Trump.
Living Church of God, Bob Thiel, and Dave Pack all looked at Trump as the one sent by God to keep the world safe from evil democrats. They've done nothing but make fools of themselves.
These idiots all tried to tell us not to vote and yet they claim to speak on behalf of a God that is always republican based. I stopped listing to their anti-vote stance when I was 18 and have now been voting for over 40 years. No COG leader will ever again tell me what to do.
You are still deceived if you believe MAGA really meant make America white again. Just as you fell for the lies hwa told you, you now believe can judge the real desires in the hearts and minds of others because others in the media have told you to or have pointed you to only the evidence they want you to see. It’s sad. I too can’t believe I fell for the lies of hwa, and if I had actually known and talked to other Christians it is likely I would not have, instead I was told what they think. Maybe you are now doing similarly.
Go away atheist.
"Go away atheist."
LOL! The typical comment from an Amrstrongite who has nothing to say to add to the conversation.
6:45
God is a sponsor of the new Patriot Party within the Republicans. Ask congressman Kinzingers family.
Nck
He does have a point about Trump, I feel it is more sad for a former hwa follower to follow Trump, cult experts pointed out the cultic nature of the Trump movement just like some did with the hwa movement. If you can't see the similarities between the two groups you must be blind...worst yet most COG leaders believe in Trump almost as much as they believed in HWA.
“The God of the Bible is absolutely trustworthy. When He makes a promise, He keeps it. When He issues a prophecy, you can stake your life on it coming to pass!”
Problem is men (and women) like Jerry Flurry want others to believe they’re “absolutely trustworthy” as if they speak for God Almighty! They misinterpret and misapply God’s prophecies as if God is American and Bible prophecies are all about America and make whatever deluded predictions they make about American politics that they want to see happen. That it doesn’t come to pass, however, only proves they’re liars and false prophets who will be humbled in time by God to eat their own words!
Can’t we round all these COG leaders up and lock them up together somewhere? So they can drive each other nuts with their prophecies and lies?
Would be interesting to see which one of them would still stand after six months or so.. What would happen? Would they start killing each other? Try to convert one another? Or maybe have a nervous breakdown?
9.30 PM
Dennis comes here with a missionary zeal of pushing the gospel of atheism. That's not the purpose of this blog.
"Go away atheist" had been said many times, and a person of morals would have obliged long ago.
Flurry Church of God to now be forthwith known by the acronym ... F.L.O.G. !
It seems no one holds the left leaning media accountable as they do the outlets that lean to the conservative side. There is a reason that outlets such as CNN,MSNBC & the major network news programs have lost about 50% of their viewership in the last few years. If you believe global warming is a natural process with little effect from internal combustion engines you get cancelled. But the carbon Nazi's won't answer when their claims are confronted but tend to try to blackmail non believers. The ice cap and glacier fields of North America went as far south as New York State 11,000 years ago and they melted away without the first chunk of coal or gallon of gas being burnt. Too many news outlets are being used as propaganda sources and tools of billionaires with an agenda different from that of ordinary Americans.As far as Flurry goes he is a discredited false prophet who seeks the absolute power that HWA held and in the end causes untold damage to his followers and often converts people to atheism after years of his abuse.
HWA would criticize the RCC, yet the Popes have spoken ex cathedra, "From the chair" where their teachings are considered infallible only a couple of times. Both times the teaching related to Mary. WCG and their offshoots are worse than the RCC. They believe that everything they say is "ex cathedra" or infallible.
If one looks at prophesis in the bible, they have a certain literatury format. For instance, Gods promises to Abraham. The so called prophesy of Trump getting re-elected did not fit the format. The scriptures given as supposed proof are simply past history. Nothing more.
A question I have had for years is "Why are apocalyptic Millerites so persistent?" They are undaunted by blatant failure in predictive prophecy. They undergo great disappointment and then they spring back quickly, riffing excitedly once again on the End Times as if they have no short term memory.
I have speculated that this may be just a form of liturgy - a kind of repetitive mode of worship that has no real expectation of geopolitical consequences as the Parousia would have. A kind of liturgical theater. I think this idea has merit.
But there are other possibilities. One is that it is a form of collective compulsion. And here's an anecdote to illustrate the point. Once a military aircraft landed on an island in the South Pacific (I am not going to look up and transcribe all the details). The crew off-loaded useful items there and gave them to the natives - who were blown away by the "advanced technology" of these common items. Then the plane flew away. This event went into the oral tradition of the natives and they began to have a religious view towards the event. In subsequent years they would build "airplanes" out of local materials, palm trees and such, to try to attract the great treasure trove from the sky again. This became known as the Cargo Cult which you can probably find in Wikipedia somewhere.
I regard this as a form of compulsion. The natives were doing something to try to compel the return of the airplane bearing gifts. In a similar manner, I think Splinterdom tries to compel the return of Christ by predicting it over and over again. I don't disparage their feelings. I think it is a lousy world, too. But I don't think anybody is going to lure Jesus to return by intemperate talk and melodrama.
