Exit and Support Network has a letter up about some of the idiotic things Gerald Flurry said recently to the youth at Philadelphia Church of God's Summer Educational Program camp in Edmond, OK.
July 17, 2021
Gerald Flurry’s recent sermon entitled, “The God Family” was given to the youth at SEP. In it he made some wild over-the-top, even crazy, statements. Those who understand the false doctrines he is teaching, and the deceitful path he is on, will be able to spot this. Some of my comments are in brackets and in purple.
He started and ended with loud music. Beforehand, it was the Celtic Throne music, which began with drums.
At the beginning he did nothing but boast about the Celtic Throne performance, including the important people they had brought in. The CT performances are very important to GF and especially to his ego. He said the CT was “choreographed by God”; “inspired by God,” that this is one way the youth are “serving in the Work,” and it inspires them to “work even harder.” Astonishingly, he said the dancers “begin at age 4.”
In the mother church, under the auspices of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation, the celebrities and important people they came into contact with were vitally important to them. It was proof that God was on their side. No one knew of any of these important, rich, celebrities that ever joined the church. Other than dishing out money for tickets and maybe sponsoring a concert series, these people never gave money to the church. That did not matter to them. Like Gerald Flurry, their egos were stroked by these celebrities while it was the membership that dished out millions of dollars in tithe money to fund the concert series.
According to GF, this CT performance is a “God family” message “showing the world how God’s family serves” and how God “brings them nothing but blessings in their lives.”
“We show them God’s way of life when they look behind the scenes.” [OK, let’s look at that scene. On the front we hear stirring, powerful music, spectacular lighting, dazzling costumes, young people Irish step-dancing across the stage, as they celebrate the “New Throne of David.” Then we pull the curtain back and what do we see? Destroyed families due to the no contact ruling, abuse, suffering, fear, control, exploitation, lies, unhappy children and young people. We see misery, sorrow, even death. Isn’t something very wrong with this picture?] [Note by ESN: To read more about all this see: Testimonies by Those Impacted by Philadelphia Church of God and letters.]
This is the same crap stance that the WCG took when they promoted the concerts as the best in human ability and artistry. This was supposed to be the way the so-called kingdom of God was going to be like.
In this sermon GF emphasized Malachi’s Message, the Laodiceans, and how “God’s Law is taught at the SEP” and “we have to get out a God family message.”
As usual, no message about Jesus, grace, justification, and mercy, just more law, and god/goddess crap.
“The Law is essential for this church to survive.” [Without the Law the members would find they are under grace and would leave. See: The Law of Moses and the Grace of God.]
As usual, Jesus is shoved to the back burner and only trotted out when necessary, usually around the so-called Passover time and even then, after they kill him again on the stage they leave them there for another year as they live miserable lives as sinners for another year.
“God is going to forget the Laodiceans’ children if they forget God’s Law.” [Won’t this crazy statement make the PCG youth, especially the children of top ministers, feel special and glad that they are part of an elite, favored group?]
This is such crap, but what should we expect from a cult that worships at the altar of Moses and blasphemes the Christ they claim to follow.
Over the top statement—> “We have to be God to be married to God. That’s an amazing truth.” [It’s also an amazing lie.]
[Note: For those who want to look into this “God family” doctrine, it is covered in our two Mystery of the Ages critiques.]
After quoting from Malachi where it says Elijah would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, etc., GF says the reason they have SEP is because God says (primarily says to the ministers but also to those who follow them), “If you refuse to teach that, you are going to lose your eternal life.” … “That’s very serious for you young people, and you have to understand this.” [Do the Scriptures anywhere say we can lose our eternal life? If we could, it wouldn’t be eternal.]
Only in Armstrongism can one lose one's eternal life for the silliest of things. It is an impossibility for anyone who follows Jesus. Christianity has understood this for centuries, but not Armstrongite COG's though.
Also, when has the Philadelphia Church of God EVER turned the hearts of the fathers to their children? What they've done is break up families and marriages due to the asinine and perverted teaching that PCG members are to cut off all contact with family, spouses, and children who have left the church. Who can forget them telling the mother of a handicapped child to leave it at the mall so the state could take care of it which would then allow the mother to give more money to the church! Disgusting people!
