Gerald Flurry, leader of the Philadelphia Church of God has a new article up about The Spirit of Prophecy. It is another convoluted mishmash of false beliefs created by Gerald Flurry in an attempt to promote the law and whip his followers into the notion he is the one true prophet to the church. Jesus gets the short end of the stick again.
“And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Testimony comes from the Latin testimonium, which is the word used for the Ten Commandments. Webster’s offers three primary definitions: the tablets inscribed with the Mosaic law; a firsthand authentication of a fact; and a solemn declaration.
So this testimony the Apostle John wrote about is very different from most: It is a declaration from God in the flesh!
The Temple Dictionary of the Bible writes: “In the plural, this word stands in the Old Testament, especially in Psalm 119, for the divine law. … Testimony is frequently joined with ‘commandments’ (2 Kings 23:3) …. It is used emphatically for the two tables of the law.” This is a testimony from God in the flesh. It was His message when He came to Earth.
Christ said, “I receive not testimony [the same word used in Revelation 19:10] from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved” (John 5:34). Christ’s testimony didn’t come from a man. It is perfect and it’s in the spirit of prophecy.
Thayer’s further amplifies this word: “[T]he testimony of Christ is that which He gives concerning divine things, of which He alone has thorough knowledge … that testimony which He gave concerning future events relating to the consummation of the Kingdom of God ….” That is prophetic testimony!
It is critical that we, like Christ, understand and have the spirit of prophecy!
The article is a huge slobber fest of idolatry to Herbert Armstrong and quotes HWA at every chance they can get. It also makes the excuse for why Flurry left the mother church to start his own group. Of course, it is an attack of Tkach Sr. and high praises for the most significant moment in PCG's history when Lil'Stevie read Flurry's plagiarized Malachi's Message.
After Mr. Armstrong died, terrible spiritual destruction fell on the Church. God started that famine, exactly as Mr. Armstrong prayed it would. And look at what has happened since. “And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit” (verse 18). On July 16, 1989, exactly 3½ years later, my son read Malachi’s Message. The latter rain started at that time, and “brought forth her fruit.” We are that fruit! One man prayed to God and changed the course of everything. Look at the fruits of that prayer. We are here because of Mr. Armstrong’s prayer and God’s blessing. We have all kinds of marvelous new truths God has given—truth that God and Mr. Armstrong didn’t want the Worldwide Church of God to ever have again. He raised up the Philadelphia Church of God to receive God’s new revelation.
Imagine basing your church on demented writings of Jules Dervaes that Flurry plagiarized and the fact that Lil'Stevie read it. It can't get any crazier, except maybe for Bob Theil's fantastical reasons on why he formed his group.
Only one wcg minister continued for about six months to deliver the truth of God. Eventually, he too caved in and accepted wrong doctrines. If you were in the spirit of prophecy, you would never follow that church because they were teaching “Prophesy not”! That’s no small mistake—it’s rejecting God and His law and our testimony.
Mr. Armstrong knew what that leadership was all about. He knew Mr. Tkach was not going to lead God’s true Church. And he saw to it that he didn’t receive any new revelation. He saw an evil that he hadn’t seen six days before.
We are dealing with those who are “according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.” We are in a war against that evil being, and Satan is in his worst wrath ever. That is what we are fighting against. Being in a war can result in a lot of persecution. This is why we must understand the spirit of prophecy.
Know We Are at War
Prophecy describes Mr. Tkach being in the bonds of Satan and his son being a spiritual Antiochus. God says these men are liars, and He’s going to expose them. These ministers were in the synagogue of Satan (Revelation 3:9). Satan is the father of liars and a murderer from the beginning because there is no truth in him (John 8:44).
Propehcy has absolutely nothing to say about Tkach, Flurry, Thiel, or any of the other looney tunes leading COG's today other than the fact the Bible states that false prophets will arise to deceive many.
Flurry then gets to the gist of what the spirit of prophecy is in the church and it does not involve church members. It's all about him. and corporate prophecy.
This little group, with a powerful message going around the world, believes in the spirit of prophecy! If you are in the spirit of prophecy and you have the testimony of Jesus Christ, you see the future and you know it is worth any trial we have to endure.