It is not enough that Splinterists are mortal and will soon die and stand before Christ. They seem to be consumed by the need for instant gratification. Here again, I can understand the need. Getting old and dying sucks. But I don't think somehow ritually invoking Jesus to return and interdict the aging process is the solution. Or maybe it is an "I told you so" phenomenon. The Splinterists want to see all the things the have been arm waving about all these years finally happen as a kind of personal vindication. What the driver for this behavior really is may elude us. We're still trying to figure out what the Qumran Community was up to.
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"Go away atheist."
I do not support this. I think Dennis' views should be welcomed, analyzed, understood and responded to. There is much to be learned in this process. For instance, Dennis recently stated that there were no prophecies in the OT that pointed to Christ. That is only partially true. The prophecies cited as pertaining to Christ by the NT authors originally were references to other people and events - particularly they were references to Israel. But for the NT writers, Christ was the goal, purpose and meaning of everything. So they recognized themes in the OT that bespoke Messianic events.
The OT did not prophesy Christ but believers in Christ reinterpreted OT passages with new knowledge. This is not an off-the-wall phenomenon. This is a known theological hermeneutic called Christotelicity (see https://peteenns.com/episode-117-reading-the-old-testament-christotelicly/). It comports with the Jewish Midrashic use of scripture. It gives literalists cardiac arrest, though. And also atheists who like to rant about some fine point of language or circumstance. Most Bible critics are literalists.
If it had not been for Dennis, the opportunity to examine this would likely never have arisen.
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Pardon me for dipping into politics in response to some of the comments here.
I do not believe that D. Trump is as extreme as his base. He is viewed by his base as the great champion of White Privilege. I am not sure he is. He may dog whistle about it a little but I do not think he has any great empathy for the common White man that forms the spine of the MAGA movement. Trump talked about being energized by the crowd. His most intemperate statements were made at rallies.
It very well could be that apocalyptic Millerite congregations are more extreme than their leaders. There are some evidences. Their leaders may not be dragging them along. Their leaders could be drafting off the energy of their intemperate zeal. This reservoir of extremism in the pews could explain why the pulpit is so bold and repetitive.
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And the icing on the cake- it didn’t happen.
False prophet
NEO writes:
“If it had not been for Dennis, the opportunity to examine this would likely never have arisen.”
I would suggest that if one was conversant with the best of Sunday-keeping scholarship, nearly every thing that Dennis has mention here would be nothing new.
“In spite of areas of disagreement on these issues, many scholars find a wide swath of agreement on the interpretive, or hermeneutical, assumptions that guided the NT authors as they appropriated texts from the Scriptures. Knowledge of these assumptions can be useful when one is attempting to understand a particular NT use of an OT text. Passages that are initially baffling to modern readers often become clear when these fundamental presuppositions are acknowledged. It will be helpful to include a brief survey of these assumptions here since our three contributors assume familiarity with them in their essays.
“It is well known that ancient Jewish groups prior to and contemporaneous with the first-century Christian Jews were perceiving fulfillments of the OT in events and people that were quite distinct from those put forward in the NT. The interpretations of Scripture found at Qumran illustrate this well. As is revealed in their writings, these sectarian Jews were convinced of their identity as the “children of light,” faithful to the covenants and the rightful heirs of many scriptural prophecies concerning the last days of the age. Equipped with their hermeneutical key - which is none other than their Teacher of Righteousness - they saw in their own history the fulfillment of end time prophecies. Accordingly, they unhesitatingly applied the Scriptures to their own community.
“What is important to recognize is that this is analogous to what the NT authors have done in their use of the OT. Equipped with Jesus, who is their interpretative key, they appropriate the Scriptures to validate their claim that Jesus is the Messiah and to bolster their assertions concerning their own identity. Like the Qumranians, they view Scripture through the lens of their presuppositions bout Jesus. I will briefly discuss the most important of these here...” (Jonathan Lunde, An Introduction to Central Questions in the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, pp.33-36).
The above is the introduction to “Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament” - one of the views is by Peter Enns.
Some other observations:
“One of the greatest obstacles we face in trying to interpret the Bible is that we are inclined to think in our own cultural and linguistic categories. This is no surprise since our categories are often all that we have, but it is a problem because our own categories often do not suffice and sometimes mislead” (John H. Walton, Genesis, NIVAC, pp.67-68).
“It means we frequently need to put the brakes on and ask whether we’re reading the Bible in light of the original culture or in light of contemporary culture. While the Bible’s values were very different from ancient cultures, it obviously communicated in the existing languages and within cultural customs of its days” (John H. Walton & D. Brent Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture, p.13).
“Those who have studied the interpretation of Scripture among other Jews at the time, particularly at Qumran and among the rabbis, recognised that they are on familiar ground in Matthew, sometimes in the actual interpretative methods he employs, but also more widely in the creative ways he goes about discovering patterns of fulfilment, ways which modern exegetical scholarship often finds surprising and unpersuasive. But Matthew was not writing for modern exegetical scholars, and we may safely assume that at least some of his intended readers/hearers would have shared his delight in searching for patterns of fulfillment not necessarily in what the original authors of the OT texts had in mind but in what can be perceived in their writings with Christian hindsight...” (R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT, pp.12-13).
Last year I wanted to know who would win the election. So of course I went to the one sure source for prophecy, Flurry. When predicted Trump would win, I knew Biden was going to be our next president.
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