There was talk about how the hearts are being turned to the fathers, etc. [When have the children’s hearts been turned to the fathers or vice versa? See: Testimonies From Child Survivors.] GF has blinders on, just as HWA did, in thinking everything is so wonderful and marvelous with the young people in PCG. Isn’t it the children of the top ministers that claim all is wonderful?
Exactly! Its Flurry's grandkids and the elite children of elite PCG higher-ups that benefit from all kinds of privilege in the church, they are the only ones who benefit.
He says Satan has turned 95% of God’s people [now Laodiceans] away and “Satan can seduce you right away.” [Wouldn’t this make Satan more powerful than God? He read several scriptures in I John yet didn’t understand what he was reading.
Once again the all-powerful god of the PCG and the COG is able to turn people away from Flurry's so-called truth. When people are not at rest in the one they claim to follow and understand their security in HIm then of course they can be swayed by stupid ministers and church leaders.
Crazy statement—–> “Christ must be with your Spirit. … If Christ isn’t with that Spirit the Spirit won’t help you.” GF could not even understand Galatians 5:18 (which he read): “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” He quickly went right on to say, “If you don’t keep the Law the Law will break you.” [Where does it say that in the Bible?]
More law nonsense. Law is used only as a matter of control in the Church of God but what more should we expect when they deny the one who made a new covenant with the people. A covenant that does not include any of Flurry's law he claims is necessary.
He talked a lot about the movie Star Wars at the end and said if they (the youth) have the work ethic like George Lucas did, God is going to “bless their lives in ways like they could probably never imagine.” “If you really want to make it with God, you’re going to have to be a great servant. … an outstanding servant to God–to His Work, to His message, getting this message out.” [This would include giving their money to PCG.]
More legalistic bullshit. The new covenant does not demand endless works in order to impress God to save you by the skin of your teeth.
GF said he loved the music in Star Wars, but said it’s all fantasy. [Seems that what GF is preaching is fantasy] And we have to “proclaim this God family message.” After stating, “Let the real force be with you,” he played the theme of Star Wars loudly at the end.
Does Gerald Flurry speak the truth? Does he have the Holy Spirit within him? Or is he unregenerate, hardened to the suffering and evil he has caused and even allows? Has he given himself over to a reprobate mind? Has he been taken over by a lying spirit? Isn’t this what happens to those who claim they “speak for God,” have received “new revelation,” appropriate biblical titles for themselves that belong to Christ, and then go on to leave Christ Jesus out as Lord and Savior and the center of their message, and of the entire Bible, failing to focus on Him, but instead focus on fables and lies?
Does Flurry speak the truth? No!
Does Flurry have the Holy Spirit? No!
Is Flurry unregenerate? Yes!
Is Flurry a liar? Yes!
Does Flurry follow Jesus? No!
This warning has been given before. Get out before it is too late! –sermon critiqued by L. S.
Amen to that! Get out of the PCG ASAP! Your very life depends upon it!
17 comments:
What’s the story behind the handicapped child being left at the mall???
Flurry is a complete fraud and FALSE PROPHET. All he does is spew lies and FALSE PROPHECIES! Maybe he needs to go the parking lot and get drunk again and try to bribe the officer with a $10 dollar bill. Deep down, he knows what he really is, a counterfeit but power and greed have taken over, just like they did for his idol, HWA.
This should be disillusioning to nobody. This Splinter Group is operates like a business enterprise. Its product is religion. If the owners of the business can add a little glitz and glamour to their product line to stimulate demand - that is just the way the competitive religious market works.
I just watched Bezos, et al, go into near space and watched this same principle of business enterprise in action. The flight was very much hyped. (Yuri Gagarin did it already. Been there, done that.) Before the launch there was august talk about man now venturing into space. This in spite of the fact that the economics of spaceflight is unassailably bad. And for those of us who grew up with Star Trek, the little gum-drop shaped capsule was not what we had in mind. But this is the inaurgaration of a commercial product line involving little, near space flights for the incredibly wealthy. And we will get some spin-off technical products. But going beyond this, if we even could, is not viable economically with the propulsion systems we now know. Its not a "think big and do big" kind of situation. The limitations imposed by physics are real and hard. Its all dreamworks. Some religions are all dreamworks.