With the spirit of prophecy, you understand that we have a spectacular future when Christ returns. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). We are going to be like God! What a stirring God Family potential!
There's that "we will be gods" myth, again.
He then moves on to his favorite book in the Bible, Lamentations. Not anything that concerns Jesus but a book filled with death and destruction. Hell yeah!
Lamentations is the most horrifying book in the Bible! Some of it is tough to read. It’s not something you sit and read before going to sleep—it would keep you up all night! But it is talking about real events that are going to happen to Israel. For example, Lamentations 4:10 talks about the “compassionate women” of Israel boiling their own children for food! (Revised Standard Version). The Laodicean churches are going to experience that! Unparalleled punishment is coming on God’s own Church! They are self-righteous and lukewarm. They can sound chic today proclaiming their messages of “love,” but they won’t be doing that when Lamentations is fulfilled! God will force them to face their rebellion!
A little later he writes:
The book of Lamentations is a funeral dirge—a poem of the most intense grief and mourning. Yet we must remain encouraged. You need the spirit of prophecy to put all this into perspective. This book makes clear that God will do what it takes to bring members into His Family. If you lack the spirit of prophecy, then you won’t see the beautiful bigger picture in this book—God building His Family!
He does mention Jesus a couple times, but only as it fits his warmongering of death and destruction of the Laodiceans:
The spirit of prophecy is filled with hope. How could Jesus Christ endure the suffering of being marred more than any man—how could He be crucified—if He weren’t in the spirit of prophecy? He knew He was to be a King! He was born to rule this Earth and this universe under His Father. Nobody could stop Him from fulfilling that destiny!
We must have the testimony of Jesus Christ. If we are going to be like Christ and get through severe persecution, we need the spirit of prophecy!
Only Flurry's group has any hope of being the "elect".
But look how God describes His very elect: “The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter’s hands!” (verse 2; rsv). What powerful poetry!
If you want to be a “precious son of Zion,” you must let the master potter shape and mold you! We are simply the clay in the potter’s hands. This is a powerful truth. These are people who give everything they have to God’s Work. How precious that is!
Live in the spirit of prophecy! If you can get this wonderful vision in mind, there is nothing like it and never will be anything better on Earth during this age of man’s rule! Allow that to stir genuine hope in your life and to stir your motivation and fire your imagination. Give everything to God, even your life if that is required. That is the perfection of beauty! That is what God loves.
While Flurry tells his followers to have the spirit of prophecy it is only to be the prophecies revealed by him or Lil'Stevie after Flurry dies. It is all about corporate propehcy and has nothing to do with any "spirit" of prophecy. Members are to be subservient and NOT believe they can have the spirit of prophecy.
Can you imagine what would happen if one of Flurry's members popped up and said they had a prophecy from God? They would be out the door so fast they would know what happened. Flurry's "spirit of propehcy" schtick is that his followers develop the understanding that Flurry's prophecies are true. That's the only "gift" they need to have.
There is no need for a prophet to be in the New Covenant church. One can easily see that this is true considering the mishmash of demented weirdo's currently lying to the church in 2021.
32 comments:
“Imagine basing your church on demented writings of Jules Dervaes that Flurry plagiarized and the fact that Lil'Stevie read it.”
“'Therefore,' declares the LORD, 'I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me'” (Jeremiah 23:30, NIV).
The elephant in the room of all the ACOGs is them not expanding on the ten commandments. Many members are not even aware that such knowledge exists, and is out there in today's self help books. So they redirect and over emphasize prophesy.
With #FalseProphet #GeraldFlurry it's The Spirit of False Prophecy. No surprise there. They're false prophets, false ministers, false teachings, false church. The only truth they utter are secrecy and lies.
my stepmother told me that Flurry remarried last November. Does anyone know any details on who he married?
This applies to Flurry, Pack , Thiel, Armstrongs, Ellen G White, Cox and many more. We have NO NEED for your extra Biblical "revelations" and the Bible warns us against such!
Revelation 22:18-19
New International Version
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.
over emphasize prophesy
As a CG7 leader said to Ron Dart, "Prophecy is a BIG draw".
That's what got my attention the first time I heard GTA on radio. In a way, I'm glad it was GTA and not GF.