There is another dynamic, besides business, that could be at work here. I know nothing about this Splinter Group first hand. I don't know anyone who belongs to it. I have never researched it. But I remember how similar events happened back in the old WCG. I think there was a deep feeling of low esteem that plagued the old WCG. They believed they had cornered Gods Truth. They believed they had the Apostle of this Age as their leader. They believed they were the one and only true church. And, amazingly, nobody really paid much attention. And if anyone did pay attention it was usually to hoot in derision. This was like those painful interviews with the hotly indignant Kelleyanne Conway where it was obvious she adored The Donald and yet knew that a huge segment of the American population believed him to be a sheer lightweight.
This event from WCG history focused on a chess grandmaster named Bobby Fischer. Everyone one on the AC/BS campus seemed to be either talking about chess or playing chess when Fischer had some connection, I never figured out what, with the WCG. I used to play chess myself - only ever during that period. My impression was that some members believed a celebrity was going to come along, be enlisted in HWA's cause and would give sudden fame, notoriety and credibilty to the WCG. Everybody across the nation would be talking about the WCG. And then the "gospel" message would be spread to everyone, we would all go to the place of safety and the end would come. And people would finally see that the WCG was really, really, really important. And the tiny trampled egos would blossom. You know the rest of the story.
******* Click on my icon for Disclaimer
The new covenant does not demand endless works in order to impress God to save you by the skin of your teeth.
No covenant between God and man ever required that. Works were requirement of the Catholic Church that irked Martin Luthor.
To claim that the "Old Covenant" was "too hard" for people to keep is a gross misunderstanding. God said (Deut 30:11) His laws were not too hard. If anything, the additional requirements man made were a burden that were too much to bear (Acts 15:10).
The PCG cult got started by Gerald Flurry using Herbert W. Armstrong's name and photograph to lure some former Worldwide Church of God people into it.
Then it quickly became all about Gerald Flurry flooding his PCG cult with “much new revelation” that he made up about how great he supposedly was and how great his plagiarized and revised “little book” supposedly was, and how everyone was supposed to stand in awe of That (False) Prophet.
His pathetic following - maybe 2500 members - points to the failure of Armstrong religion:
The Seventh-day Adventists have 18 million, the Mormons have 16 million,
Shows you the utter failure of the Armstrong/British-Israelism cult.
I thought they had about 4000 members?
4000 if you count suspended, marked and members who left, all who have no intention of returning. But they still keep them in their count. Babies and unbaptised also. I highly doubt they even have 2500 baptised adults.
"YOU DONT HAVE TO OBEY THE COMMANDMENTS!" -- People on this site
"To have ever lasting life obey the commandments."
--Jesus
A very worldy comment 11:56 as Jesus Christ himself had 120 followers during his ministry.
He was a WCG member NEO. Did you really not know that ???
Context please. Rich young ruler? Was he able to obey? Has anyone but Christ ever been able to obey the commands?
Do you? Further, Which commands? Among those on this site that have kept their Christian faith are there many that kill, steal, bear false witness, covet, commit adultery, follow other gods, worship images, take God’s name in vain, dishonor their parents, at a rate higher than the cogs? How about the 2 great Commands? Love your brother as yourself? Have you given a stranger your cloak too?
I’m sure there are plenty of failings of those on this page and in the cogs despite spending most of their time not breaking a commandment…though keeping the two great commandments require more time than the 10. I’d say you, your cog friends, and the Christians on this page aren’t flawless in commandment keeping (coveting is ubiquitous it seems). Who will save us from this body of death? The Lamb Who brought in the new covenant. For man it is impossible, but for God all things are possible. Better to focus on He Who saves than that which condemns.
Yes, you need to keep the laws of God, everyone, with any understanding, knows this.
7:28 "Yes, you need to keep the laws of God, everyone, with any understanding, knows this."
Not true at all! Anyone with a good understanding of the new covenant knows this is not true. Shame on you!
You must really enjoy that one about executing gay people then.
Jesus "repent"
You "there are no laws so no repentance is needed"
They have less than 3,000 members, including unbaptized.
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