Prophecy is one of the gifts given to the church according to Paul. He mentions it a couple of times. But it is not as simple as that. Prophecy can refer to a broad range of inspired speaking. Not just predicting the future although this is included. Some argue that the gift of prophecy is no longer present in the church because there is no need for it. But this neglects the inspired speaking and focuses on prediction. My guess is that the gift of prophecy is quite active in the Christian church through inspired speaking but not through prediction of the future. And according to Romans 12:6, the gift of prophecy is given to aid the internal functioning of the church - not for denominational marketing to outsiders.
The question is then why is predictive prophecy absent now from the Christian church. I don't know. I do know that prophecy stands out from other gifts in that it cannot be spoofed. If you have it, your predictions will 1) in some way serve the church and 2) will come true. And this will be obvious. For example, this would be like someone in the church being blessed by foreseeing an earthquake so that church members could flee ahead of time. That would be useful. False prophecy hurts the church so it fails on both criteria.
Moreover, prophecy seems to be a gift given to some but not everyone. So if a few people, whether from the pulpit or in the pews, speak encouraging words from god, the gift of prophecy is still active.
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"The question is then why is predictive prophecy absent now from the Christian church. I don't know"
Perhaps because it was so wrong so often the established churches over a couple thousand years learned better than to make that a focus of any kind if they were to remain credible?
PS Every "soon", "shortly", "night far spent", "behold I come quickly" and "of things which must shortly come to pass" in the NT, did not. "This generation" did pass. And it all was speaking to that generation. (We all know the apologetics). No one is motivated by the distant future for others. They want to know about their future surrounded by the Romans as they were. Paul finally had to admit that "we who remain..." would die too and no "we" shall be or was changed in a twinkle of anything.
Has Gerald Flurry ever addressed the plagiarism? I was in the PCG for decades and never heard him address this.
It was "this generation" but it will be resurrected "to face the music".
Dennis, in response to both of your comments at once:
Within a single generation, the prophesied 70AD events did happen. What did not happen was the Parousia but the Parousia had a different chronological condition associated with it. Christ said he did not know when the Parousia would happen - only the Father knew. Later, in Acts 3:19-21, we discover further that the timing of the Parousia is not only unknown but is in fact conditional.
You mention that the church was "so wrong so often" about prophecy that it was discontinued as an ecclesiastical activity. I think your insight here could be correct. I have not read about prophecies being pronounced in the history of the mainstream Christian movement. It is like this "gift" belonged to a past era. And it could be that prophecy fell into abeyance because the Parousia did not happen when the church expected in the first century.
They missed the big one. They did not fail to prophecy Christ's return - that was already prophesied. The prophets of the early church failed to predict that he was not going to return. And they did not implode and abandon faith. They became pragmatic.
When the Parousia did not happen maybe the Christian movement learned something and backed away from predictive prophecy as something mysterious or poorly understood or inapplicable. Predictive prophecy is almost unknown in modern Christianity as a practice. Prophecy enjoys an ardent popularity in the cult world but no longer in Christianity. Apocalyptic Millerism, in particular, has made many trips to a dry well.
That's a long way around to saying that I think you may very well be right on that point.
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HWAs 1975 prophesy was perhaps not legally adding to the book of Revelation, but was definitely a violation of the spirit of adding to the book. And the result was disastrous for the many members who believed the date.
It is a sin to work on the seventh-day Sabbath. Tithing is a requirement for salvation, we must remember to keep the Sabbath holy let no man-like Joseph W. Tkach deceive you by any means about what day you should keep Joseph Tkach along with other leaders deceived a bunch of people into keeping Sunday Joseph Tkach was teaching lawlessness, which is sinfulness. However, God's end-time apostle Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong taught us to keep God's laws and the faith of Jesus Christ and to keep the commandments of God Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong was a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ true servants of God like Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, they keep the law of their God in their hearts and never depart from it, so we need to keep the laws of God and walk according to the will of God.
Furthermore, A wise man believes in the law of God, and the law is faithful to him. We should delight with the law of God, we must remember this Whoever sin is guilty of breaking God's law because sin is a breaking of the law Jesus said, "If you wish to enter into life keep the commandments."
Great troll job 7:24! Hilarious! "Tithing is a requirement for salvation,"
Look, in the sky. It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's Troll Guy.
It blows my mind how the myth of HWA being an apostle is so central to so many people. How many apostles partake of incest? Not to mention changing doctrines on a whim such as makeup or marriage/divorce. HWA made numerous false prophecies and his trips to meet foreign leaders only took place because of the cash & gifts that were given to these leaders, not because he was proclaiming the gospel to them. When Paul & the other true apostles were brought before leaders in their day, they usually did so involuntary in shackles & chains and did not testify about " some unseen hand from someplace." Those trips to see Haile Selasse & Ferdinand Marcos really did a lot of good.
No true apostle would do sexual abuse and incest like Herbert Armstrong.
Herbert Armstrong was an excellent advertising man he was very successful materially and I believe that we should follow the laws of success in order to succeed and we should take the good out of Armstrongism, but he was not an apostle and there is no God.
Thank you, No2HWA, for linking to my post. I have updating to thank you for this linking. I also added in links to the other parts of my reading of Gerald Flurry's plagiarized book for the benefit of readers. Thank you again.
Christ did not have enough power and authority to do away with his father's law what he came to do for is that you may have forgiveness for breaking God's laws but you must repent and strive to keep God's laws Jesus kept the commandments and was perfected and those who wish to be saved need to obey Him! Accepting Jesus and keeping God's commandments are very important but Christians are to go on to perfection, and Jesus is our example if you're not striving to be perfect like Christ was you have no chance of being in the kingdom of God and if you do not pay enough tithes or keep enough sabbaths you will not make it into the kingdom of God.
Well, it's amazing that people still believe and trust what Gerald Flurry has to say, considering that he made false prophecies along with other wrong things that should make him lose credibility.
people still believe and trust what Gerald Flurry has to say, considering that he made false prophecies along with other wrong things
Like we believed and trusted HWA, from his false prophecies in the 1930s, during WWII, 1972, and all the falsehoods in between, like "Proof of the Bible".
In the very same copy of the PT/GN where splinter writers cite an article with "a prophecy that came to pass" there will be another article with a prophecy that failed miserably. Though I haven't read much of GF's literature, I'm sure his Trumpet and Vision are full of false predictions and other malarkey.
Both Gerald Flurry and David C. Pack tried to copy Herbert Armstrong and act as if they had the whole truth and no one else has it and they are where God is leading and being the head and they both claim to be apostles and Gearld Flurry even thinks hs is a prophet too.
the Church of God is in a wilderness of religious confusion, they cannot agree and they just break up and start a new group when they disagree, they used to talk about how there are so many different Protestant denominations, but look at the Church of God today it is not any different.
Gerald Flurry he argued that the coronavirus is a sign from God trying to steer humanity back on the right path before the ultimate clash between the forces of good and evil. Alot of the Church of God people they refuse to wear mask and some of them got the virus so God is not protecting them.
May 19 at 9:01 AM said, "No true apostle would do sexual abuse and incest like Herbert Armstrong."
Right you are, anon, but at least he was following a biblical example: Lot, the only righteous man Abraham could find in Sodom. Make of it what you will.
God used Balaam, and he was an evil person.
Incidences of incest are reported to be in their millions in America. No doubt a plague on the American dream.
Ez 14:9 applies to HWA and others like him who claim to be sent from God and can predict the future: “ And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.”
Retired Prof said:
May 19 at 9:01 AM said, "No true apostle would do sexual abuse and incest like Herbert Armstrong."
“Right you are, anon, but at least he was following a biblical example: Lot, the only righteous man Abraham could find in Sodom. Make of it what you will.”
I’d wager Lot far more righteous than the liar and deceiver HWA Prof. Lot wasn’t the instigator like the sexual predator HWA allegedly was with his daughter Dorothy. Besides Adam and Eve’s children, Abraham, Judah, and even Moses’ parents were guilty of incest according to the post-Sinai incest laws. But, the difference between them and HWA is they weren’t guilty of the sin of incest as their actions predated the Sinai incest laws unlike HWA whose incestuous actions were committed post-Sinai.
I do not believe that Abraham, Judah and Moses's parents were guilty of incest, but the many cases of barren women in the OT implies that the laws of nature were in full operation.
I've read that the Pharaohs had multiple physical deformities due to the practice of marrying their sisters.
Well said 5/19 12:41 well said!
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